05/07/2000…

As Jaune was getting ready for the morning grind, Mostly sorting through the pile of clothes for clean stuff to wear and trying to make himself look at least halfway presentable for the school day he heard a text message from his phone on the other side of the room.

Jaune decided it would have been safe to ignore it for a few minutes while he finished finding clothes to wear for the day, finding a mostly clean pair of jeans and a completely clean shirt to get dressed in. As he left the room he grabbed his phone and flipped it open to read the message after seeing it was from Blake.

'Hey, going to need to talk to you at school later.' The message said.

Jaune scoffed and replied 'Oh yeah? What's up? Is it about the Sun?'

Jaune saw a reply saying 'It's about Weiss… She IM'd me at three in the morning again…'

Jaune sighed and rubbed his forehead before he replied back 'Right, I'll try talking to her about it later, she's really fallen apart since her sister died.'

'Could you? I mean your the only person in our group that has really had to go through losing someone like that' Blake had texted back to him.

'I understand, I'll do what I can' Jaune texted before he flipped his phone closed and went back to hunting for a shirt, after he found one he was happy with and started to put it on he paused for a moment with a thought

"Jesus… When was the last time I really thought about Pyrrha?" Jaune thought as he glanced over the old box that had been sitting in the corner of his room since that night almost a year and a half ago.

"Weiss is going through the same kind of shit that I was going through back then, I still to this day can't bring myself to look in that damn box." Jaune mused as he pulled his shirt on the rest of the way.


Jaune arrived at school a few minutes earlier than he had planned, Alan was working on preparing him for a driving test in the next couple weeks and had him drive the car to school that day. The general assumption was that Jaune was not going to create any work for his mother, or raise Alan's insurance rates by driving anymore so they were both comfortable with the idea of it.

Jaune got the car to school with barely a white knuckle and with no new Grey hairs on Alan's head.

"Good job buddy," Alan said as Jaune put the car into the park and started to get out.

Jaune just shot Alan a thumbs up as he reached into the back seat for his cane and backpack.

"You know I still worry how well you're taking everything…" Alan said out loud.

Jaune just signed [What do you mean?]

"I've seen a lot of students struggle with loss and hardships in the past, I've even seen firsthand how you have reacted," Alan said pausing briefly "Your reaction to nearly being killed…. You're too calm, except for the one time you broke down in the entryway at home, you've barely shown any signs of struggle with it."

[Well except for the cane I didn't really suffer any major long term problems.] Jaune signed

"You lost two weeks of your life, you even admitted to us that you didn't expect to ever wake up after what happened to you," Alan said. "Look, my point is, when you're off trying to save the world, make sure you take a second to make sure you're not needing to be saved as well okay?"

Jaune nodded to Alan and shakily said "I'll be careful." in a barely audible tone.

"That's all I'm asking Jaune…" Alan said as he walked with him towards the school.

Jaune fell in line with Alan as they both walked on towards the school's front doors.


Jaune unfortunately couldn't make it to the table, his early morning and his first period of classes were dominated by a long sit down with his therapist Ms. Fall. He has been in her office so often since he started needing a therapist he started to notice when small changes were made to the office itself.

"You… Moved that vase with the flowers in it?" Jaune asked speaking softly to converse his voice.

Ms. Fall, to her credit, had taken steps for their one on one chat to be in as quiet of an environment as she could make it so Jaune didn't have to force himself to speak up to be heard.

"Well one of my other patients, no not one you know, tried to grab it off my shelf to throw it at my head the other day." Cinder said. "Honestly I know I only see kids at their lowest but I'm starting to wonder if there's a single well-adjusted student in this school."

"I'm… Starting to wonder that… as well." Jaune quietly replied.

"Well speaking of which, how are you personally holding up?" Cinder asked.

Jaune started to type on the provided text to speech device 'Well getting Sun to actually agree to start coming to group appointments was a big win for us, yeah, but I'm still concerned that Weiss is not sleeping at night. Weiss wants me to talk to her but-"

"Jaune…" Cinder interrupted

"Yeah?" Jaune replied in turn.

"I'm not asking how your friends are doing, I'm asking how you are doing?" Cinder said with a smile.

Jaune paused for a moment and started to type 'Well… I found myself thinking of my ex earlier today… I thought it was… strange to be thinking about her.'

Cinder leaned back into her seat "What was so weird about it?

Jaune kept typing 'It's just, well I couldn't honestly remember when I last really thought about her… she went from being my obsession for several years, but now she barely pinged on my mental radar lately.'

"You have had a lot of other things going on with your life, you also have a certain cute Deaf girlfriend to consider" Cinder.

"That is… Very true.." Jaune said out loud

"Is everything going okay in that department?" Cinder asked.

'We kinda disagreed about how to handle Sun, but it's been going okay otherwise?' Jaune typed out.

Cinder sat back and thought it over before she spoke up "I do appreciate what you're doing for him. I'm not going to be so cliche as to call what Adam Taurus did to Sun 'Brainwashing' or anything like that."

"But?" Jaune said softly not noticing the way his entire body tensed up at the mention of the person that almost killed him.

"But I don't want to harm yourself in the process," cinder said, noticing very keenly how he tensed up when Adam's name was mentioned.

"I… know what I'm doing Ms. Fall." Jaune smiled and said.

"I'm sure you do, I wouldn't be asking for your help if I didn't have the utmost confidence that you could handle things." Cinder said. "Also we're supposed to be talking about your problems right now, not your friends."

Jaune coughed and said, "My friends, are the problem right now."

Cinder leaned forward and asked "So, you can say with full honesty that your not having nightmares, shakes, bouts of melancholy or any feelings that your not in control of your situation"

Jaune typed 'Of course I have those feelings sometimes. It wouldn't be natural to not have those kinds of feelings, I've been dealing with those moments though for almost two years. I have to be honest, I got really good at pushing them aside to deal with later.'

"Does your girlfriend know you still have these feelings?" Cinder asked.

'I went from being so fragile that I was at risk of shattering at the slightest passing breeze. I went from someone my friends and family worried about constantly to being the person people are turning to in there times of need.' Jaune typed out 'So no… I'm playing it close to my chest for now.'

"You still need your support circles" Cinder added "No man is an island"

"I'll keep that in mind…" Jaune said, "I think I need to start heading to my second class though…"

"I won't keep you Jaune… just consider what I'm saying here okay?" Cinder said politely.

Jaune just nodded as he exited cinder's office.

Cinder noticed how bad his hand shook as he left.


After classes that day he met up with the others as they had planned. Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and himself had all made plans to meet up after school to spend some overdue face to face time with each other.

Weiss and Ruby thought they were just having a double date of sorts. Blake and Jaune knew this was going to be a hail mary attempt to get it in Weiss's head that she needed to start taking everyone seriously about sleeping at night.

Which is why it confused the hell out of Jaune when Blake met him halfway to the meetup point.

Jaune signed with one hand, his other hand was working leaning on his Cane as he quickly signed out [What's up?]

"I'm guessing you haven't seen Weiss today?" Blake said Jaune took in the exhausted look painted on her face

[Christ's sake how late did she keep you up last night?] Jaune signed as his own face turned both concerned and infuriated

"That's not the issue… you'll see what I'm talking about here, but I need you to wear the kid's gloves on this one okay?" Blake said with a deeply troubled tone to her voice.

Jaune followed Blake in silence as he mentally braced for the impact, when he saw where Weiss and Ruby were waiting for the pair, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Weiss had her walker.

[What in the goddamn hell is she doing!] Jaune signed, clearly pissed off. [She hasn't needed that damn thing in a long time.]

"Yeah I know, she seems to have convinced herself she needs it as I said, eggshells please," Blake said

[I have big feet, I might step on a few of them] Jaune signed as anger made him pick up his pace and start carrying his cane at his side.

"Jaune?" Blake with a well-deserved look of concern on her face.

Jaune walked up and as he remembered why he needed his cane to put an arm around Ruby to steady himself.

Ruby just smiled briefly until she noticed the look on his face "Rough day?"

[No, just I'm just peachy,] Jaune signed back

Weiss chimed in "So looks like we're all here, what did you guys want to do?"

"I'm honestly open for anything right now" Blake Said

Weiss and Blake started to toss ideas back and forth as Ruby looked at Jaune and asked [Hey your leg okay?]

[Yeah it's fine] Jaune signed backed with a faint nod.

"Well I don't care where we go, as long as it's close," Weiss said loud enough to draw Jaune's attention back to the conversation

[Hey don't worry about me, my leg isn't hurting that much right now.] Jaune signed.

Blake winced at the obvious bait, Ruby sighed knowing what Jaune just set up.

A rope for Weiss to hang herself with.

"I'm talking about myself you dolt," Weiss said with a sigh.

[What's wrong with your legs?] Jaune asked

"There just bothering me today," Weiss said.

[You were fine a couple days ago, did you re-injure yourself?] Jaune asked

"No, of course, I didn't, they just are bothering me today," Weiss replied with a growing frustration

[Well that's good, I would hate to see the idea of all you and your sister's hard work go to waste.] Jaune signed

"Excuse me?" Weiss said

[Well you and winter worked for almost two years to get yourself to the point where you didn't need that walker anymore.] Jaune signed

"What the fuck does it matter if I use my walker or not? You use a cane!" Weiss shouted at Jaune.

"Alright, Both you of you, that's not okay, maybe you should both-" Blake started to say

[I also don't have the benefit of two years of physical therapy from someone who was damn good at her Job and leg braces designed by the girl standing next to me. But if you want to waste her hard work, I'll dr-] Jaune started to sign

Then Weiss punched him.

"Jaune that was too far!" Ruby shouted at him

"How fucking dare you!" Weiss shouted, "My sister poured her heart and soul into helping me!"

Jaune found himself taking a step back as his cane was slapped from his hand as Weiss swung at him.

"Yes she was great at her job, she was perfect at her job, I wouldn't even be out of my chair if not for her! That bastard stole her from us, he stole her from me!" Weiss said stepping forward as Jaune retreated

"Where the hell do you get off shouting at me. Like you even knew my sister you bastard!" She shouted as she pushed Jaune causing him to stumble and fall into a pillar sliding down it into a sitting position.

Jaune found himself starting at both a pissed off Ruby and an even more pissed off Weiss as he stared up at the pair, something about the situation caused him to crack up as he held up both hands. And said out loud "Your… Right… I apologize, she did a hell of a job helping you."

Weiss raised and eyebrow as Jaune kept speaking "So good... of a job... That you didn't even notice that you left your walker way over there."

Weiss looked back and noticed that she had caused Jaune to stumble back a good 20 to 30 feet while she was yelling at him. Weiss was standing without her Walker, she didn't even have her braces on. "You son of a bitch, you did that on purpose…" she said as she walked over to her walker.

"You… don't need it," Jaune said.

"What do you know about it?" Weiss said bitterly "You need your cane right?"

Jaune took that as a challenge and started to try and painfully himself to his feet. Ruby offered to help but Jaune waved her off. Jaune groaned at the pain in his right leg, right where the knife went in as he got to his feet before he looked at Weiss and signed [Alright actually your right about the cane, can someone kick it to me or something?]

Weiss scoffed and walked off as Ruby rolled her eyes and also walked away clearly pissed off at Jaune. Blake walked over and scooped up the cane before she walked it over and put it in his hand.

"Well I hope that was worth it, your girlfriend is pissed, Weiss is pissed, our afternoon is shot to hell and back and now your in pain and will probably need someone to drive you home." Blake declared.

[Actually, it was…] Jaune signed in reply

"And how in the hell do you figure that Jaune?" Blake said

[Because I know what we need to do to help her now.] Jaune signed as he leaned on his cane and signed for Blake to follow him.

"Oh well, this should be good…" Blake said as she tagged along behind him deeper into the school.


So Sorry bout the unintentional and unplanned break from writing, I... Well I guess I hit a spot of burnout from writing some form of weekly output almost unbroken for two years, than and Rimworld sucked my mortal soul out and replaced it with a desire to to terrible things to people in space.

But I'm back on track, I have had time to get notes down for planed for not just this story but one of my many undisclosed writing projects that I will totally get around to someday I swear.

Hey don't worry Dragonlord, While we have long since taken the status quo out back and kneecapped it like Nancy Kerrigan, I don't think I'm going to mess with the relationships to much.

Chinaluv. IKR, also good to see you!

Beowolf, Yeah that is true, Sun's story is not quite over, and much of it won't fit in the context of the story, but It'll still be fun to poke our head at him and see what happens with his character from time to time.

In any rate though, it's good to see you all again, i'll try to not be as much of a stranger, and I'll see you all next time.