This fic finally crossed the hallmark of over a hundred follows. And to think I intended to finish it at four chapters... Huh.
All that I request is that you leave reviews. Even if they are just a few words, they encourage me to continue this fic.:)
So, RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and the creation of Monty Oum, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross and many, many others.
Jaune took the long route around to get home. While he really didn't have much to do before lunch, he knew he would get bored if he reached home too early.
Oh, and then there were Jade and Lapis. He really didn't like the idea of meeting them if they were bored enough to make him "play dress up" with them.
No sir, he had had his share of modelling girly clothes!
Finally, he reached his home with about half an hour left to lunch. He really didn't feel like delaying longer with Emerald not around to play with and his stomach starting to remind him that he really didn't eat as much ham as he should have .
The Arc house was a beautiful little cottage that stood in the middle of a lush green garden of flowers. While modest in design, the cottage was nevertheless larger than half the houses in the village and was beautifully well maintained and clean. A single glance would tell all who saw it that the family living within were of modest but respectable station in life.
Jaune entered without knocking, slipping off his dirty shoes and quickly slipping to the kitchen for a quick drink of water. His mother was inside, checking a stove with a couple of pots happily steaming upon it. He quickly filled a glass with water from the pitcher and gulped the cold liquid down. Suddenly, the aroma from the pot reached his nose, and he recognised the smell of one of his favourite dishes.
He ran up to where his mother was stirring the stove, catching her attention. However, his own attention was on the second pot left to cool down by the stove.
"Are we having fish for lunch? Can I see?", he tried to jump up to catch a look at his favoured dish. Madam Arc frowned.
"Don't do that, dear. You'll topple the whole thing. Here, but just once."
She bent down, tall as she was, and lifted the small boy so that he could peer over the pot. "There, did you see? Now go and wash. We will be eating in ten minutes. "
"Yes, mom!", shouted Jaune as he sprinted out at high speeds the moment his feet touched the ground.
"And call your sisters too ", his mother shouted after him.
After having cleaned his face and hands, Jaune proceeded to do as his mother had said, and call all the other current occupants of the Arc cottage.
He went for the closest first and stopped by the double bedroom. Though the room was quiet, almost unnaturally so, he did not even think about knocking. Instead, he gave it two sharp kicks that made the door rattle loudly.
"Jade! Beryl! Lunch is ready!"
There was a patter of two pairs of naked feet, and the door slammed open to reveal two pretty identical blonde girls of fifteen wearing shorts and t-shirts . The headphones hanging from their hands fully explained their younger brother's actions. And the rage on their faces similarly explained why said brother ran for it the moment he saw them.
Next, he made his way to the room furthest from the door. This time, he rapped quietly. Then, when no results occurred, he did it again, more insistently.
"Lapis! Lunchtime!"
The door clicked open to reveal a beautiful young lady of seventeen wearing an overlarge man's shirt with the top buttons opened to avoid them being torn off. Her spectacled face was the perfect picture of confusion as she digested his statement.
"Lunch? Wait, I have been studying for three hours?!"
But Jaune had already left, fully jaded to his third eldest sister's habits.
The final stop was at the rooms closest to his parents'. This time, he just walked in through the open door.
"Come on, you two. Lunch is ready. Pyrope, you can draw the cow later. Amber, I won't forget about you if you just stay there. Come on, quick!"
The two seven year olds stood up grumbling. This time, he made sure to escort them to the dining room, where the entire family was already gathered.
The elder twins glared at him, or at least Beryl did while Jade was happily chatting with Lapis. He just grinned impudently at his elder sister as he escorted the younger twins to the table.
Shortly, their mother came up balancing a tray with a large casserole of fish inside it, which she set upon the table.
"Lapis, please get the plates and the rest of the food. And hurry up. I think Jaune and Jade will start chewing on the tablecloth soon.", she said. The expressions of Grimmlike ferocity on the two's faces somewhat supported her statement. Recognising the wisdom of the act, Lapis quickly got the plates and made sure to serve them both large servings.
The family soon began to eat. Jaune and Jade wolfed down several servings of fish each. Beryl cautiously ate her food, mindful of how many servings she was having. The fifteen year old was lately highly cognizant of the fact that she rarely got into any physical activity and ran the risk of growing fat, much to her near panic. In sharp contrast to her "younger" sister, she was thus making sure to keep track of every bite. The younger twins soon forgot their meals in favour of just prodding each other, necessitating their mother to step in.
