{THIRD PERSON POV}
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{2 MONTHS TIME SKIP}
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"Jaune! I need some help over here!" one of Mr. Rock's friends—an employee, sailor, or someone who worked on Mr. Rock's ship—called out to Jaune as he picked up some boxes. Jaune didn't know their exact job titles because Mr. Rock had never told him what their roles were on the ship.
Mr. Rock had introduced them to Jaune a long time ago as friends who worked on his ship. All Jaune knew was that Mr. Rock was the ship's captain.
"I'll be there, Mr. Andrew!" Jaune quickly set down some of the boxes he was carrying. They weren't big or heavy, but he had to hide his Aura-enhanced strength and act as if he was struggling. Fortunately, he had a lot of practice acting weak because of his family. He placed them on the deck.
Jaune then quickly got off the ship's deck by walking down the ramp before grabbing a couple of boxes stacked on each other.
"You guys got a good haul this time, Mr. Andrew! Who even buys this much stuff to Vacuo anyway? Is it a merchant? I thought your usual supply line to Vacuo wasn't this much. It's usually a lot less."
Andrew shook his head as he walked up beside Jaune and carried his own share of boxes.
"Nah, kid. It's just supplies, that's all. There was a sandstorm or something a month ago, so our government thought it would be good to strengthen our relationship with Vacuo by sending them a bunch of supplies." Andrew hummed. "Not that I'm complaining. Our government paid us a butt load of money just to transfer this stuff, and considering it also helped with the normal economy, that's good too."
"Something hit Vacuo? I didn't know that. Hopefully everyone there is fine. I'll be there in a few days if everything goes well tonight... hopefully..." Jaune thought to himself, and he wasn't wrong. At the latest, he would arrive in Vacuo in a few days considering that they were using a huge ship and not a Bullhead.
He also didn't exactly know where the ship was going to dock in Vacuo, but from what he had gathered—more accurately, eavesdropped—from Mr. Rock's conversation with his sailors, it would be close to the academy.
Which was good. The closer the ship docked to the academy, the better it would be for Jaune, because he didn't have enough money to travel to the academy if they docked on the other side of Vacuo.
They reached the deck, and both Andrew and Jaune set the boxes down on the deck floor.
Andrew clapped his hands and looked at Jaune. "Well, kid, why don't you go back home and rest? You've been helping us the entire day. I don't want Rock to scold me for taking advantage of your kindness."
"It's alright, Mr. Andrew! It's just a few more boxes left!" Jaune motioned to the dock, where only a couple more boxes still hadn't been carried to the ship. The other sailors were busy preparing the ship for their journey tomorrow morning, so the duty of carrying the last batch of boxes fell onto Andrew and his friends. Sadly, one of his friends had sprained his ankle because he slipped on the ramp. Fortunately, Jaune was there to help get the boxes inside.
Andrew felt bad for having a 12-year-old help with the boxes, which was why he made sure Jaune only carried the ones that weren't very heavy. That ended up being most of what they both carried, since the heavy crates had already been loaded into the ship yesterday by forklift.
"If you say so, kid... why don't you carry those boxes here while I go put these boxes down in storage?" Andrew offered.
Jaune shook his head, because he had made a small enough space in the ship's storage by arranging the crates and boxes in a particular way, but it still wasn't complete. He only needed a couple more boxes to hide the space by making it act as a makeshift door.
"No worries, Mr. Andrew! I'll put the boxes in storage, and you can carry the boxes here! You're going to sail away, right? I don't want you to get too tired. If I'm tired, I'll tell you!" Jaune hoped he managed to convince Andrew, because if he didn't, it was game over. Andrew would find Jaune's little hiding place.
After a few tense seconds—for Jaune, at least—Andrew let out a sigh and nodded. "Okay, kid... but don't tell Rock about this. I don't want him to beat me up. That man has more muscle than brain sometimes." He shook his head and went down the ramp to carry the boxes.
Jaune managed to stop himself from punching the air in victory by picking up a stack of boxes and carefully heading inside the ship and into the storage space.
It took him a while to navigate through the crates and boxes before he reached his hiding place.
He had basically made a 1.5 meter by 1.5 meter room by arranging the crates just enough not to arouse suspicion. All he needed to do was stack boxes at the entrance, and that would be it. The entrance wasn't that big anyway, and he needed to turn sideways and slip into the crack.
Was it the best place to hide? No. Could he sleep comfortably? No. He would need to curl into a ball to sleep, and even then it would be a tight fit considering he was going to bring his bag for supplies and his weapons.
He had found out that his dad had stored Grandpa's old sword, "Crocea Mors," along with its shield, in the attic. The shield was a mecha-shift weapon, and it could definitely be considered a weapon, because you could bash a Grimm's skull with it. Jaune had found it in the attic, and he planned to sneak in late at night and grab it. He could only hope everything would turn out well. Mordred was going to help him too.
After Jaune quickly placed the boxes and stacked them in the right spot, his hiding space was completely concealed.
"Okay. Just get back up on the deck and finish putting the boxes away. After that... I'll go home. This is it..."
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{THIRD PERSON POV}
'Okay... now where the fuck is Jaune?' Mordred thought to herself as she sat in her chair while the rest of the family prepared their plates for dinner.
'Is something holding him up back at the docks? Shit—did Rock or his crew find out about Jaune's little hidey hole? Shit.' Mordred was in full panic mode, because if Jaune got caught, it was over for him.
"Mordred..."
'Do I need to go to the docks and get Jaune? If I go there fast enough, I could snatch Jaune away and we can hide at our spot for a couple of days before I bring him on a runaway trip to Vacuo myself. It would be a fuckton harder, especially if there's a manhunt for us, but I don't fucking care. I'll get Jaune to Vacuo myself. He doesn't fucking need Rock's ship to get there.' Mordred started thinking through how she would get Jaune to Vacuo, because there was no way in hell she would let Jaune's dream of becoming a Huntsman stop just because he got caught by a group of sailors.
"Mordred..." a voice called out again, but she was too deep in her planning to hear it.
'If we go by land, it would take a long while. I don't exactly have a map, and I don't have the map memorized, but Jaune probably already has a plan for it either way. Maybe it would take us almost a month if we include the time we'd get lost, because fuck me, we would certainly get lost.' She nodded to herself.
'Mordred...' The voice let out a sigh. 'She's doing it again, isn't she?'
'Yeah, she's doing it again... but I didn't know she could do it without Jaune here. That's new,' another voice chimed in.
'And if we go by foot, a Bullhead would be best, but shit... how the fuck are we supposed to steal a Bullhead? Not that I won't, because please—the great Mordred Arc could steal any Bullhead she pleases. A Bullhead would be easy to track, though, and I don't fucking know.' Mordred put a fist under her chin and rested her head there. 'Driving a Bullhead isn't that hard anyway. You just grab the wheel and fly it like in video games, but I think it would be best if I leave that up to Jaune. He'd probably learn faster than me.'
"Here. Let me get her attention," someone said, and then a hand reached out and grabbed Mordred's shoulder.
Mordred snapped out of her thoughts, slapped the hand away, and activated her Semblance on instinct because she thought she was being attacked.
When she looked up to see who it was, it turned out to be Miles.
"Don't fucking touch me," Mordred glared at her father before deactivating her Semblance.
"Sorry, but the others were trying to get your attention, and you weren't answering them," Miles explained, which made her raise her eyebrows in surprise.
"Really?" she thought to herself, because she was sure that if someone called out to her, she would have noticed.
"Well, who was it anyway?" Mordred asked as she looked around the table, and then she stopped when Saphron coughed into her fist.
"Well, I was the one calling you, Mordred, but you were stuck in your head." Saphron let out a soft chuckle. "You're usually only like that when Jaune is around, so what were you thinking about?"
'Shit. No way I'm like that,' Mordred thought to herself, but she didn't plan to say it out loud because she knew her sisters would use it as ammunition to tease her.
Mordred leaned back in her seat and tried to relax. "So what do you want?" she asked Saphron.
"Well, I wanted to ask if you know where Jaune is," Saphron told her, which made Mordred look at Saphron strangely.
"And how the fuck would I know where he is?" Mordred frowned. "Do I look like I would always know where the fuck he is?"
"Yeah," Saphron answered.
Jeanne chimed in before Mordred could reply. "Well... you are always with him..."
"Yeah! You and Jaune are like twins, like me and Blancheur! Isn't that right, Blancheur?" Noir nudged Blancheur with her elbow, and Blancheur nodded in agreement.
"You know, Mordred... sometimes I feel like you're more like Jaune's mother than I am, with how much you care about him." Their mother decided to chime in too, with a soft smile on her face. "So, Mordred, you do know where Jaune is, right?"
Mordred wanted to retort or deny it, but she couldn't exactly deny it when she did know where he was supposed to be. He was at the docks, and she hoped he was only late because there was more to store, rather than because he got caught.
"Well... yeah, I know where he is." Mordred let out a sigh of defeat. "Fuck off."
"So where is he, then? We're waiting for him before we can start dinner," Saphron asked again.
"He's at the docks helping Rock carry some supplies," Mordred answered. Should she have answered truthfully? They could put two and two together if Jaune went missing, but she also knew Jaune would answer honestly about being at the docks, and it wasn't like it was a secret to anyone who had seen him helping there. She decided it was safe.
"Oh, that's good, then." Saphron nodded. "He'll probably come home soon."
A few minutes passed, and Mordred once again got lost in her thoughts, which made Saphron chuckle.
"She's at it again," Jeanne told their mother.
Luna nodded. "Yeah. She must be thinking about something important, because this is unusual. Jaune's not here, and she's like this."
Noir sat up straighter with a mischievous smile on her face. "Blancheur, look at this!" She took a deep breath and shouted, "Mordred!"
To everyone's shock, Mordred stayed stuck in her thoughts, completely unbothered by Noir's shout.
Saphron couldn't help but mutter, "Damn."
After that, they talked amongst themselves for a few more minutes while waiting for Jaune to come home.
When he did, he nodded to them in greeting, sat next to Mordred as usual, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Mordred."
Mordred immediately looked at Jaune and nodded at him. "Jaune. What took you so long?"
Jaune hummed and prepared his own plate of food, since Mordred had already prepared his plate before he arrived. "Mrs. Nina needed help with the pipes, so I had to go to her house and fix them."
"What? You're a plumber now?" Mordred shook her head and let out a chuckle.
The others looked at Mordred in surprise, because Jaune had gotten her attention that easily, while Miles touching her shoulder had triggered her Semblance.
Jeanne was about to ask Jaune something, but she stopped herself because she knew it was pointless when Jaune and Mordred were already focused on each other.
Saphron put a hand on Jeanne's shoulder and gave her a soft smile. "Hey. Ask Jaune later. You know how those two are."
"Yeah... I guess so."
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{THIRD PERSON POV}
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"Okay, you already prepared all of your shit, Jaune?" Mordred asked as soon as she closed the door to his room.
"Yeah... I did..." Jaune reached under his bed and pulled out his bag, filled with clothes, emergency ration calorie bars (which Mordred bought from town with the excuse that she wanted them because she wanted to go camping), a few things here and there, personal hygiene supplies, and, most importantly, a couple months' worth of Lien that Jaune had saved up, along with some from Mordred's savings too....
Mordred stayed silent before she sat on his bed. "Jaune... I really think you should bring either my Scroll or your Scroll, just in case..."
Jaune looked at her and joined her on the bed. "Mordred... we talked about this before....."
"I know... but still, Jaune... just for emergencies..." Mordred tried to convince him further, but when she looked at Jaune's face, she sighed in defeat.
"You know why I can't.... If I bring either of our Scrolls, Dad could easily track it through his connections with Headmaster Ozpin... and even if I bring your Scroll, it would only give me, at most, five days before the others realize you're using my Scroll and Dad decides to track yours down.."
"....But... what if... what if I want to talk to you?...." Mordred asked softly, because she really did want to talk to him... she didn't want to have zero communication with him for who knows how long....
Jaune looked at her before he told her something that absolutely broke her heart into pieces.
"Mordred... just say the word, and I'll scrap my whole plan to run away to Vacuo...." Jaune looked away from her. "Just tell me to stay, and I'll stay...."
Did she want him to stay? Yes, she did. She didn't want to live without Jaune. She didn't want Jaune to leave her for fucking Vacuo of all places and not be able to see him for years.
But would she ask him to stay and destroy his dream? Fuck no. She wouldn't. She wasn't like her father. She would rather jump off a cliff than force Jaune to stay.
Her eyes started to water, but she quickly blinked her tears away and hugged Jaune. "Jaune... God, fuck, I want you to stay with me, Jaune. I want to... but I won't.... I also want you to be a Huntsman, Jaune..."
She felt Jaune begin to shake in her hold, and she held him even tighter. "So no... I won't ask you to stay... but please, Jaune... don't ever forget about me. Please!"
She then felt Jaune's arms wrap around her as he returned the hug. "I won't ever forget about you, Mordred. And when I finally get into Shade, I'll use the CCT and call you, okay?"
Mordred nodded. "Okay... I'll believe you...."
After a few moments, Mordred tightened her hold on Jaune. "Jaune... can we cuddle for a while?..... Please..."
Jaune nodded, and they lay down on the bed and started to cuddle, knowing it might be the last chance they'd get before they were separated for years to come.
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Nearly five hours after dinner, Jaune and Mordred woke up from their cuddle session.
"What time is it?" Mordred asked, which prompted Jaune to look at his bedside clock.
"It's 12:30 at night now... the others are probably asleep." Jaune told her before he got off the bed and put on his shoes.
"You're going to get Grandpa John's sword?" Mordred asked as she grabbed his bag and slung it over her shoulder.
"Yeah... I need a weapon to fight the Grimm, and we checked a week ago to confirm that Grandpa John's sword and sheath are in the attic." Jaune went to the door.
"True... true..." Mordred opened the window and perched on it. "I'll wait for you outside... you'll know where to find me."
Jaune nodded and watched Mordred jump out the window and land silently.
"Okay, Jaune... here goes nothing..." Jaune psyched himself up, then snuck out of his room into the hallway. He stopped and used low-level reinforcement on his ears and eardrums to listen closely and check if anyone was awake.
He heard the soft snoring of his siblings, and his parents too... but he also heard the sound of a pen gliding on paper, which could only mean Saphron was still awake.
That was bad... but Jaune could work with it. All he had to do was make as little noise as possible and not alert Saphron.
He looked up at the ceiling and spotted the pull cord for the attic ladder. He jumped as silently as he could and pulled it down.
Thankfully, the ladder was a simple wooden folding ladder rather than a modern metal one, which would have made too much noise at night.
Jaune climbed up as quietly as he could, then slowly and carefully pulled the ladder and ceiling door closed.
"...." Jaune stayed still and used reinforcement on his ears again to check whether Saphron noticed anything, but it looked like she was still writing, undisturbed.
"Good..." Jaune walked to a pile of boxes in the attic. He slowly pushed them aside until he reached the place where his father stored Crocea Mors in a metal case.
Jaune grabbed the case and opened it, taking the family heirloom into his hands.
Crocea Mors... the family heirloom passed down from Arc to Arc, from father to son. For generations, it had been handed from the patriarch to his heir, until Miles stopped it by refusing to accept Crocea Mors when his father offered it to him. Miles's reasoning was that Crocea Mors wasn't suited for him, because he was more comfortable with a greatsword rather than a bastard sword, and also because his father still used it as his main weapon.
Jaune pulled Crocea Mors out of its mecha-shift sheath and examined it. "It's.... it's perfect for my current size... but I think I'll need to upgrade the blade when I'm older..."
The blade was the usual size of a bastard sword, but in Jaune's hands it felt much longer and bigger, considering he was only twelve years old and not an adult. When he grew older, the sword wouldn't be long enough for his liking, and it would need to be upgraded to make it slightly longer than a longsword.
Jaune picked up the sheath and noticed a strap for his arm to go through. He slipped his arm through it and equipped the sheath on his forearm.
"So... how do I turn this into a shield? I know it can turn into one..." Jaune pondered to himself before he gave the sheath a sharp shake, and it unfurled into a kite shield.
"Oh... that... that's stupid... what if I accidentally shake it and it unfurls while it's on my waist?" Jaune looked at it, a little disappointed, before shaking it again and turning it back into a sheath. "It does take some force to trigger the mecha-shift sequence... but still... it's dangerous.."
Jaune then put the sheath on his waist by slipping it into his belt, and then sheathed his sword. The sheath was pretty heavy even without the sword inside, but Jaune decided to get used to the weight, because he would be using this weapon for the next few years.
"That should be good enough if I need to pull out the shield quickly... but I don't think I'll use the shield function... I've never used a shield before..." Jaune muttered to himself as he walked to the attic window and unlatched it. "Well... I guess I'll learn how to use a shield too.... It would be a waste not to know how."
He jumped out the window and landed as silently as he could, then headed toward where Mordred was waiting-behind a tree about two hundred meters down the road leading toward town.
"Took you long enough..." Mordred smirked and walked up to him. "That looks good on you..." she said, before they walked side by side toward town.
"Thank you..." Jaune offered his hand for his bag, but Mordred shook her head.
"No... let me just... carry this for you, Jaune...." She walked a little faster, forcing Jaune to catch up. "....Please..."
Jaune looked at her, then nodded. "Okay...."
The walk to town was quiet. Jaune had so many things he wanted to say, but there wasn't enough time.
Mordred stayed silent too, because she didn't know if the next word out of her mouth would turn into sobbing, and she didn't want to burden Jaune with more emotional weight.
After a few minutes of sneaking through alleys and keeping to the shadows, they finally arrived at the docks, where the ship waited.
"This is it, then, Jaune..." Mordred handed the bag to Jaune. He accepted it and put it on.
"Yeah...." Jaune looked at her and saw her close her eyes.
"The first step to becoming... a... a Huntsman..." Mordred's mouth trembled as she held herself back from crying.
"Yes....."
"And... and..." Mordred tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come, and tears began to stream down her face.
"Mordred..." Jaune called her name and hugged her as tightly as he could.
"Fuck him, Jaune.... f-f-fuck him... If he didn't stop you, you wouldn't need to do this...." Mordred cried into Jaune's shoulder as she hugged him back.
"I know...."
"Please, Jaune... take care of yourself..." She pulled him closer, as if she could hold him there through force alone.
"I will..." Jaune replied, patting her back and trying to steady her breathing.
"And... and... and, Jaune... I'll save a spot for you, okay? After I graduate, I'll work hard and rent an apartment for the two of us. Then, after you graduate, you can join me, okay? We'll be the dream team-the best duo Remnant has ever seen!" She hugged him tighter, and she could feel that Jaune had started to cry too, from the damp spot forming on her shirt.
They stayed like that for about ten minutes on the docks before they finally pulled away.
After wiping the tears from their faces, Mordred looked at Jaune and kissed his forehead. "Stay safe, okay, Jaune? And kick everyone's ass there... I expect nothing less from you."
Jaune chuckled and nodded. "I will, Mordred... I will. Did you forget that I'm the little brother of the great Mordred Arc?"
Mordred let out a quiet laugh and ruffled his hair.
A moment later, Jaune walked closer to the ship's ramp, then looked back at Mordred.
"See you later, Mordred..."
"See you later, Jaune..."
Jaune used reinforcement on his legs and jumped onto the ship's deck. When he landed, he moved to the railing and spoke loudly enough for Mordred to hear.
"I love you!"
"I love you too!" Mordred started crying again, and before Jaune couldn't handle it anymore, he quickly went inside the ship, down into the storage area, and walked until he reached his hiding spot, even as his mind replayed the image of Mordred crying.
"Jaune... this is it... this is how you'll achieve your dream..." Jaune pushed the boxes aside, took off his bag, and slid it through the entrance.
After the bag was inside, Jaune partially crawled in and slowly pulled the boxes back into place to hide the entrance. Once it was concealed, he got fully inside his hiding space and sat down, hugging his knees.
Jaune didn't know how he would survive without the presence of his family.
He didn't know if he would survive without Mordred by his side every day.
But he had to push through. He was Jaune Arc, the brother of the great Mordred Arc, and he would become a Huntsman.
No matter what.
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