Okay, the next chapter. A little slower, with more character development and exposition than anything else.
The armory was just as utilitarian and uninviting as the first time he'd come there; those traits were drowned out once Ruby Rose appeared
"Alright!" she said, "let's get to it!"
The Lone Wanderer glanced at her. She was just too damn... happy. All the time, happy, happy, happy. How did she manage it?
She met him at the same worktable they'd been at the other day and plopped down onto one of the stools. He took out the Mysterious Magnum and collected the equipment he'd seen Ruby use the last time. He was a swift learner. It hadn't taken him long to recognize some of the tools and even a few of their uses, though several remained utterly foreign to him.
Ruby took her time getting ready. She adjusted herself on her seat and set down a small carton on the worktable. It was pink, with an image of a strawberry on the side, a plastic spoon taped to the top and a thin layer of frost covering it, though that was quickly melting away, leaving dribbles of frigid water. It looked like something from one of Beacon's vending machines.
She pulled off the spoon and peeled back the cover, revealing a pink ice cream with bits of strawberry inside. She started digging into it ravenously, as if it was the first sustenance she'd touched in days.
On one spoonful, however, she noticed him from the corner of her eye. Still with spoon in her mouth, she started talking. "Oh I'm sorr-" she mumbled, before finding the wisdom in taking the spoon out of her mouth to continue, "I'm sorry, did you want some?" She held out the carton to him.
He'd never had ice cream before. Everything back in the vault had been grown through the labs and greenhouses, no room for such things as superfluous as sweets. There were only a few concessions made for morale, such as Nuka-Cola or sweet cakes.
It was tempting, but he didn't come here just to play around and eat ice cream.
"Sure," he said. Come on, he'd been through a lot, so he deserved the occasional treat. He took the spoon from her and got a small piece of the dairy delight for himself. Putting it in his mouth, it instantly melted, excreting a sweet strawberry taste. He wanted more of it.
Enough was enough, however, and he handed it back to Ruby. Maybe he could go to the vending machine himself sometime, though that would require money. He seriously doubted that anything would accept the few bottle caps that he had left.
"Alright, let's get to it," he said.
Ruby nodded and tilted back the carton of ice-cream, pouring it all into her mouth at once. She gulped and smiled, savoring the taste, before her eyes snapped wide open. She grabbed either side of her head and started to groan. "Oh no, brain freeze... gahhh..."
The Lone Wanderer looked at her, snorting in mild amusement as she continued to groan at her headache.
Ruby eventually shook off her desert-induced ailment and helped him get to work. She knew of a good way to upgrade the Mysterious Magnum so it could fire the normal variant of dust rounds without quickly wearing out and becoming useless. Apparently, there was a coating applied to the inside of weapons that was a mixture of various metallic compounds and, of course, dust itself, that would protect against the residual emissions from the bullets.
So they got to it.
Mostly, things involved the Lone Wanderer supporting Ruby as she worked, as this was her domain. Sure, he knew all about every gun from hulking, monstrous gatling lasers to the dinky little chinese pistols, but that was back on Earth. Ruby had spent just about her entire life becoming an expert on Remnant's weapons and their necessary tools. So he watched and listened as she worked and explained what she was doing, holding tools and adjusting things for her according to her commands.
It wasn't bad. Her determination and focus was dead-set and admirable, but not uninviting in its intensity. Truly, he had no idea how anything about the girl could ever be uninviting. She was just so... pure—pure and nice and kind.
He looked at her. She was different from most things that he'd ever seen in the wasteland. She possessed a kind of innocence that he only ever saw in children back home. That's why he liked kids so much—they were just downright pleasant. Even in how infuriating and awful they could be, it was in a manner wholly distinct from the types of truly horrible that he saw in bandits and the Enclave. Even at their worst, those little kids were the best. They possessed something he'd long lost. Something that he treasured ever since its absence was forced upon him, something that he protected and tried to foster.
They had innocence.
Ruby, however, seemed special. Children's innocence steadily erode as they age, a brutal fact made abruptly assertive in a place as brutal as the wasteland. It looked like Ruby had undergone the opposite process. Her purity strengthened and been distilled, imbued within her very personality, such that it clung to her every movement. The way she smiled at everyone, how she was always kind, if not necessarily, down to the way she lackadaisically swung her arms while walking. The Lone Wanderer had hardly known her for a week, but she wore her true character on her sleeve, and it shone like diamond.
"Uhh, Jaune?"
Oh great, he'd drifted off again... while staring at her. Why did he always have the habit of being lost in thought? In fact, he seemed to get lost in thought a lot when he was around her.
"Oh, sorry, just tired." That may have been the truth, for all he knew. He definitely was tired, since his sleep had still barely recovered. It wasn't something he was unused to, sleep exhaustion, and this honestly wasn't the worst he'd ever had to go through. Still, that didn't make it a pleasant experience.
"Yeah, you really need to get more sleep. You always look exhausted," Ruby said. Her voice took on a softer note, and her lips curled into a frown as she observed the dark bags under his blood shot eyes. Well, his right eye was always bloodshot, but even the sapphire in his left had been surrounded by a creeping redness.
"I'll try," he said. Maybe he actually would. Then it may assuage her concern. He didn't exactly like the look of that frown on her face.
"You promise?"
"Promise."
She grinned again.
There you go.
They got back to work after that, carefully pulling apart his pistol. The Lone Wanderer kept everything steady and in check as she laboriously applied the coating. While focusing, she stuck out the tip of her tongue from the side of her mouth.
Heh, cute.
Things continued like that for a while, with Ruby cautiously working with his assistance. An hour ticked by with hardly a word between the two, but again, it was that comfortable sort of silence that he held in such high regard. They were at work on something that she wanted to do and liked doing and something he needed to do and found interest in doing, each resigned with satisfaction to the situation.
That is, until they took a break.
