Okay so I'm gonna be turbo-working to get this chapter out as soon as possible.

To clear up something from a question I saw in a review on the last chapter:

In this story, Vale is based on the continent of North America, and there are 10 cities, but the two important ones are:

Vale City, which is the largest and is equivalent to New York City

Coldwater, which is the smallest and is equivalent to Texas (yes, all of Texas)

That all being said, this means Jaune is a country boy, and I always imagined him as either a nobleman's son, or a country boy, so I went with both.

You come to Texas and you'll find it REALLY hard to find someone who isn't religious.

Also, the religion in Remnant is, for obvious reasons, based around Monty Oum and all his wonderfulness.

I won't go into detail, but for my own sake because I'm lazy, it will conveniently have the same holidays as the ones we have IRL.

Hehe.

Hahaha.

Hahahaha.

Funny I bring up religion in this chapter's author notes.

A bit of forewarning, there is minor nudity in this chapter (just a bit of exposed boobs and butts) and in the future I will definitely be upping the story's rating to M for obvious (harem) reasons.

That is all.

Please enjoy the story.

RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth

Chapter 8: Smarter, and maybe Harder


Ren smiled. He had been at this for nine minutes and got eight numbers.

He collapsed onto a table near a girl who was texting, "Gah~, I need some assistance."

The girl rushed over, "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" her words were quick and somewhat panicked, but Ren had heard far more incomprehensible stuff from Nora, and had no trouble getting it on the first try.

"I need~..." he croaked out.

"What do you need?"

"I need your name, phone number, and a brief message..." he suddenly shot up, "So you can enter for a chance to win one MILLION lien~!" the sudden mood whiplash would be shocking to anyone who had known Lie Ren for more than five minutes.

Luckily this girl had not, "Ohmigosh! This is like one of those TV ads?!"

"Uh, yeah, so... scroll number, and five lien."

The girl happily gave him a slip of paper with the requested information, as well as a five lien note, "Hehe, I've never actually done one of these things before."

"Well there's a first time for everything. Thank you, and we'll contact you if you've won." and with that, he walked away.

Meanwhile on the opposite end of the food court, Jaune watched in shock as his usually quiet friend went from normal, to something akin to Nora's usual energy, then back to normal in the span of twenty seconds.

All he had done thus far was get rejected by about ten different girls, and the eleventh threw her milkshake in his face.

Strawberry, and not even a tenth as good as the one Ruby made him that one time.

He had finally finished cleaning the milkshake off his face and the little bit that got on his shirt, then practiced with his aura by absorbing the water to dry off.

Checking the time, he found he only about thirty seconds to beat Ren.

If he couldn't use his charms, he could use his mind!

'Uh, uh, uh, aw nuts.' he looked around for any sort of salvation.

He smiled so wide it hurt when he found it.


"So, what do you hold in that... arm computer of yours, if not your schoolwork?" Port asked as he swirled a glass of scotch in his hand with a strip of bacon.

"Oh? Memories... from... before." Raiden's tone lost its usual mirth and turned dark, depressed, and remorseful.

'You're pretty good~...'

'Stop! Stop it!'

'Fuck this war! I just wanna see you DEAD!'

'Dad, when are we going home?'

The sound of Port whistling broke the suited swordsman out of his stupor, "Mister Raiden, please put the sword away."

Looking to his hands, he realized he had drawn his sword in a, thankfully cut-short, fit of PTSD-induced mania. Sheathing the gray blade in the mechanical scabbard on his back, he took in a deep breath and sighed heavily, a sense of longing filling the air.

"Are you going to be okay?" the stout man's joviality faded away, replaced by a calm, wise, but caring tone.

Swallowing back some bile that made its way up his throat, the blonde man nodded, "Yeah... I'm gonna be fine." he internally winced at the tension in his words.

"Try to get some rest. I imagine you're quite tired from overseeing five different reports." the mustachioed man patted him on his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah..." he faked a yawn, "Overseeing, yeah... I'm going to go now." he took his briefcase laptop and walked out of the door.

The hall was thankfully empty, and he was allowed a few minutes to think. He had to control himself, with the power he contained, both physical and through his aura, if he lost control...

Oum have mercy on whoever opposed him, because he would NOT.

"Oh! Hey! Raiden!" a young, cheerful voice called out.

Internally wincing, pale blue eyes turned to see the adorable sight of Ruby Rose approaching quickly, wearing a black A-Shirt with a beowolf-themed heart on the chest, a red and black plaid shirt over it, only the bottom half being buttoned, black skinny jeans, and her red and black Superstar II sneakers.

"Oh, Ruby, hey there." he felt pain mix with a sense of ease.

"Raiden, you know how you and Jaune are friends?"

"I'd like to think of us that way, I mean, I spent a good couple of minutes typing his report for him... I'll let you take the credit on that one for me, it ought to win some big points with him."

"W-w-what~?" Ruby was shocked, did he know?

"I like to think I have experience with love, Rubes. and I must say that you're sure to win him over if you give him that armor and tell him you wrote his report for him."

"Oh... th-thank you, Raiden." the silver-eyed girl blushed and nodded, "I'm gonna go now." she pointed her thumb behind her, "OkayseeyoulaterifIneedmorehelp!" and she sped off with her semblance-enhanced speed.

Well, his mood had improved in only seconds, maybe today would be better.


"TIME~!" Nora called out loudly, getting a big cheery grin. Several people looked her way, but shrugged it off. She just looked like the kind of person who would shout things.

Ren was back by the table in short order, smiling, "Well... I feel better." he said with twice the life of his usual tone.

"That's great, Renny!" the bubbly bomber looked at his hands, "So what'cha get, then?"

"Ten." he slapped down the paper slips as Jaune walked up slowly, his hands behind his back, "And good to see you looking happy, Jaune, but I managed to get ten numbers."

"Nine, and a five lien note." Nora corrected as she pocketed the money, "What did you get, Jauney?"

*WHAM*

A large, heavy book slammed into the table, knocking away the crumpled slips that held Ren's gains.

"What is THAT?" the ginger girl asked, trying to figure heads or tails of it.

"The phone book." Jaune smiled with a bit of smug satisfaction, "There are PLENTY of girls' phone numbers in there."

Nora realized what the knight was meaning, and smiled, "Wow! That's really smart!" she opened the book, "And there are police stations, hospitals, fire stations, and all sorts of stuffs too!" she grabbed Jaune's hand and raised it up, "Jaune wins!"

Ren just shook his head, "Well, you outsmarted me, Jaune, good job." he stuck out his hand and smiled.

Jaune shook Ren's hand and smiled back, feeling happy, "Thanks, good game, man."

The two bro-fisted, and Nora beamed a smile, feeling proud of herself.

She helped! Yay! Now Jaune would...

What would Jaune do?

'How do I know that any girl he found would even like him? Also, calling people randomly would creep out most of those people...' she hummed at the thoughts, watching Jaune.

The blue-eyed youth was putting away the phone book he'd taken, smiling as he did so.

She tapped her chin in thought, 'Why though? If Jaune asked me out on a date, why would I NOT say yes?! Jaune is a really awesome guy! He's tall, and muscly, and he has a sword and shield, like a ye old knight of a big royal castle!' she smiled widely.

He was walking back now, the sword and shield she'd thought of was being lightly jostled with every step he took.

'If I had a castle, I wonder if Jaune would be my loyal knight? Hmmmm... it's possible, I mean, he said he would do anything for his team, and I'm part of the team! Yay! Listening to Jauney talk in his sleep has paid off a whole bunch now.' the hammer-wielder smiled up at Jaune, recalling how tall he was compared to her five-foot-three frame the second their eyes met.

Jaune looked down at Nora after feeling her eyes on him, "Is there something you want to say, Nora?"

"Yes! Jaune, can you give me a piggyback ride?"

"W-what?" Jaune scratched the back of his head confused, "You..."

"Puh-LEEEEEEZE~?" Nora put on the puppy-dog eyes.

"Okay, fine, but only because you said please." the knight turned around and squatted a little bit.

The first thing Jaune found out when Nora hopped on was that she was heavier than she looked, probably about one-hundred-forty pounds.

Well, he could carry that.

"Let's find the princess of the north, and then? We get pancakes~!" Nora commanded, pointing forwards dramatically.

Jaune sighed, 'The things I do for my friends... if I did it all over... I'd still do it all the same...'


*BRRRING BRRIING*

*CLICK*

"Hello~?" the sweet, smooth, syrupy voice drizzled into the receiver.

"Ah, hello there~!" came a charming male voice spoke from the other end, "Is this the Triple Threat?"

"One~ of my many~ names~, yes~, to some~ I am the Triple Treat~." just like the man she'd just left behind. He had paid for an adventure, and he got one, and she got three servings of 'whipped cream', "So, to whom~ am I speaking~?"

"Well you can just called me the lantern man... I'd like to enlist your mercenary services."

"Mercenary~? Well~, I don't receive many of those~ requests~, Mister Lantern~, mostly escorts~, or my delectable~ adventures~."

The man stuttered slightly, catching the lewd tone in her last few words, "Er... right... I would say... can we meet next week on Tuesday, by the warehouse near dock nine?"

"Well~." Neo pulled out a pocket calendar, finding all of the next week to be empty, "I can pencil you in~ for Tuesday~, Mister Lantern~. We'll talk then~, okay~?"

"Excellent, because there are some things that need to be discussed."

"Discussion~ is the first step to solving~ your problems~."

The line went dead.

"Well how RUDE~." the multi-colored woman pouted grumpily, pocketing her scroll, "He could at least have said goodbye."

That guy was weird, and a little bit creepy, not at all like the blond boy, Jaune.

Jaune was certainly interesting. One thing she found out quickly was that he was honest and sincere with his words, and she had never received such deep gratitude before, it was... different.

... and certainly something she liked.

Smiling, she stepped into the shadows, and with a single thought and a well-practiced flicker of aura, she vanished into the shadows to reappear somewhere else.


Meanwhile somewhere else entirely

"GYO~! Cyome on, Iron Myan, you cyan dyo it!... YAAAAAAAY~! BWOW UP DA ALIENS!... Wait wha~? Nyu! Nyu! Nyu nyu nyu NYUUUUUU~!" cherry-red eyes watered as Tony Stark fell lifelessly back down through the portal.

How could they do something like that?

Oh... luckily he was caught before he hit the ground, but still!

He was... dead.

"Cyome on! Cyome on~! Thor, use your wightning pyowers~! Jyarvis wyake up~! Bwack Widow, Hawkeye, styahp byeing useless and hyelp him~! Captain Atlas, do a fancy trick to restart his Ark Reactor thingy! Hulk, use your-" she was cut off as Hulk practically roared at the unconscious avenger, shocking him awake, "YAAAAAY~! HE'S AWIVE~! HULK YOU DYID IT~!" she cheered adorably, pumping her fists in victory.

Soon enough, the credits were rolling.

"Okyay! Gyood myovie! Tyen out of tyen!... I wanted to syee Dyeadpoow in there at least once... he's my favowite Mawvel chawacter..." she removed the DVD from the player and put it back in the box.

Well now what?

She was scared of a lot of the selection of video games, especially those ones with the scary names, like Gears of War, or Splinter Cell, or Call of Duty, oh my~!

So spooky!

"... D'ooohhhhh~, nyow what?" she looked over all of the boxes, pouting.

Crap, it wasn't here! Where was it?

"Myoooommmm~?!" she called out, opening the door to the room.

"Yes sweetie?!" her mother called back from the kitchen.

"Whewe's the Ghyostbustyews DVD?!" it was her favorite movie of all time. She knew the theme song by heart and could sing it in her sleep! The theme song also made her feel better when she was scared, and she got scared VERY often without her big brother around.

"Uh... oh! It's downstairs, sweetie, remember we all watched it together the other night?"

"Oh yeah! Thyanks myom." she skipped down the hall and down the stairs, her comfy shoes making little *tappy-tap* sounds with her steps.

Sitting excitedly on the living room couch, cherry-red eyes sparkled with delight when the movie loaded up on the massive TV in the middle of all the family photos.

There were a LOT of family photos on the walls.

She didn't really care, she just wanted to watch Bill Murray and his friends bust some ghosts!

Doing a little dance to the theme song, she giggled, and sang along when the trumpet came in, "Nya-nya-nyan-nya-nya-nya~! Nya-nya-nyan-nya-nya-nya~! Nya-nya-nyan-nya-nyan-nyan, GHYOSTBUSTYEWS~!" she paused to take a sip of her milk.

Life was good for her.


Weiss sighed in relief. The dust stores in the mall were luckily still turning profits, not that she had any doubts, after all.

Now she just needed to find Jaune again, hopefully before the big lunkhead got himself into trouble.

"Hark! Princess of the north! Do your embassies still function within these borders?" Nora called out in a giggly voice, which made Weiss turn towards her.

"What are you talki-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she nearly screeched at the sight of Jaune giving Nora a piggyback ride.

"Nora politely asked fer a piggyback ride, so I'm givin' her one."

Weiss was surprised, and then her surprise faded into acceptance. Of course Nora would ask for a piggyback ride, she was prone to do such childish things, and no offense to Ren but she doubted he could carry the muscle-bound ginger very far, muscles tended to make someone weigh more, never mind her monstrous weapon that nearly rivaled Ruby's in its brutality.

"Alright then..." the heiress couldn't really complain, as she would have never thought of getting a piggyback ride until it had been brought up.

"Okay! So now that we're all done here, let's head home!" Nora pointed Jaune towards one of the many exits to the mall.

After a few seconds of walking, the group began talking again, the knight telling a story he felt would get some laughs out of the bomber, gunman, and fencer.

Overall, they enjoyed their time together, it was nice.

It was normal.

It was refreshing.

It was wonderful.


"Broad strokes of the brush, full of strength and might, crushing the machinations of all brushes that are more light. A simplicity in its horror, a hunger in its mass, I am the coroner, and this day shall be your last." midnight-blue eyes read from the book in his left hand as his right painted the canvas, the smallest of his brushes, still half an inch wide, in his hand.

A staff member ran through the hall, he could feel it in his cursed bones.

The door opened, a motion that was so easy it could be done without thought.

"My lord!" he said, his thin body shivering from the cross-campus journey.

"Balkas, what is the problem?" he said calmly, his aura ready to retrieve his heavy sword, the dirt-brown blade edged with a pale and sickly green, like a graveyard's deadened grass covering its rich, corpse-fed soil.

The robed man's thin face was tanned from his prolonged exposure to the sun, his unnaturally bright green eyes and cracked teeth belying his true nature.

The master of the campus smiled, though he knew his actions were against most of society's norms, he was fighting to claim what was rightfully his.

What rightfully belonged to the strong.

Still, despite his dark heart, he had grown to care for speedy undead. Once an almost literal husk, he had been sworn to a life of servitude in exchange for, well, being alive.

Balkas, his oldest and most loyal subject, was showing more signs of life every day, his skin looked healthy, his hair had recently fully regrown, though it was still uneven and needed to be trimmed up to look normal. His glowing green eyes were the only telling sign of his nature.

And these thoughts made the master smile, as his minion's growth reminded him that, should he feel so inclined, he could send Balkas out into normal society, and let him live a normal life among normal people.

Unfortunately, normal was about as far from his goals as the word 'normal' was from the word 'aardvark' in the dictionary.

"Target 2-5 was spotted at the mall!" the minion repeated the message he'd gotten from one of the agents.

"... so?"

"So... should we send someone to kill him?"

"Tis' too risky in such a populated area. We make a buzz, people get curious, far more bloodshed than necessary as the unwary flock to the slaughter to weak little lambs."

"Then what, master?"

"Please, Balkas, I told you, call me Sir."

Balkas cleared his throat, "Th-then what, s-sir?"

Midnight blue eyes wandered over his painting. An image of himself, in his full, deathly, dark-gray combat gear, crushing the head of a faceless knight under his foot, his weapons and armor were all splattered with blood.

Unfortunately, that is how it had to be, as the matter he was dealing with could not be solved with a simple murder, no...

The goal he had set could only be achieved by a long, arduous process. He had everyone he needed, though, and it would only be a simple matter of taking the body alive and going through the steps.

Soon, he would finally achieve his goal.

Soon, the power he lusted for would be his.

Soon, Penuai Kubur would drink the blood and crush the bones of the one and only Jaune Arc.

Soon, but not now.

"Tell D4 to report back to the HQ, then contact the lab and have them craft the necessary poisons for an aggressive, but stealthy kidnapping." the blue-eyed master commanded.

"What about C3? And B2, sir?"

"Good point... tell them to prepare in case D4 fails."

"Alright... and you, sir?"

A hand smoothly ran through slicked-back pale blond hair, "I have painted and read my quota for the day, tell Monica to bring me whatever paperwork needs doing, then I shall go to my training course for a time as long as I see fit."

"A-a-alright, sir. I shall inform them all right away." and with that, the speedy undead zipped off at high speed.

Alone now, the master of the campus sat behind he desk, then he poured himself a glass of whiskey, and finally, fished a cigarette out of his supply.

"Ah~, rotten corn juice and the dried, chopped-up corpses of tobacco, truly a testament to the dead." he said in a poetic tone as he drank and smoked.

A minute or two later, he tapped off the ashes of his cigarette into the tray in front of his nameplate.

Headmaster Kain, it read.

Grandson of Jon Alich, the Brusher of the Snows, who was also the founder of Alich Academy.

The same deadly wrath his grandfather held for the Arc family flowed through Kain's blood three times as strong.

He would be the one to enact their revenge.

However, unlike his fathers before him, he would carry out his work intelligently, and avoid needless bloodshed.

Though... in the end... bloodshed was unavoidable.

And unfortunately for his intelligent side... deep down?

Deep down, he was as dead and uncaring as the zombie he raised last week.


*THUNK THUNK THUNK*

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*FWOOSH~*

It was amazing what human skin could take before catching fire, so much so that it unnerves some people.

Human hair though? Human hair could catch a spark and pitch back an inferno.

That's why Ruby had short hair.

THAT... and it was easier to manage, easier to clean, didn't need to be brushed or combed often, could be covered easily, and could look good whether groomed or messy.

It helped that this interest worked in tandem with her love of forging, which her uncle said 'was the Rose in her'.

'Then what's the Xiao Long in me?'

'I'll tell you when you're older.'

Well, she was older and she still didn't fully know, just vague hints that her hair would get longer and her boobs would get bigger.

She didn't like where that led, but she couldn't fight genetics, so she'd learn to deal with it.

Just like she was dealing with this weapon.

"Honestly, I'm surprised Jaune could come up with a design so intelligent so quickly. I guess he's got a bit of a natural knack for weapons too." she said with a smile, raising her protective mask after finishing one of the final forges of the weapon.

The machete-pistol was easy to properly reforge for a blacksmith of Ruby's level.

Adding a few pieces of stock metal and some bits of additive agents to improve the metal's quality for weapon forging. Forging out and hand-beveling the blade. Grinding the edge to be very, VERY sharp. Grinding a false partial back edge to give it a much stronger stabbing point.

Adjusting the pistol's barrel to fit with the pipe, as well as making the entire thing more able to house it. Fixing the kinks in the pistol's mechanisms and truing it up to ideal .45AHP chambering standards, and making it able to be loaded and fired. Test-firing the pistol with the adjusted mechanisms.

Forming a new handle out of a stronger plastic and covering it in a layer of black rubber for extra grip. Securing the handle with bright blue screws. Reshaping and forming the shovel's head into a protective and reinforcing sleeve for the barrel. And finally the screws that kept the sheathe attached.

It had been a LOT of work, but she was proud of it.

"Wow, that's a pretty great build, Miss Rose." Jett said with a smile, hopping over the anvil to get closer.

"Th-thanks." Ruby blushed slightly, but in her field of expertise, she was comfortable, and Jett was cool. His older brother, Terry, managed her favorite weapons store. Jett wasn't an old gray-haired guy like the Forgemaster, Sonny, rather he was younger, no older than thirty, and looking to become the next Forgemaster when Sonny retired.

"Hey, if I didn't know a good build when I saw one, I wouldn't be fit to take the mantle of the Forgemaster of Beacon."

"Uh... th-th-thanks..." the scythe-wielder silently wished the man would go back to his fixing stock blocks of metal and casting scraps, scale, and powder through the recovery purifier to form back into metal blocks.

"So, what made you want to build something so far outside of your usual style?" he asked casually, sitting on top of the anvil while the horns of it grew hot.

That was one of two things that made the crafts of the Slagfire brothers so amazing, Jett's semblance was Heat Displacement, and Terry's semblance was Earth Displacement. Together, they could heat an entire piece of metal that was chock-full of impurities by a square inch of it, forge out the excess impurities out with extreme ease, and make very high quality metal-works for a less than a fraction of their value, thus turning massive profits. It was a business Ruby had been in on for three years now. Why?

It was easy, forging was fun, and she got discounts!

DISCOUNTS!

Who didn't like discounts?

"Discounts?" she said without thinking.

"Discounts? I can understand that the smaller ammunition would be more economical than your usual massive rounds, but I would imagine you would be using a more speed-based weapon, rather than something relying more on strength."

"What?... oh! N-n-no, Jett." she blushed out of embarrassment, "Uh, it's actually for a really good friend, Jaune Arc, leader of Team JNPR, he told me about..." her mind raced to think of something, "About an alternate loadout he had been thinking of, and he left me a note saying that he had the idea for this weapon yesterday, and so I decided to give it a shot, hehe." she laughed awkwardly, "He's a really good friend, and I figured~." she stopped, trying to think of a way to word what she wanted to say without her love for him being too obvious.

"You want to be more than friends, don't you?"

Ruby blushed hard, as though a quadrillion red roses had bloomed across her face, "Is it that obvious to everyone but him?"

"It's obvious to anyone with any experience with love, Miss Rose." Jett rested his chin on his hand and his elbow on his leg, the sitting position more scholarly and thoughtful, "So why haven't you told him?"

"Because it's embarrassing and I don't want to embarrass him because I want our memories together to all be nice and happy and sweet and just... yuuush~, y'know?" Ruby couldn't help but gush slightly at thinking of all the good things that would come out of their relationship.

"You know, just because it's embarrassing doesn't mean it's bad, in fact, sometimes the best things in life... are like a rough-forged billet." he lifted a slag-coated piece of metal into view, "It might look daunting, but you have to grind past this nitty-gritty scale on the surface in order to get to the good, usable stuff underneath. Then... you put in the work to shape it into what you want, and the metal won't always agree with you, so you have to work with it, normalize what you want, and then it will be what you want it to be." his eyes went from the metal to the young reaper, whose eyes glimmered and danced with thought.

The silver-eyed huntress stayed silent for a long time, her young engineering mind processing the older smith's words.

He had made a good point, love was something that was difficult, but the feelings it brought were over ten times the worth, and it may have looked rough, but what in life wasn't rough?

The feelings Jaune had made her feel, the warmth, the safety, the security, the comfort to her pain, the cool refreshing feeling to the hot spikes of internal agony she sometimes felt in her young, delicate heart.

He was like morphine, he numbed her pain and brought her a happy feeling, and she felt, deep down...

Deep down she felt something in him, he gave this vibe of a protector, of a guardian, of a paragon, of someone who would do anything to save everyone he could.

And she felt this feeling too strongly to ignore it. Ruby knew that Jaune was who she needed.

She would do whatever it took to make sure he knew vice versa.

"Th-thanks, Jett... I'll try me best to... to do all that... for right now, I should probably polish the blade and the screws to make sure they're good and presentable." the younger smith said with more confidence than she thought she could muster.

"Alright, a shining blade for the knight in shining armor, nice." and with that, Jett hopped over the anvil again, "If you need anything, Sonny and I are always here."

All the older smith got for a response was a nod, which he took without question, since Ruby was a smith at work, and smiths at work were very focused.

Running the blade firmly up and down the polishing wheel, Ruby thought of the best way to secure herself in Jaune's heart.

A stray thought ran through her head, it was something very powerful, and personal, and permanent, but she trusted Jaune enough, and she was willing to do whatever it took to have him.

She just hoped her dad wouldn't be too mad about it.


Later that day.

Jaune's eyes widened at the sight of the machete pistol, which Ruby presented with pride in her silver eyes.

He gave it a few test swings, feeling its weight and smiling. The weapon felt strong, and powerful, and he felt a little playful, "Hehe, thanks for the razor, Rosie."

Ruby blushed, confused, "R-razor? It's a mache-" she stopped when Jaune rolled up his sleeve and light glided the blade down his bare forearm, coming off with some hair, "Oooohhhh~, hehehe." she giggled, the adorable, cherub-like sound was music to the knight's ears.

"Man, another gift like this and I might have to kiss you." he said jokingly, but with a strong undertone of honesty.

Pale cheeks became as red as both of their owner's namesakes as lithe, dexterous hands twitched. She licked her suddenly dry lips and swallowed to try to open her tightening throat.

This was it, the moment of truth.

She put a finger to his chuckling lips, silencing him. His royal-blue eyes widened as she walked over to his locker, punched in the code he'd told her in case he ever forgot, and opened it.

Inside, on full display, was his armor. The ivory-white plates gleamed in the artificial light of the locker, and he could see the adjustments and additions she'd made, the lengthening of the pauldrons and chestplate, the shinguards, the bracer for his sword arm.

It was beautiful.

It was marvelous.

It was magnificent!

And...

And it was all for him...

Time seemed to slow down as blue met silver, and a connection was made, a spark of flame, a small surge of electricity, a seeping warmth inside of him.

He hugged her close to his body, her face gently pressed into his chest.

"Thank you... Ruby... thank you." he struggled to find words, "I know it may seem a bit disproportionate, but... this means a lot, that... that you would help me like this... help me be better equipped to be a better Huntsman... I could never thank you enough... because... while I can also thank Yang and Pyrrha for helping hone my skills, I wouldn't be able to do a lot without my trusty sword, shield, and armor. I..." he found himself at a loss for words. This moment... it metaphorically scraped at his eyes, trying to open them to witness some... feeling he felt inside.

Ruby slowly hugged him back, her body warm against him, and when Jaune's words were done processing in her mind, she finally spoke, "I... I can't help but feel, these feelings for you... I want to help you, Jaune. I want to help everyone, especially you, boyo... you're a good guy, Jaune, a guy that... I trust. I... I don't have a whole lot, but I do have a particular set of skills, skills that... I'm willing to use to help you... and, after I just... sort of abandoned you on our da-" she stopped, her breath hitching, "On... our... date." she stopped again, the word sending spikes of emotions through her mind, "I felt awful, you were wanting me to show you around the city and I got excited by something and I left you behind... I... I guess a little bit of good came out of it, since I got the materials to make you the new armor, and I guess that's what gave me the courage to come out and say this stuff." she paused to look up at his expression, which was awestruck, with his eyes flickering with thought, and she continued, "So, there, I... I really like you..."

It was Jaune's turn to process his companion's words, and he couldn't help but smile, "Ruby... don't be sad, or remorseful, or angry, or... ANY of that, I want you to be happy... truth be told I want all of you to be happy, I want to give everyone I can a chance to be happy, a chance to live life to the fullest, and... everything... and I want... I want to be happy too, but it's hard to be happy when I'm trying so hard to make others happy, but I'll manage." he chuckled dully, giving Ruby a soft, sweet, caring kiss on the forehead.

The ravenette looked up at the blonde with a few tears in her eyes, "You want to make others happy, I want to make others happy, so let's... let's work together, and help each other..." she took in a deep, shuddering breath, exhaling slowly and repeating the process to calm her nerves, then she reached up on her tippy-toes and met his lips with her own.

Jaune's mind nearly shut down at the warm, sweet-tasting, affection-filled contact. He took in the feeling; Ruby's lips were soft, sweet, and warm, but they held a strength in them, and he could see past the plain, unassuming surface, and into the vast ocean of emotion she held within her. Her heart was strong, he could tell that much from only a couple of seconds of exposure.

Ruby held the kiss for as long as her toes didn't hurt, she could tell that internally, Jaune was a bit of a mess, but there was also a monumental amount of emotion within him as well, and she could tell that he had a very strong sense of dedication and love.

Finally, the kiss was broken by Ruby's sore feet, and they stayed silent, staring into each other's eyes and panting slightly.

The knight was the first to break the silence, "I... I'm scared of messing something up... I... I don't want to break anyone's heart... and I... I'm scared of putting anything into risk, because I don't want any harm to come to any of you... I just..." he broke down, "It's difficult, but I'll do whatever it takes..."

"Jaune... work smarter, not harder... let me help you. I'd rather us do stuffs together and both get a little bit hurt and be only a little bit not-happy... than for you to do something alone and get hurt really badly and me to feel really not-happy... I..." she sighed, mustering up her courage, "I really like you... not just in a love way, but in a real, pure, emotional way, you're like my best friend but even more, and I don't like seeing my friends in pain, I don't like knowing that my friends are hurting, and… Jaune… I want you to know… no matter how many dates we might ever go on… no matter how many hugs or kisses we might share…. no matter how close we might get… even if we get..." she swallowed a knot of hesitance, "Even if we... might get married in the future….. I want you to know..." she looked him directly in the eyes, so directly that even their pupils were aligned, "That you are, first and foremost, my friend." there was a pause as she calmed herself again, "You're my friend... and I'm not good at making new friends…. but I make sure to always take care of the friends that I have… and I want more than anything for them to be happy and safe….. I want them to be able to live nice, peaceful, happy lives…. I want to protect my friends… I want to help my friends... and you're the closest friend I've ever had…." she buried her head into his chest, "And because of that bond of trust we share... we'll make it through anything..." her voice slowly trailed off as she clenched her eyes shut, waiting for his judgment.

Jaune stayed quiet, simply holding her close to him, "I... okay then." he slowly lifted her chin and kissed her softly and affectionately, a sense of trust and care flooding forth, and he slowly broke it, "Let's be the bestest friends in all of Remnant, and help and protect each other, and our other friends, and everyone else we can manage, let's help everyone we possibly can, and be heroes together, and make lives into wonderful adventures."

They wouldn't be romantic partners, that... that just wasn't something either of them were ready for. They would be partners in heroism, and be the absolute extremes of being best friends, their bond made of an unshakably strong trust and care.

That is what would work best for them.

They slowly disconnected their hug, both feeling swirling, storming infernos blazing inside themselves. Jaune nodded, Ruby nodded back.

Jaune donned his armor, Ruby straightened her cloak.

Jaune clasped Crocea Mors and Sanctus Mendax to his belt, Ruby attached Crescent Rose to the magnetic clip on her back.

They shared a bro-shake, and then parted ways.


Ruby felt amazing. She had gone in with a plan, but very little idea of what she was actually doing.

Despite this near-blindness, she came out of the exchange with a bond she wouldn't give up for anything in the world, not even a strawberry the size of a car!

It was one of the best relationships she could have asked for. She and Jaune would be friends, but more! No awkward asking or uncertainty, or any of those things new couples do, it would be awesome! They could do what they wanted, and trust the other to say if they liked it or not. There wouldn't be any special strings holding things back or out of reach, everything would be fair game! She could work on wiggling her way even further into Jaune's heart soon enough, right now she needed to let this new bond sit for a little while.

She felt so happy that the only way she could get any happier would be to kill a hundred Grimm!

A blissful sigh escaped her lips, "I gotta celebrate this!" she smiled a wide, cheery, elated smile and walked with a skip in her step.

Killing a hundred Grimm sounded like a pretty awesome idea, anyway.

With her new goal in her mind, she sped off, formulating new strategies to ensure that her and Jaune would get a deeper connection. Ways to get those hugs and cuddles and kisses she wanted. To secure his heart for herself.

It would take time, and a lot of hard work, but it would be worth it.

She lightly coughed, an ashy stench in the air, and when she looked around, she realized that her battle instincts had led her into the Emerald forest, and she'd already slain a pack of a dozen Beowolves.

"Oh, well then... eighty eight more to go!" she spun Crescent Rose back into its storage size and sped off in search of more prey.


*CLANG*

"Nice block." Yang complimented as her fist met Sanctus Mendax.

"Mhm." Jaune replied idly, still feeling high from his talk with Ruby... was it really only fifteen minutes ago? 'I guess when she's not around, everything slows down...' he smiled lazily, slashing vertically and getting parried, after which he quickly blocked another punch.

"You okay? You seem a little out of it." her voice had quickly gained a tone of concern and care. Was something wrong with him?

"No I'm fine." the knight replied automatically as he took a quick diagonal swipe with his sword, nicking Yang on her exposed upper arm and causing a small flash of her radiant golden aura to appear, "You know I never noticed before but your aura looks very beautiful."

"W-w-what?!" the brawler responded in a bit of shock as she found herself stunned in surprise, which allowed Jaune to deliver a quick slash to her torso.

*RIP*

"It's colored like gold and shines like the sun... hehe, seems like you really ARE a sunny girl." his words came with little thought, he was in a state where he spoke honestly, but dangerously freely.

"Uh... th-thanks, it's Aura Aesthetics. They're visual effects that one's aura can take on based primarily on their semblance, but there are strong influences from your personality." she smiled softly, "My effect is Radiance, the glow of my aura is much stronger than that of a normal aura. There are also hints of the Fire effect as well."

"Hehe, well you are quite radiant, Sunny." the blue-eyed youth dodged a hard bop on the head from his fellow blonde, hitting her center with another swing of his sword.

*RIP*

Lightly tanned cheeks burned bright red, "Shut up, don't act like you're drunk, Jaune."

Slow chuckles were the response she got, "Ah'm~... naht~... druhnk~..." he purposefully slurred his words while stumbling forwards, "Haw DAERE yew~." he sloppily swung his sword, the attack getting redirected over Yang's head.

Yang couldn't help but giggle at the silly display, "I'll knock the alcohol outta ya!" she punched him in the gut, causing him to stumble back and gasp for breath.

Jaune blinked, his vision refocusing as he smiled at the sound of the brawler's adorable, innocent-sounding giggles. It was a sound that reminded him that the monstrous fighter standing in front of him was indeed a girl at heart. He would have to be blind to not notice how she was a girl in body, after all, it was painstakingly obvious to anyone with even the slightest appreciation for beauty that Yang Xiao Long was an incredible specimen of the fairer sex.

He started at the top, throwing lazy swings to give himself an excuse to look at her in detail.

That magnificent waterfall of hair she had must have been forged and strung out of a hundred billion karats of pure gold. Her smooth, flawless skin had been kissed by the sun by the perfect amount. Her lilac eyes blazed with a mixture that told anyone who looked into them that she was an fun-loving, playful, energetic, and vigorous youth with the life of a dozen women inside her sharp mind and her beautiful, kind, amazing heart...

"Radiance is one of the rarest three, the other two being Strokes and Strings." Yang continued after the sloppy assault was getting too boring.

"Well you're a pretty rare, special girl, so I guess it's accurate." he smiled his charming smile at her, making her blush an intense fuchsia.

Her blush only added to her beauty, and the smile she wore was just one of many smiles, each of them precious. She could be adorable, beautiful, friendly, inviting, warm, reassuring, comforting to even the , teasing, worth a million lien, brighten an entire kingdom, and more... all by curling her lips up.

"What is with you, tonight, are you trying to hit on me?" she asked suddenly and slightly incredulously.

"Uh... er... uh... no. No I am not, I'm just feeling kinda... absentminded I guess. I don't think I can control what I'm saying and that scares me because I'm afraid I might say something that's gonna make you mad and then you'll punch me through a wall like the first time but then I guess that led to us being better friends and I've felt really lucky about that because your friendship has been helping me out a lot and my whole life has improved a hundred fold since I came to Beacon and I gotta say that maybe thirty or forty of those folds have been from you so yeah-" his aura flared as it took in air to feed his lungs as he spoke everything in one go, all the while he gazed at her body with a nearly reverent glint in his eyes, "-I can't really thank you enough because you've been an amazing help so far and I know you're a helluva lot smarter than people give you credit for and maybe if you knew anything else that could help me become stronger more efficiently then please tell me because I trust you and I know you wouldn't lie to me or let me down because you're a good person like that."

He felt lightheaded as he breathed deeply, his inexperience with Aura Absorption leading it to fail to feed his hungry lungs, thus leaving him winded. His eyes glided over her body, drinking in her form. The slope of her neck was deceivingly delicate, her shoulders were impossible to see under her puffy jacket sleeves. He couldn't deny that Yang had breasts to kill for, they were large and well-defined, definitely the largest among those of the RWBYJNPR group. Her stomach was flat and toned to perfection, he could even see the faint definition of a six-pack. Her hips were wide, her legs went on for days, and lord bless dat glorious ass.

Those beautiful lips moved and he found his ears again, "-erson that I'll give you a free hit. Make it count, or I'm knocking you across the arena."

The knight nodded dumbly, then went in for a wide horizontal swing.

*RIP*

*flutter flutter*

It had been a simple plan, deliver a strong swing and hope it counted. It was too bad that today was Handicap Day, and their handicaps?

Jaune wasn't allowed to wear his armor.

Yang had to fight with her leather clothes undone.

This meant her boots were untied, her asscape had fallen off halfway through the fight, and her jacket was open.

And now her shirt had been sliced apart by the combination of all the attacks his sword managed to get on her.

They both blushed redder than a pair of blood-soaked firetrucks.

"Did... you... just..." Yang blushed even harder when felt a slight draft on her now exposed chest.

Jaune panicked, because he did, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry here!" he quickly unzipped and removed his hoodie, then quickly put it on her and zipped it up.

The shorter blonde blushed even harder, feeling like any more and her cheeks would catch fire, 'Oh god why is this so nice? Calm down Yang just calm down. Think! Okay... I'm wearing his hoodie... it's very soft and comfortable. And now I can see all of his arms! Damn those look good, I'm really glad I helped him get like that... no wait think Yang think how do I fix this?'

Meanwhile, Jaune was internally panicking, 'Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! She's gonna kill me for that! Well I lived a nice life I suppose, I even managed to get my first kiss before I died! Thank you, Rosie, you saved me a portion of the embarrassment I'm going to face when my ancestors look at me and shake their heads in disappointment that I was killed for accidentally cutting a girl's shirt off... also... DAMN... Yang's breasts have got to be at least a million leagues above any pornstar's breasts... WAIT NO STOP STOP STOP DON'T THINK ABOUT THAT YOU'LL JUST MAKE THIS WORSE!'

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Yang finally spoke, "Uh... I could have just buttoned my jacket up." she pulled the sleeves up over the full forms of Ember Celica, then with a flick of her arms, compressed them back into bracelets.

Jaune helped her adjust the sleeves to make it more comfortable, "Uh... y-yeah, you could have..."

"Yeah..." Yang felt a small, warm feeling pool in her stomach when she felt the tall boy's strong hands adjusting the sleeves.

"Well... you're already wearing my hoodie." he pointed out, taking a step back.

"Yeah I am."

"It looks good on you, then again black looks good on everybody." he smiled, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding in approval. There was an admiring glint in his royal blue eyes, and his stance relaxed

"Hehe, it's slimming." she smiled as she copied his stance, crossed her arms under her breasts, and got an admiring glint in her own eyes.

"Not that you need it." he said sincerely, striking a soft, warm chord in Yang's heart.

"Well maybe I DO, J-man."

Jaune smiled, "Well then the J-man is willing to part with one of his hoodies."

"Really?" Yang's voice instantly gained a strong tone of giddy excitement.

"Sure. I have plenty and they're not hard to replace." his smile softened as he straightened the black garment on her, his voice lowering and softening, "Plus you pull it off better than I do."

The brawler didn't hear her companion's second statement, as she was caught up feeling like she was on a high as she snuggled into the too-large garment. She was getting through to him! She managed to take an article of his clothing! She was really close! "Hehe, well then you're not getting this back."

The knight shrugged, "Alright. I don't mind... so, do ya got any parting advice on how to get stronger more efficiently?"

Yang's cheeks quickly became stained with a mixture of red and pink as a thought crossed her mind, 'I can try this... I... I want it to be as special and as amazing as possible.'

"Uh, Yang? Sunny? You in there?" he softly tapped a knuckle on her forehead.

Lilac eyes screwed shut as she cleared her throat, then opened, "Uh, well... Jaune this is going to sound VERY weird, but I want you to trust me, alright?"

"I trust you with my life, Sunny, whatever it is, no matter how weird, I'll do it if it will help."

'Now or never.' she cleared her throat again, "So, what it is, is that you need to not... uh... y'know~." she balled one hand into a loose fist shook it up and down.

