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Najimi Jaune
🕑 Added 2023-10-14 13:36:24 +0000 UTCCommission for Titanmaster. Hope you guys enjoy :D
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It all started when Nora threw a pie to Weiss' face.
Team RWBY and JNPR had just finished the most EPIC food fight ever. There were explosions, Semblances, foods used as weapons, and Yang being knocked into the stratosphere. It was so awesome! The perfect way to start the semester, in Ruby's humble opinion. They really needed a break after dealing with all that stuff with the Nightmare Grimm and finding out Weiss has a real thing for military cosplay.
Best start of the term ever!
Even more awesome? They didn't get in trouble at all! It was so great!
But enough about the food fight. As cool as it was, it wasn't the weirdest part of that whole day. No, that came when Sun and his friend Neptune showed up ahead of the rest of their team. She didn't know much about Sun, but he was super friendly and he helped out Blake when she ran off and fought Torchwick and the White Fang at the docks. She figured that he had a crush on Blake like half the school.
So imagine her surprise when he completely ignored her and went for Jaune instead, "Jaune, is that you?! Broooo!" Sun grinned and pulled Jaune up in a hug, completely ignoring how the other blonde was covered in mashed-up food and cream.
"Sun? Nep?" Jaune asked back with a grin. From behind him, all of team JNPR looked at each other in confusion.
"You didn't tell us you were at Beacon, man!" Neptune said after, smiling from ear to ear.
"It's a long story." Jaune laughed, rubbing the back of his head as soon as Sun put him back down, "But hey, I didn't expect to see you two here either!"
"It's the Vytal Tournament. Teams from all over are coming." Neptune crossed his arms and smirked, "You forgot, didn't you?"
"H-Hey, it's been a busy semester!"
The three of them started chatting happily, completely ignoring the mess of food and everyone else around. All four members of team RWBY shared their own looks. Only Ruby was close to Jaune among the four of them, but they got a good idea of exactly who he was. He was a big, awkward dork, just like Ruby herself was, and in all the months they spent at Beacon, they never saw him being friends with anyone outside of their teams.
And now here he was chatting up two transfer students like it was no big deal.
Poor Blake looked the most confused out of everyone. Sun was practically hanging off her neck ever since the fight at the docks and now she might as well have not existed. She wasn't angry or anything, but she probably still felt a bit bad.
Weiss coughed politely, cutting through their conversation, "Ahem. Jaune, would you introduce us to your friends?" She already knew who Sun was, but Ruby guessed that she was more interested in the blue haired guy judging by how she was looking at him.
"Oh, right." Jaune laughed, "This is Sun and Neptune. They're old pals."
"He's downplaying it." Neptune laughed and put an arm around Jaune's shoulders, "Jaune here's pretty much the reason our team's so famous. He was the one that came up with leaning into the whole boyband thing."
'Oh come on, I was just spitballing. You guys were the ones who really went all-in on it."
"Come on, dude, don't be shy!" Sun laughed and gave him a friendly knuckle rub to the head, "Shit, you really shoulda told us you were in Beacon. I would've snuck out sooner!"
Jaune suddenly adopted a faux-strict look, "Sun, we talked about you running off on your team."
Instead of brushing it off, Sun looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Blake looked even more confused. Ruby didn't know Sun very well, but she got the feeling that he wasn't the kind of guy who looked like that a lot.
"Come on, Jaune, give him a break. He's doing better," Neptune said.
"Wait, hold on," Yang cut in, "The first term started just a few months ago. How'd Vomit Boy make friends with you guys and help you decide what you were gonna do with your team?"
"I get around! I do have friends outside of you guys, you know." Jaune huffed.
"He sure does. Jaune here's what you'd call a 'social centipede'. I'm using that right, right?" Sun grinned and shook his head, "Ah, whatever. Man, we really gotta hang out! Too bad Scarlet and Sage ain't here yet, but we can still have some fun!"
"Ah...sure! We can train tomorrow, right, Pyr?" Jaune looked back at Pyrrha.
