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Jaune couldn't help his smile, even hours after the fact. They'd done it, they'd actually done it. They'd beaten Pyrrha Nikos in a spar. Sure it had been a two on one, but Pyrrha had beaten entire teams before. They'd managed it just between the two of them.
His partner had taken it in stride of course, if anything she seemed happy for him. Even in defeat she was too polite.
Yang's smile had nearly been as bright as his. Nora had been demanding the three hold a rematch all day, yelling about deceit and treachery. No rematch came of course, though one was planned for after the Vytal festival. or whenever Qrow felt it was time for them to try and hold their title.
For the time being, Yang had decided they were now the default Mistral Champions. Talks were on going with the sponsorship deals. The look in Pyrrha's eyes said she was looking forward to the rematch. Jaune shuttered at the thought.
The day had ended with both teams cramming into one dorm room in celebration of Pyrrha finally losing.
That sounded far worse than it was.
It was all in good fun of course and everybody made it clear they were joking. Pyrrha's smile showed she was enjoying it just as much as the rest of them.
To celebrate Ruby and Yang suggested they hold a video game tournament to act as a sort of rematch.
Pyrrha didn't even make it past the first match. To be fair, she made the mistake of agreeing to go against Ruby in the first set. The same person who had picked the game they would be playing.
The Not-Quite-Invincible Girl didn't seem to care, enjoying the company and smiling along to a story that Nora was telling. She made no attempt to hold back her laughter whenever Ren would step in to correct the less than accurate details.
Jaune had been thrown out of the tournament as well, courtesy of Yang also having a hand in picking the game. He never was very good at fighting games, at least not as good as Yang.
The evening wrapped up after a few hours, most of them wanting to get enough sleep to be able to wake up before noon the next day. There was to be a school wide meeting in the morning, some kind of speech from the headmaster, and then they were free to go.
For the last couple weeks they had had mostly free periods, to give them time to properly prepare and train for the Vytal Tournament. They only had the occasional class with Miss Goodwitch and none of the theory classes like Oobleck's or Port's.
Tomorrow was supposed to be a special occasion though, the day Amity Colosseum would arrive in Vale and officially kick off the festival.
There wasn't a student in Beacon that didn't plan to watch.
The Vytal Festival was truly something to behold. Space had been set aside for the actual festival ground itself, not everything could fit on Amity after all. A section of Beacon had been dedicated for various stalls, games, and rides to be set up.
The speech had ended up not taking more than thirty minutes, most of that had been waiting for everyone to file in to the main hall. As soon as it was done the student body had been dismissed and free to use the rest of the day to train for themselves.
Beacon itself was thus abandoned, most of the students off enjoying the festivities. Team RWBY had gone together and spent half the day doing things before finally splitting off. Ruby dragging Weiss off to some weapons stalls and Blake taking the chance to 'sneak' off to a book stall.
Yang had wandered around a bit before running into her current source of entertainment. Jaune said something about Nora dragging Pyrrha and Ren off to do something and that left him free for the rest of the day.
For the most part they just walked around a bit, chatting about nothing specific. At some point Jaune caught her glancing at one of the games, immediately taking that as a challenge and swearing to win her the biggest prize he could.
She had giggled at the sentiment but hadn't expected much from it. Most of the prizes were small things and the bigger prizes were mostly just to draw attention to the stall itself, being impossible to actually win. That didn't stop Jaune from trying.
Yang had thought about telling him didn't have to, she was more than able to win on her own, but she couldn't bring herself to stop him. It was a little cliché, and over done if she were being honest, but there was something to be said about his insistence.
Jaune was a man of many talents, so long as he had some confidence in his actions. One of those talents just so happened to turn out to be carnival games.
"That's another win for you!" The man who ran the stall cheered. "Would you like to go again or will that be all?"
Jaune looked back to her for a moment before turning back towards the man. "How many more for the big one?" Jaune pointed to a large plushy of a Beowulf set off in the back.
"Only about three more, son." The man behind the stall grinned. "Course, you could take one of the lesser prizes for your girlie. I'm sure it would be good enough."
Jaune spared her a glance of consideration before a look of utter determination overtook him. Yang tried to tell him he didn't need to, she was already touched by the thought, but he turned back to the man.
"I'll go again."
Yang sighed as the man behind the counter grinned in victory. Most, if not all, the prizes were worth less than what they were spending trying to win them. Still, it was sweet in a way she wasn't used to.
She had been on a couple dates back at Signal, nothing serious of course, and a couple had even been to small fairs. Most of the boys had tried to win her something and settled on whatever they could get. A small stuffed animal or a bit of candy. Almost immediately after they'd try and get touchy.
They'd never do anything aggressive, her reputation preceded her and they knew she would be able to stop them even before her dad found out, but they always expected something after words.
Jaune was... different. He wasn't settling for the minimum, nor was he doing it to try and get lucky. It didn't feel like he was doing it for a reward.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" The man behind the counter boomed. "Better luck next time."
Jaune fell against the counter with a whimper. "I was so close!"
Yang hid her laugh behind her hand in an attempt to spare what pride Jaune had left.
The man behind the counter offered up a small yellow teddy bear that had clearly seen better days. It wasn't anywhere as grand as what Jaune had been trying to win her but he reached out and took it nonetheless. Turning and holding it up for her to take.
"Sorry." Jaune said. "Probably should have quit while I was ahead."
Yang leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek before taking the bear and turning in an attempt to hide her growing blush. It took Jaune a couple seconds to catch up to her before offering his hand to take, which she did without hesitation, clutching the yellow bear to her chest with her free hand.
"Where did you get so good at carnival games?"
"There was a yearly fair in Ansel." Jaune replied. "Having seven sisters, and with dad being a huntsman out on missions part of the time, it was my job to win them something."
"As the man of the house?" Yang grinned.
"Yep." Jaune said. "Dad was home more often than not but, well, having eight kids was expensive. The kind of expensive only huntsman work can really pay for."
"Did you ever walk away with anything?"
"Well," Jaune blushed. "not really. I usually gave whatever I won to the rest, or if they already had one than Amber. She's the youngest."
Yang hummed and made a note to remember the name. "I guess that means I'll have to win you something."
Jaune's blush only grew. "You really don't ha-"
"Oh come on," Yang insisted. "It can't be that hard." She was a huntress after all, and a pretty good one at that. It wouldn't take her too long to win something, maybe even one up him and get something better than the teddy bear he had won her.
"By all means," Jaune grinned. "I'd love to see you try."
"Try?" Yang smirked. "Yang Xiao-Long does not try. I'm gonna win something so amazing it'll blow your socks off!"
Jaune didn't look like he believed her, but that was ok. She'd just have to prove him wrong.
"Ooo, so close!" The man behind the stall bombed. Not the same man from earlier of course, but Yang wanted to punch him regardless.
Yang growled under her breath. "Again!"
Jaune snickered behind her and she kept her eyes locked forward, much like she had the last two dozen attempts and failures. The man handed her three small metal rings before stepping back and allowing her to try once again.
It had seemed like a rather simple game, one she thought she would have been able to win. She thought it would have taken two, maybe three, tries at most. That was what she had told herself at first. After failing to win however, she had decided to try again. then again, and again.
At some point along the way It had become a matter of pride. She had said she would win, she had even called it easy. Now she was struggling to win anything at all.
Jaune had made it look so easy though.
Yang tossed the last ring, watching it fly over to one of the bottles and bound off the side. "Damn it!"
"That's tough, better l-"
"Again!" Yang slammed her lien down, reaching to take the rings from the man.
Jaune beat her to it, before tossing one out and managing to get it first try. Yang glared at him as he prepared to throw the second one, before he handed it to her.
"Here," Jaune held it in her hand. "try tossing it, not throwing, and give it a little more arch."
