"No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gains, economic advantage, for ideology."
-Ronald Reagan
Here we go.
Chapter Five: Family
"So Jaune," began Sable, skipping along the sidewalk, "what exactly are you in this scary PMC?"
Jaune stifled a laugh. His family was out in Vale, looking for a place to eat dinner and catch up with him. Mom and dad watched in amusement when his seven sisters had harassed him for a solid ten minutes, before saving him by only letting two of his sisters talk to him at a time. Amber refused it, saying that as long as he was there, she would remain attached to him.
Attached to him she was, much to the amusement of the passersby watching the girl getting a piggy back ride.
"I signed up for something called Armoured Reconnaissance, or Recce. Really depends on who you ask," he answered, adjusting Amber's sleeping form on his back. The midday sun beat down onto the concrete sidewalk, and a thin sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead. "It's mostly the Mistralian guys who say recce, but doesn't really matter either way. We still ride in vehicles and stuff."
Coral readjusted her thick glasses on her face with one hand, the other gripping a small notebook to her chest, "Sounds nice."
Sounds nice? Really, that was all she had to say? Then again, it was Coral. He hadn't really talked to her a lot when he was at home, she was always caught up writing her rather… graphic stories. Looking back, had he been too caught up with the dream of being a Huntsman to think about anything else?
"Armoured? So you drive around in tanks and stuff?" said Sable, starting to walk again like a normal person again. Really, she was too old to be skipping around like a child. And no, he was still young enough to be wearing Pumpkin Pete hoodies, no matter whatever his section said.
He shoved his hand in his hoodie pockets, Amber's legs draped over them. He'd gotten his new hoodie from the on base store, which replaced his old Pumpkin Pete one, "Hm, something like that." In reality, he didn't have a clue, besides that one photo the recruiter had shown him, and even then, he was told the company was planning to buy new vehicles. So it was anyone's guess what he was going to use at this point.
"How was your time at Beacon when you were there?" asked Sable, pausing when Jaune winced. "Oh, is that a soft spot?"
"Not so much as it was, but I'd still like to avoid that."
"Oh."
Sable fell silent, Jaune decided to break the silence, "How is everyone at home?"
"When you ran away, we didn't know what to think," Coral said suddenly next to him, her tone soft and quiet. "Mom was distraught, we all were. We didn't know what to think, all you had left was a note and had taken Crocea Mors. "
Jaune cringed, shrinking away from her accusations. It wasn't his fault Dad refused to train him! He'd tried to convince him all the time, but Nicholas just wouldn't budge. So he'd taken the most obvious route and ran away with his family's ancestral sword with only a note….
Oh, he saw the problem now.
"I'm sorry?" he said, an apologetic smile on his face. Sable roughly elbowed her sister with a frown, chastising her.
"Sorry doesn't cut it Jaune," continued Coral, a bit more miffed at her sister hitting her, "you ran away from the family because you wanted to be something. How selfish is that?"
"Hey! I had a dream, and I- I needed to follow it. I wanted to be something more than just a kid in Ansel," he looked up to the sky wistfully. How much of that did he still believe in? All of it? None of it? He'd tried justifying his actions all of the time, whether it when he forged his transcripts, or when his friends accused him…
"A dream? Do you know how much mom cried when you left? Amb- everyone woke up one day to find a note saying you'd left for other things! Do you know how it feels to find out your brother left you because he wanted something bigger, something better than them all? Because it doesn't feel good at all!" Coral was practically screaming, drawing a few concerned looks from their parents. Even Amber woke up, sleepy as she was. "How do you feel now Jaune?"
"I- I don't know," he looked down to his feet, "Maybe you're right about what you're saying. Maybe I was a selfish person, that I was self centered person. But I'm not that person anymore Coral." He looked at her with firm eyes.
"Huh?" the little girl asked, half asleep. "What's happening? Coral why are you yelling?"
