Hey, CoffeyJoe back here with another chapter for you guys! Big shout out to SabletKnight for agreeing to be my beta for this story! Hopefully it will make the chapters a little better for you guys! I'm still on the fence about if I want a pairing for this story but if I do it won't be Arkos or Yellow Mellow (BlakexJaune) because I'm tired of those. I'm just throwing it out there I am not entirely opposed to gay shippings as there will have to be some for other characters in the story, just leave an idea and an explanation. Anyways leave review if you want but try to include some reasoning behind it or I'll probably ignore it.
With that, enjoy the chapter folks!
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Jaune walked back to his dorm in relative quiet, the rest of his team staying around to catch up with Team RYBN since he didn't want to hang around. It wasn't to say he didn't like them or anything, but he could barely handle his own team's interactions; taking a chance to walk back alone was something he wasn't going to pass up. He entered the dormitories to find himself, again, relatively alone in the place's rec room.
Sighing at such a slow, tedious day that accented his tired mood perfectly, he shuffled up the 3 flights of stairs and turned towards his room's wing. He had almost made it, promised land and whispers of a cool bed to fall into just over the horizon, when a pair of familiar, and ugly, looking students cut off his route. What is this an 80s high school movie? if he hadn't dealt with Nora's badgering all day he might have been more angered at the two thugs but it was replaced with a grating annoyance.
"What do you want? I haven't had time to get a Get Well Soon! card for you leader." Their names were irrelevant to him but he identified them as the green and brunette members of Team CRDL.
"Tch, got a lot to say don't you?" the green Mohawk chick barked from down the hallway.
Seriously, this was more awkward than intimidating due to the distance between them. Furthermore, the last thing he wanted was attract the ire of the other denizens on this hall. He went with Plan B and decided to barrel right through them, briskly walking down the hall to make his intentions quite known.
"You can either move or be run over, I don't care which." When he was an arm's length away from the two of them a voice spoke up from behind them.
"So Jauney-boy, I take it you don't want to deal with us today." The impressively irritating voice of Cressida Winchester came in from behind him. The blonde slanted his body so he was still somewhat facing the other two idiots and scrunched his face at his "Arch nemesis".
"What do you want Cressida? Is this some sort of power play? Because I'm not in the mood. Get these two goons out of my way or I send you all down for a meeting with Nurse Tsune." Jaune liked to think he had good patience, you needed it with Qrow, but this was honestly wearing thin. It had been a long, tiring day and that was without considering upcoming events. The field trip tomorrow meant he had to ride in a bullhead for over 2 hours there and back.
"Come on Jaune! Is that anyway to talk to your best friend?"
"Spit it out idiot, what's the explanation." Cressida dropped her smirk with a growl but it soon came back in the form of a sneer.
"Well, I was just thinking about you while in the hospital today-"
"Not interested, I have no need for a girlfriend."
"Not like that you idiot! I was thinking about how on Remnant you got into this school. I looked it up and you were slated to be some trophy husband for the past couple years and then bam! you go and unlock your aura. Then, somehow, you get into Beacon next year just like that." she rubbed her chin in a faux thinker pose. "Sounds like institutional favoritism to garner favors from your family."
His head jerked slightly but he reigned it in, she wanted to get him riled up. "-And that's just terrible! I thought Beacon was more professional than that! So, I had this idea to call my mom, the current matriarch of the Winchester family line who holds a seat on the council of Vale, and explain to her this travesty. Of course, that would land you and your family in some hot water, not to mention what would happen to this school! Those fools in the faculty would lose their jobs and be laughed out of the huntress business forever more, and then perhaps you'd face criminal charges as well. So I figured that if you and I just became a couple of pals I could-"
Something in him snapped and he was not proud to admit that. He wasn't worried about his family, his parents could rot and his sisters would almost certainly be unaffected, but the staff here had earned a spot in his heart; they were the first to take him in and truly care about him after everything with Ironwood in Atlas. The bulbs overhead burst like they had been shot, cool blue energy sparking overhead and casting an eerie strobe effect throughout the hallway. Jaune hefted Cressida by her shirt and slammed her as hard as he could into the nearest surface, pinning her to the wall. It cracked easily under the force as the air was squeezed out of her.
"Listen you little ginger dipshit! If you think I give a damn about your mother or what she can or cannot do at this school, then you're dumber than I thought and let me tell you, that was something I thought impossible. If you even so much as think about threatening this school and its staff, I will find out. And when I find out, I will hunt you down and I will destroy your life as a hunter. I will not stop until I have ruined the lives of your team, your mother, and anyone who had so much as fucking given you the time of day, making sure that you can only watch from the sidelines. Helpless." He seethed through gritted teeth "Am. I. Understood?"
"Y-Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes... sir."
"Good, and now for you all." he said, gesturing to the frozen teammates around him. "The same goes for you, if you like your nerves endings without issue and care even one iota for the safety of those around you, you will keep quiet."
"Yes sir!" they responded in unison, he let go of Cressida and watched her slide down the cracked plaster as she came to grips with the situation. Scurrying away from him, she and her team retreated down the hallway but not before she turned to snarl at me.
Cressida swore under her breath. "You'll regret this Arc, mark my words."
0-0-0-0
Jaune breathed heavily as he staggered through the door frame of his room. He was currently trying to control the maelstrom of deep-seated emotions whirling around inside him, and combined with the fact that he just cost the school a couple hundred lien in fixing the lights,most likely dozens of complaints , and threatened to enact bloody vengeance on an entire team of fellow students, he was going into meltdown mode.
"Breathe Jaune, you gotta remember what Qrow always told you." A person on the battlefield with their head somewhere else might just lose it Jaune took a moment to collect himself and opted to not sort through the emotions that had bubbled up out of nowhere in the conversation he just had, instead falling flat onto his bed and burying his face into his pillow.
Jaune wasn't usually one to run away from his problems. He knew first hand that running only tires you out for when those problems catch up, but he needed a break from today. Too much was happening too fast. He didn't quite realize that his team and Team RYBN had gotten back until Weiss opened the door to their dorm and shook Jaune's shoulder.
"Ugh. Jaune, care to explain why the lights are out and there's broken glass everywhere?" she asked with an incredulous look; she didn't want to pull the metaphorical pin on his grenade but this needed some explanation.
"No need to guess who Weiss, I just got done having a lovely chat with Team CRDL."
"You didn't kill any of them did you?" she asked, now a little more worried.
"Of course he didn't partner! There was no blood or bodies anywhere there!" Nora cheered while bouncing on her bed.
"Nora! That's inappropriate!" Rin chided her to which she just giggled and shrugged her shoulders. Weiss's mouth opened and closed several times as she looked in between her teammates before deciding a hot shower was in order.
"Well atleast no one got seriously hurt I suppose." she then turned to eye him carefully from the bathroom door.
"And you, mister, will be taking a shower tonight. I won't go to sleep smelling you from across the room."
"Yeah yeah." he muttered as she huffed and went to go take her shower in relative peace and quiet. As they heard the water turn on Rin looked to her partner with an unreadable expression, in some way she felt like she had left her leader down. Nowadays it seemed like Weiss was more his partner than her and now that this incident just happened she figured this was a perfect time to garner some conversations with him.
"You know, Jaune, we just want to make sure you're ok right?"
She heard a muffled sigh from their leader. "Yeah, I know Rin. Tomorrow will be better but today has taken it out of me in more ways than I care to count."
Well, so much for talking to her partner she supposed. And the hits kept coming when, 20 minutes later, Professor Goodwitch knocked on their door demanding answers for why half the dorm's power was out and the hallway was filled with broken glass. Upon seeing the rather downcast look of her pupil she could put things together enough to understand, vaguely, what happened. She really wished Qrow had him control his semblance more rather than use it to power her kitchen appliances and charge her scroll. Still, with a flick of her crop, the the glass reformed into pristine bulbs as the Beacon support staff worked to get the power up and running.
The dorms returned to relative quiet after that, he got into the shower and got out without really processing anything before slumping back down onto his bed. The others pretty much left him alone to sulk, and perhaps that's what he needed to do; just sulk for a bit and try to air out the stress in him. As the evening reached its peak his team decided they wanted to grab some dinner before the cafeteria closed.
"You think we should go to the mess hall now?" asked Rin quietly, looking to Weiss who just nodded.
"Of course silly!" Nora crowed happily while bouncing lightly on her bed. "But Team ARSN just isn't complete without its fearless leader!"
Rin and Weiss looked like they were about to dissuade her of that particular notion, but before they could their leader sat up from his. Jaune had decided not to drag his fellow team members down with him, and if he was honest, he was pretty damn hungry too. It wouldn't hurt to join them.
The cafeteria was still just as lively as ever; for a huntress school the kids could truly act like children sometimes. Seriously, each table was ruled by one team or another and they zealously guarded their territory while every so often throwing food at the other kids. He recalled the time Team CFVY, more specifically Coco, started a massive food fight using almost every type of food the cafeteria served. He had never seen someone as angry as Goodwitch that day, the woman looked like she was about to launch Coco straight out of the continent.
Still, Team ARSN eagerly gathered their food and returned to their table as Nora regaled them with another one of her tales. The girl had a mouth that ran a mile a minute, not to mention her stories were just as outrageous; she easily put Professor Port to shame. Weiss looked like she was staving off a headache and Rin seemed to have tuned their ginger companion out. For the sake of his sanity, Jaune decided to follow suit.
I hope this school field trip goes ok, the last thing I need is another problem in my life. He was bitterly reminded of something Peach had mentioned to him last week which felt like almost a lifetime ago.
"So Jaune," she said with a confidence that he would have thought impossible when they first met. One-on-one talks were fine but adding in 2 or 3 more people and she became a stuttering mess. "I wanted you know some important dates for all freshmen as they weren't quite mentioned in orientation."
"Oh? And what's that professor?" she scratched her cheek slightly, a habit when she wanted to lead into some sort of forbidden territory with someone.
"Wellllll, there's the Beacon Fall dance of course. We put it on every year for all four years, there's dancing and food and it's a good time to hook up with someone or so I've heard." Peach had quite a taste for those romance novels not to mention an appetite for "Shipping" as she tried to explain it. He sighed, knowing what she was trying to suggest and all, and while it did come from a good place he wasn't interested.
"Even if I was interested in dating I don't think I would find someone here." He said in a tired voice. She often tried to bring these conversations up and had somehow gotten the other teachers into such a disgusting habit as shipping. Rumors even spread she had infected Ozpin herself, and he hoped to whatever god was out there she hadn't convinced Qrow of something similar.
Peach laughed contently with a small line of blood down her nose at the "finding someone here" tidbit, no doubt taking that the wrong way. Not to say he wouldn't maybe, just maybe consider such a thing. Shaking his head at that part entirely he motioned for her to continue on with her list of important dates.
"Well, then of course near the middle of the year the Vytal Festival comes around, and that means we get to send a bunch of our teams to the championship! I hear this year is going to be hosted in Vale and I can't wait to see how that goes!" Not many knew this, but Peach also enjoyed a good party nearly as much as her weird shipping thing. "And then of course there's a short Christmas break and then that's about it as far as school-sponsored events go..."
"And there's also a sort of parent meet-up day before the tournament so you know..." she lowered her gaze and let it flicker ever so quickly to her star pupil whose knuckles cracked dangerously after hearing that.
"Well. That has nothing to do with me as far as I know." he responded curtly, trying not to get upset with the much smaller woman.
"I just want you to know, part of your agreement says they technically can-"
"You think I don't know that?" he snapped causing her to flinch, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply not wanting to let this turn into something he would regret. Still, he hoped Isabella and Nicholas had enough sense not put that nail in their coffins. Shaking his head Jaune left the dust lab and Peach who watched his form exit through the door and out of sight.
"That boy..."
With everything that had happened, he had no idea that the day was sneaking up on him so fast, albeit a few months away. His parents hadn't tried to contact him and there had been no meetings with council members or anyone else, so maybe he was getting work up for nothi-
*plop*
A bright green pea smacked right into his eyebrow causing him to level a very stern, Rin-like gaze at his teammate Nora. She giggled her usual giggle before puffing out her cheeks and pointing a finger at his chest.
"What did I tell you about thinking those nasty thoughts!" she scolded, Jaune shrugged slightly before going back to his food which he had been robotically eating throughout his little flashback.
"Well, I think I've had my fill for tonight so I will see you all back at the dorm." Weiss said politely before dabbing her face with a napkin and throwing away her food. As she left, Team RYBN burst through the door to cafeteria and made their way to pick up whatever scraps of food were left. Judging by their red faces, they had run to narrowly make it in time, and Jaune felt a sudden surge of happiness at the fact he never had to delegate such trivial things to his team; they were much too mature for that.
Well, Nora needed to be kept in line by Rin, but it was something he supposed. They made their way over and set their plates down near Team ARSN before they began eating, enjoying the company of each other between mouthfuls. Their team seemed to get along well enough; Ruby was excited over their field trip and Yang liked to tease her on how much of a child she acted. Blake just read her book and occasionally nibbled at her food as Pyrrha tried to make sure the two sisters didn't kill each other. Jaune watched as they laughed and played around, even drawing Blake into the conversation with a remark about her book, and hopelessly tried to suppress the feeling in his stomach.
He felt empty, hollow; a deep ache he couldn't ignore put him off from what was left of his dinner. He grunted that he too was returning to the dorm much to the surprise of Team RYBN and the knowing sighs of Rin and Nora. He threw his plate away and left Rin and Nora to fraternize with their sister team. He had just made it out of the cafeteria threshold when someone grabbed his hand.
Jaune was actually surprised to find Pyrrha looking back at him. They hadn't truly spoken face-to-face a whole lot, but he supposed that it wasn't like they were strangers. She looked kind of worried-, or perhaps more like concerned?
"Jaune, is everything alright?" the dull ache pulsed but he refused to show it.
"Yeah, don't worry. You should get back to your team." he made his way to leave but she decided to to try and keep the conversation going.
"It doesn't sound like you're ok." she pushed on, "You know, if something is wrong just tell us."
"Like I said, you should get back to your team. It looks they're having fun."
"You're always welcome to join us, you know. We were thinking about going out one night and they -Yang- were really interested on getting you out of that shell of yours."
"I guess I'll think about it." he tried to ignore the guilt as she smiled happily and turned to return back to her team who were arguing with Nora happily.
He was always welcome to join them?
...
No, he didn't think he was.
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Jaune entered back into his dorm as the sun dipped behind a patch of clouds, thus blanketing the campus in thick darkness. With a soft click the door opened and he stepped inside, Weiss was over his bed grumbling about something or other.
"Weiss? You ok?" she turned around and breathed deeply before treading around the room as he entered.
"Yes, I finished my school work early and decided to try and organize what is left of this dorm." she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Seriously, if my sister could see the mess left between you and Nora, she would be utterly appalled."
"Your sister is Winter, correct?"
She actually looked surprised as that. "You- You know my sister?"
"Somewhat, we met during a party." And that was all he said. she seemed interested in the fact they had met but she too decided not to dwell on the subject. Instead Jaune decided to strip down to his pajamas and hit the hay, so to speak.
His bed was pretty comfortable and he was really tired; so tired, in fact, that he was able to tune out Nora breaking down their door like a SWAT team and shouting about how much fun they had.
Still, the wretched feeling just wouldn't budge, but at least as his conscious faded, they quickly followed suit.
0-0-0-0
"I just don't get it! What gives them the right to decide my future?" Jaune shouted, standing the the luxurious kitchen his parents owned. With him were his two most trusted friends Sunny and Floyd, servants of the family but the closest things to parents he had right now.
"Jaune, they just want what's best for you." Sunny winced as she said that, there was no way she could even convince herself of something so ludicrous.
"Like hell they do!" Jaune slumped against the kitchen counter, head in hands. "My dreams, my aspirations,all gone!"
"Chin up lad, this isn't the end for you." Floyd comforted him with a hand of his shoulder, remembering the days when his boy's most pressing concern was next week's math test.
"It is, Floyd, it is. That contract is binding and I have no way out, I'm finished." he moaned in despair, shrugging off his butler's hand. He picked up a half empty bottle of whiskey and decided to wander the house for a bit. He drank incessantly from the bottle in small shot-glass increments, but the constant flow of heavy drink clouded his good judgement and worsened his despair.
Jaune stumbled out onto the balcony just below the roof, a miserable expression on his face. Maybe this was it for him, he had nowhere to go and the entire deck was stacked against him. He supposed the old adage was true: the house always wins.
As he hung limply over the railing, a wayward echo bounced around in his head, soft as possible and yet it captured his attention clearly through the haze of whiskey:
That would be quite the drop.
Now, Jaune had always thought about it before, but he never truly envisioned himself doing the deed. However, chugging half a bottle of whiskey doesn't do wonders for your mood or judgement. Thoughts whirled around in his head, and the more he sifted through them the more than wayward thought began to make more and more sense. He was nothing but a trophy now, just like his father, and grandfather, and brother-in-law, and soon he too would join them.
But maybe, he wouldn't have to. It posed an interesting question: "Is it better to live in servitude or die a free man?"
Growing up, he always heard tales of how the Arc family of warriors were always free spirited individuals, always looking for adventure. Joan de Arc, the first Arc, slipped into the army as a young girl pretending to be a woman and made it all the way to fame and glory using a cool head and good judgement. Male or not, Jaune Arc was still an Arc and he could never truly believe he would be ok living in such a cruel future.
It happened before he could truly gauge his actions, one leg over the railing and then the second just as quick. There was a small amount of space for him to stand on but he still balanced himself using the railing, he eyed the drop below. A cavernous maw accentuated by the thick alcohol, but as anyone drunk will tell you whiskey makes you braver than you should be. He forced one hand off the railing to dangle over the edge, if he went head first it would be quick and painless, nothing but the feeling of weightlessness before he was sent to oblivion.
Maybe this was for the best, no one would drag him down and he would die, at the very least, a man who owned himself. The other hand threatened to release its grip and plunge him into that darkness when all of the sudden he felt something warm clasp that very same hand. With a mighty tug of strength he didn't think she had, Jaune was ripped over the side of the railing and sent sprawling by the head maid Sunny.
Jaune shook his head and got up from the cold stone floor to ask what she was doing before he was cut off by a strange sensation. Hot and pulsating, something felt like it was covering his cheek as his head was jerked to the side; she had slapped him. The idea that the timid and kind hearted maid he had known for all his life had slapped him was bizarre, almost alien, but it seemed to jostle him out of his addled state. His body shook as the cruel fact of what he was about to do washed over him.
He was about to kill himself.
Turning his head slowly he saw Sunny, almost a head smaller but none the less upset, staring at him with a shocked expression as tears began to run down her cheeks.
"Sunny I-"
"What the hell were you doing!" she screeched, the sheer volume sending a sleeping flock of birds flying from the nearby forest. He heard the heavy clomping of shoes on carpet as Floyd burst through the balcony, his tanned face scrunching as he tried to read the situation. Jaune was at a lost for words, did he truly know what he was doing? Before he could answer, Sunny enclosed him with a bone crushing hug.
"My boy, what happened?" Floyd asked slowly, Sunny wasn't one to get so upset over just anything so this was a delicate situation.
"I-I don't-"
"He was about to plunge himself over the railing." Sunny sobbed into his chest, Floyd's head whipped to Jaune who seemed to lower his gaze to the ground. That was all the proof he needed, quickly closing the distance between them and wrapped Jaune's other side in a tight hug.
"My god Jaune, what were you thinking." his voice quivered slightly but he refused to cry, Jaune never saw him do that.
"I'm sorry." he could only whisper out…
0-0-0-0
Jaune's scroll woke him up blearily to a dreadfully bright morning. Rubbing his eyes, he noticed they were red and puffy from his sleep. Looking around, he saw that Weiss was beginning to stir and Rin seemed to be in the shower already. With any luck, Jaune could one right after her. Content with waiting for his shower, his morning tranquility was shattered as Nora sprung up from her bed with a horrendous shout of joy.
"Today's the day!" she cried, "Field Trip!" causing Weiss to jolt from her sleep and unceremoniously tumble off her bed in surprise. It didn't take long for her to regain her composure and hiss venomously at her partner. Nora just laughed it off.
Oh yes, field trip day. How could he forget. Well, he supposed this particular headache had to come sooner or later, so, ignoring Nora and Weiss arguing over each other's voices, Jaune rapped on the bathroom door a few times.
"One moment please, I'm almost done."
"Ok, don't use all the hot water." Rin came out a few minutes later and Nora turned her attention to trying to embarrass Weiss by stripping down her best buddy and not-together friend Rin.
Taking a deep breath and deciding to leave them to their own devices, Jaune settled into his shower and enjoyed the relative escape from the insanity that was Nora Valkyrie. These dreams, why now of all times? He finished his shower and got dressed, heading down to breakfast with the others soon after. The whole cafeteria was a fervent mess; with the field trip taking place after morning classes, all the usual deadlines had been pushed up and people were rushing to finish their work.
Even Team ARSN and Team RYBN were desperately rushing to get their gear together in time for the approaching bullheads. Jaune forgoed eating a rather substantial breakfast like Nora, instead opting for a simple apple or two and a glass of water. Bullheads tended to upset his stomach somewhat, and though Qrow had forced him on enough of them to get her kicks, his airsickness never failed to rear its head.
When the bullheads arrived, the teams clambered aboard trying to follow the directions of Peach and Goodwitch -Goodwitch mostly- but things settled down from there. Jaune could feel the icy glares from Team CRDL who had situated themselves across the bullhead. One of them had a large duffle bag full of god knows what, but he decided he didn't need to get involved. He was lucky enough Goodwitch didn't suspend him for what happened before and he wasn't one to push his luck, especially around that woman.
Weiss inched towards Ruby as Jaune grimaced and swallowed something she didn't care to think about, Rin seemed to shake her head in sympathy at her partner's plight but she too could be seen inching slowly away.
"Really feeling the love here guys."
"Eh, don't worry vomit-boy they're just making sure you don't paint them the inside color of your stomach!" Yang teased, Jaune sent her his own icy glare at that nickname.
"Call me that again and I'll drown you."
"Where? There's no water."
"Trust me, I'll find a way."
"Yaaaang, stop picking on Jaune already." whined Ruby, Pyrrha lovingly patted her shoulder as she laughed at their antics. The two teams' conversations devolved into teasing and mild arguments about their field trip, the fact that Forever Fall was host to a plethora of Grimm such as Ursa and Beowulves long since forgotten.
The unpleasant feeling felt like it was about to come back but it was promptly swallowed up under a wave of rolling nausea.
Yep. This trip was already going great, he could just feel it.
Hours later the bullhead touched down much to Jaune's relief and Goodwitch stood near the exit, clipboard in hand and Peach hidden behind her. "Now students, I want you all to follow me and be careful. The details of your assignment will be covered when we arrive at the site."
And with that, the bullhead doors opened...
0-0-0-0
Yeah! A wonderful chapter that will lead into what happens in the next one! Remember what I said up top and beyond that there is really nothing else. If any of you have questions feel free to ask. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it you know I love ya!
XOXOXO
CoffeyJoe