HEEEELLLLOOOOOO! I'm glad to see everyone enjoyed the last chapter! Thanks to those of you who reviewed, especially gdvp111 and lazylegionspark for their extra long reviews. I enjoy reading all reviews, but I especially enjoy reading ones that really go in depth, as they help point out any errors or plot holes I may have made, or help me map out the path for this story further down the road. While I do have the general story line mapped out there are still things that can change, especially little details, and in depth reviews help me polish, refine, and overall improve the story.
lazylegionspark mentioned that he was worried about Jaune's rather rapid improvement in ability, and I understand where he's coming from, but gdvp111 pointed out in his review that Jaune's training is far more intense and dedicated than that of his friends', and he's being trained by someone who has intimate knowledge on how to use a halberd effectively. Both make good points, and to them and everyone else reading this who worries about Jaune progressing too far too fast, I say never fear. My intent here was to get Jaune up to the level of his fellow first years. I'm not interested in making him OP. I'm simply ensuring that he won't be as... less useful as he was in the show (I don't wanna say useless cause Jaune is my baby boy who I adore and I know will eventually become a bad ass. Volume 4 will be the volume of awesome Jaune and no one can convince me otherwise).
With all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!
Nathaniel watched the last of the Atlesian warships land and begin offloading its troops from his position in Ozpin's office. He, along with the headmaster and Glynda, had been watching the ships land and unload men and materials for the past hour with varying degrees of interest. Nathaniel for his part was intrigued to see how the might of modern militaries stacked up to the might of the ancient Gryphon Knights. So far he was not impressed.
While an Atlesian warship certainly looked like it had firepower it lacked maneuverability, which would make it an easy target for a murder of Nevermores. The smaller fighters were quick and agile, but lacked firepower and were vulnerable if struck from behind or the sides, where no weapons were present. If even a single Nevermore or Pegasus managed to slip behind it the pilot would be unable to defend himself. As for the ground troops? Nathaniel was glad he was wearing his helmet, as it hid his sneer of disdain. The men were armed only with rifles and bayonets. Most Grimm liked to attack their prey in close combat, where a rifle would be at a disadvantage and the few inches of steel blade supplied by the bayonet would be insufficient to kill anything greater than a Creep. And that was for the few actual men present. Most of the infantry consisted of machines of all things.
"Ironwood certainly likes to bring his work wherever he travels," Glynda growled next to him. While Nathaniel was unimpressed by Atlas's military, Glynda herself seemed to resent their presence at the school altogether.
"Well, running an academy in a military makes him a busy man," Ozpin replied neutrally, "but yes those are a bit of an eyesore." The headmaster turned towards his gaze towards Nathaniel. "What do you think Nathaniel?"
"I think it's a good thing that I've started training Jaune," replied Nathaniel as he watched another company of the so called Atlesian "knights" offload. The very idea that those soulless hunks of metal shared a name with him made his skin crawl with displeasure. "If this is the might of Remnant's strongest military then you really do need the Gryphon Knights."
Ozpin smiled and took another sip from his ever present mug. "I assume you've found the might of Atlas's soldiers underwhelming."
"Not the soldiers," replied Nathaniel, "at least, not the real soldiers. Those soulless machines don't deserve to be called knights. If Ironwood really wanted to safeguard Remnant then he would melt those things down and remake them into armor and weapons for his men. It is by flesh and blood that Remnant will be safeguarded. Not soulless metal men."
Ozpin hummed thoughtfully as he watched more troops unload. Suddenly the monitor on his desk flashed and beeped, informing him that his guest had arrived. "Be that as it may Nathaniel, I'd prefer it if you didn't mention that in front of the good general. He gets touchy when people insult his machine soldiers."
Nathaniel bowed his head to Ozpin. "Of course sir."
The doors to the elevator opened, and General Ironwood, leader of Atlas's military and headmaster of Atlas's huntsman academy, stepped into the office. "Ozpin!" the man exclaimed happily as he walked towards the white haired man.
"Hello General," Ozpin responded neutrally.
"Please, drop the formalities," the other man said with a smile. He took Ozpin's hand in both of his and shook it. "It's been too long."
