44

Second groaned into the ground, laying face down and not moving a muscle. "I give up. Recall me already, my muscles are so sore."

"Do you even have muscles? I'm pretty sure you don't." Ruby doubted.

"...If I say yes, will you take pity on me and stop this nonsense?"

"Nope! We still need to try the gravity dust!"

"Why, though?" Second groaned, finally lifting his head to look at the girl. "None of the others worked, I've just been shocked, burned, frozen, exploded-"

"If you spent less time complaining, we would have been done already." Aurelius called out from his seat in the stands next to Jaune. Then, in a hushed tone, he asked his son "Is this really your semblance? For a manifestation of your soul he seems…"

"Apparently." Jaune shrugged. "I don't really get how he can be so lazy, either, but if he's not my semblance, I don't know what he would be."

Aurelius laughed. "No, the laziness makes sense for your semblance. It wasn't that long ago that your mother had to force you out of bed at noon, you know. You'd have slept days away if we let you."

"I wasn't that bad!" Jaune squawked.

"You are that-" Aurelius cut himself off before they could get back into old arguments. "You… you were that bad. You're… different now."

Was he different? He wasn't sure. Sure, he was a team leader now. He had won the Vytal festival, even if most of the work there was on Pyrrha's part. He'd killed grimm with his own two hands and stolen sword, and gotten into all sorts of trouble that his family probably didn't think him capable of…

Father and son ignored Second's yelp as he suddenly found himself launched across the arena, smacking straight into Nora and bowling her over as she walked in.

"How… how is she?" Jaune nervously asked.

"Who? The ginger? What was her name… Nora? Couldn't tell you yet, but getting caught off guard like that is something she'll need to work on."

"No, not Nora, I mean…" Jaune hesitated, but he couldn't take it anymore. His dad's strange behavior had been eating away at him, and while testing things out with Second had served as a decent distraction that he had welcomed for a short while, he knew it wouldn't last. If his dad wasn't going to start things off… well, he would have to.

"Mom. I was sort of surprised that she didn't come too, actually. Give me the good cop, bad cop routine. Or bad cop, worse cop, maybe…"

His father took a moment to think, and the pair of them watched as Second was launched across the arena once more, but this time from getting whacked by Nora's hammer rather than some gravity dust going off.

"Do you…." Aurelius began, and Jaune realized it was the same way he'd tried to start the conversation before. "Do you hate me?"

"...What?" Jaune was lost. Where had that come from? After everything that he had done, after his dad had been called to Beacon because Ms. Goodwitch was getting sick of him and Second… "Shouldn't you be the one who hates me?"

Weiss had handed Second a training rapier as the rest of his friends joined in on trying to train his semblance. Or at least, act like they were interested in that, pretending to be helpful, meanwhile they were probably trying to listen in to his conversation with his dad. Again. Though with the distance between them, he thought only Blake might be able to since she had faunus ears. Actually, did they give her enhanced senses at all? He didn't think he'd ever asked and just assuming felt like something she might scold him for…

…and here he was trying to accept distractions again. Though the pause before his dad's response probably meant that he was the same…

"You're my son, Jaune. I could never hate you," Aurelius finally said. "You upset me, and at times disappoint me, but I could never hate you. But this? All of…" he vaguely gestured to Crocea Mors, his friends, and then everything around them, "-this? I can only imagine it's because you despise me. That I messed up somewhere." His dad kept his voice calm and level, but there was a pressure underneath it. Some sort of strain. Like he was holding back, likely because his friends had shown up again.

But what he was saying didn't make any sense. "Wha- I don't…. How could you think that I hate you?" He stopped paying attention to the way Weiss was practically treating his semblance like a piñata, focusing all his attention on his dad.

"Because I woke up one day and you weren't there." His dad looked him in the eyes, and Jaune was shocked to see that his eyes were moist. His voice was still as firm and unwavering as ever, but… had he ever seen the man cry? "Because you left without a word, some of your things missing, and Crocea Mors as well. It's been months, Jaune. We looked everywhere for you. Asked everyone we could. But nothing ever turned up. We didn't know if you'd eloped with some girl we didn't know, or if you were hurt and in with a bad crowd, or if you were even alive."

Jaune thought his mouth might be hanging open, but he couldn't tell. He was in shock. He'd never seen his father so upset before.

"And then one day someone finally tells me they've seen you. That you're in the fucking Vytal festival of all things. I didn't know what to think. For a while I thought that they had simply mistaken someone else for you. Some other blonde kid. But when they showed me the footage and I saw Crocea Mors… well, I was elated that you were alive and well, but I had to ask myself why. Why had you suddenly disappeared and run off to Beacon? I couldn't make much sense of the how, either, but that was less important. Why hadn't you said anything to me? Why didn't you call to let us know you were safe? I assume you got a different scroll at some point, because our calls never got answered. Why would you be in front of the world and not call to invite us to watch, or even just tell us about it? Why… just-"

His father suddenly snapped, his hand forming a fist as he turned and punched the seat next to him, his aura flaring as the seat dented, leaving a fist shaped imprint behind. Breathing heavily, he took a moment to compose himself, not looking back towards Jaune.

It took Jaune a moment to realize that the arena had gone silent, and when he looked at his friends they very quickly went from watching him with concern to their "training" once more. An explosion broke the silence as Yang used Ember Celica's dust to propel her fist towards Second's gut, which his semblance took with a groan.

He didn't know what to do though. Wasn't sure how to respond. But he had to say something in response to that, so he just opened his mouth and let the words flow out. "N-no, dad, I don't hate you, I just- I needed to prove myself!"

"What do you mean, prove yourself?" His father asked as he looked back at him. "I never needed you to prove anything, and I know damn well your mother didn't spout any nonsense like that either."

"You didn't have to say it. I know you never expected anything from me and I wanted to prove you wrong."

"What are you-"

Jaune didn't let his father finish. "After Saphron moved out I saw the way you and mom looked at me. I heard your little whispers behind my back."

"I don't-"

"Always talking about my future and how you have no idea what Jaune is going to do," Jaune mocked in a terrible approximation of his mother's voice. "You both thought I was a failure, that I had no future. Saphron is the golden child, moved out and married with a kid, and then it's my turn and you both look at me like you don't think I'll accomplish anything."

His dad almost made to interrupt again, but Jaune barely paused to take a breath. "You're always sooo proud to talk about our family's heritage, how we come from a long line of amazing warriors, how Crocea Mors has been in the family for generations." Jaune looked to the heirloom on his hip. "And then when it gets to me, suddenly I'm not good enough to pass it on to! You never trained me, you never talked about what being a huntsmen is like… My partner had to tell me what aura was during initiation! A descendant from a long line of amazing people and when I got here I didn't even know the basics! I had to-" Jaune's voice hitched as his emotions got the better of him. "I had to do something to prove that you were wrong. I wasn't going to be the failure you expected me to be. I… I did it in a stupid way. I made a lot of mistakes. But I did it with my own two hands. I thought… I thought that if I went out and did it all on my own, you would finally start to believe in me."

Generations upon generations of expectations, and his father hadn't even tried to help him live up to them. Jaune wasn't sure why. Was his dad expecting one of his younger sisters to take up Crocea Mors? Maybe they'd get training. Maybe they already were, now that he was out of the way…

Down on the field, Second was already blue, but if he was made of normal flesh and blood, he probably would have been black and blue. Pyrrha was trying to teach him to use a sword and shield, but his poor attempts at mimicking her posture led to hit after hit from Ren getting through. The boy was going easy on him, but it was still completely one sided.

His father waited for a moment. "Are you done?"

"...yes."

Aurelius wiped a hand over his face. "You take after me in all the worst ways, don't you? Must be that Arc blood flowing through you to make you this foolish."

Jaune almost made to defend himself, but he stopped when he saw the faraway look on his dad's face.

"When your mom said she had no idea of what you were going to do, she didn't mean that you had no options. She meant that you hadn't told her. You never told me, either. We may be your parents, but we're not mind readers, Jaune. You were always so… I'm not sure how to describe it. Apathetic? Wishy-washy? One week you'd be talking about becoming a musician, the next you'd be planning to make comic books. It was always just whatever had caught your fancy for the moment and never any real, tangible plans. You were never serious about anything."

"You could have-"

"We could have what, Jaune?" His father cut him off. "Maybe it would have been smart to sit you down and have a serious conversation about your future, but we thought we had more time. Parenting doesn't come with a guide, you know. It's figuring things out on your own, and I guess… Maybe after Saphron made things work out by herself, maybe we just assumed you would turn out fine. Or if you were struggling, that you would talk to us instead of just disappearing in the middle of the night."

His dad carefully removed Crocea Mors from his hip, holding up the sword and shield in front of them, his thumb brushing over the family crest. "I… I wanted to let you figure things out on your own. Take a more relaxed approach. You complain that I never trained you, but did you ever ask?"

"I told you I wanted to be a huntsman!"

"Just like you told me you wanted to be any number of other things. If you've made it here at Beacon, you must have realized how far behind you are compared to the rest of the students by now, right?"

"What, you want to rub that in now?" Jaune found himself glaring.

"How long ago did you decide to become a huntsman, Jaune?" His dad ignored it like he was just a pouting child.

"Since you first told me about them! Since you told me what you do!"

"No. I didn't ask how long ago you got a vague idea that you might maybe become a huntsman. I want to know when you well and truly decided to do this. To make it real. To take it further than all of your other idle fantasies. When did you start training? When did you start really working out? When did you… well, I'm not even sure how you got into Beacon, but when did you make that happen?"

Jaune… wasn't sure. He'd started planning things out… maybe a month or two before Beacon? Looking back, that wasn't that long ago. And all of his friends had been training for years…

"That's what I thought," his dad took his silence as an answer. "Jaune… did I ever tell you why I became a huntsman?"

"I… no?" Jaune wasn't sure what sort of point he was trying to make with that question.

Aurelius placed the hilt of Crocea Mors in Jaune's hand. "My father gave me this weapon. He told me that as an Arc, I had a duty to uphold. That generation after generation before me had been warriors, and I needed to do the same. There was never a question about it. My opinion never mattered."

His father let go, and Jaune felt the weight of the sword.

"It was a heavy weight on my shoulders, a burden that I had to carry," his dad continued. "Being a huntsman is a respectable, well paying job. It's allowed me to provide for my family and save the lives of others. I never minded the job itself, but I've always resented my father for forcing it onto me. I didn't want to do the same to you. I wanted you to decide things on your own, whether that meant taking on this mantle, or doing whatever else you thought would make you happy."

"So you… you would have…"

"If you'd shown me that you were serious about it, I would have trained you, Jaune. I might have told you to wait for at least a solid year of training before you ran off to Beacon though, even if that put you at a weird age for it…"

Down in the arena, Ruby was running Second through the intricacies of her sniper rifle. One of them pulled the trigger, and the knockback sent the scope right into Second's eye, making him cry out.

"...though maybe that's not as big of a deal these days," his father finished.

Jaune's mind was a mess. After everything he had done, everything that had kept him up at night, all the mistakes he had made, his dad drops that on him?

"...so it was all for nothing?"

His dad pushed him gently to get his attention. "Does that look like nothing?" He said as he pointed down to the arena and all of his son's friends. "To my eyes, it seems you've gone and accomplished quite a bit. When I look at all of these people so intent on eavesdropping-" Blake's face turned red, having been suspiciously uninvolved in Second's training up until now, "-I can't help but think that you must have made some great friends. And I watched your fights in the Vytal festival. You weren't half bad. I… I'm proud of you Jaune. The lazy boy I knew suddenly grew up when I wasn't looking."

Aurelius wrapped his arm around him, pulling him into a hug. Jaune hoped that their fake training would distract his friends from the fact that he was full on crying now as he hugged his dad back.

"I-I'm sorry, dad. I- I shouldn't have run away," he choked out.

"You shouldn't have." His dad held him tight.

"I should have called, and told you I-I was okay!"

"That's right." Aurelius gently patted him in a reassuring manner.

"I shouldn't have forged my transcripts and lied my way into Beacon!"

His father suddenly went still. "...what?"

Oh. So Ms. Goodwitch hadn't told him that part…

"I- um." Jaune quickly tried to wipe his face clean of the tears and snot. "What did Ms. Goodwitch tell you to make you come here?"

"Not much." His dad suddenly sounded suspicious. "What should she have told me?"

Before Jaune could answer, there was a scream, and suddenly he wasn't alone in his head.

Your friends are fucking monsters. Keep Nora away from me!

I- what? Jaune hadn't recalled him. Not intentionally at least. How are you back here?

"Sorry!" Pyrrha shouted to him, a blush on her face. "I think we ran through all of Second's aura!"

"I told you we could smash Second back into Jaune!" Nora exclaimed. "I just wasn't hitting him hard enough the last time!"

Doctor Oobleck was grading papers in his office when a black bird started to tap at the window. Standing up from his desk to open it, he watched as the avian suddenly transformed into a drunkard.

"Can't you just knock on the door like a normal person, Qrow?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

Bart noted that for once, Qrow's hand was not on his flask. What a peculiar sight. "What do you want from me? I have a very busy schedule, you know."

"Well," Qrow started as he leaned against a wall. "They say the early bird catches the worm, but apparently if you just wait a little bit before running off, other people will get the worm for you."

Bart stared at him.

Qrow sighed. "What, are you too good for idioms?"

"I have no problem with idioms, but rather, the idiots who butcher them. Would you mind informing me of what you're trying to say?"

The drunkard rolled his eyes. "I just got word from Jimmy. They worked out a deal. The vault is gonna be opened a week from now."

"Hmm. Good. And we're certain that Ozpin is none the wiser?"

"As certain as we can be. I haven't seen much of him lately, but I guess Torchwick and his sidekick are keeping him occupied."

That wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. Bart really did not appreciate having to be deceptive about all of this, but when needs must, he supposed.

"Now we just have to figure out how to split the questions between us. Or more likely, which questions we can agree on as a collective."

James would want to be involved. Obviously he and Qrow were going to be involved. He hadn't asked for details once he learned that the Maiden was Qrow's sister of all things, so he wasn't sure if she would want in on it. And of course there was Second to consider, the boy that came with him…

And that was just if they could keep things under wraps.

This was going to be a stressful week.