Chapter 8
A/N: To address the reviews, thanks for all the support and oh boy did I get a few ideas for future events in the story. But also yeah Weiss is gonna lose it when she learns what has happened but hey more enjoyment for us as we watch, well read, about the meltdown. Probably not the way Jaune wanted to thaw Weiss though right? Also to the guy who said it's not well written sorry but I'm no professional writer. You want that, go read a published book or authors like Coeur, it's my first publication and honestly I don't think it's that bad. I did write that in the second chapter though so clearly they didn't see the improvement. (I feel like it's gotten better over the chapter progression anyway.) Anyway I might go back and touch up the chapters now after getting more used to writing after this chapter but it should probably improve more as one of my last classes is heavy writing focused so I'll hopefully get some good feedback in there. Quick rundown on the Arc Family situation, it'll be explained in the chapter during small talk so look for that to put some concrete ish details in place. I say concrete ish because having to guesstimate as not much is really known besides Jaune and Saphron are the only ones to leave home. Once again any ideas or suggestions for the story on events or how to improve leave a review or message me. Enjoy the new chapter!
As light filtered through the curtains drawn around the windows Jaune began waking up to the now familiar feeling of warmth laying on him. Smiling to himself as he looked down, he tried to remember any nights where he had such a good sleep like he had recently but to no avail.
A small frown began to creep onto his face as he realized he was going to have to return to Beacon soon in the coming days.
Opening her eyes to see Jaune's frowning face Willow hugged him tighter before asking what was wrong.
"What do you mean?"
"You were frowning, that's what I mean."
"Oh, yeah I was just thinking about how this is going to have to come to a close as I'll be needing to head back to Beacon."
"Yes, you will need to be heading back in a few days but for now let's just enjoy each other's company, hm?"
Letting out a small laugh, Jaune let his head fall back so he was staring up at the ceiling before wrapping his arms around her and letting his eyelids close. "Fair enough Willow, fair enough." Jaune said before his eyelids drooped shut again.
*A few hours later*
"Jaune, come on Jaune, it's time to get up. No sleeping all the day away, we still got stuff to do."
"Huh?" Came the knights reply as he blinked open his eyes to see Willow looming over him.
"It's almost noon sleepyhead, it's time to get up." Willow said as she playfully flicked Jaune's forehead.
"Ow." Jaune groaned as he sat up.
"Aw, did I hurt you? Want me to give it a kiss to make it feel better?" Willow teased.
"You realize I have seven sisters right?"
"And?" Willow said not sure what that had to do with anything.
"Well that just means there was a lot of pranks and teasing that happened so I think that's something I can out do you in." Jaune said with a smirk.
"Maybe in a few years Jaune. Now get up, you have more studying to do!" Willow said finishing the last part with overly dramatic enthusiasm.
"Can't I just go back to bed?" Jaune moaned as he flopped back on to the bed.
"No, you got a headmaster to impress as well as a whole company to help run in the future. No slacking off." Willow said as a motherly stern tone rose to the surface.
"Man you're harsher than Goodwitch and I thought she was a drill sergeant." Jaune said as he got up to start his day.
Meanwhile back at Beacon a certain blonde professor sneezed during her lecture to the first year students.
"Bless you professor Goodwitch."
"Thank you Weiss." Professor Goodwitch said as she regained her composure and went back to lecturing.
"You're welcome, professor." Weiss replied with a smile.
"Kiss ass." Yang mumbled as she looked at Weiss before going back to taking notes.
After getting dressed Jaune made his way towards the kitchen grabbing two sandwiches and heading towards his study where he was met with Klein once again sitting in the chair in front of the desk.
"Hello Klein." Jaune said as he set his plate on the desk and looked at the books placed upon the desk.
Doing a double take though he looked at the books closer and saw they weren't the normal textbooks you could find but there were quite a few binders about dust. Specifically the dust compatibilities of his weapon and armor in what seems to be notes written by Dr. Polendina.
"Are these?" Jaune said as he looked towards Klein.
"Indeed they are. Dr. Polendina stopped by this morning when you and the misses were still asleep so I put them on the desk for when you might show up. Speaking of, I see lunch is ready so you read those and I'll go help myself to lunch. Once I get back we'll review a few more notes on dust, international laws, before I'll send you off to Winter and your father. " Klein said as he put his book down and got up from his chair to go get lunch.
Jaune audibly groaned as he plopped down in the chair and grabbed the first of the manuals noticing this one talked about his armor. Specifically the boots and the potency/amount to be used for desired weight reduction results.
Reading through the manual he underlined and highlighted a few sentences that he thought the most important. After putting one down he picked up the one for his weapon which was bigger in comparison.
This one went over dust compatibility for all of the sword's and the shield's aspects, the grade and refinement of the dust. Looking through the manual carefully he highlighted and underlined the types and grades of dust, although with the SDC being so accessible now dust's grade shouldn't be an issue.
Once he had finished underlining and highlighting in the manual Klein walked back in holding a plate of his own with various foods.
"Ah I see I'm right on time." Klein said as he set down the plate by the chair he had been sitting in. "Well since you're done here's a packet of notes to review later. I'll send more advanced ones in a few weeks to your Beacon dorm too so you can keep studying."
"Gee, thanks Klein. I guess it's time for actual training." Jaune replied as he took the manuals and left the study.
"Indeed it is Jaune. Have fun." Klein called after him as he sat down in the chair and began eating as he chuckled to himself "Good luck kid you're going to need it."
Meanwhile out in the courtyard Winter and Nicholas were doing some light sparring both seeming a little annoyed that Jaune was taking so long to get there.
"So when do you think he's going to show up?" Winter asked Nicholas as she delivered a strike with her saber.
