Calista and Joli continued to walk back to Jaune's room. Their lunch was uneventful, aside from the fact she got hit on a couple of times. Calista was surprised as she had her hood up and was more focused on her scroll and food than anyone else.

It's not that the men, and even girls, that did were unattractive. All were fit and had lean or bulky bodies. It came with the job of being huntsmen and huntresses. Sure, some had plain faces or acted arrogant, but most were attractive. Heck, she was flattered they found her pretty enough to flirt with.

The thing was, Calista wasn't a people person. Sure she could talk with her family, but they were family. She's learned enough about them to learn their ticks. She could tell how they were feeling about something and it made it easier to converse with them. With new people she had no idea what they were thinking.

She had no idea what could set them off or make them hate her. Would she say something that would offend them? Make them relive a memory they didn't want to have? This terrified her. She preferred people she knew or technology over strangers. Tech was predictable. Strangers weren't.

She often ignored the people who came up to her, only giving simple one or two worded answers or head nods. Luckily most of them got the hint and left her alone with Joli during their lunch.

Speaking of, it intrigued her how everyone just ignored the eight-year-old she was eating with. Thankfully once she pointed out her adorable younger sister, most of them backed away and left them alone. Whether they thought it was because they thought Joli was her daughter or something she didn't care, she was just happy to eat with her sister alone. Eventually the two were done with their food and were heading back to their brother's dorm.

Joli skipped happily back to Jaune's dorm while humming a song she had stuck in her head. Calista was keeping an eye on her in case she got a little too curious and snooped into other people's dorms, or got too lost. While Calista did have a map, she's been letting Joli lead her to help with navigating skills. Sure, she was only eight, but it's never too early to practice life skills.

"Um…" Joli stopped and looked left and right at a crossroad. "I can't remember where Jauney's room is." Calista walked up to her little sister and placed a hand on top of her head.

"It's all right, you've done well so far." The little girl's eyes shone brighter than dust crystals and had a giant smile on her face. She was happy from the praise she had gotten from her sister and felt a warmth wrap around her.

Calista took out her scroll and pulled up the map. As she waited, she heard a wolf whistled and sighed. She looked up from her phone to see a dark-skinned man with long dreadlocks walking towards her. He was wearing a green vest with a black t-shirt underneath. He had a cocky grin on his face as he strutted over to the two of them.

"Hey," he greeted. "I'm Roy, I don't think I've seen you around here." Well, it was a step up from before. They would usually follow up with a cheesy pick up line before the name. Still, she was starting to get annoyed.

The only notice she gave him was a glare up from her phone but that was it. She continued to look on her scroll and read a story about how a warrior-in-training couldn't make the cut into the program he wanted and had to open a shop to stay afloat. It was surprisingly more interesting than it led on.

Roy was going to speak up again but a smaller girl caught his attention.

"Hi! I'm Joli," the little one beamed. To Calista's surprise, Roy knelt and looked Joli in the eye with a smile on his face.

"Hey there. Joli's a nice name." The blonde thanked the student. Joli was able to make friends with almost anyone, so this was nothing new. It was when she didn't like someone that alarms went off. "In fact, I have a friend whose sister is named Joli." Calista's ears perked at this. What were the chances? Joli may not be a common name, but still…

"That's really cool! We're actually here to visit our brother." This little tidbit caused the student to look at both girls with a quizzical look. Calista patted Joli's shoulder to get her attention. He stood back up and continued to stare at them with a curious look.

"I found it," Calista shook her scroll for emphasis. "Let's head back." Her voice was small and almost a mumble, but Joli was able to understand it better than Roy.

"Okay!" the little one waved at the black student. "Bye Roy, it was nice meeting you."

"Hang on," Roy said. While Joli just tilted her head in confusion, Calista tensed up. Part of her was wondering, and worried, about how students feel about Jaune. Being known as the Fraud of Beacon could not have been good for one's reputation. Would that mean they would attack them just for association? "Your brother wouldn't happen to be Jaune Arc would it?"

Calista stepped in front Joli but kept a hand on her for safety. She had a stern look on her face. She wasn't taking any chances. She heard stories about Vacuo and Shade. If the guy was going to attack them, she was going make sure Joli didn't get hurt. Joli could sense the tension between the two and was a little confused. She wasn't sure why Calista was treating Roy like someone who would hurt them.

"And what if he is?" Calista's tone was cautious, but unmoving. Roy put his hands up and stepped away from them. He softened his gaze a little, but this made her suspicious.

"All right, no need to kill me. He's talked about you that's all." Calista was curious about how Jaune talked about them, but Joli suddenly blurted the question on her mind.

"Really?! What did he say about us?" Roy looked down to see a starry-eyed child looking right at him. He gave a soft small smile.

"That's a question you should ask him yourself." He looked back up at Calista and while the smile dropped a tiny bit, it was still sincere. "I think you'll like the answer." Calista was taken aback by this but nodded her head.

"All right," she said. "Well come on Jules, we don't want them to worry."

