Hey guys! I have another story! This idea came to me about a week ago, and I felt that I could make a quick story out of it. I'm planning on about 10 chapters, although it is up for debate on how long the story will actually be. I hope you enjoy!
Weiss Schnee was not in a pleasant mood.
Since returning to Atlas, she had been yelled at, called names and been held captive. All in her own room. Then her father had come to inform her that she will be performing a concert to raise funds for an expansion for the SDC. She agreed to, but deep down she knew it was only to make her father go away.
She looked out the window in her room, and saw the city before her. She was not pleased to be back. She thought over what songs she should perform and was soon distracted by the thoughts of her friends. She smiled as she remembered everything that had happened to them from when she and Yang first arrived at the house in Mistral.
She remembered telling stories around the dinner table, and laughing at Nora's antics. She remembered being embraced by her goofball of a partner and team leader. She remembered Nora and Yang arm wrestling over dinner.
She remembered hearing their team strategist telling them that he was going to train, alone. She remembered hearing him say this several nights in a row. Everyone else shrugged it off as nothing big, but she was curious. One night she followed him, careful to make sure that he didn't notice her. She remembered following him down the hallways of the house they stayed in and down to the training room.
Now she's thankful she did, and wishes she didn't. She saw him take out his scroll, play with it a for a few seconds and place it on one of the stands. She remembered him pressing play and she saw a very familiar face, and heard a familiar voice. She remembered the words clearly.
"Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced. Follow these instructions."
"Shield Up"
She saw him raise his shield
"Keep your grip tight"
She saw him tighten his grip on his sword.
"Keep your front foot forward"
She saw him remain standing where he was, posture perfect.
"Ready? Go!"
She saw the strategist step forward and swing his sword in a downwards slant
"Again!"
She saw him step forward with his other foot and swing his sword in a horizontal strike.
"And again!"
She saw him spin in a circle, putting everything he had into the final swing. She remembered him panting, before slowly standing upright again.
"Okay, now assuming you aren't cheating, we can take a break."
She saw him nod his head forward, and close his eyes.
"I know this can be frustrating..."
She saw him look towards the scroll again, his eyes gathering tears.
"...and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves. You've grown so much since we started training."
She remembered hearing the voice, struggle for a few seconds before continuing.
"Jaune I-I… I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune."
She saw the scroll rewind to the to the beginning and watched the whole process once more, before turning around and returning to her room. She barely slept that night. Knowing that her friend was still hurting. And there wasn't anything she could do to fix it without making a big deal, or hurting him further.
She remembered the night when she almost died. How he saved her, and how did she react? She insulted him. She meant it as a joke, but could see that it cut a little deeper than what she meant. She had apologized later that night, but he shrugged it off like no big deal.
She remembered when her team learned about Salem and her immortality. She dreaded imagining telling JNR about it.
She remembered them reaching Argus, and seeing JNR run to embrace them. She remembered seeing Ren hug Yang, and Blake hug Jaune, and for her to give him one herself.
She remembered seeing Jaune and Ruby hug, and seeing Jaune almost break down in tears. The last time he was separated from one of his teammates, she didn't come back.
She remembered meeting his sister and her wife, Saffron and Terra, as well as their son Adrian, who took after his uncle when it came to being moody.
She remembered them going to the Atlas base in Argus, only to be turned away. Then Nora mentioned Ozpin and then it got worse.
She remembered how Jaune put a hole in the wall and pushed Oscar against another. It was clear that he had reached his breaking point. She remembered Ruby de-escalating it quickly. She remembered watching the three members of JNR walk upstairs and heard a slam of a door.
She remembered how devastated and guilty he looked when he found out that Oscar was missing. She remembered that when she saw him later that night. He looked to have the same goofy attitude that he had back at Beacon.
And now, here she was. Locked in her room. Dreading the upcoming concert, knowing that it was a quick cash grab ploy by her father. Her father was furious when she found out she was travelling with an Arc. According to him, the Arcs were 'a no-good warrior tribe that doesn't understand the first thing about business.'. Weiss knew something that her father didn't. While she didn't know anything about the Arcs and their economical intelligence, she knew that Arcs were honest, humble, viewed everyone as equals, and strived to better themselves and the world.
When she first arrived at Beacon, she would have believed her father, that Arcs were no good. However, throughout the time she spent there, she would be proven wrong time and time again. The first time was when he stood up and saved Cardin from the Ursa in Forever Fall. Proving to those who watched, that he did belong there. The second time was during the dance, when Neptune came up to apologize for turning her down. When she asked what changed his mind, he gestured to the blonde wearing a dress, who was stealing the show with his teammates. Evidence that he cared about her, even when she had acted like an Ice Queen to him. The third time was during the breach when she saw him take on several Grimm by himself. A testament of his improvement.
She heard a knock at the door, and turned to see that Klein, her family butler had stepped inside.
"Miss. Schnee, your friends have come to visit you. Although your father seems quite against the idea of the blonde boy coming in." Klein informed her. "However, your mother told him off and allowed him to come in."
Weiss smiled at this, hearing that her mother was sticking up for herself against father was inspiring for her.
"Thank you Klein. Are they on their way?" She asked, only to see him reveal Ruby at the door.
"WEIIISS!" the young reaper cried out as she used her semblance to shoot forward and embrace the ex-heiress.
"Ruby, settle down." Weiss scolded, trying to move her arms out of the embrace.
"But we haven't seen you in days." Ruby responded. It was true. Her father reclaimed her almost minutes after they set foot in Atlas, almost a week ago.
"You know, the rest of us are here too." Came the voice of the resident brawler and pun-connoisseur, Yang Xiao Long. The rest of RWBY and RNJR walked into her room and waited for Ruby to stop strangling her.
Weiss stood up, after Ruby finally got off of her, and walked over to the others. She hugged Yang, standing on her toes to do so. She moved along to Blake and gave her a hug of her own.
"How's Atlas?" She asked, worried for her faunus friend. She new that the bigotry in Atlas was more extreme than other parts of Remnant. Knowing that Blake discarded her bow, she knew that she wouldn't have a way to hide the fact that she was a faunus.
"I don't let them get to me." She answered, with a soft smile. "Besides, Yang has made it clear to the two or three people who have tried anything, that we're going to more trouble than they bargained for."
Weiss smiled at this. She knew Yang was very supportive of Blake. On the flight to Atlas, she was starting to think that the two of them had gotten together. And with what Blake had just told her, the only thing holding them back was the discussion about what happened after Beacon.
She moved on to the sister team. She embraced Ren, who returned the gesture with a hug of his own.
"Keeping them out of trouble?" she asked, letting go of the ninja.
"I do the best I can." He responded, smiling to see her again. It was true, the ninja of RNJRWBY had to use his semblance on more than one occasion to calm down his more hot headed teammates. The most recent was no more than a few minutes ago when they saw Jaques giving them death glares. They knew the only reason to him not speaking out was because of his wife.
Weiss moved on to RNJR's source of chaotice energy, also known as Nora Valkyrie, and hugged her. Nora returned the favour, a little tighter than the others, but she grew used to it. If one wishes to survive Nora Valkyrie, they must adapt to her antics.
"It was really hard not to go after your dad." Nora admitted, after letting the ex-heiress breath. "Ren and Jaune, maaaaaayyyy or may not have had to hold me back." She tapped her index fingers together, while wearing that trademark Nora smile. Weiss giggled at Nora, she missed her a lot.
Weiss moved over to the last but not least person in the room. She, stood on her toes and embraced Jaune in a tight hug. Jaune bent down to meet her hug. They stayed like that for a couple seconds, before they both let go.
"Sorry about my father." She apologized. 'And sorry for taking after him when we were still in Beacon.' she mentally added.
"Don't worry. I got used to people like him, before Beacon." Jaune answered. What he didn't realize was that he unintentionally created awkward tension in the air. "He's like Cardin, but instead of a mace, he has millions of lien at disposal." He deadpanned. Maybe he wasn't as thick skulled as he seemed. Weiss smirked at this, before taking a step back.
"Are you looking forward to the concert, Weiss?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side. The young reaper was still a little naive in the world, and couldn't see that Jaques, was trying to make a quick dollar through Weiss.
"Not in the slightest." Weiss frowned. "He's just using my voice as a cash grab before locking me away again." Weiss walked over to her desk and sat down in her chair and gestured to a folder full of songs that she could sing at the concert. "All of these, save for one or two, glorify my father, and that is NOT something I am looking forward to."
"Why not write something else then?" Yang asked. "If you don't like them then why do you sing them?"
"Normally I would, however, the concert is in two days. That's not enough time for me to write, learn and master an entire concerts worth of music." Weiss responded. There was sadness in her voice.
"Well what if you had help?" Ruby asked. "What if more than one person helped you write?"
Weiss paused. She didn't want to drag anyone else into this but, if she had help she could potentially perform the concert on her terms.
"I-I suppose." She responded. "But none you know how to perform."
She watched as one by one, the members of RBYRNJR looked to their left and at the resident paladin. Said member of the team looked at them confused, before following their gaze. When he didn't see anything he turned back before realizing what they meant.
"Well, I wouldn't mind helping." Jaune offered. "Just don't slam any doors in my face. That's all I ask."
Weiss laughed a little. "I think that's doable." Weiss, pulled out her scroll and dialed a number.
"Hi Klein? There's a small change with the concert performance. It's a 'still happening but father musn't know about something' small change. I was wondering if you could bring a guitar to my room?" Weiss spoke through the scroll. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, before lowering the scroll and looking at Jaune.
"He wants to know how many strings?" Weiss asked, slightly confused. Didn't all guitars have six? With the exception of bass guitars that is.
Jaune's eyebrows raised as he thought. If they wanted to write some rebellious stuff against her father, then they would need to get creative. It couldn't be an obvious F-you, it would need to be subtle.
Jaune wrote down on a piece of paper the equipment he would need to write a proper 'Fuck you, Jacques Schnee' and handed it to Weiss.
"He said he needs two that have six strings, and one that has seven?" Weiss answered, still a bit confused. She looked at the group and saw that Nora and Yand had given their approval of Jaune's choice. "Ok thank you a lot Klein." She finished, hanging up.
"He said that they will be here imminently." Weiss informed him. She was interested in what he had in mind and why he need all those instruments. "May I ask, why did you want three guitars any way?"
Jaune rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, and looked away. "Growing up, I didn't have a lot of money. Well, my family as a whole did, but me being the youngest of eight children, I didn't get a lot of money. Most of the time I lived there, it felt like I was a burden, more than an actual member. And yeah I went on vacations with them, but even so I felt like an outcast. My parents also never really believed in me actually succeeding in anything. Hell, when I told them I was accepted to Beacon, the told me not to worry if I had to be come back home. It sucks being told by my parents that they don't believe in me. Sure they may not have told me that specifically, but I knew what they meant. Back to the reason why I asked for all three, I never had a lot of money and the nicest thing I owned was a cheap electric guitar back home. I felt that if I had the proper equipment, or better equipment, I could succeed with something."
Weiss looked at him for a moment, before standing up and walking over to the blonde knight and wrapping her arms around him again. It turns out that the two of them have more in common than one would expect.
A/N: What do you guys think? I already have a set list of songs that I'm going to be using although I wouldn't mind one or two more. As for The Azure Flame, I have a set idea of what I will be completing in chapter 9 so hopefully I'll have it done soon.
-dicknouget