Chapter 4

Downtime

"Hey have you seen that blonde's loadout?" A boy snickered as he washed his face.

"Yeah dude, damn I'd kill to be under the sheets with those beauties." His companion replied, a weak grin on his face as he fantasized.

The pair of teens continued their conversation as they prepared for the night. Their attention was fully fixed onto the mirror and on their belongings. But unbeknownst to them, a certain blonde of the same gender looked at their figures sharply. His black shirt rippled as he took heavy breaths and his sweatpants trembled as he jumped up and down in an attempt to release the building tension.

Jaune gritted his teeth as he packed his used clothes in the spare bag that he had just a few spaces away from the two. The sheer outlandish words that came from their mouths stoked the flames within him, not with lust or longing but with anger. He did not relish hearing such remarks especially if it was regarding his newfound companions. He clenched his fists as he tried to control himself.

"And that cute little redhead chick!" The brunet of the pair exclaimed followed by a rather obscene hand gesture.

With the obvious reference to Ruby, Jaune snapped. He had a full mind to pound the two idiots to sleep when a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned and looked at the fool who tried to stop him. The murder in his eyes lessened a bit as he saw the same stranger that had helped him during an earlier attack of his motion sickness when he first boarded his assigned airship. The burnt orange haired teen shook his head and held up a small recording device. Jaune caught up and nodded. He let out an exasperated sigh and followed him outside.

"You could've been expelled if you trashed those two." The brown haired bear of a teen remarked as wooden door closed.

"I know but I won't let them badmouth my friends." Jaune's brows still crossed as he leaned on the wall beside the door.

"Alright, think of it like this. Sure you trashed them up quite good, maybe a month or so in the hospital but with the expense of you being expelled, what do you think would happen?"

The angered knight slowly realized where his fellow warrior was going.

"Once their out of their beds, those guys would probably start making moves on your friends and what not, might even harass them if they declined. Of course the two could or would retaliate given their combat experience but assume that they are to be defenseless and you were out of the picture, then what?"

Jaune gave into reason and nodded. If he did draw first blood then such possibilities did exist.

"Then what are you suggesting I do?" With that, he found the weight of the voice recorder on his left palm.

He looked at it then to the stranger's indigo eyes then back at the recorder. He clicked the button and the whole conversation was played. His eyes widened at the possible implication.

"I'll lend that to you and I think you already know who to give it to. But I personally prefer to use it as some material for blackmail if you get what I mean." Jaune smirked at the rather underhanded tactic.

"I think I'll use the more legit path."

He stretched his arms in an exaggerated way which made his blue shirt stretch as well. The words 'Brother Bear' printed on it were ever so slightly deformed at the gesture.

"Oh please forgive me for my sins." He groaned sarcastically.

"Jaune Arc." The blonde offered his hand.

"Cardin Winchester." Cardin shook Jaune's hand.

"A Winchester?" Jaune asked, a wide grin on his face as he had found a fellow knight.

"And an Arc?"

Both fist pumped and laughed at the knowledge of a fellow soldier of honor amongst the first year students. Jaune made arrangements to when he would return the device. The two then agreed to have the file backed up for some future use if needed though Jaune was a bit uncertain with using blackmail. Nonetheless, the two knights went on separate paths as they moved to retire for the night.

As walked through the spaces between the rows of sleeping bags, he passed both Ruby and Yang as they chatted. He gave a wave when the pair looked at him which they returned with a smile. Jaune couldn't help but marvel at the chandeliers that hang from above as it was obviously masterfully crafted, he was impressed with the amount of details put into the golden light holders. He reached his spot without any incident and was grateful for such. He stretched his muscles in preparation for a good night sleep when a certain white haired heiress appeared out of nowhere.

"Hello Jaune." He looked behind him and almost gaped at what he saw.

Weiss had a white nightgown and her hair was free from the clutches of her pin. Basing on appearances, he was surprised at how much she could change with a simple switch of clothing.

"Hi snow angel." He mumbled mostly to himself but was loud enough for the girl in question to hear.

He watched as pink streaks played across her fair white skin. Jaune's eyes widened as he realized what he had just said. And along with it, the possible implications of his actions, instantly, visions of suffering and torment in the hands of the Schnee patriarch flashed before him.

Oh dear Oum. Bad Jaune! Bad! Fix this before papa Schnee cuts off your future.

"Oh…uhh…hi Weiss, what can I do for you?" He asked in an attempt to cover his mistake.

"I just want to talk about my earlier proposition seeing that we have the time to discuss it now rather than tomorrow." Her tone was stoic and cold but her features betrayed her.

Jaune noted how the slight pink slowly turned darker and darker as time progressed. Surprisingly, the knight who had little regard for the Schnees due to their reputation found it rather…

Cute.

"Yeah sure, why not." He replied as nonchalantly as he could

"Alright so is it a yes or a no?" Her eyes sparkled as he met her eyes.

Oh for the love of all thing's holy. Jaune thought as he felt his heart skipped a bit.

"I guess I'll-" He was cutoff when a red blur blocked his view of Weiss.

"Weisscanyoucomewithmeforasecond?Thanks!"

As fast as he, she or it came, whatever it was, quickly vanished towards the general direction of the women's bathroom with Weiss in tow despite her protests.

"Uhh…what was that?" He asked both himself and the five individuals looking at him, three approaching him in the front and another two on his right.

Not Ruby obviously. He thought as he stared critically at the ripper in front of him.

"Hey knight and shining armor go get your princess, didn't you see that the dragon took her?" Yang teased as she grinned at him.

"I swear, Yang. If you ever da-" Jaune raised a finger to emphasize his point but…

"I call White Knight!" Yang's cheery statement ultimately obliterated his point and thus he was left with a limp finger halfway between the two blondes.

Jaune noticed the new addition to the group and looked at Ruby for an answer.

"Oh yeah." Ruby half dragged half guided the black haired girl towards him.

"Jaune, meet Blake and Blake, meet Jaune." Ruby introduced the pair.

"Hey." She raised her hand limply as she held on a rather interesting book.

"Nice to meet you and you have some interesting tastes for books." Both Ruby and Yang looked at the book that she carried with much curiosity.

Even though it was hard to spot due to the way she was holding it, he saw enough parts of letters to know the title of the book. She slowly moved her hands to her back to cover the book as she looked at him sternly.

Ninjas of Love, huh? A tad bit too romantic for me. He thought as he internally shrugged.

Ruby yawned which prompted Yang to slowly but surely drag her sister away which prompted Blake to follow them. The three gave a simultaneous 'good night' which he thoughtfully returned. As Jaune watched the three returned to their own respective sleeping bags, he noticed movement on Blake's head, specifically her bow. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, narrowing his eyes but saw nothing out of the norm.

The old scopes must need some sleep I guess.

"Ooooh I smell something cooking over here." Jaune looked beside him and saw two fellow students sitting on their sleeping bags.

A girl with a short orange hair grinned at him in a manner similar to Yang while her black haired companion simply looked at him.

"And I like it." She added.

Jaune replied a simple 'uhuh' for the sake of answering her remark even though he was pretty sure that no one was cooking nearby.

"Sorry about her, she's just a bit too energetic for her own good." The boy beside him spoke.

"Nah it's cool." He said as he sat down on his own bag.

Plus I'm pretty sure that your friend is just hungry. He mentally added.

"Lie Ren, but call me Ren."

"Jaune Arc and you can just call me Jaune." The two was about to shake hands when a certain bubbly individual sat between the two young men.

"And I'm Nora Valkyrie. And if you ever call me Val I'll break your legs."

Her cheery voice matched with her sudden threat didn't settle that well with the young knight. He smiled and nodded thinking that it was just a joke but as he looked at the sudden serious look that Nora gave him and the mask of resignation that Ren wore, he was forced to rethink his life choices.

"I'll…uhh…keep that in mind."

Nora smiled warmly and scooted towards her own post, effectively ruining Ren's own space. Ren clasped his shoulder and told him and a low tone something that chilled his spine.

"It is wise that you chose not to." He then pointed to a buffy kid who was obviously in pain as medical staff carried him away in a stretcher.

Jaune gulped, horrified on how close he had thread to losing his still yet to begin career as a huntsman.

"Yeah…a wise decision." He mumbled as he allowed himself to flop onto his partially comfortable bag.

He felt his eyes become heavy and it didn't take long for him to leave the waking world.