It could be said that sometimes, life can act like loanshark, happily willing to let you borrow and borrow away to your heart's content. More than willing to let you borrow more than you could pay off.
Then collect all at once.
Jaune Arc learned this lesson today.
11/10/1999… in an unfamiliar room
Jaune woke up in a bed that didn't feel like his, staring at a ceiling he didn't recognize as his own, he heard the sound of beeps nearby and felt pain all over his body.
He tested his body and found that one of his eyes wouldn't open fully, and his right hand was in a cast.
When he tried to sit up all he felt was a stabbing pain, when he reached down to check the side where the pain was coming from, he felt fabric from where his ribs were bound up tightly with Gauze bandages.
Jaune leaned back and tried to think for a second, all he got was flashes of blows raining down on him.
"I got my ass kicked hard didn't I…" He thought through the haze of a waning concussion
It was at that point he heard someone open the door and enter the hospital room. Jaune looked over at the trio of his mother who was carrying his baby sister as well as Alan and what looked like Ruby as the Trio came in, it was clear that Ruby and Mina had both been crying before they came in.
"Well, now I just feel like shit…" Jaune thought to himself.
"You're awake!" Mina shouted as she handed little Beth to Alan and she rushed over to his side. "Christ's sake Jaune are you okay?"
Jaune struggled to sign with his one good hand [I feel like crap if I'm being perfectly honest]
"Yeah I can't blame you, you've been out cold for the better part of the day since they found you yesterday!" Mina said as her eyes were tearing up.
[I was out for a day? Shit…] Jaune signed out still feeling tired
"Yeah, I'd say your pretty lucky Jaune," Alan said from the far side of the bed. "You had to be driven in an ambulance, Apparently two of your classmate's, Velvet and Coco stumbled across you sprawled out on the sidewalk from a pretty vicious beating…"
Ruby sat and stared at him from the corner fighting back tears Jaune just nodded at her for a second before he signed [I don't fully remember what happened…]
"We don't know Jaune," Alan added. "My best guess is that rumor about you and Cardin caught up to you in a bad way."
[Cardin didn't end up in the hospital from what I understand,] Jaune signed out.
"No... he didn't…" Alan sighed out "I don't suppose you recall who did this to you?"
Jaune tried to focus his thoughts back to the day before…
The day before...
Jaune was surrounded, bleeding from a busted lip and not doing well. As he looked around the trio of his fellow students he tried to pick out their names, He recognized Sun Wukong right away as one the guys Blake used to hang out with before she started to hang out with his group. He figured the other two were Sage and Scarlet, a pair of toadies of Sun's.
He jerked to the side as Sage rushed him with a wild haymaker and caught a kick to the stomach for his effort. Sun had other plans though as he smashed Jaune in the back of the head with a rock he had picked up.
Jaune's head swam as he stumbled into a nearby fence trying to steady himself as the world started to distort. He couldn't even react when Sage kicked his leg out from under him bringing Jaune to his knees.
Sage returned and heel kicked Jaune in the side of his head sending him crashing down to the floor before he put the boots to his side. "Stupid fuck, you shouldn't bother fighting back your making this worse for yourself!" He shouted as he gave Jaune one more good kick for good measure.
"As much fun as I'm having kicking his punk ass, dump his bag!" Sun called out to Scarlett.
Scarlet overturned his back and emptied it out scattering the few items he kept in it as Jaune painfully pulled him into an upright position. "Just textbooks, a Discman, and an artbook."
Sun walked over and stomped the Discman into the ground as Jaune watched. "Yeah fuck you to buddy…" Jaune thought as he tried to pull himself up.
Jaune was just beginning to shake the cobwebs when Sage kicked him back down and stomped directly on his right-hand several times breaking something in it. Jaune let out a silent roar of pain as he felt something in his hand give.
By that point, he was finding it difficult to see through the pain and the early onset of a concussion, he glanced over just in time to see Sun start to light his art book on fire…
Back in the present Jaune signed to Alan [I can't picture their faces… if I see them again I'll point them out to you or call Tai.]
"Alright, let us know what you come up with okay?" Alan said. "I… I understand they torched your art book… I know you had a lot of pictures you can't replace in there."
Jaune nodded and finger signed [My old one from back west is in the box under my desk, I can get people to hold still long enough for me to draw them again.]
Mina said with a sigh "that's not the point Jaune, I'm just happy they didn't torch your textbooks…"
Ruby rubbed her arms uncomfortably in the corner as she watched the trio talk.
"I'm not going to sugar coat this on Jaune if this has anything to do with the Rumors of what happened to Cardin…" Alan started to say.
"That's enough Alan, I frankly don't know, and don't care if he did kick his ass, the shithead had it coming either way." Mina said as she had started to lead her husband out of the room "Come on, buy me lunch and let's give Ruby a chance to speak her piece to him…"
Ruby took that as her queue to join the conversation and walked over and sat next to Jaune at the far edge of the bed. The pair stared at each other for a few moments in silence.
[Do, I talk first? do you talk first? How are we going to play this?] Jaune slowly signed with one hand.
Ruby pointed at herself before she signed [I… wanted to start off by saying sorry again.]
[For what happened?] Jaune slowly signed out with his good hand.
[For starters…] Ruby signed. [That and you being in a hospital again.]
Jaune nodded and finger signed slowly [Yeah…]
The pair sat awkwardly in silence for several moments. Not that one of them had a choice Before Jaune signed out again [I was a pretty crap boyfriend wasn't I?]
Ruby scoffed and angrily signed [You're saying bullshit like that to me? The crappy girlfriend that got sweet-talked by some asshole Jock?]
Jaune signed back [Yeah, I won't lie that was a really shitty thing for you to do. But come on I was barely a boyfriend towards the end. I never took the initiative on anything.]
[You wanted to take it slow…] Ruby signed. [I didn't…]
Both were silent for a moment before they looked at each other and signed [We should have talked more.]
Both got a goofy look when both realized they had signed the same thing to each other, Ruby couldn't help but crack up with a light laugh which caused Jaune to laugh painfully.
[God doesn't make me laugh right now, I'm pretty sure I have a fractured rib] Jaune signed out.
Ruby's face contorted into a look of anger [Damnit Jaune who did this, I know that you know who it was…]
Jaune looked off to the side [I feel like my head is throbbing through my skull Ruby.] Jaune saw the unconvinced look on Ruby's face before he signed [But yeah, I know who…]
[Then why in the hell are you not telling my dad or Alan then?!] Ruby signed out with frantic anger in her movements.
Jaune face twisted into a grimace and signed [Because I don't know why they jumped me.]
[You... I mean the Rumor about Cardin?] Ruby signed.
[The three guys that Jumped me had nothing to do with Cardin. They were not on a sports team or friends with Cardin.] Jaune signed [So I want to know why they Targeted me.]
Ruby shook her head before she signed [I don't get it, Jaune you got beaten into the ground, you didn't wake up for a day, and I was there when the doctor went over your injuries, a couple more bad hits and you'd be in a coma you might have been able to wake up from!]
[I know, I took the beating, believe me, I know.] Jaune signed.
"You don't get it though Jaune!" Ruby shouted.
Jaune took a second to take as deep a breath as he could and gather his thoughts. [I know what it looks like, but I'm not going to try to take this on alone.]
[You had better not! I know we're not on good terms right now, but you need me to help.] Ruby signed.
[I'm not name dropping who jumped me because I don't want you involved.] Jaune signed.
[Why? Why don't you want me involved?] Ruby signed with a look of worry on her face
[Because The assholes that did this to me, I get the real impression that they wouldn't hesitate to put you, or Blake, or anyone of us in the hospital as well.] Jaune signed [You didn't see them practically getting off on it.]
[So your worried I'd get hurt, like it's okay for you to take the beating but now us?] Ruby signed in anger. [I told you that I can hold my own in a fight.]
Jaune shook his head and signed [Yeah but I'm not trying to get into another fight right now, been through enough of those lately.]
Ruby moved to sit closer to him and signed almost like she was trying to whisper it [That rumor about Cardin?]
Jaune's eyes went eyed for a brief second before he realized Ruby had it figured out and signed [Fine, Yes I'm the one that Jumped Cardin.]
[What the hell were you thinking?] Ruby signed back.
[I was thinking that son of a bitch helped destroy the one thing this town had done to me that was actually good and he needed to fucking pay for it.] Jaune signed [Don't misunderstand me, I didn't do it for you.]
Ruby was slightly taken back by the cold expression that flashed for a second across his face. [So what, you think you can win all your fights now.] she signed at him.
[No, but I know where to start on this one.] Jaune signed back.
[Well where do we start?] Ruby signed.
[I am going to start by talking to Blake, see what she knows about them,] Jaune signed
Ruby sighed and folded her arms while she counted from ten to keep from blowing up at him.
[Okay, I'm going to make this as clear as I can make it.] Ruby signed [You worry me, I'm worried right now that you're going to try to take this on alone, and I know what happens when you don't tell us things.]
[I'm not your problem Ruby, we broke up.] Jaune retorted in sign.
Ruby didn't look like she was taking no for an answer signing [God damn it, I'm doing this just for you!] She reached out and put a hand on his cheek and smiled before signing [I won't pretend I don't miss what we had.]
Ruby closed her eyes and shook her head not moving her hand as she kept going [I really do miss us, but I know we can't even call each other friends right now.] She gave Jaune a playful slap before she kept going [Just don't you think for a second that I'm going to turn my back on you. You won't face this alone okay?]
Jaune gently moved Ruby's hand off his cheek before he signed [I've done some pretty questionable things as of late Ruby.]
[That's between you and God,] Ruby signed back.
[Half our group has been dropping hints that I should give things a shot with Penny.] Jaune signed.
[If that's meant to be, then I'll be there with Weiss's old pom-poms cheering you on.] Ruby said back.
[No you wouldn't,] Jaune signed back.
Ruby sighed and signed [Okay, no, I wouldn't]
[It's not really important right now anyway, I'm not interested in dating again.] Jaune signed. [At least not till we sort our latest crisis our.]
Ruby's face turned sad for a second but nodded before she signed out [Yeah, we can sort feelings out later, we have to get to the bottom of this.]
[There you go saying we again.] Jaune signed out.
[We'll need to keep your parent's in the dark for now.] Ruby signed to Jaune.
Jaune just nodded in agreement before he signed out [As well as your dad, truthfully, it's my word against there's right now anyways.]
Ruby held up a hand for a high five which Jaune returned. Just as Mina walked back in with Beth. Mina smiled and said, "Well I'm glad to see you two talking again." Before she handed beth carefully to Ruby.
"Hey can you hold her for a bit for me, I got her fed and changed so she just needs someone to snuggle with, I also got you lunch so I was coming to get you so you can come to eat as well," Mina said. "Jaune…."
[I'll be fine mom, there's nothing wrong with me that time won't fix.] He signed to her.
"If you remember anything about your attackers…" started to say.
Jaune interrupted her by signing [You and Alan will be the first to know.]
Mina smiled and led Ruby out giving Jaune some time to rest before the doctors came in and got him ready for release.
Well here we are, new week new update. This chapter was one that was slightly overdue. Jaune had been up to this point, all but getting away with murder, and I had planed on started off the next storyline with Jaune taking a bit of a beating, I just decided to make it far worse and and move the start of it to be more in line with him either taking the beat down as a direct result of the "rumor" of him beating down Cardin. In a way, Jaune may not have deserved that beating he took in this chapter, but he did leave the window open for his attackers to be able to make it look like Jaune got whooped over the rumor of Jaune jumping Cardin.
Also, this is going to also begin a rebuilding of Jaune and Ruby's friendship as, we can see here, they find themselves working together on this task they find themselves on. I know it's not the most realistic storyline but hey stuff like this happens in real life, so why the heck not.
Also, boy did I find a hell of a way to work the Rest of Team SSSN into the story right? Making them villains?
So to address a few of the reviews from last week...
Dragonlord: I'm sure this was not what you had in mind, but I hope this helps put Jaune back in his place so to speak.
JaunexPennyShip: I'm internally on the fence as to if I want to have a Jaune and Penny relationship in this story. Right now they got the close friendship that had mostly happened off screen. But I kinda feel like since Penny is on the autism spectrum disorder, she wouldn't realize that a relationship between her and Jaune would just be Jaune rebounding from Ruby at this stage. I have to admit after writing these two for almost 20 chapters now i'm kinda liking the idea of the pairing though.
Gustrubio: They are all about 16 to 17ish in story, although it's a slight retcon I have them in their Junior year of highschool. I have the "Oh crap college exists" arc planed for in the future, but that's a ways out.
Big Bad Beowulf: Nice to know I can get really depraved in my torment of the cast Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!
In any rate, this is officially the first chapter of the new year, and as of this chapter, AQMW is now my longest running fic chapterwise. I hope you all enjoyed the right up to this point, because we still have a ways to go.