Soon, they begun to talk. Jaune and Jade had an argument over who was the greedy one, ignoring that both had had equal amounts of fish. Beryl moodily glared at Jaune as she chewed her fish thirty two times, and swallowed, as if thinking something over. Lapis was arguing with her mother over how long she had been studying.
"Lapis, I think you should relax a little. School will only open a week later and I am sure you have already read, revised and reread everything. You should get out a bit and enjoy the summers while you can!", their mother said emphatically.
Lapis shrunk in her chair a little and muttered something about needing to catch up on some work, but her mother was having none of it.
"No, I insist." Said her mother sternly, making the girl sink into sullen silence. "Ever since you went to buy yourself some new glasses in Vale(and managed to lose poor Jaune for hours), you have barely stepped foot outside. You will go to the river for a swim, no excuses."
Lapis pouted in silent defiance for a few seconds, but finally sighed and gave in. Satisfied, Mrs Arc turned to the rest.
"Will the rest of you go as well? All of you love swimming"
The twins(both pairs) enthusiastically agreed. Jaune, however, refused.
"I don't really feel like it today. You guys go ahead, I'll just... I don't know, take a walk around."
This brought table to silence.
"But Jaune, why not? You love swimming too. You're not ill, are you, dear?", his mother asked worriedly.
"Jaune is ill?", Pyrope asked, looking frightened. Amber looked up in alarm as well, her eyes going wide. Jade lifted her head to look at him, while Beryl's face suddenly evolved a rather cunning smile that nobody except Jaune noticed. But when even Lapis shifted in her seat a little to place a hand on the boy's forehead, he finally decided that it was too much.
"I'm alright! I just don't feel like swimming today. I feel fine, mom, tell Lapis to stop doing that.", he complained, twisting away from his sister's hand. Lapis turned to their mother and shrugged.
"He seems to be fine.", she said, looking confused.
"Maybe little Jauneykins has something else to do?", Jade barged in casually, eyeing the furious Jaune. "Something you don't want us to see, little brother? Maybe another dog or cat you want to make a pet of?"
"Jaunnne!", his mother started menacingly with emphasis on the "n",making him throw up his hands in alarm.
"Whoa, mom, she's lying! I just didn't feel like it today!", he shouted out to head his mother off before his treacherous sibling could fill her head with lies." I don't have any pet-I mean stray- that I'm hiding!"
"Of course, he's just hiding his new friend at The Inn.", Beryl casually dropped the bombshell, gently chewing the piece of fish in her mouth to discourage further enquiry.
Jaune saw the malicious gleam in her eyes all the same, making him glare at her as the cat went out of the bag. His mother, in turn, merely looked confused. She gave Beryl a look which asked her whether she was saying the truth. Beryl gave her an innocent look that replied in the positive. Apparently believing her, Mrs Arc turned onto Jaune.
"It's good that you have made a new friend Jaune, but why were you being so shy about it?", she questioned, as Jaune decided to perform the time honoured technique of young children caught in wrongdoing: making up tales where the truth would be easier.
"Er, I just. We kind of met just a few days ago-", he began, hands gesticulating wildly.
"Two weeks", added Beryl helpfully, swallowing the fish in her mouth.
He glared at her. How did she find out about these things?! Thankfully, her knowledge was incomplete this time.
Surely Marie had not tattled?
"Yeah, two weeks. She was new here, I had no friends, so I just went "Wanna be friends?", and she went "sure", and now we're Best Friends.", he finished with quiet triumph.
It was punctured a moment later by, surprise, Jade.
"Then why didn't you tell us?", she asked lazily, and with a complete lack of malice in contrast to her twin.
"Jaune, is this girl someone that you shouldn't be with?", Mrs Arc cut in, stilling the green twins with a hand." Why did you not want me to know about her? This is not like you."
Before his mother's stern look, he felt like confessing everything at once. However, Lapis came to the rescue.
"Jaune must have been too embarrassed to tell us that he had found a new friend, right Jaune?", she said cheerfully, taking their mother's attention away from him. Adjusting her glasses, she got up from the table. "Come now, mum. He obviously wasn't getting up to anything bad for two weeks. We'll meet that Emerald girl later."
With that, the impromptu interrogation was called off. Jaune sent a silent but deadly glare towards Beryl, who smirked at him.
He would seriously have to pay her back later for this.
That evening, when the rest of his family had left for swimming and his mother was taking care of the twins, Jaune left to meet Emerald.
The Inn was usually quiet around this time due to the guests choosing to either leave to sightsee or just catch an evening nap. She would be free enough to meet him right now. Idly, he wondered if she had had a good time there before he let the thought die. He knew that she would enjoy being with Marie.
Someone had to.
He walked to the back door as usual and gave the special knock that told Marie who was there. The door clicked open, but it wasn't Marie. Jaune took a sharp breath of surprise. It was Emerald. But she was different.
Her dirty green hair with grime and oil caked on it was smooth and clean, neatly combed and cut in a bob cut. Jaune found out, to his faint surprise, that her hair was mint green. Her face was smooth and the ever present dirt had been scrubbed away. Instead of the faded and old clothes she usually wore, she was wearing a clean and starched white blouse with a tiny bird( an eagle?) stitched on it and a red skirt that looked second hand, but was still clean and neatly pressed.
Emerald's dark cheeks darkened further into a dusky shade of red. The girl poked at the ground with the toe of her new and hole-less shoes, her face turned to the side and her hands at her back.
"How do I look?", she murmured, her blush deepening to the point that her entire face was burning.
Jaune took in her new appearance, his eyes going up and down her form with disbelief. Finally, he opened his mouth as Emerald turned her head to face him anxiously.
"Is that Marie's old work uniform?"
...
"I think I saw her in it in an old picture. Didn't know they still had it. You look pretty neat, by the way. Did you finally take that bath?"
...
"I mean, you look cleaner, and your hair looks, um, greener?", he finished hesitantly, feeling suddenly wary of the look on Emerald's face.
The green haired girl took a step forward, looking him straight on with that weird(and scary) look on her face. Jaune cautiously opened his mouth to say something, but she lifted her hand, and gave him a sharp rap on his skull.
Then she went back inside, leaving the door ajar.
Jaune rubbed his head where she had hit him in confusion.
"Was it something I said?" He murmured to himself, walking in when no answer came back.
After a few minutes of persuasion, made harder by how Emerald refused to tell him what he had done, the two left the Inn to walk along their favourite spot by the village groves. Orleans mainly grew fruit crops, most prominently oranges and apples, and thus had vast lands inside their walls to allow for the area needed to grow enough to make a good profit after transport and tax costs were paid. It was made easier by how the village was bounded on three sides by deep rivers and the surrounding forests combed monthly to remove Grimm. Altogether, Orleans never saw real Grimm attacks and had, at worst, the odd Beowolf that was killed before it could get near ten kilometres of the walls.
Judicious use of Emerald's semblance and Jaune's local knowledge and experience of stealing fruits ensured that the two were never spotted nearby. Now, however, that had to end, as Jaune told her.
"- And then Lapis got mom to back off, otherwise I would have had to tell her everything about you. I'm no good at lying, Em. I'd have let everything slip anyways."
"Well, why didn't you? You don't seem to have any control over your tongue.", Emerald said rudely. Looked like she still wasn't over whatever it was he'd done.
Well, tough. They had to talk about this now.
"Because I didn't want to give how we met away.", he growled, getting her (reluctant) attention. He continued." My sister knows that you live at the Inn. And she also knows, or at least she does now because my other sister would have told her, that we were meeting for two weeks now. No, I don't know how she knew the second part." He added at her sudden surprise. Their rendezvous at the groves were supposed to be completely secret. He still couldn't guess how Jade found out.
"Now that she most likely knows both things, she'll also know that I was meeting you in secret for over two weeks before you came up to the Inn. You're not a local, and must thus be a stowaway on the train. Meaning, you are most likely a criminal, and a "bad influence" ", he indicated the words with air quotations. " on me. And so I would really prefer that mom doesn't know." He finished grimly.
Emerald frowned at him, biting her lip. She really didn't want Jaune to be told not to meet her. She won't agree to it if he was, she decided. She had her semblance, as well as her skills from the streets. She would meet him everyday, anytime he wanted to.
If he wanted to.
"Hey Jaune", she asked affecting a nonchalance she didn't feel in the slightest, her insides coiling around themselves. "What would you do if she did tell you that. Not to meet me, I mean."
Jaune shrugged. "Do it anyway, I guess. Between your powers and my brains, we'd manage it easily enough. Why?", he asked, oblivious to his companion's surge of happiness at the words.
Emerald's lips curled into a smile, and her walk turned a little lighter and her posture less stiff.
"Just getting things straight.", she said airily, but smiling widely all the same. "So, what do we do? You said that it's just a week till school starts, right? Maybe we could wait it out?"
"No.", Jaune said slowly, more than a little confused by Emerald's rapid change of mood. What was wrong with her today? " I may be going to school, but you will still be here. News travels fast in villages like these, and everyone will be calling you a stowaway and a thief" here she winced slightly, but he didn't notice. " before a day has passed. People don't like outsiders here. Especially when they came in trains and stayed gods know where for two weeks."
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "And let's hope that Brown doesn't guess where you lived."
Emerald bit her lip, her mind working furiously but running into a wall each time. She really was not very good at abstract planning. Put her in a rumpus and she would find her way out with her wits, but she couldn't really sit still and plan things out with a cool head. Jaune could, though his plans were basically the only thing that could be done anyway. But he still at least planned...
"What do we do?"
It was just as much a question as it was an appeal.
Jaune's face scrunched up in thought, trying to think of a way to get out of showing Emerald to his family. His mind came up blank.
Before a really obvious thing came to his mind.
"Em", he asked, hope flaring up. "Can you act?"
The Arc cottage was tranquil and serene in the waning light of the evening sun as Mrs Leonie Arc was currently engaged in reading The Third Crusade by the garden window. The entire house was empty of anyone but her.
For the busy housewife, this was a welcome luxury.
The two pairs of twins and Lapis had gone to swim, and Jaune had slipped out of the house to meet his friend, with the promise that he would bring her to her soon. She didn't have to worry about it, as Jaune, the little dear, always made sure to keep his words. But for now, she would just read about the conquests of Leon Oceno in Vacuo.
An hour or more into the book, her muscles were starting to ache. Just as she wondered whether she should get up and call the children back from swimming, before she heard the rapping on the door. Confused, since the children never knocked and her husband was due to come tomorrow, she got up to answer it herself.
Jaune was standing at the door with another child his own age,a small green haired girl. The girl was shrinking away from her like a frightened little bird, almost as if she was fighting the urge to hide behind Jaune. She had striking eyes of a deep blood red colour that were shyly fixed upon her. She was such a little thing, frail and small. Looking almost afraid of the tall woman in front of her.
Her heart melted instantly.
"Mom", Jaune said cheerfully as he stepped aside to display the girl. "Emerald. Emerald, mom. May we come in?"
Leonie Arc coughed and stepped back in. "Of course, of course, come in dear. Make yourself comfortable. I'll go get some snacks for you. Jaune, show her to the drawing room, please."
Even as they entered and his mother left, Jaune gave Emerald a small wink, which she subtly returned.
"I see, so you were forced to get into that train because you wanted to find a place where you can find some food. I can't say that it's legal to slip into trains like that, but your circumstances were indeed quite desperate.", Jaune's mother said sympathetically, looking at her with the same kind blue eyes Jaune had.
Despite herself, Emerald felt immensely guilty.
They were not technically deceiving her on any important point...but she wasn't quite sure that acting fragile and scared to get her sympathy was any better.
Not that all of it was an act. When she had first seen the tall blonde woman with the stern but kind of pretty face, she had genuinely felt like running. It wasn't something she could explain to herself. She wasn't as hefty as Mrs Holz nor unkind, but her very presence made Emerald feel very, very small in comparison. Her brilliant blue eyes being fixed on her had not helped.
No, there had been genuine fear in her when she had seen Mrs Arc for the first time. She was still kind of scared of her, though not in the sense that she was afraid that she would get hurt, but more like...she didn't know.
So she just munched the cookies (mint and chocolate) and just played the part of the shy stranger.
"That's true, mam.", she agreed apologetically. "Thankfully, I found Jaune quickly when I was here. We became friends and he got the Inn to keep me inside after talking to the Innkeeper. I am currently living there and helping as well as I can. Actually, it was just this morning that Mrs Holz agreed to keep me due to his help. I'm very grateful to him for that."
Mrs Arc nodded approvingly at Jaune, who beamed in response. Then her expression changed to one of mild puzzlement.
"Jaune, if you knew and had been associating" (Emerald wondered what the word even meant. Maybe be friendly with?)" With young Emerald here for two weeks, why didn't you tell me?", the mother asked. While she did not sound actually angry, her tone left no doubt whatsoever that an answer was expected promptly.
"I thought you would tell me not to be with her.", Jaune said with complete truthfulness.
"Why?", his mother asked.
"Because she stowed away in a train.", he said meekly. Maybe. She wasn't really sure how good an actor he was, but he had generally told her to say the truth when possible and just depend on the fact that she would look too pitiable to make Mrs Arc think that she was dangerous.
Which she was not. Not to Jaune.
Mrs Arc sighed, looking straight at her son's bright blue eyes with her own. "Jaune", she asked quietly. "What do I always tell you about strangers?"
"That strangers are just friends we haven't met yet.", recited Jaune. Suddenly, Emerald felt more than saw that the boy's frame seemed to have shrunk a little in his chair. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, mom." He said earnestly.
It was the truth. He was sorry, even now. Even though it was a harmless half lie, he felt sorry for lying to her.
Mrs Arc smiled, forgiving him completely. Jaune once again beamed back at her. Right then, the door slammed open.
"We're ba-ack!", shouted a tall blonde girl carrying two smaller blonde girls in her arms. Two younger girls who were as alike as peas in a pod followed behind, trying to arrange their long wet hair on their shoulders. The small party stopped when they saw the three seated people.
"Hello there!", the oldest girl said as she looked curiously at Emerald. "You must be the new girl we were talking about. Emerald, isn't she, Jaune? Nice to meet you, kid." She put the small girls down. The twins walked forward to look at her with equal curiosity, though one of them looked somewhat disappointed as her eyes went from her mother to Emerald.
The girls introduced themselves to each other soon, Beryl seemingly shrugging off the fact that Jaune hadn't got into trouble for befriending the tramp. It didn't stop Jaune from sending her a triumphant from that she simply rolled her eyes at though.
A few minutes later when the meeting had calmed down a little, Emerald made to leave the house discreetly now that she had finished what she had to do and had no further place in the family affair. However, a voice arrested her.
"Don't go right now, Em. Just stay for a little while and have dinner with us before you go.", it was Jaune, of course. She was about to quietely tell him that she would feel out of place before Mrs Arc chimed in as well.
"He is right, Emerald. You can stay until dinner. I insist on not letting the first friend Jaune has ever brought home leave without eating."
"That's right, kid. I want to hear all about what you and Jaune got away with on your secret dates away from our sights." When neither of the ten year olds reacted, Lapis gave a short sigh of defeat.
Before she could form so much as a single word of either dissent or excuse, Emerald was literally pulled into the throng and interrogated on various things about her meetings with Jaune for what felt like hours. Eventually, dinner was brought in and everyone pounced on it instead. By the time she had had her third helping of roasted chicken with sauces and the dessert after, she had begun to decide that dinner at the Arcs really was a pretty great deal.
That night after she got back to the Inn and then to Marie's room, Emerald ruminated in her tired brain on the day as she changed into the old and slightly torn set of nightclothes Mrs Holz had scrounged up. This morning, she was getting dragged to the Inn to introduce her to the owner and get a bed to sleep in. Now, as she took off her shoes and waited for Marie to change so that the lights could be switched off, she was sleeping with a girl who had spent half the day talking to her about recipes, after having dinner at the house of the friend who had rescued her from the streets just two weeks ago...
There was another thing that she did not understand yet. This morning, Emerald had no home and no family to call her own.
Now, she would have two.
This...was the hardest chapter I have ever written. The need to balance multiple PoVs, have group conversations and include a few funny and Topaz moments took every bit of me. And the result is this clunky chapter. Can't say I'm happy.: (
Well, I guess this was a learning experience. I don't think I need to point out that The Third Crusade is mentioned in Tucson's shop by Emerald, that the name of the conqueror is a joke on Richard the Lionheart (nicknamed Oe Ce No or Yes or No) and that it's a joke on the RL Third Crusade with Coeur De Lion fighting against Saladin.
The names of the Arc family have a pretty obvious theme attached to them. Points for guessing what. I'll send an early extract to the one who guesses.
But generally, I'm wiped out. Please send a review, I'm in need of as much advice and pointers as you can spare. Goodnight.:)