Among the Secrets

Chapter 10

Family

Even though Jaune wasn't that bulky, Pyrrha was finding it a little difficult to drag him around. Those punches that Cardin landed on him definitely brought about a lot of pain, making it almost impossible to move. Once they made it back into their town, Pyrrha followed the directions he gave her and managed to find everything that she was looking for. When they reached the neighborhood, she looked for the house with all of the lights and found it immediately. The two of them slowly walked towards the door. Pyrrha knocked on the door and was introduced to a whole bunch of girls.

"Jaune Arc, where have you… Oh my God, what happened?"

"We sort of, uh… got into a bit of a fight with my ex."

"We need mom now. Mary, we're going to need your room since Jaune's room is too far right now."

"Bring him here."

Pyrrha gently handed him over to his sisters where they carried him into the house and into Mary's room. Meanwhile, Pyrrha watched the whole thing. She knew that there wasn't much that she could do so she turned around.

"Wait!" A sudden voice caused her to turn back towards the house. It was the voice of an older girl. "You don't look too good yourself. You can come in and I'll help you out."

"Oh, no thank you. I'm fine."

"I'm sorry to say this, but you are definitely not fine." At that moment, the girl walked over to Pyrrha and brought her inside the house.

Once everyone was inside the house, they immediately got to work. Pyrrha, thankfully, wasn't too banged up. She just had a slight bruise on her face from that heavy backhand that was laid out on her. On the other hand, Jaune was in critical condition for that kind of fight. His face and stomach took most of the blows so they needed to make sure that there wasn't anything broken or internally bruised. His mother was a nurse so they would be able to get the full analysis after some examination.

When Pyrrha's check-up was over, all she could do was sit in the middle of the living room and wait. All of his other siblings were either in that room or waiting patiently for Jaune to make his stunning return to them. As she watched them worrying over their brother, she couldn't help but feel that this was all her fault. Even though Jaune did this on his own accord, if she hid herself better, he wouldn't be in this situation at all.

After some more time, the same girl that helped Pyrrha with her bruise walked back into the living room and sat down just across from her.

"So what's your name?"

"Pyrrha Nikos."

"Hello Pyrrha. I'm Sara, the second oldest in our family."

"It's nice to meet you."

"I think I should be saying that to you above anything else."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" At that moment, she got up and sat down next to Pyrrha. As this was happening, Pyrrha was totally confused. She wasn't sure if this girl was truly being friendly or testing the waters to see if she was a good person. "Jaune's always been the friendly type. I mean, he doesn't have a lot of friends, but the friends that he does have, he cares a lot about them. The last time this happened was with a girl he met during his junior year. They were picking on her because she wasn't quite girly enough for them, which is kind of stupid. Anyway, I just realized that I just went on a tangent. You must be really important for Jaune to be like this."

"I… I don't really know about that."

"Oh there's no need to be so modest. He talks about you all the time. You're like the only thing he ever talks about whenever we ask him about his life. It's kind of sweet when I think about it. He's grown up with girls so we always teased him into being our boyfriends. Whenever we see him stick up for another girl, it makes us feel good. We taught him well," she said with a smile.

"Um, excuse me…"

A small voice came from just below Pyrrha's head. When she looked down, she saw a cute little girl standing there with a plate full of food.

"My mommy made some food and was wondering if you were hungry."

"Thank you. That's very sweet of you." Pyrrha took the plate and smiled at the little girl. When she saw that smile, she couldn't help but blush and run off to some other part of the house.

"Haha, that's Annie. She's a little shy, but I'm a little surprised that she talked to you."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know. It's just that it took over a month before she started to Ren and Nora, and the thing is that they're not even menacing people. The two of them are very sweet. So for her to talk to you must mean that you're special." Sara suddenly got up and walked over to the room and check up on Jaune.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha was thrown off of her horse in incredible fashion. She's only been in Jaune's house for like 10 minutes and it's as if she's in a completely different world. There was no way she could leave now… She didn't even know what was going on around her. A few more minutes went by until the madness started to pick up again.

All of his seven sisters converged onto her location and stared at her. No words were spoken, just a lot of eyes fixated on her and her alone.

"Um hi. If you tell me your names, I will try my absolute best to remember them."

No one responded. They just continued to stare at her as if she was some kind of ancient artifact that was known throughout the entire world.

"Ladies, please give her some space. Jeez!"

Pyrrha looked over the sea of girls and saw an older looking woman walk out of the room.

"I'm sorry about all of this. Our house is a busy one if you haven't noticed by now."

"Mrs. Arc. I'm sorry for barging in like this. This is all my fault," she said as she stood up from her chair.

"Oh don't be sorry. Everything is alright. Jaune was in such a great mood that I barely even needed to tend to him. Now he's asleep, but getting him that way was a struggle in itself. Anyway, I'm Jaune's mother and you are?"

"Pyrrha Nikos."

"Pyrrha? That is a beautiful name."

"Mommy! This is the girl I was talking about. The one Jaune likes."

"Oh really?"

Pyrrha started to blush. It was obvious that she was a hot topic in this household. She didn't know what to say so she just chuckled to herself. What could she say? It's not like she could actually tell them how things came to be like this.

"Um, you have a wonderful family Mrs. Arc."

"Aw, thank you. I try my best to keep these girls in check, but sometimes, they can be animals."

"That's so mean, mom."

"It's only because I love you girls," she said with a smile.

"Well, I've been intruding for too long. I think I should get home."

"It's no trouble, really. Please stay a while. It's been so long since Jaune's had a new visitor and every time he brings someone new, we immediately fall in love with them. It would be an honor to have you stay for a little while longer."

"Um… alright."

Jaune's mother escorted her back into the living room where the nine of them engaged the biggest girl conversation in history. They each talked about themselves before letting Pyrrha have the floor. When it was her turn, she did her best to tell them as much about herself as she could. As they listened to her words, they immediately fell in love with her. First things first, she was absolutely gorgeous so that was a plus for them. The things she told them about herself made them love her even more. The only bad thing was that she avoided talking about some of the bad things that Jaune has already figured out about her.

Their conversation lasted for quite some time until Jaune finally walked out of the room. When they turned their heads to see him up, his two youngest sisters got up and jumped into his arms.

"Jaune, we're so glad that you're okay."

"Hey, I'm sorry for making you worry."

"It looks as though our little prince is finally okay. How do you feel, honey?"

"I feel fine. A little sore, but I can get over it. Pyrrha? You're still here?"

"Hi Jaune. Your family made me an offer that I couldn't really refuse so here I am."

"Well, it's getting late. I'll walk you home."

"Aw!" At that moment, all of the girls in the house nearly died of cuteness as Jaune showed some chivalry to her.

"Shut it! All of you! Let's go Pyrrha." Jaune opened the door and headed out. Meanwhile, Pyrrha grabbed her things and thanked everyone for their comfort and hospitality. The last person she said bye to was his mother. After that, she met up with Jaune and walked back to her house.

On the way there, Jaune couldn't help but ask questions about his sisters and what they asked her. She told him everything which only made him feel worse. Pyrrha even told him that they said that he talked about her all of the time. By this point, he was nearly digging his own grave. However, Pyrrha told him that it was cute. To her, it seemed that they all cared about each other. Most of the times in big families, there's the possibility that siblings may not like each other, but his family seemed to be the exception. They were all very kind and very loving towards each other.

"You have a wonderful family Jaune. I'm actually kind of jealous."

"Oh, psh! Don't say that. I'm sure your family is just as great."

Pyrrha didn't know how to respond to that comment. They just kept on walking until the two of them finally made it to Pyrrha's house. The gate was closed and the house was completely dark.

"Well, I guess we're here."

"Yep, I guess we are. Thank you for walking me home."

"No problem at all. I couldn't stay home after something like that."

Pyrrha giggled.

"I guess I'll see you at school then."

"Of course. Bye."

"Bye."

They waved to each other as Pyrrha walked through the gate and into her house. Before she closed the door, she looked back at Jaune and saw that he was still waiting for her. She waved once more and then closed the door. Once he heard the door lock, he turned around and took a sigh of relief.

"Now I can head home."

When he returned home, he saw that all of his sisters were outside the house waiting for him. This only meant something bad was going to happen.

"What's going on," he asked slowly.

"Ouji-sama, can you walk us home too?" At that moment, they all charged at him and clung to him. His older sisters grabbed his hands. His middle sisters jumped on his back and grabbed his shirt. His youngest sisters hugged his leg and smiled. "Let's go home everyone."

"You have got to be kidding me. I can't move."

End of Chapter 10