Sable stepped in between them, putting an arm around both of them, "Hey guys, no need to start arguing about any of this right now. Especially not with everyone around. Agree to disagree, right guys? You can solve this later, and mom made us agree not to make a scene in public. Right Coral?"
They both looked at their feet flustered.
Sable grinned, and slapped both of them on the back, "Great! Now let's talk about something more cheerful." her grin grew to stretch from one side of her face to the other. "I've gotten a new boyfriend while you were gone, he's so nice, and loving, and caring, and I'm going to marry him!" she squealed, bouncing up and down excitedly.
"Wasn't that what you said about the last one?" he teased, poking her ribs a little. Amber added in a little kick of her own, clung to Jaune's back as she was. "If I recall correctly, the last one found you secretly s-"
"Oh shut up!" growled Sable, while Coral giggled beside him. "Not like you are doing any better."
His mind immediately went back to Weiss. Oh where had he gone wrong again? All dad had said was he needed a little bit of confidence… looking back he was kind of dense, maybe she had brushed him off and he hadn't noticed. His memories of the night came back to him, the shouting, the screaming, and the ultimate feeling of betrayal. His eyelids twitched faintly, but the next moment he was normal again.
"Maybe, but which one is this? Number five or s-" he was cut off by Sable lunging at him with an expression of murder on her face. Jaune dodged her attack even with the weight of Amber on his back. Moss' rough training had indeed come in useful after all. Amber laughed from his back, cheering him on. Jaune nearly choked when Sable instead grappled Coral and nearly pushed in the road. An angry motorist honked as they drove past, screaming expletives and moving on the next second.
"Hey!" yelled out Coral, brushing herself down and making sure her precious notebook was still safe. "If you try and attack Jaune again, make sure to hit him and not me."
"Not my fault my little brother just magically turned into a ninja in a few months," huffed Sable, crossing her arms while giving a stern look to Jaune. "And you just want me to attack him so you have inspiration for your raunchy fight scene in that new bo-"
It was Sable's turn to be attacked, this time by Coral. The twins fought like cats, scrambling to scratch their eyes out while Jaune and Amber laughed from the sidelines. The sisters stopped when Juniper gave a steely look to both of them. She shook her head disappointedly, muttering something about a bad influence on her children.
The rest of the short walk were his seven sisters plus Terra and Adrian alternating between fussing over him and bickering between each other. All the while Amber sat comfortably on his back like she was the queen of all of them, and they were her royal subjects. If someone had asked, Jaune would say that was true, just from how often Amber got her way via the dreaded puppy eyes.
They arrived at the restaurant sooner than Jaune thought, the long line outside suggesting it was a rather popular restaurant. Saphron wandered over to him, Adrian Terra-Cotta in her arms. She came to just next to him, a faint smile on her face, as it always was. Noone could do much do dampen her mood.
"When I heard you ran off to join Beacon, I couldn't believe it," began Saphron, cradling Adrian in her arms. "Then when I heard instead of coming home, you went to join a PMC? I was honestly in shock. I really didn't expect my little brother to be the type of person to run away from home."
She lifted Adrian's small body into the crook of her arm and stroked him gently, "PMCs also brought the image of big scary men who are only in it for the money. So that parade back there, well, it surprised me a little. You guys were definitely not what any of us expected. You've definitely changed from when I last saw you Jaune. No offence, but you used to be so skinny and weak at home, and now you're..." she gestured randomly at his physique. "This I guess."
"This?" a wide smile stretched across his face as he waved his hands over his body. "I'd be careful about complimenting 'this' around your wife."
"Oh you little-" Saphron went for his face, which for anyone watching, Jaune would definitely say he let her nearly beat him to a pulp. Anything she said about Jaune yelling like a girl was a complete and utter lie. "Where did you even get all that snark from?"
"Eight weeks stuck with some of the weirdest people ever, and my instructors," Jaune fought off off Saphron's hand that was going straight for his face. "They did some crazy stuff on their downtime. It's what happens when we get bore- OW!" Saphron smacked him right in the face, laughing like the obvious psychopath she was. Who would tease their siblings like this? Not him obviously, because he was the best brother anyone could ask for.
