A/N: Aaaaaand We're back! Good to see all of you, sorry for the delay on this one. Lets get on with the story, shall we?
Thank you for reading, and please enjoy chapter thirty-one!
Pyrrha and Jaune were sequestered at a small table in one of Vale's few quality Mistrali restaurants, the Jasmine Dragon. The white walls were pattered with meandering green patterns, reminding Pyrrha of the lower quarters of her home city, despite the bitter cold visible out the windows. Shuddering at the reminder of the fading winter, she returned her attention to the hot, half-eaten gyro on her plate and Jaune's warm grin. Across from her, Jaune took a ridiculously large bite of fish; the order his proclaimed first step to getting ready for Mistral.
"Sho," Jaune began with his mouth still full. She arched her brow in a manner Blake had taught her, and he swallowed his bite sheepishly. "Sorry. So, what's Haven like? My choices for Academies were kinda limited, so I didn't do much homework, but you've been there before, right?" He leaned forward intently while she took a sip of his tea.
"I've only been once, on my official visit, so I'm hardly an authority. If there were any of them left, we'd be better off catching some of the Haven students." Jaune shrugged off their chances of catching any of the other school's students, and Pyrrha dug into her mind. "It's much more compact than Beacon, space is always an issue in Mistral. The CCT Tower is on campus, though it's two towers in Haven, with the school's main two buildings joining them to form the main courtyard. Classes are taught in the main hall and the halls behind it, while the dormitories surround a garden and the school's main entrance."
"Why's the CCT two different towers?" Jaune asked politely, and it was Pyrrha's turn to shrug.
"I think it was just for aesthetic purposes; it didn't seem efficient to me. Though, given what's happened here, I can't say it has no benefits." Half the Vale CCT was in ruins, and what remained had a Grimm frozen to it, courtesy of one Ruby Rose. Jaune hummed in agreement, scooping a bite of his noodles. "The buildings are mostly upper Mistrali designs, and the main hall is this massive green and wood affair. Unlike Beacon, though, it's in the city; a line of trees here and a curtain wall there to make it feel cut off, but it's in the heart of the First District."
A curious look crossed Jaune's face then, and he held up finger for a question. "Didn't you say you grew up in the Fourth?" She nodded slowly, remembering she'd not explained much of Mistral to Jaune. "So, that's how Mistral is laid out? Districts?"
"Yes, but vertically. The First District is the top of the city, while the Fifth is the base. Mother and I live in the Second now, but we were living in the Fourth, yes." She took a nervous sip: "In Mistral, money rises to the top, Jaune." Jaune made a brief "oh" face, catching her meaning, but he didn't comment.
"Well, I guess it'll be easy getting to the school then. Should we stay on campus, or at your house? Haven probably has visitor dorms." He thought for a moment, then shook his head, answering his own thought. "They won't be back in session, we're better off at your place." She nodded absently, enjoying her own food for a turn as Jaune considered their plans.
Between one bite and another, however, a thought struck her. "Have you told your father about us leaving?" Jaune, examining a map of Mistral on his scroll, tensed in a way that spoke far louder than anything he could say. "Jaune…" she said warningly.
"I will!" He protested. "I already told Mom and Blanche, after all. Its just, he's busy right now: I don't want to bother him."
"Jaune, we're leaving Vale in less than a month, you need to give him some warning." He always let himself get carried away in his plans; the last thing she wanted was for Jaune to run off with her to Mistral, and leave Nicholas scratching his head. "If you call ahead, I'm sure he can see you; if Miss Goodwitch can make time, your father can." He scratched his head nervously, but nodded his agreement.
"I'll call, I promise." She nodded confidently, knowing he would keep to it now. Jaune, however, leaned across the table conspiratorially. Grinning, she leaned towards him as well, resting her chin in her palm. "So, we have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves." His eyes danced, and she could feel her own mirroring them.
"We do." She replied, voice full of innocence.
Jaune smiled wolfishly, then, waving a hand to catch a waiter's attention. "Have anything in mind?"
