07/17/1998….

It was barely two weeks ago when Lie Ren, the young fifteen year old foster child and his sorta girlfriend saw their friend Jaune arc leave town to move with his mother across the state.

As Ren and Jaune's girlfriend Pyrrha walked the suburban area of the city where they soon would be traveling to on a daily basis to attend one of several highschools. Ren tried to raise Pyrrha's spirits to little effect.

"Well I mean the school did look nice, I mean it looked like it had a decent sized library, not to mention the library down the block means you'll never be hard up for stuff to read" Ren said in and upbeat tone.

"It looks like a prison…" Pyrrha said to Ren in a tired almost monotone voice.

Ren walked with Pyrrha in silence. "So uh… Nothing from Jaune yet?"

"No…." Pyrrha said as she walked quietly along side Ren.

"He said he'd reach out to us once he had internet at his new home. Who knows what's going on his side of the state right now." Ren said with a tone of false certainty in his voice.

"Yeah…" Pyrrha said in an almost whisper like tone.

Ren looked away for a second to look at a barber shop across the street as he pondered getting a haircut with some of his free money, he had managed to keep an eye on Pyrrha for the most part.

That's when he saw Pyrrha step off the sidewalk into the crosswalk.

"Hey wait the light's still red!" Ren shouted as he reached out to grab Pyrrha.

He failed…

The sound of compression brakes and screeching tires filled his ears as he noticed in terror, the Commuter bus that was trying to stop in time to avoid hitting her.

"Pyrrha no!" Shouted Ren as he stretched out to try against all hope to reach her in time.

He failed…


06/09/1999…

Ren Struggled with helping Nora unload the back of the moving truck. The long awaited move had finally arrived. It took them almost 8 hours to get the Uhaul over the mountain pass. But they made it. For the most part they had an easy time of unloading the truck. Now all that they had left to unload was this damn bookshelf that was refusing to move for them

Ren decided to take a break as he looked up and down the street where they now called home. He decided that quite frankly he was rather unimpressed. He had heard this towns claim to fame was that "Famous" Schnee family called this sleepy burg home. But if your towns claim to fame was a man who built a fortune off trash collection and collecting cars… It didn't speak well for the town.

"This place kinda sucks, I already miss tree's…" Ren said out loud.

"Yeah, I mean at least the neighbors seem nice right? That Tai fella dropped everything to help us empty out the Uhaul right?"

"Yeah... " Ren just nodded as he looked around wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Looking for something?" Nora asked.

"Just taking it all in." Ren said with a content sigh. "I guess part of me is just glad to be as far away from our old home as we could get"

Nora smiled knowing what Ren meant by that. It wasn't a lie that Ren had taken Pyrrha's death hard, she knew he blamed himself to the point of not even wanting to speak with Jaune out his perceived failure to save her.

Nora knew from several conversations with Jaune that he took it badly as well. She hoped that the two of them reconnecting could be good for both of them.

"This will be good for us, I can promise you that if you let it be Ren" Nora said putting a hand on his cheek.

They turned to look at Tai as he stepped out of their new home. "I went ahead and got your beds set up, good thing you both have those lightweight metal bed frames." Tai paused as he looked at the struggling teens "That bookshelf giving you two trouble?"

"Yeah, it was a miracle that we even got it in the truck." Ren said to his new neighbor.

"Well let me get up there and help you out then once this last shelf is out, we'll unpack the bare essentials and I'll order you all a Pizza on me to welcome my new friends to town." Tai said with a boisterous laugh.

The Trio managed to get the Bookshelf out of the Moving truck and were catching their breath when they all heard someone knock on the side of the truck to announce their arrival.

Tai turned and looked first calling out "Hey Ru- oh your not my Kid, How you doing Jaune?"

Nora and Ren both turned and looked at Jaune who stood there with a big grin on his face waving before he signed to Tai [Doing good. Someone forgot to tell me they were arriving today.]

"Oh hey, You three know each other?" Tai said to the trio.

"Were old friends." Nora said in an overly excited tone.

"Guess I'll order more Pizza then I know this troublemaker is almost never alone for long." Tai said as he started to roll the bookshelf into the house on a furniture dolly leaving the trio to look at each other awkwardly for a moment.

Ren and Nora noticed the changes in Jaune, his hair was longer and slightly unkempt, he also looked like he lost a fair deal of weight over the last year. Jaune would notice that Ren was finally taller thank Nora and he looked like he was growing his hair out into a ponytail.

Jaune signed out with an apologetic look on his face [Seriously though I would have helped you unload if I knew you were arriving today]

"Yeah, well surprise!" Nora giggled out before she pulled ren and Jaune into a group hug.

[Well how the hell are you two!] Jaune signed out slowly to allow them to keep up.

