I'm back. Good time off, I suppose. It was a weird Christmas break where everyone seemed to have drama but me, and that meant I ended up being the one to go to for people to vent about said drama. I had two friends – two! – crying to me this Christmas, and one seeking advice that I really wasn't qualified to give. Then more silly family drama, break-ups, a surprise pregnancy and more, including silly Christmas-dinner drama over in-laws and "who you pick to spend Christmas with" that I just tuned myself out of.

Ah, the joys of not being drawn into the drama. Quite relaxing to be honest. I feel refreshed.


Cover Art: GWBrex

Chapter 27


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Exclusive interview with Weiss Schnee tells all on how she met her fiancé

Atlas Times

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Arc should come to Vale with fiancée if he wants marriage to work, says relationship guru

Vale Daily Tribune

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Opinions divided as Pyrrha Nikos confirms acceptance to Beacon academy to be close to friend and political ally Weiss Schnee

The Mistral Review

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Long-distance relationships and how they so often end in heartbreak; experts weigh in

Vacuo Today

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Sienna Khan calls Ghira Belladonna's motives into question after his support for Arc appeared only AFTER secretive visit to Atlas.

Kuo Kuana Express

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The dinner between Jaune's family and the Schnee had gone about as well as could have been expected. Jaune and Weiss didn't have much to say in it, and it felt like more a case of Jacques wowing his parents and sisters with his fabulous wealth. The meal had been polite, if a little hefty with nine courses, but neither missed his parents asking to speak with Jacques privately after the event. Whatever they discussed in the man's meeting room was kept between the three of them, but there must have been some resolution reached because they parted on good terms.

Jaune was more relieved that the heat wasn't on him and Weiss, not with every newspaper and website across Remnant chiming in with their opinions. The problem with opinions was that he couldn't prove them wrong as easily as he could the factual inaccuracies printed in other headlines. For every magazine or pundit blessing their union as a clear sign of two young people in love, there were others hiring so-called relationship therapists to dig into the way Jaune moved his hands, or the way Weiss tied her hair, and draw strange conclusions from that like how Jaune felt unsafe around her because he kept adjusting his jacket, or how Weiss was the one in control because she would touch his hand every now and then.

It was so much bullshit that he refused to read any opinion pieces on them – not that it meant he could avoid all of them, but it was enough. His mother had banned any talk of it in the house as well, mostly because his sisters were getting it at their own schools with people asking if he and Weiss were "really in love" or "just in it for the money." Dealing with it all was fast becoming exhausting.

"It will go away eventually," said Jacques. Weiss' father was a rare source of advice in the matter, more so than his own, but that was to be expected because he had married into wealth and fame before, and Nicholas obviously hadn't. "It takes time. I remember that my every action was watched stringently when I married into the Schnee name. It was a chore to deal with, but the best advice I can give you is not to rise to anything they might say. They are tabloids and magazines; they thrive off scandal, and any attempt by you or Weiss to prove them wrong will only have them raise the question of why you feel you need to prove them wrong. The old no smoke without fire argument. It's not something you can win."

The advice seemed solid enough that Jaune took it. General Ironwood and the PR teams assigned to him agreed, though they did force him to attend a few talk shows and interviews about it anyway. He couldn't say General Ironwood was happy at all, but his annoyance seemed to be more aimed at Mr Schnee than Jaune or Weiss, so he ignored it.

Time passed. The days blended into a cycle of wake up, heal, spend time with Weiss, heal, do a PR event, have free time, sleep. He hated it, but there was also something comforting in the familiarity of it all. Mostly, that was because it kept him from needing to see the articles. It genuinely annoyed him that those were still running a whole six months later. Half a year. Half a freaking year, with them drawing closer to their seventeenth birthdays, and they were still being analysed.

