Well, here it is. I also decided to merge it with the Neon chapter, since why not? It's kind of mundane, but hey, you asked for him getting groceries. Btw, some news about the future of this fic in the end.


Dinner (?)

Dust

Prescription


Jaune Arc was tired, in Atlas, and very bored. All three of those things may have been related. He had decided to take up a job to kill some Grimm, only to be told that to get his reward he'd have to go to Atlas itself to fill out some paperwork. Turns out that not being licensed meant that the system required him to do some papers, probably an incentive to make him get his license, possibly a way to make sure non-hunters who cashed in the bounties were telling the truth.

Whatever the case, Jaune was done and waiting for it to process. It'd take a while, so he had some time to refuel. The job was quite pesky, as he had to deal with a very old Alpha Beowolf that had been terrorizing the countryside. Its icy armor was a new thing to adjust to, but in the end it all came down to hacking away at the flesh while avoiding being turned to mincemeat himself.

It was also the middle of the night. Yea, being a nomad may have screwed up his sleep schedule by a bit. Who knew!? Well, whatever, it wasn't like he had any need to sleep during the night and walk during the day. Hell, in Vacuo it was a better idea to do the opposite.

So, he was walking. Where? Who the hell knew!? Jaune Arc really didn't like visiting Solitas. On one hand, the snow kind of made walking in the wild like wandering in winter. Except he couldn't wait it out, the only difference that was to be made was whether he decided to leave while the skies were clear or the skies were stormy. Point being, he had no choice but snow. On the other hand, the cities were crowded, kind of boring, and he had nothing to do in them. Plus, his months of walking the earth had eroded his sense of direction in urban areas, which meant that he had no clue where he was in a city.

"What the hell am I doing?" Jaune felt like shit. Why did he think going to Solitas was a good idea? At least Vacuo was bright! Overwhelmingly hot, dry, and full of sand, yes, but at least it didn't constantly look depressed! Jaune groaned just thinking about staying around any longer. But he'd heard reports of heightened Grimm attacks happening with some economic downturn and he just had to come.

"Eh, who knows." Oh great, he was hearing things. "I think you're sitting on a bench though."

"Yep." He sighed, might as well take advantage of the fact he had a captive audience inside the mind. "Hey, have you ever felt a lot of regret over doing something that you really wanted to? Something that felt good for a moment but, in the aftermath, just made you want to die?" He was being a bit dramatic, so sue him! The landscape was so excruciatingly annoying to traverse that he gave up midway through and caught a ride by bullhead.

"Hmmm, that's a personal question." Well thanks, voice in his head. "I guess I have, if I'm being honest. Want to talk about it?"

"Eh." Jaune really didn't know what talking about fatigue with an imaginary voice would do. "I mean, it's not that I'm really that conflicted or anything. I'm just kind of tired, y'know? With a nice meal and a good night's sleep, I'll be back to chipper in the morning. Or afternoon. Or whenever I wake up now."

"Heh, you're funny. Say, what's your name?"

"What's my-" Jaune turned around, confused at why the voice in his head was asking such an inane question. It was only a moment later that he hadn't been talking to a voice in his head. He had been talking to a girl who was right next to him, who regarded his surprised expression with a hint of amusement. It was a girl with bright orange hair with a streak of neon blue in her bangs. She wore clothes rather skimpy for Atlas, but Jaune assumed that her aura kept her warm. Whatever the case, she had a subtle smile as she sat on the back of the bench, looking down on Jaune with amused eyes. "-Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue."

"Cool!" She offered a hand that he took politely. "I'm Neon! Nice to meet ya!" She gave him a firm shake, revealing herself to be much stronger than her thin frame would imply. She was a huntress in training, Jaune quickly surmised. He could see nunchucks by her side.

"So, do you always just walk up and talk to random people?" Her hair was a bit damp and she smelled like shampoo, though he wasn't sure what that meant at all.

