And we're back! Let's pick up where we last left off and see how Jaune's first therapy session is going to go down!

The first thing he noticed was the music. It was strange, though that wasn't saying too much considering all of Remnant's music was strange to him. But this was especially odd, since it seemed to consist almost entirely of screeching, either through singing or the violent use of what sounded like it might be guitars. He found it unpleasant, to say the least, though it certainly fit in with the aesthetic that Peach had presented thus far.

"Sorry, let me turn that off," she said as closed the door behind them and strolled to her desk. She pressed a button on her scroll; the music ceased. She smiled and looked back to him. "I like metal, in case you couldn't tell."

Metal?

He glanced at the chains around her waist, which looked to be made of solid steel, or something similar. That was metal, surely, but other than that, the office didn't have much of the material. Her desk was made of wood; the walls, plaster; the floor, carpet.

He examined the room more closely. Nearly everything was black, unsurprisingly. Other than that, the walls and floor were a drab cream color, probably because that was the way it came and Peach wasn't able to paint it over. Her desk was solid black, and even the computer and the folders that rested on it were black. A few posters hung on the walls, depicting what he assumed to be bands of some kind, though they looked unruly and wild, with bizarre names to boot.

"Have a seat," Peach said as she sat down beside her desk. It faced the wall, giving her the ability to swivel on her chair to face him with nothing in between them. She gestured at the several pieces of furniture in the room. There were a couple of cushy chairs as well as a short sofa. It all fit easily within the fairly spacious office, along with a bookcase and a small table, on which rested several… toys?

"You can stand too," she said. "Whatever makes you feel comfortable. I had a client once who liked to pace back and forth during sessions. You can do whatever you want in here." He looked back to her, saw that there was still a happy smile on her face. Despite her idiosyncratic outfit and thematic choices, she managed to feel quite… disarming. Nonthreatening. Genuine in her presentation of kindliness and care.

"Also, feel free to take any knick-knacks you want." She pointed at the toys. "Just something to fidget with while you talk."

He looked at the toys, seeing a slinky, as well as a few stress balls and what looked like some kind of moldable clay. He scowled. How old did she think he was? It wasn't like he was a little kid who liked to play with 'knick-knacks' as she called them.

Whatever. He shrugged and sat down in one of the chairs, which was comfortable. Or, it should have been comfortable. He didn't seem to be able to find the right position. No matter which way he shifted once he sat down, he couldn't relax. He felt rigid, tense.

In the end, he wound up sitting hunched over at the edge of his seat.

"Are you going to get anything?" He asked. "Like, don't shrinks usually have clipboards or something to take notes?"

Peach giggled lightly and shook her head. "Nope, nothing like that. I prefer to just pay attention and have a conversation. Nothing you say is being recorded in any way beyond my memory."

Good, good. He didn't like the thought of notes about himself just lying around.

"Well, let me introduce myself," she said. "My name is Pauline Peach, though you can call me Peach. Really, you can call me whatever you like, I don't mind." She crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in her chair, settling in for conversation. The chains wrapped about her midriff clinked together. "I attended Beacon just like you, and then I went to the University of Vale afterwards to get my degree in psychology and train in counseling. I've been a huntress and therapist ever since."

"How does that work? They don't exactly sound like jobs that go together."

"Oh, you'd be surprised, Jaune. Can I call you Jaune? Or is there something else you'd like to go by?"

"Jaune is fine," he said with a nod.

"Alrighty then," she said. "Well, counseling and hunting can often go hand in hand. For years, I'd go along with other groups of huntsman and huntresses, hunting Grimm alongside them, then offer counseling services to any civilians who would need it. I'd also counsel any of my comrades who needed help." She sighed heavily and spun around a few times in her chair. "There's a pretty big need for people like me in the hunting business. Dealing with Grimm is nasty work, after all. They can damage the mind just as much as the body." She stopped spinning in her chair, once again facing him. "I try to help people cope and heal after what they go through. Just last year I was hired on by Beacon for the role I play now, and I've been trying to teach ever since, while giving the students a helpful resource. Did you know that Beacon never had a single therapist until just three years ago?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't know that."

"Yes, a crying shame. Only recently is the hunting community coming to realize how important it is to upkeep mental health, especially in this industry. There's such a toxic bravado going around."

"What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat, letting out a frustrated sigh as she did. "Ugh, don't even get me started. There's such a focus on physical strength among hunters that mental health goes all but ignored. All the focus is given on how strong your aura is, or how cool your weapon is, or how awesome your semblance is. In comparison, mental problems are made out to be weak." She shook her head and scowled, as if looking at some dissenter in the distance. "Which it certainly is not. There's no weakness in you coming here, Jaune. Be sure of that."

"I didn't think there was," he said.

Her smile was bright. "Attaboy, that's the way to think. Now, enough about me, what brings you here? Is there anything specific you'd like to talk about or work on?"

"I'm here because my friends told me to be here," he said. "I don't want to be here, and I don't think I need to be here."

"Honesty, I like it!"

Huh?

He looked up at, a quizzical expression on his face, and was surprised to see a happy one on her own. Shouldn't she be a little upset that he was snubbing her?

"I much appreciate honesty here, Jaune," she said. "It wouldn't do if you really hated this but didn't share that." She shook her head. "No, no, no that wouldn't do at all." She swiveled in her chair and looked through some of the folders on her desk. "Now, I've worked with many people who don't want to be where they are. When it comes to young people like you, generally your family would force you to attend, or maybe the courts would order it. You say it was because your friends?"

She finished rifling through the untidy stack of folders and pulled out a set of papers, then turned back to him. She looked him firm in the eyes, though there was nothing aggressive about the move, no power play. "How is that? What do you mean when you say that your friends forced you to come here?"

"I mean, my friends forced me to come here. It's pretty self-explanatory."

"You signed up voluntarily, did you not?"

"I did, but only because they made me." He shrugged again, and a slight scowl fell on his face. How was this hard to get?

"Do you mean that they literally forced you to do this, like you were under duress?"

"What? No, they're not literally forcing me to do this. I mean, they just really want me to, and they badgered me a lot."

Peach nodded a few times. "So you're here because you wish to comply with your friends' wishes?"

"Yes."

"And why do you think that your friends want you to attend therapy?" she asked.

"They're worried about me."

"And why do you think they're worried about you?"

"They think I need help." He shrugged and leaned back, edging a bit away from the edge of his seat, not so hunched and tense.

"And why do they think you need help?"

"I've been through a lot. My family and friends were killed. They think it's still messing with me."

He looked at her again, and her face was expressive in its pity, with a drooped mouth and soft eyes. "I'm sorry to hear that Jaune," she said. "Losing loved ones is a hard thing to go through, no wonder they'd want to seek out some help."

"Yeah, well, I've done fine for a while. I'm doing fine right now. I don't see much of a need to be here."

"I would like to contest that," she said.

He scowled and crossed his arms, scooting closer to the edge of his seat again. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, recognizing that there's a problem is always the first step in solving it," she said, then started flipping through the papers she'd picked up. "This is just some data on you that Ozpin gave me after you signed up. It's got the survey you filled out along with reports from all your teachers about you."

Something about that made his shoulders hunch. The skin on his back suddenly felt strangely prickly, as if several needles were poking at him. He didn't like having information about himself be out of his hands.

Peach flicked through the papers without really looking at them, showing she'd already poured over them as much as she needed. She sighed and tossed them back on her desk, where they messily landed along with the rest of her 'organized' paperwork.

"The general consensus was as follows: Jaune Arc is an antisocial young man with little interest in other people. If anything, he shows contempt and annoyance for those around him. He stays quiet and secludes himself from others. His rudeness to his peers seems tempered only by his unwillingness to get in trouble or interact. He applies himself well to lessons both in and out of class, but is never willing to participate or interact with others. He regularly appears on-edge." Peach tilted her head and looked at him. "Jaune, do you think that that description applies to you?"

"Yeah, sounds about right."

Peach nodded a few times. "And what do you think I felt, when I read through that?"

He scoffed and looked away from her. "I bet you figured I was a pain, or a delinquent who needed to be straightened out." Surely, she couldn't have been happy to be assigned to someone—

"I felt sorry," she said.

"What?" He turned back to her.

Her face definitely showed it, an expression that seemed to consist of guilt mixed with sadness graced her face. "I felt sorry, because we've done you a great disservice. That's why I decided to take on your case personally."

"You… you decided that?"

"Yes," she said. "The counseling services here are nascent, as are the teachers' ability to interact with us. It's no fault on their end, so much as ignorance." She sighed, exasperated. "Most people seem to think that those with mental health issues will seek it out on their own, when that's hardly the case. Like I said earlier, bravado makes a lot of hunters suppress their problems or try to ignore them. Many people are too ashamed to admit that they're troubled, since society at large has stigmatized this issue. And many people don't even realize that there's a problem to begin with."

"Don't realize? How do people not realize there's something wrong with them?"

"Because it becomes their new normal," Peach said. "Generally, the descent into mental issues is fairly gradual. Over time, a change in someone's behavior or thought process can occur without them realizing it. They don't understand that something's wrong, because that's 'just the way things are' for them. A new normal, an unhealthy normal, that they become accustomed to, not realizing that there are healthier alternatives. There's also a great deal of misinformation or lack of information about these conditions, which renders people unable to recognize it within themselves."

Jaune nodded a few times, sinking back into his seat as he did. "Makes sense," he said.

"Indeed. For example: someone might fall into issues with depression and anxiety without even realizing. For one, depression is often mischaracterized; many think of it as being extremely sad or apathetic, which is often the case, but it can also manifest in other unexpected ways.

"In young adults, depression often takes shape in the form of extreme irritability which is directed both outwards and inwards, at oneself and at others. This means self-hate and low self-esteem coupled with rude or even aggressive interactions with peers."

"Really? I didn't know that…"

"Indeed. And anxiety can be the result of many factors, like stress or trauma. It can often take shape in paranoia, heightened nervousness, sleep difficulties. I believe you reported sleeping difficulties in your survey, yes?"

"I did."

"You also reported that you had many difficulties with nightmares, yes?"

"Yeah, it used be nearly every night at the beginning of the year. Not so bad anymore."

"Good to hear," she said. "Nightmares are nasty stuff. They can also be the symptom of a wide array of difficulties, like trauma." She stopped to think for a moment.

Only then, in the quiet interregnum, did Jaune realize that his hands were clasped together, and he was squeezing them together quite strongly.

"Tell me, would you say that the death of your family and friends still effects you?"

"Yeah, yeah I'd say that."

"Were you there when it happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he snapped, a sharp edge to his voice. He'd already talked about it enough with his friends, and he sure as hell wasn't going to tell it all to someone he just met. She could try all she wanted but—

"Fair enough," Peach said.

Huh? Well… that was easy.

"You're not going to try and pry my problems out of me?" he asked.

"Nothing can be done here that you don't want to do," she said, and again that smile of hers returned. "Everything here relies on your participation, on your comfort and your readiness. And this is just our first session, too. No need to dive into the hardest part yet. In fact, I'd be surprised if you did. After all, we just met, and some trust is required before divulging one's greatest difficulties."

He nodded a few times. "Yeah… I just don't really want to talk about that. I've already talked about it with my friends."

"Really? That's nice. Tell you what, how about we talk about that instead, about your friends."

"Yeah, sure." He sighed and leaned back a bit more, relaxing slightly now that some time had passed and the difficult things were left behind. He was afraid that things were going to be a bit more forceful than this, but she seemed pretty compliant and understanding and understanding thus far. "I've got my team, and there's another team we hang out with. I'm good friend with their leader."

"Is that so? In the teacher's reports, they mentioned that there was one exception to your antisocial behavior: they all named a girl named Ruby Rose. I suppose she's the one you're speaking of?"

"You suppose correctly," he said, smiling now. Smiling for the first time since he entered the office.

Peach did not miss that detail.

"I really like Ruby. She was my first friend when I came to Beacon, and she's been my best friend ever since. We just… get along. She's nice too, really nice." He leaned back into his seat, relaxing well for the first time since he entered the room.

Peach did not miss that detail either.

"She's done a lot for me," he said.

"That's nice," she said. "Do you spend a lot time together, just the two of you?"

"We made plans to hang out tomorrow out in Vale."

"Are you looking forward to that?"

"Heck yeah I am," he said, smiling.

"That's good, good. Now tell me about the others."

And so he did. The rest of the hour they had together went by without a problem. It was mainly just him talking about himself, his friends and some of the things he'd done recently. There was especially a lot of talk about his efforts over break.

"Wow, that's really impressive Jaune. Putting yourself out of your comfort zone to engage in a healthy activity like bonding with friends—you're definitely on the right track here," Peach said. The smile on her charcoal-black lips was, again, genuine. Judging from her appearance, one wouldn't expect her to be quite as chipper and smiley as she was, but she was like an older, more reserved version of Ruby or Nora. It was a charming personality: warmth wrapped up in cool temperament.

"Thanks," he replied. "But I didn't do well... especially with Nora. It was damn pathetic how I had to keep hiding away from the crowds—"

"Nope, I'm going to stop your right there."

"What?"

"I would like you to strip the negativity from your statements, Jaune. You're judging yourself, and that's a pretty unhealthy practice to fall into." She held up one finger. "Hang on for a moment." Peach reached over to her desk and pulled out a fresh sheet of printer paper. She grabbed a pen and scribbled down on it. "Now, I believe that this is about what you just said."

She held up the sign for him to see, and it read: I was pathetic, had to hide from the crowds

"Now, the troubling part of this statement is how judgmental it is," she said. "The words 'pathetic' and 'hide' don't really fit."

"But that's what it was. I'm not judging, just stating fact."

"That you are not," she said. "Jaune, you're putting yourself down for something that's quite admirable. You've got a lot of difficulties with being social, yet you still pushed yourself. That's behavior we call 'opposite action'. Basically, it means trying to do the opposite of whatever unhealthy behavior has been plaguing you." Peach flipped the paper around and started to scribble on it, then presented the new side to him.

It read two words: Engagement and Isolation

"Isolating oneself from others is a common ineffective coping mechanism for a wide array of problems. Engaging with others is a healthy alternative. That's what you're doing. Without any advice, you're on the right track, doing the opposite of the unhealthy behavior your initially compelled to do."

"Huh…"

"Which is why you're awesome!" Peach shouted with glee. "Really Jaune, it's a breath of fresh air to have someone come in who's already so motivated and already doing the right things!"

He smiled a little and turned away. "It's nothing big…"

"No, no, no, it is. Again, you're judging. Revel in a little self-affirmation, Jaune. Self-affirmation's very important for one's mental health. Recognize your accomplishments, pat yourself on the back." She flipped the paper back to show his earlier statement. "Now, how about you and I work on changing this to strike the judgement out of it?"

And so they did. Over the next few minutes, the two of them discussed the sentence, and although Jaune was reluctant to actually believe it, they changed it around: I separated from the crowds.

"There you go," she said. "Pure fact, no strings attached. And needing to separate from crowds is nothing bad."

"But I thought you said isolation is bad?"

"When I mention 'isolation' I mean quartering yourself away from others for indeterminate amounts of time because your mood dictates it. That's unhealthy. Separation, on the other hand, is an effective and distinct strategy. If you're becoming emotionally destabilized, it can be really good to separate yourself from the situation and the stressor, to take some time to cool off." Peach raised on finger up in the air. "But it's all situational. There's nothing wrong with taking a break from the crowds if they make you anxious; it's problematic if you never leave your room because you can't handle being with anyone. It's fine to walk away from an argument if things are getting heated, so long as you address it later; it's problematic if you plan on abandoning that argument and not resolving the issue. Isolation is stagnation, whereas separation is a part of progress."

He nodded. The two of them continued to talk for a little while about his break, and Peach still had to stop him several times whenever he said something she deemed 'judgmental'. It was a little annoying, he had to admit, but he went along with it nonetheless. She stopped him a lot.

The rest of the hour went easily, talking a lot about break, his friends, some of his interests, nothing too serious or impactful. It was actually sorta nice. It just felt like a good conversation. The clock struck 1:00 before he realized it.

"Now before you go, I have something for you," Peach said. She pulled out a small notebook from her desk and tossed it to him.

He caught it easily. It was just simple little pocket book, nothing special. He opened up to the first page, saw that there was a series of numbers written at the top.

"I wrote down my scroll number there," Peach explained. "If you have any issues you want to talk about, feel free to call and I'll do my best to help you out in that moment or arrange an emergency meeting. I'm fairly busy, so I can't promise I'll always pick up right away, but I'm on call nonetheless, and will try to reply as soon as I can." She tossed him a pen after that, which he caught easily. "Now, I've also got a little homework assignment for you."

"What!?"

The shocked tone in his voice and the panic on his face had Peach erupt in high-pitched laughter for a moment. She spun around in her chair a few times as she laughed, before stopping to face him once more, wiping a fake tear from her eye as she regained control.

"Don't worry," she said after calming down. "I'm not so cruel to give you real homework for going to therapy." She shook her head and chuckled a bit more. "No, no, this is nothing much. All I want from you are positive affirmations."

"Positive whats?"

"Positive affirmations," she repeated. "Every night before you go to sleep, I want you to write down five good things that happened that day. I want you to bring back that notebook for our meeting next week so I can check to make sure you did it."

"And why does any of that matter?"

"It focuses in on positivity. By actively cataloging the good things that are happening to you, it should help improve your outlook on things. I do it every night."

"Really?"

"I practice what I preach," she said. "So, does noon next Saturday work well for you?"

"Yeah…" He nodded a few times, slowly. "Yeah, it sounds great."

Jaune sat with his team in the cafeteria. They ate at the side of the room, so that he could have his back facing the wall, nothing behind him. They were also a little removed from the other students, with only team RWBY sitting near them, just across from them at the same table. Well, all of RWBY aside from Ruby herself, who was off doing 'something really important' as she'd said.

"It really wasn't too bad," he said. "She was nice."

"Yeah, Peach is pretty cool," Nora said, then shoved an entire croissant into her mouth. While still chewing, she continued to speak: "Some people say she's weird but I don't get it!"

"I think it's her appearance," Ren said. He absentmindedly poked his food with his fork while he spoke. "Many find her 'aesthetic' to be a little… unique. Especially for a teacher. Compared to the rest of the staff here, one would expect her to be the way she is."

"Me," Jaune said, dismissing the comment. "Everybody here looks 'unique' to me. The way I see it, you all dress weird and listen to weird music. I've just gotten used to that by now."

"Well, to us, you're the funny one here, Jaune," Yang said with a wink. "Not everybody's from the Vacuo sticks."

"Yeah, I guess not," he replied.

I'm not either.

"Her teaching style in class is also a little abnormal," Pyrrha said after finishing off some mashed potatoes. "Not bad, just unexpected." She looked ready to say more, before an intrusion threw things off course.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!" Ruby said, suddenly zipping to the table, clutching a large binder to her chest. "I've figured it out! I've got it all figured out!" She slammed the massive tome down on the table and started excitedly jumping up and down.

"Is that my binder?" Weiss asked.

"I am not crook!" Ruby immediately defended, her excitement not at all bothered by the accusation. "I've planned out the best day ever for our last day of break! We're going to start the second quarter off with a bang!"

"Heh, I'm going to start it off with a Yang!"

Silence reigned.

Jaune sighed and shook his head. "You're not funny, and you should stop trying."

Suddenly, two eyes, each dangerously red, were mere inches from his face. Yang Xia Long stared at him, and she seemed far from happy.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she growled. "I didn't hear you."

"Uhhh… I mean, um…" He leaned back to get away from her, but she only leaned in closer in response. He chuckled nervously. "Nothing, I didn't say anything… "

She grunted and sat back down on her side of the table. "Damn right you didn't… my jokes are hilarious!"

"Hilariously bad…" he muttered under his breath.

"What was that!?"

"Nothing."

"No, come on, I wanna hear you say it."

"Guys, come on," Ruby said, interjecting herself between her sister and her friend before things could get any uglier. "I've planned out an awesome day of super awesome activities for us all to do!"

"What? Fantastic!" Nora yelled, slamming down her hands onto the table, a move that would prove to be quite fateful. Unknowingly, she smashed one of her fists straight down onto her spoon, which was lodged into a pile of pudding, subsequently acting like a catapult.

And just like that, there was pudding in Yang's long, beautiful hair.

Jaune had the sense to duck and cover.

Duck, cover and crawl your way to the exit while all hell breaks loose around you. The entire cafeteria erupted in violence as Yang and Nora, the most unhinged of them all, went at each other's throats, arms with watermelons and baguettes.

Nope, nope, nope, not dealing with any of this.

By taking refuge behind and under tables, Jaune managed to escape to the cafeteria's exit and slip out the door while pandemonium was fully unleashed behind him. He slammed the door shut and took a deep breath, cringing at the sound of screaming and chaos within.

"Hey… what's happening in there?" He looked to his side, saw two men, one with blonde hair and one with blue hair.

Blue hair… and the people here called Peach weird?

"Hey, hey, hey, nice seeing you again," the blonde said, and it was only then that Jaune finally recognized him as the faunus who'd been at the docks with Blake. Wait, what was he doing here?

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Uh, Sun, right?"

"Yup, that's me!" he said with a wide smile. "And I'm here 'cause I'm a transfer student. I just showed up early, and now I'm showing my partner around. Neptune, meet Jaune. Jaune, meet Neptune."

"Nice seeing you," Neptune said. He flashed a stupid smirk and some sort of pose too.

Jaune scoffed, unimpressed.

