Heart to Heart

Chapter 4: Past and Training

Blake was wondering where Sun had gone off to, he was quick and had a lead on her so she had lost sight of him as soon as he had left the room. She was wondering what had bothered him so much, where he was going and what was going through his head. She paused trying to think of where he would go but she was coming up blank.

He always seemed to be able to track her down but when it was the other way around she found that she didn't have a clue where to start looking. Sun was always a fly by the seat of his pants type of person. She started walking again, she would search every room one by one and then start looking outside if she had to.

After awhile she heard it, the sounds of someone hitting something. She found herself in the small gym that was next to the dojo. It wasn't as big as the dojo but it had equipment for people to train their bodies in. Looking through the open doorway she could see the various weights but Sun was there hitting the heavy bag.

"Bastard!" Sun grunted out hitting the bag hard.

Blake blinked, she had never seen Sun this worked up before.

"Cowardly traitor!" Sun spat out hitting the bag even harder.

Something was seriously eating him up so she walked into the room. "Sun?"

He paused catching his breath but not looking at her, "Hey."

Sun went back to punching the bag again going into combos and making every hit hard. Blake was really starting to worry now as she walked up to the bag and saw his face. There was this dark determination in his eyes as he focused on the bag. She didn't like seeing him like this, this wasn't the Sun she knew. The one that carried a smile even through the bad times, the one that tried to make her lighten up, this was a Sun in pain.

He gently touched his shoulder. "Sun, what's wrong?"

Sun stopped but still glaring at the bag as his shoulders slumped.

"Lionheart," He simply said.

Now she was starting to understand, Sun came from this school and he had been his headmaster here. She mentally cursed herself she should have seen this coming but she had forgotten.

"I'm sorry Sun."

"You got nothing to be sorry for," He said giving a few light jabs at the bag. "But him on the other hand, we looked up to him, hell I looked up to him. Now I find out that he betrayed hunters to this Salem person. Good men and women are dead now because of him, how many families lost loved ones because of him?"

"He was supposed to protect us, teach us but he betrayed everything to save his own skin!" He threw a hard right punch that knocked the bag away as he waved the hand in pain and hissed.

"Okay that's enough of that," Blake said taking his hand and looked at it. She gently bent it testing it out. "Any pain?"

"Not really," Sun sighed.

"This is really bothering you isn't it?" Blake asked him looking into his eyes.

Sun nodded his head, "Yeah."

He went to sit on a bench as Blake joined him as Sun flexed his wrist. "I guess to really understand you should know a bit about myself. You know I came from Vacuo originally right? Well originally I'm from one of the nomad tribes."

"You mean the tribes that go around the Vacuo desert?" Blake had heard of them but nothing much else.

Sun smiled thinking back on it, "Oh yeah. See the nomad tribes are the ones that travel from city to village, we trade with them and help deliver things. Sometimes letters, sometimes goods, it's actually a pretty decent living and very respectable in Vacuo since some towns rely on the trading with the nomads."

"I was found by one of them."

"What do you mean by found?" Blake asked confused.

"I was told that they found me alone in the desert," Sun shrugged. "Actually it was this monk Tang that found me. He used to tell me he found me in the shadow of a mountain just alone, barely older than a toddler."

"What about your parents?" Blake's eyes widened at the revelation.

Sun just shrugged, "No idea, I could have been abandoned or maybe a Grimm got them, sand storm, there's a lot of ways to die in the desert if you're not careful. Tang brought me back to the tribe and named me Sun. He was the closest thing to a father figure I had growing up. Well I won't go into full detail but growing up I was a handful."

He laughed remembering some of the fond memories. "I had these two other friends another faunus a pig named Zhu and there was this human kid Sha. Sha wasn't much of a looker and man he had a scary face but you know what, he had a good heart and was always a good friend."

"Anyways I guess wondering around the desert all that time gave me this 'wonder lust' as old Tang called it. He would see me looking off into the distance and would ask me what I was thinking. I would say that I wonder what's over there. He would reply that maybe one day I would find out."

