Author's Notes: Haha, ha. Ohhh man. I made myself cry.

Definition: Weregild – Literally meaning man-gold or bloody money, weregild was often a payment to the surviving family members of a slain person to prevent blood feud Germanic societies; however, weregild is not always literal gold, and can be a pretty nuanced subject, particularly for those with norse spiritual leanings. For example, the Jotun goddess Skadi asked for weregild in compensation for the death of her father and was granted her choice of a husband by the Aesir (with some odd stipulations lol). In modern, secular applications, weregild can even be considered the price one pays for victory and the continuance of peace.

Weregild

Weiss squinted at the words on the page, considering whether she should add them to her notes. The final exams were still several months away. However, they would cover everything they had learned during their first year, and she wanted to have her bases covered.

Yet at this rate, she was practically recording Professor Port's textbook word for word; and that was not an efficient manner for learning and retaining pertinent information. Inhaling in mild frustration, she settled for highlighting the paragraph and turned the page.

The Library was currently empty, at least as far as she could see. It was a week before the Ball, and they had volunteered to assist with it in the absence of team CFVY; she was honestly was beginning to regret involving herself in it at this point. Weiss knew she could get carried away with the details of planning for something and felt that it was likely a distraction from her actual studies overall; which was ultimately why she had gotten up even earlier to catch up on her studies.

However, helping with the event wasn't without its merits. Yang was enthused by the idea of party planning, at least. The brawler couldn't stop talking about it and kept coming up with some rather…eclectic ideas; namely fog machines. Yang was obsessed with the bloody fog machines and kept trying to sneak in more of them. At this rate, the party goers wouldn't even be able to see one another if Weiss let her teammate have her way. They were currently compromising on three, which was still far too many.

Then of course there was Blake. The faunus could certainly use the distraction from her worries about the White Fang. After their return from their holiday on Patch, Blake had gone right back to obsessing over what they could be planning to do with all their ill-gotten Dust. Blake wasn't sleeping, and kept snapping at innocent people, a duty which Weiss had claimed as her personal responsibility during their first semester and was not inclined to share with her more affable teammates. She was hopeful that Yang would be able to convince Blake to relax and attend for at least a few hours.

As for Ruby, she seemed on the fence about attending, but enjoyed helping Weiss and Yang come up with new ideas. Weiss felt she could convince her partner and could possibly, gods willing, even get her to wear something other than her combat uniform.

Their glorious leader could certainly use the social experience. Because Dust knew, if it didn't involve Grimm, sugar, cute animals or guns in some capacity, then Ruby usually wanted nothing to do it; and that especially included large crowds that prompted her social anxiety. Weiss felt that this would be a positive, low risk environment for her younger partner to work on her people skills; she might even discover that some social functions could even be fun, with the right people. It would also be rather pleasant to see her in an actual dress; or even a suit.

Weiss eventually realized she had been staring at the same words for the past several minutes as she thought about her partner in a more dapper outfit. Her cheeks heated. This was becoming an all too common distraction, and she really needed to get a grip.

Shaking her head, she picked up her pen again, only to realize she was no longer alone. She glanced up, feeling marginally apprehensive. Jaune Arc smiled at her hopefully, pointing at the chair across from her.

"Hey Weiss! Can I, um. Is this seat taken?"

Weiss's eyebrow curved upwards; there was literally no one else in the vicinity. It was barely six in the morning, long before classes had even started. Jaune was rarely conscious before seven.

The blonde beamed and sat, his chair scraping in the empty hall. Weiss stared at him briefly before going back to her studies. She did not want to deal with this right now.

Jaune watched her briefly, clearly trying to ask her something. Weiss had not spoken to him after he had tried to serenade her in the dorm room the other day. She was swiftly running out of patience for his antics; and she had been patient.

Even at her absolute rudest, she had been patient; because she recognized that, despite Jaune's many, many foibles, he was a good person. But one did not deserve endless second chances simply because they were good, or at least, not bad.

"So ah. Look, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable the other day," Jaune started. He was wincing and scratching the back of his head. "I recognize that I am not the stuff of legends when it comes to singing. Or playing guitar. Or um, well, a lot of things. Except perhaps making a mean burrito. That I've got down."

Weiss prayed silently that this would end soon.

"But um. I really did want to tell you something and I know that being direct is usually the best course of action-"

Ah yes. Here we go.

"-at least, that's what a really wise friend told me. So," he inhaled, meeting her eyes. "Weiss, I really like you. You're a great, beautiful person, and I was hoping you would go with me to the ball in a few days?"

Weiss rapidly considered her options. Going with Jaune was not one of them; it would get his hopes up and make a mess she was not equipped to deal with. She had considered asking Neptune, to dissuade others from asking and to have some eye candy on her arm that was low risk and whose feelings she did not need to worry about. In Atlas, such fare was the norm and not something she gave much mind to.

Her other options ranged from telling Jaune she was not romantically attracted to men, at least as far as she knew, and that there was nothing for it; to putting on her best queen bitch costume and traumatizing him from ever asking anyone again.

It's not like she had been subtle in her disinterest towards his advances; she had told him 'no' repeatedly, though he had never been so direct. He just, rather naively, believed he could change her mind if he persisted. If only he were so persistent in becoming a better Huntsman.

Weiss set her pen down and primly steepled her fingers. She thought about her teammates, and the approaches they might take. Neither Blake nor Ruby were paragons of romance, despite Blake's hefty library of romantic 'literature'. Blake's idea of a rejection was likely to just apologize and walk away; and Ruby, well, who could ever really tell anything with Ruby. Weiss decided to go more for a Yang route: honest, potentially brutal, but well-meaning and absolutely unignorable.

"…Why are you here, Jaune?" she asked finally.

Jaune, whatever response he had been expecting, had not been expecting that. He blinked, his face becoming cautious.

"Um, you mean here? In the library? Or-"

"Beacon," Weiss clipped out, gesturing slowly around them.

"Toooo…become a Huntsman?" he replied, his words more a question than a response.

"To become a Huntsman? Or for other people to see you become a Huntsman?" Weiss continued calmly.

Jaune hesitated again. A silence stretched between them, like a glacier growing down a mountain valley.

"Can I tell you a story?" she asked, closing her book with a snap.

The noise created an atmosphere of finality that Jaune, in all his thick-headed optimism and doubt could not ignore. He nodded, his face had changed from hopeful to apprehensive, but he was still listening at least.

"I didn't always want to be a Huntress," Weiss admitted after a minute. "In fact, for most of my life? I rather disdained them. My father always saw Hunters as tools to utilize to gain the things he wanted: more territory, access to Dust crystals and mine shafts…compliance. Hunters, in his eyes and the eyes of many Atlassians, are tools of the state, the military and the rich. So, I told myself I was better than that – because I desperately did not want to be another tool for such people."

Jaune fidgeted across from her, his face running through several emotions.

"But my sister, Winter….she saw things differently," Weiss said, feeling herself smile.

Without Winter as a role model and mentor, Weiss really did not want to consider what her life could have turned out like, or who she could have become.

"Winter saw the Academy as a golden opportunity for freedom. And she fought tooth and nail to not only become a great Huntress, but a Specialist in the army. After she left us, and the years began to pass, I felt the trappings of my family closing around me; and I realized she had been right. Becoming a Huntress was not only an honorable profession, but it was also my only chance for real freedom. But I had wasted so much time already. I didn't start proper training until I was fourteen."

Weiss held her fingers up; pale scars from training sessions and long, frustrating hours as she sparred webbed across them, each a lesson.

"I had no active aura yet, or Semblance. I was behind my age group in the combat schools by years in physical conditioning; but being a Schnee at least has the benefit of possessing an obscene amount of resources. So, I paid the best instructors I could find to get me up to speed; even still, the most formidable teacher I ever had was Winter. Because she was not afraid to offend me or tell me what I needed to hear to make myself better. Thanks to her, I eventually caught up to my peers in the schools, and passed their version of a graduation exam."