"Well whatever, I need to get out of here before—"

The doors beside them slammed open, and suddenly, Nora had entered the scene.

"You!" she yelled, pointing one accusatory finger at Jaune. "Deserter! How dare you abandon your kingdom in its hour of need?"

"What?"

"No excuses! The charge for treason is mandatory service! I'm the queen of the castle, and you shall protect me and the kingdom from here on out!" She grabbed him by the wrist and wrenched him back into the cafeteria.

And just like that, the Lone Wanderer became a part of the Great Beacon Food Fight.

Two people, one boy and one girl, walked side by side down a path that led through a quaint public park. It was a longer route to where they were headed, but one of them had insisted on getting a chance to enjoy the nature.

"I swear, I still smell like salami," Jaune said.

Ruby giggled. "Well, you can thank Weiss for that. She was pretty vicious."

"She's always pretty vicious."

"Ouch, you better hope she doesn't find out you said that."

"Hey, she'd only find out from you. Are you about to tattle on me?"

"Eh, I dunno. Guess it depends on whether or not you pay for the ice cream."

"Hey, you said we were splitting everything!"

Ruby skipped ahead a few paces, humming mischievously as she did so. "Hmph, that was before you insulted my partner."

"You've said worse!" He put his hands on his hips and glared at her.

Ruby giggled and looked away. "Alright, then I guess I can forgive you, for your terrible slight against the Schnee family name," she said in a mimicking voice.

He laughed, and she laughed too, and they continued walking and bantering through the park. Tall trees stood around them, their ancient bows creaking and stooping under the stress of age, such that it looked like they were leaning in to listen to what they were saying.

They strolled out of the park and along the city street. He walked on the edge of the sidewalk, and she walked between him and any people. It was a conscious move on his part. He was unaware of whether or not it was a conscious move on hers, but he was grateful for it nonetheless.

He walked comfortably beside her. He could turn his back to her without a second thought. He stood near her with his arms hanging at either side, rather than in front of him, ready for action.

He relaxed with her, and her easy smile and her kindly manner.

It wasn't long before they arrived at their destination: Ruby's favorite street in Vale. There was an ice cream shop, and right next to that was a comic store, and right next to that was a videogame store, and right next to that—for some elusive reason—was a weapon's store. Just about everything she could ever want, all lined up next to one another like dominoes. And like dominoes falling over, they would be visited one after the other.

A bell above the door rang as he and Ruby entered the store. She smiled at the men behind the counter, who smiled back, undoubtedly knowing her well by now. She told him to pick out a seat while she got their orders, a command he followed easily.

He immediately picked out a place at the back of the room, where the entrance was fully visible to him and he could keep his back up against a solid wall. Only then, did he let himself settle into his seat and look around at the little restaurant. It served ice cream and ice cream only, with no more than ten small tables scattered around. The primary color of the place was pink, a happy shade that fit in with the general cheer that ice cream always liked to inspire.

Then, Ruby was sitting down across from him. She placed between them a single, massive bowl of strawberry ice cream covered in a bath of chocolate sauce. She passed him a spoon; he smiled; she smiled; it was all gone in five-minute's time.

Each of them sat back and gave out contented sighs from the frozen feast.

He smiled some more, and she smiled some more, and there was an easy silence for a little while. A little while. Before it began to degrade into something less comfortable, when the two of them realized that they really didn't know what to do from there. They'd never gone out into Vale together, and within each of them now resided an odd sort of tension that neither of them quite understood. They only knew there was a sense of nervousness now in this situation, though they might not know why. It was something about the setting, the setting of a boy and a girl out eating ice cream together. It felt like something, like a certain scenario that went unsaid between them an even within them, for fear of touching upon something large and unknown and even a little frightening.

This had a very visible effect: it was awkward.

Was he supposed to say something?

Was she supposed to say something?

What do I do now?

We already ate…

They both pulled out their scrolls and idly browsed the internet. But neither of them managed to invest themselves in that action, as the weight of the growing silence became heavier and heavier, impressing itself upon them, suffocating. Ruby took a breath, held it in, let it go. Just like he'd taught her to do.

"So… how was your break?"

"It was pretty good," he said. There was still a strange tension within himself. There was something about this… it made him nervous. "How was yours?"

"Pretty good," she said with a few noncommittal nods.

There was silence.

"Uh, what'd you do, exactly? Where'd you go?"

"A teahouse, the gardens, an amusement park and the art museum. It was fun." He looked around at their environment, a decidedly chipper place. He looked back at the girl across from him. "This is pretty nice too."

And from there, the strange bout of awkward tension trickled away as they each settled into things. It was just two good friends out in town, spending time together. Nothing more. Don't be weird. Just have fun.

And they did. It was near impossible for them not to have a good time, when they were together. Between the two of them, they chatted for a while, then went over to the comics store, and Ruby utterly nerded out over the heavenly assortment of graphic novels, an obsession Jaune was more than willing to indulge and get sucked into himself. Then they went next-door to the videogame store, where things were much the same. Heck, it was a repeat at the weapons and dust apparel shop as well.

Ruby delighted in her own passions, first sweets then comics then games then guns, one after the other. And Jaune, he was just happy to see it all shine out. Ruby seemed so alive, her vitality a thing to behold.

He loved it.

"It was fun," he told Nora. They were the only two in the room, as Ren and Pyrrha had departed to attend office hours with Doctor Oobleck. Those two were good students, they really were. Better than either Jaune or Nora, anyways. He was good enough to get B's and the occasional A, but that was it. And Nora? As long as she was passing, that was fine. Because passing allows for smashing.

Right now, however, she seemed to have something other than violence on her mind.

Jaune sat down at his own desk, which Nora had decided to sit on. Much like a cat, she was now using his homework like her own personal cushion, making it impossible for him to do anything but give her the attention that she desired. Right now, she was using that attention to pry out more information.

Jaune had walked in, told her he'd had a fun time, then tried to leave the issue be, but oh no mister, that won't be how this is going. I know you, Jauney boy, and I can see in your eyes something different, something incredible, something… something…

"Smitten!" she yelled. "That's the word, smitten! You're super smitten! More smitten than a mitten!" She pointed at him and jammed a finger against his forehead. "That's you!"

He sighed and let her finger press against his skull, knowing any kind of reaction would be futile. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you not know what smitten means?"

"No, I know what it means. Do you know what it means?"

"Ugh, accusing my illiteracy? How dare you!" She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Of course I know what it means, but that doesn't matter! It's the application of the meaning that matters!"

"Well that's the thing: there's no application of the meaning. I'm not smitten, nothing's going on!" he said, feeling his cheeks heat up. "I don't appreciate the implication."

"Ooh, and what implication would that be?"

"I think you know."

"Oh, but do I? I think you need to say it."

"I'm not saying anything," he said, digging a harsh scowl onto his face. However, whatever intimidating effect it could have had was diminished by the fact that his face was turning to a bright shade of red.

"Come on, say it."

"Nuh-uh."

"Say it."

"No way."

"Say it."

He ground his teeth together and looked away from her. "There's no 'smittening' going on here, Nora. Nothing. Two friends went out into Vale and had some fun together. Stop acting like this."

"Friends, huh?"

"Friends."

"So… you guys didn't just go on a date?"

"Of course not!" He snapped his head to try and stare her down, but something about the perky smile on her face, not to mention the excited, knowing look in her eye, defeated him immediately, and he had to look away once more. "Come on, I did the exact same thing with all of you guys, too. There's no difference."

"Mmm… I think there's a bit of a difference."

"How?"

"You have a different relationship with Ruby than with the rest of us."

"Is that so? We're friends, the same as with the rest of you."

"Really?"

"Really."

Ruby skipped into her room, humming happily, a large smile on her face. Weiss sat at her desk, not bothering to look away from the book she was reading. That didn't mean she was about to tune out, oh no. This was too good an opportunity to miss.

"So, how was your date?" Weiss asked.

Ruby immediately gasped and froze, trying (largely unsuccessfully) to collect herself and not appear flustered. "I-we-us… er, there was no date!"

"You two went out into Vale, spent time together…"

"Yeah, friends do that! I've done that with plenty of friends before!" Ruby scowled and put her hands on her hips, adopting the best 'imperious' position she could muster, though her face was the same shade as her hood, diminishing that effect. "And Jaune went out with all his team over the break, too! That doesn't mean he's dating anybody!"

"Goodness me, Ruby, you seem to be getting quite worked up," she said, suppressing a cruel smile.

"W-well yeah, because you're suggesting something that, that's just totally not true!"

"Oh, and what am I suggesting?"

"That Jaune and I went out together as more than friends, and that is NOT true. We're just spending time together."

"Again, I must inquire: why are you getting this flustered?"

"Erk, don't do that to me!" Ruby shook her head and stomped to her bed, then climbed up onto her top bunk. Her face only got redder, and her anger only intensified, when she heard her partner snicker with perfidious delight.

