*zombie-like groan as Khor walks out of a grave with a name on it. Hint, it's not his name*

Ugh, feels like forever since I last updated Extension. And... it's actually a whole month, f***! Well, what can I say? I was busy. Really really busy with two new translation jobs that I just finished. And now I applied for three full-time jobs, one in Dublin, one in London and one in Canada (don't remember the city). So yeah, yippie for taking it easy and slow.

For a second back at the docks, things seemed to have gone back to normal for Roman Torchwick. Committing a crime and getting away with it, or fight his way out. That was how he lived his early days in the criminal underworld of Vale. That was how he had made a name for himself. Not by slacking off nor by being caught, but by being the damn best thief in the city. And even though back at the docks he had eventually gotten the hell out of there in a hurry thanks to that raging monster in flame-girl form, that night had really reminded him of the good old days of crime.

Standing in front of Cinder Fall was not something he ever recalled doing in the good old days. That was mainly what made them 'good' and not just old days.

"You failed," Cinder stated plainly. Her voice was like a razor-sharp sword wrapped in the softest of silks, caressing his ears as she spoke. Oh, and the silk was on fire of course. "You failed so spectacularly we actually had to buy the Dust we needed. With how ridiculous and embarrassing that was I am really inclined to kill you at the moment, Roman, but unfortunately… you are still useful to us. So all I will deliver will be a small punishment…"

Roman Torchwick began to sweat as his eyes landed on the victim of said punishment. "Listen, yes I messed up and I almost got caught, but not all hope is lost, you know? The deadline you gave me is still a few days away if not more. I can steal more! Way way more! Isn't that what you want? Instead of settling for what you have, you could send me to Atlas with the White Fang and I'll steal as much Dust as you want! I can also free some Faunus miners while I'm at it so the Fang will have more men for you to use! Doesn't that sound good enough?"

Cinder smirked as she lit a hand in flames. "Oh, Roman, you really do get the most wonderful ideas when you want to. Unfortunately, you have come up with this one too late. Far too late. Had you offered before I had to spend Lien on Dust, maybe you would've been able to escape your punishment. But now? Now I'm afraid it's too late…"

"No, wait! Don't do that!" Roman tried to reach out, to save the helpless victim, but those two ass-kissers of hers kept him from moving. Damn the two were stronger than he had thought. They were so distracted usually, that he could've stolen their underwear without them noticing, but apparently when they were focused they could actually do their job. "Look, I know I failed, but it's not like I could've prepared for an entire Beacon team! I simply don't have enough people to deal with that, so even if I had fought, the only thing I would've gotten would've been my ass handed to me and then sent to prison!"

"The simple fact those students were there at the docks speaks of how much you've failed, Roman. I do not care how they managed to get wind of your operation, but somehow they did, and they disrupted it. It is true, it is not your fault you failed to defeat warriors even Emerald or Mercury wouldn't have an easy time with. Your failure was allowing them to get you in the first place," Cinder continued sensually and dangerously at the same time. "But your idea isn't wrong per se. You will also go to Atlas and steal directly from the Schnee quarries, freeing as many Faunus miners as you can to make them join the White Fang, and then you will flee the kingdom before you are caught." Cinder's voice suddenly went from fifty percent sexy and fifty percent dangerous, to ten and ninety. "And this time, if you get caught, I will incinerate you."

Cinder lowered her hand and set the unmoving victim of her powers on fire before extinguishing the flames in her hand. She bypassed Torchwick and nodded to her underlings, who continued to restrain the man – even though his mad struggles were starting to give them problems, especially since they weren't allowed to just knock him out.

"NO!" Roman Torchwick screamed and struggled as he desperately tried to free himself to save the burning victim. He couldn't take his eyes off the macabre spectacle.

"Oh, come on, it's just a hat!" Emerald huffed as she kept him from rushing to save his flaming bowler hat.

