The Waiting Room

Jaune felt his body groan with fatigue and unrest when he woke up. His eyes strained to see what was in front of him as his muscles ached, like he had just ran a marathon. He moved his legs, testing them out, and realized he was seated at a table. He tried to rise up from the cushioned, wooden chair, only to fall back down as his legs failed to support him.

"W-where am I...?"

"You're in the Waiting Room. Don't worry, your strength will come back to you in a little bit."

"Huh? W-who are you?" Jaune rubbed at his eyes, tearing the sleep and dizziness from them as his mouth stretched open into a long yawn. He blinked away the last remnants of fatigue as he rolled his shoulders, freeing his body from the exhaustion it had felt.

He was indeed seated at a wooden table, a small one, where a single person sat across from him. A man that Jaune had never seen before smiled at him, with shaggy, black hair and a mess of facial hair covering his face. He wore simple clothes, just a scarlet shirt and black pants. He smiled at Jaune like an old friend, yet the blonde had no idea who the man was or where they were even.

"What's... the Waiting...?" Jaune turned his head to scope out the environment and his eyes widened. There was nothing, but a void around him. It almost looked like white walls with a similarly painted floor and ceiling, but it just seemed to go on forever. It was as if the sky had become covered in a blanket of mist, and the walls seemed to stretch out to infinity, and the floor... If his feet didn't scratch and rub against it, he would have thought he was floating...

"The Waiting Room is the place between death and the afterlife. Basically after you die, you go here before you're shipped off to Heaven, Hell, or some other pl-"

"Wait. I'm dead?!" Jaune screamed. Again, he tried to stand up from his seat, only to fall back down onto it as his legs quaked. "I'm... I'm dead?!"

"Yep. Anyways, like I was saying, while in the Waiting Room, you can ask me any question you have about life, death, the universe, or whatever. I'll answer whatever questions you may have." Despite the older man's upbeat tone, Jaune seemed completely overwhelmed by the recent news. His hands caught his falling face as he tried to take the news.

"H-how?! I remember going to sleep and-and... Oh my god... Ruby! Is she okay?! Nora?! Ren?!" Jaune was panting, his heart and mind racing as his gloved fingers clawed through his hair.

"Calm down, they're fine. As for how you died, you died from a fever," he explained.

"W-what...?"

"Yeah. You didn't wash your hands one time and... Bam. Fucking dead. Nuts, right?" The older man seemed to find humor from the statement, but Jaune felt only revulsion and self-loathing. He abandoned his friends, his family, he failed everyone by... by not washing his hands?! "Anyways, got anymore questions?"

"I... I can't believe this..."

"Right. Man, I hate this part," the man sighed. "Look, Jaune? I'd rather not go through the five stages of grief with you, okay? Look, you can ask me anything. Anything! About gods, about the afterlife, about-"

"Are my friends going to be okay?"

The man's hazel eyes widened for a moment, before he stared at the blonde-haired boy. Physically Jaune was a few years his younger, yet when he looked at the knight he saw a mature, if terrified man. Jaune's leg trembled as his foot tapped against the white floor, his hand shook on the table, but his voice was firm. His azure eyes gleamed with utter seriousness, despite the terror and regret that plagued them.

It took him a moment, but the bearded man finally answered. He nodded his head, before adding, "Yeah. They'll get some cuts and bruises, they'll suffer, but they'll be okay be the end of it. Relatively."

"What about Cinder?"

"Brought to justice."

"A-and my friends? I mean, what happens to them after this?"

"Team RNJR mourns their lost, before returning to their journey. They suffer, they stumble, they almost fall, but eventually Ruby and her team save the whole world, with a little help from all of her friends."

Jaune, while not happy per say, seemed to accept the answer. He closed his eyes, struggling to calm his shaking hand. "Who are you?"

"Me? Well, you can call me Mr. Dream, or just Dream, if you'd prefer." The so-called 'Mr. Dream' smiled at Jaune's perplexed stare. "What? I like it. It rolls off the tongue. Next question?"

