This got way more attention than I thought. Guess the similarities to Professor Arc got to some people? I asked a question below on where the story should go next. Check it out.

"So..." Jaune looked at the four young women - Huntresses who could kick his butt nine ways to Sunday with both hands tied behind their backs - and sighed. He thought things were finally going well. He'd gotten into a routine, no one had any giant problems, and he'd finally gotten some time to get schedule some training for himself. He was supposed to start tomorrow.

And then team RWBY blew up the docks.

Alright, so that wasn't completely accurate. They were fighting the White Fang and Roman Torchwick, and there were a couple of transfer students there too, but the cause of the fight was because Ms. Belladonna and Ms. Schnee had a fight about the latter's...particular views on the Faunus. Views he knew about too because she'd apparently decided being a student counselor meant he was also supposed to listen to her talk about her life back in Atlas.

And no, Ms. Schnee, he did not know that Faunus only made up twenty percent of Atlas' population and yet committed fifty-four percent of crimes but thank you for telling him.

He looked at each of them in turn. Ruby looked ashamed, like it was somehow her fault. Weiss looked guilty, though more in the sense that she was embarrassed to be involved in this than because she did anything wrong. Yang, who he'd only had one session with, was grinning at him with her hands behind her head. From what he heard, she was the least involved in the whole thing. The only reason she was here at all was because she'd already been causing trouble independently before now.

And then there was the main culprit. Blake Belladonna, the secret Faunus who got into a fight with the infamous thief, Roman Torchwick. Unlike Weiss and Ruby, she had no shred of guilt, but unlike Yang, she was actually responsible for this. Ruby was held liable as team leader and Weiss had started the argument, but Blake was the one who decided that blowing up the docks was somehow the way to fix things.

Speaking of, the woman of the hour had her arms crossed and looked at him defiantly, as if daring him to say she did anything wrong.

In hindsight, it was a sign of things to come.

"It's not that big a deal..." Ruby muttered, looking down at the ground as she traced her foot from side to side.

"Indeed. We've patched up our conflicts and we even foiled an attempted heist by both Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. The faculty should be thanking us, really," Weiss said haughtily.

"Besides, we're Huntresses in training. Isn't this the kind of thing that we're supposed to deal with?" Yang shrugged lightly, still sporting the same lazy grin.

Blake said nothing in her defense and just continued with the same defiant look.

Jaune sighed and took off his fake glasses. He was only the student counselor (and he didn't even have a degree), but he had one thing these four with all their Aura and weapons didn't: being able to hide behind the headmaster.

"I'm not a teacher, so you guys can't really argue your case to me. You all do realize that three out of the four of you could face criminal charges, right? And that's if Ms. Belladonna, at the least, isn't expelled." That took the wind out of their sails. Ruby looked like she was about to cry, Weiss' haughty facade broke, and Yang flinched like she'd been hit. The only one who stayed calm was Blake.

Again, another sign of the things to come.

"The headmaster told me that you all need counseling. Two hours every couple of days for each of you starting tomorrow." She looked at each of them in turn, "No skipping or excuses. If you all miss even a single session, I'm going to tell the headmaster and he's going to decide something else." They all winced at that. The subtle threat in the warning was clear as day, "You all decide the order between you four."

"And...how long will we need to keep up these sessions?" Weiss asked, though she didn't look put off in the least. Why would she? She'd found someone to talk (read: rant) to who was forced to listen. She probably saw this as a benefit.

"Until you guys learn your lesson." Translation: until he said so. Blake looked even more annoyed at that.

"Come on, Jaune. It's not that big a deal." Yang winked. Jaune just looked at her. He would've blushed if he didn't remember Goodwitch stressing just how bad it'd look to even imply he was attracted to one of his 'patients', "Alright, so how about you just let me off, huh? I mean if you really think about it I didn't do anything wrong!" The rest of the team glared at the blatant attempt at betrayal.

"Actually, Ms. Xiao Long, you're not here because of this incident." He took out his clipboard. It was still empty, but it made him look professional, "From what Professor Goodwitch told me, you have issues with breaking the rules."

"Come on. Like when?" Yang snorted.

"A week before school started, you assaulted one Hei Xiong, committed multiple amounts of battery against his employees, and cost him thousands of lien in damages to his club. Beacon had to pay restitution for that." Apparently, there was a fund for it. Superpowered, hormonal teenagers with deadly weapons tended to cause problems. Problems that the right greased palms could make go away. It was kind of horrifying if you really thought about it.