"Yep." Neon sat down on Jaune's level, lazily kicking her roller skate-clad feet as she did, the wheels occasionally as it rolled against the floor. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing much." Jaune shrugged. "Just looking for a place to eat. Got any recommendations?" Assuming she was a local, which he probably shouldn't have. After all, what local would wear a crop top in Solitanian weather?

"Ooh! Yea, I know a ton of places! Got any preferences?" Neon played around with her nunchucks, softly twirling them about. "Vacuan, Mistrali, Valean, Atlesian, Mantlese-"

"Wait aren't they the-"

"You really wouldn't want to finish that sentence." Jaune shut up quickly. "There's plenty of places to choose from, you know."

"How about you choose?" Jaune shrugged, ever since he arrived in Solitas he'd been relying on rations. He went through a cycle when he wandered about. He'd arrive in town, ask about Grimm, kill the Grimm and maybe help around a bit more, and then leave. It usually wouldn't take more than a day or two and he'd always deny rewards, only taking rations.

He kind of relied on taking or cashing in on the occasional job for his finances. To be fair, it paid quite a pretty penny.

"Eh, nah." Jaune really wasn't feeling like deciding. As long as it was good, he'd be fine.

"Alright then." Neon shrugged. "How about we go to this nice little place I know, it's called Iola's. Not my type of place for a good time, but it has good food."

"Sure."


Jaune and Neon walked through the sparsely populated yet still living streets of Atlas through the night. The two of them eventually found a small place in the corner, in the densely populated part of Atlas. They walked in to find a cozy little place with warm lighting and oak furniture. Behind the bar and a shelf full of fancy looking bottles of booze was a middle aged woman taller than Jaune wearing a bartender's uniform with brown skin and greasy black hair. Jaune noticed dull gold on her ring finger.

She wiped a glass that was in her hands, though Jaune wondered if that was just a force of habit or if she was legitimately cleaning it. He leaned on the former, since the glass looked clean enough.

"Hey Iola!" Neon waved to the woman, who rolled her eyes at the new voice.

"Hey yourself." She looked over and raised an eyebrow upon seeing Jaune. "What's with the new guy? Doesn't seem Atlesian." Was it the Valean armor giving it off? The lost look on his face? The icicles stuff in his hair?

"He isn't. Just showing him my favorite-"

"You were here hours ago and trashed the place making-"

"-place!" Neon sighed. "C'mon, I'm sorry for the problems! Plus, isn't the furniture hunter grade?" Iola wasn't convinced. "Ok, fine, what can I do to make it up to you oh wise and generous Iola?" Neon clapped her hands together and began praying, much to the bartender's amusement.

"Get some groceries." She began writing up some items on a list. "I also need some booze. Maybe some dust as well." The list became a bit longer. "Oh yea, I also have something from the pharmacy I need picked up."

"Jeez, do you also want a couch? Maybe a new revolver?"

"Yea, that sounds good. Forge made as well, I don't want any cheap crap, got that?" Iola handed Neon the full list, who threw up her hands in resignation. At the very least, the revolver bit was a joke.

"Alright Jaune, I guess we're going to get some groceries."

"Ok then." Jaune shrugged, too tired to care. Plus, he might as well learn a bit about navigating Atlas.


"You know, they said Atlas was this really cool futuristic city in the sky." Jaune boredly read an article on his scroll, charging it in the wall of the bus they were taking. Atlas traffic really wasn't all that much of an issue, with the streets being used more by public transport and pedestrians.

"Yep?" Neon kicked her feet, sitting next to him on an empty bus. He really didn't know how she navigated anywhere constantly wearing roller skates, but he wasn't about to question it.

"This is kind of boring." Jaune wasn't saying that to be a jackass, he was just trying to state a fact. "I dunno, I kind of expected you to have something cool."

"Welcome to Atlas: Function over form's our motto." Neon dryly replied. "Plus, you don't get to talk, McSword and Shield."

"Haha." Jaune replied with equal sarcasm. "Fair nuff I guess." He could see the benefits behind the bus. It carried a lot of people and Atlas was really dense on a chunk of land where space couldn't be spared, so it wouldn't make much sense to have cars. "Kind of surprised Atlas isn't just one big mega-complex." Save the trouble of having streets and all.

