Authors Note: Don't forget to review the chapter once you're done and other than that, I hope you enjoy it.

It was hard not to see the resemblance now that Yang was actually looking for it. Jaune took heavily after his dad, though the older Arc had longer hair and a trimmed beard giving him a far older appearance. His parents were also violently blonde.

She couldn't help but stare for a minute in awe, expecting Jaune to handle the actual talking. Only, once he was done with the basic introductions, he fell completely silent. His parents didn't seem too keen to offer him an out either and simply started at them in awkward silence.

"H-hi," Yang took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He offered out her hand. Neither of them took it and Yang began to sweat.

A minute passed and Yang was about to pull her hand away only for his dad to reach out and grab it.

"A pleasure," His voice was completely neutral, making it sound anything but. "I'm guessing you're a member of his team?"

"No, but our teams are close." Yang explained. "Both figuratively and literally, we're right across the hall from each other. I'm on team RWBY." She turned to Jaune, expecting him to step up but he looked down to avoid her eyes. "He's on team JNPR. One of the best in our year, right under mine of course."

The joke didn't seem to land well and Yang winced. This was going very poorly. Meeting the parents always went poorly, but this was turning into a disaster. They didn't seem displeased with her so much as just in a poor mood in general.

She could hazard a guess as to why.

"W-what brings you to the Beacon?" She knew the question was a mistake the second she asked it, if only due to the two's sudden glares at their son.

His mom was the one to speak and Yang immediately wished it could have been his dad. His dad's voice was neutral in a way that showed he was trying to stay calm. His mom sounded like she wanted to scream but was unable to due to being in public so instead it came out cold.

"We saw something rather interesting in the news recently, care to take a guess at what it might have been Jaune?"

"I-I uh-"

"You were attacked by terrorists!" His mother snapped.

"It was actually mostly Grimm once we got back to Vale." Jaune said. "It wasn't anything my team and I couldn't handle."

His mother didn't look impressed.

"We had to find out over the news." His dad said calmly, making Yang wince. That was bad. Ruby and she had called their dad before the news could cover the story, knowing how much parantes could worry. It seemed Jaune hadn't given them the same courtesy.

"I'm sorry," Jaune whispered. "but I knew how you'd react, I thought it would be better if you never found out."

"It was a choice then?" His dad asked.

"Yes."

"Good."

"What?" Jaune and his mother asked at the same time, his mother far more hysterically.

"It's good you at least made the choice not to." His father explained. "I would prefer that to ignorance."

"You're not helping!" His mother hissed. "That doesn't make it better!"

"Maybe you guys should take this inside Beacon, it'll be more private there." Yang said. "And maybe I should excuse myself, this sounds more like a family thing… I shouldn't be-"

"Nonsense!" Jaune's mother turned to her. "I wouldn't dream of sending you away. I have so much to ask you." The woman's smile grew vicious. Yang swallowed her fear.

"I would like to speak with Jaune," His father kept his eyes locked on Jaune. "alone."

His mother glared at her husband for a moment before covering it up with a smile as she turned back towards Yang.

"I could show you around Beacon?" Yang offered. She was hoping she would say no.

"I would love that."

Damn it.

Jaune and his dad stepped away, leaving Yang alone with his mother. She wasn't nervous, not at all. She was calm, completely calm. Why wouldn't she be? She was only stuck in the middle of a family dispute that she really had no business being involved in. Oh, and Jaune had called her his girlfriend.

That last part shouldn't have mattered as much but it totally did. She would have been over the moon if it had been literally any other time, instead it had to come with this.

Jaune's mom looked to her expectantly.

"So... where would you like to start?" Yang asked.

"You know I don't really want a tour right?" She smiled softly. "That was just to get us alone."

She was completely calm. "Uh, Mrs. Arc I-"

"Please, call me Juniper." She said. "Mrs. Arc makes me feel so old."

"O-ok um," Yang rubbed the back of her neck. Mrs - Juniper was certainly not old. There were a few signs of age on her face, a crease or two, but she was incredibly beautiful for her age. Her sharp eyes reminded her so much of Jaune's so much that she could barely bring herself to look away from them. Her hair was vibrant and healthy and had a shine to it not too unlike her own.

Her body was one body even women ten years younger than her would have dreamed about having. This wasn't the woman she had expected to see birth and raise eight children. She didn't look nearly insane enough for that.

"What did you wanna talk about?"