"B-But they were bad guys!" Yang protested. Weiss just sighed and facepalmed.

Ignoring her, Jaune continued, "You've also been caught sneaking out past curfew to attend nightclubs and also smuggling in alcohol into your dorm."

"Everyone needs to unwind now and then!"

"So no, Ms. Xiao Long, I can't just 'let you off'. Please come to your meeting tomorrow."

"Rrgh, fine." She crossed her arms and looked away with a scowl.

Jaune waited till the four future Huntresses left the room before he finally sagged in his seat. Oh Gods, how the hell did he pull that off without looking like a complete idiot? He brought a hand down his face and let out a nervous breath. Fake it till you make it. That was his plan to attend Beacon, and now it was his plan to stay here. Ozpin knew he had no credentials, but apparently he 'forgot' to tell everyone else. As far as they were concerned, he just happened to be a baby-faced psych graduate and the students didn't care enough to ask his age. Which was good, cause he didn't want to actively lie to their face.

Jaune shook his head and trudged back to his room. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

"So tell me again about your crush on Ms. Scarlatina?" Jaune jotted down 'taking crush badly' on the clipboard and looked back up to the taller man sitting across from him.

"I don't have a crush on her!" Cardin Winchester yelled, face red from what was no doubt embarrassment at being caught. He was forced to go into counseling after he publicly bullied one Velvet Scarlatina in the cafeteria, "Why the hell do you think that I've got a crush on a filthy Animal?!"

"You're protesting a lot."

"Because you're being a fucking idiot!" Cardin snarled, "I ain't a five-year-old! I pulled on her ears because I wanted to show her that a rabbit like her doesn't belong in a school like this."

"So would you say you hate her?"

"Yeah, I do! Her and the other animals!"

"Hm, then why, according to the teachers, do you go out of your way to talk to her so much?" Cardin opened his mouth to protest...only to come up silent, "You're not the only one who has this...particular view of Faunus." Being racist, he didn't say because that would be super unprofessional, "Your team and a few other students don't like them, but you're the only one who really goes out of your way to talk to them. Or talk to Ms. Scarlatina, specifically."

"S-So what?"

"It's just something I noticed." Jaune jotted down more imaginary notes on the clipboard, "Ever since we started this session all you've done is talk about her. You've gone out of your way to bully Ms. Scarlatina even when it would be extremely inconvenient to do so and continued even after the rest of your team put all of team CRDL in the infirmary." Which was also apparently not worth worrying about, according to Professor Port, "Most people who hate a person or a group of people would make sure to interact with them as least as possible, but not you."

"I just want to get it in her head that she doesn't belong here!"

"Again, you're focusing just on her. I haven't heard any stories about you bullying any of the other Faunus students, just Ms. Scarlatina." Cardin's eyes widened as if he'd realized it himself for the first time. It was, to be honest, cringy. Most people went past the pulling-on-pigtails stage when puberty kicked in, "If I were you, I'd think long and hard about healthy ways to express your crush."

"I don't have a crush on her!"

"You said that." Jaune looked at his fancy new wristwatch. Apparently checking the time on your scroll was unprofessional, "I'm sorry, I have another session. Same time next week?"

Cardin sputtered and protested the entire way out. Jaune set some cookies down just before Ruby came inside without knocking, "Sorry I'm late, Jaune!" She plopped down on the chair and grabbed a handful of cookies before he could even reply. She'd been calling him by his first name since their first session and he felt too awkward to correct her. Apparently, the students felt comfortable since he didn't feel like a teacher, or so Professor Oobleck said.

Ruby's session went by pretty easily. Truth be told there wasn't much to really talk about with her. As the team leader she was held viable, but the teachers understood there was no way this was really her fault. The point of the sessions was just to check how she was doing after everything that happened. It wasn't too long ago that she had doubts about her capabilities after Weiss attempted to take her spot.

Weiss' session afterward was also surprisingly easy. Apparently, she'd started to re-think her view on the Faunus because of what happened with Blake. Personally, he thought it was a weirdly quick turnaround, but he wasn't complaining. What he was gonna complain about was Weiss deciding that she had to quiz him just to make sure he was actually listening to her and wasn't just nodding along.

At least he knew that Winter Schnee was a sucker for lemon cake.

Weiss was in the middle of telling him all about how great her cake butler was when Yang just barged in, "My turn, Weiss Cream. You can't hog the guy all to yourself."

"Oh, my apologies. I've been having so much fun I didn't realize how much time passed." Weiss smiled at him. It would've been sweet if she hadn't gone into absurd detail about her cake butler's sordid family history, "Could we book an extended session tomorrow?"

