A Flame in the Dark
Team JNPR's day out in Vale was turning out to be more amusing than Jaune had originally thought it would be. Despite being at Beacon for nearly a whole semester, his team had very rarely ventured out into Vale for more than a quick trip to pick up essentials. Pyrrha was worried that her fans would swarm her if she stayed out for too long. While Ren usually kept his own trips short since he usually had to wrangle Nora in on the occasions that she became a bit overzealous.
So Jaune had elected to be their tour guide and introduce them all to the wonders of Vale. They saw all the usual sights and attractions. Along with a few hidden gems that only the locals knew about. Seeing the enjoyment his teammates got from this was well worth the effort he put into the little trip. Plus they were lucky enough that not a ton of people recognized Pyrrha so they spent most of the day unhampered.
Eventually when it got to be around dinner time, he decided to bring them all to his and his sisters' favorite diner. As they walked in, he saw that Shelly was on duty. She saw him and smiled, "Well, well. If it isn't Jaune. Have you been keeping an eye on me? I literally just got on the clock a few minutes ago and here you are." She said with a teasing grin.
Jaune just chuckled, "Nope. Just have amazing timing and now I get to see my favorite waitress."
She pointed a menu at him, "Flattery will get you everywhere." She winked at him with a joking smile on her lips. She then looked to the other three that were watching the interaction curiously, "And who would these three be?"
Jaune motioned to them, "This is Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. They are my teammates and quickly becoming my best friends."
Pyrrha nodded, "It's nice to meet you." She said politely.
Ren gave a polite nod of his head while Nora had a massive grin, "How do you know our Fearless Leader? Is it something… Romantic?" she asked as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Jaune facepalmed, "Nora, please." His voice carrying just a hint of embarrassment.
Shelly on the other hand just laughed, "I like you. But no, I am in a very happy relationship." She reached up to mess with Jaune's hair and he didn't fight her on it. "Jaune and his sisters are regulars here. And are some of my favorite customers. That's all." She looked them all over again, "And any friend of Jaune's is welcome here." She looked over her shoulder to all the tables. "And a corner booth is open." She grabbed four menus before making her way to it, "Follow me."
They all did so with no issue and took their seats once there. Jaune sat on one side with Pyrrha sliding next to him immediately after while Ren and Nora took the seats on the opposite side of the table. Shelly then handed each of them a menu, "I have to check on another table really quick but I'll be back to get your drink order. Be back in a second." With that she turned around to walk to another table.
The rest of JNPR turned to their leader for a brief second but he was already looking over the menu, trying to decide what he wanted to have this time around. They all looked over their own menus before Pyrrha spoke up, "Wow. They have a little bit of everything here."
Jaune chuckled, "That's an understatement." He looked up to everyone. "The owner has practically hired a cook from each Kingdom, including Menagerie. Anyone who comes in can order something that will remind them of home or try something new if they want." He went back to his menu, "I still haven't had everything on their menu and that's not including all the special dishes they have almost daily."
"Do they have breakfast?" Nora asked as she frantically looked over the menu, looking for something in particular.
Jaune grinned, "If you want they can make you pancakes. I've heard them catering to stranger orders."
"I know what I want." She said instantly and placed down her menu.
That earned a smile from them all. "I'm thinking maybe something Mistralian, honestly." As they all settled into their conversations and waited for their meals, Jaune had a brief thought of texting his sisters to see how they were doing but eventually decided against it. They were off with their own team, probably having a blast anyway. He should be doing the same and let those two enjoy themselves.
Jaune was walking with his team back to his dorm a couple of hours later. All of them still full from their meals, "I still can't believe how good that was. It was like it was straight from Mistral." Pyrrha said again with a happy smile.
"Those pancakes were amazing!" Nora agreed. "They were the best I had after Ren's."
Jaune chuckled, "We could tell after your fourth plate."
She shrugged, "I was hungry." She answered simply.
They settled into a silence before Ren spoke up, "Thank you for today, Jaune. It was very enjoyable."