"Ahem," coughed Terra, who had grabbed Adrian from his sister's arms the moment she saw her wife's expression. "Now if we're done fighting, I think there's someone behind you Jaune."
Jaune twisted around to see two familiar faces, Lavender and Vi, standing awkwardly and waving. Both were just dressed in simple hoodies and jeans, letting their long hair fall past their shoulders freely. Lavender's mouth was half open like she was about to say something, her purple highlights falling on her shoulders. Vi elbowed her quickly with a pointed look towards her sister.
"Uh, hi Jaune!" Lavender stammered out quickly, her eyes flashing to his family members, "Didn't expect to see you here."
"What my sister meant to say," broke in Vi, tossing an arm around Lavender. "Is that we were walking around Vale and happened to see you here, so we decided to come talk to you!"
"You absolutely suck Vi," mumble Lavender under her breath. She crossed her arms angrily and shoved a shoulder into her sister.
Vi only smiled, and ruffle her head, "Oh you're just the cutest sis!"
"Didn't expect to see you here either, what are you two doing out here?" Jaune said, very much aware of his sister behind him listening in with extreme interest. Even Amber sat perked up on his back, intent on listening to every word.
"Oh, we were just chilling out in Vale for a bit. We were trying to find a place to eat before we get back to our apartment." Vi said as Lavender shrank further behind her sister. "And then we saw you and came over to say hello. Is this your family?"
"So you're big brother's friends?" asked Amber suddenly, she was still on his back for some reason.
"Yeah, me and my sister Lavender, I'm Vi, and oh my god your sister is so cute!" Vi jumped right up to Amber, forcefully tugging on her cheeks. The young girl leaped off his Jaune, throwing him off balance and straight into Vi. He caught himself before his head would make any interactions with her chest, which he knew would not end well for him at all.
"I'm thirteen and a half!" yelled out Amber, stomping her foot on the ground. "I don't need strangers to tell me anything."
Jaune looked between the two. Vi immediately backed with a large grin on her face. Lavender herself stood Vi, her mouth half open as if she was going to say something, then stopped. Her eyes flicked between all of his family members, who had developed an interest in just what was happening behind them.
"Heh, I like your sister Jaune. She's a feisty one, just like Lav. Well, that's about what we came here to do, anything to say Lav?" Lavender shook her head, her lips sealed shut. Vi turned back with a disappointed expression. "Guess we'll be on our way now, this place is a bit upscale for the money we have right now, so we'll get on our w- ah!" Vi bumped into a rather interested Juniper standing next to her, having migrated to the girls seemingly without notice from either of them.
"I happened to hear you girls are friends of my son?" asked Juniper, casually tossing a friendly arm around Vi, with a welcoming smile on her face. Vi looked over with surprise at the audacious woman, who just goes up and throws their arm around someone? Taking one look at her face, she involuntarily shuddered, Juniper looked like she was about to murder them.
Vi quickly went over what they just talked about, albeit a tiny bit scared of Juniper, much to the sisters and Jaune's amusement. Vi kept throwing angry looks at Jaune, who just laughed from the sidelines.
"Why don't you come with us? Nicholas get us another two seats!" suggested Juniper, her motherly love on full display for everyone. His sisters shuffled away from Juniper just a little, drawing a glare from her, stopping everyone in their tracks.
"Um, no it's fine we can fin-" spluttered Vi, thrown off balance by Juniper's sudden offer.
Juniper took Vi by her shoulders and looked it in the eyes, "No no it's fine! Come with us!" It was very much clear she didn't have any choice in the matter.