"Oh...of course." Pyrrha smiled, obviously forced. Ruby felt bad for her. The rest of them (except Jaune, for some reason) know how much she looked forward to their personal training sessions, "No problem at all, Jaune."
"Guys night. Just us guys, keepin' it real." Neptune pumped his fist.
"...Hey, Sun," Blake said. Maybe it was just Ruby's imagination, but she could've sworn she sounded irritated.
"Oh! Hey, Blake. Didn't see ya there," Sun replied, giving her a sideways glance. He sounded like he was barely paying attention.
"Well...I'm here."
"Yep." And then he turned to Jaune again, "So Jaune, you really gotta tell us how you got into Beacon!"
"Yeah, I bet you must've pulled something crazy," Neptune added.
"Come on, guys, it's not a big deal. Seriously." Despite his refusal, he let the two of them drag him out of the cafeteria. The three were all smiles and laughs the whole way though. It was...weird. Jaune was socially awkward like she was. Or at least, that was what Ruby thought. Apparently not if he was making friends with teams from entire different schools before they even showed up.
"That was...odd," Ren said at all.
"More like super weird!" Nora added louder, "Since when was Jaune-Jaune so popular?"
"He has friends outside of our social circle. That hardly makes him popular, Nora," Weiss crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose.
"You don't know! He could be the most popular guy outside of Beacon!" Nora shot back.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Yang shrugged, "I mean, it's Vomit Boy. Yeah, he knows a couple of people outside the school, but that doesn't suddenly mean he's Mr. Popular or anything."
"Don't be mean, Yang." Ruby slapped her right shoulder. She was surprised that Jaune wasn't as awkward as she thought he was, but it's not like it was impossible. Even she had friends back at Signal and Yang had people she ditched her for on the first day. She just...couldn't remember her Signal friends or what Yang's friends looked like outside of vague shadows. Weird.
"I-I'm sure everything will be fine," Pyrrha said, which was weird cause none of them implied that anything was wrong.
Ruby shook her head and walked back to their dorm with the rest of the group to get a change of clothes. She was sure things would get back to normal soon enough.
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The strangeness didn't stop there.
As more and more students came in for the tournament, the scene from a few days ago kept on repeating. Transfer students would run into Jaune and they'd greet him like he was their best friend. It was all smiles, high-fives, and old jokes that went through everyone's heads. Jaune didn't seem surprised in the least and he remembered every single person that talked to him.
And Pyrrha hated it.
She was being so selfish. Jaune was reuniting with old friends and all she could think about was her jealousy and how unfair it all was. Jaune had friends, that wasn't shocking. He was kind, friendly, and open with his feelings; sometimes to his detriment, but oftentimes not. It was one of the things she loved most about him. How much he cared and accepted everyone. How he treated her as just another student when they first met.
Which only made her feel worse when she saw that same smile being given to others. It didn't matter who they were. Students from Atlas, Mistral, or Vacuo; Jaune gave them the same happy smile and easy jokes.
It didn't help that he often found himself too busy to spend time with them now. His new (old) friends took up a lot of his time and not a day went by when he wasn't out with another group of people.
She'd brushed it off at first. After all, how many new (old) friends could Jaune have had? He didn't even know what Aura was up until Initiation, so there must not have been that many Huntsmen-in-training he could've been in contact with, right?
Wrong.
It seemed like every single team that showed up was part of his then-unknown friend group. There wasn't a single transfer student who didn't know who Jaune was or had some established relationship with him. They bought wine from his family, they were old family friends, they were penpals...the reasons were numerous and none of them helped with the churning feeling in her gut.
The eight of them were eating lunch in the cafeteria when another of his old friends invited herself in, "Heya, Jaune!" Neon Katt grinned and sat in the small gap between her and Jaune. Pyrrha wanted so badly to push the Cat Faunus to the ground, but she held herself back, "We're still on for tonight, yeah?"
"Of course." Jaune nodded happily. Ever since his new (old) friends showed up, she and Jaune hadn't had the time to keep up with their usual training sessions. That wasn't to say he was slacking - they'd simply changed training in the evening to the morning. The issue was that they weren't alone. The gyms were often crowded by early risers and that only got worse with all the transfer students coming in. Their previously private sessions had become yet another avenue for people to take up more of his time.
