Jaune's first weeks of classes are brutal. He's grossly behind in every single course that isn't History of Remnant, where he is only marginally behind. Honestly, he deserved an A+ for just staying awake through Oobleck's classes. Still, Jaune has to learn all the math and science stuff that Beacon thought wasn't very essential to Grimm fighting. He can't even study in the library because his parents want him back home the very moment after the last bell rings. But that's not the worst of it.
He hears his own name float around the hallways on a near daily basis. People talk about him behind his back and in the cafeteria any time they think he's just out of earshot. News of his fight with Ashton makes rounds faster than Ruby at her top speed. Everyone seems to know that he was "kicked out of Beacon", according to Carnelia's network of gossipers, and most put two and two together regarding their theories as to why. All of Jaune's old friends tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he's too cool for them now. They can't be seen playing card games and Compost King with a jock like him. The professors warn ominously that they'll be keeping an eye on his performance in and out of the classroom. And not a day goes by that a total stranger doesn't sidle up to Jaune and try to befriend him, asking him about being a hunter and what it was like to slay a Grimm and gosh, it must be so cool, did he know such and such a hunter, could Jaune introduce them, would Jaune like to hang out with them?
"You are essentially a rock star," Rawaya says to him as they sit in the cafeteria. She and Amarilla are the only two people Jaune sits with on a regular basis. "Did someone really ask if you were friends with Team SSSN?"
Jaune bows his head over his brown-bagged sandwich and apple, with a loving note from his mom scribbled in perfect calligraphy. "I spoke to Sun Wukong maybe twice," he mumbles, chewing his sandwich at a snail's pace.
"Oh," Rawaya says, blushing something terrible. "But… Not Neptune Vasilias right?" She wrings her hands. "I have his poster in my closet from that magazine, you don't think you could…"
Amarilla puts down her pudding cup and covers Jaune's ears with both her hands. "Rawa, you are not helping our baby brother through his traumatic thing."
"Of course. My apologies," Rawaya says, shaking her head to clear her previous thoughts. Amarilla releases Jaune's head. Rawaya continues to Jaune, trying to be helpful. "At least no one has realized who your partner was."
Amarilla's hands quickly clap back around Jaune's ears.
"Ama, ow ."
"We vowed never again," Amarilla whispers fiercely. "Especially after the cereal aisle thing."
"I can hear you both," Jaune says irately. But there's a lump in his throat. "Rawa, it's alright. It's annoying, but I'm figuring it out. I know none of you mean any harm by it."
"Of course." Rawaya flicks Jaune's arm with a smile. "We are Arcs. We are made of stronger stuff than the rest of them."
After school, Amarilla stays for her nursing classes and Rawaya heads to the school's news office. Jaune shoulders his bag of books and waves his sisters goodbye to head home. He feels like he hasn't had a moment to take a breath. He's still wrapping his head around the concept of a school where not everyone's focus is slaying monsters and getting better at slaying monsters.
On his walk home, Jaune spots a few of Carnelia's friends stopped in the middle of the road exchanging numbers. Jaune considers his options before they spot him and ducks into the small stretch of woods between the school and his house that flanks each side of the road. It'll be a slightly longer trip, but at least he won't have to deal with school drama outside of school. Alas, the girls spot him and follow him anyway, calling after him until Jaune grudgingly comes to a stop.
"Jaune!" the shorter of the two girls trills. Jaune thinks her name is Crystal. "We didn't see you at Carnelia's pub crawl yesterday."
Jaune begins to come up with some excuse regarding his studies but stops when he hears something in the trees. He turns, instincts on edge though there's nothing to see. Crystal thinks he's avoiding the question. Jaune shushes her rather harshly, trying to hear.
"Really, Jaune," Crystal's friend says, offended. "If you didn't want to come—"
An Ursa bursts forth from the trees. Crystal and her friend scream and Jaune jumps in front of them as the Ursa's claw comes down. His aura takes the brunt of it, but it sends him flying. Jaune rolls like Pyrrha taught him (it's sloppy, she'd make a comment on his form) and quickly gets back to his feet. Crystal and her friend are frozen in terror as the Ursa turns back to them.