Now, it was about how the two of them would fare with a long-distance relationship. Some seemed to think he would be drawn by a pretty face, or that Weiss would find companionship in a roguish huntsman in Beacon. They drew statistics and figures for distance relationships correlating to cheating and affairs, and then had the gall to say things like; "We're not saying they will cheat on one another; what we're saying is that the evidence supports the likelihood that they might cheat on one another." It was aggravating. Infuriating. They hadn't even been given a chance to work out, and already everyone was judging their relationship a failure.

If that wasn't enough – and it ought to fucking be enough – then he'd well and truly blown his top when Coral snuck him her scroll, upon which was a porn site where an actress and actor who looking passingly like them had made a fake pornographic video of their marriage night. A video that had over two million views. They obviously weren't claiming it was them, and he'd heard of porn lookalikes making money of pretending to be celebs, but to see one for him and Weiss-? It had him stood with his jaw hanging open.

General Ironwood cleared his throat when Jaune showed it to him. In hindsight the General of the army might not have been used to being confronted with hardcore pornography in his meeting room. Clover couldn't stop snickering.

"There isn't much we can do about it," said Ironwood. "I'm sorry, Jaune, but there aren't any laws against parody – even of the sexual kind."

"We're sixteen! Isn't that, like, child pornography?"

"Not when the two in this video are clearly well over twenty-five. It's considered a parody. Believe me, Jaune, I've seen this before. There is lewd… well, the less said about what there is of me on the internet the better. My point is that it's an ungovernable place."

"Can I at least sue them?"

"And admit that you watched it?" Ironwood smiled apologetically. "It's not a good idea. Best you grit your teeth and ignore it, I'm afraid. A lawsuit will just draw everyone's eyes to the video, and then you'll be dealing with twenty million views instead of two."

Jaune screamed and stomped out. Weiss had refused to even talk about it, telling him to "change the subject" whenever it was brought up. She didn't even blush. When he asked why, she looked away and pointed out that she'd been a famous singer and an idol of sorts before their engagement, and that there were already fakes of her on the internet, from as far back as when she'd been fourteen. Jaune didn't know how to process that and dropped the issue then and there. He didn't look himself up on search engines out of fear of whose naked bodies he'd see his face superimposed on top of.

People were disgusting. It was the only thing he could think to say.

He and Weiss continued to date and allow themselves to be seen in public either way. It was the only method of fighting back that they had. They would regularly eat out together, hold hands, walk with their escorts, and sometimes go shopping together. Little things, never truly alone but as alone as they could be. Ignoring the flash of the camera was never something he fully got used to, but it got easier. He was able to block them out, and the ruder paparazzi who would get in their way, shout their names, or even set off firecrackers in one case to try and draw their angry gaze for a quick shot. The Arc-Ops were good at stopping that nonsense, and especially the ones who thought they could provoke a good shot by trying to trip them up or enrage them.

They quickly learned that Elm wasn't at all afraid to hurl them bodily out her way if they tried, and the few attempts made to get her in trouble or portray her as a hulking brute had backfired the moment they came. There were just too many pictures snapped earlier on of Elm being supportive to him, or him relying or leaning on her. If the world knew that he and Weiss were engaged, then they had known for much longer that Elm Ederne was not only his bodyguard but also a big-sister figure that he would not give up. Efforts to evoke sympathy at her expense usually ended up with people accusing the "victim" of having done something to earn it.

As much as things changed, they stayed the same, and time passed. His seventeenth came and went and then, not two months later, Weiss' as well. Both were grand and pointlessly large affairs that were as much work for them as celebration, but they also spoke of the reason they were spending so much time together. The break that was to come.

Three months later, it was time for Weiss to leave for Beacon.

/-/

It was remarkable how little Weiss had changed in the past two years. She looked a little more mature, a little prettier in his eyes, but certainly no taller. He kept that thought to himself as they embraced. Cameras flashed. Jaune pointedly ignored them.

"I'll write you often."

"Weiss, we're not cavemen. Call me."

She thumped his arm gently. "Writing is sophisticated. It shows effort beyond a mere call, and you can keep the message as a reminder of me thinking about you."

"Like I could with a text?"

"Jaune Arc, our relationship will not be relegated to text messages!"

His mother, hovering nearby, giggled to herself at Weiss' heated promise. Or threat. As much as his parents were still a little wary of Jacques, and downright avoidant of Willow, they were more than fine with Weiss. He was glad.

"I'll also come back the first holiday I can. And I will call you after initiation, when I am no doubt made leader of my team. We will be the best team in Beacon."

"Even better than Pyrrha's?"

"Even better. Unless she is on my team, in which case we will be the best."

Weiss pushed up onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips gently to his. It was their public kiss, their practiced and safe version for when the cameras were on them. No tongue, no deepening, no opening your mouth beyond what was necessary lest saliva be seen. Lip to lip, still, eyes closed, no more than six seconds. In truth, they'd had their real goodbye the night before. Nothing too lurid; just a lot of holding, kissing, and snuggling together.

"Do not forget about me," said Weiss.

"As if I would. You… You look after yourself in Beacon."

Weiss frowned lightly. "You trust me. Don't you?"

"I trust you. I just worry."

Her smile returned, bright and brilliant. "Worry is fine. Worry means you care." She kissed him again. Lightly, again. He wished he could deepen it. "I'll worry about you."

"Over what? Boredom in hospitals?"

Weiss didn't rise to it. "Don't let anything they say get to you. Whatever they say I'm doing in Vale, whatever they claim, talk to me first. I guarantee they'll only be trying to stir the pot for attention." Her fingers intertwined with his so that their rings touched. "I am yours and you are mine. There's nothing else. All those articles are wrong, Jaune. They're wrong about us. We're going to be great together. We will be perfect." The way she said it was less promise and more statement of fact. "We will show them. We will show them all."

There was a noise from the aircraft. Weiss would be flying private to Vale, but she would have to go on a public transport to Beacon itself. That was something she'd complained about profusely, especially how they wouldn't provide her any assistance for her many suitcases.

"I guess that's my final call," said Weiss.

"I guess it is." He let go of her hand. Four years had felt like it wouldn't be such a big deal when they talked about it before, but now they were facing it, he felt his stomach dropping out. "I'll talk to you tonight?"

"Tonight," said Weiss, stepping toward the aircraft. "I promise."

He stood and watched her board the aircraft, then watched it leave, all the while cameras flashed. His mother came up and placed a hand on his shoulder, blocking the paparazzi and giving him a moment of peace.

"I know it sounds like a long time," said his mother, "but this is a good thing. You'll get to see how you both do away from one another. And the world isn't as disconnected as it was in my time. You can call one another over the CCT and see each other's faces."

"It won't be the same."

"I know." Warmly, she rubbed his hair. "I know."

/-/

"Can you believe it!?"

Weiss had promised to call him tonight and call him she had. A video call, which was all the better to see his fiancée with her hair down, her nightgown in place, and a furious snarl on her face. Contrary to how most would have seen it, he thought it was cute. Angry Weiss – so long as she wasn't angry at him – was a Weiss he liked. She was far more honest, less composed like her father and more open with things.

"Not only did she have the gall to trip over my luggage and cause an explosion which ruined my dress, but she made a fool of me in front of everyone else! Oooh, if it wasn't for Pyrrha pulling me away then I… I…" Weiss threw her hands down. "I don't know what I would have done, but it would have been suitably terrible!"

"I don't doubt, Weiss. And who was this miscreant again?"

"I don't care to remember. Rose or something. Annoying little brat. She's being loud even now. Can you imagine? They're bothering some girl." She angled the scroll so that Jaune could distantly see a tall girl with blonde hair and a shorter one with black or red. Hard to tell. He wasn't sure why she was showing him, but when she drew it back and raised an eyebrow expectantly, he knew what to say.

"They look like true miscreants."

"Exactly!"

He heard Pyrrha giggling off-screen and knew she'd caught his sarcasm where Weiss had not.

"And to make us all sleep in the one hall like this is just ridiculous. Is this not Beacon? Do they not have enough rooms? They could have put us up in a hotel or set aside some dorms for us. They knew we were coming."

"Maybe it's a test of character."

"Those two buffoons are testing my character right now!"

Jaune laughed. It felt good to be the mature one out of the two of them for once. A rare thing, but fun, and he was happy to see Weiss again, even if she was angry. Better that than distant or uninvolved. "You'll rise above it, Weiss. I know you will. How is Pyrrha?"

"I'm well!" called the girl off-screen.

"She's an absolute saint," said Weiss. "My shield against stupidity. Now, if she could only be my javelin against juvenility then I'd be set."

"Weiss, I'm not attacking a girl for getting on your nerves."

"Have you made any other friends?" asked Jaune.

"We haven't really had the chance," said Weiss, calming down a little. "I've been scouting out those who look acceptably skilled but it's hard to tell. A lot of these people are from Vale and neither Pyrrha nor I are particularly knowledgeable on them. I saw the heir of the Winchester family earlier, but, if I can be honest, he looks like a dumb brute. All brawn and no brain."

"Weren't you planning to be the brains of the team?"

"Yes, but he was also strutting around topless and flexing his muscles to try and appeal to the women here and I simply cannot abide a show-off. We need to find two more people to fit the team."

Jaune couldn't resist. "What about the two you've already met?"

"I know you are trying to get a rise out of me, Jaune Arc!" snapped Weiss. "I would rather eat my own nightdress than have to put up with either of them. The thought of both…" She shuddered. "No. Just no. Not a chance." There was shouting suddenly, loud enough that even he could hear it. Suddenly, the scroll was pushed into Pyrrha's hands. "One moment. If no one else is going to deal with this, then I suppose it falls on me to restore the peace."

"Weiss, don't…" Pyrrha's half-hearted attempt to reach out and stoop her fell flat. "Oh dear…"

"Has she gone off to yell at them?"

"Yes." Pyrrha sighed. "I've tried to tell her it was just an accident. The poor girl looked so sorry, and she's young too. I'd be surprised if she's really seventeen. She must be a prodigy of sorts to be moved up ahead like this."

"Especially when you weren't."

Pyrrha smiled back at him. "I was offered the chance. I turned it down because it would have interfered with my tournament schedule. Plus, I didn't want to alienate people by being put into Haven early." Her eyes flicked to the side again. "Now Weiss is being louder than they ever were. I can't believe how foul a mood she's been in today." She looked back, smiling faintly. "Missing you, no doubt."

Jaune sat a little straighter and felt his stomach flip. "Yeah. I miss her, too. And you."

"Thank you. I'm glad I can be an afterthought to you."

"You're my favourite afterthought, though. That has to count for something."

"I'm sure it does." Pyrrha looked away again and sighed. "I'm going to have to hang up and go stop them. A lot of people are looking upset at the noise now, and not only at the two girls. I'd best stop Weiss before she makes any enemies."

"Goodnight! Tell her goodnight and good luck from me as well!"

"I will. Goodnight, Jaune."

/-/

"IT'S A DISASTER!"

Not one day, not twenty-four hours, and Weiss was back on call to him. This time, it was while he and the Arc-Ops were on the way back from the hospital. Jaune had to pull the scroll away from him as her voice shrieked about the interior of the APC. Clover and Vine chuckled, while Tortuga worked a finger in her ear and pulled a pair of headphones over, trying to fall back asleep in her seat.

"Weiss, what's wrong? Did something happen? Are you safe?"

"No! No, I am not safe!"

"I'll get Ironwood-"

"I'm on a team with that absolute dolt, Ruby, and her bumbling oaf of a sister!"

Jaune drew blanks. "Who?"

"The cretins from last night, Jaune. Keep up." Weiss threw her hair back angrily. "I can't believe I had the misfortune to be thrown on a team with them. It's ridiculous, Jaune. Ridiculous."

"What about Pyrrha?"

"We were cheated! The headmaster had this test where we were thrown into a forest to retrieve an artefact and survive the Grimm. All fine. Easy enough. But he added this truly asinine rule where the first person we make eye contact with is our partner for the next four years! Can you even imagine!?"

Honestly, he couldn't. It seemed like such a random and poor way to decide teams, especially when a lot of people might be close friends coming in from the same prep academy who could have solid teamwork already. Would he really split up people who were close friends and worked well together to suit some random assignment? It sounded like he would.

"And you ran into the girl who exploded first?"

"Yes!" Weiss tugged at her hair. "And worse yet, she's twice as annoying as I thought she was. She's immature, whining, over-excitable, immature, annoying and immature."

"You said immature three times."

"I know! One time was not suitable to express her immaturity!"

"Well, you can help her get better, I guess. Maybe she's just excited." Jaune shrugged as he said it. "Just put your foot down and tell her you're the team leader so your word goes. Just make sure to be fair to her."

Weiss was looking away from him now. His fiancée would never be so unsophisticated as to bite her perfectly manicured nails, but she was winding a finger through her white hair, twisting it about and over her fingernail. He knew the mannerism well.

"You are leader, right?"

"I… Well… that is…"

Oh. Oh dear.

"It doesn't matter if you're not," said Jaune, quickly. "I'm not going to think any less of you."

"I am going to be team leader. There is just a small mistake at the moment. This whole team, Jaune, it's all a ridiculous problem. On the bright side, it's an all-girls team, so I don't have to worry about hiding my underwear or sorting out times for showers. But they're all so immature! They've turned our perfectly functional beds into some bizarre trap that looks designed to catch and kill sleeping people."

"Huh?"

"And they turned off the alarms I set for six and forgot to set another to replace it, so we were almost late to our lessons today!"

"Okay, that sounds bad-"

"And that's not the worst of it!"

"There's more?"

"My partner's name is Ruby Rose. Her sister is Yang Xiao-Long."

"I don't see the problem."

"Her partner is Blake Belladonna."

Jaune's scroll slipped from his fingers. It would have smashed on the floor of the APC if not for Elm's quick reactions in snapping out a foot. She didn't catch it, but she kicked it up into the air and Clover was able to, rescuing it from an unfortunate end on the cold metal below. He could hear Weiss calling his name from across the APC, and when the scroll was handed back his way, she looked bothered.

"I shouldn't have told you."

"That you had a fucking murderer on your team?"

"I knew you'd be like this."

"Yes! With good reason! What the fuck is wrong with Ozpin that he thinks this is okay?"

"Honestly, I don't know. It's something I intend to raise with him myself."

"After you slept in a room with her?"

"What was I to do, Jaune? You're the one who made the deal for her to move to Vale."

"I didn't mean so she could attend Beacon! That's it. I'm talking to Ironwood."

"I get the feeling this is more a matter for headmaster Ozpin," said Weiss, "But, by all means. She…" Weiss sighed. "We haven't really talked, and she's done her best to avoid me. As ironic as it sounds the girl who had a hand in killing me is the least objectionable part of this team."

"Not from my point of view. I want her out of Beacon."

"And have the media pull us apart for using our clout to remove someone we don't like? That will go down like a lead balloon. Be reasonable, Jaune. I'll talk with Ozpin and see about having her – or preferably myself – transferred to another team. It's hardly an unreasonable request when the cooperation on this one is as bad as it is. I've a feeling they'll be as happy to see the back of me as I will be of them."

He couldn't believe how calm she was being about this. It wasn't that her death didn't mean anything to her as he'd heard of her panic attacks around faunus. Weiss had gotten a lot better since then but throwing her on a team with her killer's accomplice wasn't just incompetence or negligence, it was downright cruelty. They talked a little more, Weiss trying to change the subject and distract him, but Jaune let the call end soon after. The moment it was, he asked Clover to set up a meeting with General Ironwood."