Nathaniel followed Glynda as she slowly walked towards the two men. The knight had to admit that so far he was impressed with the General himself. A tall, clearly fit man with a likable personality. Perhaps he would be able to get along with the man.
The general turned towards the two of them, and smiled at Professor Goodwitch. "And Glynda, it has certainly been too long since we last met."
Nathaniel scowled behind his helmet. Then again, maybe they would butt heads on a few issues.
"Oh James," Glynda said with clear sarcasm. She stepped back, allowing Nathaniel to step in front of her and become the focus of the General's attention.
"And you must be Nathaniel," said Ironwood in a decidedly cooler voice, "last of the Gryphon Knights." He held out his gloved hand for Nathaniel to shake. Nathaniel took it, surprised at just how strong the grip was. He met it with an equally strong grip, which seemed to surprise the headmaster of Atlas.
"Only the last for now," Nathaniel said evenly, "Jaune will rebuild the order one day soon."
"Ah yes. young Jaune Arc, your squire. I would like to meet the boy at some point if at all possible, along with his Gryphon."
"Perhaps someday," Nathaniel responded, "but for today he's spending time with his friends, and I wouldn't want to bother him needlessly."
"Of course," replied Ironwoood. The two men had yet to release their tight grips on the other's hand. Ozpin cleared his throat, which got the attention of both men and made them drop their hands.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, you and I have business to discuss James. Glynda, Nathaniel, the two of you may stay or go, whichever you wish."
Almost immediately Glynda made for the elevator with Nathaniel close behind her. When the doors shut and the elevator began to make its way down Nathniel glanced at the woman next to him. "So it's safe to assume you're not fond of the General?"
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "He's just so... he thinks the first solution to any situation is a show of force. He doesn't understand that the presence of a foreign military will only make our citizens more nervous than they already are. I know he has good intentions, but not every problem needs to be solved with strength of arms."
Nathaniel nodded, not sure how to respond, or where to take the conversation next. It was a problem with him. Around others he was comfortable and in control, barring the flirtatious Yang Xiao Long, but when he and the deputy headmistress were alone he just... clammed up. He wasn't familiar with women at all, not even knowing his own mother. It was a problem, especially considering his attraction to the professor. "I should let Jaune know that the General's here," muttered Nathaniel as he fumbled to pull his brand new scroll out of the pouch on his side. Ozpin had given it to him when he had agreed to teach at the school, but Nathaniel wasn't familiar with technology and tried to avoid using the scroll as much as possible. "He might try to talk to the boy when I'm not around, so he should be ready to deal with the general." After finally managing to open the scroll he tried to type in his code, but his large and armored fingers kept hitting the wrong keys. "I hate this thing," he growled.
"Here, let me help," said Glynda. She placed a hand on top of Nathaniel's gauntlet. "First you should probably take off the gauntlet. It will make it easier to type."
His face turning red behind the visor of his helmet Nahthaniel removed the gauntlet and tucked it under his arm. He typed in the code to the scroll, and it unlocked. He stared uncomprehendingly at the unfamiliar symbols and apps, at least he was pretty sure that's what they were called, on the screen. "I... I haven't really used this thing yet. Where's the... the letter app? What you use to send a message to someone?" Glynda smiled at him, which made his face turn even redder from embarrassment. He was very glad he still had his helmet on. "She must think I'm an utter fool..."
To his surprise and joy Glynda took his uncovered hand in her own. Whereas his was large and rough, hers was smaller, slender, and warm. It was unfamiliar and strange, but he liked it. She pressed his finger against an icon in the top left corner of his scroll. "What you're thinking of is texting. You just tap your finger on the icon and it will open up the texting app. All you have to do is input Jaune's contact information into the 'send a new text' option, and you'll be able to send him a message."
Ignoring the feel of her hand on his, or at least trying to, he frowned in confusion. "Contact information?"
"His name and number? You do have them saved in your scroll don't you?"
"Um..."
She smiled again. That combined with the hand on his sent his heart into overdrive. She pulled out her own scroll and unlocked it. She tapped the screen a few times and started dragging her finger down it. "I have the contact information of all the students saved in case I need to reach them in an emergency. All of the other teachers do. I can give you Mr. Arc's information." She guided him through the process of inputting Jaune's information into his scroll, and sending the knight's squire a text message.
When he was done Nathaniel went to put the scroll back in its pouch, but Glynda reached over and took it out of his hand before he could. She tapped on his scroll a few times before handing it back to him. When he looked at what Glynda had put in on his scroll. "You added yourself as a contact?" he asked in confusion.
"Well of course," she said evenly. "We're both working together in combat class after all. It only makes sense for you to have my information in case you need to get in contact with me."
Nathaniel nodded as he put up his scroll and put on his gauntlet. That made sense to him. But in that case... "don't you need my contact information too?"
She smiled at him again, only there was something... else behind her smile that Nathaniel couldn't quite grasp. "No. I think I'll let you make the first move." At that moment the doors to the elevator opened at the two reached their stop. "I have papers that need to be graded, so I'm afraid I must say goodbye. Do text me later if it pleases you." With that she walked down one hall towards the teacher's rooms, her hips swaying side to side as she went.
Nathaniel watched her go, or more specifically watched her hips sway as she went. He shook his head and smacked his hand against the side of his helmet, the loud clang bringing himself back to reality. He pulled off his helmet and tucked it under his arm as he made his way down another hall towards the training rooms. "Don't even think about it Nathaniel," he muttered, "she's not interested." Right now the Gryphon Knight was distracted, and the best way he knew to fix that was to go to the training room and smash apart some training bots, and then take a cold shower. The image of Glynda's swaying hips returned to the surface of his mind.
Perhaps he would take the cold shower first.
Jaune sighed with boredom as he finished the latest X-ray and Vav comic. After the food fight both teams had gone and cleaned up before meeting back in the library. They had decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, as the food fight had taken it out of all of them. Normally Jaune would have been fine with taking it easy, but with his teammates doing some last minute studying to refresh themselves before classes started back up and team RWBY off playing a board game he was completely and utterly bored.
"Yang Xiao Long prepare your kingdom for battle!" shouted the small leader of RWBY.
"Bring it on!"
"I deploy the Atlesian air fleet!" Yang gasped in horror as Ruby slammed her card onto the game board. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly," she said smugly, then proceeded to make airplane and explosion sounds.
"You fiend!" shouted Yang.
"Aaaand since Atlas is part of Mantle my repair time only lasts one turn." Ruby smirked victoriously at her older sister, which Jaune figured she had every right to do. It was an impressive move, and one that could potentially result in the fall of Yang's kingdom of Mistral if the blonde girl didn't do something to stop the crimson tyrant.
This was when Yang laughed at her sister and held up a card. "Pretty sneaky sis, but you activated my trap card!"
"Whaaaaaat?!" squealed Ruby at such a high pitch that Jaune swore it left his ears ringing.
"GIANT NEVERMORE!" Yang slammed her fist on the table, knocking all of the pieces on the board over. "If I roll a seven or higher fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"
"But if you roll a six or lower the Nevermore will turn on your own forces," countered Ruby.
"That's just a chance I'm willing to take," Yang said smugly.
The dice rolled, and Ruby mourned the loss of her fleet as Yang's Nevermore tore it apart.
The blonde girl turned towards Weiss as Ruby's head fell to the table in defeat. "Well Weiss, it's your turn!"
The white haired beauty stared at her cards intensely. "I have... no idea what's going on."
Jaune perked up at that. If Weiss was unaware of how to play, then maybe he could come over and show her. He was familiar with the game after all, and his tactical and logistical ability had improved under Nathaniel's tutoring. He stood up and made his way over to team RWBY's game as Weiss said something about taking people's children out of their arms. He'd probably just misheard her. Yang held up yet another trap card and demolished Weiss's armies. Ruby zipped over to her partner and landed in her arms, the two friends mourning the destruction of their armies. As they sobbed Yang turned to Blake. "Alright Blake, its your turn."
Blake jumped, and stared at the cards in her hand. "Um, sorry. What am I doing?"
"You're playing as Vale trying to conquer the kingdoms of Remnant."
"Right..." muttered the faunus girl. Clearly she wasn't really interested in playing, so Jaune decided that he would see if he could take her place.
"Hey, could I play?" he asked the girls.
"Sorry Jaune, but we've already got four people," Ruby said apologetically.
"Besides," scoffed Weiss, "this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt you possess."