"I don't know, why don't you call daddy and ask?" Nicholas replied with a playful smirk as he parried the blow.
"Shut up and answer the question, old man!" Winter said as she tried for another blow.
"Old man?" Nicholas asked with some irritation in his voice, before he parried the blow and moved in for the finishing blow.
Winter tried to bring her saber up but the force of the blow knocked the saber down before Nicholas brought his left foot around and swept her legs out from under her before pointing his sword at her throat.
"How's it feel to get beat by an old man, specialist?" Nicholas said with a cocky grin plastered all over his face.
Nicholas let out a laugh as the two heard the doors opening nearby and looked to see Jaune walking out into the courtyard dressed in his new armor with his new weapon hanging on his belt.
"Uh, hi guys, am I interrupting something?"
"No Jaune we were just doing some sparring as we waited for you to arrive." Winter answered as she stood up.
"Arriving late is never a good look son." Nicholas said as he added his two cents.
"Sorry. Was reading up on the manuals about my armor and weapon." Jaune replied as he sheepishly rubbed the back of head.
"Hey Jaune, speaking of that, did you ever decide on a name for your new weapon?" Winter said as she looked at the weapon on the knight's hip.
"Uh, you know I never think I did."
"You got any ideas then?" Winter asked.
"Crocea Mors means "yellow death" in old Valean right?"
"Yes, that's correct son." Nicholas answered, watching his son with curiosity to see what he would pick.
"Well the blade is silver like the Crocea Mors, and it has golden trim similar to Crocea Mors as well so maybe Crocea Mors Mk II?" Jaune said seemingly having no idea.
"Seems too generic." Winter said as she put a hand on her chin in thought.
"What if you go see Dr. Polendina again and see about getting something custom done to the blade. Some more personalization if you will." Nicholas suggested.
"That might actually work. He did create the weapon so he's bound to know a technique or two to color the blade without painting it." Winter said, reaffirming Nicholas' suggestion.
"That's a good idea. I'll go do it right now!" Jaune said as he sprinted the other way in the courtyard only for a glyph to appear blocking the exit. "Darn it, so close." Jaune said as he lowered his head and turned around and walked back to the duo.
"Alright so first off we'll focus on some basic dodging. This way in case the sword and shield still need to be new for coloring it'll be fine.
"Alright so how do we start the train- '' Jaune began but was interrupted as he dove out the way of, of a wrench? Turning back to his two "teachers" he saw his father and Winter holding MORE wrenches with downright evil smiles on their faces.
"Uh guys?"
"If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge an Ursa." Nicholas said before proceeding to throw another wrench at Jaune.
"I don't think that's how it works!" Jaune shouted as he narrowly dodged the thrown object.
"Well technically the quote was about dodging balls, If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball." Winter said as she stood next to Nicholas.
"THEN WHY AREN'T WE USING BALLS? SHOULDN'T IT ALSO GO IN REVERSE?"
"We were all out." Nicholas and Winter replied with a shrug, "Besides this is more fun, for us anyway." The duo said as they both threw another wrench at Jaune, laughing at the same time.
"Where did this blasted idea come from?" Jaune asked as he narrowly dodged another wrench.
"I saw it in a movie once." Nicholas said.
"So what happened in the movie?" Jaune said, trying to cause a conversation so he could catch his breath.
"I don't know, I fell asleep before it ended. Now dodge!" Nicholas said as he threw another wrench at Jaune.
Meanwhile in a corridor facing the courtyard Willow was walking down the hallway when she heard the commotion coming from the courtyard and decided to look out to see what the hubbub was about.
"Are they, are they throwing wrenches?" She asked no one in particular, before she began making her way to the courtyard.
"What's going on here!" Willow shouted as she opened the door and walked out into the courtyard.
"They're throwing wrenches at me!" Jaune said as he gasped for breath.
"I can see that. May I ask why my daughter and father in law are throwing wrenches at my husband?"
"Well if he can dodge a wrench he can-" Winter began only to be cut off by Willow.
"Yes yes, I saw that movie too. He's not playing dodgeball though he's fighting Grimm and classmates and or bad people. So what purpose does this exercise hold?" Willow asked with a stern tone.
"Uh, I don't know. I guess it was just something we wanted to do." Nicholas said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Well if you're going to do it, do it properly. Your throwing form is off." Willow said as she grabbed a wrench from her daughter.
"Oh come on, not you too." Jaune whined.
"Shush dear, just focus on dodging this." Willow said and then immediately threw the wrench.
"Will you guys stop it!" Jaune shouted after the wrench just barely grazed him.
"Yeah, that's probably enough of that." Nicholas said as he dropped the two wrenches he still had.
"Alright, good. Now we can get on to the actual exercises." Jaune said, happy he was no longer going to have to dodge anymore wrenches.
"Alright now we're going to both take turns striking you and you need to parry or dodge the blows with your shield." Winter said as she tossed Jaune a standard shield she had someone fetch before she moved to close in on Jaune.
"Like now?" Jaune asked as her blade struck his shield. "Guess we're starting now." Jaune mumbled as he saw his father approaching him, sword poised to strike as well.
A few hours later Jaune, Winter, and Nicholas were covered in sweat while Willow and Juniper were seated comfortably under an umbrella where they had watched the practice happen from.
"Well, dears, I think it's time for everyone to get cleaned up. Got hit the showers you three. Our water heater should be plenty capable of handling three people showering at once. Go on now you three." Willow said as she stood up and began making her way inside, with Juniper following behind.
A collection of yes dear and yes mom was heard as the three made their way inside to their respective bathrooms to shower.
While the three of them were showering Willow and Juniper talked some more about just simple small talk until Juniper mentioned them having to leave soon, like tomorrow to return home.
