Next chapter will be two weeks away due to my Christmas break. Details and dates at the bottom shall be accurate.

For those who expressed concern last chapter (in between people screaming about the pairing) I'm happy to say my mother's scans came back okay. She actually shot off on holiday last Friday, literally the day she got the okay. Big relief for us all.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Dishwasher1910

Book 9: Chapter 26

Glynda and Taiyang looked at one another and stood, Taiyang slipping past me toward the door. "We should give you some room," he said treacherously, leaving me behind. He took Glynda by the arm. "Let them talk."

"Yes." Glynda turned reluctantly and stepped out. Before the door had even closed, I heard her say to the guards outside, "No one speaks of what they saw or heard here, or what they may hear now. This never happened."

They saluted, slamming gauntlets to breastplates.

The slamming of the door cut off the noise, leaving us in relative privacy – though, as Glynda implied, if we were to shout loudly enough, those outside would hear us. I didn't like the suggestion, or how likely it was. With Blake staring at us and waiting for something to be said, I didn't know what to expect.

And apparently, our silence was damning.

"That's it, then," she said. "It's decided." Her attempt at drawing a breath caught on something and she had to look away. "I can't say it's the worst decision. Vale will be safe. You… You will be good for one another. I am…" She drew a deep breath. "I am happy for you both."

Ruby made a whining sound. "Blake…"

"Forgive me." Blake took a step back. "It… It's a surprise right now, but I'll get over it soon enough. I just need a little time to myself to process it all."

I surged for the door, and she must have thought I was going for her because she dodged to the side, out my reach. Undaunted, I turned the lock on the door. It wasn't that she couldn't open it herself, but I hoped it would at least provide a distraction.

"You've got the wrong end of this," I said.

"Have I? I was listening outside, Jaune. I heard you both agree to rule Vale. Together!"

"We didn't say that!" Ruby said.

"You meant it, though. How else could it be? I don't know why you're arguing, Ruby. You've won. Congratulations. Salem is dead, you're the hero and now you get prince charming all to yourself – and he might as well be a literal prince now since he's going to be King." Blake laughed bitterly. "It's everything you wanted. You've got it."

"I don't want it! Not like this!"

"Of course not. You'd rather have it in a world where him and I never got together. That would be easier, wouldn't it? No hurt feelings. No betrayal." Her eyes flashed gold. "No stabbing one another in the back. You know, I really thought I'd be the one to do that, being the Assassin."

Ruby gasped, recoiling like she'd been struck.

"Blake." I tried to reach for her, but she shied back. "Ruby didn't mean it like that. Neither did I."

"How did you mean it, then? Speak clearly."

I said the clearest thing I could. "I love you."

It didn't have the reaction I would have liked. Her eyes hardened and her lips peeled back, not in a sneer but something halfway between a snarl and a sob. "T-That doesn't matter, though. Does it? Vale needs its King. You can love me all you want, but you're still going to make the right choice in the end."

"I… I don't know yet…"

"Oh please! The fact you're struggling to decide at all means you want to. If you didn't, this wouldn't be so hard a decision. And you didn't call me here to say that." She threw her arms out. "You called me here hoping I'd tell you what to do! Hoping I'd make the decision for you!"

Swallowing, I stared at the floor. She wasn't wrong.

"Or did you want me to make it easy and tell you to go marry Ruby?" she accused. "I can do that. Go." She waved her hand, shooing me away. "Go forget about me, be with Ruby and rule Vale. Everyone benefits. Everyone wins."

"Except you…"

"Who said I don't benefit?" she asked, voice high and throaty. "You're not the only man in the world. I – I can find someone else. I will do. I don't need you, Jaune. Hell, my life would have been easier if I never met you!"

The air was blown from me. The words hit me straight in the stomach.

"Blake!" Ruby gasped. "J-Jaune, she doesn't mean that. She's angry and trying to push you away!"

"Why are you even fighting it!?" Blake yelled. "This is what you want! You. Want. Jaune. Well, congratulations, Ruby. He's yours. I'm just a filthy Assassin, so I could never have my happy ending. No matter how much I bleed and sacrifice for Vale, I'll be pushed back into the shadows."

"I don't give a shit that you're an Assassin!" I yelled.

"You're not the one making the decisions!" she yelled back. "You don't discriminate. That's good. I'm not saying you do; it's Vale that does – and they've decided you and I can't be together if you accept to be King."

"It doesn't mean that," Ruby argued, sounding excited. "Miss Goodwitch says the King was with his Assassin. You and Jaune could still be together, just-"

Blake laughed. "In the shadows?"

Ruby's teeth clicked together, horrified at having been caught doing the exact thing Blake said the people who hated her kind did. Pushing her away, hiding her, acting like she was something repulsive that could exist in private, out of the public eye, but never beyond that.

"That's just how it works," she said, sounding tired. "Why do you think I was so against us getting together in the first place, back when I thought you were a Knight? I knew it could never last. Sooner or later, you'd be expected to be someone. Someone important. And I'd become the skeleton in your closet. There's a reason Rogue Classes intermarry. No one accepts us."

"I accept you," I rasped.

"Yeah." Blake tried to smile for me. "But sadly, you don't speak for everyone in Vale. And before you say you'll change things as King, I'll say really making a change isn't as easy as you seem to think. People have tried before. With Vale in shambles, you'll have a hundred other things to do, all more important than dealing with this."

I couldn't argue with that and the fact tore at me. Homes and families had been ripped apart, Mistral wanted us a part of their Kingdom, the Nobles would need to be appeased, the Labour Caste inspired. There were issues of supply, food, military and defence. All of that would need to be fixed long before I could start on any pet projects, to say nothing of Beacon being repaired.

"Now you see," she said. "There really is no easy solution. That's why you two should just go ahead and do it. Get married. Fall in love. Rule Vale and make it a better place for everyone. It's not like it'll be the end of the world for me. Our relationship was falling apart at the seams anyway."

I felt my stomach drop out. "That's not true…"

"Isn't it? How often do we talk nowadays? When was the last time we truly had a romantic moment?" Blake pulled out the locket I'd made her, and my heart froze. For a moment, I thought she might throw it away and that terrified me.

To my relief, she didn't. She unclasped and showed the picture inside to me.

"I remember this. I remember it and what we felt like. It was good, Jaune. Real good. But… But it wasn't final. We were young and stupid, and I was just happy to have someone who saw me for more than what I am." The locket closed and she pushed it back into her top. "I'll never forget it, nor how much fun we had, but it was always just a wild fling. It would never have worked out."

My voice trembled. "I thought it was serious…"

She looked away. "So did I. But we were kids. We barely knew anything about the real world."

"Are you saying it meant nothing to you?" I yelled. I couldn't help it. Pain blossomed inside me and turned to anger, fuelling me as I stamped forward and raised my voice. "I loved you! You were the most important person in the world to me!"

"I didn't say it meant nothing," she snapped. "Don't put words in my mouth – and don't scream at me! I'm just telling the truth!"

"You're hiding from it," I shouted.

"That's what I do!" Blake snapped, her own voice rising to match mine, both of us shouting across the two five or six feet between us. "And at least I tried! I had all the problems in the world, but I still tried to make it work! You didn't even bother!"

"WHAT!?" I roared. "I did my best!"

"You broke the Grand Treaty! You killed that Soldier and then put me in a spot where I had to make a decision on whether to do the right thing and hand you in or not!"

"W-Wha-?" Ruby tried to ask, only to be buried out by Blake's yell.

"I killed for you, Jaune! I threw away my morals and murdered those soldiers to keep you safe! You… You selfish prick!"

"I thanked you for that!"

"THANKED ME? I threw away all my morals and broke international law for you. I risked execution to keep you safe, and you thanked me?" Blake spat to the side. "Well aren't I fortunate to have the great King Jaune of Vale deign to thank a pathetic little waif like me. If you wanted to hire me as an Assassin, the least you could have done was paid me."

"G-Guys," Ruby tried, "Stop yelling!"

"I made a mistake!" My voice boomed off the ceiling. "I admit that. I fucked up. I get it and I feel awful about it! That doesn't mean I didn't love you, though!"

"And I obviously loved you since I was willing to kill for you, but that's the point! We're not good together. We're a disaster together. Our minds work in different ways." Blake sighed and stepped back. "It was fun and I loved every moment and I'll cherish it, but Ruby is more like you than I am. Honestly, we should have split up a while back, probably after Vacuo. We just kept clinging on and pretending because we wanted to go back to what we were like, never realising that was impossible."

My breathing was laboured. I thought I might cry, or that I might be already – it was hard to tell. There was something roaring in my ears, either my heartbeat or just the rush of blood racing through me.

"That's it, then," I hissed. "Just like that. After everything we've been through; Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo and Salem. You just want to throw it away at the end."

"Jaune, she doesn't mean that!"

"I'm not throwing it away," Blake spat, ignoring Ruby. "I'm saying we should grow up and start being adults."

