Chapter 30 – Want a Break from the Bad?
Repeat after me: I need a vacation.
Velvet told them she was going to be going to another doctor's check-up the day after the mission to kill the Grimm cactuses in the Hydrust Salt Flats. Jaune would have found it peculiar that she was doing one so soon after her previous check-up, which was but three days prior, if not for the fact that he knew what was really going on.
I may not be well versed in the ways of the huntsman, but I'm do have decent reading comprehension, and Velvet was rather blatant in what she admitted.
Jaune had no idea if he was supposed to be angry, but he couldn't feel all that upset. It was probably wrong of Velvet to count on close friendship with her bosses to negotiate extra leave in the future, but he just couldn't find it in himself to be truly upset with the rabbit Faunus.
I guess her plan must be working.
If she'd been trying to scam them for money or something, he might have been miffed, but she basically just wanted maternity leave to birth and raise her kid, and he didn't see that as some great expense. Perhaps it was different and somehow worse in the huntsman sphere or in the world of start-up small businesses, but Jaune had merely adopted those into his identity, and he was not yet in the stage where he might feel aggrieved over what she'd done.
Really, the only inappropriate thing was tricking us. She didn't want Blake or me to know that she was originally (or perhaps still) intending to appeal to a camaraderie she intended to build up over time. I assume that the fact that she admitted to it when asked means she'd either giving up on manipulating the two of us or she feels like we've already been befriended sufficiently.
These were the thoughts that Jaune thought as he sat behind the counter of the desk in the brand, spanking new lobby of Team Job Security's Vale office. They didn't have a Mistral office or an Atlas office or a Menagerie office or anything, but Jaune figured that calling it the Vale office wasn't technically lying, and it would once again make them seem more esteemed in the eyes of the clientele, so he was going with it.
It was the fact that he himself so readily manipulated clients, saying whatever he felt like they needed to hear, that made him so easily amenable to forgiving Velvet's minor transgression and forgetting it. Blake, who was pouting in the back room, didn't share Jaune's forgiving nature and was angrily folding origami last he'd seen when checking on her, but he didn't doubt she'd come around in time.
As much as Jaune disliked the way Beacon operated things, he knew that they were typically good at what they did, and he also knew that they chose to operate their huntsmen and huntresses in an extremely team-centric way. Teams were supposed to be family according to these people who were the best in the business, suggesting there was great wisdom somewhere with it, and Team Job was no exception.
We'll be fine. Blake's just more hurt by the deception than I am and needs some time to heal.
When their day ended, with no new customers coming in and Jaune having watched several preliminary videos on how to pilot an airship to completion on his scroll, both Jaune and Blake were forced into the same space out of necessity. Short of locking herself in her room, they would have to interact, and even if Blake did try to hide away from him, she would still need to come out to eat.
In hopes of enticing her to stay, he cracked open the cans of tuna that he'd been saving for a special occasion and mixed them with some mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, and barbecue sauce for a simple tuna salad. It wasn't particularly amazing to him, but Blake loved fish something fierce (it had taken Jaune about a week of careful observation to make sure that it wasn't just a practical joke with the punchline being pretending Jaune was racist).
Perhaps it wasn't necessary to make her a favorite dish, but he did it just in case. Wrapping the tuna salad in flat flour tortillas to make it a meal, he called out to her, and she joined him in a few seconds.
Accepting the folded tortillas, she lifted one off her plate and took a bite. "Tuna wraps?"
"Yep. Figured you could use a treat."
"Jaune, I don't want to talk about Velvet."
"Talk about what, Blake? The fact that she thought she was going to need to ingratiate herself to us in order to score maternity leave? I think we might be breaking the law if we don't offer her that."
Blake finished the last bite of her first tuna wraps, one of three, and shook her head. "It's not just that. I…I'm annoyed that she felt the need to lie to us, but I'm also a little bit angry with myself."
"I'm all ears," Jaune said, reaching into the fridge to take out the carton of milk that was just on the brink of expiring. He tried to wiggle his human ears but lacked the muscles to do so. "So to speak."
In spite of saying she didn't want to talk about it, Blake wasted no time in slumping down onto their couch and sinking right into it. "I think I was a little too judgmental of her, and I could have used kinder words when discussing her…promiscuity."
As much as Jaune might have wanted to reassure Blake that she was fine, he did have to admit that Blake had jumped to slightly petty insults faster than he might have liked.
"You remember that vacation we were talking about?" Blake asked. "We wanted to take the airship for a test spin when we bought it, but now that that's done, I think we might want to all take some time off. You and I still have enough money that we can afford to withdraw some each without breaking the bank, and Velvet's cut of the profits was hefty as well."
