Chapter 1: The Big Question

Vale's Commercial District, 30th August 18 BBY, 12:15 pm…

Nathan hated doing the shopping.

Yet here he was, looking down at the shopping list he had been handed by Ren that morning, since he had been the one to pull out the short straw when the team was deciding who was going to go out on their weekly supply run, with a polite request to return by lunch, as Nora was in the mood for pancakes.

However, that never materialised, as at first, the shuttle taking students down to Vale from Beacon decided it wanted to go on strike upon landing, meaning that those travelling from Beacon would be stranded down in Vale until the fault was fixed.

Nathan thanked the Force he had understanding teammates, whom he'd informed of the situation as soon as possible.

Looking down at the shopping list, Nathan saw he had two items left; the 'golden duo' as Nora had put it enthusiastically.

Those were pancake mix and syrup, although Nathan was tempted to leave the latter off, since Nora kept drinking it all despite the syrup being meant to last for at least two to three weeks.

Putting his shopping list back in his pocket, Nathan made to continue his shopping trip when he heard a voice say:

"Excuse me?"

Nathan looked in the direction of the voice to find himself facing an attractive young woman appearing to be slightly older than he was, with medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair was a light mint-green with a straight fringe and bangs as well as two long locks on each side in the back. She was dressed in an intricate white top and an olive-coloured crop top which exposed her slim and toned midriff. Alongside this, she wore white shorts, decorated with what appeared to be a gold coin-plated belt with four gold chains draping around her back from two of the coins and what looked like a green loincloth. Completing her look were two bronze-coloured rings on her middle fingers as well as a pair of strappy high-heeled pumps.

"Can I help you, Miss?" Nathan asked politely.

"Me and my friend here are new to Vale, and we were looking for a place to go eat some lunch." The young woman replied. "Is there anywhere you can point us towards?"

As she said this, a young man appeared next to the woman.

The man was pale of skin with grey eyes and grey hair, which was partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. He was dressed in a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covered his upper body and black pants that were held up by a single notched belt with what looked like a sash or bandana draped over it. Protecting his arms were a set of rerebraces and vambraces.

It also didn't escape Nathan's notice that the young man appeared to be sizing him up, as if he was expecting a fight. Must be here for the tournament in a couple weeks, Nathan thought to himself. Folding his arms, Nathan looked to the young woman. "There's a diner a couple blocks away called Maples. Food's great and cheap, the milkshakes are to die for, and the manager is hilarious."

"Okay, thank you." The young lady replied. "Are you a student at Beacon?"

"I am." Nathan answered. "Why you asking?"

"Was just wondering." The girl responded. "We're here from Mistral for the tournament, and you looked to be our age, so I figured I'd ask. My name's Emerald, in case you wanted to know. Emerald Sustrai."

"Nathan Phoenix." Nathan replied, shaking Emerald's hand, gesturing to the young man. "Who's the guy next to you? Looks like he can't decide whether he's young or old with that grey hair."

Emerald snorted with laughter at the joke, whilst the young man nodded as if to say: 'good joke'. "My friend here's Mercury Black."

"Good to meet you." Nathan replied, shaking Mercury's hand. "Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but I gotta split. Still got a bit of shopping to do, and one of my teammates is sure to rip my spine out and hang me with it if I don't come back with it."

Emerald and Mercury chortled, and Emerald said:

"No problem, Nathan. I'm sure we'll see each other again, soon."

"We probably will." Nathan replied. "See you around, you two." At that, he turned and walked away. As he did, he felt a bad feeling arise in his gut as he looked back at Emerald and Mercury. Something was off about them, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

With Emerald and Mercury…

"Gotta love a guy with that good a sense of humour." Mercury remarked as he and Emerald walked away from Nathan.

"Not going to lie, he was pretty handsome, too." Emerald commented.

"Aw, is the master thief getting a crush?" Mercury teased.

"Shut up." Emerald snapped. "I never said I liked him. He's hot, and if it gets us something, I'll consider seducing him, but that's it."

"Please, you're still a virgin, aren't you?" Mercury said, earning him an annoyed glare from Emerald. "Besides, we're not here to sleep around and have fun. That Nathan kid is going down like the rest of this joint."

"Amen to that." Emerald replied.

With Nathan, not long later…

Finally, Nathan thought as he exited the grocery store, newly acquired syrup and pancake mix in his backpack. He had gotten a notification that the shuttle was now fixed, and that departure back to Beacon would be in an hour's time.

Nathan did a quick calculation: It was half an hour's walk back to the shuttle from here, meaning he had a solid fifteen minutes to half an hour left before he had to set off back to the shuttle. Thankfully, there was a nearby bookstore that Nathan had been eyeing up before entering the grocery store, and Nathan was hoping to grab a new book for himself, having finished the one he'd been reading.

Maybe I'll grab one for Blake too, Nathan thought to himself.

This gave Nathan pause. Aside from Jaune or Pyrrha, Blake was easily his best friend at Beacon. They had a lot in common in terms of their hobbies and senses of humour, and Nathan could talk to Blake about anything, really.

However, ever since he'd told Blake his secret months ago, he'd always feel a strange thrill whenever he saw Blake, and his heart would go insane whenever he was around her. And he had no idea what was happening to him whenever this occurred.

He decided to push the thought aside for now and headed towards the bookstore, knowing that would be a good-

"Salutations!"

The sudden voice coming from what he thought was a statue made Nathan jump out of his skin. "Fuck me in the ass with a barbed-wire strap-on!" Nathan muttered loudly.

"Why would I do that?" The same voice asked Nathan as he turned to face them.

Nathan found himself facing a cute young lady with short, curly orange hair that came down to her chin with a small cowlick on top that allowed her bright green eyes to shine. She was wearing an off white old-fashioned styled off the shoulder blouse with frill detailed trim and frill flared cuffs that half covered her hands alongside copper button detailing on the lower parts of her sleeves. She also sported a short grey pinafore dress with golden trim on the hem alongside four light green stalagmite styled stripes on the lower half of the dress, two on the front and two on the back, accompanied by two matching coloured circles above the tips that had a stripe running around her waistline with golden outlines, and a detachable black and light green collar. Completing her look were a pair of black stockings, each with a green stripe running up on the outside of it and black shoes.

Nathan could swear he'd seen her before, but couldn't quite place it. Catching his breath, Nathan replied: "It was a figure of speech, wiseass. Bantha's piss, you scared the fuck out of me."

"Did I? I sincerely apologise." The girl said. "Do you need to sit down?"

"Nah, I'm good." Nathan answered, before facing the girl. "Hold on a second. I swear we've seen each other before."

At that, the girl suddenly stiffened and said: "I'm sorry, I don't think we have. You must be mistaking me for someone else." At that, she turned and walked away at a brisk pace.

Nathan's eyes narrowed as he raised an eyebrow at the utter weirdness of that encounter. "Well, that was just fucking weird." Nathan remarked as he turned and continued heading to the bookshop.

Yeah, a book would be just what the doctor ordered.

Later, back at Beacon Academy, JNNPR's dorm, 13:45 pm…

"Afternoon, peeps." Nathan called out as he stepped into his dorm. "I have returned with the shop-" Nathan paused as he beheld the state of his teammates.

All of them were in their Beacon Academy uniforms, which themselves looked a right state. All forms of food and drink were staining them, making it appear as if their lunch had exploded all over them.

Nathan could hear the shower running, and saw only Jaune, Nora and Ren in the room, meaning that Pyrrha was currently in the shower. "What the fuck happened to you guys?!" He asked.

"We… might have gotten into a food fight against Team RWBY." Jaune replied. "And lost."

"But not without putting up a valiant and heroic effort to defeat them!" Nora declared exuberantly. "We fought hard, but in the end, we ultimately fell to them."

Nathan looked to Ren, since he usually corrected Nora's exaggerations, but Ren shook his head, indicating Nora was telling the truth. A small chuckle escaped Nathan as he set his backpack aside, saying: "I can't leave you guys alone for one hour, can I?"

"Nope!" Nora replied cheerfully.

Nathan chuckled and reached into his backpack, handing the pancake mix and syrup to Ren. "Make sure to place the syrup somewhere Nora can't reach." Nathan advised.

"I will do my best." Ren replied as he got up and entered the kitchen.

Nathan then went to sit down, only to see Pyrrha's scroll buzzing. Normally, Nathan wouldn't bother, but he had a sneaking suspicion as to who was messaging Pyrrha. Walking over, he picked Pyrrha's scroll up, rolling his eyes as the message read:

"Pyrrha Thetis Nikos! I am shocked and appalled by your abysmal failure to muster the basic decency to apologise to me for your abhorrent and disgusting attack against my character, from which my reputation has still not recovered! As your mother, I demand that you, and the rest of your team apologise to me profusely within the next week or so, or I will withhold your allowance until such a time that you do apologise! Much love, Mother."

Nathan scoffed. "Hey guys. Pyrrha's mom is still whining about me calling her out last month. And since Pyrrha's not here to respond; how about I respond for her?"

"Yes!" Nora said enthusiastically. "Put her down like a dog!"

"Or we could politely reject her demands for an apology and reiterate that she is the one that needs to apologise before Pyrrha resumes regular contact." Ren suggested.

"Or we can find a compromise." Jaune offered.

"No!" Nora said. "Nathan, if you go with my idea, I'll give you half my portion of pancakes!"

"Deal." Nathan replied as Ren and Jaune gave each other a nervous look.

Taking a moment to think, Nathan proceeded to write the following message:

"Good afternoon, Juno. Nathan Phoenix here. I'm sorry, but Pyrrha is unable to respond at this current moment. I feel the need to remind you that it's you that needs to apologise, not Pyrrha, because it's you that is in the wrong for your years of being nothing short of a bitch towards Pyrrha and her father. And until you do, Pyrrha's not going to reply to any of the nonsensical demands you give her, since we all know they're nothing short of empty threats that you'll never make good on because you can't. So do us all a favour and fuck off. Go swallow your pride or some shit. Unless you're too busy choking on some old guy's dick trying to salvage your shattered ego."

Nathan pressed send just as the door opened, and Pyrrha stepped out of the shower, wearing nothing but a towel.

"Nathan… what are you doing with my scroll?" Pyrrha asked, placing her hand on her hip and giving Nathan a look as if she were a mother that had caught her child reaching into the cookie jar.

"Your mom was blowing up your phone like it was a White Fang target." Nathan replied. "So… I decided to respond, since you were showering."

Pyrrha walked over and took her scroll from Nathan, looking at the response he'd sent. She gasped as she reached the end and looked at Nathan with a scandalised facial expression. "Nathan!" She exclaimed, lightly slapping his arm.

"Hey, it shut her up, didn't it?" Nathan asked.

"Knowing my mother, not for long." Pyrrha replied.

"Still, it's some respite." Nathan retorted.

Pyrrha shrugged and reread the message, snorting with laughter at it a bit before saying: "I guess." She looked back at Nathan and asked: "What am I going to do with you, Nathan?"

"You could ditch the towel and give me, Jaune and Ren a show." Nathan replied.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and shook her head as she said: "How did I know you would have that response?"

"Because you're one of my best friends, and happen to be insanely hot." Nathan replied with a smirk.

Pyrrha giggled before she stepped closer to Nathan and hugged him.

Normally, Nathan found himself blushing when being hugged by an attractive woman. But with Pyrrha, he was perfectly comfortable, since despite Pyrrha being an insanely beautiful woman, he knew there was no romantic attraction between them. Just friendship.

So Nathan returned the hug, smiling as Jaune took that as his cue and entered the shower himself. Breaking the hug, Nathan turned and looked away at Pyrrha's request so she could get changed into her regular attire.

"I'm okay now, Nathan." Pyrrha said after a minute or so.

Turning, Nathan saw Pyrrha had donned her typical armour. Nodding, Nathan sat with her, looking over at Nora and Ren. "What caused the food fight, anyway?" Nathan asked.