"I think he knew that I wanted to see the world and there was really only one job that I could do that would let me do that."

"Being a hunter," Blake guessed.

"You got it," he grinned at her. "I remember that day we came to the capital, only been there a few times before that day. Well, Tang had a surprise for me, for years he had been saving up and got me into one of the combat schools one that I could board in."

Blake's ears flattened. "You have to leave them though."

"Yeah they had to move on," Sun's face fell a bit. "I remember being really scared, I've never really been on my own until then. Tang then told me something that I'll never forget."

"Sun, everyone has their own path to follow. Sometimes it will lead you away from home, from family, from friends. But that doesn't mean that you won't meet again one day down the road. You'll also meet new friends, make new family and find a new home. Life is always changing shape, day by day and we change with it. We are not the same today as we were yesterday and the future holds more possibilities than there are grains of sand in the desert."

"That's…kind of deep." Blake said.

Sun laughed, "He's like that a lot always saying things like that all the time. Still I didn't really get it until I came here. Anyways skip ahead to graduation and I could have stayed there but those words always rang in my ears. So I applied to here instead and when I was accepted I couldn't believe this place when I first got here. There's so much water and green here than in Vacuo that I just spent all day just walking around looking at everything."

Then his face turned a bit grim, "When we got here Lionheart would have a sit down with every new student to talk them. He said he wanted to get to know them personally, he told me that he knew every huntsman and huntress that graduated from Mistral on a first name basis."

He balled his fist remembering that meeting. "I liked him Blake. I thought he was a laid back and a cool guy. I thought, hey here's a faunus that's the head of one of the best schools, this is so cool…"

Blake reached out and gently took his hand in hers. "That's why his betrayal hurt you so much."

"Yeah," Sun looked at her. "In the desert you learn that you have to trust the person next to you because you're life depends on it. When I make friends I make them for life Blake. I trust them completely so when I heard about what Lionheart did…I felt betrayed and I mean like the guy stabbed me in the back himself."

Blake felt like she understood him better now, she had never asked about his past before maybe because she was too focused on her own issues at times. Maybe it was also because deep down she was still afraid of getting close to someone again. After Adam she really wasn't sure if she could trust someone again for a relationship.

She knew that Sun was nothing like Adam but the wound was still there inside of her.

Sun got up and stretched out, "okay I think I'm done with the depressing stuff."

Blake blinked, "Just like that?"

He turned to smile at her. "Old Tang always said that it's better to live in the moment and face the future instead of being stuck in the past. Now that's something he said that I can totally get behind. Yeah it really sucks what Lionheart did and I'm totally not cool with it. It's going to hurt for awhile but I'm not going to let that keep me down anymore than I have to. He's gone now and we have to deal with the mess he's made anyway."

Blake shook her head, this was just so…him. It was good to see Sun back to his old self again.

"I just needed to blow off some steam and talking it out with you helped," Sun told her. "That's usually how it goes for me."

"I'm starting to see that, still I'm glad to see you back to your usual self."

"What? Charming and good looking?" He winked at her.

Blake rolled her eyes, yes he was back to normal.

-Later that Day-

Yang was walking towards the dojo, it was nearly time for her training with Jaune. Thankfully, she found exactly what she needed as she carried the equipment under her arm. When she got close, she could hear the metal on metal sound of swords hitting each other.

When she got there, she could already see Weiss and Jaune in a spar, looking around she noticed that Blake was leaning up against the wall her arms crossed as she was studying the spar intently. Yang went over to join her.

"How's our boy doing?" She asked her partner.

"We've been focusing on his style at the moment and refining it," Blake never took her eyes off the two of them. "Also teaching him a few more moves. He's got the basics down already so we're just building up on that."

"We can thank Pyrrha for that I bet," Yang smiled. She bet Pyrrha would be proud of how far Jaune had come so far. "So you're just sitting here watching while Weiss does all the work?"

"We switch," Blake replied. "I handle some things as my style is closer to what Jaune can use but Weiss is helping him with his finesse and precision."

"Makes sense," Yang shrugged although she didn't know much about swords she knew there were different styles. Like how there were different fighting styles, each one had strengths and weaknesses over the other. She could tell that Blake and Weiss had different styles but nothing too in depth.

There was a pause in the spar as Yang figured now was the time to get her training in. "Okay I think it's my turn, tag in ladies."

She held out a hand up high for Blake who just smirked with a shrug before tagging her. Weiss walked over and tried to ignore the tag but seemed to rethink it and just lightly tagged Yang's upright hand.

"Thanks for the help," Jaune said going over for a water bottle he had worked up a thirst after all that.

"You've showed a lot of improvement," Weiss told him. "I think with some more time we can get your sword skills up a bit more."

"Really? Thanks, I've just kind of been doing what I can on my own lately." Jaune took a large gulp of water as he took a small towel and wiped some sweat off his forehead.

"Well it shows," Blake then looked to Weiss. "Come on, Sun said he knows a place where you can get your dress fixed."

"Finally," Weiss groaned out. "I can't wait to get out of this grey track suit."

"Not your color?" Yang smirked.

"It's grey, doesn't fit and I look like trash in it," Weiss said evenly. "So no, not my thing."

Yang chuckled at that as the two left and then looked at Jaune. "You want a break first?"

"Naw that was actually the more intense part you just walked in on," Jaune told her as he put his sword back into its sheath and placed them down. "Mostly it was just working on my stance and a few positions and slowly practicing some moves."

"Well then if you're up for it take off those gauntlets and put these on," she tossed him a pair of fighters gloves. Not the large padded ones for boxers but the smaller combat gloves, while he got ready Yang did the same. She took off her coat and placed it along the wall leaving her with just her orange top on. She pulled tied off her long hair into a ponytail and then finally put on her flat punching mitts.

Jaune spared a look he had never seen Yang in a ponytail before, it was kind of cute on her he had to admit.

"Okay get into a fighter's position for me," Yang watched him and he raised his guard up like a boxer, which wasn't bad form from what she could see. Looks like Pyrrha really did put the basics into him. "Okay show me a left jab and then a right."

"That's it?"

"I need to see your form."

"Ok then," Jaune threw out a quick light jab with both arms.

"Not bad but don't forget to twist your wrist and hips like this," Yang demonstrated. "You get more power in your hits that way. Now try again."

Jaune did what she told him, well he tried it took him a few tries before he got it. Then Yang had him do it again and again to make sure he had it down. She worked with his jabs, crosses, uppercuts all the types of basic punches. After fifteen minutes they took a small break and Yang started up the next part of the training.

"Okay now that you got that down, it's time for combos. I'm going to call it out and you're going to react as fast as you can."

"Got it," Jaune took a breath as he put up his hands focusing on the person in front of him.

"Left-right-right."

There was a 'wamp-wamp-wamp' with each hit to the gloves.

"Left-Left-left!"

Wamp-wamp-wamp

"Right-left-left-right-left!"

She kept calling out shots and she was impressed with Jaune's concentration. So she decided to switch it up a little.

"Left-right-uppercut!"

Jaune paused for a fraction from the new command but thankfully, he managed to pull it off. He mainly paused because he wasn't sure what to hit but after the right jab, Yang had changed up how she held the gloves so he went with that.

"Remember to lean in slightly when you uppercut," Yang noticed the error.

"Sorry I was caught off guard from the change," Jaune scratched the back of his head.

"That's why I did it, you can't get complacent, now we going to throw in dodging. When I say upper right you're going to bring your guard of your right arm up to the side of your head because I'm going to try and whack you with the mitt."

Jaune paused for a moment, "Uh…how hard are you trying to whack me?"

Yang smirked at him, "Do bad and I'll do it hard, do good and it won't be so bad. So don't do bad."

Jaune gulped he knew just how hard she could hit. She explained the other guards to him as they did a small practice with each one to get him used to it. Yang wanted to make sure that he knew not only how to throw a punch but how to take it and how to dodge. She noticed that Jaune had this nasty habit of trying to tank all his attacks.

His aura being so high he could get away from it but from her own experience she knew that going straight ahead wasn't always the best choice. She wanted to make sure that he had options and wouldn't end up taking an attack that his aura couldn't save him from.

"Left-right-lower left!"

Jaune hit both and got his left arm down in time to feel Yang hit him there, thankfully she wasn't going all out but he knew that could change if he didn't take this seriously. He tried to focus as Yang called out more and more attack patterns. He found that she started easy but then she would ramp it up a little each time.

It was kind of like a memory gave only that if he messed up he would pay for the mistake. He would hit the gloves, block, pulled his head back in a dodge or sway his head to the left or right to avoid a straight. Sometimes he wasn't fast enough and could just feel the air blow past his skin or hair as he just missed him. That only helped him to double his efforts.

It was somewhat different from how Pyrrha had trained him. Pyrrha had been gentle and took her time with him while Yang however pushed him to see how far he could go but never too much. He could already feel the sweat starting to pool in his hoodie and sticking to his skin. His shoulders were starting to burn but he kept it up. His breathing started to get more labored as this went on but Jaune didn't want to quit.

Yang noticed this as she continued on, she had never really seen Jaune train before but he really threw himself into it full force. It was odd in classes he had trouble at times but here it was like he was more focused.

'Maybe we're a little alike in that.' She thought. She always did learn better through practical means anyway.

As they continued, Yang would ramp up the difficulty as soon as Jaune started to get used to it. Although eventually Jaune started to tire out, his shoulders were starting to burn with the effort but he refused to back down. He would miss one of the combos and Yang would tag him, thankfully not very hard but the sweat starting to get into his eyes wasn't helping matters.

Yang noticed that he was starting to slow down, his reactions were getting slower, he was starting to fight for breath and she thought she saw him wince throwing a right hook. At that she put her gloves down.

"Jaune if you're feeling pain you better tell me now." She said seriously.

"I-I'm fine," He took the moment to wipe his brow but winced slightly.

"Okay we're ending it here," She took off her gloves. "Jaune if you're in pain you have to tell me."

"Won't my aura just fix it?" He asked taking off his own gloves.

"Eventually but that only helps with healing and any damage can build up over time." Yang signed. "If you push yourself too hard you can injure yourself which can also lead to hurting your training. The last thing you need is a chronic pain especially in your shoulders since you use them a lot with your weapons."

Jaune signed as he went to sit on the bench, "Sorry. I just feel like I'm still so far behind everyone."

She sat down next to him, "Jaune you've made a hell of a lot of practice for about what, two years worth of training?"

"Yeah it's been about that I think, pretty much when I joined Beacon is when I started to train."

Yang nodded. "Yeah and most of us have been training before we hit puberty. Hell my dad started my training when I was ten. So don't worry about catching up because at the rate you're going you'll get there. Just don't rush it or else it could sabotage yourself in the long run."

"Thanks Yang," He picked up his water bottle and rolled his shoulder. "I think you might be right about me pushing it."

Yang got up and sat on the ground. "Okay take it off."

"Take what off?" Jaune asked confused.

"Armor and hoodie and then sit down in front of me," Yang told him. "I'm going to help with your shoulders and I can't do it when them on."

"A-are you sure, maybe I can just ice them down."

"You can do that later but I need to see for myself just in case," Then she gave him a serious look and pointed to the floor in front of her. "So get over here buster or I'll make you."

Jaune flustered but he knew that she could do it if she wanted to.

'Why do I surround myself with super strong women?' he mentally thought before pulling off the armor.

Yang watched the white armor being pulled off but when he got to the hoodie she barked out a laugh. "Jaune, what the hell is that?"

"Not you too!" Jaune slumped over. "Come on, Ruby already laughed at my hoodie, I've had this the entire time you guys have known me!"

