Chapter 8 – Saturday Morning Rain Is Falling

In which Jaune Arc stares at a unicorn and staves off the apocalypse.

Jaune could barely sit still through Professor Peach's plant studies class, the final lecture he had on Friday afternoon. It wouldn't be feasible for him to go down to Vale and back today, but tomorrow morning was the big day. He'd grabbed as much of his spare lien as he could, and he'd done some research on where he would be able to find some hunters. A quick bribe under the table, and he'd finally be on par with his peers.

No more pain, no more suffering – I can't wait!

"Please remember that Professor Goodwitch will be taking you lot out into the Forest of Forever Fall next week to collect sap."

And Jaune would be with them, slaying Grimm and being a hero. Come Monday, there would be a brand new huntsman showing up to combat class.

I'm kind of sad, actually, that no one will know how I got as far as I did without aura. I mean, I killed three Grimm and beat Cardin, may he rest in Patch. We'll see him again in…a day? Two days? A week?

Actually, come to think of it, how far away was Patch via rocket locker?

Shoot. Jaune had no clue.

I-I didn't leave any food or water in the lockers…uh…

Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine. At least there were airholes. And if he does die, I didn't leave any fingerprints…

Class was dismissed, and Jaune was going to head back to his dorm room, but Ruby grabbed him and the Junipers before they left.

"Hey, we're going to grab some dinner. Do you guys want to eat with us?"

Perry hesitated. "Uh…"

"Sure thing!" said Jaune. His spirits were high after Nora took care of his Cardin problem, and the knowledge that the last of his troubles would evaporate away by tomorrow only helped. Sure, Cardin probably had figured out Jaune's transcripts were fake, so getting aura wouldn't change that, but having Nora's hammer loom menacingly over his neck would probably facilitate a peaceful détente with Cardin.

"I'll go if you're going," said Perry.

"Team dinner!" screamed Nora. "Our first crossover!"

Blake and Yang were already at the cafeteria when they got there. The raven haired girl waved Ruby over, and she led Team Juniper, who'd already gotten their trays of food, to their tables.

Weiss was also physically present, but given how she refused to even acknowledge those around her, it wouldn't be quite right to say that she was 'there.' It seemed more like she just so happened to not be elsewhere. When Jaune sat down next to her and grinned flirtatiously, she stood up and walked to the other end of the table, taking a spot next to Ren, who'd also just sat down.

"H-Hey, girls."

"Sup, Vomit Boy?"

Jaune winced. "Motion sickness is a medical condition, Yang."

"Yeah, and so is getting vomited on."

"What, you ain't never spewed before?" asked Perry.

"Never on someone," answered Yang proudly.

"Then your aim is just better. No reason to bust Jaune's chops."

"You say that now, but wait until you guys get bullheaded out to the middle of nowhere and suddenly the Grimm don't seem like the most vile thing around…"

Jaune decided to change the topic of the conversation to something else. "Hey, thanks for the advice, Ruby. You helped me get my head out of my butt when it came to Cardin, and now the problem's been taken care of."

"We killed him," gleefully chirped Nora.

"They didn't kill him," said Ren.

Jaune pondered it for a second. "Welllllllll, we didn't leave any food or water in the…never mind. I'm sure he can scavenge for supplies when he lands."

Perry snorted up his milk, as did three of the girls in Team Ruby. Jaune and Nora hadn't told the others just what had happened to Cardin, instead insinuating that they'd simply frightened him a bit and he'd run off. Now, whenever they mentioned what had happened, everyone simply assumed they were joshing.

Ruby shoveled a stalk of broccoli into her mouth and swallowed it whole. "Well, I'm glad I could be of service, Jaune. It…ahem…it would seem as though taking my advice about how to not be an insufferably arrogant dumdum who stinks worked like a charm."

Jaune froze, unsure of what he'd done to bring about such a sudden burst of insults from the normally kind team leader opposite him. "I…"

Weiss stood up and walked away without even acknowledging the others.

"Oh," said Jaune. "That was for her?"

"Sorry, I was just trying to…ugh, she is so difficult!" Ruby threw her arms into the air. "I try everything I can to make our team a welcoming environment for her, but she just insists on being mean for absolutely no reason! I leave out a bowl of gummi bears for everyone, she throws them away saying it'd attract ants. I buy her a super cool bottle of shampoo in the shape of a cute little Ursai as a dormwarming gift, she demands I give her the receipt and refund me the cost. I offer to wash her hogs, free of charge, and she says she doesn't have any and then throws her textbook in my face and steps on my foot! What am I doing wrong?"

"Nothing, Ruby." Blake patted her leader on the head. "Sometimes, you just can't fix idiocy."

"Hear hear," muttered Perry.

Why does he…? Oh, right. The SDC pays their entire Faunus workforce less than what Jacques Schnee makes in a month.

Jaune raised up a finger. "Maybe if you…"

All eyes turned to him.

"Um." He cleared his throat and carefully chose his words. "Yeah, Weiss is being very rude. No doubt about that. But, if you want to make things better for your team, I might have a suggestion. And that's not to imply you should have to change your behavior to accommodate her, just that…well, you want to all get along, right?"

"Yes. Please, anything!" Ruby nodded with vehemence.

"So, Jane, my fifth youngest sister–"

"Fifth?" said Blake.

"–out of seven–"

"SEVEN?" said Yang.

"–once became Burrow Leader for a group of Mouse Scouts, way back when. She was really excited about it, and she tried acting extra nice to impress those in her Burrow, but there was this one girl, Clove. She was two years older than Jane, and she wasn't having it. Every time Jane tried to be her friend, she simply ignored her. She refused to let Jane buy her lunch, she turned down sleepovers, heck, she wouldn't even talk to her. Eventually, it got so bad that Jane just snapped and told her off. She shouted after her for two continuous minutes, and then demanded she follow her as Burrow Leader or get lost. After that…" Jaune shrugged and bit into some of his roast beef. "…no more problems."

"Sounds about right. Some of the guys I worked with in the…'protection business'…didn't take kindly to leaders who hadn't earned their respect," said Perry. "Bein' nice just wasn't a language they spoke."

"So I should fight her?" asked Ruby.

"Maybe just don't think of her as a friend to be made, but as a soldier who needs discipline. She's from Atlas, so that's probably how she views your relationship," said Jaune. "They're military and all, right?"

Blake stabbed her knife and fork into a piece of fish and tore it apart violently. "Right."

"But what if she hates me? What if she gets so upset that she actually does leave the Burrow? Er, team?"

"Then we'll go out and buy a new partner who appreciates you, sis!" Yang elbowed Ruby in the shoulder. "I think it's a good idea. You're trying real hard, and it shows. To some weirdo Atlas girl who doesn't know what the word 'compassion' means, that's probably a sign of weakness or something. You gotta let her know that you won't keep taking her crap. Earn her respect."

"Okay. I'll have a chat with her tomorrow."

Yang nodded. "Great. Say, you folks got any plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm going into Vale," said Jaune.

"Sounds good! We'll come with!"

"Pardon?"

Yang smiled and gestured to her younger sister. "Ruby needs the room so she can lay down the rules to Weiss, so that means Blake and I will need somewhere to be, else we'll get in their way. Why don't we come with you?"

"Well, I need to–"

"Oh, can I come to?" asked Nora, standing up out of her seat. "Our second crossover – Issue #2!"

"I do need to go into downtown Vale for some errands," said Perry. "Would you mind if I tagged along?"

"It can be a team bonding retreat," said Ren.

It would have been easy enough to tell them all that he was hoping to get some time alone, but that might lead to them asking some uncomfortable questions. Plus, he was already on thin ice in terms of spending time with his team after humoring Cardin for so long. It was important to remember that getting his aura wasn't the only thing in his life. There was no way he would be able to slip away from all five of the others, which meant that his plans to get his aura unlocked were more or less dashed.

No. Not dashed, just delayed.

He couldn't reasonably justify going into Vale twice in a row this weekend, and he wouldn't even have time, given that he had homework that needed doing, but it wouldn't be his last opportunity ever. Now that Cardin was gone, there was really nothing keeping him from just keeping his mouth shut for another week and just waiting until next Saturday came around. The risk of something going horribly wrong would be much higher if he rushed compared to if he just played it safe and tried again another time.

I'm sure I can last a few more days. I only got called up in combat class once last week, and I have my armor if it happens again. Unlike last time, my next opponent will probably just K.O. me and be done with it, and I can just call it a loss – no beatdowns or blackmailing or BS like Cardin.

"Sure thing, you guys. Let's call it a date."

"You planning on eating in the city, or did you pack any food?"

"Eating out," said Jaune.

"Then you better bring some cash."

"R-Right."

"And you need your ID to take the public transport."

"Anything else?"

"May want to pack a bottle of sunscreen. And water. And I find that it never hurts to charge your scroll beforehand. And don't forget your sword."

Jaune looked and saw that his scroll's battery was at 65%. "How do you know all this stuff, Per?"

"It's Perry," he said, his tone somewhere between snappy and distracted. "And I know it because I've had to take care of myself for the past seventeen years. I didn't have no mom or pop packing my bag for me."

Jaune rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He did have to admit, he was a bit of a coddled child. Mom had always treated him and his sisters equally, but Jaune had been the only boy of the bunch, and it was impossible for that not to make him stand out a little bit in his parents' eyes.

"Thanks for the advice."

"No worries." Perry jostled him on the shoulder as Jaune cinched up his drawstring pack. "Nora's got Ren to keep her on track, and you've got me."

The 'BY' in RWBY met them at the front of the school's courtyard, and the five humans and one Faunus made their way onto the bullhead together.

"So, Jaune. You're the one who started this," said Blake. "Where were you planning on going?"

"Oh, just here and about," said Jaune. "I didn't really have any concrete plans beyond just appreciating some of what the city has to offer. Maybe we could hit up an art gallery or–"

"Laaaame. Nah, we're going clubbing." Yang mimicked dancing as the airship took off. "I just so happen to know the perfect spot. They call it 'The Club.' A nice little place that off the beaten path, recently refurbished too after it got…d-damaged. It's a bit of a rough neighborhood, though, so I hope you packed your weapons."

Jaune patted Crocea Mors on his waist and smiled.

"Are you a frequenter of said venue?" asked Ren.

"I've been there once or twice. Or once."

"We should make a list," said Perry. "I need to go to the older part of town. Specifically, Tucker Street."

"For your errands?" asked Blake, raising an eyebrow.

Perry didn't answer her.

"Renny and me wanna go shopping," asserted Nora.

"Our weapons need Dust refills," Ren clarified. "And our wardrobes updates."

"I want to buy a dress for the Beacon dance! It's coming up soon, and if I'm asked by a handsome, dreamy gentleman (or teammate), I want to be fully prepared for that eventuality."

"Same as Jaune for me," said Blake. "I don't care where I go. I can just tag along with everyone else while Ruby takes Weiss down a notch back at the home base."

Perry had already pulled out a digital map on his scroll. "Tucker Street is only two and a half blocks from the Metrop-Mall-Is, some sort of newfangled shopping center."

"Oh my Dust did you actually just say newfangled?" said Yang. "If you say whippersnappers I'm gonna climax right here on this airship."

"He said it Monday midevening," Ren reported.

"It was ironic!" Perry tried to protest over Yang's bubbling laughter. "I only said it to mock the preconceived notions you kids would possess about my generation!"

"You mean the notions that us darn-tootin' rascally ankle-biters might shuck 'round, I reckon?" guffawed Yang. "Don't flip your wig, my groovy chum!"

Shopping was a lot more fun than he thought it would be, but a lot less fun than it needed to be to make up for it cutting into his aura-unlocking plans. There were plenty of stores for him at the mall that sold things beyond clothes. He wasn't much into the latest fashions, given that his Pumpkin Pete Limited Edition Box-Top Hoodie was essentially the pinnacle of high society fashion itself, but he did enjoy the bookstore in one corner of the mall – more specifically, its comic book section.