Ren promptly gestured to Nora, as did Pyrrha.

"Of course." Nathan said, rolling his eyes. "How could I have possibly guessed it to be anyone else but Nora."

"Yang was the one that threw the apple at me!" Nora protested.

"You accidentally hit her in the face with it first, Nora." Ren corrected.

Nathan chuckled as Nora and Ren argued, before looking at Pyrrha. "How long is it going to take before they just decide to say 'fuck it' and start fucking on the spot?" He asked.

Pyrrha shrugged. "Hard to say. But I'm willing to wager it will be within the next year or so." She replied.

"I guess we'll see." Nathan said.

Before long, the bathroom door opened, and Jaune stepped out, wearing a towel.

It was clear that Pyrrha's training was paying off, as Jaune was beginning to bear more of a muscular build.

Nathan saw Pyrrha's cheeks turn red slightly at this sight and smirked. He'd known for a while now that Pyrrha had a massive crush on Jaune, and had teased her a few times about it.

However, his smirk became a dropped jaw as Jaune's towel caught on the door, promptly falling off and baring Jaune completely for all to see.

Immediately, Pyrrha's blush got madder, and she turned to look away.

Nora's eyes were promptly covered by Ren, despite her protests.

Jaune yelped and covered himself, he himself embarrassed by this turn of events.

However, Nathan had seen Pyrrha's reaction and sensed blood in the water, at which he said: "Holy shit, Jaune! How do you even walk around with that thing?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened at this, and her face grew redder.

Nathan didn't let up there, saying: "Are you sure there're no horse faunus in your immediate family tree? Because that definitely could pass off as a faunus trait! It's like your third leg. Should be submitted for scientific experiments, for fuck's sake!"

As Nathan continued complimenting Jaune's anatomy, Pyrrha was getting redder and redder by the minute, until she was a shade of red that matched her hair.

Finally, Nathan stopped, finishing off by saying: "I'd be surprised if that thing doesn't break the first girl it enters in half. You're a lucky man to be so well endowed, Jaune."

"Thanks." Jaune said bashfully as he began getting dressed.

Nathan shrugged, feeling Pyrrha glaring at him, knowing he'd been saying that to mess with her. Nathan merely met her glare and smirked knowingly before ruffling her hair.

"Nathan!" Pyrrha chided.

As they did this, Nora entered the shower.

Nathan then looked to Jaune. "So, what's on the agenda for the rest of-"

" I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world… "

"Fuck…" Nathan groaned as Nora's singing voice filled the air. If there was one thing Nathan hated about Nora, it was her overly poppy, girlish taste in music.

Pyrrha giggled, asking: "If you hate Nora's musical taste so much Nathan; why don't you do something about it?"

Nathan eyed Pyrrha, then looked past her to a nearby miniature sound system. "Hmm…" Nathan murmured, before standing up and calling said sound system to his hand via the Force, fishing out his scroll and connecting the two together.

Once that was done, he crept up to the door, and in typical Nora fashion, she'd left the door unlocked.

Smirking, Nathan opened the door just enough to slip the sound system through, moving it with the Force so that it was directly facing the shower. Shutting the door, Nathan stood next to Pyrrha, before pressing play.

Before long, Nora's singing was replaced by the heavy riffs of Slipknot's 'Psychosocial':

"I did my time! And I want out! So effusive! Fade! It doesn't cut! The soul is not so vibrant! The reckoning, the sickening! Packaging subversion! Pseudo-sacrosanct perversion!"

Nora screamed from within the bathroom, making Jaune, Pyrrha, and even Ren laugh.

Undoing his ponytail, Nathan began headbanging to the song, which he cranked up to full volume.

Even Jaune joined in, although he couldn't pull it off nearly as well, due to his hair being nowhere near as long as Nathan's.

However, the laughter stopped abruptly as the bathroom door exploded open and Nora marched out, soaking wet and completely buck naked.

"WHOA!" Nathan shouted as he, Ren and Jaune looked away.

"WHO CHANGED MY MUSIC?!" Nora demanded.

"Nora, put on some clothes, please." Pyrrha said calmly.

"Yes!" Ren said. "Nora, please put on some clothes!"

At Ren's voice, Nora suddenly realised she was still naked. Letting out a scandalised gasp, Nora covered herself, saying: "Stop looking!"

"Nora, none of us are looking!" Jaune said.

"It was me, Nora!" Nathan said. "I changed your music! Now put some fucking clothes on, please! Or head back into the shower!"

Nora chose the latter option, removing the sound system before entering the bathroom again.

Putting his scroll away, Nathan said: "And on that note, I am getting the fuck out of here." At that, he got up, grabbed a book from his pack and left Team JNNPR's room, walking across the hall to RWBY's dorm, knocking on the door.

It wasn't long before the door opened, revealing Ruby stood there. "Oh! Hey, Nate!" Ruby said softly, hugging Nathan.

"Afternoon, Ruby." Nathan replied, returning the hug. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." Ruby answered, letting Nathan in.

Stepping into Team RWBY's dorm, Nathan was greeted by the sight of Weiss and Yang as they looked to him.

"Heya, Nate!" Yang said, flashing Nathan the 'peace' sign. "How're you doing?"

"Doing just fine, Yang." Nathan replied, looking to Weiss. "How's it going, Snow Demon?"

"Very well, thank you very much, Sir Troglodytic Man-Child." Weiss replied, smirking. "I would inquire towards your health and wellbeing, but Yang beat me to it. Such a pity."

"Better luck next time, Ice Queen." Nathan replied as Yang and Ruby laughed and Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Blake's in the shower, if you're wondering." Ruby told Nathan.

"Not anymore." Yang said as the bathroom door opened.

Nathan looked, and his eyes met those of Blake as she exited the shower.

Wearing nothing but a towel.

"Shit!" Nathan said as he immediately looked away, feeling his cheeks burning, and knowing for sure that he was blushing.

Blake was frozen in place, unaware Nathan was blushing but very aware that she herself was blushing.

Yang looked at Weiss and gave the heiress a knowing look, smirking.

Weiss nodded in return, sharing a similar smirk as they looked towards Nathan and Blake.

Eventually, Nathan sensed Blake rush to her bed, closing his eyes to avoid catching Blake dressing out the corner of his eye.

Before long, he heard:

"Okay, y-you can look."

Opening his eyes, Nathan once again faced Blake. As he expected, he felt a strange thrill upon seeing her, and his heartbeat quickened. "Hey." He said.

"Hey." Blake replied softly. "You alright, Nathan?"

"Yeah." Nathan replied, nodding. "Just been shopping."

"Explains where you've been all day." Blake stated with a smile before her gaze fell on the book in Nathan's hand. "What's that?"

Looking down at the book, Nathan jolted a bit. "Oh yeah." He said, handing it to Blake. "Found it in a bookstore while I was out shopping. Thought you'd enjoy it."

Taking the book from Nathan and getting a good look at it, Blake's face lit up. "Nathan, I've been searching for weeks to find this! Thank you!" At that, Blake threw her arms around Nathan, hugging him tightly.

Feeling Blake pressed up against him made Nathan blush once again, and his heart began hammering against his ribs. Just what was happening to him?

Breaking the hug, Blake set the book aside, smiling at Nathan warmly. "Thank you, Nathan. You're an amazing friend."

"A-anytime." Nathan replied, returning Blake's smile. Looking around and brushing out some creases in his attire, Nathan said: "I'd better go. Just wanted to drop that off quickly."

"No problem." Blake replied. "See you at dinner, Nathan."

Nathan nodded and left the room quickly, shutting the door behind him and taking a deep breath.

However, his mind drifted back to that image of Blake in the towel, and more images filled his mind:

Blake slowly removing the towel to reveal her naked body beneath…

Blake lying on a bed with the towel loose over her body, barely covering anything…

Blake lying on the towel with Nathan on top of her, mouth agape as if moaning loudly…

Nathan shook his head to clear the images, before then looking down, seeing a significant bulge had appeared in his pants. "Wonderful…" Nathan said as he re-entered his team's dorm. He already dreaded having to explain this to Nora.

Inside JNNPR's dorm…

"Oh, hey Nate!" Nora said cheerfully as she spotted Nathan entering the dorm.

"Hey…" Nathan replied.

Nora quickly noticed he had a hand over his crotch, raising an eyebrow. "Are… you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah. Just felt a bad urge to piss." Nathan said quickly as he waddled through the room, entering the bathroom and locking the door.

Nora caught a glimpse of a bulge hidden underneath Nathan's hand as he left, and blinked a few times.

Once Nathan had entered the bathroom, Nora looked at the others. "Was it just me, or was Nathan hiding a massive boner?"

"Nora, that's highly inappropriate." Ren said, eyeing his best friend.

"I know that, Ren, but it's just interesting to note, you know?" Nora asked. "He was in Team RWBY's dorm. And Blake is in that dorm."

"They do spend quite a bit of time together." Pyrrha said. "Are you implying there's something going on between them, Nora?"

"Yeah." Nora replied. "Or, something's close to happening between them. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nathan and Blake got together. They're a cute couple."

"They are rather sweet together." Pyrrha remarked.

"Be that as it may; we should let it come naturally." Ren advised. "It's best we don't force things. We may damage things entirely if that happens."

"Ren's right." Jaune said, the first time he'd spoken since the conversation started. "It's the same with when Nathan told us about his past. We can't push him into doing something he isn't ready for, whatever that is. We should let it come naturally."

The rest of the team nodded, before the door to the bathroom opened, and Nathan stepped back out.

Nathan took in the looks his teammates were giving him, and he frowned. "What?" He asked.

At that, the rest of the team looked away, which made Nathan raise an eyebrow.

"Kay…" He muttered as he walked over to his bed, picking up the book he'd bought for himself that day and starting to read it.

"Hey, Nate…" Nora called out.

"What's up, Nora?" Nathan asked.

"We were just talking about how much time you spend with Blake these days." Nora said.

"Something wrong with that?" Nathan asked. "Blake's one of my best friends. I'm allowed to spend time with her, aren't I?"

"I'm not saying you aren't allowed, it's just… we were thinking that maybe there was… something else going on." Nora replied.

"Nope." Nathan replied. "Nothing's going on, Nora. Last I checked, me and Blake are just very good friends. Nothing more."

"Yeah, cause nothing says just 'very good friends' like hiding a massive erect-" Nora made to say.

"Nora for fuck's sake, nothing's going on!" Nathan snarled. "So why don't you just shut your fucking mouth and leave it at that!"

"Whoa, geez, calm down, I was just asking." Nora asked, clearly shaken by Nathan's outburst.

"Well please stop asking." Nathan snapped. "Just... let me read my book in peace, Nora. Force knows I need it after the insanity of today."

At that, Nora nodded as Nathan sat back down.

Nathan took a deep breath, and picked his book back up.

However, thoughts of Blake disturbed his reading, and once again, Nathan found himself pondering the nature of his and Blake's relationship.

It was clear that whenever him and Blake were in a room together, Nathan felt a pleasant thrill whenever their eyes met, and Nathan's heartbeat now had a habit of going completely insane.

At the same time, those dirty images of Blake once more threatened to break through the iron walls of his subconscious, and Nathan gave them some thought as well.

There was clearly something happening between him and Blake. Elsewise, he wouldn't have all of those feelings whenever Blake was around.

Finally, Nathan asked himself a question he'd long avoided asking himself:

Am I falling for Blake?

I'm back...

I'll first say that I apologise for the woefully long delay in publishing this story. I'll just say that a combination of different factors contributed to my failure to publish when I said I would.

But thankfully, there is good news: I'm back, and I'll be updating with two chapters every weekend to make up for my abysmal failure to publish this last year. I can't wait for the ride this will take me on, and I'm sure none of you can wait either. So to those of you that read Remnant of the Jedi, welcome back. To any new readers; what are you doing here? Go read Remnant of the Jedi first!

Regardless, please leave your reviews, Happy New Year, and May the Force be with you, always.

T-Rock14