AN: Hello readers. I'm not really new to fanfiction, but I thought I'd make a new account to separate some of the genres of my stories. I wont say who I am, but I'm sure those who have read my works might recognize or something.

So I rewatched RWBY from S1 to the latest episode in S4, and I took note of a lot of what ifs. I wrote like six down, so that's what I'll be working on.

But like the summary said, this is what I think would have happened if Jaune never asked Pyrrha to train him.

I am Aloehisja, and I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and made by Monty Oum.

'Thoughts'

"Spoken"

Chapter 1: Now What?

After the whole Forever Fall event, Jaune felt tired as he sat on the roof. He killed the Grimm, he stood up to his bully, and he did it for his friends. At least, he hopes they think of him as their friend with how badly he treated them. He repeatedly kicked himself mentally for that. Why didn't ask them for help?

'I'm an Arc.' The words echoed in the deep parts of his conscience.

That's right. His stupid pride got in the way. He couldn't accept that he needed help and had brushed it off. What was it his dad had tried telling him a long time ago? It had something to do with being young and prideful. Raking through his memories, he remembered what had been told to him when he was just thirteen.

'Son. Asking for help doesn't make you weak or stupid. It's not asking for help when you know you need it that makes you weak and stupid.'

He was still young that time. He's still young now. But back then, he was blind only to their family name and the heroic history behind it. After today though, he could admit that he needed help.

"No Cardin tonight?" A sweet female voice surprised him out of his thoughts. Turning around he was greeted to his partner, Pyrrha Nikos.

"No." He said, turning fully to face her. 'And I don't think ever from now on.'

After an awkward silence between the two, it was her that broke it. "Well, why don't we head in now? Ren made pancakes, but no syrup though. You can thank Nora for that."

It looked like she wanted to treat things like the days he had ignored them never happened. Make it seem like he never neglected them and just forget about it all. She may have wanted that. He could admit that he wanted it too. But he felt it wasn't the right course of action.

"Pyrrha." He called out to her. As she turned to him, he took a deep breath to steel his nerves. "I'm sorry for how I acted - for everything. Our team was concerned about me, and you were just trying to help me. And I lashed out at you. You didn't deserve that. None of you did."

For a few seconds, he couldn't look up from her shoes to see what her expression was. He still had a bit of pride in himself, but he quelled it down. If she chose not to accept his apology, he would accept it. With the way he had acted, her not accepting would have been what he deserved.

"You're forgiven." After she had said that, he felt an immense weight pulled off his chest. Looking up to her, he saw her smiling at him with nothing but sincere kindness. "I'm just happy you are alright now."

"Thanks Pyrrha." As he followed her to he door, he felt like asking her for help. "Um, Pyrrha?"

Just as his call out to her had came out of his mouth, so did his insecurities. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind telling him not to ask her for help. Not because of stupid pride or machismo, but because of shame and guilt. She had offered to help him once in nothing but kindness and he had turned her away angrily. Asking her to train him just didn't feel right now.

"Yes?" She asked, halting in her steps as he had too. She took note of how uneasy he was acting once more, but decided not to push.

"…I'm just happy to be a part of the team." The blonde said, relaxing a tight grip he didn't know he was making.

"And is that all?" She egged on a bit while stepping closer, seeing traces of doubt in his eyes.

"I just wanna know one more thing." He gulped, wiping sweat on his forehead that was forming from nervousness. Seeing her motion for him to go on, he nodded. "I wanna know if we're still friends. You, me, and the team."

The smile on her face never left as she placed a hand on his shoulder. She could feel how tense he was and knew that this was important to him. It was important to her too.

"Of course we're still friends." She giggled, feeling his shoulders relax. "And not just me either. Ren and Nora were worried about you as well."

"Thanks Pyrrha." He sighed, taking her hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. "I'm glad we're still friends."

"If that's all, why don't we head down?" The champion said, motioning to the door.

"Uh, you go on ahead." He waved a hand. "I'll catch up later. Just need to go through my thoughts. It's been a day y'know."

"If you're sure." She said hesitantly, but giving him the space. "Take all the time you need. You know where we are."

"Thanks. And Pyrrha?" The blonde called out to her once more before she was completely gone. "Since we're friends I just want you to know – I'm socially awkward and I will make few… a lot of mistakes. And I'm going to change that. I'm going to do what I can, so if I do make a mistake I want you guys-"

"We'll stick by you." She finished for him, feeling they had gotten closer as he smiled at her words.

"Thanks." He smiled, turning away to sit on the edge. Hearing the door close behind him, he looked to the shattered moon with one thought in mind. "Now what?"

He slayed a Grimm today. A big Ursa to be exact. But he still could have done better. Thinking it over, he listed down all the things he needed work on. His strength was average, for a civilian anyways. His speed wasn't something to be proud of. His form was something Miss Goodwitch had told him needed work. He could take a hit, but not for long. And his stamina was something he needed work on too.

'I have a lot of work ahead of me.' He groaned, seeing he was going to have to work from the ground up. Now that he had his physical evaluation out of the way, if he could call it that, it was time for his academic.

…He sucked. That's all he could think of his academics. Whenever it came to pop quizzes, he'd panic and write just about anything. It was a miracle he was barely passing at this point. To summarize - He was as far from being awesomesauce with a dash of kickass and a side order of win.

Thinking things over, he thought of the people he knew that could help him out. His team was obviously out. He was glad they were still friends, but he felt he didn't deserve to ask them. CRDL came to mind, but that was like stepping on a landmine again after narrowly escaping it the first time. He could go to the teachers, but he feared the question of his transcripts coming up. That only left one team he was friends with. Sort of friends with – like half of them. Maybe three.

Yes, he would ask team RWBY for help. Now that he thought about it, each of them could help him in all his weak parts. Yang was strong, Ruby was fast, Weiss was amazing, and Blake was…

"Huh." He scratched his chin. "What do I know about Blake?"

He'd get around to it later. Seeing how late it was, he decided to ask them early in the morning. For now, he'd get some pancakes with his team.

Room JNPR

"Nora, no." Ren scolded his partner as he saw her slowly inching to a plate of pancakes. "You had yours. Those are Jaune's."

"Aaaaaw." She pouted, lip quivering as she eyed the delicious tower with shimmering eyes. "But Ren, she's calling to me. Eat me. Let me inside you. Enjoy my taste in your mouth!"

"You had your fill." He refused her. "I made more for you than I did for the three of us combined."

"But it wasn't enough." The ginger pushed on, slowly reaching a hand out to grab just one. "And they're getting cold. How can Jaune enjoy cold pancakes?"

"Nora." The ninja of JNPR warned her, raising his spatula to swat her hand if it got any closer to the pancakes.

Pyrrha was watching the whole ordeal with shoulders shaking in silent laughter. It was amazing how the two got on so well. They were so different, but they stuck together in pure friendship. If she were to be honest, she was jealous. She wished she could have the sort of relationship they had with just about anyone.

Maybe that's why she chose to secure Jaune as her partner. He was a person that didn't recognize her or fawned over her fame. He was a bit put down after Weiss listed all her accomplishments, but he didn't seem the character to just give up like that.

Then again, she did also choose him so she wouldn't be paired up with Weiss. Call her whatever you wanted, but she didn't feel comfortable being paired with Weiss at the time. Her initial plan to recruit her wasn't so subtle – neither was that devious face she had made when the heiress thought she wasn't looking. Either way, she chose Jaune and she didn't regret it.

Hearing the door rattle a bit, the three in the room quieted down as they heard grumbling and a heavy sigh before there was a knocking of three times. Nora, wanting a distraction away from the delicacies on the plate, had gone to answer it.

"Who's there?" She asked after the knocking.

"It's me." Jaune's voice muffled on the other side.

"Me who?" She sang, giggling at her chance for a knock-knock joke. Pyrrha covered her mouth to stop herself from giggling at the display.

"Its-" Before Jaune could answer; he was interrupted by a surprise behind him.

BAM!

"It's me, two!" The three heard a female voice say at the door. They knew who it was by that joke: Yang.

"Yang, what're you doing?" Jaune's muffled voice asked the buxom blonde.

"I heard an opportune chance of a knock-knock joke." They heard her say. "No way I was going to let it go."

The three in the room could just imagine how it was going in the hall. From the sounds of things, the rest of Team RWBY had gotten involved. They couldn't clearly hear what the other three were saying, but they could make out some of the voices.

"Yes, Ruby. I forgot my scroll in the room again." Jaune's voice admitted to his fault. "By the way, since you guys are here I wanted to ask you all something."

None in JNPR's room were able to here what Jaune had been saying next. But from the sounds of things, the Schnee was making a fuss of things while Ruby cheered and Yang laughed. After a few more minutes, Jaune had called for Nora to open the door.

"If I let you in, can I have your pancakes?" Nora asked sweetly, eyeing the pancakes and then Ren's stern glare. "What? It's a fair trade."

Rolling his eyes at his friend's antics, he walked over to open the door to see Jaune waiting in front of the door with Yang next to him. The rest of Yang's team stayed inside their room, but their door was wide open, showing their bunkbeds of death. The ninja thinks them as such because of how crudely they were put together. Thank goodness all he and Pyrrha had talked Nora out of making theirs the same way.

"Come on in Jaune." He called his leader in. "Your pancakes are getting cold."

After walking into the room, the blonde scanned for any signs of pancakes only to find none. "So, where are the pancakes?"

"They're right over-" Just as Ren followed his finger to where it was pointing; he saw the pancakes were not where he had left them. And he knew who had taken them by how huddled she was in a corner. "Nora!"

"What?" She said with mouth stuffed. "I didn't do it."

As he marched over to scold her, Jaune laughed silently at the scene before walking over to his bed next to his partners. Giving her a glance, he nodded in acknowledgement after their eyes had met.

"So how are you feeling?" The redhead asked after a few seconds of silence between the two. "Were you able to sort out your thoughts?"

"Yeah." He nodded, laying down and enjoying the sheets. "I thought things over, and I think everything's going to be ok. We're all going to be ok now."

"That's good to hear." She smiled, reaching over to lightly punch his shoulder. "It's good to have you back with us, Jaune."

"Good to be back Pyr." He smiled, closing his eyes to get some early rest. He'd need it for what came tomorrow. Things were going to be different.

If he had kept them open, he would have seen her eyes widen at the nickname he had given her. The champion had noticed that Nora would usually call Ren by his name or 'Renny' whenever she was in a very good mood. For the time she and Jaune were together, he had always called her by her full name. This was the first time he'd called her anything else. Maybe they were going to be better than ok.

END

AN: So that's chapter one. It's been a while since I was an insecure teen. Now that I'm writing of teenagers trying to grow up and change for the better, there's a bit of nostalgia in there somewhere.

I think this idea came out after I watched The Butterfly Effect. Small changes creating big effects in some way. Like Jaune's insecure mind and guilt popping out in the wrong time.

I hope I'm still keeping him as insecure and awkward as possible. Team JNPR doesn't appear that much until 3 and 4, so I'm winging it on them in some way.

Some parts will have canon, some will change. And I know it's the first chapter and all, I had to make this omake after I reread the pages for grammar. It was too good to pass up.

Jaune's past answers to Oobleck's Pop Quiz:

1. Where did the faunus-human war take place? A: In a battlefield

2. What was the reason for General Lagune's defeat? A: Stupidity

3. Complete this phrase: Those who fail to learn from history _. A: Fail this class.

4. Why do faunus face discrimination? A: Because they're brave not to run from it.

Bonus: How do you think discrimination came about? A: From discriminators.

Comments:

1. Correct in a way, but be more specific Mr. Arc.

2. Technically not wrong, but should have been worded better.

3. This falls both in you and Mr. Winchester's case Mr. Arc.

4. I'm glad you view faunus as so, but pay attention in class.

Bonus: See me after class Mr. Arc.

Jaune's past answers to Port's Pop quiz:

1. Tell me a well-proven way to kill an Ursa. A: Hit it 'til it dies.

2. How does one survive in the badlands? A: Get good.

3. Name a good contingency plan to insubordination. A: Boot to the head.

4. This Grimm has been known to have surveillance abilities. A: Squishy.

Comments:

1. I can let this pass since it technically is a proven way.

2. I have no response to this.

3. New, but I'll give this a point for originality.

4. Mr. Arc, I know it looks cute but it shouldn't be named such.

AN: I'll admit, I've used a few of these too in quizzes that didn't really matter. I'm a fan of history, but I just hate how textbooks write it sometimes. Some give both viewpoints while others just put in the winning or losing side's perspective.