She brushed the scar that bisected her eye; she had been ridiculously lucky that she had not lost it to the Arma Gigas's blade. Yet she knew that even if she had, she wouldn't have regretted it. She was proud of the scar, in fact. She felt it declared that she had actually earned her place and not just bought it; she had been willing to pay the real price to walk Beacon's halls.

"However, it wasn't without working endlessly, day and night, that I managed to achieve any of that. Which brings me back to you, Jaune."

Jaune's eyes were wide, his boyish face acknowledging the direction she was going with this.

"One of the prerequisites to graduating combat schools for Hunters is possessing active aura; otherwise they would be sending lambs to the slaughter," Weiss leaned forward, just barely. "And I know that Pyrrha activated yours for you doing the entrance exams."

Jaune physically flinched, but he did not look away from her gaze.

"She ah, told you that, did she?" he stuttered.

"No. Of course not. Nora did," Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Oh. Yea. I guess that figures," he chuckled in chagrin.

"You never attended any combat training courses did you?" Weiss asked coolly.

For a Kingdom grown citizen on any continent, graduating one of the schools was a mandatory prerequisite for application to a Hunter Academy, unless that person was of notably outstanding skill; such as Ruby. It was something Weiss had looked up during those first few days, to reassure herself of her new team leader. Ruby and even Blake would have never been accepted into Beacon without obvious demonstration that they were as capable of fighting Grimm as their formally trained or older peers.

Jaune demonstrated no such skill but had been accepted anyways for reasons that Weiss could not currently fathom, besides perhaps his last name. Joan Arc, his mother, had apparently been a legendary Huntress and a previous instructor at Beacon; they had even named an auditorium after her. Jaune's legacy was the only thing Weiss could deduce was protecting him.

"Ah. No," he hung his head. "I didn't."

Weiss placed her hands in her lap.

"So you lied to gain admittance."

"…Yea. I did," his ears brightened. "But I really do want to be a Hunter."

"Do you?" Weiss asked skeptically.

He paused, face puzzled.

"Do you really want to become a Huntsman? Or do you just want other people to see you as one?" she asked again. "There is an immense difference, Jaune. And I understand wanting to be respected; trust me, I do. Because most of my life, people like you have looked at me and not seen me as a person to respect, but as a status symbol to possess."

Jaune gaped, his eyes portraying panic.

"What, no! I don't see you that way, Weiss! Really, it-"

"Jaune," Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Stop."

His protests quieted briefly but his distress was palpable.

"I know you're not a bad person. I've met bad people," Weiss sniffed. "But I don't think anyone's truly been honest with you since you've been here, and I feel that has been a disservice to you overall. So, to be frank, there is a lot of things that you do and get away with that makes me very angry. And no small part of it is how you obviously don't take any of this very seriously."

Jaune's brow had furrowed slightly as he fidgeted; he obviously wanted to contest what she was saying, but she carried on regardless. She wasn't going to baby him, because that was likely what got him in this mess to begin with.

"You never applied yourself a fraction as hard as you should have if you were serious about becoming a Huntsman; you never had to achieve the things that every other person here did, and instead just showed up and were admitted based, I am assuming, solely on your name. And now, you, what? Skate off half the time? Try to flirt with girls who have stated repeatedly that they aren't interested in you? Let your partner carry the brunt of the effort, because unlike you she has been training to pursue her dream since the time she could walk?"

She could see him wilting under her stare and words and took no pleasure in it; but it needed to be said. She realized she was sounding more and more like her sister the longer she stayed at Beacon, far away from her father's influence.

"You don't see me as a person, Jaune, any more than you see becoming a Hunter as a mantle to be taken with the utmost sincerity and pride. And even if I was capable of being attracted to men, I wouldn't choose you as a potential interest; because you are too scared of failure to try as hard as you should. "

Jaune's jaw had dropped slightly; his face was clearly portraying the hurt her words had inflicted. However, she hoped he would have the actual sense to recognize what she was saying.

"If it wasn't for Pyrrha being an absolute saint, you wouldn't be here right now," Weiss gestured around the empty hall of the library. "Frankly, I think she's enabling you. Because instead of busting your rear to prove yourself worthy of being her partner and receiving the underserved opportunity dropped in your lap, you waste a terrible amount of time goofing off. Your fighting skills have improved, marginally, but you are still far below the baseline expected of a freshman at Beacon; and apparently you believe that makes you safe? Have you been to the monument dedicated to the fallen of Mountain Glenn, yet?"

