Breathe in. Breathe out.

That was what Jaune was doing.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

A simple thing. Something every person did all the time.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

For him though, that was the only thing he could do. For over a year, the only thing Jaune could do on his own was breathe - in and out. Everything else had to be done for him. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, he couldn't even eat normal food - it was provided to him by drip.

Jaune hated that. He hated the unnaturally white room he was stuck in. He hated the constant beeping of the medical aperture that monitored him and kept him alive. He hated how he couldn't even go to the toilet to take care of his needs - his completely paralyzed body just let all the 'waste' out. He vaguely remembered crying the first time it happened. Now he didn't care anymore.

Just one moment. That was all it took to rob him of everything - his hopes, his dreams... his dignity. He hates that too.

There was a sudden gust of wind, and the noise from the corridor becomes louder for a moment, before doors to his room click shut. He didn't turn to look who entered, he knew it was his doctor, here to check on him. It's not like he could turn even if he wanted. He hates that too.

The doctor comes into his field of vision. He greets him, checks the aperture near his bed, and then pulls out a syringe.

Jaune focuses, takes hold of the power running through his body, and pulls it away from his right arm. By now, this is as easy as breathing for him. He blinks two times - the only thing beside breathing he is capable of. The doctor nods, and moves to take a sample of his blood, now that the Aura protecting his arm is gone.

This was one thing Jaune found funny in his current situation. His father, an experienced Hunter, never wanted to awaken his Aura, saying that if he really wanted to be Hunter, he should do it on his own.

And Jaune did awaken it on his own - at the exact same time his spine was shattered. So now he had Aura - but was trapped in the rotting prison that was his body. Ironic, isn't it?

The doctor nods to him, sending him a friendly smile. And Jaune knows it's not just for show - this particular doctor really cared. The older man offers a few words of support, and leaves his room, leaving Jaune alone yet again. One year, three weeks, and two days. This is how long has passed since that fateful day.

With nothing better to do, Jaune focused on his Aura again. He took control of it, moving it around his body, focusing on one spot, then spreading evenly everywhere. It was a pointless thing to do - it's not like he would ever be able to leave this room, but it at least gave him something to do.

Fun thing about being paralyzed - you have a lot of free time and not many options to fill it up. A few months after his accident, when Jaune finally accepted he'd managed to go even further away from his dream of becoming a Hunter than he already was - he started to play around with his Aura. He could feel this power run through his body, empowering it, as useless as it was.

This become his favorite - and only - pastime. He discovered he could control how, and where, it would flow if he focused hard enough. So he started practicing. He practiced every moment he was awake - and as time went by, his control got better and better. After four months he could effortlessly move it around his body - this made life much easier for the doctors when they wanted to give him an injection or take a sample of his blood.

Around a year and a half after the accident he discovered he could use Aura to augment his senses.

This was a lot harder than simply moving his Aura around, but Jaune was happy - this proved a challenge, something to keep his mind off sad reality. Lying there, in his bed, without the ability to move, and practicing with his Aura as the only thing he could do, let him pretend.

Pretend that he was doing some special training. That he is developing some super-awesome-secret superpower, the likes of which the world had never seen. That, if he become proficient enough with, he would be able to walk again.

That he wasn't useless.

So he practiced driving Aura towards his eyes, his ears, even his nose. More often than not only thing he got for his trouble was a headache - but he continued nonetheless. It was better than just lying there, remembering.

It was hearing that he mastered first. Probably because it was most useful for him now. Getting better eyesight, or smell, wouldn't do much for him. At least with hearing, he could listen to people walking around.

Still, it took him a lot of time to figure out how to do it properly.

Oh sure, just using Aura to boost it was easy enough. He had it covered in less than two months for not only hearing - but also smell and sight.

But he wasn't satisfied with just that. It consumed a lot of Aura, and he could keep it up only for a few moments before the headache kicked in.

It took him more than five months to figure out why - and it was a conversation between two doctors that gave him the idea. They were discussing how one of the patients had trouble hearing after suffering some brain damage. This gave him some inspiration - if senses had parts of brain responsible for them, maybe augmenting those parts would let him handle enhanced perception for longer?

Six month later he succeeded. Smell was much easier now that he knew what to do, but sight still gave him a lot of trouble. Often, instead of getting better, his vision became blurred. Jaune wasn't sure why, but he welcomed this challenge. The more time he spent trying to figure that out, the less he had to think about how hopeless his situation was.

Finally, after nearly a year after he began his self-imposed training, his Aura augmentation skills reached a level he was satisfied with. He still would get a headache if he enhanced his senses too much, or held it for too long, but now his time limit was over an hour, not a few seconds.

So now he had a means to experience the world around him much better, but he still couldn't interact with it. He couldn't communicate with anyone.

He wondered if Aura could help him with that too?

It happened on his thirteenth birthday - nearly three years after the accident. His family came to visit him like usual. His parents and all seven sisters.

He hated that. He hated that they were forcing themselves to act all cheery for him. He hated the tired look on his father's face. He hated the bags under the eyes of his mother.

He hated he couldn't do anything to help them, to tell them it was all right, that they should stop worrying about him and just live their lives.

That he couldn't communicate with them at all, even though they were right next to him. He could hear them before they even entered the hospital. He could smell them before they reached his room. He could see them clearly, even if they came in the middle of the night. He could sense their Auras, calm and dormant for his mother and sisters, and the burning brightly, awakened power of his father.

He could feel them in many ways, most of which he couldn't even describe - but he couldn't say even a single word to them.

He flexed his Aura, spread it, focused it on them, hoping against all hope that it would somehow convey his feelings to them.

And it did. Jaune wasn't sure who was more surprised when the link formed - his father or he, but surprise quickly gave way to hope, and then happiness. Arthur Arc almost fell when he jumped out of his chair, ran to his son's side, and clenched his hand in his. Needless to say, it startled his wife and daughters. They demanded to know what was happening, why he was acting so strange.

"I can feel him. His emotions, his feels - I can feel them. And he can feel mine too." He managed to say with a hoarse voice.

"It must be somehow be transferred by Aura - I can feel his connecting to my own. It might be his Semblance, or.. I don't know. But I can feel him." He added after a moment, tears in his eyes.

Of course, the rest of Jaune's family immediately demanded to be included in this connection. Poor Arthur tried as best he could to explain he couldn't do anything about it, and that awakening the Auras of all his family at this very moment would most probably kill him.

Jaune found his expression very funny when his mother and sisters seemed to seriously consider forcing him to do it anyway. The hurtful look his father sent his way made him feel guilty...but only a little.

To spare his father from death by Aura exhaustion, Jaune focused on his sisters and mother. It was much harder to form a link with them, but he eventually succeeded.

That day, for the first time in three years, the Arcs cried tears of joy, not sorrow.

By the time his fourteenth birthday came around, 'feeling' people became something he did instinctively. He discovered it was very hard to connect to people other than his family - as proved by one nurse that freaked out when he tried to connect to her. Instead, he developed a method of extending his Aura around, letting him 'touch' other people.

It allowed him to know what a person was feeling, though it was vague - he could tell if someone was angry, or happy, or annoyed...but he couldn't tell why.

Oh well, not that it mattered.

There were good days.

Days when he looked at all that he achieved even though he was paralyzed, and he felt something akin to pride. He remembered his father's praise when he learned how well Jaune could control his Aura. He recalled the doctors' stunned expressions when they made check ups, and it turned out he was in much better condition than he should be. He remembered how each time he linked with his family was much easier than the last. How the connection lasted longer, and how much clearer the sent messages were.

On days such as those, he would send his Aura deep into his body, scanning it, examining it.

This strange power helped him with so much, allowed him to do so many things that were supposed to be impossible. Maybe it would help him walk again?

There were bad days.

Days when he looked back at everything he'd learned, everything he achieved - and realized just how little it mattered.

So what if he could tell by smell who person was, and what mood they were in?

So what if he could hear everything that was happening on this hospital floor, or tune everything out and listen to a quiet conversation between two doctors five rooms down the corridor?

So what if he could see other people's Aura? So what that he could connect with it?

His enhanced vision was not needed in this small hospital room. Nothing he heard with his super hearing could possibly help him. Smell? The only thing it did for him was to let him know when he wet himself.

His Aura link? It was just a poor substitute for normal talking.

Pointless. Worthless. Everything he did, everything that he achieved, it was all completely worthless.

Jaune made his decision. It was enough. It was long past time he ended this farce.

What finally pushed him to do what, in hindsight, he should have long ago, was one overheard conversation.

His family was coming to visit regularly, as always. As always they 'talked' by exchanging emotions and feelings. It was all good, but had one downside - it was hard to control what was transferred. So even though they didn't want him to know, Jaune's parents were in distress. He didn't know why at first, but once he overheard a conversation between his father and one of the doctors, the reason was made clear - money.

Keeping him alive was expensive. With his sisters growing and going to schools, money was becoming a problem.

In hindsight, it was obvious, wasn't it? It's not like social care would cover all of this - apparently it didn't cover even a small part.

Jaune wanted to do something, but what could he do? All hopes of him miraculously recovering had long since passed. So now he was not only useless - worse, he had become a burden for his family, and would continue to be until the day he died. He could do nothing to help them.

And then it dawned on him. There was one thing he could do, something that would resolve all of this. It was so simple, that he wondered why he'd never thought about it before, only wasting time on practicing useless things.

All of his family's problems stemmed from the fact that they had to pay very expensive medical bills. His bills. So if he were gone, his family would be happier, right?