"They tried. Structural integrity caused it to fail." Neon boredly yawned. "Say, do you have any games on your scroll?"

"Nope." He wasn't shelling out cash for entertainment Darling easily provided.

"Damn." She let out a long sigh before pulling out her own scroll, only to realize it was out of charge. "Well, you said you were a wanderer, right, got any good stories to tell?" While they were walking to Iola's, she got curious as to why he was even Atlas. It ended up with him giving her a brief summation of his new life.

"Ehhhh, not really." Most of his stories involved his friends, people in the various places he'd visited that he'd helped. But he knew people didn't like those stories very much. While a necessary part of him enjoyed the fights, he could never put them to anything more than instinct. "You got any? You're attending Atlas Academy, right?"

"Yep." Neon hummed a bit. "It's tough, but what did I expect?" It was essentially a military academy, after all. "I'm actually kind of surprised at how much free time I have."

"Really?" Jaune kind of expected for the school to not allow their students to leave for the city, though such a feat would've likely been difficult considering that it wasn't totally isolated from urban areas like the other academies he'd seen.

"Yea. I mean, we have tons of lessons and other stuff, but we also have time to ourselves. I'm no slacker, so most of the time it's spent training or studying or learning something new or running through scenarios, you know what I mean." Jaune had a vague idea.

"And today?"

"My break day." She let out a long and weary sigh. "I mean, the academy is nice but I need a break every once in a while." She shrugged. "Just so happens that my idea of a break is a pub crawl."

"Is the booze here good?" Jaune, despite living in a vineyard, wouldn't really know.

"It's good enough. Hunter grade has a real kick." Neon had a pleased smile as she remembered how her throat burned. "Have you never tried any?"

"Sometimes." Once or twice, but usually he drank because it was either cheaper or to celebrate survival. "Never in the cities, though." Mostly because he rarely visited the cities for pretty obvious reasons: He had nothing to do. Yes, the beds were comfy, but those cost lien, lien he lacked. So it would be the sides of trees and caves for him in the wild and rough sacks or the sides of hastily built shacks in the cities.

"I'd say we have to remedy that, but I'm out of cash." Neon showed her empty wallet, with nothing inside of it at all. Not a single lien to spend.

"Wait, then how are we going to get those groceries?"

"Don't you have lien?"

"..." Jaune raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, ok, fine. I still have some savings, I just need to take them out. We'll do it on the way there. Let's pray that Iola reimburses me, cause I'd rather not have a single dent in my rainy day fund." Not even a tiny chip. Who knew when

"Will we have to take a detour?" Jaune didn't know the routes well enough.

"A small one, don't worry."

The bank itself was closed. It was late at night, after all, but the ATMs were still up. Neon boredly put in her scroll while Jaune tapped away, looking up at the rather dull skyline.

"How do you guys do it?" Jaune wondered idly as he felt nothing but discontent with his surroundings. Neon made a vaguely interested noise as Jaune felt a late night question hit him. "How do you guys stay in the cities? It's just so still and quiet and boring." It wasn't just an Atlas thing. It was a Vale thing. A Vacuo thing. A Mistral thing. He'd been in each of them a few times but now he could definitely say that he just could never get used to them.

"Also has bars, warm rooms, running water, and a sewer system." Neon helpfully pointed out. "How do you even do your business out there?"

"I just do it." He ceased having troubles within days of leaving. He kind of had to adapt or Raiden would've taken it as confirmation to bring him back home.

"Well, I couldn't imagine it." Neon shrugged. "As for the boredom, it's time to train, to learn, to enjoy life."

"I guess." Now it was Jaune's turn to understand yet not feel the same. "I dunno, I've always felt restless. I only feel right playing games after exhausting myself until the sun goes down." Which was the point where traveling anymore was foolish. It was the point where he let Darling ease the tension with her own jokes and games.

"Alright, I got the cash." Neon pocketed her lien somewhere (Jaune didn't know how she had any pockets) and they went on their way. "Let's get some food."

