Jaune blocked another jab with the end of Eliane's staff by catching the attack with Corcea's hilt and flicking his wrist. She backpedaled and spun her staff before reseting her stance with her staff tucked behind her and her hand held out in front. Her dark hair - which had been tied into a ponytail - had been cut free of the tie and hung around her face in a messy locks. Several small cuts had opened in her armored gear and small lines of red that spanned the length of a hand marred her body. Jaune had been using one hand on his sword the entire time they had been sparring, using his other limbs to deliver a few glancing blows and shoves that kept her off-balance.
Jaune smiled placidly, "So, nice weather we're having?"
Elaine frowned, although a quirk at the end of her lips gave her away her delight, "Dammit Jaune at least try to look pressed!"
Jaune ran forward and and brought his sword up and Elaine swung around her staff to block, the blow of Jaune's sword making her buckle.
Jaune lifted his free hand and placed it on the hilt, "I said you'd have to force me. You know how to use aura, so stop holding back on me."
He pressed down with both hands and Elaine gritted her teeth and jerked back, simultaneously using her staff to direct the sword down as she tried to gain some distance. She skidded and dropped to one knee before using her staff as a crutch to get back up. Jaune straightened and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Fine." She mumbled petulantly.
Forest green light began to bubble up from her body and coalesced to shroud her briefly as she activated her semblance. The light faded and Jaune noticed there was something warping the air slightly around her. He let his senses spread out adding just a touch of his grimm to get a better sense of her aura. Elaine's aura was swirling around her whipping at the air like a snake's tongue, forming small points of light; Elaine herself waited patiently, not beginning an attack as she waited. Jaune began to advance and gripped his sword more securely as he positioned it diagonally across his torso. He twitched forward in a lunge and she immediately brought her staff to her right in order to block his strike.
Their weapons met and immediately a swirl of bright green formed a sphere in the air and Jaune flipped back as the light crashed into the ground where he had been standing. He straightened from the crouch he landed in and whistled at the gouge in the dirt.
"Impressive semblance." He said.
"You ain't seen nothing yet." She replied as she ran forward, separating her staff into escrima sticks and spinning them in her hand as she ran forward, spheres of her aura already forming in the air.
Jaune backpedaled, dodging and dancing through her assault, occasionally flicking his blade out enough to force her to block or pull back. His other hand occasionally snapped out to block her wrist from coming down or launch a palm at her face. He used his senses to keep track of the aura spheres, ducking and twisting away from separate attacks coming from random directions. Elaine grew frustrated as she couldn't hit him and began to attack with a bit less focus and actual technique. Jaune immediately zeroed in on the new openings. Elaine swung one stick with her left and Jaune caught her wrist and twisted behind her, locking her arm behind her for an instant before lashing out with a kick that he used to flip himself out of the way of an attack and knock her - facefirst - into the dirt.
She rolled and came back up a frustrated scowl on her face, "Dammit!"
"Calm down." Jaune replied calmly, resting Crocea Mors against his shoulder "You're getting frustrated because this fight isn't going your way even after you started using aura. You're impeding your own skill with your impatience."
She blinked at him.
Jaune realized that he was acting more like when he was training Cardin rather than his old self. Internally he shrugged, he really stopped caring, he could always say he was finally maturing (that took far too long the first time around anyway).
She sighed and slipped her weapons into their sheaths, "I guess at this rate I want to go down with a bang."
Jaune blinked at her as green spheres of aura began to coalesce into a glowing ball of energy above her head as she raised her hand.
"Oum, do you really think I am going to fall for that?" Jaune sighed, "I know expect me to avoid it by barely dodging and rushing forward. But that would hit me if I just barely dodged it, I would have to dodge it by a large margin to evade a hit like that. I can sense that the light sphere isn't the most dangerous part but the energy that you've compressed into it is. It would explode once it's in my proximity."
Elaine grimaced, "Dammit."
Jaune gripped his blade and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, drawing back his weapon in a ready stance, "Well?" he asked, eyes snapping open, "You gonna fire it?"
Elaine face morphed in disbelief, "What? You want to take it head on?"
Jaune smiled, "Yeah."
Elaine grinned, "Cocky are we Jaune? Everybody back up!"
The crowd watching backed away as Elaine launched the blast of green aura at Jaune, who ran straight at it.
Jaune began to channel his heavenly light for the first time, silver filigree markings crawled up his arm and down his blade as he launched forward. Sliding in a skid, he flipped his silver and glowing blade down and brought it up with a yell. It flared with power right before contact and immediately energy began to emit a loud squeal as Jaune's heavenly-light-imbued blade clashed against the ball of aura. Everyone shielded their eyes as sparks of energy shot out and Jaune grinned a savage grin. The pressure of green energy began to burn the hoodie and shirt that he was wearing when Jaune forced the blast up and into the sky with a flare of silver light. Dust and dirt flew everywhere.
Elaine fell to her knees, panting. She looked up only to gape as a smoking, red-hot blade was held right next to her neck. Jaune was flexing his right hand with a contemplative expression while he held Crocea Mors in his left hand.
Jaun frowned slightly at his right, that was much more taxing than he thought it would be, he also put more pressure than was necessary or intentional. It was much more tempestuous then aura, fluctuating wildly even as he used it. It would take a lot more training before he completely got the hang of using the Lux Caelestis effectively.
"Yield." Jaune said, looking at her and grinning.
She nodded dumbly,"But how did you...?"
Jaune sheathed his blade and held out his hand, "Trade secret, sorry."
Elaine snorted but took his hand, "That was amazing! You've really gotten strong, I'm really happy for you!"
Jaune pulled her up and gave her a grin, "What can I say? I had a lot of support and awesome teachers."
She punched him in the shoulder in jest when they both realized that the people watching were silent.
"Oh..." Jaune said lamely, "Um... I win?"
Jaune slammed the door to his room after Pyrrha entered and flopped on the bed, closing his eyes and resting his arms over his eyes, "Maybe I should've let her trample me?"
Ren and Nora (largely based on Nora want at the time) had decided to go check the local cuisine. Jaune didn't mind, his mother was still the best cook around, introducing Nora to her would be just as awesome as last time.
Good thing he hadn't pulled out all the stops in his cooking, otherwise he'd find himself chained to a kitchen.
That was pink.
He blinked to clear his mind, he was getting off topic.
Pyrrha laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "She would've known you let her. If it's any consolation, I've had it worse."
Jaune quirked a grin and looked at her, moving his arms so that they cushioned his head, "How did you manage that for years? It's been twenty minutes and I am already at my limit."
Pyrrha huffed a laugh as she sits on the bed next to him and laid back as well, "A thick trench coat, a hat, and sunglasses usually help."
Jaune burst out laughing, "Oum, Pyrrha, I imagine that might scare a few people away."
Pyrrha giggled lightly, closing her eyes, "Good fight."
Jaune let his laughter face into a content smile, "I had fun. She's strong, really has the talent to be a huntress."
Pyrrha side-eyed Jaune warily, watching him close his eyes and smile softly, "Do you really think so?"
Jaune's eyes opened and he sat up, "Yeah."
Pyrrha sat up as well, resting her weight on her hands, hiding her own emotions, "You seem close, how long have you two known each other?"
Jaune ran a hand through his hair as he thought, "Heh..." He chuckled, "A while I guess I never really thought about how long. A couple of years at least, everyone kept pairing us as a couple, it was really awkward for a while."
"Why?" Pyrrha inquired, "She seems nice enough, and you're amazing yourself. Why would being paired like that bother you?"
Jaune laughed, but his eyes had an slightly uncertain edge as he looked down at his lap, as though it had garnered all his interest, "I don't think about dating much. I mean for one thing, it's not like I think anyone would agree. You guys all tell me I am objectively good-looking, but I don't see it at all. I mean I wouldn't be opposed to it... but it never really seemed like anyone wanted to, most of the people I could even consider or wanted have ever approached... the timing never really was right."
War tended to get in the way of romantic pursuits.
She turned her face away and mumbled under her breath, "Maybe you just don't notice when someone does try..."
"What?" He asked.
"Maybe you should take the initiative, women respond to that well." She responded quietly.
Jaune seemed to ponder that, "Well I don't think anyone would be interested, but I'll take your advice if I feel like it'd be a good match... Well, whatever. I don't think it matters at the moment."
Pyrrha nodded, "Okay... By the way, you were supposed to introduce us to your since Ren and Nora are exploring, do you mind if I meet them?"
Jaune bit his lip, "That's fine! But I really don't want to be mobbed, so we'll have to be stealthy."
"Should I buy a trench coat?" she inquired, smiling.
Jaune felt that his hood was a good enough barrier, Pyrrha shrugged as if to say "You'll wish you had listened to me."
She was right.
How do women have such an incredible intuition?
And to think a mother's intuition was worse?!
Women are scary.
Jaune was promptly surrounded on all sides by all the kids, them trying to get him to teach them how to fight, he didn't mind that, the children were rambunctious like that. What was weird was when people he never really talked to started walking up and talking to him like being around him like they would absorb his skills or something equally ridiculous. Even back in his past (or in his future?) when Pyrrha had eventually got him to the point when he was always giving her a run for her money and then some, people hadn't been all that surprised. He had been mentoring under The Mistralian Champion so he was bound to have gotten better. He guessed that it was kinda of big news to his town though, considering how abysmal he was when he left.
He managed to talk (and half-shove) his way out of the crowd, and then took off in a flit of aura-boosted speed, grabbing Pyrrha's arm and dragging her behind him. He skidded around a corner and hid, using his senses to make sure he wasn't being followed. He scowled when he noticed Pyrrha covering her mouth and muffling helpless laughter.
"Oh shut up." He grumbled his face red.
"I-I haven't said a-anything." She managed to sputter.
"I could hear you thinking it." He mumbled sullenly.
"Let's go." She managed to restrain herself enough to not burst out laughing at the sight of his pouting face.
Jaune huffed and began to walk down the road that led to his house. Pyrrha smiled as she walked next to him, he sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. Personally, he just wasn't feeling like going anywhere after that little debacle and seriously who the hell acts like that? He hadn't and he was never going to if that was how violating it felt.
He supposed that was why Pyrrha had been so happy to have him as a partner.
When Pyrrha arrived at the house it was different than what she expected.
It wasn't a huge mansion or something really large.
I was... cozy, in a word.
It was the sort of house that one would expect a family that lived out on the rural farms to live in. Slightly larger than average but comfortable to give the feeling of tight-knit love.
Jaune took a deep breath and he knocked on the door.
"Coming!" came from inside the house.
Jaune's eyes flashed with something too mixed to immediately make out but he stood his ground. The door opened, and Jaune moved forward, engulfing his surprised mother in a smothering hug.
"Hey mom." He greeted quietly.
The weight behind those two words carried a certain weight behind it that was larger than if he had screamed. His mother's eyes seemed to flicker as her face shifted into a warm smile and she wrapped her slender arms around her son's torso.
"Hello Jaune. We missed you." She replied.
He smiled and pulled away, "How have you been? Where's Dad?"
She grinned, "I have been fine, thought it's hard not to see my son. Your father is in the back, practicing. He's feeling like he can't let his son get a leg up on him too soon."
Jaune smile morphed into something like a competitive smirk/grin, "He'd better watch out."
Her mother giggled and her gaze slid over to Pyrrha, immediately her grin gained a teasing edge, "Oh, so is your partner more than a friend? Maybe your girlfriend? Has my son gotten a little more suave since he left?"
Jaune - face red and indignant - reeled back as though struck and Pyrrha flushed a dark crimson that put her hair to shame while immediately shooting her gaze to the ground.
Jaune began sputtering, "Mom! Come on, I thought you wouldn't do that since I already introduced you to my team!"
She laughed at his expression, "Come on Jaune, you can't take away the embarrassing parent parts from me! We're just waiting to tell all your friends!"
Jaune ran a hand through his hair as his head drooped and his eyes scrunched shut and mouth twisted in a long-suffering expression, "Ugh..."
Her grin turned into a smile as her laughter subsided, "Anyway, enough of that, come on in."
She led them inside to the homey living room, only to see Jaune's father walking in, an intricately designed gold, white and double-ended lance slung over his back. He noticed Jaune and Pyrrha and he smirked while his eyes lit up and he opened his mouth to speak.
Jaune held up a hand, "Mom beat you to the punch."
His expression fell and became betrayed as he rounded on his smirking wife, "Junie! Why would you do that! I have been waiting for ages to do that!"
She slapped his shoulder, "Hush! You can do it at Beacon. Anyway, this is my husband John Arc and I am Juniper Arc. I don't think Jaune gave you our names."
Pyrrha blinked, "He didn't, but your name is Juniper?"
Jaune rounded on Pyrrha, making desperate shushing motions.
Juniper nodded, "Yes, what of it?"
Pyrrha giggled, "That's our team name. Jaune's the leader of Team Juniper."
Jaune face-faulted at that, face a glowing red, "Great. Cat's outta the bag..." He mumbled.
Juniper seemed equal parts pleased and offended, "Jaune, you didn't mention any of that in your letters!"
"It wasn't important!" Jaune defended.
John laughed at Juniper's slightly disgruntled expression.
Pyrrha was sitting with Juniper sipping some tea that she made as John led Jaune out to the backyard, talking about a spar. It was hot, invigorating, and incredibly delicious, tickling the taste-buds.
"So, Pyrrha..." Juniper began.
"Yes, Mrs. Arc?"
Juniper frowned, "Don't call me that, it makes me feel inordinately old. you can call me Juniper."
Pyrrha nodded flushing, "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."
Juniper smiled, "You don't need to apologize or be so formal, my dear. I didn't tell you, you had no way of knowing."
Pyrrha smiled and sipped at the tea, Jaune's forgiving nature definitely came from her.
"So, Pyrrha... when did you begin to fall for Jaune?" Juniper asked as she set aside her cup and leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands.
Pyrrha choked and nearly spat out her tea.