Renorarc Week Day 8: FREE DAY
@renorarcweek
So i found out about Renorarc Week halfway through, so i didnt have enough time to make more than one entry. Its the first draft, and more outline than fic, but i wanted to share something. Heres Day 8: Free Day which ive chosen to do as Reunion
When Jaune and RWBY come back to Remnant, they pop out where they entered: Atlas
When they come through they see the destruction of the cities, streets still flooded by about 10 feet
They're standing on a rooftop or a cliff when they hear a airship
Qrow, Robyn, Elm, Harriet, Marrow, Maria, and Pietro have managed to stabilize Amity Colosseum and its where they've been staying. When RWBYJ came back it alerted their sensors so Qrow and Robyn came in their sole airship to check it out
Qrow gets pulled into a hug by his nieces. He thought they made it all the way to Vacuo, he had no idea about what happened inside the portal realm and how they all fell
Qrow and Robyn take them back to Amity. Ruby is the one to tell Pietro about Penny. No one mentions what Jaune did, though Weiss does correct Pietro when it becomes clear Pietro thought Penny died by freezing in the atmosphere and falling off of Amity, not by fighting Cinder
A few days pass. Food supplies are almost gone. Pietro has been trying everything to get a signal high enough to call for help (since they are in a communications tower). Their last ditch effort is going to be Qrow flying the airship as far as he can before their limited fuel runs out towards the nearest town, and flying himself the rest of the way in his crow form.
They manage to do it, they have to sacrifice gravity dust from Amity to send what is basically another satellite up higher, but it works. They not only have a signal but a far reaching one. Its weak and finicky but Pietro figures its high enough for global communications.
Weiss asks if its strong enough to call Winter, Pierto tells her to give it a shot. She does. Winter's voice keeps cutting out but they can hear her. Winter passes the phone to her mother and when Weiss hears Willow crying she takes it off speaker and they all give her a little privacy.
Weiss comes back and says everyone thinks they're dead. That they should call the rest of the group to figure out whats going on down there. Jaune calls Nora while Yang is going to call Oscar and Blake is going to call Ren
Jaune's scroll rings for the longest time. Nora picks up and by her response its clear she didnt check to see who was calling. She sounds a little out of breath so Jaune says "did you misplace your scroll again?" and he just hears her breath hitch. "Jaune?" "Hey. Yeah its me." "Jaune." "Yes" "Jaune!" "Nora" "ARE YOU ALIVE" "Yes" and through the static Jaune can hear Nora sobbing and what may be a threat and Ren's name is said a few times
Jaune vaguely notes RWBY all passing their scrolls around to talk to Oscar and Ren
Jaune starts tearing up a little because he's just now realizing he could of actually died and never seen Nora or Ren or anybody really ever again
Jaune just goes "i missed you too" because its all he can really say. Theres silence while Nora's sobbing turns to sniffles. "I love you. I love you so much. You know that right" and Jaune replies "yeah. I love you too"
Nora doesnt want to get off the phone with him, but RWBY and Qrow are all done talking to Oscar and Ren so they're patiently waiting for Jaune to swap scrolls. No one wants to hang up and risk losing the signal. Jaune tells Nora that RWBY's here and they wanna talk to her too, and she chokes up again. Jaune hands his scroll to Ruby, who has tear tracks on her face
Weiss hands him a scroll, and he sees it has Oscar's contact on the call screen. Jaune says a watery "hey Oscar". Oscar is happy, if a bit watery too, to talk to him. He gives Jaune the rundown of whats happened while they were gone.
Eventually he hands Oscar off again and someone hands him Ren. "Jaune? Jaune is that you?" "Hey buddy" "its so good to hear your voice again" "its good to hear yours too". Jaune can hear Ren sniffling on the other side of the scroll and the voice cracks in his voice. They just kind of sit in silence for a while, with only a few words thrown back in forth. The static starts getting worse. Jaune promises he'll see Ren soon. That he'll call him and Nora the next chance he gets. Ren ends the call with "i love you" and Jaune says it back.
Everyone is exhausted after that. Its been nearly 2 hours. They talk a little about whats happening in Vacuo but most of them call it a early night. Pietro says help will get here by tomorrow afternoon.
Jaune glances at his own scroll when its returned to him and sees he has 23 text messages from Nora, two from Oscar, and one from Ren. He spends the night sending and receiving very slow text messages.
When RWBYJQ get to Vacuo, the old fashion way, theres a welcome party waiting for them. Sun actually picks up Blake when he hugs her, and she yells at him to put her down. Jaune meanwhile has just got bulldozed by Nora and is now blinking stars out of his eyes. "Ow"
Nora crushes him in a hug before letting him sit up, and even then she still has a leg thrown over his lap. She's kissing his face all over. She gets his mouth a few times, Jaune doesnt mind. He's actually laughing a little and puts his arms around her waist.
Him and Ren have the longest hug of Ren's life. Ren buries his head in Jaune's neck and just stays there for two minutes. He only moves so Oscar can join.
Ren and Nora find excuses to touch him the rest of the day. Brushing shoulders as they walk, pressing legs together when they're sitting, hands on his shoulders and his back, hand holding. Nora eventually parks herself under his arm with her arms around his waist
When he goes to bed that night he's sharing a tent with Nora and Ren. Nora demands he's not leaving her sight and she drags him over to her sleeping bag. She curls up to his side and holds onto him like she did all day. When Ren enters the tent he comes straight over and takes up Jaune's unoccupied side.
That ends up becoming Jaune's nights: sharing a bed with Ren and Nora
When Ren and Nora get back together, that doesnt change
Jaune doesnt realize its weird. Ren and Nora's relationship on a break and Ren and Nora's relationship when they're dating are very similar. Its not like there was a huge development for him to realize that maybe he shouldnt be there. But its not just him, Ren and Nora always end up in whatever bed or sleeping bag he fell asleep in that night
Heck they both kiss him goodnight when they kiss goodnight
Its not on the mouth but still
The problem is none of them realize they're dating. Ren and Nora's relationship was ambiguous for the longest time. And Jaune went half a school year not noticing his roommate was in love with him.
It takes splitting up again to really make that connection
They're on their way back to Beacon, to protect the last vault. Something happens, and the whole group gets split up. Everyone agrees they'll meet back up at Beacon. Jaune, Nora, and Ren all ended up in different groups
Jaune's group gets to Beacon first. Its not abandoned, but the only people there are staff and thats only because Glynda refused to leave the relic unguarded. Ruby's father is one of the huntsmen there, a favor to Glynda. Ruby is very excited to see him, but everyone has mixed feelings about being at Beacon again.
It takes two days for the next group to make it. Neither Ren or Nora were a part of that group, but Yang was, and she's also excited to see her dad again
Nora's group comes the next morning, Jaune has no warning before he's face down in the courtyard because Nora decided to announce her arrival by bulldozing him over from behind
Nora actually wants to nap, and drags Jaune with her, but later they go and re-explore Beacon. Tai sees them walking around holding hands and laughing and asks Ruby "oh, are they dating?" "No dad, Nora is dating Ren. Her and Jaune are just teammates". Taiyang "entire team" Xiao Long simply goes "yeah, sure. Thats it."
They get to the spot where Nora found out about Pyrrha, where Yang was bleeding out next to her, where she heard Blake's hopeless sobs, the spot where she couldn't even stand up to keep fighting and just sat there in horror, holding onto Ren's hand because thats all she could do. And she decides she needs to make it perfectly clear how she feels about Jaune.
Jaune looks at her concerned, asks if she's okay. Nora simply turns towards him and grabs both his hands. "I need you to know how much I love you. I don't want to think about a time where i dont and one of us isnt here anymore-" "Nora-" "i love you. I love you so much it hurts sometimes. I love you more than ive ever loved anyone besides Ren. I love you LIKE i love Ren. I cant picture a future without you in it and i never want to. I just care so much about you Jaune-" and Nora's crying. Jaune pulls her into a hug. With their height difference Jaune actually has to lean down to rest his head on top of hers. He rubs her back and kisses her hair and they just stand there swaying for a time.
Jaune, with some hope, eventually asks "so when you said you loved me like you love Ren, what did that mean?" "It means im in love with you dummy" "Really!?" "Yes really" and Jaune looks so happy and so cute Nora just decides to go for it, she grabs him by the collar of his chest plate and uses it to pull him down and herself up to kiss him
They share a few more sweet kisses, smiling and laughing to much to do more than that
Ren's group makes it that night. Its well past dark, and they had a few close calls. All he's thinking about is sleep and wanting to make sure his teammates are safe. Someone points him in their direction and he heads off to find them
They're set up in the dorms, but a different building than their original dorm. He trudges up there. They're in the common room in the dark watching a movie. They're curled up on the couch, Jaune has his arm around Nora. Ren sees this and gets hit with a wave of affection.
He enters the room and walks up behind the couch. He leans down to fold his arms on the backrest and waits for them to notice him
Nora does first. She turns around in her seat and leans up to hug his neck and give him a big kiss on the mouth. Jaune turns to say hello and Ren's sleep drunk brain decides to have Ren lean down and kiss Jaune on the mouth.
Its a much longer kiss then Nora gave him. Ren breaks away to see Jaune smiling. It takes a minute for him to realize what he did. Nora giggles at the face Ren makes. Jaune's still smiling. Ren goes "screw it ive wanted to do this for a while" and grabs Jaune's face to kiss him again. Nora cheers.
It turns out sleep deprived Ren has much less control then regular Ren, and next thing he knows he's pushed himself almost all the way over the couch back, his tongue is in Jaune's mouth, and Nora is making excited comments. "Sorry" "no its fine. Its more than fine"
Ren pretty much passes out after that. But he thinks this reunion was a lot better than the last

