RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth and Monty Oum, both of whom I am not.
Chapter 3
"Blaaaaake." Jaune whined. "I'm bored!"
The two orphans were lounging around in Jaune's little camp. The blonde lay sprawled out on their shared nest of stolen blankets as Blake sat on her favorite crate, her head tilted back to trace imaginary patterns on the ceiling.
"Well, what do you wanna do?" She asked, lowering her eyes to look at Jaune. The blonde shrugged helplessly. "... Do you know anything that we can do?"
A nod.
"Well, what is it?" Jaune rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face in the blankets and said something unintelligible. "What?"
"I dunno if I want to show you." He stated, lifting his head up from the covers.
"Why not?"
"It's... I don't know how to tell you about it." Blake tilted her head and stared. Her curiosity was definitely piqued now.
"I want to see it." She said calmly, her cat ears twitching.
"I don't know." Jaune said, sitting up and crossing his arms as a grin spread across his face. "You might not be ready for it."
Blake narrowed her eyes and slowly got up from her crate. She walked to in front of Jaune and crouched down, bringing herself down to eye level with him. "I want to see it."
"Welcome to the Junkyard!" Jaune proclaimed, his arms spread wide to indicate the expanse of land covered in various junk. Some fires were seen, but seemed to be contained to metal barrels. The smell was bad, but not quite as suffocating as Blake would have initially thought.
"... Why wouldn't I be able to handle this?" She asked, her ears swiveling as she took in the sights.
"I dunno. Smell?"
"Is that because I'm a faunus?"
"Yup!" Blake's fist immediately shot towards the back of his head and connected with a solid thwack. "Ow!"
"Why'd you take me here?"
"You asked me too!" He answered happily, easily bouncing back from the blow.
"But what's here that's cool?" Blake reiterated, her amber eyes giving an exasperated roll. Jaune gave an understanding nod and gave his answer.
"I have absolutely no clue!" Jaune threw a sparkling grin towards his faunus friend. Blake simply responded with a glare.
"What does that mean!?" She demanded, the cat faunus feeling more than a bit peeved that a day that she could have spent lazing around was replaced with a , seemingly, wild goose chase.
"It means that I don't know what I'll find today!" The blonde explained. "It's always an adventure. One time, I found a sword!"
"... A what?"
"Y'know. A sword."
"I have no idea what that is." Blake stated honestly.
"How do you not know what a sword is?" Jaune asked incredulously. "That's insane!"
"I'm sorry if I never went to school!" The faunus snapped defensively, her ears flattened against her skull. "… What's a sword?"
"It's like a really big knife."
"..."
"..."
"That sounds stupid." Blake stated flatly and turned to look out at the trash heaps, her amber eyes sparkling. "I want one too!"
"Well, maybe we can find one." Jaune hummed. He jogged to the base of a pile of junk and pulled a bag out from a small hole in the side. He unzipped the side and pulled out two sets of gloves before tossing a set to Blake. "Put these on to make sure you don't cut yourself."
"Why do you have two?" She asked as she tugged them on.
"Just in case mine breaks." He explained before scrambling to the top of a different pile. He quickly made it to the top and breathed in the air... and quickly started to choke. "Smells!"
Blake giggled at Jaune's antics before starting to walk around the pile, her sharp eyes scanning the trash. She immediately spotted something and ran towards it before pulling it out. A rod of metal, slightly rusted over, was revealed, just barely taller than Blake's hip. She grinned and immediately started using it as a walking stick and an instrument to sift through the junk.
The two met up an hour later at the entrance of the Junkyard, both with large bags filled with random stuff that they thought was cool or helpful. Jaune's sack was slightly bigger than Blake's, but both were, thankfully, small enough for them to carry home without too much trouble.
"Heya!" Jaune chimed as soon as Blake was in earshot. "Find anything good?"
The cat faunus narrowed her eyes, her mouth set in a firm pout. "I couldn't find a sword." She grumbled. Jaune chucked and ruffled her hair.
"Maybe we'll find one next time." He soothed. Blake rolled her eyes, but gave a grin nonetheless.
"Maybe."
"When we get back to the house, we should see what we got." Jaune hefted the bag over his shoulder and set off at a trot with Blake close behind.
"So what'd you get?" Jaune asked as soon as the two made it to their living space. Blake grinned and set down her bag.
"I got this thing!" She proclaimed, reaching into the bag and withdrawing a gleaming necklace. The silver chain it had was broken, but the pendant, a shining black opal in the shape of a tear, was still whole.
"It's beautiful, Blake!" Jaune reached out as Blake dropped it in his hand and brought the jewel up to his eye. "This looks so cool! Oh! I think I might have a chain for it!"
"Really?"
"Yeah. I steal stuff from the jewelers stand all the time at the marketplace." He quickly grabbed a nearby box and dragged it near him. It seemed like the box was completely dedicated to shiny objects, which immediately caught Blake's attention. Jaune immediately snagged a thin silver chain from the box and expertly untangled it.
The chain was in excellent condition and gleamed in the light as he threaded the end through the metal loop that was fixed onto the opal. His tongue stuck out of his mouth as he concentrated and he grinned before motioning for Blake to turn around. She did and he brushed her black hair aside and placed the newly repaired necklace around her neck. With a click, the clasp on the chain fastened.