"A-Ah, actually I'm pretty busy for the...next month. Sorry."

"Not a problem. The two hours we have are plenty. Next time I'll tell you all about the times Whitley wet the bed."

"L-Looking forward to it." Jaune gave the heiress a weak thumbs up and let out an internal sigh of relief when she finally left.

"Weiss been ranting at ya about how much her life at home sucks?" Yang asked as she sat.

"Can't tell you that. Patient confidentiality." It was the go-to excuse Ozpin told him to use...and loved to remind him about when it came to keeping his drunken fanfiction secret. Nevermind that he wasn't even a counselor back then.

"Sure." She twisted around till she sat across the seat instead, her upper and lower body dangling over the edges while she looked up at the ceiling. It didn't look comfortable at all, "So let's say you and me make a deal. The two of us just play games or do whatever and you tell everyone that I went through this amazing breakthrough, there were tears and everything. Sound good?" She grinned.

"Uh...no." He scribbled down 'uncooperative' on the clipboard. Yang's easy smile fell at the sound of the pen against paper, "I already told you that you're here because you've been causing trouble."

"Oh, come on!" She huffed and crossed her arms, giving him a sideways glance. It took a herculean effort not to pay attention to how the gesture emphasized her chest, "So what if I 'act out' now and then? You've been a teenager too, so you know what it was like." Actually, he was still a teenager, but he didn't tell her that. If she found out they were the same age she'd just push even harder, "Come on, doc, gimme a break here."

"We need to talk about your problems, Ms. Xiao Long."

"What problems? I don't have any problems. I'm doing great!"

"Sneaking out of school, underage drinking, property damage, assault..." She winced as he listed down her offenses again, "Huntsmen in training get a lot of leeways, from what I was told, but you're kind of pushing it."

"Everyone needs to let off some steam now and then." She huffed again, "Look, if I say I'm sorry, could we skip the whole psychoanalyzing thing?"

"You're being oddly defensive..."

"Am not!" She sat up properly and winced when he wrote something down on the clipboard again, "Hey, just cause I like to have fun every now and then, doesn't mean I'm a basket case!"

"I never said you were."

"You sound like you are." She narrowed her suddenly red eyes at him, "Listen. Just cause I'm not a goody two shoes like Weiss doesn't mean I don't know how to behave. I attend classes, keep my grades up, whatever. Besides, isn't the whole point of being a Huntress to be free and have fun?"

"I thought it was to kill Grimm?"

"Well yeah, but that's not the only thing! It's about...exploring the world, having adventures, and seeing new people! My uncle's one of the best Huntsmen in Vale and he does all that. Hell, he drinks and has more fun than I do and he's still good at what he does. Why can't I be the same?"

"...Besides the fact that you're a student and shouldn't be doing those things?"

"Psh, won't be a student forever. Besides, they trust us enough to kill Grimm in the Emerald Forest, so what's the harm in letting loose?"

Alright, they were going around in circles. Thankfully, he had another thing to fall back on, "...I suppose I can see your point." Yang grinned...only for her expression to turn to utter despair when he continued, "I'll be sure to talk to your dad at the next parent-teacher conference. I'm sure he'd be interested to see how both his daughters are doing."

"W-Wait! You said patient confidentiality!"

"I never said I'd talk about what we discussed here. I'm just saying that he'll be interested in knowing how his daughters are doing and I'm sure that he'll be relieved to know that you're both doing well." A pause, "I will, of course, tell him if he asks why we're doing these sessions. The stuff you've been doing isn't a secret. I'm sure it's fine. I mean, what are the chances he doesn't know about the club or you sneaking booze into campus?"

"You...You son of a bitch!" Yang leaned back in shock, though she also looked somewhat impressed, "You're really doing this? Snitching! This is low, doc!"

"Just doing my job." The job he was in no way qualified for, but hey, "So, if you really don't wanna talk, I can't force you. Maybe we should play those games?"

"Oh, you cheeky asshole." Yang smiled, the gesture all teeth, "Fine, you wanna know all about what makes me tick? I was holding back for your sake, you know. Underneath this amazing hair is someone holding into some heavy shit."

"If you want to tell me, then yeah."

"And nothing about this leaves the room?"

"You could tell me you committed a murder and I have to keep my lips sealed." Apparently, counselors could talk about a patient planning to commit a future crime, but not an old one. Same way the priest back home had the most blackmail on anyone in town but could never use it. Like the fact that Jaune was the one who broke the family heirloom vase.

"And you don't tell my dad anything?"

"If you make progress in the sessions then I doubt he'll ever know you were here."

"Alright...well, if you really wanna know why I'm acting like this, I guess it all started when I was born to the worst mother on Remnant."

...

This was gonna be a long session.

Jaune felt exhausted as the last patient of the day finally came. It was half an hour past curfew, but sessions could go beyond the time limit since, unsurprisingly, Beacon wanted to make sure their students were mentally stable.

It was why he forced a smile on his face when Blake Belladonna trudged inside like a woman being marched into her execution. Unlike Ruby and Weiss' nonchalance and Yang's refusal to take anything seriously, the dark-haired girl still kept the same defiant look she had the day prior. Her eyes said it all: "Why am I here when didn't do anything wrong?" It was the look every Arc had given to their parents at least once.

Speaking of parents, he couldn't fall back on that. Her's were all the way back in Menagerie and bullheads didn't go that far. Well, that and she still thought she was disguising the fact that she was a Faunus even though she didn't change her last name at all. The staff knew from her student files and she was pretty sure most of the students did too. Maybe they just felt bad about it?

"Let's get this over with," Blake muttered.

"Right..." Jaune held up his clipboard, "Do you know why you're here, Ms. Belladonna."

"Because I stopped a criminal working with terrorists from stealing Dust."

"No, because you ran away from your team, blew up the docks, and then only narrowly avoided being expelled for it." He expected some shame, or at least some worry, but instead she just crossed her arms and kept looking without her expression changing. Oh, joy... "Ms. Belladonna, I want you to understand that these sessions are important. You can't just do what you did."

"Why? Would it have been better if Torchwick escaped with all the Dust?"

"He still escaped and most of the Dust was destroyed in the fight."

"Exactly: most, not all. Besides, better than him and the White Fang having it."

Alright, this wasn't working. Blake had the conviction of the righteous. It reminded her of her younger sisters when they were sure that sneaking out to hang out with their friends past midnight was the right decision, "Alright, let's start over." He took off his fake glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he wondered if accepting Ozpin's offer was for the best, "Could I ask you to please take your bow off?"

"...Why?" Her eyes narrowed into yellow slits.

"Because it'll be more comfortable if your Faunus ears aren't being constricted."

Her eyes widened and she froze for a moment before she suddenly replied, "No, I can't."

"...May I ask why?"

"I think that should be my question." Her lips thinned, "Why are you, the student counselor, asking one of his female students to take off her clothes? Am I being harassed?"

"Wh-What? No! Where the heck did that come from?!"

"You're asking me to take off my clothes."

"Your bow, which is very different from asking you to take off your clothes!"

"It's part of my outfit, so you're asking me to take off my clothes." Jaune wanted to bang his hand against the wall, "Also, I don't understand your reasoning. I don't have Faunus ears."

...

What?

Jaune just looked at her. Blake looked back without an ounce of shame or signs that she was lying...except for the fact that her bow was twitching. Jaune sighed and pulled out a file from his cabinet, "Alright, so you're Blake Belladonna." He opened the student file Ozpin gave him. She didn't even change her name and she honestly thought that she had the entire school fooled?

"That's my name."

"You're a Faunus."

"No."

"You're the daughter of Ghira and Kali Belladonna."

"Never heard of them in my life."

"You're the exact same age as their daughter and look just like her."

"Must be a coincidence. You know they say that chances are someone out there is your identical clone." A pause, "Except I'm human, so not really."

...

Seriously?

"Blake, do you think that I don't know you're a Faunus?"

"I think you think I'm a Faunus, but that doesn't make it true."

"So it's just a coincidence that you share the same name and more than a passing similarity to the rulers of Menagerie?"

"You and Yang are both blonde, you don't see me accusing you two of being siblings." She rolled her eyes. Actually rolled her eyes like he was the one being stupid, "If you've read my file, you should know that I'm a human and also an orphan. Frankly, I think it's really hurtful that you're implying I have parents when I don't."

"No, your file says right here that you're a Faunus and that your parents are alive and well. I'm reading it right now."

She squinted at him, "You're not wearing your glasses. Your eyes must be playing tricks on you."

"The glasses are fake. I don't need them, the same way you don't need that bow because we both know what's hiding under there." They twitched again. Seriously, who did this girl think she was fooling? ...Besides her team for those first couple of weeks.

