A/N: Aaaaaaand we're back! Good day, everyone, I hope you are doing well? Sorry for the small delay on this chapter, life caught up, and I couldn't give it the slip. But we're back and writing now, returning to our regular supply of JNPR & Arkos! For those of you who may have missed it, I had another story come out as well this past week. "Nevrospastos" will be a comedic fic updated occasionally, once again following JNPR/RNJR following V3, but that story goes in a fairly different direction.
Well, I'm rambling again: thank you for reading, and please enjoy chapter seventeen!
Pyrrha struggled to her feet, having been tackle-hugged by Ruby and Yang, and almost having a rib broken in the process. Jaune was laughing uncontrollably, right up until the moment Ruby latched onto him, while Yang was accepting a crushing embrace from Nora. Ren had strategically positioned himself behind Nora, out of line of hug, while the remaining member of RWBY glided up beside her.
"Good to see you, Pyrrha, how's JNPR?" Blake's eyes were bright, a laughing smile dancing across her face. She gave Pyrrha a brief hug, caught up in the moment enough to break out of her shell.
Not one to hurt the mood, Pyrrha smiled back. "We're doing wonderful, Blake! It's tremendous to see RWBY so high in spirits." Blake nodded happily, her ears pivoting slightly towards her teammates.
"They're having a pretty good day. I hope a certain blonde doofus doesn't drag us down, though."
"I heard that!" whimpered Jaune, who had somehow been convinced to give Yang a piggyback ride. Pyrrha wasn't sure how she felt about that…
"I know. Now let's back home; if I have to distract these two another minute, I may end up giving away my bank account info."
Yang snorted from atop her blond perch. "Blakey, like you've got anything in there to lose." She leaned towards Jaune's ear, stage whispering: 'Her PIN is-" A quick swipe, accompanied by a completely-not-catlike hiss, from Blake left the two sisters giggling, and the group of six began their return trip to the Xiao-Long household.
Eventually, Yang was kind enough to get off Jaune's back, literally, and took the lead with Ruby. Jaune and Nora followed behind eagerly enough, with Blake, Ren, and herself bringing up the rear. When the sisters pulled well ahead, Pyrrha leaned towards her black-haired friend.
"How are they, then? Any word on Yang's prosthetic?" Blake nearly jumped out of her skin, but once she assured herself Yang had not heard, responded.
"They've been doing better the last month or so. Ruby and I have been hunting Grimm a few times, and Yang even asked her Dad about sparring. Tai says the…" Blake hesitated for only a brief moment when Yang looked back at them. She covered the pause by pretending to check her scroll, and showing it to Pyrrha. "It's about a month out; some friends are pulling strings, so he's been dodging it. To answer your question, yes, they're doing better. Not perfect, but well enough."
Ren smiled, and made a point of watching their friends. "It seems they had an exceptional caregiver, Pyrrha." Blake flushed slightly at that, crossing her arms.
"Tai's been exceptional." Ren shook his head, and she laughed a tad.
"Blake, no need to be embarrassed. You set out to help them, and you've done a grand job!" This of course, just intensified Blake's flustered state. "Just being there for them makes more of a difference than you might think." Yang and Ruby let out cheers, and Nora turned back to them.
"Hurry up, lazy butts, we're here!" She bellowed in an excited tone. Ren sighed, whether it was out of contentment or exasperation would only be apparent to their little group. The three picked up their pace, breaking through the treeline and winding up to the large cabin on the hill.
They were greeted at the door by a tanned, blond man dressed in casual clothes reminiscent to Yang's own outfit. The sisters rushed to his side, and Ruby spoke animatedly.
"Dad, this is team JNPR. Team JNPR, dad!" They all greeted the man, and Tai returned it happily.
"So this is the bunch of troublemakers corrupting my daughters!" His great smile belied his threatening tone. "And now you've come to steal them away from me: I suppose I can't help but feel a little green."
"Daaaad!" Yang and Ruby moaned in unison. The joke had seemed to go over Jaune's head, he looked too chagrined, but it only confirmed yet again that this was surely the man who had raised Yang. The group bustled inside, the girls begging their father not keep up terrible jokes.
"In all seriousness, Mr. Xiao Long, thank you for letting us stay with you."
"Ah, it's nothing. And call me Tai, Pyrrha. On to room and board!" He led the seven of them upstairs, and Pyrrha was overjoyed to spy Zwei waiting atop it. The small corgi bounded past all of them to curl up against Blake's feet, while Blake kept trying to get as far away from him as possible.
"Ruby, You're going to have to move in with your sister, JNPR can stay in your room. We've got a couple air mattresses around here somewhere…" He had started rummaging through a closet, when Pyrrha felt the need to interject.
She discreetly elbowed Jaune, showed him a bit of teeth, and began. "Tai, should Nora and I stay with the others? Or perhaps Ren and Jaune should take the couches?" She felt Jaune step closer as she spoke.
"Hmm? Why's that, don't you share a room at Beacon?"
