Jaune and the Real Girl.

Chapter 13

Jaune took a breath of Mantle's crisp morning air as he listened to the rhythmic march of schoolchildren following him. He held up his stop sign as they approached a crosswalk and gave a blast of his whistle for emphasis. The long line of children behind him stopped obediently as he waited for traffic to clear. Stepping out into the crosswalk he held his stop signal up for any passing cars. He signaled for the children to walk with two blasts of his whistle and they did remaining in their single file line awaiting him to take the lead once more. He performed a quick head count on the kids seeing that indeed everyone was accounted for.

Simple and uneventful as this job was Jaune could hardly complain now that he was back to working as a huntsman. He took another breath of the crisp air and savored it. It tasted like freedom. 

"Looking sharp Mr. huntsman!" One of the moms teased from behind him crossing the street after their kids. They gave him teasing smirks and grins as they passed by him carrying tupperware containers of home cooked meals they gifted him. He'd gotten pretty sick of all the casseroles and meatloaf dishes they'd been giving him, but after the last week of Atlas caffetteria food he was salivating for the opportunity to eat a real home cooked meal, even if it did need to be reheated. Pulse he was able to save plenty of lien from meals thanks to all the home cooking, even if it did mean a lot of casseroles.

He had even missed their teasing and overly friendly nature. Jaune lowered the stop sign and walked back out in front of the line giving a blast of his whistle signaling them to follow.

"So where have you been hiding?" One of the moms asked him, the blonde, she usually wore the same red coat, Cassandra Jaune thought her name was. "It's been over a week since you last helped us, were you off on a dangerous mission?" She asked.

Jaune grinned awkwardly at her friendly teasing. "No I was in the hospital," he explained, a little embarrassed that he'd been hurt enough to keep him from this little daily mission of seeing that these kids safely got across town and to school.

"The hospital? You were hurt?" She asked with a touch of concern.

"Yeah, I got beat up pretty bad," he explained.

"So you were on a dangerous mission," she observed.

"Well yeah," Jaune admitted, "but it wasn't for a week." The words dangerous mission didn't really feel right to him. It made it sound like one of his favorite Spruce Willis action movies when the reality felt the opposite to him.

"Well we're all glad to have our big strong huntsman back protecting our kids," the mother explained teasing him as she and the rest always did.

Jaune smiled at that, "glad to be back ma'am," he said with a nod.

"Ma'am? There's no need to be so formal Jaune, you can just call me Cassandra, or Cassie if you want," she chided playfully, giving him a wink.

"Uh... yes ma'am," Jaune blushed and turned away focusing on the sidewalks as he readied to lead his platoon of children safely across the street. Sometimes with their overly familiar and friendly demeanor it almost felt like some of the mothers were actually flirting with him. It certainly made things awkward sometimes.

He was back in the saddle so to speak. Escorting these kids to school under the watchful eye of their mothers wasn't challenging or dangerous and he was happy with that, it was nice to have something certain and safe in his life to contrast with his more chaotic and dangerous work. This was the perfect way for him to get back up to speed.

He blew his whistle to stop the line of kids as he readied to once again help them stop. The school was just in sight now so he'd be able to call it mission accomplished soon enough and return to Atlas with a paycheck and an arm full of home cooked meals for himself and the rest of his team. As the kids all stopped on the sidewalk with a blast of his whistle they turned their heads to the sky as the faint rumbling roar of engines echoed through the streets below.