Chapter 18 – Dropouts

Velvet Scarlatina is interviewed for the opening that Team Job didn't even know it had.

"Alright, Velvet," Jaune said. "We've discussed things a little bit, and we'd like to give you a shot, but you're going to need to impress us."

The girl nodded up and down. "Of course, sir. Ma'am."

It felt weird. Here he was, a fraud of only seventeen years, but he was interviewing a real huntress who was not only older than him but much more experienced.

He picked up the resume again from where he'd left it on the picnic table. It was short in terms of actual career experience, but this girl was only nineteen and had only just 'left' her academy of study, so it made sense that she would still be underdone in that category. What was impressive already, though, was how big each of the other sections were. According to this, Velvet had been something of a volunteer work queen, and she also had a lot of accolades in the academics section.

"You've had a 4.0 GPA for two years, you're the twelfth highest ranked huntress-in-training in Beacon, you're…you're a semifinalist in last year's Vytal Festival Tournament?"

Velvet kept nodding along with each of them, but she stopped at the last one. "My team made it to the semifinals. I tapped out at the doubles round."

Jaune couldn't help but notice that she sounded a little odd when it came to discussing the Vytal Festival.

"This team of yours. Would you tell us about them?"

"Team Coffee," Velvet said proudly. "Coco Adel, Yatsuha…u-uh…um, if you're looking to contact them as references, I'm afraid that might not be possible."

Jaune hadn't, but the fact that she brought it up was noteworthy.

He wasn't the only one who noticed, for Blake's eyes were narrowed. "Why not?"

"Well, I just sort of up and ran away from Beacon, ma'am. I mean, I submitted the proper forms for voluntary resignation, but I didn't tell the guys or anything and just sort of…left, uh, the very second it had been processed." Velvet's head retreated into her shoulders a little. "I left a note, but I don't really want to face them again. Not until I'm ready. If you need references, my professors would be better."

"Why did you leave Beacon?" Jaune asked. "I think we never actually got around to discussing it before. Was it because of an argument with your team?"

She shook her head. "No. They're great people, and I still love them dearly, but I just…I couldn't stay at Beacon. There was an inevitable issue with my personal life that would make scheduling classes, taking tests, going on missions, all of it, virtually impossible."

Jaune had no idea how much he was legally allowed to pry without it becoming a case of an interviewer overstepping. He decided to be vague and just let her fill in the details whenever she could. "This inevitable issue…"

"It won't be a problem, sir. It's something that I wouldn't be able to fit into Beacon's schedule only because they have such rigid time commitments. Basically, all I would need is a few hours a week where I can go into Vale for personal stuff. In Beacon, that means getting on a flight, going out into the city, and flying all the way back in time for classes. As an employee of Team Job Security, I'm sure I could make it work. I mean, I'd be living in Vale."

Jaune couldn't say he was pleased with the way she was refusing to admit to whatever her problem was, but if she was confident she would be able to handle it…

I need to remember that we're the bosses here. If Velvet fails to perform her duties as a member of Team Job Security, then we can censure or even fire her if it comes to that. But if it's only a few hours a week…

But why would Beacon not be able to accommodate that?

Before Jaune could even wrestle with the choice of asking her to elaborate, Blake took that decision away from him by beating him to it. "Would you please tell us what this 'problem' is?"

Velvet wilted even further, and Jaune felt his heart shattered into pieces from raw pity.

"Please, ma'am, I'd rather not. It's a personal problem, and I swear on my grandmother's grave that it won't impact my work."

The more of this Jaune heard, the worse it was getting. If she didn't want to tell him, then that meant she thought it would be something that would prevent her from being hired, and if it was something that would influence whether or not they hired her, Jaune wanted to know all the more.

But she clearly wasn't going to budge, and Jaune really did want to hire her if he could. Not only was she a kindred spirit, but she was also a real huntress. That meant two people who could kill Grimm, two people who could train him, two people who could reach out their hand and pull him from the gnashing jaws of a Beowolf when he got pulled in.

We're not exactly drowning in applicants, either. She's the only person who's even reached out to us, meaning she's motivated. Team Job is a unique sweet spot when it comes to hiring folks…or I suppose I should call it a sour spot. We won't attract real huntsmen and huntresses, as it'll be easier for them to simply take missions from the mission boards, and our work is too dangerous for civilians.

Also, as much as he didn't want it to be a deciding factor, Jaune had been in the position of being utterly screwed by the huntsman community just a few months prior. He'd been prepared to apply to Beacon with a bogus application, so Velvet, whatever drawbacks she carried with her, was already truer than he had ever been.

Maybe it's a mistake, but I think we should let this 'problem' slide.

"So, Velvet," he went on, hoping to just move past the problem and then discuss it with Blake at a later date. "Or would you be more comfortable with Miss Scarlatina?"

"Oh, Velvet's just fine. Back on the team, we'd go by first names, sir."

Jaune chuckled. "If you're Velvet, then I'm Jaune."

A beat passed before the other Faunus at the table spoke. "And I'm Blake."

"Now, Velvet. What weapon do you use?"

Velvet nodded, clearly stoked to be back on track with the interview. "Anesidora, si– Jaune. It's a camera that utilizes Hard Light to create a virtual copy of any weapon I've photographed. In conjunction with my semblance, which allows me to flawlessly impersonate other fighter's styles that I've seen, I can essentially become fight on par with any huntress or huntsman in the world."

Wow. That sounded pretty impressive, though Jaune had no idea if every real huntress could do something that cool. Blake and her shadow clone powers were already amazing, so it could be.

"Hard Light…you use Dust?" Blake asked.

Velvet nodded. "Just the one type. Each weapon's durability is proportional with how much Dust is utilized, though there is a hard cap based on time for how long it lasts. To offset the costs of Dust, I typically fight with my body until I need to employ Anesidora." Her eyes moved to the side, and she bit her lip. "And, uh…w-well, when Beacon hosted their martial arts tournament, which was basically Vytal but without weapons and only for one school, I won the whole thing."

Again, Jaune found himself amazed by the claims she was making, but he still had no idea if it was because Velvet was actually really cool or if it was just because he was too naïve about hunting to actually know how to interpret her claims.

I'll leave it to Blake. She can be the one to discern Velvet's worthiness from a technical standpoint.

He swiveled around in his seat and leaned away from Velvet, then gestured for Blake to lean in.

"Should you spar with her?" he whispered.

"Sure," Blake said at regular volume. "What's with the cloak and dagger shit, Jaune? Sparring's a normal thing. You and I were just doing it."

"I'd be happy to spar!" Velvet said. "I-If you'd want me to."

Jaune stood up and lifted his legs out from the picnic table's bench. "We'll have you spar with Blake, then. She doesn't have her weapon on her, so it'll be hand to hand. Is that okay?"

The look on Velvet's face told Jaune that it was more than okay.

It was actually weird for Jaune to see Blake, his mentor who'd taught him everything about hunting that he knew, get thrown onto her butt and pulled into a headlock by this unassuming rabbit Faunus. Seeing it happen eight times in a row was even weirder.

"Another!" Blake demanded after tapping out and being released by Velvet. "I'll beat you this time! I've figured out your tricks, and there's no way you can win now!"

Velvet nodded. "If you'd like, Blake."

"It's ma'am! It's ma'am, you fucking cuniculture slag!"

Jaune couldn't resist laughing at that. Here Blake was, desperate to be shown her due respect as she belittled their newest employee with name-calling.

And Velvet would be their newest employee. That much was assured, because Jaune wasn't willing to pass up this opportunity that fate had thrown his way.

Every huntress seems amazing to a normie like me, but Velvet's the real deal. I've seen Blake in action, and if she can crunch her so effortlessly that she doesn't even break a sweat after eight consecutive bouts, I think we need to hire her. Er, make that nine consecutive bouts.

Blake was to Velvet as Jaune was to Blake. It wasn't like the weaker person couldn't get a hit in edgewise, it was just exceedingly difficult for them to do so when their opponent could read their movements like a book and possessed the dexterity and strength to respond.

Jaune wasn't some fight connoisseur by any means, but he was at least literate enough after all of Blake's training to know what he was seeing. Blake's fighting centered around her kicks mainly, as she typically fought with her hands being occupied with a sword, but Velvet was quick enough to avoid the kicks by leaning away that Blake had to be the one to chase her. The fights between them weren't overwhelming punchfests or boxing matches; it was a gradual wearing down where Blake tired herself out by attacking too much, and Velvet waited until just the right moment to pick up Blake and completely immobilize her.

I know firsthand that in spite of her size, Blake's one tough cookie. For Velvet to be able to pin her down, one hand pressing her face into the grass and the other holding down the arm that Velvet's legs aren't pinching, she has to be just as strong.

Blake was starting to look rather agitated, so Jaune decided it was his time to step in before she developed a deep-seated hatred of their new teammate or something. "Maybe we'll stop at Round Nine, you guys. I think I'm going to declare myself the referee and give the win to Velvet."

"FUCKER!" Blake screamed, her cheek held down to the grass. "I'LL CUT OFF YOUR DICK AND FEED IT TO THE GRIMM!"

"B-Blake, please. We're in the park. There are children nearby."

"Does this mean I've got the job?" Velvet asked sweetly.

"IF THE GRIMM ARE STILL HUNGRY AFTER JAUNE'S COCK, I'M SURE THEY'LL BE SATISFIED WITH YOUR WHORE ASS WHEN I CUT IT OFF AND FEED IT T–"

"We'll talk it over and let you know," Jaune said through the raunchy threats. "Thank you for your application, Velvet."

When Velvet was long gone, presumably back to whatever lodging she'd taken up since leaving Beacon, Jaune had offered for Blake to resume their spar that had gotten interrupted. This time, it wasn't for him to learn but for Blake to work through some of her unstoppable rage.

I'm glad I have a lot of aura, because otherwise being twisted into a pretzel might hurt!

"Side with the fucking rabbit, will ya?" Jaune's arm twisted further into his back, his own face now down in the same spot of dirt Blake's had been in moments prior. "I'll show you what happens when you piss off a huntress, buddy boy!"

He would eventually have to convince her that Velvet was a good investment – she was literally asking them to hire her, not the other way around – but right now, she needed to calm down a bit and reclaim some of her lost pride.

She continued to beat around on him for a little bit, and he let her. It wasn't like he would be able to stop her even if he willed it, but Jaune wouldn't have even if he could.

My job is to make things easier when conflict pops up between Blake and the clients. Well, I'm gonna assume that also extends to Blake and the newbies.

Newbies…

As Blake plowed him like a field of dirt, Jaune began to wonder about the future. So much of Team Job Security had been focused on the now – surviving now, completing the mission now, fixing the problem now – that he hadn't really ever pondered what happened next. It was a company, and companies typically either grew to fill the void or were snuffed out by rivals and competitors, which would be huntsmen and huntresses in this case.

Are we going to hire more people someday? A whole crew of Beacon dropouts and runaways to do the missions that real hunters can't be bothered to pick up?

Jaune found himself actually not liking that idea. Team Job, as it was now, was a team. It was him and Blake, something they'd created together and owned jointly. Adding in Velvet inevitably changed that, but it was still a cozy group of three. Maybe four, maybe even five, but after a certain point, it would stop being a team and start being a workforce.

Jaune liked the thought of being a close friend of each and every person they hired, of interviewing them personally, of asking if they were comfortably being on a first name basis and sharing his own first name with them.

I don't know if we'll ever actually get that big, but I just would prefer it if the entire team went on a mission as opposed to sending squad A, squad B, or squad Z. The thought of Team Job becoming some soulless corporation where you only know your immediate circle of coworkers…that reminds me too much of the SDC.

Blake snapped his arm a little bit further, and Jaune decided that he ought to say something before she actually injured him.

"So."

"So how about I introduce your nose to your –"

"Blake."

The pressure on his limbs was removed, and Jaune felt himself released. It hurt to stand a little bit, mostly just due to the fact that his body was so sore, but he picked himself up, stretched, and then immediately sat back down.

"I think we should hire her," Blake said.

"I know you're going to say that, but…w-wait –"

"Yeah." Blake shrugged and puffed out her cheeks. "I'm pissed, but I've also never seen that good a fighter. She could've given my mentor a run for his money, and that was without a weapon."

"I thought you were…you know."

Blake shook her head at him. "No one likes to lose."

That kinda didn't follow, since Jaune himself hadn't threatened to feed Blake's genitalia to the Grimm the moment she beat him (as she had many times), but maybe he'd gotten accustomed to failure at this point.

I mean, my entire life was pretty much just one gigantic lump of failure before I came to Blake and made Team Job with her.

"What do you think her secret is?" Jaune asked. He doubted Blake would just know, but maybe she saw some clue that he'd missed and could piece it together.

It might be a Faunus thing. I don't wanna be racist, but it could.

Blake shrugged and turned her back to him, staring off at the empty fields of the park. "Maybe it's that she faked her academic record because she didn't know what primary combat schools are."

"Ouch," Jaune laughed. "Point taken. I won't pry."

"Or maybe she's ex-White Fang."

Jaune found himself frowning at that. Blake was a Faunus herself, but accusing Velvet of that solely based on her species was a pretty crappy thing to do. "Hey, let's not –"

"Jaune."

"Blake, I don't think that's a joking matter."

"I wasn't joking. Jaune."

"Then it's even more unbelievable. How would that even make sense for why she left Beacon? You think she was secretly a terrorist in between classes or something?"

"No, Jaune, I don't."

"Then why'd you…"

Wait. She said MY thing, and then she…

Wait.

Is she trying to say that…?

She's White Fang?! But they're criminals! Terrorists! They kill humans without provocation!

Jaune suddenly found himself feeling uncomfortable with how alone they were in the park, just a single defenseless human and the Faunus who he knew could demolish him in a fight.

But this is Blake we're talking about! She'd never hurt me! Maybe leave me for dead, sure, and maybe use me to lure out Grimm, but she's my best friend!

It was always possible he was misreading this. Jaune shot Blake a look and opened his mouth to speak.

Blake shook her head. "No, Jaune, you aren't."

It was also possible she was reading his mind.

"I'm not. But it's obvious what you're thinking." Blake turned back around to face him. Her arms were folded in front of her, and Jaune wasn't sure if it made her look confident and self-assured or like she was hugging herself for comfort. "I've known the truth about you for a while, so you deserve to know the full truth about me."

"W-Why?" was all he could ask.

"I was born into it," Blake said. "It didn't start violently. We were just protestors at the beginning."

It took a second for Jaune to fully process that this was real, that he wasn't just hallucinating this from being hit a few too many times on the head by Blake. It was like one of those feelings where Jaune remembered something absurd and tried to recollect when it had happened, only to realize it was just the byproduct of a dream during a night he'd eaten too many salty foods.

Except this wasn't a dream. This was happening, right now.

"Did you ever…"

He couldn't finish the sentence.

Blake frowned. "There's a lot of lines I could have crossed, Jaune. If you want to know, you'll need to specify. But I wouldn't blame you if you decide you prefer to not know."

Jaune took a second to consider that. It certainly would be easier to never know, but the lack of knowledge would eat him alive. Even if it were bad, it couldn't be worse than whatever horror stories his stray thoughts could concoct. Blake wasn't a monster – there was no way – but Jaune's imagination would make her one if he let this go.

It was obvious what he wanted to know, if he had the blank check to ask.

"Any...innocent lives?"

Blake smiled and shook her head. "No, and no lives at all. But I stayed with them when they started turning humans into corpses. I didn't choose to leave until it was asked of me personally."

That was better than he'd been expecting. Jaune had been prepared for Blake to admit to killing people in self-defense (he wouldn't have even blamed her for that), but he wasn't sure if their friendship could excuse outright terror tactics. But to learn that's she'd just been –

"Oh, is that how you're so good at business things?" he asked, the neurons finally activating in his brain. "Because you didn't want to do violent missions?"

"Basically," Blake said. "Jaune, there's one thing that I want you to know, even if you don't ask. It's about…my mentor."

The bad person. Jaune remembered her being particularly tight about details on him or her last time they'd spoken about her past.

"He killed every day, innocent or not. There were times that I looked into his eye for a trace of the young boy who said he wanted to fix the world and couldn't find him." Blake put a hand to her forehead and choked out a harsh sob. "I loved him for so long. H-He's still out there. That's why…it was because of him that I…"

Blake was struggling to speak now, but Jaune knew that she would tell him at her own pace. He just continued to sit there patiently, ready for her to explain it to him when she was.

"The first mission, the one where I was ready to leave you behind…it wasn't out of greed. I just felt like I needed money to stay in Vale. It's one of the few places he can't reach me, the only place he can't hurt me. I don't show my emotions, but I still feel them, and the thought of him ever finding me and making me pay for leaving him…it terrifies me."

Jaune didn't say anything. He didn't have anything to say, because how could he, with his privileged little life as a human and a man and a person with every advantage, possibly relate to something so tragic?

A lady with a pet pug in a stroller passed by the pair on a nearby walking path. Blake and Jaune watched her come and go in silence. Neither could meet the other's eyes, so they just focused on the nearest distraction until it was no more.

"Why now?" Jaune decided upon. "You didn't tell me before."

"I didn't think about it, but they could…he could send someone to hurt me."

The White Fang…ah. Blake saw Velvet approach us and jumped to conclusions at first.

"You…You could be in danger, just by being around me," Blake choked out.

"Ah, fuck off."

"If you want to–"

"And I told you," Jaune said. "Fuck off with that."

He didn't care much for cursing, but the idea that he was just going to abandon Blake out of fear…never.

"The reason I wanted to hire Velvet, aside from not dying to the next Grimm, was because she's a fellow Beacon dropout," Jaune explained, rising to his feet and standing next to Blake to stare off into the distance with her. "She's got that kinship with us that comes from being screwed over by the same people. But you and me? We're brothers. Er, sisters. Siblings. No one else in the entire world will ever understand me as well as you do, because no one else shared that moment where our lives turned upside down and we found out we had to rely on each other to survive. You said a bunch of stuff to me the day we met, stuff about us being in the same boat, peas in a pod."

"J-Jaune." He couldn't look at her, but he could tell from her voice that she was on the verge of crying. "I-I…I only said that because –"

"Who cares?" he assertively declared. "It was all true. If you were scamming me, I forgive you. Doesn't really matter how many employees we take on; no one will ever truly understand because no one will ever have been there in that moment but you, Blake. We're Team Job, Blake, forever."

Coming Soon: The Truth is Cheaper

Velvet's finally accepted into Team Job Security, the vast business enterprise she's heard so much about from rumors…surely nothing will go wrong.

Author's Notes

We'll be ascribing a personality to Velvet, as she's basically the third main character (it'll still be rotating Jaune-Blake POV though). She's basically just kinda there in the show, as are most background characters, but she had her own struggles and character arcs, so don't worry about her being a cardboard cutout in the background. At the same time, she isn't going to steal the show away from our main-er characters.

I also made her good at hand to hand combat and fighting and stuff, just for funsies.

Blake has finally come clean. We will learn more about her backstory (I retcon some White Fang stuff to explain her story a bit in the same way I retconned Primary Combat Schools being the best kept Beacon secret), but not for a while.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!