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Chapter 2 – Late Night Snack


Saturday Evening

"This is looking good," Magenta observed. Blake sat upon the guest bed provided to her, while Magenta lightly held her head while she inspected the damage. "Barely a day later and you're just about fully healed."

"Well like you said, once my Aura came back it was only a matter of time before the cut closed itself," Blake replied.

"Not completely though," Magenta amended. "It's still a little inflamed, and because you took the hit while your Aura was down you'll still have the scar to remember us by. But with your hair I doubt anyone will ever see it unless they go looking for it."

Blake wove her fingers into her dark hair and felt around her left feline ear. Sure enough, there was a slight ridge of newly mended tissue, and chances are it won't be going away anytime soon. Sometimes if a hit is really powerful, some of the damage can bypass your Aura and deal damage to your body directly. But so long as your shield of Aura wasn't completely broken, your body would eventually heal back to the point where it looked like it hadn't even received a scratch. Blake wasn't so lucky this time, but at least the blemish wouldn't be overtly noticeable.

"So does this mean you can stop watching me like I'm a crystal doll just waiting to fall off the ledge and break?" the cat Faunus asked with a bit of mirth.

Magenta smiled back knowingly. "Seeing as how you haven't had any complications since waking up, I suppose not. I may not have an official medical license, but I'd say you're clear to go back to sleep whenever you want. Just make sure to come find me if something feels wrong."

"Thank the gods," Blake sighed as Magenta set about packing up her medical kit. Coral was a little bundle of energy and excellent at keeping a person occupied, but Blake still felt exhausted for most of the day. A good night's rest is the only thing she wanted right now.

"But before you go to bed," Magenta added, cutting off Blake's hopeful thoughts, "how about you take a shower first? Since you don't need the gauze anymore you're safe to clean yourself up, and I think a wash might benefit more than a few people."

Blake's cheeks flushed and she not so discreetly took a whiff of herself. The fact she hasn't bathed in days was glaringly obvious to her nostrils, and she no longer had the scent of the forest and rainfall to mask her stench.

"That might not be a bad idea," Blake mumbled.

She pointedly ignored Magenta's big shit-eating grin. "Come on, I'll show you to the bathroom."

Standing up from the bed, Blake was thankful to find she was no longer wobbly on her feet. Coral had been accommodating enough to bring both lunch and dinner in bed. Coupled with how Jaune helped to kick start her Aura back to life, having actual meals in her stomach were doing wonders for Blake.

So Blake followed along as Magenta led the way, passively observing their house since she could now do so in the light. It was indeed a nice place, which was to be expected given its origins as a mansion. Lacquered hard wood floors, vaulted ceilings, regal looking pillars built into the walls. But it still felt much homier than Blake would have initially guessed. There was ample lighting to show off the warm and inviting colors of the walls, soft carpeting that varied in design and color pallets, and instead of professionally drawn portraits adorning the walls, Blake could only find framed pictures of children's' drawings and photographs.

"Not too high and mighty looking, is it?" Magenta remarked over her shoulder. Blake nodded as she gazed, and Magenta continued, "Like Jaune said, Dad sold off a lot of stuff when he got the house, including most of the pictures that used to hang these walls. But Mom didn't like leaving them barren, so as the years went by the house basically became our own personal art gallery. Yup, there are drawings of varying artistic degree from all eight Arc children hanging up in this house."

"Wait…" Blake cocked her head to the side as she registered what Magenta just said. "Your parents had eight children? And people accuse the Faunus of overbreeding!"

Magenta only shrugged. "Dad didn't grow up in a big family, only had a younger brother besides his parents. From what little he actually tells us about his childhood, it wasn't exactly the best experience. Mom, however, grew up with five siblings. She wanted a large family of her own, and Dad was more than willing to give it to her. The rest, as they say, is history."

"Jaune mentioned your mother and father left yesterday for a trip. How many people does that leave here now?"

"Five. It's just me, my older brother, and our three little sisters. Coral's the youngest, then Eerie, then Napier, then me, and last and least, Jaune."

They heard the older brother yell "Hey!" from somewhere on the first floor but elected to ignore it. "And your three older siblings?" Blake asked.

"The oldest is Ginger," Magenta explained, "the golden child, if you will. She's off on a mission with some family friends up in Atlas, so she won't be back until next week. Our third oldest sister, the one before Jaune, is Sapphire, and she's currently staying over with her team mates in Vacuo. And the second oldest is Mordant. She's… somewhere in Mistral, last we heard."

Blake noted the way Magenta's tone shifted sadly when talking about this 'Mordant' sister. She sensed more than a bit of tension there, so she decided not to comment on it.

"Seven girls and only one boy," Blake remarked airily. "You all must have made life Hell for Jaune."

Magenta smirked wickedly and an evil gleam passed through her gaze. "You have no idea," she assured.

Finally they arrived at a certain door, and Magenta stepped out of her way to let Blake inside. The cat Faunus marveled at their washroom, stunned from the sheer size of it. It was more like a small communal shower. There was a sort of main area, with a large mirror adorning the wall over the counter with three separate sinks. Obviously this was where they would brush their teeth and apply their makeup. Then the washroom diverged into four separate rooms, three showers and one overly large tub. Each had a fogged glass door to give the users privacy, even when multiple people were getting cleaned up. After learning the Arcs were such a large family, Blake surmised the parents restructured their washroom to accommodate so many different people who had to get ready in the mornings all at once.

As Blake surveyed the Arcs' washroom, she suddenly locked eyes with the room's lone occupant, who was frozen in place with her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth while she stared back at Blake. This girl looked younger, but still older at least than Coral. She had midnight black hair, just like Blake, though hers was straighter and a bit shorter. She also had a pair of sterling dark blue eyes, just like Jaune and Magenta. The fact she was getting ready for bed was obvious given the flowing black and grey nightgown she wore.

The girl snapped out of her funk and quickly spit her toothpaste into the sink before near violently washing out her mouth with water. The toothbrush was tossed aside with little care and the girl folded her hands behind her back, staring up at Blake with a timid gaze.

"Uh… hi."

"Hello," Blake greeted back neutrally. Blake wasn't surprised at her reaction, given how the cat Faunus did break into their house. Not every Arc sibling could be as so forgiving as Coral it seemed.

Magenta stepped into main area, big-sisterly smile still in place. "Blake, this is our second youngest sister Eerie," the girl supplied for her. "Eerie, this is our house guest for the week, Blake."

"Oh, Jaune mentioned you earlier," Blake recalled. "He said you were looking after Gambol Shroud."

"I- I was only looking at it!" Eerie yelled, her eyes wide with sudden panic. "I didn't take it apart or anything, I just really like mecha-shift weapons and yours looked really cool so I just wanted to see it and maybe draw some designs but that's really hard to do when you look at the weapon as a whole piece without taking it apart but I didn't want to take it apart because I don't know if you'd be angry or-!"

"Eerie!" the older sister interrupted calmly, cutting off the girl's ranting. "We get it, you were just looking. Blake won't be angry for something that." Magenta turned to Blake with a furrowed brow. "I mean, she won't, right?"

"No, it's really okay," Blake assured the younger sister. Eerie seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as a weight lifted off her small shoulders. "In fact I should probably thank you looking after it while I was busy. So, thank you."

"O-oh, no, that's okay," Eerie muttered, pivoting her heel into the mat on the floor. "Um, I'm going to bed now." Without waiting for an answer the little girl dashed between the two older women and made a beeline for wherever her room was.

Blake watched her go with more than a tinge of guilt, until she turned a corner and was out of sight. "That's… my fault, isn't it?"

"Eerie's always been a little shy," Magenta told her. "Yeah, the whole breaking and entering thing might not have helped, but give her a couple of days and she'll come around."

"Right…" Blake drawled. She should probably go to each Arc sibling and apologize personally. Even if she only planned on staying for another day or so, Blake didn't want her hosts to be constantly on edge because of her presence.

"So, anyways," Magenta continued, "you can go ahead and used my shampoo and body wash for the week, although I did dig out a new loufa for you to use. My stuff is in the middle shower, and you'll know which ones they are because they're color coded to be purple."

"That's very kind of you to-" Blake began, but after taking only a few steps in the washroom she caught sight of herself in the mirror and stopped short.

She looked like shit thrice warmed over. There were dark rings under her eyes, her complexion was somewhat clammy, and her normally bright amber eyes were dulled from exhaustion. Blake's clothes weren't much better. Her black and violet leggings had more than a few tears in them, and her pearly white shorts and blouse were marred with a variety of different stains. The black vest she wore over her blouse was crumpled and frayed quite a bit as well. To Blake herself, she looked like the very epitome of homeless and destitute.

"I'll see if I can scrounge up some spare clothes for you," Magenta decided, picking up on Blake's worries. "Then in the mean time I can see if I can do anything to fix up your clothes during your stay."

"Thanks," Blake told her once more. It still continually surprised just how generous these Arcs were being.

With a genial smile Magenta closed the door to the hallway as she left, leaving Blake with her privacy. Without wasting any more time, Blake began to strip down, starting by unclipping her vest from her leggings and shimmying out of those first. Then she peeled off the long black glove she wore on her left arm and the loose choker she wore around her neck. Next came the white blouse and thigh length shorts, followed closely by her light grey bra and panties. Blake folded everything neatly into a pile and left it on the sink counter, so Magenta could come in later and grab them.

Blake then stepped into the middle shower and closed the fogged door behind her, just in case someone else might come in after her. After a minute of experimenting with the faucet to get the water temperate just right, Blake stepped into the raining water and summarily gasped as the water crashed against her bare skin. The water was almost scalding hot, but Blake could not have cared less. It felt like the first time she's experienced hot water in months, and for a few minutes she did nothing more than stand there and let the steamy water cascade down her body.

After a time she started to run her hands through hair, eyes closed as she smoothed it out and untangled the kinks. Almost blindingly she reached for Magenta's shampoo bottle and squirted more than a fair amount of the gel onto her dark locks. It felt oh so good, massaging the moisturizer into her scalp and hair, wringing out all the dirt and grime that must have accumulated over weeks of poor hygiene. The stall very quickly filled with the scent of evergreen trees, and Blake squirted another dollop of the shampoo into her hair just for good measure.

Once she felt her hair was sufficiently doused and cleaned, she rotated to Magenta's body wash. Grabbing the pink loufa that looked fresher than the rest, she again squirted a more than healthy amount of gel into the cleaning tool before rubbing it in to get the mixture to start bubbling. Once that was accomplished, Blake wasted no time in furiously scrubbing at every available patch of skin she could find, from her face to the soles of her feet and everything in between. Her arms, shoulders and collar received especially vicious scrubbing on account how they were the parts of her body she left most exposed. Blake lathered and scrubbed her body for an inordinately long period of time, until her skin was left red and raw, just to make sure she got as much of the filth on her body as she could.

After what felt to be maybe twenty minutes Blake felt the water cascading down on her begin to cool gradually. Blake felt she'd probably spent enough time in the shower, and she didn't want to waste the Arcs' supplies of hot water, so with great reluctance she shut off the shower. Blake stood in the steam filled room for a few moments longer, soaking up the last vestiges of heat. Skin practically inflamed and lungs full of hot air, Blake felt… good. Very good. One shower and a few warm meals, and this was the best Blake has felt in weeks.

Opening the door and poking her head out to make sure she was alone, Blake stepped out of the shower and grabbed a spare white towel to wrap her naked body with as she air dried. With another towel she set about wringing out her hair while she inspected the new pile of clothes on the counter. She also noted her old clothes were gone, so obviously Magenta had been by while Blake had been showing. In return Blake found a dark blue, loose fitting, long sleeved shirt and a pair of dark grey slacks. Blake skeptically eyed the light blue panties also provided, but an accompanying sticky note from Magenta assured the cat Faunus they were new and hadn't been worn yet.

Deciding beggars couldn't be choosers, Blake donned the gifted set of clothes once she was dry enough. She was using the mirror to help tie her hair in a simple bun for the night when a knock sounded at the door. Blake opened it to find Magenta standing there, her usual friendly smile still in place.

"Hey! How are the clothes fitting?"

"Well enough," Blake replied, tugging at the loose fitting shirt slightly. Obviously it had originally belonged to someone taller than Blake.

"Yeah, I figured Sapphire's wardrobe would be better suited to you than mine." Blake nodded knowingly. She's already noted Magenta was less… developed, in the chest and backside regions, than Blake. No doubt any of Magenta's clothes would have been overly snug on her body. "And since Fire's not here you can go through her clothes whenever you need to during your stay."

"Are you sure she won't mind?" Blake asked. After already receiving so much help from these Arcs, Blake at least wanted to make sure they didn't get into trouble because of her after she left.

Magenta waved off her concerns. "Sapphire's room is a goddamn warzone, she won't notice if a few pieces of clothes are out of place. Just make sure anything you pick out is actually clean before putting it on."

"Duly noted, and I was wondering if…" But whatever question Blake was about to ask, she completely forgot what it was going to be as she caught sight of Jaune strolling down the hall behind his sister. He was engrossed with the magazine he held in one hand, and with the other he snacked on an apple as a sort of late night snack. But those things weren't what left Blake awestruck.

It was what he was wearing. Gone were the armor, hoody and jeans, and in their place was a light blue monstrosity. It was a single piece of clothing, covering his entire body, complete with padded sole foot coverings. It even had a hood with bunny ears hanging over the back for Monty's sake!

"What the hell is that?" Blake blurted out before she could stop herself.

Jaune stopped in his tracks and stared at Blake innocently, swallowing his bite of apple. "What, my comic? It's X-Ray and Vav."

"Not the comic, you dunce," Magenta scolded. "She means that blight against humanity you're wearing."

"You mean my sleeping clothes?" Jaune glanced down at his onesie, seemingly finding nothing wrong with the image of a seventeen year old Huntsman in training walking around in a bunny suit. "This is just what I wear to bed."

"I- you- but-" Blake's brain was short circuiting with the image before her. This was the same man who knocked her out last night in defense of his home and family. The same man who was so helpful and supportive of her earlier this morning. How could he possibly turn around and do something like… this?

"How on Remnant can you possibly wear that… thing in any conceivable situation?" Blake demanded.

Jaune scoffed. "I will have you know my mother made this for me, and it is SUPER comfortable. It helped me sneak up on you last night, didn't it?"

The face Blake made at him was far from attractive.

"Jaune," Magenta sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You are attending Beacon in the Spring. You are going to have to share a room with three other people. Don't you think wearing the light blue bunny onesie your mother made for you might damage your reputation even the slightest amount? Or entirely?"

"Wait, you're going to Beacon?" Blake asked. It shouldn't have been surprising really. Jaune was obviously a Huntsman in training and Beacon was the premier Hunter school in Vale.

"Well, yeah," Jaune shrugged. "I spent four years training at an intermediary academy near here called Watchtower, and when this year's Entrance Exams came around, I did well enough to get an invitation."

Blake wasn't sure why that piece of information stung so much. Maybe it was because even in her weakened state, Blake still knew she was a far more adept warrior than Jaune, if only for fact her training was actually in the field and in life-or-death situations. While he trained in simulated environments with a safety net to keep him from any serious harm. And yet Jaune had managed to get into one of the most prestigious academies in the world, an accomplishment Blake couldn't say of herself, though not for lack of trying…

"That's a very noteworthy accomplishment," she told the boy, keeping the disappointment out of her voice thanks to years of practice in schooling her emotions. Jaune seemed jarred by the sudden shift in her tone, but he recovered quickly enough.

"Oh, well… thanks. Anyways, I'm glad you're still awake. I usually make breakfast around ten, but you can come down whenever you like to get something to eat."

"You don't have to spend all day cooped up in your room if you don't want to," Magenta added. "The whole house is open to you while you're our guest, barring the few rooms we don't get to go in either."

Blake scratched the side of her head gave them a self-deprecating grin. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I might just spend the whole day just sleeping in tomorrow."

"We'll make sure Coral doesn't bug you before you're awake then," Jaune told her with a smile. "Well, goodnight you two, see you in the morning."

Magenta said goodnight as well and began to follow her brother toward their rooms. Blake watched them go, toweling her hair off some more. Her feline ears instinctually twitched as she dragged the fabric over them, and a sudden thought struck Blake.

"Wait!" she called out to the two siblings, causing Magenta and Jaune to turn back to her with perplexed gazes. Blake wrung the towel in her hands and asked, "You haven't mentioned anything but… do you not care that I'm a Faunus?"

It was the whole reason Blake wore the bow over her ears. No matter where she went there was always someone with a problem toward the Faunus, in one way or another. Some would shout obscenities at Faunus individuals who were just walking down the street, while others would covertly bar Faunus from partaking in their businesses. Blake hid her true identity because she did not want people to only see her as a Faunus and make snap decisions without getting to know the person she truly was.

The two Arc siblings glanced at one another and simultaneously shrugged. Magenta turned back to her and answered, "No, not really."

She blinked owlishly at them, not expecting the almost immediate answer. "I… really?"

"It's not like you being a human would have changed anything about you breaking into our house or us taking care of you," Jaune replied. "Plus Dad was always really vocal about how much he hated racists, which probably comes from being on a team with a wolf Faunus back when he was in Beacon."

"Growing up with a Faunus uncle really helped us understand how Faunus and humans are still different, but not in the ways that really matter," Magenta added. "You're a person, Blake, just like us. The fact you have kitty ears doesn't change that."

"Though Coral does think they're adorable," Jaune pitched in. "Wouldn't shut up about them until I physically removed myself from the room."

Well, this was certainly interesting. Sure, Blake had picked the one mansion in all of Vale without rich people living in it to rob, which ended with her being incapacitated. But then her luck miraculously turned around, meeting the picture perfect family for a Hospitality/Faunus sensitivity ad campaign. It was times like this Blake wondered if some higher power was messing with her life just for the fun of it.

"Oh, well, good," Blake told the siblings. "I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable or anything."

"You'll have to try a lot harder than a pair of cat ears," Magenta droned, not-at-all-subtly gesturing to her brother's sleeping attire.

"You're just mad because Mom didn't make one for you too," Jaune bit back snidely.

"Because she knows I would have set it on fire." Magenta sighed heavily and dragged her hands over her face. "But whatever. Have a good night Blake, we'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Magenta. Goodnight Jaune." Blake let the brother and sister go finally, the two of them bickering all the way back to their rooms. Alone once more, Blake went back to preparing herself for bed.

The Arcs were certainly a strange family. But for now, Blake felt she was in good hands.


"Hey Jaune, do you have a minute?"

"Well, my Semblance doesn't allow me to take the passing of time and store it into neat little bottles, so… no?"

Over the years Jaune has become intimately familiar with his middle most sister's various different glares. He tends to draw her ire a lot. And at this moment she was currently giving him the one that meant: I'm being serious, so stop acting like an idiot.

"Fine, fine, what's up?" Jaune placated. Now in his room, Jaune flopped down on his bed, comic propped up on his chest while he looked up at Magenta expectantly.

Still mildly glaring at him, Magenta crossed her arms and said, "I just want to make sure you're going to be on your best behavior while our guest is with us."

"Me?" Jaune sputtered, pointing at himself. "What do I have to watch my behavior for? I'm not the one who broke into a house and tried to steal a family's food!"

"I mean I want you to curtail your actions around our guest because of what she is. And no, I don't mean the fact she's a Faunus."

Jaune narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't follow."

"I'm sure you've noticed Blake is a girl?"

"I might have, yes."

"And she's around our own age?"

"Your powers of observation are truly keen, Maggie."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Then have you noticed just how pretty she is?"

At that Jaune finally glanced away, and despite his best efforts a small amount of heat rose in his cheeks.

Magenta only harrumphed at him. "This should go without saying, but because it's you I'm going to say it anyway; No flirting with our house guest!"

"Flirting?" Jaune asked incredulously. "What on Remnant makes you think I'd want to flirt with Blake?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe all the empirical evidence showing how you try to flirt with every woman you meet?"

Jaune only scoffed. "I don't flirt around that much."

"All the girls you ended up being paired up with for projects at Watchtower?"

"Alright, maybe I do have some trouble reading signals. I concede to that. But in my defense, those girls love to flaunt their developing bodies."

Magenta uttered a disgusted sound and went on. "And the friends I make the mistake of inviting over?"

"All of your friends are at least a year and a half younger than me, and I actively try to avoid talking with them," Jaune pointed out. "It's not my fault they get star struck at the image of a handsome, older man paired with the powerful title of Huntsman."

"It's because you're older, huh?" Magenta observed, a dangerous tilt to her voice. She leaned in closer and asked, "Then what about Mrs. Amaranth?"

"That's not my fault and you know it!" Jaune defended; jumping up from his bed because he was so incensed. "Everyone in town knows she likes to play fast and loose with her marriage. I just had the poor circumstances of being in the wrong place at the festival dance last year when she got plastered." He shuddered violently as he tried to repress that particular memory. Those old wrinkly hands as they caressed places they never should have caressed…

"Fine, Jaune, it's never your fault women flirt with you so much!" Magenta told him condescendingly. "But then how do you explain this?" She quickly crossed the room and rifled through his desk draw before pulling out an old, well-worn notebook and presented the title to Jaune.

"Henry's Romance Master Guide," it read on the front, written with somewhat faded marker. A gift bestowed to Jaune from his father some time ago, around the same time he'd been given The Talk. In Henry Arc's own words, it was 'a sure fire way to win the hearts and minds of women from all walks of life.'

Not his own daughter, thankfully. Magenta flipped through pages with barely concealed disgust, reading aloud, "Tip number five: Always have confidence. All women look for in a man is confidence! Gods, reading some of this and you'd think Chivalry was still alive."

"I will agree the information is a bit… dated," Jaune allowed. "But there is some really good info in there! Like how he explains to be kind and courteous without trying to literally bend over backwards in order to get a girl to like you on your dates. That's helpful, right?"

"Maybe…" Magenta hedged. "But some of these are still so horrible. Like the section on pickup lines. 'You've got my heart pounding faster than a pack of Beowolves chasing after me'? Uh, that's so cheesy. 'I used to chase a lot of women, but then I saw you and said Nevermore'? Really, puns? Is our Dad really that shallow? And this one! 'The name's Henry Arc. Short sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it!' Jaune, please tell you've never actually used that line on some poor woman."

Instead of answering, Jaune merely glanced away while whistling a jaunty tune to himself.

Magenta rolled her eyes and went back to the book. She flipped through a few more pages, suddenly looking pensive. "And then a whole bunch of these are circled. Like this one: 'When in doubt, use tongue.' How crass. In fact a lot of the dirtier tips are circled. Why did you decide these ones were more important?"

"Those circles were made by Dad, actually. They're the ones that, uh… worked on Mom."

"OH GODS!" Magenta screamed, flinging the book away from her like it was some creepy crawly. She continued to make distressed noises as she wiped off her hands on her sleep pants.

"Just about the same reaction I had," Jaune muttered offhandedly. "So, horrifying realizations about our parents aside, how about we get back on task here?"

"Sure, fine," his sister relented, still fighting off the urge to dry heave. "Look, what I'm saying is most of the times you start getting flirty with a girl, it ends up going badly. So since Blake is going to be spending the week with us, all I ask is that you not try to flirt with her and result in making this week unbearably uncomfortable for everyone involved."

Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed rather explosively. "Magenta, at no point did I have the intention of trying to hook up with the Faunus thief who broke into our house, tried to steal all our food, and scared us half to death because we thought she was going to hurt our little sister."

"Do you promise?" Magenta urged.

With a groan Jaune raised his right arm and crooked it at a ninety degree angle, palm open and facing Magenta. With his left hand he made a crossing motion over his heart.

"I promise on my honor as an Arc to not flirt with our house guest," Jauned deadpanned. He then dropped his posture and flopped back down on his bed. "Happy now?"

"Placated, more like." His sister then eyed Jaune in his bed warily. "You remembered to clean that, right?"

"Um… maybe?" If Jaune breathed in real deep he could just about catch the scents of forest leaves and rain water.

"You're disgusting, Jaune."


Author's Note: Didn't super love this chapter. It really surmounted to a bunch of scenes I wanted to write but couldn't fit in anywhere else. In any event, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings!