As the gathered faunus begin to split up into smaller groups chattering among each other, Jaune, for the first time since being in Vale, since attending Beacon, since being apart from his family feels like a burden has fallen from his shoulders.

Not that all his problem are now solved or anything like that but having participated in this meeting; listening to the stories of other faunus who have been dealt a bad hand, hearing and seeing the support each and everyone here got, him included, made him realize what had been missing all the time he has been here. A connection, a real connection with people who'd understand his struggle with his faunus identity.

Looking around the room for Janir with the intention of thanking him for bringing him here after the disaster with the florist, he quickly spots him near the exit of the auditorium talking with Bianca the cat faunus who sat next to him and walks toward them. Both stop talking when they see him approach.

"Oh, I didn't want to interrupt you guys."

"Don't worry, Jaune," Bianca smiles at him reassuringly.

"Brother, how can we help you?"

"Um, I just wanted to thank you for helping me today and bringing me here. I didn't even know I needed something like this but-," he takes a breath in mulling over his words. "Just thank you."
Bianca who still stands beside them looks between him and Janir with a surprised face at his words but it slowly melts into a soft look into his direction.

"Brother," Janir begins in a serious voice. "There is no need for this. I have been there, a lot of us here have been there. Just know this, we are here for you and if you still need help or even just some people who listen to your woes, come to our little gatherings. We are meeting twice a week and you are welcome to any one of them."

"Yeah, I would love to come again," he responds, a little choked up.

Janir smiles at him putting his hand on Jaune's shoulder and says, "That is what I like to hear, brother. We faunus got to have each other's back. And on the topic of helping our fellow faunus out, I just talked to Bianca about a small programm we have been organizing for a few weeks to help the smallest in our little community."

Jaune actually perks up at that. Helping kids? What kind of huntsman would he be if he didn't help?

"Ah, I see. That caught your interest. We noticed that a lot of the younger kids of families with lower income often couldn't afford to buy breakfast, so we set up some deals with supermarkets and those who are more sympathetic to the children's plight to donate some food and are now able to at least give them a good breakfast for the day on most days."

"That is amazing!" Jaune exclaims.

"That's what I said." Bianca also chimes in.

"Haha. Yes, it is. But we could always use more hands. And if you have some extra time then we would love to see you there. Let me give you my scroll number," he says, grabbing his scroll from his backpocket and giving them his contact information. "Well, I am really glad that I had the opportunity to meet such inspired newcomers here today, and I hope I wil see you soon."

With that, he claps Jaune on his back, nods to Bianca, and makes his way to another group of people to talk to them

"So, Jaune, " Bianca says. "You going back to Beacon now?"

"Hmm, I actually wanted to buy something first. Do you know where I can get some flowers?"

"Oh," Bianca makes a surprised face, her cat ears twitching a bit. "Sure, I know a place. I can show you if you want?"

"No, no, you don't need to. You can just tell me where to go."

"Ah, come on. Let me help. Didn't you listen to Janir? We faunus must help each other out, right?"

"Alright," Jaune groans. "I just don't want to take up any of your time."

"Don't worry about that. We are probably going to work together in the future. So, what better way to get to know each other."

Back into the shopping district, now with Bianca by his side, he followed her to another flower shop and finally bought a bouquet of flowers for his apology to Pyrrha all the while talking about his time at Beacon or more accurately telling her some stories about his team.

Bianca lets out a loud snort and claps her hand on her mouth silencing any other noise from coming out.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up," Jaune tells her in a faux serious tone. "I tell you I was never so scared in my life. Nora on coffee is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies."

"Your teammates sound insane;" she says, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

"Haha, yeah. They are awesome."

Walking side by side and occasionally bumping their shoulders, they settle into a comfortable silence.

"Soo, I haven't asked yet but who is the lucky girl?"

"Lucky girl?" Jaune asks confused.

"Yep, who did you buy the flowers for? It's really sweet of you."

"Oh! Um, they are actually for my partner. I was kind of being an ass and I wanted to apologize," he says scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Still walking, he expects a comment from Bianca but when he looks at her it seems like she didn't even hear him as she looks straight forward with furrowed brows.

"Is everything alright, Bianca?" He asks, looking in the same direction and trying to see what has caught her attention.

What he notices first, past the groups of people walking on the sidewalk in front of them, is the black bow adorning black wavy hair. Without any conscious input from Jaune himself his tail wags fast enough to make whooshing sounds.

Blake Belladonna was waiting at the next street corner, leaning against a wall with a decidedly neutral look.

"Oh, that's Blake! She is a good friend," he explains to Bianca. "Come on, let me introduce you."

"Um, I don't think that's a good idea, Jaune," she says nervously. "I think I should leave you two alone."

"What-?"

Not waiting for Jaune to complete his question Bianca makes her way in the opposite direction of him.

"Good luck with your apology, Jaune. I'll see you at the next meeting," Bianca waves at him moving as fast as she can without running.

Huh, weird.

Shrugging his shoulders at Bianca's sudden disappearance. He walks towards Blake who is still waiting at the same corner not having moved a muscle.

"Hey, Blake," standing in front of her he greets her with a big smile and his ever faster wagging tail. "It feels like we didn't speak in forever, and you know our training sessions have also been a while ago, not that that's the only reason I missed you. I just really wanted to talk to you, and, um, yeah."

How embarrassing to just outright say that. Gods, what's up with him? It hasn't been that long since he talked to her and here he is word vomiting right to her face.

Blake still hasn't said anything, her face doesn't even twitch as she looks him up and down.

The smile slowly slips from his face and his tail stops moving.

"Is everything alright, Blake?"

"No, Jaune, everything is not alright," she says quietly.

What?

"What were you doing, Jaune?" She says a bit louder now.

What was he doing? Is she serious?

"What do you mean, Blake? I wasn't the one leaving Beacon until late into the night, not telling anybody what you are up to."

"That doesn't matter now," she says shaking her head. "You meeting up with strangers and following them to somewhere else is the problem. I mean what were you thinking, someone just comes up to you on the streets and you follow them like a puppy. Have you any idea how dangerous that is? You need to think these things through."

In her annoyance and anger with him, Blake steps closer to him, sharply poking him in the shoulder with her finger.

"How do you— Did you follow me?" Now getting angry himself, he pushes her hand still prodding him to the side and taking a step closer himself.

"No, of course not. I was in the city and saw you following that guy and now I see you here with some other skank."

"Don't call her that! She was just helping me," He glares down at her.

Before Blake or even Jaune can continue their argument a voice from behind Blake speaks out: "Hey! Please, step back!"

Both step back in surprise. Blake turns around. Her hand is already on the handle of Gambol Shroud. Jaune only looks surprised.

A uniformed police officer walks up behind Blake and stops next to her looking straight at Jaune.

"Is there a problem here?"

Blake shoots the officer a distrustful look and takes a step away from him while Jaune gives him an embarrased smile with his hand in a placating gesture and stepping forward.

"Oh, no. It's just—"

"Sir, please do not approach me or this woman," before Jaune can even finish explaining the officer warns him, his hand wandering to his side.

Jaune flinches back by the tone.

"Ma'am is everything alright?" He asks Blake. "Do you know this person?"

"Yes, he is my friend. No need for you to interven here; we were just going to leave anyway," Blake answers neutrally and grabbing Jaune's arm to pull him away.

The officer stops Jaune with a hand to his chest and says, "Next time don't make such a ruckus, boy."

Blake having waited enough begins to pull Jaune with more insistence, leaving the police officer behind the two before dropping Jaune's hand again.

The walk through the rest of the shopping district to the bullheads is awkward. Still thinking about Blake's outburst and the cops interference, no words are exchanged and an unusual distance now hangs between.

The bullhead ride back to Beacon isn't any better. Only when leaving the bullhead does Blake turn to him and look him in the eyes.

"I missed talking to you too, Jaune." With a forced smile she leaves.