"I just need to let my hands rest," Ruby said. "They get pretty cramped from doing this for too long."
The Wanderer nodded, but was faced with the dilemma of what to do. Ruby began massaging her hands, working her fingertips into her palms and around her fingers, which she pulled on at different angles to produce a series of surprisingly loud cracks. After that, she absentmindedly rubbed them together.
Their comfortable silence quickly rotted and faded away, replaced by something tense and expecting now that they were unencumbered by the mutual interest. The Wanderer started chewing on his cheek, while Ruby's ministration became a bit more nervous.
Now there they were, a shy and socially awkward girl and an outright antisocial boy. Who would be the first to break the ice?
It certainly wouldn't be him. He had no desire to talk to her.
The Lone Wanderer felt several forces within him. He felt that damnable hollowness in his chest, which was an infuriating byproduct of her presence. He also felt something prickly under his skin that crawled about at the prospect of having to talk to someone. Yet past that as well, there was a kind of anti-apprehension that compelled him to speak.
"Sooo," he said. The word slipped from the Wanderer's mouth in a slow drawl.
"Sooo," Ruby replied.
Damn, weren't they a pair of brilliant orators.
"You said you like comics and stuff, right?" Ruby asked, struggling to establish some common ground.
"I do, though it's been a while." It was easier to talk now, now that the conversation was a world away from what they'd been discussing before, away from subjects like teams and leadership. "I haven't read anything or played any games in... months."
"Wow, I can't go more than a day without that stuff," Ruby said with an airy chuckle. She rubbed the back of her head, perhaps embarrassed at the disparity between them.
"Though it's just because I've been out in the field, haven't really had a lot access to that stuff," he said.
"Ahh, yeah that makes sense. There was a nice little store back on Patch that always sold games and comics and stuff like that, and I'd spend most of my allowance there." She sheepishly chuckled and glanced away. "I still spend a lot of my allowance on a store I found here in Vale."
"Sounds nice, we just had one big library of comics and games. It was all free, but reading the same thing a hundred times over isn't exactly the best." The Lone Wanderer sighed. What else could he have done? It's not like anyone in the vault was writing and printing new comics and programming new games. "Though Grognak will always be fun."
"Grognak?"
Shit. Everything was different here, and he kept forgetting that. Tiny miss-steps like may be innocuous, but larger ones would add up and present a picture of him that was strange, perhaps intolerable to people who'd been raised a world apart. Then again, he didn't think Ruby would ever have a problem tolerating him.
"It's just a local comic from where I come from. You wouldn't know about it." He dismissed the subject with a wave of his hands. "But it was still my favorite."
"Sounds cool, what was it about?" Ruby asked. She shifted in her seat, propping her elbows on the table and letting her chin rest on her hands, so that she could easily continue looking at him, giving him all of her attention as if he was the only thing in the world. It was how she talked to everyone, a legitimate interest in what they had to say.
Her blatant attention made him shift awkwardly in his seat and he bit down ever so slightly harder on his cheek. Nevertheless, he continued. "Grognak the Barbarian, an incredible warrior from a foreign land who traverses the world in search of wealth, women and adventure. Join him as he battles monsters and villains of all shapes and sizes." The Lone Wanderer shrugged. "That's the exact description on every comic. Like I said, I read them all a lot."
Just a second later, his eyes widened. Oh Hell. He'd just completely nerded out, hadn't he? He hadn't done that in a long time, not having the ability to do so with no one to talk to. Butch had always pushed him around for his over-interest in comics, and even Sarah and the others in the Brotherhood had teased him about how addicted he'd been to all the new copies of Grognak he found in the wastes. Gah, looks like old habits die hard—
"Hah, that's awesome!" Ruby exclaimed. "That's the same with me! My favorite comic is X-Ray and Vav, they want to be the greatest superheroes ever, but they're the last people you want to be saved by. Join them as they battle forces as sinister as the Mad King and as aloof as Mogar!" Ruby leaned back and giggled. "That's the description on every copy of X-Ray and Vav... I've read every issue... twice... maybe three times... or four..."
"Well I've read every Grognak issue at least ten-times, so I think I've got you beat."
"Pffft, that's just because it's all you had! I've read 'Camp-Camp' and 'Yellow vs. Purple' too. And who can forget the legendary Peef Rimgar of 'Worms'?" She stuck out her tongue. "I'm more worldly than you, Jaune!"
He'd never met someone before that he could geek out with. Amata had been his only good friend growing up in the vault, and she wasn't one for comics or the like. He felt that strange sensation in his face, one he had to bite down lest his lips curl upwards.
Ruby leaned back on her stool and brought her tongue back in her mouth, reverting to that regular smile, instead. "And what games have you played?" she asked.
"Oh, just the few that were made by Hubris," he replied. He winced after seeing the confused look on her face and recognizing that he'd slipped up and against referenced something that didn't exist in Remnant. "Hubris was a company that made games, made the Grognak comics, too. I played a few Grognak games and some of their wizard adventure games, and they were okay." He shrugged. "Just nothing special. I always liked comics more." It was better to look at colored comic pages than a black screen with some writing on it, after all.
"Oh, I always liked the fighting games, then I could play them with Yang. It was like our sisterly bonding growing up. I also played a lot with my uncle whenever he was around," she said.
Fighting games? That sounded intriguing, though not as much as the latter part. Sister... that was still strange to him. Yang was taller and... larger... than Ruby was. Not to mention their eye color, hair color and bodily structure were different as well. Bodily structure... larger...
He shook his head. Damn hormones. Damn Yang Xiao-Long. Wait... Xiao-Long?
"Are you adopted?" he asked.
Ruby started back in confusion, and he mentally cursed himself just after. Great, he'd let his curiosity bypass his filter and go straight to his mouth. He just couldn't help the interest, and Ruby's presence cast a strange sense of security that made him feel like he could speak his mind. He immediately had to explain.