Jaune glanced at the board, and at the severely depleted armies of Snow Angel's Vacuo. Frankly he doubted he could do much worse than she had last turn, but he knew better than to say that. Yang however had no such inhibitions. "You attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago," she pointed out.
Weiss huffed indignantly, unable to deny that. Jaune grinned at the object of his affections. "Bring it on Ice Queen. I've been told I'm a natural born leader, and I've got the simulation scores to back it up."
"By who?" she scoffed, "your mother?"
"And Pyrrha," replied Jaune.
"Hello again!"
"And Nathaniel," finished Jaune, "besides, if I can ace a battle simulation I can win a board game. Come on, just let me play your hand for a turn." He grinned and winked at her, and was rewarded by a very light, almost non existent, pink tinge on her cheeks.
"I am not trusting you with the good people of Vacuo," she responded coldly.
"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before."
"Like what?"
Jaune knew better than to say what he was thinking. instead he tilted his head towards Blake, indicating what he was talking about. Weiss's mouth opened and closed as she tried to come up with an argument against that, but they both knew there wasn't one. Unfortunately for him she was saved from having to create an argument against him by the arrival of a certain blonde faunus. "'Sup losers?"
Sun had arrived, and with the blue haired boy that Jaune remembered from earlier. Only now he wasn't covered in grape soda. "Hey Sun," said Ruby cheerily.
"Ruby, Yang, Blake," he smirked at Weiss. "Ice Queen."
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?!"
Instead of answering Sun turned to Jaune. "Hey Jaune." He waved to the other member's of JNPR, all of whom waved back except for Nora, who had fallen asleep on Ren's book.
"Hey Sun." Jaune said to his fellow blonde.
"I never got the chance to introduce all of you to my old friend."
"Uh... aren't libraries for reading?" asked the blue haired boy next to Sun.
"Thank you!" shouted Ren from JNPR's table.
Nora snorted and woke up. "Pancakes!"
"Shut up. Don't be a nerd," muttered Sun to his friend.
"Ah ah ah," responded his friend, "intellectual. Okay? Thank you." He turned to RWBY and JNPR. "I'm Neptune."
"So, Neptune. Where are you from?" asked Weiss. Jaune frowned and looked at the heiress. Weiss never showed interest in anyone outside of her teammates, teachers, and on a few occasions the other three members of JNPR.
"Haven," responded the blue haired boy as he walked over to her, "and I don't believe I've caught your name, Snow Angel."
Oh hell no. That was Jaune's thing, not this guy's! You didn't just use another guy's thing! Well if it hadn't worked for him it surely wouldn't work for Neptune.
Weiss smiled at Neptune, and Jaune swore he felt his heart freeze over. "I'm Weiss," she said sweetly.
"Are you kidding me?!" Jaune hissed to himself. There was no way some random stranger had managed to accomplish in seconds what Jaune had tried to do for months. And with his own pick up line no less!
"Pleasure to meet you," Neptune replied and winked at Weiss, who blushed. The blonde boy heard Sun say something to Blake about board games, but he wasn't listening. Instead he returned to JNPR's table and picked up the X-Ray and Vav comic to put it back on its shelf. He was done with the library for today anyway.
"Where are you going?" asked a worried Pyrrha. She had seen what had happened between Weiss and Neptune and would undoubtedly want to help Jaune, but right now the squire just wanted to be left alone.
"I'm just going to get some air," he responded with a smile that even he knew looked fake. "I'll see you guys back in the dorm room."
Later that evening team JNPR was in its dorm room and preparing for bed. Nora was in the shower, Ren was doing some light reading as he waited for his turn, Pyrrha was doing some stretches, and Jaune was laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling in his shorts and t-shirt that had become his sleep attire. He thinking of a certain white haired beauty, or rather he was thinking about her sudden attraction to Neptune, and wondering what the bluenette had done to win her over in seconds. Ultimately Jaune didn't know. Sure the boy was taller than him, handsomer too, and from another kingdom, which Jaune supposed technically made him "exotic", but were those three things enough to win her over so easily? At the beginning of the year Jaune had certainly been... less than impressive, and his false bravado probably hadn't helped her opinion of him, but he had changed over the past four weeks. He was more capable than ever before, and by this point probably on par with the average first year students in terms of combat prowess. Sure he couldn't hold a candle to people like Pyrrha or Yang, but he was no longer helpless, especially with Talon at his side. Additionally he had real confidence in himself for the first time in... ever. The false bravado he had put on at the beginning of the year was gone, replaced by a cool confidence in himself and his abilities.
So sure, Neptune was suave, handsome, and charming, but Jaune was destined to revive an ancient knightly order and had a freaking Gryhpon. Surely that had to count for something?
With a grunt he pushed himself into a sitting position and picked up his pack he had carried during his, Talon's, and Nathaniel's excursion into the Emerald Forest. Most of what was in there could stay in there, but there was one thing he had to take out. He reached in and pulled it out carefully, examining it in his hand to ensure it hadn't been damaged at some point. The object he held was, to put it simply, the most beautiful white rose he had ever seen carefully placed in a small pot. During their last night in the forest Jaune had gone out to gather firewood for their fire. While he had scoured the ground for any dry wood he had seen the rose. A beam of moonlight was shining directly on it through the canopy, and the flower had been literally glowing in the moonlight, as though it were a star that had come down to earth. As soon as he had seen it Jaune had thought of Weiss, and knew he had to get it for her. As carefully as he could he had dug up the soil around the flower and gently scooped the rose out of the ground, ensuring he did as little damage to the flower's root system as possible. He had taken it back to camp along with a clump of the soil it had been growing in, and as gently as possible had replanted it in a pot he'd brought with him. The original reason he had brought the pot with him was that he and Nathaniel had on their previous outing to the forest come across an herb that had useful medicinal properties, but only survived for a few hours after being dug up if it wasn't replanted quickly. However Jaune had determined that the white rose, which he had privately dubbed the Angel's Rose, was far more important. He planned on giving it to Weiss when he asked her to go to the Vytal festival dance with him. He just hoped that the rose would show her that he cared about her, and not her last name.
Jaune was aware that one of the reasons Weiss shot him down was probably because she thought that he was only interested in her name and the money associated with it. Jaune understood her caution, especially now that he had a small legion of fan girls who he knew only really cared about his fame, but she couldn't have been more wrong. He liked her, not what her last name was, and certainly not the money associated with it. When he had first been enraptured by her beauty he hadn't even known her first name, let alone her last. When he had learned who she was and just how important of a person she was it hadn't changed his opinion of her one bit. She was smart, beautiful, talented, really did care after you got past the cold facade she put on, and her singing voice was absolutely angelic. Jaune had had the great fortune to learn that she had temporarily had a hobby as an opera singer, and almost immediately had started searching for her songs. They had been so haunting and beautiful that Jaune was certain she had to be at least part angel, for no normal woman could naturally have a voice like that.
"Jaune? Where did you get that?" Pyrrha had finished her stretching and now stood at his bedside, staring at the Angel's Rose.
He jumped in shock. He had been so absorbed in his own thoughts that he had forgotten that there were other people in the room. He laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head nervously. "I uh... I found it in the Emerald forest over the weekend. I'm planning on giving it to Weiss when I ask her to the dance. I just need to figure out when a good time to do that is."
Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. "I got it," Jaune said. He placed the Angel's Rose on the dresser next to his bed and walked over to the door and opened it. "Hey Ruby. What's up?"
"Hi Jaune!" she leaned in close and tried to whisper into Jaune's ear. He had to bend over so she could reach it. "Team Ruby is coming up with a plan to put a stop to Torchwick and the White Fang's evil plans, and team Juniper should totally be a part of it, but I left my board game in the library so I have to get it before we can come up with our super awesome plan." Before he could ask for any clarification the pint sized leader zipped down the hall towards the library. With a shake of his head Jaune shut the door to the room. Pyrrha and Ren looked at him quizzically.
"What was that about?" asked Pyrrha.
Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Well she was speaking kind of fast, but unless I totally miss my mark I think she said that team Ruby was coming up with a plan to fight Torchwick and the White Fang, and wants us to help."
As though the words had summoned her Nora kicked the door to the bathroom open, looking unreasonably threatening in her sleep pants and boop shirt. "Well of course we will!" cried the hammer wielder, "a chance to smack around White Fang bullies and break their legs? Sign me up!"
"Don't you think we should put it to a vote Nora?" asked Ren.
"Come on Renny. We already know we're all going to vote in favor of it."
"That's... actually a fair point."
Pyrrha looked to Jaune. "What about you? Will you be able to help with the schedule Nathaniel puts you on?"
Jaune shrugged. "My lessons with him end in the evening on weekdays. If we work at night I'll be free. As for the weekends... Nathaniel does say that a Gryphon Knight's first duty is to protect the people. If I explain to him what we're doing he might let me go free."
"And tell Ozpin," pointed out Ren.
Jaune scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Frankly it was a good point, however if Jaune knew anything about Ozpin at this point it was that the headmaster was going to find out anyway, so there was no point in trying to hide something from him in the first place. Jaune had learned that the hard way. "Trust me when I say that I think he'll find out anyway. He's got a knack for figuring things out. However that doesn't mean he'll stop us unless he thinks things are getting out of hand."
"Awesome!" chirped Nora, "so we're all in favor of helping team Ruby do something super dangerous and awesome?" Pyrrha and Ren nodded, and the three of them looked at Jaune expectantly.
Jaune wanted to say no. He wanted to forbid them from putting themselves in that kind of danger, and team RWBY too for that matter. The whole reason he had agreed to accepting his role as Knight-Lord and being privately trained by Nathaniel was to keep them away from danger for as long as possible, but here they were about to rush headlong into it. The worse part was he knew he could stop his teammates. All he had to do was say no, and they wouldn't go through with it. However he commanded no such loyalty from team RWBY, and with or without JNPR they would go off into danger. Jaune might as well be where he and his massive beast of war were in a position to help if, and by if he meant when, things went south. On top of that perhaps this would be a chance for Jaune to show Weiss he was totally good boyfriend material, more so than some blue haired pretty boy. He grinned at his teammates and shrugged. "Why not? Team RWBY's going to need us there to bail them out when they screw it up royally anyway right?"
Nora grinned and started bouncing in place. "I love our friends. So when do we go over and start planning our master plan to bring an end to the plans of a master criminal?"
Jaune frowned. "I don't actually know. Ruby ran off to the library to get her board game, so I guess she'll tell us when she gets back." As though on cue there was a knock at the door. "I guess that's her." Jaune walked over to the door and opened it. "Hey Ru- oh, sorry. Thought you were someone else. Can I help you?"
The girl standing on the other side of the door was most definitely not Ruby. Whereas Ruby was absolutely adorable this girl was so drop dead gorgeous that Jaune immediately felt hot under the collar. She wore an unfamiliar uniform which consisted of a black long sleeved top, a gray skirt, and leggings that left just enough bare skin between the hem of the skirt and the leggings to attract his attention. Her eyes were so amber they almost looked gold, and her hair was as black as pure onyx and hung down over one eye in that way that was inexplicably attractive. She smiled at him, and Jaune's heartbeat doubled in pace.
"Focus Jaune!" He made himself return to reality and forced his heart rate to slow back down to a normal level.
The drop dead gorgeous girl slipped a finger into her black locks and started twirling the finger around her hair. "My name is Cinder. These are my teammates Mercury and Emerald. We're exchange students from Haven, and I'm afraid we got a bit turned around searching for our dorm building. I don't suppose you could take us there, could you?"
"Um..." Jaune scratched his head. Normally he'd say yes, but Ruby would be back any minute now with her board game, and then both her team and his would start planning their investigation on Torchwick and the Fangs. He didn't want to miss a second of it. As much as his male hormones were screaming at him to say yes he forced himself to shake his head no. "Sorry, but my team and I are waiting for someone to show up. If you take a left at the end of the hall and head out the doors you should have a straight path towards your dorm though. Sorry I couldn't help more."
Cinder smiled at him again, which sent his heart into overdrive again, and held out her hand for him to shake. "It's perfectly fine, I assure you." He gently took the proffered hand in his own to shake, and as soon as his skin made contact with hers his whole body felt like it was suffused with warmth through the simple act of holding her hand in his. A treacherous part of his mind wondered what it would feel like to hold something other than her hand, but he squashed that thought as soon as it came up before it made something else come up. That would be a less than ideal first impression.
"You're that man I keep hearing about, aren't you? Jaune Arc, the Gryphon rider." The finger twirling around black locks left her hair and rested on her chin thoughtfully. Jaune couldn't help the fact that his eyes automatically went from her finger to her full lips before he forced himself to look her in the eye.
"Gryhpon Knight," he corrected automatically, "well Gryphon Knight squire really, but yeah that's me."
"Hmmm," the gorgeous girl hummed thoughtfully as she let her gaze wonder up and down his body. Wherever her eyes passed over his skin felt warm, and part of him wished she would stop before his composure started to crack, while another part wished she would go beyond just staring.
"Damn you teenage hormones..."
Finally her amber eyes came back up to his blue ones, and she smiled at him again. This time however the smile wasn't simply friendly. It contained something far more... alluring than friendship. "The pictures I've seen don't do you justice." Her hand slipped from his, the edges of her fingernails gently dragging against his palm and sending tingles all up and down his arm. "I must say I prefer the real thing. Perhaps I'll see you around Jaune." With a last sultry smile Cinder turned and sauntered sensually away, her hips swaying back and forth. Her two teammates (whose presence had slipped Jaune's mind for completely acceptable reasons) followed after her, knowing smiles on their faces.
Jaune was beginning to think about how much he seriously needed a cold glass of water and a colder shower when he spotted Ruby sprinting down the hall with her board game in hand. The little reaper tripped halfway down the hall and tumbled to the floor before pushing herself up and picking up her board game. "I'm okay! We can start the meeting now!"
Suppressing a laugh he looked at his teammates in the room, who were staring at him with varying level of disbelief. Nora was actually silent for once, Ren looked dumbfounded, and Pyrrha's face was red and she looked almost... angry. "Heh... uh... Ruby's back?" He knew he was going to have to deal with their reactions to Cinder later, but right now they had a terrorist organization and a master criminal to stop.
So, that happened. Jaune is super jelly of Neptune despite being a Gryphon riding bad ass, and now has the additional problem of Cinder taxing his self control by trying to seduce him after not knowing him for five minutes. Will she succeed? Will Jaune's willpower, determination, and feelings for Weiss win out against the fact that Cinder is really, really, hot (pun intended)?! You don't know, but I do, and that's why being an author is awesome. No fighting in this chapter unfortunately (unless you count Ruby's board game or Jaune's secret war for Weiss's heart) but I hope all the relationship stuff kind of made up for that (be honest though, it didn't, cause violence is AWESOME).
I hope the scene between Glynda and Nathaniel didn't feel forced. I just thought I'd give it a try, see how I liked NathanielxGlynda (quick someone come up with a ship name for that. The person with the best NathanielxGlynda ship name gets my ever lasting love and adoration) and I have to say that I personally liked it. I mean Glynda, while a rather terrifying person when upset, is still a woman. She's gonna have emotions and feelings, which includes romantic feelings. When you take into account that the only eligible males in the show close to her age are Ironwood, whose attempts at flirting seem to put her off, Port or Oobleck (do I even need to say anything?), or Ozpin, who's always struck me as a Gandalf-ish character whose libido has probably been drowned in coffee. Meanwhile here comes Nathaniel, who doesn't try to flirt with her because he's 100% uncomfortable around women and is going to toe the freaking line around Glynda to avoid upsetting his co-worker. I dunno. I just like it.
One of the things I both love and hate about RWBY is that you can ship anyone with anyone. Seriously the sky's the friggin limit. It's great because so many of the ships are super clever, but at the same time so many of them make no god damn sense. I don't know what it is about this anime, but everyone loves to make some just insane ships. I've even seen YatuashixNeo fanart (which I won't lie was adorable)!
Personally my favorite ships have always been ones that involve Jaune since he's my favorite character, and lets be honest here, the most eligible bachelor. He's awkward, clumsy, tries too hard to win over the object of his affections sometimes, but lets be honest guys: we've all got a little bit of Jaune in us (no homo).
As always please follow and favorite if you haven't already. If you have a friend who likes RWBY and RWBY fanfiction then please tell them about this fic if you think they'd enjoy it. If you have any comments, suggestions, questions, or just want to tell me what you think of the story so far then feel free to leave a review or PM me! I love you all. BBBYYYEEEEEEEE!
