Pyrrha woke up groggily due to the sound of running water, one eye creaked open to see a silhouette outlined by the bathroom light. Her sleep-addled brain could recognize it was Jaune, he turned off the bathroom and headed to the door, leaving their room and closing the door behind him. This wasn't a big enough deal for a sleepy Pyrrha to fully wake up for, so she snuggled back into her blankets before drifting back to her slumber.
The next time she came to, an alarm was going off, once again she opened her eyes, this time the sun's morning rays peeking through the window and telling her it was time to get up. Pyrrha sat up with a yawn, looking around to see if anyone else had woken up. Ren was in the process of waking up, seeing as it was his alarm that had awoken the two of them.
"Do you want to take the bathroom first?" Pyrrha asked the raven-haired boy.
"I'll be waking Nora in a minute, you'll be safe while you change."
Pyrrha's eyes wandered to the sleeping bulk that was Nora Valkyrie, the small snores and button nose peeking out of the covers would have normally convinced her that Ren was being ridiculous. However, after what she had witnessed yesterday she knew full well what to expect from Nora. So she took Ren's gracious offer and escaped into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
While in the bathroom she heard a series of things, first a crash, then a slapping sound, then Ren growling "Nora!" And a small sorry being eeped out. By the time she exited their bathroom Ren seemed to have cleaned everything up, everything being in order, including Nora, except for the remains of one of their alarm clocks on the floor across from Nora's bed.
Nora rose from her bed, "My turn!" And skipped to the bathroom. Ren was in the midst of doing his bed and Nora's, hands flowing like water as he brought order to Nora's mess of a bed. Tangled sheets were extended and flattened, pillows were placed where they went, and fluffed just the right amount.
After a minute Pyrrha couldn't even tell Nora had made a small mess, except for the destroyed alarm clock laid pitifully on the ground. She busied herself as well, ensuring she had everything she would need for the day before school started.
After a few minutes, Nora left the bathroom with a cloud of steam behind her.
Ren sighed, "Please tell me you left me some hot water."
"Maybe!" Nora beamed, "Also where's our fearless leader?"
Both Pyrrha and Ren perked up, scanning the room to see that their leader wasn't present. Jaune's bed seemed made, and everyone in the room could attest to the fact that Jaune had slept in this room last night.
So where was he? Pyrrha thought, something she was sure her teammates were also thinking.
"I'm sure he'll return, Jaune doesn't seem to be the irresponsible type." Said Ren as he threw a towel over his arm.
Ren entered the bathroom, leaving Pyrrha and Nora alone for a few minutes. As he exited he saw that Nora had been laying on his bed, scroll in hand, and had undone his previous work. If this bothered Ren, Pyrrha couldn't tell, his face unchanging and stoic as always.
As Ren went over to arrange his belongings, their door opened, revealing Jaune already in his school uniform and combed hair.
"There ya are!" Nora exclaimed, "We were wondering where you were, you have a lot to explain, mister!"
Jaune laughed, "Sorry, I'm just on a different schedule than you all. I finished training this morning so I went to my room to change, I didn't want to disturb your sleep.
"Training on the first day of school?" Ren asked with a quirked brow, "Seems a bit extreme."
Pyrrha's partner shrugged, "I like my routine. Now how do you guys feel about food? We'll be just in time for the cafeteria to start serving breakfast."
This got Nora up fast, "Are they serving pancakes!"
"Haha, sorry but the cafeteria doesn't have pancakes, but they do have waffles. I'll make you some pancakes on the weekend though." Said Jaune.
"Ooh, you and Renny should have a pancake battle! Whoever wins gets to have their pancakes eaten by me!"
Pyrrha and Ren got up and ready to go, leaving with their partners as Nora chatted up Jaune about how his and Ren's competition would go down.
Team JNPR arrived at the cafeteria earlier compared to everyone else, getting their food at a faster pace than initiation. Probably due to how early we are, Pyrrha thought, most of the students sitting down seemed to be upperclassmen by the looks of it.
After serving herself some eggs, bacon, and fruit she sat down to eat. Jaune and Ren had selected a similar breakfast, each having reasonable-sized servings and selection of food. Nora, however, had opted out for a large pile of bacon with a side of what Nora aptly called "Breakfast Brownies", which were in fact just brownies eaten at breakfast.
