Jaune had thoroughly enjoyed his first week. After his big spar with Pyrrha he got a lot of respect from his team. Cardin showed him off in every one of their shared classes since.

It was Friday. And Jaune and his team were eating dinner. He and Cardin sat on one bench while Sky and Russell sat on the other side of the table.

Cardin was complaining about school in between bites of food.

"And Boobleck—"a pet name for their history professor, "hates me, I mean he will actively single me out for dumb questions!"

Cardin slumped back down into his seat on the bench. Jaune saw the humor in the situation and spoke up.

"Oh yeah, ugh, WORDS right, so difficult." He put on a exaggerated "stupid" person voice as he held a silly face and spoke to their team.

Sky snickered for some time at that one. Cardin furrowed his brow, but made no move to attack him. Jaune figured that restraint odd, Cardin might be warming up to him.

That made him happier than he ever suspected it would have. Cardin finally dropped a forced smirk and clapped Jaune on the back.

"Oh, … you little scamp." The anger dripped from his lips, Jaune made an effort to look past it. His history with team RWBY probably helped the most with that.

Cardin dug his fingernails into Jaune's arm in frustration. Jaune couldn't stand to give him the satisfaction of showing pain. He hooked his arm over Cardin's shoulder and jokingly spoke up.

"Oh it's OK, we're all friends here." Cardin glared at Jaune before finally admitting defeat and pulling his arm back. Jaune snaked his arm back to his side, he barely held back a victorious smirk.

Their team talked on and on until they grew bored of the cafeteria and it's uncomfortable seating.

Eventually they found themselves sitting around in the small stands of one of the schools training rooms. It was late and they told stories about unimportant things.

Russell sat on the floor facing his team, he leaned backwards on his hands. He held an intense stare as he asked Jaune, "so, really, how did you get good enough to beat Nikos? I mean, she's the invincible girl and you're … nobody!"

Jaune gasped loudly, and with an over exaggerated look of stunned offense responded. "Well I've Never…!"

Jaune held his offended frown for awhile as his team snickered at his antics. Jaune relaxed quickly though and almost spouted off the truth of why he was able to beat her.

The words caught in his mouth, his mind flew to try and say something—anything that they would except. He sputtered out a story.

"I, uh, learned how to fight in a really … tough family."

The three boys looked at each other and silently displayed their confusion. Jaune paused for a little bit, he thought back over his memories. The sound of four breathing bodies filled the pause.

"And a hard life breeds strength; I've been learning how to fight for … a long time."

Quick to dissuade an inkling of worry for him, Jaune spoke up and deflected his talk into warmer topics.

"And that was fantastic, I felt completely accepted in that group … at least it was while it lasted. That … family loved me and I loved them, but that love was … useful to the family."

"It was useful, useable, … a tool."

Cardin spun his finger towards his head and mouthed "crazy" to the team, who laughed easily. Jaune ignored the harmless dig.

He only choked slightly when he continued. "It was conditional."

"It felt like we were less of a family and more like a platoon.

The problem with a group like that, is the love shared between its members … only lasts as long as its members do."

Jaune stopped to collect his thoughts.

"So I 'lasted', I trained with that family and got as good as I am because I was a part of my family. But…" He trailed off before he got too sappy. He breathed in and out, matching pace with his team.

Then Jaune made the logical conclusion of his long hidden thoughts. "Love isn't true unless it's pure."

The team went silent and still when Jaune stopped. They looked alienated.

For most teenagers this wouldn't mean much of anything, he said something vague and ethereal; they were confused.

But their silence hit Jaune hard, he hadn't been amicable with anyone for many, many years. And right then, for only a moment his old thoughts flooded back. For the first time in days, he felt a small touch of that choking hopelessness he used to live in.

Sky looked around and saw the team's confused faces, one of which he also held; but in the moment he saw potential for a wisecrack to make them laugh and took advantage.

He raised his hand then spoke. "That's great, but, quick question, uh, … what? Could you repeat that, but this time in some sort of human language."

Jaune frowned sharply at the attempt at humor, but he stiffened his face quickly. A habit, he knew, but it worked well to inhibit probing emotional questions. He never felt completely comfortable with probing emotional questions.

Sky and Russell felt the sudden choke of the blonde's naked turmoil. Sky shrank away and tried to look somewhere where the emotional tension wasn't. He was embarrassed for doing whatever he had done to sadden Jaune. He didn't mean for him to freak out.

Russell, however, spoke up to take Jaune's mind off the joke. He was cool with Jaune, and he liked learning about people, so he wanted to put his story back on track.

"How long did you train with your 'family'?"

Jaune looked at Russell surprised, he was not expecting participation. His blank stare took on a hurt tone, but Jaune stayed silent.

Sky took that point to jump back in with a joke.

"…your terrible, poopy, stinktacular family?"

