Early October 1996...
A 13 year old Jaune and Pyrrha walked home in the later hours of the day, the weather was turning to a crisp chill as signs of the turning leaves of the normally beautifully green begin to turn.
Pyrrha giggled as she read the note Jaune wrote who was mimicking sword swings like he was holding a large two handed sword in his hands. 'That was so freaking awesome today, I can't believe we actually managed to take out that massive bird monster, Ren was using his hand bows like a champ and Nora was awesome with her thunder magic!'
Pyrrha lightly shoved Jaune "Hey now we couldn't have done it with out you as well, you were the best Dark Knight we could hope for."
Jaune shook his head and pointed at her. Which prompted a confused Pyrrha to mutter "What? Me?"
Jaune took out his notepad and scribbled out a note 'Yeah I wouldn't be half as good as I am with out you as a healer, remember most of my cool abilities cost me HP remember?'
"Well, I don't know a healer is only as useful as the person covering for her." Pyrrha said with a giggle.
Jaune wrote a note out and handed to her 'A Dark Knight is only has useful as his healer, we make an awesome team in game!"
Pyrrha laughed her self so hard her glasses almost fell off, she caught them and pushed them back up her face in a way that made Jaune's heart thump. "Man why did she have to be so pretty?"
Jaune felt he had a now or never opportunity to follow through on the next thing he wanted to ask her. he quickly wrote out a note for her 'So... the school has a Halloween dance coming up...'
"Oh yeah I know." Pyrrha paused "I mean, that's really only the type of dance you take your girlfriend or boyfriend to though" Pyrrha waved her hand as if to dismiss the whole thing.
Jaune fought back and lost against a nervous blush as he wrote his note out to her. When he handed it to her he kinda looked off to the side, only glancing once in a while to see her face. Pyrrha read the note as it said 'Well I mean I guess that makes it a bit wired now. But did you want to go with me?'
Pyrrha read the note, stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at Jaune and declared a confused "What?" Pyrrha then took her glasses off to clean them "Your asking me to the dance? As what a date?"
Jaune signed out half his sentence before he realized she couldn't understand what he was saying to he tried to write it out 'Uh I mean if you want it to be a date we can call it that. I mean don't misunderstand, I know we only met a month ago but you are my best friend and if I was going to take anyone to a the dance it'd be you!"
Pyrrha looked the note over as a dark tint crept over her cheeks "I-I don't know how to D-dance you know."
Jaune shrugged and wrote out a quick "I don't know how to dance either." and showed it to her.
"I've never even gone to one of these Jaune, I guess I have a dress but I really don't know..." Pyrrha said as she tried to talk herself out of it.
Jaune needed to shoot for the goal posts and handed her his trump card of a note 'Then think of it as the two of us going on an adventure. I mean, as your sworn Dark Knight, I shall of course be your escort for this endeavor, I only ask, that your their to support me when I falter.' As she flexed Jaune tried to take the most heroic pose that he could... it was exactly inspiring.
Pyrrha giggled and smiled at him causing Jaune's heart to start beating in his chest. she finally spoke up "Okay, I guess if your going to put it that way, I'll be your partner to the dance!"
Jaune held a finger up and wrote a quick note "Why don't we jut call it a date then?" and handed it to her.
Pyrrha's cheeks turned red and she stammered out a "A d-d-d-ate? I guess their's a f-first time for everything right?" As she desperately cleaned her glasses.
Jaune held out a note asking "So is that a yes?"
Pyrrha Seemingly refused to make eye contact with Jaune "I guess... But why me?"
Jaune just shrugged and wrote out a quick. "Because your awesome?"
The pair stood there just stood there awkwardly for a moment, Pyrrha finally spoke up "I.. Guess I want to go to the dance, and I would need a D-Date for it."
Jaune smiled and gave her a thumbs up.
Pyrrha giggled in relief that she didn't embarrass herself.
they both walked the rest of the way to her place in silence, but Jaune would look back at this as the moment where he realized, truly realized he was in love with her.
September 18th 1998... Friday
The end of the week was a new day, one that was off to a rough start, Jaune's arm throbbed in pain from the incident two days before. He missed school due to the pain of his injury but he knew he couldn't miss today no mater how crappy he felt.
Jaune felt a sharp pain from where he was injured a couple days before as he got dressed that morning. He was worried that it was starting to look like he might need to consult with a physical therapist about the fact that it was painful at times to use it.
He also had dreamed of that fateful day he worked up the nerve to ask Pyrrha out for the first time. It was a good memory, but a painful one now that she was gone. Not the shit he needed today.
But as he went to his familiar spot at his groups table a happy sight greeted him, He saw Blake sitting around idly chatting with Ruby and Yang. Jaune decided to go join the group and the three girls waved to him as he sat down.
"Hey your back already?" Yang asked him. "One day off is all you need for being hit by a car?"
Jaune shrugged with a slight wince and signed out [Well Yeah I mean I got to present that science project today. The teacher didn't see like the type to give extensions]
Blake smiled still avoiding eye contact as well. after Yang interpreted for her "I'm glad he's here as well, I don't think I can do this alone."
[Yeah but considering you both had some crap happen this week, they really should give you a break!] Ruby signed out furiously.
Blake listening to Yang's translation replied "Actually... I want to do this!"
The whole table looked at Blake who got an embarrassed look on her face she kept going "I.. I mean I woke up this morning, and I thought for a moment that I better see what Adam wants us to do today..."
Jaune sighed out a bit in concern. Yang made an obvious "oof" as well.
"Well no it's okay actually" Blake said with a creeping smile. "Because then I remembered that he's not here anymore, and... I don't have to do what he says, I can make my own choices now!"
Jaune smiled and was about to give Blake a hug, but stopped himself realizing that she probably wouldn't want a hug.
Blake surprised them both when she saw him hesitate and leaned over to give him a hug instead. "Seriously, thank you guys." Blake said before she timidly pulled away.
Yang interpreted for Ruby who made an 'Oh' expression on her face.
[Well I guess that means your officially part of our group then?] Jaune signed out to Blake.
Blake looked to Yang to interpret. which she did followed her saying "I'm going to have to teach you to sign if your going to hang out with these two."
Blake looked embarrassed and off to the side "I-I G-Guess I could learn sure."
Jaune just smirked and signed [Welcome to the group] as Yang translated.
Blake was about to say something as the bell went off, Jaune tapped Ruby on the shoulder and pointed at the bell, and the group went off their own separate ways.
Science class had finally arrived, as the various pairings were scrambling to finish getting ready to present their projects. Jaune leaned back in his seat cool as a cucumber, Blake's leg shook as the nerves were slightly getting to her.
Jaune slipped her a note 'Okay I planed for this, I got a version where I can sign out half the presentation while the teacher reads my presentation notes out for me, that way you only need to worry about the second half."
"Are you going to be able to do that, you've been barely signing at all today because of your shoulder" Blake asked him.
Jaune gave a thumbs up to Blake as they were called up. Jaune walked up to Dr Merlot and handed him two separate pieces of paper, one explaining what he needed from the teacher, and the other having a copy of the script of the first two minutes of the presentation. "Unorthodox to be sure Jaune, but I agree to it." the teacher had said.
Blake had taped up the poster board to the white board at the front of the class and waited for Jaune to get started. She watched Jaune rub his shoulder before taking off his button up flannel shirt so he could sign easier for the presentation. Blake, and by extension the class saw the huge and ugly purple bruise on his arm that went from his shoulder blade to just above his elbow.
Jaune signaled for the doctor to start as he started to sign out his speech, Blake watched Jaune as he did his part, noting a couple times when Jaune would overextend his shoulder and wince in pain a bit. once he was at the half way point the thought occurred to her "Wait, he's doing this to show me that I can do this as much as he can, he's hurt and still doing his half." A mix of determination and guilt washed over her "That is such a dick move Jaune, but I see your hearts in the right place."
Once her turn came up to speak she froze for a second until she looked at Jaune and collected her thoughts. Blake took a deep breath, closed her eyes and started to speak, her voice wavered at first but as she found that the class was not teasing her, or giving her any kind of grief her confidence grew.
Before she had known it, she was done, her part of the presentation was over. She looked at Jaune in approval who just held a hand out for a high five, which she gave.
"Good work you two, go ahead and sit down and lets see if the rest of the class can hit the bar you set." The doctor said.
Blake sat down and felt a weight lift from here that she didn't even realize was there. This time she was bouncing in her seat, not because of nerves but rather in excitement in what she managed to pull off.
Jaune smiled. It was a small thing, but it was still one for the win column in his eyes.
After class as Jaune walked off to his last class for the day, and once Blake was out of sight, he allowed himself to clinch his right arm in agony as the pain in his arm from using it as much as he had to today finally started to get at him. He leaned up against a wall and pulled a small bag with a single dose of his mild painkillers in it out of his backpack and swallowed the pill dry before slipping the small bag into his backpack.
As he leaned up to start walking he hear a couple girls talking nearby "So they said that cheerleader is going to be out for a few weeks still?"
"Yeah, I heard they had to operate on her and she almost died!" The other girl said
"Oh man, that means they have to replace her on the cheer squad right?" The first girl asked.
"Yeah it's been a big scramble to find a replacement for her ever since then." the second girl mentioned
The first girl thought for a second. "Didn't someone else also get hit by the same car?"
As the two girls passed Jaune, who was still waiting for the pain to pass, the second girl said "Yeah but who cares, it's not like anyone knows who they are."
Jaune winced as he heard the girls casually brush him off just for not being popular, and he'd be lying if it didn't bother him. As he walked and held his arm off to his side to keep it from irritating his shoulder worse, he thought to himself "Always the Dark knight. Always trying to help no mater how much it hurts."
Jaune went to his last class, and the rest of his day went on without incident.
And so Blake is now part of the group, its going to be fun seeing her grow a a character, as it will be fun to see how the rest of the group grows.
The next few keys events are already written in my notes, and it will require a bit of a time skip to reach the next event. Were ten chapters in and the core cast has not been fully introduced yet, so I need to get on that one. But I didn't have much else to say here. Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter.