"Okay!" The older girl softly grabbed her hand and began to lead her back to Jaune's dorm, with help from the scroll map. Joli waved at the boy. "Bye Roy!" The older teen smiled and waved back.

Once the two sisters turned the corner Roy stopped waving and sighed. He scratched his head and began walking down the hall away from the two Arc sisters. He could sense the hostility that the older had with him. If he was honest, he thought that if the little one wasn't there, they would be fighting. He was glad that they didn't though.

One of the reasons was because of Jaune. Roy, along with Octavia from NDGO, had been planning some sketches with Jaune on a project and him fighting Jaune's sister would not be good for any of them. It doesn't help that Jaune's been fighting with some mental and emotional demons about them. Nolan wasn't helping in that regard.

Nolan's life before becoming a student was rough. Being raised by bandits does that to you. The thing was, he was treating Jaune's family the same way he treated his… "family." As in, "They ditched him, so just burn those bridges."

He can't get angry at Nolan for this, but there was a point where he had to stop. Jaune's life wasn't his own, so poisoning Jaune's thought was not doing the blonde any good. He said three weeks ago that he still loved his sisters, but Nolan was still talking about them from time to time, and everyone could see that it was affecting Jaune.

The only reason they don't stop Nolan was because it barely came up, but when it did, they could see Jaune was affected by his words. Still, Roy trusted Jaune. He knows Jaune wouldn't do anything drastic. At least… nothing too drastic. Or permanent.

After another minute of traveling they made their way to Jaune's floor. However, Calista kept hearing whispers around the people she passed. Something about some fight between two blondes that just happened. Calista wasn't well versed in Shade's history, but from what she researched on the internet she learned that fights were normal so she paid no bother to it. She was just hoping Joli wouldn't see one.

Once they got near Jaune's room though, her blood ran a little cold. She saw on the floor what looked to be a hole made from some blunt object. It was in the rough size of a fist so whoever did it must've punched pretty hard. What made her blood ran cold was what she saw on Jaune's door. There seemed to be chipped wood near the handle that wasn't there before she left. Mixed in with what the students were talking about, she had feared the worst.

As she put her hand on the door knob she gulped and hoped that what she thought happened didn't. She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Only to be met with a touching sight. Jaune had some cotton balls and was sitting on the couch with Jade, whom he was pressing the cotton balls on. She seethed in pain and pushed Jaune.

"Oh quit being a baby," Jaune teased. "It's just a little of peroxide."

"Easy for you to say Mr. 'I can heal my wounds any time I want!'" Jade teased back. "Seriously that aura thing is BS." Jaune chuckled as he patted her cheek with the cotton ball. With a final hiss, he put the cotton ball down, pulled out a bandage, and put it on her cheek.

"That should do it," he said with a smile. Jade scooched a little closer to her brother and gave him a hug.

When they broke out of it Jaune looked over to see his other two sisters. He stood up and walked over to them. Joli ran over and he squatted down to lift her up into a hug. Joli giggled as Jaune spun around to make it a little more fun for the little one.

"Hey sweetie, how was lunch?" he asked the little blonde girl that was in his arms.

"It was good," she answered. "I had this weird food that was called straganaff?"

"Stroganoff?"

"Yeah!" Jaune smiled at Joli's adorableness and put her down. "All right go play with Jade for a second, I have to tell Cal something." The little girl nodded her head and nearly tackled her older sister to the ground. That girl had so much energy to spare. They could hook up wires to her and make her a living battery. Heck, she could probably power the whole school with how much energy she had.

He turned back over to Calista who tensed up as he stared at her. At first she thought he was going to yell at her or chew her out. Why? She had no idea. Maybe it was because he had given them the cold shoulder. Maybe he made up with Jade but didn't forgive her? She had no idea.

When she saw the look on his face though, she was surprised. He had a smile on his face that was sincere and warming. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Cal…" he said. Calista froze. She was never good with these kinds of things, it was one of the reasons she preferred machines. She didn't have to think about awkward situations, she didn't have to worry about if someone liked her, and she didn't have to focus on reading people. She didn't have to have these conflicting feelings when she worked on her tech. She felt joy, sorrow, regret, and so many more flowed through her and it kind of shut her down.

Jaune's smile grew as he saw his sister freeze. He knew she gets like this sometimes. He placed his other hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a soft, warm, and affectionate hug. Despite that Calista still didn't move, but she blinked rapidly as he did so.

"I'm happy you're here," he whispered. His voice was quiet, but meaningful. He tightened the embrace a little bit. A couple of seconds went by before Jaune felt hands go to his back and return the hug.

The two siblings stayed there for a second before Calista felt something drip down her cheek. She pulled away and put her hand to her cheek and felt something wet. She looked at her slightly damp finger and onto Jaune's sweatshirt to see a small blotch on it. She put two and two together and looked at Jaune.

He still had that goofy smile on his face, but she could see he was holding back tears as well. That was when Calista got a good look at him, a real look at him.

He had grown. He had grown so much.

He was a couple of inches taller than her, that was a given. His hair had grown out but that's probably because he hadn't gotten it cut in a while. He wasn't skinny like when he had left home for beacon, he was lean with muscle, but not to the point where he looked like a gym rat.

Not only did he grow physically, he grew emotionally. He didn't have this skittish temper to him. He seemed more confident, more self-reliant. He looked like he didn't need to hide behind his older sisters or confide with them when he was sad any longer.

This made Calista's heart swell with joy, and shatter with sorrow.

He wasn't her baby brother… not anymore. He was an adult. He was a huntsman in training.

More tears trickled down her face as she hugged her brother again. This caught him by surprise but returned the hug once he recovered. When he heard sniffling and felt the blotch on his sweatshirt grow he put his head on his sisters shoulder and let the flood through the dam.

"I've missed you!" Calista nearly shouted. She tightened her grip around Jaune. Almost like if she let go of him, she would never see him again. If her vice grip hurt, then Jaune didn't show it. If anything he returned it with full force. They both felt wet stains on their clothing, Jaune on his chest and Calista on her shoulder. Calista was louder with her sobbing though.

"I've missed you too…" Jaune whimpered out. The two siblings stayed there for an eternity. Neither of them wanting to let the other go. Eventually they both felt a new presence wrap their arms around their legs.

They broke from the embrace and looked down to see the youngest arm wrapping her arms around them. She looked up with a look of sadness on her face.

"Please don't cry!" she said. "Do you hate each other?" If it wasn't for the emotional moment the two older Arcs just went through, they probably would've laughed at her worry. They both knelt down and Jaune pulled Joli in a hug while Calista patted her head.

"They're tears of joy sweetie," Jaune explained. "I'm not mad at Cal, or Jade, or you. I'm happy. Happier than I've ever been since I left home."

"We don't hate each other," Calista joined in. "Just feeling a bit emotional that's all." Jaune let go of the hug and turned to Calista.

"That is if Calista can even have emotions." His teasing grin made his intentions clear. She flicked her younger brother in the head.

"Quiet." Jaune groaned in mock pain causing his older and younger sister to giggle.

"Jade, Cal's picking on me!"

"Not on my watch!" Jade yelled. She charged at all of them and tackled them into a dog pile. However it was a little too rough and a couple of them groaned in actual pain. "ohhh… I think I cracked my butt."

"Ditto," Jaune agreed. He looked down to see a small pair of legs and placed his hands on them. "I can't even feel my legs!"

"Those are my legs dummy!" Joli laughed.

"As fun as this is for you guys," A muffled voice said. "Get off of me please!" The Arc siblings untangled themselves from the mess. Calista pushed herself up and shook her head. "I think I have a concussion."

"Walk it off," the twins said. The two looked at each other and grinned. Twin wavelength was awesome sometimes.

After a minute of recollecting themselves, the Arcs went over to the couch and plopped themselves down. Jaune was at the end with Joli next to him, Jade next to her, and Calista at the other end. Jaune gave the remote to the tv back to Joli. As she turned it back on Calista looked over at Jade and Jaune.

"So that hole I saw outside of the room wouldn't be you're guys doing would it?" She asked. Her tone was a mix of serious and joking. Jade whistled and looked away from her sister while Jaune stiffened up.

"No idea what you're talking about," he coughed.

"Uh huh." She didn't believe them. After all she walked in on Jaune putting peroxide on Jade. Still, they both seemed okay so her older sister instincts were fine, for now.

"Shush!" Joli said. "It's on!" With that the Arcs calmly went back to watching TV. As they did, the only boy of the group felt a warmth in his heart. A warmth he hasn't felt in a long time. He smiled as he felt the fire return to his soul. He was right. Three weeks ago he was right about his sisters. They still loved him.

And he loves them back.

A pounding on the door shook the Arcs from the screen. Joli continued to stare at the screen, but she was the first to ask the question. "Who is that?"

"Wait," Jaune panicked. "What time is it?" As Calista showed him the time on her scroll he went as white a grimm mask. "Oh crap…"

"Jaune?" Jade questioned.

"I think I know who it is…" Jaune stood up and took a deep breath. He walked over to the door and slowly opened the door. He saw a familiar person with dark purple hair brushed over her left shoulder. She was wearing a tight grey shirt with a light blue coat and a shoulder pad on her right side. She had grey pants and boots. Finally, she was wearing a scowl on her face and glaring daggers at the blonde boy. "Uh… hey Nebula."

"What the hell Jaune?!" She yelled. "You ask me to help and not show up? Really?"

"I-I-I know but I-"

"You don't even call or text or anything!" She pushed her way past the door and into the room with Jaune backing up. "Do you know how worried I was? You always let me know when you'll be late." She stopped and crossed her arms. "So, what's the excuse? Why are you in your room when we're supposed to be training?

"Jaune?" Jade called out. This caused Jaune to stiffen and Nebula to look towards the new voice. The girl had a cheeky grin on her face. Jaune could feel that grin in his soul and he knew she was never going to let this go. "Mind introducing us?"

To be continued

Beta Reader: TheShadowOfZama