Hello my wonderful readers, I hope you're enjoying the story. I'm back with the next chapter of Jaune's Guilty Pleasure! I still don't have much to say other than thank you guys and gals for reading my story, and if you really enjoyed it please Favourite, Follow and leave a review.
Onto Reviews!
NinjaFang1331: Thanks!
Heatrules: Yeah, I incorporated him into the story because of a challenge presented by a reader.
SwordfofallCreation: Although interesting, you'll have to wait to see if your guesses are correct.
Cant Catch This: The whole childhood friend thing was indeed a reference to something, but I can't exactly say due to the fact that… uh spoilers. So have a participation cookie.
Jake V. Steele: Congratulations, yes adorable Blake is adorable, and yes Roman was with Neo's trap little brother.
Kurokaze: I can't say whether you're right or wrong because spoilers, so just take a cookie for participation.
xbamsod: Thank you, and I will update relatively soon but only because for the rest of this and next week because I have the time to.
dracohalo117: There's just something dangerously sexy about Neo, but I don't know what. And yes, adorable Blake is adorable.
Tri4ceAwsmness: Keep the fact that Knightshade was bought by Amethyst in mind. It might come back. Also, you could have been thinking of this story when Nora called Jaune Jaune-Jaune Arc or the much more popular fanfic Nora's Arc. And yes, there was more.
Cloy552: I won the challenge, muahahaha! On a more serious note adorable Blake is adorable, you'll be surprised with what I have planned (Hopefully), and why don't you read the chapter and tell me if Velvet's in the not-exactly-a-harem of a harem?
Drow79: Yes, Jaune lives to fail another day.
garoorar: Yeah, sorry about the bar scene, but it wasn't originally going to be in this chapter, though I may revisit it to fix up the transition a little.
Also, um, you may not have read the last paragraph properly or had just gotten something mixed up, because that was Pyrrha who questioned Jaune like a wife who'd question their husband, because she tends to get jealous easily in my fic… Not Blake, so… uh, sorry if that confused you.
lukefang: In order: Yes that was a reference to the RWBYsaurus, thank you for the praise, adorable Blake is adorable, Jaune's raising flags left, right and centre, and Roman's going to castrate him if he so much as looks at Neo inappropriately.
Also, yes that was a reference to Nora's Arc, but that happened several chapters ago. This was just restating it.
DarkElucidator: Well that's a shame then.
StudiousReader: Good to know, I hope you keep enjoying it.
Benthino: Thank you.
hihiozabimaru: Yeah, 'spoken'.
jakillking999: Interesting…
NugiSpringield: …Uh, okay? Either fanfiction is messing up on me or…
SMxABULM: Thanks, and that is a funny coincidence.
workeranomalie: I will be following Canon as closely as I can whilst having my own twist with it. However, there will also be other non-canon chapters such as the last few that are for the sake of character development, character introduction, actual important story elements or they could be there purely because I thought it would be funny to include.
And that is all for the reviews. Geez, why does everyone have to be so genre savvy?
Anyway, hope you enjoy, and on to the chapter!
Disclaimer: Don't own RWBY or anything referenced in this story, as they are owned by their respective owners.
Chapter 8- Bully Problems
Jaune frowned as he faced his opponent. Cardin grinned and hefted his mace menacingly towards the boy. "C'mon Jauney Boy. Let's dance!" The knight just nodded wordlessly as he rolled out of the way of Cardin's mace. He gulped audibly when he heard the ground explode behind him. If the boy used that on him and got a direct hit, he could easily break a bone or two. Shaking his head free of the thoughts the blond writer stared his opponent down, his eyes emanating sheer determination.
He had one shot at this. If he failed then Goodwitch was sure to send him home.
