04/24/2000… late in the evening.

Jaune stepped into the door of the family home after a long day of spending time with Ruby feeling every single nerve in his right leg burning in agony from being overworked. Mina quickly poked her around the corner and saw her son's face before she walked over and put an arm around him to remove the pressure from his leg.

"You absolute dork! You should have texted me!" Mina said shaking her head as she brute-forced her son towards a chair in the living room.

Once Jaune was sitting he signed [Sorry, I need to push myself every once in a while or I'm never going to get any better.]

"Your leg has severe nerve damage, it's not like you're going to just to just work out your leg till it's better," Mina said. "This kind of injury is only healed by time!"

[Yeah but Weiss had to relearn to walk without a walker over a couple years, and her injuries were far worse than mine.] Jaune signed back to his mother.

Mina looked at the clock, seeing it was close to eight in the evening, "Anyways why were out so late? I know you had that lunch appointment with your therapist, but I figured you would have been back after that."

Jaune made a show of collapsing his cane with one hand while he signed to his mother with his other hand [I mean if you really want to know, I went to see Ruby after the meeting.]

"You walked all the way to Ruby's place?" Mina asked "With your leg? Well, crap Jaune no wonders you're in pain right now."

Jaune tried to rub the pain out of his leg while barely trying to hide the face it was bothering him in the first place.

Mina got a slightly amused look on her face "So what did you need to talk to her about?"

Jaune paused for a moment [Actually if you really wanted to know, I went over there to talk to her about the idea of getting back together.]

Mina raised an eyebrow "Is that really a good idea right now? You know after what happened?"

[I mean she's down for us getting back together, I just have to remember she's in the place I was at during our first try. I have to let her set the pace and be ready to stop her if she wants to take us to an unsafe place in our relationship.] Jaune signed.

Mina took a second to think it over "Just be careful, the last thing I want is for the two of you to end up hurting each other again."

Jaune nodded rubbing his leg which Mina noticed "Yeah we need to get you set up with a driver's license buddy" She said as she looked away uncomfortably from her son.

Jaune made a bit of a show of stretching the leg out, which did hurt. before he stood back up with his Cane.

[Right as rain, I'm going to get a shower, I get the feeling tomorrow is going to be interesting.] Jaune signed.

"Yeah your sister probably wants to see you anyways, you know how hard she latches on to you," Mina said.

[It's because I'm a light sleeper and I can make a bottle in less than a minute the way she likes it.] Jaune signed.

Mina chuckled "Also did your voice box get tongue punched too hard today that you can't speak to me instead of sign?"

Jaune held a hand to his throat before signing [Actually I just overdid it. If I try to talk anymore I'm going to taste copper]

Mina nodded and said "Get your shower and I'll warm up some leftovers for you, Alan and your sister are in the living room," before heading off towards the kitchen.

Jaune smiled and nodded before heading off to get his shower.


The next morning Jaune arrived at school and slowly walked in, he had picked up the habit of arriving a solid fifteen minutes sooner than he had previously been showing up at school.

Jaune had in recent months got an, he felt undeserved, reputation as a guy that just refused to stop. Other classmates had noticed that he had survived a car accident, a suicide attempt, a beating that put him in the hospital, and now most recently his own brutal murder attempt.

It had been both a blessing and a curse, that people tended to give him space when he hobbled through the halls of the school. He was able to make his way to where his friends were all waiting with little difficulty. as he limped up behind Ruby he leaned over and kissed the top of her head which caused her to look up with a giggle while he sat down next to her and rested his cane by his feet like a barbarian king would rest his sword.

It wasn't missed by the rest of their group who looked at the pair with visible confusion, made worse so Ruby grabbed one of Jaune's arms to wrap around her.

Yang blinked and looked at Neptune saying "See it only took him almost dying to get back with my sister."

Neptune chuckled as he looked at the pair "So is this a recent thing or have you two been keeping secrets again."

"Actually" Ruby started to say in her own slightly off tone of voice "Since yesterday."

Weiss spoke up "And this is okay how? I mean should any of us be working on our relationships at a time like this?"

Yang chimed in "Well, I mean most of the people at this table were in some form of a relationship before…. Well… you know… And Jaune and Penny broke up because of what happened…"

"I agree with Yang, it's fine Weiss," Blake added. "If this makes them happy. Then we should all be happy for them."

"Alright, who asked who out then?" Weiss demanded to know

Ruby Started to sign hesitantly before Jaune said out loud "I asked her." in his painful sounding raspy voice.

Ruby quickly added by signing [Yeah, I mean I'll admit I was a bit hesitant to say 'yes' but I had been wanting this for a while.]

Blake asked, "Why would you hesitate?"

Jaune remained silent as Ruby signed out [Well, I kinda caused our relationship to fall apart the last time, and I'll admit I'm not in the best place emotionally, but I also feel like it would be wrong to not move forward after what happened.]

Jaune stayed silent, he couldn't have said it better himself.

Weiss looked like she disagreed, Jaune couldn't get a read as to why though. "What's going on in your head Weiss. Are you acting like this because you don't think we're ready? Because you're having your own doubts about you and Blake? Or is it because it's Ruby?"

"Just make sure you don't go hurting each other Again, no one is in the mood for that bullshit," Weiss said as she reached for her walker and started to leave the table.

"Since when do... you need that again?" Jaune asked.

"My legs have been hurting lately, I dedicated myself to break it out, it's none of your business," Weiss said as she left.

Jaune watched Weiss walk off with a look of concern in his eyes before Blake chose to speak up "Well I'm happy for the two of you, I was honestly kind rooting for you both."

Jaune nodded politely but his head was clearly no longer in the conversation. As the bell rang shortly after everyone started to get up and head for their classes, Ruby lingered behind to walk with her once again boyfriend towards their class.

[This is bothering you isn't it?] Ruby signed

[It is bothering me a little, Weiss seems to be almost taking us getting back together personally.] Jaune signed back with one hand as he walked alongside Ruby.

[Well it's easy for Weiss to complain at us about getting back together while she has Blake, Ren and Nora have each other and Yang and Neptune are a thing.] Ruby signed while grumbling to herself. [What, did she think the two of us should have had to get through all of this alone?]

Jaune was silent while Ruby signed out her gripes, one thing still picked at him. [Why is she using her walker? She's long past that point right?]

Ruby paused and thought about it. [She attacked our relationship and you're wondering about her walker?]

[I'm not worried about what she thinks of us, I'm worried that she's slipping mentally.] Jaune signed [I've been where all of you are right now, and you know how bad I got.]

Ruby paused mid-step remembering that horrid night signing [Yeah, I know how bad you got.] She looked at Jaune asking [Do you think that's what's happening to Weiss now?]

[She lost her sister, from what you all told me she was in the house when it happened.] Jaune signed out [Yeah I'm worried about how she's doing mentally.]

Ruby signed [Damn, now that I think about it she's been on a downhill trend, how did we not notice this?]

[None of us are doing great at the moment.] Jaune signed

[Heh, don't lump yourself in with the rest of us, I'm still worried about how well you took almost dying] Ruby signed.

[Eh, that's fair, I really do need to take it easy and stop getting hurt all the damn time, this anit healthy] Jaune signed with a smirk

Ruby looked less than amused and stood in front of him forcing the pair to stop. [Yes, You do need to stop getting hurt like this. First, it was the car, then it was that fight with Adam's thugs, and now you almost were stabbed to death…]

Jaune leaned on his Cane and signed with his free hand [I think my fighting days are over Ruby.]

Ruby pulled Jaune in for a kiss which Jaune happily returned before she signed [Yeah, I think it's time you let someone else take the hits for a while.] As she then finished walking with Jaune the rest of the class.

"If only Ruby…. If Only…" Jaune thought through a smile as he walked the rest of the way to class with her.


Jaune had Almost slept through the group therapy session after school that day, the day had ran him harder than he expected and now he was asked to hang out for a couple minutes after to talk to Ms. Fall. Jaune waved off his friends and signed that he'd catch up and he wouldn't be long before he turned to Ms. Fall.

Jaune cleared his throat and said "How… Can I help?"

Cinder leaned against her desk and asked directly "How did it go?"

Jaune tilted his head in confusion which prompted Ms. Fall to ask directly "I Noticed you and Ms. Long were quite close today.

"To be blunt…" Jaune rasped out "It backfired…"

Cinder nodded "I had noticed Ms. Schnee is struggling still, she's going to be the hardest to mend Jaune."

Jaune nodded in agreement "I'll… Try to be there… For her" He said with a hand to his throat.

"That's all I'm asking, we need to think of a way to get her looking forward again, and not backward." Cinder said

Jaune shot Cinder a thumbs up as he headed out.

"You know… Part of the reason I suggested getting back with Ms. Long was for your sake… you might not realize it, but you rely on her quite a bit" Cinder said.

Jaune blushed and said, "I… I know…" Before he stepped out to make it back to his friends.

Jaune stepped out and directly into the arms of Ruby who was looking up at him grinning.

[You were eavesdropping?] Jaune signed

[Yup!] Ruby said [So Ms. Fall suggested you get back with me eh?]

Jaune tilted his head and chuckled [Honestly all she did was kick me in the ass into doing something I was going to do on my own… Eventually.]

Ruby audibly made an "Mmmhmm" sound as she pulled him in for a kiss. Once she pulled away she smirked at Jaune and signed [Hey my parents won't be home any time soon today, you want to come over?]

Jaune blushed at the idea, the thought had crossed his mind more than once that day.

Jaune smiled and signed back [Yeah, let's go.] Before heading off with his girlfriend.


So I'll be honest, I don't have a single thing to say about this chapter, so I'm going to go straight into the comments this time, sorry this one took a while, I'll be honest I've just been distracted lately.

Sansman, I'm glad to see your enthusiasm for the newly reformed couple. I know I kept them apart for quite some time now and it's good to get them back where they need to be.

Gustrubio, I'm sorry to say the threesome ship had sailed. Maybe in an AU or something.

Beowolf, we'll see if they make it this time, I mean the story's not over and neither is the struggles the group is going to be facing.

Retroque, Yeah I really do need to pick Dust Eater back up at some point. I kinda left that one in a bad spot didn't I?

To everyone else, I want to say thank you again for reading and I hope you all have a great day!