06/13/2000…

In three days, school was ending for the year, then a long summer break followed by the Last year of high school. The day was beyond hot and muggy with the air choking from distant wildfires the next county billowing smoke into the area making it challenging for anyone to spend much time outdoors.

The last dying cries of rage from what had been the hardest school year of Jaune Arc's life. He dwelled in the early morning hours at the dining room table, in the last month he had managed to successfully get a driver's license, and his Step-father had bought him a beat-up pickup truck that had seen far better days.

Jaune had made it a point to work on restoring it when he could…

Jaune smiled silently as his mother had walked into the kitchen. Mina smiled back and asked, "What are you working on?"

Jaune coughed a bit and signed [Filling out the application for admittance to that art college I'm wanting to go to.]

"Has Ruby mentioned her plans at all for after high school?" Mina asked as she sat down

Jaune shrugged and sighed [She hasn't mentioned anything to me, but she has mentioned more than a few times that she was interested in going into medicine, or at least pursuing a career in designing medical prosthetics.]

Mina smiled and said, "And here her boyfriend wants to get into art?" She said before she chuckled out "Wow she is dating down here."

Jaune audibly said, "Hey now!" As he finished the last couple lines and folded the documents up and handed them to his mother and signed [Can you send these off for me today?]

Mina smiled and said, "You have an entire year to worry about this, maybe you should talk to Ruby about it, this decision is going to affect more than just you."

Jaunes smile faded as he signed [I guess that's why I'm so hesitant to even talk to her about it…]

"The hell Jaune, were you planning on springing it while you were driving to Seattle?" Mina said.

[Of course not mom, I don't even know if I'll get accepted.] Jaune signed. [I'm just worried she'll want to go chasing me across the state away from the entire world she grew up in for my dumb ass]

Mina shook her head and said "You should be so lucky if she does. You're more or less planning on doing the same thing right? Tossing your life out the window to chase your dreams?"

[Come on mom, That's not even close to the same thing, We've moved so many times over the years this place still isn't the longest we've stayed in a single place over the years.] Jaune signed. [I can't even imagine the idea of being in one place for seventeen years.]

"I get buddy, I really do, and I get that it's my fault we've moved so much." Mina said "The funny thing is. Now that I'm married again I'm off the list for relocations, so it looks like this sleepy little town is where I'll be calling home for a long time."

[Should I be congratulating you?] Jaune questioned

"Well my best friend is here, my husband and daughter are here, this little town is where I belong now." Mina said "But it's not where you belong, your future is yours to make. Just try to bring someone from home along for the ride okay?"

[Oh come off it mom, you're practically knitting sweaters for the grandbabies already.] Jaune signed [I don't know what the future is going to hold]

"No, and I know that is partially my fault as well, you never learned how to get comfortable, how to focus on the present and not at the 'What if's'" Mina said "I also know you're still a little scared that Ruby will somehow end up being another Pyrrha."

Jaune paused in his seat [I'm not scared of that mom…] He signed with a slight tremble in his hands.

"It's okay if you are, you know that." Mina said "I still have the odd nightmare about what happened to her, and what almost happened to you," She said before she lightly smacked him in the shoulder "Three times now was it?"

Jaune went silent as vague memories of the hellish last school year had almost buried him with. His Break up with Ruby, Getting hospitalized twice for fighting, one one of them was for a good cause, all the loss, all the hurting…

[I see you point mom,] He signed not trying to stop the trembling in his hands.

"I'm not trying to spook you or force you to think of what happened, I just wanted to remember that even when she was the cause of the problems, she never let you be alone," Mina said. "Your lucky to have a girl like that around, so don't fuck that up please."

Jaune nodded and smiled before signing [Hell, I do have to get going though, I'll see you after school okay?]

Mina smiled and waved her son off. "See you later!"


Jaune got up and left, Mina noticed that he seemed to carry himself lighter as he walked.

Later that day over Lunch Jaune met up with Ruby who was pondering over something in her notebook as Jaune sat down. She barely registered someone sitting next to her, it didn't take long for Jaune to notice that her hearing aids were out of her ears. It was something she had been known to do when she didn't want to disturbed or needed to concentrate as she struggled to do so when there was a lot of noise in the area.

Jaune tentatively leaned over and poked her in the ribs which cause her to let out a startled "Eep!" at Jaune. As her head snapped to look at him she let out a short relieved gasp and smiled before she signed [I'm sorry I didn't see you sit down]

[Sorry, What are you working on?] Jaune asked while smiling.

[I'm working on a way to help you walk a lot easier until you no longer need that cane of yours] Ruby said. [I mean it's not going to be easy, but I think I can pull it off if I can find a way to relieve the pressure on your hip.]

[I don't know, they said it was less damage to the muscles and more damage to the nerves in that part of my body, it might be a bit more than a brace can solve] Jaune said.

[Still, I've been doing my fair share of research, even picked up an old anatomy book at the used book store to see if I can figure it out] Ruby said with a wide Grin.

Seeing how excited Ruby looked made him smile as well, but he also felt a knot in his stomach thinking about the morning conversation [Uhh… Hey I did need to talk to you about something…]

Ruby read the look on Jaune's face and tilted her head [Yeah? What's up.]

[I… Well you know that some colleges have waiting lists that can stretch a while so you need to put in an application early yeah?] Jaune said as he felt his stomach tighten in concern.

[Well yeah, why did you apply for a college already?] Ruby said with a grin [Way to think ahead for a change, which one did you apply for?]

Jaune rubbed his neck and signed [That Art college in Seattle…]

Ruby leaned back in her seat as the color faded from her face as she signed [Oh…] as she let the words sink in [So if you get into that school you'd have to move back across the mountains to live there?]

Jaune nodded [I know… I didn't exactly talk to you about this beforehand… Art is really the only thing I'm great at, and it's something I want to try and turn into a profession, and it definitely will not mean us breaking up at all.]

Ruby sighed [I mean I'm planning on looking into eventually going into the medical program at the university in Pullman..]

[Which is the opposite direction, I know...] Jaune signed with a sigh.

[But it's also a lot closer to home and my family.] Ruby added.

The pair looked at each other in silence before Ruby signed out [Jaune how in the hell are we going to make this work, my path leads to a four-year program and yours is going to be what, two or more?]

Jaune nodded in the affirmative.

Ruby sighed [I mean even if we took summers off or saw each other on holidays… that's going to be brutal]

Jaune rubbed his neck [I could withdraw my application…]

Ruby slapped the table and signed [Absolutely Not!] before she flexed the fingers of her now sore hand [I won't let you abandon your dream for me, you always do that, put your own life on hold for someone else, and I won't have you do that this time!]

Jaune nodded [I'm sorry, you're right I'd be pretty miserable if I did that…]

[I know you would… We'll try to make it work out somehow okay?] Ruby signed with a half-hearted smile. [Lets put this aside for now okay? Worry about it later?]

[Yeah, I don't even know if I'm getting accepted or not…] Jaune signed with a chuckle

Ruby smiled as the lunch bell rang and noticed people getting up as a sign to head for her class [Love you, I'll talk to you at the rally.]

[Going to be fun Seeing Weiss in uniform] Jaune signed as he stood up

[Probably a bit more fun for Blake honestly. You know she needed that, something to focus on, a goal… if the art school doesn't work out you might make a good therapist.]

Jaune laughed as he stood up [Well, I guess, I'm not much of a talker though] Jaune signed as he pulled Ruby into a warm strong hug before he made his way to his class.


Later on that day, in the last hour or so before the end of the day the Jaune met up with his usual gang inside of the school gym to attend the last pep rally of the year. Jaune pulled up a comfortable spot behind Ruby giving her a spot she could sit down between his legs and use him as a chair.

Having a warm body leaning against him was quite nice after all.

Ruby had her "ears" back in and was chatting with Neptune and Yang, Ren and Nora were sitting off to their side snuggling and being their usual isolated selves.

Jaune's attention was snapped to Ruby when she spoke his name

Jaune said in surprise "yeah?"

"You didn't hear, Neptune and I both decided to start getting into shape to join the police academy after high school so we could both become officers," Yang said

"Second… Generation cop huh?" Jaune said teasingly "I.. figured you'd try the Olympics yourself, Neptune"

"Yeah I did too, but the injury that bastard gave me has made it hard to swim lately, and honestly I don't think any professional swimming team would want a guy with an ugly scar on his chest," Neptune said

"I think it looks fine, I got one from that asshole too you know," Yang said.

"A.. Are you both okay?" Jaune asked.

"Well… I'm not okay that my uncle got sentenced for manslaughter for it… He had a really shitty lawyer… but it's only two years and honestly he could use the time to get sober." Yang said.

"We... We both decided on this, that one sheriff's deputy, Clover was killed by Adam, and I understand it messed up a few other deputies that night mentally…" Neptune added, "I just feel like we both could make a real change by doing this, you know?"

Jaune smiled and said "I… Get it… If you need a … Jogging… Buddy..."

"We'll ask Ruby, no offense but you need to let that leg heal on its own time, you had the worst injuries of all of us by far," Neptune replied.

Yang glanced at the front as some music started to play "Take an example from her, she took almost two years to get to where she is now."

The whole group looked towards the front as The school's cheerleading team came out in front too some music Jaune didn't recognize, one particular girl stood out in the group out in her clearly older uniform as she tried her best to keep up with the basic maneuvers of the rest of the squad.

"Go Weiss! You got this!" Ruby shouted as Blake cheered on as well.

Jaune took in the sight as Weiss managed to keep pace with the team quite well with a wide smile on his face as he felt Ruby snuggle against him for comfort.

Blake leaned over and said "Thanks for nudging her in the right direction"

Jaune shook his head and finger signed [I did the whole thing the wrong way, the fact it turned our right was luck.]

Blake chuckled and said "You still good, I'm happy, and she's happy with the results" as she gave him a quick hug before going back to cheering.

[You're happy you now that your fooling around with a cheerleader yeah?] Jaune signed with a chuckled that caused Ruby to tilt her head up

"I'm not complaining if that's what you're asking," Blake said with a giggle

Ruby shook her head and muttered, "You're both pervs, you know that right?"

Jaune smiled and leaned forward to kiss Ruby's forehead before saying "I'm your perv though."

Ruby smiled as they kept watching the pep rally.

It was only about twenty minutes later when it came to an end and everyone had started to get up, Weiss had ran over and gave Blake a hug, Ren and Nora already left to attend to what they had planned for the post-school day. Jaune looked at Ruby with a smile as she stood up, she looked at him and smirked

"Come to my place today," Ruby said with a smile at her gentle demand.

[what's up? Didn't you have some stuff to do on your end today.] Jaune asked tilting his head in confusion.

"It'll keep till tomorrow… but I need you today Jaune," Ruby said smiling

Jaune nodded wit a clear understanding of what Ruby was asking as he smiled and signed [Well I didn't have plans, let go.]

Ruby cleared the space between the pair and pressed her entire body against him as she pulled herself in for a kiss. It felt like it was lasting forever but in reality, was only a minute at the most. Jaune smiled and without another word took her hand and led the pair out.

It would be the start of a quiet year for the group, the school year of hell, a year that saw Ruby and Jaune break up. Jaune almost completely giving in to his demons, and one that almost killed them both at the hands of Blake's deranged ex-boyfriend was finally over.

But there was one more challenge still is in their future.


So here we are, one more chapter closer to the end of this long tale, I don't personally have a whole lot to say about this chapter, so I'll leave well enough alone. I admit I've been hitting a lot of writers blocks lately which is why my output has been dropping through the floor. I am determined to see this story to it's end, the last scene has been written in my head since around the teen chapters so I want to see that finally on paper. I've also been exploring and outlining several novel idea's as well I would like to see complete, but I want to make sure this story gets a proper conclusion before I writing another massive project.

Last chapter came with a bit of hiccup, either due to the site screwing up or my own personal error, the last chapter was uploaded wrong an needed fixed so a lot of you didn't really get a chance to comment, But I still want to reply to your comments all the same.

Kensarto: Yeah it was pretty good to be able to bring back the uniform, and yeah you were right I was pretty excited to finally get to use it.

Dragonlord: Yeah After all the heavy stuff I've been writing for this story, I kind of wanted to give them all a break and write some light happy stuff for a while, the last events of the story are going to be sort of a cool down before the end, but not to the point of having the characters forget everything they endured to reach this point.

0neWhoWanders: Thanks for also pointing out the error in the upload as well, hope this chapter leaves a smile on your face.

ZHsteven: Absolutely agree, 100% false Advertising, I should delete the whole thing, glad your enjoying it though!

Dragomemoirs: I'm glad to hear your enjoying the story, and if it's even in some way helping, I'm also glad to hear it. I have a small urn on my desk as well for a cat of mine that passed a couple years back, so I understand how hard it is to lose a loved companion like your dog. You mentioned getting a new job kinda hints that your life is still moving forwards, and that's a great thing. I hope the best for you.

That said, I'll get cracking on the next chapter, writing has been... personally therapeutic this last year, a little bit of escapism from the pressures of the pandemic and the struggles with adapting to an increasingly changing world. So I want to say as always, thank all of you once again for reading, and i'll see you next time!