Jaune I

"Pick a god and pray, Maggot!" Cardin shouted as his mace came swinging towards my head. I enrolled at Beacon wanting to become a hero like my father, and his father before him. For generations my ancestors had been phenomenal fighters so I figured that same kind of talent must reside somewhere in me too, right? Well, truth be told I only learned how to use my aura a month ago. To add insult to injury, I wasn't even able to unlock the power by myself. Actually, wait, have I ever been able to do anything for myself?

"Die! DIE!" Cardin barked, with his face as red as the blood he was trying to smash out of me.

"You've almost got him, Jaune! Just keep blocking!" Pyrrha shouted from the crowd. Few people bothered showing up to the martial lessons on cold days, unless they were scheduled to fight of course. My other two teammates were absent, which is fine. It's not like I can expect them to come and watch me every week, they're busy people with their own lives I guess. At least Pyrrha was there. I took her advice and held my shield up high to block Cardin's next attack. It was a big, telegraphed, overhead swing. I wondered why he didn't try to be more subtle. Then it hit me. He hit my shield so hard that it swung backwards and hit me in the head. The force knocked me to the ground and dispelled my aura. I layed on my back for a bit and looked up at the sky.

Outloud, without thinking, I began to wonder, "Is every day gonna be like this?" I peeled myself off the ground. Not once did Cardin ever offer me a hand after sparring. Even between more experienced fighters it was customary to shake hands after a bout, but he didn't seem to care. I guess to him I was barely human, more like a dog or some other lowly creature.

"Excellent work everyone," Professor Glynda said as the handful of students in attendance began to leave, "To our participants, remember to use your semblances more. That's what we're primarily concerned with in this section of the course and it's what you're currently being graded on!"

"Why would I use my semblance on a mutt like him?" Cardin said, practically snarling.

"Enough with that already, get on with it, get out of my hair," She said. Pyrrha doted on me afterwards and asked me if I was alright. Naturally, I lied and told her I was fine. It would have killed me to look even more pathetic in front of her. Though I was glad that I knew her, I hated how much I had come to rely on Pyrrha.

Somehow, almost like some cruel joke, we passed by Cardin. It looked like he had gone the complete opposite direction after class was over so I had no idea how he ended up here. Did he somehow get lost? We walked past him and to my surprise nothing happened. Cardin didn't even try to make some derisive comment in passing or scoff at us or anything like that. He ignored us. In some ways that was even scarier, but, personally, I was willing to cut my losses and just be glad he didn't do anything. However, the same could not be said for Pyrrha.

"Don't you have anything to say?" Pyrrha looked at him and asked, Indigent.

"Pardon?" He said, almost confused.

"I want you to apologize to Jaune for what you did,"

"No idea who you're talking about. I've already got problems with one little human girl as it is, and trust me when I say even that's one too many. So, if you'll excuse me,"

"No you don't! Stop right there," Pyrrha grabbed me by the arm and presented me to Cardin, like I was a ham hock or something, "This man right here! This is Jaune! As if you didn't know already." He stopped for a bit and looked at me to try and remember my face, ostensibly. I mean, I hoped that that wasn't what was happening. How could he come to class every week to beat me up and not recognize me!?

"I remember now. You're the nonce without a semblance,"

"That's a bit rude isn't it?" I chimed in.

"Yeah, it is! Why is he like this?" Said Pyrrha, "You should really take some time to self reflect and ask yourself why you treat the people around you like dirt. Do your own teammates even like you?" Pyrrha's suggestion made him mad. He looked at us with a hard gaze and fire in his eyes. His jaw clenched and, for a second, I really thought that he might do something crazy, but then he stopped. His gaze softened and instead of seeming mad he just looked a bit tired. What he said next was what really sent me for a loop.