"It's just that you mentioned your sister, and that made me think about her and how you two don't look anything alike or even have the same last names, right?"
Understanding dawned on Ruby's face, and the confused look was replaced her normal genial one. "Nope," she said, "we just have different moms, same Dad though."
Well, that was interesting. Both the answer and her response. He'd suspected her to be less forthcoming about something so personal, but maybe that was just his wasteland experience tinting his view of things.
"Yeah, Yang's mom left and my mom—"
The words got stuck in Ruby's throat. It seemed that her speech had momentarily outpaced her thought, which had now caught up. A gloomy expression fell onto her face. She looked away from him. Absentmindedly, she fidgeted with the hem of her hood.
The Lone Wanderer wasn't an expert in human interaction, not by far. Even he, however, could tell that something was wrong here. Something was wrong, and the wrongdoing had been prompted by his question. That thought made him uncomfortable.
"Well, she died a few years ago when I was little," Ruby said with a weak shrug. She adopted a smile on her face, though it wasn't at all natural. The Wanderer wasn't an expert, but he had a good idea that she was smiling only for him.
Well... Damn.
Ruby looked away and started to tinker with the Mysterious Magnum again, leaving their conversation behind. That was great. Excellent, actually. Work before talking. He didn't care about her, so it didn't matter to him if there was some kind of lingering sense of melancholy within her, left over from their talk. No. He didn't care at all. Not one bit. Just achieve the mission. Just get to work.
He drummed his fingers against the worktable. He... should really say something. Just because, you know, she won't come back to hang out more if she left feeling bad because of him. And he only wanted to hang out with her because she was useful, nothing besides.
He definitely wasn't reminded of his own dead mom, and he absolutely wasn't affected by the sad turn to her figure.
So yeah, he'd say something to make her feel better, if only because of her use. He didn't really care if she belt better or not. After all, he hated her. He hated her with a passion.
That's what he kept telling himself, so that's what he'd keep believing.
Alright, say something. Say something... right... something. Damn, what should he say? Uhhh... well, misery loves company, right? Yeah, give her some company.
"My mom died giving birth to me," he said.
Ruby stopped working, then turned her head to look back at him. The expression on her face was... an expression.
A brittle silence fell between them.
He gulped. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Great job there, buddy, a regular Shakespear. Man, you should really teach a class or something, because everyone on Earth and Remnant alike is probably begging to have your skills.
"Uhh... just wanted to... commiserate?" he said. That was a word, right? He was pretty sure 'commiserate' was a word, but was it the right word? Yeah, probably the right word... but did they even have that word here on Remnant? Was he being weird again? Well no shit Sherlock, of course you're being weird, you just started randomly bringing up dead moms!
"Well, just, you know... I get that it sucks... and you probably don't want to talk about it..."
Oh God, he really couldn't salvage this, could he? Christ, why the Hell did he have such problems putting together decent sentences? And—wait... is she smiling?
Sure enough, Ruby's lips had turned up into something resembling that familiar grin. It was still tinged with a trace of sadness, but it was there nonetheless. "Thanks," she said, "that's really nice of you."
Huh? It was?
"Umm... okay," he said.
Ruby giggled at his confused expression. "It's just nice of you to try and make me feel better... and now I do!" Ruby spread her arms out flashed herself triumphantly, as if to put her good mood on display. It only partly succeeded, since she still seemed to a little off, but it was a start. She sighed as she let her arms back down and sunk into her seat, that pretty little smile settling more naturally onto her face. "Yeah... it's okay, it happened a long time ago."
She shifted and let her elbows rest on the workbench, again propping up her head with her hands. This time, however, she chose to look into the distance instead of at him, as she recounted her story.
"I don't really remember a lot about her, since I was still pretty young when it happened. I... didn't really understand it back then. But it still really sucked." She sighed and leaned back, staring wistfully up into the ceiling in a way that was all too familiar to the Wanderer. "She'd bake cookies and read bedtime stories and throw awesome birthday parties... it was nice." A saturnine smile crept onto her face. "But I was little, and I've had a long time to adjust."
Ruby looked away from the roof and back to him.
Oh, was that a cue? That was a cue, wasn't it? Should probably answer.
"Well, I never knew my mom. Like I said, she died when I was born. All I know is what my dad told me: she was strong and vibrant and smart and wanted to help people."
Ruby's smile widened. "Sounds a lot like my mom," she said. "She was a huntress, what about yours?"
"Mine was a scientist. She worked with my dad on big charitable projects to help make people's lives better."
"That sounds nice," Ruby said. Her smile brightened. "Yeah, and even after she died, I still had my dad!"
The Wanderer's fists clenched so hard they trembled.
"Yeah, my dad's pretty great. He's a hunter too, and he teaches at Signal. He had a really hard time after mom died, but he's all better now." She closed her eyes and her smile brightened, even as the Wanderer settled deeper into a gloom. Her own joy now only had the effect of pushing him down further. "Yeah, dad's great. It's really nice to have him still around, since he still does so much for me. What about yours...?"
Her words trailed of as she turned to look him. His face was stoic and carved from granite. His shoulders were as rigid and straight as a bar of forged steel.
"Uhm, are you okay Jaune?" Her face immediately fell, mouth receding from her smile as her jaw drooped down. A spark of concern glimmered in her eyes and radiated through her expression and her posture.
The sight of it calmed him.
"My dad died a little less than a year ago," he said frankly. There was no point in hiding the truth from Ruby, not after they'd been so honest thus far. It would've felt wrong to lie to her about this, especially after she so willingly forgave his own transgression and shared her story.
Ruby's eyes widened, her jaw dropped. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry."