Taking the initiative this time, the blond boy charged at the mace wielder who just smirked smugly at the knight. Bringing his shield before him, Jaune managed to block a heavy overhead strike and swung his sword weakly as a makeshift counter. Unfortunately, his opponent had expected the attack and was far stronger than him. The sword was easily beaten back by the mace and the sheer force behind the swing knocked Crocea Mors right out of Jaune's hands. The swordless knight grimaced and blocked another overhead strike with his shield, silently noting that Cardin appeared to favour attacks where he could prove his dominance. His legs nearly buckled from the strength behind the attack by the mace wielder. Jaune scanned the arena briefly, his sword had been knocked several feet away and was too far to reach. He didn't want to lose.
Growling intensely, the writer pushed the mace off of his shield with sheer willpower, throwing Cardin off balance. Seeing the opening he had created, the knight shield bashed his opponent. Quickly glancing at his aura levels Jaune dashed for his sword, however in his rush the blond writer had failed to see that Cardin managed to recover enough to stick his leg out and effectively trip him. "End of the line Jauney Boy." He growled. Jaune sighed, he didn't want to use his semblance but it appeared he had no choice but to. With glowing eyes, the writer avoided the intense explosion that rocked the arena as the mace collided with the ground. He attempted to leap out of the way of the second swing but wasn't fast enough to avoid the rain of debris that followed the impact. The boy winced as he massaged his left shoulder, a rather large chunk of stone had managed to dislodge itself from the ground and found it's way in. Cardin frowned briefly but a quick glance at the crowd made him grin. Taking advantage of his moment of weakness, Cardin swung his mace into Jaune's shield and sent it flying by utilising the explosion from his mace. Jaune watched, displeased as the rest of his family heirloom was flung across the room.
Deciding not to take his chances fighting armless against the tank of a boy, Jaune fervently sprinted towards the sword part of Crocea Mors. Avoiding Cardin's wild swings he finally managed to get around the mace wielder and pick up his sword once again. The two squared off and circled each other slowly. Grinning, but not taking his eyes off of his opponent, Jaune taunted the stronger boy. "C'mon Cardin, I thought we were going to dance?" The knight smirked mockingly, "Or do you need me to teach you?" The blond's grin widened as the taunt took effect. The mace wielder scowled and rushed at him. Jaune's faintly glowing eyes analysed Cardin's moves, his swings had become more frantic and powerful in an attempt to hit the blond writer. Taking advantage of the enraged boy's blind fury Jaune barely managed to parry an attack and struck at the opening that he had made. Cardin growled as he stumbled backwards, the knight was unrelenting though as he went for a lunge.
Cardin got hit with a few slashes before Jaune threw a, very feeble, punch at the boy's face. What Cardin wasn't expecting, however, was the blond's face turning from determined to surprised. Before he could act on the sudden stop in the consecutive slashes Jaune spoke. "I surrender." He smiled. As he finished speaking the arena the two fought in lit up and the spectators of their spar just stared in utter confusion at the blond knight.
Pyrrha frowned, "Why have you given up Jaune?" The champion asked from the stands, it looked like he was close to winning so why had he given up? Her partner just laughed,
"Have you seen my aura levels?" The red haired girl turned to her scroll to see that Jaune's aura was nearing red. Looking up at the monitor above the arena she noticed that Cardin's aura was just barely past halfway. Ren frowned as he looked up from his scroll and turned to his friend in the arena; Jaune was doing okay on the aura front for a while but suddenly the bar drained at an insane speed. "Besides, Cardin would've won that fight eventually. He's pretty strong." The boy in question blinked, did he just compliment him?
Before any other students could express their opinions regarding Jaune's sudden surrender Glynda stepped in. "I believe that it was a smart move on Mr Arc's part. He knew that he wasn't going to win and tried a strategic retreat. He knew his limits and watched his aura levels, they unfortunately just weren't enough to defeat Mr Winchester." The knight smiled at the praise coming from the teacher and accepted the faults that she had pointed out. "Although you did not win, I suppose you didn't fail either. I believe that means you can stay Mr Arc, but do know this. If I ever catch you slacking off, you will be in big trouble."
Jaune let out a sheepish yet victorious laugh. "Will do Miss Glyn- Goodwitch!" The writer gave a thumbs up to his team in the audience as Pyrrha heaved a sigh of relief, Ren gave a small smile for his friend and Nora applauded loudly.