"You're not worth it. Neither of you are worth it. Take my advice, John being a hunter isn't for the faint of heart. It's a profession that makes beasts of men. If you don't see at least a little bit of yourself in the grimm you won't survive; and you, my friend, are no beast. Hell, you're barely even a man. So, I suggest you take that girl of yours and go far away from here. Start a farm, grow yams, have some kids, or whatever, and leave the hunting to the rest of us," Cardin left after that and I didn't have the heart to follow him and give him a piece of my mind.

"Can you believe he thinks you're courting me? I know we've pretended that that was the case in the past to keep undesirable suitors away from me, but for him to actually fall for that is incredible. We must really make a convincing pair, don't you think?"

"Can't blame him for thinking that. I spend a ridiculous amount of time with you. When you're not around I can't do much." I grumbled.

"Oh, don't say that. You're still new to all this so of course it'll take some time to get the hang of things, but don't worry. I awakened your aura for you because I sensed that there was something unique resting deep inside of you. Once you let it out you'll do great things, I'm sure of it," She said and I smiled. No matter how hard I tried I could never manage to be too glum around Pyrrha. I dreamed of a day where I had the strength to protect her rather than rely on her and hated the thought of that day never coming.

My feelings towards her were not entirely platonic and I had a feeling that she felt the same way. While we walked back to our dorm I wondered what the rest of our team was up to, men and women shared the same lodgings at Beacon (Weird, I know).

The barrier that separated Pyrrha and I, the barrier that prevented me from telling her how I felt, was little more than a wall built of my own weakness. How could I tell her that I liked her when every part of me was so mediocre? Asking her to accept me as I was would be rude, obscene even, on account of the fact that I had absolutely nothing to offer.

We finally made it back to the dormitory and found Ren and Nora lying in bed. They had been close with each other from day one so I guess there was some kind of pre-existing relationship there, but that relationship had only recently escalated to where it is now. I was happy for them. In all likelihood I would not survive my time at Beacon, most likely losing my life to some horrible accident, so I thought Ren might be a good leader. He was like a piece of jade sharpened to a fine edge: regal and stunning. He wasn't much of a talker though, at least not while Pyrrha and I were around. One could only wonder what he and Nora talked about while the rest of us were gone. Maybe it was less about talking and more about fucking when it came to those two. Either way, if I die I hope that my death can serve as motivation for him to come out of his shell a bit. Oh, also it would be nice if Nora could restrain herself to only killing the thing that killed me and not its whole entire family. She had a tendency to be, how do I say this, overzealous? Yeah, that's it. Nora Valkyrie was overzealous. Let's say that.

"Oh, hello," Nora stammered, "sorry we didn't come today, something came up and we couldn't make it." At least the two of them were fully clothed and we didn't walk in on them during or in the immediate aftermath of the act. In light of that fact their excuse was almost believable. Ren just looked a bit embarrassed and didn't say much, so nothing out of the ordinary on that front.

"It's fine. You didn't miss much," I said, beginning to take off my armor. Upon inspecting the damage I realized that it would probably take quite a bit of time, and money, to bring it back up to shape. Then there was a bit of silence in the room. Nothing unbearable, it went on for maybe about half a minute. Pyrrha was quick to pick up on this and started chatting with Nora to make things a bit less awkward.

"I don't suppose either of you can guess who we saw today?" She asked.

"I'm gonna guess it was the burly spriggan fellow with a nasty attitude." Ren said, finally chirping up

"How'd you know?" She replied facetiously. I was focused on sewing a hole in my gauntlets, but the rest of the team got a laugh out of Ren and Pyrrha's little exchange. They all chuckled, I could even make out Nora's half snort of a giggle in the cacophony.

"So what was his problem this time? Was he mad about humans or faunus? Or was it that Oobleck didn't let him use the calipers to measure Blake's skull?"

"Who knows, probably a little of all three. Did you know he tried to pretend he didn't even know who Juane was?"

"You're not serious, there's no way,"

"Oh, there's a way. He tried to act as though he's too high and mighty to even remember the people he fights,"

"A bit sad that a grown man would try to put on an act like that. Jaune, didn't you say one of your sisters tried to do something similar when she was younger?"

