AN: Jaune's weapons in this chapter won't be the final ones he uses, once he discovers his semblance he'll develop his weapon choice around that. I'm currently torn between the standard sword and shield, two handed weapon, duel wielding single handed weapons, or close quarters style using marital arts, guns, and knives. Leave your opinions in the review please.

AN2: In this story I'll be fixing things about the characters that annoyed me in the main show, some from the beginning by not having it be there and others having arcs to resolve those irritating situations sooner.

Jaune "Ironhide" Arc

Chapter 1

-Jaune-

Taking in a deep breath, Jaune slung his army duffel over his shoulder and stepped off the bullhead ramp. All around him, his fellow Beacon initiates wandered away from the airships, going in the general direction of the main building that towered over everything else on the premises. The almost serene scrapbook worthy moment was shattered by a, quite literally, explosive sneeze. "What's the matter with you, you dolt?! You almost blew us off the cliff!"

Looking in the direction of the shouting he saw a girl in all white berating a younger looking girl wearing black and red, "You were the one shaking the jar!" the smaller girl protested, clearly not used to confronting others but also not backing down from the screaming girl.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" the irate girl in white demanded haughtily, her expression a scowl that reeked of smug superiority.

"Weiss Schnee," a third girl entered the argument that, like a train wreck, Jaune couldn't turn away from "heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." When the now named Weiss started to give a satisfied reply the new girl in black continued "The same company known for mistreatment of its miners, questionable business partners, and ruthless trade practices. One would think that the heiress to such a group would know enough about Dust safety to not shake partially opened jars of powdered Dust at people. Or to have the manners not to scream at someone who was simply knocked into your excessive luggage." Jaune couldn't blame Weiss in the least for looking gobsmakced as the black-haired girl pushed the offending jar of Dust back into its owner's hands and stalked off, oozing satisfaction as she went.

Letting out a sound that was somewhere between an irritated growl and a scream of frustration, Weiss grabbed the case of Dust on the ground and shoved past the younger girl who looked more like a kicked puppy than many actual dogs he had seen. With a despairing sigh she fell back into the crater caused by the explosion of Dust, "Way to make friends Ruby," she sighed "not even an hour into day one and you're already making a mess of things."

Deciding to make himself known he approached and offered a hand "Well," he chuckled as the despondent girl noticed him "they were certainly dramatic."

Letting out a startled 'eep', Ruby shot to her feet, eyes wide with panicked desperation "Oh please don't tell me you saw all that?" she all but begged him.

"Sorry, but I heard the explosion and saw everything that came after." He apologized as Ruby slumped down in a funk "Don't worry about it though," he grinned the shorter girl who looked up at him in confusion "Snow Angel there isn't exactly about to win Miss Congeniality." Ruby let out a somewhat awkward giggle at his quip but at least some of the tension was gone from the air.

"Wait, didn't you just complement her though?" she frowned in confusion as she processed what he had called Weiss.

"It could be taken that way," Jaune admitted with a shrug before giving Ruby a smirk "but I meant as in it shared the same qualities I saw just now. Cold, fragile, childish, and shallow."

"…Ouch…" Ruby winced at the blunt description, but he could see a faint hint of amusement in her eyes as well.

"Come on," he ruffled her hair as she let out an indignant protest "auditorium is this way." He smiled and jerked a thumb over his shoulder before turning and walking, Ruby scurrying to catch up.

"Sooo…" his new-found conversation partner trailed off awkwardly as she looked for something to talk about "I got this." Before he could blink she had taken something from the small of her back and unfolded it into a massive scythe.

"Holy-!" once recovered from his near heart attack, Jaune examined the impressive weapon "Dressed to match I see." He ribbed playfully as Ruby snickered and stuck her tongue out at him.

"This is my baby," Ruby told him proudly "she's a scythe outfitted with a high impact sniper riffle and her name is Crescent Rose!"

"Impressive," he nodded with a grin at Ruby's beaming expression "sadly I can't really show off since my current gear is temporary." At Ruby's confused puppy head tilt, he elaborated "My acceptance here was last minute and something my father in no way approved of. I had a family sword and shield set along with some armor, but he took them away when he learned I was going to attend Beacon. Professor Ozpin loaned me these until I get some equipment of my own." As he spoke, Jaune gestured to the basic sword, shield, and pistol he had on hand.

"Your dad wasn't happy you got into beacon?" Ruby asked confused, not that he could blame her honestly "Did he want you to go to a different school?"

"He had forbidden me becoming a huntsman at all honestly," he admitted as Ruby looked aghast "never explained why but I was the only member of the family who was refused training. My sisters? All got training. My parents? Both graduated from academies as did my Aunts and Uncles. Hell, my great, great, grandfather actually fought in the great war…huh, speak of the devil, he's got a statue." Jaune jerked his thumb at the large statue in the courtyard they passed, the center figure showing a clear resemblance to him.

"So, how'd you get accepted if you haven't been trained?" Ruby asked, her eyes narrowed with vague hints of suspicion as he realized it did sound like he would have had to have snuck his way in.

"There was a wandering Huntsman who passed through my village and got really drunk a few weeks ago." He explained to her "I managed to defuse a bar fight he almost started and, once he sobered up somewhat, offered me a favor as thanks for keeping him from making a mess. I told him I wanted to be a huntsman, but my family wouldn't train me, that I wanted the favor to be a few lessons from him. He agreed but after the first couple sessions he seemed really confused. The next day Ozpin himself showed up to the clearing where we were having the lessons, the guy not wanting to get in a fight with my dad about training me, and the Headmaster just watched that day's lesson. Ozpin said I was picking up what I was being shown unusually fast and that I showed a great deal of potential, that combined I could definitely catch up to my age group at Beacon if I worked hard enough. With that he invited me to the Academy and unlocked my aura when I said yes."

"So, you got a personal invite from Ozpin too?" Ruby asked, looking oddly relived at that.

"Wait, 'too'? Did you get invited by Ozpin as well?" he asked her in surprise, having not expected that.

"Yeah," he saw Ruby scuff the ground with her boot as she went from enthusiastic to bashful in a split second, "he invited me here two years early because I kinda stopped a robbery…by Roman Torchwick."

Seeing her awkward shyness as Ruby looked everywhere but at him he let out an exaggerated groan, "Just when I think I've done something cool you go and top it." He pointed a finger at her dramatically "But remember little red, this means war!" The loud laughter she let out shattered the awkward tension in the air as he struggled to contain his grin at her relaxing.

"How about I help you make your new weapons and you call of the war?" Ruby forced out between giggles as they entered the auditorium.

"I'll consider your peace treaty with my government and get back to you." Jaune replied before it was too much and they both burst out laughing as a girl with the largest main of hair he had ever seen approached them.

"Hey Ruby, I was wondering when you'd show up." The girl said with a grin, throwing an arm around Ruby's shoulder "And look, you managed to make a friend after all! You see? This is why you listen to your big sister."

"Yang, you ditched me two seconds off the bullhead." Ruby deadpanned.

"And then she exploded." He supplied helpfully as Ruby sent him a look for bringing that up.

"Yikes, meltdown already?" Yang asked with a barely concealed grin, misunderstanding what she meant.

"No, an actual Dust explosion, left a nice little crater outside too." He elaborated as Yang went from teasing big sibling to protective momma bear in an instant as she fretted Ruby for injuries.

"Agh! Jaune, save me!" Ruby pleaded desperately as he leaned against a column to watch her suffer the humiliation of being frisked for injuries.

"Nah, this is more fun to watch." Her betrayed pout was hilarious.

"Where'd you find enough Dust to cause an explosion anyway?" Yang asked once she finished checking over Ruby who was currently trying to hide inside her cloak.

"Some crabby girl named Weiss had a bunch of luggage and when you and your friends rushed off I ended up falling into it." Ruby said, pointedly glaring at her older sister in accusation.

"I'm sure she wasn't upset though, right?" Yang tried weakly, giving a poor attempt at steering focus away from her sink or swim approach to Ruby making friends.

"You!" Weiss seemingly appeared from nowhere as she was once more glaring at Ruby who panicked and leapt into Yang's arms.

"Aaaagh! It's happening again!"

"I have over a half a dozen broken dust jars now because of your incompetence!" Weiss snapped with a glare at Ruby.

"Isn't Dust supposed to be kept in extremely durable containers?" he pointed out with a raised eyebrow "That case only had three jars so that means the others broke from being dropped. If they got damaged from that fall while in padded containers, then you were clearly using shoddy equipment there, Snow Angel."

"Are you…flirting with me?" the shock he could understand but her disgust at that was just rude.

"It also means shallow, cold, childish, and fragile." Ruby supplied helpfully, seeming more confident given that she had him and Yang by her side this time during the confrontation.

Seeing Weiss's stunned slack jawed expression he smirked and leaned over to Ruby, "I think you broke her." He said conspiratorially "I'm impressed." With that they walked over to a different part of the room to hear Ozpin's welcome speech.

AN: Wanted to be clear that this story won't be Weiss bashing (or Blake bashing when she shows up more). The reason I have them act the way they do there is because I've always had major problems with the attitudes of both characters so I'm going to have them start out low and improve when people give them a good kick in the pants. Ruby is going to be a little less childish (I'm working on that stage by stage), Yang will learn self-control and consequences, Pyrrah won't have fan girl stalker syndrome and if I think of anything for Ren and Nora I'll throw that in too.