This particular chapter is gonna go into some deep stuff and may be either distressing or otherwise unsettling for some people, so be warned that there is a TW for implied PA
Other then that, hope you enjoy this
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The first team exercise was gruelling enough to deal with for everyone but most people seemed to perk up once they were shown to their new dorms. Nora seemed to be the most energetic about making their dorm more "Razzle dazzle" as she liked to put it. "We gotta make this room our own so lets get creative!" Nora would grin as she pointed to the pile of bags that were taken from the airship when they first landed and then to the rather basic looking room they were in, "Well…it's not like we have much else to do except prepare for classes tomorrow." Ren added as both Jae and Pyrrha had already started hefting their bags over to their beds.
"It could help us get to know each other a little better in between that time….I say we do it." Pyrrha agreed with Nora as she opened up her bags and started to organise her things.
Nora was moving like a redheaded whirlwind as she erratically rushed and "Nora-fied" her space; with her hammer in the corner by her bed, a set of pink headphones and some rather messy clothes strewn around, Ren meanwhile seemed to have a lot more control around him as he set up his clothes on a rack while absentmindedly folding up some of Nora's clothes that floated his way following Hurricane Valkyrie; a foldup mat that he used for meditation along with a small stack of books that he organised by his lamp and even a whetstone to use for Stormflower's blades. Pyrrha however seemed to have the most balanced standing of the four as she placed her uniforms and armour in a wardrobe, a couple of books nearby with some small cases of polish for after training and missions but Jae seemed to be unusually meticulous: his belongings seemed to be basic amenities and with his name engraved on them, in fact most of his bags that were labelled as Dust Rounds, books, clothes seemed to have locks on them. The more peculiar note was that these containers looked like they were scratched or picked at…along with other marks that looked like stitched up tears and dents.
"Jae…why do all of your boxes look so….beat up?" Ren would ask as he examined one of Jae's boxes labeled "Weapon maintenance" and saw that this one looked like it had been broken into once or twice before.
Jae deflated a little as he put some long sleeved shirts away; "Well, I grew up in a foster home and most of these were hand me downs from other people…..it does well with keeping kids from living on street corners but they don't really care if the kids they take in have sticky fingers…among other things." he admitted rather bluntly as he tucked a shirt into a corner of the bed before going to put some things in the bathroom. Ren and Nora looked at each other in confusion but Pyrrha seemed to have a few other questions answered for her as she eyed one of the metal boxes that her leader used for his clothes; she noticed a rather jagged looking scratch mark on the top of the box and started to look closer when she realised that this particular mark was trying to cover up something else on the box, "Hey Ren, do you think you can read this?" Pyrrha inquired as he leaned over to see what she was looking at.
"I'm not really sure it's a good idea to look at his things without his permission…." Ren hesitated as he had noticed Jae's mood drop when he mentioned where the marks came from, "Well, technically we're not looking at his things, we're looking at the thing that holds the things…..right?" Nora pointed out; she was getting just as curious about everyone's focus on the box while Ren relented and used his fingers to try and trace along the etchings before grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil to start tracing along the marks, it took a few minutes but Ren finally put the box down and furrowed his brow; "So….did it say anything?" Pyrrha asked, curious about who tried to hide this kind of message on Jae's stuff while Ren put the box away under the bed and hurriedly crumpled up the piece of paper with the message.
"This was a bad idea….we really shouldn't have pried." Ren mentioned as he sat on his bed; "Ren….come on, just te-If you really wanted to know….then you could've just asked." Jae remarked as he broke Nora's train of thought when he re-entered the dorm room, though the mellow guy that came back in had a less then sunny expression on his face and the tone seemed to make the room feel a little colder, Pyrrha flinched a little as she realised they were caught but even Nora was starting to pick up on something else behind the stony glare….
"It's Freakshow, okay? the carving was just that…..it was one of a lot of names that other kids seemed to call me throughout the time I spent in foster care, they heard about why I ended up with them from one of the caretakers and they figured I'd be an easy target…." Jae explained to the three of them with varying degrees of guilt from realising the kind of nerve this had touched.
The silence that followed was deafening and Jae felt like he needed some air; "I…I'm going down to the training yard, I need to get my practice in before we start classes." Jae mumbled to himself as he grabbed his jacket and headed out towards the practice grounds; leaving the information to sink in for the rest of Team JNPR.
"I….I had no idea." Pyrrha admitted, feeling the most guilty that she had brought up the whole thing in the first place, Nora moved a little closer to give Pyrrha a little hug to try comforting her.
"Hey, you shouldn't worry….maybe it was just a little damaged, you couldn't have known." Nora explained to try making her feel better; "Right Re-...Ren?" She would ask her partner to get some affirmation but rather then the usual quiet nod, it was just empty air as Ren seemed to be missing from his spot on the bed.
Meanwhile down at the thankfully empty training grounds, Jae was practicing his barehanded fighting on a weighted sand bag; grunting heavily as he landed solid hit after on the heavy target; the memories of the name-calling, the teasing and the threats toward him from care still ringing in his ears. He felt his anger building in his core and the hits getting harder against the bag before he finally swung a haymaker and sent the bag swaying back and forth. "Still not helping…..Maybe getting my shots better aimed will help." he said to himself as he grabbed his gun and headed for the shooting range, loading some normal rounds into the chamber and took aim at the slowly moving targets. Jae tried to focus as he aimed down the iron sights and began to fire at the Grimm targets; for every three shots he missed, he managed to score at least two confirmed hits to his growing frustration….this was worse then his usual record but he wasn't sure if it was the different ammo or if his head was still clouded; "….You know I can feel you staring at me." He would say without turning around to meet the green wearing teammate spectating his progress.
"It was that obvious?" Ren would ask jokingly as he walked over but kept his distance from Jae in case he needed his space from earlier, Jae holstered his gun and took a seat on a nearby bench with a bottle of water and looked to Ren who decided to sit with him. Jae sighed a little as he ran his hand through his hair; "Ren…..I wasn't trying to hide this because I didn't trust any of you….I just….it was a bad time for me." Jae tried to explain to Ren.
"Jae, we've only been teammates for a few hours….I don't think anyone was expecting us to reveal everything in one go…Though I don't really blame you for reacting that way…we did look at your stuff without asking, after all." Ren would justify to Jae but the look on his face wasn't guilty or sad about it, he seemed more understanding and willing to see this from both angles; "BUT you do have to understand that none of us going to judge you because of where you came from or what you grew up with." he would say as he lightly pat Jae's arm; "You think I'd want to let you and Pyrrha know that I'm an orphan from an outside village?" Ren confessed to him with Jae looking at him in surprise.
"W-Wait, an orphan?" he would ask as Ren nodded; "We know a little about your past so it's only fair that I tell you a little about mine…I came from a village in Mistral…" Ren would explain about himself, meeting Nora and having to live on the road following the destruction of his village at the hands of a Grimm while Jae listened to him talk.
"Ren, I-I'm happy you felt comfortable enough to tell me about all of that." Jae would say as Ren finished, "Don't worry about it too much, we're not just teammates now…you, me, Nora and Pyrrha are friends now, so it's only fair that we can trust each other with things like this." Ren would say as he got up and stretched; "I think so too, but I don't think I can really tell everything about me…just yet anyway…but we should head back before Goodwitch gets us in trouble for being out too late." Jae said to Ren as saw it was getting darker in the evening. The two seemed to talk more as they made their way back towards the dorm, but they also heard some industrial sounds from behind team RWBY's door; "Sounds like they're decorating their room too…." Ren would mention as he got his scroll to open up the door to their room.
"Decorating? it sounds like they're renovating in there with that noise." Jae would laugh a little as they headed in but he was immediately greeted by Nora's relieved smile though Pyrrha seemed a little down, it was clear that she still felt a little guilty about earlier as she looked up at her messy haired leader; "I'm….I'm really sorry Jae, I didn't mean to intrude on your privacy like that." Pyrrha would start apologising before Jae went to go sit on his bed across from her; "Look, my time in that place wasn't really….all that great and I don't think I'll be quite ready to tell you guys about my old life…But that still doesn't excuse the fact that I stormed out like that….If anyone should be sorry then it should be me for making you guys worry…." Jae admitted as Ren got Nora to sit down, knowing that Jae was trying to come clean about himself. "Look if it's too much to talk about then you don't have to force it, you can tell us when you're good and ready." Nora said to him supportively but Jae shook his head, "No….But I do want to take a chance, you guys are my teammates and my friends now, I just want to make sure we are all on the same page with this…I want you guys to know at least this much about me." he would say before taking a deep breath.
"I was 10 when I was taken away from my parents, they weren't good people but the place I was put in wasn't any better…." Jae started to explain, Ren and Nora sat on either side of Pyrrha as they gave Jae the time to talk; "The foster parents saw us as a means of funding more then anything so they kept a roof over our heads and gave us food but not much else….I've had to spend a good part of my time there trying to stop other kids from taking my stuff, beating me up or picking a fight with other kids who couldn't do anything about it." Jae then paused as he recalled everything, "The boxes I had here were all hand me downs from old kids who stayed there and even then, they had been broken open and lock picked more times then I can count….The time couldn't have come sooner when I could apply for Beacon." Jae would conclude as he looked to the others as they took in everything that he had just said.
Normally in these kinds of cases, Jae would have expected a bear hug from Nora like the one from the forest, however he had been surprised by the gentle curl of Pyrrha's arms around his waist and pulling him into a light but meaningful hug; "That's just awful….I can't believe that anyone could be subjected to that kind of thing…." Pyrrha said as she felt sad for Jae and understood why he did what he did before she let him go, Ren seemed to agree as he quietly mused over everything and chose his next words carefully in case it was a touchy subject; "So what happened to your parents after that….if you don't mind me asking?" Ren would ask Jae as Nora decided to get in on the supportive affection by lightly hugging him around the shoulders from behind, though what happened next was something none of them could expect.
Once Nora's arms interlocked around Jae and he could feel the pressure of her arms against his neck; his eyes widened as he felt alarm bells blaring in his ears and a familiar memory dragged itself to the surface in his mind, his body went stiff as he frantically pulled himself free of Nora's arms almost out of reflex; "NO!" he yelled out in an almost fearful state as he was now pressed against a wall, his skin now looked pale and in a cold sweat while he hyperventilated. Ren had moved to Nora defensively as it looked like Jae was lashing out but Pyrrha rushed over to Jae and tried to help him out of whatever caused this; "Jae! Jae, it's alright…you're still with teammates, your friends…just take deep breaths and relax….you're safe here….you're safe." she would repeat to him quietly and helped him calm back down as his yell quietened down to something more akin to scared, childlike mumbling.
After a few minutes of this, Jae finally relented as he staggered over to his bed and collapsed; "….I'm….I'm sorry, but I just….I have…." Jae would quietly and shakily apologise to Nora who was still quite shocked from Jae's rather sudden outburst, Ren looked more concerned then before but this time it was Pyrrha who was the one who spoke up first; "Jae, it's alright…if you want to talk to us about this then you can, but I think you need to talk to someone more….capable of handling this, maybe we should talk to Professor Goodwitch and see if she can help." Pyrrha explained to him as he nodded. "I think we could probably use some rest….we need to be ready for classes tomorrow and maybe we should go bring this up to Professor Goodwitch." Ren would say as Nora and Pyrrha climbed into their own beds, this was something everyone could agree on as the whole thing with foster care was one thing but this was something that they were willing to do anything to help Jae with…he was their leader and they were going to do whatever they could to help him.
….After a night of sleep of course.