The sad tone was immediately killed and everyone turned to look dumbfounded at him.

Cardin snickered softly, and after a few seconds of the humor cracking his deflated spirits, Jaune continued when he saw that his team were in fact interested in his story. They certainly kept pushing like they were.

He knew he would treasure that memory.

Jaune looked down at his hands. He hadn't been so frank with someone in years, and if he had known the event would happen in a team containing his old bully.

He would assume his knowledge was faulty.

But here he was, and he really liked it.

He looked up from his hands and answered Russell's second question. "I trained with my family for my entire life. That's why I could spar Pyrrha with as much skill as I did."

Cardin snipped from the side, "cool."

Jaune looked at him and scanned his face for any sign of sarcasm or maliciousness.

He didn't find anything except ambivalent friendliness.

He snipped back amicably. "Yeah I guess it kind of is."

The team chuckled until their laughs faded into simple smiles, they basked in the calm atmosphere. Jaune felt good, which he was not used too.

But he hoped to get used to it.

…

The team lay comfortably in their room, Jaune looked around through the dark at the sleeping faces in each individual bed. Till he saw Cardin, he stared. He thought about what had happened differently in this timeline. How in the world he slept in the same room as his high school bully, and adult pain in the butt but felt … safe.

Weird.

But not terrible.

He looked up at the ceiling and breathed deeply. He reveled in the comfort. His eyes slowly dripped closed.

…

Jaune woke up early the next day. He figured he would probably never wake up late like a teenager again. Even though he had no reason not to, it was far too ingrained in him. He turned over and wrenched himself from underneath the comforter.

As he dressed and groomed himself for the day, he thought about this new life. His mulligan. His second chance to do better.

His strategic mind raced to think over his memories.

Most of which were tinted with some sort of fight, battle, or assassination. He chuckled in dark amusement at how different his world was now and how it was the first time, compared to the world he was forced from.

He threw on a tee and some shorts.

He knew he didn't want to repeat history. And more likely than not no one else was going to help him. At least not unless he asked for help.

So how.

He ran a brush through his hair, which barely smoothed it at all.

He knew exactly how he was NOT going to change his history.

He put toothpaste on his toothbrush.

He had lived decades of hatred, and knew from experience how poorly it helped anybody.

He brushed.

He couldn't do that again, he wouldn't. "But how else can I fight Salem?"

He said quietly to himself in the mirror.

Ugh, that brought him down again.

His eyes dropped as he spit the toothpaste-y water from his mouth.

Ah, well. "Guess I have to play it by ear."

He would deal with his dilemma soon, but for right now he had a Saturday to enjoy. He ran his hand through his hair and hooked his locks over his ears, then smiled at his newly de-aged face.

…

Russel had yet again woken up before the rest of Jaune's team. Jaune didn't know where he went, so he walked down his team's room's corridor without a destination in mind. He enjoyed the views of an unbroken Beacon Academy, it gave him such an unimaginable high knowing that he had a possibility to keep it the way it was right then.

As he breathed it all in, his mind mulled over the small memories he still retained from his first time through. A big one that came to mind was the tiny room where he and the rest of team JNPR slept and talked on the third floor. He smiled slightly as all sorts of lovely memories came to him.

He thought over his old team, how they had changed – and how they had stayed the same. Ren and Nora seemed to have a legitimate romance, their relationship had no cracks as far as he could tell.

He figured 'then I must not have to worry about messing that up.'

That made him happy. Something unchanging to hold tight to.

By this point Jaune stood in front of a window looking out at a courtyard. His mind as unperturbed as the sunrise. Suddenly a thought hit him.

'Why not talk to them!'

He knew exactly where it was, why not?

He could find no reasonable answer, so he started walking. The elevators and hallways twisted into a comfortable shape that fit into his memories.

It had to be only 6:20-6:30, that wasn't too early to wake up teens…right?

He stood in front of the door. His previous willingness had lessened slightly, all that ran through his mind now was that he was trying to talk to people who didn't know him.

He lifted his fist, ready to knock on the door, when he hesitated again.

He stood there for a few seconds slowly convincing himself to talk to these people, who for all intents and purposes, he hasn't "known" for years.

His knuckles rapped on the manufactured wood surface then he waited.

Nothing sounded from the room, he waited some more then tapped again.

This continued for some time and Jaune was getting anxious, he had wanted to be friendly but he was aware enough to see that this was not going anywhere. He backed up from the door but still didn't hear anything that would say someone was coming to the door. He left quickly.

…

Jaune got back to his room just as the rest of his team were about to head out for lunch, they saw him and he easily molded into their conversation. They joked all the way to the cafeteria.

Sky tapped Cardin on the chest and said, "Hey I'm going to get some grub, mind finding a place for us?"

"Screw that, I'm hungry; Jauney-boy could you do that?" Cardin replied.

Jaune, without looking over, "mhm-ed" in recognition and affirmation.

"I'm not too hungry right now, I'm gonna sit down with him" Russel added in.

Cardin nodded, then he and Sky started over to the food line. Jaune looked over the crowd to see if he could spot his old team. Or heck, even RWBY would be nice to sit next too.

He didn't see any familiar faces. He knew that the first couple of days had been rough for his old friends, they hadn't woken up in time and were almost late to class. But they got used to the early starts fast and should be up by now.

He realized he had started walking aimlessly, and Russel hadn't deviated from his place behind him. Jaune picked the nearest empty table and sat softly. Russel walked to the other side and sat opposite him. He looked tired and didn't say anything. Jaune also didn't really feel like saying much, but his adult mind forced him to say something.

"How'd you sleep?" Russel looked up from the table slowly, then gave a quiet "fine" back. His eyes dropped down. Jaune chuckled at him, 'yeah, I know how that feels,' but after a few decades of fighting and years of early wakeups, that never happened to him anymore. But the silence was comforting at least.

Jaune sat there with his tired teammate. It slowly dawned on him though that Russel, the kid across from him, had been notably missing every morning since they'd become a team. He assumed he was doing something normal and his bed was empty in the morning consistently enough Jaune figured it was an old routine. The kid was tired like it was a new thing though.

"Hey Russel…why are you always up so early?" The young man in question raised his head again, Jaune could tell he was working his way towards awakeness. His face was a mix of sleep and confusion, "What, What do you mean?" His words slurred together slightly, like only they do in the early morn. Jaune chirped back.

"Why are you always up and out before everyone else?" Russel lingered before replying, "I'm working out…I like to go to the gym before breakfast, makes the day better…why?"

"Just curious…been doing that long?"

"Yeah, since I started training to get here" he gestured around to indicate Beacon was what he was referring to. Jaune nodded his head, "oh cool, any particular reason why?"

Russel was much more aware now and seemed to be enjoying the friendly conversation, "other than that it makes the day better, you mean? I like working out without other people there, best time to do that is in the early morning."

Jaune agreed. The two boys sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the morning sun and cool air. Then Jaune spoke up again, "Do you mind if I join you in the future?"

He knew that he wasn't as bulky as he was when he was an adult, or rather in an adult body, and though he wasn't going to be lugging around a full sword anymore, he would like to get some more strength in his muscles.

Plus, if today was anything to go by, he wouldn't be able to talk to his old friends in the morning. So why not kill two birds with one stone. Or three if he added that he could possibly have someone to talk to in the mornings.

He waited for Russel's response., which came quickly, "sure…why not."

Jaune smiled, "thanks, I wake up early but you may have to wake me up the first couple days before I get into the swing of things." That looked like it exasperated his teammate some, but he didn't raise a complaint. Just shook his head.

They went back into a comfortable silence.

Jaune went back to scanning for anyone he recognized from the first timeline. 'They really should be up by now if they want breakfast,' he thought. He didn't see them until he caught a bright white dress in the cafeteria's entryway.

Weiss stood out like a sore thumb, a really cute sore thumb, but a sore thumb none the less. He quickly spied the rest of team RWBY. He stood as much as he could locked into the lunch tables and their uncomfortable seating planks. He waved his arms to try and get their attention, they all saw him but only Ruby waved back. He couldn't really be annoyed though, she was the only one to really talk to him yet.

He could see Ruby smiling to him but she still followed her team to a lunch table away from his. He sat back down somewhat disappointed. He could see that Cardin and Sky had made it through the food servers. They were making their way through the tables towards Russel and himself. Jaune looked back towards the cafeteria's entryway. He saw Pyrrha walking through it.

He saw the rest of his old team follow her in too, plus the other kid, Dove or something. They looked happy, tired, but happy. He wanted to go over to them but Cardin and Co. had reached his table. Plus he didn't want to come off as creepy.

He turned around to face the table, Cardin and Sky sat down and immediately started to rip out their plastic utensils. They looked hungry and unwilling to talk.

But Jaune's adult mind again forced him to say something. "How are the pancakes?"

Cardin, who had already started to cut into one, held up his finger till he swallowed the piece of breakfasty goodness.

"Freaking amazing!" He had a telling smirk that Jaune figured meant he was exaggerating. Jaune kept silent, but smirked back, expecting a tirade of sarcasm from the team leader. Cardin turned and crossed a leg out from under the table to straddle the bench he sat on and started to say something.

Jaune had expected correctly. He was confused why Cardin had stopped. The older boys gaze followed behind Jaune's back, so Jaune turned.

He saw nothing of interest, so looked back at Cardin. He thought nothing of it till Cardin opened his big mouth again.

"Look boys, the rabbit's come to eat with the people." Jaune whipped back around and sure enough, the Faunus was walking through the cafeteria.

'Oh no!'