Hello again! A bit longer break between chapters, I apologize. As I mentioned, some Army training got in the way of my writings. What can you do, gotta get that moolah. Anyways, thank you as always for the enormous amount of follows and favorites. Though my most followed story is around 400, I've never seen such a constant flow of support. I will do my best to keep steady and provide a unqiue story. Any suggestions, predictions, and such are welcome. I have been doing this writing thing for a good eight years, so I have a general idea of where I want this story to go. The pacing and small time skips might be giving it away, but I still think I have a good plan that will keep everything original. Please enjoy the latest chapter!

CHAPTER 6 - Family Relations

Jaune had always had a good family life, considering everything he aspired for. His parents were always equal in their attention, sometimes more to properly help him grow in a group of seven sisters. Sure, he couldn't avoid the forceful dance lessons, sewing, and cooking that he had been forced into. And, sure, his attempts at his father training him had been less than fruitful in advancing his manhood. But it had all ended well enough, he figured.

Did he know how to serenade and flirt? No, not a clue. Did he have any sort of workout schedule? Not until he was taught by Pyrrha. What about literally any social skills at all? His sisters might have heavily hindered that as well. So, okay, maybe Jaune was held up by the goodwill of his current friends and teammates. It was fine. Compared to before he came to the academy for future hunters and huntresses, well, current Jaune was a solid fifteen pounds heavier, guarding a emotion-conflicted turned slightly, possibly, good villain taking them to meet and stay in the same house as his family.

Abilities, techniques, and pure mass had improved. Sure. Mental calculations for decision making? To be determined.

Cinder Fall and Jaune Arc stood in front of the Arc family household. A lakeside house in Ansel was a necessity to keep the pure number of energetic females of the family occupied, along with giving enough space to not stuff a family of ten into a household. There were always a few out in the back, or in the water for most of the months of the year. Which allowed Jaune's parents to delegate watching over younger Arcs to the older Arcs when the family sprinkled amongst the acres of land their family owned.

The house had been bought when Jaune had just hit double digits to finally expand from their single floor home, though at a extremely reasonable price for the renovation work that it held. Corda had taken it in stride, doing almost all of the renovations himself with Jaune's help with any heavy lifting. It was the first time Jaune had felt he was learning something truly proper about becoming an adult and embracing manhood.

Over the next years, Corda had cut the overflowing forest down in the backyard and front to expand the household's porch and back porch, even creating shelves, mantles over the fireplace, and the rest for the flooring in the subsequent multiple bedroom expansion. Jaune now looked at what had finally been completed in his absence, the abundance of windows around the house gave him peaks into his sisters' rooms.

He sighed, willing himself to get the motivation and courage to ring, even knock, to gain the attention of his parents and family. All the considerations and possibilities flew through his head, from if his dad would be the only one there and the cause and effects of such a situation to if everyone in his family would be there. What would his mother think about his stealing of the family heirloom, runaway status, and forging of documents?

Now that Jaune considered it, was he even prepared to broach the topic to his parents? So many questions flooded his mind while he stood next to Cinder. The thought of the fiery woman caused him to glance at her, the modest outfit she wore did nothing to help him from avoiding locking on to her. Even in a simple Beacon emblazoned shirt and reasonable shorts halfway down to her knees captivated him. The skin left to his viewing pleasure was beginning to cause him to second guess the modesty of her clothing, though it might have been the heat and panic at her noticing him looking at her that caused the thought.

Jaune focused on the less objectifying features of Cinder to calm him before he doomed them to whatever his parents had in store. Her straightforward tendencies would keep him grounded, able to properly digest whatever his parents would say. The way she knew his next move like he was telepathically choreographing it gave him peace that she would likely stop him from making himself look dumb, and thus stopping herself from looking dumb by association. Even her pure dominating presence would anchor Jaune to her, picking up his shortfalls to give him a fighting chance in making his case to his parents.

Or would he completely remove Cinder from the equation so she wouldn't find out about his falsified documents? It was the final card up his sleeve per say. And he had been saving it for the moment he felt that Cinder would completely tip over to him and away from her old life. Because what better way to show the similarities to each other than through how he had broken the law. Maybe it would be better to listen to his mother's old teachings and rip the band aid off before it got worse.

His mother always seemed to be right at the end of the day. But most band aids weren't ripped off of a drop dead gorgeous ex-terrorist that seemed to somewhat depend on him. At least until she was healed, then Jaune would have his doubts dealt with when nothing held her tied to him.

Jaune turned to Cinder, prepping himself for a moment, "Cinder before I go in there you have to be aware of something."

Cinder looked up from checking her nails out, "Jaune if you warn me about how I'll hear about you wetting your bed or the photo album of baby pictures then I might rip out your appendix."

"I thought that you don't really need the appendix." Jaune said.

"Correct," Cinder raised a brow, "Why would I want to kill you? I didn't say I would take anything mortally wounding out of you."

"How sweet of you Cin. I think." Jaune was still adapting to Cinder's niceties.

"Now, if you plan on passing us off as some eloped couple I would certainly have to castrate you." Cinder heated her palm, showing him her seriousness. "A girlfriend however, well, with an appropriate bribe could convince me."

"Are you asking me to seduce you with gifts Cinder?" Jaune grinned, knowing she had provided him the perfect in for some teasing. His immediate concerns with revealing his secret forgotten for the moment. "I knew you were forward, but still."

Cinder stuttered her first words out, a sparse happening for her, "P-wha-well, I wouldn't deny any courtings in such a way. It is how it should be done after all, I am not so easily won over by lies and folly. However, all I was saying is that I understand the benefits of a purely business relationship during our time here."

Jaune chuckled at her backtracking, "Right, and how could you possibly benefit from our fake relationship? You just began even telling me the time of day a few weeks ago. I'd like to call us friends at least."

"That's acceptable," Cinder conceded, "I only mention this because of my studies through the Belladonna and Ruby's teachings I have received. A recurring situation is an eerily similar mirror to this. Nonetheless, I understand the perks of having an Arc in my pocket. The rich history of your family, and you yourself being a fifth generation hunter is nothing short of credibility by association. It's a strictly symbiotic relationship for our time here, you will likely receive less flak from your parental units and I will have more on my side to convince Ozpin of my, how do you say it? Reformation."

It wasn't a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all. He could completely avoid telling her his problems with the school through a simple verbal confirmation. Jaune and his parents would ask for a short bout of privacy and he would rip that old band aid off. The somewhat fresh one could wait a bit longer.

Jaune's finger hovered over the doorbell, "I see, that does sound pretty good. You know we'll probably have to act pretty close considering that's kinda part of the job."

"Hah," Cinder scoffed, "What do you take me as? Some sort of virgin woman with no experience even considering the world I lived in for years?"

Jaune let the silence stretch as he tried to figure out if the questions were rhetorical, "Are you?"

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it?" Cinder mumbled back.

"Nothing mi' lady," Jaune chuckled, swinging an arm and bowing. "I would hope you would have figured out by now that I look at the menu, not order without permission from the waitress."

A twinge of a smile graced Cinder's lips, "Of course, what was I thinking. Your boorishness is so putrid sometimes, I forget your gentlemanly upbringing."

"Well if you say it like that, I totally understand." Jaune held out his hand, prepping it for a shake from his counterpart. "Okay, I guess we should make this official. Cinder Fall, would be so kind to be my girlfriend?"

"We can establish rules and constraints later lover, let's get on with this." Cinder met him in the middle, a rarity for her.

Their deal left Jaune with one thing left to do: actually enter his own house. A simple action, nothing to it, and if he was nice he would even knock or ring the doorbell. But his hand continued to hover, still not ready to face them. Even with his accomplishments backing him, his fake-girlfriend, and his skyrocketing improvement at school, Jaune knew it would be all for naught if they received him poorly.

He wanted to know that even though it was a spur of the moment decision to leave, it was the right one. One that his family would inevitably support, that he would have to attempt to make up for. Jaune wasn't stupid, he understood the danger he had put himself and his fellow hunters in. An untrained auraless hunter filled a slot that could have been one that knew what they were doing, saving lives that Jaune likely could have not if the time came.

Juane was lucky Pyrrha was lucky, and the closeness of her losing her life had made him realize his stupidity. But he was in too deep now, and all he could do was use his opportunities provided to repent for his mistakes. Did a small part of him hope that helping Cinder reform herself count partly toward it? Sure, now it was just a pro to balance out any cons. And Jaune was beginning to think it was paying out a little too many dividends for him to deserve. Especially the current enacting of a relationship.

The ring of the doorbell broke his chain of thought, and Jaune snapped his head to the right. Cinder had pressed the doorbell for him. "What? The gerbil on that wheel in your head get tired or something? I thought you were close to your family?"

"Course," Jaune reached his hand out, "I just wasn't sure how I would introduce such a beautiful girlfriend."

Cinder tucked a stray hair behind her ear, letting her hand fall back down into his, intertwining their fingers, "Tsk, like any reasonable human being."

Jaune smiled, turning his head to wait for the door to be answered. And answered it was, by Sylver Arc herself. "Jaune! Oh my, I can't believe you came back!"

His mother rushed Jaune, embracing him in what could be considered no less than a bear hug. Jaune melted into the hug, having forgotten how much a mother's hug, no matter the age, could heal his non-physical wounds. It was a few moments before they separated, Sylver still keeping a hand on him.

She looked Jaune and Cinder up and down, "You look great for a traveled vagrant. And you brought someone else!" Sylver gave obvious notice to their clasped hands, "A girlfriend, hmm, well Jaune let's get you inside to see everyone."

"Yeah, she wanted to come along from Beacon so I couldn't resist. So, who's here?" Jaune couldn't help asking, even though he would find out soon enough.

Sylver hummed, "With you here we have the five of us, Violet's in the garage working on whatever she brought back from her internship, Corda is in the backyard chopping wood while Joan practices, and Olive is up in her room playin video games."

"Not bad, was expecting everyone to be honest mom." Jaune went to move past his mother, but stopped when she didn't move to let him pass.

"Now, as much as it warms my heart to know that my son followed his letter. We still need to talk." Sylver shifted slightly, enough to show the inside of the house. It was just as Jaune had left it, almost like he had went yesterday. "Your girlfriend-sorry sweetheart, what was your name again?"

"Cinder Fall, Mrs. Arc. Pleasure to meet you." Cinder replied, cool as ever.

"Cinder, what a pleasant name." Sylver turned back to Jaune. "Cinder here can go out back and introduce herself to Corda, we can talk in the living room. Now, come on you two."

Jaune followed inside, Cinder in tow behind him. It only took a handful of steps for them to be in the living room. Cinder took her leave and headed out the back sliding doors to find his father, while Jaune and Sylver sat on the couches in the living room. There would be no escaping now, only reaction and admittance to what he had done.

"Now, before we get to the reason you think we're talking." Sylver narrowed her eyes, "Who is Cinder?"

Jaune rubbed the back of his neck in nervousness, trying to find anything to do with his hands. "Uh, you know, we were on opposing teams during this training battle. Nothing much came of it initially, just a lot of talk leader to leader. Eventually we trained together over the past few months and began spending more and more time together. We just kinda realized we had been dating before we even made it official."

"How sweet," Sylver said, strangely void of any emotion that would imply she thought so. "But that didn't happen, did it? What really happened Jaune, I thought I told you telling the truth is better in the long run than lying in the short term."

"H-How do you think that mom?" Jaune began sweating. "Why else would I bring her here?"

Sylver leant bag into the couch, sighing as she sunk into it. "Jaune, I know Corda didn't tell you much about our past as hunters. But you really didn't recognize Glynda from the pictures?"

