RWBY: Frost/Inferno

Volume 1: Forever Fall

In the Beacon Academy student dorms, Pyrrha looks out the window sadly as Ren loads StormFlower, and Nora jumps on her bed in the room for Team JNPR.

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" Nora questions innocently.

"He's become rather scarce since he started fraternizing with Cardin," Ren states.

"That's weird... Doesn't he know we have a field trip tomorrow? We need our rest!" Nora proclaims this while twirling in midair so her back hits the covers.

Pyrrha angrily states, "I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing,"

Nora and Ren exchange glances, not knowing that Jaune himself is looking in through the crack of the door.

"Mmmm... I guess so,"

Jaune hangs his head and closes the door, just as a voice interrupts his thoughts.

"Hey, Jaune!" Jaune startled turns around to see Ruby in pajamas and holding the most recent spoils of her cookie crimes, and she giggles at his reaction. "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?"

"Oh, uh, nope!" Jaune raises his Scroll, attempting to laugh, "Got it! wait... what's the bag for? It smells amazing,"

"Uhh don't worry about that...So! Where have you been lately?" 

 "I, uh..." Jaune tries to come up with something, but just sighs and lowers his head. "I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and..." he breathes heavily through his nose, "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea," Jaune presses his back to his team's door and slides down to the floor depressed, "I'm a failure,"

"Nope!"

 Jaune looks at her surprised, "'Nope?'"

 "Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure."

"But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?"

Ruby thinks for a moment, then gives her answer, "Nope!"

Jaune laughs as she joins him on the floor, "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"Nope!" Jaune leans into the door some more, "Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." Jaune groans and sinks lower to the ground, "...and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" he groans and goes lower, "But, you can't be one now. You know why?"

"Uhhh, because...?"

"Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us." she gets up and places her hands on her hips as she speaks, We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you," she walks over to her door and opens it as Jaune, now slightly inspired by her words, watches her wave, Have a good night, Jaune!" She goes inside.

With new energy, Jaune pushes himself off the ground and faces the door, ready to turn the knob and face his team, but his Scroll beeps and he pulls it off of his side to open it, seeing Cardin's contact relaying a message.

"Hey! It's your buddy Cardin! I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps." Jaune makes a terrified sound in response, "And make sure they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!"

Jaune closes his Scroll just when it begins to beep again. Sighing, he wearily heads down the hallway and away from his room before he hears something from down the hall.