"Why don't we take a seat, maybe get something to eat or drink?" Juniper smiled. "My treat."

Yang nodded. "That sounds great but I couldn't a-"

"Shush, it's no problem." She gestured towards the CCT mall. Yang nodded, allowing her to lead the way.

They didn't talk much on the way over. She had a few questions about Beacon or how the year was going but none of them were about Jaune. It seemed the important questions would only come once they were sat down and Yang was less likely to try and flee.

Not that she planned to anyways. This meeting was bound to happen at some point and she very much doubted Jaune's parents would simply ignore the fact she was a huntress. She just wasn't quite ready for it to come so soon.

In the end they went into a rather small looking shop that at first glance looked closed, most people off enjoying the festival and were thus eating carnival food and not making the stop at an actual restaurant.

The waiter came over to take their order, only drinks for now, but otherwise left them alone. Seemingly content to sit behind the counter and do nothing.

The pleasant conversation came to an end as Juniper's smile fell a little. "Jaune... how is he, really?"

"He's been doing great! He's a hard worker and has made a lot of improvement since the start of the year. He-"

"You know he had no training before coming here, don't you?" Juniper asked.

"Yes, I know." Yang winced slightly. "His partner also knows."

"His partner?" It was difficult to tell whether she was actually interested in the answer but Yang was more than willing to take the chance to avoid the conversation they were bound to have at some point.

"Pyrrha Nikos." Yang said, hoping the girl's reputation would precede her.

"The Mistrillian fighter?"

"He didn't know that when they met so she made sure they were partnered up." Yang snickered. "Pinned him to a tree with her spear."

Juniper hid her laughter behind her hand. "That does sound like Jaune."

"His other two team members are Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren." Yang said. "And he's the team leader."

"Oh," Juniper's face twisted in a mix of pride and concern. "And how has he done so far?"

"Uh, I'd say it's best to ask them about that." Yang said apologetically. "But I know he's come a long way from the start of the year."

"Somehow I don't imagine that being difficult." Juniper whispered. "He didn't leave so much as a letter when he left." Yang winced. "He just disappeared with the family sword."

Juniper's eyes began to fill with tears and for a moment Yang feared she might break down, but she didn't. "We had feared he was dead."

Yang focused her eyes on the table, refusing to look up.

"When we saw the news about The Breach… that he was alive…" Yang could only imagine.

It was all well and good to know he was alive, they had likely been over the moon at first, but once you started to think about it things began to fall apart. If he was alive, why hadn't he called? Or written a letter? Why had he simply disappeared?

"We booked the first flight we could. It took time, Nicholas was on a hunt at the time but once he came back we set out for Vale." Juniper explained. "We tried to call his scroll but…" She dabbed a napkin against her eye. "I'm sorry, I doubt you want to see a grown woman cry."

Yang reached a hand across the table. "No no, I understand." she swallowed. "That was… he shouldn't have done it like that. I'll talk to him, I promise."

It was highly unlikely Jaune had meant to cause so much pain when he left, but the fact remained that he had, and if nobody brought his attention to it he would likely never do anything about it. Not because he was cruel or mean but because he simply wouldn't notice. He was one of the densest people she had ever met.

"Thank you dear, that would mean more than you know." Juniper took a sip from her water, composing herself, as the smile came back a little stronger. "I'm glad to see Jaune has people to help him. He's never been the most…"

"Perceptive?" Yang filled in the blank spot for her.

Juniper's smile grew a little, feeling a little more honest. "You do know him then."

Yang snickered. "Believe me, I know. His partner was crushing on him hard for the first part of the year and he never noticed."

"That does sound just like him." Juniper laughed softly, it was a strangely comforting sound to hear. "Though, clearly that worked out for your benefit."

Yang blushed. "Oh well, uh, that was a little bit of a… thing." She chuckled nervously, rubbing her hand through her hair.

Juniper's smile grew vicious. "You will tell me the whole story, won't you?" Strangely enough, Yang got the feeling it was less a question than she made it out to be.

"Oh, I uh-"

"But first," She interrupted. "Why don't you tell me a bit about my boys team and what he's been up to. It's a mother's duty to know all of her son's embarrassing stories afterall."

That, Yang was far more willing to help with. Her own grin grew wide as she prepared to throw him under the bus.

Sorry Jaune, shouldn't have left me alone with your mother. Bastard...

Jaune ducked the sword before it could cut his head from his shoulders, before raising his shield just in time to stop the follow up strike. He went low, bringing his sword out and around towards his opponents legs.

