A.N: Alright, first I want to say a big sorry for making you wait so long for this next chapter.

Enjoy.

Sleep hadn't come easy that night for Jaune. Usually he was sleeping up in the treetops or on the bumpy, uneven ground. It had been a while since he slept on a bed, an even longer while since he felt comfortable.

To say he was exhausted would be an understatement. He was running on empty. The day had been filled with unanswered questions and confused looks. Jaune wanted at least one day to be relatively normal before he relived one of his worst moments. He had asked them to not ask questions until tomorrow. He wanted to attempt to have a dreamless sleep his first night back.

It wasn't to be. Jaune had barely closed his eyes for a minute before the dreams started again. He would see the villages he was unable to save burn to the ground. He would see the faces of those no longer alive in this world. He had seen too much death to have a peaceful night's sleep.

Realizing that he wouldn't be getting to sleep that night Jaune crept out of the spare bedroom, looking for a quiet spot to ease his weary mind.

He found himself outside on the porch under the moonlight. Ever since Mistral he loved the moon and the memory attached to it. Yang's kiss in the moonlight was the only happy memory he had for a long time, he hadn't had much else to be happy about.

The little wooden bench was comfortable. Large enough to fit multiple people, it made a nice spot to sit and watch the stars shine down at him.

He felt a light nudge at his shoulder and jerked around to find out who crept up on him. He saw Ruby's smiling face and eased himself back into his sitting position. She sat down next to him and placed down 2 cups of steaming liquid on the table in front of them. Jaune reached forward and slowly drank the hot liquid and smiled into his cup.

"You always knew how I liked my coffee."

He heard her light giggle and sat the cup back down on the table. Jaune turned to look at Ruby and noticed her smile replaced with a look of worry. She looked like she was psyching herself up to ask him a question.

Jaune waited until her heard her ask "Why Jaune?"

He paused. He wanted to get mad at her, like he did Blake. But when she sounded so small and childlike he couldn't find it in him to get mad. She almost sounded like a mourning child, asking why their mummy wasn't coming back.

"You know why." He internally cringed at his answer. He hadn't meant for it come out so blunt but he couldn't help it. She knew why he left, they all did.

Jaune heard the loud sigh from the woman next to him. He hated what this was doing to Ruby. She was barely 20 when he left, her first friend at Beacon gone in the middle of the night. He never really considered the effects his leaving would have on her.

"We should have told you. I should have told you. I thought she was going to tell you, she promised us she would. Then on the final year you found out and then everything went to crap. Then the next morning you were gone." He could hear her losing her composure after every sentence. Jaune looked down at his feet. He couldn't handle this.

"I was devastated when they told us they found your body. I couldn't handle it. I barely ate, I couldn't sleep. Yang had to bathe me herself for weeks because of the state is was in."

Ruby wiped away the tears falling from her eyes, taking in calming breaths to ease her away from breaking down

"I was so mad. Mad at myself, mad at you, mad at everything. If we had just told you in the beginning then you would of still been there cracking stupid jokes and looking out for us."

Jaune laughed lightly before looking at the smaller woman next to him "I'm sorry Ruby."

"No. You don't apologize, not after what happened. You say those words to me again and I'll smack you."

Ruby smirked at him and he relaxed again. He missed this. He would always like talking with Ruby, she had the innate ability to make him happy whenever he was feeling down. Jaune scratched the back of his neck and sat back in the bench looking up at the sky.

"It's a nice night."

"Yeah, it is." He smiled at her response.

Jaune sat there for a while. The gentle twinkle of the stars and the presence of the moon calmed his nerves and put him at ease. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there watching the sky, mesmerized by the many small dots looking back down at him.

"Jaune?" Ruby's voice broke his transfixion of the night's sky.

"Yeah." He was hesitant, he could tell she was going to ask something that he wouldn't want to answer.

"What was Mistral like?"

Jaune looked at the woman next to him. Her face was curious but hesitant. She looked like she just told him she killed a puppy. He was hesitant to tell her anything about his time at Mistral and the years that followed.

"Mistral was hell. There is no other way to describe it. They only tell you about the heroic defense and eventual counter attack. What they don't tell you is what the first year was like. That first year was the worst. It was like being shrouded by a permanent blackness, with no possibility of living. We lost so much during that first year. Fighting was at its heaviest. You couldn't look anywhere without seeing blood. There was so much blood, it would get into the crevices in your armor and stain you permanently, no amount of cleaning could wash it away."

Jaune paused, he hated remembering Mistral. He could still see the lifeless faces of those lost souls whenever he closed his eyes.

"Your sister arrived in the second year. By then fighting was sporadic at the best of times. We still lost people but not to the extent we were used to. I saved your sister in Mistral. If I hadn't shown up she would have died. The counter attack was brutal. We would go days without eating and we would sleep for however long we could until we had to move again. Be thankful you never had to experience that Ruby, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies."

Jaune stopped speaking. He let his words stew inside his head for a while. He didn't talk about Mistral to anybody. The only person he would consider it with would be Yang, she would know how to get him out of his head.

Ruby sat there silent. Whenever she asked Yang about her time in Mistral her sister would avoid the question and sometimes ignore it completely. The only information she had to go by was the books that published a couple years ago about the Defense of Mistral. But hearing it from Jaune was daunting, the book never mentioned it in such detail. It was more broad and vague, the only thing that was specific was the first hand accounts that were released with the book. But those didn't prepare her for what Jaune told her.

"Why did you want to know Ruby?" Jaune's voice rung out, breaking Ruby from her thoughts.