She nodded once. "We do, it's just that we don't know if you'd be comfortable with a couple sharing a room."
Ruby, Blake, and Yang fixed their eyes on Ren and Nora.
Pyrrha's hand would have twitched for Milo, had Jaune not just begun holding it.
"Woah, don't look at us!" Nora shook her hands in front of her vigorously, and their other friends turned to Jaune and she. Jaune planted a light kiss on her cheek. Ruby, Blake, and Yang were transfixed, while Tai suppressed a laugh, with great difficulty.
"Nah, I don't think it'll be a problem. At least, it wasn't for my team." Jaune led JNPR into Ruby's room, her by the hand, Pyrrha proudly passing her stunned friends. They went about unpacking their bags, unrolling the air mattresses Tai eventually found, and otherwise preparing to settle in.
Maybe four minutes after they started, their sister team finally recovered.
"You did it!" Yang bellowed, throwing herself at Pyrrha. "How'd you get through to him?! Have you been on a date yet? Make out?"
"Yang!" Ruby, still not quite recovered from her shock, managed to just squeak out her reproach to that last question. Jaune had turned an adorable shade of pink, fussing over his armor; the revelation he was last to catch onto her feelings wasn't one that sat well with him.
"In order: I asked him to play me a song, a few," she felt her genial smile turn wicked, "and yes."
"Pyr!" Jaune rounded on her, aghast.
"Butt out, Ladykiller," Yang retorted, "I need the details on this, STAT. He any good? And isn't a song a cheesy?"
"That's what I asked." Nora added laconically. Ruby had recovered, moving into the room, but was clearly too nervous to inquire, while Blake looked on with almost maternal approval.
"If Pyrrha wanted to avoid cheesy, she picked the wrong target."
"Ren!" Her boyfriend whirled, pained, to stare down his teammate. Ren smiled, but shrugged.
"Well… you know, he's not wrong." Pyrrha decided. "Jaune's a wonderful musician, Yang."
"Thanks, Pyrrha." He looked almost recovered from the ordeal.
"And a good kisser."
Jaune leaned over and buried his head in the bed exhaustively, Ruby patting him on the shoulders in consolation.
Tai was hard at work in the kitchen, while JNPR and the remains of RWBY sequestered themselves in Yang's room. Now that everyone was done teasing him into oblivion, Jaune had opted to call a serious meeting. The sisters were seated on Yang's bed, Blake on top of the bedside table - beyond Zwei's reach -, Ren and Nora were relaxing on Blake's mattress, while he and Pyrrha shared a chair they had dragged in.
If he was going to have to face snipes at his obliviousness, then he was going to enjoy the privileges of dating in the process.
"I'm not quite sure if I'm even allowed to tell you," Pyrrha began hesitantly, "but I think you all deserve to know what's really going on - and I trust you will all be careful." The girls all nodded for Pyrrha to continue.
"During the Tournament, the Headmaster approached me with a secret, and a proposal. He told me that some fairy tales are real - specifically the Tale of the Four Maidens - and that a new Fall Maiden was needed. He, Professor Goodwitch, General Ironwood, and Qrow Branwen asked me to take the Maiden's role."
"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked, surprised.
"Yes; he was one of the Headmaster's confidants in this. I was… concerned. They told me there were risks to the process, and they were unsure what would happen to me. Before I could decide, the attack happened. The Headmaster found us during it, and I opted to try." Jaune wrapped an arm around her waist protectively, enjoying the memories as little as everyone else present.
"That's where Jaune and I went during the attack. We started the process, but were interrupted by Cinder Fall." Jaune didn't miss how Ruby's eyes went hard at the name. "Ozpin covered our escape, but then Jaune and I…" She fell silent, flushing at the memory out of embarrassment and frustration.
"Ended up trapped in a locker?" Blake offered.
"Yes." Pyrrha was hiding behind her hair, still a little embarrassed by the whole incident. He was glad the moment wasn't terrifying anymore, but it hadn't quite moved to funny yet.
"Well, I had thought the process had failed, but…" Pyrrha's hands took on a black glow, as did Jaune's armor. He levitated out of the chair, and Pyrrha stretched out to take the freed space.
"I don't remember agreeing to lose my seat." Jaune decided now wasn't the best time to undercut the performance, though. Yang looked like she was going to talk, but instead let out a brief squeak, throwing her arms around Ruby.
Their bed was lifting off the ground. All of the furniture was levitating, black light pulsing from screws and nails and metal plates, all seven of them slowing rotating as Pyrrha spun them through the room.
No one spoke as she moved them two full turns of the room, setting them down where they had been. She dropped him onto her lap, and Jaune leaned in close. "Have I ever mentioned how amazing you are?" She swatted his chest playfully, and waited for everyone to come back from the spell her demonstration had cast over them.
"I don't have all of the powers, but I've gained some portion of it; enough to enhance my own and recall some of the previous Maiden's past. We're going to go to Vale, to find Professor Goodwitch, and see what she can tell us about my powers. We want to help."
Their friends were quiet for a while, thinking.
It was Ruby that broke it, though. "Pyrrha? If you find Cinder…" her eyes screwed shut, fists clenched at her sides. Jaune had never seen Ruby so angry before, and despite her size, it scared him.
"That's what we're planning!" He jumped in quickly, before Ruby said something they would all regret. "What about you guys? Does Team RWBY have any ideas? Want us to do anything for you in Vale?" Yang tugged on Ruby a tad, trying to draw the girl from her anger, while Blake took the lead.
"We've actually been thinking about what to do." She hopped from her perch to search the drawer for something, eventually flicking a sealed envelope to him. Jaune stared dumbstruck at who it was addressed to.
"Think you can find her for us?" He looked back to Blake, the girl having returned to her dog-free refuge. Her face was hopeful, and scared.
"Yeah, I think we can, Blake." he tucked the letter inside his hoodie, swallowing against the fear in his throat.
"Thanks." A quiet seemed to overtake them, then. A silence observed for what they had been through, and what they had left to face. It was not a comforting moment, but Jaune didn't know how to snap them out of it this time.
So Nora, once again, came to their rescue.
"Hey Yang, did you know Jaune's sisters used to dress him up when he was little? They let me make some copies of the good ones, too!"
"Anything but that! Don't do it, Nora!"
Jaune tried to jump to his own defense, but his treacherous girlfriend held him in place! He could only watch, helpless, and Yang, Ruby, and Blake cooed and laughed over the scroll Nora traitorously wielded.
"Why do I let you guys do this to me?" He moaned into Pyrrha shoulder.
"Because you love us." She replied cheerily. And dammit if she wasn't right.
She had been joking about it, at the time, but now Pyrrha was confronted with an issue. Dinner had been crowded and full of laughter: all the while Tai watched his daughters' smiles with an even greater one, and Pyrrha knew this had been a good idea. The two teams even gathered to watch a movie after, for old times' sake! But it wasn't until JNPR reached Ruby's room that Pyrrha actually realized there was an issue.
She wasn't sure if she could share a room with Jaune.
"It's ridiculous, you slept in the same room as him for more than half a year!" She chided herself. "You're workout partners, you've taught him hand-to-hand combat! You shared an en suite shower, but now you can't sleep in the same room?!"
The dressing down from 'Miss Nikos of JNPR' conveniently ignored the weeks of growing pains as she learned what life with no personal space was. An only child, Pyrrha had always been accustomed to a room to herself, while her team rarely had the experience; Jaune was even used to co-ed living from his years with Rouge.
She'd adjusted though, so why was it a problem now? "It isn't! This is normal for us, for JNPR." Ignoring the growing heat of her face, Pyrrha gathered up her pajamas and toothbrush before heading to the bathroom Tai had pointed out to them.
Garbed for war in the tank top and loose pants she used for sleepwear, Pyrrha returned to their room, only to freeze as she stepped in. Jaune, dressed in the tee and boxers they had eventually convinced him to use in place of the onesie, was chatting with the pyjama'd Ren, but both failed to notice the alterations Nora had made to their sleeping arrangements: her excitable friend had pushed one pair of mattresses close together, and had stretched herself out to cover the other two mattresses. One of which had Ren's things on it.
Nora watched her, starry-eyed and sharp toothed.
Pyrrha felt the heat rush back to her face, and set about trying to escape Nora's indecent trap. It wasn't that she didn't trust Jaune, or herself, but neither of them were ready for that step: literally sharing a bed had connotations she wasn't yet ready for.
Pyrrha marched to the full bed, sitting on the edge before sending Nora a defeated glower: Nora smiled, and dropped her head to the pillow. With her defenses down, Pyrrha struck. Ren's bags flew across the room, decelerating soundlessly into her hands as Pyrrha set them atop her mattress. Before Nora could ready herself, Pyrrha pushed off from her perch, crashing into both girl and mattress.
Despite her greater strength, Nora was both shorter and slower than Pyrrha, allowing her to succinctly secure herself a position on the mattress and push the discombobulated Nora away, creating a reasonable amount of space between the two of them. Pyrrha reached out again, this time to send her own bag flying, dropping it at the feet of her claimed spot just as Nora wrestled up from the floor; entrenched and provisioned, Pyrrha moved for the throat.
"Jaune, would you mind if I borrowed your scroll charger? I've misplaced mine." She hadn't, Jaune had packed it in his bag, but her question pulled both boys from their conversation and towards them. Both, obviously, had to see Pyrrha and Nora seated on the mattresses, leaving the only open ones for them.
"Oh, I think I grabbed yours, Pyr!" As Jaune shuffled through his bag, Pyrrha turned to see her opponent glowering at her. Ever gracious in victory, she returned a pleasant smile.
Pyrrha stretched out on her bed, ignoring Nora's foot firmly lodged in her side, and let out a tired yawn. "Goodnight, everyone."
"Sleep well." Ren responded.
"Night, team!" Jaune added sleepily.
"Yeah, night guys." Nora ground out.