Free fall (I)
Saffron disappeared as soon as they stepped inside, saying something about going to find Chrys. Jaune could only sigh in exasperation and head to the kitchen to get himself a drink.
It had taken them a few hours and one or two small lies that he wasn't sure their mother believed before she allowed the two to attend the party. His Lying skill hadn't pinged to let him know that they'd been caught out when he said Chrys' parents would be present and were fully aware of the party she was throwing, but the narrow-eyed look she'd given them said it was probably a close thing.
And so here they were, over an hour late and with the party already in full swing. Jaune fought his way through clusters of loud, tightly-packed teenagers, all shouting to be heard over the music that was pouring out of the living room speakers as he made his way to the kitchen.
Chrys had gone through with her with her plan for a party to celebrate the end of their exams. She'd done her damndest to ensure as many people came as was possible, and despite the recently implemented curfew, the turnout was immense. Practically the entire grade was here. Jaune had been a bit worried about capacity when Chrys had told them the numbers she expected, but it turned out he needn't be. The girl's parents owned the biggest retail and distribution service in the region, and their house was pretty damn big.
After squeezing past Kevin Nell, who was unsuccessfully flirting with a girl he knew only by face, Jaune found himself in a modern, neatly furnished kitchen. An island stood in the middle, completely covered in red plastic cups. He reached for one with a sigh of relief and took a deep gulp, only to choke at the taste.
It wasn't soda.
A glance around the kitchen found four kegs stacked in the adjoining scullery, surrounded by empty and half-full bottles of clear liquid he sincerely doubted were water.
Beer (D)
The basic bitch of alcohol everywhere. Made by fermenting hops, this carbonated beverage has an alcohol content of 6% and is best enjoyed at a temperature of 4℃.
Vodka (D)
For when bad decisions need to be made and not remembered. Distilled ethanol with an alcohol content of 43%. It is commonly mixed with other liquids to make it more palatable.
Jaune frowned down at the cup in his hand; he and Saffron had helped plan for tonight and alcohol hadn't been mentioned at all. He'd turned sixteen just two months ago–still well below the legal limit of eighteen. He made to put the cup back, then paused and considered it.
He'd been working hard these last seven months. Really hard. That gave him an excuse to let loose a little, didn't it? It wasn't like the liquid was going to kill him; certainly not when a pack of Beowolves couldn't.
Actually, considering all the times he'd nearly died and been horrifically injured recently, he probably needed this.
'Fuck it, why not?'
The cup did a swift reversal and poured beer straight down his throat. In four seconds flat it was empty. Jaune grimaced; the taste was bitter, the carbonation left his mouth tingling and there was a rush of something to his head.
And fuck him if that didn't describe Robin's kiss to a T. Not wanting to think about that particular tangle of emotions, he reached for another and downed it even quicker than he had the first.
It was vodka this time.
He inhaled one more beer after that for good measure and left the kitchen with a fourth cup, ignoring the worried and impressed looks Kevin and his would-be paramour were shooting him. He wandered the house, very much not looking for Robin, but still finding himself frustrated after he didn't see her anywhere on the first floor.
Not wanting to intrude on the Pretel family's living quarters on the second floor—and he had no reason to; he wasn't looking for her—he made his way out onto the patio, where the majority of people had gathered. Winter had just begun, but between the alcohol and how closely people were packed, nobody seemed to notice the chill in the air. Jaune found a space for himself against the wall and started spectating a game of beer-pong. It was surprisingly fun to watch, and before long he was cheering and groaning along with the rest of the crowd at all the sunk shots and near-misses.
"Hey."
Jaune's attention was captured immediately, snapping from the game to the girl who had somehow managed to sneak up beside him.
Robin looked as beautiful as ever. Her hair, complete with its usual thin braid and feather, had all been swept over her right shoulder and shone with a glossy light. She wore a brown leather jacket and blue jeans over a high-cut bodysuit that left the skin of her hips exposed. She leant against the wall, facing him with one high-heeled boot crossed over the other. There was a flush to her cheeks and a glitter in her eyes, things Jaune supposed he could attribute to the red cup she held in one hand. All of it—her sudden appearance, her looks—combined with the pretty smile she was giving him, and it was no wonder Jaune's heart started hammering.
"Hey yourself," he replied dumbly.
Her smile widened ever so slightly and she moved closer, leaning into him as she wrapped her free arm around his own. A sweet, flowery perfume and the warmth of her body washed over him like a wave, and Jayne's heart galloped up into his throat.
"I've finished thinking," she whispered.
'Oh Oum.'
Jaune felt a shiver run down his spine. He resisted the urge to kiss her then and there and scowled instead.
"Oh, did you now?" he grumbled with a bitterness he no longer felt. She'd left him an utter mess of thoughts and emotions after their encounter in the bathroom, and he was now annoyed at how it all ceased to matter the second he saw her. He hadn't planned to forgive her this easily, damn it!
Robyn's eyes turned to the beer-pong game and Jaune immediately felt bad.
"I suppose I deserve that," she murmured. "Please understand, Jaune. It was… Hearing-…"
She stopped and breathed out through her nose, burrowing further into his side. Jaune wanted to drop any pretence of being jaded and comfort her.
She spoke before he could. "I didn't realise how often I hear about huntsmen dying until you told me what you were doing."
Her voice was a whisper in his ear, so close that the music and chatter had no chance of drowning it out.
"Now it's all I see. All the little announcements on the news and radio and social media that I'd never paid attention to before. That all applies to you now. It's hard… suddenly caring… when I didn't before. It's hard deciding to make that a part of your life. I like you, Jaune, but it…it scares me."
She squeezed his arm tightly. "I don't want you to die."
"I'm not going–"
"Don't make promises about things you can't control."
He hesitated, looking down at his shoes. "I promise I'll be careful."
She didn't say anything. He tried to catch her eye, and after a second she let him. They searched each other's eyes for a moment, and Jaune saw her lips quirk. Her hand snaked down to intertwine with his own and he gave it a squeeze.
"You better be," she whispered.
Her lips were just as soft as he remembered. A warm tingle ran through his body, causing his head to buzz pleasantly. For a second their lips remained static, simply pressed against each other as they savoured the sensation. Then they began moving, as one. Their movements were slow this time, without any of the frantic desperation that they'd felt in the bathroom.
Ping!
Jaune's eyes didn't even flicker. Whatever the notification was about, it could wait until later. Right now, he just wanted to–
"Whoo! You go, Arc!"
"Damn, dude! Give us popcorn if you're going to put on a show!"
"Remember, not too much tongue!"
Jaune broke the kiss with a frustrated groan and sent a glare into the jeering crowd around them. The beer-pong game had ended and apparently, they were the next most interesting thing. Robin giggled as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.
"Fuck off, all of you!" he called, raising his middle finger to the crowd and getting laughter and middle fingers back. The attention on them eased as people backed off and began setting up for the next game. Jaune huffed in exasperation. The notification that he'd ignored sat at the corner of his vision and, no longer preoccupied, he gave it a glance over.
New skill created!
Kissing Lv. 1 (46.6%)
One of the oldest physical expressions of affection. Can generally be performed in public without running the risk of being arrested.
Your kiss leaves a person unfazed.
Jaune blinked at that last line, then scowled.
"We're going to have to practise that a lot," he muttered.
Robin giggled again. She didn't look unfazed. "Damn straight! It's part of your boyfriend duties now."
Jaune felt his heart soar as a grin split his face. "Boyfriend, huh? Is that what I am?"
She gave him a dry look. "If you think otherwise, we're having our first fight right here and now." She paused, then, for good measure, added, "Bitch."
Jaune laughed.
"Come," she said, laughing along with him. She tugged him toward the table where they were busy pouring drinks for the next game. "We're going to play teams."
No one minded them taking the next game. At first. Their opponents, Amber Hollen and Verdan Daniels, minded very much four turns later when Jaune sank the ball into their final cup. He'd gotten four on his first turn, one after the other, and gotten the last two within his next three shots. Robin had hardly touched the ball and all their cups remained, a fact that invoked despairing expressions in Amber and Verdan's faces as he gleefully handed them over.
"Is that a huntsman thing, or…?" Robin whispered as the crowd went into a frenzy around them, some cheering, others chanting 'Chug!' as they watched Amber and Verdan set to work on the drinks.
Jaune smirked. "Yeah, you could say that."
It was more of a Gamer's Reality thing.
Jaune Arc
Age: 16
Title: 'Opportunist'
Class/es: Wraith
Level 10 (285/15 100 EXP)
Health: 2400/2400 (7%/min)
Mana: 1300/1300 (6%/min)
Aura: 1000/1000 (5%/min)
Stats:
STR - 31
VIT - 30
DEX - 30
INT - 25
WIS - 20
LUK - 8
Points - 28
Jaune Arc is the fourth child born to Malcolm and Vanessa Arc, the only brother of seven sisters and the host of the Wraith, a mysterious spirit which grants him access to powers beyond what the world at large can imagine. Jaune is putting everything he has into bettering himself and becoming a huntsman and has been gifted with the Gamer's Reality by ? to help him achieve his destiny.
He is currently having the time of his life.
He had levelled up through all the hunting he had done before Marcus sidelined him. At Level 10, his physical stats outstripped anyone else's here by roughly three times. Honestly, with a DEX score of 30, he probably could have won without missing at all.
'Something to try out next time,' he thought to himself. Right now though, Robin was dragging him inside to where the music was.
It was an absolute mosh pit. People had gathered in the living room and were dancing, jumping and grinding against each other with an excited, frenetic energy. Robin drained her cup in a single gulp, threw it away and joined without a second thought, barely giving him time to do the same as she dragged him into the crowd.
The two laughed and danced along with the rest of the crowd as the heavy bass music poured out of the speakers. At some point, they ran into Saffron and Chrys who were doing the same and the four stuck together. When the club music ended and a familiar pop song came on, Jaune shared a grin with his sister and the two burst into a spontaneous dance routine. It was a short thing, full of quick footwork and wild arm movements. It was something they'd come up with for a talent show in the third grade, and every once in a while, like now, they broke it out again.
They'd performed it often enough that the moves were smooth and well-practised. At the pace they were going, it looked quite impressive. The crowd cleared a space for them and cheered as they spun around each other, dropped to their backs and then kicked up to their feet. It had always been the hardest part of the routine for Jaune, but now he soared upright without a problem. And, emboldened by the success, attention and energy, not to mention all the alcohol he'd consumed up to this point, he tried something he'd never done before. Jumping up into the air, he tucked his legs in and did a backflip.
He almost didn't land it.
The teenagers around him went wild. His back was inundated with slaps and he caught Saffron looking at him with a stunned expression.
"Since when can you do that?"
He shrugged. "I just tried it and it worked."
She gave him a narrow-eyed look, but didn't say anything more.
The night carried on in much the same vein. Jaune lost track of how many games of beer-pong he played. People stopped challenging him after his third perfect game in a row. Kara and Treemonisha joined up with them and the six spent some time just talking and laughing together. Robin insisted on dancing any time a song that was even remotely popular came on, and Jaune was all too happy to oblige.
Especially since, each time, she would drag him into a corner after it was over and kiss the hell out of him.
Ping!
For constant and diligent practice, 'Kissing' has levelled up.
Kissing Lv. 3 (0.0%)
One of the oldest physical expressions of affection. Can generally be performed in public without running the risk of being arrested.
Your kiss leaves a person satisfied.
Jaune broke the kiss with a gasp as he felt her pinch his butt. He gave her a dry look as she started giggling. They had kept drinking, and while Jaune's intoxication had stopped at a warm buzz and some slow speech, Robin was solidly drunk.
And apparently, that made her frisky.
"Come on," he said, extricating her cup from the hand she wasn't using to feel him up. "You've had enough."
"But your bum's just so cute," she slurred out, giggling as her now-free hand settled on his other butt cheek.
He blushed slightly. "I meant you've had enough to drink, but that too I suppose."
He set off in search of Chrys, disposing of Robin's drink along the way. He eventually found her exiting the first-floor bathroom, Saffron behind her.
"Ah, Chrys—!"
"I was just helping her fix her makeup!"
Jaune blinked and gave his sister a weird look. Why was she blushing?
"Okay?"
She refused to meet his eyes. He shook his head at her weirdness and turned to their blonde hostess. She also looked a little flushed.
"What are we going to do with this one?" he asked, gently gripping his girlfriend (fuck yes!) by the shoulders and manoeuvring her in front of him to display to the two other girls. She giggled and poked Chrys in the boob.