Crocea Mors connected and aura cackled, then that leg's knee planted itself in his face forcing him back. It wasn't a fair trade by any means but it was still damage done.

"Not bad!" His father exclaimed. "Far better than I had expected!" He didn't stop his assault to talk, forcing the words out between the clash of steel and metal.

"I've been training!" Jaune caught another strike on his shield, then brought his sword down in an arch towards his father's shoulders. The older man pulled his sword back and caught the attack on the flat of his blade, pushing up and forcing Jaune to pull back or risk losing control of his weapon.

"I can tell." He raised one hand to warn Jaune the fight was over. "You have improved more than I ever thought possible, and in such a short space of time."

"I had excellent teachers."

"Beacon is known for hiring only the best." His father misunderstood.

"I was referring to my partner and Yang." Jaune explained. "If it weren't for them I'd never be where I am now."

His father hummed but said nothing, moving to a nearby bench to grab a bottle of water.

They come straight to the arena once they had gotten away from his mother and Yang. His father had said he wanted to see him in action, to see whether he had truly earned his place here or not. It was difficult to say for sure but Jaune was fairly certain he had managed to convince him.

He wasn't the weak untrained boy he had been when he left Ansel. Jaune sighed thinking of the argument he knew was coming. Worst of all was knowing that he deserved it. As horrible as it was to think, he hadn't even thought about his family after The Breach.

That wasn't entirely true actually, he had thought about his family, just not the one he had grown up with. His team was family now, even if they hadn't known each other for the longest time. He was confident that he could trust each of them with his life and he hoped they felt the same.

None of that would matter to his parents and sisters though. To them he had simply stolen something from them and then vanished. He had abandoned them and not given them a second thought. It bothered him that he had been so selfish in the past but in a way he was glad he had done it.

If he had told his family what he had planned to do they would have stopped him, and they had good reason to do so, but they would have kept him from coming to Beacon. Albeit out of love and concern for his well-being, but he still would have been kept from following his dreams.

He never would have met Ren and Nora, he never would have been partnered with Pyrrha Nikos and he never would have been trained by Yang. He wasn't willing to feel guilty about any of that and he refused to take it back. Knowing what he did now, he would have done it all over again.

That didn't stop the fact that he still felt bad for how he did it. For never telling them he was alive.

"I recognize that look on your face." His father offered him a bottle of water. "I saw that look a lot in my youth whenever I looked in the mirror."

"Why are you here?"

"Because we were afraid we'd lost you," His father explained. "We were afraid that you had gone off and died somewhere, but then we learned that you had not only gotten into Beacon but were involved in fighting terrorists." His father sighed. "We came here to take you home."

"I won't go." Jaune said simply. He thought of yelling it, of screaming how unfair it would have been to make him go, but he decided against it. Instead, he went with a simple statement of fact. He had no intention of leaving.

"I know, like I said, I know that look on your face." His father smiled. "That's the look of an Arc in love."

Jaune blushed. "Do you really have to say it like that?"

His father laughed. "I don't just mean that girl you had wrapped around you. The bond between a team can last a lifetime. I knew it well."

"My team… they're the best friends I've ever had. They're more like family than friends really, and it's only been a couple months." Jaune said before swallowing his fear. "You wont try and take me back to Ansel?"

"I might have, had you not proven yourself just now." His father smiled.

"Like I said, I had good teachers."

"I wasn't referring to the sparring, Son." His father explained. "Being a huntsman has never been about fighting ability or heroics, it's a dark path I wish you hadn't chosen… but you have and you have people who rely on you now. I won't come between that."

"Thank you da-"

"You have to talk to your mother about it though."

"A… are you sure you can't handle that?" Jaune begged.

His father laughed. "Not in a million years."

Bastard…

Authors Note: So… coronavirus is doing stuff, hope yall are keeping safe. Proper hygiene and all that. It really makes you think about things when the whole world goes on lock down and the largest inconvenience to you is that the local Subway is closed…

All in all this chapter did things, as I'm sure you noticed. Plot happened and stuff. I wanna reiterate that I'm using Coeur Al'Aran's Arc family structure, fear not he has given permission so long as he is credited… so yeah, go read his stuff if you haven't already. It's WAY better than what I got… dont leave.

Hope y'all enjoyed and as always I encourage you to review and let me know your thoughts, even if it's negative it helps me improve and get better.

Sincerely SE