"So now I'm childish?"

"Right now? Yes!"

I stomped forward. "I'd rather be childish than heartless!"

"I'm not-" Blake cut off with a frustrated yell. "Forget it! This is just proof that we'd never work out. I'm done." She turned her back on me, and I had the strongest urge to grab her shoulder and spin her around again. "We're done. You want me to make the choice for you? I will. Marry Ruby. There. It's done. You two can be happy together and I'll find my own elsewhere."

"Fine," I snapped. "Maybe I will, and you can look back on this and-"

"STOP IT!"

The raw pain in Ruby's scream ripped the words out my mouth and dashed them into dust. It was so hurt, so sore and screechy, that even Blake recoiled like she'd been verbally struck across the face. Big far tears rolled down Ruby's cheeks, which had flushed to a bright red to match the edges of her eyes.

Someone crying wasn't nearly as graceful or soft as the bards made it out to be. Her nose ran and she took in great, heaving breaths that stuttered and popped. She snorted, the sound nasally and wet.

"Ruby," Blake tried.

"I'm sick of this!" she yelled. "I'm sick of the fighting and the shouting. I'm sick of feeling guilty, of not knowing what to say and being the one responsible for all this."

"Ruby, you're not-"

"Don't treat me like a child!" she snapped. "Not when you're the ones acting like children!"

"Children…?"

"If I wasn't in the way being pushed into being Queen, this wouldn't be happening. Don't pretend I'm not involved. It's my future too," Ruby sobbed, "And where do you get off acting like you have the right to make my choices for me!?"

Blake flinched. "I didn't-"

"Telling Jaune to just marry me because it's what everyone wants!" Ruby watched Blake squirm and look away. "Did you ever think about my feelings with that?"

"O-Of course I did." She hadn't, but then neither had I, throwing ideas around as I had been. Blake looked flustered, stumbling verbally for something to say. "You said you were in love with him…"

"I am!" Ruby said, making me swallow nervously. "But that doesn't mean I want him like that! If… If he married me just because you told him to or because the Kingdom demanded it, it wouldn't be real!" Ruby shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. "Why would I ever want that? Why would I want to marry someone who doesn't love me back?"

"He'd come to love you. Or could."

"Could, Blake. Could! Maybe if we met and got together and tried it out first – but he'll never love me if he's forced into it, will he? There'll always be the spectre of you over my head. He'd always be thinking how he had to give up on you to be with me." She slammed her hand down on her legs beneath the blanket. "And so would I! Even if he did come to love me, could I even believe it was true if we were only together because we were forced to be? And when I had to ruin your happiness to get it?"

I didn't know. Honestly, if it weren't for my lingering feelings for Blake, I felt I could have fallen in love with Ruby. We were similar in circumstances, personality and ambition – and we were close as thieves as well. But if we did marry like this, I knew it would be awkward. Even leaving aside the issue of Blake and what that would mean for our friendships, I'd be forever tip-toeing around Ruby, not sure what I could or couldn't do because our marriage wouldn't really be consensual.

It all seemed so easy before, at least when Blake was throwing it around as the obvious answer at her own expense. Now, it was anything but. Choosing Blake meant abandoning Vale and everyone who died. Choosing Ruby didn't just mean abandoning Blake but stabbing Ruby through the heart as well. And myself.

I'd come to resent her. I might even hate her. Even if Ruby and I got on, the way it happened would linger like a miasma.

"Just because I have feelings for someone doesn't mean I want to marry them," Ruby continued, waving her arms like she was explaining something simple to two complete idiots. "Especially if it means doing it this way." Angrily, she wiped tears from her eyes. "It'd be a doomed marriage. We'd both be miserable. I. Don't. Want. That!"

"What do you want?" Blake demanded, temper rising again. "Give us an idea."

"I want Jaune to fall in love with me." How she said that in front of me, I didn't know. Anger, probably. At any other time, I might have flushed to the tips of my hair, but I felt cold and frustrated. Confused and bitter. "But he has to fall in love with me," she went on. "Not be forced to marry me. And… And I don't want to marry him either."

I had to speak. "You don't…?"

"NO!" Ruby slapped the blankets again. "I don't want to marry anyone right now. I… I love you, I think, but I want to try dating first. I want to hang out, hold hands, have romantic moments and kiss under the full moon. I want to get to know you more, see if it works and then make a decision if we both think we can be happy with one another." Her legs hunched up, drawing her knees to her chest. "I'm not ready to get married. I'm not even eighteen."

Blake and I shared a long look. We were closer to twenty but that was still young, even in a world such as ours. In the height of our relationship, I'd thought longingly on marrying Blake, but even in my fantasies that was after graduating from Beacon. As for Ruby… well, she had a point. I was distraught enough about this marriage proposal, as was Blake.

It wasn't a conductive atmosphere for a good decision to be made.

"Ruby's right," I said. "None of us are ready for marriage. None of us," I stressed, eyes on Blake, asking her if she wanted to disagree with that statement.

She didn't, and she was right not to. Our relationship had been rocky ever since the war and we'd never really let it settle, just jumping back into it like a divorced couple trying to pretend everything was okay. Trying to act like what split us up never took place.

That wasn't how mature people handled this. We were kids. Ruby was right. We'd been arguing like stupid children. In some ways, we'd been made to grow up faster, but that was all in combat, life or death situations and in our careers. We hadn't had the time to experiment and grow into sensible and well-rounded adults. Maybe that would come in time, but it wasn't here now.

I didn't know a damn thing about what it really meant to settle down with someone.

And now Ruby had paid the price, sniffling and trying to wipe all her tears away. The room was drowned in the sound of it, each sniffle making both Blake and I wince. The fact we'd resorted to anger was just more proof we weren't ready for that – and maybe that was fine. We were still young. We had time. With Salem gone, we had all the time in the world.

"I'm sorry," I said, both to Ruby and to Blake. "I shouldn't have raised my voice. Or said the things I did."

"I as well," Blake whispered. "I reacted poorly…" She swallowed and looked away.

At least she had the excuse of losing the most; I'd just yelled and accused her of anything I could to make her feel bad. Damn it. I'd been so stupid.

"Whatever you may say about us needing more time – and I agree with you on that – I'd like to point out that we don't have time," Blake said. "A decision has to be made, whether we're ready for it or not. We don't have the opportunity to spend months seeing what can and can't work."

That damning realty threatened to plunge us right back into the thick of things. Having just been drawn out, I was reluctant to start the shouting again. I think the others were too, and that it was that fact that prevented us making any hasty decisions.

"I won't marry Jaune," Ruby said. "I can't. And don't take this the wrong way, Blake, but you shouldn't either. We'd all just be unhappy."

"I agree. Jaune and I; we need time to see if it's right for us. We have made mistakes and I'm not sure if it'll all work out in the end or not but jumping into something now…" Blake shook her head. "We'd come to hate one another."

I found myself nodding along.

"But I repeat, we don't have time."

Glynda was expecting a decision. Vale was expecting one. The easy choice would have been to just refuse and go back to being a Guild, but I couldn't accept that after all we'd been through. "I could become King alone," I said. "That should still be an option."

Blake looked away.

"It wouldn't mean an end to us," I argued. "I'd happily stay with you, either in secret or just telling everyone where they can stuff their problems. If we don't work out, Ruby can always have her chance. I'm sure they'd be just as happy her marrying into royalty as starting there."

It would buy us the time to test things out. To sort out our feelings.

"The Nobles would disapprove."

"Let them. We can ignore them."

"It's not the words I'm worried about. They might assassinate me," she warned. "Their disapproval can come in more ways than one. Not to mention you'd have to remain single and childless, a dangerous proposition for a King. They'd never allow it. You'd have to take a Queen eventually, and it wouldn't be me."

"Then let me be Queen," Ruby whispered. "And I can marry someone else."

"And be unhappy?" I asked with a scowl.

"You don't know that. Just because I like you doesn't mean I die if you don't return my feelings. I'm not some affection-based flower that's going to wilt if you look away." She stuck her jaw out stubbornly. "I can be happy with someone else just fine; I just need to find someone I can get along with. That shouldn't be hard."

"Noble Caste," Blake coughed. "They'll pressure you. Potentially with Charisma."

And Ruby's Resilience was so low.

"Ruby, I'm not putting you through that." I said. "We nearly died to get here and I'm not tossing you to the Noble Caste right at the end. This has to stop. We're not looking for a proper solution – we're just trying to pick between three bad ones."

"Then we're back to square one," Blake said. "Right where we started."

"Not quite," Ruby said, wiping her tears away. "We're not yelling at each other anymore."

Blake inclined her head. "That's true. I can't see any good solutions, however. Whatever is decided, someone is going to suffer. The position is going to drive a wedge right through the middle of us and there's nothing we can do about it short of convincing everyone to let Yang be Queen of Vale."

Ruby giggled at the not-very-funny joke and I cracked a smile as well. "Ironically enough," I said, "Things would be easier that way. At least then we'd know there wasn't anything romantic about it. It could be a sham marriage."

"Sham marriage!" Ruby cried, sitting up straight. "We can have a sham marriage!"

Blake crossed her arms. "Explain."

"Jaune and I need to be King and Queen," Ruby babbled out, "But who says a King and Queen have to be married?"

"Everyone. It's implied in the title."

"It's also implied Blacksmiths have to smith and Assassins should be merciless killers. That doesn't mean it's correct. We can be King and Queen without getting married. You can be the royal assassin without getting married. Weiss can be advisor, Yang can be my bodyguard – everyone can have a position."

"How does that help us?"

"Because it'll mean the Guild accepts the position, not me and Jaune."

The Guild? I looked to Blake for answers and she looked back. "What do you mean?" I asked Ruby.

"The Guild rules Vale. Everyone has a role. Ours look the most important to everyone outside the Guild, but it's like when you signed for us before. People assumed you were Guild Leader, but you weren't. We decided things together." Ruby gestured to the room. "We can do that with this. Make decisions together and let it be the whole Guild that rules."

"I can see how that would take the pressure off you and Jaune," Blake said, "And it's probably a good idea to do that anyway, if only because you don't know beans about running a Kingdom. But how does that solve our current issue? It would still be the two of you getting married."

"Because us being royalty is fake," Ruby pressed. "Think about it. The King and Queen are absolute, so if we make it clear the Guild is really the King and Queen of Vale and me and Jaune are just the figureheads of that, then it stands to reason our marriage is fake too."

Blake sighed and brought a hand up to cover her face. "That's a nice thought, Ruby, but it's pure sophistry. It won't change the fact you and Jaune will be married. It won't change the fact you'll be expected to produce an heir or Jaune will be expected to stay away from me. I can see what you're trying to do, but it's clutching at grass."

"It's not! We'll just let everyone think we're married. It doesn't mean we are or that we have to share a room. I mean, the last King and Queen didn't. They even had separate rooms!"

"And the Nobles? Do you think they'll accept it?"

"Sure."

"They won't have a problem?" Blake asked sarcastically. "They'll be completely fine letting eight teenagers take over their country?"

"Nope. Because as far as they know, we're married and right there to be manipulated by them." Ruby pulled an innocent face, ruined somewhat by the drying tearstains. "Oh, we know so little about running. We'll need help from the nice Nobles. And then we pretend to listen and do our own thing."

"You intend to lie to them as well? What about a royal wedding?"

"What about it?" Ruby argued. "We lie! You lied since the moment you got here," she said, pointing at me. "I lied about the same time. Blake's lied hundreds of times as well. People lie. Who cares if we're lying here? At least it'll be a white lie that helps the Kingdom."

I couldn't argue with that. "And you want to just fake the wedding?"

"They're vows spoken to air, Jaune. It's not like you get struck by lightning if you break them, and which one of us is going to complain if we do cheat on one another? We killed the last Goddess who argued back."

Blake snorted. The tiny smile on her lips belied her mood.

"The wedding only means something if we let it," she continued. "And I don't want it to. Maybe if you fall in love with and propose to me in a few years' time, I'll accept, but not now. We hold hands, smile, say some lines and let everyone else think we're married, but we-" Ruby indicated all three of us, "-know it's a lie."

"And what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors," Blake said. "Is that what you're proposing?"

"Yep. Or in this case what doesn't happen behind closed doors. It's not like we haven't shared tents or beds with each other before. Jaune and I can share a room on the marriage night – you could even be there yourself if you want." Ruby paled. "Platonically, I mean."

"I wasn't about to have sex in front of you." She tried to smile, but Blake's tension bled through. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she leant back against the wall and took a few deep breaths. "Okay," she eventually said, "I can see how that might alleviate some of our issues. For now, at least. It's not fixing any of them, least of all if you still have feelings for him. What if those flare up?"

"What if they do?" Ruby asked with a shrug. "Let that be for later."

"Let the best woman win?"

"Yeah. But for now, no one wins. Or maybe it's no one loses by rushing into something they're not sure about. Me and Jaune or even you and Jaune. Or Jaune becoming King alone, or me becoming Queen alone."

Because no matter how much we tried to pretend, those options were just as bad. We'd both be expected to marry quickly and produce heirs to secure our line, to say nothing of the burden of ruling alone or how the Nobles might try and decide who their spouse should be. If we do this, we at least cut them out of the picture. They can't complain because we're married, and they shouldn't push for children because we're still young and healthy.

