06/20/2001…
"Three years ago I made a promise that I would go back west…" Jaune thought as he leaned against his pickup truck as he waited for Ruby to finally show up with the last of the boxes he was going to help load up in the bed of his truck. Jaune took the time to take in the sight of the place he called home, lit up in the early morning light. "This is not quite what I had in mind when I made that promise."
Alan helped Jaune find a hardtop cover that would fit on top of the beat-up old F250 pickup he had been driving around in so they could load up and protect the items they had packed, mostly clothes and Personal items Ruby had crammed her Game consoles and her TV in their already. Jaune was mostly packing books clothes and hit art supplies. Alan had handed Jaune a prepaid card with enough money to get some furniture for their new place on the other side of the state as a "Graduation present"
Jaune smiled as she saw his mother walking towards him with a cup of coffee as she handed it to him. Mina smiled and said, "Your sister's going to miss you, it'll be hard on her to not have her brother around."
Jaune held the cup in his hand as he nodded "Yeah I know. If I knew I was going to end up across the state like this, I wouldn't have let myself end up her favorite."
"Well, you and Ruby are already talking about coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks," Mina said with a faint chuckle. "She's going to get her fill of you when your back here.
Jaune took a sip of his coffee "Well yeah, I mean that's what, five months from now at most?"
Mina said with a slightly sad smile "Yeah, Well I mean… I always knew you'd end up spreading your wings and flying away from the nest eventually."
"You just didn't think it would be this soon?" Jaune said.
"Not even close to this soon!" Mina said with a smile as she took a drink from her coffee. "So how long do you have till everyone comes to have their big send-off for the two of you."
"Oh, I'd say they'll be here any minute now," Jaune said.
Almost as if they were summoned by his words, Jaune saw Summer's station wagon followed closely by Sam's older model minivan. No doubt she had picked everyone up to bring over.
"Try not to get too overwhelmed, I know this is going to be a big change," Mina said.
"Tell that to Ruby, I know this is not a goodbye for any of us," Jaune said with a smile. "I'm not so sure she's quite figured that part out yet though."
Mina smiled and chuckled as Jaune quickly drank his coffee as the vehicles were pulling up. Ruby hopped out of her seat as Tai and Summer Long also disembarked their car.
Jaune waved hi and walked over to Summer and Tai as he joked "Man I thought you guys got cold feet and decided to keep her after all."
Summer chuckled and said "Mr. Arc we almost did." before she paused and said, "I didn't have the chance before now to congratulate you on getting into the Art Institute."
Tai came around hauling the last of Ruby's clothes as he said "I'm just glad one of my daughters is not following in my shoes."
"Oh hush Tai, you were sobbing the entire night blathering on about how proud of Yang you were for taking after her old man." Summer said as she lightly smacked the back of Tai.
Jaune chuckled as he feeling a little amused by the pair's antics while quietly hoping ruby and he ends up like that one day.
Tai walked up to Jaune and held out his hand to shake "Well, that's it, your both good to head off whenever the pair of you are ready."
"No last-minute speeches about not hurting your little girl or anything like that?" Jaune joked.
Tai chuckled "Kid, I met you for the first time when you helped out the Belladonna girl escape her abuser. I knew you were alright the second I first saw you."
Jaune reached out and shook Tai's hand. "I'll make sure she keeps me out of trouble"
"You're damn right she will." Tai laughed out before he headed over to his daughter.
Jaune laughed and shook his head before he looked over and saw Tai give his daughter one last bear hug. He then locked eyes with Nora who waved and walked over saying "So, no cold feet about this?"
"Nah I think I'm going to keep number two around a while longer," Jaune said with a smile.
"Well, I hope you can try and be a bit better about getting on IM than Ren and I were when you moved the last time," Nora said as she leaned up next to Jaune on his truck.
"Any news from Ren?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, he sends his best, he'd be here if he could yada yada," Nora said.
"Go easy on the guy, I'm sure boot camp is going to be rough on him," Jaune said. "Are you going to be okay?"
Nora smiled "Well yeah, Ren and I plan on getting hitched once he's out of boot."
"Going in front of the judge huh?" Jaune asked.
"Well… I mean it won't be fancy," Nora said. "But you know, who cares, we already decided long ago that we'd stay together no matter what."
"If only all our relationships could be that easy," Jaune said.
Nora smiled and said as she teared up "Okay I know the hormones are kicking in, but I'm going to miss you guys!"
Jaune pulled Nora into a hug and said "Hey I'll be around still, you have my number."
"I'm still never going to get used to you talking," Nora said.
"Yeah… I mean… It was one of the many nice things this place gave me." Jaune said.
"Take care of the little piece of home that's going with you. Oh... And for the record, she stopped being 'number two' a long time ago." Nora said before she stepped back and walked off to the crowd.
Jaune finally decided with that to go and join the conversation with Ruby. As he walked over to the group Yang spoke up "You ready for all this?"
"Hell no!" Jaune said back.
"Oh we're not either," Weiss said, It's going to be weird with you two not around.
"It's going to feel weirder once the fall hits and we're not all in the same school anymore," Blake said in reply.
"Eh, it's for the best, it's about time we stopped hogging that table," Jaune said.
Yang chuckled and said "Hey we were there first, the rest of yall followed us" as she pulled her sister into a hug.
"I distinctly remember being the first to sit there," Jaune said with a smirk.
"And you ignored us for three days," Yang said with a chuckle.
"Yeah well… I didn't want to be rude at the time." Jaune smiled.
"Well, I for one am glad she coaxed you out of that shell you were in Jaune," Ruby said as she smiled.
Jaune nodded his head "Yeah am I too." before looking at Yang "Thanks for that one."
Yang smiled and gave Jaune a hug "Thanks for proving me so very wrong about you. You take care of my sister for me okay?"
"Oh please, we all know Ruby's going to be taking care of this dork," Weiss said as she smiled.
"Your starting college in the fall as well?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah, and this goofball of a girlfriend decided to tag along for creative writing of all things," Weiss said as Blake chuckled.
"Well, I heard from the grapevine she might be good at it," Jaune said as he discreetly smirked at Blake.
"Well, I guess I took after a certain someone's example," Blake said looking at Jaune.
Jaune smiled "Well don't follow their example too much okay?"
Blake smiled "Just the parts I like."
Ruby sighed and gave Blake a Hug "You really came so far from when we met you"
Weiss smiled and said "We all did." just before she was pulled into the hug by Ruby
"I'm going to miss you guys!" Ruby said as her voice cracked and she let out a sob.
Jaune wiped one of his eyes and exchanged glances with Yang.
"So you already got something ready to go out there job-wise? I mean you still got bills to pay right?" Yang asked.
"Well it won't be glamorous but one of the school districts down there needed a couple more Janitors, I figured it'll pay the bills until something better comes along," Jaune said back.
"That's some grody work," Yang said as her face scrunched up
"We've all seen worse," Jaune said in reply.
"That we have." Yang said, "It's about time you two got going ain't it?"
Weiss poked her head up and looked at Jaune. "I… I-I guess you both need to get moving if you want to make it to your new place by evening time."
Ruby reluctantly pulled away from Blake and Weiss. "I… I know... I'm really am going to miss you guys."
Jaune put a hand on Ruby's shoulder and looked at her with a warm reassuring smile as he said "Well, I mean we'll see all of them again in November, then again in December and January right?"
Yang said, "and you know I'm going to be calling you every evening when the free minutes hit."
Weiss smiled and giggled "I'm so used to talking to you guys on IM already, it'll be like you didn't leave."
Nora finally poked her head in "Let's be honest guys, we all have our entire lives ahead of us now." she gave her belly a light pat "I know I'll be gone in a few months to be with Ren. Weiss and Blake are going to Spokane for college, and Yang, Nep, and Sun will be headed towards Walla Walla for their own school."
"There wouldn't be anything left to miss here but our parents," Jaune said. "I mean until the holiday's that is, right guys?"
Everyone chuckled out in agreement after that.
"Ruby, I know I spent way too long doting on you, but it's time for you to fly," Yang said.
Ruby smiled and took a deep breath "You're all right, I guess I'm just still nervous about all this, but…" She paused looking at Jaune "I still think I'm taking the best part with me."
Blake smiled and said "Well now I think I'm just going to throw up, yall are being too disgustingly cute right now"
Weiss said, "Yeah I'm going to have to go tested for Diabetes now."
They all had a good laugh for a moment before it died down as they all found themselves standing there without anything else that needed to be said. Jaune had one last thing to say.
"Well, I'm not going to speak for everyone, but I'm not going to say goodbye to anyone here. I'm just going to say 'Talk to you later' okay?" Jaune
"Drop us a line when you get to Seattle so we know you both made it okay," Weiss said.
"We will," Ruby said. "We'll call everyone to let them know."
Blake smiled and said as her voice cracked a little "I'll talk to you two later then okay"
Jaune's voice also cracked as he said "count on it."
One by one the group broke apart as they all departed with Sam who spent the time chatting with Mina. Jaune walked over and gave his mother a last hug and said "Well, it's time to hit the road… I already promised everyone we'd call when we got there safe and sound."
Mina smiled and said "Well, drive safe okay? You know how the passes can get"
Jaune just smiled and nodded "Oh we will, trust me."
No other words needed to be spoken at that point, Ruby and Jaune both climbed into Jaune's truck as they were waved off by Mina, Alan, and Ruby's parents.
Barely a couple hours into the drive, just as they were cresting the mountain passes and on their way through to Leavenworth Jaune asked "Hey, have you ever seen this town, it's a pretty neat place."
Ruby smiled and said "You know what? I don't think I ever have."
Jaune smiled and said, "We should stop for a bit and walk around then, besides knowing you, you missed breakfast."
"Knowing you, that coffee I watched you drink was breakfast," Ruby said back with a smile.
"I know for a fact they have a McDonalds," Jaune said.
"And how would you know that?" Ruby asked.
"My mom and I stopped there when we were headed through the pass the other way," Jaune said.
"I've been thinking about it, since we'll be on that side of the state, you can finally show me that waterfront you talked about that one time," Ruby said.
Jaune thought about it for a moment "At that new year's party way back when?" Jaune chuckled "I recall saying something about how it really isn't home anymore."
Ruby smiled "You said home is where the heart is."
"That I did…" Jaune said as he trailed off "Well, I mean it's not that far of a drive, we can go check it out in a couple days?"
Ruby smiled and said, "I mean this is the farthest I've ever gone from home, I've never even stepped foot into a city like Seattle, you have to show me the sights."
"Well, It's not like we don't have all the time in the world," Jaune said.
As Ruby then turned her attention to the sights out her window as they started to hit the pass and started to make the long climb up the cascades, it left Jaune the chance to reflect on the last few years.
"Honestly, looking back at it three years ago, I was happy. But… I think I was a little naive. I lived in a small world, an ever-changing one that only had Pyrrha and me in it. But I always had some kind of constant change in my life. That little home in Kirkland, That shy scared little girl I loved. That was the most stable life I had ever been up to that point."
"When it was all ripped away, It felt like my life was torn apart, but I was used to it. I was used to uprooting, used to change, used to never being comfortable. I was used to seeing my life ripped apart into the tiny scraps of paper, and I was used to putting it all back together somehow."
"Sometimes... Parts were lost, like with Pyrrha, like with Weiss's sister, like with my old home, and the comfortable carefree lives we had before Adam. But I would always find new pieces to put in their places. We lost Winter Schnee, but we were going to get a Winter Valkyrie. I lost Pyrrha… But I found Ruby, who was, save for that whole fiasco with Cardin, was always willing to push me along and keep my feet moving. Even at my lowest point, in the Kitchen, she was there keeping me alive."
"I was never at a want for friends here. Friends that would push me forward, keep me moving. I'm not going to claim I pulled myself out of the hole I was in after Pyrrha. I never had to with everyone grabbing and pulling me out of it in their own way. When it came my time to help pull them through their own crises and out of their own holes, I made damn sure my hand pulled just as hard as anyone else's."
"Some things can never be fixed, not truly, I'll probably be on my medication for Depression and Schizophrenia for the rest of my life. I'll never have a day that won't start with pain due to the injuries I suffered from Adam. Ruby will always wear that scar on her wrist, Blake will still have the mental scars she got that horrible night, and Weiss will never fully get over the nightmares of losing her sister."
Jaune spared a moment's glance over at Ruby as she was quietly humming along to the song on the radio and was watching the trees whizz past the windows in quiet awe.
"But we all have each other, we all have someone who will help them put the pieces back where they were before life went and swept the puzzle off the table again."
"That was the greatest thing any of us got from these last three years, friends good at puzzles."
Jaune's hands loosely tightened on the steering wheel as he and Ruby drove forwards to the next stage of their lives.
I'll upload the epilogue in a couple days, due to the jank of this website it'll break alerts if I dump them both at once.
So here we are, the last full chapter of this story, I've said this a lot over the last couple updates, but this was one hell of a ride to be sure. I've been trying to make it a point to put callbacks to earlier in the story all over the last few chapters because those were some of the many events that led to this point, and with 95 chapters... well some stuff gets forgotten.
I still don't have a solid plan for future fics, I have a few idea's again, but I don't think I'm going to bump this fic just to advertise any new fics I start up, I do recommend that you guys follow me as the author to make sure you get alerts about any new stories I start. I'm also active on discord on the r/rwby subreddit's discord and I can be found in the fanfic channel there sometimes.
ZHsteven: The cliffhangers were both designed to push me to keep writing, because I didn't want to be that guy, as well as tailor made to keep getting people stuff to look forward to. I'm kind of evil like that I know.
Dragon Lord: Yeah I mean life always has this habit of kicking your ass when your not expecting it, but I am intending to be gentle on the cast going forward... Kind of as the Prologue will show.
Chinaluv: It was my pleasure, thanks for reading it!
Astray-Tech: I got really tempted to split them up, But I didn't really want to kick them one more time to be honest.
EmperorCookies: I'm just honestly glad to see this story help out, even if it was just a little bit. I had that same "Alright, now what" Reaction when I graduated from Highschool... Many many years ago.
MountianBookSage25: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the story, it was pretty damn fun to write!
And with that, just one more update to post for next time, That will probably be in a day or two. So, once again, thanks for reading, and I'll see you for one last time on this story.