"It's just Yang hasn't talked about it much. When she got back she was distant and she would zone out for stretches of time. When we asked her about it she would just get this glazed look and we'd lose her for a minute. Over the years she started to open up. She told us small details at a time. And that shield she came back with, when we started going hunting again she started to carry it on her back whenever she left the house." The last sentence made Jaune smile.

"It's your shield isn't it?" Ruby saw Jaune nod his head at her question.

"I gave it to her before she left Mistral. I told her I would come back for it, I made her a promise to come back. Unlike some I keep my promises."

Ruby saw the far off look in his eyes. She knew where his head was, she just hoped he would be able to get past it eventually.

They sat there in silence for hours, silently basking in the light chill of the air and watching as the moon made way for the sun. They watched the sun peek out from under the horizon and spread its wings, illuminating the world below it with its gentle rays.

Jaune yawned loudly, stretching his limbs in front of him he stood. Looking down he saw Ruby groggily walk toward the front door. She turned around and murmured a 'sleep time' before walking towards her room. Jaune couldn't help but agree with her and made his way to the spare bedroom.

Lying back on the mattress he saw the sun's rays peeking through the curtains in the room. He lasted 5 minutes before sleep took a hold of him.

He didn't dream that night.

When Yang woke up the day after Jaune's return her mood reflected the weather, miserable. She was more than happy to see him again, but the day was going to be a hard one. She wasn't looking forward to the questions her team were going to ask, she had tried her hardest to forget about Mistral, and now she was going to have to relive it.

Her morning went like normal. She would shower, then grab breakfast before making her way to her sister's home across the city. If it wasn't for the presence of a certain blonde knight Yang wouldn't of ventured out into the torrential downpour that had blanketed Vale in minutes. As she walked the streets Yang watched the cities inhabitants go about their days as if nothing was different, and to them nothing was. Today was just like any other, albeit a tad wet. But to Yang it was the day when she would have to remember her time in a warzone, if Jaune wasn't there she would happily live without telling a soul.

When she had arrived at Ruby's she could hear the tell tale signs of conversation in the living room. Opening the door Yang could see Weiss and Ruby sitting down on her sofa, each quietly conversing with the other.

Upon hearing the door open Ruby turned to see Yang enter and leapt to her feet before tugging her sister into a firm hug. Yang smiled as her sister's arms wrapped around her, she returned the hug and started laughing when Ruby tried to get out of her sisters tight hold.

"Where's Blake?" Yang looked at the white haired women on the sofa for the answer.

"She's running a bit late, something about the rain." Weiss's response was met with a grumble from Ruby in confirmation.

Yang looked around the room for any signs of Jaune. She couldn't see him but his sword lay on the table in front of Weiss. It looked almost as new as when she saw it last. Letting go of her sister Yang slowly walked up to the table holding Jaune's sword and picked it up.

He made it look much easier, the blade was heavy, almost too heavy for her to pick up single-handedly. Yang gently put the blade back down before making her way over to the armchair opposite the table.

The room seemed to get quieter when she sat down. Looking at her sister and her partner Yang noticed they were both looking at her with mixed expressions. Her brow creased as they watched her, the silence was deafening and the tension was almost unbearable before Ruby started talking.

"Today's not going to be easy is it?"

Yang bristled at the question. She could feel the familiar sense of foreboding creeping its way up her gut.

"No it isn't." Yang's voice was hoarse, her throat felt dry and her hands were getting clammy.

She could feel her stomach constricting and churning. Yang knew it was going to be bad today. If she could keep it together then she could let Jaune do most of the talking. They fell back into a silence until Yang heard a noise down the hall, the tell-tale sound of a door opening and closing. She could hear the heavy thump of feet against the wooden floor going down the hallway and another door closing before she released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Guess that mean's Jaune's finished in the bathroom."

Ruby's attempt at lightening the mood was met with a stony silence and the room was once again quiet. Yang felt the sense of foreboding return as soon as her sister stopped talking and before she could utter out a sentence she stood and practically ran down the hall, ignoring the cry from Ruby she made her way to the door to the spare room and opened it.

Yang's breath caught in her throat at the sight of his bare back, the last time she saw his naked chest was almost 5 years ago and he looked like he put on more muscle. She noticed a set of claw marks that reached over his shoulder and down his back almost to his hip. She watched as he turned around and looked at her. His gaze met hers and she could see the uncertainty in his eyes. His chest had more marks. The raised flesh from a burn and the faint lines of claw marks racked across his abdominals. He looked like he had been through hell and she knew that he had, she had been there too, he had been there longer.

"Yang? You okay?"

His voice cut through her and before he could react she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close before quietly sobbing into his chest. She felt his arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him. They stood like that for a while until Yang's sobs turned into light sniffs and the tears had drained her.

"Take a deep breath. You knew this day was coming, but think about it this way, you have me here to ease the burden. You aren't alone with this okay?"

Yang nodded into his chest and pulled away and looked up at him. His gentle smile eased her mind and she attempted a smile back. Yang felt the kiss on her forehead before she unwrapped herself off him before sitting on his bed and watched him get dressed.

She sat there until she felt his warm hand on her shoulder.

"You ready?"

A.N: So what did you think?

I had a bit of difficulty with this chapter, I wanted to make it a whole lot longer but I found myself waffling on and on just for the sake of it. I was going to add more but I found that I ended it at the right time.

Hopefully the next chapter will take a couple of days, I have already started it.

And I'm sorry if I hadn't answered some of the questions yet, the time is coming.