Jaune didn't remember his dreams for once.

He woke up to a tired Qrow and they both took a landing Bullhead back to Beacon in time for breakfast. His team relaxed once he was back, and no one batted an eye when he said he was going to sleep off-campus for the second night. And, yet again, the second night was like the first, with him being able to sleep without invading anyone's dreams.

It was a relief for him, but not the monumental shift the teachers had been hoping for. Oobleck privately told him they'd been hoping he would be able to access his own dreams and find some degree of control over his Semblance inside it. No such luck there, but Jaune enjoyed the nights he got without having to worry about discovering secrets or rewriting someone's DNA. He also enjoyed being away from a still sulky Nora who was passive-aggressively calling him "dad" in private and constantly sighing as she played with her dyed orange hair. He hadn't thought her one to hold a grudge but it looked like exceptions had been made.

The third night away from Beacon was as peaceful as the last two, and Glynda was content to let it continue, if only so she didn't have to deal with any more early-morning meetings. Things fell into a routine, and Jaune personally got to enjoy waking up with full aura and being able to focus on classes and training for once.

But it was inevitable things wouldn't last.

/-/

"Welp," said Jaune, almost immediately knowing he was in a dream and what that meant. "I guess four nights in a row was too much to ask for what. Did Qrow fall asleep?"

The huntsman was stuck babysitting him every night and there wasn't much to do, so it wouldn't have been unreasonable for him to drift off. It was still better to enter his dreams than those of a stranger.

"You agreed to be here, Qrow!" he shouted. "You knew the risks. That's kind of like consenting." It was as close as he was going to get. "I don't suppose you want to make this lucid so we can talk? Hello. It's a dream. None of this is real!"

There was no response.

He hadn't been expecting much in all fairness. Telling someone they were dreaming was easy but making them accept it and wake up within the dream was much harder. Most people were asleep, and their subconscious could process a lot of unrealistic stuff without getting suspicious. He'd had no luck with Nora and didn't expect he would with Qrow, and that was if he could even find the man.

The dream had taken him into a woodland and he could tell it was the Emerald Forest. Not because of anything marked with the trees, but having Beacon in the background above a tall cliff was a bit of a giveaway. That must have been the cliff they were launched off in initiation.

"I guess Qrow did study at Beacon before he became a huntsman. I wonder if he's dreaming about his initiation. There's no way it'd still be the same as ours after so long, right? Or is it really the same thing every year?"

A gunshot echoed nearby. Jaune put his aura up around himself just in case, but they always said you didn't hear the gunshot that killed you. He didn't know if that was true, but this one was already fading away as an echo, so it definitely hadn't been aimed his way.

I guess I could head towards it, but maybe I should stay here—

A blur shot out from the trees and landed in a skid in front of him, nipping that idea in the bud. Red cloak, silver eyes. Still locked onto the idea of Qrow, Jaune wondered if this might be Ruby's mom, up until he realised she had Crescent Rose in hand and that Ruby had boasted off building it herself.

"Ruby...?"

"Jaune...?" Her reaction was as surprised as his, but she recovered with a shy smile. "I guess this makes us partners. Doesn't it?"

Initiation. Ruby was dreaming of initiation. The bigger surprise was him dreaming with Ruby at all, because unless Team RWBY had decided to camp out in the Emerald Forest – possible, but he figured they'd have mentioned it earlier in the day if they planned to – then what this meant was that his Semblance had expanded. For a lack of a better term. The range had grown, his signal fanning out in search of dreamers like a scroll connecting to the neighbour's wifi despite it being just one bar and a hundred metres away.

It'd be just my luck if our attempts to keep me away from dreams ended up improving my range. Hopefully, this is just a one-time thing with my Semblance reaching out because there's no one nearby.

Though the fact it had taken three full days to do this wasn't a great sign. Those three days, even without being in a dream, were effectively still around twenty-four hours of continuous Semblance usage. Assuming eight hours sleep a night. It didn't sound like a lot, but Pyrrha, Nora and Ren used theirs for about two minutes every other day at best. Pyrrha hardly ever used hers, and only in short bursts of a few seconds. Nora and Ren were even less common with their own.

Weiss and Ruby used their Semblances the most out of everyone, and it probably showed given how versatile they were. Then again, Weiss' Semblance was a bit of a joke. She called it glyphs but the things she could do with them went stupidly beyond that, and that was without the summoning he'd heard her talk about struggling with to Ruby.

On a purely mathematical level, though. He clocked in at around 480 minutes of sustained Semblance use every day. His teammates used theirs for maybe one minute a day, because they didn't spend that much time in direct combat when they needed it. Weiss and Ruby did it more, maybe about five minutes a day.

He was still using his Semblance ninety-six times as much as them.

So, his Semblance expanding its range after three nights was more equivalent to a little under three hundred days by their standards. A whole year for his Semblance to grow. It didn't feel quite so quick put like that.

"Um. Remnant to Jaune? Jaaaune? Vomit boy?"

"Isn't that name a little old, Ruby?" he asked with a heavy sigh.

"Is it?" Ruby giggled. "It was only yesterday you spewed on Yang's shoes."

He supposed it was by her timeframe. Jaune laughed nervously and let her think it was about being embarrassed. In truth, he was running through the various risks of what he might end up doing to Ruby here. It was fortunate her dream was recent because he didn't need to worry about turning her younger or changing her hair. There was only a couple of months difference between this Ruby and his Ruby. A little maturity, but mostly a lot of chilling out. Ruby had grown, but she'd also always been a smart girl.

Initiation and her first few days of Beacon had been made worse more because of raw nerves than any failure on her part. It hadn't been easy for him being made leader of a team, but he hadn't been fifteen and sorted with Weiss.

"I guess this isn't bad," she said. "At least I didn't end up with a crabby girl like Weiss!"

"Ahah. I'm sure Weiss isn't that bad."

Could he change other things outside the person he was dreaming with? He'd only affected the dreamer themselves, but now he wondered if he might wake up to find he was actually on Team RJBY or something. Surely not. Regrowing an arm and rewriting someone's DNA was crazy enough without the suggestion he could rewrite history itself.

Though I could use it to bring Amber back. Save her...

He shook his head.

Such thoughts were a dead end, and a painful one at that.

"You're not okay with it?" asked Ruby, nervously.

"What? No, I'm fine. I was just trying to clear my head. I'm spacing out a little." He offered his hand, and Ruby took it with a nervous smile. He shook it. "We'll be awesome teammates. Just you wait and see. Weiss will be jealous."

Ruby smiled, still hesitant, and he reminded himself this was a nightmare. Jaune liked to think he and Ruby were close enough friends that being his partner wasn't the nightmare – though Yang would have joked that it was. Her original nightmare probably didn't involve him at all. It was his Semblance that placed him here. Either way, while there was nothing negative about the dream so far, he was prepared for it to take a turn.

"We'd best make our way to the ruins and get out relic," he said. His memory wasn't awful, but it also wasn't good enough to pick out exactly where they were, especially without the context of having landed here. "I don't suppose you saw which way it was when you were landing?"

"Mm. Yeah! I saw it." Ruby pointed. "It's this way. Come on, partner!"

/-/

They walked for a period of time that was impossible to track. Not because it was so long, but because the world around them didn't make sense with the passage of time. The sun had fallen and risen twice without either of them getting tired, two "dream days" having passed in her head in the space of what more realistically felt like under half an hour. It was getting dark again, the sun beginning to set and the shattered moon coming out. It was a full moon, which referred more to how many of the shattered pieces were visible than it being full.

He really hoped Team RWBY hadn't been watching any werewolf movies because Glynda would kill him if he turned Ruby into a werewolf.

"It... it should be around here somewhere..." Ruby's voice was weak and quiet, kept to a whisper so low that it made her seem like a small animal.

"Sorry, what?"

She flinched. "The ruins..." she whispered.

"You don't need to be so quiet. I'm not going to snap at you."

"But I... I got us lost..."

Jaune smiled. It was a little cruel to smile at her pain, but he was more pleased to be able to see where the nightmare was coming from. This was Ruby's insecurities playing up again, and he was in a position to put a stop to it.

"I mean, it's a little arrogant to think this is all your fault. I'm here as well, you know. At least half of us being lost is my fault. The sexy half."

Ruby glanced back, offering a nervous smile. "What's sexy about this?"

"Me, of course."

Ruby sniggered, then covered her mouth with wide eyes, suddenly afraid again.

Jaune pushed on. "You disagree? I'll have you know I'm the hottest man for several hundred metres. Probably because I'm the only man – we're really lost – but it still counts."

"There could be other people here."

"Then I'm in the top ten. Still counts."

"Doesn't that make me in the top ten as well?" she asked.

"Gasp!" Jaune said the word, but also gasped. "We should, like, open up a modelling agency! We could sell calendars! It's our duty, Ruby. We must share the hotness that is us!"

It wasn't a particularly funny joke all things considered, but Ruby was balanced on a tightrope above a pit of self-loathing and insecurity, so she'd have probably burst out laughing if he put his hand under his armpit and made farting noises. Here, she giggled so hard she had to steady herself against a tree and wipe at her eyes.

Mission complete.

"We should probably make camp though," he said. "It's dark out and I think the others will have an easier time finding us if we don't keep moving and get even more lost."

Plus, this being a dream about being lost, he had a feeling there wasn't a correct direction. They could have headed anywhere and Ruby's head would have cooked it up as them going the wrong way. That was just how it worked.

He, on the other hand, could cook up some camping supplies out of his backpack – which had Ruby blinking and saying. "When did you have a backpack?"

"I always had this. Didn't you notice it?"

"No..."

"Too distracted by my good looks."

Ruby swatted his shoulder playfully and let the matter go, even going so far as to not notice he was pulling a whole lot more out the bag than should have fit inside it. Sure, bringing out some meals to be cooked might have an impact on her in the real world, but a full stomach and a couple hundred calories was only going to make her too full for breakfast. Better this than biologically adopting her against her will.

He got to cheat, too.

"What is this!?" Ruby cried after the first bite. "It's the most delicious food I've ever tasted!"

Yeah it was. Dream cheats, baby. The sense of taste itself wasn't real either, so Jaune knew he was also just imagining how good it tasted, but that was what made it so good. He groaned after a bite himself. No real food could ever taste this good, because real life could never match the power of imagination.

I've spoiled food forever...

Ruby and he scarfed the food down at breakneck speed and then reclined against a tree before a small fire set up at their feet. He didn't feel the warmth of the fire, nor the cold of the forest, but he could feel Ruby against his side. She was more real than everything else here. They both were the only real things in an ocean of sensory hallucinations.

"They must have been put on teams by now," said Ruby, her voice dipping once more. "I bet Weiss is glad she isn't on a team with me." Her knees came up to her chest. "I bet Yang is, too."

"Naaaaah."

Jaune's one-word answer, dragged out at sufficient volume, made Ruby pause. She flinched when he reached out and swiped his finger up against her nostrils, like he was flicking her nose. She squawked and covered her face with her hands to shield herself.

"You're such a worrywart, Ruby. You don't really think Yang would be like that, do you? I bet she's worried sick. Probably tearing the forest apart looking for you and blaming herself for not getting you as her partner."

"But she didn't want me on her team. Why else would she abandon me when we first arrived?" Ruby spoke into her knees. "And she said we should be on different teams. She has all her friends from Signal and wants to hang out with them. I'm just the burden she has to take care of."

"Sheesh." Jaune slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled, making her topple against him. "Aren't you just a bundle of insecurity today. I should call you Insecuruby. No, that's bad. Insecurity Rose? Also bad. You're being dumb." He dragged his hand up atop her head and ruffled her hair like he'd seen Yang do many times before. Ruby squeaked unhappily. "I'm not going to stand by while some trash talks my partner. I mean, she's so cool. Fifteen and already in Beacon, with a weapon she made all by herself."

"It's not that special."

"Oh? How many other fifteen year olds are in Beacon, then?"

Ruby changed tactic. "I made a fool of myself off the Bullhead. I blew up Weiss' dust—"

"You sneezed. Honestly, Weiss was pretty negligent with her dust if that was enough to set it off. You'd think someone like her would know how to better seal and carry it. And me throwing up over Yang's shoes was still worse."

"But I caused an explosion..."

"No. Weiss did. Why was she waving dust in your face? It's not a toy. Why wasn't it properly sealed? You only sneezed because the dust escaped her poorly sealed vials and got into your sinuses. And imagine for a moment how bad that'd be for you. What if your nose had blown off your face? Being called crater face would have been a whole lot more literal then!"

Ruby yelped and grabbed her nose, imagining the idea of a dust explosion inside her nostrils and without aura. Jaune wasn't sure if such a thing were possible at all, but it definitely sounded like a messy thing to have happen, and he wasn't lying about Weiss. Her waving dust around had been pretty stupid. Her trying to give Ruby a dust safety pamphlet later had been the peak of hypocrisy as well.

"I still got us lost, though," she argued. "It's been days and no one has found us. What if we die out here? It'll all be my fault."

"We'll be fine." He messed up her hair again. "We're both strong and fully capable of looking after ourselves out here. We'll do okay—"

There was a rustle and a broken twig from the nearby bushes. Jaune and Ruby both tensed, only to freeze as Ozpin walked out the trees with Glynda at his side. It was old Ozpin, Headmaster Ozpin, and not the younger variant that Ruby didn't even know was the same man. He was still wearing his old green suit. Though why Ruby thought he'd bring a mug of coffee out into a forest, Jaune didn't know.

"H—Headmaster!" Ruby stammered. "You found us!"

"Miss Rose. Mr Arc. You have led us all on quite the merry chase." Ozpin didn't sound pleased, and Glynda didn't look it. She never did, but Ruby had dreamed her up even worse than usual. "With that in mind, I think your father at least will be happy to hear you are safe and sound. You will be returned to him on Patch."

Ruby wilted. "R—Returned...? W—What about Beacon?"

"Beacon!?" Glynda interrupted with a sharp retort. "What about Beacon? Do you really believe you've earned a place there after this debacle? It was a simple task, girl! Find the ruins, collect a relic and leave. How you managed to get lost, I've no idea, but this only goes to show I was right to say you don't belong here. You're too young and immature by half! I told you, Ozpin! I told you she'd just drag down whoever she ended up with!"

Ruby had her face between her knees and was shaking badly.

"You did warn me," Ozpin said. "I apologise for not listening, but I'd thought well of her after the Torchwick fiasco. Then again, I suppose it was you who saved her from Torchwick. All she did was endanger lives by interfering in an active robbery, and then nearly get herself killed afterwards."

Ruby whimpered.

"Hey! Hey!" Jaune pulled her against him and scowled at the apparitions. He'd always used his Semblance to force them away in past dreams, but he was much too nervous to do that here and accidentally harm Glynda or Ozpin in real life. He had to fight them with words instead. "I think you're forgetting someone here. I'm also lost. I'm also responsible. Putting all this on Ruby's shoulders is crazy."

They took notice of him. In the real world, they would have included him more, but this was Ruby's dream and they were focused solely on her. That was proved even further when Ozpin opened his mouth and let out the most nonsensical statement Jaune had ever heard from him. Well, other than the one about him being thousands of years old.

"Mr Arc has acquitted himself well and was simply led astray by Miss Rose. I think it fair he be offered a place in Beacon. Miss Xiao-Long's team is in need of a fourth member; Miss Schnee is missing a partner."

Ruby sniffed.

"Oh, piss off."

If they were going to be unrealistic, then he would as well. Jaune didn't think he'd ever have the guts to actually say that to Ozpin and Glynda – not unless he had a head-start or was in another country at the time – but these weren't real, and they were acting like such cartoon villains. He'd never call Ruby immature, but her insecurities were a little like that. He didn't blame her for it, though. He'd had his own, and they'd made as little sense. Insecurities about admitting to his team the bullying with Cardin, about needing to do everything on his own, about his poor performance in combat class.

But he'd gotten over them with help from his friends.

It was about time he paid that forward.

"Ruby is a kickass huntress and you're blind if you can't see that."

"J—Jaune," she whimpered. "You should take the deal!"

"What deal? There's no deal here. Besides, how can I be a huntsman if I don't have my partner by my side? We made eye contact first. That means you're stuck with me now." He dropped his arm to her bicep, pulling her against him so tightly she had no hope of escape. "Sorry, but that's the way it is. Ruby and I are a package deal. It's both of us or neither of us."

Glynda crossed her arms. "Then it will be neither of you. Ruby Rose. Jaune Arc. You are both hereby expelled from Beacon Academy."

"Your loss." Jaune stood and pulled Ruby to her feet. He couldn't fight these people to make them disappear, but he could sure as hell walk away. "Come on, Ruby." He reached for her hand and pulled her along with him. "We don't need these losers to become huntsmen. We'll make our own adventures – and there'll be blackjack and hookers."

"B—But I'm terrible at cards!" she cried. "And I don't have any money! And I don't want a hooker!"

"Interesting priorities there, Ruby."

"S—Shut up! We just got expelled!"

"Can't expel us if we were never enrolled. Besides, you don't think Beacon is the only way to become huntsmen, do you? We can train on our own and apply for a license when we're older. We'll make do!"

Ruby was shaking her head. "But we'll never succeed. I never do. I'm hopeless. I'll just drag you down. Weiss was right; I don't deserve to be here. I should—"

"Ruby!" Jaune pulled her around and grasped her face, holding her firmly with his palms on her cheeks and his thumbs under her eyes. He forced her to stare into his eyes as he bent down and pushed his face close to hers. "Look at me," he said, even though she couldn't possibly look away. "You are an amazing person, Ruby. You're smart, kind, talented – no, that word doesn't do you justice. You're hard-working. You've worked so hard that you're at our level a whole two years early, and you even built your own weapon in doing so. You're so amazing and everyone who talks down to you just does it because they feel threatened!"

"But—"

"No." He pushed his forehead against hers. Ruby blushed terribly, but he kept going. "You need to stop talking down on yourself like this. Don't let your insecurities win when I and everyone else think you're doing an amazing job. You're my best friend, and you're incredible. So much better than me in almost every way. Aside from height."

"Y—You didn't have to mention that last one..."

"Hey." He smiled warmly at her. "I have to have something to hold over you. Literally in this case." He let go of her face, but only to pull her in for a crushing hug. "You're so wrapped up in doubting yourself that you can't see how awesome you are, Ruby. That has to stop. You're going to be one of the greatest huntresses the world has ever seen."

Ruby sniffed and slowly linked her hands around his back.

He pretended he didn't hear her crying.

/-/

Jaune's eyes opened inside the bunker and he sat up. A grunt came from a little over, as Qrow set down an empty bottle and yawned himself, cracking his neck. "Finally," he complained. "You wouldn't believe how boring it is watching you sleep. Or maybe you would." He sighed. "Another good night?"

"No. My Semblance evolved. I gained more range."

"Shit. Again? That's too damn fast." Qrow groaned. "You sure it wasn't someone in the forest? White Fang, maybe?"

"It was Ruby."

"Double shit. What was it about?"

"I can't tell you that." Jaune stood and started getting changed into a fresh school uniform. There was no shower out here, but he'd have one after combat class. "What goes on in Ruby's mind is her business and hers alone."

"You won't even tell her family?"

"Not even then."

"Ha." Rather than argue, Qrow smiled. "Good. Keep to that. And at least I know it wasn't the naughty kind, or you'd be blushing up a storm. I guess we'd better tell Glynda this method is dead. The further we isolate you, the more your Semblance is going to extend its range." He yawned again. "But I'll handle that. You might as well get to breakfast."

"At least you'll be able to return to a normal sleep schedule."

Qrow grinned. "Not really. I'll be spending my nights hunting down Cinder. Still, it'll be a damn sight more interesting than watching you sleep."

The Bullhead from Beacon arrived for them before too long and took them back home, and Jaune returned to breakfast. He'd texted ahead to tell his team the news, so they knew he wouldn't be spending any more nights away. He didn't mention whose dream he'd been in, only that it was a student. They understood not to ask and just said it'd be good to have him back – though Nora did mention her birthday was coming up and it was his responsibility to buy her a cake.

"How do you even know when your birthday is?" he asked.

"I picked it myself," she replied. "Just because I don't know mine doesn't mean I don't get one. Sheesh." She lowered her voice to add, "You should know better, dad."

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that."

"I really wish I had my normal hair back. Guess we can't all get what we want."

"Um. H—Hey." Ruby approached with a shy little wave. "Can I... um... Can I borrow Jaune for a sec?"

Nora pushed him over to Ruby and walked off with a wave. He caught himself before he bowled Ruby over, laughed and rubbed at his hair. Ruby didn't look upset, so he figured she didn't know he'd been in her head. No one had found it out on their own since Cinder, but he knew that wouldn't last. Statistically, it was bound to happen again one day.

"Hey, crater face. What's up?"

"Don't call me that," she mumbled. "It's Weiss' fault I blew up."

Jaune smirked, pleased to hear her genuinely believe that. "Is that an opinion you've shared with her?"

"Are you kidding? Weiss is way too unreasonable." Ruby giggled. "But I didn't want to talk about Weiss. I... uh... We're friends, right?"

"Course we are. I'm your best friend."

Ruby smiled. "I think Weiss would be even more angry if she heard you say that."

"Ah, but I am better than Weiss in many ways. Just don't ask me what those ways are." He was hamming it up, but it had the desired effect. Ruby giggled and glanced Weiss' way, then smiled back at him.

"You are better in some ways," she admitted. "I just wanted to say I appreciate you being my friend. I know it must be weird with me being so much younger—"

"It's not." His interruption was immediate. "It's not weird. To be honest, Ruby, you don't act younger. And you don't even look that much younger when Weiss is the same height as you. Your age really isn't a factor holding you back. Not in my eyes, anyway. Not in class, either. You kick ass in combat class."

"I used to. Before Oswald..."

"Yeah, but no one kicks ass in Oswald's class. He kicks ours."

"Yeah, that's kinda true. You're making it really hard to explain my point when you talk like that, though."

"Yeah, well, you make it hard to be quiet when you're talking down to yourself," he shot back, crossing his arms. "You know, it's my job to beat anyone up who insults you, and that's bad because nine out of ten people at Beacon would destroy me if I tried."

Ruby giggled. "Six out of ten at most. You've been getting stronger too. But thanks." Ruby hesitated, then surged in to hug him tightly. He hugged her back. "I'd have been just as happy if you were my partner instead of Weiss," she mumbled. "Don't tell her I said that."

"I feel the same way. Don't tell Pyrrha I said that."

Ruby grinned, ran a finger over her lips and sprinted away.

Yang looked like she couldn't decide if she wanted to melt at the adorable scene or interrogate him over what had been said. Weiss was suspicious as well, already mid-interrogation with Ruby. Blake, thankfully, didn't seem to care at all and was already walking off to class.

"You were in Ruby's dream?" asked Pyrrha, coming up to him.

"Yes. But don't ask me what I saw. It's no one's business other than hers."

"I won't. Has she... changed in any way?"

"I don't think so. I avoided doing anything. We'll have to wait and see."

Team JNPR was still a thing, and Ruby hadn't been expelled. Maybe her paperwork would be scuffed to show it, and Glynda would wonder before fixing it. He could ask her later. For now, however, it looked like he'd managed to avoid any bizarre alterations to the world at large.

An alarm blaring across Beacon reminded him other people existed, however.

"Fourth years to rocket lockers!" Glynda's voice came over the speakers immediately. "There has been a terrorist attack in the city. Grimm are expected to come from a breach in the city defences. Fourth years are to be launched into combat. Third years, report to Bullheads to be shuttled to support. First and second years are to report to the main hall auditorium immediately to be assigned humanitarian work. This is not a drill!"

Jaune cursed. "Cinder..."