Joan was tired. Not physically tired though, she knew that she had to find her son before something bad happened to him, so she made damn well sure that her body wouldn't shut down anytime soon. No, she was tired of Jaune's partner, the famed Pyrrha Nikos. She just wouldn't stop talking.
"And I've made sure Jaune has been getting enough training." Pyrrha said.
She was somewhat excited at first to find out someone so famous was her son's partner, but the she just kept talking and talking, and soon the effect wore off.
Mrs. Arc rubbed her temples in frustration. How Jaune could put up with her was something Joan was probably never going to find out.
"Thank you Pyrrha for looking after my son." Joan said, hoping Pyrrha would shut up. Sadly, Pyrrha did not catch on.
"Oh, it's no problem."
If she didn't stop talking, Joan was going to choke her, consequences be damned.
Once the group reached a nearby restaurant for some food, Glynda spoke up.
"I say we split up. Pyrrha, you come with me. Ren and Nora, go with Joan."
Glynda took Pyrrha's hand while she protested and went off in a random direction, but before she was out of sight, Joan gave the teacher a thankful smile and went the opposite direction.
"So..." Nora started speaking."You got any interesting stories about Jaune?"
Joan adopted a small smile. "Well, there was this one time where he hid in the attic to escape from his sisters..."
"Hey Jaune, Me and Emerald need to have a little chat, so can you wait here for a few minutes?" Cinder asked.
"Sure." The blond boy said, trying to finish the-now-cooled-off chicken noodle soup.
"Good, be right back."
Cinder grabbed hold of Emerald's hand and pulled her out of the room and down the hallway.
Cinder made sure that Jaune was out of hearing range when she started talking. "You asked him to call you big sister?"
"He wanted a cookie, I wanted him to say something adorable. It was a win-win." Emerald replied.
"I can't believe you."
"Oh, like you should be talking."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"When I came in, he was on your lap, cuddling up to you." Emerald pointed out.
"That's Different!" Cinder argued.
"How?"
Cinder lit her hand on fire with her powers. "I can burn a person to a crisp, and you can't." She said, not-so-subtlety threatening her.
Emerald got the message. "Got it. Huge difference."
Cinder put out her fire. "OK, now that that's settled." Cinder retreated back to the room, only to find out it empty.
"Jaune?"
She looked around the room, just to be sure he wasn't playing hide and seek, but all she found was a piece of paper with a message on it.
Took the little guy out for some guy time
-Mercury
Cinder crumpled up the paper within her fist.
"That Bastard." She whispered.
"You know, maybe I shouldn't have left a note." Mercury thought out loud.
"Why?" Jaune asked.
"Because now Cinder knows that I took you, and she'll probably kill me."
Jaune didn't know Cinder long, so he didn't actually know what kinds of things that she was capable of. After a few moments, he asked another question.
"So why do I need to come with you?"
"Kid, I've known you for a day at most, and during that time, you've been surrounded only by females. So I figured, why not spend some time with a fellow guy?"
Jaune didn't understand what Mercury was saying, so he just nodded along. He was glad he was making new friends, though.
"And when I got back home, I found Sophie lying on the couch, looking pretty beat up. Apparently, Jan was really angry that someone scared her beloved brother, even though said someone was her sister. Of course, I had to ground the both of them, Sohpie for scaring Jaune so bad that he fainted, and Jan for beating up Sophie." Joan finished her story.
Nora let out a laugh, while Ren simply chuckled. If Jaune was ever going to return to normal, the two of them promised that they would never let him live it down.
"So they used to dress up Jaune in little costumes?" Nora asked.
"Yeah, but I had to put a stop to it after that day, no matter how adorable he looked in those costumes."
"It seems his sisters really care for him." Ren said.
"Oh, that's an understatement. He never really had any friends growing up because my daughters didn't really want to share him."
"Yikes."
"What did you think of that?" Ren asked Joan.
Joan thought for a moment, and sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. On one hand, I'd be happy if he had made at least one friend, on the other, I just wanted him to stay at home whenever he could, just being my baby boy."
Nora looked at Ren. "I don't know it that's really sweet, or really messed up." She said.
"Probably both?" Ren shrugged.
The three of them continued onward, searching throughout Vale for the little blond boy. They searched many places, from restaurants to malls, but so far, they had no such luck. They were currently in one of said malls, in the food court to be accurate.
"Renny, I'm low on fuel. I need pancakes!" Nora whined.
"Can't it wait? We need to find Jaune."
"But I'm Hungry."
"We just ate an hour ago."
"Yeah, but that was an hour ago."
Ren knew he was fighting a losing battle, so he got out a couple of lien. "Here's some Lien, go get something to eat, but stay here. I don't want to lose you like Jaune." Ren said.
Nora smirked. "Aww, you do care."
Ren realized what he had just said a bit too late. "That-That's not what I meant." He stammered.
"Too late, screwed it up." And with that, Nora ran off to the nearest Pancake stall.
Joan let out a small laugh.
"What's so funny?" Ren asked.
"Nothing, Nothing. She just reminds me of my daughters." Joan answered.
"What do you want little dude?" Mercury asked.
Jaune looked up at the menu. The two of them were in a mall, specifically the food court.
"I'll have Pancakes and Bacon, Please?" Jaune asked.
The cashier at the stall cooed at Jaune. "Well aren't you polite little boy."
Jaune blushed at the lady's compliment. "And what does the older brother want?" The cashier asked.
"He's no-" Before Jaune could finish, Mercury put a hand over Jaune's mouth. "The older brother will have the same thing, just add a bit more Bacon." Mercury said.
"Got it, here's your number, come back when called." The cashier said, giving them a piece of paper with the number 46 on it.
"You got it." Mercury winked at the girl. He then pulled Jaune to a nearby table.
"Why did you put your hand over my mouth?" Jaune asked.
"Do you want an answer" Mercury reached into his bag, and brought out a chocolate chip cookie "Or do you want a cookie?"
"Cookie!" Jaune exclaimed.
Mercury laughed as he handed Jaune the cookie.
The two of them waited a total of 12 minutes, and during that time, a number of females came up to Jaune and cooed at his cuteness, and complimented Mercury for taking care of his "Little Brother".
'My little chick magnet.' Mercury thought, rubbing Jaune's head.
"Jaune?" A familiar voice asked.
Both Jaune and Mercury turned around to see Nora Valkyrie holding a tray of Pancakes.
"Oh, hey Nora." Jaune greeted his orange-haired friend.
Nora dropped her tray and ran up to Jaune, picking him up.
"We've been looking for you all day! I am never letting you out of my sight again!"
"Hey, what are you doing to my little bro?" Mercury asked.
Nora looked at Mercury, giving him the stink eye.
"Are you the one who kidnapped him?" Nora asked out loud. This got the attention of everyone nearby.
"Um, no." Mercury blatantly lied.
Nora put Jaune back down on his chair and got out her weapon. Mercury realized that he was in a no-win scenario, he knew he could win against this girl, but he was still surround by civilians, and even though they weren't Huntsman, he knew he couldn't take them all out, so he chose the best option, escape.
"YEAH, YOU BETTER RUN! NEXT TIME I SEE YOU, YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!" Nora yelled.
On the second floor of the mall, Ren noticed all the commotion Nora was making. He proceeded to jump down to the first floor to check on her.
"Nora, what's going on?" He asked.
"Oh, hi Ren. Good news, I found Jaune." Nora answered.
Ren finally noticed Jaune, sitting down and eating Pancakes and Bacon. Relieved that his Team Leader has been found, Ren let out a breath of air and sat down next to him while Nora went to get more Pancakes.
"Jaune?" Another familiar voice was heard.
Jaune looked at the woman. She looked like his mom, only a bit older. "Mommy?"
Joan cried tears of joy and smothered her, rather unfortunate, son.
"Um, Mrs. Arc, I don't think he can breathe." Ren pointed out.
Mercury sneaked into the base, trying to be s quiet as humanly possible, unfortunately, luck was not on his side this day.
"Hello Mercury." Cinder greeted him. Mercury turned around to find Cinder and Emerald standing behind him, both giving him fake smiles.
"Oh, hey guys." Mercury responded, hoping to get out of this alive.
"I found your note." Cinder said, holding up the crumpled piece of paper.
"I also happen to notice that Jaune isn't with you." Emerald said.
"Oh, yeah, about that. Would you believe me if I said that 50 huntsmen appeared out of no where, knocked me out while I tried to defend him, and then they kidnapped him?"
"No, we wouldn't."
"OK then."
Cinder and Emerald glared at Mercury, getting out their weapons.
"Please no." Mercury quietly pleaded.