Chapter 3

Team CRDL left the amphitheater defeated, and possibly more aggravated than before. Once Team CRDL had left, I fell down on one knee from the fatigue of using my own aura. The lights had now come on and everyone from before, but Phoenix, was in the audience applauding for my victory. I was breathing heavily, and my eyesight was slightly blurred, but for the most part I was fine. Not much usually happens after using this little of aura to boost my attack. Had I used even slightly more, I probably would've passed out before I even finished the fight. Thankfully I was able to limit my use of aura. Phoenix ran into the amphitheater, and practically carried me out of there. She sat me down on a bench in the locker room, where I was expecting her to scold me for even using my aura for my semblance. Instead she seemed to just have a satisfying grin on her face the whole time, which bothered me, as this isn't the way she normally acts.

"What? No scolding me for using my own aura?" I asked Phoenix, confused with her reaction.

"No, I came to congratulate you on your performance. Though I can scold you if you'd want that." She said, in a playful manner.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't actually." I said, trying not to test her in this new mood she's shown. She smiled and shoved my shoulder.

"But seriously though…" She started, changing her tone. "Don't push yourself beyond what you just did. I don't want to think about what would happen if you did that and nobody was there to help you." Phoenix said, going slightly back to her old self.

"There's the Phoenix I know. Oh, and where are my pancakes?" I said as I could feel my stomach crying out for food.

"Right here." She said pulling out a plate with my stack of pancakes from earlier.

"Thanks. Alright, let's go to the dining hall after I change." I said taking the plate from her hands and placing it on the bench I was sitting on. I quickly changed back into my uniform, and ensured that my tie was correctly placed. I walked to Phoenix, who gave a nod in approval and lead the way out of the locker room. As I walked out of the locker room, I heard running around the corner, followed by some shouting by familiar voices. I took a few more steps, and recognized that Team SHDW was running this way. They didn't see me or Phoenix and kept running until they crashed into us. The plate of pancakes was thrown into the air, and each pancake flew all around the hallway. As the pancakes flew all around, Phoenix grabbed the plate and managed to catch four pancakes skillfully. Though I brought five pancakes, where's the other one? I thought, as I looked up and saw the last pancake. The next second, the pancake was on my face. Luckily I didn't put any syrup on yet, or this would've been annoying to deal with. Team SHDW was barely getting up, as the noticed that it was me they crashed into. I took the pancake off of my face, and threw it at Phoenix, who caught it as well. I dusted off my uniform a bit, and straightened my tie, as I gave my hand to Hazel, who was the closest in front of me, that was still on the ground, whereas Snow helped Diamond, and Phoenix aided Wolfe.

"Quite a way to say "good morning" you guys." I said to them.

"Sorry about that Jet. We heard you were gonna fight, and ran over here as fast as we could, though it seems we missed it didn't we?" Snow spoke as he walked to the front, as Phoenix made her way to my side.

"You might've missed it live, but I managed to record it all. I'll send it when we get to the dining hall." Phoenix said waving her scroll to them.

"Man, I bet it was a great fight." Diamond said with some regret in her words.

"Did you really fight all of Team CRDL by yourself?" Wolfe asked in a way that he sounds like he doubts what he must've heard.

"You'd have to see the fight for yourself to believe it. Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be eating. See you guys around." I said to them walking away, with Phoenix by my side.

"See you another time Jet." Hazel waved as they walked towards their dorms. They mostly stay in their dorms if they've got nothing else to do. Plus, seeing as it's already nine in the morning, Sapphire is probably attempting to wake Robyn by now. At least I've had a much more enjoyable start to my day, than how Sapphire spends each morning. A few minutes of walking and we were in the dining hall. The dining hall was practically filled in the time that I had fought. There was still a lot of food available though, so Phoenix was able to get her own serving of pancakes as well. She got a stack of four instead of five like me. She also got some fruit as well. Come to think of it, I think I forgot about my apple from earlier. Oh well, I'll just grab another. I'm sure someone else enjoyed it anyways. As we chose our final items, we looked around for some tables, but couldn't seem to find any empty ones. As we looked around the room, we saw Team RWBY waving us over. Phoenix and I looked at each other and just shrugged, since we didn't have much of a choice really. We walked over to their table, and sat down with them. Weiss and Blake sat across from me, while Yang and Ruby were to my right, followed by Phoenix as well. Blake was the only one not eating,and just reading a book, like usual.

"Good morning Jet, and Phoenix." Weiss started with a slight bow.

"How have you guys been?" Yang asked us.

"Yeah! I heard Jet fought Team CRDL! Is it true?!" Ruby asked, nearly jumping on the table with excitement.

"Yes it is. Phoenix here, recorded it, if you'd like to see later." I said to them.

"Sweet. I bet that fight was no sweat for you." Yang said patting my back.

"How did you even get into a fight with those ruffians anyways?" Weiss asked me, knowing that they annoy everyone.

"Well, Jet saw that Velvet was being the damsel in distress, as she was being oppressed by those fools, and Jet here, so valiantly stood up to them, and accepted their challenge to fight for Velvet." Phoenix said, managing to make the story sound rather heroic as usual.

"You always make it seem like some kind of legend or something Phoenix." I said to her, as she seemed to have a satisfied grin on her.

"Sounds more like you're into Velvet. I'm sure you'd treat her right." Yang said, attempting to tease me.

