This fic is in contribution to the 9-days of Lancaster, hosted by Anonymous Prick 3, Fate-117, and curiousscientistkae on Tumblr.
As to the theme of this fic, people have been associating Lancaster with Jaune X Ruby. While curiousscientistkae first established this and told us about where the name comes from, there is no grounds for why and how Jaune and Ruby would use it themselves.
Thus, I am here to share my answer for one simple question:
"What would Lancaster mean in the world of RWBY?"
It's a fine day. Full of opportunity.
...as some optimists would say, but no. There is no opportunity for anything, anywhere. Which is why a little red haired girl is currently laying down on her makeshift bunk bed with nothing to do but dream the day away.
"Ugh.. I'm so boooored." she groaned.
All of team RWBY decided to go do their separate ways for this Saturday, granting a bit of alone time for each of the girls.
Ruby Rose continued to lay down, thinking of what her teammates are doing.
Weiss is currently studying in the library.
Blake is off somewhere trying to read her book without distraction.
Yang is in downtown Vale biking around, going to a club, and punching people in the face, or something.
Feeling that a walk would ease her mind, Ruby hopped off the bed and got her usual loadout equipped, along with her sweetheart. But just as the scyther began to leave the door, Ruby comes face to face with her other blonde friend.
Jaune Arc, the one who threw up on the airship and called Ruby "Crater Face", looks to be in the same situation as his little friend. Bored, disappointed, and thinking of a walk to bear the day.
"Oh. Good morning, Jaune." Ruby greets her fellow leader.
"Hey, Ruby." Jaune replies sluggishly.
Ruby can tell by the droop in his eyes that he just woke up from a nap.
"Did your team go do its own thing too?" she asked, as the two walked out of Beacon's halls.
"Yeah." Jaune sighed. "Pyrrha is in the training halls while Ren and Nora are going shopping. Again."
"Well, my team is also on its own…" She lowered her head, but then perked up saying, "Hey, we're both bored! Want to go walk around Vale or something?"
"...or something?"
"Yeah. I guess now that we're alone, we don't know what we can do. Or at least we do, we just can't do it."
"Oh. Okay then. Let's head down to Vale."
This wasn't the first time Jaune and Ruby decided to go hang out together. It usually consisted of grabbing a few bites to eat, going to the dust store, and talking about their current activities as trainees. Today was no different. Stopping at a different store instead of "From Dust Till Dawn", because that store still under repairs. Taking a bite at a soda fountain in the plaza, and just talking while making playful jabs at each other.
The two leaders continued to converse when the came across a small bookstore called Tukson's Book Trade. "Home to every book under the sun." as advertised. Blake had told Ruby about this place, making her all the more intrigued to check it out. Thus Ruby dragged her taller friend into the store where they were greeted with a shady environment and books.
Lots and lots of books.
While Jaune was looking around the bookstore, Ruby thinks it'd be nice to see the store's owner. She then walked towards the back and rang the little bell. And at that moment, a tall man with a scarlet red shirt, clean cut hair all around his head, and hairy, muscular arms come out from behind to greet the 15 year old.
"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."
Ruby quickly chippered up as she could tell this was the guy Blake as talking about.
"Oh, hi!" Ruby greeted with a smile. "You must be Tukson, right?"
"That's me, little miss." the burly clerk smiled back. "How may I help you?"
"Oh, nothing really. A friend of mine told me that this is a great place to find books."
"Well then, you've come to the right place."
"Hey, Ruby! Look at this!" Jaune called to his friend, prompting her to move up next to Jaune. He was holding a book with a deep red leather cover and some details on it. The book's title was called,
The Legends of Lancaster, by Garnet Rosetta.
"Lancaster." Jaune said. "I can't help but feel as though I've heard of that sometime before."
Jaune looked toward the little red, only to see her eyes are wide and locked on the illustration on the front of the book. The picture on the front, incidentally, was a symmetrical symbol featuring two yellow arcs encompassing the top of a red rose, as though depicting the rose as having a solid, golden halo.
The two dorks blushed at this, seeing as their own symbols are used to make this book cover.
Jaune opened it up and began to observe the table of contents.
...The Knight and His Rose…
…The Purple Snow Magician…
…The Engineer and his Dog…
...The Feathered Vampire…
"Oh, that one." The knight and reaper snapped their heads behind them to see the tall shopkeeper standing right behind them.
"That book is a fairy tale collection." Tukson continued. "Said to have been written by a hero from the great war. It's been rumored that all of these are about actual events she's experienced."
"Really?" the two audibly replied, before Jaune started to get curious.
He decided to peek at the first story in this compendium, "The Knight and His Rose". The moment he started reading, his faced flushed as the fluff was real. Ruby was looking up at Jaune and is wondering what's making him look like that.
"J-Jaune? How is it?" Ruby said, tiptoeing up to read as well, only for the blonde doofus to shut the book before she could read a word.
Jaune's thought: "It's as though the book itself was meant for us!"
"Uh… yeah. It's good." he said nervously. "It's not like I'd would want to read this to
"Say, Jaune." Ruby looks to her friend with shyness on her face. "My... sister used to read stories to me when I was little…"
"Let me guess, Rubes." Jaune smirked. "You want me to read you one of the tales in this storybook, don't you?"
Ruby's embarrassment was apparent, but she smiled nonetheless. She nodded, and that's all Jaune needed.
"Okay then." Tukson said, reminding the two that he's still there. "That'll be 40 lien."
Jaune almost groaned as he only had 20 lein to spare, but Ruby relieved him by pulling out 20 lien of her own. That just made things easier.
The knight lowered himself onto one knee held up a rose to the fair lady, who took it and smelled its sweet scent. The lady smiled as she looked back at the knight, who had extended a hand to her, as though to show his affections.
Jaune sat on the bedside next to ruby, who was in lying in bed her pajamas, listening to her friend as he reads "The Knight and His Rose". To say the least, the story starts off romantic as the knight is told to find his precious rose in a forest of somewhere. The knight does find the woman, smelling the daffodils and lilies in the meadow. Ruby smiled as she recapped that part, but then the reader snaps her back.
"But suddenly!" Jaune emphasises his tone which caused Ruby to jump, as this story has taken a dark turn. "...the shadows of the wolves leapt from the treeline and began to attack the pair!"
The enthusiasm Jaune showed while reading made it apparent that he has done this before. But whatever the case, he continued.
The knight stood between the lady and the dark wolves, and began to slash away at these creatures of grimm, not letting one get past his glistening sword and shield! But he stops as he hears the cries of the lady. The wolves had moved around him and swiped and tore at the fringes of the lady's dress! Seeing as the lady is under attack, the knight pulls focuses his attention towards the ones attacking her, letting no more claws ruin her beautiful image.
But as the wolves were defeated and retreated, a large bear, as colorless as the wolves before it, swung at the knight, causing him to crash into a tree! The large, bearlike creature began to wrestle with the knight, who isn't showing to be winning at all. In a desperate attempt, the lady suddenly drew a large axe and struck at the black bear's arm, giving the knight the opening he needed to strike the monster, ending this fight.
"Now KISS!"
Jaune closed the book as suddenly as that shout had met his and Ruby's ears.
"Was that Nora!?" they thought.
The two looked up as the rest of their teammates have gathered in team RWBY's room without their knowledge. This shouldn't've come as a surprise as Jaune and Ruby were infatuated with the story.
"Aw, don't stop now, Jauney Boy!" Yang said. "I can tell you were getting to the good part!"
Too deeply embarrassed to reply, Jaune shuffled off of Ruby's bed and ran for his team's room.
Ruby prompts for Jaune to stop, but it's too late as Jaune has slammed the door behind him.
"What a wuss." Weiss complains.
"We… did catch him by surprise." Blake says.
"Yeah, well, that's enough storytime for now." Ren responds. And with that, the remaining team members get ready for bed, while Ruby wonders what happens after the knight finishes off the big, black bear, which she guesses was an Ursa Major.
Fast forward many months later, after the attack on Beacon, and a week after the new team's departure.
Ruby, Nora, Jaune, and Ren have formed team RNJR and are now traveling towards Haven, when they decided to settle down in a less snowy region of the forest. Night had fallen, and the 4 have set up camp with bedrolls and a campfire in the middle. Ren and Nora were already asleep, side by side, while Ruby couldn't find the urge to rest. Sighing in defeat, she sits up and scoots her sleeping bag next to Jaune.
"Hey, Jaune. You still awake?" she whispers.
"Yeah." Jaune said, sitting up with his friend.
"You miss our old lives, don't you?" Ruby asks.
"Yeah." Jaune replies. "I can only imagine if we were still students at Beacon, becoming like mighty warriors and knights and heroes of Remnant. Working as a single unit and using our ridiculous pairing names for coordination."
Ruby smiled as the names for her team's combos were her own idea. But that got her thinking...
"Hey, Jaune?" the blonde turned to look at the supposed leader of the group. "Do… we have a pairing name?"
"Uh… what do you mean?" Jaune replied.
"Well… I mean." She started. "Ren and Nora have 'Flower Power', Weiss and I had 'Ice Flower', Blake and Yang had 'Bumblebee', you and Pyrrha had 'Arkos'. But then there's us. We've never thought about it, have we?"
"She's right." Jaune thought.
Seeing as Ren and Nora already have their pairing name, and only himself and Ruby are left, what should they call themselves? That's when he remembered something. He went into his backpack and pulled a dark red leather book which Ruby is bound to recognise.
"Hey, Ruby." Jaune said to his close friend.
The little red one looked over to the goofy blonde, and widened her eyes in surprise, knowing what that book was.
"Jaune… is that-?"
"What if we used this?" Jaune said, pointing to the last word in the title.
"L...Lancaster?"
"I am the knight and you are the rose. This seems like a perfect fit!" Jaune says, excitedly, before calming down. "What do you think?"
That's when Ruby's eyes sparkle with delight, making her reach over and hug her friend tightly.
"Jaune, you're a genius!" she squeals, but lowers her voice to keep from waking the other two.
Jaune gets taken back, but returns the hug as it may be one of the few he may get on this journey. The two continue to stay in this position when Ruby gets a reminder from the book in Jaune's hands.
"Jaune." She asks. "Could you continue with the story?"
Jaune opens his eyes to look at Ruby's. "Which story?" he asks back.
"The Knight and His Rose. We never got to finish it."
"Oh, yeah. Hehe." he laughed, remembering that time their story time was cut off.
He puts one arm around Ruby's shoulder and holds the book in the other.
Exhausted, the knight fell to his knees and struggled to regain his breath. The knight looks to the sky as the sun's rays return warmth to his being. That's when a pair of arms have surrounded him to comfort his unease even more. The knight smiled as the lady had lowered her axe to get closer to him. Never had he thought the woman he'd meet would be his salvation. The lady closed her eyes and kissed the knight on the lips, causing the two enter a realm of dreams they've never thought possible.
The knight then thought to himself, "This is her. This is my rose."
And done! After 4 days of thinking, writing, and getting sick after doing an economics project during senior year. It is done. I apologize if the fairy tale doesn't seem to sound good, but it was the bet I could conjure on short notice.
Welp, with that out of the way, I'll see you later.