Vi's eyes darted between Jaune, Juniper, and his sisters. She shot him a pleading look, she didn't want to get trapped with his slightly psychopathic mother! Jaune just stood there like the asshole he was, sniggering at her discomfort. Her eyes went to his sisters- his seven sisters. Holy shit that was a lot of sisters! What were they doing? Of course watching her squirm in discomfort with everyone else. Was no one really going to help her here?
"Er, okay. We'll come with you, but we'll still pitch in," she said in between furious stares at Jaune. "I don't want to feel like I'm mooching off you or anything."
"Wonderful!" said Juniper, letting go of the young woman and walking towards her husband. "Then you can tell us all of the stories about Jaune, and we can show you all sorts of stuff about him. You won't believe what he looked like in a dress."
Jaune blanched. Maybe he really should have stepped in for Vi.
/ - /
"My god Jaune! I never knew you looked like that!" squealed Vi, grabbing the scroll from Sable. "So this is what the guy who blasted a hole in the wall looked like when he was younger. How do you go from this to this!"
Jaune buried his red face deep in his arms. He'd definitely expected that whenever he showed his friends to his family, they'd show them the photos, but he always expected he'd be able to control it a bit. He was pretty wrong it seemed. Lavender and Vi were both giggling like school girls, his sisters not helping him in the slightest.
"Blowing up walls?" asked Hazel, raising an eyebrow as she reached for some food on the table. "When did my little brother turn into such a badass?"
Jade piped up, "I would like to know the story behind that."
"Not to be mean, but last time we saw you I had to stop you from getting bullied in school," said Amber, the thirteen and a half year old speaking between bites of her food. "Don't take this wrong Jaune, I love you, but you weren't exactly the best at anything, like you were a complete dor-"
"Amber," scolded Juniper. The girl fell silently, going back to eating. "Sorry, but his sisters never really had the greatest impression of Jaune when he was at home. He had some trouble in school, and that usually ended with his sisters saving him." she put a gentle hand on top of his, humming a soft tune.
"It's fine Amber, you're not really wrong with your description," he shot a smile her way, which brightened her mood immediately.
"Well whoever he was then, he's definitely not that right now," said Vi, gulping down another bite of food. She held her fork up by her face, as if she was thinking deep thoughts. "Definitely not the same person."
Hazel coughed into her arm, "Erm, I'd still like to hear the story of my little brother turning into a badass."
Vi smiled and launched into a grandiose tale about their training exercise where Jaune had done something cool. She quickly added in all the times where she had beat the living shit out of him in combatives, conveniently leaving out the part where Jaune had actually defeated Vi when it came to CQB, ambushing her every single time. Lavender, for the most part, leaned back in her chair, commenting about things when she felt like it.
"Lav can you pass the salt?" he asked, not paying any attention as he sipped from his water. He looked up to see the arms of Lavender Arc and Lavender Marron both reaching for the same thing. They retracted their arms suddenly, then reached for the shaker simultaneously. Eventually, his pale sister snatched up the shaker and handed it to him. Her arms were still as thin as ever. He frowned slightly at her sickly frame, Lavender- his Lavender looked worse than she had before. He'd need to ask about it later.
Juniper put down her utensils and clasped her hands together, looking at Vi and Lavender, "So why don't you tell us a little about yourselves? I certainly would like to know a little about my son's friends."
Vi lazily put her head on her fist in a thinking position, "Well, where to start, where to start… once upon a time, me and my sister-"
"My sister and I," corrected Jaune instinctively. He cowered before Vi's death gaze, English had been one of his few subjects that he'd done decent in, so why couldn't he leverage it? "Sorry, continue on."
"As I was saying before I was interrupted by my friend Jaune here," said Vi, sipping at her water. "My sister and I, well we were too young to remember our parents when we were taken away. Apparently they were abusing drugs or something like that." Juniper shook her head in disgust. How could a parent do such a thing to their children? She thought inside, "We were sent to an orphanage, and long story short, we didn't like it there very much. Then when I was sixteen and she was thirteen, we ran away."
