Author's Note at the end
Jaune woke exactly the same way he fell asleep. Clumsily splayed across the hard floor of the auditorium. Jaune sits up and yawns loudly. Looking around he sees that almost everyone is already out of the auditorium. His sleep schedule was partially to blame, but his nerves were what kept him up until the lights went out.
Slithering out of his sleeping bag the knight stretches, and gets to his feet. He smells the scent of food and realizes it must be around time for breakfast which means he thankfully didn't sleep to late. He should probably get out of his onesie before going that way though, so instead he makes a quick detour to the locker room with his bag of clothes in tow.
The knight slips out of his pajamas and into his regular clothes for the day, before tossing his bag in a locker, and grabbing the paper that stated which locker he had chosen for when he inevitably forgot.
The Beacon cafeteria was very big. It was also very busy, the Arc heir noted as he walked in and collided face first into student. 'Gods why am I so clumsy.' Jaune groans internally, before apologizing to the girl quickly and racing off to the line of students waiting to get their food.
After filling his tray and grabbing a box of orange juice, Jaune wanders throughout the large room looking for a place to sit. Yang and Blake were sitting with white haired girl he saw earlier and a tall redhead that he hadn't seen before. The white haired beauty looked irritated as she kept trying to talk to the redhead while Ruby and Yang also tried speaking to her as well.
Another couple the knight immediately noticed were another redheaded girl who was extremely hyperactive, and her partner a black haired guy with a magenta streak in his hair who Jaune was a little convinced might be a girl. He was much quieter than his partner who was zipping around him and talking loudly as he tried to eat.
Not far away from them were a group of boys who were also chatting loudly. The obvious leader of the bunch was the massive guy who was prodding at the smallest one in the group with his fork. He didn't really want to intrude on those guys either. The more Jaune looked around though the more he realized being alone made him feel terribly out of place.
Groups of two or four everywhere filling up most of the tables. A group of three girls with hair colors that were all various shades of purple and a guy with teal hair who looked terribly uncomfortable sitting with them.
He only saw one group with an odd number of people and that was a group of three guys. One was fairly tall and had dirty blonde hair and looked more like he belonged in the military than here. One of the members was shorter with wild dark brown hair, and he was being harassed by the third member who was a bit darker in complexion than the other two with pitch black hair.
Jaune was fairly certain he only really noticed them because they were one of the few groups who didn't have a member with a wild hair color or style. Maybe he should go sit with them. Jaune thinks as he looks over the group.
As he finishes his walk he finds another familiar face. Blake, the girl who he had slept next to was sitting by her lonesome in the corner of the room. An open book on the table next to her tray which had a small pile of food with a whole fish on the top. A confused expression crossed Jaune's face as he wondered where she got a whole entire fish.
Looking around Jaune decided he had no better options. So he walked over to the girl who looked up from her book at Jaune like he had grown a second head. Deciding to ignore that Jaune sat down across from her and dug into his food scarfing it down within two minutes much to the ravenettes surprise.
Blake was even more surprised when after Jaune left he came back with his tray full again. She didn't want to give him the idea that she was interested in conversation by asking him, but Blake was really intrigued about how he was able to do that.
Jaune must've noticed her staring because he immediately started speaking, "You alright? You're staring at me."
Blake looked into the blank eyes of the knight. As she stared into his deep blue eyes, she realized not a competent thought lay behind them. "I'm fine. How are you able to eat that much food that quickly?"
"One of the amazing Jaune Arc's many talents." Jaune says. His false bravado making the girls eyes roll. Blake gets back to her book, and whole entire fish, and tries ignoring the knight as he left for what she could only assume was a third serving.
She wasn't really surprised when he came back with a tray of food, this one about half the size of his previous two, but still impressive. As she read, and occasionally glanced up at the blonde she really hoped she didn't end up on the same team as Jaune…
Breakfast had gone by like a flash, and now everyone was gathered in the locker room getting ready for initiation. Except for Jaune. He couldn't find his locker. He was sure it was on one side of the room then he was sure it was on the other.
Jaune paced up and down the aisles of lockers, looking down at the paper he had recently rediscovered that had his locker number on it.
"This is ridiculous!" Jaune shouts as he walks down another row the paper in his hand listing the locker that he had chosen. "There's no way I would've put my gear in locker 636 yesterday. I would've remembered counting that high. Why does this have to happen today of all days."
As he glanced up from his paper, and to the locker to the right of him he noticed he had to have walked past it while going down this row. Turning on his heel Jaun heads back the other way staring at the lockers as he got closer to the one that was listed as his.
Nearing his locker Jaune heard the voice of the beautiful snow white girl he had seen before. Her and the tall redhead he had seen earlier were standing right where his locker was. How lucky for him!
"I was thinking we could be on a team together."Weiss enthusiastically proposes.
"Well that sounds grand!" The redhead replies. The white haired girl turns away from her as a wild grin appears on her face.
"You know what else is great?" Jaune leans on the locker right between them. "Me. Jaune Arc. It's nice to see you again Weiss"
"Ugh… You again?"
"Nice to meet you Jaune." The redhead says. Jaune proceeds to ignore her and keep talking to the Schnee heiress.
"I couldn't help but overhear you talking about me the other day." Weiss crosses her arms to keep herself from assaulting the dork knight. "I was hearing you talk about teams, and it had me thinking. You, and me could make a pretty good pair."
"Please kill me now." Weiss moans
"I'm pretty sure the teams are actually made up of four people." Pyrrha interjects, and Jaune pivots towards her.
"Well hot stuff, if you play your cards right you could end up with the winning team."
"Do you even know who you're talking to you twit?"
"Absolutley not in the slightest Snow Angel."
"This is Pyrrha Nikos"
"Hello again!" Pyrrha waves at the knight.
"She graduated top of her class at Sanctum."
"What's that?"
"She won the Mistral regional tournament a record four times in a row."
"Huh?"
Weiss finally loses her cool completely. Maybe he would understand something more his own speed. "She's on every single box of Pumpkin Petes Marshmallow Flakes"
"Woah! That's you? They don't do that for anyone unless they're really big!"
"Or animated." Weiss mutters
"It was pretty cool… Sadly the cereal isn't all that healthy."
"What a shame."
"So after hearing all of this you're still sure that you think you should be allowed on her team?" Jaune's false confidence died a quick and painful death as he lowered his head.
Luckily for him though the redhead decided to revive it just as fast as it had perished, "I think you would make a great leader." Pyrrha beams
"Awww stop it." Jaune blushes
"Seriously, cut it out." Weiss glares at Jaune. "Encouraging this type of behavior will only make him worse."
"It looks like Pyrrha's already hopped aboard team Jaune. It would be smart of you to join now before the last two spots fill up. I bet I could pull a few strings though and get you on team Arc." Jaune leans down to Weiss' eye level.
"Back up. You are way to close." Weiss backs up from Jaune hastily. "Pyrrha can you help a little please?"
Not a moment late Jaune is impaled by his hoodie, and thrown across the locker room and stuck like a thumbtack into another locker.
"Would all applicants head to the Beacon cliffs immediately. All first year students head to the Beacon cliffs for initiation." the intercom blares
"It was nice meeting you!" the owner of the spear pulls out the spear and walks past the humiliated Jaune with Weiss right next to her.
"Likewise." Jaune moans as he falls to the ground.
"Having some trouble there ladykiller?" Yang says walking up to Jaune with her younger sister in tow.
"I don't get it. My dad said all women look for is confidence. What was I doing wrong?"
"If I had to guess. Snow angel probably wasn't the way to go." Yang laughs, as she walks off. Ruby stays behind and picks Jaune off the floor.
"We should get going Jaune."
"Yeah. You're right Ruby. Thank you."
The Beacon cliffs made Jaune a bit nauseous, and he wasn't even moving. Each one of the applicants stood on metal platforms. Jaune was trying to listen to the headmasters instructions, he really was. Unfortunately just standing here was distracting him too much, and he was only getting snippets of what Ozpin was saying.
"-The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years… Make your way to the northern part of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path or you will die."
"Oh gods." Jaune panics and swallows the rising bile back down.
"-Our instructors will not intervene. You will come across an abandoned temple. Choose one… guard it… return back to the top of the cliff… You will be graded." Maybe it was just him zoning out, but Jaune didn't think he heard a mention of how they were getting down into the Emerald forest. "Are there any questions?"
Jaune raises his hand. "Um Yeah… Sir, How wi-"
"None? Glad to hear you understood. Now take position."
The rest of the students take different positions. "What are we doing now?" Jaune whispers to Ruby seeing as the old man wont answer his question.
"Getting in position for our landing strategy."
"What does that mean?" Jaune looks back at the headmaster. "Are we getting dropped off by bullhead or something?"
"No. You will be falling." The headmaster says, and Jaune sees Weiss fly off into the distance.
"Are you sure I can't just go by airship?" Jaune looks at the headmaster and his deputy.
"Positive." Headmaster Ozpin smirks before taking a sip of his coffee.
"So how do you expect me- I mean us to get down there?"
"You will be using your own landing strategy."
"Can you explain what that is real qui-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Jaune didn't even get to finish his question before he was launched violently.
Jaune cartwheeled and flipped through the air screaming loud enough that the people in Vale could probably hear him. He did get to see a couple of the others landing strategies though. That would've been really helpful. Sadly for him though he doubted he would be living long enough to truly appreciate how cool they were.
As Jaune neared the trees he said his final goodbyes and closed his eyes.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!
Something catches Jaune's hoodie and pins him to a tree. "THANK YOU!" He yells. Pyrrha's spear embedded in the tree right above his head. Jaune hangs out alone for a couple minutes before he hears rustling in the bushes nearby. 'Oh no. I'm trapped up here, and a grimm is coming through. I can't fight like this.'
"I hate this place, and I am not teaming up with that dolt." A not very animalistic voice says, but one Jaune is still a little afraid of.
"Hey Weiss!" The girl looks up at the dangling Jaune. "Can you help me get down?" Just as soon, as she came she left, and the sound of a happy Ruby rang out.
"You came back for me! YAY!"
"Awww damn it."
"Hey. You need some help?"
"Oh Pyrrha it's you." Jaune says happily. "Can you please let me down?"
"That depends. Do you still have room on your team?"
"For you? Absolutely. Now please can you help me down now."
Pyrrha laughs, and her spear flies from the tree and into her hand causing Jaune to fall 30 feet to the forest floor.
Jaune hops to his feet no less worse for wear, and starts walking "No time to waste lets start heading north. Sooner we can get our relic the sooner we can go back to Beacon."
"You're going the wrong way."
"Right." Jaune says spinning on his heel and walking the opposite direction…
Elsewhere in the Emerald forest the other applicants fight against the creatures of grimm, and in the case of the only three man group they search for a stray applicant.
"You know what? I think I would've preferred Jaune." Blake says as she trudges alongside her new partner.
"Hey!"
"No offense."
"Much taken"
"Let's just grab a chess piece, and get out of here." Blake groans…
"Stop acting like you're perfect."
"Stop acting like a child!"
"I can't believe I have to be your partner! A stupid stuck up princess, who doesn't even know basic directions!"
"I don't have to deal with this. I'll just grab a chess piece on my own, and ask Professor Ozpin to assign me a new partner." Weiss walks away from Ruby into the Emerald forest.
"She didn't even try to be nice…"
"Rennnnnnnn. I'm boooooored." The hammer wielding orangette whines. "I want to fight some grimmmmmmm."
"Nora please, can you let me think for a moment. I'm trying to figure out which way to go. If we find a group of grimm on our way there I promise to let you go wild on them. Sound good?" Ren replies hoping to keep her quiet for a moment.
Nora perks up. "Mouth closed. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZIP"
"Thank you Nora." Ren turns away from his partner. 'Now which way to go…'
Cardin and his group had already grabbed two chess pieces. They didn't really have to do much, or even go that far which was nice. Maybe they should make it a little bit more difficult on the rest of the applicants, to make themselves look a little better.
After all if they made it harder than it was, it would seem as though they were leagues more deserving than the rest. So what if they took off the warning sign to the stalkers cave, or maybe frayed the ropes to the bridge a little. It wouldn't hurt anyone right? It was a harmless manuever to make sure they looked the best…
"So your name is Barry, and you're a bear faunus?"
