Author's note: Writer's block is a plague that will be the end of all creativity.
Jaune sat in the middle of the room watching the cub playfully wrestle with Zwei, his teammates as well as team RWBY talked about training. Nora was the only exception, concerned with only her elation to have a dangerous plaything as well as naming it. "You know, once you get past the fact that it's one of the most dangerous cats out there, he's kinda cute," Weiss said, moving to dangle cat toy over the cub's face. She smiled as the cat began poking, clawing and pouncing on the toy.
"He's already eating solid food," Blake speculated, "so he has to be at least two months old. We should start training him as soon as possible."
"I say we should throw him in the arena with a boarbatusk and watch them fight to the death!" Nora exclaimed.
"Nora, we're not gonna accidentally kill a team member, and I think Jaune should be the one to train it," Ren suggested.
"What?! But I'm not great at fighting, what if I get mauled by the leopard for not being strong enough?" Jaune nervously objected.
"It's an opportunity for you to get stronger," Pyrrha cut in, "you're similar to it, strong aura, still like a child when it comes to combat, and still growing."
"Hey," Jaune reacted to the unintended insult, "I'm not that bad at fighting."
"Jaune, you were knocked out by Zwei last week," Ruby painfully reminded him of his inept combat abilities.
"So it's decided, Jaune will train with the snow leopard. So what's his name?" Yang asked. Everyone's eyes turned to Jaune.
"What?" he shrugged, "I thought Nora was gonna name him something ridiculous."
As she opened her mouth to blurt out an overly aggressive name, Ren grabbed her by the waist and covered her mouth, "I think you should have the honor of naming him since you were the one who found him."
"I don't know, about names," Jaune picked up the cub and set him down in his lap to stroke his back, "his color does remind me of ashes."
"That's perfect!" Ruby yelled, "Ash, for his gray fur."
The cub looked up at Ruby in response to the name he was just given. "I think he likes it," Jaune held the feline to his face, "What do you say? Can we call you Ash?" The cat swiped at his nose and made a distinct purring noise as he exhaled.
"I'm pretty sure he likes it," Blake smiled at how cute the cub looked in Jaune's hands.
"…We were surprised to hear that a student got his hands on a snow leopard cub, how'd you even separate it from its mother?" the zookeeper asked, opening the storage shed.
"I'm not the one who did it, he just showed up at my dorm room door," Jaune held his hands up in defense, "he was really hungry though, he ate a can of wet dog food pretty fast."
"Well, at any rate, here's what you need," the zookeeper pulled out a list, "a Kevlar harness for a medium-small dog, high carbon steel leash, and three hundred pounds of raw assorted meats for this month…"
Jaune's stomach dropped with each item on the list, "Um, this all sounds expensive, how much is this gonna cost me?"
"No need to worry about that, since Beacon has decided to take full responsibility for this animal and you're it's caretaker, it won't cost you more than your time training him," the zookeeper's statement put Jaune at ease. "Now, when the leopard gets bigger, please come back with him so we can get you the appropriate size, he's only two months so it's easy to guess his size right now."
"Mmmkay, I don't think I can carry three hundred pounds of raw meat back to the school, but I'll bring the harness, leash, and ten pounds of it with me, Ash must be starving by now."
"Oh don't worry about that, we'll have it delivered to the school, but you might want to ask Ozpin about storage, raw meat tends to go bad pretty quickly," the zookeeper warned.
"Thanks so much for helping out, I hope I'll be able to handle him."
"Oh, you better," the zookeeper answered, "If he deems you unworthy to be its leader, he'll kill you."
Jaune nervously stuttered, "K-kill me?"
"I wouldn't worry too much, he's still a cub," the zookeeper tried to calm Jaune, "you have at least a month, maybe less, before he starts fighting and hunting. By the way, my name's Venus; feel free to contact me if you happen to run into any trouble raising your snow leopard cub."
Jaune sat in his room alone, watching Ash wrestle with the raw steak he gave him. Getting down on all fours, bringing his eye level down to the cub, he stared intently into his innocent blue eyes, "Ash, I'm not going to be your leader, I'm not even going to be your trainer. I will be your training partner, and your friend. We will respect each other and cooperate on missions. We will grow together alongside our teammate and-,"
Jaune's monologue to the cub was interrupted by Ash's playful swipes to his nose, followed by a groan that seemed akin to a cat's meow. As if understanding Jaune's words, the leopard cub rested its paw on his hand. "Aw, isn't that cute, you're bonding," Jaune and Ash turned to see the redhead, clad in Amazonian themed armor, walking through the door.
"Pyrrha, I don't know what to do," he sighed and let the cub continue to play with his food, "I'm not much stronger than the bots on easy difficulty in the training hall, how am I supposed to train a leopard to fight if I'm not that strong."
"Like you said, Jaune, grow alongside it," Pyrrha reminded him of his words. "Look, his hunting instincts are starting to kick in," she said, noticing the way Ash wrestled and bit into his steak, "you and Ash should start tomorrow."
After Pyrrha had left for her next class and Ash had finished his food, Jaune picked up Crocea Mors and led his new companion to the training hall. "I'm going to get stronger, or die trying," he said to himself as he turned the room difficulty to maximum. The room's mechanisms started to whir and the wall in front of him opened up to reveal his enemies. "Holy shit!" was all that could be heard from outside the locked door.