He and Ren had accompanied the girls as they combed through the clothing store, both equally bored out of their wits, until Nora loudly declared that none of the dresses here were Nora-worthy, and she would come back later (her exact words were 'time travel to the future,' but Jaune was pretty good at reading between the lines of her words). The rest of the males of Team JNPR (sans Perry, already on his errands) took the opportunity to agree with her sentiment and escape the clothing store.

Blake wasn't as lucky. She seemed equally bored in the clothing store, but Yang was still deciding which pair of sunglasses matched which top best, and she had roped her partner into being the one to give her opinions as she tried on each and every combination. The book-loving huntress had seemed particularly torn up when the Junipers told her and her partner that they would be going to a bookstore.

When Perry had slipped away to do his business, Jaune felt quite happy that he hadn't done the same thing, because it definitely stood out. He had been quite cagey about the details, instead opting to inform them that he would be leaving for a half hour and telling them to not wait up for him. No one had called him out on it, but everyone saw it. Jaune did wonder what he was doing, but he thought better of asking. Perry had made it clear on a lot of previous occasions that if he were comfortable sharing something, he wouldn't hesitate. Perry must have known that the others were curious, which meant that ignoring said curiosity to stay silent had to have been a conscious choice on Perry'ss part.

Ren was browsing nonfiction and Nora was preoccupied with one of the cardboard cutouts of a unicorn, which left Jaune alone to his comics. He wasn't in a position to actually purchase any of them – he needed to conserve his money in case buying an aura-unlock ended up being pricey – but that didn't mean he was prohibited from browsing. After all, the new issue of X-Ray and Vav was out, and with all the stuff he'd had to take care of back in school, he'd been missing out.

As Jaune flipped through the pages and eyed the illustrations, he couldn't help but feel…dissatisfied. It was difficult to put his finger on it, but the usual joy that reading about superheroes brought him seemed to be missing.

It might have something to do with the fact that I'm training to become a real one, and these are just reminding me about the superpowers that I have to wait another full week to get.

Now thoroughly depressed by his own misfortune, Jaune folded up the comic and went over to join Ren. Seeing what the studious, intellectual member of his team was up to might cheer him up.

Maybe if I buy some book on Grimm or hunters or something and learn more about that stuff, getting closer to my goal will give me that dopamine rush that graphic novels just can't. After all, Perry's book certainly was a good read, and that was nonfiction.

"Ren, old buddy old pal. What're you up to, you rapscallion?"

Without even taking his nose out of the book, Ren made no response. "Rapscallion," he breathed under his breath, absentmindedly. "Buddy…"

Jaune waited for a second, and then Ren idly turned away from him without even noticing.

Okay, so that was a bit of a bust. Nora, though – she was plenty of fun. Certainly she would be able to preoccupy Jaune and take his mind off of the misery-filled thoughts that plagued it. Jaune made his way to the last place he'd seen her.

"There she is – the N in Juniper!"

"Oh, hey Jaune. I was just…staring at this…equine fellow."

Like Ren, Nora didn't look away from what was interesting her, but at least she acknowledged Jaune's presence in a meaningful way, so he decided to stick around with her.

"You're a fan of unicorns?"

"It's black."

"W-What?"

"It's a black horse, Jaune." Suddenly, her demeanor changed, and she frowned. "I don't like it."

"Uh, then…don't look at it?" He wasn't exactly sure what to say. Nora was normally a lot more breezy and blithe than this, and her seriousness – especially given that it was directed at a cardboard unicorn promoting some cheap teen fantasy novel – was kind of creeping Jaune out. Still, the alternative was Ren.

"If I turn my back on it for a moment…I can't let it get away. I have to keep my eyes on it. It could try something at any moment."

"I-If you want, I can watch it for a bit. You can enjoy the bookstore."

She glanced his way briefly. "You…would? For me?"

"Uh, sure? I mean, I don't mind. It's not like I have anything else to do."

"Okay."

Nora took a step backwards.

"Don't look away, not even once."

She took another step backwards.

"If it tries anything, call me and Ren."

Jaune turned to look at the unicorn, and the sound of running footsteps faded.

That was weird, even for Nora. I wonder if I–

He looked away from the black unicorn for a single second, and there was a creaking noise. Jaune's eyes immediately shot back to the cardboard cutout.

False alarm. The tape securing a nearby poster to the wall behind the display had failed on one corner, and that corner of the poster was now beginning to sag off the wall.

Well, this is dumb. Why am I taking the girl who blew up our dorm over a disagreement about the meaning of the word flapjacks seriously?

The unicorn was actually pretty strange, when he looked at it as a whole. Like Nora had said, it was exceedingly dark in color, which struck Jaune as odd, given that they were usually white as snow. And its eyes were more like a human being's that had been sewn onto it rather than the actual beady eyes of a horse. Something about the way the head was angled made it seem like it was staring directly at him no matter where he stood, and the feet were placed in a manner that made them look like they were just on the brink of stepping towards Jaune.

Nora did help me out on the whole Cardin thing, even if she probably just wanted an excuse to break someone's legs. I guess I do kinda owe her one, and she had seemed so disquieted by the darn thing. I wasn't really reading anything, so it's not a problem.

Jaune was relieved of unicorn duty after twenty-five minutes. Blake's quiet footfalls sounded behind him.

"Hey, Yang finished up with her stupid shirts, and your weird partner got back. We're ready to go when you are."

"Don't call him weird."

Jaune didn't turn around as he spoke. The sable beast was watching him, and he dared not take his eyes off of it for anything.

After the combined might of Perry, Blake, and Yang dragged Jaune out of the bookstore, their party actually needed to find a way to kill time until it got dark (Yang's club didn't open until the sun had set). Lunch was an amusing affair, but it lasted no longer than an hour. Given that it was the start of a school year, the days were still pretty long, so their party needed to find a way to kill about six hours. When Ren suggested they visit the brand-new Museum of History, no one objected.

The museum was organized into six wings, conveniently. They spent about an hour or so in each.

The first wing, which Jaune enjoyed the most, was natural history – the kind of stuff about natural formations of famous land masses, the evolution of simple plants and animals, even some creation myths. It was the only part of the museum that wasn't entirely focused on human and Faunus activity, which made it a lot more upbeat, given that such topics usually ended in 'And then they died/got eaten by Grimm.'

The next wing was on the Great War, also called the Color Revolution. Jaune was fairly familiar with the Great War, given that it inspired the way most of the kingdom's modern governments functioned in place of the prior monarchy, but he'd never known that it was the reason people had such weird names and dressed all funny. Again, fashion wasn't his thing. Still, it was quite riveting to learn that the reason Ruby dressed like a Gothic Lolita was because the joy and fascination that her outfit inspired made the Grimm turn away.

Strangely, there was no mention of the Faunus Rights Revolution in any of the displays.

The third wing was about the other three kingdoms and their governments. Atlas and Mantle each had their own sections, detailing the rise of the former (equivalently, the fall of the latter). Mistral's rich cultural centers were described in great detail, and there was even an authentic Mistrilian chef who gave out samples of some of their more influential dishes. Jaune tried a friend eggplant with a delicious butter sauce, then made a mental note to eat out at a Mistrilian takeout next weekend when he came to Vale on his own.

Oh, a pile of sand for Vacuo. Fuck Vacuo.

The fourth wing was entirely dedicated to Vale. There were statues of each of the current members of the council, a miniature diagram of the city, and an interactive exhibit where you could select key historical figures from Vale and hear audio clips out of some of their most famous speeches. Despite it being the most relevant, Jaune found this wing the least interesting.

The fifth wing, funnily enough, was about Beacon. Jaune felt ecstatic as he was able to recognize every single one of the buildings in the pictures, and he boasted to every confused passerby he could find around the wax figure of Ozpin that he had personally met that dude! Oh, he took it back that he liked the first wing the most – this one was the best. All of the others seemed equally interested in what it had to offer, especially Perry.