Weiss sits with her teammates and team JNPR in the library to learn together, well most of them anyway, Blake and Jaune are suspiciously absent. This isn't too unusual for Blake seeing as she has been absent the last week or so but Jaune not being with his team is a new development.

Ruby has suggested meeting here, something about bettering their team cohesion. And if she is being honest, their teams have been lacking it in that particular department.
She of course knows why, it's Blake's fault. With her needling and insulting attitude towards her. And now she doesn't even have the good graces of being here.
Weiss stills. She has to force herself to stop thinking this way about Blake.

In truth, she wasn't behaving any better than Blake. She has been behaving contemptuously towards Ruby, Yang, and Blake from the very beginning and her behavior towards team JNPR wasn't any better, especially towards Jaune.

The only exception was Pyrrha. She was worse to her. Only seeing her as something to obtain, she wasn't behaving any better than any of her suitors back in Atlas.
Sighing, she looks over to the other table where Pyrrha is sitting. She has been behaving differently for some time now. Maybe she could talk to her. Not with an ulterior motive this time but maybe just as a friend. Both of them could use a friend right now.

Her introspection is only broken when she hears footsteps coming from the entrance of the library; Jaune Arc, a bouquet of flowers in hand, is coming towards their table.
Is he going to ask her out again? It's been almost two weeks since they even exchanged any meaningful words with each other. She thought he wouldn't want to have anything to do with her anymore. That he'd think that she rejected him because of him being a faunus. That she is just an awful person.

She doesn't know what to feel about him asking her out again. It's a complicated mix of feelings, surprise that he even want to, anger about him not getting the clue, and maybe most suprisingly happiness that maybe she wasn't as bad as she thought she was, or maybe Jaune was just very forgiving and would overlook her abhorrent behaviour.
With every step he comes closer, she can feel her mouth get drier and drier. Until he is right next to their table. He smiles at them and nods a greeting to her and her teammates. And walks right past them.

Huh?

"Hey, Pyrrha," Jaune says to his partner, his tone contrite

What is this?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha looks at him confused.

What is happening right now?

"I know that I have been behaving like an idiot—"

"Yes, you have," Pyrrha interrupts him.

"Um, yeah. I did wrong by you and I want to apologize wholeheartedly for how I treated you. I know now it was wrong of me and I hoped that maybe we could talk. Just us two," He reaches his hand out to present the bouquet of flowers to Pyrrha who now looks at him in wide-eyed surprise. "I think it would be nice if we could meet at a café or a restaurant this weekend, just to talk it out. I don't expect you to forgive me just like that but please let me explain."

Yang and Ruby look at Jaune in surprise. Nora is holding back her giggles with both of her hands holding her mouth closed and Ren rolls his eyes at Nora.

Weiss is shocked. Did he just ask Pyrrha out on a date?

"Hmm," Pyrrha hums, looking between Jaune and the flowers.

"So, what do you say Pyrrha?"

"Hmm"

"Um, Pyrrha?"

She hums again but this time she taps her finger on her lips and a playful glint is in her eyes.

"Pyrrha, please answer," a note of desperation is now in Jaune's voice.

"Well, alright, Jaune," she says and happily takes the bouquet out of Jaune's hand.

Weiss's eyes start to sting, seeing Jaune and Pyrrha like this only complicates her feelings further.

Clearing her throat she utters a silent: "Excuse me," and hurriedly makes her way out of the library.

With one last look at the table occupied by Jaune and his team, she sees him joking around with Nora and Ren and Pyrrha smiling into the bouquet of flowers and looking at Jaune.

She takes the shortest route back to their dorm. Her head held high, she blinks her eyes rapidly, trying not to lose her composure until she is in the safety of her room.

The walk feels like it lasts an eternity. Thoughts about Jaune and her, about how she doesn't fit in her team, about her constant arguments with Blake swirl in her head until she finally reaches her room and quickly unlocks it.

She rushes inside and slams the door shut. Suddenly, feeling exhausted she rests her head against the door and takes in a shuddering breath.
For the first time in a long time, she lets her walls down and silently sobs. No friends, or teammates with her, all alone.

"Weiss?"

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