"Yeah… It was Saffron," I said, only half paying attention, "But I don't think Cardin was putting on some kind of front. I think he was serious."

"That's not possible though. How could he not remember you? You guys fight all the time,"

"We don't fight. He beats on me while I try to hold out. I'm not strong enough for him to even register what we do as fighting,"

"Sounds like something has to change," Said Ren.

"Aye," I replied.

"Okay, okay, well how about-" Nora began to talk but I cut her off.

"We're not gonna do that, Nora,"

"You don't even know what I was gonna say!"

"I do though, in fact I know it better than my father's face, and I'm telling you right now that we're not gonna do that,"

"Well what is 'that' then? What was I gonna say?"

"You were gonna say that we should break his legs." I said, finally looking up from my gauntlet. The hole was shut, but I could definitely stand to do better. I looked at Nora and all she could do was shrug and grin.

"Ah, well, looks like you caught me red handed then," she admitted. The three of them eventually went off to go look at some wares at the City's market. Apparently the SDC had just tapped a new vein of dust somewhere in the Dire Range so the markets were flooded with rare and exotic goodies. I wanted to go with them, but my armor was in sorry shape and If I didn't tend to it quickly it would probably slip my mind. A weapon is only as good as the maintenance it gets, or at least that's what father used to say. Once the work of sewing holes and repairing straps was done I found myself feeling rather bored. The rest of the work required some degree of smithing and the crucible wouldn't be open again until first light so I basically had nothing to do.

I didn't want to stay in my room all day so I decided to pay the School's art hall a visit. The walls of the hall were black and lit only by the dim light of torches which managed to reveal faint hints of engravings on the walls. Something was carved into every inch of the building's walls and they all told a story. Some of them spanned entire floors just to tell the legend of certain ancient heroes. There were two such pieces: one for the first floor and one for the top. The first floor wall carving was called 'The Yellow Death' and, funnily enough, it was about the warrior who founded the Arc clan, a distant ancestor of mine. His sword had been passed down for thousands of years, repaired and reforged countless times, until it found its way to me. To top it all off, the stone tapestry on the first floor only depicted the stuff that happened towards the end of his life.

Climbing the stairs to the second story gave me a bit of a shock, because when I got up there I wasn't there alone. The room was full of metal sculptures of various things, mostly people in different shapes and poses. Everyone who attended Beacon wanted to be a hunter, even those among us with more of an artistic side. And if there was one thing hunters loved it was dust; dust and mage metal. Every sculpture in the room was made from an alloy of the two and every night they would come alive, moved briefly by the will of their creators. Most of them danced, some alone, some moving in pairs. There were a few that were shaped like women that were suspiciously curvy. However, among all the metal dancers there stood a blonde girl on a balcony looking at the moon.

I couldn't be certain, but I was pretty sure it was Yang. I thought about talking to her but it occurred to me that she might be here for the same reason as me. If she wanted to be alone then it wasn't my place to disrupt her peace. My attempt to slink behind a wall and sneak off to the next floor was foiled by Yang's gaze as she turned around.

"Is that ol' Mellow Yellow I see?" Yang called over to me from across the room. She had a small pin cask of wine and two glasses with her, though one was completely dry. It was obvious that she spotted me so I sheepishly replied with:

"H-hello, yes, it's me,"

"Come over here for a second,"

"Sure," I said, decidedly unsure of what I was doing. It seemed like she had been drinking already. Even still, I made my way over. Some of the sculptures offered me a dance, but I declined. Others almost crashed into me because of their erratic movements. Yang giggled at how much trouble they were giving me. Once I finally made it to her I told her that it was weird seeing her without the rest of them.

"I'd rather not talk about them right now," She replied.

"Did something happen?"

"Oh, it was definitely something. Let's just say my sister is having a hard time adjusting to Beacon,"

"Me and her both," I sighed, looking up at the shattered moon. It was especially bright tonight and the debris that trailed behind it glittered almost like diamonds. The light brought out the lavender in Yang's eyes and made them appear almost purple. Her face caught the evening light in an ostentatious display befitting of her character, it was a wonder I hadn't noticed how stunning she was earlier. "I think the last time I talked to Ruby was when I happened to bump into her as she was walking back from chimney duty. How's she been?"

