"Ughh…" Yang groaned, the bright, fluorescent lights sending bolts of pain through her skull, "my head…"
"Yang!" Ruby shouted, yanking her sister into a big hug. The blonde looked around, and saw Blake and Weiss there, both relieved, but the former notably more concerned, and the latter notably more angry.
"Hey Rubes!" Yang said, muscling through the now rapidly fading headache to return the hug, "Where am I?"
"Beacons hospital wing," Blake answered, stepping forward, "you've been here since your match with Jaune."
Yang smirked.
"Wow," she snarked, "I laid a beatdown on him so bad I got sent to the nurse? Ha!"
"Guys?" She quieted down, an eyebrow raised, "Why aren't you looking at me?"
"Yang…" Her sister said, a little slower, "what was the last thing you remember?"
"I was fighting Jaune, and he grabbed my hair," Yang said, thinking back, scowling at the memory, "then...then…"
"What happened?" She said, now concerned.
"Well…" Ruby began, prepared to explain gracefully and cautiously, when Weiss jumped in.
"Jaune beat you." She said plainly, to which Yang glared at her, "Then you snuck up on Jaune and punched him full force AFTER Miss Goodwitch called the match."
"I...I did?" Yang said, almost surprised at herself.
"Then Jaune got back up, pulled a mace out of Oum knows where and beat you hard enough to justify sending you to the hospital." Blake finished, looking a now embarrassed Yang in the eye.
"Is Jaune...alright?" Yang whispered quietly, the ramifications of what she had done becoming present as Goodwitch herself entered the room, a scathing glower on her face as she eyed Yang.
"Aside from the fact that you broke ten of his ribs, fractured his sternum, ruptured his spleen and gave him some serious internal bleeding," She spoke, Yang shrinking down into the comforters as her cold tone reacher the blondes ears, "I'd say he's fine."
"This is bullshit!" Yang shouted in outrage, drawing a gasp from her sister as the blonde threw a loose sheet of paper on the desk. Ever since her and Glynda's little chat, she had been swamped with additional assignments as punishment.
"What now?" Blake said, looking up from her novel. Or rather down, given that she was on the top 'bunk' in the room.
"Why am I the only one doing this?" She said, throwing her hands up in the air, "Why doesn't Jaune have to do any other work?"
An audible growl sounded from the door to the bathroom. Yang, Blake and Ruby turned to see Weiss, long, silver hair loose, and a set of nightclothes on her body. Her blue eyes narrowed, glaring angrily at Yang, before she spoke.
"The reasons Jaune isn't doing extra work right now," she started, voice low and calm, but quickly rising in pitch and volume, "is because you put him in the hospital, and he still hasn't woken up!"
There was silence.
"Five days," Weiss angrily held out her hand, fingers raised, "five days he's been unconscious, bleeding out in a hospital bed with a ruptured organ and half his ribs broken!"
"N-now Weiss, I-" Ruby stammered, trying to calm down her partner to no avail.
"Don't you 'Weiss' me Ruby!" She said, pointing a finger at the younger girl, "You haven't noticed that he's been out of class for a week now? That his team leaves early after last period?"
"Why do you know?" Blake asked, voice bereft of hostility, seeing that Weiss was really distressed.
"Because I've been going with them after class to see him, like you all should have been!" She yelled, making everyone, even Ruby a little more downcast.
"Jeez," Yang muttered, scratching the back of her neck, "his team must be really pissed at us…"
"Oh no," Weiss said, no longer yelling, just speaking very sternly as she stomped up to the yellow haired girl, "they are not mad at our team, we are mad at you." She enunciated, poking Yang in the chest on the last word.
"We?" Ruby said, a quizzical tone in her voice.
"Yes, we." Weiss repeated, glaring at her partner, "His team and I are most certainly angry."
"But you're on my team…" Ruby trailed off as Weiss started shouting again.
"Am I? Am I on your team?" She yelled/asked, temper rising again, "At this point, I'm more on his team than I am yours!"
"Hey, Ruby's still your partner Weiss, that doesn't-"
"Well she maybe shouldn't be!" Weiss yelled again, cutting off Blake, "I should have been on a team with Jaune and Pyrrha, we, should have been together!"