"I... I'm not sure," sighed the knight. He rubbed his head, groaning quietly at the ringing sensation between his ears. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Please don't throw up on my table. This is literally my only piece of furniture," Dream calmly pleaded. "As for what to ask, ask anything. You can literally know anything about the universe! About your life, about your friends' lives, about anything!"

Jaune closed his eyes and grimaced. The strange man was right. He could anything about the universe, all he had to do was. He opened his eyes and offered a weak smile to the stranger across the table. "Did I have a soulmate?"

"That's the spirit!" he beamed, only to shrug his shoulders and smile wryly. "Except, I can't answer that one."

"But you said-!"

"Hold on! Let me finish, Jaune. You see, the concept of soulmates, as you know them, doesn't exist. There's no such thing as 'The One.' It's more like a compatibility scale, with someone like Weiss being a seventy-eight percent compatible with you, while a girl like Velvet is more like a twenty-six percent."

"Huh... Really? Wait, Weiss and I are that compatible?"

"Eh. Solid C range. Maybe a C+."

"Well, who was I most compatible with?"

Dream smirked at the question, before clearing his throat. When he spoke he sounded like an announcer of television, rather the... Actually, Jaune wasn't sure who or what he was really. "In no particular order, your top three were Pyrhha at a ninety-four." The bearded man caught how Jaune's shoulders fell and how the blonde's mood seemed to deflate at the mention of the red-head. He offered a sympathetic pat on the shoulder to the younger boy before continuing. "Sorry, kid. Then there's Verda Saph at ninety-two-"

"Wait, who?"

"Verda Saph? Has a nice little bakery in Vacuo?" The blonde blinked, obviously confused by the question. Dream just brushed it aside with a slight frown. "Forget about it. Finally at ninety-five, we have Ruby Rose."

That statement made the young knight pause. He blinked and repeated the moment over in his head as he tried to understand the words. "Wait. Did you say Ruby?"

"Yeah? Have you not noticed how well you get along with her? I mean, I'm surprised you haven't tried tapping that already," chuckled Dream.

"She's fifteen!"

"Psh. Prude. Next question?"

"I..." Jaune mulled over his next question, picking it apart and rephrasing it several times in his head, before finally speaking. "Would we have been happy? Ruby and me?"

"Pretty happy, yeah. Sex would have been good, you help her smile when she's down, she does the same for you. Your wedding would have been a blast. You'd cook dinner together most nights."

"Huh..." Jaune blinked, falling back into his chair as he pondered the idea. His cheeks had acquired a new, rosy hue from the recent information. His wandering mind touched on the idea of sex with his best friend, which only made his cheeks turn more scarlet. "I never really... I mean, I never thought of her as..." His confession never found its' end as his jaw hung loosely. "Huh..."

"Next question?"

Jaune lifted his blue eyes to Dream, pondering which question he should ask. The older man's brow rose up in curiosity, as Jaune spoke with a new vigor in his voice. "What's the closest I ever came to getting killed by a shark?" He sounded curious, even excited. It seemed Jaune was finally realizing the position he was in.

"About four hundred and ten feet, give or take."

"Wait, what? What about that one time? At the beach? I felt something nibble on my foot!"

"Oh, yeah. That was your little sister, Jewel. She just pinched your big toe under the water and you didn't see her."

"What?! I knew it!" growled Jaune, scowling at the memory.

"Next question."

"Uhhh... How much hair did I grow in my life?"

"About thirty pounds."

"Did my parents love me?"

"For the most part, yeah."

"Am I their favorite?"

"Psh. No."

"Did I live a good life?"

"It was alright. Solid six out of ten. I mean, I wouldn't write home about it, but yeah, pretty alright."

Jaune accepted the answer with a halfhearted nod. He put a finger to his chin, before snapping his fingers. "What's my happiest memory?"

"So far?" Jaune nodded his head, motioning for Mr. Dream to continue. "Remember that time you were practicing away from camp and you took a break and just admired the stars for a while? Remember what happened next?"

"Yeah... Ruby found me. She wanted to make sure I was okay."

"And you two just spent like the next hour admiring the stars and enjoying each other's company, right. Then-"

"Then one of us farted," chuckled the blonde. He shook his head at the memory. It felt like years ago for some reason. "She laughed and said 'nice one,' but it wasn't me!" he laughed. "And we just spent the next hour laughing and throwing the blame on one another. She told me about how she was a kid and how Yang would hog the bathroom... She told me about how Zwei would pee on the floor and she'd have to clean it up..." Jaune's eyes fell to the table between the two men, the joyful shimmer in his eyes fading away. "She's... she's okay, right?"

"She's okay, Jaune. She's sad, but she's okay, and she's going to save the world," Dream promised.

"Good." And despite everything, Jaune found it in himself to smile. "Hey, was it her or me that-?"

"It was her. She was just trying to save face."

"I knew it!"

"Liar. Anyways, then you two walked back to camp together and found that Nora had stumbled on your guitar and was trying to serenade Ren? And then you, Ren, Nora, and Ruby just spent the night trying to sing-a-long with each other? That is your happiest memory."

"Wow... You know, I never really thought about it, but yeah... That is a good memory," chuckled the knight. "Wow."

"You okay? Need a minute?"

"No, no. I'm okay... Hey, what's the smartest question I could ask in this scenario?"

"That one."

"Ah. Okay, um..." Jaune's finger tapped at the table as he searched for an answer. Only when he did, his body seemed to slow and the silence that filled the room grew more and more obvious. Dream tilted his head, before holding out his hand. He offered it the young Huntsman, a concerned frown etched onto his face.

"Jaune? You okay, kid?"

"Does it have to end?"

Dream didn't answer immediately. The answer didn't surprise him, practically everyone asked that question. Instead the strange man offered a sympathetic, forlorn smile as he gripped Jaune's shoulder. "I am sorry, but everything has to end sooner or later."

"I just... There's so much I wanted to do. I just can't believe it's ending."

"I know. I'm sorry. You're a good man, Jaune. Trying to help people? Trying to do good? That's a life worth living."

"Does it matter how good I was in the afterlife?"

"It counts for something."

Dream offered a small smile to the Huntsman, but Jaune just stared off into the endless void that surrounded him. He closed his eyes, and in his memories he saw Pyrrha's proud smile as their swords clashed. He saw Nora laughing as she played with a smiling Ren's hair. He saw Weiss smiling at him from across the dance floor, silently thanking him. He saw Yang and Blake fighting by his side as the Grimm swarmed over them...

And he saw Ruby's smiling face as they made a pact together, to stop Cinder and protect the people of Remnant...

"Jaune, please... Wake up."

And he heard her voice... Wait. "What was that?"

To his surprise, Mr. Dream seemed just as shocked as Jaune was. "Well, holy shit. Aren't you a lucky bastard?"

"Why? W-what's happening?! You heard Ruby too, right?!" Jaune finally had the strength to lift himself up from his seat, pushing the chair aside and ignoring as it clattered against the floor.

"I did," he nodded. "It seems you're going to live after all." Dream stood up from his own seat, before politely pushing it back into place. "Seems like your friends have gotten you the medicine you needed. I mean, it isn't unheard of. Plenty of people have near death experiences. You were dead for a few moments, but they acted quickly enough to save you. Aren't you a lucky fuck!" he laughed.

"I'm going to live!?" Jaune's mouth widened into a grim, and only seemed to continue growing. "I'm going to live! Yes! Thank you, Ruby!"

"Jaune, please... You can't leave me!" His cerulean eyes widened at the sound of his friend's voice. It sounded like she was sobbing...

"Ruby! I'm coming! Hey, w-what do I have to do? How do I leave here?!"

"Do what she's asking you to do, Jaune. Wake up." Dream approached the armored knight, who was panting as his eyes darted around him.

"R-right. Wake up. Okay, I can do that..." His eyes suddenly stopped and he stared at the bearded man. He had feared that his face would be the last one he saw, that he would be the final name Jaune would ever learn, that this really was the end... But if it wasn't, then what was next? "Dream? Can I ask you one last question?"

"If you hurry."

"How do I live a good life? How do I improve my life and make it something that's really worth living?"

Dream laughed at the answer, nodding his head as if he was amused by the child's inquiry. "That's a good question, Jaune, but honestly? It's one you have to answer. You live a life that you can be proud of. Life ain't easy, Jaune, it can even be terrifying. Sometimes, you'll wonder if you'll make it to see the next week, or hell, even tomorrow, but remember this."

