A Flame in the Dark
It had been several years since the day that Jaune was adopted by the Xiao Long-Rose family, and everyone would agree, everyone involved was better for it. Ruby and Yang had a brother to lean on and keep them company. Tai had a son that helped to fill the void in his heart that Summer's death had left in his life. And Qrow had a nephew, enough said there. Finally, Jaune had a family and the dark days of his childhood, or what he remembered, were a thing of the past.
Similar to his sisters, he also gained the passion to be a Huntsman but instead of the thrills or to be a hero, his reason was to gain the strength enough to be there for his sisters when they needed it. And unlike his sisters, he had decided to learn from both Qrow and Tai, giving him a rather unique fighting style. He learned hand-to-hand from his father and he learned swordsmanship from his uncle. He tried to learn to use a scythe as well but that didn't work out that well for anyone involved.
In fact, him and Yang were top of their year at Signal. He would've probably been higher than Yang but the blonde refused to fight seriously against his sister. In his words, "I refuse to punch my sister in the face." That didn't stop Yang from beating him though, but less painfully than you'd think. She did love her brother after all.
It came a surprise to no one when both Jaune and Yang were accepted to go to Beacon in a few weeks. They were excited and so was Ruby, although she would really miss her older siblings being around. She herself couldn't wait to go there herself. Not that the two blondes wouldn't miss the young reaper, that would be furthest from the truth. They wanted to make sure Ruby would be alright without them, which is what brought them to this moment.
Yang had brought Ruby to a small clearing they sometimes used for training to help her with some hand-to-hand combat. Which quickly boiled down to Yang trying to hit Ruby and the younger girl trying to defend herself the best she could. The latest attempt caused Ruby to be thrown onto the ground and on her back. The redhead just groaned a bit. Yang stepped towards her sister with a tiny grin, "Come on. You totally coulda dodged that." She reached down to give her a hand.
"Yang." She whined as she was helped to her feet, "I already told you, I'm just not cut out for hand-to-hand." She then started to gush, "Why can't I just use my beautiful Crescent Rose?"
Yang sighed, "That's exactly why I didn't let you bring it." Which earned a growl from Ruby. "We're gonna be leaving for Beacon soon." She placed her hand on her sister's shoulder. "I wanna make sure my little sis can hold her own while I'm gone."
"And even if her style of teaching isn't exactly correct, I agree with her on that." Said a masculine voice from behind her. Both turned to look at the newcomer, Ruby in joy at possibly being saved and Yang with slight annoyance from the backhanded comment that their brother just gave her.
Jaune Xiao Long was no longer the small kid from all those years ago. He now stood just above six foot and had developed very much since then. He wasn't as muscular as Tai but he was built and toned, which caught the eye of a few of his female classmates at Signal. Honestly, he looked so much like Tai that the people who didn't know he was adopted would think that Tai was his biological father.
He was dressed in his usual attire of black boots that went halfway up his calf and blue jeans. They were held up by a thick black belt that had four clips of ammo on each side. He had on a black hoodie with a white vest with black flame-like pattern around the bottom, where the sleeves would've been and on either side of the zipper, over top of it. It was opened to show the black hoodie underneath. The white vest was actually a white zip-up sweatshirt that his sisters had gotten him for his last birthday but because of a mishap with his Semblance, he had burnt off the sleeves. Not wanting to throw it away, he cut off the sleeves and sown them to make it what it was now.
Finishing his outfit was a pair of white metal armlets that went from his wrist to about halfway down his forearm. They were one of his weapons and were similar to Yang's, although they were a bit larger in their compact form because he had a few more mechanisms to work with. The only thing that didn't change was the mop of blonde hair on his head that was messily layered on his head. He had an easy grin on his face as he walked over to his sisters.
Yang turned to him with her fists on her hips as she gave Jaune a mild glare, "And what is wrong about my way of teaching?"
Jaune just shrugged with the grin not faltering, "Besides the fact that you're trying to punch our adorable sister in the face and hoping she does something to defend herself, nothing." That just made Yang narrow her eyes more, "You know as well as I, that was not how Dad taught us to fight."
Yang just crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, "Well you aren't exactly doing anything to make this better. Some brother, you're supposed to love me."
Jaune just rolled his eyes and gently placed his hand on the back of her head before bringing her close. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, something he only ever did for this sisters. The gesture brought a small smile to her lips, it always did. He pulled away with the grin still there, "I do love you, Yang. I just love you enough to call you out on when you do something wrong."
That earned a giggle from Ruby and that caused Yang to give him a shove, not strong enough to push him over or to take a step back though, "Jerk." She said. Although the small smile she had didn't disappear.
Jane then turned to his younger sister, "And she does have a point, Ruby. You may be a badass with your weapon but without it, you're like a defenseless puppy." That made Ruby give him a disappointed look. "I'm not saying you need to become a master martial artist but you should at least be able to hold your own until you get your weapon back."
"Well, why did you and Yang get to bring your weapons then if you're supposed to be teaching me to fight without one?" she pouted.
"Because ours just enhance our hand-to-hand, we don't need them to fight close quarters. Besides, I left Stalwart back with Crescent Rose in a show of solidarity." He said with a grin.
Ruby crossed her arms with a pout, "Fine. But could you at least have Yang go easy on me?"
Jaune looked at Yang with a raised eyebrow and she just gave him a smirk, "Ruby, she's been going easy on you. And you know this." He then grinned and stepped to the side; he really didn't want to get pulled into this. Because Ruby would either pull him in to save her from Yang or Yang would have him try to fight Ruby. Again, he was not punching his sisters in the face.
He watched as Yang fell back into her boxing stance and Ruby was still pouting. Yang lead with a punch that Ruby somehow deflected and ducked under the next two. Before taking a clumsy step backwards to not catch another to the stomach. Yang then went for a roundhouse kick that Ruby quickly dove between her legs to avoid. Yang went for two more punches that Ruby deflected clumsily with each arm. She then stepped to the side before she tried to punch Yang in the back of the head.
Yang just easily sidestepped it though with a confident smirk. Jaune seeing that just sighed, knowing how this would go. Yang swiped Ruby's leg from under her and as she was falling, went for a downwards punch to her face. In a panic, Ruby used her Semblance to turn into rose petals and vanish into the bushes. Yang chuckled as she stood up, "Nice one, Sis. You're not always gonna be able to run away from your problems though." She rested her hands behind her head as she started pacing, "Sometimes you just have to stand your ground and fight, no matter what."
Before she could continue, several gunshots were fired and as Yang spun around to face where they were coming from, her legs were frozen in place from the Dust bullets impacting the ground. Her eyes widened when a white metal fist with a barrel between each knuckle, was coming towards her face before it stopped an inch from her nose. She looked past it to see that it was indeed Jaune, who had a smirk, "And sometimes it's good to deflate that head of yours." He then flicked his sister in the nose before redrawing his arm.
Yang shook her head in annoyance before she tried to smack him away with her arm. But Jaune was already out of her reach with a chuckle. She was going to step forward but remembered her legs were still frozen. With a grunt she pulled her legs free and shattered the ice. "What the hell?!"
Jaune shrugged, "You can get overconfident and start showing off. Like you just did with Ruby. You're trying to teach her something, not show how badass you are, sis."
Yang huffed but knew he was right, "Point taken." She said lowly. "Alright, enough rest." She said louder to Ruby. "Get back out here." That's when they heard something big moving around and the brushes rustling more. "Ruby?" Yang asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"Something isn't right." Jaune said as he took a step forward.
That's when they saw the glowing red marking and the growls of the Grimm. "Ruby!" both of them shouted as the Ursa rose from the bushes with a roar. Jaune immediately raised his right arm and his weapon, Glacies Tempest, extended over his left arm to match. The bracer extended to cover his entire arm to his elbow while a plate extended to cover the back of his palm and his finger down to the second knuckle. Three small barrels popped out from the plate, each one between the first knuckles.
While that was deploying, Jaune started firing the submachine guns from the already deployed weapon on his right hand. Bursts of bullets erupted from the three barrels of his right hand, they impacted the beast's chest and leaving ice in their wake. The Ursa just roared and the ice broke as it slammed back down onto four legs and charged at the blonde siblings.
Jaune raised his left hand and started to rapidly fire more of his ice bullets from both halves of Glacies Tempest, to try to slow the beast down some. That's when he heard the shots from behind him and Yang flying past him to meet the Grimm head on with a punch. Yang managed to lay a few punches into the Grimm but it still batted her to the side.
As Yang was rolling back to her feet, Jaune was running forward before firing into the ground in front of him, creating a sheet of ice to slide on to go faster. As he got close enough, he jumped off the ground towards the beast. He pulled his left arm back and slammed it onto the Grimm's arm. On the impact, all of the ice Dust was released to form an ice-based explosion that instantly froze into a massive chunk of ice on its shoulder. Jaune tucked his legs in before kicking off the Grimm to get distance between them. "Yang!" he shouted.
Yang quickly switched her gauntlets to their ranged mode and fired off two shots. One slammed into the ice Jaune made, breaking it and doing severe damage to the beast while the other hit its chest for a lesser effect. The beast charged at her and she had to swap back to her melee form. Jaune had landed on his feet, about twenty feet to Yang's right as she did this. He clenched his left hand and the spent clip ejected from the side of his left gauntlet. He then slammed it onto the left side of his belt, directly on a clip before pulling down and loading in fresh ammo.
By the time he was done, the Ursa had already brought its arm down onto Yang as she was holding it back with one arm. Jaune started to fire off his fresh left gauntlet into the side of the Ursa, freezing a good portion of its side. That made it turn to him, giving Yang the chance to give it an uppercut to get it off her. Yang then shot into the air before using another shot to rocket herself into its chest for a kick. She pushed off it to get out of its range.
Yang then used another shot to slide between its legs and behind it. With that, Yang started to fire at it while Jaune raised his right arm to fire at it from the other side. The Ursa seemed unfazed, just annoyed. Yang shot forward again to deliver punches before it tried to swipe at her but Yang managed to catch it and hold it. The Grimm tried to bite down on her but Jaune rocketed forward with his aura and slam his right fist into the side of its head, creating another ice explosion.
With the left side of its face frozen into the closest thing to shock a Grimm could muster, Yang slammed her own fist into its chest and forcing it backwards. Jaune quickly ejected his spent clip before loading in another for his right gauntlet. The two then started to work perfectly together: Jaune staying a bit back with Yang staying close. At one point, the two would swap roles. That just happened to be when the ice finally shattered from its face and managed to clamp down on Jaune's stomach and chest, causing him to scream and his aura to take a massive hit.
"Jaune!" Yang screamed as the Grimm threw him to the side. He tumbled across the ground painfully before he stayed laying on his stomach. In her anger, she tried for a heavy punch but doing so left her wide open for the massive paw that slammed into her side and sending her flying out of the clearing. In her wake, she left a deep trench and knocked over several trees.
Jaune had managed to push himself up onto his knees. "Yang!" he shouted at what he saw happen to his sister. He was shocked but fear and anger were just below that and with that, a familiar heat started to form in his chest. He looked over to the Ursa that was slowly prowling over to him. He was about to get back onto his feet but as he tried, he and the Grimm heard a shocked gasp. They both turned to see that Ruby was leaning against a tree on shaky legs.
Jaune's eyes widened but before he could do anything, the Ursa charged full speed at Ruby. Seeing no other choice, Jaune raised his right hand with his palm facing the Grimm. In the years that Jaune had trained, he had mastered his Semblance and by doing so, has had it under lock and key. In the time since his mastering of it, he had only used it three times. And that was from fear and hatred on his Semblance. Even if he can't remember it, he just had his deep seated feeling that his Semblance had done something truly terrible. And he didn't want that to happen to his knew family.
He felt the familiar heat spread from his chest to down his arm. He felt the familiar but uncomfortable feeling of the hot energy of his aura mixing with the cold sensation of the metal on his arm. Most people were curious why his gauntlets covered his inner arms and why he only used ice Dust, this was that reason. The Dust made the metal colder to the touch and having his whole forearm covered in the metal made him hyper aware if the heat of his Semblance activated. Even with his mastery, in times of anger or fear, his Semblance could still act out against his will. This was another safeguard to prevent that from happening.
Silver flames coalesced into his palm and in his head, he was just thinking, 'Stay in control. Stay in control. Stay in control.', almost like a mantra. The flames then flew from his hand as a fireball, slamming into the back of the Grimm. On contact, the flames quickly spread across the entire back of the beast and causing the beast to stop its charge to roar in pain. In desperation, it tried to roll onto its back to try to snuff out the flames but to no avail.
Jaune's silver flames weren't actually fire. It took a while but they had found out that the silver fire was actually his aura. There have been Semblances that allowed people to create constructs out of their aura and Jaune's was one of those Semblances. Except Jaune's took on the characteristics of fire but not it'd weaknesses. The silver fire could burn underwater or in a vacuum as long as Jaune could supply it with aura. But he also had to be careful, his Semblance could actually start a real fire and that he would have no control over whatsoever.
Jaune used his aura to keep burning the Grimm but as it realized that the flames would not extinguished. It's eyes locked onto Ruby once again and started to charge. That was when a familiar battle cry rang out and Yang came rocketing in with her Semblance in full effect. Her fist slammed into the side of the beast's head and caved it in. Yang landed on her feet and slowly slid to a stop as the Grimm faded into smoke and silver embers.
With the Grimm dead, Jaune lowered his arm with a sigh before he hissed in pain. He looked down at his right hand and saw that it was covered in burns, just like every time he used his Semblance. "Jaune!" he heard two voices and saw his sisters running over to him.
They slid onto their knees up to him. Ruby was the first one to speak up, "Are you alight? I'm sorry. I didn't know how to help without my scythe. I'm so sorry." She said sadly.
Jaune just reached up with his left hand and gently rubbed her head, "It's okay, Ruby. I'm pretty sure my gunshots were what drew it to us, so it was my fault. So, no teary eyes, got it?" Ruby gave him a small smile and sniffle with that. He then turned to Yang, "You good? That was a big hit."
She nodded with a grin, "I'm fine. Another hit would've shattered my aura but luckily that didn't happen." She then grew serious. "How's your hand?"
He sighed and raised it to show them, "Same as usual. But it should heal up in a couple hours, like always." He slowly stood up and the two followed his lead, "Let's get home. Just in case another Grimm shows up." They nodded and the three siblings made their way back home.
It was now later in the evening and everyone in the Xiao Long-Rose family was getting ready for bed or already in it. Jaune was in his room, laying on his bed with his pillows supporting his back as he read a novel. He heard that reading before bed actually lead to better rest and it seemed to be working over the last few weeks he had been doing it. He was already in his pajamas, a white t-shirt and black shorts. He was about to finish the chapter he was on when he heard a knock on his door.
He looked over the top of his book to his door, "It's open." He said loud enough to be heard but not shouting.
His door opened up slowly and there stood Ruby in her pajama, "Hey, Jaune. You're still up."
He smirked, "Nope, I've trained myself to read and speak in my sleep." That earned a small chuckle from her. "So, what's up?"
She looked down for a second before making eye contact, "Can we talk?"
Sensing this was serious he closed his book, "Absolutely." He placed his book down on his right on a nightstand. He then slid over to be more center of his bed as he patted the right side of his bed. Ruby walked over and took the spot, instantly snuggling into her brother's side and resting her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gently rubbed her upper arm, "So, what's up?" he asked again.
She was silent for a bit, "I'm sorry." She said again.
"Ruby, you have nothing to be sorry-" he started.
"Not for the Grimm." She quickly said. "I'm sorry because I made you use your Semblance and you hurt your hand again."
Ruby had always been hung up on that part of his Semblance. She never really understood why his Semblance, an expression of his soul and self, would hurt him every time he used it. It was really the only reason she never tried to get him to overcome his feelings towards it. She couldn't imagining being afraid or hateful to her Semblance. To a part of herself.
Jaune sighed, "Never apologize for that, sis." She looked back up at him with her bright silver eyes and he gently kissed her forehead. "You and Yang are my precious sisters and I would do anything to protect you. Just like you two would do for each other and me." He smiled, "Besides, I'm all good. See?"
He let go of her arm and wiggled his fingers a foot or so away from her face. She smiled and gently took it in her own. She then spoke quietly as she held his hand, "I'm going to miss you two."
"We're going to miss you as well. But we'll be sure to come home as often as possible and just keep doing your best to get to Beacon with us. Deal?" He asked.
She nodded, "Deal." They sat there for a while and Ruby spoke up nervously, "Jaune?" he hummed in response. "I know we're a bit old for it but could I sleep here tonight?" she had a light blush as she said that.
That was true. The three of them used to sleep in the same bed often when they were younger but the last time was five or six years ago. He had the feeling that if turned her down, she wouldn't sleep to well after everything that had happened today though. And he'd be lying if he said he didn't miss that closeness that came with it So after a few seconds, he answered, "Sure. But just for tonight."
"Yay." She said tiredly as she let his hand go and wrapped him in a hug to drift off.
Jaune started to pull the blankets down and lay his pillows down so they could actually use them when he heard a voice come from the door, "Well, look at this." He looked over to see Yang leaning against the doorframe, also in her pajamas, with a smirk on her lips. "Aren't you two a bit old for that?"
"Jaune is still the best pillow." Ruby replied with her head still resting on his chest and eyes closed.
Jaune just looked down at her but before he could say anything, Yang chimed in, "Still? Damn, it sucks that only you get to do that. Looks like he has no space for his other sister."
Jaune looked up at her and she still had that teasing smirk. He just gave her a deadpanned expression, "Really?" Her smirk just widened. "And here I was about to make some room for you. Oh well." He shrugged, "Mind shutting the door for us?" He asked as he laid down with Ruby still holding him.
He laid there for thirty seconds with his eyes closed but he opened them to see Yang still standing there, gently biting your lip. "Yes, Yang?" he asked innocently.
She started to mess with her hair, a social tick that only showed up when she was nervous, "Can I…stay too?" she asked with a light blush.
Jaune just smiled, "Sure, sis. Just don't be too mad if we all wake up a bit cramped." He then started to slide to the right to give her some more space. Yang smiled before she shut the door and speed walked over to his side. She got in the bed and rested her head on the other side of his chest. She slid one arm under his back while the other went over his chest to half hug Ruby. "Night, Yang. Night Ruby."
Yang snuggled into his chest a bit more. "Night, Jaune. Night, Ruby."
Ruby nodded tiredly. "Night, Yang. Night, Jaune." With that, Jaune leant over to turn off his bedside lamp before wrapping an arm around each of his sisters. They soon all drifted off to sleep.