She returned his toothy grin, resting her free hand atop his. "Why, I believe I do, dear."
…
Pyrrha locked her hands around Jaune, briefly feeling the hard muscles of his stomach, before pulling him off-balance and dropping him to the training room floor. Briefly dazed by the collision, Jaune was helpless as Pyrrha wrapped him in an armbar, her legs holding Jaune's head and chest down. He began to roll to the side, but she managed to hook his near leg before adding the pressure carefully to his arm. Jaune bucked in the pin, but she held firm.
"Call it, Jaune!" She said, voice strained by the effort to keep him pinned.
Jaune let out a frustrated grunt, but his free arm slapped the mat three times, announcing his forfeit. Pyrrha let go of her partner's arm, collapsing against the floor with an explosive sigh. She could see him roll onto his side in her peripheral, and she turned her head towards him. His shirt was thoroughly soaked in sweat, and she could feel she was hardly better, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
"Ya know", Jaune asked as he gulped down air, "I thought we were gonna get up to something else." Pyrrha laughed lightly between breaths at his mildly disappointed expression.
"Keeping up with our training is important, Jaune." She prodded his shoulder with a foot, turning slightly to face him. "Besides, perhaps I wanted you to earn a prize?" Dripping with sweat, her hair matted to her skin, Jaune watched her as if she were the most beautiful woman in existence. It was an intoxicating expression.
Jaune rose to his knees, taking a hold of her foot and beginning to slowly rub it. He might not have been a masseuse or a trainer, but he was attentive. "Does that mean you've won a prize, then?" One of his hands moved down her calf before retreating to her foot again. Pyrrha was trying to put together some kind of response when a scroll began to ring. Much to her annoyance, it was her tone. With a very put-upon sigh, she retracted her foot from the grip of an annoyed Jaune, and moved back to the table they'd left their scroll resting on.
Surprised to see who was calling, Pyrrha slid back down between the table and door before answering the call. "Blake? How are you?"
Her black-haired friend was wearing what looked to be one of Yang's spare scarves, a burnt orange, and appeared to be on a bus or something. Blake got a good look at her, and Pyrrha saw her friend's bow barely twitch.
"Hey, Pyrrha, did I catch you at a bad time?" Pyrrha refrained from telling her yes, but instead shrugged.
"Jaune and I were sparring, it's alright."
Blake looked off to the side, calling out: "Hi, Jaune."
Jaune, still seated in the middle of the room, waved towards her scroll. "Hey, Blake."
Blake refocused on her then: "Sorry for interrupting couple bonding time."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaune asked in an nervous tone that had Pyrrha suppressing a giggle.
"You two were sparring, and Pyrrha's Mistrali, so-" Pyrrha flicked her thumb across the camera, drawing Blake's attention back to herself. Her friend gave her an arched look, but blessedly changed the topic. "Never mind. I wanted to call you guys and give you an update."
Jaune made his way over, settling himself cross-legged in front of her, resting back on his hands. "Something going on? Rose and Verte got to Patch okay, right? They called me when they landed." Blake waved Jaune's question off though.
"They're fine, we helped them unpack the other day, but… well, we left." Pyrrha saw her own surprise mirrored on Jaune's expression over the screen.
"You left?" She asked. "As in, Team RWBY?" Blake nodded an affirmative.
"Yeah, we're on an airship right now. We talked about it, and-" Blake was interrupted a second time as someone jammed their head towards the screen, pushing Blake aside.
"Who is it?" Ruby said excitedly, quickly taking up the entire screen. "Pyrrha!" She cheered.
"Hello again!" Pyrrha returned warmly. Jaune took hold of her foot again; she idly pulled it back, but he mouthed "I'll be good", and she extended it back into his grip. "Blake, you were saying something?" Ruby smiled nervously, but let Blake take back the lead.
"Team RWBY are mobile: we decided to take care of a little something."
"Our own mission!" Ruby said proudly.
"We're going to Atlas, to-" This time, a mass of golden hair shoved its way onto the screen, and Pyrrha was greeted by a cheery-eyed Yang.
"Sup, Pyrrha! Have you heard about all the sick training I've put in? I'm so good, I can do it all one-handed!" Pyrrha felt herself turn to stone. Blake and Ruby petrified in the corners of the screen as well.
Jaune paused in his ministrations to groan loudly; "Yang, that was terrible." Much to her relief, Yang cracked a wide grin at the comment, sticking her tongue out for Jaune.
"Oh, everyone's a critic." A scarf wrapped over Yang's forehead, then, pulling her away from the screen. As her partner fumbled at the covering wool, Blake again focused on the scroll. To Pyrrha's satisfaction, Jaune began work on the other leg as well.
"We're going to Atlas. We've got a few errands to run, and we need to make a stop off in Mantle before we go." Very obviously, one of those errands was a diminutive teammate with white hair, but Blake was pointedly not saying so. She looked to Jaune, working his way along her right calf, to see if he noted.
"Monitored calls." He again mouthed, frowning slightly.
"The main CCT is down, but our calls are still being processed. They're worried someone may listen in?" It seemed rather paranoid, but this was Blake they were talking about. Pyrrha smiled and nodded, using her free hand to momentarily push her hair into a rough mimic of Weiss' ponytail. Blake nodded in return, and Jaune hit a particularly tense part of her calf, and a wonderful easing ran up her leg.
"JNPR," Pyrrha coughed politely, embarrassed by the high tone of her voice, "JNPR actually have a mission as well." She tried to ignore the keen-eyed look Yang was giving her, instead focusing on Blake and Ruby. "Professor Goodwitch has asked us to got to Mistral and help the headmaster of Haven." In response, Blake rested a finger beneath her eye, letting her hair fall forward; a fair impersonation of the woman Cinder Fall. Pyrrha signaled her own agreement, and RWBY exchanged looks.
"I don't know if we'll be able to catch up," Ruby began unsurely, "but I hope everything goes alright for you guys. You can take whatever comes your way, I know it." She finished with such confidence, however, Pyrrha nearly felt compelled to sit up straighter. Ruby has an odd effect like that, from time to time; she supposed that was why she was a leader.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ruby." Jaune called. His hands slipped past her knees, and she gave him a meaningful look. He returned it was a shy grin, and began to work his way back down her legs. "And I know you guys can handle Atlas easy. They'll never see it coming." Pyrrha alone was audience to his eye roll: "Team RWBY" and "Stealth" were not common fellows. Team RWBY, however, were not aware of this, and the sisters grinned maniacally from either side of Blake.
"Sooo, we're already mobile, when does JNPR hit the road?" Yang asked, gesturing towards the window behind her.
"The end of the month: we're taking ship with my mother." Yang pouted, oddly enough.
"Aww, no alone time for the happy couple?" Blake elbowed Yang, giving Pyrrha an apologetic look. "What? With Pyrrha's Mom around, I don't think they get a lot of cuddle time."
"We manage!" Jaune called, resting both of her legs on his lap gingerly.
"Well, we should leave you to it!" Yang laughed back, pushing against Blake. "Where's Ren and Nora? Hot date?"
"Helping Professor Peach archive student logistics." Pyrrha corrected, and all three girls shuddered. "We're off the mission board, in anticipation of leaving, but we offered to help the professors. I think Nora and Ren were expecting something more… explosive?" But really, the teachers wouldn't give two first years a combat mission.
"We should give them a ring, break 'em out of their monotony." Yang said, reaching for the scroll.
"But Yang, I haven't gotten to talk to Jaune about his sisters! Verte and Rose are sooo cute! Ruby pleaded, also reaching for the scroll. As both girls fumbled for it, Blake gave her an apologetic look right before the call dropped.
"Well…" Jaune hummed lightly in agreement. His hands worked the soles of her feet, the pressure sending a tingling running up her legs. "I do hope they don't do anything too drastic." Jaune snorted lightly, and Pyrrha rested her face in her palms. "They're going to do something terribly drastic, aren't they?"
"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked politely, drawing her from her embarrassment. "What was Blake talking about when she said you were Mistrali and we were sparring?" Pyrrha fought the urge to replant her hands in her face, instead focusing on the ceiling.
"Oh, it's nothing." Even she didn't believe her tone. When she'd first asked to spar with Jaune, she hadn't meant it that way.
Mostly.
"Doesn't sound like nothing…" She could hear his grin, damn him. "You sure you don't wanna tell?"
"It's nothing to fret about, I promise." She tired again, in vain, to put him off. Jaune's careful pressures stopped then, and one arm wrapped around her calves. His fingers began to tickle the base of her feet, and she started to writhe in place. "Jaune!" She shouted through the laughs, but he paid no heed.
"Say uncle, Pyr!" He called, redoubling his efforts as she tried to buck her legs free. She felt his legs cross hers in a light pin, the feathery touch of his fingers flying.
Pyrrha Nikos would never say uncle: "This means war, Jaune." She thought as she snorted and giggled uncontrollably.
Jaune shuffled uncomfortably at the last checkpoint into the Valish Defense Force's office. Soldiers in the dark greens he'd seen most of his life stood at attention by the doors, bustled here and there importantly, and stood in line with him. He unconsciously straightened his black Beacon hoodie, resting his hand on a belt that carried no weapon. He didn't see his father waiting on the other side of the checkpoint, and supposed he'd find him buried under paperwork in some office.
He'd kept his promise to Pyrrha the other day, and called his father, asking to come see him. Nicholas had agreed, promising to make the time for a talk, but Jaune hadn't told him the specifics. To his surprise, it seemed neither Blanche nor his mom had passed the news along. He presented his ID to the guard, turned out his pockets, and was subsequently waved through. After getting directions, twice, Jaune found himself stepping into the offices of the Blizzard Brigade, his father's command. Standing up straight, Jaune opened the door.
Just like in the halls, men and women in uniforms moved briskly through the open space, though others worked diligently at desks. Jaune was promptly noticed by an older man beside the door, who approached him through the mass. "Mr. Arc?" He questioned. Jaune nodded, offering his hand to the older man.
"Yes. Jaune Arc, pleasure to meet you." The older man took his hand in a steel grip. Literally: the cool prosthetic flexed around Jaune's hand roughly.
"Major Pewter, pleasure's mine. Your father told me you'd be coming by, good to see you're a timely one." He retracted his hand, and Jaune discreetly flexed his sore fingers. The older man continued. "If you would follow me, I'll take you to his office." Jaune moved in the man's wake as they deftly dodged staffers, moving to the back of the large space. The Major knocked hard on a door, and Jaune faintly heard his father call for them to enter.
Pewter opened the door for him, but rested a hand on his shoulder before Jaune could step by.
"Your father only managed to set aside half an hour, I'm afraid: there's a general staff meeting today. I don't mean to rush you, but…"
"I understand," he said easily, "duty calls?" He'd always hated that line growing up, but now that he had duties… Pewter smiled apologetically, then waved him in. Jaune's father had risen from his desk, strewn with papers and coffee mugs, and smiled broadly when he stepped through the door.
"Jaune!" They hugged briefly before his father pushed him towards one of the room's chairs. "How are you doing, son? The team well? Pyrrha?" His father collected one of the mugs and moved towards the small pot in the corner.
"I'm doing good, dad. Team's doing alright, and Pyrrha too. We got to have a day to ourselves earlier, which was nice." Jaune idly thought his father could probably just have asked someone to get him a drink, rather than keep a private pot in his office, but he was fairly certain that Nicholas Arc's veins carried more cream than blood, let alone coffee.
"Have a romantic little getaway?" His dad asked playfully, offering a cup which Jaune declined. He sat down next to him, sipping contentedly. Jaune felt the bruises on his back from a particularly hard takedown, and smiled back.
"Something like that. You've been good?" His fathers lean face soured, though.
"Been less than ideal, I'm afraid. First, the Atlesian detachment left. And then, the Mistrali started pulling out. I can understand it, the country's had it rough, but it puts a strain on our resources." His father let out a long-suffering sigh, relaxing into the chair. "A lot of the Hunters are going too: better contracts in Anima. Half of Vale is still crawling with those damn beasts, and people are already moving to the next crisis."
Jaune gulped nervously.
"Ah, don't mind me, Jaune. You needed to see me about something?" His father grinned at him, winking. "I don't need to find your grandmother's ring, do I?" Jaune sputtered his denials for what felt like a solid minute, his devil of a father laughing the whole while. When Jaune finally regained his composure, he found it hard to focus on his father.
"Son," his dad asked in a concerned voice, "What is it?"
"Well…" He tightened his grip on his knees, looking back to his old man determinedly. "Team JNPR has a mission. At Haven." There was a long silence. Jaune could feel the awkwardness pooling around them.
"Well then…" His father eventually said, helplessly.
"Dad," Jaune began nervously, but his father overran him.
"No, if you're doing it. You're doing it." Nicholas dragged a hand across his buzzed hair. "But… why? Why leave Vale, son?" His father looked genuinely hurt, and concerned beyond that.
Jaune let a disgruntled snort break out: "Trust me, it wasn't my idea. I wanted us to stay, but the team?" His father nodded solemnly.
"So, when do you ship out, as it were?" Nicholas had leaned back into the chair, watching his coffee as he swirled the mug.
"End of the month; we're taking a ship out with Mrs. Nikos." His father soured further at the mention of Pyr's mom, which was just tremendous.
"That her idea?" He asked gruffly.
"The ship? Yes. The mission? No." His father grunted in response.
"And what is the mission?" His father asked.
"I can't tell you, Dad." Nicholas Arc looked back to his son, hard-eyed.
"Pardon?" Jaune fought to keep his attention on the older man.
"I… I can't tell you, Dad. We have to go to Haven, we're helping Professor Lionheart, but I can't tell you the details."
"Jaune…" His father was obviously struggling to find the right words. "Jaune, I can't abide you being dragged into… whatever this is. You're eighteen! Yes, I know you're an adult, but you're too young for these kinds of things!" His father's voice had risen in righteous indignation, and Jaune could hear a part of himself agree.
But that wasn't who he had to be.
"Dad, I know. Believe me, I know." He leaned forward, trying to draw his father in. "But I can't back out, I can't leave my team behind." His father watched him carefully, his scowl softening slightly.
"You have a duty." He finally said, defeat clear in the voice.
"I have a duty." He mirrored in a soft tone.
The two sat there in silence for a long time, the only noise being the burble of the coffeemaker and the muffled sounds outside.
Eventually, his father stood up, draining his mug and resting on the corner of his table. "Well, your team wasn't even supposed to be back in Vale so soon, so I suppose it doesn't really change much. Make sure you write your mother, son: the CCT being a wreck is no excuse for staying out of touch." Jaune smiled sheepishly as he stood up as well.
"I will, Dad. We don't know how long we'll be gone, but I'll try to have us back for… you know, the thing." He waved a hand in the rough direction of Beacon, and his father grinned.
"Now, who told you about that? That's supposed to be a state secret!" He smiled at his dad's dramatic voice.
"Dad, anyone with a brain and a map of missions activity can see where the VDF is pushing. By the way, if you haven't read the repot yet, I can guarantee the complex off King's Square would be a good staging area." His father's face lit up at that.
"Was that your team? Gracious son, how much a world beater is your girl?" He blushed a tad, more embarrassed that he'd let on about Pyr's ability. Thankfully, his father didn't notice. "Well, I did ask her to look after you: trusted the right person for the job!" he punch Jaune's shoulder playfully, and he smiled back.
"You did, Dad, you really did."