Jaune doesn't think too much about being called to the headmaster's office during leadership class. He thinks it's embarrassing when Cardin snickers at him from across the big tactical board they're all using, and he thinks Ruby is a better friend than he deserves when she flicks one of the soldier pieces on said board at Cardin with a sniper's precision. Jaune exits and follows Goodwitch to the top of Beacon Tower in nervous quiet, fretting about his upcoming midterms and his current test scores and his struggling performance in the fighting ring and whether or not Goodwitch knows about that one thing JNPR did in the common area…

He doesn't even consider his parents are waiting for him at the top of the tower, sitting across Ozpin in his desk. Jaune's stomach bottoms out when they turn in their chairs to the sound of the elevator. His every sense centers on the stack of falsified transcripts in his mother's hands — on the boots and helmet and guards of his great grandfather's armor that he hadn't taken with him when he'd stolen Crocea Mors from his father's study.

"Jaune!" Mrs. Arc rushes over to hug her son. "Are you hurt?" she asks over and over again. "Are you hurt, have you hurt yourself?"

Jaune finds his face buried in her blonde hair, muttering that he's fine, he's fine, mom. His focus is on his father's fuming expression as the man turns back to Ozpin and demands to know how the headmaster of such a prestigious school couldn't spot bootleg transcripts and didn't question his son's clear lack of hunting talent. As his mother fixes his hair and inspects him for any kind of physical or psychological trauma, Jaune hears Ozpin's ever-calm voice through a haze.

"I was unaware that the transcripts were fake," he says, something in the lilt of his voice when he says 'unaware' betraying a secret truth only meant for Jaune to catch. "Regardless," he says, "Jaune has readily improved in his one semester to the point where he has earned his place in Beacon."

Goodwitch stands beside Ozpin and tilts her head like she's going to disagree, but she doesn't say a word. Jaune stares at them both, wrapped embarrassingly in the arms of his distraught mother, and thinks he might be in shock because he's started to hear and see things. Like Ozpin and Goodwitch defending his stay at Beacon.

His father pays little mind to Ozpin's vote of confidence. "My son is seventeen, Mr. Ozpin," he says gruffly. "He is still a member of my household, and if I say Jaune isn't hunter material, then he is not. He's only going to get himself hurt trying to catch up on all the years of training the others in his class must have. Frankly, it's miracle enough he lasted a whole semester with all his limbs in one piece before the scam was up." Mr. Arc turns from Ozpin to stare harshly at his wilting son. "Jaune is packing up his stuff and coming home. Today."

Jaune's blood goes cold.

"The semester is almost over, Mr. Arc," Goodwitch says, checking her scroll to confirm. "One more week of exams, then Jaune can head home for break and you all can discuss this before the upcoming term."

"I will not reward my son for stealing from and lying to his family," Mr. Arc says firmly.

Still petting Jaune's hair, Mrs. Arc says, "Hunting is dangerous for those who train their whole lives to do it. Jaune barely has half a year's worth of training."

Ozpin folds his hands. "That's hardly fair to Jaune's teammates."

The mention of Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren snaps Jaune out of his panic-induced shock. "Mom… Dad… I can't go home. My team—"

"Your school has an abundance of hunters," Mr. Arc interrupts. "Your team leader will be able to find a replacement without much trouble."

Jaune winces at Ozpin's correction that, "Jaune is his team's leader," because that makes both his parents stare at him like he's some species of Grimm they've never seen before. Then those looks turn on Ozpin like the man is a complete idiot for arranging such a thing.

"Mr. and Mrs. Arc," Ozpin intones. "Perhaps you should see your son fight."

Both his parents jump on Ozpin for such a suggestion, and Jaune is secretly grateful that they won't let him try. Because he already knows that with everything on the line — his friends, his training, a future he cheated his way into — he'll fall apart. Like he always does. Unbidden, his mind starts to wander to his classmates, thinking who could take his place in JNPR and imagining every single person as a better candidate than himself. His teammates deserve a hunter who actually qualifies to stand beside them.

"Jaune," Goodwitch says abruptly and it brings Jaune back into this strange moment where both his parents are so very disappointed in him, and for reasons he can't even begin to understand, neither of his professors are. "Do you want to go back home?"

Jaune starts to shake his head a moment too late. His father is already talking.

"Whether he wants to stay or go is inconsequential," Mr. Arc says and rises from his seat. "A real hunter stands by the consequences of his actions. Jaune," his father's glare could be its own Semblance, "we're going home."

"I'm sorry, Jaune," his mother says, stroking his face and hair. "We don't want you to get hurt. You're our only son. You're my baby boy. What if something were to happen to you?"

Staring at his feet, Jaune can't bear to look any of them in the face. He feels like he's been thrown off a cliff again, except this time, there is no one who can save him from his father's stubbornness and his mother's compassion. If nothing convinced them of his potential in the sixteen years he spent under their roof, not even Ozpin and Goodwitch were going to change their minds now. If only Jaune inherited their conviction.

"Can I… Can I say goodbye to my friends?" he asks the floor.

His father grunts and collects the pieces of armor he'd displayed on Ozpin's desk. His mother kisses his forehead. Ozpin and Goodwitch ease back into their positions and Jaune swears there is disappointment in them now that wasn't there before.

Team RWBY takes the news poorly. Weiss asks him if it's an issue of money, with just the slightest hint of an offer in her voice. Yang grabs Ember Celica and cracks her knuckles and asks in complete seriousness who she needs to punch. ("Is it Cardin? I will punch him to the moon .") Blake hugs her arms and tells him she's sorry, glancing over her shoulder as if she's expecting her own parents to sweep in and take her away. Ruby throws herself on the floor and wraps her arms around Jaune's right leg as he tosses clothes into his suitcase.

"You can't go," Ruby begs into Jaune's knee. "We have our leadership trails in two days and we were going to get ice cream with everyone afterwards when we passed."

Jaune doesn't say a word. Doesn't trust his own stupid mouth not to get him in any more trouble. Goodwitch is watching him from the hallway with her arms crossed and head bowed. She explained everything to RWBY because Jaune was fully convinced he was deathstalker-venom hallucinating or having a lucid nightmare.

Nora and Ren arrive back at the dorm, panting from their run. They got Jaune's text while sparring in the gym. Ren stays at the door to catch his breath but Nora throws herself on the floor, latching onto Jaune's other leg with little-to-no-preamble.

"They can't take you away," Nora declares, and Ruby nodes fervently in agreement. "What's going to happen to Team JNPR? We'll be Team NPR! No! Worse! We'll be Team PRN! Prune, Jaune! You can't let them do that us! We need you!"

"They'll assign you a better hunter," Jaune says under her breath. It's the first and only thing he's said since returning.

"We don't want a better hunter," Ren says from the door, and if Jaune didn't know any better, he'd say Ren was angry . "We want you ."

Nora proceeds to have a full-on, honest-to-goodness panic attack while wrapped around Jaune's leg. Ren has to pull her off and calm her. Weiss tugs Ruby off and pulls her over to where the rest of her team are sitting on Nora's bed. The six of them watch Jaune pack and throw around desperate suggestions as he collects the last of his things, clamping his jaw down because his lip is already trembling and if he starts crying now he'll really never forgive himself.

No one's been able to get ahold of Pyrrha.

Jaune clicks his suitcase shut, leaving his Beacon uniform where it hangs in his closet, and Goodwitch murmurs, "Time to go."

"But Pyrrha isn't back," Weiss says.

Ruby frantically types on her scroll. "She's not responding to any of our messages."

"Her scroll's probably dead," Blake says solemnly.

Goodwitch shows them all the time on her own scroll. "I'm sorry, but Jaune's parents are waiting. The shuttle leaves in five minutes."

"I can't…" Jaune stops to swallow. His voice sounds like a stranger's. "I can't go without saying goodbye."

Under Goodwitch's Semblance, his suitcase floats to the door. "Tell her you're on your way to the airship docks."

Jaune nods numbly and looks up at the six faces staring at him. All of them pleading, begging him not to go, wanting him to fight against the dying of his dream.

"I'll be okay," he says, and he thinks he means it. "You'll all be okay too. Better, probably."

Ren reaches for his arm. "Jaune…"

"I'll call," he says quickly, because his voice catches on the tiny second word and then he's all but running out after Goodwitch.

His parents are waiting at the airship with Ozpin. They're talking — arguing by the look on his father's face — with Beacon's headmaster. Mr. Arc stops at the sight of Jaune, but not without throwing Ozpin a challenging stare over his shoulder. Goodwitch goes to load Jaune's bag but Ozpin puts a hand on his shoulder as he passes.

"No one can tell another person what they should or shouldn't want," he says solemnly, his voice almost lost as the airship engine turns on. "But in case what you want is to become a hunter..." Ozpin's eyes flash to sympathy as he presses a piece of paper into Jaune's hand. Jaune fists his hand around it and nods without looking at it. Ozpin makes a sound at the back of his throat and steps back as Glynda exits the airship and comes to his side.

"Jaune!" his father shouts. "Get onboard."

Jaune shoves Ozpin's paper in his pocket and looks back out at the school. He can see the light on in JNPR's dorm and the glow from the cafeteria as the sun starts to set in the distance. His feet won't move.

"Sweetie," his mother calls. "Please, we have to get going."

Without consulting his heart, Jaune's feet take him into the airship and sit him down beside his mother. He leans his head against the wall and shuts his eyes as the captain orders take-off.

The ship doesn't move. Over the roar of engines, the co-pilot shouts to the pilot.

"Can't takeoff with the access door open," he says. "And it's...not shutting. Something must be jammed or—"

Jaune feels it then. He doesn't know how or why but he knows why the door isn't shutting and he looks back out the window at an all too familiar ribbon of red hair sprinting towards the airship. He jumps out of his seat and bolts for the door.

He father grabs him, demanding, "Where do you think you're going?"

"Please," he begs, trying to see around his dad and out the door. "Let me say goodbye. I already agreed to go home. She's my partner, please let me say goodbye."

His mother calls his name soothingly but Jaune pulls out of his father's grip as his father warns that he has exactly one minute.

Jaune runs like he's never run in his life. The second he's off the airship, the black fuzz of Pyrrha's Semblance disappears and the door jerks closed, only to slowly reopen at the pilot's command. Jaune doesn't care. He doesn't care about anything except that Pyrrha's in running clothes so she must have been jogging and her scroll must have been dead and he was going to get the chance to say goodbye and…

Pyrrha does the strangest thing.

She grabs him by the arm and uses his momentum against him so that he's suddenly on the other side of her, closest to the school, and she's closest to the airship. He stumbles at the move, and now that he's close enough, he can't see a single wrinkle of sorrow on her face. Every line is determination.

"Jaune, go back to the dorm," she says firmly.

He stands there like a scarecrow as she doesn't wait for his answer and keeps running towards the airship. Belatedly, Jaune runs after her.

"Pyrrha," he calls, "what are you—?"

She holds him in place with her Semblance, locking his chest plate into that precise longitude and latitude of the earth. "I'm going to talk to you parents, go back to our room."

"You… You can't," Jaune struggles to say, fighting the pull of her Semblance. She's really making it hard to breathe for him, in more ways than one. "Pyrrha… Everyone's tried. Ozpin and—"

Pyrrha shakes her head, looking back at the airship. "They haven't talked to me," she says and turns back to march into the ship.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune unhooks his chestplate and wiggles out of it quick enough to reach her before she boards. "Look, it's no use. I just… I wanted to say goodbye."

She shakes her head again, like she doesn't believe him. "No. You're staying."

Jaune looks into her eyes, into a conviction he wishes he only had a fraction of, and that somehow makes him sadder. "I'm sorry," he murmurs.

With another head shake, she turns to board the airship and Jaune has to grab her by the wrist to stop her.

"You're staying," she repeats, but it's shakier now. "You're staying because you're my partner. I'm Pyrrha Nikos, and you're my partner , and they're going to listen to me."

The way she says her name, like it means something, like it's this title to throw around, for a second makes Jaune think she's been replaced by a clone. But then she turns to face him again and there are tears in her eyes and he realizes, with a terrible sinking feeling, that she'd throw around her fame and despised celebrity if she thought it would mean something to his parents. If she thought it would let him stay. Jaune doesn't know what to say.

"It just… It wasn't meant to be, Pyr," he says, the words coming out, like everything else, on autopilot. He realizes he's still holding her by the wrist and he pulls her gently further away from the airship. "They'll… They'll get you a better partner. Someone you won't have to save out of trees or train with until sunrise just so he's good enough for swordplay 101."

His father calls for him from the airship and Jaune walks around so now he's closes to the ship, in case Pyrrha keeps insisting.

"We can train more," she says, voice solidifying. "I can train with you more. You're already so much better, they'll see—"

"There's nothing you could have done," Jaune says. "They found out about the transcripts. They found out I stole Crocea Mors. They… A real hunter stands by the consequences of his actions," he repeats sadly.

Pyrrha just stares at him. He knows she's running every scenario through her mind, and the thought occurs to him that she's going to make a great leader for what's left of their little family.

He does something stupid and yanks Pyrrha into a hug. It's awkward, and he's clutching her to his chest with enough strength that it probably hurt. Pyrrha wasn't a hugger, and anytime one of them did hug her, the metal in the room did a weird shake. It was like she forgot hugging was a skill-set she had. Now, it only takes her a moment to wrap her arms around Jaune and hug back hard enough to hurt him .

"I'm going to send you training videos," she half-sobs into his shoulder. "Every day. You do not stop training, not for the end of the world, okay?"

"Okay," he answers, nodding into her hair and letting it hide the tears that are falling down his face.

"And you visit," she declares, her nails digging into his back through the fabric of the hoodie. "And you text me. And Ren and Nora. And you… Don't forget how much I—"

" Jaune!" his father shouts, appearing in the door to the airship. "We are leaving! "

He pulls back from Pyrrha and hurriedly wipes his eyes. "I'll be okay. We'll… You'll be okay too. Take care, yeah?"

Pyrrha struggles with something in her throat but then Glynda steps up and hands Jaune back his chest plate. She pulls Pyrrha back from the airship to stand beside her and Ozpin.

"Goodbye," he says, and gets back onboard. The airship takes off this time without any interference. And by the time Jaune sits back down beside his mother, it's already heading in the direction of his home, away from the only thing he'd ever tried to fight for.

Authors Note: I feel like Flynn Rider in the opening of Tangled. "This is the story of how Jaune Arc got kicked out of Beacon and had all his hopes and dreams crushed. But don't worry! This is actually a really fun and fluffy story! I promise!" After all, when you hit rock bottom, there's only one way to go.

Originally written for the RWBY Big Bang on Tumblr, but I wasn't going to finish it for the deadline so I decided to post it as its own separate thing. Thanks to Maddie and Wabbit for their comments, corrections, and motivation. Originally posted on AO3 on 3/25/17