They ate in silence, or as silent as you could be with Nora on your team. So Nora talked and talked about a dream she had, the one with a baby Nevermore she named Captain Squawks which she then raised and taught how to fly.
"And then I rode him to victory! With his fire-breathing, those evil bullhead salesmen were no match for me!" She proclaimed.
Jaune looked invested, if not a little confused, "Wait I thought the bullhead salesmen helped you to defeat the pancake stealing bees? Why would you betray them?"
Nora sighed before placing a hand on his shoulder, "You have much to learn my young apprentice. Why do you think they helped me? To steal Mr. Squaks and my pancakes of course! Once we were weak after fighting the bees they'd slink in with their gross bullhead selling hands and eat all my pancakes!"
"Wasn't the Nevermore a captain?" Asked Pyrrha.
"I demoted him."
When Pyrrha and Jaune looked over to Ren for guidance he only shrugged, his face saying you'll get used to it… probably
It wasn't late before a certain half of JNPR could make out the shrill voice of one Weiss Schnee.
"I can't believe you used all the hot water!" Hissed Weiss, glaring daggers at Yang.
"When you have all this to maintain, you need to take your time," Yang said as she motioned to her body in a sultry fashion.
Weiss looked indignant, "Why you-"
"Hey look, it's Team JNPR!" Ruby said, stopping the fight short. Weiss glanced over to lock eyes with Pyrrha and gave a polite smile. RWBY waved before getting their breakfast and heading over to sit with them.
"It's nice to see that your diet hasn't changed," Jaune said to Ruby, who had piled a plate full of cookies for her breakfast.
Yang rolled her eyes, setting one of the two plates in her hands in front of Ruby, "Yeah no, you're going to have to eat an actual breakfast before getting to eat those cookies,"
"I'm your leader, you can't do this to me!" Whined Ruby, "Jaune, tell her she can't take away my cookies!"
"And you think she'd listen to me? Plus she's still your big sister, you should still listen to her."
Ruby begrudgingly ate the food Yang had given her, grumbling a small "Traitor," directed at Jaune as she gnawed at a piece of toast.
The knight only patted Ruby's head in response, Pyrrha noting that the small reaper didn't move to stop him, her glare eventually simmering away to nothingness.
Both Teams chatted away, the story of Mr. Squaks being retold once more, this time with the bees being the ones to help Nora reclaim her pancakes.
They ate their breakfast and headed off to their thanks to Weiss' constant timekeeping, heading off to Grimm studies as a large group. As expected they were the first to arrive, most of the students were probably still in the cafeteria eating. Nevertheless, they all sat down, chatting amongst themselves to pass the time.
Jaune interrupted this eventually, "Hey guys, heads up but Port has a very… eccentric way of teaching. I don't want to spoil the fun but just pay attention to the small details as he speaks all right?"
"That's a bit random, any reason why you're telling us?" Ruby asked.
The knight thought for a second, "You'll see," he said with a smile. Then, like clockwork, the rest of the students began to filter into the room.
Once everyone had sat down, their portly Professor Port entered and took center stage. Pyrrha's partner locked eyes with him, both of them trading a knowing look. That's interesting she thought, her eyes wandering once she caught that little moment.
"Hunters, Monsters, Prowlers of the night! Many people call these creatures Grimm, but I? I call them prey!" Professor Port boasted, a wide smile on his face. Pyrrha's intrigue rose even more at this, especially after their professor gave a small nod in Team JNPR's direction, clearly aimed at Jaune.
This soon left her mind, as three-fourths of Team JNPR teetered on the edge of sleep. Actually, Nora was asleep, her not-so-light snoring overtaken by Port's talking. Nevertheless, Pyrrha tried her best to take notes, writing down whatever seemed important, which wasn't much but she tried.
The only two others that seemed to be doing this were Jaune and Weiss, Weiss' eyes seemed to be gaining a vicious tick every time Port changed the subject to something completely unrelated.
"Would anyone care to test themselves and show us all what makes a real Hunter!" Port said, breaching the lull everyone had fallen into. A few students raised their hands to draw their teachers' attention, Weiss and Jaune included. Pyrrha noticed the same look on Port's face as he locked on Jaune's raised hand.