/-/

Yang Xiao Long whistled a mindless tune as she neared her dorm with her teammate Blake in tow. Teammate, and possible partner. Possible because due to the fact their team was a Frankenstein-like one sewed together with parts of the old Team JWVL and parts of the old Team NBLS, partnerships were a little harder to decide. Everyone considered Jaune and Ruby partners because of Jaune's Semblance, but technically his partner was Weiss. Likewise, Yang's partner was Blake, technically, but then Sky would've remained without partner. Teams weren't supposed to be made of five people, after all.

Yang didn't know if she should've thanked or damned Professor Goodwitch for allowing it. She had done so to allow Ruby to remain, for Jaune's sake if nothing else, so Yang knew that on a rational level she should've been grateful. But the headaches she got every time there was a partner vs partner match, or Oum forbids a partners vs another pair of partners match, those were definitely not worth it. It was so easy for Jaune and Ruby, even an idiot would've paired up the two linked by some Semblance bullshit. But Blake, Sky and Yang didn't have any sort of special connection.

Maybe she was allowed to change partners whenever she wished? Yang smirked. Now that sounded like a good deal. Or maybe she could have both as her partners, so that she could drag them to a club with the excuse of 'partner bonding'.

Yang snorted at the idea. Sky, she could probably manage. The boy was so go-with-the-flow that she could've asked him to assault Atlas with the team and he would've probably sided with the majority no matter which side the majority was.

Blake… she was a completely different story. Despite Yang being her initial partner, the girl was the opposite of social. And the fact that the aftermath of her leaving was still lingering in the air around them even though it had been a few days since the incident at the docks surely didn't help the tension between her and the team. Add to that the knowledge she had trusted a random Faunus she had just met over four humans she had known for five weeks already, and Yang wasn't really sure if things could be put behind them so quickly. And if things couldn't be put behind them, how good of a partnership could that be?

Jaune and Ruby had probably forgiven her already. Heck, Yang would've been really surprised if the two hadn't. Ruby was just a cinnamon roll, and Jaune was… a buttered bread bun? The male counterpart of Ruby, in that regard.

Sky was a little uncomfortable around Blake still, probably because of the whole 'terrorist' thing, but that was it. He had gladly accepted taking Cargo Hijacking lessons from her alongside Jaune. Ruby had kind of been bribed into studying that subject with cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Yang was still on the fence though. She was of course happy Blake had come back safe and sound, but a not so small part of her was still pissed to have been abandoned. Again, like her mother had done so many years ago. Sure, aside from comradeship Blake had no real connection to her, unlike her freaking mother, but it still hurt. To think that a month and more of friendship could be thrown out of the window just like that. Who knew, maybe Blake had never been her friend to begin with.

She sighed. It was far too early to worry about stuff like that.

She reached her dorm's door and knocked three times, just to know if Jaune was still naked after taking a shower. They technically changed in the bathroom, but she had learned the hard way that was not always the case, even with the stickler for rules. Pyrrha had learned too from that experience, or at least Yang thought she had. The redhead's mighty blush had surely seemed to agree with the blonde.

"Go away…" Yang's danger senses immediately activated, together with her big sister instincts. Jaune's voice was very weak, very pained, and quite angry. From how subdued and strained it had sounded, Yang was pretty sure he was doubled over. And that meant something was wrong.

Yang didn't even have to think twice before she unlocked the door with her Scroll. Opening it, she was greeted with the disturbing sight of Jaune, as suspected curled up in fetal position on his bed, his weapon laying by his side. Yang winced. She had forgotten they were supposed to go sparring later, but it didn't matter any more. Jaune definitely wasn't in the right condition for sparring.

The boy was holding his stomach, or so it looked. He looked pale, not green, but nonetheless Yang didn't trust herself to come closer, just in case he really did need to throw up. He was also gritting his teeth in pain, whimpering harshly every time the pain flared. And said flares seemed to be happening quite often.

"G-Go away…" he growled again, glaring at her with a look that did not speak of murder, no that was straight-out genocide. Another jab of pain forced him to shut his eyes and curl even tighter into himself. "F-For fuck's sake go away!"

Yang decided that stepping any closer wouldn't be a good idea, and she was perfectly right. "Jaune? What are you feeling? Where's the pain?"

A string of obscenities was all the answer she got, each more wicked than the previous one.

