(Blake's POV)

It hurt. It truly did. Knowing that my beloved did not remember me.

What had he been through?

Over the course of the week, I had set myself to getting as close to my Jaune as possible for our "official" reunion when it would be just the two of us.

Only that it never happened.

Jaune enjoyed my company, that much was clear. But he was also wary of me. Whenever he saw me, his eye would wander all over me as if he was trying to recall a long forgotten memory on the tip of his tongue.

Oh Jaune… What happened to you?

(-LINE BREAK-)

("Jak's" POV)

"Sooo… How are you feeling?" Ruby asked me.

"Terrible," I grumbled. "They made me wear this funny mask that made me sleepy, and when I woke up, everything was sore!"

"I'm sorry they had to do that to you," Ruby said apologetically. "But they had to do it for your safety as well as theirs and everyone else's."

"I know…" I moaned. "But that doesn't mean I like it."

"Hey, cheer up! You're all done with that now, so we can join my sister's team on a trip to Vale! We'll show you around and have some fun!" Ruby reminded me as we made our way to the Beacon's Bullheads.

Waiting for us was the rest of our team, plus Yang's team, dressed in their "casual" outfits that doubled as their combat ones.

I was simply dressed in my academy uniform since everyone decided my original set of clothes were no longer fit for use and burned.

If there was one thing my years in the mines were good for, it was getting me used to riding machinery.

After a short ride, we found ourselves in the city with Yang and Ruby acting as our guides, showing us different restaurants, stores, even some place called an 'arcade'... It was overall a rather relaxed and pleasant experience until some mob of loud people with flashing lights and small sticks with round spherical spongy balls at their ends swarmed us.

Blake, Weiss, and Pyrrha in particular before my presence was registered.

Then it was my turn to be surrounded with thousands of questions thrown my way.

With all the confusing shouting and flashing lights, it was all too easy for me to be mentally thrown back into a 'special' place in the mines.

The Pits.

Thankfully, my new friends had formed a protective circle around me before I became fully overwhelmed and reacted in a not too civil way. That was when Blake stepped in, saying that she would host a "QA" at a later date.

Which ended up working as the crowd dispersed.

Turning to the rest of us, Blake wore a somewhat sheepish grin.

"Sorry, I guess we should have planned for something like that to happen…" She apologized. "How are you holding up, Jak?"

"A little shaken, but okay. Never expected for that to happen," I admitted.

With the 'threat' gone, I relaxed and removed my hand from my knife that I kept hidden beneath my shirts on the small of my back.

Both Blake and Pyrrha grimaced.

"Yeah… Sorry, the paparazzi can be brutal at times," Blake said apologetically before her eyes lit up when she saw the store we were in front of.

"Anyways! You still need some new clothes! Come on."

My fellow leader didn't wait for a reply as she took me by the hand and led me inside the building.

"Les Adèles."

Inside we were greated by the sight of an upperclassmen, Coco Adel, and her team.

The second-year student turned to see us and lowered her shades.

"Well… Never thought I'd get the chance to help out royalty… How can I help you, Your Highness?" She asked Blake.

"It's more about my friend here," Blake answered. "Jak has no clothes of his own."

I immediately tensed up as she eyed me up and down, reminding me of The Warden.

I was NOT going to let anyone 'use' me like that again.

"Heyyy…" She began before another voice interrupted her.

"Coco! Knock it off! Now." A dark skinned, red-haired young man warned urgently.

The first thing I noticed after that was his scars and blindness.

Coco looked to the man for a moment before looking back at me with a somewhat flustered expression.

The young man spoke again, to me this time.

"Fox Alistair. Sorry about my cousin, she doesn't really know how to talk to guys outside the family…" He said, offering his hand.

"Jak Silver," I replied, giving him a solid handshake.

"She gives you any trouble, just holler. Okay?" And with that, he walked away to go chat with a taller muscular and tanned woman.

"So… Yeah. Sorry. I'll play nice." Coco said awkwardly. "Let's see what we can do for you."

