A/N: Hey, Muse, I'm really supposed to be writing Charismatic Gamer right-
Muse: MORE.
X
-Jaune-
The ride to school was impossibly quiet. It was a bit paradoxical, especially given that the radio was relaying one of the many morning talk shows, but not a word or gesture had been shared between Weiss and himself after they hopped into his truck. The reason for this was simple enough: he didn't want to talk, and she didn't have much to say.
Returning home after his Sunday shift had been an experience, to say the least. The Arc girls were perceptive enough to realize that something was off with his mood and how he never quite met Weiss's eyes, but he did his best to brush off their questions. When they continued to push anyways...
"Jaune, what in the world is going on?" Olive was concerned, of course, and he appreciated the care that she was trying to show. The other girls were listening attentively as they looked back and forth between him and Weiss, who seemed rather intent on filing her nails.
As much as Jaune wanted to confide his troubles in his family, he was still hesitant to throw Weiss to the wolves that were his overprotective sisters. So he decided that if he couldn't just ignore the questions, he'd turn it into a joke to break the tension. "It's just... Weiss said that she likes pickles, and I'm not sure I can be friends with her anymore."
The confusion from the group was palpable, but they shifted their full attention to the house guest to see her rebuttal. Weiss was stiff in her seat as she looked at him with a silent question.
He gave her a curt nod. Thankfully she received the message, as she let out an open scoff and crossed her arms indignantly. "I simply fail to see what you have against cucumbers! They're light, delicious, and can be utilized in a myriad of ways."
His sisters' reactions were instantaneous, as most of them quickly began to chide her for her poor taste in food. The sole exception was Jade, who, apparently feeling some strange sense of camaraderie, walked up to Weiss and shook her hand. Jaune took advantage of the ensuing chaos to make his strategic exit; he almost felt like he'd be a great tactician in another life.
A ghost of a smile crossed his face at the image; if Weiss noticed anything, she didn't comment on it.
Even after the truck was parked at Beacon, they remained silent walking into the building. The stark contrast from just a few days prior was not lost on him, and he briefly wondered if they'd ever recover that feeling of friendship to the level it had been at. It would require forgiving her first, obviously, but he wasn't quite ready for that yet.
They went their separate ways upon going through the doors, with Weiss headed to her locker and Jaune on his way to meet with a particular educator. He thought that he might have to go all the way to the man's office, but as he walked through Beacon's halls he happened to chance upon Ozpin, who was nursing what appeared to be a fresh cup of coffee. Jaune fell into step with the headmaster as he greeted him with, "Good morning, professor Ozpin."
"Good morning to you, Mr. Arc." He took a sip from his mug; Jaune could've sworn that he heard the man give a pleased grunt as he did. "How are you this morning?"
Stressed. "I'm fine, sir. If you don't mind me asking, are you free for a meeting after school?"
Ozpin lowered his coffee as he stoically regarded his student. "My doors are always open to my students, but to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"You said before that you wanted me to go to college through the music program. I was hoping we could talk about the careers that would be available to me if I did."
Ozpin's feet stopped walking for a brief moment, forcing Jaune to slow down until the headmaster caught back up. When he did so, there was a genuine smile on his face. "Well, this is certainly quite the happy surprise. I assume your family convinced you to give it a chance?"
"-In some ways, you and I are equally aimless. Maybe that's why I want you to succeed with your music."
"...My family and a friend, sir."
"I see. Yes, Mr. Arc; I will gladly allot some time for you this afternoon. Come see me right after last class, understood?"
"Thank you, professor. I'll see you this afternoon." Ozpin lifted his mug as an acknowledgement, and Jaune departed from him feeling oddly determined. He still had his reservations about a musical career, but maybe some positive light could be shed on the opportunity.
The first two periods of the day flew by, until Jaune found himself in his usual spot in the library during third period. If he decided to go back into Band or Chorus he'd lose this little free period of his, so he was going to make the most of it while he still could and study ahead for his classes. He was about ten minutes into his Mammal Biology textbook when a familiar voice addressed him with, "Mammals, huh? I prefer birds, myself."
Jaune looked up to see Yang standing right beside him with a small smile on her face. He laughed as she pulled out the chair just next to his own, though he was quiet so as not to disturb the other library visitors. "Any birds in particular?"
"Crows are cool, and I've just recently opened up to ravens. So, heads up for later, Professor Peach's classes are being subbed by Dr. Scarlatina today. It's why I'm here in the first place.
"Ooh, so I get two free periods today. Nice." Velvet's dad was a nice guy, and everyone liked him from the bottom of their hearts; sadly, he suffered from "has-no-disciplinary-bone" syndrome and tended to only enforce the teacher's plan for the day if it involved a test.
In the corner of his vision, Jaune saw a familiar head of blue hair walk through the double doors and begin chatting up the librarian. "Neptune's in your third period, too?"
"Yeah, he is." Yang glanced between the blueberry and Jaune. "Need to talk to him? I can leave-"
"No, no; stay, please. I'd rather not talk to him at all." He turned his full attention to Yang in order to block out Weiss's accomplice. "You're easier on the eyes, anyways."
Yang's eyebrows raised into the air, and Jaune felt like slapping himself. Why did his mouth operate without his brain around her these days? "I-I'm sorry, I did it again. Just ignore me."
"Hmm." Yang lifted her chair ever so slightly and scooched it closer to his. "You know, I don't think I want to."
"Huh? Uh, why not?"
She only smiled in response before redirecting the topic. "You know, Jaune, I was thinking that you haven't had the time to relax between everything you dealt with last week. Have you managed to relieve any of that stress?"
Apparently she could read him pretty well. "Not really, but I should be able to play on my guitar a little tonight and de-stress that way."
"Music, huh? I guess in your family you wouldn't have enough privacy for the 'other' method of stress relief." There was an unfamiliar glint in her eyes, and Jaune definitely felt like he was on the back-foot. Was this was prey felt like in the wild? "Do you have any days off of work this week?"
"Not this week, no. Next week I should be starting my joint schedule with Olive, so we'll probably only work three or so days. Why?"
"'Why?' Isn't it obvious?" Yang leaned in just enough that he had a better view of her 'assets', which he desperately tried to ignore. "You're really gonna make the girl ask you out a second time?"
Where was this aggressiveness coming from?! "Ask me out? Oh, you mean when we went out last Sunday. If you're down for another day like that, I am, too."
"Hmm." She seemed a bit dissatisfied as she reset her position in her seat, granting him the chance to breathe. "I guess that'll work for now. Make sure you text me your schedule once you have it, okay?"
"No problem." He wasn't sure if he'd ever felt so vulnerable around Yang before, but it almost as if he'd bit right onto a baited hook. Despite his better instincts telling him to drop it, he wanted to verify something. "Is this another, uh, 'not-date?'"
Yang's grin was mischievous as that unfamiliar shine returned to her eyes. "You tell me, Jaune; is it?"
She rose before he could respond, departing from him with a sashay to her hips. All Jaune could do was watch her saunter away with hypnotized eyes. 'I-I was not prepared for that.'
The way Jaune saw it, Yang Xiao Long had always been confident in herself. She could turn heads just by walking through a doorway, and she naturally knew that. However, he'd never felt... targeted by her before, as the blonde tended to keep a some type of distance from him even as she teased him. Like a ray of sunshine: always friendly and inviting, but never like a whirlpool that had you in its grasp.
When lunch came around, Pyrrha was missing from the table. Nora explained that Pyrrha had some classwork she said she wanted to take care of while she could. Jaune wasn't sure if he bought it completely, but he also didn't really have a right to complain about it, so the group ate lunch together normally. Weiss mainly talked to Ruby and Blake throughout the meal while Nora tried to keep the conversation lively. The atmosphere was awkward, and it almost certainly felt that way to everyone else, too.
He sighed into his tray as he took care of it. "Normal" was long gone, just like he thought it would be.
After class...
As suspected, nothing was really done under Dr. Scarlatina's tutelage, though Jaune at least did him the courtesy of going over the coursework while they were in the class. Once the bell rang, Jaune made a beeline for the headmaster's office while sending a text message to Weiss.
Jaune: Forgot to mention it earlier, but I'm meeting with Ozpin now. Career consultation. Will see you afterwards.
A moment later-
Weiss: Understood. I will be in the library when you're done.
Nodding to himself, he put his phone away and finished his trip. The door was open when he got there, and Ozpin waved him in as soon as he approached the office. "Thanks again for meeting with me, Professor."
"There's no need for thanks; I'm simply grateful that you came to me for help, young man. Now, do you have a particular career path you were curious about?"