Yang reluctantly let him help her. As the ring left her hand it glided slowly towards its target, before landing lightly around the bottle.
Yang smiled brightly at that. They'd only have to land one more for one of the better prizes. Better as in bigger than the one he had won her.
She took the ring from his hands, determined to win it herself. It wouldn't be the same if he essentially did all the work. Yang focused on what he had said. Slowly she drew it back before tossing it lightly forward.
The ring glided down gracefully, before dinging off the side of the bottle and to the grass below.
Yang glared at the man, even as he handed her a small plushy of a puppy, about half the size as the bear she took back from Jaune.
Jaune's grin grew to shit eating proportions. "Can't be too hard huh?"
"Shut up." Yang looked away in an attempt to hide her blush. Jaune noticed but wisely chose not to say anything about it.
"Thank you though." Jaune said, holding up the plushy. "I shall love and cherish him."
She rolled her eyes and turned to walk away. A second later Jaune gripped her hand and pulled her back. She yelped in surprise, just before his lips met hers. It took a moment for her to realize what was happening, and she leaned into it.
A second later, he pulled away.
"Oh come on," Yang whined. "I was supposed to win you something, a stupid puppy plushy isn't good enough for that."
"Oh, I don't know." Jaune began walking ahead. "I think I still won."
"I'll find something to make up for it." Yang followed after him. "Maybe one of those hammer games or something."
"You know those are rigged right?"
Yang glared at him from the corner of her eyes before looking forward, fully intent on ignoring his presence. Aside from his hand in hers. She kept a firm hold of that.
That was also how she noticed something was wrong. One moment they had been walking side by side and the next he stopped. The sudden halt surprised her and she looked back in confusion.
Jaune was looking to something in front of them, eyes wide in what looked to be terror. Yang looked ahead, expecting to see some kind of monster.
All she saw were the crowds of people rushing between stalls. She looked back to Jaune.
"What's wrong?"
Jaune didn't say anything, keeping his eyes locked forward.
Yang looked forward and saw two civilians standing among the crowd, eyes locked in their direction. No, one civilian. The other held himself like a huntsmen. After a moment of staring they started to approach.
Yang felt Jaune pull back and had it not been for her hold on his hand she thought he might have bolted. It was strangely unlike him. Did he know the two people approaching them? Clearly, and judging by his reaction it wasn't a good thing.
She stepped a little closer to him, putting herself between him and whoever the two people were. Once the two had closed the distance, they stopped and simply stared at them.
Yang took the chance to get a better look at the two. The man carried himself with confidence and kept one hand on the sword attached to his waste, the other wrapped around the woman beside him. His hair was long and bright blonde and his eyes were a sharp blue. His face was covered in a trimmed blonde beard that completed the look.
The woman was far shorter than the man, only being around her own height. Her hair fell down her back in waves, also bright blonde. She hugged herself close to the man beside her. Her eyes were narrowed in their direction.
"Um, Jaune." Yang whispered, though she was certain the other two must have heard her. "Do you know them?"
The woman spoke, voice as cold as ice. "Yes Jaune, do you know us?"
"I… I," Jaune sputtered. A moment later he seemed to finally catch himself. "N-Nicholas, Juniper, this is Yang." He nodded to her. "My girlfriend."
Yang felt something within her flutter at the title.
"Yang," Jaune started. "This is Nicholas and Juniper Arc. My mom and dad."
Author's Note: Gonna start this by saying I'm using the Coeur Al'Aran Arc family as my canon one here. He's a talented writer and really flushed it out beyond what many are fully capable of. Rest assured he has given permission for use so long as he is credited, accomplished by this note.
I will be making slight adjustments and detail changes here and there, mostly only things that I feel add to places they are lacking, though none of that will affect this story too much.
On other things. Le gasp! This chapter is something unbelievable and completely undone before… Jaune called Yang his girlfriend! Surely they will get married soon!?
Hope y'all enjoyed and as always I encourage you to review.
Sincerely, SE