"Hey!" Jaune shouts at it. "Hey, over here!" He swings his backpack off and hurls it with all his strength at the Grimm. The backpack explodes against it's white mask in textbooks and papers and pens. The Grimm's head swivels to him and Jaune starts to run with Professor Port's voice droning in his head. Deeper into the forest, away from populated areas, always away from civilians who don't know what you know about fear.
He can hear it tearing after him, roaring its rage. His brain scrambles as he runs to think of what to do. He has no weapons, no way of checking what level is aura is at. It's a small Ursa, smaller than the size he was used to handling in Forever Fall, but without armor or backup, it might as well be an Ursa Major.
He's thinking so hard he almost misses the ravine he's running towards. Jaune turns to avoid it, but his feet skid on the underbrush. He trips and tumbles into the ravine, screaming. Painfully, he lands in the shallow creek at the bottom. When the shock passes, he hears the Grimm following and scrambles against the rocks and current to get back on his feet. The Ursa is sliding down the ravine's steep edge to reach him and Jaune frantically scans in both directions for an escape route. He spots a tree that's partially fallen into the ravine, offering a ramp out. He sprints to it, tripping on smooth pebbles and mud and splashing ankle-deep water everywhere. By the time the Ursa reaches the waterline, Jaune is scrabbling up the side of the rotten tree as fast as he can. The Grimm charges him and Jaune has to jump the last few feet out of the ravine when the Ursa slashes the trunk and shatters it. Wheezing from effort, he pulls himself up and lays on his back to catch his breath.
The Ursa roars in anger below him. Jaune can hear it pacing, trying to scale up the side. Still panting, Jaune's head lolls to the side. He notices a small boulder nearby. With unsteady movements, Jaune rises and stumbles over to the thing, deciding that while he may not have weapons, sometimes thumbs and determination are good enough. Pushing with all the aura he has left, Jaune shoves the rock a few inches at a time to the edge of the ravine. In one final burst of strength, he shoulders it over the edge. There's a crunch below and the Ursa goes silent. By the time the dark Grimm matter dissipates, Jaune is already staggering back into the woods, trying to remember where he left his backpack.
He finds it by following Crystal's voice. She and her friend are standing where Jaune left them, babbling frantically to five or six other students who seemed to have been heading home down the same road. At the sight of him, they run over.
"Jaune! Oh my— Are you okay?!"
"They said it was an Ursa! Is it dead? Did you—"
"You look like shit, man!"
Jaune nods wearily at them all and reaches down to pick up his books and scattered papers.
"You are soaked and your hands are bleeding," Crystal points out desperately. "You should go to a medic!"
"I'm just gonna… Go home and take a nap," Jaune tells them, grabbing the last of his pens and shoving them in his bag. "See you in History tomorrow," he mumbles and almost crumples under just the weight of his bookbag.
The group makes a mixed noise of confusion and concern but Jaune doesn't turn back around. He stumbles the rest of the way home with no more distractions of the Grimm or scholarly variety. It's only when he opens his front door and finds himself face-to-face with Gia in date clothes that he figures his luck lasted too long.
Gia takes one good look at him, then steps aside to let him enter the house. "I want to know nothing."
Jaune drags himself past her with a grateful thumbs up. He falls asleep in the shower.
A week later, Jaune's status at school has shifted. Everyone in his grade and in the grades above him suddenly knows his name and wants him to know theirs. Almost overnight, he goes from Jaune "expelled from Beacon, thinks he's better than the rest of us" Arc, to Jaune "knows he's better than us, and with good reason, do not fuck with Jaune Arc" Arc. Jaune becomes aware of this because someone actually relays that information to Amarilla in so many words. She laughed for a good two minutes when she passed it onto him. Jaune makes her and Rawaya swear not to tell their parents about the Ursa thing, since their mother might have a heart attack thinking he was so close to danger. Their father already had enough on his plate with his own town council and hunting duties; he didn't need to worry about grounding Jaune any further.
Jaune starts eating his lunches in janitor's closets or in the corner of the cafeteria, between his unofficial sibling bodyguards. He can't make it from one class to the next without someone wanting to talk to him, and he finds the silver lining in his grounding, as it gives him an excuse to duck out on everyone's after school invitations. He can't leave school fast enough at the end of the day, even if it's just to go home and crawl back into bed for some peace and quiet.