(-Line Break-)

"...come on, Weiss, it's not gonna kill you. Plus, they have salad options so you can stick to your 'healthy' nonsense." Ruby jabbed at our teammates displeasure at the choice of restaurant we were entering.

After being joined by the rest of our group, and getting myself changed into a red t-shirt, dark green cargos, and hiking boots plus a jacket made from blue jeans, we were off to see about getting ourselves some lunch.

Thankfully, Pyrrha had elected to pay for my new clothes as a form of apology for the destruction of the only clothes I had.

And I was also very glad that Coco's place was willing to deliver all my other new clothes straight to our team's dorm.

Eventually, we (and by 'we' I mean Ruby, Yang, and Nora) decided to go to a local pizza place called "Mr. Gatti's."

"I've got the bill, this time," Blake declared as she went up to the register while Yang escorted us all to a long booth that lined one of the walls.

"Once Blake gives the okay, we can hit the buffet," she informed us.

"You're really gonna like this place, Jak." Ruby said as we waited for Blake to come and tell us we were clear to eat. "The pizza's great, and they have an arcade here for when we're done eating!"

"That sounds nice," I replied. "But what's an 'arcade'?"

"It's a place to waste all your money and time…" Weiss grumbled. Earning a pointed glare from Ruby and Yang.

"It's a place where you can play games and win prizes for fun," Yang clarified with flattened fox ears and not removing her glare from my now "slightly" intimidated partner.

"Okay, we're… good… now? What's going on?" Blake asked after returning, looking back and forth between the Xiao-Long/Rose sisters and Weiss.

"Weiss needs to learn respect for other people's cultures…" Ruby growled…

"Riiigghht… Anyways, we're free to eat now," Blake reminded us.

Once everyone had taken their flavors of choice, (I myself elected to at least try everything) we all fell into small talk about classes, current events, Nora's latest wacky dream… Normal stuff.

I was happy to remain silent and simply observe as everyone got along.

That was until Nora popped a question to me, causing everyone to go silent for a moment.

"Hey Jak," she began, "how did'ja lose your eye? I bet it was a MASSIVE battle with some crazy-strong Grimm, right?"

That certainly took me by surprise.

"NORA!!!" Nearly everyone cried out.

"What?" She asked, clearly puzzled.

"Nora… You can't just ask someone about something as personal as that…" Rin explained, pinching the bridge of her nose before turning to apologize to me on the bomber's behalf and stopping when she saw my curious expression.

"Lose my eye…? What do you- oh! You mean my eyepatch!" I realized out loud.

"My eyes are the wrong colors and make people uncomfortable, which is why I cover one of them to help make people more comfortable around me." I explained. "See?"

(-Line Break-)

(Blake's POV)

"See?"

And with that, Jaune lifted the covering to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he truly was my Jaune.

And all the humans present recoiled in shock as Yang and I merely grimaced.

His eye was the same friendly silver that I remembered all these years.

But the sclera had gone pitch black.

'Oh Jaune… My poor sweet Jaune… What have they done to you?'

Before I could speak, Yang had beaten me to the punch.

"Wha-? How did that happen?" Genuine concern colored her voice.

"Food was scarce. Grimm were plenty." Was his only reply before replacing the eyepatch.

The sad pain in my chest shifted into an unrelenting fury at the thought of MY Jaune being tortured in such a way.

I swear to whoever is out there, I'll make every last one of those wretches pay dearly for every hurt they caused him.

Nobody. Hurts. My. Jaune.

AND SCENE!!!

Uh-oh. Somebody's in for a world of hurt if Jaune hadn't already taken care of them when he escaped…

On another note, Mr. Gatti's is an actual pizza place in IRL that I adored as a kid. Haven't been there in years… So yeah, it's in this world too.

And yes, Coco and Fox are cousins in this universe. Deal with it. And yes, again, while Coco is still a fashionista, she's not exactly experienced around guys.

I felt like it would be kind of funny.

Except for the part where it nearly caused Jaune to attack her.

But it also helped drive home that Jaune isn't entirely over his past.

Now the question is "Was Jaune 'used' in the way we think he was?" Or was it in a different way?

Tell me what you think.

Ciao for now!