"Oh." Blake whispered, her eyes wide as she looked down at her new necklace. "It's amazing. Are you sure you don't..."
Jaune shook his head. "You found it, Blakey. That means it's yours."
"But the chain's yours..."
"Keep it. Think of it as a thank you for, y'know, keeping me company." Jaune gave a sheepish grin as Blake tried to hold back tears. It didn't work. The blonde wrapped both arms around his friend and let her cry into his shoulder. That necklace was the first meaningful gift that Blake had ever gotten and it made her breakdown. Shuddering sobs wracked her entire frame and she barely noticed whe Jaune eased her down onto the blankets. She rested her head on his lap and kept crying into it, the feelings that she kept bottled up since she was born pouring out.
Her cry petered out half an hour later, now just a few sniffles coming from the faunus girl. She lifted her head up from Jaune's lap and looked up at him with puffy eyes.
"T-thank you." Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. "No one's ever done that for me."
Jaune simply gave a radiant smile, his ocean blue eyes warm and friendly. "Hey. What are friends for?
A week had passed since the two friends had went to the Junkyard and Blake had refused to take off the necklace that Jaune had let her keep. Even when she slept, the silver chain stayed around her neck and the onyx tear soon became a comforting weight against her collarbone.
Both of them were lazing around Jaune's hideout again, without the blonde complaining about boredom for a welcome change. Blake was lying on her back next to Jaune, who was taking a short nap. She looked over and watched as his chest rose and fell, the simple movement quickly becoming comforting and familiar. A way to tell that she wasn't alone. Her hand went up to her necklace and her fingers started to stroke the black gem set into it. A distant scream shook her out of her content stupor. She sat up quickly, causing the boy next to her to mutter a bit, but he stayed asleep. The scream sounded again, this time defining itself as a girl, maybe Blake's age or younger. She stood up and ran for the exit, stopping briefly only to pull on her shoes and to grab the metal rod that she found in the Junkyard.
Blake tore out of the abandoned building they lived in and ran down an alleyway as she used the girls screams as guidance. She stopped at a crossroads before heading to the right as another scream rang out. As she turned another corner, she spotted the source of the screams. A young girl of about ten years of age wearing an bright red, over-sized hoodie was surrounded by stray dogs, all of them of the larger breeds and snarling and one with a scrap of cloth in its mouth and a smear of red adorning its yellow teeth. A smaller dog was standing protectively in front of the girl, its hackles raised and threatening growls coming from its throat. As Blake watched, a stray started to lunge only to be attacked by the smaller dog, a corgi if she remembered correctly. A loud bark tore her out of her stupor, the sound coming from the smaller dog as one of the strays managed to get their jaws around his neck.
"Zwei!" The girl cried out, nearly sobbing as she reached for the dog.
Thinking quickly, Blake ran up and brought down her metal rod down onto the stray's head with a crack, garnering a yelp from the dog, who dropped the corgi and ran off. She turned to face the last four of the strays, motioning for the girl to stand behind her. Another dog charged as Zwei limped towards the two girls, snarls still going strong. Blake managed to whack the advancing dog against the back with a solid thwack. It winded the canine and it quickly retreated to recuperate. A yelp from behind her caught her attention and she whirled around to see Zwei standing over the scrambling body of a stray, head still lowered from a devastating head butt. Zwei turned startlingly intelligent eyes on Blake before sniffing at the young girl, checking her for injuries. A snarl reminded Blake that she had four more dogs to deal with.
All four ran at her at once, trying to overwhelm Blake with numbers. She brought her makeshift weapon to bear and started swinging. She managed to hit one and force it to retreat, but the other three proved to be harder to deal with. The either dodged or shrugged off the blows of the faunus, apparently being stronger than the others or the strength of the thirteen year old girl was flagging. One of the dogs managed to get behind her guard and lunged at her. Blake raised an arm in reflex and teeth immediately started to dig into her forearm. Thinking quickly, she threw a desperate head butt that connected with the dog's nose, causing it to yelp and fall away before it tightened its jaw all the way. A line of bleeding tooth marks was on Blake's arm, the adrenaline dimming the pain. She quickly scrambled backwards until she fell on her behind. Her metal rod clattered to the ground next to her as she brought both arms up to her face.
A yelp prompted her to uncover her eyes, amber orbs witnessing a dog rubbing at its nose with a paw. Another yelp preceded by a whiz sounded from the next dog, this one starting to rub its nose. A third mysterious projectile caused her to look down the alleyway that she had previously came from. Jaune was shown advancing down the alley, a slingshot held in his hand with another rock already loaded. He let it fly and it impacted almost immediately with the side of the dog closest to Blake. Finally, the last three dogs deemed the situation not worth it and scrambled down a different alley. Blake let out a sigh of relief and lowered her arms to the floor.
"Took you long enough." She commented dryly, hissing a bit as the pain in her arm finally registered in her brain. Jaune rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to retort, but before he was able to, a red blur tackled Blake in the side.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" The girl from before squealed, tears clinging to the corner of her tightly shut eyes. "I thought I was gonna die!" She buried her face in Blake's chest and proceeded to cry, sobs shaking her tiny frame.