"We're finally watching that Spruce Willis movie." Neon laughed and, much to Pyrrha's rising rage, her tail curled up Jaune's arm left. Both hands held her tray in a vice grip and it took everything Pyrrha had not to toss the metal clear across the cafeteria.
"I still can't believe Atlas banned it." Jaune shook his head.
"That's because Spruce Willis is poorly written schlock that glorifies Vale's very minor victories against Atlas," Weiss gritted out. Much to Pyrrha's surprise, Weiss had been one of the more testy among their group once they realized just how much of a social butterfly Jaune was.
"Pfft, like Atlas doesn't have their own stuff like that." Neon rolled her eyes. For an Atlesian, she wasn't shy about criticizing her home kingdom, which Weiss took umbrage with, "At least Try Hard 2: Try Harderer is just fun. Who cares about all that political garbage?"
The two Atlesians continued to bicker amongst themselves while Jaune futilely tried to play peacekeeper. If there was one good thing about his new (old) friends, it was that he never had the time to try and woo Weiss anymore. In fact, with Weiss' increased snippiness, Jaune seemed to finally be getting the message that maybe his 'Snow Angel' wasn't the right person for him.
Unfortunately, Pyrrha couldn't exactly capitalize on that. Especially not when-
"Jaune, tell her she's wrong!" Neon propped herself up on Jaune's shoulders with her chest pressed right over his head. Amazingly, Jaune paid absolutely no mind to it. Pyrrha did. Her fork bent with a loud creak, though the two arguing Atlesians and Jaune didn't notice. To Pyrrha's left, Nora suddenly looked nervous and scooted away from her.
"As if Arc would know anything about good movies."
"Hey! I resent that!" Ruby gasped while Blake and Yang blinked in shock. He wasn't angry - it was mild irritation at best - but it was still more heat than he'd ever shown the heiress. Even Weiss seemed surprised, judging by how she suddenly leaned back, "I may not know a whole lot about a bunch of stuff, but I'm definitely good at picking movies. And Spruce Willis is a modern-day classic!"
Weiss was quick to regain her footing and glared at them both, "Oh please, it's poorly written action movie schlock!"
"And that's what makes it awesome!" Neon declared with a tone that left no room for argument.
Pyrrha tuned out their bickering (with Jaune now being on Neon's side rather than a peacekeeper). She hated this. It was selfish, she knew that, but she couldn't help how she felt. She preferred it back then when it seemed like Jaune only had their team as friends. She never had to worry about someone else monopolizing his time or friends who were so close and touchy-feely that she felt a constant churning in her gut.
"J-Jaune!" she cut in during a lull in their argument, "W-Would you mind if I came with you two to the movies?" It was a desperate attempt, but she didn't care.
Jaune winced, "Oh...sorry, Pyr, it's sold out. It's the premier, so everyone was scrambling to get tickets. Neon and I barely got ours."
"Yep. Sorry~" Neon sang. Maybe it was her imagination, but Pyrrha could've sworn there was something unbelievably smug behind the words.
Again, Pyrrha had to resist the urge to throw something.
Neon stayed with them up until lunch was over before she had to go back to her team. Pyrrha kept herself from muttering 'good riddance' as the catgirl skated off, "I still don't get how you're so damn popular, Vomit Boy." Yang whistled. She was more amused than anything, "Like, how does this even work? You knew every student outside of Beacon for years?"
"Not every student."
"Dude, you have more friends than all of us combined." No one disagreed, which was sad. It was definitely true in her case. Pyrrha had friends before, but fame had a way of weeding connections. Her friends had either become resentful or tried to use her for 'perks'. Jaune was different. No one else on JNPR or RWBY did, outside of Weiss before Initiation, but he was the first.
"I just talk to people." Jaune shrugged.
"At least we know what you spent your time doing instead of training," Weiss muttered under her breath. It was so soft that none of them were meant to hear it, though Pyrrha and Blake, judging by how her bow twitched, did. Pyrrha's lips pressed into a thin line and she felt the urge to defend her partner.
