So, apparently this story has gathered interest. Much obliged. Apologies for this chapter taking so long, but with the nuclear bombshell that was the final episode, I kinda had to rethink my intentions of how this was going to pad out. Thankfully, I have found the way forward! I also apologize if this chapter seems to be chasing it's own tail a bit. The plot works on several non-canon assumptions that have yet to be revealed. Anywho, enjoy!
All characters belong to Rooster Teeth.
When Blake had agreed to go out that evening with her team, she was pretty sure that agreement hadn't covered being dragged into Vale's most luxurious – and expensive – clothes store. It wasn't that she had anything against the store, or the clothes, or the fact that she was being dragged around it by her best friends. Her ire stemmed from the brief glimpse of the price tag attached to one of the articles of clothing in the fabric mountain she was now carrying, or more accurately, the excessive number of digits that appeared on it. As much as she was grateful for their help and generosity, she knew for a fact that, even between them, they would likely only just be able to afford these. And as much as they would likely ignore her protests…
"Girls, seriously." Blake stopped them before this madness could continue. "I know you're trying to help, but really? 150 lien for a dress?"
"Are you mad?" Weiss laughed. "I'm not paying 150 lien for a dress." Blake almost felt relieved, but then she realised exactly what Weiss meant by that. "I'm paying 150 lien for a Viridian Eastwood Winter Collection 'Urbania' dress, specially designed for the chic and sexy city girl to tear up the town and the dance floor."
"You did not seriously memorize all that from a brochure, did you?" Blake stared at her fashionista friend in despondent shock.
"Well, that is the look you wanted, right?" Weiss defended herself.
"Well, yeah, sure. I wanted a chic dress." Blake held up the pile. "Not the entire line."
"Pfft, please." Weiss dismissed her concerns before dragging her to the changing rooms. "You could at least try them on." She called over the changing room door. Blake found she couldn't deny her that, at least. And she secretly did actually like most of what she had been given to try on.
After asking the girls to give her some time to try everything on, and hearing them walk off to get coffee, Blake looked critically over the articles she had been landed with, before selecting a dark purple dress that caught her eye. And only 50 lien, too. She thought humourously. She took off her long wool coat and hung it on the back of the door, before stripping down to her underwear and slipping the dress over her outstretched arms. The silky fabric smoothed over her lithe body with no resistance – it could almost have been tailor-made for her. When she had fastened the dress with the conveniently placed side zipper, she moved to the mirror and eyed herself over. She liked the dress a lot, mainly because of its simplicity; it was a single piece of purple fabric, with a low cut neck, but not too much, and the sleeves cut off at the elbows. And it looked great on her. Damn. Blake thought. Maybe Yang was right after all. After five minutes of admiring the dress on her from every conceivable angle, she was already in love with it. She carefully took the dress off, already satisfied with the dress alone, when she caught sight of something else in the pile of clothing. She gently lifted it up to reveal a lingerie set in about her size that made her blush.
I guess Yang isn't the only one trying to take an interest in my sex life. She made to hide the scant pieces as deep in the pile as she could, when something made her stop. Her amber eyes looked over the sheer black underwear, and from somewhere deep down within her came a curiosity that she didn't know existed. Against her more conservative instincts, she unclasped her bra and slid her pants off, after double-checking the bolt on the door was securely shut. With tentative anticipation, she slowly pulled the jet black lacy underwear on, before fastening the rather revealing bra around her bust. She looked in the mirror once again, her face betraying her conflicting emotions. On the one hand, if Yang ever found out she had bought these, she would never live it down. On the other… damn girl, she looked good. Eventually, her shy nature was ousted by the allure she cast on even herself, convincing herself that if anyone asked, she could say that they went well with the dress.