He believed her. In fact, a kind of understanding fell upon him in that moment. He hadn't understood just before, when she'd so easily been helped by his own horrible attempt at comforting her. He hadn't said anything special. Here, she hadn't exactly said anything special either, but it was the way she said it. She leaned in, clasped her hands together and looked him straight in the eye, as if, through that action, she could telepathically transmit her wish for him to feel better right into his brain and force it to comply.
It was that wish in of itself, her desire for him to be well, an honest and kind desire, that made him soften. The simple act of another human being's care was sometimes enough, especially for someone long starved of it.
"It's fine," he said, "You didn't know."
Despite his slight recovery, he still wasn't okay and he did such a poor job of hiding it that Ruby wasn't fooled for a moment.
"Well, at least you must have some other family, right? Like, I've got Yang and my uncle."
"My dad was the only family I've ever had."
"Oh... well at least you have some friends, right?"
"I literally don't have a single friend on all of Remnant."
"Uhh, I've got a dog, didn't you have any pets?"
"My dog died."
Ruby's face... it looked like she'd just seen a kitten be murdered. "Wow... that's, uhm..." She fidgeted in her seat tapping the ends of her fingers together in thought. "I... well, you've got me, don't you?" She looked up to him and smiled with that.
He felt something in his chest. It was the presence of... something. It was something, definitely something. What that thing was, exactly, he had no idea. Wait... he felt heavier. Heavier in a good way. That... that empty sensation... where had it gone? Had it been filled?
It had.
"WellthatsniceIthinkweshouldendthingshere," he blurted out. The words were so quick and mashed together that they came out in a hardly coherent blur of sound. He leaned over the worktable and scrambled to pick up all of his materials from the Mysterious Magnum, which had now recovered from the first round of applying the dust-proof coating.
"Wait, what? No, don't go! I said I'm sorry!" Ruby reached out towards him in a panic, but he dodged her touch, stuffed the magnum back in his holster and quickly walked away.
"It's fine," he said, words sharp and fast. "I just... need to get to the career center, yeah. Looking for a job, can't forget that. Need that. You go and do something else, since we're done here now."
He sped out of the armory, and although Ruby could've easily kept pace, what with her semblance and all, she didn't follow. Thank God. What the Hell was it with this girl, that both times they'd hung out together had resulted in him stomping away, flustered?
He touched a hand to his chest. Already, that sensation of completeness was fading away as he left her behind. It wasn't something he was used to, not since the Battle of Adams Air Force Base had he felt that.
Images of Dogmeat, of John and Jane and Fawkes, of Moira and Sarah, of Sonora and Three Dog, of his father, all cut in his mind. He reached up and began to massage each temple with his fingertips, but he had no hope of assuaging the coming headache.
He should stop seeing her. Really, this wasn't worth it. Besides, now that he had a basic grasp of things, he could do it himself. Even then, there were instructors available at the armory for consultation whenever necessary.
He didn't need Ruby Rose.
Well... he should still see her.
Wait, why?
Well, because I want to...
What!?
Hey, she's... you know, an expert. Yeah, she's a weapons expert who's more willing to dedicate her time, more able to, than some instructor there, who may only be doing it because it's their job or would have to balance their attention with other students.
Huh... that's a good point...
It is. That's the only reason I should keep seeing her.
Yup, the only one.
Of course, just one.
Of course...
Yeah, he'd swing by the career center now, since he really did need to look into getting a job. After all, if he was going to abandoning this place and hitting the road, then he'd need to have the funds necessary to survive, at least until he was able to start gathering some from his travels as he had back in the wasteland.
He'd talk with Ruby later, arrange a new meeting between the two of them. And he'd be able to see that nice look in her eyes, feel her attention... and of course, that was just something he'd have to tolerate while working on his weapons.
There really was something about her.
It was something that made him hate her, absolutely.
"I hate her... with all my heart," he told himself. And everything he told himself had to be true, right?
Ruby Rose bit her lip.
She was torn between doing something and doing nothing.
It was about Jaune, of course. She'd really messed up, hadn't she?
She absentmindedly stalked through Beacon's halls, not wanting to go by her team to think, and certainly not wanting to tell them about her particular predicament. Jaune had spoken to her in confidence, after all. She wasn't about to betray his trust by telling everyone else about his personal past.
Now what was she to do? She'd only wanted to make him feel better by bringing up what she figured would be a mutual experience in having their dads around, but that had failed. Then she figured that he had to have some siblings like her, or some other family like Qrow. Nuh-uh. Well, he had to have had some friends, right?
Apparently not.
She sighed and leaned up against the wall. Great job, Ruby Rose, great job. You pretty much just rubbed it in his face that you still have all sorts of things that he doesn't, fantastic. You were bonding for a bit there, telling each other about your moms, but then you just had to go and slap him with everything else, huh?
She covered her face with her hands, trying to block her shame from the world. He must feel awful, terrible. And it was all her fault. Just that thought alone, that she'd caused her first friend here grief like that, was enough to put a sick, heavy feeling in her stomach, like someone had punched her in the gut hard, and the bruise was still forming.
She let her hands fall down, then started to nervously press them together as she thought.
"Hey Ruby, how ya doing?"
Oh great, Yang.
Yang and Blake, actually. Weiss had told her she was going to spend the day studying while she was off in the armory with Jaune, while Yang and Blake said they were going to swing by the gym. A sheen of sweat covered the two girls, still dressed in their gym uniforms. They must've just finished and were now headed back to the room.
Whatever they were doing, Ruby just wanted them to continue on and leave her to her business, so she gave the answer most likely to do that.
"Oh, I'm fine," she said with another sigh and looked away.
"Yeah... sure, I believe that," Yang replied. Darn, her sister always knew how to read her.
Ruby glanced back at the pair. Yang had adopted that same sisterly look of concern that she'd perfected, while Blake remained stoic as ever. However, Blake's amber eyes focused on her with a scrupulous intensity, studying her and no doubt coming to the same conclusion as Yang, likely cataloguing the information for future use. Blake had a habit of doing that, of observing things with eerie attention, and although Ruby had been getting used to it, the girl's scrutiny was still a little off-putting at times.