She didn't. While the cause of their resentment was different, it would've been hypocritical for her to act like she was much better than Weiss right now.
She had to be better. She had to be-
"Hey, Jaune." Nebula Violette from team NDGO sat down where Neon was, face alight with a grin. Pyrrha didn't like her. She didn't like many of Jaune's new (old) friends, but that wasn't personal. She was jealous. The same couldn't be said for Nebula and team NDGO as a whole. They were overconfident bullies in the same vein as Cardin. How Jaune could ever be friends with one of them, let alone all of them, boggled the mind.
"What's up, Nebby?" That was another thing that ground her gears. The nicknames. He had one for just about all of his friends, herself included. It made her feel special since he called everyone else on their team by their actual name, Weiss' Snow Angel title aside. Even Ruby didn't get one while she did. It was a bit of a blow to find out she was just one of many.
"Me and the rest of the team were thinking of hitting the gym. Wanna come with?"
"Uh...sure! Always good to train, right?"
"I can come-"
"Sorry, Invincible Girl. We only reserved a room for five." Nebulla smirked. Pyrrha desperately wanted to knock her teeth out.
The Vacuan team leader grabbed Jaune and practically dragged him away before any of them could react. Pyrrha was tempted to stand and give chase before Nora grabbed her hand, "Don't. I wanna kick her butt too, but Jaune-Jaune's gonna get mad if you pick a fight with his friends."
Pyrrha took a deep breath and forced herself to keep sitting. Nora was right.
"Jaune's been super busy since the transfers came in," Ruby said, trying to fill the sudden silence.
"Indeed, though it's not all bad." Ren nodded, "It's clear that his old friends are very happy to see him and reconnect. They're likely trying to spend as much time as they can since they'll be returning to their schools come the end of the term." It couldn't come soon enough, Pyrrha thought. They had to deal with the transfer students for the next four months. She almost wished that her fans would've shown up instead. She at least knew how to deal with overeager admirers.
"What is it about that dolt that they find so intriguing?" Weiss asked herself.
"Geez, Weiss, what's crawled up your butt?" Yang snarked.
"Nothing went up my posterior, thank you." Weiss sniffed.
"You've been in a bad mood ever since the transfer students came in. You and Pyrrha," Blake said.
"I-I haven't!" Pyrrha winced. The refusal sounded weak even to her.
"Yeah...sorry, Pyrrha, it was kinda obvious," Nora said, patting her shoulder sympathetically.
"I'm just surprised that dunce could draw so many people to him, that's all," Weiss denied, cheeks red with embarrassment and anger, "He's hardly the most charismatic or influential. I don't know what exactly they gain from befriending him."
"Weiss...not everything's about what you can get out of someone. I mean, look at us," Ruby's words made the heiress look away with an expression of shame.
"Point, but my question still stands. Having a best friend or a tight-knit group? Fine. Humans and Faunus are both social creatures, after all. This isn't the same thing. Jaune has befriended at least dozens of people and yet they all act as thick as thieves. I just don't understand why. If they were his acquaintances then I would find it more sensible, but they're not. They act as if they're all equally close."
"Many people handle relationships differently. Who are we to judge Jaune for his?" Ren asked.
No one answered. Pyrrha sighed and went her separate ways with the others once they finished their meals. It was going to be a long semester...
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Weiss was not a woman often prone to jealousy. Why would she be? She'd grown up wanting for nothing. She was the heiress and anything she wanted, she was given. For all her father's many faults, being stingy with his family was not one of them. Sure, he wouldn't show up to her birthday if her life depended on it, but he'd pay five figures to ensure it was the event of the year. Mostly for the sake of the Schnee's reputation, but still.
Which was why she felt her burning envy for one Jaune Arc...disconcerting.
She wasn't jealous of Arc's old friends monopolizing his time like Pyrrha was. No, her feelings were more from the other end. Why exactly did Arc have so many people singing his praises? He was hardly someone worth admiring. For as much as Blake was wrong to hide her past affiliations, she could at least watch out for herself and wasn't a burden to the team. An untrained teenager with fake transcripts was the opposite of that. Though she supposed it would've been hypocritical of her to expose him for that and yet keep Blake's secret, and so she held her tongue.