The Arcs are all sitting down to dinner at the end of the week, as they all make an effort to do when Mr. Arc is out of the house on hunting assignments. Flava's scroll keeps ringing at the table. Even when she silences it, the buzz against the wooden table makes everyone look up whenever it goes off.
"Who is calling you so incessantly?" Mrs. Arc asks, earnestly intrigued.
Flava scowls at the number on the scroll before cancelling another call. "Probably a telemarketer."
"Tell them to stop," Gia suggests simply.
The scroll buzzes again and Flava outright shuts it off with a grunt of annoyance. "And let them know it's a valid number? No thanks. They've been calling since yesterday. I am not going to break now."
"I wish I had that kind of determination to sell you something," Rawaya says absently. She swallows a mouse's bite of bread.
"Yes, well." Flava takes a drink of her red wine. "It must be a telemarketer. I don't know anyone with a Mistrali number."
Jaune chokes a little on his glass of water. His mother thumps him gently on the back until he can breath fine again. Jaune swallows properly as a strange sort of hope wells inside him.
"You don't have any...ex's from Mistral, right?" he asks carefully, trying to keep his expression as neutral as possible.
Amarilla barks a laugh. "That would require her to actually date."
Jaune chuckles awkwardly as Flava and Amarilla bicker. Gia's instinct is to shove what's left of her dish in the fridge so she can leave the table, and Rawaya puts her headphones in despite Mrs. Arc's insistence that dinner is socializing time. Jaune scarfs down the rest of his meal and then goes to watch TV in the living room until Flava finishes and heads to her room.
He knocks on her door. "Flav, I need to borrow your scroll."
Flava's door opens, and she raises a knowing brow at him. "You're grounded."
"I know, but it's really really important. I'll only be two minutes."
"You're grounded," she repeats mechanically, as if he's forgotten. "At least until the Vytal Festival. If dad has his way, until you're fifty ."
Jaune pushes his way into the room and shuts the door behind him. "I will do anything. I'll take over your chores list for the week. The month!"
"Do me one better, baby brother," she says. Her eyes get serious. "I've got interviews lined up from now until the end of the year. If mom or dad find out I helped you break grounding, guess who's also going to get grounded."
"Tell me what you want."
"To not get grounded."
"Flava."
She groans. "Stop using all the hot water with your sad baths," she acquiesces. "Actually, on that note, stop being sad. It's depressing the rest of us. And do my chores for the month. And help me convince mom to let me go to Vale for an interview for the CCTS."
"Done," Jaune says immediately.
Flava expected more resistance, but she sighs and sticks to her word, holding the scroll away from Jaune for a moment before she hands it to him. "Two minutes."
Jaune snatches it from her and powers it back on. There's a list of missed calls, all from the Mistrali number, but they stopped roughly an hour ago. Jaune hits redial on one of them and holds his breath.
The call connects. He hears, "Hello?"
And Jaune can't help the laugh that escapes him. It's relief and joy and it tumbles out from somewhere deep inside him. "Hey, Pyrrha."
Her voice goes from cautiously formal to ecstatic in a moment. "Jaune!" She laughs too, all bright and sparkling. "Jaune, thank goodness! I thought something happened! You haven't answered anyone's texts in weeks!"
"I'm grounded," he says, sitting down on his sister's bed. "My parents took my scroll. How did you get my sister's number?"
Jaune hears papers shuffling. "Weiss had some files sent to her from the SDC and she caught sight of your sister's application for a position in the company. Please tell her I'm sorry for all the calls!"
He laughs again and scrubs a hand across his face, not caring what an idiot he must sound like. "Wow, have I missed the sound of your voice."
"Turn on your video," Pyrrha says before shouting away from the microphone, "Nora! Ren! I got through to Jaune!"
Jaune holds the scroll away from him and switches to the video function. As the video connects, he pats down his hair and double checks that he has nothing in his teeth. A second later, he's greeted with the sight of Pyrrha beaming up at him through his scroll. Her hair's down and she's in her night clothes without a fleck of makeup. Jaune didn't even consider the time difference between Beacon and his town.
She opens her mouth to say something but the camera view is immediately jostled and fully consumed by Nora's face.
"JAUNE!" she shouts. He swears he can hear it out his window all the way from Beacon. "You're okay! Your noodly face is all in one piece!"