"Hi, Chrys!"
"Hello, Robin," she returned, looking amused. Robin then glomped her, and she accepted it with grace, patting the girl's head like she was a child.
"I don't really want to send her home like this. Especially with how close to the curfew it is."
Both Saffron and Chrys blinked and checked their scrolls. It was quarter-past-ten.
"Well damn. We're probably going to have to start wrapping things up soon," Chrys muttered. "Don't worry, Jaune, she's sleeping here tonight." Her eyes flicked between the two of them. They lingered on Saffron. "You're also welcome to stay the night if you want. Both of you."
The siblings hesitated, sharing a glance. A silent conversation passed between them before Jaune sighed and pulled out his scroll.
"I'll call Mom and ask her," he said, walking away to find a quieter spot.
There weren't a lot of options. The music was still loud and so were the people. He eventually found a spot out in the garden, at the edge of where the patio lights reached. There were a few people there; couples looking for some privacy and several who just wanted a break from the party.
Jaune blinked as he laid eyes on someone he hadn't expected to see.
'What the fuck is he doing here?'
Cord leaned against the garden wall, a lit cigarette and the holographic name tag above his head the only indications of his presence. Otherwise, he was quite well hidden in the shadows. The boy hadn't noticed him yet. He was staring off into space with a frown, idly dragging in smoke and puffing it out. Red cups littered the ground at his feet, and Jaune wondered how long he'd been standing there. Following that thought was what he was doing there. He knew for damn certain that he hadn't been invited. Gatecrashing then.
Jaune eyed him up. There was no point in trying to kick him out now; not when they were getting ready to end the party and not when he wasn't actually bothering anyone. Which was… surprising. Judging by the number of cups around him, he'd been there a while and drank a lot. It was a small wonder he hadn't picked a fight with someone yet.
He debated for a moment, before casting Observe.
Corduroy Pike Lv. 14
Age: 16
'Menace'
Class/es: N/A
Health: 3000/3000
Aura: 700/700
Stats:
STR - 38
VIT - 41
DEX - 28
INT - 21
WIS - 15
LUK - 3
Corduroy Pike is the only child of Sage and Rosemary Pike (neé Williamson). Having lost his mother to cancer at the age of three, Corduroy's father, a huntsman, has raised him with a lot of love and harsh philosophies. This has resulted in a somewhat twisted disposition and a strong desire to follow in his father's footsteps.
He is currently worried for his father's life.
Jaune blinked at the last line. In an effort to reassure their citizens amidst the recent surge in Grimm activity, Shion and Nordain's huntsmen had combined their forces and set out on a large-scale culling mission two days ago. Sage Pike would definitely have been part of it. Hell, he might even be leading the thing.
Jaune stared at Cord for a long time, taking him in. He looked tense and anxious; not expressions he would have ever guessed would he would see on the boy's face. He turned away after a while feeling uncomfortable.
Partly because, for a split second, he empathised with the asshole. If that wasn't a sign of the end times, he didn't know what was.
Mostly, though, because it made him wonder if all huntsmen's loved ones looked like that while they were out in the field.
He grimaced and shook his head. Nevertheless, as he stood there waiting for his mother to pick up his call, images of his family wearing Cord's expression wouldn't leave his head.
〜Line break〜
They had a two-week break following the end of exams. It was originally meant to only be one week, but that changed when the culling expedition came back.
Their departure hadn't garnered much attention from the public; huntsmen left on culling missions all the time. The scale and recent surge in Grimm activity made this one only slightly more interesting. Their return, however, was a different matter.
Thirteen had died.
Thirteen, from an initial twenty-eight. Nearly half of their forces had been wiped out.
That got the public's attention. It was the biggest tragedy to happen in years. Eight of those lost had been huntsmen who were permanently based in the region; people with friends and family. People who almost everyone knew by face or name, if not personally. The rest were those who had been in rotation, employed by the Kingdom of Vale to bolster the defences of its neighbouring settlements. Even if they weren't local, they'd died fighting the Grimm for them, and the citizens took their deaths just as personally.
Shion High School extended their break by a week, giving those who were affected a chance to grieve while the teachers scrambled to reorganise.