"Well, let's see, how long do you have?"

"I've got nowhere to be, not right now at least,"

"Perfect! So this all started back in the woods at that bonfire hosted by The Brothers, you and Pyrrha were there right?"

"Indeed we were,"

"Good so then you don't need to be caught up on who they are. So Ruby tried accusing one of my friends of murder, and that was just the start of the night." Yang filled me in on the details of what had been happening with team RWBY this semester and by the end I felt like I needed a drink (and I didn't even like wine).

"That's… That was a lot,"

"Aye, now imagine living it! I'm almost at my wit's end with this so-called team of ours. Weiss doesn't show up to class anymore and Ruby only spends time with us if it has something to do with our studies. She's turned our relationship into something purely professional and, I'll be honest, it hurts. It hurts seeing my younger sister grow into the kind of person who would resent me," Yang paused for a moment and idly swirled the wine in her glass, "Did you know that someone else was supposed to be here tonight? A boy from our year was supposed to join me, but clearly he had other plans,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said, watching Yang's lips as she sipped from the glass.

"Don't be. It seems providence might have sent me company for the night anyways. Want a glass?" She asked, her face flushed. She leaned forward to ask and the neckline of her dress made an extraordinary effort to hold in her bust. She would most definitely have to see a tailor about that at some point. She was one wrong move away from a major wardrobe malfunction if she didn't have that part adjusted. Come to think of it, the dress hugged her body in a fascinating way, one that was almost impossible to look away from. Then there was the offer to share a pin with her. What should I say? What was the proper thing to say? I didn't know! I was so nervous that my mind started racing with thoughts of her dress almost as if to distract from the fact that I was staring at her. I had to say something.

"No, I couldn't," I said.

"Not even one glass?" She insisted.

"No, I can't. It's the taste, that's the thing. I just can't drink it."

"You haven't even tried this one though. Come one," She purred, offering me her cup and placing it to my lips, "just a sip."

"Fine, just a sip," I took a drink from her cup. From the first sip I could taste her lipstick on the rim of the glass, though that only improved the taste. It was good wine, surprisingly good. One could only wonder who she was waiting for with a pin that good.

"You like it?" She asked with a wide grin.

"It's better than I expected."

"How about a glass of your own then?" When she asked me that I knew that I had a hard choice to make. The wine was good, she was beautiful, and the night was young. For most people, there was no reason not to stay, but I was not most people because I had other commitments. I knew if I stayed with her that night something would happen. Be it severe or minor it mattered naught. Yang was basically a stranger to me and any feelings I had for her were solely of the flesh. To indulge those feelings would constitute a direct betrayal of my heart's real desires. I could never do that Pyrrha.

"Sorry. I can't. I really must be going," I said. Yang frowned, clearly a bit hurt.

"I see," she said. I turned to walk away only to find that the statues had started waltzing. They broke up into pairs and glided gracefully around the room, it was as if they forgot they were made of metal and instead chose to be like water. The narrow with the small and the great with the tall, the statues danced in pairs throughout the hall. And though no music played, I'd say that their pace was perfect, all-in-all. I tapped Yang on the arm to get her to turn around and look at the dancers. When she saw them she couldn't help but laugh a little bit at how strangely human they were. It was at that moment that I fell victim to the dangers within my own heart and realized that, sometimes, a smile is enough.

"Do you want to dance?" I asked.

"Sure. Why not? It's been a while since I last waltzed, but I'll give it a try."

"Don't worry I'm out of practice too," I said, ever wary of my two left feet. I would come to regret that night for the rest of my days. We danced for what felt like hours. Her warmth, the feeling of her body against mine, was irresistible. I never wanted to let go. At one point she tripped and nearly fell. I caught her and after I helped her to her feet we kissed.