"Aha, how about the young Arc in the center!" Port called.
Jaune nodded, hopping over the desk in a smooth motion. The knight stood at the center of the classroom, turning his attention to the large steel cage next to Port's desk, rattling as the thing inside it slammed itself against the walls with rage.
Nora hollered at their leader "Woo! Go Team JNPR!" That's my leader!" Yang and Ruby followed suit, throwing cheers at their friend, drowning out anyone other than Nora. Even Weiss got into it, lifting one of her hands to cheer before looking around and retracting it with a blush.
Port opened the cage's door, letting loose a creature of Grimm. Shaped like a large boar with bone bristles and two vicious tusks made to maim its victims, to a regular class of teenagers this would have been a terrifying beast made of nightmare-stuff, but everyone here had seen worse Grimm in action so no one reacted in any real way. Jaune himself kept the same small smile on his face he always had, fanning out Crocea Mors' shield and unsheathing his sword in one motion.
With that the Grimm charged, throwing itself at Jaune with fury, spit flying from its mouth and feet slamming into the ground to gain momentum.
In a way that was almost choreographed, Jaune stepped slightly to the left and allowed the beast to glance off his shield and tumble onto the ground behind him. Once the beast gained its footing it charged again, this time leaping into the air and curling into a ball. It spun midair, gaining speed as it hurled towards Jaune.
This time it slammed directly into Jaune, or his shield that is, and held itself midair for a good two seconds, spinning in place against Jaune's shield. The Grimm's momentum died eventually, leaving it fallen on the ground. It was put out of its misery a half-second afterward, Jaune slashing downward to ensure the beast didn't get up afterward.
"What a magnificent display! See, there my dear students, were the two ways to defeat a boarbatusk. You may either get out of its way and trip it somehow, or you can stop it in its tracks just how our young knight just did," boasted Port, signaling for Jaune to return to his seat.
The professor then went on a small story about boarbatusks, being interrupted by the ringing of Beacon's bell.
As both team RWBY and JNPR left Pyrrha noticed that Weiss had motioned for Jaune to stay back, asking him something out of earshot. Jaune motioned for the rest of his team to go on without him, something that they followed with slight suspicion.
Both Weiss and Jaune stood in an empty classroom, the taller student looking expectantly at Weiss, one brow cocked and the same collected smile on his face.
Weiss herself looked hesitant, however, she broke the silence with a question, "Did you know how the teams were formed?"
"I know the general gist of it, but I think you're looking for a different question." Jaune answered, "I'm guessing you want to know how the leaders were chosen?"
"Ah- Yes" Weiss stuttered, face tinted slightly with embarrassment, "I know you are… acquainted with Ruby, but based on how she has behaved and how I estimate for her to act in the future I do not know why she was chosen to be team leader."
"And you want to know why you weren't chosen either?"
Based on the look that must have flashed on her face Weiss could tell that Jaune got his answer.
"I'm going to be honest with you Weiss, I had my doubts with Ruby as leader at first. She's flighty, young, immature, and hyperactive." Jaune said.
Weiss rolled her eyes, "Don't get me started she is quite possibly-"
"But! She is also extremely dedicated, intelligent, skilled, and is going to Beacon two years early, so I'm going to trust in Ozpin's judgment. There's more to her than meets the eye," Jaune said, giving one of his small laughs at the last part. "Give her a chance Weiss, and if you still believe she isn't up to it… Well, I'll ask Ozpin about it. How does that sound?"
"I… I will, thank you, I'll make sure to repay you for your favor," Weiss said.
"I said I'd ask, this doesn't mean anything will change Weiss. My voice holds little sway when it comes to things Ozpin sets his mind to, if he wants Ruby to be RWBY's leader she's going to be the leader. However, if you really do have that much of a problem with how Ruby runs things, and Ozpin doesn't budge, I'll confront Ruby about it all right?" These words rang out in a grave tone, in contrast to Jaune's ever present smile.
Weiss nodded, I thought I went to Beacon to get away from this, she thought. If only her father could see her now, he'd certainly approve of rubbing elbows with someone who has Ozpin's ear. And she had a sneaking suspicion that Jaune was only entertaining her for a similar reason.
"We should probably go before anyone gets suspicious," she said, head bowed slightly. Jaune nodded, leading the way as they exited the room. A few people gave them weird stares, seeing as the two of them just exited an empty classroom. They certainly made quite the pair, father would be proud, Weiss thought in dismay.
The looks didn't last long, both of them catching up to their teams in the hallway. Currently, it seemed that Nora was in the midst of ranting about how boring Port was.
"I'm assuming you don't need my notes on his class then?" Interrupted Jaune from behind, catching the rest of their teams' attention.
"Pst, what? Who said that?" Nora sputtered, "So you have the notes, can I see them, gimme gimme!"
Jaune chuckled, "Yeah don't worry, I'll also teach you how to filter out what you need to learn from Port's lectures." And one look on team RWBY's faces also told him he'd have to do the same.
"So what were you and Weiss-cream talking about? Or better yet, what were you doing?" Yang asked, one brow raised lecherously.
The other blonde raised a brow back, "Why? Are you jealous?"
This made Yang stumble a bit, but Jaune stopped everyone's wide-eyed thoughts as soon as they had begun, "I'm just joking, she also asked me about how to take notes in Port's class."
Most everyone gave a sigh of relief, except for Nora, who gave Weiss the "I'm watching you" signal and mouthed something that she couldn't completely make out but got the general gist of. JNPR and RWBY now completed the made their way to their next class, Jaune telling them that the secret to Port's class was that he added all the little details about the Grimm into his stories.
"If his story is about how he defeated the largest Nevermore in the world, make sure to catch how many feathers it threw, or if it was surrounded by other Grimm-" Jaune said.
Weiss tuned him out, lost in thought. She was glad that Jaune covered for them don't get her wrong, but now that she had cooled down and could look at Ruby, who was hanging off of Jaune's arm as if he hadn't just talked about having her replaced as leader less than fifteen minutes ago left a bad taste in her mouth.
Once they arrived at the locker rooms for combat class they separated, Weiss heading over to her locker and changing accordingly. As she fastened Myrtenaster to her waist a shadow appeared to her right.
"So did you really pull away Jaune just to talk about notes of all things?" Yang asked.
"Ah- Yes, yes I did. I'm not exactly used to asking for help, but he knows more than I do, so it'd be me who'd be the fool not to ask for assistance." Weiss stuttered, going with the lie Jaune had fed them.
Yang rolled her eyes, "Ruby and I are going to have to knock that out of your skull pretty fast, asking for help shouldn't be that big of a deal Weiss-cream."
Weiss paused, "I'll remember that, and I'll also apologize to Ruby with how I acted this morning." That seemed to convince Yang that she was telling the truth, and the two strolled out to take their seats around the arena-like classroom.
"Students." An imposing voice rang out, silencing everyone and taking command of the room. "Today we will be holding introductory spars as both an introduction to the rules and structure of Beacon, but also a chance for some demonstrations," said Glynda Goodwitch, eyes drifting over to team JNPR, something Weiss noticed.
"As such only the leaders of each Team shall be competing, I will also have you know that I will be watching the bouts most carefully. This is not a game and to treat my lessons as such will result in swift punishment. Am I understood."
"Yes Ms. Goodwitch," rang out every single student.
"Now will the leaders of JNPR and CRDL come onto the arena?" Weiss stared on as two armored figures emerged onto the center stage. One was Jaune, calm smile ever-present as he stood proud with his glistening armor and shield fully extended. If the heiress didn't know any better she would have thought he was posturing.
His opponent was similarly armored, although the dark gray steel contrasted harshly against Jaune's almost luminous armor. What stood out most was the large burn scar that stretched to cover most of the right side of his face, disappearing under his armor to who knows where.
If his opponent's scarring phased Jaune he didn't show it, merely flowing into his defensive stance as both of them waited for Goodwitch to begin their match.
The names of Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester flashed on the screens behind them, aura meter glowing under their names and faces. Winchester, saw Weiss, Another famous name, certainly more prominent in recent history than the Arcs.
"All bouts will be until a participant's aura is in the red, at which point I will call the match. Failure to heed my instructions will not be tolerated, nor will attacks that are deliberately intended to cause grievous harm." Goodwitch lowered her gaze to both the sword and shield-bearing knight and his mace-wielding opponent. "I will be watching and I can intervene on a moment's notice."
Both participants nodded, Cardin and Jaune staying quiet until Goodwitch barked out "Begin!"
At which point Cardin exploded forward, faster than expected for someone his size, and slammed his mace downward onto his target. The strike rang out with a loud CLANG, Jaune's shield having stopped the mace and its momentum wholeheartedly.
Cardin must have not expected this, face flashing with surprise before returning to its cold and calculating expression. This was just enough time for Jaune to lash out, sword slicing upwards to slam into his opponent's face, sending him reeling. Cardin recovered quickly, stepping back and swinging his mace to ensure there was no follow-up attack, creating space between the two armored huntsmen.
Both opponents stared each other down, eyes set and focused.
Once again Cardin exploded forward, this time his swing coming from Jaune's sword side, something Jaune backstepped and evaded. Then with an even larger amount of force, Cardin attempted to slam his mace into Jaune's side, having used his previous swing to set himself up.
And once again the attack was blocked, Jaune's sword snaking outwards to attack an exposed area on Cardin's body. Cardin tried to evade it, expecting the attack, and attempted a backstep. Jaune's blade struck true, however, Cardin had minimized the slash a little.
This process repeated a few more times, Cardin attacking with thunderous force to break his opponent's defense. But by the looks of their aura it wasn't working, since Cardin was now teetering at twenty percent aura.
Weiss had to do a double-take on Jaune's aura, since it was still a beaming one hundred percent. Others seemed to take notice of this, as a slow murmur filled the classroom about the fight.
"Jaune, please refrain from prolonging the fights by too much, there are other fights after you," sighed Ms. Goodwitch, Weiss noting it lacked any real heat, sounding more like a mother scolding her child about taking too long in the shower.
The knight in question flashed a sheepish expression, his smile being accompanied by a light blush.
Then with a single motion, Jaune breached the distance between Cardin and himself, breaking the rhythm they'd fallen into. And with a single shield bash, Jaune slammed his whole body weight under Cardin's guard, throwing his haggard opponent backward. With that a tone sounded, Cardin's aura falling under fifteen percent in a single move.
Jaune sheathed his sword and folded his shield to clip it onto his belt, heading over to his prone opponent and extending a hand. To Weiss' surprise, Cardin took his hand, seemingly uncaring about his loss.
Both of them left the arena, leaving the classroom to give a questioning applause.
"Will the leader of Team RWBY and Team BLUU make their way onto the arena?" Goodwitch broke the silence and murmurs. Ruby stood up and gave herself a small shake, a smile growing on her face as she made her way onto the center area.
Ruby's opponent was an older girl, with blue hair and a large machine gun strung across her shoulders. Goodwitch started the fight as she had the last time, throwing the two young women into action.
This fight was a stark difference to the previous one, noted Weiss, Ruby zipping around the stage to shoot and slash at her opponent at break-neck speeds. Weiss had to admit, Ruby was both younger and a better fighter than her opponent. I might have been too hard on her, Weiss thought as she remembered her and Jaune's talk.
Ruby ended the fight almost as fast as it had started, standing over her older opponent with a beaming smile on her face. This time the onlookers roared with applause and cheers, Cardin and Jaune's fight forgotten in favor of Ruby's own.
Combat class ended on a particularly boring note, Ren thought, especially compared to the first two matches. It was ironic coming from Ren of all people, whom many compared his personality to that of a wet sponge. But even he could have opinions, and the last fight had dragged on a bit too much, with not nearly enough tension as his leader's fight.
Ren looked over to where his leader should have been, their room empty of team JNPR's J and P. Training, Jaune had said, heading off to Beacon's gym after dinner. Pyrrha had said something along the same lines, but she had also said something about heading to the library beforehand as well.
And as of now, Ren laid in his bed, thinking about what was and what might be. He was deep in thought, running his fingers through Nora's hair as she rested her head on his stomach and ranted on about what had happened today as if he hadn't been there the whole time.
"Why do you think Jaune lied to us about what he and Weiss talked about?" Nora asked, rousing her partner from thought.
Ren paused before answering, knowing better than to doubt Nora's instincts, "Who knows? It might have been a private matter, or it might have been something embarrassing that Weiss needed to ask Jaune. He seems like the trustworthy fellow, and I doubt he'd lie if it wasn't important."
Nora yawned, "You're right, like usual, Jaune's our leader for a reason. He'll come clean if he feels like he can, it's not like he's a secret agent that's trying to save the world. I bet Weiss was confessing her feelings to him, I mean did you see the looks she was giving him?"
This got a chuckle out of Ren, "Nora, I doubt anyone would catch feelings that fast, and Weiss doesn't seem to be the type to confess right away, that is if she'd confess at all. However you might be onto something, Weiss is heiress to the biggest Dust enterprise in the world, it'd make sense if she rubbed elbows with the son of one of the most influential men in the world."
"I think Jaune said he was his ward? I don't see how it's any different, you know that legal mumbo-jumbo confuses me,"
Nora and Ren both laid there in an unusual silence, from Nora that is.
"We finally made it," Nora whispered, "We're at Beacon, and we're on our way to becoming the best hunters around,"
"That we are,"
"And now we have two super-strong friends to help us,"
"They do seem strong,"
Nora twisted onto her side, facing away from Ren, and muttered under her breath, almost too quiet to be heard, "You're never going to be stuck with me alone again,"
Ren froze, sitting up slowly, "Nora."
"Hm?"
"I've never been stuck with you, you know that right?"
Nora huffed, "Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just that now you're finally going to have friends that you can read and do nerdy-book things with. Jaune and Pyrrha and Blake can probably talk to you about all the books and poems, things I can't do,"
Ren let out a small sigh, "Nora I was into poems for two months when I was fifteen, when was the last time I read a poem?" If Nora didn't know any better she'd say he was grumbling.
She only turned even further away from Ren, "Yeah, that's probably because of me. I'm always messing up so you never have time to read poetry anymore."
"Nora. What's going on?"
"It's nothing," she mumbled.
"This doesn't sound like nothing."
Nora rolled over, face now smushed against Ren's stomach and abs, something she would have to remind herself to enjoy later, before mumbling something again.
"What was that?" Ren asked.
"-I was just saying that now that we're at Beacon and we have all these new friends and there are all these new people, that you might, I don't know, get bored of me?" She mumbled.
Ren's eyes sharpened, focusing completely on Nora, "Nora Valkyrie. If you think I'd ever get bored of you, then you don't know me at all, you are the brightest, most energetic, and amazing person I know. If I were to ever get bored of you gracing me with your presence I'd ask someone to shoot me, because death is a better alternative to not spending time with you."
Nora's face lit up in a blush, eyes darting around the room to escape Ren's hypnotizing gaze, "Guess you aren't that smart," she mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, just that you're right." She said, meeting his rose eyes.
Satisfied with her answer Ren laid back down, "Honestly, shouldn't I be the one worried about you getting bored of me? It's not like I'm the most interesting person around, especially compared to someone as amazing as you,"
"Stooop, you aren't allowed to compliment me this much!" Nora whined, "What would your future girlfriend say if you sweet-talked your best friend this much?"
This got a low chuckle out of Ren, "Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem."
With that the two sank back into their comfortable silence, both thinking about various things, although they mostly thought about each other. Ren and Nora laid there for a few minutes, basking in each other's presence. They were interrupted eventually, the door creaking open, drawing both of their eyes to who had answered.
A familiar amazon entered the room, gazing upon Nora and Ren laying together. "I'm not interrupting something am I?" She asked tentatively.
"Nah," answered Nora for the both of them, "Where's our fearless leader?"
"Jaune said he'd be back in a bit, he was planning on staying at the gym for a bit longer," said Pyrrha, dressed in workout clothes and covered in a slight sheen of sweat, "I'm going to be using the shower if you need me,"
The N and R of JNPR gave her a thumbs-up.
Pyrrha came out refreshed and ready for bed from the looks of it, she had remarkably childish pajamas, Ren thought. Their teammate sporting pink flannel sleepwear, extremely comfy from the looks of it. Nonetheless, both Nora and Ren took this as a sign to get ready for the next day.
Jaune came out of the gym's shower room with a sigh, and not for the first time he was resentful that while aura sped up his muscles recovery process, it didn't do much for the extra soreness that came with it. It's certainly worth it, he thought as his face returned to his soft smile, trekking along to his destination.
No one but the janitorial crew was awake at this time, if you didn't count himself and the person Jaune was heading to meet. Jaune continued onward, following the path he had tread thousands of times, it was more instinct than conscious thought at this point.
So he made his way and opened up the secret set of stairs to Ozpin's tower, his steady momentum faster than the elevator, and faster as well. Jaune reached the top, a painted brick wall seemingly his destination, but with the press of a certain chunk of the wall there was a hiss and the sound of gears ticking against each other.
With that, the wall, now revealed to be a secret door, opened for Jaune to step through.
"Ah, Jaune," Ozpin said without turning his head to look up at the knight, "You're certainly here early, what a pleasant surprise. Do you have anything to report?"
"Yes, the Schnee seems to have some resistance to the leadership choices," Jaune said.
Ozpin sighed, "Well there's one every year. Did you fix the problem or would you believe there might be a need for a heavier hand?"
"I've got it handled for now. However, putting the Schnee and Belladonna on the same team?" Jaune asked, "That's just asking for trouble sir,"
"Don't call me sir Jaune, we're not like Jame's little operation in Atlas," Ozpin sighed, "I remember when you used to call me Uncle Ozpin, there's no need to be so uptight,"
The Arc blushed, "Ye-Yes, so, anyway," Jaune cleared his throat, much to Ozpin's amusement. "This year is shaping up to be a fruitful one, Beacon will be taking the Vytal Festival by storm. It also seems that Lie Ren and Cardin Winchester have appeared, and from what I can tell our suspicions of Salem having struck legacy families all in a similar time-frame to cripple us was correct."
"The Lie Ren boy is on your team if I remember correctly? Have you gleaned any information from him yet?" Ozpin asked.
"I don't think the timing is right, and if we're correct with our assumptions I doubt he'd have any new information."
"How about the Winchester boy then?"
Jaune paused, "He might know more, from what I can tell his family managed to survive the worst of Salem's attack on them."
"A stroke of luck on their part, or perhaps the Winchesters weren't that high on her priority list." Ozpin said, before kneading his brow, "So many families lost that day, the homes of almost every prominent family in Vale was struck by Grimm. We had confirmation that what was left of Vacuo's royal family had been exterminated, it's a loss for us even if they had devolved to organized crime. From the looks of it, Mistral was struck as well. They've always been more tight-lipped than I would have liked."
Ozpin sighed for the second time, "It's only the first day of school and we're already approaching such topics, let's move on to lighter news, shall we? How is the young Ruby Rose handling her new environment,"
"Oh, she's doing great!" Jaune said, brightening up at the topic of his old friend, "She and Yang are great, as expected, and with the exception of the Schnee she's getting along with her team just fine,"
"I'm sensing a catch," Ozpin stated once he saw Jaune's hesitance.
Jaune cleared his throat, "However, I am a bit hesitant to see how Ruby will perform, she's incredibly skilled and talented, but I would have liked her to have had two years of extra training before getting to Beacon,"
"Normally I'd agree with you my boy, but Salem and her ilk are plotting something. If the attack on Amber is anything to go off of we must begin preparing for the coming storm, and if we hadn't accelerated her to Beacon you wouldn't be able to watch over her."
It was Jaune's turn to sigh, "You're right, her silver eyes will be extremely useful if we can get her out into the field. I'm just worried about losing her, Salem might be tempted to snip her bud before she becomes too much of an asset for us,"
"Don't worry about that Jaune, if anything happens to her you can just save her like you did me," echoed an extremely sultry voice.
Both Ozpin's and Jaune's heads swiveled to gaze at the intruder, Ozpin relaxing once he saw who had entered.
"Amber, you should still be resting in bed," said Jaune, his voice almost a whine.
The Fall Maiden strutted over to where the two of them were sitting, taking a seat next to Jaune and laying her legs on his lap, "There, now I'm resting."
Ozpin chuckled, "Don't antagonize our dear knight in shining armor,"
Jaune's face contorted into something akin to a pout, "If you end up hurting yourself I'm not healing you again,"
Amber rolled her eyes, "You don't have to worry about a thing, big sis Amber is going to be just fine."
Early Chapter, hope y'all like it, even if it's only a day earlier.
StormFlower will be a ship