This is an idea I had after reading something similar to this called Jaune of the Music by LordHellPhoenix. Given there are other musically inspired stories out there, which I have read and enjoyed, but I feel like his is the biggest one I've seen so far. Anyway, this idea popped into my head after hearing the song, so hear it is. *ba dum tss* Get it cause you hear music? Well crappy pun aside, this story takes place in Volume 7 sometime after the group has arrived in Atlas, so without further ado, enjoy this little one shot!
Jaune had recently been hanging out at The Icehouse quite a lot. It was a little hole in the wall type bar he'd stumbled upon one day on his way back to Atlas Academy.
A little after the group arrived at Atlas, Jaune spent his days training and doing his crossing guard job before trekking back to Atlas and training some more before going to bed.
And it was this repeated schedule that slowly wore on Jaune as he felt like something was just missing from his life. It was on one such day when walking back to Atlas Academy that Jaune found the bar and he had been frequenting it ever since.
He got to know the bartenders and other employees who helped run the place and learned that the bar did some cool things such as Bingo nights, Karaoke nights, and happy hours throughout the week.
One such night was tonight when the bar was doing a karaoke night. Jaune had paid attention to some of the patrons tonight who decided to hop on the stage but mostly drowned them out focusing more on his drink and letting his mind drift back to the days of Beacon with his friends and started wondering where they all ended up.
He thought about people like Coco, Velvet, Fox, and Yatsuhashi of team CFVY and even team CRDL as he didn't really have any communications with anyone after Beacon fell. The only exception was his team of Nora, Ren, and Ruby and then the remaining team RWBY members once they had all finally met up.
And it was this train of thought that brought him to the memory of his partner Pyrrha, whose death at the hands of Cinder drove him crazy and led to him wanting to kill Cinder at all costs and almost distracted him from saving Weiss when Cinder attacked her too.
The good news is he wasn't too late this time and was able to heal Weiss with his newfound semblance. However, even knowing the fact that his actions helped lead to that situation made him upset as he promised himself after Pyrrha's death that he would avenge her and prevent anyone else from getting hurt.
"I thought I had put this stuff behind me but I guess that's something that's a little harder than just 'move on from it'." Jaune thought to himself as he stared down at his almost empty glass now
Thinking back to his days with Pyrrha he knew she would tell him he saved Weiss so all that matters is he accomplished that and he strives to do better in the future. Smiling a little to himself he downed what was left of his drink and looked up at the bartender to ask for another one before his eyes drifted to the entrance and saw someone he would've never expected to see come walking in.
There she was though, it was Weiss Schnee in the flesh. Albeit she looked a little uncomfortable but more than that she looked extremely upset. Seeing one of the female bartenders, Stephanie Glass, walk out of the back room he motioned for her to come over to him.
"Hey Jaune, haven't seen you in like two whole days. What's up stranger?" Stephanie said with a hint of sarcasm and a small laugh.
"Hey Steph, can you do me a favor? I know you're off work right now but it would mean a lot to me if you could help."
"Hmm, you usually aren't the kind to ask for a favor so this must be important. Alright spill." Stephanie said as she took a seat next to the blond knight.
"Alright well if you look over there," Jaune said with a nod of his head to indicate the area, "You'll see a girl with white hair and blue clothes? That's Weiss Schnee and she's a friend of mine."
"Ah, so what do you want me to do? Want me to go ask her out for you." She said with a teasing smile as she wiggled her eyebrows.
"That's actually kind of the problem." Jaune said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "See I kind of had a thing for her so, I'm worried if I go over there to see what's making her look well frankly depressed, she might take it the wrong way."
"Oh ok, I get you. Yeah I can do that for you, but you're going to owe me dinner sometime in the future. Or maybe a bottle of Mantlese Whiskey." She said with a smile before she got up and made her way over towards the depressed looking heiress.
Things hadn't been too well since Weiss got back in Atlas. She had been confronted with her father's influence again, her mother's alcoholism, and her younger brother's schemes to try and get after her and ultimately her position.
On the plus side she and her team had gotten their official hunter licenses from Atlas Academy and even with the things being bad with her family, the interactions with her team had helped offset some of that as they knew somewhat of what she was going through.