"I just... I dunno, I need to do something," Ruby eventually answered. It would be fruitless to try and get anything past Yang. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked down at her feet, wondering just how much she could say.
Yang had been super social back in Signal, and while Blake was certainly reclusive, she was probably still cerebral enough to offer good advice. She'd just need to make sure his secrets were kept safe.
"Okay, so I've got this friend, and we were talking—"
"Is this about Jaune?" Yang asked.
"Whuh? No, I mean it's just about a friend..."
"You're only friend outside of the team is Jaune, and you said you were going to spend time with him today," Blake said.
Ruby's face became flustered. Great, great job holding secrets, kiddo! She stammered out a frustrated reply. "Okay, maybe it is, but whatever, that doesn't matter. My friend, my nondescript, unspecified friend who could be anybody... well, I hurt them with something I said."
"What!?" Yang's eyes went wide. "What do you mean? It's not like you to do that."
That feeling in Ruby's stomach became even heavier. "Well, I didn't mean to. I just brought up some stuff that I didn't know they had a bad history with, and he got freaked out. I even tried to comfort him—them, but it didn't work. He—er, they, just ran off."
Ruby's shoulders slumped as she sighed once more. "I dunno, I feel like I should go and say something, try and say sorry again... but maybe the best thing to do is let it blow over?" She shrugged. "I don't really know..."
"Well, don't apologize, for starters." Both sisters were surprised to see that Blake was the first to answer. "If you really didn't mean anything by it, and he's decent enough to understand that, then an apology is hollow, meaningless. It won't help anything." Straight, decisive, logical. So like Blake, and like Weiss, too, who Ruby could easily imagine nodding approvingly at the advice.
"Well... that's a little harsh, but yeah. I don't think saying sorry is the best way to go here, sis." Now Yang was taking a crack at things, and she stepped forward to settle a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder. "But you shouldn't just leave things to 'blow over' either. If there's a problem, then ignoring it won't make it go away." Yang looked away as she thought, before turning back again to say, "it's a little hard to explain, but if it really isn't anything personal between the two of you, then you've just got to work past it."
"Work past it?"
"Yeah, don't focus on what you said or did, but treat it like a new situation. Work with the present, not the past. A new approach, you know? Just talk about something else, move past it. Get back to the status quo instead of dwelling on whatever happened. Then, if he ever wants to talk about it again, once he's feeling better, maybe he'll bring it up." Yang dismissively flicked back some of her hair. "But that's not what matters. Just talk about something, anything else instead of drag out the conversation of whatever was making him feel bad in the first place, since it'll just keep making him feel bad. Try to focus on some good things, make him smile, laugh." Yang winked. "You're pretty good at that, after all."
Ruby looked between her sister and Blake. A new approach, huh? Well... there were a lot of things they could still talk about. She really didn't know much about Jaune, since they hadn't spent a lot of time together, just a few hours over the course of a week. She could bring up a conversation about just about anything, bring things back to normal...
She smiled. "Thanks guys, I'll get right to it. Now I just need to find him..."
"He's probably in the gardens," Blake said. "I always cut by there after class to get to the library, and he's always sitting there by the tree. That'd be the best place to look."
"Wow, thanks Blake, I'll go right there! Well... not that I'm talking about Jaune, I mean a lot of people probably stop in the gardens and stuff so I'm not definitely talking about Jaune or anything."
Yang and Blake each looked down at her, not for a moment ceding any belief to her words.
"Oh whatever, I got to go!"
The Lone Wanderer sat in the Beacon gardens.
It really was something special, the garden. It encapsulated a kind of beauty that he never though he'd be able to experience back in the wasteland. Oasis had scraggly grass, trees and plants that managed to pull off the herculean effort of at least being green, a true accomplishment back home.
The closest he'd ever come to when it came to seeing color like this would have to be the flowers at Arlington Cemetary. Just a couple of random little purple flowers that he'd seen naturally growing among the gravestones.
At the time, the sight had made him cry.
He looked over in the garden, to a bed filled with hundreds of vibrant, violet flowers of all different breeds.
He needed to bring his hands up to rub his eyes, which had started to sting and water at the sight. Honestly... this world was so beautiful. No wonder he'd nearly collapsed when he first saw that forest, almost a month ago.
Every time he came to this place, it unfailingly took his breath away and made his mind go blank, brought him into a kind of peace that could hardly be disrupted. That's why he spent as much time here as he could, just looking at the cherry blossom amidst the flowers.
Things were nice. He'd had enough time now to recover from his most recent spat with Ruby. Honestly, that girl somehow managed to get to him, every time. It wasn't even her mention of his father, friends and family that had sent him running away. He'd long since gotten used to that, and while It hurt to have it mentioned, the pain was now dull and familiar.
No, it was when she said that she'd be there for him... that was what made him leave.
He couldn't have people 'be there' for him. He couldn't have others sticking their necks out in his name, or reaching out to make him feel better. It just wasn't what he was used to.
It wasn't what he wanted. Of that fact, he was certain, and he played deaf to all his internal badgerings that he shouldn't have left her, that he should've stayed and indulged in her comfort. He was the Lone Wanderer; he didn't need that; he didn't deserve that.
"Hey there Jaune..."
Every muscle in his body tensed.
That girl, that damnable, stupid girl, Ruby... God he hated her so much.
"Here, have a seat," he told her, patting the bench beside him.
Uhh... why did you just do that?
Well, because I need to keep her in my good graces, of course.
Oh yes, of course. No other reason?
None.
Of course.
Ruby smiled brightly, relief spilling out of her expression as she came and plopped down next to him. She must've gotten wise as to how sensitive he was about personal space, since she stayed as far on the other side of the bench as she could, just as he'd hoped she would. Nice.
"Sooo..." Ruby said.
Oh God, not this again—
"Where do you come from?"
WHAT!? Panic struck across his face as he leaned away from her. She just asked that out of the blue, what had prompted it? Had he given some clue of his extra-universal upbringing that she was now investigating!?
"Oh snap, did I ask something bad again?" Ruby's face instantly mimicked the panic on his own. "I'm sorry, I just figured I'd change the subject, and I thought about it, and I remembered that I didn't know where you're from, and I thought that could be an okay thing to talk about, and I guess it's not, and I ruined things again, didn't I?"
Ruby clutched her hands together, close to her chest, looking at him expectantly, with a sorry look on her face.
It took him a moment more to process what she'd said. So... had she just been trying to make some innocent conversation? God, this girl... that was fine, then. Man, he really needed to tone down these reactions, since they alone were probably what would make people suspicious of him, more than anything else. And if people got suspicious, they'd ask questions, questions that he could never possibly answer truthfully. With no truth to reply, they'd assume his lies were proof of something nefarious, something worth persecution.
Though he doubted that Ruby could ever do something to him.
Breathe deep. Hold. Release.
"No I'm fine, just got a little worked up for a second... though why do you ask, exactly?" It never hurt to be certain.
Ruby looked down at her feet rather than meet his gaze, though that was likely the result of her meekness, more than anything else. "Well, I was just thinking about things to talk to you about, and I realized that I don't really know too much about you, so I figured that maybe I could ask you something simple, like where you came from." Her shoulders. "But it looks like I said something dumb again, didn't I?"
Ah Hell, she was sad. He felt something turn in his gut. They were both exceptionally terrible at this whole 'talking' thing, weren't they? Like, they constantly seemed to be putting each other in foul moods. Then again, he wasn't in any other sort of mood very often. Wait, was he the one who kept dragging their talks down?
The thought made his stomach tighten. Did he consistently push her into states of sadness? No, not at all; he'd done the opposite for her back at their last time together in the armory. So if that was the case, surely he could do the same again.
"No, you didn't say anything wrong, not at all. I just thought you meant something else... but no, it's fine."
Her head perked up to look back him.
"It's just... sort of a hard question to answer, is all... things are complicated." That was putting it lightly. "I... grew up in this little town, just raised by my dad. We were really isolationist there, so I never even left until just a year ago."
"Wow, really? That must've sucked." She sat up straighter and gave him her attention in that way she usually did, making the person feel like they were the only thing that existed in the world. It was a nice feeling.
"Yeah, but it was a better place to live than most where I was. In the wasteland—the uh, Vacuo wasteland—things are really inhospitable. For the last year, I was... well, wandering around the wastes, going from place to place before I wound up here."
"What was the wasteland like?" Curiosity and interest now gradually replaced her melancholy. That was good.
"Well, like I said, it was inhospitable. 'Wasteland' pretty self-explanatory. Not much grew, not much lived. A lot of things tried to kill you... monsters of all shapes and sizes..."
"Grimm?" she asked.
"Yeah, Grimm," he lied.
"Wow, that must've been tough."
"Oh yeah."
"And how did you get here?"
He looked away from her. That really had been a big ordeal, hadn't it? He looked up and into the cherry blossom tree, which glowed with a soft, marvelous pink as the sun touched upon the petals. It was a nice color, a far cry from what had brought him here.
The alien device had been a sickly yellow the glared dull. It looked like someone had filled a machine with pus and plugged it in. But the lightning? Oh, that had been pure white.
He remembered the way that it arced through the air, tearing out rents from the walls and floor, making people scream and scatter. Everyone dove for cover. Well, everyone except him. He'd taken advantage of the distraction to surge forward and set himself upon Bishop with Crocea Mors, though that bastard managed to weave Rubrem Mors quickly around, deflecting his strikes and using his own superhuman strength to off-put the might of the Lone Wanderer's power armor.
He still perfectly recalled the words they'd exchanged.
"I'll kill you! I'll drag your corpse back to Rivet City and string it up for everyone to see, but not before I mutilate it!" His words came out strong and gravelly through the power armor's helmet, though not even that could dampen his the tone of unrestrained hatred.
"My, my, harsh words for a knight," Bishop replied, smiling as he deflected another strike, not letting that awful façade down for a moment.
Their swords clashed and locked together, filling the air with sparks, bursts of flame and vicious screeching as fire met sawblade. The Wanderer stepped forwards and pushed against him, sending him stumbling back, off-balance.
He wasn't stupid enough to follow up. He'd seen Bishop pull this trick with a knight back at Adams Air Force Base, letting himself be pushed back before swiping around and striking into one of the power-armor's few joints, killing the man inside. The Lone Wanderer had spent hours upon hours recalling all of his fights with Bishop, to be prepared for this single moment.
Sure enough, Bishop recovered himself easily, brandishing his sword in front of him and yelling back, "come now, fight me like a proper knight!"
The Wanderer snarled and tore off his helmet.
Bishop's eye twitched. His smile drooped ever-so-slightly, though it persisted, as weak and brittle as rust on an ancient hulk.
"I'm no knight, you bastard! I'm the Lone Wanderer! And I'm going to kill you for everything you've done!" He sneered at Bishop, conveying as much of his hate and rage as he possible could.
"Oh my... isn't this an interesting development," Bishop said as he hefted Rubrem Mors in front of him.
The Wanderer set his helmet back on just as Bishop charged forward once more.
"I should've known that you were the Wanderer," Bishop said. "Only a degenerate such as yourself could garner such a reputation!"
Their swords clashed, the two squaring off just in front of a large, box-like container.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck from the alien machine, narrowly missing them and striking the large crate beside them. With a flash of bright light and a strange, squealing roar, the container was ripped apart, with only a smoking crater left within.
More lightning spewed out, one blasting into one of the labs nearby, others striking the walls. The Wanderer didn't care for taking cover from them as he once more pressed against Bishop. His assault was blistering and relentless, and his power armor eked out an edge over Bishop's strength.
Eventually, he pushed his adversary against a table of machinery, sending him toppling back over it. Instead of pursue, however, he took this as an opportunity to back away and put distance between them.
By the time Bishop got back to his feet, now assisted by his right-hand lieutenant, Arthur, the Wanderer was far enough to use one of his trump cards. John had taught him all about them, and now Bishop would know too.
He hurled the mini-nuke grenade at his target that was honestly far too close, but he didn't care. He closed his eyes, lest he be blinded by the blast. For just a moment, he could see nothing but blackness, hear nothing but a burst of deep thunder from a fresh crack of lightning. Then it exploded. Even through his eyelids, through his helmet, he saw the bright flash. He heard the brutally loud explosion, which left his ears ringing. And he sure as Hell felt the shockwave that sent him tumbling away.
It took him a moment to shakily get back to his feet, and when he looked up, there was nothing but a hazy cloud of radioactive dust, fire and debris that was falling back to floor. Bishop and Arthur had been blown apart and vaporized.
A huge smile spread across his face.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw another arc of lightning fly out from the machine, straight for him...
He seriously doubted that he could tell any of that to Ruby.
So instead, he turned back to her and said, "I walked."
"You walked?"
"Yeah. I wound up in Mistral, then took an airship here to attend Beacon."
"Ah, makes sense. Though why'd you choose Beacon over the Vacuo and Mistral academies?"
He shrugged. "It's just where I ended up getting accepted. I guess you could say that I made a good impression on the recruiter."
"Oh yeah, I did the same sorta thing. I impressed Miss Goodwitch and the Headmaster, so they let me in early."
"Really? How'd you do that?" he asked.
Ruby was all too happy to reply, and the two of them continued like that, easily talking, for a while. They fell into a rhythm, simple and casual and enjoyable. After a few minutes, he actually caught himself relaxing again, letting his shoulders fall back, letting his muscles rest. On every prior occasion when this had happened, he'd immediately reversed his state and put himself on guard once more.
But...
Maybe it had something to do with her soft voice, or the kind spark in her eye, or how tired he was, or the garden's tranquility, but he decided against tensing once more. Just this time, he'd let himself relax.
It was nice.
Lie Ren was uncertain.
He idly walked around the Beacon grounds outside of the school, letting the wet weekend sun wash over him as Nora chatted idly. She was off on another one of her stories about things that didn't happen, happening in places that didn't exist, as usual. And, as usual, he was affording her little actual attention, instead dwelling in his own thoughts.
When he'd arrived at Beacon, he'd honestly had no idea what to expect beyond his usual interactions with Nora.
But he especially hadn't expected Jaune Arc.
They'd been at Beacon for a whole week, and he'd thought he had his team leader figured out.
He was an asshole. An antisocial, mean person with no regard for others' feelings or well-being. He'd never had a real conversation with him, but what Nora and Pyrrha had told him about their interactions was more than enough to put a terrible taste in Ren's mouth.
And then, last night happened.
He'd always been a light sleeper, and Jaune somehow managed to step surprisingly loudly on a carpeted floor, not to mention the hum and light from his weird wrist-scroll. It'd taken Ren a second to realize who it was, and he'd been suspicious immediately. Why had he come back to their room, when he hadn't even slept there for days? He still didn't know why, not that that mattered.
He'd helped Nora out of that nightmare. She always held on to the mallet he'd given her years ago, especially during the night, when memories of their terrible first encounter could strike her. Then there was what he'd said...
"Hey Ren, look over there," Nora said, knocking him out of his thoughts with a tap on his shoulder. She pointed in the distance, towards the unmistakable Beacon gardens. It was an ever-beautiful sight to behold, the gardens, with the awe-inspiring rainbow of flowers and that pristine cherry blossom. And in the middle of it, sat on one of the marble benches beside the pool, was Jaune Arc himself. And someone else, too.
He and Nora both stopped walking and looked at the pair of leaders talking.
That was another mystery about him, his relationship with Ruby Rose. The girl was his polar opposite, cute and kind and bubbly and outspoken, yet for all their differences, here were the two of them, sat chatting in the gardens. He knew that the two spent time together throughout the day, as well. What was so special about Ruby, that Jaune had chosen her over his own partner, over his own team?
Then again, after what he'd heard the previous night, maybe it wasn't so strange as it may have seemed. He couldn't quite decipher much of what was said, since the conversation was wholly one-sided and grounded in things only Jaune knew.
For example, what he meant when he mentioned something about being chosen by a goat? There were many different religions throughout Remnant, perhaps it was something spiritual? Or maybe it was just a title, or an acronym for some organization. Whatever it exactly was didn't matter, just that it seemed to have decided his fate.
Judging from the little he'd said, then Jaune hadn't had much of a choice in choosing his own life. It reminded Ren of the attack on his village, which had set him on a path from which he could not stray. Had Jaune had been similarly forced?
And it seemed that Jaune may not actually be who he appeared to be. After all, a mean, vicious person who cared not for others wouldn't have comforted a girl having a nightmare, wouldn't have apologized for his actions. Jaune had as good as said it himself that he felt bad for what he'd said and done; yet, he'd felt it necessary to do them in the first place.
Why?
Ren looked at him now, watching him interact with Ruby... just another piece of evidence that he was more than he might appear. If he was truly cruel, then there was no way he could've tolerated Ruby like he was.
Ren honestly had no idea what to make of him. He was one of the most perplexing people he'd ever known.
His eyes slid over to Nora, who was also watching their leader's interaction with a strange interest. Should he tell her? Should he tell her and Pyrrha about last night? If he did, then perhaps the three of them could confront him about just what he was doing.
He closed his eyes in thought. If he did that, then maybe they could force some answers out of him. Or maybe Ren could just confront him on his own? Or... maybe he could just keep this secret?
After all, Jaune had said that the only reason he'd talked to them last night was because he believed that they couldn't hear him. Accordingly, that meant he was saying things he wanted to keep secret, that he wasn't able to truly tell them, for whatever reason. If this were the case, then pressuring him about it could only make things worse, force him on the defensive, force him to viciously lash out as he had before, and then then they'd wind up back in a worse situation than in the first place.
Besides, Jaune was right that he wasn't holding them back. He and Nora had gotten along with Pyrrha splendidly, and the three of them were a good team all on their own. And whatever reason Jaune had for acting as he did could only serve as an explanation, not an excuse.
He scowled.
So no, he wouldn't be telling anyone, and he wouldn't be acting on it. Jaune didn't deserve his action in this case. If their 'leader' really wanted anything to come of it, then perhaps he should grow a spine and talk to them while they were conscious.
"Come on Nora, let's get back to the room," he said. His partner looked back at him, having observed Ruby and their leader just as he had, before smiling again.
"Right," she said. "Now, where was I? Oh, yeah! Anyway, I was wrestling the Ursa into submission..."
Ren spared a final glance back to Jaune. No matter what, he'd be looking at him in a new light from now on.
"And suddenly, Magnhild was wrenched from my grasp!" Nora exclaimed. She and Ren were taking a walk about the Beacon grounds, letting the wet weekend sun wash down on them. She was in the middle of one of her brilliant stories that everyone loved, especially Ren, her primary audience. Recently though, Pyrrha had gotten in on the masterful Nora's wonderful tales of wonder!
"The great Ursa reared back, but I now had nothing aside from my bare hands!" She raised her fists up in a boxing pose. "So I decided it was time to get personal!" She delivered a few crushing jabs into thin air, imagining the humungous, evil ursa that had totally existed and she'd totally fought and definitely wasn't some random ursa she'd seen and gunned down with Magnhild before it even got close. Definitely not.
She was about to continue her story, before something caught her eye. It was a strange sight that invoked her curiosity the moment she saw it. Her team leader, Jaune Arc, sitting beside that girl Ruby Rose in the garden.
"Hey Ren, look over there," she said, tapping on his shoulder and pointing over to the pair.
Jaune seemed to be having an amicable conversation with Ruby. Honestly, what was the deal with this guy? Like, it seemed that he couldn't make up his mind between being a functioning member of society or a super-mean hermit.
She remembered the very first moment they'd met, when he physically shoved her away and threw a few harsh words at her as well. They hadn't talked since then.
Now, she wasn't prone to spite or hate; in fact, she was the exact opposite. No one would ever call Nora Valkyrie someone who was quick to dislike, but she had hated this guy after getting to Beacon. When she discovered that they'd have to be on the same together...? Well, that had only made things worse. Then Pyrrha told her and Ren about how poorly her attempt to get on with him had gone and... yeah, she hated him.
Then she'd seen him wake up the other day.
She'd left lunch early to use the bathroom in their dorm, which was a ton nicer than any of the public bathrooms around, walking past him as he napped. Then, just as she'd been washing her hands, she heard him cry out.
It wasn't anything dramatic, like a scream or some such. In fact, it was a pretty quiet sound, muted and containing restrained pain. It was the sound of someone who'd been hurt. So, naturally, she came by to see. She saw, alright. She saw her team leader in a sweat, looking frantically about from his position half-draped in covers, the blankets and pillow thrown around by his thrashed awakening.
He'd had a nightmare, was all she could assume. She knew all about those.
So now she couldn't help but feel a little pity for him, for his nightmares. That didn't mean she liked him, nor did her sympathy do anything to counteract much of her distaste, but there was still sympathy, something that any decent human being would extend to another, especially since she knew this particular problem all too well.
His nightmares also sparked off some curiosity. It must've been a particularly bad one, the way he woke up like that. It must've been like the sort of nightmares that she had sometimes. Ren had managed to get through their brutal ordeal with the Nuckelavee relatively unscathed only because of his semblance, and he'd used it to help her through her own problems with the traumatic destruction of the town.
Had Jaune gone through something similar? Had he seen awful things, then lived on to see them again in his sleep, but with no Ren to calm him during the brutal nights?
She shook her head. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Whatever it was, he'd never tell her. He'd never tell her because he didn't care about her or anyone else, a fact that he'd established. He'd been awful to her and the team.
And she hadn't seen a shred of guilt on his end. She'd reached out to him while he was having a nightmare, but would he do the same for her? She doubted it. Maybe if he ever did reach out to her like that, she'd be a bit more willing to look at him in a new light, maybe give him a second chance.
"Come on Nora, let's go back to the room," Ren said. He had a scowl on his face, likely caused by the person who'd caught their attention. She didn't blame him.
She nodded and smiled, before picking up her story. "Right," she said. "Now, where was I? Oh, yeah! Anyway, I was wrestling the Ursa into submission..."
So Ren keeps the secret, at least for now. Poor Nora, left unaware of the Wanderer's compassion.
So here you have it, he finally manages to let himself relax around another human being. I'd like to point out that a ton of what the narration described didn't match up with or directly clashed with things that he said or did. This is on purpose, since the narration is supposed to be quasi-representative of the thoughts for whatever character's POV we're in. Accordingly, the narration for the LW, who views many things, especially himself, with a warped perception, will be distinct from reality.
Speaking of narration, I've been wondering if all of you have been paying attention to how the narration addresses people. Names and their power is a pretty important theme in this fic, so looking in on how the narration names each character and during what POV and time period those names are used provides some pretty important insights.
Anyhow, see you all this time next week.