The idea was warming on him, strangely enough. An idea not to fix everything, but rather delay the issues until a later time. Maybe that was a bad idea and they should face it now, but he didn't think so. Rushing things would only end in disaster.

"I think Ruby might be onto something. What do you say, Blake?"

"It's your decision…" she tried.

"No." I cut that bullshit off before it could start. "It's our decision – yours as much as mine and Ruby's – and I want to hear your opinion on it. Your honest opinion; not the polite and easy answer. If you don't want this, we won't do it. We can stay here and think of ideas until we find one we're happy with. All of us."

Ruby nodded with me.

Blake sighed. "I don't like it."

Our faces fell.

"But… I dislike it less than any of the other options. It leaves time for us to change our minds and talk about this further, after all the difficult stuff is out the way." She smiled weakly. "I think that's the best we're going to get. Looking for a perfect option isn't viable."

"If there even is one."

"Exactly. We should take the best option on the table and focus on how we can make the most of it."

The one that hurt the least people, or that at the very least kept us together. We could work on mitigating the issues, and there almost certainly would be some, but so long as we kept out minds in the right place, it should be possible. I let out a heavy sigh, tension slipping away. "Let's make an oath of it." I said.

"An oath?"

"That the marriage we're engaging in is false. That no matter what words we speak and what we're expected to do in public, we all know that we're just fulfilling the roles." I held out my hand between them. "And that if we ever do want it to go deeper, we'll discuss that between the three of us. No nasty surprises. No expectations."

"No harmed feelings," Ruby said, placing her hand atop mine. "We can even do a divorce in the Guild. Something hidden from everyone else, but I bet we can find someone to make it officially unofficial."

"Officially unofficial?" Blake asked. "Is that even a phrase…?"

"It could be. If you agree…"

"You realise we're running away from our problems again?" Blake asked. "And agreeing to lie about how we really are. Isn't this the very thing that got us all in trouble in the first place, both with Jaune's Class and your own secrets?"

"We'd be lying to the Nobles and the people outside," I said. "Not each other."

"And so what if we avoid the problem," Ruby argued. "We just killed a Goddess. I wanna take a break and have fun and sleep and go swimming. Don't we deserve to take it easy for a bit? Let's deal with this later."

Ruby pushed my hand down a little, moving it to hint to Blake.

"Well, Blake?" I prompted. "Are you with us?"

"This is going to be a disaster…"

Ruby smiled. "That's not a `no` I'm hearing."

"It's not."

Blake placed her hand atop Ruby's.

/-/

Glynda looked up as they left the room. It was impossible for her not to have heard them shouting, or the crying that resulted, but the Warlock held a firm gaze and stood slowly, silencing the royal guards who had stood guard outside the chamber.

"I trust something has been decided. Am I speaking to the King and Queen of Vale?"

Ruby's arm touched mine, shrinking into my side. Blake flanked my other side, and though she made no overt motion, I sensed her tension. With so many people watching, this would be out first test. One of many to come.

I let my eyes meet hers and then slip away, hoping she'd picked up my assurance. Turning back to the audience, I spoke.

"You are. Ruby and I are to be wed."

"Long live the King!" the guards intoned, kneeling. "Long live the Queen. Long live Vale!"

You know, I feel this way about most anime pairings. The ones getting involved are often so childish, so silly and so unprepared that I'm just like, "It's never going to work out". I get it. It's make-believe. It's fantasy. It's anime. It's three to twenty women mooning over one uninspiring person whose crowning skill is being "honest" or something, as though every other person in the world is the opposite.

But still, it sticks in my head. That's kind of the issue here. Blake and Jaune have been dysfunctional. They've been a mess. They dated in that teenage high school style where everything is happy kissing and lovey-dovey words, then found out that in the real world, it's all much harder and started to fight. They both need a healthy dose of "grow the fuck up".

Meanwhile, Ruby does like Jaune and does want to explore that, but marriage? That's too soon and she knows it. It's too final, and they've not even dated. What if they go out once and find they just love one another as friends? That's a problematic thing to discover on the marriage night. xD

For those asking, no, there's not another arc of this story. I'm just experimenting with a slightly longer ending to tie up ends, because I normally end a chapter, like, one or two chapters after the final battle. This is my experimentation with a Lord of the Rings Style ending – except not as long, with less singing and without Jaune and Ruby sailing into the west.

Next Chapter: 30th December (Two Weeks)

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur