"C'mon, Nora! You're hogging all the syrup!" Jaune complained as his team watched the hammer-wielder practically empty the squeeze-bottle of Dunkleman's Own Maple Syrup onto the pancakes her best friend had prepared for the team.
"Just...a few...more...drops..." Nora replied, spacing out her words as she focused letting each squeeze illicit smaller and smaller drops until she finally put down an empty bottle. "Voila! Perfect Pancakes!" she smiled, holding up pancakes that had long since became soggy after drowning in the sugary topping.
"I'll get a new bottle." Pyrrha sighed as she got up and walked over to the kitchen of the mess hall to get a new bottle. Almost immediately after she left, Jaune felt a presence taking the seat she was sitting next to him in.
"Sorry, but that seat's tak-" he started, turning to face the individual, yelping in surprise as he realized it was someone he recognized right away. Blue eyes just like his and blonde hair styled in a shorter style than his, even for a woman, and a large halberd on her back.
"S'up, little bro?" she asked.
"M-Marron?" Jaune stuttered at his older sister. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm hear to ask a favor, Jauney." Marron smirked, placing something nobody expected on the table: a baby. "I need somebody to watch Emre here while I'm on mission here in Vale."
"What?" Jaune gasped as his nephew just made raspberries at Ren, who rolled his eyes as Nora made one back.
"Did I stutter?" Marron asked. "I'm just gonna be gone until the end of the day, and the rest of the family are up farther north back home."
"What about your husband?" the scragglier of the two blondes asked.
"Remy's in Atlas working out a deal with Winter and the SDC to work on a joint project, and couldn't bring him with him." Marron deadpanned. "What's the matter? Does Uncle Jauney not wanna spend time with his nephew?" she teased in a babying voice, pinching her brother's cheek.
"Hey! Leggo!" Jaune cried as he got away from the torture that was family/ relative cheek pinching.
"I don't understand why you're so reserved about it." Marron commented. "Professor Ozzy already gave me your schedule. You should have time to watch him and take care of your classes." She then looked over to see Nora making funny faces at her son. "Plus, he's taking a liking to your team already!"
Defeated thanks to the headmaste and his teammates, Jaune finally gave in. "Fine. I'll watch him." he sighed, only for a firm hand to be heavily slapped on his back.
"Hah! I knew you'd come around." Marron chuckled as she dropped a handbag onto the table. "Here's everything you may need: change of clothes, some of his toys, extra diapers, etc..." she trailed off as she looked at the clock over the main exit. "Crap, I'm late. I need to go." she said, getting up and hugging her young son goodbye. "Be good for your Uncle Jaune and his friends, and Mommy will be back later, okay?" she asked in a sweet voice, giving him a peck on the cheek as she left him in her brother's arms and walked off just as Pyrrha returned.
"What was that about?"she asked before noticing the baby Jaune was holding. "Oh my goodness! Jaune, where'd you get that baby?"
"It's my nephew, Emre. My sister dumped him on me for the day while she's on mission." he answered as she sat down.
"He's adorable!" Pyrrha smiled as she took hold of him, just as their friends in Team RWBY made it down to the cafeteria.
"Morning guys." Yang yawned as she sat down next to Pyrrha with Ruby. Rubbing her eyes, she nearly had them bulge out of her skull as she realized what Pyrrha was swadling.
"Umm, what is that?" Weiss asked, pointing out the baby.
"Guys, meet Jaune and Pyrrha's secret love child: Jaune Jr.!" Nora announced, causing the two to turn a shade of red that almost matched Ruby's cape.
"NORA!"
After settling the room after the outburst caused by Nora's teasing and returning to their dorm, Jaune explained to the group of confused RWBY girls who the baby actually was.
"So in conclusion, he's actually your sister's kid?" Blake asked for clarification.
"I could care less! He's so cute, I wouldn't mind if he was Torchwick's kid!" Ruby cooed, tickling Emre's feet and causing him to giggle.
"So how are you going to watch over him with classes soon?" Yang asked.
"Apparently, Marron already got permission from Professor Ozpin to let me watch over him." Jaune replied.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Ren asked. "Taking care of a child is a big responsibility. I should know." he continued, looking towards Nora, who was already messing around with some of the toys left in Emre's care bag.
"It's fine. I'll bring him with me to Professor Port's lecture and he'll fall right asleep along with half of the class." he theorized. It was a perfect plan. There wasn't a day that went by without someone in the eccentric educator's lectures falling asleep during his class.
"Speaking of which, doesn't it start in five minutes?" Ruby asked.
"Aw, crapbaskets! We're going to be late again!" Yang said, dashing out the room followed by the other seven, Jaune taking up the rear as he put on a special harness to carry Emre in a chest mounted pouch before following the rest.
"Then, the day came when my cabbage-scented grandfather finally took me to craft my weapon..." Port reminisced as he continued through his story. Forty-five minutes into the hour, and the teacher had already succeeded in getting half his class to fall asleep, probably the only few still awake being Weiss, Blake and Ren, although they didn't have their interests as piqued as the professor thought.
One aspect that the group wasn't expecting was Jaune's hypothesis to be true, especially with Peter Port's booming voice projecting through the lesson hall. Emre was out like a soaked campfire within the first ten minutes of the lecture while the professor was still talking about his first encounter with a King Taijitu. Another was that he was going to silently wake up with a yawn and, through his curious nature all infants had, started messing with the velcro straps keeping him in his uncle's care. As they came undone, he slid down Jaune's front and began crawling towards the exit, leaving just before the bell rang.
"So then I...Eh, what? Oh. It appears we've run out of time." Port paused as the bell awoke all his sleeping students with a startle. "Remember to keep working on your essays on Deathstalker combat strategies, as they are due at the end of the week, and remember..."
"Stay vigilant." The class repeated back in a complete and simultaneous deadpan as they began to leave.
As Pyrrha collected her books, she looked over at Jaune and immediately had all the color drain from her face. "Jaune? Where's Emre?"
"What're you talking abouOH BABY!" Jaune yelped as he realized the harness he was wearing was empty.
"I beg your pardon, Mister Arc?" their professor asked, unaware of the infant that was in his classroom.
"As in...Oh Baby, we are so pumped to continue working on this awesome project!" Jaune covered for himself, rather poorly as everyone, save for Nora who was giving two thumbs up, facepalmed.
"Ah! Good to hear such enthusiasm from today's youth!" The professor smiled as he collected some papers from his desk. "Off you go then."
"Of course, Professor! See you next time!" Pyrrha said through a forced grin as the eight students bolted out of the room.
"How could you lose a baby strapped to your chest?!" Weiss screamed as the doors shut behind them.
"You try staying awake while a guy rambles about his teen years for a full hour!" Jaune fought back. "Oh man! Marron's gonna kill me if something happens to him!"
"Look, calm down, Jaune." Yang leveled. "It's a baby. He couldn't have gotten far."
"Let's just split up and try to find him." Ruby suggested.
"I'll go check the dorms with Nora and grab the care bag just in case." Ren volunteered.
"I'll go look by the ampitheatre and ballroom with Yang." Blake announced.
"Me and Weiss will go check by Ozpin's tower." Ruby nodded. "That leaves you and Pyrrha to take the cafeteria."
With simultaneous nods, the group split up to find the lost Arc nephew.
Back in the cafeteria, lunch service had began early as 11 o'clock rolled around. First in line was the two boys of Team CFVY, as they stood by the steam tables that kept the food warm before the kitchen staff served them. As one poured a heaping ladle of soup into Yatsuhashi's bowl, he looked down to find something off.
"Um, excuse me, Miss Salmon?" the giant asked the pink-haired lunch lady. "What's a baby doing in my soup?"
"If I say 'the backstroke', will it get you to laugh?" the lunchwoman asked.
"From the smell of it, I think he's adding asparagus to your pea soup." Fox noted as the noses of everyone in their radius scrunched up their noses at the odd scent.
"Did someone just say baby?" Pyrrha suddenly asked as she and Jaune ran into the front of the line, panting as the three others looked at them oddly.
"I take it this belongs to you?" Yatsuhashi asked, gently picking Emre out of his soup bowl.
"Oh, yes! Thank you so much, Yatsu!" Jaune gasped with a smile on his face, taking his nephew back before getting a whiff of the air around them. "Is that from him?"
"I'll tell Ren to bring the diaper changing kit." Pyrrha told her scraggly haired partner as they left the line and walked back to the room.
"Wait, so the baby just...in your.." Fox stuttered, not wanting to make the situation more awkward.
"I'm suddenly not that hungry anymore." Yatsuhashi said, dumping his leftover soup in a nearby trash bin.
"Ditto." Fox agreed, abandoning his tray.
The four members of JNPR crowded around the young one as he lay on the table in front of them, none wanting to jump on the chance to do what needed to be done.
"I'm not changing it." Nora finally said.
"Same here." Ren agreed.
"Nor I." Pyrrha said as well.
"Wha-Guys! I have no idea how to change a diaper!" Jaune cried, while Emre fussed about being stuck in a wet diaper full of urine and some of Yatsuhashi's serving of soup still. "Why can't any of you do it?"
"I still have flashbacks from my little brother's changing after his first taco dinner." Pyrrha said, her eyes locked in a cold stare.
"I don't have a strong stomach when it comes with body waste." Ren admitted.
"I'm not allowed five feet from an undiapered infant." Nora said in a completely calm manner, earning odd stares from her team wondering how that came to be.
With a sigh, Jaune caved as he began to try and change the dirty disposable undergarment. It was pretty straightforward he learned as he easily took the diaper off and wiped away any mess on Emre's waist with a moist towelette. What he got stuck on was how to wrap the new diaper back onto his nephew. "Umm...I think I've hit a dead end here, guys." he chuckled nervously.
"It's easy, Jaune. Just take the bottom and cover his front..." Pyrrha instructed as Jaune followed her every word. In the end and after a failed try, Jaune finally succeeded as his nephew sat in a fresh cloth diaper.
"Hey, there we go!" Jaune smiled. "How'd you learn to do that, Pyrrha?" he asked, rurning away from the table.
"It's nothing; just the way my mother changed my little twin siblings' diapers." the champion waved off as a sign it was nothing major.
"Well, thanks. Now let's get Emre back to the-" Jaune froze again as everyone noticed to their horror that the baby was no longer on the table. "WHERE IS HE NOW?"
"He was just there a second ago!" Nora cried.
"Guess we'll have to find him again." Ren sighed as the team dashed out of the dining hall.
"How did we even get stuck doing this again?" Russel complained, hefting the box of lost and found items that had been in the storage area for a tad too long. Somehow, Team CRDL was roped into disposing of them as punishment.
"Just drop it here." Cardin ordered as they arrived at the firing range outside the combat ampitheatre. This area was perfect for Huntsman and Huntresses with all sorts of weapon types to take well-needed target practice, and it just so happened Goodwich gave the all-male team a free chance to squeeze some time in. "Furthest hit wins thirty lien. Anyone up for it?" Cardin asked as he used his mace to send a canteen flying down range.
"Oh hell yeah!" Sky agreed as he used his halberd to send a discarded magazine flying through the air like a golf ball.
While the team rifled through items to use as target practice, they were unaware of the infant crawling up behind them, eyes focused on a teddy bear looking back at him from the edge of the box. Giggling to himself, Emre crawled over and into the box to play with his new furry friend, only for a firm hand to pick him out of it.
"Hey, look at this." Sky announced. "Someone left a really realistic baby doll in here."
The three others looked over, intrigued.
"Wow, that does look pretty authentic." Dove remarked.
"Give it here!" Cardin said, taking Emre out of Sky's hands. "I'm sending this thing straight across Vale." he continued to boast, unaware of the two members of RWBY looking for something behind him.
"So the ampitheatre was a bust." Yang sighed, defeatedly. "How hard is it to find a lost baby anyhow?"
"As much as I hate to suggest, maybe CRDL knows." Blake pointed out, only for both her and her blonde partner's eyes to bulge out of their skulls as they saw Cardin getting ready to toss Emre in the air, the mace already wound back.
Springing into action, Blake dashed forward, grabbing the child out of Cardin's palm just before he was tossed lightly into the air while Yang held Cardin's mace-swinging arm back.
"Hey, what the hell, Xiao Long?" Cardin growled.
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Yang shrieked. "You nearly just hit a baby with your weapon!"
"Wait, it's a real baby?" Russel asked, dumbfounded.
"Sky! How the hell do you confuse a real baby with a doll?" Cardin yelled at his teammate.
"What? My little sister had one that looked just like it!" Sky said defensively.
"You're just lucky we stopped you before any damage was done." Blake said, handing the baby to Yang while giving a cold stare at the mace-wielding knight.
"Yeah! I have half a mind to report you to Professor-" Yang agreed before feeling something tugging on her shirt. Looking down, she found Emre pawing at her 'assets', trying to get under her shirt. Brushing brightly in embarrassment, she shoved the child into her Faunus partner's arms befor folding her's over her chest. "Hey! Hands off the merchandise, kid!"
Immediately being denied his sustenance, the baby's lip began to quiver before an inevitable bout of crying began.
"Great job, Xiao Long. Now you've gone and upset the boy." Cardin teased.
"Just leave." Yang ordered in an annoyed tone while rolling her eyes.
"Gladly. That's starting to make my ears ring." Dove complained as the all-male team walked off, JNPR taking their place as they ran up to them.
"We...heard...crying...what...happened?" Jaune asked, getting a word in between his bouts of panting.
"We found Emre for you." Blake answered, offering the knight his wailing nephew back.
"What's he sad about?" Nora asked.
"I think he's hungry, and Yang's being greedy about offering him some of her milk." Blake teased, causing the brawler to blush as red as the metal on her sister's weapon.
"H-hey, I'm not gonna be the one to take one for the team here!" she protested, crossing her arms over her endowments.
"You don't need to be. Marron left some formula for Emre in the bag." Ren said as he produced a bottle after rummaging through the bag.
"Hmm. I guess he's not completely weaned off of his mother's milk." Pyrrha assumed as Jaune took the bottle and held it up to his nephew's mouth. Immediately, as the scent of milk caught his attention, the child stopped crying and began suckling happily on the bottle.
"What was your first clue?" Yang muttered, only to be sharply elbowed by Blake.
After some time getting his fill, Emre finally spat the bottle's cover and let our a small belch and lightly pushed the bottle aside. "Wow. He was hungry. It's almost empty." Jaune noted, setting Emre down on a bench as he turned to the others. "Alright. That's two close calls. We need to keep a better watch on Emre so he doesn't run off again." he announced.
"You mean like he just did?" Nora asked, pointing out an empty bench Jaune had just sat the infant down upon.
"Wh-Nora! Why didn't you say anything?" Jaune screamed, freaking out again.
"Well, he did run off before you said we needed to watch him better." Nora argued.
"...She's not wrong." Blake thought aloud.
"That's not the point!" Jaune stammered. "Where could he have-" Before he could continue, Yang's Scroll began beeping until she answered it.
"Hey, Rubes, have you...Woah whoa woah. Slow down, Ruby. What's going on?" Yang answered, trying to calm her sister down as she listened into the fast-talking sniper's words through the phone. "Wait, what? But he was just...Okay, Okay! We're on our way." And with that, she ended the call and hung her phone up.
"What did Ruby want?" Ren asked.
"Did she and Weiss find Emre?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah, and you guys aren't going to believe where."
"HOW?" Jaune gaped, his eyes bulging out of his skull as he stared up to the top of Ozpin's tower. Sitting with his back up against the roof of the tallest tower on the campus of the Huntsman academy, giggling as he played with the teddy bear he commandeered from the box of lost items CRDL was preparing to dispose of. Down around the tower, a crowd of students and passerby's had gathered including JNPR, RWBY, and Sun and Neptune.
"How does someone, let alone a baby, even get up there?" Weiss asked astonished.
"Here's a better question: How'd he find my Mr. Snuggles?" Neptune asked, only for an awkward silence and a few odd stares to be sent his way.
"Ignoring that...How are we supposed to get him down?" Sun asked as his gaze shifted from his teammate to the roof.
"Sun, can you climb up and get him down?" Ruby asked.
"What, just cuz I'm a monkey Faunus, I'm a master of climbing shit? Racist." Sun grumbled.
"No! Wait, I mean... Um..well, yes?" the brunette asked meakly.
"Well, I could if there were more parts of the tower I could actually get a grip on." Sun pointed out. He was right. Towards the top of the tower, it looked near impossible to access by climbing up there by hand.
"Well somebody has to try! Emre could get hurt if he moves one inch the wrong way." Jaune said, moving to go inside the tower.
"Jaune, don't do anything dangerous!" Pyrrha warned.
"Shouldn't you be saying that to the baby?" Nora asked.
"Not the time, Nora." Ren sighed as the ten walked inside and took the elevator to the top floor, where a stern looking Professors Ozpin and Goodwich were waiting.
"Can any of you explain why Mister Arc's nephew is sitting on my roof right now?" Ozpin asked, not exactly in an angered tone, but a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"I'm sorry, Professor." Jaune started. "Emre's been out of control! The little guy's been running off and showing up across campus in an instant."
"Mister Arc, children as old as him can't be that troublesome." Goodwich chastised, not believing him in the slightest.
"But Professor, it's true!" Pyrrha agreed. "One minute, he was in the dining hall, the second, Yang and Blake found him by the firing range."
Ozpin's brow furrowed as he pondered the possibility of what the students were claiming was true. "We can discuss that later. That child needs to get down now before he gets hurt." he ordered.
"How? There's no way to get to the roof from here!" Ruby reminded.
There is an access hatch that the maintenance crews use to repair any roof damage after storms or stray Nevermore attacks." Ozpin nodded, walking the group around the corner from his door.
"Has that even happened?" Weiss asked.
"Yes, but when we were students ourselves." Goodwich answered. "Now, let's move." she ordered, using her semblance to open a hatch and allow a folding ladder to slide down to a point someone Ruby's height could reach up and climb on. "This should take you straight to the roof. Now hurry before that child gets hurt."
Jaune nodded and quickly grabbed on to the ladder, a firm hand on his ankle before he left grabbing onto him. He looked down to find Pyrrha mouthing him the words 'Be careful.' With a reassuring smile, he gave a nod and continued up to the hatch that let him out to the roof. For a split second, he was in awe. From the top of this roof, one could see all over Vale, from the coast Patch Island was off of to the strait separating Vytal from Mistral way in the distance behind him. He stowed away that feeling as he heard a familiar giggling next to him. Sitting directly to his left was Emre, playing with the stuffed bear he found before it fell through the hole opened next to him.
"Mr. Snuggles!" he heard Neptune happily exclaim down below.
Shaking his head at the blue-haired Mistralian's apparent joyous reunion, he turned to pick his nephew back up, only to panic as he noticed he was no longer there. Looking down, he was somewhat relieved to find the boy hadn't fallen off but was surprised to hear what was happening below.
"Hey! I just got that back!" Neptune protested over something.
"Not now, Neptune! Didn't you just see that?" Blake asked, evidently surprised about something.
"Wait, where did he go now?" Pyrrha asked.
"What's going on-" Jaune started to call before he found Emre back where he was before, sitting next to him, playing with his teddy bear, just like before he turned. What was different is that now, he was surrounded by a glowing yellow outline, as brightly golden as the hair on his head. "Wait...Emre, can you use your Aura?"
Not even responding, Emre giggled as he looked out towards the city of Vale, giggling as the Aura around him grew brighter. Jaune grabbed onto him to try and take him downstairs before he suddenly found himself hanging in the air a few feet out from the roof.
"You have a semblance too? And it's teleporting?" Jaune gaped at the baby, who only giggled back as Jaune realized they were in midair. As soon as that happened, the two began to drop like a rock. While Jaune was screaming, the child was squealing with delight as they hurled ever closer to the ground below them. Knowing what was going to come next, since he could tell Emre wasn't wanting to teleport again anytime soon, he positioned his back towards the ground, curling himself around Emre to try and cushion the coming impact for him.
The odd thing is that the impact never came. Instead, he felt something skim past his calf as he suddenly found himself pinned to the side of the tower wall a few feet away from the bottom, hanging upside down, but still safe and holding Emre. "Wow...That was too close." Jaune sighed in relief. He looked up to see what pinned him to the tower, smirking as he recognized the bronze and crimson paint job of the javelin ripping through his pant leg.
"Jaune? Are you okay? I didn't stab your leg, did I?" he heard his Amazon warrior of a girlfriend call from below.
"I'm fine, but uhhh...can someone get us down?" he called back.
Rolling her eyes, Weiss walked forward as she caught Emre while Pyrrha used her semblance to magnetically call Milo back to her, causing Jaune to fall on his face again as he was unpinned from the tower.
"Sorry!" Pyrrha apologized as she walked forward, helping Jaune up. "That was a very nerve-wracking couple of hours, wasn't it?"
"That'd be a bit of an understatement." Jaune groaned, rubbing his head as the others walked up.
"Well, I had to see it to believe it." Ozpin noted aloud. "I've heard rumors that some children with parents who have high aura levels could manipulate it from a young age, but to already have a semblance..."
"Yeah, I probably should've warned you about that."
The twelve turned to find Marron walking up to them, slinging her weapon over her back as she took her son back from Weiss, smiling down on him as he giggled back and reached out to her for a hug.
"You mean, all this time, you knew? And you didn't warn us?" Jaune asked, exasperatedly.
"Well, I was in a rush." the older Arc sibling admitted. "I'm sorry if he was too much trouble."
"Meh, I've had to deal with worse." Nora shrugged.
"They do say it takes a village to raise a child." Pyrrha announced. "I had a grand time helping care for him."
"Yeah! You should have Jaune babysit more often! I hadn't had an adrenaline rush like this in ages!" Yang smiled.
"Guys, stop. please..." Jaune pleaded.
"Oh relax, Jauney." Marron said, pulling her younger brother into a one-armed hug. "I'll let you rest up before I bring him around next time."
"N-next time?" Jaune stuttered, imaging how bad that was going to be.
"But for now, the two of us gotta head out, take the next airship home." Marron announced as Ren handed her the care bag containing Emre's belongings.
"We won't keep you then. It was a pleasure seeing you again, Miss Irons." Ozpin said, giving his farewell.
"You can still call me Arc, Ozzy!" Marron smiled back as she turned to leave. "Say bye-bye to your uncle and his friends, Emre." she said to her young son.
"Bye...Bye...Jau-ney?" they heard a tiny voice say quietly.
The group stopped dead in their tracks as they all turned to the baby. "Did he just say-" Jaune started.
"H-his first words!" Marron said ecstatically. "And one was your name!"
"H-hey, that's pretty cool, Emre!" Jaune smiled, holding out a hand for his nephew to grab onto.
"Jauney." he said again, melting everyone's hearts as he began hugging the hand before Marron broke it off, turning to leave.
"I'll tell Mom and Pop you said hi." Marron smiled as she left waving goodbye with her free hand.
"Cool. Later." Jaune smiled, feeling Pyrrha's arms wrap around him as they watched his sister leave for the airship docks. "That was completely exhausting."
"At least it was good practice for what to expect in the future." Pyrrha smiled, before noticing her mistake.
"Wait, what are you saying?"Jaune asked, blushing.
"O-oh! I mean...Of course I'd want kids one day b-but-" Pyrrha stammered while everyone around them laughed at the awkward situation caused. Only one wasn't laughing, and still looking sadly at the direction Marron and Emre left in.
"Nep? Something wrong dude?" Sun asked, noticing.
"H-he took Mr. Snuggles with him..."
"Neptune, please."