Silence.
"I'm going to visit him again," She said, storming out of the room, hand on the doorknob, "I'll apologize for you if he wakes up."
"Weiss, wait!" Ruby called out as the silver haired heiress slammed the door, leaving the room in silence once again.
"Oh thank Monty he's waking up!" A nurse exhaled, obviously relieved. Jaune on the other hand would have preferred to stay unconscious, considering the pain he was feeling. The room was too bright, there was an annoying beeping noise coming from his right side, and everything seemed way too loud.
"By the gods," he groaned, eyes screwing themselves shut in an attempt to hide from the bright lights, "where in Velsharoons name am I?"
"You're in the hospital wing," another nurse said, entering the room, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren behind her, "you got roughed up pretty good."
"Jaune!" Nora shouted as she came in, quickly bounding up to his bedside, "are you alright?"
"Easy there sweetheart," the nurse said, subtly guiding Nora off the edge of his bed, her soothing southern accent making short work of the hyperactive ginger, "Mister Arc is still recovering, and he's been out for a few days."
"Days?" Jaune said, with a slight start, now wondering how hard Yang had hit him. It had been his fault entirely, given how he'd turned his back. And of course a little fault went to his armor. His set of living armor 'relaxes' when not actively blocking strikes, to give him a bit more flexibility, becoming incredibly rigid when in battle. Since he'd thought he was out of battle, his armor had 'softened up', and didn't have enough time to re-harden.
But days? That wasn't something a human teenager should be able to do. Jaune knew Yang was strong, he'd just had a fight with her, but it was obvious he had underestimated her raw strength.
And then there was that ability of her's, some kind of energy transfer, which was probably what really allowed her to hit him as hard as she did.
'Guess I'll need to be more careful next time.' He thought to himself.
'I should be with Jaune', Weiss muttered to herself as she stormed down the halls of Beacon, making her way towards the hospital wing, "he should have been MY partner!"
While she was stomping around, she failed to notice Ozpin walking towards her, at least until she ran right into him, staggering backwards at the sudden stop.
"Oh!" The older huntsman said, as the heiress recovered, "Hello Weiss."
"So sorry Mr. Ozpin," she apologized, "I wasn't paying attention."
"Apology accepted Miss Schnee," he said, chuckling to himself, "but I must ask, where are you going at this time of night?"
"I'm going to visit Jaune with his team again." she said, her voice hardening, something that didn't go unnoticed by the headmaster.
"You sound angry," he remarked, leaning forward slightly, "did something happen?"
"What happened is my team doesn't care about Jaune!" She snapped, before she realized who she was talking to again. Ozpin eyed her with a look that beckoned her to continue.
"They didn't even notice he'd been out of class until I told them," she said softly, "and I'm the only one who's visited him, it's like they don't even care."
"Ugh…" she sighed, sounding a little defeated as her shoulders slumped, "I should have been his partner, not Ruby's…"
"I see…" the professor regarder her with a pair of soft brown eyes.
"Well that certainly sounds like an issue with your team," he said after a moment of pause, "but you must remember that they are your team, as much as you may want otherwise. You four will be together for your time here at Beacon."
"I suggest you work this out with them at some time in the future, but for now, you may want to hurry down to the hospital wing," He said, walking down the hall, "Mister Arc just woke up."
"But we were soooo worried about you!" Nora said, as the nurse began checking his blood pressure, affixing the strap around his bicep.
"They certainly were hun," the nurse said, her southern drawl filled with mirth, "your team was here every day visiting you, and that young silver haired girl from the other team."
"Weiss?" Jaune asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat up in the hospital bed, the sheet dropping enough to see his chest, which was wrapped almost entirely in white, linen bandages.
"Yes. Weiss was here with us." Pyrrha stated flatly, her eyes narrowing slightly as Jaune spoke his next words.
"Well that's nice." He said, smiling warmly at the gesture. He then looked over at Pyrrha, who was scowling very slightly.
'She looks almost…' Jaune thought, waiting for the right word to come to him, '...jealous?'
"I know he's in there," Came the voice of a certain silver haired huntress in training, growing steadily louder as it approached the door, "Now let me in."
And thus, the door was flung open, much to the dismay of the unfortunate nurse trying to convince her otherwise.
"Speak of the devil." Pyrrha muttered under her breath as Weiss approached the bed, while the nurse from earlier removed the strap from Jaunes arm.
"Oh thank Oum you're finally awake!" She said, sounding relieved and happy as Jaune returned a smile.
"It'll take a lot more than a cheap shot to put me down," Jaune chuckled as he sat up a little more, glancing down at the sterile, white bandages wrapped around his chest, and a small, slowly growing splotch of red in the lower portion, "I wouldn't be much use if I couldn't take a hit."
"About that," Weiss said, looking both angry and nervous all of a sudden. "I also need to apologize on behalf of my teammate."
"I can't believe you're taking her side!" Yang shouted angrily at Ruby, who was trying to convince her to visit Jaune.
"Yang, you need to calm down," Blake said from the top bunk, putting her book down to join in on the conversation, "let Ruby explain herself."
"Fine." she huffed, before gesturing to her sister.
"Weiss is right," the younger girl said, eyes looking down, "We should have been checking on Jaune."
"I agree."
Everyone jumped, Ruby even giving a short yelp of surprise. In the doorway stood Ozpin, dressed in his usual black and green garb, cane in one hand, and mug in the other. He regarded the team for a moment before he spoke.
"While none of your are obligated whatsoever to visit Mister Arc," he said, as Glynda walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder, before going back to her scroll, "It certainly would be a positive gesture, a show of kindness, something Miss Xiao Long would benefit from."
"But anyway," he said, adjusting his glasses, "I am here to tell you all that Mister Arc is now awake. And again, while you three are under no obligation to, I would sugfest you visit him, especially Miss Xiao Long."
"Well I-" Yang began, only for Ruby to slap a hand over her mouth and speak for the team.
"Sure thing Mister Ozpin," she said, smiling as Yang grunted angrily, still muffled, "we'll come down right now."
"Wonderful."
"Here you are," The nurse said, as RBY, Ozpin and Glynda stopped at the door, "Mister Arc is in here."
"Thank you, we shouldn't be too long." Ozpin said, before he gestured to Ruby to open the door. She grabbed the handle and turned, letting the group into the room.
"If you keep moving around, you'll rip your stitches again." The nurse there said, as she slowly unwrapped a set of bandages from around his chest, exposinga number of puncture wounds, a few lacerations, and a giant bruise that covered his entire right torso, from his mid chest, all the way down to the bottom of his stomach.
At the moment, a few of the wounds were leaking blood, the stitches they'd been closed with having been damaged. The nurse stepped back, disposing of the used bandages in a bin, before grabbing some cleaning supplies and going to work, gently cleaning off the new blood, quickly stitching up a few reopened wounds, before Jaune noticed the new arrivals.
"Oh hey there!" He said, waving, as his team and Weiss turned and looked.
"Hi Jaune!" Ruby waved back, smiling.
"Hello Ruby," Jaune responded, before acknowledging the rest of the people there, "Blake, Sir Ozpin, Lady Goodwitch, nice to see you again."
"Hello Mister Arc," The headmaster said, smiling in relief, "While I'm glad to see you awake, I think you should stop tearing your stitches."
"Apologies sir," He said respectfully, "I'll try not to damage them again."
"But in other matters," Ozpin said, clearing his throat and gesturing to the door, "Someone is here to visit you."
After a few moments pause, Yang walked in, eyes locked on the floor, before slowly panning up. She winced, looking at the state of Jaune, confined to his hospital bed, a large, deep purple bruise covering half his chest, stitches all along his ribs, and an IV in his arm.
She looked around her, catching expectant looks from Ozpin, Glynda, Blake and Ruby, and everything from annoyance to anger from Weiss and Jaunes team. Then she looked at him, catching his gaze.
In her head, she expected him to be angry, but with a satisfyingly grudging respect in his eyes, more of an acknowledgment of her strength than anything else, knowledge that she was not one to be taken lightly.
Instead, his face bore something halfway between a scowl and a smug grin, as he looked back. His glaring eyes were aglow with burning anger, like a pair of golden headlights, but instead of respect, was something more akin to a dismissive annoyance, which stung more than his evident anger; that he didn't even give her respect.
"Gonna break the rest of my ribs now?" He snarked, raising an eyebrow, "Waiting for another cheap shot? Seeing how that's the only way you could beat me I doubt you could do anything else."
"I'm here to apologize." Yang said, forcing her pride to be quite, despite Jaunes biting remarks.
"Didn't know you could do that," he said, snorting, "thought you'd be here to challenge me to another duel."
"I-" She began before he cut her off.
"How about we do it right now?" He said, sitting up straight, smoke starting to drift from his hair, "It'll be an even fight."
That hurt. Ruby, Blake, even Glynda a little, all visibly recoiled at that particularly biting retort. Blinking away tears of anger and embarrassment, Yang grit her teeth and apologized.
"I'm sorry," she ground out, "I didn't mean to hurt you like that."
"Didn't mean to hurt me my ass," Jaune grumbled, before he spoke again, "Didn't mean to hurt me? I assume that's why you waited until after the match?"
It was at this moment that everyone in the room realized what a bad idea this was. But it was when Yang started yelling that it was reaffirmed.
"You didn't even use your aura!" She yelled, "If you're acting that dumb in a fight, maybe you could learn a lesson from this!"
"What the hell even is aura anyway?" Jaune shouted right back, angry and fed up, "I've been hearing you all constantly going on and on about it, but no one has even explained it to me, so obviously if I don't know what it is, I can't use it!"
Silence.
"Mister Arc," Glynda said slowly, so as not to set him off again, "do you honestly not know what aura is?"
"No." He growled, still very much annoyed. Pyrrha put her hand on his shoulder, closed her eyes and concentrated, using her own aura to try and sense his. Her eyes opened after a second, and she looked to Glynda, shaking her head slowly.
"You don't have aura…" Yang said, almost in disbelief. That sure did explain his injuries, but nothing else, like his fire, his companion, or even his strength.
"Yeah, I don't, what's it to you?" He said, now sounding defensive, "Didn't even have it and I won, doesn't seem too useful to me."
"I think that's enough for now," the nurse said nervously, trying to break the tension by shoeing out everyone except Glynda and Ozpin, "let's all give Mister Arc a little space, shall we?"
A week had passed, and Jaune was finally back in class. He was mostly healed, just some light bruising and and ribs still bothering him. And it seemed like everyone except Yang was friends with him.
His team was obviously there for him, helping him get on his feet again, keeping him active, and functioning while he recovered. He and Ruby often hung out, getting into long discussions about weapons, materials, and techniques, Weiss spent an entire weekend helping him make up the work he'd missed, and Blake had even given him a short yoga lesson, in hopes the stretching would be good for his recovery.
Expect for Yang. After that train wreck of an apology visit, Jaune had been giving her a cold shoulder even Weiss would be proud of. Not a word to her, not even a glance, it was like she didn't even exist anymore. When her team ran into Jaune, he would greet everyone except Yang, and frankly, it was getting on her nerves.
After a particularly stressful day, Yang found herself storming off to the gym for some training, just to blow off some steam, when she ran into Pyrrha, who was coming out of the locker room in full combat dress.
"Hey Pyrrha." She said, waving to the redheaded girl, who waved back.
"Oh," she said, her voice neutral, "Hi Yang. What are you doing here?"
"Just blowing off some steam," she said, shrugging, "probably gonna grab some weights."
"Oh nice," Pyrrha responded, as her sword and shield floated into her hands, "I'm just doing some combat training with Jaune."
"Oh…" And now her expression soured, "good for you."
"Anyway," Pyrrha said, obviously trying to end the exchange, "He's waiting for me in the training ring, I'd rather not keep him waiting any longer."
"Yeah sure," Yang waved goodbye as she left, "see you around."
"You too."
Yang walked into the locker room and sat down on one of the benches. She huffed, releasing an exasperated sigh of general annoyance.
"I really screwed this up, didn't I." She said to no one in particular as the sound of a gunshot echoed from the training room.
Jaune raised his shield just in time to block a shot, the dust round plinking against his shield as Pyrrha probed for an opening. Another two shots bounced off his shield, before the knight returned fire, using his shield hand to cast and throw a fireball, which Pyrrha nimbly dodged.
Realized neither party could do much of anything from a distance, as Pyrrha was fast enough to avoid his pyromancy, and Jaune's shield and armor rendered Pyrrhas bullets ineffective, and thus, the two moved in for a melee.
Making use of her speed to strike first, Pyrrha shifted her rifle into a sword and leapt into an overhand strike, which Jaune blocked with his shield. He countered with a lunging thrust, to which Pyrrha responded to by rolling over his right shoulder and off his back, slashing at his rear as she rolled off.
Grunting in surprise at the move, Jaune whipped around, swinging his sword in a broad, horizontal sweep. Pyrrha, once again using her lighter weight and high agility, jumped, flipping over the sword, and Jaune himself to land on the other side, getting in another good slash on his back.
Jaune responded remarkably fast for someone in such heavy armor, spinning and bringing his sword down in a diagonal slash, clashing with hers at the center. Pushing forward, Jaune locked the two blades together with the crossguard of his, before forcing the two sword up, turning and making enough room for a powerful side kick, which he then performed.
Fortunately, his partner was fast enough to use her shield, putting the circular hoplite style shield between her and Jaunes boot. Which was a good idea, considering the force of the kick managed to send her skidding back a good few feet, heels scraping against the floor as she ground to a stop.
'Damm, she's light on her feet,' Jaune thought, breathing heavily, which was to be expected of a sparring match that was entering its tenth minute, 'I need to end this quickly before she gets lucky.'
'By Oum he's strong,' Pyrrha thought, as Jaune flexed his fire, steam and smoke starting to flow from his armor as his metal plating began to glow, 'My arms are burning from that kick, I can't keep trading hits like that when he has me outclassed in power.'
'But,' She thought to herself, as her sword transformed into a spear, surprising Jaune, 'Maybe range might be the key.'
"Grrrah!" Jaune grunted as he forced himself forward to meet Pyrrha, using his shield to block a thrust from her spear. While Jaune was certainly stronger, Pyrrhas superior range was giving him some pause, seeing as how she was now forcing him back.
But she still wasn't making any progress. Jaune's shield was still overing himself, and she wasn't going to break through that armor anytime soon, and as their match ticked into minute twelve, it looked like they were in another standstill.
'Sorry Jaune' The redheaded mitralian thought as she readied herself, 'I need to end this match now.'
She quickly pushed her aura into overdrive, sending extra power and control to her semblance. Her hands started to emit a black aura, as did Jaunes sword and shield, something that clearly alarmed him, given the look on his face. She flexed her magnetism, and his weapons flew out of his hands, much to his dismay and surprise.
Instead of panicking, he steeled his eyes, squared his shoulders, and clenched his glowing white fists, readying himself for a final stand.
Using her semblance again, she flung her shield at him, sending the disc of metal flying towards his head. His eyes widened, as he ducked, the shield flying over his head and behind him. But when his eyes snapped back to Pyrrha, she was already in motion, charging him with her spear leveled at his chest, pointing at the point just below his sternum.
Only when the spear was about a foot from his chest did Jaune snap into action. Quickly, he used his right hand to slap the spear downward, at the same time raising his right foot, before it came crashing down. He planted his sabaton on the spearhead and forced it to the ground, breaking Pyrrhas posture and sending her off balance.
His next move was to dive into her, crashing into her waist and tackling her to the ground. As the two were falling, Jaune whipped out a nine inch arming dagger, hidden near the back of utility belt in a brown leather sheath, and pressed it against the underside of her chin after they hit the ground.
"I win." He grinned, breathing hard, a firefly glint in his golden eyes, his mad grin only falling as he felt a metal point press against the underside of his chin. He shifted his eyes down to see Pyrrhas spear, now back in sword form, threatening to punch through his throat.
"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked, smiling right back and raising an eyebrow, just as out of breath as Jaune was, sweat across her forehead, especially now that Jaune was on top of her, bring his pyromantic heat closer. Now basically face to face with his glowing white gauntlet, she could easily see the wavy distortions caused by it's impressive heat.
"Ah…" He said, his smile returning as he paused for breath again, "...let's call it a draw."
"Deal."