"Life is worth living. You find that thing that pushes you onward, family, pride, a dream, or just being there for your friends... You find what keeps you going and you hold onto it, and cherish it. Life may... Life is scary, but it is worth living. The universe worked and acted so that you could exist. Miracles upon miracles gave life to you. Make it all worth it by just trying to live a life that you can be proud of."

Dream lifted his arms and embraced Jaune, hugging him tightly as if they had been friends for years. Jaune didn't know how to respond, before he quietly placed his hands on the man's back. "We'll see each other again, Jaune. Until then, remember this. Life is a miracle. Cherish it."

Jaune woke up feeling suffocated and sweaty. It took him a moment to realize he was being hugged, or rather embraced, by Ruby. The young girl was holding his face against her chest, a rather awkward position to wake up in as he realized that he was trapped, face first in her bosom. They were so close he could hear the soft drumming of her heart through her clothes and skin.

"Um... Ruby?"

"Jaune?! Jaune!" The young Huntress released her friend, letting him fall back onto his sleeping bag. "You're awake!? You're alive!"

"He's not dead?! He's not dead! Ren! Ren, look! Jaune's not dead! Or a zombie!" Nora was jumping in place, throwing her arms to the sky. "Jaune's a zombie, Ren! This is great!"

The ginger-haired hammer-wielder stood behind Ruby, beaming as she looked at Jaune. Ren was right behind her, hands on her shoulders as he gaped at Jaune. He was stunned silent as he stared his leader, before smiling widely. Jaune had never seen such a smile on his friend's face before, but it still paled in comparison to Ruby's.

"You're okay!" He felt something wet brush against his cheek as Ruby practically fell on him. Her cheek pressed against the side of his head as she rested her head on his shoulder. Her arms fit snugly under his arms, squeezing his sweaty body as she whimpered. "You're okay..."

"Ruby...? H-hey, it's okay... I'm okay," he whispered. His hands fell upon the small of her back, gently stroking the smooth fabric as he muttered into her ear. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise, and an Arc always keeps his word..." Dream's words poked and prodded at his mind, but he brushed them all aside. It didn't matter if he and Ruby were lovers or friends. He cared about her, and she cared about him. It was that simple...

"We were worried about your safety. It is good to have you back, Jaune."

"Ren cried."

"Nora!"

"What? You did! No shame, Renny, Ruby did too."

Jaune laughed at the two's antics as he met every squeeze Ruby put him through with one of his own. It seemed they were both desperate to prove this wasn't just a dream. "Guys, you won't believe the dream I had."

"Ooh! A fever dream! Tell us, tell us!" Nora commanded, leaping to sit beside Jaune's side as Ren walked closer.

"Well, there was this guy and he told me that I could ask any question and he'd answer it, so I-"

"Ooh! Did you ask him how we can destroy all the Grimm in the world?!" wondered Nora.

"Oh, well... No, but-"

"Did you ask about Cinder and her cohorts?" asked Ren.

"No, that... that didn't really come up either."

"What about how to solve world peace?"

"No, Nora, I didn't ask that either."

"Where Grimm come from?"

"No! I-I didn't ask him anything about the Grimm..."

"Oh." Nora popped her lips and glanced at Ren, who seemed about ready to laugh at their poor leader, but he suppressed his emotions well. "Kind of dropped the ball on that one, didn't ya?"

END

I wanted to do a little mix of comedy and drama for this. Hopefully I did well. For those of you wondering, yes. Mr. Dream is based on me. I like hugging people, and I am comfortable enough to hug another man, I think, and I do believe all life is a miracle. Also, I swear a lot. Fuck fuck fuck.

As for the story itself, this story was inspired by two short films. The 'White Room' by Chris and Jack and 'Answers' by Storyforces. I highly suggest both, as both short films are amazing. They're on Youtube! Check them out!

This is my second story for the month of Lancaster. I wrote it all in about a day or two. Hope you enjoyed it and stayed tune for more in the coming weeks! Love you guys, and take care!