"Uhm." Blake said uncertainly. She placed a hand on the girl's back and started to rub hesitant circles on it, the other going to the ground to steady the two. "You're okay now." She continued to comfort the girl as Jaune walked up to the two.
"You okay?" He asked as he crouched near the two, his blue eyes looking more serious than normal as he took in the two. Before Blake could answer, he zeroed in on her arm. "You're bleeding!" He exclaimed. Blake rolled her eyes before poking the girl nestled into her side.
"Hey. Are you hurt?" She got a tiny nod before a small hand pointed down to her leg, a rough hole torn into her jeans, revealing a bleeding wound. Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's not too bad." He said. "I know a guy that can patch the two of you up." He gestured for the two to follow him.
"Do you think you can walk?" Blake asked.
"I can try." The girl said, getting up on shaky legs. She yelped as she fell back to the floor, Jaune catching the girl before she fell. He lowered her to the floor before turning around.
"Here. Get on my back. I can carry you." He said, crouching down again. She wrapped her arms around her neck and he heaved her onto his back before holding her legs in his arms, careful to avoid her injury. He started walking off with Blake in tow with the girl holding out a pleading hand to the faunus. She smiled as she took it and the three set out to look for the man that Jaune had talked about.
Jaune stared up at the ceiling as he reclined in a plush armchair, his arms crossed as he thought back to the events that had transpired. It had taken an hour for the three to get to Doctor Oobleck. Night had fallen by the time they made it and the man had quickly taken the two injured girls into his house and left Jaune in the living room as he healed the girls. He sighed as he remembered how small Blake looked when she was cornered by the dogs that he had fought off. The sheer worry that had flooded through him. He thought that he was about to lose the only person that he was able to call a friend. The shots that he fired from his slingshot was fueled from desperation. He wasn't going to lose the first person that he was able to call a friend since-
"Jaune, my boy! It looks like you have something on your mind! Care to tell me about it?" Doctor Oobleck suddenly spoke up, startling the boy as his head spun to the side. The green-haired man was sitting next to him with his knee jumping up and down at a fast pace as he held a mug of coffee in his hand. As he watched, the man took another large gulp from the beverage.
"I- I was just thinking about Blake and... the other girl. I'm worried about them." Jaune swiftly lied, used to the secrecy around adults. "How are they doing?"
"Oh they'll be fine. None of the wounds that they got were life-threatening. I would say that Blake would have been fine without coming to me. Those bite marks were just flesh wounds." The doctor tittered. "The younger on the other hand, I had to give her a couple of stitches to make sure that the wound healed properly. I'm proud that you brought them here. In other news, they are both sleeping in the guest room. You are welcome to join them if you don't need anything else." With that said, the man departed, zipping deeper into his house. Jaune yawned as he got up from the comfy armchair, the day's events had exhausted him. From memory, he navigated the house to get to the guest room, the boy staying there on occasion if he didn't make it home before nightfall.
He eased open the door to the room and peered into the small crack to see that Blake and the other girl were passed out on the sizable bed with Zwei snoozing on the end. He let out another yawn and snuck into the room, careful not to wake the two sleeping girls. He clambered onto the bed and rested on the edge. Blake unconsciously turned over and wrapped her arms around the boy, snuggling a bit into his chest. Jaune happily accepted the embrace and quickly drifted off to sleep.
Jaune twitched in his sleep as someone poked his nose. He snorted and swiped a hand over his face quickly before settling back to sleep. Someone poked his ear. He whined and tried to press his face into his pillow, only for someone to settle themselves onto his back and start to play with his hair. He grumbled as he grudgingly opened his eyes and turned his head to the side.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." A playful voice purred. Blake was reclining on the bed, grinning in amusement at Jaune.
"Mngh." He grunted. The weight on his back shifted a little bit and a tremor reverberated from it as a hastily stifled giggle reached his ears. He turned his head back as far as it would go, but was only able to catch a glance of bright red. Fortunately, that was enough to clue him in on who it was. "G'morning to you too." He muttered sleepily.
"Aww. I was hoping you wouldn't notice." The weight slid from his back and the bed bounced a little from the weight of the girl falling onto the bed.
"You were on my back." Jaune muttered by way of an answer. He yawned as he heaved himself into a sitting position as his arms went up over his head in a stretch. As he finished, he prepared to lay back down before a question entered his mind.
"What's your name?" The girl perked up and gave out a blinding grin, her silver eyes sparkling in happiness.
"It's Ruby Rose! Nice to meetcha!" She proclaimed loudly.
Hey guys! This is ChaosDemon1129 and I hope you enjoyed the most recent chapter of Orphans.
Ooh. It seems that more characters are entering the fray! Ruby and Oobleck! Coolio. I'm most likely going to incorporate even more characters in the following chapters and more plot points that I am thinking of as I type this small little tangent. I hope you guys like it!
Please remember to Review, Follow, and Favorite if you please! It may or may not make me write faster! I'll see you next Chapter!
~ChaosDemon1129