Chapter 2: Of Fathers and Blades

(Team RWBY's Dorm)

Jaune woke to find a head of white hair resting on his chest. He smiled, suppressing the urge to stroke Weiss's hair. He didn't want to scare her off, after all. Jaune turned his thoughts inward, to puzzle out the situation so that he wouldn't make a fool of himself when Weiss woke up.

Okay, so she obviously had a change of heart about me. Maybe she heard how I helped her with Neptune at the dance? That still doesn't... wait, no. Yang said that they broke up because he hit on team IDGO. Okay, so... maybe it's just that she sees me in pain and she wants to fix it? Soothe it? No, that sounds more like Ruby or Yang. If I were a betting man, I'd guess that Pyrrha rigged a scroll message to go to Weiss in the event of her death. Goodness knows she did the same for me.

His attention was drawn away from his inner monologue by movement on his chest. Weiss was waking up.

Jaune grinned, "Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Good morning," Weiss mumbled, "How long have you been up?"

Of course she'd go right back to worrying about him. Not that Jaune minded, especially right now. "Not long, just a few minutes."

Weiss narrowed her eyes and fixed him with an icy stare. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

Jaune shook his head, "Nah, I slept like a baby."

Weiss smiled, "Good, did you have any dreams?"

"Yeah, but they weren't of Pyrrha. Thank you, Weiss."

She reached up to cup his cheek. "You're welcome, Jaune."

By unspoken agreement they both got up, Jaune left to go get dressed and carry on with the day. As Weiss got ready for the day, she looked at her scroll for the first time that morning, and went pale.

She had one message. From her father.

"Call me at your earliest convenience."

Oh no.

(Team JNPR's Dorm)

"Why didn't you come back here last night?" Nora interrogated.

Yang shook her head. Nora knew exactly where Jaune had been last night and who he'd been with, considering Yang and Blake had crashed in team JNPR's room.

"Nora." Ren simply stated.

"But, Ren, I wanna hear him say it!"

Jaune sighed, "Me and Weiss slept together last night. Nothing... physical happened."

Yang cackled with laughter, "Oh, I am going to give her so much crap..."

Blake's hand because intimately familiar with her forehead. "At least wait until after we check on Ruby..."

Yang sobered immediately. Right, she had agreed to not tease Weiss until after their daily Ruby check. "Right... sorry, Blake."

They left to do just that. Meanwhile, Nora, being Nora wanted details.

Jaune sighed. She was going to be on this for at least the next four hours. Fortunately he knew a way to distract her for a while.

"Ren," Jaune said a little too cheerily, "Pancakes!"

Ren shot him a look that suggested Jaune had just stranded him in the Emerald Forest with one hundred Deathstalkers on his tail. To be fair, a pancake-lusted Nora was equivalent to that.

(Team RWBY's Dorm)

Yang and Blake walked in to see Weiss staring at her scroll like it was a bomb.

"You okay, Weiss? You.. uh... look pretty spooked." Yang asked.

Weiss swallowed, "My father would like me to call him at my earliest convenience."

Yang and Blake's expressions darkened. After Jacques Schnee had visited to make a show of giving aid to help repair Vale's city square after the Breach incident, Weiss had told them about exactly what kind of man Jacques Schnee is. Needless to say, team RWBY now only bought SDC products out of necessity.

Blake spoke next, "Well, in that case, let's go check on Ruby, then you can take care of that."

Weiss emphatically shook her head, "When father says 'at your earliest convenience' he really means now."

"Okay, then. New plan," Yang said, "Me and Blake will go check on Ruby, and you chat with the asshole of assholes." Weiss gave her a small smile as a Yang Humor based shot of courage coursed through her. Yang and Blake wordlessly changed their clothes and left for the infirmary.

Weiss hit the call button.

"Hello, Weiss." Jacques said.

"Hello, father. I didn't catch you at a bad time, did I?" Weiss asked, hoping that she kept the hopefulness out of her voice.

"No, you didn't. Now, Weiss, I have a question for you."

She swallowed, "What is it, father?"

"Why didn't you call me sooner?"

Oh, good. An easy one. "Well, father, that's because my teammates and I, due to necessity and the role we played in the battle, along with three other teams, stepped into a leadership role to help take pressure off of the staff. That's taken up most of our time."

Jacques nodded, he had expected as much. However, he was still annoyed. "Is there any other reason?"

Weiss clenched the fist that she held behind her back. I might as well come clean about Jaune, at least the part about training him. "Ah, yes there is. Do you recall that Pyrrha Nikos died in the attack?" Her father nodded but remained silent.

"Well, her partner, Jaune Arc was being trained by her because of his... deficiencies in combat. He was admitted to Beacon on the merits of his strategic ability, you see. He has requested that I begin training him, since Pyrrha... can't anymore."

"Why you?" Jacques asked.

"Because, after Pyrrha, my combat style is closest to his."

"I see," Jacques mused, "Well, if he is going to be trained by a Schnee, he will have the weapon of a Schnee."

"Father?" Weiss cocked her head in confusion. Is he saying what I think he's saying?

"I will be visiting you in three days. I wish to meet this young man, see why he has caught your eye."

Weiss's eyes went wide. "Father, it's not like that-"

Jacques raised an eyebrow, "Yes, it is. Do not lie to me, Weiss."

Internally, Weiss was panicking. How? How did he... I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. "Very well, father. If I might ask, is that the only reason you'll be coming?"

"No, I am going to donate a sizable sum to the students of Beacon, to help the less fortunate students replace their lost possessions and such, I will also want to observe Mr. Arc's fighting style so I can have the proper weapon made for him."

Weiss was dumbfounded, "You're... serious about that?"

Jacques nodded, "Yes, I am."

There's going to be a catch to this, I know there is. There always is.

"Very well, father. Is there anything else?" Please let that be everything. I don't have the energy for dealing with you for much longer.

"No, Weiss. That will be all." He hung up.

She flung herself onto her bed, giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts.

Her scroll buzzed, even though there was no one around to witness it, she made a show of grabbing it over-dramatically, then broke into a giant grin.

It was a message from Yang. Its content breathed life into the emotionally weary heiress.

"Guess who's up?"

(Beacon Academy Mess Hall)

Almost everything was right with the world. The table that was eternally claimed by teams RWBY and JNPR burst with the endless optimism of Ruby Rose once more. There would eternally be an empty seat where Pyrrha Nikos once sat. Even if which seat was empty got shuffled around, due to an inexplicable change in the dynamic between the two teams. Onlookers were completely baffled by it. Even Professor Goodwitch did a double take. There was a new... closeness between Jaune Arc and Weiss Schnee. Eventually the topic of conversation shifted from Weiss-Teasing to things of a more serious nature.

"Ruby, we've got to ask, what did you do to Cinder to make her run off?" Blake asked.

Weiss could feel Jaune tense up beside her. She took his hand underneath the table and the tension disappeared as quickly as it came.

Ruby's brow furrowed as she cast her mind back to that night. "I'm not sure. All I remember is that I saw Cinder kill Pyrrha, then... everything just went... silver. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the infirmary."

From seemingly out of nowhere, Ozpin spoke, startling all of them except Ren, "Ms. Rose, I appreciate your need to tell your friends about what happened in my office, but please do not tell anyone else, at least until I've had a chance to talk to... well, all seven of you now."

Ozpin left as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving a tornado of confusion in his wake. Ozpin was clear though, a change of topic was in order. Weiss frowned, she might as well tell everyone about her father's impending visit now.

"So," Weiss started, "my father is coming to visit in three days." The facial expressions of the rest of team RWBY darkened.

Jaune frowned, "Judging by their reactions, I guess he isn't winning Father of the Year anytime soon?"

Weiss chuckled, "That's one way of putting it, I suppose. He treats everything in his life like it's a business that he has to run."

Ren and Nora shuddered. Since they had grown up with only each other to count on, that kind of lovelessness was anathema to them.

"Anything else we need to know about his time here, Weiss-cream?" Yang asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. It... ah... concerns Jaune."

Jaune blinked. Twice. "I'm sorry, what?"

Weiss started to explain, "You see, his 'official' reason for coming here is to make a show of the SDC giving financial support to the students here who lost possessions in the attack. In reality, his reason for coming... well, I told him that I would be starting to train Jaune... and apparently something in my tone of voice or body language betrayed the fact that there is... ah... something more going on here."

Blake narrowed her eyes, "That could end... poorly."

Yang rolled her eyes, "You can say that again, Blake. Jaune, you better get on your A-game."

"It's not... all bad," Weiss said, "He said, and I quote, 'If he is going to be trained by a Schnee, he will have the weapon of a Schnee."

Silence reigned.

Jaune spoke first, "There's a catch, there has to be."

Weiss smiled, "Correct, but he didn't mention one to me. Yet."

Jaune stood up, "Well, if he's coming in three days, that gives me three days to cram in as much training as I can."

A/N: So. That happened. This is going to end up being quite a bit longer than the two chapters I had planned. Five maybe? We'll see. Yeah, Jacques is quite a bit OOC, but I figure, since I'm doing an AU with this one, I can tweak him how I want. He'll still be as controlling and loveless as ever, but he'll end up being less abusive. In a later chapter, I'm actually going to have him and Jaune spar. I've already got a weapon planned for him, still figuring out a Semblance, since he married into the family, he won't have glyphs after all. I'll try to do better with chapter length in the future. I was struggling with Writer's Block a bit here.

Anyways: Next Chapter, Jaune gets a crash course in Atlesian Fencing.