squeezing out this was a crucible in an of itself...

-YARN

Ruby had nearly thrown up when she got the message from Ms. Goodwitch to come to Beacon as soon as possible.

She had never given up on finding Jaune after he had vanished and Glynda had promised Jaune not to disclose his location. In a desperate attempt to find him by chance, she began throwing herself in any missions that she could find that seemed like Jaune would take. After six months and no luck, Ruby had given up on meeting up with Jaune on a mission and instead would visit Beacon at random times. Ren and Nora decided to see if Jaune might return to his family or his old school and decided to keep an eye open if he chooses to take a break from missions. Blake and Weiss both simply had too much going on their lives to help as much as they'd like, but did promise to help when they could by tapping into any sightings of him. Yang had followed Ruby's lead at taking missions but kept at it even now, hoping to run across the man she loved as a younger brother.

Ruby almost hadn't been able to bring herself to go to the headmistress' office while uneasy terror and uncertainty pooled in her gut.

She was sure that Glynda Goodwitch was going to tell her that something terrible had happened to Jaune and she was sorry they never had a chance to see him. That he had fallen in the line of duty and he had made careless mistakes that cost him his life.

She took a deep breath and carefully blanked her features before pushing open the door and looking up.

She met a shocked and panicked pair of ocean eyes.

Jaune and Ruby gazes met for an endless moment.

Ruby's face twisted from confusion, to shock, to a mix of joy and elation, and finally settled a very cold and dark anger.

Jaune whimpered internally, Ruby's wrath was not something to be underestimated.

Her hands curled into fists and she half-stomped, half-marched over till she was standing right in front of Jaune.

Jaune - resigned to this situation - closed his eyes and wasn't even remotely surprised when Ruby slapped him across the face.

His normally would've have shielded himself with his aura, but he decided that Ruby - of the few people he would've allowed to hit him - deserved to actually be able to hurt him for his short-notice abandonment.

"Yeah..." He sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat, I guess I deserved tha-"

He was cut of by a choked sob and a slender yet strong pair of arms encircling his waist as Ruby grabbed him and clutched herself as close as she could; squeezing as though he was the only stable object in the middle of a typhoon. Ruby tried to stem the tears but she was sobbing as she held him and buried her face in his chest. She had been so angry and worried and hurt and just downright terrified-

"You're back. You're actually here. Oh thank god." She choked out, voice muffled by his breastplate, "You're real and you're back..."

Jaune couldn't the part-rueful, part-uncertain, and part-fond smile that stretched across his face as his arms gently encircled her head and he gave a firm hug back, "Hey crater face."

After they separated from the hug, Glynda had lent them an empty dorm and Ruby wasted no time in screaming at Jaune about how stupid he was, how shouldn't have just ran off like that, why he should've talked to someone, and asking why he didn't come back sooner. Jaune waited quietly and patiently and absently wondered if giving them an unused dorm was really worth the effort, Ruby certainly was loud enough to be heard through the walls. Ruby's chest was heaving by the time she was done and she crossed her arms and gave Jaune a glare.

"Well?" She said.

"Um..." Jaune began, ears ringing from the volume of Ruby's yelling, "I'm sorry?"

Ruby scowl deepened, "That's it?"

Jaune frowned, "What do you want from me? I can't rewind time Ruby, I can't go back and make my past self wait for you to talk!"

Ruby had to admit he was right on that front. The past was the past and nothing could change it. And she appreciated he wasn't playing dumb and forcing her to ask why should he apologize or he had every right.

Still she wasn't going to let it go.

She wasn't above that.

"Why did you suddenly leave us without any contact? You could have called, left a stupid postcard to let us know you were alive!" She fired off.

Jaune scrubbed a hand over his face, "I wasn't exactly at a good point in the beginning and well... I guess I just hid from it the rest of the time."

"You hid from us?"

Jaune let out a sad sigh, "Yes."

"WHY?"

Jaune inhaled deeply before he waved his arm in an all-encompassing gesture, "Trying to avoid all this."

Ruby took a deep breath to try to calm down.

It didn't work anywhere near as well as she hoped.

She socked him in the shoulder and felt moderately better at the yelped out "Ow!"

Jaune sighed as changed and walked out fo the bathroom in a clean black t-shirt and faded pair of sweats. He scrubbed a towel though his hair to dry it out and chanced looking up. He saw Ruby glaring as though to make sure he didn't even twitch towards the door and let our another sigh of resignation.

He'd been sighing more than usual today.

"Ruby." He said, "I'm not going to run off. Glynda's gonna break my legs if I try to leave and I am kinda grounded. You can take a shower, I won't sneak out."

Ruby remained unmoving.

He rolled his eyes and sat down, "Arc promise?"

Ruby huffed and stood up, "Only because you don't break those."

She stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

Jaune chuckled ruefully, "Still that childish?"

"Shut up!" Ruby called through the door.

Jaune stretched and flopped on the bed he had been allotted and folded his arms under his head. Being stuck here until everyone got here and either hugged him or punched him meant he had two or three days to try to formulate a groveling apology that would mitigate the punishment as much as possible. A thought occurred and he suddenly began to feel a hot anger he thought he had worked through bubble up in his chest.

"Hey Ruby?"

"Hm?"

"Will Pyrrha know I'm here?"

The anger Ruby felt fled and tense indecision filled her.

There was a long silence that was only accompanied by the sound of the shower running before it shut off and there was the sounds of towels shifting. Ruby had not been unaware that this was something he had wanted to probably know. She had wrestled with herself when he asked about Pyrrha. Does she deserve to know? What would Pyrrha do when she found out? Did she even have to right to tell her when Jaune was the person she had wronged? There was a multitude of questions and situations that she honestly had no idea how to even begin to process when it came to when it came to the spartan.

She had been downright homicidal when she saw Pyrrha after her betrayal, but time cooled her anger and allowed her to see just how miserable Pyrrha had been and how much the red-headed spartan had hated herself. Ruby didn't want to forgive her, but honestly she wasn't the one who had been wronged.

But she knew who she wanted to support.

Who her heart refused to let go of even after all those years of him happily dating Pyrrha.

"No. I won't message her." Ruby sighed.

"I see." Jaune replied quietly.

"Do you want her to know?"

A exhausted sounding exhale, "Not particularly. Or at all really."

"I'm sorry she hurt you."

A stern, "You have nothing to be sorry for."

More silence.

"Hey Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"You won't run away when you get the chance right?" Terror wormed its way through her as she wondered if she and the rest of her family would be able to handle him vanishing off the face of the earth again.

Jaune stared at the ceiling and idly tired to find patterns in the bland ceiling, "No. I am tired of running and well... I guess I missed everyone more than I realized."

"We missed you too."

"I know."