"Ah, right." Jaune facepalmed. He had been a complete idiot. His parents had been on the same hunter team through school and their professional careers. One of their teammates had in fact been Glynda Goodwitch, his teacher at Beacon. They had always said it was a small world, every time they saw an old face at Joan's soccer games, or when they became a new neighbor, or reconnecting from a friend of a friend. Jaune had assumed Glynda had looked familiar because of he assumed that she had been on some recruiting commercial for the school. "Okay, how much do you know."

"Glynda wouldn't tell me much past that. And something else pertaining to another conversation, but that's for later." His mom would have sniffed out that something was off anyways, so Jaune resigned that it was probably best that it had turned out the way it had. "She said to start with that and you would tell me the rest. I think we both want this break to go as well as it can, so tell me the real story Jaune. You know I love you, and I've always told you that you can tell me anything."

Jaune rubbed his face, trying to get the sudden pressure out, "You're right, you're right. To start off, yes Cinder is not really my girlfriend. And I get that dad will want to know, but please don't tell my sisters. She already has enough to deal with and this will get them off her back more than if she wasn't."

Sylver nodded, "Alright, I think that's okay. Who is she then?"

"Well, that's pretty simple and complicated at the same time." Jaune replied.

It would take the next half-hour to tell his mother the full story. He brushed over his initial time at Beacon, blowing it off as a story for another day. Jaune really began his story at the Battle of Beacon and the use of his semblance on her dying body. Having Cinder so close for the last months had desensitized him to how close she had been to dying. The sense of fear at the thought that washed over him was almost as overwhelming as the relief that had hit when his common sense had told him that she was in the backyard safe and sound.

Jaune could tell his mother saw the reason behind his saving, even after hearing how Cinder had been the initiator of the attack. His description of her transition to good, and the moments that he could tell she was truly good-natured, just poorly raised, melted his mother in front of him. She was warming up to Cinder before even getting to know her personally. Sylver asked him questions here and there, most hitting on his feelings toward the fiery woman. Which he answered truthfully, so much so it looked like he had the approval for a real partner in Cinder.

There would be no intentional advances on his part until he had revealed his faked records to her. It wasn't right to act like she was the one that needed all the improving in life. Not when Jaune himself had just as much to figure out.

Sylver seemed to be on board with Jaune's makeshift plan of introducing his family to Cinder, allowing her to get a feel of what a real family looked, acted, and felt like. From looking at her attempting to pass to Joan, it didn't seem like such a bad plan. And comparing how he had saw Cinder interact with Ruby, Jaune knew that she had the motivation to try.

The story of Jaune meeting Cinder and the events leading up to them arriving at the Arc household was finished. Yet Jaune could tell the conversation wasn't. "Is there something else you want to ask mom?"

Sylver smiled, "There is actually. See, Glynda isn't the only person that your father and I know from our Beacon days. One of the old teachers was Professor Ozpin. Obviously, now he's your headmaster. But he was nice enough to call us when your transcripts arrived. Noting the craftmanship, he mentioned that you had demonstrated admirable levels of leadership with your peers. Before I could insist on him sending you back, he gave some very persuasive arguments on how he would personally vouch for your need at his school. After your father calmed down, and I had a nap, we let you stay on your path."

Jaune got up from his seat, sensing it was time he was next to his mother. She had always supported him in anything he had tried to do, even attempting to convince his father it was a good idea to follow in his footsteps. Sylver had never stopped believing in him, even when Jaune had went against their judgement. He wrapped his arm around his mom, pulling her into a hug while she continued.

"It might take a bit for your father to admit it outright, but he's proud of you. The sporadic updates of your progress at Beacon make him proud, and I catch him bragging to the neighbors all the time." Sylver rested her head on Jaune's shoulder, "I am so proud of you too Jaune, you make me the happiest mother in the world. And even though it might take some more time to get over you leaving so suddenly, I still love you just as much as when you left. Now, tell me why you haven't made that woman out back a real partner yet."

Jaune blushed, "I want to, honestly. She is so much more than she realizes. But Cinder doesn't know about my transcripts, and I can't do anything until she does. It just isn't right."

Sylver separated from Jaune, "Well get on it mister, don't let her get away. You both made mistakes, and are both trying to learn and better yourselves from them. That is admirable, and I'm sure she will think the same. You'll tell her before you leave, the sooner the better. It's the least you can do for her and for us after your rushed departure away from us."

"Okay, fine. If that's what you want, I was planning on saving it to spin in more a positive light. But I guess you're right, better to rip off the band aid." Jaune got up from the couch, walking over to the sliding door to the backyard. "I'll tell her real soon I promise. How about until then you really get to meet her and see what I've been talking about."

"I guess I should get to know my future daughter-in-law, hmm?" Sylver said, laughing while she made her way over to Jaune.

"Mom!"

EXERT FROM LETTER

Mom, dad, everyone,

I love all of you dearly. That will never change now and forever. In the last few months after I graduated high school, I've been repeatedly shut down in my attempts to pursue my dreams of becoming a hunter and continuing the family tradition. Fifth generation means something, and should not be taken lightly. I understand that dad doesn't take it lightly, and that it why he shuts it down so quickly. Mom, I also understand that in marriage and having me you agreed to making the hard decisions in what you thought was best for me.

There still has been no doubt in my mind that I will be making the right decision in pursuing such a profession. Because that is in fact what I yearn for; a profession. Not a job, but a profession. Something I can pride my lanky self on, and represent my family well. A regular college experience might turn out well, and help my socialness improve. Yet, I can't look away from the standards of integrity, duty, and respect that being a hunter establishes.

When I am confident in my abilities gained and improved upon from Beacon I will return. I cannot promise a set date, only when I feel that I can properly represent myself. Until then I hope you can understand that I am not truly running away, for I will return. Please stay positive and know that I love you all deeply.

Your son,

Jaune

Thank you all yet again for reading this far. Before I get into my rambling, I want to say I appreciate all reviews good and critical. Everything keeps my writer's block from kicking in and my motivation high. I hope to have another chapter out within a week or so, we'll see how this new tasking goes.

So, as my continued rambling ensues. And I finally get to writing another chapter, I wanted to go over more so a decision than opinion or view I have on something in relation to the story. When I began reading through RWBY fanfiction, I really was just looking for something decent to fill the void of regular series from say Amazon I was reading. If you look at my favorites list you can probably guess what fandoms I hop around to and what shipping and types of stories I prefer are.

However, as I got more and more invested in the idea of Jaune and what ship I felt he not only fit the best with, but worked the best, I came across Knightfall. And most had the same idea of taking Cinder, who was no less than a literal terrorist at most of the points of her inception into the fanfiction, and having her fall in love or vice versa. Like I've said before, as much as I adore the stories I've listed in other notes, I felt like to properly create my own headcannon I couldn't copy the same idea. A name here or there, or personality trait that I liked, even a situation sure, but not the core idea and execution.

So I knew to get it to work I had to isolate Cinder. Do I do it like the rest and find a moment in time that the two are alone? Convince her in different ways to come along? No, I had to force her into the isolation, while still keeping to the rules of the story. And that left me with two options; have Cinder in a room like we see now, fully aware of her wrongdoings or have the blast from Ruby cause amnesia and use it to delve into her character from the ground-up.

It intriugued me, the idea of amnesia, but also scared me. It felt like, though cliche and a bit of a cop out, that it would provide interesting interactions and spur thoughts on the idea of what Cinder could cause in the situation. I would have posted this story a good few weeks earlier if I had decided faster. As I found the updates from my favorite stories somehow lengthening, even as I followed more and more, I knew that I should just do it the hard way and deal with Cinder as she was. No easy exits through amnesia.

So far I'm glad I haven't. Maybe someday I'll start another story with it, a bit of that and time travel could pose a good pairing with Lancaster or Dragonslayer. Time travel genre's have always been a pleasure to read, likely causing me to have a guilty pleasure of reading insterts of fans into fandoms that have knowledge of it. Because, it really is essentially an OC time traveling.

We'll see how far I can take this story before I need another distraction, I see it being awhile though so we'll stick with Falling for the Knight for now. The pair of Cinder and Jaune have plenty of growing and adventuring in their future.