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came to peace with my path (got me off track)

Summary:

Takes place sometime during that montage thingy in Volume 7.

Jaune comes up to Weiss one day in the cafeteria.

Notes:

Title from Ariana Grande's "Safety Net."

This was supposed to be a fluffy little one shot in which Weiss and Jaune conspire to set the other up with their respective couple (Bumbleby/Renora) because I wanted platonic wk content. And then Weiss said "I have internalized polyamphobia"...so sorry?

CW: above, arguing, some awkwardness

Next chapter will be the Jaune & Weiss reconciliation.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“So,” Jaune says, going up to her as she slowly eats her dinner, “what’s it like?”

“What’s what like?” Weiss answers. She doesn’t know what Jaune is asking about, but the fact that Jaune is asking her is scary. She knows he got over her (thank goodness for that) and that he was with Pyrrha, briefly, which makes her a little jealous but also she knows that Pyrrha never would have gone with Weiss. 

“Being— liking someone who’s with someone else.”

Weiss hopes it isn’t Blake or Yang. Or both of them. Who knows.

“What makes you think I’d relate to your scenario?” she answers. “I’m not…”

“I just…needed someone to talk to.”

“You’re closer with Ruby, yeah?”

Jaune nods, then shakes his head. “She doesn’t get romance.”

And yeah, that’s a fair assessment of Ruby. So she kind of understands.

“Blake and Yang are on the verge of being together, Ren and Nora are together. So I’m the only other single person here that doesn’t want to be.”

“Ren and Nora…” Jaune sighs. “I don’t know how I can help them anymore.”

“It’s one of them for you, isn’t it?” Weiss sighs. She isn’t equipped to deal with this on the other end of it.

She’s grateful that Jaune isn’t trying to ask her out in increasingly ridiculous ways — really. That was a terrible experience.

“I mean, it’s Blake or Yang for you, isn’t it?” He parrots her words back at her. It isn’t ‘or’ for Weiss, but ‘and.’ 

“Stop talking so loud, I don’t want any of them to hear. Don’t you know better?”

Jaune looks around. They’re not the only ones in the cafeteria, but they’re fairly far away. “They won’t hear.” 

“Someone else might.” But even as Weiss looks around, she can’t see anyone that’s paying enough attention to them to hear.

“And even considering if they could hear us…I want them to.”

“Them?” Weiss says. She never thought she’d meet anyone like her. Much less Jaune Arc, hopelessly devoted to Pyrrha since her death. Well, there are always people that can surprise her. “You have to face it — we’re the ones outside the norm. They…they have each other. They’re not going to just…love another person. They’re normal and have enough in their hearts with each other. They don’t want another person.”

“What makes you think that you can speak for them?” Jaune yells. “And what makes you think you can project all your insecurities on me!” People look over at them.

Weiss just stares at him in disbelief. Jaune walks away.


“What happened with you and Jaune?” Ruby asks. “You’re both my friends, I don’t want to see anything bad happen to either of you.”

“It’s…” Weiss sighs. “I thought I had gotten better about assuming things about other people.”

“We all have things we need to work on,” Ruby replies. “It’s okay. I think you have time to apologize.”

“I know. I know it needs to happen.” Weiss sighs. “I just want to let him have some space first. I know I said the wrong thing to him.”

“What’d you say?”

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it was wrong. That I was wrong.”

“You know, the first day I met you, I never thought you’d be saying that.” Ruby smiles. “It’s okay to make mistakes, Weiss. You just have to keep moving forward from them.”


She knocks softly at the door. “Jaune?”

Oscar answers the door to see her. “I wanted to...apologize to him.”

“He’s with Ren and Nora right now. They went for a walk.”

“You didn’t go with them?”

“I was going to go to sleep, actually. I’m kind of tired.”

Weiss nods. “I’ll probably be back in the morning. Good night, Oscar.”

“Sleep well, Weiss.”


Being in the dorms kind of sucks. Their belongings are sparser than they were back when they attended Beacon.

It appeared that bunk beds were standard in Atlas. It’s an experience similar to the one that she had back at Beacon, but she couldn’t fall asleep.

And then she heard some squeaking — someone was shifting on one of the mattresses. It wasn’t the one directly above her, so it was probably Yang. She heard the sound of footsteps coming down the ladder, and then a face peeks through her curtain.

“Come on,” Yang whispers, holding out a hand.

Weiss takes it, unsure of why Yang was doing this.

“What’s happening?” she whispers as they both put on their shoes.

“I’m taking you on a walk, and you’re talking about what happened with Jaune,” Yang answers.

Weiss shushes her, because she doesn’t want to wake up Blake or Ruby. They get out the door before Weiss says anything more.

“What if I don’t want to tell?”

“Ruby says you didn’t tell her. I thought you might want someone you aren’t as…close with.” Yang winks.

“I resent the implication,” Weiss retorts. “Jaune wanted to ask me something. And along the way something was revealed, and then…”

“Well, he said something about projecting insecurities. What do you have left to be insecure about, Weiss? It’s okay if you have a crush on my sister, I’m okay with that.”

“Like I said, I resent the implication that you think I like your sister. It’s not your sister. We were talking about...romantic inclinations.”

“What, you ashamed of liking girls? That’s not something to be ashamed of, Weiss.”

“Oh, it’s not that.”

“Is it more than one person?” Weiss almost stops in her tracks at that, but she manages to resist. She suspects that she still gave some kind of physical sign.

“That’s chill too,” Yang says, shrugging. “My dad can too. Ruby and I’s mothers were in a relationship with him at the same time. I think it’s perfectly fine.”

Knowing that Yang’s okay with it as an abstract concept is well and good, but it still doesn’t mean that her crush is requited. 

“Wait, but who are the multiple people that you and Jaune like?” Yang asks, after they continue walking down a bit more.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose that. I have enough decency to not share a secret that someone trusted me with.”

“You kind of inadvertently exposed that Jaune likes multiple people too. I think that counts as exposing a secret that he trusted you with already.”

Weiss glares at Yang. “It’s a matter of respect, really.”

“I get it. But I don’t like being kept in the dark, either. I’m betting that it’s Ren and Nora, and he was asking you and hit a little close to home.”

“That last part is right. I can’t say anything as to the first.”

“I mean, he could like you, but I really don’t think that’s it.” Yang wrinkles her nose. Was that a sign of…jealousy?

That gave Weiss some hope, at least.

“I severely doubt that, too.” Because she knows. Not that she wants to do anything besides preserve the sanctity of the secret — she’s not fond of secrets, but she’d rather keep her friendships than endanger them for the sake of honesty.

“Well, good talk,” Yang forces a smile. “I hope you can sleep now. You tend to toss and turn a lot in your sleep — I knew you were awake because you weren’t moving.”

They open up the door to their room, slip off their shoes, and climb back into bed.