She stopped to munch on her food, before continuing, "We spent something like four years on the streets, doing odd jobs here and there to get by. Then by some good luck, a recruiter for Striker Group was passing through the area, and we were in a bad spot too. Signed up on the spot. Now we're here, so I'd say the company helped us a lot."
The expressions around the tables were varied, but generally the same. Surprise, sorrow, and shock, all of these were present and in different amounts. Jaune had already heard it from the girls, so he stayed silent, eating his food quietly.
Saphron was sitting beside Lavender, and went to comfort her with a hand around her shoulder, "My god girls, that's so terrible."
Lavender waved a dismissive hand, "It was hard, but I always had Vi to look out for me. And all of that is long gone anyways. We already started a new chapter in our lives anyway."
"Well enough of this gloom and doom," interrupted Juniper, her cheerful self returning to her. "Let's talk more about Jaune's baby photos hm?"
Jaune facepalmed, this seriously couldn't be happening. What happened to family loyalty?
Lavender laughed, a small glint in her eyes. It had a certain quality in it that Jaune really couldn't place, he dismissed it as her wanting to make fun of him. "I'd love to Mrs. Arc."
Jaune slammed his face into the dinner table again.
/ - /
The rest of the dinner went normally, everyone laughing and joking and sharing stories. It was mostly stories at Jaune's expense, but he let it slide, and definitely not because he was completely helpless and a prisoner of his sisters.
The family got up to go leave, while Juniper went to pay. Vi grabbed her arm and cringed when Juniper snapped back, "Mrs. Arc, I'll like to pitch in and help pay for our share, I'd feel terrible if I didn't help pitch in with the bill ma'am."
"Nonsense!" Juniper said, batting Vi's hand away. "Don't worry about it. We're not exactly strapped for cash, and don't call me missus or ma'am. That makes me feel old, call me Juniper."
Vi turned back to Jaune, her sharp eyes asking her to help him. He shrugged, his mom was not someone to disagree with. Vi looked desperately at Nicholas, who shrugged too, probably more afraid of Juniper more than anyone else there. Vi slowly sat down, reluctantly putting her wallet away in her jeans, "Alright Juniper, if you say so."
"Not used to having people paying for you Vi?" said Jaune, getting up and grabbing his jacket.
Vi tossed on her coat, a slim technical jacket similar to the ones they had been issued. In fact, it probably was, "Just not used to people buying stuff for me I guess."
"You'll have to get used to it with my mom, she loves spoiling people, and she's really kind," Jaune walked over to where Vi and Lavender while everyone else floated towards the exit.
"So do you girls have a place to stay tonight?" asked Juniper, appearing out of nowhere. She had grown absolutely enamoured with the girls throughout the day, charmed by them almost immediately.
Vi tossed back a lock of hair that slipped to the front of her face, "Yeah, pretty ratty place though. Still better than the streets still, we've slept in worse places though, so we'll be fine."
"Oh my, you can stay with us if you want," it wasn't so much a suggestion as it was an order by his mother, whose eyes had taken on the scary motherly quality she was famous for.
"Oh no, it's really fine, it's just, um," Vi leaned in to whisper something in Juniper's ears. His mother's eyes twitched imperceptibly, nearly yelling out an "Oh really now?" before pulling back and looking at the girls. Lavender was red faced, and Vi pulled her sister close. Juniper smiled at Jaune suspiciously, what did that have to do with him?
"I think we have some time before sunset, so how about you take us around Vale Jaune?" said Juniper, leading the group outside into the city. The sun was close to setting, but it was still a bustling evening. People were still out and about and Vale was alive.
Before he could respond, Nicholas called over to him, "Jaune, can I talk to you for a bit back here?"
Jaune quickly nodded to his family and told them it'd be a moment, "Yeah? What's up?"
"Suppose this might not be the best time, but it might be the only time we have alone, so I'll talk to you here," said his father, taking his son aside from everyone else. "I'd think you would want to know why I never let you be a Huntsman, refused to train you and whatnot."
"Yeah, that would be nice," said Jaune. "So why?"
"I suppose it's pretty simple, I just didn't want you to end up like so many of my friends," Nicholas' fist clenched, his dad seemingly not noticing, "They had the same mentality as you, wanting to go be a hero and save everyone, and where did that get them? Killed."
His dad's eyes glazed over, lost in thought, "Son, our family come from a long line of Huntsman, and there was always a rule that you had to marry a Hunter." he laughed roughly, "Suppose I ended that with Juniper, dad disowned me right there and then." Nicholas breathed in and out rhythmical, clenching and releasing his hand, "He was a right bastard, my dad."
Jaune stood there openmouthed. What was he going to say to that? Not wanting your children to die was a valid reason, but he was old enough to make his decision then right? He wouldn't argue with his dad here, the past was the past and he didn't have the energy to make a scene, nor did he want to. He gathered his wits again, and replied with the only thing he could, "Shit."
Nicholas glared at him, before shaking his head, "Don't let your mother hear you say that. Well, it's all the past now son. I can't say I ever expected you to become a mercenary, but-" he waved his arm over to Vi and Lavender, "I can't say my stereotype of the guy in it only for the money still holds up anymore. I can see I made a mistake judging your company. I'll let you do this Jaune, but only on one condition."
"What's that?"
"Come back home safe son, I don't need to bury another body."
Jaune blinked hard. He never really considered just the dangers of the job, death, killing, and more. If he died while at Beacon, he would've never been able to say goodbye to his family, they would have been left knowing their little brother, son, or big brother had run away from home and gotten himself killed in a foolish adventure. His eyes turned to Lavender and Vi, who were busy talking to his sisters. If they got killed? In the short eight weeks of training, his section had grown closer than he had with anyone else, embracing the suck together so to say. He couldn't imagine how he'd react if any of them got killed.
"I promise dad," said Jaune. Without another thought, he stepped forward and drew his dad into a hug.
"That's what many of my friends said..." Nicholas said, muffled into his shoulder. He drew away and held him by his shoulder. "Enough of this stuff, let's get back to your friends. Go on, I promise I won't bite them. Probably."
Jaune chortled as he walked back to the group, "Nice joke," he paused when he saw the serious look on Nicholas' face, "Or not…?"
Nicholas ruffled his hair and pushed him towards his sisters, "Doesn't matter, I'm hearing your sisters want to take you shopping?"
Sable jumped beside him, drawing him close to her, "Mhm! Because we can't have you going everywhere dressed like this."
"Why not?"
Sable rolled her eyes dramatically, "Because you have the fashion sense of a Boarbatusk, and we also get to dress your friends up! Now let's go and spend all this new money you apparently got from your new job!" and she skipped off like she was ten years old even when she was twenty one. Grabbing Lavender and Vi forcefully along the way, she motioned for Jaune to follow. Both Lavender and Vi had expressions that told him, help me!
He stood open mouthed for a second, before starting to try and catch up with his sister again, running past his two friends with similar expressions. He looked to his mom for help, and she just shrugged and pointed to Sable. Jaune yelped when Sable took hold of them all and once and started dragging them off to the nearest department store. She pulled along the three resisting Contractors with barely any effort. They definitely resisted and did not just let her pull them along. Jaune only could laugh at this, it felt just like when they were little.
Life was good.
Wait, what was that about using his money?
Thanks for reading.
Slower chapter, talking to his family and stuff. It's also a shorter chapter because, well I sort of have been browsing memes lately. Also because this chapter didn't need as much material in it for what I wanted to convey, or try to convey at least. I'm just going to leave it at that before I start yelling God is a Serb.
Wait did I just say that?
Oh well, again, if you have anything to say, leave a review. Really I love those so I can boost my low self esteem- wait what?
On another note, online school is starting so whether there will be another update next week is sort of up in the air. I'll probably get it up in two weeks at the very latest. I'll leave now, see ya all later.