Author's note: Happy New Years Eve! I just managed to finish writing this chapter shortly after I posted the last chapter. I will get back to Jaune's solo mission in future chapters, I just thought I'd give you a new year's chapter.
Jaune trudged up the hill and through the snow with Ash at his side, the tower of Ozpin's office slowly came in to his view as the sun set. The snow fell lightly, but the amount that had settled had indicated the length of time he had missed. The knight's clothes were torn and tattered and his armor had several dents and tears. Ash didn't look any better either, his fur coat, though thickened by the time of year, no longer had its sheen and was missing patches where his cuts were healing. 'Two months,' he thought to himself, relief overtaking his body as he approached the walls of Vale. The soldiers stationed at the border wasted no time in taking him back to the school where he hurriedly filled out the reports of his findings.
"It's new year's eve, Jaune," Ozpin interrupted the exhausted knight who was midway through writing a sentence, "Your friends are having a small party to celebrate. Go have a bit of fun and we'll do the report tomorrow."
"Thank you sir," Jaune wearily shook his hand before leaving the office.
Jaune managed to slip through the entrance of the dorms unnoticed and made his way back to his team's dorm room. Turning on the light he found, to no surprise, that it was empty. He took his time, slowly removing his damaged armor, savoring the relief.
"We're home, Ash," he sighed in content as he rubbed the soap into the snow leopard's fur. After rinsing off the soap with warm water, he gently dried the adolescent cub's fur, making sure that he didn't pull any hairs out accidentally. The snow leopard walked out of the bathroom and to his usual spot at the foot of Jaune's bed, curled up into a ball and promptly fell asleep. "You deserve it, buddy," the knight said gently as he stroked the gray coat of fur before walking back to the bathroom to shower himself.
Setting it to the hottest temperature, Jaune stripped off his clothes while waiting for the water to heat up. He stepped into the streams of water, instantly feeling the tension and soreness leave him. The heat of the shower felt so good to him in contrast to sleeping in the bitter cold of winter for what seemed so long. He lathered up his body and hair, taking care to remove any dirt and sweat that had clung to him for so long and watched the darkened water wash down the drain. After toweling off, he pulled on a clean pair of boxers, jeans, plain white t-shirt and a black sweater before heading off to find his friends.
After briefly searching the campus for any sort of party, he found the cafeteria lights still on. Shrugging to himself, he slowly opened the door. Inside he found the rest of his team along with teams RWBY, CVFY and SSSN sitting around a fairly large table, partaking in a rather large feast. Confetti and decorations were strewn around the corner in where they had their small gathering, indicating someone had a little too much fun. Jaune slowly made his way to the table, excitement apparent on his face, but stopped at the sight of Weiss's fingers interlocking with Neptune's. The feeling of excitement and happiness to finally be home with his friends was quickly replaced by the feeling of his heart sinking.
"Looks the dead has come back to life," Sun happily announced to the group once he had caught sight of the blond.
"Yeah, well now I wish I hadn't," Jaune responded while eyeing the couple. Rage entered his mind, he wanted to lash out and break something or someone. Turning around, he started towards the exit, sadness quickly replacing the anger.
"Jaune, wait," he heard a voice behind him followed by chairs moving and footsteps following him. Once he was out the door he took off running.
His legs carried him nowhere in particular, he just knew he had to run. Jaune ignored the grumble in his stomach and ran until he found himself at the edge of Beacon cliff. He panted heavily, exhausted and out of breath, he fell face first into the snow. He lied there, letting himself succumb to the depression that had followed him for so long, wanting the cold and starvation to take his life right at that moment. He heard footsteps approach him with the distinct sound of the snow being compressed. "Jaune," he heard a meek voice come from beside him. He rolled over to find a face hooded in red looking down at him.
"Hey Ruby," he greeted before rolling back to his original position and speaking into the snow, "don't mind me, if the cold winter night or the starvation doesn't kill me, there's always that cliff over there."
"We all thought you were dead," she quietly told him, "when Ozpin told us that the closest outpost was overrun with grimm and they had lost contact with you, we all lost it. Your team, Weiss and I, we all just broke down. Ren and Nora had each other for comfort, Pyrrha just spent more time training and everyone else helped Weiss get over you, Neptune just happened to be there."
"Great to know she'd take anyone at the right place and time," Jaune groaned as he sat up. "What about you, how did you deal with it?"
"I couldn't," Ruby managed to say with her faltering voice, embracing the knight before the first few tears left her eyes, "When you left, I didn't know if I'd ever see you again, and I just didn't want to lose you."
"Nine hundred miles," Jaune finally said after several minutes of holding her while she sobbed into his chest, "I traveled nine hundred miles of snow, fighting grimm and struggling to survive until I could find the nearest outpost just so I could make it back. I wanted to come back to my team, my friends, Weiss…" Jaune paused, "And you."
Ruby looked up into Jaune's eyes, tears still flowing from her eyes. In them she saw all the hurt, sadness and emptiness they held. She could see the worst thing that any human or faunus could feel, he was broken. She wanted to take it all away from him, she wanted to rid him of the pain that plagued his heart because she'd made his pain her own.
"I love you, Jaune," she muttered, not noticing herself leaning towards him ever so slowly. She found herself examining the small details of his face and the small changes that had happened in the two months he'd spent fighting his way back. Besides the lower half of his face being covered in facial hair, the bags under his eyes had grown noticeably bigger, and there were small crease marks between his eyebrows and on his forehead.
Ruby's thoughts were interrupted as the as the sound of the first of the fireworks were launched into the air which signaled the beginning of a new year. The pair watched as the tiny ball of flames climbed into the sky, bursting into a beautiful array of red and yellow. The following were a multitude of colors that quickly disappeared and soon the darkened sky was ablaze with colorful flames. "I made you a promise before I left," Jaune said, turning his head back to hers, "I promised that I'd make it back."
"You lied, you weren't back when you were supposed to be," Ruby childishly pouted.
"I'm here now," Jaune smirked, closing the gap between their faces and holding her against his body tightly.
Her eyes widened as their lips met, she could feel the longing in his lips that yearned so desperately for love. Ruby closed her eyes, returning the kiss, doing her best to show that she meant what she told him. The fireworks could still be heard, and the light of the colors illuminated their faces, covered in tears and melted snow. Her first kiss lasted mere seconds, but felt like forever to the girl as waves of bliss washed over her.
As soon as the kiss was broken, an immediate sense of guilt soon replaced the feeling of pleasure and settled in Ruby's stomach. Her feelings for Jaune hadn't changed, but she had realized that she had taken advantage of him in his moment of vulnerability. He was exhausted, heartbroken and depressed and she just used it to get what she wanted. She felt saddened when she looked into his eyes, finding that the emptiness had not left him. 'I'm the worst,' she thought to herself as she hugged him once more. The embrace was no longer filled with happiness, no, it was now filled with confusion and sadness as she realized that the Jaune she had met had in fact died and was replaced by someone she could no longer recognize.