White Sheep

Chapter 12 - Counting Sheep

Here we are, once again, I took a rare day off from work for this, which feels odd since I'm just working at home, but hey – it all works out.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 12 – Counting Sheep

Damage control was something he knew about. Uncle Watts talked about it all the time, and even gave him lessons on it. Big Sis often mentioned it in terms of what she had to do when mom and dad had an argument, quickly followed by something called make-up time, or as Cinder put it, 'elsewhere time'. Either way, between his lessons with his Uncle, and all the different examples of how it needed to be applied whenever Uncle Tyrian did... anything, Jaune always assumed he'd be pretty good at the whole thing. It was just a case of drawing attention away from what you didn't want them to see.

It was simple.

"This isn't simple!"

It was just a case of making it work.

"This isn't working!"

"I know! I'm trying!" Jaune thought back, more panicked than anything else. On the outside, he remained calm, even as he was sat in what was a rather crowded Team RYBN dorm room. Their hosts were arrayed on their beds, with the rest of them scattered about the room, some on seats, others sharing beds, and Jaune crossed legged on the floor.

The flowers he'd bought Yang were behind him, and they still smelled nice. It was weird how the vase had changed, however. Now, it stuck out from an emptied grenade canister, possibly from Nora's weapon. Maybe it was that avant-garde thing Yang had mentioned? No, that wasn't quite as important as the disaster unfolding before him. He had to try again, some desperate attempt to contain this before it spiralled out of control.

"I think you're overreacting," he said. "It's not like anything actually happened, and certainly nothing bad. I say we just move on with life and let bygones be bygones."

There, a reasonable and well-thought out point, backed up with the clear evidence of no harm between any of them. There really was no reason to be so paranoid. At least, he thought so... but why was everyone staring at him as though he were insane?

"Arc," Weiss sighed. "You were kidnapped by a Beowolf. Literally carried away for goodness knows what, while we had to fight some great tentacle monster across the forest. I think this warrants a little concern."

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "Even if you're badass enough to not care when a Beowolf takes you away without your weapons, some of us aren't."

"Yang is right, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "We could have... you could have been lost to us. This isn't something we can take lightly."

"But it didn't," he protested, "I would have been fine, guys. It wasn't anything to worry about."

"Jaune." It was just the one word that Ruby spoke, but it was enough to draw his attention. That proved a mistake, for her silver eyes narrowed and stared into his. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't help but squirm, while inside, Remy had no such resistence and writhed uncomfortably.

He broke contact with those silver orbs, staring down at the floor as he fought for breath.

Ruby remained ignorant of the effect she had on him, and padded over to sit down beside him. She poked his arm and glowered. "Stop trying to make us not do this," she said. "We were worried about you... it hurt to have you missing like that. I – we – thought you would have died."