Professor Arc

Chapter 19

Hey all, a quick note here – you really need to read the AN at the bottom, which discusses the ship rankings, because there seems to be a few misconceptions that people have in regards to it. It's all explained at the bottom, but tl:dr – it does NOT decide the official pairing for this fic.

I'm sorry if anyone feels misled, or that it was for that – from the very start I said the pairing had been decided, and that's not what it was for. The ship ranking was for a few reasons, listed at the bottom. But the main one was to determine who would have a Valentines one-shot with Professor Arc – and some fanart that I would draw.

That has been decided now, details at the end.

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Cover Art: Exvnir

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Chapter 19

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"So, how long have you known the lad for?"

"Oh we go back a long way," the woman chuckled, taking a sip of her tea. Jaune's knuckles were white on the handle of his mug. And judging by the knowing look she sent his way, she was well aware of what she was doing. "Jaune was quite the trouble maker, we were very close."

"I wasn't that bad," he laughed as the other teachers turned to look at him. Peter looked amused at the whole situation, while Ozpin looked to be paying only the slightest attention. The real concern however was Glynda, who was sat stiffly opposite them at the staffroom table. The steaming mug in her hand hadn't once risen to her lips. Bright green eyes seem to stray between Cinder and him every few seconds.

He wished he could read the thoughts behind them.

Damn Cinder, damn her to Hell! Why hadn't Roman warned him about this? He'd been so shocked, so horrified to see her that he'd failed to react in any way. Just standing there with a dazed expression as she kissed him in front of so many people.

As she tied her fate to his... Oh Jaune knew full well what that had been about, there was no way anyone would believe him now if he said he didn't know her from Vacuo. Not after such a public display of affection, after he failed to react to it. The threat was clear in her eyes as she looked towards him.

If I'm going down, then it won't be alone.

"And what is your relationship with Mr Arc?" Glynda asked, voice steady but unfalteringly stern.

"We went out for a while," Cinder said first, her words coming out before his could, causing him to swallow back what he'd been about to say.

"But we never got together," Jaune added quickly, noticing full well the small frown that came to her lips for a brief second, before being washed away.

"Not officially, anyway," Cinder shrugged, letting the teachers make of that comment what they would. Jaune wanted to reach across the table and throttle her, except that he knew how that would end.

Instead he was stuck here... playing some ridiculous game of pin the backstory on the donkey, and he had no misconceptions as to who was the ass was in this scenario. Everything she said about him, he had to accept as fact, because wouldn't it look odd if these two old friends had conflicting stories? Mighty suspicious that would be...

It was like two people trying to build a house, laying one brick each. Except that neither of them had a plan or set of schematics, and he had no idea what his final backstory would look like. The only thing he was sure of however, was that whatever result Cinder wanted would probably be bad for him.