"How could you say that? This bow was one of the last things my parents left me when I was taken to the orphanage. I've had it since I was a baby and I swore I would never take it off in remembrance of them."

"Which fairy tale did you steal that from?" Yes, he wasn't being professional, but screw it. This girl wasn't working under any sense of logic.

"I find your accusations hurtful, Mr. Arc." She sniffled. There were no tears and she didn't look sad at all, "Just because you have to put on fake glasses doesn't mean we all take our possessions so lightly."

"Alright, so answer me this. You ran off because Weiss was being bigoted about the Faunus. You're telling me you didn't take that personally for a reason?"

"I found her views short-sighted and stupid. I don't need to be a Faunus to feel that way. Or are you saying that humans can't sympathize with their plight? Just because you're bigoted against the Faunus doesn't mean we all are."

"I'm not racist!"

"Good, then that just proves my point. Humans can believe in equality just as much as the Faunus do. And no, I won't take off my bow." Blake smiled like she'd just won some sort of victory while Jaune glared. Oh, so she wanted to play it that way, huh? Fine. If she thought she could do it this way then screw being professional. He was gonna wipe that smile off her face.

"Okay, fine, you just happen to have the same name, age, and appearance as this totally unrelated girl and you refuse to take your bow off even though you're not hiding anything. Did I get that right?"

"Yep. Also, I didn't do anything wrong. The White Fang and Torchwick had to be stopped."

"The fact that you're here means you did do something wrong?"

"If you say so." No, Jaune, you can't strangle a student; and not just because she'd snap his arms as soon as he tried.

"Let's...just talk about what happened."

"If that's what you want."

The next hour and a half felt like he was banging his head against a brick wall. Every single question he asked she had a non-answer or justification. Why did she hunt down Torchwick? To prove that Faunus weren't stealing all the Dust. Why didn't she call the cops? It was just a hunch so she didn't want to waste their time with a guess. Why didn't she call literally anyone once she saw Torchwick and the White Fang were there? Heat of the moment.

By the time the session was done, they were arguably worse than when they started. He could go to Ozpin, but he also knew that the guy had a soft spot for team RWBY for some reason, so that wouldn't work; he was pretty sure the expulsion threat was fake. Meanwhile, Blake was seemingly determined to outlast him till he either gave up or she convinced him that she was somehow right and everyone else was wrong.

Jaune locked the door and resisted the urge to go down to Vale for a drink. He'd find some way to make her see reason no matter how long it took.

...

A couple more weeks later, team RWBY fought Roman Torchwick's mech on the highway and caused massive property damage. Jaune screamed when Ozpin told him to double up their sessions.

Poor Jaune. Actually making some headway getting to Ruby, Weiss, and Yang, then he meets the immovable object that is Blake Belladonna. Like I said, I'm exaggerating her stubbornness to cartoonish levels for the sake of comedy. Jaune could airlift her parents from Menagerie right into his office and she'd still somehow find a way to cling to her 'disguise'.

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Questions:

1. Alright, so I'm kind of torn right now. The original plan was for the fic to have a tone similar to 'Daddy? Sorry. Daddy?' and 'Of Cats and Rabbits' where everyone acts in an exaggerated manner. So you have Jaune managing to get Cinder to open up in two hours and Mercury latching onto him as a father figure, which just makes it more absurd when Blake somehow still remains stubborn.

Except when I got to Ruby and Weiss' segment in Chapter 1, the convo didn't end up being as funny or exaggerated as I would've liked. Ditto with Yang's convo here. Blake's the only one who really goes all-in on the crazy denial and drags Jaune to her level of idiocy.

So what do you guys prefer: that we stick to the current tone we have now or shift to more absurdity starting from the next chapter? I can justify it with Jaune being driven crazy by Blake's antics and thus he acts far less professional and blunter with all future sessions for every patient he has.

2. Do you guys want romance here? My original plan was that there wasn't gonna be any romance unless you counted Pyrrha trying and failing to cross the professional boundary with Jaune, especially when she invites him to Argus for the break and he doesn't see the implication. The Patient-Counselor thing might also be a turn-off for a lot of people.

Review Answers:

ChrisRoad - Counselors and therapists are supposed to have a boundary with their patients. Pyrrha instead latches onto Jaune and wants to make him her boyfriend despite how inappropriate that is.

Chuck B. Winanaki - Pretty sure Arslan having a beef with Pyrrha is just fanon. In canon, she doesn't even have speaking lines.

lifeofpuzzle - The chapters are meant to be relatively short, so of course I rushed them. This is meant to be a comedy story.