"You know the manor is quite big, you all could just move in here." Willow said as she reached for one of the cups of tea placed upon the coffee table.
"I would but Amber and Lavender are still in school so I wouldn't want to disrupt that. They'll be moving out to combat school or university so we'll see what comes then. The others are all out kind of doing their own thing but they still live at home. Sort of anyway."
"You know I've heard that being in a house after the last of the kids have flown the coop is quite lonely I hear." Willow said.
"Yes I've heard from a friend it's terribly hard so I might take you up on that offer later on. You got enough room for the other children should they want to move in?"
"Would they want to move back in?"
"They will when they find out who the in-laws are." Juniper said with a chuckle.
"That would do it." Willow agreed with a laugh of her own. "So what do they all do?"
"Well Saphron is the oldest, she's also the only one to truly move out. She lives in Argus with her wife Terra and their son Adrian."
"Their son? You said you only have daughters so how?"
"Oh they uh worked around that. Saphron's wife Terra had the baby with a little science help."
"You mean artificial insemination?"
"Yeah that." Juniper said with a blush.
"You know you have to be careful when doing that kind of stuff. I've heard horror stories from some people I know in Atlas high society about that. Did they have a trusted donor?" Willow asked before noticing the blush on Juniper's face.
"Wait a minute. Juniper you don't mean…"
"Yes uh Jaune is technically the father of Adrian as he was the donor. They wanted a child of their own and this felt better to them than just some random guy. That it's still an Arc-Cotta baby you know?"
"Wow, I guess calling him daddy isn't too far off then huh?"
"Just don't tell him I said that, and act surprised if he admits to you his nephew is a bit closer to him than that."
"At least the child will grow up to be a great adult if Jaune is any indication."
"Yes, yes he will. Anyway, moving on from that, the next oldest is the twins Sable and Coral."
"Twins huh?"
"Yes they were quite the handful. Anyway they're huntresses and they help out in town with grim cullings and often go to other nearby villages and settlements when needed."
"Is it safe to say they wanted to be like Nicholas as well?"
"More than likely. They've both always been pretty free spirited so it was pretty safe to assume they wouldn't take 9-5 jobs working at some office somewhere or somewhere with rules." Juniper said as she let out a small laugh.
"Sounds like being a huntress is a good fit for them then."
"It is quite fitting, now who's next, oh yes Hazel. She's twenty one and she helps run the bake shop in town. She'll probably be taking it over in a few years when Lionel retires."
"Being entrusted with her own business at such a young age. That's very impressive. It speaks highly of her skill."
"Yes well she's been helping out there since she was fourteen. She always loved cooking and baking so when Lionel mentioned needing help she practically lept at him to get the job." Juniper said, recalling the memory with a smile.
"The next one is Jade, she's two years older than Jaune. She's currently doing a degree in information systems online from home."
"Oh, is she good at information systems and all that stuff? We could always use new fresh blood to help out around headquarters and contribute ideas. Have her send a resume and maybe we could have some fun with her." Willow said as several ideas on how to playfully mess with her new family members popped into her head.
"I'll be sure to tell her." Juniper replied with a laugh.
"Of course after Jade is Jaune so I won't spend much time talking about him, being as you're married to him. After Jaune are the two youngest ones Lavender and Amber with Lavender being fifteen and Amber being thirteen."
"You said they're still in school right?" Willow asked as she sipped some more of her tea.
"Yeah they're both still in school back home, although it wouldn't be too hard to get them to come visit. School isn't that strict back in Ansel."
"Well maybe you can all come visit over break and we can get to know each other better."
"I'll see but that would probably work. I don't think Nicholas or I had anything planned for the upcoming break."
"Well then I'll look forward to the upcoming visit. It's still a shame though that you and Nicholas are leaving tomorrow. It's been nice having more people around."
"Well maybe you can see about setting up other SDC offices in the other three countries. Like branch offices you know?"
"Hmm. I know Jacques looked into it but never made any moves on it. Maybe his documents about it are still around somewhere. I'll go look for them, at the very least it might anger Ironwood and the council." Willow said with a laugh as she said a quick goodbye to Juniper before going to search for the branch office expansion documents.
"Now where to search." Willow said as she put a hand on her chin. "That man seemed to live in his study so I should probably start there. Although if he deemed it not worthwhile he might've thrown it somewhere, but I gotta start somewhere."
While Willow and Juniper were doing their small talk in the seating area of Jaune had showered, changed clothes, and put back on his armor and sheathed his weapon on his hip because why physically carry all that to Dr. Polendina's office when he could just wear it there?
One short bullhead ride later, Jaune hopped off the bullhead and began walking towards the office/laboratory.
He had rounded a corner and bumped into someone before both went stumbling to the ground.
"Well well tall, blond, and taken, we meet again." Neon said as she smiled down at the knight laying out on his back on the floor.
"Hi Neon, uh you mind getting off of me?" Jaune asked, having to fight the instinct to rub the back of his head as he currently couldn't due to being pinned to the floor.
"I don't know," Neon replied cheekily, "This is pretty comfy." Neon said with a smirk.
"Really?" Jaune replied with a raised eyebrow. "The cold metal armor is comfy?"
"Ok fine." Neon said with a smile as she got up and offered a hand to Jaune, before pulling him up.
"So whatcha doing here Jaune? Not like you got classes or anything."
"Yeah I'm on my way to see Pietro. See if he can do something about changing the color of my sword, maybe the armor. The sword is a bit more important because I'm having trouble making a name for it. Crocea Mors II doesn't really sound all that creative."
"So what are you thinking?"