He's probably spent most of his life living in the city, looking at the castle up on the hill above him. I always wanted to study here, but to Perry, it's literally been agonizingly close but just out of view for so long. Good on ya, friend, for telling the world to shut its trap and coming here even when no one thought a thirty-five-year-old could.

"Hey, you guys, check this out!"

Jaune and the others gradually mingled towards where Yang was standing when she called them over. In front of her on the wall were two doors and some sort of television screen in between them. On the television was a silhouette of a person that was quite colorful, in shades of vibrant red, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

"What's so great about this? Is it some sort of thermal imaging or something?" inquired Jaune, kind of perturbed to have been interrupted from the fake taxidermized Grimm he'd been looking at. Sure, Port kept them in his class by the dozen, but it was still special to see these ones. Cause, you know, they were in a museum.

Huh. The person inside had two triangles on their head. Weird…

Yang pointed above the screen. "Read the sign."

Jaune read the sign.

Jaune paled.

Aura Monitor

"I was thinking, this thing's probably meant for civvies and the like. So, what say we go in, flare up our aura, and blown the charts off! I sent Blake in first, but I think I can set a new record when I…"

Jaune was already gone. He'd gradually backed up until everyone was in front of him, then he'd run off when they were distracted by Yang's explanation. The aura readers at Beacon only worked because they were hooked up into Jaune's own Beacon-sponsored app on his scroll, which showed him as perpetually at 100% because it couldn't divide by zero. If he set foot inside that room, he'd immediately be exposed.

And so, he fled into the one place where he wouldn't run into any trouble.

The sixth wing of the museum, which was still under construction.

When he was certain that he was far enough away, Jaune paused to catch his breath and take stock of the situation.

The others would certainly notice that he was missing, but he had no idea if they would piece together that it was because of the aura monitoring exhibit. He would probably need to make up some kind of excuse like urgently needing to use the restroom or something, but he could only give it to them when it was getting later. The sun had almost set, and if he could just hold off until it did and Yang's club opened up, he would have a reason to justify not going into the exhibit.

Jaune decided to hunker down in the semi-finished wing of the museum and stay hidden from view behind a wide statue depicting a…floating orange-haired girl? He wasn't exactly sure what this wing was supposed to be about, given that the rest of the museum went all the way up to the modern day for Vale and the other four kingdoms.

Looking around, he had no other choice but to wonder if it was supposed to be about the future or something. The girl was levitating, and there was an unfinished square carved out of her back with nothing but a few circuits inside. Maybe it would be filled in with a jetpack, and they just hadn't completed it? It felt like jumping the gun to start building an exhibit like this before jetpacks were even invented.

Or maybe the museum curators knew something he didn't.

Note to self: look into government conspiracy to hide the existence of jetpacks from the general public on Sunday.

There were only a handful of completed exhibits in this area: mostly a bunch of Atlas-style robots, some the super big drones that looked like they were able to level a five-story building, others the shorter type that almost looked like a person wearing a suit of robotic armor on top of themselves.

Jaune stood up and got face-to-face with one of the robots. He was the same height and build as the robot, and his mind couldn't help but wonder if he would fit inside the technologically advanced suit. "Maybe I should've asked the forgemasters to make me something like this…"

The rest of the building was pretty much unfinished, and Jaune didn't just mean the sets. The walls were still unpainted in most parts, and the tiles that covered up the ceiling were only half installed. Tall metal rigs of scaffolding extended along many of the walls with plastic models of airships that were probably about five feet long stacked on the floor next to them. Jaune assumed that the models would be hung from the ceiling to give the appearance of mixed aeronautical vehicles passing overhead. There was even a partially completed picture of the massive, shattered moon, with a few cans of paint left open on the raised catwalk that the artists would use to climb up and paint it.

Wait a sec…open?

Jaune had about a half hour left to kill, and he didn't really want to spend it standing around idly staring at pretend jetpacks and robot armor suits when he could instead be pulling the most epic prank of all time.

A rank amateur would have gone for something like Jaune wuz here with a smiley-face.

A novice mischief-maker would have drawn two circles and a long vertical oval in a crude formation reminiscent of male genitalia.

A connoisseur of the arts like Jaune chose something a little more dignified. He drew detail portraits of every member of Team Juniper, along with a namesake tree.

One day, when I'm a million years old and the jetpacks are sold at cornerstores, I'll come here with me and Weiss' grandkids and point this out and tell them, 'Your old grandpa was just as old as you are. Back in that day, the juniper tree wasn't world famous for being the symbol of the greatest hunters alive – no, it was just something I sketched out in my spare time.'

And technically it wasn't even vandalism. Team Juniper was an up-and-coming hunter squad, so it fit the whole future-is-now theming of the room.

Jaune was just finishing up adding sunglasses to Nora (he kind of thought she would look cute with them) when a loud voice caught his attention.

"YOOOOOHOOOOO! Vomit boy! You in here?"

It was Yang. Jaune was so surprised by the commotion that he toppled over, causing the catwalk to start leaning back and forth. Yang casually walked into the room, entirely unaware that her target was about fifteen feet overhead, trying not to knock over any of the cans of paint that he'd nearly spilled when she flustered him with her abrupt entrance.

Jaune managed to stop the white and black (both of which were wobbling more than any of the others) from spilling by pinning them to the catwalk with his chest, but orange looked quite a bit unsteady. Jaune reached a hand to catch, but unfortunately for him, the paint can on the opposite side of the catwalk, blue, was about to spill, and it was out of reach of his other hand.

Desperate to stop himself from coating his friend's sister with blue paint (a crime punishable by getting beaten the heck up and/or gelded), Jaune reached out with his foot, stretching it as far as he could reach while still holding white, orange, and black.

The second before his life was cut short, Jaune caught the paint can mid-spill with his foot. It sloshed, but most of the paint ended up covering his shoe. A single drop of paint landed on the floor below him, right in front of Yang. Jaune let out a soft exhale of relief as Yang bent over in confusion to inspect the drop of paint.

And then Jaune saw his fatal mistake. The green paint had been accidentally nudged ever so slightly by Jaune's foot in his haste to stop the blue, which was stored right next to it. Jaune held his breath as it toppled over, completely sideways…

…and nothing happened. The lid was sealed.

Thank Dust that I hadn't started painting Ren.

And then Jaune realized his second fatal mistake. The can started to roll.

Jaune could do nothing but watch was it made its way down the scaffolding, bumping one of the bullhead models on the way. Said model began to teeter on the edge, slowly tilting as the tail of the airship, the pointiest part, dangerously began to incline itself to aim directly at Yang's neck.

NO!

If Yang didn't know that the model airship was about to fall off the scaffolding and stab her in the neck, she wouldn't have her aura up to protect herself. Jaune was a firsthand expert on the effect of physical trauma against a human body undefended by aura, and he knew that this might actually be his only truly 'fatal' mistake.

Jaune carelessly threw aside his buckets of paint and dashed forward to grab the airship before it impaled his unaware friend, but his shoe, still covered in wet paint, slipped. At the last minute, he skidded towards the fake airship, tripped onto it, and both tumbled towards Yang on the ground.

Can't…let…it…hit…her!

Sadly, Jaune couldn't catch the airship out of the air, and both he and it fell straight into the red portal.

Wait, the red portal?

tl;dr Jaune turns a history museum into an art gallery

Next Chapter: Bring Me All Back Now

In which MILF-slayer extraordinaire Jaune Arc slays his first MILF and answers the scroll call of destiny.

Author's Notes

You should've known Jaune had no chance of getting his aura so easily. Nothing can go right for our boy. However, he does get to see a wild Nuckelavee, so that's something, at least.

I wonder what character has red portals and an insistence on protecting Yang Xiao-Long…

Happy rats, and don't do crime!