"It was nothing. And over our break we can do it again but I can show you Patch instead." He saw their dorm and his sisters' come into view. "Speaking of, I'm going to drop these off to my sisters really quick." He said as he raised a paper bag that contained half a dozen cookies and a few brownies from the diner. His sisters' favorite desserts from there.
As he turned to their door and raised his hand to knock, he could only vaguely hear the sounds of raised voices before the door was flung open. He was then knocked to the ground as someone ran into him. As he regained his bearings, he looked down to see that the person who did it was Blake. Who seemed just as shocked to be on the floor and using him as a makeshift mattress.
"Jaune!" he looked over to Ruby as she looked at him in shock and maybe a bit of fear. "Stop Blake! She was trying to run away!"
Blake's eyes widened at those words and she was about to jump back to her feet but Jaune had already wrapped his arms around her in an impromptu hug. She started to struggled but Jaune was a bit stronger than her. "Let go of me!" she shouted.
"Sorry, Blake." He said sincerely. "But Ruby asked me to."
"Good." Weiss spoke up in an icy tone as she walked towards the doorway, scroll in hand. "You keep her there while I call the Headmaster." Before she could, Yang stomped over to her and snatched the device form her hand. "Hey!" she said indignantly. She looked up to Yang, "Give me that!" she demanded.
"Not gonna happen." Yang practically spat, her eyes red. "You've been on a superiority trip all day and I'm sick of it."
"You heard what she said!" Weiss shouted back.
"And I want to talk about this! Not call the cops!" Yang roared at her.
"What is there to talk about?! She's a criminal!"
"And you're a pint sized brat with a yard stick up your-"
"Enough!" Everyone froze at the authoritative voice, even the members of JNPR. They all turned to Jaune you had a mix between an annoyed and demanding look. Yang and Ruby knew this to be Jaune shifting to 'parent mode,' as they dubbed it, and they learned long ago to not question him when he is like that.
He stood himself up from the floor but kept a grip on Blake's upper arms just in case she tried to run. When they were both on their feet he turned to his usually energetic teammate, who seemed cowed by his shout. "Nora, come here, please." He asked calmly.
She walked towards him and looked up to meet his eyes, "Yes?"
He just smiled and moved Blake closer to her. "Hug her please."
Both girls' eyes widened at his meaning and Nora grinned as she wrapped her arms around the black haired girl. Blake started to try and wriggle her way out but it was too late. It was a fact that Nora was much stronger than him. "On it, Fearless Leader. She isn't going anywhere."
"This is kidnapping!" Blake shouted and tried to get her way out of the grip of the shorter girl.
"Maybe but take it up with my indifference." Jaune said with a neutral tone. He nodded a thanks to Nora before looking at everyone else, "Alright, everyone in RWBY's dorm, now. We're going to have a discussion."
Ruby and Yang nodded before grabbing Weiss and pulling her into the dorm. "Unhand me!" they all heard her shout from inside. Nora was the next to walk in with a still struggling Blake in her arms followed by Ren and Pyrrha. Jaune was about to go in but saw the bag of baked goods on the floor. He picked it up and looked inside to check on them. Luckily, they weren't damaged in the fall. He nodded and walked into the room, closing the door behind himself.
He looked around the room to see that Ruby and Yang were sitting on Blake's bed while Weiss sat on her own bed with her arms crossed. Nora was off to the side with Blake still in her arms but she seemed to have finally given up and was slack in the shorter girl's arms. It was pretty funny to see, if Jaune was going to be honest. Pyrrha and Ren were standing near the door just looking at him for some sort of explanation.
He took a deep breath and sighed, "I feel like I'm twelve again and I have to mediate an argument between Yang and Ruby." The two looked at him in betrayal before he handed them the bag, "Eat one and calm down for now. We'll talk in a second." He said with a much kinder tone. They looked inside and their moods improved several times over as they saw what was inside. Each pulled out the respective baked good and started to eat it.
He then turned to Pyrrha, "Would you mind guarding the door, Pyr?"
She raised an eyebrow, "Uh… I guess I can but why?"
"I have a feeling this is going to get heated and I don't want Blake to make another run." He said as he pointed to Blake with his thumb. "And I doubt she will be able to get past you." He finished with a grin.
She smiled back, with a more bashful light to it. "Alright." She then walked over to the door and leant her back against it. She crossed her hands in front of her as she accepted her role as vigil.
He then turned to Ren, "You mind standing by the window, as a precaution?" Ren just nodded before walking over to it and standing in front of it with his arms crossed. He watched over everyone with a calm expression on his face.
Jaune then turned to Nora, "Alright, I think you can let her go now."
"Do I have to?" Nora whined. "I never get to hug Blake. And she's so warm and gives me just a fuzzy feeling." Nora said happily as she rubbed her cheek against Blake's back. The victim of the hug just blushed at that, not sure on how to feel about the compliments she was getting.
He smiled, "If she tries to run, you can hug her again. Deal?"
"Deal!" she said happily. She let go of her and then walked over to guard the window with Ren.
Blake gently rubbed her upper arms before giving Jaune a glare. It would've been terrifying if he didn't notice that she was shaking pretty badly. She turned away from him to walk over to one of the desks in the room, the one furthest from Weiss. She then pulled out the chair and sat down, staring down at the floor.
Jaune took one more look around the room before sighing, "Okay, I have no idea what is going on but anyone with eyes could tell that it is something serious. So we are going to talk about this calmly and decide how to go from here. Everyone understand?"
Yang and Ruby nodded as they finished the last bites of their cookie and brownie. Blake didn't say anything and just kept looking down at the ground. Weiss just huffed and leveled a glare at him, "And why would we listen to you?"
Jaune wasn't even trying to deal with her attitude right now. He just looked at her and raised a finger. "That is strike one. You get one more then Nora will hug you. And trust me, it will be a bear hug."
Weiss opened her mouth but Nora's chuckle cut her off. They turned to see her rubbing her hands together and just staring at Weiss. "I get to hug the Ice Queen? Sweet." After seeing the gleam in Nora's eyes, Weiss was more than unnerved and wisely chose to be quiet for now.
With that taken care of, his eyes looked over the four members of RWBY. He was trying to figure out who would be the best to start with. He eventually decided on their leader, "Ruby." He spoke up and she jumped slightly before looking at him, slightly worried. He reached over and gently rubbed her head and she calmed down. "Relax." He said soothingly. "I just want you to tell me what happened today, okay?"
She looked up at him and gave him a tiny smile. "Okay." She answered. He pulled his hand away and she took a breath and tried to get her thoughts in order. "We decided to go down to Vale and see how the decorations for the Vytal Festival were going. Weiss also heard that some of the students from Vacuo were supposed to show up and she wanted to welcome them."
"But we all knew she just wanted to scope out the competition." Yang added with a mild glare to the Heiress.
"Thank you, Yang." Jaune spoke evenly. He turned back to Ruby. "What happened after that?"
"Well there was a Dust store that was robbed by the docks. We talked to the officers and they told us a little bit about it and that it might have been the White Fang. Weiss agreed with them and Blake started to defend them. And they got into a bit of an argument."
"The White Fang?" Jaune asked before looking to the side, "Why would it be them? Hasn't Torchwick been the one doing all the Dust robberies until recently?"
"Exactly." He heard Blake just mutter that.
Ruby nodded, "That's what I said. But, uh…" She looked back over to Weiss before looking down. "Weiss didn't completely agree with us. And… Well…"
"Weiss started to go on and on about her prejudice ideas." Yang answered her sister's sentence.
"Excuse me?" Weiss said, glaring at Yang.
"What would you call it then?" Yang said with red eyed eyeroll. "You going on and on about how Faunus are all just liars, cheats, and criminals. Lumping an entire race of people together because of a few did terrible things. Yeah, no, you're right. That is completely justified. And the great Weiss Schnee is right about everything again."
Weiss stood up, "You don't get to judge me when you have no idea what I've gone through."
Yang stood up as well, "You think you're the only one that had to deal with things going horribly wrong growing up? Everyone has their secrets and issues, Weiss. That does not excuse you from acting like you're owed everything. And if you wanna be treated like you can do no wrong and everyone around you will just suck up to you, then feel free to go back to Atlas!"
"The White Fang have been warring with my family's company for years!" Weiss shouted back. "I have every right to not trust them!"
Jaune was about to say something when someone else did. "Is it really your family business they have a problem with or is it your father's policies?"
Everyone stopped and turned to look at Pyrrha, who now had her arms crossed over her chest and was just staring at Weiss with a hard look. "W-what?" Weiss stuttered out.
Pyrrha sighed, "The Faunus never had a problem with the SDC until after your father had taken over. I grew up in Argus, Weiss. It's the city in Mistral with the best connection to Atlas and even the people there heard of the terrible rumors your father has done to the Faunus that work for him." She shook her head, "How would you feel if you kept hearing such horrible things were happening to your people just because of one man's selfish greed?"
Jaune saw that Blake was looking at Pyrrha in shock. He kept thinking about how much this all had affected her and he was still clueless to why it did so. But regardless, he needed her to speak up. It would be the only way he could help Yang and Ruby with this situation.
Jaune walked over to her and she tensed up. He knelt down to be more eye level with her, "Blake, what's wrong?" Her eyes moved from him to everyone else in the room, "Blake." Her eyes snapped over to him. "I'd like to consider us friends. Our two teams have been together since day one. So trust us to not judge you "
Blake just stared at him before she looked over to Pyrrha who was giving her a sincere look. Her eyes drifted over to Ren and Nora, one being the epitome of calm while the other still had the smile that said everything would be okay. She then finally looked at Ruby and Yang. They were just looking at her, practically begging for her to talk to them. So they could help.
She looked down at the ground, trying to figure out what she should do. Her hands were fidgeting with each other as she slowly came to a decision. She already let it slip out, might as well explain completely. She took a shaky breath, "There's a reason I care so much for the Faunus. And why I try to defend the White Fang." Her hands reached up shakily to the bow on her head. She slowly undid it and as she pulled the ribbon away, a pair of black cat ears were free for all of them to see.
She looked down as she kept the ribbon held tightly in her hand, "I'm a Faunus. And I used to be in the White Fang."
There was a silence before everyone heard Ruby whisper to Yang, "They are kinda cute." Yang couldn't help the snort that came next and Blake looked over to them in shock.
"Well…" Jaune said as he stood up. "That explains how this happened." He then gave her a small smile to try to ease her. He looked over to Weiss who was just staring over to her, now revealed, Faunus teammate. Her expression unreadable. "Now to figure out how to move on from this."
Weiss snapped over to him, "Move on from this? She's a member of the White Fang!"
"Ex-member." Jaune corrected.
"How can we be sure of that?" the heiress questioned.
Jaune shrugged, "Because if she wasn't, Ozpin wouldn't have let her into the school."
There was an extended silence after that. "He does have a point." Yang pointed out, breaking the silence, with Ruby nodding.
"What do you mean?" Nora questioned with a head tilt.
"Our Uncle Qrow is a Huntsman and he works mostly for Professor Ozpin." Jaune started to explain. "And what he has told us is that the Headmaster tries to be ahead of most matters. He tries to know as much as he can so he can come to the best decisions. And our Uncle helps him out on finding a good chunk of the information he gets."
He reached up and started to rub the bridge of his nose, "It would honestly surprise me if he didn't know Blake was a Faunus. Let alone being an ongoing member of the White Fang, if that was actually what was going on." He lowered his hand, "Besides if she was one, what would've stopped her from kidnapping you on the first day?" He questioned Weiss.
She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She then crossed her arms and glared at the ground.
Jaune rubbed the back of his head, "Look, I'm out of my depth here. I don't know what I can say or do to help you two get along. I'm used to sister's arguing. Not, whatever this whole situation is." He sighed, "Honestly, you each have a lot of reasons to not trust the other. But until all of this… mess came out, you two had at least some sort of friendship."
He placed his hands in his pockets as he looked at the heiress then the Faunus. "I guess you'll have to decide whether or not you can move past this. And what you'll do afterwards." He then smiled at his sisters. It was small but he tried to make it reassuring. "Sorry I can't do more. If you need me, I'll be across the hall."
"That goes for us too." Pyrrha added. Ren and Nora nodded as well, the latter with a bit more energy behind it.
None of their sister team said anything after that. None of them even moved. So JNPR elected to leave them alone for now. Jaune didn't get a step closer to the door before someone slammed into him. He looked down but he already knew it was Ruby hugging him. She was gripping the back o f his shirt with her face in his chest. "Thanks for trying to help."
He wrapped one arm around her while the other gently patted her head, "Any time."
They pulled apart and she tried to give him a smile but it seemed a bit more brittle than he was used to. He then looked up to Yang just looking at them. He just strolled over to her and pulled her into a hug before she could do anything. "Come get me if you need help. Got it?" he whispered.
"Got it." She whispered back as she returned the hug.
He let her go before finally turning to the door, with Ren and Nora just a few steps behind him. As he passed Blake, he stopped long enough to give her a reassuring squeeze to her shoulder and what he hoped was a calming smile. She tried to return it but didn't really succeed but it was at least a start. As he walked away, he heard her gasp and looked to see Nora giving her another hug. She gave her megawatt smile before leaving her stunned.
Team JNPR left the sister team's dorm before going across the hall to their own. It was only when the door shut that they felt the tension bleed out of them. "That was heavy…" Nora said what they all were thinking.
"That's an understatement." Jaune said, feeling drained as he just flopped onto his bed. His face just sinking into the pillow below him.
He stayed like that for a bit before he felt a second weight on his bed and a hand settle onto his back. He turned his head to the left to see that Pyrrha had taken a seat on the edge of his bed and was just looking at him. She was giving him a reassuring look as she gently rubbed his back, "That was a very considerate thing you did, Jaune."
He shrugged, "Wasn't really sure what I was doing. I just knew Ruby was panicked and Yang was going to tear Weiss a new one. I acted before I thought it through."
"Well I'm sure they appreciated it." Pyrrha said with a smile.
"Just think of how bad that would've been if you weren't there." Nora pointed out as she was grabbing her pajamas. "Blake may've run away and met up with some anti-White Fang Faunus and gone out on a mission to stop them. Then they would've gotten in over their heads and needed us and Team RWBY to save them. We would have to show up and save the day to be heroes!"
Jaune chuckled, "I doubt that would've happened, Nora." She just stuck her tongue out at him as she made her way to the bathroom to change. He rolled over onto his back as he just stared up at the ceiling. He was going over everything he had just heard between Weiss and Blake, trying his best to process it. But failing at the sheer amount that was in his head.
"Do you think Blake is telling us the truth?" Pyrrha asked.
He looked over to her and she was still just looking back at him, "I think so. She didn't tell us about being a Faunus or her time in the White Fang but everyone has a secret or two they aren't proud of. Or just don't wanna talk about." He looked down to his hand and his mind went back to the possibility of him burning down Ren and Nora's home. He clenched his fist before looking back to Pyrrha. "She has done nothing for me to distrust her. So, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt."
Pyrrha placed her hand over his fist and smiled at him, "I think so too." She smiled at him and he smiled back, feeling just a bit calmer.
He then looked back up to the ceiling. 'I hope they'll be able to move on from this. If not, I'm going to be there to help Yang and Ruby pick up the pieces.' He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. 'I just hope nothing drastic happens.'
A/N- Over six months without an update... Yeah that is unacceptable. I'm not going to go into why it's been so long but I do have 2022 update on my Bio that may clarify what happened. And it'll give you all an idea on what I plan to do with this coming year. I thank you all for waiting patiently for this update and I can only hope it was worth the wait.
With that said, I hope to see you all in the next update