The corners of the witch's mouth move upwards slightly before it moved back into her usual impassive expression. "I believe that is all the time we have for today students, please make sure you keep up the good work. Just because you managed to enter Beacon does not mean you have time to rest." Announced the professor as she addressed the students in the crowd. "You are dismissed."
The class cheered as they walked out the door along with the blond woman. Before Cardin could leave he was pulled back into the class. "What the-" He was met face-to-face with someone he didn't expect. "What do you want?" he growled.
"Just wanted to talk."
Pyrrha frowned as she watched her leader get launched across the room mercilessly. It had only been several weeks, how did the gap in skill increase this much? She asked herself. If anything, it appeared that Jaune was actually worse than he was before. Cardin stalked over towards the boy menacingly. The knight instantly recovered and went for a two-handed approach, grabbing Crocea Mors with both hands. He went for a swift overhead swing but was intercepted by Cardin's mace. "This is the part, where you lose." Sneered the larger boy as he steadily gained leverage. Jaune scoffed.
"Over my dead- oof." He was interrupted by Cardin who had kneed him in an unguarded area. The knight fell to the ground in his pain and dropped his sword, clutching the damaged area in an attempt to soothe it. Many of the men winced at the low blow.
Cardin smiled as he walked over to the downed boy and lifted his mace menacingly. The boy stopped midway through his swing as a buzzer went off. The lights flickered on and Glynda walked onto the stage. "Cardin, that's enough." The boy reluctantly walked off of the stage, mace in tow. The woman sighed disappointedly at the fallen knight. "Mr Arc, it's been weeks now, please try to refer to your scroll during combat. I thought you knew this already." Inwardly the teacher narrowed her eyes at the blond writer. I don't get it, Mr Arc has already shown that he already knows of this and that he has the mind of a tactician. She frowned, why is he so behind in battle skills? Deciding to leave the thoughts for a later date, she addressed the students before her.
"Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away." The students cheered and muttered among themselves. Ruby and Yang jumped up and down excitedly and Weiss actually smiled again. "It won't be long before students from other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing." The woman paused for a moment before continuing, "Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." With that spoken the students talked between each other happily whilst the bell rang in the background. Pyrrha stared worryingly at Jaune as he dropped his head to the ground dejectedly.
Nora narrowed her eyes and grinned, "So there we were, in the middle of the night." Spoke the Valkyrie dramatically.
"It was day." Added Ren calmly. Yang listened to the story intently, this was way better than Port's recounts.
"We were surrounded by Ursai."
Her childhood friend sighed, "They were Beowolves."
"Dozens of them!" She exclaimed, catching the attentions of a couple of their friends.
"Two of them."
"But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs." The storyteller finished proudly.
More or less exhausted, Ren sighed once more at his childhood friend. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now." He explained. However, Ruby, Pyrrha, Weiss and Jaune had not been intrigued or showed the least bit of interested in the story and were doing their own thing. Blake had initially been reading one of Jane Caur's books, she had learnt to swap the book cover with another in order to hide it from Yang, but had been dragged into listening by the buxom blond who was absolutely rapt with the Valkyrie's tales. Weiss was busy filing her nails, not in the least bit caring for the sloth lover's stories of regale, whilst Pyrrha and Ruby stared worriedly at a rather troubled looking knight.
"Are you okay Jaune?" Asked the champion as she watched him poke absentmindedly at his food, her partner wasn't eating.
Jaune jumped in surprise as Pyrrha concerned voice had interrupted his thoughts. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Why?" He mumbled, Ruby decided to join in the intervention.
"It's just that, you seem a little… Not, okay." She stated, awkwardly avoiding looking at his eyes. Why is doing an intervention so hard? She thought to herself. The adorable reaper shuddered as she thought back to when Yang had thrown one over her so called 'obsession' over cookies. Oh... Right.
The knight chuckled unconvincingly, "Guys, I'm fine. Look!" He smiled and half-heartedly gave a thumbs up. Cardin and his team interrupted the blond boy's bad acting as the group heard mocking laughter in their general direction. He frowned upon gazing at the scene, Team CRDL had grouped around a poor rabbit Faunus and was currently harassing her. His fists clenched unconsciously. The writer was once again interrupted from his thoughts as Pyrrha spoke up.
"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school!" She frowned. The leader of Team JNPR laughed it off.
"Wh-who? Cardin Winchester? Nah, he just likes to mess around. You know, practical jokes!"
The adorable reaper glared at him softly, "He's a bully."
The knight laughed it off again, "Oh please," he chuckled, "name one time he's 'bullied' me." Blake frowned visibly as Jaune air-quoted bullied. Something seemed a little off about the knight lately.
"Well there was the time he knocked the books out of your hands." She commented helpfully.
Ren nodded, "And the time where he opened your shield in the middle of the doorway, you were stuck there for hours."
Yang chuckled at the memories, "There was also that time where he pushed you into one of the rocket propelled lockers to dust knows where."
Jaune deadpanned at the group before him, "I said one time. And I didn't land that far from the school." He laughed nervously. "I was only stuck in the Emerald forest without a weapon, one, maybe two days tops!"
The red haired girl sighed at her partner, "Jaune, you know if you ever need help you can always just ask!" She scolded exasperatedly.
"Oh, oh, I know! We'll break his legs, cut them off, feed them to the sloths and drown him in pancake batter and maple syrup!" Cheered Nora with a twinkle in her eyes, "But mostly break his legs, definitely." Jaune shuddered uncomfortably and shook his head vehemently.
"Guys, really, it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me." The writer smiled, "He's a jerk to everyone." He finished off, hiding a thoughtful frown at the end of his sentence.
"Ow that hurts!" Cried the young bunny Faunus with a rather cute accent as Cardin pulled on her ears and laughed, his teammates laughing along with him. "Please stop." She whimpered in annoyance.
"Hahaha, I told you they were real." Smirked the leader of Team CRDL as he kept pulling on her ears.
Russel thrush, one of Cardin's teammates, snickered. "What a freak." After that statement Cardin quickly let go of the girl's ears.
Jaune frowned as the bunny Faunus walked off shamefully. Pyrrha glared at the bully and his team. "Atrocious, I can't stand people like him." She commented venomously. Blake nodded sadly,
"He's not the only one." Yang sighed as she watched the girl leave the room.
"It must be hard to be a Faunus."
Jaune sighed dejectedly for the second time that day as he walked away from his friends, food tray in hand. "It's gone a bit too far." He mumbled incoherently. Cardin watched the knight follow the Faunus out of the room with a grin.
Jaune quickly caught up to the brunette and called out. "Excuse me miss!" He cried out. The girl turned in confusion and pointed to herself, tilting her head slightly. "Yeah, you with the bunny ears." He yelled slightly less loudly, only realising the potentially insulting nature of his statement after saying it. The girl hesitantly stopped.
Jaune took a deep breath. "Um, are you okay?" He asked, "I couldn't help but notice you were being bullied earlier." The brunette laughed nervously.
"I-I'm fine." She lied. Jaune frowned as he stared at her ear.
"That looks painful." He stated matter-of-factly.
The young Faunus gave him a fake smile, "It looks worse than it actually is." Before she could stop him Jaune tapped the bent ear gently, his eyes glowing softly for a split second. The girl winced and let out a soft yelp.
Jaune gave her a sarcastic and disappointed look, "Sure it does." He said scoldingly. "Come with me a sec." He grabbed her hand and brought her out to the fountain outdoors. The female student reluctantly followed, who was this stranger? and why was he so concerned about her?
The bunny Faunus gave him a strange look as they approached the outside gardens, "Why did you take me out here?" She asked curiously, blushing slightly from the contact between hands.
Jaune smiled kindly at her, "Well I wanted to bring you somewhere a bit more public, so you didn't get any weird ideas about what I was going to do." It happened all the time in the books he both read and wrote, so he'd rather not go through the trouble of a misunderstanding.
The girl gave him an amused look, "What are you going to do that would warrant my suspicion?" She asked accusingly. The writer laughed and waved his hands in a defensive manner.
"Nothing, just… Hold still for a moment." The Faunus, although reluctant, complied. She was treated to a moment of sharp pain in her ear before she felt… nothing. The boy had seemingly fixed the pain in her ear. She felt tingles run down her spine as he gently rubbed the sore area of her ear. Meanwhile Jaune felt a myriad of feelings. He felt happy, apologetic and amazed all at the same time.
He was happy that he had managed to reduce her pain, and in turn make someone else happy. But despite this, he frowned. The knight had heard that a Faunus' animal appendages were rather sensitive, and thus their feelings about are just as much so. Touching a Faunus' animal characteristics was only for those of which they trusty fully and wholeheartedly. The writer shuddered, he just couldn't help but keep rubbing them they were just so soft!
"Um, they don't hurt anymore… You can let go now." The female student mumbled. The blond boy yelped and quickly jumped away from the brunette girl, shouting out incoherent apologies as he did so. "It's fine, um…" Jaune facepalmed as he realised he hadn't introduced himself.
"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR and failure extraordinaire. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss...?" He trailed off hoping for a name.
The girl giggled softly, "Scarlatina, Velvet Scarlatina." Jaune gave her an apologetic look.
"I'm really sorry about touching your ears without permission, I know that they're very precious to Faunus but you looked like you were in pain and I wanted to help and-" Velvet laughed melodically. The writer gave her a curious look. "What?"
The brunette tried to stifle her giggles with her hand to no avail, "Sorry, it's just that… You actually thought I'd be mad at you for helping me out?" Jaune blinked for a moment then rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly,
"Well when you put it like that it sounds pretty stupid." The two shared a laugh.
Smiling at each other, Jaune helped the young girl up off the bench and the two began to walk. "Why did you help me?" Asked the Faunus as they walked around. Jaune chuckled, was this twice now he was asked for his reasons for helping someone? This time it was Velvet's turn to look at the knight curiously. "Did I say something funny?" Jaune shook his head negative.
"No, you just reminded me of a friend." He stated. The brunette pouted,
"So, why did you help me?" She reiterated. Jaune smiled,
"If I said it was because you're cute would that be bad?" Velvet blushed and frowned but was surprised when Jaune started to laugh, "Seriously though, I'll tell you if you answer this question first." The girl nodded. "Why shouldn't I help you?" The Faunus blinked. Then laughed. Then laughed some more. "What did I say now?" Asked Jaune perplexedly.
Velvet smiled warmly at the writer as they rounded a corner and did a Shaft head tilt, "Nothing, you just reminded me of a friend." She poked jokingly. The two shared another laugh. Jaune let out a happy sigh as they entered the building once more.
"Well, I have class on right now so… Catch you later?"
Velvet giggled, "Of course."
With a new friend made, Jaune walked happily to his next class, enthusiastically whistling as he did so.
Jaune slept deeply as Professor- ahem, Doctor Oobleck whizzed around the classroom at a fast pace, lecturing the students as he did so. "… Faunus War, Humankind was quite adamant about centralising Faunus population in menagerie." Spoke the green haired man rapidly. Taking a brief sip from his coffee mug, the professor continued. "Now! While this may feel like ancient history to many of you it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events." The class watched the grown man speed around the classroom like a young child on sugar as he lectured them. As per usual, Pyrrha, Blake and Weiss were some of the only students listening intently whilst taking notes. Below Pyrrha and Blake sat Velvet who was watching the prof- Doctor with a troubled expression on her face. "Why the, repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day. Now, have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" Oobleck asked the classroom. Velvet timidly looked around the room before slowly raising her hand upon seeing others do so as well. Blake frowned, the poor girl, she thought to herself as she noticed the clear reluctance within her action. The black haired girl's expression darkened slightly, she's still braver than me. The bookworm unconsciously rubbed her bow.