/-/

"I know what this is about," said the general the moment Jaune entered. "I've had Jacques on me about this as well. I will repeat what I have told him. I have no control over how another headmaster runs their school and I am in complete agreement that placing Miss Schnee on a team with Miss Belladonna is a poor move. I have written to Ozpin and demanded an immediate explanation."

The heat was taken from Jaune's sails a little at that. He would have glared at Clover for prepping the man if not for the fact Jacques had already been. "Why didn't Ozpin let them form teams with people they already knew? Why the random element?"

"I couldn't tell you. Atlas allows for people to make alliances and team promises before our initiation. Not all pass, but we give them a chance to dictate their team composition. I believe Vacuo and Mistral do as well. Vale is the only one to use this method. They claim it teaches versatility and adaptability."

"They claim?" Jaune caught the odd word usage. "Do you mean that it's different?"

Ironwood smiled faintly. "Ozpin and I are close allies and I agree with the man on many things, but one thing I think he takes too far is his idea of how to help people. He may claim that people are fired randomly into a forest and given a chance to make partners with whomever they see, but the reality of it is that those fired close to one another are almost certain to become partners. Landing strategies are all well and good for controlling how you land, but the launch pads dictate where, and those can be controlled."

"You're saying he put Weiss with Blake?"

"I'm saying he could have launched them into opposite ends of the forest if he wished. It wouldn't have guaranteed they wouldn't be on a team, but it would have made it far less likely. He didn't. Furthermore, he made Ruby Rose the leader of her team despite her young age. Age does not necessarily equate to wisdom or skill, but it does correlate with education and she's lacking two years of it. Genius or not, there are some things she cannot know because she has never been taught them. And he was solely responsible for admitting her into Beacon early. Glynda had quite the rant to me about it. Now, I don't want to claim favouritism…"

"But it's favouritism."

"Quite likely." Ironwood shrugged apologetically. "He's seen something in her and believes it time to draw that out, and he trusts what he sees more than he does any training, ability, or readiness Weiss has for the position. I've already submitted a complaint as I've said, but complaints are unlikely to move him."

"I could move him."

"You could," said Ironwood, "but that might upset Weiss and would surely draw a lot of negative press. Ozpin is eccentric, but he is a famous and good man. He's given his life to protecting people from the Grimm. His methods may be questionable at times – at many times – but he genuinely does care for those under his protection. What I can say is that if he feels comfortable placing Miss Belladonna with Miss Schnee, then it's almost certainly because he believes that she will be safe. And as much as you or I might dislike it, he knows Miss Belladonna more than we do at the moment."

Jaune scowled. "I don't like this."

"You're in good company. I'll express your distaste to Ozpin as well and see what he says, but I fear his response will be something alone the lines of how discord spreads despair, and how former enemies should come together against the true foe." He smiled ruefully. "Or something equally philosophical, frustrating, but ultimately accurate like that."


But you said Jaune would be going to Beacon!

He will be, don't worry, but I didn't say he'd start in Beacon at the same time the others did. Jaune will be going – and in their year – but he'll be entering at a certain point and for certain reasons, not before. Don't worry, it'll be soon.

Also, Ironwood and Weiss and Jaune bashing on Ruby is just them working with limited info. I mean, put aside how sweet she is, etc, and you'd agree she probably shouldn't be made team leader. People can say she showed leadership vs the Nevermore, etc, but she also showed a complete lack of it when she charged the Deathstalker alone and almost got killed if not for Weiss saving her – and the whole instance before between her and Weiss was pretty bad from both of them. In all honesty, it feels like Yang or Blake should have been team leader. Anyway, Ruby is great, but Ironwood and Jaune are also obviously on Team Weiss because one is in love with her and the other is being pressured by her father. Plus, Jaune only knows Ruby from Weiss' pov, which is currently all complaints.


Next Chapter: 12th January

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