"We never saw the front because you always had armor over it," Yang laughed. On the front was an image of a bunny. Although one that rather looked familiar to her for a bit, it took her a moment to realize what it was. "Wait is that Pumpkin Pete?"

"Yeah I sent away for this, can we please not do this again?" Jaune moaned. He could still remember vividly how badly Ruby had laughed at seeing it. She had actually fallen onto her back in laughter.

"Alright-alright just take it off before I lose it again," Yang got herself under control. She wasn't surprised by this, it was just something that was just so 'Jaune' that she could totally see him having that on his hoodie. A memory flashed back to that first night in Beacon and him in his full body pajamas and shook her head. It seemed that no matter how much he grew or matured there would always be a bit of a child like nature to him.

She didn't consider that a bad thing, too often when people 'grew up' they became so serious they seemed to have lost the ability to have fun. Kind of like how Weiss was now that she thought about it. Thankfully her teammate seemed to have loosened up a little since that first day they all met. Her thoughts were pulled back as Jaune pulled off the hoodie and she could see his bare chest.

"Damn boy, where have you been hiding that all this time?" Yang smirked at the sight.

"W-what?" Jaune felt very exposed now from how intense she was looking at him. You would think that someone that grew up with seven sisters and had shared a room with two girls at Beacon he wouldn't get flustered in a situation like this but this was different.

First off, sisters didn't count. Second, he was used to sharing a room with Pyrrha and Nora plus it wasn't like the changed at the same time. They all used the bathroom to do that for privacy reason. He also wasn't used to girls looking at him like Yang was at the moment. It was like she was appraising him as her eyes roamed over his exposed skin.

"You just seemed more in shape than what I remember," Yang told him looking at his body. He had an average one when she first met him, not out of shape but not exactly physically active body. Now however Jaune had gained some muscles. He was by no means a body builder type, in fact Yang didn't really care for overly muscled men. Jaune was actually more to the type she rather liked.

He was athletic but slim, a bit bigger than a swimmers build although his muscles weren't as defined as say Sun's but Jaune was getting there. All in all it was surprisingly appealing to her, now that was a thought she never would have thought of when she first met him.

"I guess you really have been training, plus wearing all that armor has done you some good too." Yang smirked at him.

"Uh…thanks?" He shrugged a bit nervously.

"Well don't keep a girl waiting," she told him as he sat down in front of her looking away. Yang got to work gently probing the muscles of his shoulders. She could feel the tightness in her flesh hand as she slowly got to work. "Tell me if my other hand gets too rough okay? I still get some trouble being gentle at times with it."

"Sure thing," Jaune said feeling her fingers go to work. There were some moments of pain but they soon passed for a sweat release after. It was a bit strange feeling flesh and robotic fingers going to work. The silence as she worked was also starting to get to him a little. Here he was alone with Yang without a shirt on and she was touching him. Now he knew there was nothing to worry about, they were friends that was all, but he had to admit it felt good and the whole thing also felt kind of intimate in a way.

He needed a distraction and started to think of anything to talk about.

"Yang if you don't mind me asking, how does it feel to have a robotic arm?" He gently asked her not sure how much of a taboo subject it was for her.

She paused for a moment before she continued. "Okay if you placed a hand behind your back and at the elbow imagine having an imaginary arm. You can move it but you can't really feel it, wait maybe I can think of something better…oh I know. You know how you wake up to find out you slept on your arm?"

"Oh yeah I've done that a few times." He nodded.

"Well it's kind of like that, you can feel it there with your other hand but it's almost completely numb, plus you can at least move it instead of waiting for the numbness to go away first too."

"Ow!" Jaune winced from Yang's robot hand going a little too far.

"Oh I'm sorry!" Yang pulled back quickly.

"I-it's okay it was just a bit too forceful."

Yang signed, "Yeah I still got to figure that out. I broke several cups before I left, my dad had me picking up eggs with it until I learned how to be more gentle with the grip but I still need some more practice."

"Maybe you should juggle eggs next," Jaune joked. "I think we still have some in the kitchen."

She smirked and slapped his shoulder lightly with her flesh hand. "Well look at you learning to sass back to me. There was a time I remember you being too timid to try that."

"Well that was before I got to know you better," Jaune admitted. "Plus after everything, I think I grew a bit out of my shell."

"Well that's good then," she found a nasty area and started to work on it paying attention not to put too much pressure. "Just don't get all dark and brooding or else I think you'd lose your charm."

Jaune was curious about that last remark. "Charm? I think I pretty much proven with Weiss that my 'charm' isn't very good."

"Oh don't worry about that," Yang waved it off. "You were coming on pretty strong."

"I still don't get it, don't girls like confidence?"

"Confidence yes, arrogance no," Yang informed him. "You were coming on too strong for her plus she's most likely used to guys trying to charm her being the daughter of the largest dust company in the world."

"Oh right," Jaune had never thought about it like that before. He remembered how easy Neptune got Weiss to swoon over him and Neptune made it look so easy. He had to admit he was kind of jealous of that skill back then.

Yang suddenly got an idea that made her smirk. "You know if you still got the hots for Weiss saving her life might have given you the perfect opening."

Jaune was quiet a moment before shaking his head. "You know a year ago I would have jumped at that but Weiss is a good friend now. Plus I wouldn't feel right trying to take advantage of her nearly dying like that. I'm not really in the mood to date at the moment anyway."

Now Yang winced remembering what he had told her about Pyrrha and his own confused feelings on the matter. "Sorry I shouldn't have brought that up."

"No it's okay, I'm just not in the right head space ya know?"

Looking at her arm Yang sighed. "Yeah I think I know what you mean. I'm not sure how many guys will want to be with a cripple."

Jaune suddenly turned around to look at her, "Yang you are not a cripple, hell you're not even close."

"Relax there," Yang told him with a bit of a sad smile padding his shoulder. "I know but let's just say here while on the way there was a guy that hit on me until he noticed my arm."

"That's…that's insane, Yang you're one of the most beautiful girls I know." Jaune paused as he realized what he said and blushed hard. He quickly looked away embarrassed trying to think of what to say next.

Yang blinked in surprise before chuckling. "Oh so I'm beautiful huh?"

"Yang." Jaune groaned out.

"Tell me how beautiful I am Jaune," she teased him wrapping her arms around him and pulling herself close and whispered into his ear. "Just how beautiful am I?"

"I-Y-y-yan-I mean-uh," Jaune stammered trying to think it wasn't easy, not with her like this. She was pressed up against his back and he could feel everything. He could feel the metal of her arm and the skin of her flesh. The hot breath against his ear sent a shiver through his spine and worst of all? He could feel them, he could feel those round globes pressing up against his back and he was trying so hard not to focus on how nice they felt.

Suddenly Yang fell onto her back laughing and Jaune looked at her with a glare.

"I'm so glad that you're having fun." He said in a deadpan voice.

It took her a moment to gather herself, "I couldn't help it but you make it so easy. You just look so adorable when you get all flustered like that."

"Couldn't you use another word than 'adorable'?" He whined.

She sat up and shook her head. "Nope, it's like looking at a puppy."

Jaune only groaned into hand as he face palmed and he got up. "Well I think I'll go take a shower."

"Sure thing and Jaune."

He paused in getting his shirt wondering what else she was going to say but when he looked at her he saw that she was wearing her seriously expression. He had seen this a bit more ever since she rejoined them and it was easy to see the difference between it and her usual more carefree air she had around her.

"Thanks, for the beautiful remark and I really mean that." She honestly told him. "Sometimes it's nice to hear from time to time."

He felt his cheeks heat up slightly as he went to pick up his shirt and armor. "Don't let it bother you Yang. Hey Weiss has that face scare and I still think she's pretty, so don't let anyone tell you that you aren't just because of your arm."

Yang smiled gratefully at him as she got herself up. "Thanks I'll do that."

TBC…

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