Jaune wasn't sure he liked the suggestion; it sounded too much like running away.
"This isn't the kind of thing that'll just go away if we ignore it, Blake," Jaune said. "Velvet will be here when you get back from your break, and she'll probably still be just as…"
Jaune struggled to think of a word that could describe his lagomorphic companion's proclivities without falling into the territory of insulting. Blake had called it promiscuousness, but that tended to carry with it an implicit undertone of disparagement.
He had the vocabulary to describe it, but nothing in his repertoire fit due to the negative connotations. Profligate made her sound wasteful or careless, while libertine didn't quite capture the way Velvet chose to be responsible in her ways. Lecherous, sensualist, playgirl – all of them were words typically used to deride or humiliate the subject.
Perhaps the fact that all of those words are mean to be bad is a testament to how we as a society view sexuality as a whole.
"…just as liberal," Jaune settled on, just to not leave Blake hanging.
Blake finished another tuna wrap, meaning Jaune was potentially left with one third of the time he'd bought with the dinner. He considered offering her one of his, but that would be too transparent.
"I'm not trying to avoid her. I do want a breather from it all." Blake sighed. "It's not the team. I think I just need a reset. Too much has been happening in a short time, with a sudden deluge of lien and assets moving into our hands and Velvet being with child all of a sudden and now this. Some personal time off to unwind might help out a little."
"…okay. I'll also take some time off, since now would be the best time," Jaune said.
He had no intentions of going on some vacation to a far off place, not when he'd just ran off to see his family in Ansel just a few days ago, but he could do a stay-cation. Their apartment was sorely lacking in terms of luxuries like a television set or any videogame consoles, so some time to do a little personal shopping without deadlines or business expenses floating over his head might be nice. He could also enjoy the city of Vale – in spite of living here, he'd yet to truly explore much of it.
Blake didn't say anything, but he could tell from her expression that she gave her approval.
"Then we're decided," he said. "I'll let Velvet know."
"No, I should. If she gets the news that I'm leaving for a week or so, she'll take away the message that I'm avoiding her. A-And I'm not."
Velvet was actually avoiding them, as it happened, but Jaune had no objections. The team was in an awkward place right now, but not a bad one. Some time to themselves might actually be a good thing, especially when they'd had to spend all that time in close proximity back on the farm.
Things had been rather hectic recently. Maybe Blake was right. Maybe a simple break might be just what they needed.
Jaune had no idea where Blake went for her week, but he hoped it was relaxing and rejuvenating for her. As for himself, Jaune's staycation was a fairly calming affair, at least for the first half of it.
Those were the days he spent just shopping for himself. Blake had withdrawn ten thousand lien of personal spending money, meaning that according to their deal, Jaune was free to use the same amount as he wanted.
Having so much disposable income was certainly nice, and Jaune found himself briefly pleased with the fact that he hadn't gone to Beacon. Being kicked out so ignominiously would never ever be a blessing in disguise, but the life of a gainfully employed security consultant wasn't a bad one when he was given the chance to spend some of those earnings.
I think it might have been better if I'd just never applied to Beacon. Looking back in hindsight, I'm happy with my life as it is, and I can't imagine four more years of school, especially since I'm basically doing the work of a huntsman already.
On that note, he'd also spent a few of his days off training at their gym and getting his provisional pilot's license. Yes, it was technically work, but Jaune had actually started looking forward to learning how to fly when he'd stopped thinking of it as work and stepped back to actually see that he was learning how to freakin' fly.
By the end of his fourth day off, he wasn't legally allowed to fly the Job Hunter from anywhere but the copilot's seat, but in the event of an emergency, he could reasonably expect himself to take the helm and get them to safety without crashing and dying in a giant fireball, or whatever gravity well or black hole Gravity Dust made. His qualifications would change with time and lots more practice, but the majority of the hazards during flight were actually just during take-off and landing, and they'd thoroughly reviewed and rehearsed those two steps on the flight academy's simulators.
It was time spent being productive and enjoying himself, and Jaune actually had a really great time.
But all good things came to an end, and Jaune's relatively peaceful vacation couldn't last forever. It was when he stopped doing activities that felt purposeful and moved on to time spent on complete leisure that things went wrong. Jaune's mistake was telling Velvet his plans – to visit the aquarium on his fifth day off, the science center on his sixth day off, and the botanical gardens on his last day before Blake returned.
He'd only just mentioned it offhandedly after she'd called him socially, giving her a casual rundown on his plans for the next few days.
And she offered to go with him.
"I don't want to hijack your plans or something," she said to him over the scroll. "I'm just letting you know that I don't have other plans. If you want some company, we can spend the day together."