"I don't know. I need to know if there's anything that can be done to the blade's color first. I'd like to follow a similar pattern."
"Similar pattern?" Neon asked with a confused look on her face.
"It's old Valean. Crocea Mors means yellow death. So maybe change the color and keep the death part?" Jaune half suggested - half asked.
"Hmm, why is it called yellow death? The blade isn't really yellow."
"No but the cross guard, pommel, and the line down the blade is."
"That's what you do then."
"What?" Jaune asked as now it was his turn to be confused.
"What's white in Old Valean?" Neon asked.
"It uh, hmm. Oh right it's alba would be white. However mors is feminine so candida might be better as it means pure white."
"Candida Mors huh? I think I like that." Neon said as she tapped her chin.
"Well I would need to change the sword still as white death when most of the sword is still yellow/gold." Jaune said.
"Don't worry, just make the cross guard and pommel like the white line in the new sword and call it white death." Neon said in a matter of fact tone.
"Can that be done though? Because I don't think it's just easily changeable." Jaune said less matter of factly.
"Right, you might be my boy." Dr. Polendina said as he maneuvered down the hall. "Although I do believe Crocea Mors was called that name because of the yellow gold line in the blade, not so much the cross guard and pommel."
"So what do I do, Pietro?"
"Well there's usually a few options when it comes to blade's coloring. One option is quenching in oil. Another option is heat bluing however I've only seen it done on armor so I'm not sure about weapons. The armor would probably be a good move though. Make the gold trim, and crests pop more. Maybe we'd need to change your cloak to maybe white and gold trim? Hmm."
"Um, Pietro?"
"Right right, sorry. Anyway I know of another option and this would just give your blade a white shine."
"A white shine?" Jaune replied, trying to picture how that would look.
"Well it would be more of a matte white. This would consequently give more of a pop to whatever dust you put into the blade vial as well."
"Interesting. How does it work?" Jaune asked, now very curious.
"WELL, it's a bunch of science mumbo jumbo, but to simplify it, I put a coat of a mineral on the blade before dunking it in a chemical I've been working on. This causes a chemical reaction with the mineral bonding it to the blade and coating it in a matte white."
"Does that do anything to the blade, because I feel like a chemical reaction might not be best."
"Yeah that definitely doesn't sound beneficial to the blade." Neon said adding her own two cents.
"Well, let's go back to my lab. We'll finish talking there." Pietro said with a sly smile as he began "walking" back to his office.
*One short walk later*
"Alrighty then. Anyway as I was saying this chemical I've been developing and it's actual purpose was for strengthening the blade. The other mineral was just an accident I discovered that helped trigger it."
"So it makes blades stronger?" Jaune said, trying to confirm just what he had heard.
"Not just blades Jaune this could likely be applied to everything. Dr. Polendina! The amount of stuff this could be applied to is enormous." Neon said excitedly.
"Yes yes, limitless potential however I will still need to test it on stuff like bullheads, guns, armor, etc. For right now though I know the blades work so let's focus on that, yes?" Dr. Polendina said as he accepted the weapon from Jaune.
"Give me 10 minutes and I'll be back." Pietro said before going into the back room connected to the lab which had a sign on the door saying "DANGER. Chemical storage."
"So whatcha wanna do for 10 minutes Jaune?" Neon asked.
"Well I got a deck of cards, want to play poker?" Jaune suggested.
"Strip poker?" Neon asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
"Neon, down girl." Jaune quipped back.
"You know that could be considered very racist." Neon replied as she plopped down. "Deal me in."
*Several one sided games of poker later*
"Alright boys and girls, I have successfully... changed… Jaune's… sword… blade. Uh, what happened here?" Pietro said his sentence being semi halted as he saw Neon sprawled out on the floor with numerous cards on her face and Jaune leaning against the wall nearby playing with his scroll.
"Oh, uh me and Neon played some poker and well I think I won too much and it broke her."
"He's too good at bullshit games!" Neon groaned/cried from under the cards.
"Right." Pietro said as he looked back towards Jaune. "Now then would you like me to heat blue the armor to give your armor a blue ish look?"
"Sure, why not."
"Such enthusiasm." Pietro said with playful sarcasm before looking expectantly towards the knight.
"Oh you mean like now." Jaune said as he started undoing the straps to his armor, before handing the pieces over to Pietro.
"This should take maybe an hour or so feel free to let others know your whereabouts. Also if Penny comes back please tell her not to disturb me while I'm doing this." Pietro said as he took the armor pieces and went towards the back room again.
Jaune pulled out his scroll and sent a quick message to Willow explaining that he was at Pietro's office and that he was going to be a little bit as some stuff was being done to both his armor and weapon.
A few minutes passed and a reply of "ok. Dinner should be ready when you get done so hurry home." The text was followed by a little pink heart.
With a small laugh Jaune sent a simple reply of see you then followed by a little pink heart as well.
"What's so funny, friend Jaune?" Came a that was a little too loud and a little too close to his ear.
"AHHH!" Jaune screamed as he fell to the side. "Penny!" Jaune all but shouted. "What the hell."
"The Hell?" Penny said with a questioning look. "According to the Standard Atlas Dictionary, "Hell is a place where religious citizens of the pre great war era believed all those who committed evil deeds went."" Penny said in a matter of fact dictionary tone.
"No Penny," Jaune said with a small laugh and sigh, "I was referring to why you shouted in my ear."
"Oh that's easy. I was excited to see you again, friend Jaune!" Penny said as she gave him a hug that rivaled Nora's.
"Penny, can't breathe." Jaune croaked out as Neon laughed from where she was seated.
"Penny, please release Jaune. He needs air before he passes out." Flynt said as he entered the room.
"Sorry Jaune." Penny said as she released the knight, who then plopped to the ground after being free of Penny's hug.
"So what's up you two? Why are you in Dr. Polendina's office?" Flynt asked.
"Well I wanted to get some personalization done on my weapon and armor so we came to see Pietro. He's working on it right now but he said it was going to take an hour or so."
"We should play a game to pass the time then." Penny said eager to hang out with her friends.
"Sure, whatcha got in mind?" Jaune asked the energetic girl.
"Well father has Remnant: The Board Game, we can play that."
"Sure I'll play." Jaune said.
"Why not, sounds fun." Flynt said as he sat down.
"Oh no, I got a bad feeling about this." Neon mumbled to herself as she came over to the group and sat down as well.
"Ok Jaune, I've finished-" Pietro began as he exited the back room but stopped mid sentence when he saw the room.
Jaune and Penny were still seated around the board decks in hand looking like what he thought was a deadlock situation while Flynt and Neon were slumped against each other by the wall.
"Uh might I inquire what is happening here?" Pietro asked, the confusion evident on his face.
A reply of "Not now father." and "Not now Pietro." came from Penny and Jaune after which Jaune played a card with a satisfied smirk and Penny didn't seem pleased about the card he just played.
With an audible sigh he turned to Flynt and Neon who were slumped against each other. He placed a hand on Flynt's shoulder and shook him slightly.
"Uh wah? Oh, Dr. Polendina. What's up?" Flynt said with a yawn.
"Just Pietro is fine my boy but what in the world happened here?"
"Well we all decided to play Remnant: The Board Game and well Jaune and Penny are monsters. I mean the level of planning those two have. The absolutely demolished us."
"Interesting, if I may, how long have they been playing, just the two of them?"
"Uh," Flynt said as he checked his watch, "about forty minutes or so. We both got beat pretty quickly when we started playing."
"Fascinating. To think they'd been at a stalemate that long." Pietro said, which was quickly followed by a shout of "NOOOO!" from over where the two teens were playing.
Flynt and Pietro looked over to see Penny hanging her head in defeat and a satisfied looking Jaune.
"Ha-ha. Very funny friend Jaune. Just so you know I will win when we have a rematch." Penny said with determination.
"I'll be looking forward to it." Jaune said as reached out a hand for a handshake but Penny quickly moved for a hug instead, once again enveloping him in another bear hug that reminded him of Nora's.
"Penny can't breathe…again" Jaune managed to croak out once more.
"Oops sorry Jaune." Penny said with a big smile.
"Glad to see you two getting along, more good friends are always useful no matter where life takes you. Anyway, Jaune, your armor and sword are ready if you can come with me."
Jaune looked like a kid on the morning of Dustmas as he eagerly followed the professor to the back room before a "Woah," was heard from the back room as the three remaining occupants of the main room looked at each other just as excited to see Jaune's new look.
Meanwhile in the back Jaune was looking at the armor and weapon combo. The armor, having been heat blued, was now an elegant shade of blue and was shining bright, evidence of a polish Pietro must've put on it. The armor's blue helped to make the Schnee and Arc crests on the pauldrons standout more.
The weapon looked amazing as well with, the weapon's blade now sporting a matte white coat to it and the edge showing it having been checked up on once again after the coating was applied to it.
"This, this is amazing, Pietro. Thank you so much. You not only helped me get a new weapon and new armor, you helped me personalize it again after the first time. This means a lot to me."
"As your friendship to my daughter means a lot to me. As a father there is nothing more I want to do than give my child the world. Seeing her make good friends, friends I know that'll be those she can depend on like you. That my dear boy is enough for me." Pietro said as he placed a hand on the young knight's shoulder.
Jaune gave Pietro a hug before moving to the armor and beginning to put the suit on again. After putting on the armor and attaching Candida Mors to his belt, Jaune looked himself over in the mirror and turned to walk out of the back room towards Neon, Flynt, and Penny.
"Wow." Was the response from all three of them as Jaune walked out of the backroom.
"Looking even better blondie." Neon said as she looked Jaune over.
"I gotta agree with Neon. The new look looks killer." Flynt said with a nod.
"Friend Jaune, you look lovely." Penny said with a smile.
"Thanks guys." Jaune said a light blush before continuing, "Well I gotta get back home so I'll see y'all later." Before giving a quick wave to his friends.
"Bye Jaune." Came the reply from the three as Jaune walked to the door before a "Wait!" came from behind him.
"Here." Pietro said as he handed Jaune a sheet of paper.
"What's this?" Jaune asked as he lifted the paper to see what was on it.
"These are instructions on how to clean and what cleaning agents to use to best keep the color on your armor and weapon." Pietro answered.
"Thank you Pietro. You be sure to come see in Vale sometime, alright?"
"Will do Jaune, and remember my door is always open. My scroll is too, just don't call me at 2:30 in the morning to come bail your butt out of jail." Pietro said with a laugh.
"Have people done that?" Jaune asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Unfortunately." Pietro said with a sigh.
"Well, I'm going to head out now. For real this time. Bye everyone." Jaune said once again and with a wave he walked out of Pietro's office and towards the Atlas Academy bullhead docks one last time. For this trip anyway.
"He's going to be a formidable foe in the Vytal Festival isn't he?" Neon said as she looked towards her partner after Jaune had left
"Jaune?" Flynt asked before seeing his partner give a nod. "Yeah with a little training he will be very strong, that's for sure."
"Oh you guys have no idea." Pietro said with a chuckle as he went back to typing an email on his computer.
"What do you mean father?" Penny asked
"Well," Pietro said before turning to face the three students. "With the training he's been getting here with Winter and his father, he'll be tough following that regimen. With the training at Beacon, and continuing what his father and Winter gave him, he'll be very tough."
"So like I said he'll be tough right?" Neon replied.
"No you don't understand, his partner at Beacon is Pyrrha Nikos. THE Pyrrha Nikos, the very one who won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row and graduated top of her class from Sanctum and she will undoubtedly be helping him train. He's going to be a monster in the ring now with my upgrades and his new training." Pietro said looking a little too pleased about how his upgrades helped a rival academy's student.
"Damn it." Neon said as she fell back onto the floor trying to figure out how to deal with the new emergence of what would undoubtedly be a very strong opponent in the Vytal Festival and also wanting to strangle Pietro, who had began laughing from over at his desk.
Seated in his office, General Ironwood was going through the paperwork he'd usually have Winter help out with when an email notification popped up on his monitor. Seeing it was from Pietro he clicked on it before reading it's contents.
"Jaune beat Penny? In Remnant: The Board Game?" Ironwood said out loud in disbelief. "HOW?" The man questioned before typing up an email to send back to Pietro, saying he wanted to know how and to see if Pietro could pull the footage from his office to see what happened. Beating Penny was unheard of in a strategy setting, she was an AI built for that purpose with limitless access to knowledge being how easily she could learn stuff. Sometime the wrong stuff, Ironwood shuddered recalling the time he had to explain the difference between girlfriend, boyfriend, and boy friend and girl friend.
Looking back down he reread the email draft he typed up before clicking the send button and turning to face out his window.
"So that's what you saw in him, huh Ozpin." Ironwood said as he brought up a mug of Atlas Black and took a sip before continuing to look out the window deep in thought.
Schnee Manor, Atlas
Jaune stared once again at the doors of the Schnee manor and thought to himself "You know I've always wanted to do this. No time like the present."
Sucking in a big breath Jaune threw open one of the doors, managing to shout "Honey, I'm home!" before he started laughing at his own joke.
"Well welcome back dear." Willow said as she walked towards the knight.
"Good to be back, although I'm afraid this is my last night here for this trip. I've been informed by Ozpin that I'm due back at school. He's giving me tomorrow to travel and get resettled but I got to be in class the day after."
"It's alright dear." Willow said as she pulled him into a hug, before continuing, "I know you have to go back to school, it's where your team is and you need to follow your dream as well."
"I'm just sad we won't get to see each other." Jaune admitted, having grown fond of having someone to wake up next to in a romantic sense.
"Who says we will?" Willow said as she began walking towards the other areas of the house.
"Willow, what do you mean by that?" Jaune called after her.
"Come Jaune, dinner is ready." Willow replied, choosing to ignore the question.
"Willow, you didn't answer my question." Jaune said now a little nervous but excited at what his wife meant.
"If you don't come eat your food, mister, it will get cold and I won't let the chefs make you anymore tonight." Willow said in a stern motherly tone with a smirk plastered on her face.
"Yes dear." Jaune said as he began following her towards the dining room where he was greeted by Winter, Whitley, and both his parents already sitting at the dinner table. Winston was on the floor happily munching on his doggie food that was placed in his bowl.
"Hey everyone." Jaune said as he pulled out his chair and sat down.
About halfway through dinner Jaune decided to tell everyone the news. "Well everyone I have something I want to tell you all. Headmaster Ozpin has informed me that I am due back at Beacon tomorrow. He is going to give me tomorrow to travel but he expects me back in class."
"We'll be heading out tomorrow as well." Nicholas said to those present.
"Aw the house is going to be empty and boring again." Whitley said.
"You could always come visit Jaune's sisters at our house. I'm sure they'd love to get to know you. That invitation goes for you, Winter, and everyone else here. Including you, Jaune, come home and visit sometime." Juniper said as she looked at her son.
After getting rid of the mental image of Whitley in pigtails and a dress Jaune replied with "I will mom, I will. Don't you think it would make more sense to bring everyone here though like for a holiday if we are all getting together?"
"It does and we will, but your sisters, not to mention your father and I, would like to see you at home too I'm sure."
"I'll be sure to call at least while I'm at Beacon and I'll see about getting a flight out there for maybe one of our long weekends or something." Jaune said before taking another drink of his water.
"That's all I ask." Juniper replied as he continued eating the rest of her meal.
"Ironwood will probably want me to report back again for duties as well. I've been doing the things I can away from the office so to speak but I'll need to report in person some of the other matters." Winter said with a sigh.
"So that means it'll just be me again right?" Whitley said with a defeated sigh.
"Not exactly Whitley." Willow said with a smile. "I will be balancing my work life role so I'll be around a lot more. This past week or so has really shown me the importance of family, even more so than I thought it was. As such we will be doing fun things like going to movies, arcades, whatever you little heart desires for some fun. Winter can come along too in her free time." Willo said in a very you can come, but you will come tone.
"Of course mother, I wouldn't miss it for the world." Winter said with a smile, happy about the changes happening in her family.
After dinner, everyone sat around and talked for a little longer before everyone went their separate ways as it had gotten late and it was time to turn in for the night.
After doing the normal nightly routine of brushing teeth, mouthwash, etc. Jaune crawled into his bed before he felt two familiar arms wrap around him.
"Hey Willow." Jaune said without rolling over.
"Hello Jaune."
"Something on your mind? You usually would say more than "Hello Jaune." to me in these situations."
"Well there is something on my mind. Ever since that fateful night where we drunkenly wed things have been a little bit of a roller coaster ride. From the White Fang incident, the aura age regressing, your family showing up and mine becoming whole again, well almost whole but Weiss will come around. I hope."
"She will Willow, she will just give her time, nothing changes immediately."
"I know she will but that's just further to my point. Since you came around things have been trending upwards and you helped me and my family a lot so I wanted to give you a gift."