A frown placed itself onto Oobleck's face for a fraction of a second before he continued his lecture. "Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence." The prof- Doctor took another sip from his coffee. "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Without missing a beat, Weiss lifted her hand. "Yes?"
The heiress smiled confidently, "The Battle at Fort Castle." She answered easily.
Oobleck nodded, "Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"
Cardin smirked and launched a small triangle of folded paper at Jaune's sleeping form. "Headshot!" He whispered triumphantly as the paper hit it's mark.
The knight woke with a start, "H-hey!" He complained on instinct. Doctor Oobleck on the other hand looked ecstatic.
"Mr Arc!" He smiled, "Finally contributing to class, this is excellent, excellent! What is the answer?" The teacher spoke as he approached the woken blond writer. Jaune blinked.
"Uhh, the answer?... The advantage that the Faunus had…" He stalled and looked behind the coffee loving man. On the rows of seats to the opposite sides both Pyrrha and Velvet were trying to show him the answer by miming it out. "Over that guys stuff…" he drawled as the two acted out completely different things. It was a nice gesture and all, but what in Remnant were they trying to tell him? "Uh, Binoculars!" He exclaimed. The laughter from the students around him and the Professor's- er, Doctor's unamused look was all Jaune needed to be able to tell that he was wrong with his guess. Pyrrha face palmed whilst Velvet muttered incoherent apologies under her breath, bowing to Jaune as she did so.
Cardin was among the loudest of the ones laughing. Oobleck moved behind his desk, "Very funny Mr Arc. Cardin, perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?" Cardin stopped his laughed and was about to answer when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, pausing for a brief moment he spoke.
"Well, I know it's easier to train an animal than a soldier." Oobleck shook his head in disappointment. Pyrrha frowned at the bully,
"You're not the most open minded of individuals are you, Cardin?"
The leader of Team CRDL scowled at her, "What? You got a problem?" The champion turned to the teacher,
"No, I have the answer. It's night vision." She began. "Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark." Recited the Spartan girl.
"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the General captured." Added Blake. Turning to Cardin, she gave him a mocking smile. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure." Jaune frowned sadly, that statement applied to him as well.
Cardin got out of his seat angrily but was interrupted before he could act upon it, "Mr Winchester! Please take your seat! You and Mr Arc can both see me after class for additional readings." The blond writer sighed in a defeated manner and Carding sat down reluctantly. "Now! Moving on…"
Once the lesson ended all the students were allowed to leave, all but Jaune and Cardin. Pyrrha frowned as she stopped outside of the doorway, turning to her teammates she spoke, "You go on ahead, I'll wait for Jaune." Ren nodded in understanding and walked off, Nora in tow as she happily skipped behind him.
Oobleck frowned as he stared at the two boys in trouble. After taking another sip from his coffee he addressed the students. "You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest, or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is…" The professor paused to drink his coffee once more. "It stops now. You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best, so I expect you to act like it. Histoy is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it… You're destined to repeat it. Pages fifty-one to ninety-one! I want an essay on my desk by next class. Now! Run along." The man quickly left the classroom, leaving Jaune and Cardin to exit themselves.
The writer left the classroom first, followed by the bully. Upon reaching the outside of the doorway and noticing Pyrrha, Cardin knocked Jaune to the floor and laughed satisfactorily as it elicited a yelp of pain from the blond knight. Seeing this, the red haired girl hurriedly rushed to pick the unfortunate boy up. The Spartan girl scowled at the bully as he walked off. "You know, I really will break his legs." Jaune sighed dejectedly. Pyrrha's expression lit up as a thought hit her, "I have an idea!" She exclaimed happily. The leader of Team JNPR's eyes widened as his partner clutched his hand and ran off with him in tow. "Here, come with me!" The writer chuckled, did I even have a choice? He thought to himself as the girl dragged him off to dust knows where.
