"You have everything, right?" Pyrrha asked as they walked towards the airship dock.

"Yep." Jaune nodded. "Cash for dinner, tickets for the plane, air sickness bag, and enough changes of clothes for the weekend." he said, going through the backpack embroidered with the Beacon Academy logo.

"Good to hear. I can't wait for you to see my hometown! My family is going to love you." the champion smiled as they handed over their tickets to the flight attendant.

"I hope they do. I'm not really a master of making people like me the first time I met them." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head as he remembered the awkward first encounter he had with Yang when he threw up on her shoes on the flight to Beacon before the entrance exam.

"Are you forgetting the time you met me?" she asked, cuddling up next to the knight who had recently became her boyfriend after a dance that occured a few weeks ago. She hoped this vacation they'd be taking during the four day break from studies would allow her to see a different side of each other.

"Okay, okay. That's a different story though. Everyone knows I'm a ladies man." Jaune said cockily, flexing his quote unquote, 'muscles'. His girlfriend rolled her eyes as they took their seats.

"Sure you are, Jaune." Pyrrha chuckled as they buckled into their seats. "Sit back. I may live on the western coast of Mistral, but it's still a long flight."

"How long?"

"Seven, maybe eight hours."

"..."

"You forgot the air sickness bag, didn't you?"

"You packed extras in your carry-on, didn't you?"

Pyrrha quickly unfastened her seatbelt and rummaged through her bag on the overhead luggage bin, fishing out a package of small but durable plastic bags, which Jaune accepted gratefully.


The eight hours seemed to fly by for Pyrrha, who fell asleep a half-hour in, only to be awoken twice: once by a particularly bad case of air sickness by Jaune, and by a flight attendant to alert her they were ready to land. She got up as the airship was docked at the coastside heliport, leaving Jaune to take care of the bags. As she made her way into the indoor waiting room with the other passengers, she was waved down by four others. One was a large, muscular man with blue eyes, red hair and a thick beard, flanked by a beautiful woman with blonde hair and golden eyes. The other two were a twin boy and girl, each with green eyes, but one with brown hair while the other was blonde. "Pyrrha!" They all exclaimed as they ran over to her, throwing her into a family hug that would've crushed her if she wasn't used to these group embraces.

"It's so good to see you all again!" she smiled brightly.

"As it is for us to see you again, my little warrior goddess." her mother said as they broke off the hug, getting a good look at her eldest child.

"Now where's this boy you brought with you?" her father asked.

"Oh, he should be-" Pyrrha started as the sound of someone retching into a nearby wastebin caught their attention. They all turned to find Jaune, hunched over a barrel with his face in the opening and bags unceremoniously dropped on the floor next to him.

"Is that him?" The blonde girl twin asked.

"Is he sick? Are we gonna get what he's got?" her brother asked.

"eheheheh..." Pyrrha giggled awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head, the awkward moment only getting more-so awkward as he finished and walked back over.

"Sorry about that. I get airsick real easy." Jaune apologized.

"Get away!" the blonde shrieked.

"Is it contagious?" the boy asked, covering his moth and nose, and getting a look from the knight in front of him.

"Odie, Phoebe, air sickness isn't something you can catch. Calm down." his mother said to calm him down, before turning to the young man in front of her. "You must be Jaune. Pyrrha told us you'd be coming along."

"Y-yes, that's me." he nodded, shaking her hand. "What should I call your older sister, Pyrrha?"

"That's my wife, my boy!" the man roared with laughter, pulling Jaune into a crushing handshake, followed by a headlock he could not get out of. "So this is the man who stole your heart, huh, Pyrrha?"

"Father, please!" Pyrrha blushed as he let the boy go, shaking himself back into shape. "I'm sorry about that Jaune."

"No worries. Remember how we had to deal with the same thing the day Nora's parents visited?" Jaune said, remembering how the two viking-like adults nearly crushed every bone in the three bodies of him, Pyrrha, and Ren.

"True..." Pyrrha said, trailing off in thought of that day. "Anyway, these are my parents, Hephaestus and Hera, and my twin siblings, Odysseus and Phoebe." she introduced, moving from the two adults to the eight-year olds.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all." Jaune said, giving a collected wave to the Nikos family.

"The pleasure is ours." Hera smiled. "Come. We have dinner being prepared back home." she motioned as the family walked towards the exit, where a limo with Atlesian guards was waiting for them.

"Woah..." Jaune gaped as one of the guards took his bags to place in the trunk. "Being a celebrity here must stick a while, Huh?"

"Actually, this is just the family limo. The one Pyrrha had when she was a star athlete is in storage." Hera explained, not noticing Pyrrha gesturing to let her explain.

"Family limo?" Jaune asked, turning as he heard his girlfriend give a dejected sigh.

"I was going to explain, but my mom seems to have done part of it for me." she said, as her mother mouthed 'Sorry'.

"Explain what?" The leader of Team JNPR asked as they all got in and began to drive off, the two guards following on motorbikes with their emergency lights flashing. "How famous is your family, Pyrrha?"

