Chapter 10 – And they were Roommates

Oh my god, they were roommates…

"It's only four thousand lien?" Jaune asked incredulously. "I thought we made so much more!"

Just because he'd agreed to leave the finances up to Blake didn't mean that he wasn't a little appalled by how low their profit margins were. They'd earned eight thousand lien on their first job, and they'd been shortchanged by the greedy mayor there!

"You're not looking at it holistically," Blake said, idly kicking her feet off the edge of her side of the bed (they split it down the middle during the day). "We started that mission with two checks for three thousand lien each, and we came back with ten thousand lien total to our name. It was the same profit margin total."

"But…But…"

"We've been living in Vale for a week, and we've also paid our licenses in full. Don't think of how much it is compared to another job – we're richer overall than when we started, and that's even after our expenses have been paid."

Jaune continued to grumble a little bit about it all. It was just annoying that they could set their own rates at whatever price they wanted, and they were still financially struggling.

Their agreement had been a stilted split of the money 85 to 15 in Blake's favor (fairly, though, since she was training him), but in actuality that was barely meaning anything. When the two of them shared a living space and ate the same meals together (Jaune was currently cooking for them both with the groceries she'd brought home), it just seemed pointless to divide up wages. Also, their next job would need funds for Dust and airship rentals, and they'd not really discussed whose salary that would come from.

When we're well off enough to get separate living spaces, we can probably hash out some sort of payment plan. Maybe we'd take our percentages from one half of the money and use the next to pay our hunter expenses.

At the moment, though, when the entire company could go under at any moment, it feels more important to have the payment go into Team Job Security's bank account rather than either of ours, individually.

That was all figurative, of course. They didn't even have bank accounts – Blake was currently storing all of their lien in the suitcase the Lemuria mayor had given them their payment it.

"I'm sorry it's not as profitable as you'd like, Jaune," Blake said. "We're just trying to get reviews for now. Once we're a little less brand new, maybe we can increase our prices."

He had to remind himself that he hadn't gotten into this career for the money. Jaune's primary goal was to become a hero, not to make bank. That said, a hero needed a roof over his head and a belly full of food.

Which I have. I'm cutting up tomatoes and peppers for tonight's dinner, and we've got enough space for ourselves, which is more than a lot of people can say for themselves.

Blake said she didn't know how to cook, and while Jaune himself found little enjoyment in it personally, he was more than competent enough to read a recipe from the internet. She'd gone to get the groceries, which was a chore in and of itself even without the rainstorm that was keeping all of Vale cooped up indoors.

This hotel was a little bit nicer than the one they'd spent their first night together in, and it was more catered to people who were doing something long term. They'd booked a room with a bed, a small stove and fridge, and free built-in internet, meaning that they could use it to double as their workspace. Blake typically frequented the library during the early days when they'd been getting on their feet and learning how to run a business, but Jaune's website design had been completely done on his personal scroll.

"How long do you think it'll be before we get another mission?" Jaune asked, equally out of curiosity and a desire to gradually move the topic away.

Blake shrugged and fell back down onto the bed. "No clue. I'm not a huntress."

"W-What?!"

"I'm seventeen and was applying to Beacon to learn how to be one," Blake pointed out. "I've got field experience, but it wasn't as a career hunter or something – just practice missions and killing whichever Grimm came too close to…to where I lived."

Jaune couldn't help but hear the hitch in her voice. "Your primary combat school?"

He looked over his shoulder and saw Blake nodding.

He already knew for a fact that she'd somehow lied on her application to Beacon, and unlike him, it wasn't a secret that had been shared between the partners. However, she also had the real, necessary skills to kill the Grimm, a real weapon of her own, and aura, meaning that she wasn't a complete fraud like him.

But there's still something that disqualified her from Beacon, or she'd be there right now…

Jaune really wanted to know, but at the same time, he knew Blake could tell he didn't yet know, and she hadn't chosen to reveal that secret of hers. That meant she wasn't comfortable with him knowing it yet…or she'd forgotten.

Either way, I think I can live with not knowing. Whatever it is isn't hurting me right now, so I'll just let it lie.

But that didn't mean he couldn't chat with her about other stuff. He still barely knew anything about her other than the fact that she hailed from Menagerie and was a Faunus.

"So, what made you want to be a huntress? Jaune asked, hoping that was neutral enough.

When Blake answered, she sounded slightly embarrassed. "It's…It's a selfish reason. It's not some noble thing or romantic vision of saving damsels and swinging swords that you'd expect from a naïve kid."

Naïve…but that's why I –

"Wait, do hunters not save people?" Jaune asked.