Nordain and Shion's mayors released statements and held memorials for the fallen. Both had lost huntsman in the expedition. Jaune's family gathered around their holoscreen and watched as they tried to explain what went wrong. Neither did a very good job. Great detail went into describing the plans and strategies the expedition used to go about their mission, but very little went into why those plans failed. The word 'overwhelmed' was used a lot.
To Jaune, 'overwhelmed' sounded a lot like 'there was fuck-ton of Grimm.'
The fact that the mission was deemed a 'failure' added the disturbing implication of: 'And they are still out there.'
Marcus had all but confirmed his suspicions when he called the man. Luckily, he was one of the survivors, but the way he sounded over the scroll—shaken—worried Jaune.
"It was just wave after wave of the bastards. They didn't stop coming. Didn't give us a chance to rest. We were fighting the whole damn time." His words slurred a bit. He was obviously drinking. "We spent the last two days in retreat. There were so many."
He got irritated when Jaune asked if he was okay, seemingly unable to handle the small show of concern. He ended the call shortly after, with a final instruction to not go outside the walls under any circumstances.
"Be ready, Jaune."
Marcus actually using his proper name disturbed him more than anything else about the call.
The first few days after the expedition's return were quiet and sombre. The wind chilled and sunlight weakened as winter settled in properly. Jaune thought it was appropriately despondent weather.
Well, despondency became unease rather quickly. With the tragedy on everyone's minds, people paid closer attention to their huntsmen's activities. What they saw were more patrols in the streets and along the walls. What they heard was rumours of more deaths in the wilderness outside.
Malcolm reckoned the reason for the patrols in the streets was to reassure people; show them that Nordain's garrison was still strong and looking out for them. Jaune reckoned his dad was thinking wishfully. He didn't know what it was like in the Kingdoms, but out here in the smaller settlements, you didn't want to be where the huntsmen were while they were on duty, because that's generally where they expected Grimm to be too. Rather than reassuring people, they started wondering what was so unsafe about the streets that huntsmen needed to patrol them.
And then, a week in, the night before Jaune would have gone back to school, he was woken by the sound of a notification.
Ping!
He blearily opened his eyes and blinked at the blue screen hovering above his head. He needed to read it a few times before the words sunk in.
Quest Alert!
The Night Watch
Quest Objectives: Grimm are attacking Nordain's walls in an attempt to get to the bearer of the Wanderer's Curse. Help defend the walls and drive off the Grimm.
Quest Reward: 5000 EXP, Sigil of Ascendency, random A-grade Dust crystal
Failure Penalties: Deaths among Nordain's populace
Accept Y/N
By the end of the notification, he was aware of the sound of gunfire, howls and shouting in the distance. What followed was a frantic scramble for his clothes. In his half-awake state, he decided to start with his shoes. Diana found him lacing up his left boot.
He froze.
"You're awake," she noted, either not noticing or not questioning his combination of PJ's and footwear. Given how scared she looked, it was understandable. "Something's happening outside."
"Grimm are attacking," he muttered without thinking. His mind was occupied with how he was going to sneak out now that his sister was awake.
Her face went white.
"How do you know?"
"What else could it be?" he asked rhetorically, jerking his toward the window where the gunshots and shouts were coming from.
She stared out of it, and in the faint moonlight that was filtering in, she looked like a ghost. Completely fear-stricken.
Jaune felt his heart drop into his stomach; he'd never seen her look like that. He didn't like it.
Then she shook his head and his big sister was back.
"We're gathering in Mom and Dad's room. I'm going to go get Macie. Help Saf with the triplets."
After a moment spent trying and failing to think of a way he might slip away without anyone noticing, he nodded and set off toward Lily's room. He found her sitting up in bed, looking confused and quite worried. He picked her up without a word and carried her out, holding her tightly. She didn't complain.
He met Saffron in the hallway, carrying Tulip in a similar fashion. His older sister's eyes were wide and frantic.
"Holly?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Still in her room."
"Okay. Don't worry, I'll go get her."
She nodded gratefully and carried on towards their parents' room. She reached out as they passed each other and grabbed his hand, briefly squeezing it.
Holly was huddled against her headboard, crying and gasping at the gunshots that rang out.
"Jaune!"
She flew into his arms and buried her head in the shoulder Lily wasn't occupying. Her panic was infectious, and Lily started crying alongside her in short order. Jaune squeezed them tightly, murmuring small comforts as he carried them to his parents' room.