He stammered out a reply, his face flushed.

"No. I haven't."

"Two hundred and twenty-seven; that's how many Hunters died trying to save a besieged city of over two hundred thousand people. At least, that's how many bodies they found. Do you know how many of those were Beacon students?" Weiss leaned forwards, her eyes like chips of steel.

He shook his head dully, looking miserable.

"Over a third. Over a third of them were our own students, who were summoned by King and country to go fight and try to save those people. And they died. Entire teams were wiped out, or worse, there was only one who survived them. Freshmen, Seniors. Partners, friends, siblings…lovers. They died, Jaune," Weiss glared, nearly surprised by her own passion. "So many of them. Don't you understand? At any point, that could be us. Something terrible could happen and we could get called to go into a situation we might not come back from. And right now, if that happened, do you think you would you be ready to face that?"

He stared at the table, his eyes distant.

"Could you be the leader and fighter your team needs? Your partner needs? Pyrrha's skill carries team JNPR, and that works for the time being. But what happens if the worst does come, and she needs you to be more than you are right now, Jaune? You can't predict what will happen in a disaster," Weiss shook her head. "She deserves to have a partner who she can depend on, not baby sit."

"So you're saying I should what?" he whispered, his face looking shattered. "Drop out?"

"No, don't be dense. You should be training like your life depends on it; like her life depends on it," Weiss smacked her palm on the table, startling him. "Because it does. If you can get up this early to pester me, then you can get up this early to train. Every free hour, every free moment, you should be pushing yourself to catch up to your peers. Not playing video games, not sleeping in, not worrying about dates; you should be desperately striving to become more, Jaune. Because you are running out of time."

Weiss stood up, gathered her books, and stared down at him.

"And just so you know, I think that you have it in you. But that won't make a bit of difference if you never do anything with it."

He met her eyes again, looking perhaps as if it was the first time he had ever really seen her. She stared back, face serious and lacking its typical lofty façade; she considered saying something else, and realized there was nothing else that was necessary. She'd already said much more than she meant to. Instead, Weiss turned and walked away from him, heels clicking in the silent library as she ignored the soft whir of the camera drones hiding in the eaves.

…

It was still too early to go to breakfast, and his stomach was full of lead anyways. He didn't feel like facing his teammates yet, either. He felt too raw, as if Weiss had pulled his nerves free and left them tangled and exposed to the cold spring air.

Jaune let his feet carry him where they wanted, his hands shoved in his hoody sleeves like a monk. It really was still quite cold outside, being early spring and all; but it wasn't nearly as cold as it had been in that Library, that was for sure.

Man, I am such a loser….

He paused, the thought drifting by on its habitual, looping track. It always showed up eventually, no matter what; he almost hadn't noticed it as it drifted on by, like clockwork.

Loser. Failure. Pussy. Pathetic.

People had taunted him most of his life; but he had never realized until that moment, that the person who put him down the most, was himself. Other people, guys like Cardin, didn't even have to try that much. He did all the real work for them; he accepted their idea of himself almost instinctively.

He frowned, trying to get angry or frustrated, anything; anything would feel better than this helpless misery he always found himself waist deep in. In truth, that was why he had come to Beacon in the first place. He wanted to feel like he was doing something to combat his anxiety, his self-doubt and pity.

Jaune knew it hadn't been right to lie, but he had to do something; and at the time it had seemed like it was the right choice. If he got hurt, then it was just him, right? He hadn't considered the burden that put on the rest of his team; on his partner. No, he had been more than a little selfish and he knew it; that and he was motivated by the idea of people looking at him with something other than humorous contempt.

Yet it didn't matter how other people looked at him, if that's how he saw himself; as someone deserving people's disrespect. Until he changed that perception internally, then he'd never make any real progress externally. He had to stop treating himself this way.

Jaune noticed the granite steps in front of his sneakers and looked up, blinking. His eyes widened.

Beacon had a lot of statues and shrines scattered about campus. Some had been donated in honor of some legendary graduate or another, some were memorials; a lot of the shrines were made by students in forgotten years and then grew organically over time. He had seen this statue from afar many times, but had always been too afraid to approach it.

The marble features of the Huntress looked out over the courtyard, her eyes blazing with determination. She was adorned in sculpted heavy armor and wielded marble copies of the humble sword and shield he carried. At her feet were various offerings, incense sticks, candles, boxes from adoring, grieving students; a few dried, white rose petals were sheltered in the nook made by her shield and pedestal.

Jaune's mouth went dry as he looked up into features like his own.

"Hey, mom," he whispered.

There was, of course, no response, save for the wind in the trees and grass. His father believed one's ancestors could speak to you, in their own way; that the souls of the departed continued to watch over those left behind or their descendants. However, that idea had always made Jaune feel profoundly nervous; because if his mom was still watching over him and his sisters, then surely he was an immense disappointment to someone so accomplished.

He hesitated, realizing he was once again feeding into the idea that he had no worth. He glanced around and saw that he was still alone.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked wryly.

Joan Arc stared silently at him.

He shuffled to take a seat on one of the steps, setting his blade down by her feet gently. The campus was growing brighter, sunlight glinting off the library windows in the distance.

"I'm sorry that I haven't visited," he grimaced, tone quiet. "I get scared, I think. That, wherever you are, you must think I'm just a huge bum. Opal and some of the others always talk about you and the things you expected of them, and I think that they kinda believe you'd feel that way, too. That I'd disappoint you. Not Saff, though. Saffron says we would've gotten along great, but that you…always wanted us to try our best at whatever it was we pursued. And I know that I haven't done that."

He paused, watching the grass stalks wave in gentle ripples across the campus.

"I don't know why I'm always so scared. And it isn't even of getting hurt! I'm not scared of what happens to me, so much as trying my best? And still not being good enough. Because then I'd fail for real."

In the distance the clock tower chimed. He could hear birds chirping in the trees.

"I just asked out a girl that I really like and…man," he chuckled ruefully. "She really let me have it. Not because I asked so much? But because she knows that I lied to get in? Well, she basically thinks I'm a lazy jerk that needs to pull my head out of my ass. And as much as hearing that just….sucked, completely, I think she's probably right. I need to do more."

He stared about the empty campus, taking in the beauty, the silence; the fragility of it all. How many Hunters had died so that he could experience this? So that he could grow up in relative peace, without fear of Grimm beating down his doors? How many people never even get that opportunity, and live in fear their entire lives?

"I think you would have liked her, too," he said after a long moment.

"Liked who?"

Jaune jumped, managing by the grace of the gods not to yelp.

"Hooooly fishsticks," he wheezed, looking over his left shoulder. "Geez, Ruby! Come on!"

Ruby Rose grinned bashfully back at him, managing to appear chagrinned despite the mischievousness in her silver eyes.

"Heeeey, sorry! I'm sorry, I thought you heard me?" she simpered.

As if. Ruby could be as sneaky as Ren or Blake when she wasn't talking or being silly. In fact, at times she was better at it, because you never expected it of her. Ren and Blake were ninjas and everyone knew it, but Ruby was something that belonged in some fairy tale forest, like an elf or playful spirit. She didn't sneak. She manifested.

"Suuure you did," Jaune nodded skeptically, his mouth pulling.

Crescent Rose was still in its extended form, the scythe's blade glittering dangerously in the daylight. She glanced at the weapon, which was also a gun, and with a graceful flick she made look far too easy, transformed the scythe back into its traveling form.

"You're up early!" Ruby observed, squinting playfully at him. A well-executed change of subject.

"So are you," Jaune squinted back with mock suspicion. "Me thinks you are a doppelganger; since when does Ruby Rose get up before seven on a Monday?"

Ruby laughed and he smiled automatically. No one could not smile at Ruby genuinely laughing unless they were a robot wearing a people suit; and even then, they'd have a hard time of it.

"I couldn't sleep with all the moonlight! It's like sparkly caffeine!" Ruby proclaimed, pointing up.

Sure enough, the full moon was still high enough in the sky to see over the buildings.

"Sooo, you've been up all night?" Jaune guessed.

"Yep!"

"Annnnd you're gonna crash in class later, huh?"

"Absolutely!" Ruby chirped, her eyes looking impish.

"Ha, um, won't Weiss get all crabby with you about that?" he chuckled, glancing off.

The conversation from earlier was still fresh in his mind, though not so raw as before; he felt better about it at least.

"Yes, she will, but!" Ruby folded her arms 'imperiously'. "She is not the boss of me! Also, I was burning all my energy off training in the gym and logged my hours as evidence of my productivity – But still! Totally not the boss of me!"

He laughed with her, unsure if she was completely serious or not. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Ruby, if she was teasing or not. She wasn't like Nora, whose jokes or tall tales were either completely true no matter how outlandish, or absolute exaggerations; Nora was, or was not. Ruby was often more liminal, serious and joking at the same time.

"Uh huh. Well, best of luck with that comrade," he chuckled, shaking his head.

"Snck, comrade?" Ruby giggled. "Are you ok? Did you sleepwalk out here or something?"

"Oh, yea, ya know. I'm just catching up," he coughed.

Ruby stared at him; then the statue. She paused, mouth pursing as she read the placard, before her eyes widened.

"Oh."

Jaune winced immediately. He hadn't meant to make it weird. People always get so uncomfortable when they find out one of your parents died. They can't decide whether to apologize, to pity you, or to tactfully ignore the situation.

"Hi Jaune's mom!" Ruby blurted, waving at Joan's monument, before sitting next to him on the steps. "Do you come here to talk to her a lot?"

Jaune stared at his friend in bewilderment, hesitating.

"Honestly? Not really," he muttered, his neck hot. "I want to, but I guess I worry that…I disappoint her?"

He even sounded surprised with himself when he spoke. He never talked about this sort of thing with other people.

"I know that's probably kind of silly, but-"

"It's not. I promise."

He glanced at her. Ruby smiled softly at him. There was an understanding there, one born of intimate familiarity with the subject.

Oh.

His throat felt tight. He didn't trust himself to speak right then, so he just nodded. Ruby didn't ask him any more questions, choosing to settle next to him as they watched the campus begin to wake up. Other students were walking across the courtyard in the distance, dragging themselves to breakfast before the start of classes. After several more minutes of blessed silence, Jaune smiled.

"Hey, question."

Ruby glanced at him, eyes glinting in the last gleam of twilight.

"Would you mind sparring with me sometime?" he asked, trying to warm up his hands. "I've ah. I've got a lot of catching up to do, I know. I've been practicing with Pyrrha at night sometimes, but honestly, I should probably be taking more um. Initiative? And your fighting styles are so different, I know I could learn a thing or ten."

Ruby beamed at him, springing immediately to her feet; a few rose petals fell with the movement.

"Absolutely! I'd love to! Ooh, you know who you should also ask? Blake! Blake is really good at teaching weapons technique, she's so patient and good with words. And Yang could teach you some hand to hand for sure! But just be ready to get your butt kicked, because even without aura or Semblances she goes hard!"

"Do you think um, Weiss would be willing to? Or maybe that's not such a good idea," he scratched the back of his head.

Ruby paused, her smile widening.

"I know she would. Weiss likes helping others improve. She can come across as harsh, but that's only because she's so hard on herself, you know? Maybe let her see you training with us first, before asking her? So she knows you're being serious?"

"Yea?" he smiled.

"For sure! Oh, are you hungry? I'm starving," Ruby glanced down at her stomach as it growled.

He looked at his own stomach, which rumbled of its own accord. He nodded, pointing towards the sky.

"To breakfast!"

"To breakfast!" Ruby repeated, springing away.

Jaune gave his mother's statue a parting smile and wave before following his speedier classmate. The two friends continued to talk, their mood lifting with the rising sun. Behind them, the statue of Joan continued her silent vigil, staring eternally out over the campus and peaceful sea of grass.

…..