"I…no, they do, but I joined Beacon because I'm…I'm running away from home," Blake answered. "I went to a primary combat school in Menagerie – it's a Faunus island in the south seas – and my parents wanted me to go to Mistral and come back home, but I decided I didn't want to live that life. I came to Vale hoping I could find some other work, but you've seen firsthand how good Faunus get treated. Without a real resume, I had nothing other than going back to an academy. Sorry, Jaune, but for me it's just a job."

Had she stopped at the lie, Jaune might have impulsively called it out – Menagerie didn't have primary combat schools – but the long explanation gave him time to think about it. Blake didn't seem to recall that Jaune knew about Menagerie, meaning that she thought he would just buy it like an ignorant human.

It's about her spotty past, then. No matter what I do, I seem to keep accidentally bringing that up.

In any event, it was clearly obvious that asking about her early life and those parents of hers would just make it worse, so Jaune dropped the topic and put the diced vegetables into the boiling pot of broth.

"You big on reading?" he tried next, knowing full well what the answer would be. She'd volunteered to be their resident bookworm when it came to learning about Valean business licensing, and he knew for a fact that the suitcase of hers was filled with her book collection.

"Am I!" Blake squeaked. "I've never met a novel I haven't absolutely loved. Some more than others, of course, especially Ninjas of…of Action, but every story has its own special appeal that I just can't get enough of. It's like, when I'm ten chapters and fifty pages deep into a good book, I'm just in another world entirely."

"I'm a big fan of movies myself, but I do read sometimes," Jaune ventured.

Blake wrinkled her nose. "Nah, not for me. There's just something magical about the way authors of the world can take the same 700,000 words of the language and convert them into their own unique tale that no one else has ever made before." She paused, then backtracked. "Except for the people who take other already existing settings and characters and reshape those into their own stories. Those people are the worst."

Jaune nodded in agreement. "They deserve death."

"So what about you, Jaune Arc? What's your story?"

"Hmmm?"

Jaune finished with the food – all that was left was letting it cook on the stovetop until it was heated through – so he went over to his side of the bed and had a seat.

"You're asking about me, but I wanna know what made a kid with neither experience nor aura decide he was going to sneak his way into Beacon – big dick move, by the way, just faking your shit and walking in."

Jaune smacked his lips and wondered where he was even supposed to begin. "It all started only a few months before this past summer began, actually, but I think you could also say it began four years ago."

Blake raised an eyebrow at his vague words, but he just continued on.

"I was on the verge of filling out an application to Beacon early this year. My grades were good, I did tons of volunteer work, I was fully prepared to ace all of my finals. And then, when I got to the application form, they only had…"

It was impossible not to ball up his fists at the memory.

Even though the application form was blank, it somehow carried with it the message that all of the hard work Jaune had put in would mean nothing.

His classmates were all talking about what colleges they intended to apply to or what careers they intended to pursue, but Jaune had never even considered that. There was no fallback career for the bright-eyed youngster who came from a family of heroes; being a huntsman was all he wanted in life.

But when he'd printed out the copy of Beacon's application form, the first question of thirty was a multiple choice one. Jaune hadn't been expecting a test…but it wasn't a test.

Q1: Please select which accredited primary combat school you attended.

There was a list of thirteen options, and Jaune didn't recognize any of the names. Signal, Pharos, Range Lights, Sanctum, Caisson…his own high school wasn't among them. There wasn't even an 'Other' selection with a blank line to add his own school to.

I…I'm sure I can work this out, he reasoned.

Two hours of research later, Jaune was a much glummer boy. He had intensively investigated every little factoid about 'primary combat schools,' memorized their locations, learned exactly how they got accredited, and (most importantly) he'd learned how they accepted applicants.

You have to be twelve to get in? But…But I'm seventeen! How come I didn't know this?

The other people on online forums asked the same question, but the only answer he came across at every turn was 'It doesn't matter why – you can't apply late.' Primary Combat Schools only accepted young children, those who had just freshly crossed the barrier from tween to teen.

Everyone Jaune knew had gone to high school. He'd never even known of the existence of these primary things when he'd graduated from middle school, meaning he'd never had a chance of becoming a huntsman. No, he'd had a chance, but he'd thrown it away by being careless four years ago.

Except I wasn't careless. I knew I wanted to be a huntsman then, and I did nothing wrong. I always told my family my plans, and I wrote 'Huntsman' in the box when we listed our top job choices on Career Day. This isn't my fault; how could it be? I should have been told.

The application form had so many questions, and as Jaune read down the list, he realized he could pretty much answer all of them satisfactorily except for the first.

