Hey y'all, not dead!
Long story short, my job is a lot of responsibility and VERY little free time. Oh well, to be fair I'm sure a lot of people are going through the same thing. I'm still working on my other stories (already have 13+ pages for 'Life's Grays and Spa Days') but it might take a me a little time to be happy with their quality before I post them.
Looking on the positive side, this experience is slowly helping me get better at writing even when it feels difficult. To be honest, that's why I actually decided to write fanfiction in the first place: To get better at writing more consistently and working through writer's block. I won't lie and say I'm improving by leaps and bounds, but I honestly feel that even a few months back I would have been unable to write at all; Sometimes little steps are worth big celebration.
I had quite a bit of fun with this chapter (Seriously, if you watch some of season 1 RWBY you'll see some CRAZY stuff. Looking at YOU Nora's walk cycle in Forever Fall!). My goal was to make both Jaune and Pyrrha a little in the wrong with their actions and motivations. We'll see what everyone thinks. I actually ended up splitting this chapter in half because of some feedback I received. Pyrrha goes on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster in this arc, and I agreed that giving the reader more time to digest than a paragraph break would be beneficial. Plus, the original episodes pretty much ended in the same place I did, so unintentional accuracy?
Hope you all enjoy, it's been a pleasure to read your reviews and hear your thoughts. I think I'm going to try to start responding more to comments, I didn't want to look like I was digging for compliments so I haven't so far, but honestly I want you all to know how much I appreciate hearing from you.
Thank you for reading, from the bottom of my heart.
Enjoy.
It wasn't supposed to turn out like this…
Pyrrha had tried so, so hard to keep things from changing; To push this… whatever it was to the back of her mind. It was just a fascination, a passing interest, it wasn't worth risking everything to pursue.
So what if her eyes seemed to follow him of their own volition whenever he walked into the room? So what if she clung to his every smile like a lifeline? Pyrrha Nikos was not in love. She couldn't be, it wouldn't be fair, not when she'd finally gotten everything she'd thought she wanted.
She couldn't lose him, couldn't afford make their relationship awkward. She didn't want to watch the world from a lonely pedestal anymore, not after she'd been given her first taste of freedom; She took her budding feelings and stamped down on them hard. It was fine, a passing fancy, she'd allow them to fade and everything would go back to how it should be.
Except it didn't.
When they'd started combat class, Jaune had quickly become the butt of everyone's jokes. Pyrrha had long suspected that Jaune's combat skills were sub-par, but Miss Goodwitch's class put just how far behind he was on stark display.
She didn't know how to handle it, especially since Jaune never asked for help. Niggling doubts floated to the front of her mind with every missed swing, every clumsy block, every rookie mistake her leader made on the combat floor. She crushed those doubts, ground them underfoot and buried them in the same hole as her feelings.
Pyrrha was sure he was working his hardest to improve himself, and as time went on his strikes became more certain. It never seemed to be to be enough. Back when they'd fought the Deathstalker he'd wielded his sword like a club, overbalancing with clumsy strikes that spoke more of desperation than training. Weeks of practice had seen his sword form improve immeasurably but he was still hopelessly behind, and she was far from the only one who noticed.
It wasn't hard to pick out why Miss Goodwitch insisted on pairing Jaune up with Cardin so often. The armored boy fought with the brute strength of a raging bull and perhaps half the intelligence, making him a good match-up for someone in desperate need of the fundamentals. Cardin's style was as simple as it was brutal, Pyrrha could have picked him apart in seconds, but Jaune struggled to so much as touch the giant; Cardin reveled in it in that way those with too much strength and too little empathy always did, and Pyrrha had been unable to do anything more than watch on with horrified fascination as Jaune endured blow after blow time and time again.
Every time she watched him roll to his feet like nothing had happened, she thanked whatever gods were listening that she'd unlocked his Aura. The first time Cardin had swung his mace up past Jaune's guard and sent him flying she'd felt her heart stop with dread. A blow that solid with that much force behind it would have drained her Aura by half and left her gasping for air, yet Jaune had simply pulled himself to his feet and thrown himself back in for another beating. His Aura hadn't even dropped by fifteen percent.
Of course, it mattered little when Cardin simply shrugged and sent him back to the mat with an overhead slam.
That was the problem though, wasn't it? No one bothered looked any deeper than surface level. Cardin saw what everyone else did when he looked at Jaune: a boy with too much heart and too little strength to back it up. Jaune put everything he had into every blow, throwing himself at his opponents with a tenacity that was worthy of praise. At least, it would have been if it gotten him any results. Even Miss Goodwitch seemed to be losing patience with the boy's lack of significant growth, going so far as to throw in a snide remark or two when he was inevitably tossed around the arena like a ragdoll. Pyrrha hated it.
The worst of it all was that Jaune just bore it all with a silent acceptance she found all too hauntingly familiar. They were mirror images in a way, standing at opposite ends of the class roster and equally isolated from their classmates for it.
Except he'd already ensured she wouldn't be alone when their other classmates inevitably decided she was too far out of reach to approach.
What could she do for him?
Weeks passed and Jaune slowly became more and more distant from their team. She knew she had to act fast, knew that there had to be something she could say, something she could do, to make all of this better. To fix this before someone else came in to make things worse. Except… except she hesitated.
Other's didn't.
Cardin's bullying was never anything major, nothing they could prove to the teachers, but that was perhaps what made it so perfectly damaging for Jaune. The blond had so little confidence as it was, and what little he had was a direct result of her hard work. To see it disappearing before her eyes every day was more painful than she would have expected, yet he still put on a brave face for them and made his excuses.
She didn't understand.
He was hurting, she knew he was hurting. Everyone knew. She couldn't fathom why he'd chose to ignore the blatantly obvious and actually defend his bully. It was almost like he wanted to be punished for his failures, like he thought he deserved it; Like he believed he was less than Cardin in some way.
Clumsy swings and messy footwork flashed through her mind. Little things that, when combined with a telling lack of Aura, told a certain story she was afraid to even think about. She stamped down on those traitorous thoughts hard.
Jaune was just… clumsier than the others. Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses, there was no shame in that. If anything, she felt that the others didn't give Jaune enough credit. It never ceased to amaze her just how hard he worked to improve himself. If only he'd let her—let them help him. All he needed was a nudge in the right direction.
If only he would ask.
The days dragged on, but Jaune only grew more tired and withdrawn. Oh, he always put on a brave face for them, but Pyrrha could see the exhaustion weighing on him. She wasn't sure what was worse, that he thought his roommates didn't notice him slipping out of bed with his gear and textbooks when he thought they were sleeping, or that they all just played along with it.
The tipping point came when Jaune's nightly disappearances finally came back to haunt him. He was far from the only one to sleep in one of Oobleck's classes, and she still wasn't certain if he'd been called on because the Doctor had noticed or if the hyperactive huntsman had actually thought the startled snort he'd let out when Cardin had flicked a piece of paper at him had been a legitimate sound of interest. Either way, Jaune's attempt at Jauning his way through an answer hadn't seemed to impress the teacher.
At least Cardin ended up in hot water too when his less than subtly racist comments and temper had worn on the doctor's nerves.
Pyrrha had elected to wait outside for Jaune after class, her expression carefully bland and composed as she eavesdropped on the conversation going on inside.
"—I don't know if it's just lack of interest or your own stubborn nature, but whatever it is, it stops now." Oobleck said between sips of his ever-present coffee. Pyrrha snorted angrily. It seemed rather rich to her for the doctor to be acting like an adult now of all times. So, what? He could just sit by and do nothing while his students were bullied and harassed out in the open? When one made openly racist comments in the classroom? Comments the doctor had done nothing to suppress! He hadn't even mentioned them when doling out punishment.
Why were the teachers just sitting by while people were hurting? Didn't they care? Didn't his friends care? Why wasn't anyone doing somethin—
Oh…
Pyrrha looked down at her palms with a grimace. Some partner she was.
When she heard the rapid tapping that signified Oobleck's exit she averted her eyes, still not entirely sure how she felt about the man. Unfortunately, that lapse in attention was all Cardin needed. She turned back just in time to see Jaune slow at the doorway, his focus shifting behind him ever-so-slightly before Cardin gave him an angry shove on his way out.
Pyrrha felt her jaw lock but pushed down her anger in favor of helping her leader to his feet. Too many witnesses, she'd surely be interrupted before she had the chance to let her anger out…
"You know, I really will break his legs." Her mouth said, apparently electing to ignore all of that in favor of seeking immediate gratification. Jaune just sighed.
He wasn't the only one.
It was quiet, so quiet she was all but certain she'd been the only one to hear it. A pair of round spectacles reflected the overhead lights from down the hall and Oobleck's expression was nothing short of disappointed as he watched Cardin amble away. Pyrrha blinked, but then those unreadable glasses were focused on her. One green brow rose slightly, as if to ask what she was waiting for. He tilted his chin ever so slightly in Jaune's direction, then vanished around the corner in a blur of motion.
History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it… you're destined to repeat it.
No one was willing to challenge Jaune on his inability to ask for help, and it wasn't working… She needed to stop hesitating.
"I have an idea!" Pyrrha blurted, grabbing his arm before her conviction could falter and dragging him off.
She'd really been spending too much time with Nora, hadn't she?
/*/
She wasn't entirely certain that the roof of their dorms wasn't off limits for students, but then again, she was fairly sure Ruby's hood went against dress regulations and that certainly hadn't been a problem yet. Either way, she found herself relaxing in the cool evening breeze as she stepped over to admire the view with her leader beside her. It was… beautiful. Beacon at night never ceased to amaze her. The tiny pinpricks of light twinkled back at her, each one marking the existence of another person able to go about their lives in peace thanks to the academy and the warriors it produced. The dull yellow glow of the massive tower of Beacon stood like—well—a beacon of hope against the encroaching darkness. It set her at ease.
Jaune evidently didn't feel the same way.
"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not that depressed." Her leader said, giving the drop a considering look.
Pyrrha blinked. What?
"I can always be a… farmer, or something."
…!
SHIT
"N-NO!" Pyrrha squawked, shoving Jaune back from the edge. "That's not why I brought you up here!" She took a deep breath, what was wrong with this boy? "Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class, and that you're still not the strongest of fighters… so…" She took a sharp breath, steeling her nerves, "I wanna help you!"
"What?" Jaune asked, and there was something there. A warning perhaps? His voice, his inflections, something was off.
But Pyrrha had come too far to back out now. "We can train up here after class, where no one can bother us!" She pushed, some of the frustration she'd been holding in slipping onto her face. What was the problem?! He needed this, everyone could see that he was struggling, did he think they hadn't noticed?! She could solve all his problems if he'd just let her in. She could talk to the Oobleck about that essay, assure him that she'd be helping him with his work from now on. She could tell Cardin to back off or, even better, make him. Why wouldn't he just let her do this for him?!
Jaune looked away from her, his hand raising up to rub the back of his head in that tic she'd grown oh so familiar with, but there was something off about it this time. There was no nervous laughter to accompany it, no painfully obvious bravado, just genuine discomfort. "You think I need help?" He asked. They were simple words.
The resignation behind them told her that they were anything but. The subtext was loud and clear: You don't believe in me?
"N-no! No, that's not what I meant." Pyrrha stammered, reaching out as if to pull the words back. This wasn't going like she'd hoped!
"But you just said it." Jaune said quietly, and dammit why did he only get good at reading her at the worst time?!
"Jaune, everyone needs a push from time to time." She said, her voice growing frustrated. She was getting desperate and she knew it, "It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon, that speaks volumes of what you're capable of!"
Something flashed through her leader's eyes, something desperate and angry, but he turned away before she could identify it. "You're wrong." He sighed, "I don't belong here."
"That's a terrible thing to say, of course you do!" Pyrrha snapped back, even as clumsy swings flashed through her mind.
Which of them was she trying to reassure?
"No, I don't!" Jaune snapped, spinning back to face her, eyes flashing. She saw the frustration, the shame, the disappointment; They flashed through his eyes like steel through the air before his expression went slack. He let out a sigh, his eyes flicking towards her then away while he wrestled with something.
Oh gods, please no.
"I wasn't really accepted into Beacon." Jaune confessed, his voice exhausted; Defeated.
"W-what do you mean?" Pyrrha found herself asking, her mind roiling. Every blow, every half-dodge, everything he didn't seem to know, it was all flashing through her mind faster than she knew how to process. Every doubt, every question she'd refused to ask. It was all coming back to bite her.
"I mean I didn't go to combat school; I didn't pass any tests! I didn't earn my spot at this academy." Jaune exploded, "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied."
She… she couldn't…? How was she supposed to handle this? "What? But, why?" Her mouth asked. The rest of her was too busy trying to process the feeling of those comfortable lies she'd told herself collapsing around her.
"'Cause this is what I've always wanted to be!" Jaune said, almost pleading, desperate sapphire eyes burning into her soul before he turned away from her once more, "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes!" The fire behind his voice seemed to dim, "I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough."
Never good enough
Had… had those words ever been spoken to her? She couldn't remember, but it was plainly obvious that he'd heard them often; Often enough to believe them. She could see it in his eyes. Behind the bravado, behind the goofy smile and can-do attitude, Jaune genuinely believed that he wasn't good enough; Could she disagree? He didn't have the skills necessary to attend Beacon, he hadn't even had Aura!
How did he keep trying? Even when he knew the chances of him succeeding were slim to none?
She didn't know what to think, but she could fix this. She owed him that much at least. "Then let me help you!" She said, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder, let me handle this.
Jaune stiffened at her touch, flinching away, "I don't want help, I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"
Something was off, his eyes were wide and panicked, his face flushed with the emotion he almost seemed to be choking on. "Jaune, I—" She tried.
He cut her off. "I'm tired of being the loveable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives." Jaune said in a strangled tone, and she flinched at the venom in his voice, "Don't you understand?! If I can't do this on my own… then what good am I?"
Did she understand? The Invincible Girl paused. Had she ever doubted that she was good enough? Her trainers had always been kind, always encouraged her to play to her strengths and diminish her weaknesses.
The Champion reached out for him, only to yank her arm back at the sudden fear in his eyes as he flinched away from her touch. They stared at one another for a beat, and she felt the air in her lungs freeze at the pain and defeat that swam in his eyes. "Just—" He cut himself off, swallowed, then continued: "Leave me alone… Ok?"
He'd tried to sound tough, but she hadn't missed the waver in his tone, and so she did the only thing she could do: "If… that's what you think is best." She whispered, one hand coming forward to hold the other in a white-knuckled grip as she stepped away. She wasn't sure if she could bear it if he saw how badly she was shaking.
It wasn't supposed to turn out like this…