"Where are Mom and Dad?" he asked upon entering.
Saffron and Diana sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, Tulip between them. Tulip was gripping Saffron's hand tightly; Macie occupied Diana's lap.
"Locking up."
He settled in opposite them, against the dresser. Neither Lily nor Holly made a move to leave his embrace, and he was quite happy to hold them.
Mostly.
The quest notification still hovered, collapsed, at the edge of his vision—reduced to its title and a choice.
The Night Watch
Accept Y/N
He itched to press 'Yes'. To go and help the men fighting and shouting at the wall.
'Because of me,' he thought, remembering what the quest had said. The realisation was icy on the brain. 'The Grimm are trying to get to me.'
The black flesh on his back felt cold. Guilt was now adding its weight to his natural instinct to go and help.
But at the same time, both literally and figuratively, his hands were full with his family. Too full to reach out and press 'Yes'. If he just suddenly disappeared, in the midst of the chaos going on outside, they'd panic. They might even go out looking for him. And if they followed him to where he wanted to go, to the fight, they'd be where the danger was.
He couldn't allow that.
The siblings waited in near silence for some long, long minutes, listening to the sounds of battle in the distance. Eventually, their parents returned, brave faces in place. Vanessa took Macie into her arms and made her rounds, hugging each of her children in turn and murmuring assurances to them.
"They're still outside the walls. The huntsmen are holding them. We're going to be fine," Malcolm assured them.
His smile did a very good job of putting Jaune's sisters at ease, but the boy wasn't wholly convinced. He moved closer.
"How do you know?" he whispered, making sure the others couldn't hear him. His mom and Diana were busy distracting the triplets, Saffron watching on with Macie in her lap.
His dad looked at him, hesitant. "Some of them came around while we were locking up, requesting any ammo and Dust we could spare. I gave them everything we had in the forge."
Jaune's eyebrows rose. They kept a few boxes of ammunition for testing purposes, but the Dust? They used the stuff for virtually everything and kept a sizable stockpile. For his dad to give it all away just like that…
"Is it that bad?" he asked, feeling sick.
Malcolm shook his head, glancing at his wife and daughters. "It's just that there's a lot of them. The Grimm aren't attacking the gates—just a single spot along the wall. There aren't any Breacher classes among them."
He took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly.
"They're not going to get in like that. It's just a matter of gunning them down 'till they're either dead or in retreat. We're going to be fine."
It sounded like he was trying to reassure himself as much as he was Jaune.
They spent the next forty minutes huddled in the Arc parents' bedroom, listening as the battle raged on. Holly, Lily, Tulip and Macie took turns in everyone's lap, seeking as much comfort as they could find. The older Arc's were more than happy to provide, receiving just as much comfort from them in return.
Sometimes the tempo and volume of the distant fighting fell and everyone stilled, listening, hoping that it was coming to a close, only for it to pick up again. Each time it did, Jaune glanced at the collapsed notification at the edge of his vision, hand itching.
The Night Watch
Accept Y/N
Then, after those forty minutes, the tempo slowed again. Jaune's family listened with increasingly hopeful expressions as it continued to die. The shouts dimmed and the monstrous sounds stopped, until, with a final staccato of gunfire, the notification changed.
Quest 'The Night Watch' - Failed
None of the children went back to their rooms that night. In the morning, they tentatively ventured out of the manor and joined a throng of people gathered at the site of the night's battle. There was surprisingly little to see: a line or two of bullet holes, obviously from automatic fire, little splashes of blood here and there, a ton of casings and discarded magazines… and some thin, spidery cracks in the masonry.
People were staring at them, murmuring worriedly. The walls were nearly two metres thick; if it was true that there hadn't been any Breacher classes amongst the horde, and that damage was the result of pure effort and persistence on the Grimms' part, then concern was more than warranted.
Jaune despairingly noted this was the part of Nordain's walls that were closest to his home.
They really had been trying to get to him.
There had been a total of three deaths as a result of the attack. One was a huntsman. The other two were a son and father living nearby. A Nevermore had made it past the huntsmen manning the top of the wall and crashed through the son's bedroom window. The father, hearing his child's screams, had rushed to help.
By the time huntsmen had arrived to help—less than a minute since the Nevermore had flown past them—both were dead.
Jaune took it hard. He was in a fugue for the next few days, grappling with guilt.
"Grimm are attacking Nordain's walls in an attempt to get to the bearer of the Wanderer's Curse."
They'd come for him. They were trying to get to him. And yet, other people were dead.
The Grimmflesh on his back chilled. Jaune scratched at it angrily, trying to get rid of the sensation.
Seeing Robin helped. She turned up unannounced on his doorstep the day after, surprising both Jaune and his family.
"What are you doing here?"
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Nice to see you too."
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. You just surprised me."
He hugged her and gave her a quick peck on the lips, then winced as he heard his mother and the triplets gasp from somewhere behind him. Nosy busybodies.
"So, if I told you, that with all the shit that's happened in the last few days, I haven't gotten around to telling my parents about us, you'd understand right?" he asked with a nervous chuckle.
She smiled, a little thinly, patted his cheek and walked around him to greet his mother. He didn't know what that meant.
Robin worked her way into his parents' good graces quickly. By the time she left in the late afternoon, his mother was practically gushing praises and more than likely picturing wedding dresses in her head. Malcolm Arc's compliments extended as far as wide, proud grin and a clap on the back, a fact Jaune was thankful for.
She came over thrice more during the holidays, and Jaune went to hers twice. They talked a lot; Jaune tried to open up about his struggle with the guilt, but without being able to tell her about the Gamer's Reality and Wanderer's curse, he only ended up making himself feel worse. So they talked about other things, most of it nothing important. Stuff that made them laugh. Stupid hypothetical debates and mundane questions they'd never thought to ask each other, like 'What's your favourite colour?'
Hers was orange—his least favourite.
"A dawn orange," she explained when he pulled a face. "You know, like the sky at sunrise."
He thought about it, then silently admitted that was a nice colour.
Other times they watched movies. Jaune learned that Robin liked to cuddle, and that he loved to cuddle. She liked horrors, but not because they were scary. Quite the opposite. She enjoyed picking apart the scenes with bland commentary and criticism, pointing out all the plot holes and bad acting she found. Jaune would have preferred to just watch the movie, but found it in himself to tolerate and even indulge in it along with her.
She had sugar on her popcorn instead of salt. Her favourite snacks were gummy bears; instead of biting their heads off like a normal person, she bit them in half length-ways and then combined them a-lá-Frankenstein to get new flavours. Jaune had a good half-hour of fun teasing her about her psychopathic eating habits.
"Says the Gummy Guillotine," she snarked back, watching him decapitate another bear with his teeth.
And of course, they kissed. A lot. Whenever there was a spare moment and some privacy. Jaune couldn't explain what it did to him, but her lips triggered a response in his body the likes of which he'd only ever experienced after nearly dying. It was like a rush of adrenaline, but soft and fuzzy.
He was happy to say his kissing skill had levelled up nicely.
Kissing Lv. 5 (74.0%)
One of the oldest physical expressions of affection. Can generally be performed in public without running the risk of being arrested.
Your kiss leaves a person's heart beating faster.
A very real danger soon came to light, however; making out was becoming insufficient. More than once Robyn's hands had strayed during their kisses, teasing at the hem of his shirt or touching lightly at his butt. Jaune got the feeling she was waiting for him to reciprocate; to touch her back and take things a little further.
Oum did he want to. More than anything. But being intimate meant showing her the black flesh on his back, and that scared him even more.
And so he pulled away and did something he'd been doing all too much lately: he lied. He pretended to be uncomfortable; told her this was all new to him and that he didn't want to rush their new relationship. The words sounded corny and false as all hell to his ears, but Robin just smiled readily and agreed without hesitation. Still, he didn't miss the disappointment in her eyes.
'She won't wait forever,' a voice whispered in his head as they embraced. 'What happens when her patience runs out one day and "I'm not comfortable" stops being an excuse? What then?'
Jaune had no idea, and the thought filled him with dread. He had been checking regularly, and the black skin showed no sign of fading from his back. The Curse was still in full effect, and looked there to stay.
With Grimm activity steadily mounting beyond the walls, and intimacy with his girlfriend on the line, Jaune Arc began seriously considering how he was going to break the Wanderer's Curse.