The blonde was confused as hell, and worried no less. Was it something Jaune had eaten? No, they had all eaten the same stuff. Allergies were ruled out as Aura negated those. The only thing that could bypass Aura was something done by the body itself, so outsider allergens couldn't harm the system. And the only thing even relatively close to that…

She froze. It wasn't possible…

…Was it?

She did a little mental math.

It was the right day.

But Ruby had looked perfectly fine earlier at breakfast. So it wasn't like they were sharing the pain… Jaune was getting it all. Yang winced. For someone unprepared, waking up to that must've been really really horrible. She very slowly backed up to the door and grasped the handle.

"Jaune? I think… I think you got period in Ruby's stead."

She slammed the door closed milliseconds before Cauchemar impaled itself through the reinforced wood an inch from her head. That was going to be a big problem.

/-/

Dragging Jaune out of the dorm turned out to be an heroic feat all by itself. It took Yang's strength and Blake's weapon's ribbon to restrain the boy, who was screaming bloody murder all the while. After pushing some painkillers down his throat, he calmed down… marginally. Just enough not to try and murder every student in his wake. Definitely not enough to stop glaring at everything as if he did wish to murder everyone.

Yang took it as an improvement.

Pulling him along to Grimm Studies was doable only after Blake had used her ribbon again, this time to make a makeshift gag to prevent him from tearing the Professor a verbal new one or two. The elder man, though, seemed to pick up on the sheer killing intent and raw bloodlust that emanated from the usually kind and well-mannered boy, and kept his distance from their side of the class. Instead of boring them to death with yet another of his damned stories, he chose to show them a documentary on how villages built their walls and protections to maximize their usefulness against them Grimm. That proved to be an actually interesting subject. Unfortunately, Jaune was not in the mood for enjoying himself. No one proved to be suicidal enough to ask why the boy was gagged.

Professor Oobleck showed similar insight and survival instincts during his History Class. Instead of zooming around, he settled for walking at sub-par speed, keeping himself from going within a ten feet radius from Jaune. Even his minigun-fast speech had slowed down to the point where even Cardin had no problem taking notes… or he wouldn't have had problems, had he actually bothered to take notes. Which he hadn't. Like always.

During Politics of Remnant, Professor Ozpin was kind enough to allow Jaune to step outside the classroom for a few minutes to get the tension out of his system. After a few minutes of screaming curses like a drunk sailor who had just lost all his money playing at dice and then even stubbed his toe, Yang had dragged the boy back, gagged once more. A couple of idiots had dared giggle, but Yang's pissed off look did wonders at shutting them up. It probably also helped the fact that Jaune's pained but wrathful glower could've cut and cooked raw meat into steaks in a handful of seconds.

Lunch was even more of a mess, even though that gave Yang the chance to pun. Jaune barely ate anything as the cramps made it all too easy for him to just throw everything back up. The curious but worried looks of the others didn't help, either. Yang hadn't told them exactly what Jaune was suffering from to spare him from the humiliation, but that only made them ask questions. Free of his gag, Jaune was very crabby and had no qualms about letting them know what he thought of those questions. After he and Weiss got into a heated argument that then developed into a screaming match, and after said argument ended with Jaune being hurriedly dragged to the bathroom to vomit even his soul, Yang decided that on the first day, lunch wasn't an option. He'd lack energies, but maybe that would make it easier for him to fall asleep that night.

But then came the class Yang was looking forward the very least.

Grimm Combat Class, held by Professor Port.

As opposite to the normal Combat Class, which put students against students, that class had the students fight Grimm in several environments, using a technology that resembled the one used in the Amity Coliseum for the team vs team and double rounds.

What made that class terrible was the fact she'd probably get called down to fight, and as such she'd be unable to stop Jaune if more cramps made him decide to go on a killing spree. Yang knew even the most normal of girls on their period could kill an Ursa barehanded, so she dreaded to know what he, with Aura and a weapon, could do to the other students. Thankfully, the boy seemed content to just curl up and wish to die as the pain continued to wrack his lower half, with Ruby looking guilty beyond belief beside him, unsure of what to do.

Of course Yang had broken down and told Ruby. If anything, because it was her fault Yang had to take care of a highly murderous Jaune.

As soon as classes were over, they'd bring him to Professor Goodwitch and unload the responsibility to the older woman, but up until then, he was a pained boy with a sword and the will to use it.

However, as it turned out, Yang shouldn't have worried about being called down. Professor Port, for all his windbag tales, was not blind to his students, and if there was anything Jaune needed, it was to bring a few Grimm to extinction.

"Would Jaune Arc please get ready and step into the arena?" he called out as the first thing after he entered the classroom.

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, probably to say something about it being a bad idea, but Yang just wrapped a hand over her mouth and lightly pushed Jaune out of his seat. "He's gonna be okay, Ruby, he needs to unwind."

"But he's in pain," argued the younger girl. "He's in no condition for a fight!"

"You don't know how wrong you are. Just because you and I have learned how to use Aura to avoid the pain and discomfort, it doesn't mean he can do the same. Let me tell you, before learning to 'cure' it, you too could throw knives at people when you had your period."

Ruby blushed in shame at the sharp remark and seemed to accept the explanation for the time being.

A few students snickered at the way Jaune crawled into the forest-like arena, not even taking out his weapons, preferring to just wrap his arms around his lower midsection. Professor Port didn't even ask if he was ready before releasing the Grimm, five Beowolves as first wave.

The snickers fell silent as Jaune didn't seem to even acknowledge the monsters' presence, and more than a student began to wonder what was he doing. They got their answer when the first Beowolf lunged and tried to bite him, only for his hands to lash out and grab its body, ripping it in two with a roar that sounded less human than the Beowolf's own growl. Screaming bloody murder like a madman, Jaune began to tear into the Grimm with a violence that left more than a student horrified. The clumsy and dorky knight tore, clawed, kicked and even bit, tearing out a Beowolf's throat with his teeth and spitting out the black flesh back in its face. He jammed a hand down a Beowolf's gullet, pushing so hard it couldn't even close its jaws.

Yang chose to at least cover Ruby's eyes, much to the girl's annoyance, while Blake covered her ears.

She did so not a moment too soon. The boy ripped his arm out of the monster's oesophagus, taking the walls of the passageway with it, leaving the agonizing creature to die. Another Beowolf bit down on his other arm while he was distracted and began to chew through his Aura, but he returned the favour by chomping down on the Beowolf's neck, making it yelp in pain and let go. Not like Jaune let go, though, he instead ripped the flesh off and threw the Beowolf into the dying one with yet another yell that both held and promised pain.

Adrenaline was a good way to temporarily forget pain, sometimes. Inflicting pain also made it better, it seemed.

A few more Beowolves entered the to support the remaining two. Jaune didn't heed their arrival at all, choosing instead to grab an unfortunately nearby Grimm's lower jaw and ripping it off from the skull. Not stopping there, the boy raged on as he repeatedly smashed the Grimm's head to mush with its own jaw. When the instrument of death finally turned to dust, Jaune seemed to only get even angrier. He snatched a Beowolf from mid-air when it pounced at him and crushing it against the ground, slamming it time and again to make sure it was dead or, more probably given his current mental state, just because he wanted to. The poor creature only had time to let out a pitiful whine before its head found out that the ground was the harder of the two.

"Die, fucking die you bastards!" he uttered his first coherent words since entering the arena, and Yang was once again happy she and Blake had covered Ruby's eyes and ears.

He definitely wasn't in the mood for playing nice. Taking out Cauchermar and turning it into katar mode, he emptied all his ammo on the oncoming Beowolves, just four of them, not stopping even when they fell to the ground, obliterating bushes and entire trees before the weapon clicked empty. With another incoherent roar of anger, he transformed it into a spear and hurled it against a tree before doubling over as he ran out of enemies to kill, screaming as the pain came back a hundredfold.

Even though they had been just a handful of Beowolves, Professor Port decided to allow him to step out of the arena, or rather he allowed Yang to drag him out while barely avoiding being killed by him, and gave the two of them permission to exit the classroom without waiting for the class to end.

Yang had sighed in relief at that. Her plight was almost over.

/-/

"How do you feel now?"

Jaune Arc gave a light shrug in response, not yet trusting himself to speak. His body was glowing softly due to the Aura influx he was guiding through it, but such an action required either experience or focus, and Jaune only had one of those. Any pain or discomfort had slowly faded from his being, leaving him with only a ghost feeling and the occasional cramp flexing his stomach, but nothing more.

"I think this will be enough for today. Remember to do this again tonight, and again tomorrow morning, until your Aura manages to learn and starts doing it without needing your guidance," continued Glynda Goodwitch, sitting on the floor of her office right in front of him, choosing to ditch her modest mahogany desk and her comfortable purple-cushioned chair to remain by her nephew's side. "Now slowly let go of your Aura influx, allow it to return to your core but do not do so too suddenly, or some might accidentally slip free and go to waste. Now, while this isn't a problem here, it's better if you learn not to create wasteful influxes since the start. It's easier than hammering the flaw out later. Again, how are you feeling?"

Jaune shrugged again as his eyes wandered. The office was a familiar sight for him, as he visited Goodwitch quite often, so he knew where to look. Ignoring the picture of him and the woman sitting on the desk, the computer with the same picture as desktop background, and a painting he made when he was ten hung to a wall, his gaze landed on the pile of graded homework on her desk, whose top assignment was marked D-. "Like the owner of that homework is going to feel when you show them their grade," he finally mumbled, pointing at the accused sheet of paper. "I'll live, but I still feel like crap."

The woman pursued her lips before releasing a long sigh. "I never expected to have this conversation with a boy, but the first period is always the worst. For us Aura users, it's also the only one that really hurts, since we quickly learn how to use Aura to prevent pain and discomfort. For those without Aura, periods never get less painful, but they get used to them. It's still horrible, but at least it's not unexpected any more. I'm sure that even if for some reason you run out of Aura and can't use it to prevent the pain, at least you won't try to murder the other students."

"I wasn't gonna murder anyone…"

Glynda cocked an eyebrow and grabbed her laptop, tapping away at it until she brought up a video footage of his fight in Grimm Combat class. "While I'm happy to know you've been improving, so much to be able to take on Grimm barehandedly, with barely the tiniest scratch on your Aura, I have mixed feelings about your brutality. Professor Port even mentioned that some students might need a psychiatrist's help to deal with the trauma, although I am sure he was exaggerating that last part."

Jaune looked down at the floor, avoiding her gaze. "Sorry auntie…"

The woman tried her best to maintain her annoyance, she really did, but she knew she was fighting a losing battle. Placing her laptop back on the desk, she released all her irritation along a sigh, and chose to just let it go. "Don't worry, sweetie, I'm not angry. Just… surprised, I guess. The only thing I do expect is for you to apologize to Ms Xiao Long. She went through hell to help you without humiliating you in front of the entire school, she deserves as much."

Jaune nodded dejectedly. "Yeah… I'll apologize to big sis."

'Big sis?' Goodwitch repeated in her mind. "You really are into that adoption deal of hers."

"Says the one who already calls me 'Arc Rose Xiao Long', even in class. People are probably gonna think I married Ruby and Yang," Jaune rebutted with a deadpan stare.

"Touché," she conceded lightly. "Speaking of which… the official adoption has unfortunately been rejected as you are too old, and not an orphan. Mr Xiao Long, Ruby and Yang's father, apparently offered you to marry Ruby as a last-resort way to get you in the family. Just so you know."

It wasn't 'just so he knew', of course, but her hidden goals were, as mentioned, hidden.

Jaune blushed a lovely shade of cherry that just looked adorable on him, but the woman restrained herself from cooing at him and pinching his cheeks to get them even redder. A secondary reason was because she wasn't sure if they could physically get even redder.

"O-Oh… W-Well, I-I didn't see t-that coming," he admitted, nervously wiping his suddenly sweaty hands on his jeans. "I… uh… that didn't work too, r-right?"

"Oh, no, it worked perfectly. I've been informed that, in a week, I will be able to call Ruby 'Mrs RoseArc', actually," she mentioned off-handedly, watching him widen his eyes and gain a few more shades of red to his blush. She was bluffing, obviously, having talked it out with Taiyang personally. "Even so, I'd like your input on this. What do you think?"

"I think it's far, far, far too soon!" he cried out in shock, eyes so wide they threatened to pop out of their sockets. Had that been the case, she would've just popped them back in place with her Semblance. "I mean, Ruby's a great girl and all but to marry her?! At seventeen?! Without even talking about the fact she is fifteen!"

The woman narrowed her eyes as the boy continued to ramble on and on, adding more and more denials and more outrage. She shrugged and took out her Scroll, tapping on it to start recording. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you like her," she interrupted him flatly. "But as you say, there is nothing between the two of you, right?"

"Exactly!"

Goodwitch nodded. "So, no romantic feelings at all. Not even a little bit?"

"Auntie, no! I'd never look at Ruby like that, she's a dear friend!"

She smiled diabolically and tapped the Scroll again, stopping the recording and then holding it up. "I have your words on video, Jaune. Now, unless you want me to send this video straight to Ms Rose, I suggest you speak the truth."

"Send it. I'm sure she feels the same as me," Jaune replied stubbornly.

"I'm sure of that as well, and we're both sure that what you two feel is not what you just stated. Do you really think she wouldn't be hurt by this? Not even a little bit?" Her finger hovered over the icon. "So it won't be a problem if I send this?"

Jaune began to sweat.

Her finger came closer.

His eyes were wide and nervous, fixed on the Scroll as if it was about to come to life and try to kill him.

Her finger was just shy of grazing the icon.

"No!"

Her finger retreated, and her smile widened.

Knowing to have just lost what was probably the most important battle of his teenage years, aside from that one poker match back when he was fourteen, Jaune ran a hand through his hair, his breathing ragged from the anxiety, and looked to the side.

"So," she began, deleting the video and pocketing the Scroll. "You do like her. Since when?"

The poor interrogated boy could only offer a weak shrug. "Since I unlocked her Aura? I mean, she's really nice and she's also really cute. I don't think I actually realized I liked her until the incident at the docks."

"Oh? What happened to make you realize that?"

"Several things. For one, we were talking, and I hugged her, and it was felt nice. Too nice to be normal. I mean, I like hugs from more or less all my friends aside from Nora, but that felt a little too nice. I'm not talking about butterflies or anything, I just liked it." Jaune fidgeted a little, his hands on his lap as he stared at the ground as if guilty of something. "It felt even nicer when she forgave me for tricking people by cheating at dice and cards even though it went right against her morals and ideals. And then I guess I also couldn't help but admire her courage when she helped us fight the man who had killed her. I guess that's it." He looked up and stared at her with despair in his eyes. "I don't know what to do, auntie. If I try to ask her out, I'll make a fool out of myself and I'll ruin everything, that's for sure. I can cheat at any game you want but for the life of me I'm awful with girls! How doomed am I?"

She smirked at him and patted his head. "Very much so, but don't worry, your favourite aunt is here to help you get your girl. Because rest assured, I do want those papers signed one day. And grandnephews and grandnieces. A whole boatload of them."

Uh-oh... the Witch wants kids to spoil. And for once I'm not talking about Salem.

Okay, finally we got the romance blood pumping in this story's veins! As you can see Jaune too likes Ruby, and of course a little bit of blackmail never hurts. So, what is Goodwitch going to have him do to capture his fair maiden's heart?

Simple. Be himself. A dork.

Is there a simpler way?

Also, yikes, period sucks. My sister threw a hunting knife at me because I asked her if she needed anything while she was on her first day. Also the pain was bad for her, she really had to curl up, and she often screamed for the pain. Never got better, but she got used to it. And since in canon the girls are always fine, I'm guessing they have found a way to use Aura to cure the pain and discomfort. Besides, the period is just an egg having died and needing to leave the uterus. So, if Aura keeps it alive or something, no need for period.

And Roman, like in many humour fics, loves his hat to a level where I might have to tag this [Roman T., Roman T.'s Hat]

With this being out of the way,

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh