(A/N) Happy new year everyone (probably, depends on where you are I guess).
Roses are red, violets are blue, this one was supposed to be up before I started my finals, but I guess this will do.
My poetic talent is unmatched, I know.
Anyway, the next chapter is the start of the first big arc that will eventually tie into the start of canon. I was contemplating just getting into the swing of things and kicking it off at Beacon right away, but... that didn't feel right. This chapter will give everyone a good idea of where things are heading.
Enjoy!
XX
Jaune fidgeted on his feet, feeling self-conscious with his classmates' collective gazes planted firmly on his person. It didn't help one bit that he was being surrounded by everyone in his year, rather than just his class.
The whole grade stood by the sidelines of what was likely a sparring ring, though Jaune couldn't be certain; he'd never seen a real one, after all.
There was a teacher accompanying them, but not the same one from the other day. This teacher was a blonde and had a much broader frame.
"Okay, everyone," the man said loudly enough to be heard over the chattering students. "We're sparring today, so we'll be doing shorter warmups."
Jaune didn't know much about this school's warmups, but judging by the numerous cries of relief, he could assume that the other kids weren't too fond of them.
"We'll start off light!" continued the teacher. "Everyone team up in pairs and do the usual run of stretches."
The young Arc panicked internally, not knowing what said "usual run" of stretches even was. It didn't help that he couldn't muster the courage to ask his semi-hostile peers to team up with him.
"Jaune." To his surprise, the teacher waved him over.
"Yes, teacher?"
The man upturned his lips in a disarming smile. "You're kind of being thrown into the swing of things right off the bat, sorry. I'm Taiyang Xiao-Long, but you can just call me Mr. Tai like everyone else. Since you don't know the routine yet, I'll have Yang here," –he waved to an empty space beside him– "be your partner for today. She can show you the ropes. Is that fine with you?"
Yang? Could it possibly…
Jaune tried to look for the girl he met in town, but he couldn't see her. Or… anyone, really. Who was Mr. Tai pointing to, anyway?
"Who?"
The teacher seemed to have just noticed that there wasn't anyone at his side. "Ya– Hey! Yang, get your butt over here!"
Further out, a familiar-looking girl whipped her head to the teacher, arms around the head of another brown-haired girl.
"Oh, uhm… sorry, Dad."
Jaune could only lamely note that, now, at least, he knew who her actual father was.
XX
Like everyone else, Yang was staring at the new kid. The difference was that she couldn't care less about what he said about his graduation ranking.
She said the same thing, after all.
What she did care about, was that she recognized the boy. He had that unique mop of golden-blond hair and a chest plate that she distinctly remembered picking out. Not only did he transfer to Signal, of all places, but it turned out to be him who caused such a commotion the other day.
"Oh? What's this?" chimed her brown-haired friend in a childish and mocking voice. "Is Yang looking at boys now? I thought you weren't 'into that stuff', huh?"
Yang turned to the shorter girl with a flat look. Yeah, it would take a stronger jibe than that to get to her. "What are you even saying, Mocha."
Mocha brushed a strand of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear. "I dunno… you tell me."
The blonde shook her head, but dropped the issue.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her dad trying to get her attention. "Yang!" he called out to her with a raised hand, "can you come here for a second?"
"Coming," she answered.
Yang patted Mocha on the shoulder and tried to approach her father, but Mocha held her back by the arm.
"Saaaaay, Yang. He's the boy you said you ran into in Vale the other day, right? The day your dad blew up on you for getting home late?"
Yang's eyes narrowed. Her friend was too whimsical sometimes. "And?"
"Betcha Mr. Tai would like to know that his daughter's crushing on a bad-boy." The brown-haired girl's smile told her that she was having way too much fun teasing her.
So what? It's not like it was actually true. The problem was that her dad would believe it. "You wouldn't."
She would.
"I would."
The blond-haired girl clicked her tongue and walked away to reach her father, but otherwise ignored her in hopes that the discussion would be forgotten.
"Yeah dad?"
He pointed at Jaune. "The new student looks pretty nervous. He won't know the routine stretches, so do you mind being his partner?"
Jaune was cool in her books, so she wouldn't mind not doing warmups with her friends for once. "Sure thing."
"Great, thanks."
While Taiyang went to grab the boy, Mocha was making exaggerated gestures with her mouth, likely miming the action of shouting out to their teacher.
Eventually, Mocha must have realized that Yang wasn't having it, because she decided to up her game.
"Hey! Mr–"
Faster than she could react, Yang had crossed the distance between them and clamped her hands over her friend's mouth.
"Don't you dare."
Mocha's muffled laughs were heard from under her hand.
Damn, this little–
"Yang, get your butt over here!"
Both of them stopped their squirming.
"Oh, uhm… sorry, Dad."
Yang released her grip on Mocha, shooting the still-laughing girl a dirty look. "You suck."
Her friend just turned her head in an effort to quiet her giggles.
The blonde forced a smile back on her face, and ran up to the boy who stood next to her father. "Hey, how's it going?"
"Yang, it really is you!" he answered back.
Taiyang crossed his arms. "Huh? So you two already knew each other?"
Jaune nodded. "Yeah. We ran into each other when I–"
"I talked with him during recess yesterday!" was the girl's panicked response. The Arc didn't know what she was on about, but he didn't think it was big enough of a deal to correct her.
"Oh. Alright then." The teacher seemed to have bought it easily enough. "Get along, you two. We'll be sparring right after."
Jaune could've sworn he heard the brown-haired girl groan.
The newly formed pair joined their classmates in the open field. The boy asked his partner, "So, where do we start?"
"First thing's the big muscle groups, then we work our way to the smaller ones. We do this in pairs so that while one person's doing the warmup, the other can make sure they're doing it right," she explained. "I'll go first; watch how I do it then we can switch."
Once she saw that he understood, She brought her knee to her chest to stretch her glutes. "So why'd you end up going to school on Patch of all places? Most people would go to the city, especially if it's halfway through the year like this."
"Well, my dad actually graduated from here, so I guess it's because of that. As for why I didn't start earlier…" he trailed off. He wasn't too comfortable with talking about the circumstances surrounding the decision to have him go to a proper huntsman academy, so he diverted, "Hold on, is it really okay to be talking right now? I thought you said that I should spot you to make sure that we do things properly."
She huffed. "Well, I am, aren't I?"
Jaune blinked. She was right, actually. Though he didn't have much else to compare to, her form looked impeccable. "I mean… yeah?"
"Cool," she concluded simply. Lowering her leg, she motioned for Jaune to switch positions with her.
He was a little awkward at first since he wasn't used to the stretch, but he quickly found his balance. Offhandedly, Yang took note of how fit he was for his age when his arms flexed to hold his raised knee in place.
"So. Are ya any good in a fight?" she had to ask.
"Uhm… I guess?" Once again, he didn't have many readily available comparisons.
"Alrighty then!" Yang slammed her fists together violently, startling him enough to make him lose his balance a little.
"What?"
"Waddaya say? We can be sparring partners today."
Jaune knew something was up when his classmates' antagonistic glares morphed into pitying ones.
"…Sure?" he said tentatively.
His warmup partner's bright smile made him forget his uneasiness.
XX
Yang stood in front of him, fists raised in a fighting stance. Despite her obvious intentions, her grin was still as easygoing as it was earlier. In a wide circle around them, the other kids observed with varying expressions.
"Ouch, Yang right off the bat? That's tough, man."
"He won't think he's hot stuff for much longer, that's for sure."
"He kinda pisses me off, but I still feel bad for him, you know?"
"I don't even think anyone's actually beaten her all year!"
The not-so-quiet murmurs didn't do much for Jaune's confidence, but he wouldn't back out now. Even if Yang was some sort of super-fighter, he'd still do his best!
To his chagrin, their teacher shared the same look as the other kids. He was likely thinking that pitting him up against the best fighter in their grade on his first day was a bad idea. "Are you sure about this, Jaune? You're still adjusting to things, so maybe it'll be better if you fight Yang after getting a better idea of how the others do it."
He had a point. Jaune had never even seen a sparring match outside of his own with his dad, and Yang had volunteered them to go before everyone else.
"It's fine, Mr. Tai. I'm good to go!" he punctuated with a self-assured smile.
Admittedly, he didn't like being underestimated all that much.
"Aw, yeah!" Yang pumped her first. "That's what I'm talking about!"
Getting the chance to get a good look at his opponent, the Arc boy noticed something. "Hey, Yang. Aren't you wearing armour?"
And really, it didn't look like she was wearing anything that could be considered protective. While he wore thick cotton pants, military boots, and a chest piece, all his opponent wore were booties, slacks and a brown jacket– which didn't even look to be made of any sort of leather.
"Hm? Oh." She caught on to what he was saying. She unzipped her jacket to show off the chainmail covering her torso. "Don't worry about me! I don't think armour's really my style, so I keep it hidden.
The poor boy could only nod with a furious blush on his face. She was wearing armour over her chest, so she didn't flash him… but how was he supposed to know that! He damn near had a heart attack!
As if the man could sense what he was thinking, Taiyang coughed to get both of their attention.
Oh yeah. This was his daughter.
"Listen up, Jaune, I'll go over the rules quickly since it's your first time here." Taiyang pointed at the distinct gouge in the earth that circled the makeshift arena. "If you step out of bounds, that counts as a loss. Other than that," –he took out a scroll from his pocket– "I'll be keeping track of both of your aura levels, so the first person who's aura drops below a certain point loses. To keep things safe, we'll cap it off at twenty-five percent instead of the usual fifteen, and –most importantly– make sure to listen when I tell you to stop. Did you catch all of that?"
Jaune raised his hand, not knowing what else to do to ask his question.
"Yes?"
"Are we fighting barehanded?"
The teacher palmed his forehead. "Oh, that's my bad. One second, you two."
Taiyang went to grab the cart that sat in the corner of the field. Jaune noticed it earlier but paid it no mind when they didn't seem to be using it for anything.
Getting a better look at it now, the boy could now see that it wasn't so much a cart as it was a metal rack on wheels. It was lined with actual weapons, ranging from simple one-handed swords to more exotic war fans.
Taiyang leaned his arm against the rack. "In your fourth year, you'll be making your own weapons, customized to fit you personally. Until then, Signal supplies its students with a wide variety of practice weapons so that they can experiment with what they feel the most comfortable with."
Jaune took a moment to consider what that meant for him, seeing as a professional weaponsmith was making his weapon already.
Yang sauntered over, grabbed a pair of steel gauntlets, and got back into position.
Her father shot her a disapproving look. "Or you can just use the same thing all the time."
She stuck her tongue out at him, earning laughter from the onlooking students.
Jaune took a glance at what was available to him. If she wanted to see what he could do if he went all out, then he should…
He grabbed a long polearm closely resembling a pike.
"I hope you know how to use that thing!" taunted his opponent. Or… maybe she was being serious. If you didn't know how to use one, maybe a pike wasn't the right weapon to go with. Luckily for him, though…
Jaune didn't say anything in response. Instead, he held his weapon comfortably under his arm.
"So, are you two ready then?" asked their teacher-turned-proctor.
They both nodded.
Taiyang pressed a button on the scroll making it beep. "Then… begin!"
While Jaune chose to hold his ground, Yang bum-rushed her way into his guard in a split second. Her arm came up to catch his chin in a vicious uppercut, and it would have succeeded if his reaction time were any slower.
Instead, he thrust his weapon forward as he leaned his torso out of the way. To avoid getting hit, Yang was forced to jump back to where she started, relinquishing her advantageous positioning.
"You're fast," observed Jaune simply.
"Heh. Not too shabby yourself."
And she meant it. Usually, a surprise attack like that ends it.
Jaune clenched both fists around the shaft of his polearm. Taking a deep breath, he forced his coiled muscles to relax a bit. It was his turn to go on the attack.
"Hah!"
With a cry, Jaune's legs vaulted him the air towards his sparring partner. Though a pike was primarily used as a stabbing weapon, he had it raised over his head for a downward slash.
Disregarding the discrepancy between intended purpose and use, overextending your weapon and moving it too far from your body was generally a terrible idea. It was practically begging the enemy to put you out of your misery. Thankfully, the young huntsman-in-training was well aware of this and had in fact planned for it.
Almost on instinct, Yang's gauntlets rose above her torso to deliver a devastating right cross on his airborne and exposed person. The result was that her sides were left open for a counter, not that her opponent was in any position to take advantage of that.
Or so she thought.
Midair, Jaune twisted his body and kicked her ribs.
While he was alright after landing, albeit unbalanced and on all fours, Yang was having a much rougher time of it. The hit had her tumbling to the ground dangerously close to the bounded area.
The onlookers were speechless.
From where she was in the crowd, Mocha whispered to a pig-tailed girl, "Hey, hey. Did that really just happen?"
"I…think so?"
Another student shouted eloquently, "Holy crap!"
Having undeniable proof right in front of them that the "new kid" wasn't just full of hot air, the student body found themselves in begrudging awe.
"Hehe," chuckled Yang as she pushed herself to her feet. "Good one, champ. You're not getting another–"
SLAM
She was forced to cut her words short and jump out of the way when Jaune's pike came swinging down on where she was just standing. To her –and everyone else's– surprise, the strength put into the attack sent a gust of wind blowing in every direction.
Beads of sweat trickled down Yang's chin.
He wasn't done yet, though. Pinching the spear under his arm, he twirled and took two steps toward her new position. The length of his weapon allowed him to reach her with just that.
Yang wasn't the top of her grade for nothing, though. Taking advantage of the protection her gauntlets provided, she palmed the pike off course and regained the close-quarter advantage. She proved once again that she was faster than he was, driving a flurry of punches into his unguarded stomach.
The boy pushed off with his spear the moment he was able, but the damage had been done. His aura must have taken a real beating after that.
Both of them were breathing heavily. Their heavy pants were the only thing heard over the dead silence of their audience.
Taking Yang by surprise, Jaune threw his pike. The time it took for her to react and sidestep the torpedo-like projectile was enough for the boy to close the gap, grab her by the collar of her jacket and–
A whistle blew.
"That's enough!" shouted Taiyang. "Yang wins by ring out!"
Huh?
Looking at his feet, Jaune noticed that in the heat of the moment, he actually forgot to keep track of where the inbound was. When he was widening his stance in order to flip Yang on her back, he must have stepped over the line.
His cheeks flushed. What an embarrassing way to lose.
"Great job, both of you." Despite the way that the match ended, Taiyang sounded like he really meant that. "Jaune, you lost because of a silly mistake, but that's something that will fix itself with time. Your ending aura levels were twenty-seven percent for Yang and fifty-nine percent for Jaune."
Darn! That means that he was really close, right?
"Wait, only fifty-nine?" Yang was focused on something else. "But I thrashed him!"
"Not as badly as he did you, apparently," her father joked.
As Yang pouted, her sparring partner explained, "I have pretty high aura levels, actually. You really did hit hard."
That seemed to console her… somewhat.
After that performance, his classmates were quick to congratulate him, despite the loss. Was this what it felt like to prove yourself?
After that, the rest of the kids in his year took their turns to spar against one another. There weren't any ring outs after his own, he noted.
After each match, Mr. Tai would take the time to go over what each student did well and what they should improve. Strangely enough, he took much more time doing this with the others than with Yang and himself.
Before he knew it the class was over. The students slowly trickled out of the sparring field and back into the walls of the academy building for their next subject.
Jaune was about to follow their lead and get changed, but he was held up by Mr. Tai.
"Jaune. Can I talk to you for a moment?"
That got him worried. His self-conscious nature brought upon by recent academic failures made him fear that he didn't live up to standards on his first performance.
Was that why Mr. Tai didn't say much to him during the match? Was it because the man feared that the criticisms were too embarrassing to say in front of everyone else?
"You were taught by your dad, right?" asked the man.
"Uhm… yeah?"
"…"
Say something!
"Tell, me," Taiyang paused for way too long, "do you have any intention of joining our tournament roster in your fourth year?"
Jaune didn't know how to answer that question, because he didn't even know what that was. "I… don't… know?"
"You don't know?" the older blonde parroted.
"I don't know what it is, I mean."
"Oh." For some reason, Taiyang seemed relieved. "Let me explain, then."
The man took out his scroll one more time, pulling up Signal's school website on his browser. He turned the device towards his student, showing him a page titled, "Tournament registration".
"This right here is something a few of you will be considering in three years' time," presented the man. "Once you get your huntsman weapon graded and approved by the school board, you'll be allowed to enter a yearly tournament that's held internationally."
Jaune was baffled. He could only imagine the magnitude something like that entailed.
Taiyang continued, "Once tryouts are done, the final team is pitted against other schools within the kingdom, then a final bracket takes place that implicates the four finalists from Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, and Atlas."
Jaune felt like he understood a little better now, but… "Why do you ask, Mr. Tai?"
"You said you want to be the top-ranked graduate from your year, right? From what I saw today, I think you have the potential to do it, if you keep putting work in."
The boy's eyes widened.
Taiyang placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "The amount of recognition you'd get for something this big isn't anything to scoff at. In fact, I'd say that most –if not all– first overall picks are chosen from the top four competing teams."
"Signal's going to be in the top four?"
"I don't know," the man grinned. "You tell me."
XX
"That. Was. So. Awesome!"
After getting changed, it barely took any time at all for Yang to track him down, and even less to start gushing about how great the fight was. Honestly, it was surprising to hear her in such a good mood, considering her reaction post-match.
"Man! I know I won and all –I'm just that great, I admit– but that was super close," she continued despite the lack of verbal feedback from her previous opponent. "How much aura do you have, anyway? Usually, I'd be able to snag the win in max two hits. Oh yeah! Speaking of hits, how come you–"
Jaune wasn't trying to ignore her, really. She was just saying way too much at once for him to process. The more she said, the more he panicked, and more of what she said slipped by him because he was panicking.
As it would turn out, they shared the following period, since the girl didn't split off to go somewhere else. To his dismay, they'd made it all the way to the classroom, and he still had no idea what she was saying.
"–and then I said, 'now that's a katana!'. Jewel steel, that little string on the end, the whole shtick!" She seemed to have finished –and started, at some point– a story that he caught no part of. How rude of him.
"Uhm…" he tried to comment. Was he even supposed to comment? He sure hoped not, because he was drawing a blank. Short on comments, he was.
"So what did my dad say?"
Oh! He knew this one, at least– it didn't seem to have anything to do with what she just said though.
"He was asking if I thought about joining a Tournament something-or-other–"
"What!?" shrieked his fellow blonde before he could finish. "No fair! He hasn't asked me to join the school team yet, how come he asked you?"
There probably wasn't any bad blood in her words; she was just being a jealous kid.
"Well, he didn't really ask me to join," he rebutted. "It's just that he told me to think about it before I become a fourth-year."
Yang pouted, but she dropped the subject.
"Alright, class, take a seat."
It was the teacher from the other day, Mr. Branwen. The words probably sounded as awkward in his head as they did coming out of his mouth. He seemed like the kind of person that wasn't comfortable with the whole 'teaching' thing.
No one disobeyed him, though, as the whole class was seated in short order. Was he popular with his students, maybe?
The scruffy-looking man shuffled through his binder, pulling out specific notes as he came across them. He wrote down some kind of math formula on the blackboard behind him. "We'll carry on from where we left off last time. Does anyone want to try their hand at finding the algebraic solution?
Jaune gulped.
XX
He sulked as some brown-haired girl –Yang's friend, supposedly– patted him on the back encouragingly.
"There, there, Yang's not-boyfriend, it's just math. It's not like there are huntsman field tests that need you to be able to calculate the slope of a graph anyway."
"Why were there so many letters…" Jaune whimpered to himself.
Yang's ponytail bobbed as her neck twitched ever so slightly. As deadpan as she could muster, she droned, "He's not my boyfriend, Mocha."
"Yeah, that's what I just said."
"Tch."
As the two bickered, the blond boy was allowed to remember the horrendous events that transpired during Mr. Branwen's class less than half an hour before it ended. Everything was going fine –more or less– until the teacher asked him to solve a question on the board. What followed was a seventeen-minute torture session of him fumbling through something he had never seen in his life while his classmates made fun of him every time he needed to be corrected.
The worst part was that the man wouldn't let him go. He was forced to finish the problem from start to finish no matter how many tries it took.
It was safe to say that any respect he managed to garner had been thrown to the wind with great prejudice.
Yang realized he was getting into a mopey headspace again, and did her best to cheer him up. "Hey, so what if everyone was laughing? They were just being jerks. I'm sure they couldn't do much better themselves."
"You were laughing too, though."
"Haha. Yeah."
"You know, if you need help studying I could for sure help you out during lunch," offered Mocha. While Jaune was caught off guard by the sudden kindness offered, Yang was skeptical of her real intentions.
"Wow, really? If it's fine with you, then…" the Arc graciously accepted the offer.
"Don't worry about it. I'm pretty smart with this stuff, and I already told Yang that we'd be holding pair review sessions with each other. We can make a study group out of it!"
Long-haired blonde choked on air. Since when did–
The words were slung right back down her throat when the boy grabbed both of them by the hand with a huge smile. "I'm so relieved! To be honest, I was freaking out about what I'd do about school. But if both of you are willing to give me a hand, then I'm in your debt. Thank you."
It was recess, so immediately following his word of thanks, Jaune went off to do… something.
Point being, Yang and Mocha were left alone in the school hallway.
The brown-haired girl was pulled into a quick headlock.
"Ow! Watch it!"
"What. Was. That." Ground out the stronger of the two.
"What was what?"
The headlock got tighter.
"Okayokayokay! I get it, just let me go!"
Yang relented and released her prisoner with a loud harrumph. Mocha held the back of her head gingerly.
"So, what's this study session we've got planned."
Mocha could tell by the tone of voice that her friend wasn't too happy with her putting words in her mouth.
"What's the problem? Do you want your boyfriend to fail?"
"He's not my– darn it, that's what you're doing, isn't it? You're just not done teasing me about this whole thing. You know my dad won't actually believe you, right?"
The brunette stuck her tongue out playfully.
She got a frustrated kick in the shin for her efforts. "Fine. You're right, I guess I'd feel bad if someone as strong as him was held back just because of some stupid grades."
Yang left to go find her locker, but the joking "I'm watching you" hand gestures she was making evidenced that she wasn't too mad about being lead by the nose.
Now alone, Mocha mischievous grin morphed into a smile of relief.
It was working.
Yang was her best friend for years, but they'd been drifting apart as of late. Not because they didn't like each other, but more because they were learning that they had different interests as they grew up. Yang was all about being a huntress, and while she came to the same school as her, she didn't find fighting or the idea of hunting grimm appealing at all. In the same manner, she loved books, boys, and other girly things, but Yang seemed to not want to touch any of that stuff with a ten-foot pole.
It was probably when Yang found that motorcycle that the gap between them widened the most. If the blonde wasn't training, then she was rummaging for spare parts that she could use. The only time they actually talked is when they went out of their way to find each other between classes at school.
She teased her friend a lot, sure, but it was mostly out of fear. It was a fear that if she didn't find any excuse to socialize with Yang, then she'd lose her forever.
This study group was a last-ditch effort of sorts. She was sure that, if not for Jaune's fortuitous lack of academic sense, their relationship would crumble by the end of the year.
Mocha's smile widened. She would have to find a way to thank Jaune at some point.
XX
"Yo."
Jaune jumped when Yang unexpectedly walked up behind him and slapped him squarely in the back.
"H-hey!" he protested weakly. He bent over to pick up the things he dropped in his moment of surprise.
"Sorry, sorry," she apologized half-heartedly. Yang didn't really know why she even walked up to him in the first place. She saw him fumbling around his locker, and the next thing she knew…
The girl peered over his shoulder and locked in right away on the miscellany of workout gear strewn across the hallway. There was a digital activity tracker, the newest model athletic sneaker, high-density resistance bands… "Man, that's some serious stuff you're carrying around with you, blondie. What's up with that?"
Jaune resisted the urge to point out that she was probably blonder than he was. "Do you really think it's strange? It's just my normal exercise equipment."