It was mindboggling. She would've laughed if she didn't see how sincere they all were. Vacuan students that saw all outside their kingdom as inferior? Arc was the exception. Atlas students that chafed at relations with those outside their own school? Didn't matter for Arc. Mistral students...well, okay, none of them had anything against outsiders, but they were just as friendly with Arc all the same.
She couldn't deny that the jealousy was irrational. So what if Arc had numerous friends? It shouldn't have mattered to her. But it did. It burned her up inside that Jaune Arc, of all people, had gotten such widespread adoration. Meanwhile, she had to deal with parasites and sycophants who saw her as nothing more than a ticket to the riches and power of the SDC. Her 'admirers' were self-serving leeches, nothing like the dozens that called Arc their friend.
Especially a certain team.
Team SSSN definitely drew one's eyes. Even past her former prejudices, she acknowledged that Sun was a handsome young man with an outfit that left very little to the imagination. The rest of his team was similarly handsome. Sage was slender and almost delicate in appearance while Sage was even more muscular than Sun with a handsome face and chiseled jaw. And Neptune...
Well, she wasn't ashamed to admit to herself that she found him attractive. He had a great sense of fashion and an undeniable charm to him. He was handsome too. Not quite as delicate as Scarlet, but with a definite boyish charm regardless. Far better than Arc. He looked like any other Valean from the countryside.
She resolved to ask him out. While she wasn't used to being the one making the first move - she was far too used to others trying to charm her instead - she doubted it'd be that difficult given who she was. She searched for Neptune all across campus until she found him reading a book in the library. Studious too. Good.
"Good morning, Neptune," she said as she sat across from him. He looked up from his book and she flashed him a winning smile cultivated through years of parties and galas, "It's nice to see you here."
"Oh, hey! ...Sorry, what was your name again?" Her right eye twitched and he continued before she could reply, "Weizz, right?"
"It's Weiss, actually." She laughed. Alright, a bad first impression, but she could ignore that, "We met at the cafeteria?"
"Oh yeah, when me and Sun saw Jaune again." Her eye twitched again.
"Right. Well..." She coughed, "How are you enjoying your time in Beacon?"
"Oh, it's great. Especially since we got to see Jaune again." She had to hold back from growling. Everything was about Arc!
"Would you like to go out sometime?" She asked, biting the bullet. Surely he couldn't twist that around to be about Jaune!
"Oh...like, right now?" Neptune blinked.
"Yes, if you're free."
"Well...I was actually gonna meet up with Jaune. He promised to show me around Va-"
"Tomorrow then!" Weiss interrupted quickly, her smile straining.
"I'm gonna be busy for the whole week. Sorry. See, Jaune-"
That was as far as he got before Weiss stood and left without another word. She could've tried next week or next month, but fuck it. She was Weiss Schnee, gods damn it, and she refused to play second fiddle to Jaune Arc.
The same resentment from before bubbled to the surface and she had to avoid screaming out in a rage. This was insane. In what world was Jaune Arc so charismatic that dozens of Huntsmen-in-training, the future Protectors of Mankind, would be falling over themselves to spend time with him. Nevermind the fact that he was somehow juggling said people even though that would've taken more hours in the day that were possible.
She was so lost in her angry thoughts that she almost didn't notice when she'd bumped into someone almost hard enough to knock them to the floor.
"Hey, watch where you're going." Weiss stepped back and looked up at the young man she'd bumped into. Dark skin, a crisp suit, shades, and a fedora. Not someone she recognized. His expression of mild irritation worsened when their eyes met, "Ugh. Course I'd run into a Schnee."
"And you are?" Weiss crossed her arms and raised an imperious brow. While many coveted her name, just as many spat on it in equal measure. While at least some of it was justified, others were simply looking for a scapegoat to blame their own flaws on.
She got the feeling this young man was of the latter category.
"Flynt Coal. Name ring any bells?"
"Can't say that it does."
"Not surprised. You don't look at the people you're trampling, do you?" Weiss sneered at the accusation, "Mom and Dad used to run a Dust shop. Small place, but we made do. At least until your company decided to shut us down."
"That's how economics works. It's a competition where everyone strives to be better than everyone else. Did you feel guilty when every time someone bought from your shop, they weren't buying from someone else who might have needed it more?"
Their burgeoning argument was cut off by another voice chiming in, "Hey, hey! Let's not fight." Weiss grimaced and did her best to avoid glaring at Jaune as he walked up to them. He was the last person she wanted to see right now.
She was expecting Coal to tell Jaune off, and she would've agreed with him at least on that front. Instead, he suddenly looked ashamed and sighed guiltily, "...Yeah, you're right, man. Sorry. I know it's not really her fault."
"...You two know each other?" Weiss didn't even know why she was surprised at this point.
"Yeah. When the shop went under, I was in a pretty bad place. Jaune helped me out."
"Of course he did." Weiss sighed and left before she could be sucked into another conversation about how great Arc was.
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Jaune was being stalked.
He wasn't imagining it! He might not have been a Huntsman, but he'd been training hard the past few months. Maybe he couldn't dodge a bullet like Ruby could, but he could still tell when someone was following him.
Like right now.
Jaune looked back down the hall and frowned at the empty space. The entire hall was so barren that he could've seen a tumbleweed pass, "Hm..." He turned around and started walking. One step, two steps, three-
He heard something!
Jaune turned around again and spotted a reddish-white blur just before it hid against the corner. He was definitely not imagining that!
"Jaune, are you okay?"
Jaune jumped and did not let out a high-pitched shriek. Absolutely not. Heart beating at a normal tempo (and not a mile a minute), he turned around for the third time and heaved a sigh of relief at Pyrrha's worried gaze, "Y-Yeah, I'm good." He leaned in closer to whisper. For some reason, her face went red, "I think someone's following me. I saw them hide in the corner."
"Hm...alright, I'll handle it."
"Wait, wha-"
Pyrrha ran past him so fast he almost didn't realize. Jaune looked back just in time to see Pyrrha round the corner and a high-pitched shriek echoed. Jaune quickly ran after her and found his partner pinning another girl against the wall, "Who are you?" Pyrrha questioned. The girl squirmed and didn't answer. Tan skin, rose-colored hair, and one exposed eye showing off a grey iri-
Wait.
"May? Is that you?" Jaune asked.
"Y-You know this person, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked back.
"Yeah, I think so!" He gently pushed his partner away and let May calm down. It was definitely her. She looked different now - baggy clothes instead of dresses and a beanie that covered her left eye - but still undeniably May, "Oh gods, May! How long's it been?" Jaune laughed.
"T-Ten years," she said softly. Despite the situation, she managed to look up at him with a smile, "I-It's nice to see you again, Jaune." She turned to Pyrrha, "My name's M-May Zedong. It's nice to meet you."
"It's so good to see you again!" He pulled her into a hug. He could've sworn he heard a squeak behind him, but he ignored it, "Man, ten years. Why didn't you just say hi?"
"I...I was thinking of what to say." She chewed on her lower lip, "And...I was scared that maybe you would've forgotten about me since it's been so long."
"Forget about you? Never! I still remember that promise we made." He held up his pinky and, after a moment's hesitation, May did the same, her smile brightening. Their fingers interlocked, causing another random squeak from behind, "I mean it took a while to get there, but we're both here!"
"Y-Yeah!"
Pyrrha coughed loudly and looked at the two of them with a smile. Weird, it looked different than her usual ones, "Jaune...you two know each other?"
"Do we ever? Me and May are childhood friends!" Jaune wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, "May lived in Domremy till she was seven and then they had to move to Vacuo. We tried to keep in contact, but..."
"S-Sorry! The place we went to had a really spotty CCT connection. I couldn't really find a good enough signal to keep in contact, and then there was that Grimm attack and I lost my old scroll." She shook her head, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You're here now, and that's what matters."
"A-And this promise?" Pyrrha asked.
"Oh! Yeah, funny story about that." Jaune rubbed the back of his head with his free hand, "Me and May got into a lot of trouble back in Domremy. My parents and hers always got mad whenever we had one of our adventures. Well, one of our last ones ended with us sneaking out of town and running into a Beowolf. It was just a single one, but we were running scared!"
"Our parents were so angry when we got back." May giggled, "They screamed while the two of us were just holding onto each other and bawling."
"But we were kids, so of course, we thought it was this big dangerous adventure." Jaune sighed happily, "We made a promise to each other that we'd be Huntsmen and watch each other's backs when we grew up. I mean I'm still doing this because I wanna live up to my ancestors, but that promise with May was the first push I really needed. Without her, I wouldn't be here."
"Y-You're exaggerating..." May blushed, but she smiled anyway. Jaune was so happy to see her again.
Across from the reunited childhood friends, Pyrrha felt the exact opposite. Jaune continued to rattle off childhood stories with May adding her comments here and there. It came into one ear and out the other. A childhood friend. No, worse than that. A female childhood friend who made a promise that they would be Huntsmen together. She'd seen romances with the exact same plot as this!
But perhaps it wasn't the same, the idealistic part of her mind said. Maybe this May was just a friend and the two of them were completely platonic. That hope was quickly dashed when she saw how May looked up at Jaune. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips were curled up in a shy smile, and the exposed eye had an unmistakable look of adoration and affection. May Zedong was the childhood friend that was in love.
May started hanging around them almost daily after that. While Jaune's numerous friends dropped in whenever they wanted, she was practically glued to his side once they had their reunion.
Her competitive streak flared up and she desperately wished that May would be her opponent once Combat Class came up. No such luck, of course, since Beacon was saving inter-school fighting till the tournament.
She hated how jealous and small she felt. She was the Invincible Girl, the Pride of Mistral, and yet May was Jaune's childhood friend. They had a history that she could only dream of.
It reached a peak when the two of them were changing in the locker rooms. Pyrrha had intended to turn around and find another spot when May pulled her baggy jacket over her head. Pyrrha's eyes practically bugged out of her sockets as she finally saw what May had been hiding. She was...equipped, to use the proper term. Pyrrha was hardly unequipped herself, but May's equipment put hers to shame.
"Pyrrha? What's wrong?" May turned to face her, finally showing off both eyes. She was undeniably cute. A cute, equipped, childhood friend that made a promise with him. It was as if the universe was stringing them together.
"N-Nothing..." Pyrrha turned away and, for the first time in her life, cried about how unfair it all was.
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"How are the recent transfers doing?" Ozpin asked Glynda, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.
"They're better behaved than I expected, though I suppose having Jaune here helps. He's a...stabilizing influence."
"Indeed? I was surprised to find out that he'd had so many friends, though I suppose that's not a surprise. After all, he did the same for us."
"Please don't act say it like that." Glynda sighed, causing Ozpin to chuckle. Yes, Jaune had a more-than-professional friendship with the two of them as well. It was a secret the pair kept in order to avoid any accusations of preferences or nepotism.
...Even if they were guilty of exactly that.
Jaune's transcripts were fake. Any halfway competent staff member could see that. Were it anyone else, they would've turned them away, but it was Jaune. So they looked the other way and made plans to help him along on Initiation. Not that they had to - Ms. Nikos had been very eager to have Jaune as her partner - but in the end they were still guilty of allowing someone with fraudulent transcripts to enter Beacon.
It was undoubtedly the wrong thing, but really, how could they turn away a friend in need?
"I suppose we're lucky not every team showed up for the Vytal. I doubt even Jaune would've found the hours to spend time with all of them." Glynda sighed again. She was remarkably tight-lipped about how she and Jaune had become friends. It didn't stop her from pushing him to his limit whenever Combat Class came around, but Ozpin knew she'd never actually fail the lad.
"I wouldn't be so sure. He has his methods." Were it not for him having only activated his Aura at Initiation, Ozpin would have assumed his social skills were his Semblance. Apparently not. Jaune was simply very good at connecting others. Odd how it never came up in Beacon, "By the way, you are coming to his poetry slam, right?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."