Jaune shook his head. "Not really, no. I can tell you that I'm not much of a songwriter, so that's out; but otherwise I'm all ears, sir."
"Understood. To simply list some job positions off the top of my head: there are teachers, sound design teams for movies, studio management and recording, musical therapists, instrument development, journalism-"
"Hold on, sir; therapists?" Jaune was a little perplexed. "Like psychiatrists but with music?"
"It's a little more complicated then that, but yes. The requirements for it are rather strict, as one needs to be educated in biology, psychology, and physiology, as well as be competent in multiple instruments." Ozpin's glasses glimmered mysteriously in the office light. "Does that interest you, Mr. Arc?"
"Kind of..." More than a little, in fact. Jaune could admit to using music as an emotional crutch at times, but he hadn't given much thought into how it also could help others. "The scholarship that you mentioned before, would it cover all of the courses required? It sounds like a pretty intense set of classes."
"That would depend entirely on your ability to keep up your grades, Mr. Arc, but I have little reason to suspect that it wouldn't." Ozpin paused to sip from his mug. Jaune almost hoped that it was decaf this late in the day. "I suggest you keep that career in mind as you attend your classes here. Were there any other positions that interested you from my list?"
Jaune scratched his chin in thought. "Can you tell me about the studio management stuff?"
A good fifteen minutes passed with Jaune inquiring about average job descriptions and how much people made, particularly the therapists and teaching jobs. After they were done and he left to pick Weiss up from the library, the only certainty he had was that music journalism sounded just about the worst option to him. Or at least the most boring.
Weiss was studying when he found her, and when he tapped her on the shoulder she simply packed up her textbooks and followed after him, neither of them saying a word. It was bizarre to say the least. She was right beside him; and yet, despite his anger and frustration, he almost felt as if he missed her.
Crescent: Good night, and I hope you can still call me friend.
Damnit...
-Adam-
He felt the surface of the tools that had been passed to him in the courtyard as he and Tyrian enjoyed their ever-so-rare supervised break in the sun. A hammer and a chisel were what Adam slipped into his sleeves, and he scoffed as the scorpion kept up that insufferable grin. "Simple tools, if effective, but how long do you think it'll take for us to complete this plan?"
"I haven't the foggiest idea, I'm afraid." Tyrian shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?' "I've only performed a little manual labor in my time. We could be done in a week, or it may take months. Time is aplenty, so it's all down to how we use it."
Adam was unimpressed, but held his tongue lest he be annoyed by the answer to his follow-up question. Tyrian had received these and one other tool in a package that arrived in his cell over lunch. Apparently, the scorpion's lawyer knew whose palms to grease within the system. What that lawyer had to gain from this was anyone's guess, but Adam was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Fine. I'll get right to work."
"Be cautious, young bull." Tyrian's voice was oddly serious for once. "I don't know which guards are on the payroll of my friend, so assume all of them are hostile until I do."
"Of course." Adam slipped away from his "comrade" and spent the rest of the break away from him. Hours passed, and he eventually found himself alone within his cell as the facility lights went dim for the night. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he moved his bed away from the wall and, finding a good spot below the height of the bed, brought out the hammer and chisel and began to tap away at the wall.
It was tedious work, and far beneath him in most circumstances, but it was better then simply waiting for his prison sentence to end. If he allowed the system to do what it liked, then he would no doubt have a motion-tracker placed on him for the next ten years. He was a proud Faunus, and refused to be chained to some designated apartment like a mutt.
Adam Taurus was a revolutionary. He would one day subjugate the humans beneath the Faunus's heel, even if the White Fang believed his methods to be too extreme. That said, Tyrian and he were not friends; they were merely using each other for their own ends. He was just fine with leaving the scorpion once the escape was complete.
"Blake, my beloved... I will make you pay for your betrayal."
-Weiss-
Over the past seven days, Weiss had learned a fair amount about herself. She had discovered that while she excelled at cleaning wooden and glass surfaces courtesy of her keen eyes, her cooking and laundry skills left something to be desired; her Battleship prowess was equaled only by Juniper Arc; and, last but not least, she had very little patience when it came to waiting for e-mails. "Who does my father think he is!?"
"The owner of the world's largest energy company?" Plum supplied as Weiss paced around the living room. "I'm sure he'll message you soon; it's already been a week, after all."
The thought did little to set her mind at ease, as Jacque was a weasel of a man through-and-through. Every moment of silence was another action to subvert their oral agreement. Well, if he thought that she would refrain from voicing his sins then he was wrong. She'd give him only a couple more days before she brought the roof down over his head.
Her many belongings had been packed into boxed shipped to the Arc home, where most of them sat around her appropiated guest bedroom. She left most of them in their boxes or cases, as she had no desire to repack them if she was to find a new place to live. Sighing, Weiss turned her attention to the performance that could easily be heard emanating from the front porch of the house. "Jaune really does love to play, doesn't he?"
"Yep, although his audience is a little fiestier this Sunday." Olive walked over to the window and pulled down the blinds just enough to peek out. "Sapphire and Lavender are doing a little dance while Yang's tapping out the beat on her knees with-"
Olive paused before continuing. "Correction, she's using Jaune's knees as a drumpad. Looks like she's using his old, soft xylophone sticks. I wonder if it hurts?"
Weiss's pursed her lips for a moment. The relationship between herself and Jaune could best be described as "polite"; in other words, almost superficial. They answered direct questions, nodded to each other when they happened to pass by one another, and... that was it. It was such a far cry from the few days of true connection they shared that she almost wanted to pitch a fit.
She was still able to enjoy the company of his family for the time being, but even his sisters had long noticed the tension between them. Weiss feared that, before too long, the pleasant atmosphere and feeling of "belonging" would truly disappear. Would they be able to move past this rut she caused before it was too late?
"Whoa, hold on." Olive's voice grabbed everyone's attention as she continued peering out of the window. "I'm seeing moving trucks park right next door. That house has been empty for a while, so maybe we're finally getting some new next door neighbors!"
Plum bounced up in order to partake in the view. "Cool, I hope there's people our age for once. Everybody we're friends with are at the far side of the neighborhood."
The last line was aimed at Weiss, who gave a wordless 'hm' in acknowledgement. "At least they're still within walking distance."
"Maybe, but it'd be nice to not have to worry Mom when we say that we're headed to a friend's house. If they lived next door, there's no chance of getting lost or in an accident." Plum continued observing the new arrivals. "Two moving trucks and a small SUV are there now. Family exitting out of SUV, aaaaand... They have a daughter who looks somewhere between sixteen to eighteen."
Olive threw her hands up. "Whoo, new friend!"
Jade shook her head, but Weiss could see the smile she wore behind their backs. The Arc was the most taciturn of the bunch, but her heart was obviously in the same place. Weiss opened her mouth to make an inquiry, but as she did so she felt her phone vibrate twice in her pocket. Checking the device, she saw-
New e-mail
Sender: Father (XXXXSchnee@SEC)
Title: Contract.
One attachment.
Weiss promptly vacated her spot on the sofa and retrieved her laptop from her bedroom. Powering up the computer from its standby mode, she proceeded to download the document (which was fourteen pages long, honestly smaller than she had anticipated) and send a copy of the e-mail to Juniper Arc. The Arc matriarch, who had been given the exact details of the oral agreement, would review the packet and alert her to any errors or egregious attempts at deception. From there, a corrected packet would be sent back to her father for his own review.
Content to allow the experienced attorney do things in her own time, especially considering her nap schedule, Weiss closed her laptop and went to rejoin the Arc family in the living room. As she returned she noticed that Sapphire, Lavender, and Jaune had come inside the house, with the latter seeming both happy and flustered as the former two were patting him on the back in celebration. "Did I miss something?"
"Yeah," chirped Lavender as she turned to Olive. "My sister owing me ten Lien."
Olive rolled her eyes and retorted, "My wallet's upstairs, so be patient, alright?"
Jaune continued wearing a rather odd grin even as he accosted his siblings. "Please don't make bets over my life, alright?" Beat. "Although Cardin does owe me forty, now that I think about it."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Just what exactly did I miss?"
The only Arc son rubbed the back of his head. "Well..."
X
I am happy to report that nobody guessed Tyrian's identity wrong. It's a good thing because, let's face it, I must've dropped a hundred easy-to-spot clues.
So, twenty chapters down! I feel good about this story, I really do. It's shaping up well, complete with small clues and foreshadowing that some people are catching and others are missing by miles. Next time, we see the results of Weiss's planning (blackmailing?) and...
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Please consider leaving a review, and have a nice day/night.