"That's right!" The new fourth member of the team says happily
"I told you we'd find someone to round out our group of three into four."
"Is he really a good choice? Nate is already our tank." The shortest one in the group says
"Yes he is, and look how cute his ears are. How are you going to say no." The ravenette of the three man group says
"Fine. Hey Nate. How do you feel."
"Meh. If it means I can play a different roll than walking armory I'm down."
"Awesome. Now which way is north?"
"Alright, I'm almost certain that the relic is in this cave, what do you think Pyrrha?"
"I don't think it's in here Jaune."
"I made the torch, and am taking the lead in the spooky cave, you can at least- WHOA!" Jaune falls into a puddle and his torch immediately goes out.
"Jaune do you feel that?"
"The feeling of constant disappointment? Yes."
"No I moreso meant the feeling of something breathing."
"Um no? Are you alright Pyrrha?"
"That depends on what happens in the next few seconds."
HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"I'm not alright! RUN!" The champion screams as she starts sprinting as fast as she can.
"GOOD IDEA!" Jaune tries following after her but something has him by his hoodie, and his feet are no longer touching the ground. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it he was still technically chasing after her.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Don't let go Jaune!"
"I don't really have a choice!"
"Just try and stay where you are."
The deathstalker must've heard Pyrrha, because it then proceeded to fling Jaune like a catapult as far away as it could. The massive scorpion grimm locked eyes with Pyrrha, who gave it a smile, and then ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction.
'I wonder if getting thrown around like this is normal for huntsmen' Jaune wonders while he hurtles through the air.
"I really hope Mr. Arc doesn't think getting thrown around like this is normal for huntsmen."
"Well having watched him so far. It might become a normal mode of transportation for him, then maybe he'll stop throwing up on my airships." The deputy headmistress scowls…
"Hey Ruby"
"Hey Jaune" The two friends exchange quick greetings as Jaune flies right past a falling Ruby. Ruby is caught by her sister, and Jaune is caught by a tree.
"Ow."
Jaune peels himself off the tree, and sees the rest of the group looking up at the sky. Following their lead the also sees the Schnee heiress falling from a long way up. It's his time to be a hero and impress her.
Like a superhero Jaune leaps off the tree, and manages to catch weiss midair. Unfortunately that's where the heroic act stopped, because then they both got to fall another 50 feet. With a hearty smack the blonde knight impacted the ground, and soon after all 4'11 and 111 pounds of Weiss impacted his spine.
"My back…"
"Hey incase you didn't notice. There's a giant death stalker, and nevermore trying to kill us so you might want to get up."
"I wish Neo was here." Jaune moans as Pyrrha picks him up. 'She could probably be classified as a weapon.'
"Jaune, Ruby said she's going to handle the nevermore, and left you with the deathstalker. We need a plan, and fast."
"What?! Why me?"
"Why not?"
"Because I'm me?"
"Well you better come up with a plan quick or we are going to become a puddle of deathstalker goo."
"Fine! Umm fall back to the bridge, and then we can work from there." Jaune desperately says hoping to give himself enough time to come up with an actual plan to beat the deathstalker. The group runs back, and Jaune looks at the team and weapons he has at his disposal.
They need to get rid of the tail first. That's the most dangerous. He'll leave Pyrrha and Ren to deal with that. Nora is probably the strongest so he'll let her deal some punishment, and act as distraction. Now for him… He can fight kind of, has the least range, and is the slowest, only having his own to feet to propel him.
He can be the distraction. He does have a large aura, is wearing armor, and has a pretty strong shield at his disposal.
"Stop right here. I've got a plan. "Pyrrha, Ren. I want you two to keep it's tail out of the way, and if you can remove it. Nora, you're the strongest, and your weapon is also a grenade launcher I want you to hit it really hard, and if you see I'm in trouble while distracting it shoot a couple grenades at it to get it off my back."
"Sounds like a plan fearless leader." Nora says cheerily.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be in front of it? You're going to have to go after it's eyes to keep it's focus on you, and if ren and I can't do our job completely you're in a really bad spot."
"It's fine." Jaune says with a very unconfident smile "I trust you guys to do your part. Now lets get this thing!"
(A short distance away)
"What are they doing over there? They cant even get up the cliff that way. There's also like a dozen signs pointing to this rope bridge that leads almost directly to the starting point"
"Just leave them Alex. They look like they have it handled. If anything I'm worried how two people the size of Barry and Nate are going to cross this bridge without the ropes snapping."
"I'm sure it will be fine JC. This is for sure huntsman grade stuff. Only way something bad happens if it got tampered with, and I'm sure they're watching to make sure nothing like that would happen."
"You're right lets just get on with it. We are supposed to get back to the cliffs not pay attention to what the rest are doing."
"Jaune you alright?!" Pyrrha yells.
"Yeah… It only managed to bounce me off the ground and knock me through two stone pillars with its tail." The knight for what felt like the millionth time this day got back to his feet, and grabbed Crocea Mors off the ground. "I think if I get on top of it I might be able to stab it through the head with my sword."
"How are you going to do that?"
"I have no idea."
"I do!" Nora shouts.
"Please have mercy on my soul."
"Nope" The cheery girl says, and suddenly Jaune no longer feels the ground.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" THUD Jaune lands directly on the back of the deathstalker.
'She may be crazy, but she has really good aim. Now to get up to its head' Jaune crawls up the gigantic grimm as it thrashes. The constant motion of the creature causing the knight's motion sickness to flare up. "Calm thoughts Jaune. You just have to get a few more feet then you're there."
Getting to his knees on top of the beast Jaune raises his sword, and jams it as hard as he can between to bone plates on it's head. Thrashing even harder Jaune is thrown off of the deathstalker, and tumbles his way to Nora's feet.
"The nail is in place. Hammer it home."
"I'm going to need a boost."
"Please dont make me get up."
"Pyrrha! Get over here! I need to go up quickly!"
The spartan runs over to nora and places her shield at an angle to help launch her. Nora backs up to the broken part of the bridge, and starts sprinting. With one leap she lands on Jaune's stomach, with the next she lands on Pyrrha's shield, and with the final leap she is launched high into the air.
The sound of laughter rings out as she starts falling, and then the sound of a grenade firing to speed her up. The sword was driven straight through the deathstalker like a railroad spike. The cracking and squishing sound made the team cringe a little.
"Are we done now?"
"Yes Jaune we're done."
"Awesome. Can one of you guys carry me?"
"Team Juniper. Led by Jaune Arc"
"What?!"
"Congratulations Jaune" the new leaders partner says with a soft smile.
"Now you're officially our fearless leader!"
"What do you want to do first?"
"I want to go to bed."
Neo had woken up just before noon, and immediately set out on the town to start shopping for the ingredients to Roman's favorite food. He liked fancy in public, but something she found out early on was that he enjoyed homecooked food more than anything else.
She had spent a lot of time learning how to cook. At first it was as a thank you and to help more since she was new. Over time though it developed into more of a way to take care of him, and get him to notice her. It worked sometimes, and got her praise from the master thief but others he just scarfed it down and got to planning on his next heist or in the recent months preparing for Cinder.
Now she finally had him on his off night and wanted to make it nice for him. Maybe Roman would finally get the hint that she was into him. Neo had wanted Roman from damn near the second she met him. Unfortunately though, he was either oblivious to her advances, or didn't care about them. She chose to believe the former for her own sake.
Neo walks into the store no disguise in place. It was good for people to sometimes see her especially alone. People would think there's Neopolitan the silent thief all alone as usual, and avoid eye contact. It's also why she did a couple heists on her own.
She was going to make Roman a fairly simple and traditional dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and if she wanted him to get the hint a good bottle of wine. Then he'd have to know it was special right? She was going to make the meatballs from scratch, and steal the wine from one of the finest restaurants in Vale proper.
They didn't even see her coming. The wine was stupidly easy to acquire for the thief then again her semblance was almost meant for thievery. Neo walked through the door, to the lights still out. Which meant Roman was either gone or still asleep. Neo guessed the latter since his jacket was still in a pile on the couch.
Neo set the wine on the table before heading into the kitchen to start the cooking process. It took a couple hours to get through it all, and she had definitely made sure to pay a lot of attention to detail. The only time she left the food was when she lit the candles. The smell wafting through their home, was delightful, and soon enough Roman ended up coming out of his room.
"What's cooking? The thief says yawning "It smells really good."
Neo nods, and blushes at the compliment. If it smelled this good to him then she was positive he was going to love the taste of it even more.
"You even got the got good wine. What's the occasion Neo?"
'You've been working so hard, and I thought maybe a good meal would cheer you up.' Roman's scroll buzzes. That's odd Neo hadn't even texted him yet. Neo hit send on her text and his scroll vibrated once more. Roman sat down at the table, his eyes locked onto his scroll.
"Thank you Neo. I needed something like this." Torchwick says looking up from his scroll "It is a lot though haha." Roman laughs "It might just be the wine and the candles though"
Neo's smile falters for a moment. How couldn't he see through this. It was expensive wine, his favorite dinner, and it was candlelit. Isn't that how romance stories said it should be? Maybe she just needed to start talking to him over the dinner.
Neo scoops a healthy amount of noodles out of the pot, and onto his plate, pouring over some sauce and, dumping about half the meatballs she had made for him to enjoy. She brought the garlic bread over to split, and Roman immediately took a massive chunk and dipped it into his spaghetti. Neo watched in astonishment as he didn't even wait for her to sit down.
Maybe he's just really hungry. Neo thinks as she goes back and makes her own plate. Roman is also under a lot of stress. His mind's still probably there. 'Maybe I can get his mind off that.' Neo thinks as she sits down across from him.
"Hey Neo, after I'm done I've got to leave for a bit. I'll be back later, I hope you don't mind. I know you put a lot of effort into this."
'Where are you going?' Neo asks before pouring herself some wine,
"I've got a meeting with Lisa Lavender."
'DAMN IT!' The girl wants to slam her head on the table, 'Of course.'
'That sounds like a fun time' time to shoot her shot, 'but why can't you just hang out with me instead? I'm sure we can have just as much fun…'
"I don't think you and Lisa really provide the same type of entertainment. I know we haven't done any recently, but I'm worn out from heists, and need something else right now." Roman stuffs the last bit of garlic bread in his mouth, before getting up and grabbing his overcoat from the couch. "I'll be back in a bit though Neo. Save a bit of spaghetti for me." The thief winks, closing the door behind him.
'I could give you that too' The unsent message from Neo read. She should've sent it, but she got caught up by Roman's talking. That's not true. She had been mostly paying attention to the message during his whole monologue, She just couldn't find the courage to send the message. Now he was gone, and she had missed her chance for a long while. Who knew when Cinder would give them the day off again…
Neo stood up. all happiness, and motivation sapped for the day. She put away all the leftovers, and did all the dishes, before looking at her scroll again. She had gotten a message from Jaune hours ago. She couldn't see it, and was fairly concerned to open it, but she did. The text from Jaune was short and to the point.
'I did it! :D'
Authors Note:
I know its lazy to have a lot of the initiation stay almost the exact same, but its a big event, and I thought it shouldn't deviate too far. I did add a couple of fellow freshman teams. The name of the all male team will be either team RACT (Racket), TANC (Tank), or BACR (Baker). They will not be major characters or even show up in very many chapters, theyre just kind of there to fill up some extra space since nobody really sees any other freshman teams in Beacon besides CRDL. Same with team KARP the one with the three girls and the guy.
I think I'm going to have Jaune and Blake end up as close friends in this, not as close as him and Neo, Ruby, or pyrrha, but maybe as close as him and Nora, and Ren, but with a few less interactions. Next chapter will take place two weeks from this one, and will be pretty important. This chapter was also done over the span of two evenings in one draft, I did edit and revise a bit, but if this chapter is too bad, then please tell me.
As always though I hope you enjoyed the chapter and enjoy the story. Feel free to leave a review and tell me what you do and don't like as well as any theories or ideas you have. I love reading all of the reviews and I hope you all have a great day, night, morning or whatever time it is.