Breakfast had come and gone. During that time, Nora had managed to engulf three more plates of pancakes. Where that quantity of food went….. that was still anyone's guess. They had deposited their plates and silverware into their allotted places at the dish tank, and headed back to their rooms to prepare for their activities for that day. Pyrrha had returned from training, and was about to offer to train with Jaune. I say about to, because someone beat her to it first.
Coco and Velvet were standing outside his dorm, asking him to accompany them to training. Coco also mentioned something about going into town to go shopping, and "updating his wardrobe." While the fact that Jaune was spending time with a girl who obviously liked him (obvious to everyone but himself), Pyrrha no longer was rendered irate at either the girl who was spending time with him, nor him for this occurring. She found it irritating, but not worthy of anger. After all, she had gotten closer to him recently, and this occurrence could be fixed if she saw it as a competition. One could say a lot of things about Pyrrha Nikos: she was too apologetic, she was afraid to risk what she had in relationships for something more, she had bad taste when it came to music…. but one could never say that Pyrrha Nikos was not competitive! At least, not if one was attempting to be honest, that is.
Jaune's training was alternating between Velvet and Coco. After some spars that lasted before anyone's aura could take any real damage, when they decided to take a break, and the ladies gave the knight some pointers. "You rely on melee to take out your opponents. Going against someone with some sort of extended long-range fire weapon, such as my chain gun, you would be better off to hunker down and wait for a pause in the fire, or to do something to stop the weapon from being able to fire" Coco told the resident knight of Beacon. "Against someone like Velvet, you will want to do hit and run tactics, as well as using lateral thinking to defeat your opponent. Make the environment work for you. In many situations, where you are can provide you cover for hit and run tactics, weapons, and more" Coco finished.
The trio continued to train for a few hours more, taking breaks in between. Jaune was getting better with countering versatile combatants like Velvet, or combatants who specialized in extended long-range opponents like Coco. The fashionista even had the knight pair up with the girl that in the room that fancied him. The two of them almost defeated Coco. Almost.
After they were done with their sparring, they headed to their rooms to clean up. It was nearing noon, Velvet went to lunch, and Jaune met up with Coco, as he had agreed to. While he was riding on the bullhead (with no nausea due to Coco giving him medicine for motion sickness), Jaune messaged Pyrrha, Nora, Ruby, and Yang that he would be in town for a bit, and not to worry. He and Coco were headed to pick up some new clothes, some gift certificates, and some lunch. Coco told Jaune he would pay for everything, despite how much he protested. They landed, and headed to the far side of Vale into the upscale area of Vale.
The first place they headed was to a restaurant for lunch. It was somewhat higher end, but not expensive enough to make Jaune feel uncomfortable. As they ate, Coco realized that when Jaune was not nervous, he could be quite funny and charming.
When they were finished with their meal, Coco took Jaune out clothes shopping. They started by picking out several outfits, each one accentuating his positive physical attributes. Since that took quite a few hours (as Coco made Jaune try various combinations of the different clothes she picked out for him), it was reaching mid afternoon when Coco started looking to acquire new pieces to expand her already impressive wardrobe.
"Hrm… I can't decide what color schemes work together the best" the young lady mused aloud. "Um….. miss Coco… I would pick the crème skirt to go with that black and red top. If you put black leggings on, the outfit would come together well, and even go with your beret and glasses" Jaune offered to her. Coco inwardly chuckled. Few women were as good as she was at fashion, and she had yet to meet a man that had any sort of idea on how the trends in that regards. However, she felt like humoring him, so she went into the dressing rooms, and came tried on the clothes.
A few minutes later she stormed out of the rooms. She walked over to him, towering menacingly over him. "HOW?!" she barked at him. "How did you manage to make an outfit when I was having difficulty?! HOW?! This even looks better than what I would have chosen!" She shouted at him.
"Well….. you see… my sisters all have different tastes in fashion, and the second oldest sister of mine liked studying that sort of thing…. so, I had to help them pick outfits out that looked good on them and wouldn't clash with those of the rest of the family" Jaune nervously replied. Coco knew that while he was being honest, there was more to the story. She also knew pressuring him would not get him to reveal any more in the moment, so the best course of action would be to let him relax, and mention it a bit later when his guard was down. "Okay, that is fine then. Could you help me pick out some more outfits, then?" the young huntress asked her escort, to which he was more than happy to agree to.
Due to Jaune's input, they finished shopping trip at that store. They had left the shop, and were moving on to a store that was a bit further down the road. What made this store different was that it specialized in combat clothing. Coco found it peculiar when Jaune started hesitating as they neared the entrance. "Why are you scared of this store? It's not going to bite you if you enter it" Coco told him as she grabbed him by the wrist and drug him into the premises of the building.
Jaune did not do much to respond, as he was dragged to the men's section by Coco. "You really need to get some different combat gear, Jaune. While your current getup is comfortable and functional, it could stand to be improved" Coco told him. While she was looking at the different outfits, Jaune noticed he was starting to get a few looks from the staff.
Eventually, an attractive young redheaded woman approached them. "Hello there. Are you in need of any assistance?" the young lady asked Jaune. "Um…. no, we are just looking for now" Jaune said timidly. "Oh? What would your name be? Mine is Scarlet Dahlia. It is very nice to meet you" she said while shaking his hand.
"Um….. my name is Jaune" he replied sheepishly. Coco noticed he was behaving a bit out of character. "What's the matter, Hun? Aren't you going to say your famous line, 'The name is Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it'" Coco teased, causing a look of absolute panic to appear on the young knight's face. "Oh, I am sorry! I didn't realize you two were together! I will need to get going" the young lady said. As she got a distance away, she pulled out her scroll and made a call.
"This is bad, Coco! We need to get out of here NOW!" he whispered, dragging her from the area they were at, and out the front of the store. The fact that he was both so forceful and so adamant caused the young fashionista to inquire about why he was upset. "Okay, what is up with you and that place? Spill it" she stated. "Well, you know how the shop were just at is called 'Vert's,' right?" Jaune started. "Yeah, the founder is the famous fashion designer Vert d'Orleans, what about it?" Coco asked. "Well, d'Orleans is her married name. Her maiden name is actually Arc" Jaune finished. "WHAT?! YOU ARE TELLING ME YOU ARE RELATED TO VERT D'ORLEANS, FASHION MOGEL?!" Coco bellowed.
"Not so loud! Yes, I am related to her! She started making clothes designed for combat when she didn't like how the gear the hunters and huntresses in my family looked! She has always been a stickler for good fashion, and even got me dragged into her obsession…" Jaune said. "That would explain why he is better than me with picking out nice outfits" Coco thought to herself. "That's all right. We can update your combat wardrobe some other time. For now, let's get you some certificates for when you take Velvet out as thanks for helping you study" Coco said, unaware of a myriad of different, and often conflicting, feelings welling up inside her.
Little did they know the series of events they unleashed when Coco dragged Jaune into that store…..
After they got back to Beacon, they went their own separate ways. Jaune texted Pyrrha, and asked if she was free. When she replied that she was, he asked her if she wanted to study in the library. She replied that she would be happy to do so, and thus, he started heading there to study with her. As he was heading to the library, he thought he should text Nora about doing homework together, as well as hanging out with her and Ren later. He messaged her to ask her if she would be ok to do so, and she agreed. He then texted Ren to see if he would be about to meet up later, and Ren replied that he would be busy at the time he talked about meeting up.
Jaune met up with Pyrrha after he notified Nora that Ren would be busy, so it would only be himself and her. They studied up on Grimm anatomy, effective field strategy, and math. After they were finished, they headed back to their dorm. From there Pyrrha, prepared to take a shower and contact her parents, while Jaune changed into some casual clothing, and headed out to meet up with Nora.
The blond knight met up with the bubbly Valkyrie. They then took a bullhead into Vale. Jaune wanted to do something special for his team mate, so he took her to a restaurant he had spotted in town with Coco: an all you can eat pancake house. Here, Nora wouldn't have to show any sort of restraint when it came to consuming the delicious, syrupy treats she so loved.
After the two of them finished, Jaune decided the two of them should head to the arcades. After 30 minutes, they were kicked out, due to Nora winning too often for the owner's liking. Their next stop was to buy some clothes. Jaune noticed that neither Nora nor Ren had many changes of outfits, so he thought it would be nice to buy them some with some money he had saved up. He helped the explosive Valkyrie pick out some outfits that accentuated her positive features, and they both picked out some outfits that they felt Ren would enjoy. They finished their day with some ice cream, then headed back to Beacon on the airships.
Later that night, they all gathered in their dorms and played some board games together. Nora Asked the quiet monk where he had been, and Ren had worked exceptionally hard to do anything but answer her questions. Pyrrha made sure to do some blatant flirting (more blatant than she normally did at least), and Nora told them all what she and her fearless leader did on the town (while greatly exaggerating what occurred), while Ren listened.
Afterwards, Ren checked out the outfits Jaune and Nora picked out for him. He was very grateful for his leader doing such a kind deed on his behalf, especially because he wasn't one to expect such generosity, even from those closest to him. He tried several outfit combinations of the clothes that his team mates had gotten him (done on behalf of Nora), before gently folding them up and putting them away in the wardrobe he shared with his team. After that excitement had died down they all prepared themselves for the night's rest.
Meanwhile at team RWBY's dorm:
Glenda Goodwitch was about to impose on Team RWBY, intent on carrying out Headmaster Ozpin's task. He had asked the professor to retrieve a miss Blake Belladonna from the dorms. The headmaster of the prestigious academy gave the usual sort of answer he always did: a vague and mysterious one. While Ozpin COULD have a special mission for the young lady, one involving the White Fang, or perhaps the Grimm Queen herself; Glenda had a suspicion that the real reason she was being summoned was for a far less important task.
After knocking on the door, Yang obliged the professor in retrieving the smut loving kitten of the team. Glenda took the young lady to the tower in which the Headmaster's office was located. She left the young lady there, and took the elevator back down, intent on going back to her office to grade papers for a bit.
Ozpin's chair turned. "So, Miss Belladonna, would you be interested in making a deal with me?" the aged man asked. "I might have some items you may be interested in. All you would have to do is to report on certain….. interactions between some of our brightest young students" Ozpin said. He pushed a button on a massive metal case that sat next to his desk. Housed within, was a spectacular amount of adult themed romance novels (IT WAS NOT SMUT! IT WAS MATURE READING WITH COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS! NOT SMUT THOUGH!), as well as some of the highest-grade tuna she had seen. Drool started to pool at her feet, as the mere thought of what lay before her being hers for the taking putting her into a blissful catatonic state. "I might, depending on the nature of the information I am to gather" she replied after getting ahold of herself. Ozpin simply smirked.