Thus began the end of Jaune's leisurely autumn break and the beginnings of his quite stressful problems, because he actually thought the idea of spending the next few days with her sounded nice.
Except Blake said we're all supposed to be spending time apart from one another! The whole point of her going on vacation was so that we could go at it alone for a little while and not be sick of one another when we get back!
But what difference does it make to Blake if I hang out with Velvet? It's not like she'll know or care, and I'm not the one who asked for a 'reset.'
It just felt like a betrayal of Blake, to go and spend time as Team Job minus the B. Even with only two members present, the absence of the team's final third was still striking. Jaune's big hang up that had stopped him from accepting Velvet's offer on the spot was the fear that Blake would get home, hear of how they'd spent their vacation together when she'd been alone, and feel left out.
Except she left of her own volition. I'm not Blake's babysitter, nor am I obliged to be her friend and her friend alone. I'm allowed to choose how I want to spend my free time.
Velvet turned out to be an excellent companion to chill out with. She brought her camera along, which Jaune hadn't realize could take pictures of things other than weapons, and actually even recreated a miniature octopus on the floor of the aquarium from a photograph she'd taken. It didn't move around a lot (Hard Light constructs tended to be rigid and lifeless), but it was still funny to see, especially when kids crowded around thinking it was real.
To Jaune's pleasure, it wasn't weird at all to spend three days together with her. Their whole boss-employee, younger-older, man-woman, human-Faunus dynamic didn't cause either of them any trouble. He'd been a bit afraid that Velvet might mistakenly think his acceptance was him requesting to date her or something, but she never insinuated anything of the sort, and Jaune once again found himself hiding behind the fact that she had been the one to initiate this.
Blake wanted time alone. Velvet wanted time together as friends. I'd like it if we could all get along, but I'm okay with this right now.
There were a few close calls throughout the day where Jaune had nearly outed himself as not having attended primary combat school, especially when his knowledge of biology, botany, or other academics had come from his high school education that was more focused on knowledge than fighting, but Velvet said nothing if she noticed, so Jaune considered himself in the clear.
Velvet talked about herself, as well. Her parents were from different kingdoms and hadn't actually ever gotten together; much like her own baby, she was the product of a 'summer romance' as she put it. Velvet didn't seem upset about it, though.
"If they'd gotten married, they would've been unhappy together," she'd explained as Jaune tried to identify a succulent by its rosette. "They liked one another, but in short doses. We'd get together and spend a month together as a family before each school year would start. Otherwise, I'd spend my school years in Vale and visit Atlas during the holidays and seasonal breaks. I didn't even know what we had was…different from nuclear families until I turned fifteen."
He wasn't sure he liked how much Velvet's description of her parents and their 'short doses' reminded him of Blake, who was currently taking a break from the team after less than two months of being together.
"I sorta know what it's like," Jaune said. "My mom and dad raised me…I don't wanna say normally, but…conventionally, I guess, for the first few years of my life, but then my mom died during childbirth. Dad raised me and my sisters as a single parent for most of my life. I hate to admit it, but I can barely even remember my own mother."
"The life of a single parent is tough," Velvet said, patting her own stomach. She smiled forlornly down at her own torso. "But I can do this. I know I can."
"Just remember that you're not alone," Jaune said, doing his best to say something heartwarming. Velvet's introspective words were probably directed more at herself than him, but he felt duty-bound as a fellow Team Job-ian to at least say something to support her. "We've got you back, and if you ever need babysitting, Blake and I are both still teenagers, so it's not weird."
Velvet openly laughed at that. The botanical gardens weren't well-traveled during the working city's weekdays, and Jaune and Velvet might have had the entire place to themselves if not for the two mothers with children that were also there.
"Me? Hiring my own bosses as babysitters? What, would I pay you, or would I just get a slightly smaller paycheck at the end of the next mission?"
The days actually went by a lot faster than he would have liked. People said that you never worked a day in your life when you did what you loved, and Jaune loved being a 'security consultant,' but there was something nice about having no mission goals to fulfill or whiny clients to manage. All he had to do was look at the fish or the exhibits or the plants and have fun.
Sooner than he could know it, the vacation period ended. Blake came back from whatever mysterious destination to which she'd walked, flown, or sailed, and the team as a whole knew that they were going to have to take on another mission.
I hope we're all good now, Jaune wished as he watched Blake and Velvet greet one another with a hug. No. More than that. I hope we're better.
Coming Soon: We're All Friends Here
Blake breaks and takes responsibility for her mistake for Velvet's sake.
Author's Notes
Velvet's claws dig deeper into Jaune's body as her master plan - free babysitting - is revealed at last.
There is another chapter being posted today, to make up for what won't be posted over the next few weeks.
Happy rats, and don't do crime!