Professor Arc

Chapter 19

"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.

So he made sure to oppose her at every opportunity.

"How did the two of you come to meet?" Bart asked. "Mr Arc's records claim his team died at Vacuo, were you on another team?"

"She was a distant friend," Jaune cut in before she could, drawing all eyes to him. "Our teams didn't really know one another. In fact, we barely even interacted."

"True," Cinder nodded, glancing at him from the corner of one eye, "that said, once the disaster struck those who survived soon learned to band together. Jaune offered me comfort in those troubling times."

And of course she just had to leave out what comfort equated to, didn't she? He could already see the ideas floating through the heads of the other staff. This was an absolute disaster. She was weaving her life with his almost perfectly.

"It was only for a short while though, I left soon after – to try and become a Hunter officially."

"Though we always made sure to keep in touch, didn't we Jaune?" Damn it, damn it – damn it. No matter what he said, she seemed to be able to twist it to her benefit. To her posed question all he could do was nod and smile, ignoring the looks on his colleague's faces. "We fought side by side, and bonds forged in an endless fight for survival, are worth more than their weight in lien to me."