"A gift? Willow, you didn't have to buy anything. I'm your husband, helping you is something I want to do."
"Oh I didn't say I bought you anything." Willow said as she pulled herself tighter and pushed herself into Jaune's back.
"W-Willow?"
"Yes Jaune." Willow whispered in his ear.
"A-are you, is that?" Jaune tried to stammer out.
"Why don't you turn around and find out dear." Willow whispered in his ear once again.
With a gulp, Jaune rolled over and saw he was right in his assumption. There lying next to him was Willow Schnee in all her glory.
"See something you like Husband?" Willow said, putting emphasis on the last word.
"I.. uh.. I.." Jaune stammered out.
"Relax Jaune." Willow said as she rolled on top of him. "I got all the precautions ready, I know you aren't ready to be a father yet."
"All precautions?" Jaune asked, parroting Willow.
"Up to and including the other rooms that are next door to be renovated today." Willow said with a smirk as she motioned to the nightstand that had various items on it.
"Well, if you're okay with it." Jaune said with a small laugh as he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.
"Jaune I wouldn't be straddling you if I wasn't." Willow said with a deadpan look. "Now then," Willow said with a smirk as she leaned in towards him. "Time to rock your world."
"Oh yeah?" Jaune managed to shoot back with false confidence.
It was after this night, Jaune would stop doubting his wife, even in false bravado.
Morning came around again with light filtering through the windows woke Jaune up as he sighed knowing he'd have to go back to Beacon today but still excited to see his friends again.
Looking down he saw Willow was still asleep with her head on his chest, "I could never get tired of waking up like this." Jaune thought to himself before seeing Willow's eyelids flutter open.
"Good morning, beautiful." Jaune said with a smile.
"My my, someone seems to have more confidence. Good morning though Jaune." Willow said as she turned to see the clock on the nightstand before sighing. "As much as I hate to say it, we should probably get up. You got a long flight back to Beacon and we need to see your parents off too."
"I really didn't wanna get up." Jaune grumbled before sitting up and stretching.
As Jaune did this the door opened and Winter half walked in saying "Jaune your parents are- ohmyoumImsorry!" Winter hurriedly said before leaving the room about as fast as she finished her sentence.
"I guess we need to get dressed then huh?" Jaune said as he looked over to Willow.
"I guess so." Willow replied with a laugh and began getting dressed as Jaune moved to do the same.
After a few minutes of finding Willow's clothes, him getting into his huntsmen gear, and grabbing his bag, the duo walked out of the room to see a furiously blushing Winter.
"I swear I didn't see anything." She said as she looked at the very interesting ground.
"It's fine Winter, I was still covered by the covers for the most part anyway." Jaune said as he walked by her and towards the main area of the house to find his parents.
"You know dear daughter of mine, if you wanted to join in all you had to do was ask." Willow said with a wink.
"M-MOTHER I-I'D NEVER." Winter shouted as a fierce blush overtook her face, all the while Willow was laughing her way down the hall to find Jaune's parents as well.
"Hey mom, hey dad." Jaune said as he approached his parents, dropping his bag on the way.
"Aw come here." Juniper said as she pulled her son into a hug. "You look so grown up. Be safe at Beacon please, and give us a call every now and then." She said in her best you will call us, mister tone as she released Jaune from her hug.
"Come here son." Nicholas said before wrapping his son in another hug. "Do what your mother said please. It'll make my life so much easier. Also don't forget to call Willow. If I've learned anything after eight kids it's that communication is key." Nicholas said as he tried to give some good fatherly advice and unlike the "Just be confident." This advice was good and Jaune made a mental note to follow it.
"Communication is key huh? You didn't communicate on our 25th anniversary very well." Juniper said in mock frustration.
"Honey the mission took longer than expected and my scroll broke while on it, you know this." Nicholas said with a sigh.
"I know dear, I'm just not letting you forget." Juniper said with a sly smile.
"Fine, I'll make your favorite meal when we get home." Nicholas said with a defeated sigh.
"Yes." Juniper said as Jaune and now Willow and Winter, who had joined them at the front door, all laughed at the scene playing out in front of them.
"Thank you again Willow for letting us stay here." Nicholas said as he began walking towards the car that was waiting for them.
"Bye Willow. Bye Winter." Juniper said with a wave as she walked towards the car as well.
Once inside, both parents smiled at each other as the car drove off. Relieved that their son had found someone who'd be good for him and he'd be good for.
Back at the manor Jaune gave Winter and Willow a hug before going off to find Whitley to say goodbye. He found the boy still in his room fast asleep so he decided he'd give him a call later.
After walking back towards the front door and searching for and finding his bag he gave one last hug to both Willow and Winter and made his way to his own car that was waiting for him.
Waving out the window as it pulled out of the drive he sat back in seat and relaxed.
"You have a good stay here, boy?" Klein asked from the front seat.
"Indeed I did. I was a little nervous at first but everything worked out wonderfully in the end. I am going to miss them while I'm at school though as I probably won't get many chances to see them all." Jaune said a little disheartened by the fact.
"Oh I think you'll be surprised at the chances you'll get." Klein said with a chuckle as he maneuvered the car to the bullhead dock and parked the car.
"Alright Jaune we're here." Klein said as he stepped out and gave Jaune a hug. "Do be safe at Beacon boy. The misses would be heartbroken should something happen to you."
"Well don't worry I wouldn't ever want to make her sad."
"I know boy, I know." Klein said as he went back to the car and pulled a bag from the trunk before handing it to Jaune.
"What's this?" Jaune asked.
"That my boy is a parting gift. Farewell Jaune, see you again soon." Klein said as he hopped back into the car and drove off.
After watching the car drive off Jaune found the bullhead Beacon had sent for him and hopped on finding the nearest seat and sitting down. After he was seated he opened the bag Klein gave him to find… more textbooks.
"Dammit Klein." Jaune mumbled before pulling one and deciding he might as well read on the way back now that he had airsick medication and could do such tasks.
*Now arriving at Beacon. We hope you have had a wonderful flight, and thank you for flying with Bullhead Airways.* Came the voice over the speaker.
Jaune just looked at the pilot, "You really have to do that?"
"Hey man, humor me. I've always wanted to do that. Anyway we're here kid and it looks like you have a landing party so get off my ship."
"Yes sir." Jaune said, giving a mock salute before grabbing his bags and walking off while the pilot laughed in the cockpit.
Jaune was met with the usual greetings of his friends as he stepped off the bullhead. The calls of "Vomit boy" and "Jaune" welcomed him back before two blurs, one pink and white the other red and black crashed into him as he dropped his bags to return the hugs.
"Hey guys." Jaune said with a laugh before Ruby took a step back and went into full weapon mode as she started fluttering around him asking one hundred questions a minute about his new armor and weapon.
"What can I say, I got some upgrades." Jaune said with a laugh.
"I can see!" Ruby shouted excitedly. "I'm so glad you got a cape too! They're so cool aren't they. Aren't they?"
"The craftsmanship is remarkable on the suit Jaune. It even has the Arc logo on it." Pyrrha said as she chimed into the conversation and pointed to the Arc logo. "Who made these Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she pulled his sword from the sheath attached to his belt and began inspecting it.
"Oh it was a scientist/inventor by the name of Pietro Polendina." Jaune answered as he pulled the sheath off his belt and took his sword back from Pyrrha to show the group the weapon's capabilities.
"Pietro Polendina? Like THE Pietro Polendina? How in Oum's name did you manage that?" Weiss asked, now very curious.
"Uh, I just asked him when I saw him in his office." Jaune said confused on what was so hard to believe about that.
"But he's in Atlas, why would you have been there? Do you have family in Atlas?" Weiss asked, her suspicion levels growing.
"Well I used to have family in just Ansel and Argus but now I have family in Atlas too so that's where I went." Jaune said before realizing that he probably wasn't going to show anyone his new sword and shield and moving to put it away only to find it wasn't in his hand anymore?
Looking over he saw Ruby carefully inspecting the blade before opening the sheath into shield form and seeing the design on the shield.
"Uh Jaune, why is Weiss' family logo on your shield?" Ruby asked
"Well that's because-" Jaune tried to answer but after turning to face Ruby the other side of his armor faced the group and showed them the Schnee logo on his left side.
"It's not just his weapon, it's on his armor too." Yang said as she pointed to the logo on the knight's armor.
"I'm sure there is a very logical reason for this." Ren said, trying to interject some calm to the situation.
"It was you." Blake said as everything fell into place in her mind. "You're the blond huntsman that was protecting Willow. Then that must mean the SDC logo is on there because you worked/helped them." Blake said making a very convincing story that he would stick to for the time being.
"But Jaune-Jaune said he has family in Atlas now." Nora said, chiming in.
"He probably does." Yang said before continuing, "I know if someone saved my life they'd be like family to me." Yang said before an evil grin grew on her face as she turned to face Weiss more. "What if Weiss' mom decided to give ol Vomit Boy here her daughter's hand in marriage." Yang said with a cackle as Weis paled.
"She didn't, did she?" Weiss asked, afraid to know the truth.
"No, she didn't calm so Weiss down. You won't be calling me fiancé or any of the sort anytime soon." Jaune replied, making the heiress calm down.
"You know guys I really need to go put my bags in our room and you all need to get to class." Jaune said as he saw break was almost over.
"Don't worry Jaune-Jaune, Professor Port gave us the class off so we could go and welcome you." Nora said.
"Awe, that was nice of him. Could one of you grab my other bag then?" Jaune said as he grabbed the bag with the books in it.
"Sure I got it." Ruby said as she grabbed the bag that had been knocked back in the sudden hug, and started making their way over to the group. Only to stop about halfway when she heard a growl.
"Uh Jaune, your bag just growled at me." Ruby said as she began opening the zipper to the bag.
"Oh no." Jaune said as his face went pale.
After Ruby finished opening the zipper, out jumped Winston and he began running around making Blake leap into Yang's arms and hiss before Weiss grabbed him and brought him up towards her face.
"Well, aren't you just a cute little doggie?" Weiss said as she nuzzled the dog before seeing a snowflake tag on his collar. Using her other hand she steadied and read the tag.
"Well shit." Jaune said letting loose an audible sigh at the realization Winston somehow got into his bag.
"Hey what's this?" Weiss asked as she looked at the tag "Winston Schnee?" she said out loud before turning the tag to the other side. "WILLOW ARC-SCHNEE!" Weiss screeched as she dropped the corgi who ran behind Ruby to hide.
"Huh guess Jaune was right Weiss won't be calling him fiancé, she'll be calling him Daddy.'' Yang said with a laugh as said heiress proceeded to faint and fall to the floor as Ruby called out her partner's name.
"Dammit dog." Jaune said as he looked to the corgi who came over to stand by him and just wagged his tail before letting out a bark.
A/N: Oh Jaune, why do I do this to you? Well it could be worse for him right? No? Well anyway, that's the chapter I hope you enjoyed it. It's also the longest chapter to date as there was a lot to get to in this one. Feel free to leave a review or just PM me if you got suggestions for the story. Like I said I'll probably be updating the previous chapters in the coming weeks before I really start the new chapters. See everyone in the next update!