Donning her usual clothes, she carefully folded the dress over the undergarments and left the rest for the store clerks to handle. She bought the clothes herself, thankful that the cashier didn't so much as bat an eyelid at the risqué lingerie, and left the store to find Weiss and Ruby sitting in a coffee shop on the mall's upper floor. After showing them what she had bought, much to Weiss' chagrin that she hadn't bought any designer labels, they paid a quick stop at a perfumers to get the 'essentials' as Weiss had referred to them, and headed for home. Not before they had to drag Ruby out of the nearest bakery first, though. Despite her maturation over the years, some habits really did die hard. On the way back, Weiss talking animatedly about something or other, Ruby munching happily from the bag of cookies they had bought to placate her, Blake smiled, realising that she hadn't done something this relaxing in far too long. I wonder what the others are up to, she thought as they rounded the corner into the small cul-de-sac that their house sat on.
"… and then, Ren and I leaped onto his back, him doing his whole forcefield grabby trick thing, and me bringing Magnhild down unto him in a devastating arc of righteous fury!" Nora exclaimed, her manic smile unnervingly prominent.
"And that's how 'Eggy the Eggman' became the key ingredient in a short stack of pancakes." Jaune clarified to a slightly shell-shocked Neptune. Jaune, Yang, Nora and Neptune were seated around the fireplace, Jaune on the loveseat that was by unspoken agreement left for him and Pyrrha, Neptune sitting in the leather, high-backed armchair that Ren normally used and Yang curled up on the red velvet distressed sofa that Nora was acting out her story on.
"Guys," he finally said after processing what was, in fairness, quite an epic tale of glory, romance and treachery (A/N: No, really!) as Nora skipped upstairs. "You seriously need to get out more."
"Oh, we know." Yang chuckled. "As a matter of fact, we're planning on hitting the town tonight, if you wanna come with."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" The blue-haired dork grinned, before adopting a more serious tone. "Although, do you reckon we could, you know, tone it down a little after last time? I really don't want to re-enact the Great Bar Blaze 0f 84 if I can help it." Yang grimaced by way of agreement.
"Yeah, we probably should." She rubbed the back of her neck in awkward embarrassment, then remembered who else was coming with them as she heard them come in the door. "Luckily, Blake's coming with us, so she can stop us from doing all the crazy shit we normally get involved in!" Neptune gagged in surprise on the coffee he was drinking.
"Blake's coming clubbing with us?" Neptune asked in disbelief. "How?!"
"I… may have talked her around to it." Yang teasingly admitted. "Besides, she knows that we genuinely do need a chaperone of some description with us."
"Nice going, hotshot!" Neptune said, using the nickname he had given her a few years back for gods know what reasons. "It'll be good to see her let loose. Who else is coming with? Jaune?"
"Afraid not, Nep." Jaune apologised. "I'm taking Pyrrha to the Sauvignon tonight."
"The Sauvignon, you don't say?" Neptune looked genuinely impressed. "That's that high end Mistrali restaurant, right?"
"The very same." Jaune smiled a little smugly. "As much as she insists she doesn't mind, I do have to take her out every so often, you know, do the whole actual 'we're dating' thing." Neptune nodded in agreement. "Besides, she misses the food from home."
"I don't blame her." The fellow Mistrali boy said. "Might go there myself while I'm here, treat the guys too. It's never quite as good as proper Mistrali home cooking, but you take the little pleasures where you find them, no?"
"Right." Jaune nodded. Yang noticed that he seemed a little distracted. "Besides, it's where we had our first proper date, so, yeah…" More than a little bit, it seemed.
"You okay, ladykiller?" Yang asked, her concern genuine.
"Oh yeah, yeah. Just fine." Jaune reassured her. "Just got something on my mind, that's all."
"Anything we can help with?" Neptune asked. They had all held on to their own secrets over the years; Blake's unscrupulous past, Jaune's falsified transcripts, even Neptune's fear of water, and they had learned that asking about any potential problems often defused them before they boiled over into something, well, catastrophic, destructive and invariably involving some Grimm and a dastardly plot to conquer the world. You get the idea.