"It's nothing like that at all. I've got nothing against Faunus, it's just that I saw a classmate in trouble, and stepped in to intervene." I said attempting to clear up the idea Yang came up with.

"Actually… that kind of is heroic Jet." Blake said looking at me for a moment, instead of her book.

"You think so?" I asked Blake, wanting to hear her opinion.

"Duh! You're practically the knight in shining armor to Velvet." Ruby joined in as usual, right before Blake would speak. I looked back at her, and she had returned to reading.

"Ruby's not wrong Jet." Phoenix chimed in as well.

"I for one, believe it's good to see that chivalry isn't dead. At least some people still show it." Weiss added as well.

"You should at least talk to her. Nothing bad can come from that." Yang said.

"I guess I could do that. Probably not today though, as I've got plans with the team for today." I said to them.

"That's right, and we should probably go now." Phoenix said.

"Are we in a hurry Phoenix? Shouldn't we at least wait for the rest of the team?" I asked her wondering why she wanted to leave.

"They aren't necessary. Only you need to be present Jet." Phoenix said.

"Oh? Why is that Phoenix?" I asked her in a teasing manner. I could tell that Team RWBY were giving us looks. I'm sure Yang is probably wanting us to be more than friends.

"W-Well… um… I-It's just f-for you is all I can say." Phoenix said, getting red after each word.

"Good enough answer I suppose." I said as I rose from the table. "If you'll excuse us. We'll see you guys around." I continued as I walked with Phoenix out of the dining hall.

"So where are we heading Phoenix?" I asked her, as it seemed like we were just aimlessly roaming the hallways.

"Oh! We're headed t-towards the amphitheater." She said sounding a little shaky. I wonder what's gotten into her.

"Just follow me there ok?" She gestured me to follow while still shaking slightly. I didn't say anything though and continued to follow suit.

We continued to walk side by side as she led us out of the hallways, down the corridor and outside towards the amphitheater in a comfortable silence. Well comfortable for me, but nervous for her I would assume with all that trembling she was doing. We finally came to the entrance of the amphitheater and I stopped and turned on my heel to face her.

"So we're here Phoenix." I said looking down at her although she was pretty tall.

"It would seem so...but this isn't what I wanted to show you." She said and took my hand.

I didn't know why but I felt a sudden spark when she took my my hand, almost like a ray of warmth that spread throughout my body but particularly remained in my cheeks.

'Am I...blushing?' I thought to myself. I hadn't realized that she had been pulling me around the theater until I began to lose track of where we were. She came to a halt and I stopped so that I would avoid running into her.

"This...is what I wanted to show you…" She whispered quietly and let go of my hand. She pointed into a different direction and I broke my gaze from her to see a beautiful clearing with a fantastic view and we could still see Beacon from a different direction.

"Wow...this is amazing." I muttered under my breath.

"I've been coming here since our first semester every time I wanted to clear my head. It helps calm me down and makes me feel like there's nothing to worry about you know?" She said as she was climbing up a tree and situated herself on a branch.

"I guess. But, why did you want to show me this place?" I asked.

"I-I don't know...I thought it would be nice to share this place with someone so it doesn't seem so lonely…" She shakily said as a blush appeared across her cheeks and nose. She tried to hide it by turning away, but I saw it clear as day.

"Phoe-" I was cut off by my scroll notifying me that Sapphire was calling.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Run." She panted before the phone was cut off.

"What?" I said before Phoenix called out to me.

"Jet watch ou-"

"Oomph!" I grunted as I hit the floor and felt people fall on top of me one by one. I soon came to the realization that there were four bodies on top of me in a dog pile. I was slowly losing oxygen and it felt like my lungs were being suffocated and compressed.

"Hey Jet and Phoenix. What are you guys doing?" I heard Snow, the leader of team SHDW say from directly the top of me.

"Currently being crushed. Lacking...air…" I muttered.

"Oh sorry." He said getting him and the rest of his team off. Never have I been so grateful for the sweet breath of fresh air.

Phoenix jumped down and helped me get up from the floor.

"Do I always have to be there to pick you up when you're down? Literally." She smirked.

"I mean since you're offering…" I said. She shoved my shoulder and shook her head in a disapproving manner.

"Besides that...what are you guys doing here? How did you find us?" Phoenix asked.

"Well...we saw you guys heading out and decided to see what you guys were up to on the last few days of break." Haze said.

"Jet! Phoenix!" I heard Sapphire call out from the top of the hill with Robyn following close by.

"Hey guys. Yeah, your warning was a little bit too late. I almost had my lungs crushed." I said running my hand through my hair and brushed it out of my face.

"Sorry about that." Sapphire said. "Any particular reason why you guys are here?" She said looking at the group but keeping her gaze longer on her twin sister Diamond.

"We came to see what they were up to." Diamond said.

"Yeah. So what were you two up to?" Robyn said.

"Nothing." Phoenix said. "Just sight seeing and taking a walk." I guess she didn't want them to know that this is where she goes when she wants to clear her head and relax. It almost made me feel bad for her, having so many people in this secluded area she was trying to show me.

"Well, since we're all here do any of you guys want to hang out?" Wolfe asked everyone.

"I don't see why not. There are only a few days left to enjoy." I said.

"Great. Where do you guys want to go and what time?" Snow asked.

"The city? It's 11:45 right now so let's meet at the port in half an hour." Diamond said. Everyone nodded in agreement and we head back to our dorms to get ready.