The school bell rang to announce the end of classes for the day. The Beacon students began to file out into the hall to go their separate ways, one of them was Jaune Arc.
"Finally! I thought Port was going to talk forever." Jaune sighed, leaning against the wall.
"Yes, today's lecture was... too long even for me. Thankfuly i think that managed to make notes covering all the topics the professor talked about."-said his red headed partner who decided to stood next to him.
Jaune shook his head - "Damn, you are really strong-willed that you not only want to listen to him but also take notes!"
"It's all thanks to the exercises," Nikos smiled, "If you want, I'll show them to you one day."
"I'd love to" - Arc also had a smile on his face - "Well, today is Friday, so maybe you can show them to me today so that we can have the weekend off from studying?"
The Mistralian champion's smile faded and her gaze wandered into the distance. "Unfortunately, I'm busy this evening and weekend."
Pyrrha's answer completely surprised Jaune, but he quickly realized that it might have something to do with being a famous huntress in training.
"No problem Pyr," the young Arc assured his friend, "We can do it another time."
Nikos smiled again. "Thank you for understanding, a lot of people I knew before Beacon would be offended if I denied them something."
"Those people were a bunch of assholes who only pretended to be your friends." - Arc was outraged - "They just treated you as a thing and not another person. Don't be afraid Pyrrha, I would never take advantage of our friendship."
"I would never have suspected you of that..." Pyrrha replied
Suddenly, the door to the classroom they had just left opened with a bang, and an angry Winchester came out.
"Mr. Winchester! I hope that comparing Faunus to Grimm will never happen again in my class."-Jaune and Pyrrha heard Professor Port's raised voice coming from the classroom.
"Sure, Professor, it won't happen again." - Cardin replied to the teacher in a mocking voice and then closed the door to the class.
Winchester looked around the hall, searching for something or someone. When his eyes fell on Jaune, he confidently started walking towards him.
A shiver ran down Jaune's spine, being close to Cardin wasn't pleasant and being the target of his attention could spell trouble. "What he could want from me?" - panicked Arc shouted in his mind.
Lump formed in young knight's throat. Pyrrha saw his panic and turned to see what caused it.
When Nikos saw Winchester coming, her face turned into an emotionless mask. Cardin approached the Mistralian beauty and wrapped one arm around her waist, completely ignoring Jaune.
"You didn't have to wait for me."-Winchester said, pulling Mistralian beauty closer to him-"I still need to grab things from my dormroom."
"Yes of course, i also have to change clothes."-Pyrrha replied looking at the floor.
"Better take your red panties, and think you look best in them."-declared the school bully in a slimy voice
Jaune had no idea what was happening in front of him, he saw no reason why Pyrrha would want to spend time with Winchester. The fact that Cardin was groping her made Arc gain the courage to speak up.
"Pyr.. Are you spending time with Winchester this weekend?" Jaune asked in a weak voice
As if trying to hide from her teammate's eyes, the red-haired champion nervously bit her lip, avoiding Jaune's gaze. The school bully turned his attention to him.
Cardin burst out laughing. When he finally controlled his laughter, he choked out, "She didn't tell you? Mrs. Nikos will be spending the whole weekend with me."
Cardin's response shocked Jaune, he couldn't understand why Pyrrha would want to deal with a man like Winchester.
"No she didn't," Jaune replied hostilely
"Then I'll tell you, Pyrrha and I will strengthen our friendship by spending time together. One of the benefits of our friendship."-Cardin laughed at his joke.
Jaune's blood boiled with anger, Winchester's disgusting jokes easily getting on his nerves. Before he could speak, Pyrrha spoke up herself.
"Yes it is true, me and Cardin will spend the weekend together." - she said in an emotionless voice - "For old times sake.."
"For old times sake?" -Pyrrha's answer surprised Jaune
"Yeah for old times sake and those memorable moments from changing room." - Cardin gritted his teeth - "Me and Nikos took part in many tournaments together, it will be nice to remind ourselves of everything we went through together."
"Yeah, me and Cardin are old friends."-Pyrrha said looking up at Jaune-"I didn't want to tell you because I know that you and Cardin don't have the best relationship."
"Oh," was all Jaune could say, it made sense now. He knew that Pyrrha really didn't like fake people, and Cardin, although he had a nasty personality, didn't hide it behind a pretty mask, which could make the red-haired champion prefer to hang out with him over others that she had met before coming to Beacon.
"Oh my," Winchester turned to Nikos with a false hint of hurt in his voice, "Me and Jaune aren't mortal enemies. We simply had some friendly banter but if you want we can stop it."
"Right Jauney-boy?"- Cardin turned to Arc
"Oh.. Yeah, me and Cardin are just bantering for fun." Jaune replied, not knowing why he was doing it.
"See Pyr?"-Jock turned back to Champion-"Ur relationship is just a little rocky."
"If you say so..."-Nikos straightened up and she looked Jaune straight in the eyes-"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier about my friendship with Cardin."
"Well, it's alright."-Arc assured the teammate-"Have fun."
"We will, se ya later Jauney-boy." -Winchester replied and then he left with Pyrrha
Jaune felt as if all of his strength was drained from him. Tired and dejected, he leaned against the wall. Arc felt like a beaten dog but he shouldn't blame really blame anyone for Pyrrha wanting to spend time with Cardin.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Trying to calm down, he tried to think about something other than his friend going to hang out with that dick.
"Heart problems huh?" - an unknown male voice brought Jaune back to reality.
"What?"-Jaune opened his eyes and looked around the hall.
His eyes fell on a black-haired, middle-aged man, the stranger was leaning against the same wall, his red eyes seemed to see through Jaune.
"No, she was just a friend."-The young knight replied uncertainly
The man just smiled understandingly - "I think that 17 years ago i would say the same thing."
The older guy took out a flask and took a sip from it - "Boy i know what i am saying, you may try to lie to yourself, but the heart will know the truth."
"You have two options now, fight for her or do nothing. And I'll tell you, if I was little smarter all those years ago, I would have fought. I would have fought for every moment that i could spend with her because now I can only spit in to my own beard," the stranger continued. -"Because if I fought for her and lost, maybe i wouldn't torment myself with thoughts of what would happen if i simply asked her out."
The man paused and shook his head as if dispelling some thought - "I can say that i am a living example that living with failure is 100 times better than constantly asking yourself the same questions for whose i will never hear answer. I would give a lot to even hear her say no, just to stop these thoughts from tormenting me."
The stranger fell silent, looking into the distance, in the same time Jaune straightened up-"You're right, Mr..."
"I'm not that old to be called mister, just call me Qrow," Qrow interrupted, smiling
"Oh of course... Qrow." - Jaune corrected himself and then turned to the older man - "You're absolutely right. If I want Pyrrha to choose me, I have to act on my own and not be a spectator of my own life."
When Jaune was eager to leave, Qrow grabbed his hand. - "One important thing."
"Always keep in mind that there is a chance that you will lose."-The older man said in a serious voice.
"What do you mean?" Jaune wasn't sure what Qrow wanted to tell him.
"That too much self-confidence can kill a man. Believe me, life has beaten me more than once for having too much self-confidence." - Qrow made a pained face - "Oh, more than once, besides, she can say no."
Jaune was surprised by the last sentence, well... of course he knew that Pyrrha could simply refuse..
"I know you didn't even think of it." - the older man walked up to the student and put his hands on Jaune's shoulders - " listen, man, this guy can be the biggest dick, and she can still love him because this fucking love whom many praise above the heavens, is as stupid as I am for still loving a woman who has never loved me."
"Listen kid, really closely now"-Qrow's voice became serious-"If she will choose other guy you have to keep going because she is not the only great girl. Heart will hurt as fuck but i assure you, time and other person you will grow to love will heal all wounds."
The veteran huntsman chuckled-"You know Goodwitch right?"
"Yes, she teaches me combat class."-Jaune answered
"You probably wouldn't recognize her if you saw her after when she still crying over breaking up with Ironwood"-Qrow smiled, remembering old times-"She was a mess, if you knew her back then you wouldn't whine about her being hard on you all."
"She was much worse?"-Arc asked in an uncertain voice
"Oh boy, today she is like an angel compared how she was acting back then."-Qrow laughed heartily-"Good thing that Bert was there for her."
"Miss Goodwitch and Mr Oobleck are together!?"-Jaune couldn't belive his own ears
"Actually it is Mrs and Mr Oobleck but Glynda doesn't want to call herself Oobleck in school because of some dumb rules about having relationships between co-workers. Not like Oz cares about it."-Qrow asured young man-"But they are living examples of fact that you can always catch diffrent fish in sea called life and become the happiest person in the world."
Then he turned Jaune 180 degrees - "Now go plan your moves for the next week and maybe you will win fight over this fish that left with other guy." - then he literally pushed the young Arc into action.
"Thank you Qrow for everything!" Jaune shouted and then ran to get to work.
"You're welcome," Qrow said, waving after the younger man
When he was left alone in the corridor, the veteran huntsman sighed and said to himself while returning to the moment when he saw Summer in Taiyang's arms - "Heh if only i was that smart back then"
-Information from the author: "The author is not responsible for any material losses or loss of good name by people who followed the advice contained in this fanfic"
Ps. Arkos and humming birds are still shit ships-