Blonde Roast, Pt. 6
The next few weeks passed in a blur. Jaune slowly managed to find little ways to work his personal life into his work, making time on certain evenings and occasionally on weekends to spend the day spending time with his team or Coco. He still worked brutal hours by necessity, but he had the support of his team and Coco to keep him going now.
Pyrrha, for her part, was doing much better now that she had stopped worrying about Jaune. Gone were the signs of her fatigue; the dark circles and vacant gazes as she pretended to listen during lectures. She was back to her normal self, and for that, Jaune couldn't be more thrilled. Nothing had hurt him half as much as seeing her in the state she had been in before Jaune's confession. Nora was still herself, but Ren seemed even more at peace than usual, seeing things returning to some semblance of normalcy.
Coco for her part seemed to be enjoying having someone new to waste her time with. She'd adapted quickly to Jaune's unique (read: awkward) sense of humor, and had even suggested that their two teams should see if they could get a mission together when the time came. To this team JNPR had excitedly agreed, phrasing the numerous benefits which could come from such a matchup.
Still though, Jaune sometimes found it difficult to focus on everything that was going well. The threat of the coming tuition deadline still loomed over his head, and he sighed heavily and placed his head in his hands one night as he tallied the amount he had made from working the shop. Despite all his work – his overtime, his bonuses, all of it – he still found himself several hundred lien short. He calculated the hours he'd have to work to make the payment on time and found himself realizing that there was no possible way he'd have enough in time to pay the semester deadline.
When he informed his team of as much, they comforted him to the best of his abilities. Ren told him that he was making Junior so much money there was no possible way that Junior could go much longer without giving him a substantial raise. Pyrrha informed him that perseverance would pay off; and if not, he could always take out a loan with the school for a little longer – just until he made up the extra difference.
Surprisingly though, the best advice he could have received – though maybe not the best advice in the long run – came from Nora.
"Well," she said in her normal cheery voice one morning as Jaune laced up his shoes, "You could always find some other job on the side."
"Another job? Nora, I'm on thin ice with the job I already have. I really don't…" Halfway through his argument, a thought occurred to him. His mind jumped to past images of Junior meeting with all manner of people in the back room of "The Three Bears." He conjured images of a well-dressed man in a bowler and a suit, and a short girl with mismatched eyes. He thought of late-night internet searches about information brokering. It was then that an idea came to him. It was a stupid idea; foolhardy and most-likely suicidal. But if it paid off… he might never have to worry about financial troubles again.
He stood quickly, running across the room and out the door, calling over his shoulder "Nora, you're a genius!" as he went. Out in the hall, his mind raced. He began to formulate a plan. It was a risk – probably one that would get him killed if he couldn't pull it off, but if it came to fruition… the opportunity to wipe away all debt and avoid having to ever pay again was too tempting.
As the thoughts swirled in his mind, he made his way through the next few days in a daze. He worked as best he could in his classes – and spent a good deal of his extra time studying with his team or Coco – and worked at "The Three Bears" as regularly as he could. Luckily, Junior didn't seem to be going back on his original promise not to penalize Jaune for his schooling, but there were times when he was downright dismissive of Jaune and the other employees. He merely retreated into the back room and did his work, whatever that entailed.
By the time the next Saturday came about, Jaune had prepared himself as much as he could. He had planned and re-planned every step of what he was about to do. He'd drawn up backups in case things went awry. He'd even taken to drafting a will that left his meager belongings as a student to his team – all except Crocea Mors, which would go back to his family. He'd used a secure internet connection to get in contact with a man looking for information, and had managed to secure a meeting. Tonight.
The hour was late – only a few minutes until closing. Junior had passed Jaune the keys on his way out and told him to lock up and leave the keys inside the shade of the streetlight outside the coffeeshop. Jaune was busily wiping down the surface of the bar with a dishrag when the door chimed. All other customers had long cleared out, so when he heard the chime Jaune knew precisely who had come to see him.
The guy was average in every sense of the word; just under six feet, no more than one-hundred sixty pounds, with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. He looked around the empty room before finding a seat at a table. He shot a glance towards the bar but looked away when Jaune tried to make eye contact. Setting aside the rag, Jaune set about brewing a fresh cup of coffee. A moment later he walked to the back room and hastily scribbled a message on a napkin.
"If you're who I think you are, take a sip of the coffee."
Satisfied, he took the napkin and placed it on a tray. Pouring the fresh dark roast into a mug, he set the mug on top of the napkin and carried the tray to the man at the table. He looked confused for a moment and almost argued, but Jaune just shrugged silently and made his way back to the counter, returning to his wiping.
While still wishing not to cause any sort of cosmic problem by thinking so, Jaune couldn't help but applaud himself at how well he was doing. With luck, the man would think that the message Jaune had brought him was from someone in the back room and not Jaune himself. Nobody ever expected the barista.
Looking up, he saw the man finally noticed the napkin and take a short sip of the coffee, before apparently deciding that he actually was thirsty and taking a long, hearty draught. Jaune saw this and made his way back to the back room, scribbling another message.
"You wanted to know about someone? A lawyer, you said?"
He took the napkin, this time with a small plate of scones, out to the table and set them down. Though the man abstained from the pastries, he nodded slightly after reading the note, before writing something with his own pen on the back of the napkin and dropping it into the empty mug. As he returned it to the counter, Jaune took the napkin to the back room and read it in private as the man returned to his table.
"The lawyer who covered my divorce settlement. I believe he extorted me and charged my ex-wife far less."
Jaune read over the words several more times before writing another message, asking for a description.
Over the next few minutes, Jaune ran several more messages back and forth between his client and his "Boss." He gathered every relevant detail he might need; the look and potential company of the target, the information that the client wanted and, most importantly, the amount that the client was willing to pay. Sufficed to say, it was more than enough to pay off Jaune's debt for the rest of his second year.
At the end of the evening Jaune sent out a final message.
"Return in three days at this time, I'll have the information you're looking for." He briefly considered changing it, but decided against the edit. Better to look like he knew what he was doing. Besides, the client's description had given Jaune more than a clear picture of who to look for – the man was in every day it seemed like; lawyering must be thirsty work. Jaune would get the information, give it to the client and, most importantly, get his pay.
His mind jumped back and forth and up and down at the very prospect of simply holding that much money. He could think of no shortage of things he could potentially do with it, and he had to contain himself before his mind even began to formulate the possibility that the money would go toward something other than his tuition. This was a one-time deal. He'd get the money for the semester, and then he was giving up on the business before it got him into trouble.
He dropped the final napkin at the man's table and began to lock up for the evening once he was sure the client had left. Before finished up though he went behind the counter and slumped against the wall, all the tension and nerves of the encounter suddenly catching up to him.
What if he had messed it up? He did everything right, he told himself. What if the customer went to the police? The guy was desperate – he's willing to do anything. He won't talk. What if Jaune couldn't deliver in the timeframe he had set himself up for? He knew the target that he had to find – getting the info the guy needed would be a piece of cake. This was a stupid idea – he should have never even begun to delve into information brokering; there were just too many risks involved. If he hadn't, he reminded himself, he would've been sunk when the time to pay back his tuition costs came around.
No, he told himself. There was no other way. I've done everything right so far. The key now was to keep on top of things.
Satisfied, he finished locking up, hid the key and started back toward Beacon.
The next day, he looked out for the target as he worked, but did not see him the whole day. That evening, he sat with Coco on a small bench on the Beacon grounds, his minds wandering as the two sat, merely enjoying the time together. At one point she scooted over on the bench and laid her head across his shoulder. He didn't move her, but shifted slightly, enjoying the closeness.
"I'm leaving tomorrow," she said finally. Jaune nodded. She had told him a week or so earlier; team CFVY was going on a solo mission up north; reports from a small town about some powerful Grimm starting to amass in the area. Jaune worried for her, of course. "Powerful Grimm" wasn't exactly the best way to summarize why she was taking a few days off of school, but Jaune understood well enough that there was nothing he could do to dissuade her. She and her team and spoken to Professor Ozpin and agreed; this was a mission that required a more elite team's touch, and team CFVY's track record was unmatched when it came to extermination missions.
He cautiously moved an arm around her back and when she did not resist he pulled her in a little closer.
"Just… be careful, alright?" he said. "Don't take risks and… and take your time. I'll still be here when you get back. Just… just come back, OK?" She looked at him and smiled, her brown eyes sparkling in the sunset and reflecting back out of Jaune's own royal blue pools.
"I know," she said solemnly before her voice took on a more lighthearted tone. "But when I get back, you're going to have to let me take you out for coffee, OK?" Jaune chuckled nervously.
"Coco, that's real sweet but uh, y'know, I'm not really a fan of coffee." She raised an eyebrow.
"And you work as a barista?"
"Well sure," he said. "I mean, I'm just not really a fan of the taste is all. Besides, plenty of folks work at things they don't necessarily like. My mom used to work at a tailor – she hated sewing, pricked her fingers every time she tried to do it." Coco laughed and Jaune couldn't help but beam. Every time she laughed his heart fluttered a little. It was a sound he loved, and he wished he had started listening to it sooner.
He checked his watch. "Oh boy," he said. "Curfew's in fifteen minutes. We'd better get moving. C'mon, I'll walk you back to your do—" His offer to walk her home went unanswered as she pulled him in and kissed him on the mouth, forcefully at first, so as to stop him in his tracks, but more gently after that – especially when she realized that he was responding in kind.
Jaune was momentarily unsure of how to react, but he followed his instinct. All women look for is confidence, Jaune, he told himself. It must have been enough, because it seemed satisfactory for his partner.
And as that moment that he wished could last forever progressed, Jaune found that he had been wrong. He did like the taste of coffee.
AN – First off, I am really sorry that this took so long. I released a one-shot last weekend from Copenhagen to try and clear out some ideas while I dealt with a bit of block for this one, but I'm back on track now with a decent idea of where I want to go from here. In any case, I apologize again for the wait.
That said, what'd you guys think? Some major story progression here, with us finally seeing exactly how Jaune is going to make that last bit of money he needs before his deadline arrives. Also, some more progression with Jaune x Coco (which is, for the record, officially dubbed "Blonde Roast," by me), hopefully not going too fast? Romance isn't really my thing, at least in writing. I'm more of a tragedy / action / intrigue kind of guy, but I did the best I could and I hope it was sufficient. Next time, we'll have a longer chapter with more focus on Jaune's new side-business.
Until then, feel free to favorite, follow and review. I'm always looking for feedback and advice, so please, don't hesitate to post something. See you next time, and thanks for reading!