"Shh, it's okay, let it all out."
Jaune Arc, veteran bounty hunter, and Huntsman-in-training, vomited into the trashcan by the landing bay of Beacon Academy, his intimidating gaze and professionalism nowhere to be found as Nora ran circles on his back.
Watching this scene, Lie Ren sighed in exasperation as Pyrrha Nikos gave an awkward smile.
"How is it, that you never had any problem with any other vehicles, or when Nora pulled out that scheme of riding a Nevermore, but you get sick the moment you get on a Bullhead?"
"A-as if I know."
With another dry heave, Jaune Arc pulled himself back onto his wobbly feet, still trying to find his balance on solid ground.
Nora rolled her eyes and helped her brother figure to walk as he slowly recovered, already used to the relationship between Jaune and air travel thanks to the seven years Nora and Ren spent with Jaune.
Thankfully, it only took a few minutes before Jaune's Aura surged and allowed him to recover completely from the debacle.
But before the four could walk towards the hall, an explosion rocked the landing bay, originating from somewhere nearby.
Jaune immediately got into a stance and reached for his sword with his right hand while his left reached for his gun, ready for any attack.
"…Jaune, we are on Beacon grounds, there is no threat here."
Jaune's confusion only lasted for a second before embarrassment flooded his mind at Ren's words, more so when he saw Nora's mischievous look and Pyrrha's amused look.
"..Let's go see what that was."
Nora just laughed while Pyrrha shook her head. But Ren did nothing but look seriously at Jaune, a silent question to which Jaune just shook his head, subconsciously reaching to scratch at his chest before stopping himself.
Soon, the group arrived at the source of the explosion and found a certain reaper lying flat on the ground.
"..Ruby? What are you doing down there?"
"Beacon sucks!"
The sudden outburst from the little reaper caused the group to flinch a little before they broke out laughing.
Jaune reached out his hand to Ruby who took it and allowed herself to be pulled back to her feet.
"Don't laugh! You guys don't know how bad things were. Yang abandoned me the moment we got off, then I accidentally fell on this girl's luggage, she started yelling, then I sneezed and blew up, then she started yelling even more, then-"
"Ruby, breathe."
Ruby Rose stopped talking and started to take deep breaths before noticing that there was a person in the group that she did not know.
Immediately her social anxiety took effect, causing her to slightly hide behind Jaune and Nora.
"What? Oh right. Pyrrha, this is Ruby Rose, Ruby, this is Pyrrha Nikos."
"Hello!"
"Hey.."
At Pyrrha's enthusiastic greeting, Ruby gave a shy wave back and came out from behind Jaune and Nora.
The group slowly made their way towards the main hall as Ruby started to talk nonstop about weapon compositions and explosives with Nora who was more than eager to give the reaper ideas for future projects that would allow her to make even more powerful explosives than the military grade grenades that she used in Magnhild.
It was only when they reached the main hall that Ruby found her sister and separated from the group.
The group of four soon decided that Headmaster Ozpin was a strange man and Glynda Goodwitch was not someone to be crossed, especially after one of the initiates found himself suspended in mid-air after catcalling the woman and being thrown out of Beacon directly.
As night arrived, the group sat together and started discussing the strategy for the initiation the next day.
"So we will be having a team of four?"
"Yes, Jaune. I went around and asked a few second-year students about the details. While the details on how the teams are formed change year to year, the constant fact is that a team is made of four people and they would be assigned to a single dorm room."
"How likely is it that the teams would be formed on random?"
Ren shook his Pyrrha's question.
"Oh! Maybe we will be thrown out into a Grimm-infested location and the teams would be formed based on some kind of object that we must retrieve?"
"….That sounds extremely unlikely."
But despite Jaune's words, he and Ren started to seriously consider the scenario. If there is one thing that they learned about Nora's seemingly nonsensical words throughout the years, it was that they had a 50-50 chance of actually happening. A testament to the terrifying instincts that the Valkyrie had.
"I think we should make a contingency plan anyways. Just to be safe."
Jaune nodded at Pyrrha's words.
"OK then. If we are allowed to make teams by ourselves, we should register ourselves immediately as a team. Since this is a combat academy, I have no doubt that we would be asked to fight Grimm, so in the off chance that the faculty decides the teams, we should make a show on how cohesively we can work as a team so that we would be placed together."
"Agreed."
"Gotcha"
"I understand."
With their plans made, the group descended into simple talks. But their talks were soon disturbed when they heard shouting from the other side of the room.
Curious to see what was going on, the group got up and headed to the source and found a Blonde girl glaring at a white-haired girl, all the while, Ruby was covering her face in embarrassment and a black-haired girl was looking at the two arguing girls with irritation.
Ruby noticed their approach and their questioning look. With a shake of her head, she indicated the group to let her be.
Understating her embarrassment, Jaune nodded and led the group back to their sleeping bags to catch some sleep.
"Hurry up, Jaune-Jaune!"
"Nora, slow down!"
Nora ignored Ren's admonishment and skipped out of the locker room as Ren ran after her. Jaune ignored the antics of his friends and focused on checking his equipment while making plans for any kind of scenario that they might face.
Sheathing Justum Mors on his back and strapping Fulgur Surculus, his Handgun, to his hip, he closed his locker and started heading out. But just as he was about to head out, he spotted Pyrrha had yet to leave and the reason for it was the white-haired girl that he had seen the night before.
Looking at the uncomfortable look and the fake smile on Pyrrha's face, it was clear that she was not talking to the girl out of interest.
Silently, Jaune made his way to the two girls.
"I was thinking, maybe we could be on a team together-"
"Hey, Pyrrha. Who is your new friend?"
Weiss Schnee felt anger rise as her conversation with Pyrrha Nikos was interrupted. Her anger increased further when Pyrrha's expression brightened at the source of the voice.
Turning to find out who had dared to interrupt her, she was taken aback by what she saw.
A blond teenager with short blond hair and blue eyes was waving at Pyrrha with a smile. But that smile did not reach his eyes when he turned to stare at Weiss.
For a split second, Weiss flinched at the cold look in his eyes that reminded her so much of her father.
Then, that fear turned to absolute rage at the audacity of the man for staring at her like that.
"And who are you supposed to be? Do you know who you are talking to so casually-"
"I know who Pyrrha is. The question is, do you know her?"
"Of course, I know. And I know that the likes of you are nothing but glory hounds that seek to ride on the coattails of those better than you. Not like you could ever talk to her again anyway. If you were incompetent enough to lose an arm before you even became a huntsman then you will most probably not pass through initiation."
Weiss did not realize that the more she spoke, the colder Jaune's eyes became and the more neutral Pyrrha's expressions became. By the end of her ranting, Pyrrha had a fierce scowl on her face while Jaune's eyes might as well be made of ice.
"…You done? Pyrrha, let's go."
"Yes."
"What? Hold on-"
"With respect, Miss Schnee, I believe you need to start thinking before you speak."
Weiss ignored the sting she felt at being addressed by her last name by Pyrrha before she realized what that meant.
By this point, Jaune and Pyrrha had already left the lockers, making the Schnee heiress ponder on what she had done so wrong for Pyrrha to react that strongly.
When Ozpin revealed how the pairs of Partners would be made, Ruby's shout rang out around the cliffs while Jaune already started planning.
With a look towards Pyrrha who nodded at him, he started watching her to keep track of her trajectory.
He would make sure that he and his friends would form a team, no matter what.
Author Notes:
Follow the link for Jaune's gun image:
(https) : / / i dot postimg dot cc/d3fd1Wkt/Dust-gun dot png
remove spaces and brackets, and replace 'dot' with '.'