"Let's just say that the last year has been a struggle for obvious reasons." Ren said.

Jaune nodded [I'm sorry I wasn't there for you guys…]

"Yeah, I am too." Ren said with a slight waiver in his voice.

"Hey, none of that from you two, new home new lives okay?" Nora said. "We put the past to bed and look forward to the future!"

[Yeah no kidding. Mom get's married July 30th. I'm going to be a brother sometime in October] Jaune signed [I can't keep up with it all!]

"Yeah I mean everything has been so crazy this last year, us losing our last foster parents on drug charges. Sam scooping us up before we got separated in the system… Absolute insanity." Nora said out loud.

Ren noticed out of the corner of his eye a group of girls sitting down at a picnic table in front of their neighbors house, one girl in particular, a brown haired girl with a red button up shirt was watching them pretty intently.

[Jesus Nora, I remember you telling me that you were pulled from your foster home, but Drug charges? What the hell?] Jaune signed with a look of pure exasperation on his face.

Nora laughed and said "Hey we'll tell you all about it later!"

"Did you know you have some girls burning a hole in the back of your head over there?" Ren finally said feeling bold to point it out.

Jaune turned and waved [I know them it's cool, want me to call them over so I can introduce you guys?]

"You never spoke much about friends." Nora said.

[Sorry I guess I wanted to focus on keeping up with you guys, you'll like them all. There as fucked up as we are.] Jaune signed before he waved them over.

Ren noticed one of them in, a girl with white hair was being helped over on a walker. And the brown haired girl had a big grin on her face.

Ren was even more surprised to see the brown haired girl sign [Hey Jaune! Are these those friends you were looking forward to see?]

"So you made a friend that can sign here?" Ren said noting almost instantly that the girl didn't turn or react to him speaking.

"Uh, yeah, my sister is deaf so it comes with the territory. I'm Yang Branwen, That's Ruby Long." the athletic looking blonde girl with the long hair said with a smile while holding out a hand to shake.

Ren took her hand and shook it followed by Nora. Ren then said "It's a pleasure to meet you, My name is Lie Ren and that's Nora Valkyrie." Ren gestured and noted the strange look he got for a second "When she was found abandoned they couldn't find her parents, so her first foster parents gave her the last name Valkyrie because she was a little warrior as a toddler."

"Oh, I think we're going to get along great Nora!" Yang said with a smile. I've been looking for a good jogging buddy for a while now.

The next girl introduced herself "My name is Blake Belladonna, I kinda fell into this merry band after Jaune here helped me out when I was dealing with a…. Well abit of an abusive ex" Blake paused "Right Ruby and Yang were also a big part of that sorry guys!"

Jaune signed out with one hand [She did most of it herself, we just gave her a nudge.]

"Always the hero huh?" Nora smiled "Looks like you didn't change all that much"

[Well… looks are deceiving you know?] Jaune signed before being overcome by a nervous silent chuckle from himself.

"My name is Weiss Schnee, I became friends with them after and accident put me in a wheelchair for the better part of the year. Jaune and the others have been there through a lot." The white haired girl said.

"Right I recognize the family name. I think your family owns half the recycling trucks back where we came from" Nora said with a warm smile.

"The one and the same." Weiss chuckled as she held out a hand for them to shake.

After handshakes were exchanged Nora looked at Ruby and signed out [Hey we both know some sign language, how did you meet Jaune]

Ruby smiled and rubbed her neck [I just happen to sit down at the right table at school.]

[Wow that's it] Nora said as she noticed casually how close this Ruby girl was standing with Jaune occasionally leaning against him.

"Well she left out the part where dipshit here was completely silent and didn't say a word to us for three whole days." Yang added.

Jaune silently chuckled and nodded out as Ruby kept going [Yeah that part is true. We kinda had to piss him off enough for him to actually admit that he could understand us.]

Nora laughed and said "Yeah he can be pretty stubborn at times. Nice to see that didn't change."

Ren was silent as he was glancing around, for some reason something about this Ruby girl infuriated him. "The hell is wrong with me, am I actually getting pissy that he made friends here? Or… Or is it because they look to be quite a bit closer than friends…" The idea made his stomach turn. Did Jaune already move on from Pyrrha?

"Is it okay that he had moved on?" the thought crossed Ren's mind.

Nora smiled at the pair. "So I might be a little bold here, because Jaune never mentioned it, but how long have you two been dating?" she said to Ruby.

Jaune rubbed his neck kinda looking uncomfortable as Ruby answered shooting a slight dirty look at her boyfriend [About the middle of December or so, getting kinda close to six months together.]

Ren caught himself looking somewhere between annoyed or pissed before he cause Jaune looking at him with a slightly stern expression. "What?"

[I know that look Ren, you don't approve?] Jaune signed

Everyone felt change in mood. Ren looked at Jaune straight "Seems a bit soon I suppose."

[You know damn well I still hurt every time I think about Pyrrha.] Jaune signed out to his friend as he tried to soften his face.

"Yeah well, You weren't there when it happened." Ren growled out.

Ruby signed out catching the sudden tension between the two boys [I'll admit, none of us knew Pyrrha, but he's talked about her often.] She looked down. After taking a second to gather her thoughts she signed out [She sounded like an amazing person and the world is clearly worse for her not being part of it.]

"I appreciate that, she was special…" Ren said as he glared at Jaune.

"Ren sweetie your being unreasonable." Nora said to him taking his hand. Yang quietly walked the others off leaving the four of them to have a bit of privacy to talk things out. "Your forgetting that we had each other and Sam to get through things, Jaune was here with only his mom."

Ren looked at Ruby, trying to hide his anger, did he really spend the year feeling guilty over her death why he was off chatting up a group of girls and forgetting her?

"How do you even get through a normal day, how do you even live with yourself." Ren barked out as the tears started to fall free…

Jaune waited till Ren was looking at him again before he signed out an answer. [Two 20mg Fluoxetine pills a day and I talk to a therapist once a week.]

"Your getting therapy that's good!" Nora said. "I tried to get Ren to try talking to someone about it for quite a while.."

Jaune stepped close to Ren and signed [Go ahead and slug me one, but I'm going to slug you back for implying that I'd stop loving Pyrrha.]

Ren didn't disappoint Slugging Jaune across the side of his face near his cheek, Jaune returned the favor hitting him in about the same spot. Jaune could hear the gasps as the girls nearby saw them exchange punches.

Ren broke down as he pulled his old friend into a hug sobbing out "I'm sorry man, I really tried to stop her… I did… I-It just happened too fast!"

Jaune hugged Ren back for a minute before he pulled back and signed [I'm sorry I didn't see how much pain she was in the whole time, I failed her for our entire relationship Ren.]

Nora glanced over at Ruby who was wiping her eye off, she noticed the clear scar on her right wrist. "Oh wow that looked like it hurt… what happened?"

Ruby glanced over at Jaune who froze up for a minute. Jaune then signed out [Did Sam talk about our conversation last december?]

"I guess I remember that one day she was cleaning out Pyrrha's computer, and had a panic attack about something and was on the phone with… I think it was your mom?" Nora said as she started to put two and two together "Oh Christ, Jaune you didn't…"

Jaune tapped a spot on his chest and signed [I actually have a small scar right here from that night… it was about a week before I started dating Ruby] once that was done Jaune rubbed his neck awkwardly.

Ruby chimed in [Yeah I mean, he was looking rough for a couple days before hand, and he forgot his bag at my place, so I went over to his place to drop it off for him, and… well it's not easy for me to want to remember him like that.]

Jaune just nodded his head. [Point is, yeah I didn't take it well… I had just read Pyrrha's letter goodbye letter she wrote me a few days before, and yeah it kinda fucked me up pretty bad you know?.] Jaune took a deep breath [She stopped me at the last second, but she got that cut on her arm for it. Now I'm considered a "Moderate Risk" to reattempt and have to talk to a shrink once a week.]

Ren nodded and rubbed out the last tears from his eyes and signed to Ruby [Thanks for keeping this dipshit alive.]

Ruby let out a chuckle and signed [Eh he kinda did save me from being hit by a car so were kinda even really.]

Nora laughed "Yeah, well let's bring the others back over I think Tai said something about food?" Nora said as she led Ruby off leaving Ren and Jaune alone.

"Sorry bout all that..." Ren said.

[So am I Ren…] As he held his arm out for a high five.

Ren reached out clasping his hand before they pulled each other in for a Bro Hug. As they both started to walk back towards the others, and Pizza, Jaune signed out [So I hope your expectations are low…]

Ren chuckled "Why that?"

Jaune smiled [While this town has spirit, I swear the god the spirit is coked up on meth half the time.]

Ren let out the first good laugh he had in days and slapped Jaune on the back. For Ren at least, to know his old friend didn't blame him for Pyrrha took a weight off of him that he carried since her death. At the same time Jaune felt uplifted knowing that he had friends here again that he could talk to about their mutual pain whenever he needed to.

Elsewhere in the home, on a heavy bookshelf rested a simple Urn that one wouldn't notice unless you looked at it. Engraved on the bronze plate was the name. Pyrrha Nikos.

In a way, the band was back together.


And Just like that, we bring Ren and Nora back into the mix. They have been pretty absent for most of the story despite being playing pretty major roles int Jaune's life before the move. I know it's a bit of a hand wave but i'll add in the reason for the move in a later chapter, it didn't fit in this one.

Either way, thanks again for reading, and you all have a great day!