"What?"

"Don't masturbate, dude!" she blurted out suddenly, then quickly covered her mouth.

The blue-eyed boy felt like his mind was threatening to shut down. He wasn't going to say anything directly relating to... THAT... for fear of sounding like a pervert, so his tactical mind quickly came up with something else, "H-h-how will that help?"

The lilac-eyed girl stuttered her clarification, or lack thereof, "Uh... well... you see... it's..." 'Come on think of something! You can't let him know what you're planning!' "Testosterone! The male hormone, y'know?"

"Y-yeah... what about it?" he was afraid to say more than four words at a time.

"W-well... uh... when you go for a while without, uh, y'know... THAT... it builds up in your system in a lot larger quantity than with it, and testosterone helps you gain muscle mass and muscle tone and other little things that will make you stronger." it wouldn't be far off to say that Yang's face couldn't get any redder if she tattooed her sister's name across her cheeks.

Jaune's face was in a very similar state, you could compare the deep, strong red to blood, fire, or better yet both, but he eventually found his voice again, "Alright... if it'll make me stronger, I'll do it... or rather NOT do it, hehehe." he chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

Yang giggled awkwardly with him, then quickly retrieved her asscape and securely fastened it to her waist.

Securing the straps to his armor, the knight felt a slight chill travel across him, and shivered, "Hoo! Kinda chilly, isn't it?"

The brawler straightened her bracelets, "I guess? I don't know, I don't feel the cold. My semblance makes me fireproof and coldproof."

"That's awesome! Well, I'll manage. Anyways, uh... thanks for the advice." he coughed once into his hand, "I better go, I gotta train with Pyrrha soon."

"OH! Right... hehe, uh, I won't keep you, then." she awkwardly rubbed her elbow, silently wishing the boy would stay.

"Thank ya kindly, Sunny, same time tomorrow?" he asked while walking backwards towards the training room door, chuckling just from feeling happy.

"Yeah sure." she replied quickly, letting her giggles flow freely from the inexplicable happy feeling that washed over her, mentally screaming at herself to tell him to stay.

"Alright, see ya later." he opened the door.

"See ya." she watched him walk away, closing the door behind him.

He was gone.

'Shit... dammit... well at least I've set that in motion... eventually, Jaune, eventually... you WILL be mine... but until then.'

She snuggled into the warm softness and comfort of his hoodie, a super-happy cuddly little smile forming on her face as she hugged herself. She didn't notice it, but her aura glowed around her whole body in its bright, thick light.

This would cut it for now.


"But if you dusted the powdered sugar after you poured the syrup, I am sure it would work."

"Hmm... yeah I think it might! You guys are awesome!"

"Perhaps it is, ah, how you say... an acceptance of your energy, piccolo." Fenerion offered.

"That and Raiden usually keeps us on a fairly tight schedule, so any free time we have, we worked for it, so we might as well enjoy it, and you're a pretty enjoyable person, Nora." Evan said smoothly, smiling as he sipped at his cup of Coca Cola, "And you're not too shabby yourself, Ren bro."

"Thank you." Ren was sticking to statements less than ten words long, but even then was still semi-engaged in the conversation, though he let the others lead it while he mostly listened.

"Now that we've settled this issue of pancake enhancements... speaking of enhancements, our leader should contact us when he is finished delivering the reports." Lune pondered as he sipped at his blue raspberry Slurpee.

*WHIR-BRRIN-BRRING~... BRRIN-BRRING* came the custome ringtone Raiden had made sure they all had set on their scrolls.

The call was answered after the first two rings and the smiling face of their blonde leader, "Hey you three, all the reports are in, and your status report?"

"Conversing confectioneries." Luke stated simply.

"... I'm going to assume you finished your training and are talking with someone?" the swordsman inquired with one white-blond eyebrow raised.

"Indeed!" the knight confirmed, taking a sip of his Slurpee.

"..." Raiden just stared silently for several seconds, his unamused, inquisitive expression was enough to tell them all 'WHO, YOU DENSE MOTHERFUCKER?!'

"We are conversing with Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. After finishing our scheduled training, we found them in Vale City whilst looking for something to do aside from wander aimlessly." Luke explained

"Well, alright..." the swordsman hummed in thought, then in approval, "Good to see you're still pursuing interpersonal interaction like normal teenagers, it makes me glad that my intense training regime hasn't broken you all." his voice lowered, mumbling something like, "But I suppose aura helps that..."

"What was that, bro?" Evan piped up, his face entering the camera's view.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking you slackers need to put in more work!" he raised his clenched fist into view while slathering his tone with enough sarcasm to drown a tiger, "Hehehe~, but in all seriousness, if that's everything then I suppose I can leave you be." his hand raised to his ear, "Raiden out." and the screen blipped as the call ended.

"Hehe, he's cool, like Jaune! And he's a swordsman, like Jaune! And... wait a second." Nora's eyes narrowed for a split-second, "You three have seen Jaune and Raiden in the same room together, right?"

"Yes, Nora." Fenerion answered, "Jaune is not Raiden, that kind of thing just does not, eh~, happen like that."

"Oh... okay." Nora hummed with thought, "But if it did happen like that, though?"

"I would give you fifty-thousand lien if Jaune somehow managed to adopt Raiden's entire fighting style."

The hammer-wielder shook the assassin's hand vigorously, "It's a deal!" she said with a cheery tone and a wide, happy smile.

Fenerion blinked, and went to reply when a hand touched his shoulder, causing his head to whip around to see Ren giving him a look that said 'Just go with it'. With a sigh, the black-haired man turned back to Nora sat atop Luke's broad shoulders and gave a small nod, "Okay."

Nora smiled even wider, and briefly the faunus-in-disguise thought her face might split in two.

Evan whistled idly, the tune being unformed and raw, made up as he went along. To his minor surprise, the others joined in, even the quiet Ren, and he smiled while continuing his made-up song.

This was his life, this was what he got out of bed every morning for; things like this. It wasn't something grandiose, complex, or even with explanation, it was just... having some good times with some good friends.

He couldn't be happier.

"The sun approaches the horizon, we should make haste to return to the academy." Luke warned, "The night may be beautiful, but it is sadly full of danger."

The others gave gestures and/or sounds of agreement, and they all picked up the pace


"AGAIN!" she shouted.

"Training limit reached. Please come back tomorrow if you wish you continue, Miss Nikos." the training room A.I. announced.

"I don't WANT to come back tomorrow, I want to train NOW." the spartan complained, Milo in sword form and held firmly behind Akuou, "Now send in another wave."

"You've been training for six hours, Miss Nikos, your aura reserves are at twenty-one percent, I am not allowed to send more bots when students are that low."

"I order you to send in more drones." Pyrrha was getting antsy now, she could still remember that something about her team that was making her angry or something."

"... your authority is not recognized here, Miss Nikos. Scans have indicated that throughout your training session, your stress levels have shifted. Is something bothering you?"

"What would an A.I. know about something bothering me?"

"I have had basic counseling functions installed in recent years. Might I suggest 'sucking it up and dealing with your problems directly'? That option, while unsavory, has proven to greatly improve one's mental state far beyond how much it degrades it when performed correctly."

Pyrrha facepalmed. Why did everything have to be stacked against her? She may have been a champion but that didn't mean all of life had to shift to accommodate to her higher skill level.

Why couldn't things be easy?

"The alternative 'Whine about your problems until someone fixes them for you' option is also available, though it is strongly recommended you do not choose that path, it has proven highly socially unacceptable."

The maroon-haired Mistralite grumbled under her breath, "End training." she halfheartedly called out, and the simulated environment turned back into blank light-gray stone panels and large glass viewing windows.

As she stepped out of the training room a minute later, she was about to turn to walk to the locker room, when she happened to notice an orange splotch of color exiting another training room.

At first she thought nothing of it, but her sharp eyes spotted a mop of blonde hair and a corona of white outlining its form, as well as the iconic white sheath.

Jaune...

'Where is his hoodie? Surely he needs it, after all-' the green-eyed champion's train of thought was cut off by a powerful shiver.

Not many knew it, but Pyrrha The Invincible Girl Nikos did have one crippling weakness.

She could not stand the cold.

In her homeland of the Southeast section of Mistral, the climate was hot, but very even. Winters hadn't hit the low sixties in over four-hundred years, while summers were always in the high and mid nineties. As a result the people grew up without the ability to stand the cold.

Despite her father, Nitas Nikos, being a military general, she had unfortunately not inherited a lot of his physical hardiness. While she did inherit his prodigal skill for combat and strong willpower, she had inherited everything else from her mother.

Her mother, Gracing Nikos, known to most as 'The Graceful Grosbeak', the top supermodel in all of Mistral, barely beating out Velma Varidine and her enchanting green tresses and blue eyes. Pyrrha got her rich-maroon hair, enticing emerald eyes, and slender, statuesque, yet voluptuous figure from her mother.

This normally wasn't something Pyrrha particularly cared about. After all, she was going to be a huntress! A defender of society against the Grimm! Looking like a supermodel got in the way of that! So she trained and trained and trained some more, and from a young age Pyrrha Nikos was mentally molded into a fighter.

Physically? Still a supermodel's daughter. Again, she usually didn't care, but that was usually. Now?

She had to secure her leader's heart before all of the others caught on to his value as a life-partner and tried to take him!

So she found herself slightly loosening her chestpiece. She was doing this for her own sake!

If she could use what she had to trick Jaune's male mind into being attracted to her, she could win him easily! How else to do it?

A memory shot to the forefront of her mind, 'Jaune sighed disappointedly, "Where am I gonna find another cute, quirky girl to talk to?" and a second later, he walked off to lose himself in the crowd.'

She could act the part, perhaps! She hoped so.

Jaune approached with a smile as the glow of his aura dissipated, "Hey Pyrrha, surprised to see you here... wait you didn't move our training session tonight up, did you? I'm sorry if I didn't get your message, I was still training with Yang, y'know. I gotta get stronger." he flexed his muscular arm, giving Pyrrha quite a pleasant sight.

"Uh, n-no, Jaune, I didn't... I~ was... actually training too!" she said in a slightly cheerful voice, briefly standing on her tippy toes before settling back down.

Jaune chuckled lightly and smiled a little, gently brushing a hair through her ponytail, "I could kinda tell but I wasn't sure... you REALLY need to pay more attention to how your hair gets." he said with another chuckle and a warmer, wider smile, "Hair like yours needs to be kept nice and neat, it's... p-prettier that way." he stuttered slightly in embarrassment as he took in Pyrrha's soft, relaxed smile, "Uh... d-do you like it when I straighten your hair like this?"

"Yes... the motion feels very relaxing." true to her words, Pyrrha felt her tension slowly dissolve as Jaune brushed his hand through her hair again and again.

The knight smiled back, making such a beautiful girl smile like that was an accomplishment any man would be proud of.

The spear-woman stood there, smiling and humming softly and happily, "... Jaune?" she had an idea.

"Y-yes, Pyrrha?"

"I'm cold." as if to emphasize her point, she shivered, her ponytail also seeming to shiver from the motion, which Jaune found kinda cute.

"Well, Yang stole my hoodie." Pyrrha internally cursed her fellow ace-fighter, swearing revenge- "But..." but what? "But you can hold onto me if you're feeling cold."

Pyrrha's mental swear of revenge was instantly repealed in favor of a mental swear to pay the brawler back somehow. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around Jaune's muscular frame, letting out a few little giggles from the overwhelming happiness she felt.

Jaune stiffened slightly, then relaxed. Out of all the laughs he'd heard, Ruby's adorable cherub-like call, Weiss' calm cool and relaxing powder snow symphony, Blake's sweet and free-flowing honey-milk drink, Yang's surprising cute and innocent little fairy song, Nora's cheery and near-boisterous energetic melody, even Neo's soft salt-on-snow refreshing syrup, Pyrrha's laugh was a cut above the rest.

Those few little giggles sounded like the beautiful, life-filled giggles of an angel.

The knight felt a strong, roaring, blazing inferno inside himself. He swore he would do whatever it took to make sure that all of these girls were always happy enough to smile and laugh at any time.

He realized that would most-likely mean finding boyfriends for a good few of them. Lucky for him, he knew four good guys already, mentally counting out Luke because he seemed to be married to his job, and all of team CRDL for a blindingly obvious reason.

He said 'good', simple as that.

So that left Ren, Raiden, Evan, and Fenerion.

Ren was quiet and collected, but also strong of heart and will, he could make Blake happy if Nora wouldn't take him.

Raiden seemed like a guardian type of person, he'd fit well with Ruby.

Evan was energetic, but also chilled out and laid back, Yang would be a good choice.

Fenerion was calm and calculative, but also generous and he seemed, much like Ren, of strong heart and will, he would go well with Pyrrha.

Pyrrha...

Jaune would be lying if he said he never thought of Pyrrha like 'that', whatever 'that' was.

But that was the thing, he found his thoughts often drifted away from whatever subject was at hand to think of the girls. Even his dreams last night had consisted of a collage of images of him holding hands with, kiss, hugging, and various other sweet little things with all of the girls, even (to his now-gone dismay) Nora and (to his slight surprise) Neo.

Walking with his partner hugging him from the side, he found they had reached their dorm during his mental planning session. He looked in his pocket and realized he had left his scroll in the room.

"Uh, hey Pyr, you have your scroll, right?"

"Yes, why?"

"I forgot mine inside."

Pyrrha giggled, "Jaune, you're hopeless." her tone was playful and slightly affable. She pulled her scroll from the pouch on her side and waved it in front of the electronic lock, hearing a *click* of the door opening as Jaune turned the knob.

Entering the empty room, Pyrrha smiled as she continued her plan. JNPR regularly rearranged the room. The current setup had Jaune and Pyrrha on one side, Nora and Ren on the other. Getting used to change was something Jaune had insisted was important, as it would somewhat help promote their adaptability in combat. If they could get used to their own living quarters changing once a week, then they would be a bit more capable in changing plans on the fly.

The knight removed his armor and stretched, unknowingly giving his spartan partner a very nice show as he removed his shirt in under two seconds, grabbing the left sleeve and pulling his arm through it while also pulling the shirt overhead and sliding it off his right arm.

The emerald-eyed girl NEEDED to do something.

Jaune sat facing the wall as he changed out of his sweaty socks, smiling a little bit. All things considered, from that battle with Yang, he could tell he'd been getting a LOT better at blocking. His attack skills could use a lot of work considering the best he'd gotten out of using his sword was slashing at an Ursa Major and decapitating it, which is something Neo had revealed to him that a fully-powered Huntsman would be able to do by drunken accident.

The thing is, that had happened before. Someone had actually done that. He wanted to be at that level, but it would take a LOT of work. He put on a new shirt and hoodie, new socks, retied his sneakers, and stood up.

There was a small, soft thump, followed by Pyrrha letting out a somewhat surprised "Oh~!" which made Jaune whip around to see what was wrong.

Pyrrha smiled a bit when she felt Jaune's gaze on her, or more specifically, her now mostly-exposed rear and black lace panties.

Her miniskirt and twirly asscape had 'accidentally' fallen down when she bent over to pick up the sweater she'd 'dropped' after she grabbed it from her and Jaune's shared closet.

The blonde in question was having a very difficult time trying to look away from the glory in front of him: Smooth, lightly tanned, perfect cheeks... black lacy panties... Jaune had the brief thought that Pyrrha's ass was a million leagues above that of any pornstar.

'NO DAMMIT STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT! Oh god it's REALLY awkward now that I'm gonna be doing that no masturbation thing I mean WHY DID THIS ALSO HAVE TO HAPPEN ON THE SAME DAY AS THAT? AND OH GOD NOW I JUST REMEMBER YANG'S "perkiness" and I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE ABORT ABORT ABORT!' he stood up, turned towards the door, and started walking out, "SorryPyrI'lljustgonowokayseeyouontheroofbythewayuhyou'rereallyniceGAHWHYDIDISAYTHATokayI'mjustgonnagonowBYE!" he sputtered quickly and with hardly a pause, blushing redder than his partner's hair, the same partner who had a fantastic, FANTASTIC a-

He burst into a sprint to the stairwell, climbing the steps with extreme haste as he burst out the door and into the nighttime air.

He sat on the lone bench up on this particular rooftop, then put his head in his hands as he let out a distressed whining sound.

"Why do I have to like cute girls and long-haired girls? And WHY do my two physical trainers have to be so damn sexy? It's just not fair!" his shoulders slumped as he dropped his hands, staring at the smooth stone of the roof, "Because neither of them would ever love a loser like me, a loser who has to rely on." his hand glowed white, "His massive aura reserves just to stand a chance in a fight. And I can still hardly use my aura to the extent the others can!"

"WOW... good thing I did that Grimm Studies 101 report for you... by the why I did your Grimm Studies 101 report for you, Port was pleased and you got an A+." a familiar, slightly affable voice spoke.

"Raiden." Jaune stated simply, turning to the man.

"Jaune." Raiden replied just as simply, walking up to his fellow swordsman with the metal soles of his high-heels clacking on the stone rooftop, "I can help you see your own hardiness."

"How is that?" the knight asked, standing up as the suited man approached him.

He felt two hands on him.


A few seconds later.

Jaune contemplated the possibility that life was conspiring against him.

Or maybe Raiden was serious in some degree and and throwing Jaune clear across the campus, shortly followed by the offending swordsman tackling him in midair and delivering six rapid kicks to his chestplate and half-covered stomach before grabbing him by the neck as they fell into the Everfree forest, broke through about four trees, knocked over the fifth, and Jaune was picked up, dusted off, then had his legs easily swiped out from under him.

This happened over the course of maybe twenty seconds.

"And according to your scroll, your aura reserves are still at 10% after all that, and your second aura seems to be draining itself quite rapidly as your vitals and senses recover quickly and it just slowed down a little bit, and-" the shorter blonde was cut off by a swift, very powerful punch to the face, "-I deserved that..." he spat out a bit of blood.

"WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME YOU GODDAMN FOOL?"

"No?"

"THEN I RECKON YA BETTER START 'SPLAININ' OR I'M GONNA BEAT THE BLONDE OUTTA YER HAIR AND STICK CROCEA MORS WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE!" white aura flared brightly as Jaune let loose with son his hometown's phrases, a swirling mass of variously sized streams of light.

"Okay... before you 'fly off the handle', you're still unhurt, you realize."

"NO THANKS TA YOU!"

"I was just giving you an example. Calm down and listen to my intelligence."

The white light receded but the Arc heir remained tense and ready to shove his sword through his friend.

"Imagine Aura like photons, made of little particles of light, except more like... a material form of light, the light of the soul, 'positivity', as abstract of a concept as that is." the suited man smiled slightly as his hoodie-wearing companion calmed down visibly.

"Yes, positivity, but aura can also be increased by training, at least that's what... my dad said." the lie was small and smooth.

"Right, well that's true in a way, though the gains in the actual amount are exaggerated because of what aura training actually does."

One blonde eyebrow quirked in confused, "And what does aura training 'actually' do?" he put airquotes around 'actually', curious now.

"Just like physical training, aura training can improve one's aura like a muscle. Like normal muscles, to get to greater levels requires more intense training. However they do not deteriorate like muscles do when they go unused, they simply... stagnate, waiting to be used. Semblances add another layer to it. Someone could have a very useful, but very expensive semblance, however some dozens of repetitions of training it can reduce how much it costs them aura-wise. Now I'm not an expert, hell I'm lucky I know THIS much, because my aura is kind of... different in a way. I suggest for more details, ask Professor Goodwitch, she teaches the Aura Usage and Manipulation class."

The knight mentally recorded the key bits of his friend's explanation, then nodded, "So... now what?"

"Hop on my back and I'll sprint us back to the academy." the shorter man turned and squatted slightly pointing a thumb at his back.

"Why should I trust you? It's because of you that we're not in the academy in the first place!" despite his words, Jaune found himself sheathing his sword and climbing onto his friend's back.

He may have just risked both of their lives, he may have acted like an asshole for a few seconds there, but he was a friend, and friendship, as his talk with Ruby clarified to him, was important. This was the reason Jaune was now getting a piggyback ride from his suit-wearing fellow-leader.

"Because I only did that to prove a point and you're still alive and well, man. Besides, if I wanted to kill you I'd just cut your head off." he laughed, but Jaune could feel the strange sheathe on his stomach. If his friend truly wanted to kill him, he could do so here, and how could Jaune stop him?

By being his friend, he realized.

Friendship may have seemed like a concept for fools, but it's what allowed people to survive. The lone wolf cannot handle everything and will die the first time something out of its skill range happens.

Friendship was powerful, more powerful than any blade or bullet, and Jaune knew, in those moments, that friendship would allow him to become the great huntsman he was destined to be.

'Aaaaahhhhh~! Finally, you've realized.'

'J-j-jacques?'

'In the spirit, boy. Congratulations, you've overcome one of the many, MANY limits of our blessing.'

'H-how?'

'By recognizing the inexplicable power of friendship and camaraderie, you've eliminated the wait time for us to assist you mentally... well MOSTLY... it will be one day rather than ten days. We're not allowed to tell you how to fix what we know, but I can tell you that your position in life is unique as thus far of the blessed Arcs, and you have the potential to take the powers of our blessing to new limits.'

'That sounds... awfully conveniently inconvenient.'

'It's the rules of the deities, boy, it's not supposed to just let you fly around and shoot lasers from your eyes.'

'That... would be really cool, though.'

'... yeah, yeah it would be.' Jaune could feel the smile his ancestor had on his face, and that made him smile too.

"So where do you want me to drop you off at?" Raiden asked as he ran straight up the cliff Beacon rested upon, his legs charged with strong arcs of aura-created lightning.

"Uh... back on the rooftop? How long have we been gone, actually?"

"About three minutes."

"Alright, yeah, back on the rooftop."

"Okay then."

"So... a little WARNING next time you fling me half a mile through the air and some trees?"

"Didn't you get knocked through ten feet of concrete, an energy barrier, and a city block's distance past that?"

"Well yeah but I expected something like that because I accidentally damaged some of Yang's precious hair." the way he said those last two words, there was a sincerity in them, as he actually did think Yang's hair was precious. It was beautiful and radiant and golden and special, just like her.

"-ferent how exactly?" oh shit he'd gone off thinking about one of this girls. Again.

"Uh... you gave no warning."

"Yeah I did, I said 'I can help you see your own hardiness.' first."

"And I asked 'How is that?' after, to which you should have responded with words, not throwing me."

"Sorry, I probably should have said something after that, thinking back on it."

"Yeah, ya should have."

"Well sorry, I was just expecting to grind your spine along the ground, but sometimes I forget my own strength."

"How ARE you so strong, anyways? I swear that was ten times more strength than Yang's ever applied."

"Yang purposefully doesn't use her semblance in order to avoid hurting you like she did. You should probably reassure her that you're not mad... unless you still are?"

"No, no I'm not mad, I was never mad, I actually felt I deserved what happened because I betrayed her trust, something I'd never want to do to her, or Pyrrha, or Ruby... or Weiss... or Blake... or Nora... or Ren... or you... or... well... everyone I know, really."

"You've a lot of dedication and heart, tovarich." Raiden smiled back at his passenger.

"Tova-what-now?"

"Tovarich."

"... speak English."

"Comrade, friend, colleague, ally, buddy, etc. etc., need I go on?" Raiden once again glanced back at his passenger.

"No I think I proooobably get it now." Jaune answered with a chuckle.

The two blond swordsmen laughed as the suit-wearing one jumped up to the top of the dorm building, setting the hoodie-wearing one down, "Alright, you ever need me, no matter what time or place, I'm there, tovarich."

"Rrright~... uh... th-thanks man." the knight didn't know what to say, really. He was usually the one to offer the 'any time, any place' help, not receive it.

"It's no problem, I have way too much free time on my hands as it is. See ya later." the swordsman waved goodbye as he leaped off to... somewhere else.

On the rooftop, not one soul other than his own two were in sight.

For now... Jaune was alone.


god my chapters just do NOT want to end

this one is legitimately almost 14k words

That's CRAAAAAZY~

Like I said at the beginning of the chapter, it'll be within the next 10 chapters maybe, IDK, but I'm going to up the rating from T to M for lemon reasons.

For now... I hope you enjoyed the chapter

I hope you fave, follow, and review (I love reviews, people, ^w^)

And see you next time

Next Up: Stray Thoughts and Checkered Dreams.