I could try just writing my high school in the margins, but they'll never accept it. Maybe I should just give up.

Arcs didn't give up, though. That darn list of schools just stared back at him every time he read it from top to bottom.

Signal…he'd never heard of it, but it was in Vale, and it was at the top of the list.

His pencil moved on its own.

I would have gone to Signal if they hadn't hidden its existence from me. I've done nothing wrong – I'm doing nothing wrong! They should have told me.

Jaune was crying at this point. Guys weren't supposed to cry, but having to relive that moment, now with the added context of knowing that Ozpin had seen right through his lies, made him more emotional than he wanted to be.

Opposite him on the bed, Blake's eyes were very keenly glued to her knees.

"T-The food's ready," Jaune said, his voice wavering as he spoke. Blake had already seen him fail physically, so seeing him fail emotionally meant that she was soon to have no more respect for him whatsoever.

They didn't have a ladle, so Jaune just spooned their dinner into paper bowls multiple times until they were full.

"That's fucked up," Blake said. "That they didn't tell you, that is."

"It doesn't matter now," Jaune lied, because even if he was somehow a huntsman, that didn't change the fact that he'd very nearly had to lose out on the life he'd dreamed of for his entire childhood. All because hunters didn't want to share. "I'm here now, right?"

"They should make information like that more readily available," Blake said. "Why wouldn't they?"

Jaune let out a long sigh. "I looked up a lot of facts to see if I could figure out why it happened, and the only conclusion I could come to…well, it's a bad one. But, according to the statistics, most of the people in primary combat schools are kids of hunters. And it's a highly paid career."

"Ah, now I see," Blake said, her lips curling in anger. "If you don't want someone to join your fancy clubhouse, you make up a rule explaining why they should be excluded and don't tell them until after they've already gone and broken it."

He handed her the flimsy bowl of steaming food, then a plastic spoon.

"Jaune, let me tell ya something." Blake took a sip from the food. "You're…okay, firstly, you're a good cook, but what I was going to say is that you're an honorary Faunus now. Humans have been doing their best to exclude us for generations now."

Jaune shifted uncomfortably at being called out so clearly. When she put it like that, it really did sound petty. He still had so much privilege that many people didn't share, and here he was, wailing and winging that his one dream job was out of reach. Tons of people never got their dreams, and many more had tough lives that could barely even be considered living.

"Sorry," he mumbled as he dug into the bowl. "Didn't mean to downplay your people's troubles."

"What? No, I wasn't –" Blake shook her head and smiled at him. "Jaune, suffering can never be the cure for suffering. Just because the Faunus have it bad doesn't mean you don't deserve your own anger. What I was trying to say is that discrimination like that, whether it's based on species, family status, or any other reason, is always just as stupid."

"Thanks," Jaune whispered. "Thanks, Blake."

"Fucking hunters," she griped bitterly. "Fucking primary school bitches."

Jaune wasn't really sure why she was saying that when she was a hunter who'd gone to a…

Except she said she isn't a hunter, and she lied about going to a primary combat school in Menagerie. And she didn't seem to know much about hunting being a family career or the exclusionary tactics used to keep it like that.

"Blake…um…I don't want to press, but…didn't you…um. So, actually, d-did you –"

"Apprenticed," she cut in before he could ask. "Okay, yeah, you caught me. I never went to one either – that's my application form secret."

"B-But why lie about –"

"I didn't exactly apprentice under a good person. A good teacher, sure, but…not someone I could list as a reference on Beacon's application forms. That's all I'm willing to share for now. Maybe later…but not now."

"I'm okay with that," Jaune said. "If you ever don't want to talk about something, just tell me, and I'll drop it like a hot potato. After all, we're friends, right?"

Blake looked up from her soup at Jaune for a moment, as though she wasn't sure what he'd just said. Then, after a few seconds, she nodded. "Yeah. We are friends."

Coming Soon: Meet the Snakes

On their next mission, Jaune and Blake discover that they may have some competition.

Author's Notes

Just some getting to know one another in between jobs. Jaune and Blake can't only bond on the battlefield. They also have to bond in the bedroom but in a 'our bedroom is also our living room way.'

Jaune's mishaps with primary combat school shall be delved into much deeper in later chapters. That's not to imply that he lied, just that the ramifications of why he, like many others, didn't know about primary combat school go deeper than one might've initially assumed. We're only ten chapters in, so some major canon divergence that traces back to Jaune and Blake being kicked out has yet to be revealed, but it's there, and it all ties together (rather, it will all tie together).

A note on a question in the review: every chapter with a Mission Complete will have a full review of the assets, plus a client review and a rating.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!