Jaune frowned as the two entered the rooftop of one of the buildings. This was where he had mistaken Pyrrha for someone else and had nearly called her beautiful out loud. Dust would that have been embarrassing. He stepped out with the champion and walked over to the edge where he had seen her previously. "Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a tough time right now, but I'm not that depressed." He sadly looked over the edge of the balcony and continued, "I could always become a full time writer… Or something silly like that!" He hurriedly added the end, laughing nervously. His partner, upon realising what the knight had been insinuating with his sentence, quickly pulled him away from the edge in horror.
"No! That's not why I brought you up here." The writer quietly sighed in relief, I was scared for a second there. He thought to himself. "Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class and that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so… I want to help you!"
Jaune blinked confusedly as his expression darkened. "What?"
"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!" Stated the red haired girl happily. However, Jaune felt quite the opposite. Staring blankly at the ground he commented,
"You think I need help?" He mumbled, his voice breaking slightly. Any thoughts that could've been seen through his eyes were blocked as his hair covered the top half of his face in a dark shroud.
Pyrrha, realising her mistake, went to remedy the misunderstanding. "No-no! That's not what I meant!" Jaune's expression darkened further.
"But you just said it."
"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!" If it was even possible, Jaune's face darkened further upon hearing those words. He turned away and lowered both his head and his voice.
"You're wrong… I don't belong here" He muttered.
The champion frowned at her pessimistic partner. "That's a terrible thing to say! Of course you do!" Jaune, now angry, turned to her fiercely, the rage and self-loathing evident in his blue eyes as they were finally revealed.
"No I don't!" He growled out, "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon…"
Pyrrha looked at him in worried confusion. "Wh-what do you mean?" She stuttered.
The knight's voice grew louder and higher as he spoke, "I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests. I didn't earn my spot at this academy!" He turned to look at her straight in the eyes. The red haired girl gasped, his eyes had lost their usual blue shine and were now a dull shade. "I lied, I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied." He confessed.
"What? But… Why?" Asked the girl in disbelief.
"I have four reasons… but one of the main one is that this is what I always wanted to be!" He exclaimed loudly. Turning away once more, he spoke "My father, my grandfather, his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one too. I was just never good enough." I didn't want to be remembered as the Arc warrior, who had failed as a warrior… Don't get him wrong, he loved writing his books. But as an Arc, he felt it was required of him, that it was his duty to be a hero. Just like many before him. Pyrrha attempted to place her hand on his shoulder comfortingly as she had done many times before.
"Then let me help you!" She pleaded.
Jaune turned to her once more with wild frustration. "I don't want help, I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!" He cried. "For once in my life, I want to be the main character!"
His partner hesitantly spoke. "Jaune, I-"
The blond writer gave her a look, "I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, the secondary character who gets stuck in a tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own… What good am I?" Pyrrha once again reached her hand out to comfort him, but Jaune just shrugged away from her touch. "Just… Leave me alone, okay?"
The girl stared at him for a moment, debating on the best course of action before bowing her head slightly. "If, that's what you think is best…" With that, she sadly left Jaune to his musings as he sat down.
After Pyrrha had exited the roof Cardin, finished with his eavesdropping, climbed out of the window below. Laughing, he spoke. "Oh Jauney Boy, we're going to be having a long talk."
Jaune frowned, "Cardin."
And that's the chapter folks! Sorry if it's a little short compared to the last one, but this was probably the best place to end it. But don't worry, the next chapter will hopefully be much longer, and it also gives a little of Jaune's backstory. I was looking over the rough drafts I had for the next few chapters when I realised that it is really hard to write the original Canon RWBYverse in a comedy aspect. Whenever I tried to head into the darker subjects covered within, I found it hard to keep the topic light like you'd expect from a romance and comedy/humour fanfic.
Oh well, I'll just cross the bridge when I get to it. Either way, expect some really funny scenes a chapter or two from now, 'cause I have some interesting things planned. Next chapter we tackle the Forever Fall Arc.
This was actually supposed to come out yesterday, but I had problems with life getting in the way of editing.
See you guys soon, and don't forget to Favourite, Follow and Review if you enjoyed it!
Anyone who can guess a specific reference gets a sloth plushie from Nora!