"Alright."


Jaune felt a part of him be frustrated as they walked from closed grocery store to closed grocery store, looking for some place that would sell the list of generic items they were looking for. They got milk easily enough from a convenience store, but then there was the problem of eggs, flour, and sugar.

There were only so many times they could find closed stores.

"Hey, Neon?"

"Yea?"

"What are we doing?" It was probably the lack of sleep, the empty stomach, and the constant walking that was taking a toll on Jaune. "Like, right now? We're walking in circles on pavement in empty streets. I look like a mess-" His hair was frizzled, he had bags under his eyes, and his hoodie was stained with blood. "-and you do too." The same went for her, though it was just that her clothes were wrinkled.

"Heh, welcome to Atlas. That's the question half of every big book we have seeks to answer." Neon sighed. "You don't really seem like a dreary guy, no offense."

"None taken." Jaune sat down on a bench, with Neon joining him. "Maybe it's the city getting to me." It was definitely the city getting to him. "I'm usually pretty excited. But Atlas has just kind of sucked me dry of energy."

"I get that." Neon shrugged as she went over some other options for the groceries on her scroll. "There's plenty of stuff to do around here, you know."

"Like what?"

"Clubs, arcades, libraries, arenas, and other places, for one."

"Yea?"

"Doesn't sound appealing to someone like you, got it. Well, in that case Atlas is your worst nightmare." No kidding. "I think one of our teachers talked about this, what's her name? Oh, yea, Ms. Tenebris. She told us about downtime, said that the stupid hunters threw themselves into the jaws of death time and time again, never appreciating the little things in life."

"I guess I'm kind of a workaholic." He might've enjoyed all of those things, but it was just that Atlas' safety didn't work well with his senses that were tuned to wandering. "You know the saying. When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life."

"Then it's not work."

"We have very different definitions of work."

"Got that right." Neon sighed as she found place after place closed for the night.

"You get what I'm feeling, though?" She was the only other one there, he wanted to know if she understood.

"Yea." Neon sighed. "It's the burrowing sort of thought that never lets go. It occasionally hits me and when it does, it's like I'm being poisoned. I wonder why I even came to the academy at all, why even go to combat school?"

"Why did you?" Jaune had never had the chance to ask about that sort of thing. Combat schools didn't even exist back in Raiden's time.

"Because being a Huntress gives you power. I thought it was cool. It is cool." She shrugged. "I was young, I didn't know what I wanted to do at the time."

"Does anyone?" Jaune knew about people who went through combat school just because their parents wanted to give them some basic self-defense skills, not because they wanted to raise a hunter. Combat school didn't get you all the way there, they mainly spent the time teaching the usage of aura. "I'm not having any doubts about the path I chose, by the way. It's just that I'm tired right now." Again, lack of sleep.

"Yea, it's making you question your decisions. It's always way after the fact, when you've already committed to your actions, when you start to worry." Neon had a glassy look in her eyes, she was speaking from experience, or was she? "Ah, here we are."

"Got anything?"

"Yea, a place that should still be open. Let's head over." And so it was. Jaune kept a steady pace besides Neon, who slowly skated alongside the hunter. "Now it's my turn to ask a question, how do you deal with it?"

"Deal with what?"

"How slow you are! I mean, I'm so used to moving fast and being slippery that I can't even imagine walking normally." Neon twirled, as if on ice, with the grace of a professional dancer.

"I just walk." Jaune walked a bit faster, though that only spite his legs and forced Neon to move a bit faster. "I have another option-" Namely, his armor. "-but it's costly." In aura. It was useful in fights when it wouldn't matter if he spent a good chunk of his soul to boost forward, but outside of that it was pretty pointless. Plus, it could also cause a bit of a mess, with the blasts frequently leaving craters wherever he went.

"Ah, I see." Neon sagely nodded, really bragging about how good she was on skates.

"What about you? How'd you use those when on something grass? Or snow? Or sand? Or-"

"I get it, I get it!" She rolled her eyes. "I mean, I also have another option." She balanced on one foot (which Jaune had to give a nod of respect for) and took off one of her skates. She popped open a container to reveal dust inside of it. "Hard-light dust." Jaune rarely saw it, so he had trouble recognizing it for a moment. "It creates a tiny trail for me to go on wherever I go. It's small enough so it can be used for a while, but it gets kind of expensive."

"Yea." Jaune thought for a second before wondering. "Wait, why is hard-light dust even a thing?" Neon gave him an odd look. "Like, how exactly does it work? I get fire, ice, lightning, even gravity kind of makes sense, but how would hard-light dust activate naturally? Does it just explode in a giant hard-light ball?"

"Hmmm." Neon thought about it for a moment before shrugging. Hard-light dust was usually used to create barriers away from it, like in the way that gravity dust was used to make things far away move. But even gravity dust just created a giant blast of pure force. "I dunno." She shrugged and then noticed Jaune's curious look. "No."

"Aw, c'mon, please~?"

"No." Neon crossed her arms. "No's no, Jaune! This thing costs hundreds of lien! It's so freaking expensive and I'm not letting you just explode it for fun!"

"Pleaseeeee~?" Jaune clapped his hands together and prayed before Neon, trying to pull off the puppy-dog eye trick that his sisters often used to get out of trouble. "Just this once?"

"Nuh-uh." Monetary survival instincts won in the end. "Buy it yourself."

"Fine." Jaune rolled his eyes. He wouldn't. He was bad with money, not stupid. "Alright, we're here." Indeed they were. The two of them had arrived in the only store in Atlas open late at night that sold some of the items on their list. "Brought a bag?"

"Nope."

Jaune walked over to grab a shopping cart. He had a hunch that Neon would have trouble pushing it with her own set of wheels. As the two of them walked into the mostly empty store, they grabbed the items on their list.

"Hey, Jaune?"

"Yea?"

"You're a well traveled guy, right?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Ever found love?"

"..." Jaune pondered the thought for a moment. "Like, romantic love?"

"Yep."

"Yeah." Jaune picked up a little snack bar for himself. "Why?" Neon obviously wasn't into him. She just met him and showed no signs of being remotely interested in him at all. That wasn't just him being oblivious, at least he was pretty sure.

"I dunno, I'm just wondering if I'm in love with someone. A classmate!" She put up a finger to nip the possibility in the bud. "How about you tell me about your love?"

"Sure." He slowed down their pace, making it meandering and sluggish so they could enjoy the fluorescent lighting as he told his tale. "Well, I guess I have a few loves."

"Jeez, look at you."

"Shush." Jaune didn't put any heat in his words. "They're different people. Really different people. One's older than me, really old, doesn't act like it most of the time." Darling would probably kill him if he reminded her of her age. "She's wild, fun, kind of silly all of the time, but she sticks around anyways despite how many more people there are." Despite how many more people there were, that could be far more entertaining. "I guess I could say I just like her company, it's not bad." Darling had grown on him. Where once she was an annoyance, she had long since become a good companion.

"And your other love?"

He chuckled heartily. "Well, if the first girl's a soda, this 2nd one is hot sauce." Though May might kill him if he called her that. Or take pride in it. He didn't know, in all honesty. "She's rough around the edges." No duh. She could insult him for days and he'd match it with equal ferocity. "But she's a good person." Their travels through Vacuo came to mind. "I can honestly say that I'd trust her with my life." Cause he had, multiple times. She was a good sniper and could flick off a nevermore by shooting through his armpit without displacing a single hair.

"Huh." Neon blinked. "Are you a virgin?"

"W-what!?"

"Sorry, sorry!" Neon held her hands up, the previous inquiry likely having been blurted out by accident. "Just curious."

"W-well, no." Jaune was a bit weirded out, but there had been weirder. "I'm not."

"Really? Was it one of those two that took it?" Neon realized how pushy she was and said, "Not that you need to say. Don't kiss and tell, you know."

"Eh, I'm pretty sure he'd be fine with it."

"He?"

"Yea, had a fling with a friend." Mercury. "It was fun." Really fun. Mercury clearly had no idea what he was doing, but after he got the hang of it, it was great.

"Didn't know you swung that way."

"Neither did I." Jaune supposed he'd never considered actual romance. He had kindlings of thoughts, but always threw them out. A countryside woman would occasionally call for him, but he'd usually bow out early on. The physical feeling mattered half as much as the emotions, at least it did to him. "Why do you ask?"

"Eh, just wondering." She noticed Jaune's curious gaze and sighed. "Yeah, I guess since I made you tell your st-"

"No, no, you don't have to." Jaune didn't want to pressure her.

"I'm going to tell you, Jaune." She rolled her eyes, cutting off the argument before it could get bloated and nonsensical. "This classmate I'm talking about, he's really fun. He goes drinking with me, always sticks by my side, and he's kind of a dork." She snorted. "He tries really hard to be cool and I can't help but find it cute."

"I can see that." Jaune sighed, remembering how he was laughed at for calling his attacks on TV by his family. "I can really see that." He remembered getting calls from most of his friends about his appearance on Grimm Kitchen.

"Well, he's a good guy, a really good guy." Jaune winced, nothing good ever came out of that sentence. "It's just that I don't know what I feel for him."

"Neither do I." Neon gave him a deadpan look and Jaune shrugged. "Ok, ignoring the obvious, I don't really know what to say except, what do you feel?" That was the crux of the matter.

"I dunno." Neon shrugged. "I might love him, but if so, then what do I have to offer? I'm kind of a wreck. I'm not exactly skilled in stuff they don't teach at school. I know how to fight, I know how to defuse a bomb now, I know how to survive in the Atlas winter, but what else do I have to offer?"

"I dunno, a pretty face?" Jaune looked over to see an unbearably smug face looking at him. "Nevermind."

"Heh." She smiled, finding humor even in this heavy discussion. "If I'm going to be in a romantic relationship, I want it to last long. So I have to make sure that I'm not a burden."

"I mean, you're both going to be hunters, right?"

"Well, yea." Neon sighed. "It's just-"

"I think we're putting the cart before the horse. You're already talking about being a burden or worthy as if you're already in love. Why don't we start from the beginning. What do you like about him?"

"..." Neon ignored the interruption in order to ponder the question. "Well I like his fashion sense." Jaune nodded. Superficial or not, it was an aspect of someone. It'd be shallow if that was the extent of her love, but as an individual element it wasn't bad. "I like how he sticks up for me." A noble quality or perhaps just suspension bridge. "I like how he secretly eats snacks while he thinks I'm not awake." A charming factoid. "I like how he twirls around his instrument like he's spinning a revolver." Another charming factoid. "I like how he smiles." Physical qualities, shallow on its own but just another layer here. "And-oh god I like him don't I?"

"Yep." Jaune put some eggs into the cart. "You do."

"Well, I guess that mystery is solved."

"And we've got everything." And a few extra items.

"I'll pay." Indeed she did.


The dust store and the pharmacy were relatively close to each other. In the former, they were buying some stuff used both in drinks and as fuel for household appliances. In the latter, they were going to get Iola's prescription. Though, now that Jaune thought about it, he could use some gauze.

"Well, here we are." The bus dropped them off in front of Buster's Dusters, which contrary to the name, didn't sell dusters. "What dust are we getting?"

"Food grade fire dust." To give more of a kick, he assumed. "As much ice dust as we can get." Making ice cubes quickly. "Preferably of clear quality." Something, something, clear ice was better for booze. "Two crystals of electricity dust." For general power. "Finally, gravity dust."

"Wait, what?" What use could Iola possibly have for that?

"Sometimes, bartenders put gravity dust in the shaker, just a little. It helps with mixing, makes it a bit fizzy too." Not too much, or else the container would blow up. "With how cheap the stuff is around here, she can afford to do it."

"Actually, now that I think about it, what types of dust are common where?" He knew some places were rich in dust, like parts of Sanus, the mountains and earth of Solitas, and a lot of Anima, but he knew not what exactly they held.

"Good question." Neon noticed his piercing glare and rolled her eyes. "Don't look at me like that! I dunno what crap is mined where. I just know gravity dust is cheap and is used everywhere." She pointed towards a Manta zipping through the air with its gravity dust engine.

"Hard-light?" He remembered two villagers who were saving up for a hard-light dust system to use for plumbing.

"Well it's cheaper here." There was a pause. "Never said it was cheap." Even in Atlas, the stuff was rare and mostly used by the military, who were able to afford it on giant defense barriers or shield systems for vehicles.

"Got it." The two of them walked into Buster's Dusters, which Jaune noticed was an SDC store. At the very least, he could recognize the signs of it being SDC. The shelves, the cooler with beverages, the magazine racks, and even the sleek dust valves were all hallmarks of a company store. "Say, what's with the name? Why not just call it an SDC Dust Store?"

"Branding. If it keeps the old mom and pop name, people will feel more connected to it." Neon shrugged. "Though they don't do it all the time."

"Yeah?"

"Once, a store refused to sell the property. Well, the SDC promptly undercut their prices and drove them out of business. They changed the name and even rebuilt the entire store." There was a distant heat in her voice.

"That sounds petty."

"It sends a message." She shrugged. "This was back when the SDC were still in conflict with other dust companies, so they were aggressive." Jaune could see the reasoning behind such actions, but it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"What happened after that?"

"Well, the owners of the store tried setting up shop somewhere else. By the time they gave up, they'd divorced. The father took up a managerial position where his old store was while the mother worked in a factory."

"How do you know this?" Knowing the fate of one store was something he could believe, but the specific fates of its former owners? That was something Jaune found curious.

"Friend of mine was their kid." Using the provided tubes, she began filling them up with various colors of granular dust. It was weaker than the purer crystals, but they didn't need more than what they could do. Ice dust to create ice cubes, gravity dust to add a bit of fizz, and just a bit of fire dust for a lighter.

"Hunter?"

"Training, he's a teammate." There was something more she wasn't saying, but it wasn't Jaune's business to pry. Really, it wasn't her business to know at all.

"Cool." Jaune picked up some dust for himself as well. Just some stuff to make flares with. "So, you can use dust with your roller skates?"

"And these Blowsticks." Jaune gave her an unimpressed look. "Work in progress, alright? But yea, I can use dust with these things. I prefer ice with the sticks and fire with skates. Freeze what I hit, burn what I kick."

"I see." Jaune nodded. "Wait, kick? Wouldn't that put you off balance?"

"If you do it badly, then yea. How I do it, there's no worry, mostly cause it's more like I just jump on them." Both feet and full force. "And you? I don't see any slots or compartments for dust on your thing."

"Oh." He looked at Crocea Mors and chuckled. "I just apply it the old fashioned way." By chucking it on. When he applied flares to enhance slashes, it was almost like he was cracking an egg on the blade.

"Ah, got ya." Neon idly nodded as the conversation fizzled out again. As it did, Jaune decided to look around Buster's Dusters. It was an exceptionally efficient store. Clean all around with sterile colors and technology. Then again, not much more was needed when it came to dust.

"Alright, we got what we needed, let's go." Neon and Jaune paid for their dust, with Jaune actually chipping in this time with what little lien he had left. They packed what they had in boxes in a bag and then walked a short distance to the pharmacy. It was packed, like most of the buildings in Atlas and Mantle. The shelves were as tall as Jaune and wasted no space, with plenty of medicines and other items on sale for various prices. Jaune found gauze and stitches easily enough and decided to add in some disinfectant, just for good measure.

As he did, he noticed Neon eying something on the shelf.

It was a morning-after pill.

"You want to get that?" Jaune looked at Neon, whose gaze was distant.

"Yea." She sighed and picked it up before saying, "I can feel your gaze."

"Hey, it's none of my business." He held his hands up, he didn't mean anything by it. The two of them were silent as they walked up to the counter and got Iola's prescription. Perhaps it was just the awkwardness of the prior exchange. Perhaps it was just the night's fatigue taking over. Perhaps neither had anything good to say. Either way, the silence continued until they exited the pharmacy.

"Can I just vent for a moment?" They were waiting for the bus and Neon took Jaune's silence as confirmation to continue. "I'm just confused, you know? The teammate I was telling you about? Well, we had a night in the club after we both dealt with something rough, and things escalated a bit." The blush on her cheeks wasn't from the cold. "Woke up early and I just kind of ran."

"Ah." That explained why she was wandering the streets in the middle of the night.

"Yeah. It wasn't a mistake, it felt really good. It's just that I'm not sure if it's the right thing. We're teammates and I don't want to make things awkward if things don't work out." Neon's leg was jittering, the wheels on her skates clacking against the sidewalk. "I don't want to hurt him."

"..." Jaune took it in and asked, "Do you feel better after letting it all out?"

"A bit," Neon admitted. "Just a bit. Still kind of confusing. Got any wisdom, Jaune?"

"Not really." He shrugged. "I've never really been in a committed relationship before. Maybe you should ask someone else? Someone you trust? Someone with experience?"

"Yeah, like who?"

"LIke Iola?"

"... That actually doesn't sound half bad. Plus, she'll probably be in a better mood once we get her all of the stuff." Neon chuckled. "And when I apologize for trashing her place a bit when kissing Flynt."

"Forward."

"Shut it."

The ride to Iola's was short, with bursts of tired conversation between them. It was light hearted, with topics like hobbies and various observations made in fatigue being brought up. In the end, Iola had some simple advice: Communicate. A long and honest talk between the two should clear things up in the end. Define what they both wanted and see if they could reach compromise.

She then served them a late dinner for their troubles and the two continued their conversation. A bond had formed between the two. It wasn't all that deep or meaningful. It was a short and shallow bond born of boredom, but it was a pleasant one that made the night less lonely.


I might end this fic entirely since I'm actually starting to run out of ideas and this fic is kind of getting bloated. Ever since the new year, I've been drifting away from this fic and focusing more and more on my original works. Now that I've come back to it temporarily (While going through querying again) I just can't feel the same spark that let me write an ungodly amount in so little time. I know what I'll do for the rest of the time travel arc, so these and the rest of the arc might be it. Hell, the moon robot thing is also iffy, cause I'm not entirely sure of my plan for it either.

I have two ideas for other anthology fics to put out.

1: A sort of odd collection of stories with the framing of an otherworldly theater putting on plays, with the various RWBY characters playing their parts in a variety of stories in a variety of worlds. Think Commedia Dell'Arte, except the masks are less defined. Or those multiverse theater Jaune fics except no audience. Honestly, this one is still just a barely developed idea in my head.

2: It'll be the opposite of the theater one, taking place in one coherent Remnant. I have an idea for the setting. It's basically a mix between warhammer fantasy and 40k. It'll also be a short story collection but unlike Meandering Arc, there won't be just one protagonist. This one is the one more likely to come out.

In light of this announcement, I'll just tell ya'll the next few chapters that'll come out in no specific order.

Jaune goes on a pilgrimage with a holy man across Vacuo

Jaune and Raiden clean up after a messy spaghetti western in Vacuo

Jaune goes to the moon and goes questing with moon robots.

Jaune goes on a journey with a monk in the ancient past (Part 2 of the time travel arc)

Jaune finds himself in the Solitanian countryside and gets used to the cold and biting mundanity (Part 3 of time travel arc)

Jaune finds an abandoned child on a dune and helps her help people (Part 4 of the time travel arc)

Jaune is pulled back to the age of gods and accompanies a young disgraced dragon on a quest for redemption (Part 5)

Jaune finds himself at the center of it all. (Part 6)

Finally (this part is especially optional but if it does come out, I will release it last): Jaune finally cracks under the strain of it all. (part 7)

I'm truly sorry about the slow and kind of pitiful death this fic has been given, but the enthusiasm I had has kind of fizzled out, I can't keep it up, at least not with this fic. Thank you in advance, just in case I can't even deliver on this promise.