It was a sound idea, in his opinion. So not wasting anymore time, he put his plan into action. He was weak, surely it wouldn't take much to end his life, right?

It turned out that killing yourself with your own Aura is a rather hard thing to do. Well, that made some sense - it was a power meant to protecting oneself, not harm.

He tried many things, before he decided to try and over accelerate his heart. Unfortunately, him being in hospital and hooked to various medical machines, which meant there was little time between said machines picking up his alarmingly high heart rate, and doctors showing up.

There were a few intense moments, when they tried to save his life while he tried to end it. But eventually, the same doctor that usually checked on him came. He took one look at the situation, and let out a tired sigh. Then he pushed himself toward Jaune and looked him deep in the eyes.

"Enough" He said in a serious voice. "They will never forgive themselves if you die like this."

That made him stop.

And the look on his family's faces when they learned what he was trying to do stopped him from trying again. At least until he found a better method than trying to overcharge his heart.

Five years. That was how much time had passed since that fateful day. Five years since he became a prisoner in his own body. Five years since the doctors said he would be completely paralyzed for the rest of his life. Five years since Jaune lost his dreams, his hopes, his pride.

Five years since he was bound to this bed, with the only thing he could do being breathing and blinking.

But today, it would be over. His parents and sisters would soon come to celebrate the fifteenth birthday of their useless son and brother. But that wouldn't happen. Not anymore. Jaune would make sure of it - that today will be the last time they came to visit a paralyzed cripple.

Because he'd finally did it. He found a way.

He probably would be grinning, if he could move his face muscles.

They appeared soon after. There was the usual ritual of his sisters coming to give him a kiss on the cheek, from youngest to oldest.

Jaune could hardly contain his excitement. He wanted to get it over with, but forced himself to wait. The right time would come soon enough.

After greetings, there came a time for talking. His family filled him on what had happened since their last visit. Mom talking about the new herbal medicine she'd developed, his father about some of the missions he was on. His sisters talked about school, their friends, and many different small, stupid things.

Then they sat on both sides of his bed - mother and three oldest sisters on his right, his father and rest of Jaune's sisters on his left.

Jaune extended his Aura, forming a link with his family. Even after all these years, it was hard to keep it up with so many people - as much for him, as for them. They only had a few minutes, but it was enough to convey what he wanted. He didn't need much time.

His family seemed surprised, and even worried when link formed. Finally, the time had come.

Victoria Arc was feeling a strange sense of unease. It started as soon as she entered her son's hospital room. Somehow it felt… different.

She tried to ignore it when they went through their usual routine, but it persisted, and even grew when she observed Jaune's face. He seemed much more lively, much more interested in what was happening. And also impatient. Like he was waiting for something to happen. Somehow this made her even more uneasy.

When their 'link' formed, she couldn't help but be surprised by the sheer excitement she felt. It was never perfect method of communication, only ever able to transfer one's feelings, but this was all they had. And again this strange excitement made her uneasy. Somehow, it reminded her of something that almost happened a year and a half ago

She looked into her son's eyes, and focused on the link more. She didn't find the same despair that she'd seen on that horrible day, when she learned she almost lost him. That her baby boy thought the best thing he could do for his family was to die.

There was nothing like that this time - only excitement, happiness, and… pride? She had no idea what to think of it. She took his hand in hers, and squeezed. Victoria did it every time they visited, even though she knew he could neither feel it, nor return the gesture.

Was it just her, or was his hand was warmer today? She shook her head, dispelling the thought, and any false hope it might bring. The was clear - he would never be able to move again. Ever.

She squeezed his hand again, more for her own comfort than anything.

And then, Jaune Arc, her dear son, squeezed it back.

There was a moment of tense silence. Victoria Arc froze. Then she looked at her son's hand, still in hers. Then she looked into his eyes - they were shining with pride. She looked back at their hands, and squeezed again.

And yet again he squeezed it back. It was weak, so very weak, but it was there.

She squeezed it yet again, and yet again the getsure was returned.

A quiet chuckle escaped her mouth. Then another one when her son responded to her squeeze yet again. And again. And again. She didn't know how many times they repeated this, or when her chuckles turned into laughter, but she was aware of her family was looking at her with a mix of surprise and worry. She realized she probably should explain what was happening - but was too busy feeling happy. For the first time in what seemed forever, she was genuinely happy.

And proud. So very proud.

puts on sunglasses

I'm back.

To those of you who read The ProfessionArc, welcome back. To those who didn't - well, hello there.

So, what can I say? This story will be different than TPA -as you can probably tell. Some familiar faces might make an appearance, but other than that both stories have nothing to do with each other.

Just like last time, JJD is editor-in-chief. Go check out his works (I took the liberty to… borrow some of his OCs), they are really good.

Oh, and this time around there will be romance. I won't say what ship it is just yet -you'll have to read to find out. Also - don't expect too good of a romance.

Well, that's it from me. Until next time.