Sonata

Important notice!This chapter does not take place in the same continuity as the Winter chapter. The only chapter canon to this one is Coco part 1.

When Yang had "suggested" that to celebrate the completion of their first year at Beacon they should all go clubbing, Jaune had been skeptical. He had never been a fan of clubs, he found the music too repetitious and annoying and the general stuffiness of the crowds to be uncomfortable. However, he couldn't deny that this time he was actually having fun. The music wasn't too bad and the there were far fewer people than he had expected there to be on a Friday night.

Yang apparently knew the owner of the place and had "convinced" him to only let in VIPs for the night. Jaune was very grateful for this fact, there were still a good fifty people in the club, but he could still move around without being crushed in between dancers or people simply lounging about.

The actually graduation ceremony had taken place the day before, but Yang had insisted that they waited a day to give them a full day of preparations to "Let us girls get all nice and pretty for ya", her words not his. He would have liked to bring Coco, and her team to a slightly lesser extent, along to celebrate their early two month anniversary as a couple, but apparently she and her team had some annual thing they wanted to keep going. Not having Coco around did dampen his spirits a little, he would have loved to dance with her, but she had made it clear that she wanted him to go without her and that he should enjoy himself. Though he had had to promise to not get too drunk...

Jaune shook his head and let out a little chuckle as he returned to the present. He was sitting on, or more accurately; in, one of the insanely comfortable leather-ish sofas in one of the many booths overlooking the dance floor.

He had to give credit to Yang; it did feel fantastic to not be stuck in his stuffy school uniform. He was wearing a simple, short-sleeved, white button-up shirt and a pair of his very rare nice black trousers. Coco had dressed him to say sorry for not being able come with them/him to the club, and he was thankful he hadn't had to try and find a decent combination of clothes himself.

He smiled as he saw Nora dancing with (around) Ren on the middle of the floor, both looking like they were having a blast, though Nora in particular looked even more joyful than he had expected her too be, and that was saying something. Thinking back, Jaune couldn't remember the last time he had seen Nora in casual clothes, or if had seen her in casual clothes at all. It was always battle gear, Beacon uniforms, or pajamas.

Today, however, she was dressed up in a loose, long sleeved, off-white blouse and a soft pink skirt that reached down to her knees. Her feet were a little more "Nora"; a pair of comfy looking sneakers and different colored socks. Her hair remained untouched apart from a pink butterfly hairpin he remembered giving to her on her birthday. Lastly she had a small amount of makeup on her face, most of it accentuating her eyes, though Jaune had no idea just what the make up itself was (Coco had tried to teach him a little about it once. It had been an absolute disaster and had ended with more blackmail material against him than he ever thought possible). He would be lying if he said he didn't think she looked fantastic, a little part of him was happy that Yang had convinced (*cough*forced*cough*) them to give the girls more time to get ready, otherwise he might have never seen how even more lovely Nora looked when dressed to the max.

A cold shiver passed down his spine as he imagined what Coco might do to him if she ever found out about his thoughts. He didn't actually know just how possessive Coco was of him, she would take any chance she could to sit near him and press his arm to her chest, but he wasn't sure if that was her way of marking him as her "territory" or if it was just her way of showing affection. He hoped it was the latter, but he really didn't want to accidentally do something that might cause a relationship-ending fight between them, he liked her far too much for that.

Try as he might though, he couldn't help but notice one of the other people on the dance floor, someone he found absolutely breathtaking.

He had first noticed her when he had gone to get a drink from the bar after everyone else had gone off to either dance or find a good place to sit. After he had placed his order for something called a Strawberry sunrise, Yang's suggestion, he really had had nothing to do aside from looking around and checking if there was someone interesting in the club (and wonder just how legal this place was since neither the doorman nor the bartender asked for any form of identification). That's when he had seen her emerge from the small crowd out on the dance floor.

A girl, that looked maybe the same age as him, with long obsidian hair and sparkling cyan eyes. She was adorned in a light blue tinted white dress with baby blue fur lining the edges of the dress and the collar, along with a pair of white stockings, that were most likely connected to a garter belt somewhere on her lower stomach, partially covered by a pair of white, high-heeled, knee-high boots. Her face was sharp and angular, and her cold but gorgeous eyes were accentuated by aqua eyeshadow.

Jaune had had to mentally force himself to not let his jaw hit the floor, because this girl was without a doubt the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

At first he had simply stared at her while she had spoken heatedly to some burly guy in a vest and tie by the edge of the slightly elevated and blinking piece of floor that made up the dance floor, but when her gaze had turned towards his direction and she had begun to walk towards the bar he had quickly averted his eyes to somewhere else. He had mentally cursed his somehow divine, and at the same time abysmal, luck when the girl in white had seated herself right beside where he was standing while waiting for his drink. He had overheard her place an order for some kind of drink, and he had had to mentally slap himself for thinking that her voice had sounded heavenly, after which he had caught her turning around in her seat from the corner of his eye. He had tried to force his eyes to stop looking at her, but they had refused to comply.

Then she had turned her eyes to him and he thought his heart might have stopped. She had simply let her gaze roam over him before she had noticed him looking at her as well. Their eyes had met for a moment and her eyes had lost some of their coolness. Then she had smirked, turned around to get her then finished drink, said a few words to the bartender, and then she had joined the people dancing once again, but not before giving him one last glance over her shoulder.

He knew nothing of this gorgeous girl, and yet his heart had screamed as he had watched her walk away. He had kept looking after her until the bartender had signaled that his drink was done. When he had pulled out his wallet to pay for the drink, however, the bartender had only shaken his head.

"It's on the house, courtesy of miss Malachite. Consider yourself lucky, bub, you're the first person I've ever seen her "buy" a drink for, and I've worked here since this placed opened." Jaune had only been able to stare at the bartender and his words wisdom in response, before he had taken his drink and gone to search for wherever his friends had ended up.

Jaune sighed as he finished his drink, which he would need to remember to thank Yang for suggesting, and then sighed again as the drink once again made him think about the girl. He caught glimpses of her whenever he looked toward the dance floor, he couldn't help it, his eyes just instinctively sought her out.

He really wished Coco was there with him, he would never look at another girl if she was around. But now it was just him and his brain. His slightly intoxicated brain, since Yang had apparently forgot to mention that the Strawberry sunrise was quite alcoholic, that was telling him to go down and talk to the girl, thank her for the drink, and ask if there was anything he could do in return.

He looked toward the dance floor once again, and he felt his heart clench when he saw her actually looking back at him. She was closer to him now, still dancing, but now she kept her eyes in his direction at all times. Her moves where graceful and flowing, not at all sporadic like most of the other dancers, yet she still followed the rhythm of the music to a beat. To Jaune, there was no way this girl wasn't trained in some form of classical dancing, she moved with far too much practice and elegance to have never been taught, and he should know.

He had only ever told Yang about it during a training session, where both of them were too tired and delirious to keep from babbling to the other, but he had actually been taught to dance by his mother at a young age, and he still practiced whenever he could get some time alone. He hoped to reveal it at the prom if he could get a dance with Weiss. Yang had promised not to tell a soul in return for him not telling anyone about how she used to dye her hair black.

Ms Malachite was no amateur, that much was clear as day to the trained eye of Jaune, and something within him made him feel as if she was putting on a show for him. The unbroken eye-contact, the way she kept giving him new angles to watch her from, and the almost sensual way her eyes gleamed, it all made him feel simultaneously excited and conflicted beyond compare.

"Her name is Melanie." Jaune jumped as he was broken out of his trance by the unmistakable voice of Yang.

"W-what?" He responded confusedly, turning his head to look at the smirking visage of Yang in the sofa adjacent to his in the booth.

Yang let out a giggle and pointed a thumb at the dancing girl, "The girl who's been giving you a show for the last few minutes, her name is Melanie Malachite, and this," she placed her hands on both sides of his head and turned it towards the DJ-table, where he could see an eerily similar girl, although wearing red and having shorter hair, talking to a man in a suit, "Is her sister Miltiades, though she prefers Militia. They're the... let's call it concubines of this club, hired by Junior, my dear friend and owner of the club, to look pretty and, if push comes to shove, kick the asses of anyone causing a disturbance that the bouncers can't handle. And, surprisingly, they're not hookers!"

Jaune stared blankly at the girl in red, apparently named Miltiades, contemplating Yang's words, before realizing that Yang had yet to let go of his head, her hands having descended to his cheeks instead. While he couldn't deny that her surprisingly smooth yet strong hands felt nice, it did make him feel a little uncomfortable.

When he spared her a glance, Yang eventually let go, although to Jaune the action almost felt reluctant. He let his gaze once again wander over the dance floor, spotting Weiss and Blake by one of the edges not far from him and Yang either doing some very odd dancing or having an argument, an argument that involved lots of pointing and gesturing in his direction, Pyrrha dancing by the opposite edge with a throng of guys swarming around her, a small part of Jaune wanted to go over and stop them from so openly ogling his teammate even though said teammate could kick the asses of every single one of the sleaze-balls in three seconds flat if she wanted to, but he caught her giving him a smile saying "Don't worry, I'm fine", and,lastly, he spotted Ruby with Ren and Nora, she apparently having joined in on their dancing with gusto sometime while he was "preoccupied" with Melanie.

Speaking... thinking of which...

Jaune felt an unwanted pang of disappointment in his chest when he didn't spot Melanie at her previous location. It had to be the alcohol affecting his brain, it had to. Not only had he been looking at another girl, but now he was thinking about seeing more of said girl.

"Hi there, handsome..." Jaune almost jumped at the new voice, even though the voice itself was soft and almost delicate-like, just like he had done with Yang not five minutes earlier, but he caught himself at the very last possible moment. Instead, he turned his head around completely to look at the owner of the voice, however, when he realized who it was, he felt his throat close up.

Standing just behind the booth he and Yang were seated in, her face resting on the palm of her right hand and her right arm propped up on the wall creating the booth, was Melanie Malachite. Her eyes were no longer holding any of the coldness he had observed when first laying eyes on her and her mouth was twisted into an almost coy smile.

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, anything at all, but his tongue seemed to have other ideas. His mouth opened and closed as if he was talking, but no sound emerged, only making him do a pretty spot on goldfish impression. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on whom one asked, the gorgeous girl only giggled at his, in both Yang and Melanie's opinion; cute, display of Cyprinidaedian imitation.

"What's wrong, good-lookin? Cat got your tongue?" If Jaune had been looking at Yang, instead of staring at Melanie, he would have noticed the way her eyes began flickering between lilac and red when Melanie brought her left hand up and batted the air with said hand in a mock cat paw.

"Hehe... n-no, tongue's all mine." Jaune laughed a little nervously as he finally regained the ability of verbal communication.

"Really now...? Isn't that fortunate..." Melanie raised one of her eyebrows slightly as she spoke, Jaune observing that her smile was definitely turning more coy. "I don't think we've been introduced, mind letting me know if the name is as catching as the one it belongs to?"

"Jaune. Jaune Arc's the name." Jaune said with a little more confidence, intentionally leaving off the 'ladies love it' part.

"Jaune Arc... I was right, the name is just as catching. I'm Melanie, did you enjoy your drink, Jaune? I told the bartender to make it extra good."

Jaune blushed a little at how openly Melanie was flirting with him, even he could tell this was actually flirting, there was no mistaking it. If his mind wasn't as intoxicated as it was, he would probably be even more embarrassed and more than that, he would have told her about Coco. Now, however, his girlfriend was nowhere in his mind.

"Y-yeah, it was very refreshing. Thank you for buying it for me, anything I can do to repay the favor?" Melanie smiled at his words, and Jaune couldn't help but admiring how it made her, impossibly, even more beautiful.

"Actually, yes. There is one thing you could for me; would you care for a dance, Jaune?" Melanie pushed herself off of the booth wall, running her hand along the edge of it as she moved to stand before Jaune, her fingers lightly trailing over his shoulders when she was directly behind him.

She extended her hand and Jaune took it without hesitation, getting up from his seat. Her soft hand fit perfectly in his, something his inebriated brain took note of. He gave her a goofy smile, making her giggle lightly, as they made their way to the dance floor, neither of them noticing the many gazes fixated on them.

Yang looked on in slight disbelief, still sitting in her and Jaune's booth. Blake and Weiss watched from where they had been arguing, said argument having apparently been put on hold for the moment. Pyrrha longingly caught glimpses of the two in between her courtiers. Ruby and Nora stopped their dancing momentarily to look at the pair.

While the thoughts of all six girls were different, there were three things that each and every one of them unintentionally agreed on; they never expected Jaune to be such a lightweight, they never expected Jaune to respond so quickly to open flirting (at least not after they had tried so many times themselves and failed), and they all wanted to switch places with Melanie.

Junior observed the event, that being Melanie actually taking an interest in anyone, with the same reaction he would have if Roman Torchwick himself came into his club and put on a burlesque show, he was shocked beyond belief, but somewhere, deep down, he knew it would happen inevitably.

The pair walked onto the middle of the dance floor and Melanie sent the DJ a look. Within moments, new music started playing from the many speakers in the club. No longer did a heavy techno beat of some random song shake the building, instead, the soft, yet energizing tunes of Time to say goodbye (the song by Andrea Bocelli Sarah Brightman, not Casey Lee Williams) flowed forth. Melanie took both of Jaune's hands in hers, and he couldn't help but grin as they started dancing.

He had totally called it, she knew how to dance for real.

XXX

Neo inspected the scene before her with both interest and revulsion. On the one hand, watching her beloved dance was one of her favorite things to do, it was such a magnificent display. But on the other hand, the dressed up sow he was dancing with had stepped far beyond what Neo would ever accept. She had tried to claim what was hers. She needed a lesson.

'Wait... is she...? No... no no no nononononono! Jaune, you can resist it! Please Jau-!'

Neo watched horrified as her beloved brought the dressed up sow into a low dip, in which the dressed up cow kissed her beloved deeply. She had not only intoxicated her beloved to lower his inhibitions, openly whored herself out at him, but then she had the nerve to force herself onto him.

Melanie Malachite was going to pay...

XXX

When the hungover Jaune opened the Vale times the next morning he was horrified. He didn't remember much from the night before, only that they went to a club and he danced with a very beautiful girl, so when he saw the flayed and mutilated carcass laying on the floor of the very same club they had been at, along with a photo of the girl he had danced with, he almost puked.

According to the article, Melanie Malachite had been found sometime during the early morning, and the preliminary forensic report suggested that she had been alive when she was flayed. Along with the flaying, there were also surgical marks all over the head and facial region, with noticeable marks along the hairline, suggesting that the killer had scalped the poor girl and then reattached the scalp surgically. Finally, there were words carved into the forehead of the girl, reading;

Never touch what is mine

XXX

Author: Maxaro

A/N: First major fatality, yay! Melanie being dead is totes canon now too, so expect to see little Militia again sometime soon.

I hope you all have enjoyed the first episode of volume 3, I know Loneliest did. I, on the other hand, have no interest what-so-f*cking-ever in RWBY as a show anymore, but I will be using Neo's disguise sometime cuz it looks pretty, so don't expect me to keep much of the newer stuff in mind when I write.

The next chapter is going to be the thing some of you have been clenching your buttcheeks waiting for; I'm going to try to get a Halloween chapter out before the 31st with the long awaited Jaune x Neo lemon in it.

After that I have three ideas I want to work with; a Reese chapter, both because I think she and Jaune would look cute together and because I want to make her pay for using such stupid f*cking weapon, a Weiss crack chapter that draws inspiration from the biggest flop in human history, I am of course talking about GEP's Betrothed, or a chapter featuring a subject that will make most of you hate me, but I still want to kick Machina off from the perch of having the darkest Mine chapter. Please let me know in a review what you guys/gals/whatever want to see first!