The Bloodied Thirty Pieces

22 - For Me and You

Jaune breathed in the crisp night air. Below him Beacon settled in for the night, while Vale twinkled in the distance. He sat on the edge of the dormitory block, thinking back to all the times he and Pyrrha spent up here, where she had offered to train her and found out about his faked transcripts, when she had found him after the battle with the Ursa in the Forever Falls, where he had found her about to jump after Ruby's funeral. He never told anyone about that one, her first attempt at taking her life.

Below him a scroll buzzed, and he heard someone watching the news report from earlier today with Ozpin. He had almost thrown his scroll when he watched Ozpin lie on the media, almost stormed out to hunt down the headmaster, but he hadn't. It was done, he was done. Ruby was being taken cared of, Jaune and Ren had been asked by Ozpin and Epimetheus Nikos to be part of a team watching Ruby at all hours.

Everything had been sorted, this nightmare was finally over.

So why did Jaune still feel hollow inside.

He sighed and leaned back, looking up to the starry sky. He wondered if she was up there, looking down on him right now. He wondered if there was a God, watching everything with a plan.

"You know, people might get the wrong idea if they saw you up here."

Jaune bit back a string of curses as he looked over his shoulder. Walt Grey leaned against the wall by the door, holding his weapon over his shoulder and a duffel in his hand. He looked like he was ready for a fight and looking for one, and Jaune was honestly in no mood for his antics.

"Fuck off," the blonde said turning back to look at the stars.

The duffel landing next to him made him jump and almost fall off the edge of the building. He looked down with a scowl and saw the white gold of his weapon sticking out of the bag. Biting back another string of curses Jaune grabbed his weapon and rose to his feet, glaring angrily at Walt.

Walt flashed a smile and pushed off the wall. "Nah, feel like being here."

"What do you want Walt? Another fight, another venting session?"

"I want to continue where she left off."

The words hung heavy in the air, all the anger faded from Jaune's body and fell from his face as his jaw dropped in shocked confusion.

"Wha, what?"

"I've seen you fight, I watched your trial and your classes with Goodwitch. And you sucked," Walt said seriously, without a taunting smile or a glint of mirth to his eyes; Jaune scowled. "But then you started training with Pyrrha, and you got better. You have the natural talent for it, to be a Huntsman. It's just buried beneath your self-conscious ideas and notions of false bravado and expectations."

"How the-"

"I snipe with iron sights, I have good eyes."

"Oh." Like that explained everything.

"So I want to help, pick up an ember like her dad said and make sure you become the most fucking badass Huntsman this kingdom has seen," Walt said, moving his weapon from his shoulder so that it stood next to him, ready to fight. To Jaune's displeasure the wheat-haired student cracked one of his infuriating grins.

"Mopping time is over, Buttercup. Let's get down to business."

Jaune scoffed and looked away from the older student, shaking his head in disbelief as a tendril of anger forming in his mind and chest. He, didn't like Walt. He was infuriating, stubborn and blunt, his idea of helping had been to fight and torment Jaune when he was already beyond furious, and he did not apologize for his actions in anyway, even laughing over it the next day. Jaune had not seen one thing in the older student to even suggest he had an ounce of compassion or empathy, only that he loved to tease, torment and start fights.

Yet, he hadn't been any of these things at the funeral Jaune thought, he hadn't even given that stupid grin of his. He had pulled Jaune aside politely, he had been the one to suggest that Jaune visit Ruby, that they both get their thoughts and their feelings off of their chest and move on. And now. Jaune looked back to Walt standing patiently in the center of the roof. His grin was gone, a gentle smile in its place and his orange eyes were duller in colour, less mirthful more, sad. He didn't say anything, didn't make any move, but everything about him seemed different. Before he came off as cocky and impulsive, someone who you wanted to punch in the face. Now, he seemed calmer, more friendly and approachable. And his eyes, the sadness. They looked, understanding, like they were looking at Jaune having already experienced the heartache, the raw volcanic emotions boiling inside. Jaune blinked in surprise. Walt, standing in the middle of the roof right now, didn't look like the student he had met just a week ago. He looked like how jaune pictured himself in the future looking back on all of this.

Jaune sighed and fixed his shield to his arm, drawing the sword and giving it a few practice swings.

"How bout this. I beat you and you leave me the hell alone."

"You know I really did go easy on you last time."

"Bullshit. You're just saying that cause you got your ass kicked by a couple of first-years."

"Shortcakes exceptional for a first-year. You, you need work."

"I bet I can still kick your ass again."

"I was trained by a team of veteran Hunters before coming to Beacon. One of them is a bear Faunus, sweetest person you'll ever meet, but she's got a serious temper and the strength of three Nora's."

"You're, kidding. Right?" Jaune gulped, the colour draining from his whole body at the thought of three Nora's. Walt, his face deadpan, lifted his shirt to show a large scar in the shape of his fist on his stomach.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"