Disregarding the price tag that probably came with it, "But why did you bring it to school? You can't wear it to combat class, and we're already done for today anyway."
He scratched the back of his head, feeling a little self-conscious. "Well, it's recess right now, isn't it? I thought that I'd take the time to get some training in."
The blank look his classmate shot him made him reconsider his intentions. Was working out during the free period prohibited? Was he committing some sort of faux-pas that he wasn't aware of?"
"You want to work out again?"
Her incredulous tone almost made him miss the discrepancy. "What do you mean 'again'?"
Now they were staring at each other like a pair of braindead goldfish.
"Combat class, this morning," explained Yang.
"What about it?"
"…" She thought about it for a moment, then narrowed her eyes. "Don't ya consider going at 'er with yours truly a workout?"
Jaune didn't understand the hole he was digging himself into. "Uh… no?"
He could've sworn he saw a flicker of red in her eyes. Weird.
"Oh?" Her tone was cold. Did he say something he shouldn't have?
His eyes widened. "I didn't mean it like that, honest! You're an amazing fighter."
Her glacial expression thawed a little. "So what did you mean?"
"Sparring is important, and the best way for us to get better at fighting, but it's not enough if we want to get stronger!" The passion in Jaune's voice caught Yang off guard. "That's why we gotta train our bodies if we want to become the best hunters that we can be."
She didn't say anything, so Jaune took her silence as her being unconvinced. Not one to be disheartened, however, he tried a different angle. "I made two promises to my dad when I was enrolled here. The first was that I would keep my grades up, and the second was that I wouldn't slack on my training. My old man is actually a really strong huntsman, so I'm sure that his methods will–"
"Let me join you."
"Excuse me?" He definitely wasn't expecting her to cut him off. He hoped that his choice of words wasn't received poorly.
His fellow blonde's cheeks had a light dusting of pink as she avoided his eyes bashfully. She wouldn't say so out loud, but not only did she hold the new kid to a higher level of respect, but she also began to doubt her own conviction to become a huntress. If he was willing to go to such lengths, then she too, would… "I said, let me join you! It's no fun working out alone, right?"
He smiled. It was kind of dorky, in a way, but it was a kind smile nonetheless.
"Yeah," he replied simply.
XX
Much to his joy, the rest of his first semester at Beacon went by smoothly. It had become apparent that his mother had the right idea, since his grades did, in fact, pick back up. Between his training sessions during recess with Yang and his study sessions with her and Mocha, he was able to juggle his responsibilities as a young huntsman in training admirably. As the weeks became months, he eventually started to feel like he'd properly settled into a regular school life.
Despite all of that, he walked out of his year-end examination room with clammy palms and pale skin.
"Come on, dude, why are you always so… jittery?" asked Yang as she and Mocha followed. "Didn't you do super well on the last test?"
"Yeah. Your work ethic is pretty solid, and the only reason you weren't doing so great at first is because you didn't have things sorted out for yourself," chipped in the brunette. "I seriously have no idea why you still panic over these things."
Jaune sighed tiredly. "I dunno. For some reason, I can't rest easy until my grades come in."
Yang laughed at him– good-naturedly, of course. "Pfft. Loser."
"Sooooo…" drawled Mocha. She had enough of all this school-talk. They were done with all of that now, darn it! "What are we doing over the break?"
"I was planning on spending some time on the bike," Yang thought aloud, "but only a little on the side. You guys should totally come over– Oh! Or we can grab my sis and head down to Vale!"
"Sounds good to me." Mocha beamed. It was… nice that Yang was spending more time with them recently. "My sister's spending the break with her friends from Pharos. How about you, Jaune? Any idea what we should do?"
The two girls looked to the sole boy of their group. It honestly didn't occur to him that they would still hang out outside of the school year. Sure, he spent time with them outside of class throughout the semester, but this and that was different. "Wait. Me too?"
"Yeah. We're friends. That's what friends do."
The way Yang said it was pretty condescending, like she was explaining something to a two-year-old. Still, Jaune couldn't find it in him to be annoyed. In fact, he was happy.
Really, really happy.
"That's right... We're friends."
They were his friends. They were real friends; the first he'd ever had. It was a novel experience, and he liked how it felt.