He wants to tell her he just went home, he didn't fight a swarm of Grimm or jump out an airship, but he fears that might get her to stop grinning. He missed that first thing in the morning. So instead he smiles so wide his face hurts and says, "Yeah."
"School's been crazy since you left!" Nora declares, shaking the camera. Jaune can hear Pyrrha struggling somewhere out of the camera's view, mumbling, "Please give it back." Nora does no such thing, fending off Pyrrha with one hand while addressing the scroll and Jaune with the other. "We had this epic food fight at the start of the semester and Glynda almost gave us detention forever. But I guess she didn't want to make us look bad in front of all the new kids from Mistral and Vacuo and Atlas so we only got a little bit of detention. Which we had to share with Team RWBY which was no detention at all because we hey! "
Jaune suddenly has a view of the ceiling as Nora whines off camera, "I wasn't finished!"
The camera view dips and then Jaune's looking down the length of Ren's arm to his face, from where Ren is steadily holding the scroll over his head and out of Nora's reach. "Good evening, Jaune."
"Ren! Man, am I glad to see you," Jaune says sincerely.
Ren gives him one of his little smiles. "And I, you. How is home?"
"Home is…" Jaune falters, then decides he's not going to ruin the moment. "Great! Home is great. How's, uh, how are all the girls?"
Ren sighs. Jaune can see Nora climbing up Ren's side like a monkey to reach the scroll and can hear Pyrrha asking Ren to please be careful with her scroll. "Everyone is well," he says. "RWBY has been keeping busy tracking criminal masterminds. We're all passing our classes."
"That's awesome! That's...wait, criminal masterminds?"
There's a gasp from off-camera, followed by, "Is that Jaune?!" The camera screen is subsequently obscured by red rose petals and then he's looking at Yang's Achieve Men poster in the background and Ruby's face grinning at him from arm's length.
"Jaune! Didya miss me?" she asks excitedly.
"Rubes! Hey, of course! How are you? Did you pass the leadership trials?"
She beams. "With all the highest points." The camera bounces with her excitement. "Did Ren tell you about all the new students at Beacon now and all their super cool weapons? Sun's friend Neptune has an electric trident, can you believe that?!"
Jaune makes a note to pass that on to Rawaya. He raises a brow. "Uh, Ren said something about you guys hunting criminals?"
"Roman Torchwick," Ruby clarifies with a serious nod. "He's been working with the White Fang and—"
Weiss pushes Ruby out of frame to glare through the screen. "Jaune, you cannot tell anyone how I got your sister's number. If my dad finds out I got hold of SDC files, I am in huge trouble."
"Hey, Weiss," Jaune says nervously, his heart fluttering at the sight of her. "Anything you say, snow angel. W-What have you been up to?"
Weiss rolls her eyes, looking regretful that she got on camera to address him, but she's startled by Yang suddenly appearing on screen.
"She's been kicking terrorist butt!" Yang interjects, pushing in to share the frame with Weiss. In the background of the swivelled camera angle, Jaune can see Ren and Nora coming in the door to RWBY's dorm.
"Kicking major butt!" Ruby agrees, shoving in and squishing Weiss in the frame between herself and Yang. Weiss sighs and ducks out from between the sisters.
"I told him about the food fight!" Nora calls from off screen, followed by Ren informing them all that it was past lights out and they were all being very loud.
"Did you hear about the mech fight?" Yang asks him, smirking as she takes the scroll fully. "That was almost just as cool. You totally should've been there."
"Oh!" Ruby interrupts, snatching the scroll back. "Blake wants to say hi too! Say hi, Blake!"
The camera turns to a very sleep deprived Blake, sitting in bed with a book and narrowing her eyes at the scroll being shoved in her face. "Hello, Jaune," she says blearily.
"Hey!" Jaune squints, worried. "Are you sick?"
"I'm fine," she says curtly, and then Jaune is back to looking at Ruby's face.
"When are you coming back?" Ruby asks with a smile.
Jaune winces. "Oh. Um, I haven't...figured that out yet."
"You can't keep a good hunter down, Rubes," Yang says from off camera.
"Right," Jaune agrees, feeling that sinking sensation in his stomach swallow his happiness. "Well, first I have to serve my grounding. Then I guess I can...visit."
Ruby starts to frown. "But...when are you coming back to school?"
The truth wriggles around in his throat, and he almost says it, he almost says, never. But he pastes a smile back on his face and says, "Soon as I can."
In an instant, Ruby's excitement is back. Nora pushes into frame. "We've got to tell you about the paladin. And crazy umbrella girl!"
"Oh! Let me tell that part," Yang says and then she's pulling the scroll from Ruby and Nora so all Jaune can see is blonde hair.
It devolves into playful bickering as the three girls start passing the scroll and talking over each other. Jaune stares into the image in his hands, feeling his chest hurt with how much he misses them. Suddenly, the screen goes to static.
"Hello? Guys?" Jaune holds the scroll up in a couple directions to try and see if he lost reception. But a few seconds later, the static clears on the image of Pyrrha as the scroll snaps into her hand with her Semblance. By the bright overhead lights, it looks like she's in one of the bathrooms on the Freshmen floor, and that's confirmed as she quickly pushes against the door and locks it.
"You can't hog him all to yourself, Nikos!" Yang's voice shouts from somewhere in the hallway.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha calls. She slides down to sit against the door and heaves a sigh. She smiles at Jaune. "Sorry, I was worried they'd drop my scroll."
"They would," Jaune agrees, smiling back goofily.
"Truthfully though," she says, brushing some wild strands of hair from her face, "how have you been?"
Jaune doesn't want to lie to her, but he doesn't think he can bear to strip her of her smile. He dodges the question. "Oh, I'm Mr. Popularity at school now. Even being a terrible ex-hunter makes you a super star around here. They're asking for my autograph in the hallways. I have no idea how you do it."
Pyrrha blushes, but her smile is encouraging. "You were never a terrible hunter," she corrects gently. "How is your training going? Have you been getting my videos?"
"Haven't had my scroll," Jaune reminds her. "But...I've been going through our basic starter routines," he lies. "Really...getting those polished."
"Wonderful!" Pyrrha beams. "That's always the best way to build a foundation."
The guilt gnaws at him for lying, but he tells himself it's worth it to see her happy. It's worth it to see them all living perfectly exciting lives without him. It's worth it to hear they think of him and want him to come back.
"Jaune? Is something wrong," Pyrrha asks, looking worried.
"No," he insists, rubbing away something in the corner of his eye. He swallows hard. "No, nothing's wrong. I wish I didn't miss swordfighting and you beating me into the ground on a regular basis, but I do."
"You were getting better."
"You were letting me win more. That's different."
Her flush of color betrays her. "I didn't— I did not let you win."
Jaune finds his smile again as she stammers. "It's okay, Pyr. I probably needed it. You were a great teacher."
"You would've done the same for me," she insists, still pink in the face.
"Yeah. In a different world," Jaune says sadly.
Pyrrha searches his face and bites her lip. She startles when someone knocks on the door behind her. She turns back to Jaune. "I have to go. Can I reach you at this number?"
Jaune shakes his head. "I'll call you . On any scroll I can get my hands on. Promise. I have your number now."
Her lips quirk up. "Jaune, you've had my number since the start of the year."
"On my scroll, yeah. I didn't actually memorize it," he says. She laughs, and Jaune does too. "I'll call back as soon as I can."
Pyrrha's smile turns sad around the edges. "You better," she whispers.
"Tell the others I wish them well, okay?"
Pyrrha nods. There's another knock on the door, but Pyrrha doesn't make an immediate motion to stand. She stays staring at him through the scroll and Jaune stares back, through the many miles between them.
"Goodnight, Jaune," she says fondly.
"Goodnight, Pyrrha."
He disconnects first because he needs to do it before he convinces himself he can talk with her until the sun comes up. The screen goes black and Jaune stares at his feet through the empty glass between the scroll's bumpers.
Flava clears her throat and Jaune almost falls off the bed. He completely forgot she was still in the room. She uncrosses her arms to hold her hand out for the scroll. Jaune passes it back to her, red-faced.
"So. That's the invincible Pyrrha Nikos," she says cryptically.
"Yeah." Jaune quickly stands to go, not a fan of the way his sister is appraising him like she knows something he doesn't. "Thanks for letting me use your scroll, Flav. I'll...get right on all those things you wanted."
He leaves back to his room, feeling rejuvenated and light-hearted and just about ready for round two with that Ursa.
Author's Note: Happy Valentine's Day, ya'll! Have some sweet JNPR feels