10

Chapter 10: Bearing Each Other's Burdens

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"So how does this work?" Ruby grabbed one of the fishing poles that they had rented, and looked to Jaune for guidance. He was already busy showing Pyrrha the ropes, showing her how to add bait to the hook, attach the line, and tie the hook. Both of them had changed out of their armor, with Pyrrha sporting a black sleeveless shirt with red jeans and high-heeled boots. Jaune wore a Pumpkin Pete t-shirt with a pair of his usual jeans. Pyrrha laughed as Jaune made a knot in the line, but forgot about making sure the hook was in it.

So much for that plan. The two of them were already in their own little world. Blake was taking forever to get ready, but when she got here, Ruby could just ask her. Until then, she would just have to figure this out for herself! Which she could totally do. How hard could it be?

The little river they had pitched camp beside was completely empty except for them. Jaune had recommended the spot since it was always quiet. The little clearing was surrounded by thick foliage on their side of the river, while the other side was the outer limit of the camp ground.

After ten minutes of trying to get the tiny fishing line through the eye of the hook, Ruby concluded that it could be very hard. Why did they make these things so tiny?!

"Do you need some help with that?" While she was concentrating, Blake had snuck up behind her. Both of them were keeping to their aesthetic despite the hot day, wearing black long-sleeve shirts, but while Ruby wore a red skirt with her tights, Blake had a pair of white shorts.

Ruby grinned at her partner. "No bow?"

"It's just us here." Blake replied before sitting down next to Ruby, who gladly cozied up to her partner.

"I'm glad you're comfortable with it." She told her, giving her a quick hug. "I can't get this stupid line through this! It's so tiny!" Ruby complained.

Blake chuckled before grabbing one of the fishing spears that they had gotten. "Why don't we use these instead? I think this might be more our style." Ruby grabbed another and followed Blake as the pair waded into the surf. Their outfits weren't the most practical for being in a river, but they managed.

As the pair was wading into the river, Jaune and Pyrrha finally emerged from staring into each other's eyes, two fishing poles ready. When Jaune looked up to see Blake without her bow, he barely gave it a second glance. Pyrrha just gave Blake a smile as she caught her eye.

---

Ruby let out a contented sigh. Around her were the remains of the many, many fish that they had cooked over an open fire. Sure enough, Blake knew exactly the best way to cook everything, and the four of them stuffed themselves silly with their catches. Ruby leaned back on the log she was sitting on and took in the nighttime sky. The stars were even more visible here than they were on Patch. The fire crackled and the flames danced in the night air.

"That was great!" Ruby said. Across from them, sharing their own log, Pyrrha and Jaune nodded in agreement, Jaune in particular still licking his fingers. "You're really good at spear fishing, Blake." He said.

"I've had a lot of practice. Growing up in Menagerie, fish was always available." Blake responded.

"You're from Menagerie?" Pyrrha asked. Blake nodded and her ears flicked. "It's beautiful there. I've only been there once, and my visit was far too short. One day I hope to return."

"… Me too." Blake said absent-mindedly. Ruby sat up and put a comforting hand on her partner's arm. When Blake turned to her she smiled reassuringly.

"Seems like you guys have lots of places you both want to visit." Jaune noted. First Mistral, now Menagerie.

"What about you, Jaune? Anywhere you want to go?" Blake asked. Jaune brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"I don't know… I've got family in Argus and Vale. I think—I think I would just want to go wherever my family was." He answered. Left unsaid was who Jaune counted as family, but his team was just as much his family as his sisters and parents. The conversation lulled and Ruby's eyes were starting to droop when she remembered that there was something else she wanted to do.

"Oh- I almost forgot!" Ruby popped up and rushed to her tent to the confused looks of the rest of them. She quickly retrieved a pack of marshmallows and repurposed the fish roasting sticks into marshmallow roasting sticks! Returning to the campfire, she tore into the package and skewered several. She handed one stick to each of them and started roasting her own over the fire.

"I don't know how you can eat another bite…" Jaune said.

"Ruby has a second stomach reserved for sweets." Blake noted.

"Yep! I'm never too full for marshmallows! Whenever we got them when I was young I would eat them all day. Yang once stuffed seven of them in her mouth at once and I laughed so hard that I nearly choked on one. After that Dad hid them on a high shelf." The others laughed lightly at the image of a tiny Yang with her cheeks all puffed trying to hoard marshmallows like a hamster.

"Gah!" Too busy listening, Jaune wasn't paying enough attention, and his marshmallow dipped a bit too low and burst into flames, much to his surprise, which only caused everyone to laugh more.

After a few minutes, they had cooked their marshmallows to various degrees of perfection. Ruby had also gotten impatient and burned hers too. Blake had managed a light gold, but in Ruby's estimation it was just undercooked. Pyrrha meanwhile had managed a perfect golden brown the entire way around, to the surprise of no one.

After they had each consumed theirs, Ruby racked up a couple more for her and Jaune. This time, Ruby was determined not to burn it. She worked it over the flame, careful to protect it. It was taking forever to cook though! She pulled it back and noticed it was only just now turning golden, just like how her partner liked it.

"For you!" She turned to Blake and presented her with the marshmallow.

"Thanks." Blake plucked it off the stick and ate it. "Does this mean I should burn one for you?" She teased.

"That was an accident!" Ruby whined.

Across from them, Pyrrha watched as Jaune kept getting dangerously close to setting his second marshmallow on fire too.

"You're going to burn that." She spoke up.

"Huh?" Jaune jerked his stick right through the flame as he turned to face her, lighting the marshmallow on fire. "Oh come on!" Pyrrha giggled as Jaune blew on the charred wreck.

"Here. Let me show you." Pyrrha grabbed her stick and put a marshmallow on before handing it to Jaune. "You need to stay away from the flames, towards the bottom, off to one side." She came behind him and guided his arm to the correct spot. He tensed nervously at the contact. Still, Pyrrha stayed next to him until he relaxed, and successfully shepherded the marshmallow until it was ready.

"Heh. Thanks."

The group, now doubly stuffed, contented themselves with sitting around the fire and telling stories. Pyrrha shared some of her favorite places that she had traveled to for tournaments, Blake talked about growing up on Menagerie, Jaune regaled them all with stories from him growing up with seven sisters, and Ruby told them about her and Yang's adventures at Signal Academy.

Pyrrha was laughing at how Yang had convinced Ruby that it would be a great idea to use her weapon-smithing skills to engineer and hide a smoke bomb for a professor they didn't like. Surrounded by all those she felt comfortable calling friends, she couldn't think of a time she had been so happy.

By the time the campfire was on its last embers, Ruby was laying down in Blake's lap, and Pyrrha was sure she was asleep. Not that Pyrrha was far behind, leaning into Jaune and resting her head on his shoulder.

"The two of you are very close, aren't you?" Pyrrha asked Blake.

Blake affectionately brushed a stray lock of hair out of Ruby's face. "We are." Her voice was quiet and soft. "I've always looked up to her." Below her, she gently nudged Ruby awake.

"Nng… Blake?" Ruby stirred.

"It's time for bed, Little Rose." Blake scoped her up in her arms and carried her to their tent. "We'll see you both in the morning." She told Pyrrha and Jaune. Pyrrha waved to Blake. She hadn't spent much time with the other girl, but she was enjoying her company during their time together. She was enjoying her time with all of them. It made her feel like… well, she wasn't sure. She just knew that she loved hanging out with her friends.

"Jaune." She disentangled herself from her partner. "Can you tell me another story?" Pyrrha asked. Ever since Jaune had told her about their shared past, she had been asking more and more questions, trying to understand just what had happened. That had led to Jaune telling her entire stories from their times together. Stories that Pyrrha wanted to treasure.

"Uh, sure. Let's see, did I tell you about the time I threw a jar of Red Sap at Cardin?" He asked.

Pyrrha put a hand to her mouth and gasped. "You did not!!" She giggled.

"Oh yeah. He wanted me to throw it at you, actually, but I hit him with it instead."

"Well, I suppose that a thank you is in order then." Pyrrha said.

"Please, I'll need both lifetimes to even come close to repaying you for all you've done."

"Hmm… then you can start tonight by telling me more stories. What about ones from the Vytal Festival?" Jaune tensed at the mention, and Pyrrha worried she had touched a nerve. She reached out to grab her partners hand. "I'm sorry. Should I not ask about that?"

"No, no, it's just- I, um. A-actually, you know the dance before the festival?" Pyrrha nodded. "I actually wore a dress to that." Jaune admitted sheepishly.

Pyrrha's eyes widened. "You did not!!"

"I did." Jaune said regretfully.

"Jaune!!" Pyrrha laughed at the image of her muscled leader wearing a frilly pink dress. "Did you wear heels?"

"Nah, I kept these on." Jaune grinned and pointed at his sneakers.

"That's even worse!" She got out between laughs. What a crime against fashion. "Why were you wearing a dress??"

"See, that's actually the embarrassing part. Remember how I told you that we used to train on the roof? Yeah, so one night I told you about how I had a crush on Weiss-"

"You had a crush on Weiss?" Pyrrha had to interrupt. Her partner hadn't shown the slightest interest in the girl, and it was kind of hard to imagine that going anything but poorly. Especially with how nervously Jaune described himself previously.

"I don't know what I was thinking either." Jaune cringed. "But yeah, so I told you and stupidly said that I was sure you probably already had a date. I said that if you didn't I was going to wear a dress."

"You didn't ask me?!" Pyrrha asked. By all accounts, Pyrrha had really expected that the two of them went together. He shook his head. "Jaune!!" She playfully smacked him on the arm. "Well, you have my permission this time."

"Heh. Thanks."

Pyrrha mirrored Ruby from earlier and readjusted herself so she could lay back on Jaune's lap. She was content with dozing off there when he broke the silence.

"It doesn't… weird you out, that I know all this? I mean, doesn't it freak you out?" Jaune asked, his voice tense.

Pyrrha reached up and cupped his face with her hand. He held it against his cheek. "Maybe it should." She said. "It's insane, and sometimes it terrifies me, what you say will happen. Maybe I'm being selfish, but most of all: it makes me happy." She said sincerely. Jaune's features were only half illuminated in the firelight, but Pyrrha could see the sadness in them. "Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha asked him.

"You asked me that once before." His voice was quiet.

"Did I? Well, my destiny has always been chosen for me. And while I don't believe in fate, hearing your stories, I'm left to wonder. Am I always fated to find you? Was this not some fluke, but something more?

"Perhaps my destiny, as I understood it, was incomplete." Pyrrha smiled at her partner and caressed his cheek. "Your stories make me happy. I know that it's selfish, knowing what is to come, but it makes me feel like a teenager. I want to hear more about us, the us from your past. I want to make new memories, go on new adventures together." Pyrrha let her hand drop and intertwined the other with Jaune's. "Can you use your semblance on me?"

Jaune obliged the request, and it wasn't the first time that Pyrrha had asked just to be able to feel it. It was permanent physical evidence of their bond. "Every time you use that, I feel cared for. Loved. Protected. I know you'll always be here for me, and I'll always be there for you, Jaune.

"After all that, why would it scare me?"

Pyrrha felt something wet hit her cheek. Then two more. She leaned up and saw that Jaune was crying. She leaned up and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry," he said, reciprocating the embrace.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Pyrrha assured him.

"I do. I wasn't there for you when I needed to be."

"Do you mean when Beacon fell, and we parted ways?" Jaune nodded on Pyrrha's shoulder. Pyrrha had never pushed Jaune on what had happened. There was an unspoken agreement not to push. It wasn't that Pyrrha wasn't curious, but she had seen his aura. Such a thing could not be easy to talk about.

"I've never forgiven myself, you know? I let you down. I was the idiot stuck in the tree while my friends fought for their lives." Jaune hugged her tightly.

"Whatever happened, you're working to prevent it, right?" A nod. "And I'm here with you, now?" Another nod. "Then you should forgive yourself." Pyrrha hesitated in saying more, but it was something Jaune needed to hear. "I think I would've wanted you to forgive yourself."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you this time." Jaune managed to get out. Pyrrha comforted him as best she could while he cried. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last.

"I know you won't."

But they were partners, and together they would bear each other's burdens.

---

Yang was idly flipping through magazine pages on her bed when Weiss cleared her throat and assumed her "this is going to be important" pose. Yang knew it was her "this is going to be important" pose because she was standing ramrod straight, with perfect posture, her hands out in front, and pretty blue eyes boring into Yang determinedly.

"Sup?" Yang looked over the edge of her bed.

"Since our teammates are away, I thought it prudent to ask you to accompany me into Vale today." Weiss said formally.

Yang grinned down at her partner. "Are you asking me out on a date, snow angel?"

Weiss' eyebrows shot up and a blush crept up her neck. "No!!" She said emphatically, to which Yang laughed. "Just—as a thank you."

"Uh huh. Well then, as a 'you're welcome,' I accept!" She hopped off the bed and walked over to Weiss. "So, where are we going on our not-date?" Yang winked even as Weiss glared at her.

"I have a place in mind for lunch."

So, that's how the two of them found themselves boarding one of the airships to Vale. Yang offered Weiss a ride on bumblebee, but Weiss replied that she wasn't feeling quite that adventurous yet. Yet. Yang would get her partner onto her bike one day, and she would love it.

The little place that Weiss directed them to was quaint. One of those places that only had three tables and one person who ran the entire thing. Calling it a hole in the wall wasn't remotely accurate though. While small, it was eloquently decorated, and made Yang think of some of the pictures she had seen of high class places in Atlas. The two of them took a seat in the center of the empty place.

Apparently it didn't have a menu either, since just after the two of them took a seat, their food arrived, hand delivered by the only person around, who Yang assumed was the owner. The steaming hot bowl of Vale's famous onion soup in front of Yang smelled divine. The onion and beef stock, along with delicious melted cheese made Yang really, really want to tear into it.

Of course, she was in public with her partner and she knew Weiss wouldn't conscience such crass behavior. So, Yang contented herself with taking small bites and sips with her spoon, enough though she just wanted to tip the bowl into her mouth. And that was before she tasted it. Once that happened, it was over.

"Weiss, this is incredible!! How did you find this place?" Yang asked.

Weiss smirked, obviously pleased with herself. "I looked up the best places to eat in Vale, and researched them. This one is the optimal in terms of distance to travel, proximity to other points of interest, and overlap between our preferred palates."

"How do you know my preferred palate?"

Weiss stared at her. "We've eaten three meals a day together for months. Four if you're hungry when we pass by the cafeteria when were out walking at night."

Yang shrugged. "That's fair." Weiss was carefully eating spoonful after spoonful, and Yang did her best to mimic.

After they had finished their soup, the owner came back around and placed another dish in front of them. Yang wasn't quite sure what it was, but again it smelled amazing. She could definitely place the garlic and thyme, and it looked like chicken, but a little smaller? Under it was a bed of lentils, with some sliced potatoes on the side.

"Geez, this place really pulls out all the stops, huh?" Yang marveled.

"If you're worried about the price, don't be. I paid ahead of time for the both of us." Weiss said proudly.

"Aw, you didn't have to do that!" Though in truth Yang was glad about that detail. This stuff looked too rich for her.

Weiss waved her away. "Like I said, this is my thank you to you."

Next to them, the owner cleared their throat and presented them with a bottle of wine. Weiss glared at the object like it had offended her. "Oh- we're not-" Yang started.

"That won't be necessary." Weiss said authoritatively, her posture rigid and her words clipped. The owner nodded and retreated back to their counter. Yang watched as Weiss let most of the tension slip once the owner was out of sight.

"Hey, you okay?" Yang asked.

"I'm—yes. I'm okay." Weiss gave a sigh. "My… mother. She was- well, she is-" Yang waited patiently as she determined what she wanted to say.

"Hey, we're in no rush." Yang reached out to Weiss and put her hand on the table.

"Right. Right." Weiss nodded to herself. "My mother is an alcoholic. She has been for as long as I can remember. It's left me with a… disdain, for alcohol."

"I'm really sorry. That must have been hard for you." Yang could empathize with that.

"It wasn't optimal. My sister was better at dealing with her."

"I didn't know you had a sister. Older or younger?"

"Older. I have a younger brother too."

"Really?" Yang tilted her head. "I never would've pegged you for a middle child." Weiss laughed. "What?" Yang grinned at her partners laugh.

"Nothing, it's just- you've figured out so much else that it's amusing to hear that there's something that you weren't able to surmise." Weiss smiled. Yang liked that smile. She never got to see it at first, but slowly, she had been able to coax it out of her. Secretly, she took a bit of pride in the fact that she was the only one who could. "My sister's name is Winter, and she took the brunt of our parents' attention until she decided to abdicate as heiress of the SDC and join the Altesian military. Then, their attention fell to me." Weiss said with some sorrow.

"That must have been tough." Yang tried to comfort her but Weiss shook her head.

"No tougher than you, having to nearly raise Ruby."

"It's not a competition." Yang reminded her.

Weiss stared at her. "How do you do that?"

Yang knitted her eyebrows. "Do what?"

"Be so… supportive. I wanted to do this," she gestured to the restaurant around them, "as favor for you, and yet here you are, supporting me, again."

"What's wrong with that?" Yang asked, curious.

"Nothing! It's just- I want to support you, too. It's not fair to you that I'm always a mess and that you have to pick up the pieces." Weiss said, crestfallen.

"Fairness has nothing to do with it. You're my partner. I'll be here for you no matter what. And if I needed you to be here for me, I know you'd do the same, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would!" Weiss said.

"Then it sounds pretty fair to me." Yang said and grinned at her partner, who still looked unconvinced. "But… if you still want to do something now, my hand feels kind of lonely." Weiss looked down to see Yang wiggling her fingers. Giving a fond roll of her eyes, Weiss took her partners hand and together they intertwined their fingers. "See, I knew you'd come through."

Weiss' cheeks started to heat up. "For you, always." She said quietly.

---

Pyrrha was up bright and early in order to catch the airship to Mistral. Unsurprisingly, Jaune had already woken up, his sleeping bag in their shared tent empty, and Pyrrha found him training outside. He was practicing his same simple forms as always, his back turned to her.

"Room for one more?" Pyrrha asked. She didn't have her gear on her, but she was happy to keep him company. Jaune turned around and smiled at his partner.

"Always." He smiled warmly.

Pyrrha watched the sun rise as Jaune methodically went through his routine. Together they silently enjoyed each other's company and made quiet chit-chat in between sets. Eventually though, Jaune finished his daily ritual.

"This was one of the last places that you trained me." Jaune said. His gloved hand felt one of the trees in the grove. "I never thought we'd be back here." He walked through the grove until he stood before a stump. "When the new semester starts, Ruby and I are going to plan out our next moves. I want you to be there when we do." He told her. Pyrrha blinked in surprise before Jaune continued. "I want you to know what's coming, and I think we could really benefit from your perspective."

"I…" There wasn't a doubt in Pyrrha's mind that she would accept. If Jaune wanted her there, she would be there. She was more surprised that he would ask in the first place. "I'd love to. But, whenever we've talked, you've… avoided, that topic." Jaune had avoided it so thoroughly, Pyrrha really didn't even have a description for it other than 'Fall of Beacon.' "If you don't mind me asking, what changed?"

"I thought about what you told me, last night. It won't be quick, or easy, but, I need to keep moving forward. This is just the first step."

"Does that mean you're ready to learn something new?" Pyrrha gestured to Jaune's weapons. He had said that one day he would try a new warm-up routine.

Jaune put a hand on the back of his head and rubbed it awkwardly. "I don't think I'm quite ready for that." Pyrrha nodded. There was no rush.

The morning rays of the sun washed over the landscape as the pair sat quietly, waiting for Ruby and Blake to wake up. They didn't have to wait long before the pair emerged from their tent together. Ruby was chipper, as always, but Blake looked like she wanted another few hours of sleep. Still, Ruby dragged her out by the hand to greet the day.

Together they all ate breakfast, simple foodstuffs they had packed back in Vale and each readied for the day's activities. For Pyrrha and Blake, that meant double checking what they were taking to Mistral, while for Jaune and Ruby that meant… well, not much of anything, it looked like.

"Are you ready?" Pyrrha slung a backpack around her shoulders as she addressed Blake. The faunus nodded, her own backpack ready.

"Have fun you two!" Ruby called out to them.

Together, the two of them departed. The journey to Higanbana was short by foot, but short still meant hours.

"So… are you visiting friends in Mistral?" Pyrrha asked to fill the space. Blake was quiet by nature, and while they had made small talk at first, that had quickly dwindled.

"… I wouldn't quite call them friends." Blake responded, almost embarrassed.

"Acquaintances?" Pyrrha asked.

"Colleagues might be better. Some people I used to work with."

"Work with?" As far as she knew, Blake didn't attend a combat school, not to mention the fact that it was strange to say that one 'worked with' their fellow students. But Blake only nodded.

"I… see…" Pyrrha made a few more attempts at conversation before realizing that Blake wasn't the type to share details about herself as openly as Ruby or Jaune. She wasn't terse or rude in her responses, but talking about herself clearly didn't come as openly to her as it did to the others.

In a way, Pyrrha could relate to that. Everyone had a perfect vision of her, and any time she said something that contradicted what people already thought, it was as though she didn't say anything at all. So, Pyrrha contented herself with keeping to the small stuff.

Perhaps over time Blake would become comfortable enough to open up on her own terms. Until then, perhaps their time together in Mistral would help.

---

Oscar awoke with a start and sat up. He was still jittery. Another night of restless sleep. He looked outside his window to see that despite his wishes, the sun had already come up. He took a calming breath before willing himself out of bed.

He stepped through the door of his room into the barn proper and climbed down the ladder to the ground floor. The dark interior gave way to the bright morning light as he threw open the barn door. He brought a hand to his forehead to shield himself from the sun as he stepped outside.

He grabbed a pail from inside and placed it underneath the water pump and started pumping. He looked around the flat landscape. In the distance, he could make out a few figures, probably some travelers passing through on their way to somewhere better.

Oscar went about his chores, gathering water, cranking the hand-powered generator, and tilling the fields, all with an eye on the dots on the horizon. The dots got bigger, until they were vaguely people shaped, and definitely getting close.

By the time Oscar was done with the fields, he could clearly make out the details in the distance. A taller boy in armor accompanied by a shorter girl with something strapped to her waist. Travelers to this area were far and few between, so Oscar decided to wait and see if they would stop by the barn. If they did, it would probably be the most excitement he would have all day.

Once they were up close, Oscar realized that they were definitely hunters. Or at least, they looked like hunters. They were kind of young looking though. Oscar watched with growing curiosity and apprehension as they walked right up to him and the barn.

"Can I… help you?" Oscar asked them. The girl was a couple inches taller than Oscar, while the boy towered over him. Definitely a little intimidating.

"Hi!" The girl said. "My name is Ruby Rose, and this is my friend Jaune!" She pointed excitedly first to herself and then to her friend.

"Jaune Arc." He introduced himself. His voice wasn't as intimidating as his height, Oscar noted.

"Um, my name is Oscar Pine." He said. "We uh, we've already got a huntsman who protects the farms around here, if you're looking for work."

The pair looked briefly confused before Ruby waved her hands in front of her. "No, no, no! We're uh, we're from the… from the… Jaune! You should tell Oscar where we're from!"

The boy, Jaune, looked briefly to his partner before turning back to Oscar. "Right! We're… from the… Hunters Recruitment Guild!"

"Hunters recruitment guild-?" Oscar had never heard of a guild like that. Or of any guilds at all, really.

"That's- that's right!" The girl chimed in. "We're going around to the neighborhood and spreading awareness about becoming a huntsmen and recruiting able bodied folks like yourself!"

Oscar looked down at himself. If he was what they were considering 'able-bodied,' well, they might need to raise their standards. His bandages were still plainly visible all over his body, and his neck was still very much in the process of healing.

"Yeah! So, have you considered a career as a huntsman?" Jaune asked.

"Well, not really. I have to take care of the farm, and don't you have to attend a combat school for like, years?" Coincidentally, Oscar was the right age to enroll. Or at least, he was last spring. The year had already started, and he was… preoccupied, then, even if he had wanted to enroll.

"You should really consider it!" Ruby said. "It's a great service to your community, and you get to go so many places, and learn so many things! Oh, and we get really cool weapons too! Do you want to see mine??" She was practically bouncing on her feet.

Oscar could tell the right answer was yes, and obliged the huntress. "Uh, sure…?" No sooner had the words left his mouth when the girl grabbed the thing strapped to her waist and unfurled it into some kind of scythe, which she held upright proudly. Oscar backed up a step as he took in the monstrosity. "Wow… that's uh…"

"Awesome!?"

"Yeah… awesome." Oscar stared with wide eyes. "Would I have to learn how to use a weapon like that?" He asked.

Jaune drew a sword and expanded the carrier into a shield. "There's all sorts of different weapons. I use just a plain sword and shield."

"But you're really good with it!" Ruby added. Jaune smiled sheepishly.

"But you'd probably have a different type of weapon. Maybe a staff, or a cane of some kind." Jaune said. "So, do you have any questions? Do you think you'd want to become a huntsman some day?"

Oscar really hadn't seriously considered it before. Sure, every kid dreamed of being a hunter at some point, but that was before the farm became his responsibility. "I uh, maybe? I think I missed the window for enrolling though."

"Don't worry about that!" Ruby dismissed the problem. "If you're interested, I'm sure that we could help you get in!"

"Really? Wait, get into where? Where are you guys from?"

"Oh, we're from Beacon." Jaune said. Had Oscar been drinking something, he was positive he would've spit it out.

"Beacon? Like in Vale?" He questioned. That was incredibly far away.

"The very one!" Ruby supplied.

That only left Oscar with more questions. Why on earth were these two so far from home recruiting? Vale had lots of suburbs that they could be recruiting in. "Wow, that's kind of far… I uh, that's kind of far away for me to go to school. I don't think I'd be too interested."

The two briefly exchanged a glance before the boy spoke up. "Well, would you mind exchanging scroll information with us, so that you can contact us if you change your mind?" He fished his scroll out of his pocket.

"Sure, why not?" Oscar grabbed the scroll and entered his contact information.

"Great, thanks! We look forward to hearing from you!" Jaune said as he took his scroll back. The pair gave more details, and Oscar learned that they were also attending Beacon, and what the school was like, and what he could expect if he wanted to attend. With every answer he was more and more sure he wouldn't be attending. Still, these guys had come a long way, and Oscar was supposed to rest between his chores anyway, so he chatted with them until they were satisfied. It was definitely going to be the most interesting thing happening to him all day, so he mine as well enjoy it.

"Take care, Oscar! Be sure to contact us if you want to know anything more or change your mind!" Ruby called out as the two began their journey back the way they came.

"H-hey! There's another farmhouse that way, if you want to talk to some of the others." Oscar pointed in the opposite direction.

"Thanks, but we've come as far as we need to!" She called back.

Strange. Oscar ruminated on the conversation with the odd hunters as he was startled out of his thoughts by a loud squawk. He looked up at the tree across the way to see a large black crow perched on one of the branches. A crow? Oscar couldn't remember the last time he had seen one around here. They weren't native to the area.

The crow squawked a few more times while flapping its wings, before taking off in the direction of the hunters.

Notes:

Who's shocked that Ruby and Jaune weren't able to convince Oscar to move to another continent on a whim? No one? Yeah, me neither.

Chapter 10! Double digits!

Yang: So, what was your childhood like?

Weiss: Oh, you mean my tragic backstory that you must be at least level 3 friendship to unlock?

Yang: ... What level am I at?

Weiss: 10. So it all started-

Also, the wiki lists 5/15 as Weiss' birthday, so happy birthday ice queen!

I go to the wiki and show at least once every chapter, to look up details or capture specific phrasing from the show (it's always intentional), or something else. This chapter had me looking up French food for Yang and Weiss' not-date. (Of course it's not a date, that's why Weiss reserved the entire place for them, paid in advance, held Yang's hand, and had an entire battery of afternoon activities planned out for them.) I'm sticking to Vale being the Paris of Remnant, except I've never been to Paris, or seen Paris. My knowledge of Paris is entirely from histories of French revolutions (pre Napoleon III's remodel), so you know, not very good. In a way, I think that's more fun.

Next time we dive into volume 2 proper. I say next time instead of next week, because as happy as I am that I've gotten 10 chapters in 10 weeks, I don't think this pace is sustainable for me, especially as we enter the uncertainty that is volume 2 (at least with regards to how this fic will handle it all, while trying to complete it's own objectives). As such, I'm not going to commit to getting a chapter out every week. I'm still going to try and get a chapter out each week, but no promises anymore :p