"Well…" Jaune hesitantly looked around the room to make sure no one else was listening. "It's nothing bad, but you can't tell anyone. Especially not Pyrrha." They both agreed with fervent nods of their heads, agog to hear more of his secret planning as they leaned in closer. "You know how long Pyrrha and I have been together?"
"Three years, seven months, two weeks, four days and about five hours if I remember correctly." Yang smiled, counting the time off on her fingers. Neptune just stared at her. "What?"
"Um, yes." Jaune wondered why Yang knew so precisely how long they'd been together, but decided now was definitely not the time. "Well, I would be lying if I said that she wasn't the best damned thing that had ever happened to me."
"You've got that right." Neptune chuckled.
"So, seeing as it's the holiday season and all, I thought that now would be a good time to, well, take things a step further."
"A step further?" Yang said, confused. "Sweet Dust, Jaune, you two are practically glued together at the hip as it is, and when you get in the mood we virtually have to crowbar you two out of each other's pants." Jaune blushed heavily, giggling awkwardly. Whilst Yang was being her usual brusque self, he had to admit, their mutual sex life had been pretty proactive since they started dating. "Taking things a step further would be like what? Buying an apartment together? Getting a pet? Adopting? It's not like you're gonna ask her to… to…" Yang trailed off, a look of dawning realisation taking over her face as she realised that was, in fact, exactly what he was going to do. It took a second or two for Neptune to catch up, but when he did, he looked incredulously at Jaune.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." He started, his voice just betraying his growing excitement. "Am I right in thinking…?"
"Yeah, you are." Jaune smiled, a brighter, happier smile than he'd given anyone in a long time as he finally got to say it out loud. "I'm going to ask her to marry me."
Meanwhile, Pyrrha, completely oblivious to her partner's romantic scheming, was making lunch with Weiss. And by lunch, she of course meant sampling the crate of mixed vintage wines that had only yesterday arrived from Jaune's parents' vineyard. They had just opened a bottle of Riesling that seemed to hold promise.
"What's the vintage?" Weiss asked, swilling her glass under her nose, inhaling the honey-scented aroma. Pyrrha glanced at the label on the bottle.
"'69 a.v., grown from the Descartes fields in the southernmost part of the vineyards. A mixture of Amberol and Citraia berries, pressed using traditional methods and blended with the equivalent of a half-teaspoonful of Scimitar Bee honey, carefully selected from local apiaries, in each bottle.' " Pyrrha read the lengthy cursive script on the label. " 'It is said that the trace amount of Scimitar Bee venom that is found to be naturally present in the honey is rumoured to have a slight aphrodisiacal effect, as well as adding just a slight sour hint that perfectly counteracts the sickly sweetness of the honey, giving the Descartes Riesling a sweet yet refined taste that soothes the palate without overwhelming it.' Well, I honestly don't know what half of that actually means, but it sure does sound nice."
"Riesling's are known for their sweet taste; honey is often a staple ingredient in their distillation." Weiss commented, her eyes shut as she focussed on the pleasant aroma of the amber liquid. "Using Scimitar Bee honey is quite an ingenious idea, I must say. Seems that the Arcs have more to them than just their famous ancestors." She opened one eye to look at Pyrrha, who was now doing the same as her, before a mischievous thought crossed her mind, and put a sly smile on her face. "And as for the, ahem, aphrodisiacal qualities of the honey, maybe you could tempt your boyfriend to try a glass, hmm?" Pyrrha spluttered in embarrassment, almost dropping her glass, whilst Weiss giggled evilly at her.
"Weiss!" Pyrrha gave her a look of indignation. "Are you suggesting that I should lead poor, sweet Jaune into a sexual encounter by plying him with wine? From his own family's vineyard, nonetheless?"
"You hardly need to ply him with anything to do that, Pyrrha." Weiss gave her a pointed look, to which Pyrrha answered with a satisfied smile.
"True." She admitted. "But perhaps you might try following your own advice." Weiss snorted in derision.
"I believe that requires me to have someone in mind, dear." Weiss sighed dramatically, swilling her glass gently. "If only."
