This one has some strong Season 4 vibes but bear with me. I promise it's not a copy paste, SuperSaiyajin4Vegeta, I got you. Thanks to hypernova2718 for reviewing again. Please review if you can!
Old Friends
The next morning everyone was up bright and early to either leave or see the others off. Weiss hugged Ruby and Yang tightly and told them to be careful while Jaune hugged both his teammates and shared a few similar words, then they both nodded to Qrow before the group left. Neither of them were very tired so they agreed to make some breakfast and get an early start on the day. Weiss had never done much cooking and heating prepackaged food over a fire pit hardly counted so Jaune agreed to make them french toast as long as she kept him company in the kitchen.
"So I was thinking we start with hand-to-hand, then step up to melee, then work on Semblances after lunch so we're nice and warmed up."
"Works for me." he shrugged as he filled three plates with food.
She helped him set the table and Oscar joined them for a semi-silent meal. Weiss brought forward in her mind what Qrow had said to her about the boy and took a deep breath. "We're working in the courtyard after breakfast if you'd like to join us, Oscar."
"I appreciate it but I think I'm just going to stay in and read today."
"We need to make sure we all stay in shape." Jaune pointed out.
"I know, but to be honest I never had the best schooling as a kid. I grew up on a farm and had to work more than I had time to learn. I want to take advantage of all the knowledge here while I can."
Weiss nodded. She'd extended the olive branch but that didn't mean she was going to push it. "We'll be outside if you decide to join us."
"Thanks for the offer, Weiss." he smiled and she had the sneaking suspicion he knew just what it had taken to ask him. Or more accurately Ozpin had probably known.
She helped Jaune clean up before they grabbed their weapons and headed out to the courtyard. She set Myrtenaster aside but still close by, leaning on Jaune's shield. As he set it in the dirt she saw his fingers briefly run across the bronze edge. The look on his face was gone after a brief moment and they squared up before she could get a grip on what it had been. While she still considered herself his superior, they were pretty equally matched without their weapons. She had learned the hard way she was better at diverting hits than absorbing them but her main problem lay in the fact she just couldn't do enough damage. She was definitely no Yang Xiao Long, although luckily neither was Jaune so neither of them got very far. It was a good warm up though and about half an hour later they were dueling sword on sword. The sound of metal was a welcome change to the lack of noise that the empty courtyard seemed to amplify and she moved to focus all her attention on the fight.
Jaune was much better than she'd remembered. He could parry her attacks much easier and with his shield-edged sword she could hardly get a hit in. It would be a simple matter of casting a handful of runes to take him down but that wasn't in the spirit of the exercise and as Qrow had pointed out on more than one occasion she needed to learn to fight without her Semblance. She normally fought with only a rapier to keep her hand free for casting glyphs but it was a handicap here, as Jaune was able to dual-wield his sword and she was not. As she slashed and stabbed it was made clear Jaune was easily the stronger of the two and her arms strained to hold her ground every time their blades locked. Jaune's face was a mask of concentration and she saw for once all the training he'd been slaving over had made its impact. In the heat of the moment she barely recognized him. She switched gears and amped up the speed of her attacks, putting as much non-Semblance enhanced speed as she could muster into a string of quick stabs ranging from his torso to his face. He missed a few but bent out of the way of one aimed towards his head, spinning on his heel and bringing his own sword at her face. On instinct a glyph lit up under her and pushed her well out of sword range and in a combat stance, rapier extended in his direction.
She was about to apologize for technically cheating but he didn't miss a beat, just advanced on her with his own sword already in a swinging motion. She deflected it easily and the speed of their duel increased threefold. Jaune was hacking and slashing as fast as he could and it took a lot of concentration on Weiss' part to parry the powerful blows. Since he hadn't said anything the first time so started a few runes here and there while he countered them easily. She used a rune to launch herself a little ways from him, spinning her rapier's chamber to some Dust. She looked up to see him pull a quick maneuver of tossing the sheath of his sword in the air where it changed into it's shield form before landing on his arm. He took a stance with his sword bristling over his shield as she darted forward. He easily defended the shock of electricity that exploded out of Myrtenaster, which she followed by with three quick strikes before flipping over his head and attacking his exposed back before he could react. He was hit in the back but let the momentum power a forward roll out of her range. He turned around and face her sword over shield once more.
"I think that's good jaune." she lowered her weapon and he mirrored her. "You're good."
"No need to butter me up." he smirked as they walked over to where their water bottles were. "I've picked up a few things on the road."
"Well you're at least competent now." she huffed as he brushed off her rare praise. "We'll work on Aura after lunch."
"When you work on your Summoning, would you mind if I sparred a little bit?"
"Of course, anything in particular?"
"A Boarbatusk or something? I'm not too picky." he shrugged.
"You should be challenging yourself with more than that. I'll think about it while we eat."
They had a reserved meal of sandwiches while chatting with Oscar about what it had been like at Beacon before it had been reduced to rubble. Afterwards they returned to the courtyard and he stood in the middle of the grassy clearing with his sword drawn.
"Now remember, I can dismiss it anytime I want so let me know if it gets too much for you."
He just gave a grim (ha!) nod. She sighed before pointed her rapier at the ground, causing a rune to light up and an Alpha Ursa crawled out. Starting easy was for rookies. It looked around to get its bearings (ha again!) but Jaune didn't give it a chance to get comfortable. He charged at it and immediately started hacking at it's legs. It roared in pain and swiped at him but he countered easily and stuck his sword into its neck. It jerked away before he could complete the movement, however, and batted him away weaponless. It clawed at the sword in its neck but seeing it was futile lowered to all fours and roared at the Huntsman. Jaune seemed unphased and took a defensive stance to see what the bear would do. It did what most Grimm did in a pinch and charged, to which Jaune stood his ground. At the last second he hit the deck and slid under the Ursa, grabbing the hilt of his sword as it passed over him. He seemed to underestimate how deeply it was wedged in though because he was yanked along with the Ursa instead of pulling it free in a smooth action.
He let out a 'woah!' as he was yanked around and the Ursa shook its neck like a dog to dislodge him. It threw the Hunter and the weapon off of him, scattering both apart from each other. Once more Jaune stood armed only with his shield as it raced towards him. She heard him take a heavy sigh before charging at full speed. Her hand was halfway out to dismissing the creature when Jaune jumped into the air, threw his shield into the wound his sword had previously made, than kicked that shield with his collected momentum. It successfully decapitated that creature and caused a white smoke to wash over the field.
He gathered his equipment as Weiss observed him quietly. That had been pretty extraordinary, especially considering a year ago Jaune hardly knew which end of his sword was which. He took his stance again and nodded to her to continue. She thought of one of the Griffon's that had been in the arena that night and it came to life before her eyes.
After the fourth or fifth Summoned creature was slain they fell into a sort of rhythm, as one fell she would Summon another unprompted and he'd smoothly take it out. His ferocity and concentration increased with each creature and she felt it like an Aura around him. He nearly glowed with motivation and she found her glyphs seeming to spring easier and easier in her hand in response, as if they wanted to help the Huntsman proceed. She could summon a Deathstalker with barely a thought.
Two hours later he had slain nearly a dozen of her conjured creatures, finally saying they should go inside and start dinner. While in battle he'd been focused and straight-faced, in the kitchen he laughed and joked like his usual self. After dinner she sat in her room and flipped around on her Scroll for a while. Ruby and the others' signals had long since been lost but she'd been watching them nonetheless. She had no idea how long their mission would take but Yang's comments had made her antsy.
Just before she was going to turn into bed she decided to get some tea to soothe her nerves. The house was dark and she figured the boys were asleep so she took care to make as minimal noise as possible. She passed the sliding door to the back porch when she heard a voice that froze her in her tracks.
"Alright Jaune, just like we practiced. Shield up. Keep your grip tight and remember to keep your front foot forward. And go!" Pyrrha's voice wafted through the house.
Her pulse raced and her breath caught in her throat. She edged towards the open door and peeked around the corner to see a heartbreaking sight. Jaune had propped his Scroll up on the porch railing and was standing in the back yard with his weapons drawn. The combative look she'd seen this afternoon was back on his face as he slashed through the air. On his Scroll was a video of his dead partner, giggling as she gave him instructions.
"Very good, now take a breathe. I know it can be frustrating having to put in so much effort for such little results, but know I'm proud of you Jaune. I've never met anyone so determined to be the very best they could be. And I..I… just know I'm happy to be apart of your life." the video jerked as it rewound itself. "Alright Jaune, just like we practiced."
A tear hit the hardwood floor as she withdrew back to her room in silence.
The next morning she woke up early and put forth all of her effort in making a decent breakfast. She burned the edges of the toast slightly and her eggs were slightly overcooked, but she made sure they looked pretty on the plate next to the orange slices and glasses of cold milk and hot coffee. Jaune walked down with a serious case of bedhead, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Woah, what's all this Weiss?" Oscar was right behind him.
"Well I wanted to thank you for helping me train yesterday. I also figured it was high time I learned to cook. I hope it's alright."
"It's looks great." Jaune smiled and sat down.
As she ate she could hear her Father's words in her head like a pre-programmed genetic recording. 'Schnee's should not do the work of servants', 'It's tasteless and has no flavor', 'You dare serve something you have not perfected?' 'How can you live with nothing short of absolute perfec-'
"This is really good Weiss, thanks." the boys have her a smile which she slowly returned.
"It's my first try and I know it's not very good."
Jaune stood up to gather their dishes and begin washing them. "When we first left Vale I tried making everyone breakfast to give Ren a break, ya know? I burned the pancakes so bad not even Nora would eat them." he joked.
"I've seen her eat syrup off the floor." she said horrified.
"To be fair, they were really bad. Then when I remade them so everyone wouldn't starve I tried that pan flip thing Ren can do to turn them over? Well I missed the pan and a half cooked pancake landed straight on Ruby's face!"
She chuckled as she set her coffee cup in the sink.
"Anyways, they didn't let me cook for a while but I think Ren took pity on me when I told him I couldn't exactly get worse. Nowhere to go but up, ya know?"
She had never thought of it like that. "I suppose that's right."
"So are we sparing this morning?" Jaune asked.
"Yes, let me just go get my weapon." she bounced up the stairs.
They met in the courtyard a few minutes later and were bashing away at each other. She openly used glyphs now but he was able to handle them with ease as long as she didn't go too fast. She buzzed around him like a bee but somehow he always met her slashes with the blade of his own sword. He put both his hands into a vicious swing that actually landed on Weiss' ribs, exerting a gasp from the Huntress and throwing her to the ground.
"Weiss, are you alright?" he stuck his sword point into the ground and knelt next to her.
"That was a good hit, Jaune."
"I didn't think it's actually connect." he admitted.
"Your timing was flawless. Good job." she picked herself up. "Again?"
"Yeah, let me get a drink first. 'Can't practice if you-"
"-die of dehydration'." she finished Professor Goodwitch's well known mantra.
They took sips from their water bottles while they sat on the porch steps to take a short rest. It was almost pleasant just sitting in the sun with the buzz of exercise in her bones. The quiet was soothing an she-
"Weiss?"
Oh well. "Yes?"
"Do you miss Blake?"
She nodded. "I do, very much."
"Do you think she'll come back?"
"I think so, yes. Once she figures herself out."
"Do you ever miss Pyrrha?" his voice grew softer.
"Yes, Jaune. Every single day." she looked at her boots and bit her lip. She reminded herself of what Qrow had said, that they had to try and live on in Pyrrha's name. Follow her example. "You know she would be very proud of you Jaune."
"Really?" his voice sounded almost like he was expecting her to yank back the compliment and crush his heart, like she'd done so many times at Beacon.
But she'd grown since then. She turned to meet his eyes and gave him a small smile. "Yes. She was always proud of you, but I think she'd be even more so now. You train so hard and you've come a really long way since Beacon."
"I couldn't have gotten here without her, you know. She trained me every night we were at Beacon for hours just so I could get better. She was a great teacher."
"She had a good student as well."
"Weiss, I-"
He was cut off by shouts emanating from the school's entrance gate and they snapped their hands to their weapons as they looked up. Nora came into view first, waving her arms in the air. They relaxed and smiles lit on their faces at the sight of their teammate, but then Yang and Ren came into view holding someone on a stretcher and their smiles vanished in an instant. Weiss lit a glyph under herself that sent her straight to the stretchers side. She was momentarily relieved to not see a red hood lying on the stretcher, but it made her feel no better seeing Qrow with a large bandage around his middle.