Chapter Text
Everything is blurry when Jaune wakes up. His body ached and his head hurt a lot. The place he was laying on is soft and warm, someone had made an effort to make sure he was comfortable..
The only light of the room came from the fire of the firewood heater that was on a far corner. Looking around, he spotted Ren, Nora and Ruby sleeping on mattresses, their heavy clothing and weapons were carefully set next to them. But how did they get there? Jaune had no memory of them finding shelter or arriving at a village.
In an attempt to make his head hurt less, Jaune raised his hand to rub his forehead, but his finges touched fabric instead of skin. A fumbling around his head makes him find out someone bandaged it. He got hurt? How? When it happened? Who took care of him?
It took a few minutes for him to realize that maybe he wasn’t the only one injured. Jaune got up, making a wave of dizziness hit him and make him fell against the wood floor. Concluding that he wouldn’t be able to get up, Jaune crawled to Ruby, who was the one closest to him, and inspected her. She was sleeping peacefully despite the bad-looking bruise on her right eye and the patch on her cheek. Since she looked fine, he went to check on Ren and Nora.
Ren seemed okay, but Nora had terrible bruising on her collarbone, neck and cheek. Jaune pulled the covers a bit until he could see Nora’s shoulders, he stopped when he saw more bruising sprouting from blood-stained bandages on her collarbone and chest.
“Nora…” Jaune whispered. Somehow, he felt it was his fault. Was it his fault?
Jaune closed his eyes and made a big effort to remember what happened before he lost consciousness.
They were traveling to Mistral. The map showed they were near a village, but they lost their way when the weather started to get bad. Ren suggested that they looked for a shelter before the snowstorm started. Everything else was blurred.
A sound coming from the other side of the door made Jaune snap out from that state and realize that he was inside a house. Someone had to have brought him and his friends inside it.
Not knowing what kind of person had sheltered them, Jaune forced himself to get up, grabbed his sword and left the room. He didn’t really knew what he would do when he met the owner of the house. Besides that, the nausea and dizziness were hitting him with steady waves that were getting bigger and bigger each step he took.
The corridor outside the room was small. There was a door in front of him and another at his left, at the end of the hall. Jaune turned to the other side, following the sounds of tinkling dishes. He slumped a bit and had to use his shield arm for support against the wall. The wise thing to do was stop and rest a bit, maybe even going back to bed, but Jaune was too stubborn to do that.
A few more steps and Jaune found himself in front of a kitchen area. The room was a kitchen equipped with a stove made of clay and stone, a sink and a big cabinet. It also had a dinner table with a few chairs and an opening to what looked like a living room with a fireplace. Standing before the stove was a young woman with long light-brown hair. That was the only thing he could tell about her before his vision blacked for a moment and his nausea turned into a huge need to vomit.
Jaune dropped his sword to cover his mouth in reflex. The weapon hit the floor with a loud clunk. Jaune didn’t really noticed the sound or the hurried footsteps going on his direction as he fought to keep his balance and swallow the nasty thing he was about to spit out.
He looked up when he felt two hands hold his upper arms and balance him. It took a moment for him to register that the woman whom he just saw was before him.
The woman let his weight guide them until them both were kneeling. Jaune felt her slip off the shield from his arm, he made a movement to grab it back but she made sure it was out of his reach and threw it away from them.
“A bit too soon for you to be up, kid”
“Who-?” Jaune started, being interrupted when he felt another wave of vomit almost leave his throat.
“Damn” She muttered as she reached for something away from his line of sight.
Jaune felt her arm go under his and hold onto his chest just as he saw her put a trash can in front of him. He choked two more times before finally giving up and vomiting inside it. He vomited two more times, convulsing and losing the strength on his arms at each time, but the woman held him and rubbed his back in comfort.
After he was finished, she put him in a sitting position with his back against the wall and walked to the sink. Jaune just sat there with his head low as tears of pain and shame ran from his eyes. He opened his eyes a few moments later when he felt a warm hand touch his cheek.
This time he took a good look at the woman. Her eyes were an olive green shade and her skin had a light tanned tone. She was older than him, not enough to be his mom, but maybe enough to be his teacher or one of his older sisters.
“Drink this. Its tea.” She ordered as she brought a mug to his lips. Jaune stubbornly turned his head away from it. “Please… It is safe. I promise”
The woman drank some of the mug contents before offering it back to Jaune. Convinced it was indeed safe, Jaune accepted and drank all of it. It was pleasant, made his throat stop hurting and washed away the sour taste from his mouth.
“Now come on” She slipped her arm around his back, grabbing at his side, and put his arm over her shoulder “Time for you to go back to bed”.
Jaune was too tired and sick to fight her or ask questions, so he let her lift and guide him. He kept blinking in and out of conscience as they moved. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was a soft hand caress his hair.
Somehow, he felt safe.