It was only yesterday when it seemingly came crashing down more as she got a text from her boyfriend, Neptune. Smiling as she saw the message she clicked on it only for her smile to turn to a scowl.
That piece of Grimm crap playboy had mistakenly sent her a message that was supposed to go to someone named Nebula about how he had gotten the "supplies for tonight and was ready" accompanied by a winky face.
Immediately angered by this she sent back a scathing message about how those two cowards deserved each other and how Nebula, if she recalled correctly from her interactions with her before she fled and left the other students for dead, was also someone who'd go perfectly with a skirt chaser like Neptune.
After sending that message and seeing the message from Neptune about how he was sorry and a bunch of other excuses Weiss turned off her scroll and went to her mission she was assigned for today.
After completing her mission, Weiss immediately went back to the room she was staying in and just went to bed when she got back to the academy. She didn't want to think anymore about the events that had just happened that day.
After waking up in the morning Weiss decided to tell Winter that she wasn't feeling well and would be skipping missions today and asked her to convey that to the rest of the group.
After hitting send on that message Weiss got up and got dressed before heading down into the city. She spent some time just visiting parks, and also visiting a restaurant to get lunch. After finishing up lunch she headed over to the Atlas library and spent the rest of the afternoon reading some feel good books that had happy endings.
Quite a few books later Weiss looked outside through the nearest window, saw the setting sun and decided it was probably time to head back. As she was walking back though, she heard some music coming from a bar nearby and decided to stick her head in and see what's up. Hoping that this bar might help out and give her a little distraction like the books did, Weiss decided to enter the establishment.
Despite feeling a little out of her element, Weiss still walked up to the bar and ordered a fruity drink she remembered Yang ordering at one point before when they were at a restaurant.
After handing over the lien for the drink and thanking the bartender she began going over to one the tables before sitting down.
After sitting down, Weiss heard the tell-tale sound of clicking heels and looked to her left to see a woman, who looked like she was a bartender here, walking towards her.
She had silver hair and green eyes that went well with the black bartender outfit that consisted of a black blouse and a black skirt, along with the of course black heels she heard walking towards her.
As she got closer to the table she stopped and looked at Weiss. "Hello, do you mind if I sit here?"
"Yeah sure, just let me get up." Weiss said as she moved to stand up.
"No no dear I think you misunderstand. I was asking if it's alright if I sit down and talk to you." The silver haired woman said.
"Oh," Weiss said with a blush, "Well I'm flattered but I'm sorry to say I don't um, swing that way." Weiss managed to get out.
Almost throwing her head back in a laugh the silver haired girl sat down. "My dear girl, I think you misunderstood again. You look like you have a lot on your mind and I simply wanted to see if you wanted to talk about anything. From my experience talking to a bartender tends to help several of our patrons get over what they're going through emotionally."
"Really?" Weiss asked, not really believing what the woman was telling her.
"Of course. We're practically unlicensed therapists when we're at our best. I'm Stephanie by the way. Stephanie Glass." Stephanie said as she extended her hand across the table.
"I'm Weiss, but you probably already knew that." Weiss said with a smile as she shook the woman's hand and started to relax a little.
"Well Weiss, what's all going on?" Stephanie asked as she looked at Weiss sincerely.
With that Weiss started to explain the issues that had come up in recent days…
Meanwhile Jaune had just gotten a text from Ruby asking him to be on the lookout for Weiss, and that they had found out she was cheated on by Neptune.
Jaune texted back he would make sure to let them know if he sees her before putting his scroll up. He was clearly thinking about something before he got up and walked to the worker by the stage. He then leaned down and whispered something to the worker, something that didn't go unnoticed by Stephanie as she was sitting facing the stage.
It did go unnoticed by Weiss though as her back was to the stage and she was finishing wrapping up on telling the female bartender her issues.
"Oh my Oum, you poor girl." Stephanie said as she slid around and wrapped an arm around Weiss in a side hug.
"I thought you said you didn't swing that way?" Weiss said with a half hearted laugh as she wiped her eyes of the little moisture that was in them.
"I don't but that was so sad I thought you needed a hug." Stephanie said with a sad smile as she wiped the tears that welled up in her eyes, after hearing Weiss' story.
