05/07/2000…

Blake followed Jaune through the school as the pair moved with a purpose in mind. Blake just bore witness to what she could only describe as a dressing down of her girlfriend for her refusal to take her health seriously, and Weiss's pushback had apparently inspired an idea in Jaune that had him beeline for somewhere in the school.

"I still think you went too far with Weiss," Blake said

[Point noted] Jaune signed back to Blake with his free hand.

"I'm being serious, I don't think bringing up her sister like that was smart, I'll just say it, it was easily one of the dumbest things you've done," Blake said almost growling it out.

[Tip toeing around the problem was not the answer here Blake, she's eventually going to have to stop avoiding reality] Jaune signed.

"She's facing that reality every waking moment of every day," Blake added.

[You're also talking to someone that went through what she is, I'm not going to say my ex that was half a state away killing herself is comparable to her sister being murdered in the same house as her, but I know what avoiding reality looks like.] Jaune signed.

"Oh well enlighten me then…" Blake sarcastically declared

[She's trying to turn herself into a living gravestone for her sister... ] Jaune signed

Blake blinked "I'm not following you…"

[In her head she's forcing herself to constantly think about her sister, she's refusing to let herself move forward, somehow this is also causing her to subconsciously regress on her physical therapy.] Jaune signed [I don't think her legs were in any real pain today, I think it was more like some kind of imagined pain]

Blake went silent "What makes you so sure that you're right?"

Jaune smiled and signed [I've been there before… I know I was never open about what I talked about with my therapist. But I used to have a pretty unhealthy mentality of wanting to memorize Pyrrha. I hated that my mind wanted me to move on while I was trying to not to for as long as I could, I wanted to be the person that never forgot her.]

Blake raised an eyebrow and feels some of the color drain from her face, this was not something Jaune had ever really talked about. Once he ended up on his current medications and once he was recovering from his mental ordeal, no one ever asked about it.

"This was back when we first met?" blake asked

Jaune put on a forced grin and signed [Yeah, Don't tell Ruby this but part of what caused me to crash as hard as I did was… I was falling in love with her. I hated that, hated myself for it. It felt like I was betraying Pyrrha…]

Blake nodded "So you think Weiss is doing something like that? Fighting to not move forward for her sister's sake?"

[Well I don't think she has undiagnosed schizophrenia, and I don't think she's hallucinating, but she's fighting moving forward for sure, she's fighting nightmares, she's fighting the idea of possibly forgetting her sister.] Jaune signed as he came to a stop in front of an office attached to the gymnasium.

"And that leads us to the cheerleading office why?" Blake asked.

[Because I had a really stupid idea as to how we can turn all of that into something healthy] Jaune signed before he knocked on the office door.

While they waited for a moment Blake scoffed and muttered "You still need to shave"

Jaune chuckled as Ms. Lavender opened the door confused to see two students that are not part of any of her classes or cheer squad standing just outside the door. "Can I help you?"

Jaune looked at Blake who sighed and translated as he signed [I doubt you remember me, I was here the day Weiss Schnee turned in her cheer uniform a couple of years back]

"Yeah, I remember you, Jaune Arc is it?" Ms. Lavender said.

[Yes Ma'am, and well I'm kinda hoping you can help us out.] Jaune signed.

"Come inside and sit down so we can talk…" Ms. Lavender said.


"So we have both been very concerned about Weiss ever since she lost her sister…." Blake started to say

[She's not sleeping, or if she is she's sleeping as little as possible, and she's consciously backsliding on her physical therapy] Jaune signed back as Blake interpreted.

"Right… But we haven't spoken much in the last couple of years, I'm not sure I can help?"

Jaune smiled and signed [I think your honestly my last hope, when Weiss turned in her uniform I remember you said you'd keep it until she asked for it back right?]

"I did…" Ms. Lavender stood up and pulled up a plastic sealed bag and pulled out an older uniform from her filing cabinet "We updated our uniforms last year, why are you asking?"

"Jaune thinks the problem is that Weiss is trying to either forget her sister existed or trying to force herself to stay grieving out of a fear that she'd forget her…" Blake stated.

[She can walk fine, I'm not sure if she can pull off a lot of cheer moves, but I was hoping we can help her focus that desire into a more healthy direction] Jaune signed with a hopeful look on his face

"Well it's the end of the year, all we have left is one single pep rally, then summer break where we normally practice and prep for the next year." Ms. Lavender said. "If we can get her ready for it, the most complicated maneuver I can get out of the girls will be to bounce around and shake their pom-poms."

"She used to compete in cheer-leading competitions, she might be out of practice, and she might never get back to that level, but she could maybe come back on as an assistant coach for you," Blake said.

"That's… not a bad idea, I'd be on board with the idea considering I'm losing two-thirds of the current squad over summer." Ms. Lavender said.

Blake and Jaune looked at each other as Jaune let out a relieved grin. [Alright this might work. Can we take her old uniform with us?]

Ms. Lavender smiled and nodded "Just bring it back if she says no okay?"

"Oh, she won't… Believe me on this." Blake said with a smile.

"Then I hope you both have good luck with her." Ms. Lavender said as she showed the pair out.


Later that evening Jaune was having trouble sleeping, Ruby must have been pissed still as she had not reached out to him all after the fight at the school.

'Hey, you awake?' Jaune texted Ruby before awkwardly staring at his phone for several minutes.

He got a text message back saying 'This user is not accepting messages at this time please try again later'

'That's not what a block message looks like and we both know it.' Jaune texted again.

'Fine I'm still not talking to you right now' Ruby replied

'I'm sorry' Jaune texted as he unconsciously sat up in his bed.

Jaune waited a bit for a reply before one came in 'Look, you took it too far, we all know that Weiss is not doing great right now, and pushing her isn't going to help her out.'

'I get it, I do, but do me a favor okay?' Jaune sent back

'Christ Jaune I'm not doing you any favors, that's not how this relationship works!' Ruby replied.

'Alright let me rephrase it, help me do Weiss a favor' Jaune replied.

'I don't think I will Jaune.' Ruby replied

'You don't have to do anything, just… just be there in case she needs a hug or something' Jaune replied

Ruby didn't reply… Jaune in a bout of frustration ended up tossing his phone off towards his desk and didn't seem concerned when it clattered off the desk to the floor.

Jaune stared up at the ceiling asking himself "Why the fuck am I even doing all of this?" as he reached over and picked up some paperwork he started reviewing the documents he was planning on sending off with the morning mail. His eyes drifted to the top of the main page

"Application for enrollment: Art Institute of Seattle"


The following morning Blake and Jaune met up before school was to start, Blake chuckled at the obvious fatigue on Jaune's face and his coffee thermos.

"Had trouble sleeping?" Blake said with a smirk

[I had some forms to fill out before I crashed last night] Jaune signed out. [No ruby?]

"Nope," Blake said

[Fuck her then, we didn't really need her for this one.] Jaune signed out

"Whoa whoa whoa slow down big guy," Blake said. "I know you didn't mean that."

[Ruby has been giving me push back every step of the way, I don't know what her malfunction is, but I'm getting a little tired of it.] Jaune signed as he stood there

"I don't know, it might have something to do with you almost freaking dying Jaune," Blake said, "She's worried about you!"

Jaune pinched his nose before he signed [I get that, and honestly I'm fine, I'm better off mentally than I have been in years]

"And yet you had enough pent up anger to get pissed off at a girl whose sister was murdered over her using a walker yesterday?" Blake asked.

[That's an excellent point, that I will happily go over as soon as we get your girlfriend taken care of.] Jaune signed. [speaking of which, do you still have it?]

Blake smirked and reached into her backpack pulling out a white box "I have it in here… I hope this works…"

[She wants to be her sister's memorial, I think it'd be better if she could be her legacy.] Jaune signed [Getting her to recognize how far she's come because of her sister might do just that.]

"Well, I guess we'll see," Blake said as the pair walked into the school

Jaune pushed himself to keep up with Blake, of course, this was almost the second or maybe third day in a row he walked into the school next to Blake [Man people are going to start talking...]

"About what?" Blake asked back

Jaune shook it off and signed [Never mind...]

"Alrighty…" Blake said as they reached their table. And both sat down

Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Neptune were all present at the table at the time. Jaune could almost tangibly feel the heat as Ruby tried to set him on fire with her stare.

[Sorry about yesterday Weiss, I took it to far] Jaune signed out

"Yeah, yeah, I did too…" Weiss said "You were right about the walker… I didn't really need it…"

"I asked Jaune to help, I mean I'm scared that your not taking your health seriously Weiss." Blake added "Jaune and I came up with something that might help you out as well"

Jaune nodded as Blake pushed the box across the table [I… Spoke to an old friend of yours after our group split up yesterday, your a lot stronger now than you were previously thanks to all the hard work you and your sister did.]

Weiss looked confused until she opened the box and looked at was inside, the others also leaned in and looked as well…

"Holy… Holy shit she kept it after this long?" Weiss said as she carefully lifted her old cheer uniform out of the box.

Jaune remained silent as he tried to gauge her reaction, Blake spoke up instead "Ms. Lavender said it would be nice to see you in uniform at least once at the end of year pep rally if you're interested, she also said she might need an assistant coach next year."

Jaune nodded and signed [Yeah, I mean your legs are strong enough now to pull off a couple hops and pom-pom shakes right? It's what, an hour-long?]

"I… I never thought I'd ever even been considering this… after the accident… I…" Weiss mumbled off.

"You thought you'd never be out of that chair? Or on your own two feet again?" Yang added, "I mean you're a hell of a lot tougher than you think Weiss."

Weiss whipped her eyes as she rested the uniform back in the box "I couldn't have made it this far without Winter…"

Ruby smiled and put a hand on Weiss's shoulder [I think she would have wanted you to do this. I really do.]

Weiss stood up clutching the box close to her as she muttered "I need to go talk to someone real fast, I'll see you all later" and walked with a grinning Blake walking behind her…

Yang and Neptune excused themselves shortly after leaving Ruby and Jaune sitting alone.

The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Ruby chimed in [How much of this was really Blakes idea.]

[One hundred percent hers] Jaune signed back

[Even though you were the one that helped her return that uniform?] Ruby asked.

[Yes.] Jaune replied.

Ruby sighed and signed [You really are an asshole]

Jaune smirked and replied [Well you've been a bit of a bitch lately yourself]

Ruby shook her head [Asshole…]

Jaune stretched out before he signed [I'm still your asshole though]

Ruby sighed looking annoyed before she got up and walked to where he was sitting and in full view of the cafeteria kissed him in a very forceful and aggressive fashion before she walked off signing [You're damn right you are.]

Jaune was in a bit of shock at that as the bell went off and Jaune got up and followed Rwby towards classes…


Yeah that's right, I used a item that was last referenced 76 chapters ago. Honestly I wanted to see Weiss get back to the point where she could start getting back into cheer-leading in a limited capacity as part of her character Arc, and this is going to give her a chance to do so. I'm also planing a couple more time skips between now and the end. I'm shooting for the end to be around chapter 100 or so, which only gives me 14 more chapters to work with, but I feel like we can pull it off.

It's alright Dragonlord, you can't climb if you don't start at the bottom, so I understand your concerns about the last chapter.

hey Gustrubio, I guess it wouldn't be me if I wasan't smacking the tar out of Jaune would it?

Chinaluv, Weiss had been having the breakdown this entire time, right now the goal is to pull her out of it.

Disabled-Doctor... Yeah that's actually kinda of fair and unintentional.

Beowulf, I'll try to get better about announcing breaks if I do again, i'm not as burned out but I have been finding with me also being responsible for my job and making sure my son is paying attention to his at home classroom lessons, I have been struggling to get time to write.

Jayfromthe904, it's great to see you, i know it's the first time, and I hope you enjoy the ride!