The day of the dance was finally here. Weiss had worked hard to plan it and she had to do most of it on her own since Yang was busy getting ready to go with Jaune and Pyrrha. Saying that still sounded a little weird in her head but she was certain that they would find a way to make it work.
Her dress was expensive but she met someone she hadn't seen before who took her to the store and helped her pick out a dress. Normally when an old man offered to help a young and beautiful woman do that it seemed creepy but something about him made it feel alright. He even paid for the dress.
When she was leaving she asked what his name was and he told her that his name was Odin. She made a mental note to ask her dad if he knew anyone named Odin later but for now she had to get back to Beacon.
That led her to today where she was fussing with her hair trying to get it just right. It sounded ridiculous but her and Pyrrha had met a few days before and talked about how they were going to match their dresses and hairstyles to best catch and share Jaune's attention.
In all honesty they had taken to their unique situation very well, for now at least. That may change in a few months but she wasn't going to rock the boat. Jaune had taken to sleeping in team SNOW's room in an effort to not play favorites.
Or at least he had planned to until he found out that all that would achieve is two very annoyed women who had both gotten very used to having a hot water bottle that would cuddle back. After that he started going back and forth. This only caused minor issues with team RWBY. or more to the point it caused issues with Weiss until Yang gave her a glare that was in Nora's own words. " fit to kill the living and wake the dead."
The heiress caved shortly. Yang took a step back from the mirror and looked herself over. She was wearing a full length red strapless dress that had a slit up the right leg for mobility. It was simple but beautiful. Her hair had been braided into a single braid that reached all the way to her butt. It had taken forever since Weiss had insisted on doing this right so she had taken the hair from the front of Yang's head and braided it into two separate braids that ran along the crown of her head. Once that was done Weiss separated the hair on the back of Yang's head and put it into three ponytails. She next used two hair ties to connect the smaller front braids together in the center of the three ponytails before she braided the ponytails around the front braids.
This resulted in a beautiful display that seemed to have the two front braids flow into the one larger braid. And Yang loved it. She went across the hall to check on Pyrrha. It had been decided that Jaune would get ready in team SNOW's dorm and Yang and Pyrrha would come to him together.
Just as Yang opened the door Pyrrha was doing likewise. They took a second to look at each other before they headed to get Jaune. Unlike Yang, Pyrrha went with a simple hair style opting for a slightly higher variation of her usual ponytail. She was wearing a knee length backless white dress that had several elaborate patterns on it. With a smile they locked arms and headed for team SNOW's dorm.
They were ready to see how Jaune was dressed but when they approached the door they heard the sounds of a fight. They threw open the door to see Jaune in the middle of a knife fight with a masked man. Jaune saw them but didn't seem to really notice them instead he was focused on the man with the knife.
said man attempted to stab at Jaune only to have his wrist caught and for Jaune to drag him forward into an elbow strike. The blow stunned the man long enough for Jaune to clamp down on the knife hand's thumb and with a quick shake he sent the knife flying across the room.
The man reached for his back pocket and presumably for a second weapon but Jaune was ahead of him. Stepping wide to the man's left Jaune slammed a liver hook that bent to man over which just so happened to set him up for Jaune to grab his right hand which was still behind his back and the inside of his right leg. In a swift twisting and lifting motion Jaune threw the man up and then head first back into the floor.
The man was barely conscious when Jaune grabbed him by the throat and dragged him to the nearest window. Dangling the man over a thirty foot drop he asked. "Why did he send you?"
The response was garbled but sounded like."wanted to make sure... you… ready."
Yang and Pyrrha could feel Jaune's anger wash over the room. "If I see you before christmas I'm beating you to within an inch of your life, understand."
Not waiting for an answer he let go and the girls rushed over to see the man land on his feet and run away into the night.
"Who was that?" Pyrrha asked.
"one of my cousins," Jaune muttered. "My father sent him here to make sure that I wasn't getting lazy."
Before the Pyrrha could ask if this was going to become a common thing Yang snapped out. "Where is Shiro!" She was both worried and angry. She was mad that her cousin was nowhere to be found when her husband was being attacked. She was also worried that her cousin may have been attacked himself.
"He was going to get the flowers for the corsages. It seems that my timing was fortuitous." Jaune answered, picking up the knife that had been dropped and folding it up before slipping it into his pocket.
As he was speaking Shiro walked in with an armload of corsages. When he saw Yang and Pyrrha in the room he shrugged and handed them their flowers. Seeing the ruining room he opted not to ask questions but instead just left to go find Blake.
Pyrrha and Yang pinned their corsages on Jaune and the three of them headed for the dance hall. When they arrived the dance was in full swing. Several people gave them odd looks since Jaune was the only guy with two dates and two corsages but nobody really wanted to kick the obvious hornets nest right now.
Shiro and Blake weren't there which seemed a little odd. Yang was wondering if they were in the middle of making her a niece but decided not to think too much about that. Instead she wanted to enjoy the moment.
Her, Jaune and Pyrrha were all sitting in a few of the chairs that had been placed near the corner of the room. Without a word Jaune stood up and walked off. They assumed that he had a plan so they waited for him to return.
Using this chance Pyrrha spoke. "So, Yang, about later tonight?"
The champion was clearly embarrassed but Yang could understand why. "What about tonight?" Yang responded.
Leaning in a little more over the chair that Jaune was sitting in Pyrrha elaborated. "We don't really remember what happened last time. It might be a good idea to try and agree to some ground rules beforehand."
Never one to let a chance to tease anyone go to waster Yang answered. "Pyrrha Nikos, are you planning on devising a way for us to sexualy share our husband!"
Yet it was Yang who started to turn colors when Pyrrha without missing a beat replied. "Well yes I am what little i remember of our mutual affair you have quite the fondness of his hands so I think that is a good place to start."
Yang was trying to think of a way to respond when Jaune came back. He handed them both a cup from the punch bowl and sat down between them where he had been before. They sat like that for a few minutes with Yang doing her best to deal with the fact that Jaune's right hand had made its way to her thigh.
When she looked she saw that he was mirroring the position with Pyrrha who seemed unfazed by it. The dance floor had started to clear up and as the first year students that had been dancing themselves into exhaustion started to slow move to the benches, chairs and in some cases the door. Jaune looked up drawing Pyrrha and Yang to do the same. When they did they saw that Blake and Shiro were dancing up in the rafters. The notion that Blake and balance allowed her to jump and spring between the beams was believable. But when Yang saw her cousin she almost jumped up from her seat to catch him.
That was until she noticed that Shiro wasn't just wearing his suit. When she looked closer she saw that he had a frame running under the clothing. "I let him borrow the backup exoskeleton for my armor," Jaune said.
"It's a little short but that didn't matter. With a little practice he learned how to operate it well enough, in that set up his balance is probably better than her's."
As he spoke Yang started to wonder. "Didn't he break Willow's Heart? Why are you helping him?"
Jaune chuckled slightly before elaborating. "I can't hate him for not loving someone. And he did his best to help her move on. I can forgive him for hurting her since he didn't mean or want to and since he has worked to heal what he hurt."
…
Shiro was doing his best to keep up with Blake but if he was honest it was all he could do to be a half step behind. That was fine by him though, he was willing to let Blake lead their dance up fifty feet from the main floor.
And if he was being honest he was having the time of his life. After leading him from end to end of the rafters Blake sped up to get a few moments ahead of Shiro before stopping on a heavily boarded area.
Taking his queue Shiro followed and stopped inches from her. When she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck he gently placed both his hands on her hips and as the slow music below them started they began to move. Looking down Shiro could see the whole floor below them. Including Naomi who was dancing with Sun.
Olivia was sitting with Willow. The two of them had come to the dance together since they had no dates. In Willow's case she was still hurting from Shiro and Olivia was unable to find Mitch.
He could also see Jaune and Yang, they were dancing much like Shiro and Blake. Nothing structured just the two of them moving with the music. There was a beauty in the simplicity. The music started to change so Shiro and Blake both separated and sat on one of the rafters looking down at the rest of the dance below.
As the new music started up they saw Yang shift out for Pyrrha and her and Jaune now began to dance. The new music was for a structured Mistrilian Waltz so it shocked neither of them to see that Jaune and Pyrrha knew the dance well. Somewhere during the song Blake and Shiro ended up holding hands.
They saw there for what felt like hours but was more like twenty minutes. Slowly Shiro dis-entangled his fingers from Blake's and wrapped his arm around her shoulders when she leaned her head against his shoulder. Shiro decided that he was happy to stay like this forever.
When he heard Blake start to purr quietly he chose not to make a fuss about it. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was start a fight with a ninja while they were sitting fifty feet in the air. He would lose that fight and then lose what little respect Jaune had given him. Not to mention Blake would be pissed.
It was only when some Jaune Yang and Pyrrha started to leave that Shiro realised something. Both Ren and Nora had been missing since the attack on the city. To be fair he hadn't seen them but that didn't mean that they weren't missing. He was thinking about texting Jaune to ask him but he saw that as Jaune was making his way to the door both of his hands which had been on the small of Yang Pyrrha's back were making a slow move down and the way that both women were putting a little sway into their step told Shiro that they wouldn't be able to answer any texts for a while.
…
Yang and Pyrrha were still trying to think of whose dorm they were going to when Jaune started leading both of them away from the dorms. "Just where are we going?" Pyrrha asked.
"I have something waiting for us at the docks." Jaune answered.
As they walked Yang could feel Jaune's right hand going further down her back. When he was about two seconds from having his hand on her ass she looked over and saw that he was doing likewise with Pyrrha.
Sure enough after a few steps this calloused hand found itself firmly gripping the right side of her rear end. "Getting a little frisky are we." Yang said with a smile.
"I'm leaving the Vytal festival dance with the two most beautiful women on the planet. I think I'm entitled to getting a little excited." Jaune replied. It was the right response since both women smiled and leaned a little further into him.
Soon they had reached the moonlight docks and it wasn't hard to find out why they were here. A large airship was seen parked at the docks. It had the Arc family crest on the side. And when Jaune approached the main door what looked to be a keyhole opened up. Jaune took out the folding knife he got from his cousin and after snapping it open he stuck the blade into the hole and twisted.
The sound of locks could be heard before the door opened. Taking both of them by the hand Jaune led them into the main room of the ship. In the middle of the room was a small table with three small boxes on it.
Taking the boxes in his hands Jaune turned to face Pyrrha and Yang. gently sinking to his knees he placed the boxes in front of him and grabbed the one that had a yellow Y on it. Opening the box he took out a ring of gold with a white band wrapped around it.
Taking Yang's left ring finger Jaune said. "With this ring you mark, symbolize and declare your love and loyalty to me from this day till death is this true.?"
It was a question but everyone in the room knew the answer with tears in her eyes Yang made a sound that was clearly a yes. When she did Jaune slipped the ring on to her finger and turned to Pyrrha.
Opening the box with a red P on it he took out a red ring with a white band wrapped around it. When he had Pyrrha's ring finger in his hand he said. "With this ring you mark, symbolize, and declare your love and loyalty to me from this day till death is this true?"
Pyrrha who also had tears in her eyes but additionally had a hand to mouth opted to just shake her head instead of answer.
With that settled. Jaune opened the box with a white J on it and drew out a ring of red and gold with a white twist around the outside. Putting the ring on his ring finger Jaune said. With this ring I show, symbolize and proclaim my love and loyalty to both of you, in equal measure from this moment until the end of time itself. That is a promise."
When he was done he twisted the ring on his finger in a counterclockwise direction. They didn't know it but Jaune's ring was different as he twisted the ring went to work. Shrinking down to the point that it could never be removed.
Taking both of them by the hand Jaune said. "Well Mrs' Arc's let's make this official. As he led them to the bedroom of the airship.
…
General Ironwood looked at the angel sleeping peacefully to his right. The way the moonlight was shining on Glynda's face was entrancing. He had to fight the urge to touch her but he didn't want to wake her. He was going to have to leave tomorrow morning just like he did every year. But for now he was just going to enjoy the moment. His love life had died many years ago when he and Glynda decided that they both had too many other obligations to bring a second person into their lives in any serious capacity.
The ringing of his scroll got his attention only because it was his brotherhood ringtone. When he checked the message it was from Adam and read. "This morning, 4 am by my guess,"
James sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them. The ringtone had woken up Glynda who sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around James' torso. "You don't need to leave yet,"
Every fiber of his being told him to lay back down and go to sleep. But the Brotherhood needed him, Remnant needed him. "I do, I just got a message about something important that needs to be tended to by me personally." turning around and resting his forehead on Glynda's and said. "One day we won't be stuck like this one day we can just live."
He wanted to kiss her but if he did he wouldn't be able to leave so instead he stood up and got dressed for work. If Adam was right then he needed to get his plan in order. His army needed to be destroyed and yet still needed to save lives in the hell that was coming.