"Well, while Atlas may have most of Remnant's military protection under control, Mistral has its own national guard to act as an emergency force." Pyrrha started to explain.

"And you're looking at the commander of to Mistralian Guard." Hephaestus gestured to himself. "And I may or may not be the mayor of this city."

Jaune's mouth fell open in surprise. He knew Pyrrha was famous and all back home, but her entire family was as well?

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

"I think we broke him." Odie shrugged.

"Way to go, Dad. Now Pyrrha needs a new boyfriend." Phoebe said with her arms folded.

"Phoebe, please." Pyrrha pleaded.


Jaune was still taken aback by all of this glamorous lifestyle the Nikos family experienced day in and day out. The mayoral estate was massive, at least half a size larger than Beacon's campus. The mansion, built out of an old temple remains, was a giant four story structure with a large dining hall, different sorts of lounges with bars and pool tables, and an underground training area was a huge, stadium like setting with a hologram projector to simulate different terrains and climates. Out back was a courtyard and guest house that still made his family's home in northern Vale look like an outhouse with bedrooms compared to it. He was so busy immersing himself in the tour Pyrrha's younger siblings volunteered to bring him on, he didn't seem to notice the poor job Pyrrha was doing on hiding the worry from her face.

"I got to say, this wasn't the kind of house I expected you to live in, Pyrrha." Jaune commented.

"Oh, well, I never really got to talk with you about it on the flight over." she admitted. "I can see what you mean though. This looks more like a house someone like Weiss would live in."

Jaune chuckled at that comment as they were lead back to the dining hall, where Haephaestus and Hera were just sitting down as the food was being brought out to the dinner table. The patriarch and commander of Mistral's armed forces sat at the head of the table, his wife and twin children sitting to his left while Pyrrha and Jaune sat to the right.

"Just in time." Hephaestus smiled as the younger generation entered and sat down. "How'd you enjoy the tour, Jaune?"

"It was amazing! If you would, I'd love to try that combat arena you have downstairs sometime." Jaune requested.

"Of course!" he grinned as the food was passed around and plates were piled up with various examples of Mistralian cuisine. "I'll help you set it up tomorrow for a test run."

"That'd be great!" Jaune nodded as he dug in, pausing for a moment as he noticed Pyrrha simply picking at a salad in front of herself. "Is something wrong, Pyrrha?"

"I guess I'm just not as hungry as I thought is all..." she trailed off.

"That's alright. We can save your meal for later if you want." Hera nodded as Pyrrha left the table, a butler taking her plate back into the kitchen, taking a preemptive hint. Jaune followed her as she made her way out the dining hall and into the foyer of the the mansion, catching her attention as the heavy mahogany door shut behind him with a loud clunk.

"You feeling alright?" Jaune asked, his teammate and girlfriend not turning back to face him for a moment before she asked of him something he wasn't expecting.

"Jaune, you made a mistake offering to try out that combat arena." she said.

Jaune raised an eyebrow at that comment. "What are you talking about?" he asked in return.

The champion sighed as she continued. "My family has had a tradition of producing some of the greatest protectors Mistral has ever known. To keep up that tradition, some of us marry into legacies similar to ours." She paused before thinking of the right words to use next. "In other words, if my dad doesn't find your performance tomorrow satisfactory, he can make it so I can never see you again."

Jaune's eyes widened as his girlfriend dropped the bombshell he was never expecting. "W-what? But, he and I...your family seems to take a real liking to me!"

"A liking, yes." she shrugged. "But that's as a person, not a warrior." She walked up to him, pulling him into a light hug. The blonde could feel her trembling slightly. "I can't lose you, Jaune. I've never felt about anybody else the way I felt about you."

"Hey, relax." Jaune whispered, tilting her head over to look at him. "Tomorrow can't be anything I haven't already been prepared for."


"THIS IS SOMETHING I HAVEN'T PREPARED FOR!" Jaune internally screamed as he dodged another strike from the Spider Droid trying to swat at it with its legs, followed by a volley of cannon fire. He was awoken earlier as Pyrrha quickly got him up and dressed in his combat equipment, then being dragged down to the combat arena without breakfast or a good morning. Her family was already waiting for him, looking much more serious than their demeanors he had quickly come accustomed to. He went in, thinking he'd be thrown into a sparring match with someone, perhaps Pyrrha or Hephaestus. He hadn't expected to be fighting a giant metal monster built to destroy anything in its path!

On a small set of bleachers, the Nikos family sat, eagerly, or in one's case, worriedly, watching for the outcome of the battle. Pyrrha was on the edge of her seat as she watched Jaune narrowly miss having his head blown off by the droid's energy cannons, his hood slightly singed from the graze it took. Hera quickly picked up on her eldest's stressed-out energy, turning to her husband and getting his attention. "Honey, is this really necessary? I mean, Beacon must have seen something in him to make him a team leader over Pyrrha."

"Ozpin works in mysterious ways, I agree." Hephaestus nodded. "However, even he has made mistakes in the past. I intend to find out if this was one of them."

Pyrrha looked away from their conversation and back to her boyfriend, who took a moment of reprieve to take a look up into the spectating area to see those emerald orbs staring at him, full of worry yet at the same time sending him positive vibes of belief. "It'll be okay." he mouthed as he charged the robot. Everyone winced as they heard a sickening crunch as Jaune's shield arm buckled under a powerful thrust of the robot's leg, kicking out at him. Fighting through the pain, the knight ducked under, noticing a hydraulic hose on the underside of the leg he could easily slash out. With one fell swipe, he swung his blade at the weak point, severing the connection and spraying a foul smelling lubricant across the ground below them. He backed out, watching as the droid tried to fire at him, only to lose its intended target as it lost its balance and fell. The shot still fired, and ricocheted off the wall behind Jaune and towards the bleacher section. Acting fast, Jaune removed his shield, roaring in pain as it was pulled off his broken arm, and throwing it with all his might towards the bleachers. It made contact with the cannon shot just in time as it took the hit , sending a shield scorched with energy blasts against the wall above them.

"That will be enough." Hephaestus announced as he stood up, taking the shield that fell behind him. The droid ceased struggling to move and attack Jaune, and complied to its master's orders and ceased attacking the blonde knight in front of it. "Hera, children, I'd like to speak with Jaune in private if you wouldn't mind."

"Father, please. He's hurt and..." Pyrrha started before a hand from her father cut her off.

"I'll take care of it. Now leave us." he ordered.

Pyrrha sent Jaune a worried look, in which he returned as his girlfriend and her mother and siblings left the room.

Hephaestus walked down from the bleachers, Crocea Mors still in hand as he inspected the arm of the boy that had faced off against one of his best robots in his private collection of sparring bots. "How's your arm, my boy?" he asked.

"I-it really hurts. Can I get some help?" he asked, his veins going cold as the large warrior marched up to him, and in one motion, grabbing his arm and resetting the bone, eliciting a yelp from the blonde.

"Your aura should do the rest, but don't try to do much movement until it's fully healed." Hephaestus huffed, handing Jaune his shield back, in which he folded, attached to his hip and sheathed his sword into. "You're not exactly what I was expecting when I found out you were an Arc." he continued.

Jaune dejectedly looked down at that statement. "I know. I hadn't had much training before Beacon." he admitted.

"Neither did your father when I met him." Hephaestus said to the boy's surprise. "Arno was one of the best Huntsmen I trained alongside with at Beacon. However, he didn't start out as well as most of them either."

Jaune looked back up, a dumbfounded look on his face. "You've met my father?" he asked. He had no recollection of his father ever telling him that after being put into a team with Pyrrha.

"And stayed in touch with him after he beat me in the Vytal Festival Tournament Quarterfinals in our final year." Hephaestus added. "We sort of had a rivalry after that, but it fell out of touch after Pyrrha was born. I'd...like to have that connection again."

Jaune looked up hopefully. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" he asked.

"Any son of Arno's is a son of mine." he smiled, holding a hand for Jaune to shake. "I just request that you keep making my daughter happy."

"I won't let you down in that regard, sir." Jaune said, taking the offer and shaking his hand, realizing too late that it was the one on his broken arm.


A high pitched scream could be heard from the other side of the door.

"Did you hear that?" Phoebe asked.

"It sounded like some girl's in trouble." Odie agreed.

"...I doubt that was a girl..." Pyrrha said, biting down on a trembling fist to try and curb her nervousness.


"...and that's why I now have a cast for the next week." Jaune said as he and his team walked back with his team from the airship docks at Beacon.

"Sounds like a helluva weekend at Pyrrha's." Nora commented, helping her team leader with his bags.

"Still, I'm so relieved my dad approved of you." Pyrrha smiled, hugging his other arm.

"Oh by the way, Phoebe and Odie told me to give this to you." Jaune said, temporarily getting his good arm free from his girlfriend and pulling an envelope out of his pocket. After taking it, Pyrrha pulled out a condom wrapper with a sticky note attached to it, "Safety First!"

"Odie, Phoebe, please..." she begged quietly, blushing almost as red as her hair.

"What's it say?" Jaune asked, causing Pyrrha to quickly pocket it before anyone else saw.

"Just a little note to wish me luck." she half-lied. "I'm just glad they liked you."

"You and me both." Jaune sighed. "You have no idea how stressed I was over if they'd like me or not."

Pyrrha did a double take. "You were?" she asked. "I thought I was the worried one between us."

"It was all a show me being calm." the knight admitted. "Inside, I was freaking out the second I walked up to your parents."

"Wow...I was stressed out up until you waked out of the arena." Pyrrha chuckled in relief of that admission. "I guess it was all for nothing, was it?"

"I guess so." he smiled, hugging her with one arm as she and Jaune shared a quick kiss.

"Get a room you two!" Nora yelled, earning a smack on the back of her head from Ren for the outburst that had the two others blushing.