Chapter 2

…

Yang blinked. Slowly, completely puzzled and unsure at what she was looking at.

No.

Actually, she knew exactly what she was looking at, but not a single reason why he was here. About her sister she wasn't sure either.

"…"

They simply stood there, as if trapped in the middle of door frame. Ruby looked uncertain and confused, much like herself, but Jaune, he…she wasn't sure. He looked blank, if anything at all. His gaze roaming about on the wooden floor of her room.

"What are you doing here?" She finally asked. Not coldly, but merely irritated somewhat.

Ruby looked to her right, to Jaune, and it seemed she was expecting an answer as much as Yang did.

Still, he remained voiceless and blank. Almost, if only for brief flickers of doubt and uncertainty here and there on his face.

"Well?" Yang inquired again, angrier. Patience was never her strong suit and nowadays even less so.

"…Jaune said that he wants to stay here," Ruby started first, and then gave him an expectant look, as if to make sure that she got it right. He lifted his gaze to her, then Yang, and then casted it back to the wooden floor, nodding once.

"What?" Yang asked.

"I want so stay here. For a while, at least." He finally spoke, but his words didn't help to clear her confusion. If anything, it deepened instead.

"What? Why? What's this about?" She demanded, her mood visibly souring.

"…"

They, he couldn't explain or simply refused to. Ruby grew more and more uncomfortable and worried, while he remained as he was. Expressionless, except for some snippets of doubts lingering in his…eyes. She thought to herself, her rising ire snuffed out all at once. Replaced with a look identical to what she recognized in his.

"Fine." A flat answer, she turned her head the other way. Wondering just briefly why she agreed.

"Okay." A flat acknowledgment, he shifted his attention only to Ruby.

"Are you…are you sure about this?" She asked, more concerned than confused at this point.

"No." He gave an honest answer. Something he didn't expect he'd do, but then figured she deserved that much. "Doesn't matter, though," He said, and noted she wasn't okay with these turns of events at all. Her biting hard on her lip, her tiny palms balled into fists, shaking.

"If you think this is right then…"

However, she was a dear friend of his. Even if she thought otherwise, she would comply. Whenever it was the right thing to do, she wasn't sure, but she'd wholeheartedly hope it was. After all, at the very least, this is something he decided himself. Unlike traveling to Haven, which she simply offered to him, and he indifferently agreed. That's why, I'll do what I've always done and have faith in your choice. In you.

That was about all she could do.

"Thanks. Let's head outside then. I want to give everyone a proper good-bye," He said, and they soon exited the room.

Yang waited, then stopped looking aimlessly at the scenery and instead observed the group of friends just outside her house. They exchanged long hugs with him. Some, plenty of words were said as well, but what really mesmerized and surprised her was Nora. The same girl who was always so stupidly cheerful and brimming with youthful energy, now she was sobbing, wailing, holding Jaune in a deadly strong bear hug. She could tell even from up here he was struggling. His arms and chest squeezed, or even crushed at some point with force rivaling hydraulic press'. She didn't let go of him either. Not until Ren said something to her, and she finally, unwillingly let go of him.

Jaune took a deep breath as she did. Or as deep a breath one could take having survived that, and then he himself embraced her. Telling her something as he did.

Nora's tears grew even larger, but then she wiped them clean and a smile, honest and hopeful, embellished her reddened face.

He let go of her, but the moment he did, she hugged him again. Only this time, she did so mindfully, gently and her embrace was brief. After she let go of him, she and Ren gave something to him, and only then, finally, they all exchanged a long wave of good-bye. Nora was the absolute last to have her back turned to him, but even after she eventually did, he still stared at their now invisible forms for a solid, literal minute. Before he himself turned around, and then started and entered the house. A little bit later, her room.

"…"

They sat in silence for a while.

"Why?"

That silence fled when she asked him about this whole thing.

"I don't know."

She waited a moment before saying, "But there has to be a reason you're here right now. Any at all, something, anything, which made you decide this," she said, but honestly wasn't sure if she really expected any answer from him.

He blinked, rubbed his fingers together and said, "It was that look you had in your eyes, it…it made me want to stay here." He answered, and a brief moment of silence followed.

She finally let her eyes away from the window, and gave him a look. Observed him just briefly, and reassured herself that she really was right.

"So that's the reason…" She quietly said, her face soured for a moment, before she exhaled and the feeling was gone. "Fine. If you want to waste your time here and do nothing, then go right ahead 'cause that's exactly what I'm planning to do. Already am doing for quite some time," She said flatly, if only for the scarcest hints of loathsomeness audible in her voice.

"…"

He didn't answer. She didn't expect him to.

"…Also," She started, her voice just a bit softer, "you don't have to wear a brave mask if you don't want to," She said, though quickly realized her error. It wasn't even a brave mask he wore. More like expressionless, flat one.

"I don't-"

"I know you do." She cut him short, her lilac fixed in the sole center of his blue. "You can't hide it from me, Jaune. It's pointless because I sorta know how you feel so…you can be you, if you want," She said, and gazed back to the window. "I won't say or do anything." She finished.

At first, he didn't say anything. He was stiff and still as a statue. Seemingly anxious or even afraid to move, to even blink. Before he finally did as his whole body shuddered, and he drew in a shaky breath. And shakily exhaled. Rubbed his eyes and he too, turned to that same window she was staring through.

A voiceless Thank you lingering behind his closed lips.