"I just, I don't know what to do now. My team was helping me with the whole family thing and I kind of had Neptune to fall back on when we could message each other but now I don't know what to do about that now." Weiss said as she looked at the silver haired woman.
"Well you mentioned your team but, surely you have other friends you can probably reach out to." Stephanie suggested.
"Yeah there's Ren, his girlfriend Nora, and their team leader Jaune. There's also my sister I can probably lean on when she isn't busy with work, as well as some of the other students we know at Atlas Academy."
"See you got some others you can lean on. Aren't huntsman teams usually made up of four people though?" Stephanie asked, then regretted as she kind of saw Weiss give that same sad look again.
"Yeah they had a fourth member. Her name was Pyrrha Nikos, I'm sure you've heard of her, but she was Jaune's partner before she was killed at the fall of Beacon."
"Oh no." Stephanie said as she covered her mouth with her hand. "I heard about her passing, but I didn't know she was his partner though."
That comment caught Weiss' attention, "Do you know Jaune?" Weiss asked as she looked at the bartender.
"Blond guy, about 6'1", pretty blue eyes?" Stephanie asked, feigning ignorance as she saw Weiss give a nod. "Yeah I know him. He's been coming in here a lot recently. Often in the evening and afternoons. He was kind of like you when he first walked in but we all talked with him and he seems a little chipper on the outside at least. Might not be so much better on the inside though." Stephanie said as she glanced away.
"That would explain why he's not so present or focused when we're at Atlas Academy for training or during mission assignments." Weiss said as she looked back down at her almost gone drink, before looking back up at the woman besides her.
"Do you know where he is right now? You said he usually stops by around this time, right?" Weiss asked.
"Oh I think I know where he is." Stephanie said with a sly smile as she turned in her booth seat next to Weiss and looked towards the stage to see the blond knight walking up on stage, microphone and a guitar in hand.
Seeing her turn, Weiss turned as well and saw the same thing, before she paled a little remembering the knight's musical attempts back at Beacon.
Seeing Weiss' reaction, Stephanie smiled and said "I don't know how he was back at Beacon, but I think you might want to listen."
(Play Somebody's Problem by Morgan Wallen)
"A 'bama red four-runner pulled into the party
With a 30-A sticker on the back windshield
Two-tone tank top slippin' off her shoulder
Kinda girl when she steps out, the world stands still
Oh, I know where this is goin'
I already know it"
Sang Jaune as he strummed the guitar and looked out at the crowd from the stage.
"That's Jaune singing and playing? He's gotten so much better." Weiss thought to herself.
Seeing Weiss' expression Stephanie just smiled, "I know right? He's pretty good, usually he sticks to singing only heartbreak and sad songs but it looks like he found a reason to change it up." Stephanie said as she elbowed Weiss lightly and both of them turned back to watching Jaune sing.
"She's somebody's problem, somebody's goodbye
Somebody's last call number that they can't find
Somebody's best day, somebody's worst night
Somebody's reason for leavin' on the porch light
Thinkin' 'bout them tan lines, and I'm thinkin' damn, I'd
Love to drown in them heartbreaker blue eyes
Shе's somebody's problem and somebody's problem's
About to be mine
About to be mine"
Jaune sang as he adjusted his fingers on the neck of the guitar and started to go back into the chorus as he looked directly at Weiss' spot in the crowd as her and Stephanie had moved from their corner booth towards more into the middle of the bar, closer to the stage.
After noticing his gaze, Weiss was having butterflies well up in her like she hadn't had in a long time. "Especially at the heartbreaker blue eyes line." Weiss thought to herself as Jaune kept singing.
"Kinda girl once you've had her, you can't stand to lose her
Kinda girl where your friends tell you don't leave it up
Kinda girl that goes from tryin' to just to get her number
To slidin' through the summer to talkin' 'bout love
Ooh, I think I'm likin' where it's goin'
I'd like to try me some of
Somebody's problem, somebody's goodbye
Somebody's last call number that they can't find
Somebody's best day, somebody's worst night
Somebody's reason for leavin' on the porch light
Thinkin' 'bout them tan lines, and I'm thinkin' damn, I'd
Love to drown in them heartbreaker blue eyes
She's somebody's problem and somebody's problem's
About to be mine
About to be mine
Oh, hey baby, don't just keep me wishin'
Oh, let me get to fixin'
Somebody's problem, somebody's goodbye
Somebody's last call number that they can't find
Somebody's best day, somebody's worst night
Somebody's reason for leavin' on the porch light
Thinkin' 'bout them tan lines, and I'm thinkin' damn, I'd
Love to drown in them heartbreaker blue eyes
She's somebody's problem and somebody's problem's
About to be mine
About to be mine
About to be mine
About to be mine"
Jaune said as he finished singing the song to the thunderous applause of the crowd at the bar. Smiling, Jaune just waved and began walking off the stage to the side area and to his surprise Weiss was already there.
"Uh, hi Weiss." Jaune said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his neck in his usual way.
Seeing this Weiss just smiled, "Come here you dork." Weiss said as she pulled the blond knight into a hug.
"Weiss?" Jaune asked, unsure of what to do in his current situation.
"Thank you Jaune." Weiss said quietly as her arms pulled Jaune closer, burying her head into his chest.
Giving a warm chuckle, Jaune just wrapped his hands around Weiss' smaller frame and held her tight, resting his chin on top of her head, "You're welcome, Weiss."
After a minute had passed and a cough from Stephanie the pair separated and looked at the bartender, "Well, if you too are done with that little intimate moment I got only one thing to tell ya both and then I'll be out of your hair." Stephanie teased as both Jaune and Weiss blushed.
"Help each other heal you two, the life of a huntress/huntsman is hard one and one filled with grief. While your reasons may be different you can clearly lean on each other, so never hesitate to do so." Stephanie said with a smile as she turned around and made her way back to the booth and grabbed her bag before starting towards the exit.
Halfway there though, she abruptly stopped and turned around before yelling out, "Hey blondie you still owe me a meal sometime, and don't worry princess he's yours, I won't take him." She said finishing with a wink before laughing at the pair's blushing faces and walking out of the bar.
"What did she mean by you owe her dinner?" Weiss asked as she looked at Jaune.
"Well I asked her to go and check on you because I didn't want to appear like I was hitting on you." Jaune said with a sheepish smile.
"And you thought doing a musical performance was better?" Weiss asked with a teasing smile.
"Well to be fair, I wasn't going to do anything but then Ruby texted me saying to look out for you and that they found out about uh, Neptune." Jaune said as he glanced away from Weiss.
"The first part I get but how did they figure out Neptune?" Weiss wondered out loud.
"No idea, but Weiss if you have any issues please come to me. I want to be someone my friends can count on." Jaune answered.
"Well it doesn't matter how they found out about Neptune I guess, but someone your friends can count on? Really Jaune?" Weiss asked with a slight roll of her eyes and booped the knight on the nose.
"You already are someone we can count on." Weiss said with a sincere smile.
"Good I'm glad." Jaune said with an equally sincere smile.
"Now about that whole statement you said about me coming to you with my problems, well I'd like to thank you again for that." Weiss said with a small hint of blush on her face.
"It's fine Weiss." Jaune said, glancing away from the smaller huntress once again, before a delicate pair of hands came up to grasp his face and turn him back towards him, before pulling him down towards her.
Jaune only had a few seconds to refocus his vision before Weiss' lips pressed against his and her arms wrapped around him. Much to the cheer of the bar staff and several regular patrons Jaune returned the kiss before the pair separated at the cheering of the bar crowd.
"Come on Weiss, let's go back to the academy. Our friends and teammates are waiting there and they're concerned about you." Jaune said as he took her hand in his and the pair walked out of the bar.
Epilogue:
After Jaune and Weiss boarded the bullhead back to Atlas Academy both felt rather sleepy from the day's events and Weiss leaned her head on Jaune's shoulder as she fell asleep. After sending a text to Ruby that he was on his way back with Weiss his head lolled in the direction of Weiss and the pair slept on the entire ride back. Jaune's motion sickness is forgotten.
Meanwhile on the landing pads R(W)BY and Nora, Ren, and Oscar waited along with Winter for the pair's arrival.
"So how do you think Jaune found Weiss so easily? Why did she go to Atlas today?" Ruby asked the others standing on the platform.
"She probably wanted to get her mind off of Neptune and went and had a little self care day." Yang said with a shrug.
"Well how did Jaune find her so fast then? I doubt Jaune does the same 'self care' as Weiss does." Ruby asked once again.
"Maybe they just stumbled into each other?" Blake suggested.
"Jaune-Jaune has been staying out longer than his usual assignment takes so maybe they did meet at that." Nora said as she looked at the group around her.
"If i'm not mistaken Nora, Jaune has had the slightest smell of alcohol on his breath when he's been coming back so he's most likely stopping at a bar on the way home. He's probably still trying to hide his pain of losing Pyrrha." Ren said with a solemn look.
"Maybe he met Weiss in the same bar?" Nora suggested
"I hope not. I don't want her following in mother's shoes." Winter groaned.
"Maybe if they did meet each other in the bar it'll be good for both of them." Ruby suggested trying to bring a little bit of a brightside into the conversation as she saw the bullhead land and people pile off.
"Didn't Jaune say they were on this one?" Oscar said as he glanced at everyone before looking back to the bullhead.
"Well let's go check." Ruby said with a shrug as the group walked towards the bullhead before peeking in once everyone except the sleeping couple had disembarked.
"That is adorable." Ruby said excitedly as she saw her two bffs sleeping on each other.
"OMG they're holding hands." Pointed out in her quietest excited voice as she pointed towards them.
"Oh this is too good." Yang said as she pulled out her scroll and snapped some pictures, causing Jaune to stir.
"Yang?" He asked groggily before he looked around and noticed everyone else as well. "Oh uh hi everyone." Jaune said as he sat up and moved to rub his neck only to find his hand was occupied as his eyes darted between Weiss' hand holding his and Yang smiling like the cat who caught and ate the canary.
"Weiss, wake up. We're back at Atlas. I need you to wake up." Jaune whispered, trying to Weiss up. This only caused Weiss to groan and scoot closer towards Jaune.
Seeing this Yang just smiled bigger and clicked her scroll to take another picture except this time the flash activated, causing Weiss to fully wake up.
"Huh Jaune?" Weiss said as she looked at the knight before turning her head and seeing everyone standing there. "Uh hi everyone, sorry about me leaving today." Weiss said as she glanced away not wanting to see everyone's faces.
"It's fine Weiss." Ruby said as she stepped forward and pushed her sister out of the way. "I'm just happy my two bffs were able to help each other." Ruby said with the most Ruby-like smile.
"Well come on everyone let's go get some dinner." Weiss said as she tried to stand up and stretch only to notice her hand was still in Jaune's and began to blush.
"Oh don't worry I got pictures." Yang said with a laugh as disembarked the bullhead and waved her scroll over her shoulder.
"Dang it Yang." Weiss groaned as blush crept up her neck still not releasing Jaune's hand, something that didn't go unnoticed by Winter.
"Hey Yang can you send me those?" Winter asked as she turned away from Jaune and Weiss with a smile.
"Oh of course. Anything for a fellow older sister." Yang said with a laugh as everyone followed behind her to the dining area.
Weiss just sighed at the development then looked up to see Ruby on her right giving her a thumbs up with a big smile and then she looked to her right to see Jaune still holding her hand and giving her a smile of his own.
As Stephanie's words echoed in her mind.
"Help each other heal you two. The life of a huntress/huntsman is hard one and one filled with grief. While your reasons may be different you can clearly lean on each other, so never hesitate to do so."
"I most definitely will." Weiss said to herself with a smile as she looked once more to her scythe wielding partner and then to the blond holding her hand.
A/N: So what do you think? It was a little longer than what I remember the lengths of the ones done by HellPhoenix and some of the others I read but I wanted to kind of differentiate and add a little more plot than just a song.
Follow up question, what's your thoughts for Volume 9? Will Neo get a redemption arc now that Cinder has betrayed her? I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on the matter. I'd say probably not because RT has a history of wasting characters with good possibilities but that could change.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY it is property of Rooster Teeth nor do I own the music in this story. The song Somebody's Problem is a song sung by Morgan Wallen and written by Ernest K. Smith, Jacob Durrett, Morgan Wallen, and Rodney Clawson. Produced by Joey Moi. Released under the labels of Big Loud as well as Republic Records.