Jaune's Accidents
Chapter 5: (Fall)out to get a date!
While Jaune was certain he lacked the necessary features that would make him a good Huntsman, he was certain of one thing - there was an undeniable charm to him (barring the exceptional cruel bullies in Beacon) that he could use!
The girls in his school were off, though. All of them had to bring up that stupid Nevermore story that Yang spread, except for Ruby, and he didn't really want to threaten his friendship in case she rejected him.
This left him with only one possible way.
Going to Vale and meet some girls. He asked some guys if they wanted to come with him, but that didn't work out. Plan A to get some male friends failed. He still remembered that conversation as if it was yesterday. Which it was.
"Us?" the pale guy asked. "With you? No way in hell - there's no chance we can get any with you around."
Jaune's shoulders slumped. Of course, he would drag everyone else down. When he nodded, he left, not hearing the last sentence through his depression.
"The girls would jump his bones, man, how could we even compare?"
He was, of course, unfortunate enough to have asked people that immediately went around and spread the word.
So when he decided to study in the library, it didn't come to surprise to him that he would be the topic of conversation for most people, and the mocking followed within minutes.
An arm slung around his shoulder as he was reading up on the various type of flying Grimm, and he looked to his left, where a person had seated themselves.
"Hi!" a girl with brown hair and stylish sunglasses said. "So I heard you were looking for friends to go out with!"
Another girl, a bunny faunus from the looks of it, and two guys sat down across him.
"I… uh," Jaune didn't really know what to say, so he went with the truth. "Yes?"
"That's great!" she said. "The others were kinda intimidated, but you seem like an alright guy, and we kinda wanted to go to a club tonight, so you're coming with us!"
She was an upperclassman. He remembered her from… somewhere. Who was he to reject an offer by an upperclassman?
"Alright," he agreed. If he said no, she'd probably just twist his arm until he agreed anyway, just like home.
"Great, we'll meet in thirty minutes at the gate-"
She looked down at his uniform before narrowing her eyes before pointing at her team. "You are going to meet us in thirty minutes at the gates, me and him are going to pick some better clothes."
"Wait, what?" Jaune said. "I don't have that many clothes-"
"You can borrow some from me!" she said. "I, the great Coco, won't let her cute little underclassman go dressed in a school uniform!"
He didn't even have time to protest, and he didn't wanna run away either after she made an effort to ask him to go with them. So when she grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him off to the dorms, he lowered his gaze to the ground and a single tear fell from his eye.
Jaune didn't really dislike the new clothes he got.
That said, he didn't really like them either. They were… fine. Too fine for someone like him. The fact that she said he could keep them made him feel even worse, so he didn't protest much when she all but carried him towards the club.
Like a sack of potatoes on her shoulder.
He could see one of the guys grinning the whole time, finding the scene more than hilarious. The bunny faunus girl laughed nervously whenever he looked towards her. She didn't seem very comfortable going out like this either, but she still dressed up.
He really had to ask how Coco had been able to get a dorm room for her clothing.
"Here we are!" she said. "Club Whatever!"
He looked up and paled. It was humongous. If anything, it looked like twice the size of the already huge cafeteria in Beacon, on three stories.
When she walked towards the entrance, the small hope that the bouncer would not allow him to enter came to a quick halt when he just smiled at them.
"Long time no see, Coco," he greeted.
"School and responsibility!" she chirped and dragged him in.
The music was loud. The people were loud. The lights were bright.
It wasn't all that different to a food fight at Beacon, to be honest.
Coco finally stopped manhandling him and threw him onto the ground. He twisted at the fall and righted himself up quickly after landing on his feet.
"Welcome to my home away from home that's also away from Beacon!" she said loudly over the music. "COCO IS BACK!" she shouted loudly and the entire crowd roared in acknowledgement.
This upperclassman was something else, Jaune decided. Sighing and resiging himself to his fate, Jaune slicked back his hair and looked around, where the two male members of Coco's team had already dragged off the bunny faunus girl.
'At least nobody here will recognize me,' he thought. If he messed up, he could just not come back here ever again. No big deal, he had quite a few locations he wasn't looking forward to going back to. Like home.
When Coco was riding the crowd, Jaune decided to move onto a higher floor and get away from the loud music before taking a look around. There were a lot of girls, many of them with guys already, and the Jaune Arc charm just had no chance to show itself.
After tracking around on the floor and moving onto the highest one, he finally caught sight of someone that made his heart beat a bit faster. She was sitting alone, raven hair hanging down her back as dark and as long as the midnight between two stars. Swallowing, Jaune closed his eyes and whispered encouragements to himself.
"It's alright," he whispered. "If she says no, it's alright."
He moved forward, with a shaky hand and just like he practiced he grabbed the table and leaned over it, right into her sight.
"Hello," he said. His voice was as smooth as silk that a cat was ripping apart. "Could I ask this lady for a dance?"
"I don't dance," she said. He held his surprise back. It wasn't a rejection, right? She just said she doesn't dance.
"A drink, then?" he asked. He wasn't sure what they actually served here, but by the look of the glass in front of her, there was something to drink around here.
She gazed at him, and suddenly all of his instincts screamed for him to get out of the way. He didn't know why, but he just sat down, not noticing the small fireball that would've probably burned a hole in his pants had he remained standing there.
The woman blinked.
Her fiery gaze narrowed and her nostrils flared slightly, a twitch of annoyance on her face before she smiled.
"Of course," she said. "What's your name, kid?"
She didn't look much older than him, but the way she spoke made him imagine some strange maturity coming from her.
"Jaune Arc," he said. "Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? And you, m-my queen?"
The way he stuttered towards the end was going to be his doom…
But instead of laughing at him, she seemed taken aback.
Was it finally working?
Was the Jaune Arc charm finally on?
"If I'm the queen," she said, leaning forward. "Then what are you, Jaune Arc?"
"Me?" he pointed at himself. Laughing slightly, he shrugged. "I suppose I could be the knight."
"Not the king?" she asked.
"No." He shook his head. "The king is like… an old man. Someone who can barely move."
"Hm?"
That made her interested. She smiled slightly, leaning back and brushing some of her hair out of her face.
"Yeah, like Headmaster Ozpin," Jaune continued. "You know him? He's the headmaster of Beacon."
"Oh, yes," she said. "I know him."
Her voice was strained. Maybe she was sick? Jaune couldn't be sure.
"Why the knight then?" she asked.
"When I was little," Jaune explained. "I wanted to be like my grandfather, a hero, he fought in the Faunus-Human war long ago, but... now I don't. Heroes don't choose to be heroes, they just fight to the best of their ability."
Her eyebrows twitched.
"Jaune… Arc?" she asked. "What was your grandfather's name?"
"Arthur," he said. "Arthur Arc, I think he had a nickname, thoug-"
"Arthur Arc?" she asked. Then she paled. Then she turned slightly green, though that might just have been the club's lights. "The Pendragon? The Demon of Vale? Faunus-Slayer? The man that got his entire bloodline banned from ever entering Mistral again?"
"You know him, then?" Jaune's eyes lighted up.
"And you study under Ozpin?" she asked, slightly louder.
"Yes?" he asked. Well, he was the headmaster, so everyone was studying under him at Beacon, right?
She stood up abruptly and left, not giving Jaune the chance to say anything.
His head hit the table.
Of course it wasn't going to work out.
Cinder's teeth were grinding together as she moved through the streets, dialing a number on her scroll.
"Ozpin's secret weapon," she hissed. I thought it had to do with the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers, but instead it's someone like him."
The person on the other end of the line picked up.
Torchwick and his new employee were visible on the screen, the man looked bruised.
"I need information," she said. "And I need it quick."
"What doesn't our great leader know about?" he asked.
"A boy, I just met him," she said. "Ozpin's apprentice - Jaune Arc. I want to know how to get rid of him."
"What's he look like?"
"Blonde, average, it wasn't that easy seeing his features in the dar-"
"Oh," Torchwick all but interrupted her. "I know who you mean. Yeah, I can help with that. I can definitely help with that. Neo - you got a job."