She laid down on her bed, then grabbed her pillow and held it over her face. She'd just hide away from the world for a little while. Gods… she'd known this would be a bad idea, she really did. In some ways, it was! It'd been weirdly awkward for a moment at the beginning, a situation she still didn't understand and certainly didn't like. And now, everyone was… well, they were being suggestive!

But… in many ways, it had been a good idea, too. They'd had fun, a lot of fun, and now her fears of being replaced and sidelined were in the past. Things were going well.

Under the pillow, unbeknownst to the whole wide world, she was smiling.

"So when's this weirdo supposed to show up anyway?" Mercury asked.

"It'd do you well not to refer to him as such," Cinder said, silencing her underling with the stern words, but not so stern that she at all seemed annoyed. She never seemed to drop that sense of grace around them, a kind of regality. Even now, stretched out as she was on the couch, she looked fit for a painting.

Idly, she looked off into the warehouse below here, from the suite that Roman had quartered off for her when she was in Vale. Emerald and Mercury both stood in the room beside her. All of them waited for another.

"Our partner would hardly appreciate being called 'weird'. It's important to cultivate these sorts of ties for now, and I'd hate to dissatisfy him by prodding his ego."

"Eh, not like I was going to call him that to his face."

"Just making sure Mercury. You've proven to be quite liberal with that tongue of yours."

Emerald snickered silently, a small joy that Cinder let pass. Those two's antics were well beneath her, but preserving some competition between one's underlings was never a bad thing. It made them work harder and trust each other less, especially in relation to her.

"But what do we even know about the guy?" Mercury asked. "Does he go around wearing a creepy gas mask like the rest of them?"

"He does."

"And we don't even know his name? His face?"

"I know both his name and face," Cinder said. "Those are details he'd like to keep sparse, however, so it's kept only to those who require it. Neither of you do, so neither of you will know."

Mercury huffed, but Emerald only nodded.

"Don't worry, he's a valuable ally, just as much as these White Fang and Torchwick. In more ways than one, he could turn out even better."

"And you trust him?" Emerald asked.

"Not in the slightest." She shrugged. "But the things he's after are easy to control: power and revenge. Those are simple, self-serving desires that one can easily take advantage of. In selfishness lies security, at least for now."

The three of them went silent as the door to the suite swung open.

One bulky figure clad in black military attire entered the room, instantly filling it with the disconcerting weeze of his gas mask. They all recognized him as the one Torchwick liked to call 'Art' while all the other personnel in gas masks only referred to him deferentially as 'Lieutenant'. About a dozen of his kind had come around recently, residing in Torchwick's base in Vale and preparing for a new mission.

"Hail to the Commander-in-Chief!" he announced.

The doorway remained empty for a moment longer, before a tall figure appeared through it. This one was indistinguishable from any of the others in gas-mask uniform. There was no insignia or decoration that designated him as higher rank, but one could tell from his confident strut and his chin held high, that he was accustomed to respect and power. The only notable thing about his appearance was the long sword he kept at his side.

"Thank you Lieutenant," he said, voice raspy and muffled from the gas mask. "You may leave us now."

Without another word, Art saluted and left, such that the room contained only four.

Cinder rose from her place resting on the couch and smiled at him. "A pleasure to see you again, Commander," she said. "I'd like to introduce you to my two close associates: Emerald and Mercury."

"A pleasure to meet you both," he said. He strolled across the room and gave each a handshake that was neither soft nor strong, just confidently firm. And even through his bulky gas mask, the words rang both assertive but amiable. There was just something about his entire manner that was wholly inviting.

Nevertheless, neither Emerald nor Mercury fully let their guard down. If this was someone Cinder valued so highly as to include him into their operation, then danger and depravity would be two things most assuredly present.

He turned away from them and looked back to their boss. There was no need for any petty pleasantries between them like shaking hands or exchanging hellos. They were each motivated people with aligned goals, which they planned on executing as soon and as effectively as possible.

"So," he said, "what is this plan you spoke of?"

"Oh, I think you'll love it."

"So long as I get my revenge, I'm sure to adore it."

Oh my, well that's not ominous at all. Also, sorry if the date scene is underwhelming, but I had serious writer's block with it. Eventually, I just decided to go sparse. I think it still conveyed what needed to be conveyed. Anyway, be sure to leave any reviews and questions come to your mind. See ya next time.