"So you're not considering making a move on a certain Mr. Vasilias, then." Pyrrha said.
"Neptune?!" Weiss laughed at her friend's suggestion, almost convincingly. "Please, Pyrrha, I'm not seventeen anymore. He was just a skilled charmer who knew how to be a young girl's fantasy, nothing more."
"Weiss." Pyrrha put her glass down on the kitchen counter and looked at the shorter girl with a pointed expression. "Lie to yourself if you must, but don't try to lie to the girl who has set you up with every romantic partner you've ever had."
"Pyrrha, what do you -?"
"Every partner." She raised an eyebrow at Weiss, making it clear exactly what – and who – she was referring to. "You're still attracted to him, aren't you?" Weiss lowered her glass, knowing when she was outmanoeuvred.
"Yeah. I guess I am." Weiss relented, unsure what to feel about it. "I don't know why it is. I mean, he was hardly the first to try seducing me. He wasn't even technically the first to succeed."
"Oh, I know." Pyrrha chuckled conspiratorially, earning a small smile for her trouble.
"It's just, I don't know." Weiss huffed, struggling to put into words her feelings toward the Mistrali man. "I got along better with all the other partners you found for me, we were far more romantically involved, and they put far more effort into it than he did. And yet…" Weiss closed her eyes, steeling herself for the confession she was about to make. "On every first date, I always subconsciously compared them to him. Did they have his charm? Were they as good at smooth talking? Could they dance as well as him?"
"Weiss, Neptune can't dance at all."
"Exactly." Pyrrha laughed, but quickly realised that Weiss wasn't trying to crack a joke; she was genuinely distressed by the situation. "I just don't know, Pyrrha." She looked straight at the redhead, her eyes shimmering with conflicting emotions. "Why do I still have feelings for him?" Pyrrha had no idea what to say, so she went for the comforting friend solution. But just as she was about to say something, they were interrupted by an unlikely person.
"Perhaps you are looking at this the wrong way." Sage spoke quietly, as he always did, his deep voice lending to his wise authority.
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, too conflicted to be upset at Sage's interruption of their very personal conversation.
"I've been Neptune's friend for years. We knew each other even before Haven." He said. "I don't think it would be news to you that you were hardly his first attempt at romance." They all smirked at that. "However, don't think for a moment that his charms are employed out of a need for, what is the word, conquest? Reputation?" The girls nodded their understanding. "Neptune may be a smooth talker, and a smoother player, but he is, without a doubt, the most honourable person I know." He put a hand on Weiss' shoulder, looking directly into her eyes. "When he pursued you back in Beacon, he wasn't doing so for your name, or affection, or even to satisfy his pride. He did so because he believed that your heart was worth the effort. You know he's never looked at a girl the same way since?"
"Really?" Weiss looked at him in wonder and surprise.
"Oh, he's tried. To anyone who doesn't know him like I do, they would say that he's the same. But I do know him. And I know that no woman he's met since has come close to being as perfect as you were to him." Weiss slowly smiled at the revelation, her happiness clearly evident. "And I think you know, deep down, why you can't forget him either."
"I do?" Weiss whispered.
"Yes. It's not his charm or his good looks that attracted you. It's his heart. He may not have been your first, but he was the first who genuinely cared for the woman behind the name. He didn't want your fame, or your money, or even your affection." Sage smiled gently. "He wanted your heart, and I think he may have got it." Weiss looked at Sage, her face depicting an expression somewhere between wonder and ecstasy, before tightly hugging the tall man and running upstairs in a passion of emotions. Pyrrha smiled gratefully at Sage.
"You have no idea how long we've been trying to make her that happy." She said.
"I might say the same about Neptune." Sage agreed. Pyrrha took a sip from the glass, savouring the sweet yet mellow taste that was exactly what the bottle promised. She gestured for Sage to try it from the glass that Weiss had forgotten completely about.
"Pity." He said after taking a sip. Pyrrha looked at him quizzically for a moment, wondering what he had found wrong with it. "Weiss would have really liked this vintage." Pyrrha smiled widely, laughing happily at Sage's observation. Looks like it really was going to be the season of good cheer after all.
While Weiss was happily getting overexcited at the revelation that Neptune might actually be the one after all, across the hall, and behind a firmly locked door, the romantic spirit was continuing to flourish. Unbeknownst to pretty much everyone, another budding romance had appeared within the teams, a relationship that had stood the test of time, distance, warfare and an overabundance of bananas.
Ruby reluctantly pulled her lips away from Sun's, the need for oxygen overriding the need for her boyfriend. She smiled happily at him, resting her chin on his still over-toned abs. He smiled down at her, gently caressing her lower back with his tail under the t-shirt she wore.
"Do you think that one day we might actually have to tell them we're dating?" Ruby asked him. They were both still amazed at the fact that no one had found out about them yet, even though they had started dating about two months after the end of their third year.
"You know, it may actually come to that." Sun marvelled. "Not that I have any problems with the way we are now." In fact, they both rather liked the secretive nature of their relationship. No awkwardness with their friends, no teasing from Yang; it was such a peaceful situation that they were both a little bit loath to undo it.
"It seems so." Ruby shifted herself up his body to kiss him again. "I wonder how Yang will react."
"Wonder or dread?"
"Sun!" She playfully hit him. "Yang's not that bad." Ruby thought about it for a second. "Well, not all the time anyway." Sun chuckled softly, before pulling her back in for another brief kiss.
"I'm only jesting, Rubes." He soothed her. "Yang's probably not going to kill me. She knows that I'd never do anything to hurt you." His dark eyes met her silver ones, both shining with the love they held for each other. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Ruby Rose, and no matter what, I will always be there for you." Ruby looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.
"Your flight wasn't really cancelled, was it?"
"We never even had tickets to board it." He proudly confessed, making Ruby's face split into the widest smile he'd ever seen.
"I love you, Sun."
"I love you too, Ruby." He gently caressed her cheek with his hand, slowly brushing through a stray strand of her hair. "Forever and always." Ruby shed a single tear of happiness as she kissed Sun again, this time slowly and sensuously, her eyes closed, gently biting his lower lip as she softly pulled away. She had no idea what she had done to deserve him – well, there were a few things she could think of, on reflection – but damn was she glad she did. And so, she suspected, was Sun.
Yang sat in the weapons workshop that was a standard addition to all huntsmen abodes, adjusting the servo's on her right hand. Seems that saving the entire kingdom of Vale – and perhaps the world – was worth a new arm. It certainly was in Ironwood's eyes; after he had rallied his troops and properly secured Vale, he had insisted on flying Yang back to Atlas so she could benefit from the cutting edge cybernetics facilities there. Truth be told, she wasn't going to argue, even if she had been in a position to do so. And damn if it wasn't a good job; the base carbon nanofibre servo joint had been calibrated to be the exact weight of her matching left forearm, so she couldn't actually distinguish the weight between them. She was given a variety of covers that served different uses that slipped over the servo joint like a glove. One was nothing more than aesthetic, with flexi-polymer padding designed to mimic the natural musculature of her other arm and a silicone cover that matched the colour of her skin. Yang supposed she would have used that one more often, if it weren't for the fact that she was never one to shy away from, well, anything, and the others were just so damned interesting.
One was a pure titanium hand unit, not dissimilar to the one that Ironwood himself had, and was just as strong. She tended to use that one when she went on missions. Another one was an admittedly extremely useful appendage they called the 'Jaws of Life'. It was essentially a multi-tool version of the rescue equipment used by firefighters and the like; primarily it was just a large, sharpened hydraulic clamp that could cut into cars, buildings, mechs, you name it. It also had a grappling claw attachment and a hydraulic brace that meant she could lift several thousand times above what she normally could – which was already pretty damned impressive – and meant she could effectively pick up a car, prop up a building or jack up a battlecruiser if needed. But the last one was arguably the most impressive, although she suspected it held more fascination for her sister than anything else; it was a tri-barrelled multi-cannon with a spotting laser, an electrical servo mount that could accurately shoot a hair of a flea at a thousand metres and had the equivalent stopping power of a herd of charging goliaths. She had put that claim directly to the test once – it wasn't wrong.
Her new arm had been nothing but a godsend. It had saved more lives than the rest of her friends combined, the majority off the battlefield. It had given her the ability to take on enemies far beyond what she could have handled beforehand. It had even held its own in her social life, providing a suitably fascinating topic of conversation. And yet, despite all that, she resented it. Scratch that, she loathed it. It wasn't so much the fact that it wasn't her real arm, or the fact that it was the result of a grievous injury. The latter she couldn't complain about; she knew full well that this kind of injury was likely as a career Huntress. She couldn't really say what was wrong about it; perhaps, she had convinced herself, it was the manner in which she lost it, the suddenness and violence of it. Perhaps it was also who was responsible for it that had her on edge. But, most likely, it was how she had reacted to losing her arm.
The way she had just shut down, retreated into herself, even when her baby sister had carried on the fight, going all the way to Mistral with what was left of team JNPR to face off against the deadliest enemies Remnant had ever faced; back then, nobody could have blamed her, but now, all she felt was shame. Burning shame, and endless regret.
So yes, she loathed the arm: it was a constant reminder that she had failed to protect the most important thing in the world to her. Not that she needed protecting, but the principle of the thing still stood. Besides, it had a tendency to develop faults that manifested in an uncontrollable twitch, one that required constant maintenance to correct. Hence why she had locked herself in the workshop. Normally, Ruby would have helped her, or more accurately done the work for her. Of the two, Ruby had always been the more technically minded. And besides, it also served as much needed bonding time between the two sisters. Today, though, Ruby had locked herself in her room, for whatever reason, and so Yang was attempting a self-repair. Of course, when you're trying to fix something with one hand, and not your dominant hand at that, it was incredibly frustrating. She cursed loudly as the tiny screwdriver she was using to delicately adjust the servos of her index finger slipped for the fifth time.
"For gods' sakes, this is just like picking out a needle in a needlestack." Yang complained. "How does Ruby enjoy this?"
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance." A calm voice came from the door. Yang looked up, her expression quizzical, to see Ozpin standing in the doorway.
"Oz!" Yang said, surprised. "This is an unexpected surprise." Ozpin chuckled, pulling up a work stool and gently taking the screwdriver from Yang.
"I was just in the neighbourhood, when I bumped into Mr. Lie." He said, dexterously manipulating the tool with the utmost precision. "He invited me back here."
"Right." Yang knew he was lying. And after the, incident, in the lost continent, she and Ozpin had shared the kind of connection that prevented any lies from being kept between them. "What really brought you here, Oz?" The old professor sighed, the kind of sigh that was reserved for the world-weary, those who had seen the passing of great events, some good, most bad.
"Do you remember the day that everything returned to normal?" He said quietly. Yang nodded; as if she could forget.
Somehow, everything had worked out. Salem was still out there, but her power was greatly diminished. Cinder was dead. The White Fang had returned to their previous position of peaceful protest, although these days largely unneeded. Adam Taurus, the man who had cut off her arm, Yang had later learned, had somehow disappeared completely, and Torchwick, who had somehow survived being eaten by a gryphon, was currently holed up in Mountain Glenn, cornered by Cardin and his team. And yet, there was that one minor issue…
"Is it time?" She asked him, just as quietly.
"Not yet." He answered, his expression grave. "But soon." He finished adjusting the servos, and she flexed her fingers experimentally. Perfect, as always. "Can I count on you, Yang?" He looked at her expectantly, but also a little afraid. Not afraid that she might refuse him – of that there was no doubt – but just afraid. She looked back, her eyes steely with resolve.
"Of course, Oz." She answered. "Always."
