Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Jaune hadn't made much of his wife when he first met her. The swordsman was more focused on embodying the huntsman in training that should be there, that did not cheat, that did not leave his family behind without word. First impressions were everything, and he could see her in a crater of her own doing, covered in dust soot and a snow white princess looming over her. There was not much more to do than help her up, giving her a once over to complete his first impression. It improved drastically once he got past the sulfur smell, and the face marred with various dust colors. She was undeniably the cutest woman he had met in his whole life. At the time, and until the present. Jaune could guess that it would be for the rest of his life. 

Her hair was tinged with red, as was the rest of her outfit. A combat styled uniform with the skirt to boot, something she would later insist was specifically for combat which was implied in the name. If he had looked closer at the time, Jaune would probably have noticed the weapon oil stains on it from the subconscious wiping of hands, and the chocolate stains on her top from her favorite cookies. He would have noticed the scar running along the hand he grasped to help her up, an aged wound from her sister and her battling it out at outrageous speeds. Two sisters attempting to knock each other off inflatable tubes on the lake. 

Nonetheless, he was more focused on her face, the overbearing brightness it brought to his world even from an initial glance. And throughout the day, the constancy that it was plastered there. Jaune knew now, that the smiles, the unending positivity, and every insistence on selflessness were etched into her soul. He now knew it too well, but how could he fault her for it, it was why he had fallen in love with her in the first place. 

The rest of the day he became more infatuated with the equally socially awkward friend he had made. She was obsessed with her weapon, only stopping to talk about it when something else equally fascinating was able to grab her attention. That isn't to say that she was a bad listener. In fact, she listened to most of his life story within the first day of meeting. The two hit it off, exchanging stories about their family and time leading up to the academy. It was reinforced throughout the day with small waves to each other in passing, during orientation, and in the locker room. 

Even before liftoff, at the platforms that launched them dozens of feet in the air, Jaune was able to give a goodbye wave to his first real friend he had made that wasn't a sister of his. Within minutes he was able to see the reason she was considered a prodigy. While he struggled to keep his makeshift team together, feeling like he was playing to games of ping pong, a paddle in each hand, his wife flourished in the battlefield. Jaune ran the decision making process on his gut feeling, fueled by stories of hunts from his father and grandfather. His wife on the other hand knew what to do intuitively, she had the momentum in her favor at all times, even when the situation tried to tell her otherwise. 

When the pair discussed their plan on their leadership mentality and what their intent would be for their squad, Jaune noticed the differences immediately. He would do his best to study on the off time, and stick to regulation, what they couldn't argue was systematically wrong. Because if he didn't have experience, or even book smart, he mine as well fall back on the book when he was gaining the experience. She planned to dedicate herself to what he would eventually dub "talent management". Every team member would become her best friend, and from knowing them inside and out she would be able emplace them to gain the most effectiveness they could produce. 

There was no question he was interested in her at that point. He had an inkling of something in the back of his mind the first couple weeks of knowing her. Their daily leader meetings solidified that. The initial excuse for the meetings were justified, something to compare notes after class, help each other stay away from becoming tunnel visioned. Within the coming weeks, after their first real interactions with each other, the first problem sets solved in class and outside the academy, he knew the interest was becoming more complicated. 

The meetings were held anywhere, at the food hall for dinner, in the library secluded away from their rowdy teammates boardgames, sometimes on each other's bed producing products they would share with their teams. The pair shared the responsibilities of the meeting. His wife would bring the snacks, usually something sugary, sweets or dessert of any kind, while he would bring the food and drinks. Jaune's years of living with several sisters gave him an above average cooking skill, and their hall's community kitchen was only ever utilized for hot pockets and the occasional brownies made by his wife to celebrate a successful test or event. 

Jaune became complacent in those first months, his wife quickly became his best friend. And he never thought past that, how could he, they were too sociably awkward to consider each other anything but. No matter how much her sister would wink when they sat with their shoulders touching or Nora, the hypocrite, would imply what should exist between them. It would take longer than he wished, longer now that Jaune had the hindsight to look back, to become what they were always leaning toward. The first push came not in the stress of battle, the couple back to back, nor was it some emotionally driven serenade. In fact, it was when she was gone. The first mission she went on, an exception made by the headmaster because of her commendable actions, that was when he knew something was different. 

He couldn't stop thinking about her, and he was certainly not dense enough to not realize what the thoughts were leaning toward. And when they were back, and the two celebrated at a restaurant in Vacuo, her in a dress he had seen at their dance, and him in a semi-professional button up. Because apparently even a few months of bulking as a growing teenager made suits unable to wear. She was in flats at her insistence, and he could have cared less if she was in heels. More taken with her dress and the way it accentuated her cuteness. 

Seeing the always cute persona become a beautiful woman in front of his eyes, it was the moment he knew that his next years at the academy would be primarily focused on wooing his wife. Of course at the time, he didn't know he would be successful, but he knew at the time that he would give it the most effort he had given anything in his life.

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Their first date came after a complete failure on his part several times to set up a time to ask. Picture perfect sunsets, limited time parts for gifts, and even a Valentine's gift fell flat with his astounding failures that resulted in his wife staying oblivious to his efforts. She would later inform him that they were extremely successful in flustering her, but her low self esteem convinced herself it was just something a best friend would do. 

He continued for awhile trying to win over her favor, doing his best to keep Weiss at a far to avoid her ire. Even he had realized that she wasn't fond of his multi-facetted flirts with the other huntresses. So he doubled down on his efforts, bribing with home-made chocolate chip cookies from the dorm kitchens and purposely bringing her on errands that were just the two of them. All that mattered was he could stall until the moment was right, something that spelt them and there was no room for error. 

It took a good month of "natural" attempts for Jaune to give up and accept that he had to be hardheaded. He would ask his best friend out. He would succeed in telling her his feelings. And he would give her everything and more.

The real chance was purely out of frustration, taking place during a weekend while the Vytal festival was warming up, the two were in another leaders meeting. This time in Jaune's room, he sat on the single bed, his wife pressed against him in the remaining space on the mattress. The notes from the last week of the tournament sat in their possession, new scribbles adorned the tablets, but all he could focus on was how much he wanted to constrain all his focus to her. To dedicate his efforts to assisting her in achieving everything she wanted, because he knew that it would create a world free of grimm, and he couldn't do it himself. Jaune knew, looking at her and analyzing her, it would be only his wife that could make something happen. 

Blame the rose-colored glasses of a teenager, but he blurted out an invitation to a date while his mind flooded with aspirations to assist in her climb to greatness. 

“Would you go out with me?” He had said, inches away from her face next to him.

His wife had looked surprised, but it quickly turned into a smile adjoined with a blush, “I’d love to. When?”

She told him later, years after they were married, and cozied up to each other in bed for the night that her cool response was completely a farce. Her internal thoughts were a mess and she had taken every ounce of her willpower to not break down in nervousness. He was flattered then and in the past from how highly she thought of them, he was always humbled by how much love she was able to show him. 

They had decided on a weapon smith's shop that weekend's afternoon, with a dash of a movie and video games back in their rooms. "We can always go to a fancy restaurant, and I can do this the right way." He had said in the middle of their discussion. 

"I think we both know that the plan is a better date than the restaurant. We weren't a hoity toity pair before this, why would we start?" She had replied, and he added it to the growing list of why he would never let her go. 

"Just trying to keep the standard high, I know how high maintenance you are." He teased, knowing the only thing she was high maintenance about were her weapons.

It was perfect for the two of them. The date was everything they usually did, nothing they hadn't already done, yet the air held a pinch of promise for the future. For once, something in their short time as leaders, hunters in training, and students, there was a taste of what could come after their hard work. Something to support each other in decompressing after missions and a new goal to work toward; their future together. 

Maybe Jaune was a hopeless romantic on the first date, but it stuck with him in the years after. The feeling that had come with every date and moment spent with his girlfriend, then fiancé, and finally wife. His initial expectation of keeping to the job, becoming something that his family would be proud of for making up from what his first impressions of running away with his faked transcripts were overridden. It became a primary goal to become something his wife could brag about, to be proud of being associated with. All of his waking hours became training with her and his teammates to continue to strive for the goal.

For years next to her he never felt like he reached it.

She was too perfect, an unobtainable standard that he would never reach. But would always protect. It wasn't some strenuous realization, it was their third or fourth official date, just a couple months into their relationship. An important test had occurred, his wife and him had been under special scrutiny with the positions they held in their respective teams. She had tiredly drug him to his room, the rest of their teams out for the night celebrating. 

Snuggled into the covers they watched a movie he forgot about the next day. As they snacked, Jaune with his candy and his wife with her chocolate chip cookies, it was then the realization came. He leaned closer to her, his breath nudging her red tinged hair away from her ear. Brushing off the crumbs off her dimples, his mouth spoke before his brain could catch up. 

"I love you."

Her dimples deepened as a smile graced her face, the full breadth of it came into Jaune's vision when she had turned to face him. Their lips pressed together and he felt the vibrations from her speech in his lips as she responded.

"I love you too."

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Hiccups were always going to be a possibility in their relationship. Yet, it wasn't hiccups that were prevalent at all, but every once in awhile the fault lines opened up. The first major occurrence happened with Pyrrha's death and the disagreement on how to proceed.

His teammate was dead, an unknown force snuffing the bright light she shone on the academy. There would be swift and precise revenge, a show of force wouldn't suffice, only pure decimation of the enemy that was at large. Then, only then, could he mourn for his peer that no longer walked Remnant.

Her friend was gone, she had been too late in attempting to save Pyrrha. Even the supernatural powers that had expended from her eyes weren't on purpose, only seemingly from high-stress of watching an arrow sink into Pyrrha's chest. The skin, bone, and muscle disintegrating cell by cell into the air would destabilize anyone. Yet, after what would result in many nights comforting his wife at their bedside, what-ifs filling her never ending list of what she could have, should have, and would do the next time, she always defaulted to one thing; could whoever have done it be saved?

Their first real argument came from this theorizing, the potential that anyone could thrive in a second chance. He stated that there was exceptions to that rule, and this enemy was one of them. His wife said, "Jaune we don't make exceptions to the rule. Amendments, sure. Exceptions are excuses for laziness and when we don't train with the rules in mind. Our reputation is built off of making sure that criminals are provided second chances. If we didn't, we wouldn't have jails, we would have slaughter houses."

Jaune had vehemently disagreed, not afraid to voice his distaste. "Intent is what defines the second chances, otherwise we would give mass murderers a rehab program and a participation certificate. Decisions here should be made off the intent of this enemy and I'd say, especially considering we have a lot of dead classmates and almost lost a sacred place of learning, that their intent was crystal clear."

Luck was the only constant the possessed at that time. Their newfound enemy had struck their home, and several teams were now going to be rearranged to compensate for their deceased team members. Nonetheless, when someone attacks an academy filled with professional hunters and huntresses with hundreds of students in training, they weren't able to get much more than some success through guerilla tactics.

Their main source of communication had went down but with decades of training and fail safes in place, the school had provided more analog alternatives. Radios with communication methods from decades past were always given, and each leader or teacher, classroom and building held the alternative. If necessary, their contingency should the alternate fail would have resulted in representatives from each class as runners to maintain command and control. And if all else was falling apart, their last ditch emergency would have been to alamo in the auditorium.

Arguing came to tears, and resulted in what they knew had to be a compromise. Because how else would they continue the fight?

Jaune's wife was the first to state her unchangeable, "If anyone we encounter shows intent that they would like to surrender, change, or discuss anything that could seem positive we give them their second chance. I won't budge on this Jaune, not even for your breakfast in bed and chocolate milk combo."

Even in the tense situation he had to chuckle, his wife had reinforced why he loved her, "Alright, my conditions are that they must be completely disarmed and immobilized before any potential discussion could continue. And if I am there, my sword will be across their throat in case any tricks arise. If I'm not, than someone else's weapon will be in a position to kill."

"Agreed." She held out her hand for the confirmation.

"Agreed." Jaune took it, pulling her closer and into his chest. His lips descended onto hers, a more heartfelt confirmation occurred. Their interpersonal disagreements melted away with their wandering hands massaging the worries away.

They would get through the cracks the fault lines drew, and they would do it together. It would start with weeks of planning, reconnaissance, and meticulous execution of missions. But slowly, over time, they would find her killer.

And they did.

Eventually, they found her. Cinder Fall, a true villain that only dirtied their hands when necessary. Or the greed got to them. Their first encounter came toward the end of Jaune's first year at Beacon. A joint mission between his wife and his team, their fourth a classmate by the name of Abigail Jackson that had transferred from Vale, their team wiped out from a White Fang encounter on a mission gone wrong.

Somehow, a one versus eight battle became a setup to keep their teams alive and make it out of the trap alive. They ended up surviving, with everything intact but their pride. From then on, their two primary focuses became training and finding Cinder once again.

Jaune would never really get over the death of his partner, and time was the only thing that ever fostered a team environment between the four of them. Eventually, as the second semester of their first year came to a close, their constant training and missions on the weekend for extra credit created a team atmosphere that was comfortable.

Their summer was a mental and physical break well deserved, the first month spent finding their own ways to decompress. The second month Jaune went to visit his wife, more importantly to meet her father. A retired hunter that was secluded away alone in the forest. Her sister was there with her, and the four of them bonded over the month.

"I might have to dye my hair blonde Jaune, everyone keeps thinking I'm the odd one out when we go into town." His wife had joked.

He had ruffled her hair in response, "Well, that means I get to dye mine red so they know I'm not related right?"

His wife grinned, he had set her up too easily, "So you're saying you wouldn't want to be related to me? What a shame, I was hoping for a husband out of this deal at some point."

"Right," Jaune laughed, "I just thought that you fit better with Arc as your last name."

"Oh is that a proposal? You know there's a process for this, a candy ring would be cute but won't do even for me." She joked, smiling that smile that he couldn't help but kiss. And maybe another kiss for good luck.

"Don't worry Crater Face," He grasped her hands in his own, "You'll know when I'm proposing."