Paw Prints of the Heart

Jaune and Weiss had finally made it back to his apartment. Nothing went wrong during their short journey back, which Jaune was more than happy with. He was still reeling from their 'close encounter' in the dressing room and was still deep in thought about what to do about it going forward. That left him very quiet on their walk but Weiss was more than content to keep holding onto his arm as they walked in the silence.

As they came to the door, Jaune pulled out his keys to unlock it but he stopped when his neighbor's door opened. Out walked his neighbor, Scarlet David. He was a nice enough guy and he'd easily count him as a friend, he just wished that they could hang out more.

Scarlet shut his door before turning to Jaune. He had a look of shock before he smiled at him, "Jaune, hey! Sorry wasn't expecting to see you there. Caught me off guard."

Jaune waved it off, "Same, you're usually working at this time. Something wrong?"

He shook his head, "Took a personal day and luckily enough, Nolan is free so we're having a lunch date."

"I take it that things are going well for you two?" Jaune asked with a grin.

"You can definitely say that. Speaking of…" his eyes shifted to Weiss, who was still holding his arm. "Who is this?"

Jaune had a slight wave of panic wash over him. He knew he'd have to eventually figure out how he was going to introduce Weiss, and his other cats turned human, but he still didn't know on how to do that yet. That was when Weiss decided to take the bullet for him. She gave him a polite smile as she spoke, "Hello, I'm Weiss. It's nice to meet you."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow, "Same to you." He then turned to Jaune, "You're dating someone with the same name as your cat?"

Jaune's stomach felt like it sank with his words. He still didn't know anything about the phenomenon that had turned his cats into people. So, trying to explain that to people was impossible. He had no idea on how anyone would react to that or what they would plan to do to his girls. He was so absorbed in that thought that he completely glossed over the fact that Scarlet said they were a couple. Or maybe he was ignoring that for the time being. Weiss, on the other hand, was just looking to the side with a small smile on her lips and a blush decorating her cheeks. It wasn't like she was opposed to the idea of being with Jaune after all.

Luckily, neither of them had to come up with a response because Scarlet's phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. He then gained a panicked expression, "Oh, shoot!" He looked back to them, "Sorry, gotta go or I'll be late." He jogged past them and shouted over his shoulder, "You two have fun! See you later!"

They heard him go down the stairs and the two just stood there for a bit. Weiss looked up to Jaune with that same smile and blush, "He seems nice."

Jaune sighed as his head fell slightly, "Yeah, yeah he is." He then turned back to her with his own smaller smile. "Well let's get in there. I'm honestly afraid of what those three got up to while we were away."

She giggled as Jaune unlocked the door. As he opened it and they entered his apartment once again, he was pleasantly surprised that everything was normal. No fire or alarms going off. It was still as clean and neat as he had left it. He closed and locked the door behind Weiss as he looked to see what the other three were doing.

Blake was sat on the couch, still in his t-shirt, while looking through one of the numerous comics he had stored away in his closet. Meanwhile, Yang and Ruby were sat cross-legged on the ground in front of his television. They had figured out how to turn his game console and were playing a fighting game, both entirely focused on the game and beating the other. It honestly seemed like a normal sight. Except for one thing.

Jaune turned to the complete opposite side of the room than where the sisters were before saying, "Why are you naked!?"

True to his words, Ruby and Yang were sat on the floor with nothing to hide their modesty. And that outburst was all that was needed to pull all three of the catgirls from their activities. Ruby's eyes widened to comical proportions before she dropped the controller and raced over to him. "Master!" she shouted in excitement.

Not seeing her coming, Jaune had no way to defend himself from her tackle-hug. She collided into him and he quickly started to fall. He turned so he would land mostly on his back and his arms wrapped around Ruby to try to offer her some sort of cushioning. He gave out a slight grunt from the impact but was fine. He looked down at his chest to see if Ruby was alright. That got him an eyeful of the still naked silver eyed catgirl that was far too happy to be on top of him, hugging and gently rubbing her head against his chest. "I'm so happy you're home!"

Jaune blushed deeply with that, "Uh… I'm glad to be back too, Ruby. But could you get off me? You are still very naked…"

She pushed off his chest enough to look him in the face but also now gave him a great view of her chest if he were to look down. Which he was trying really hard to not do and keep looking at her face. She tilted her head very cutely, "I know. What's wrong with that?"

"Uh… well…" He tried to explain this to her but he was having very little luck in doing so, this predicament being more than he was prepared to deal with.

Blake seeing that her Master was having a hard time, placed his comic on the table in front of her. "It may have been normal for us when we were cats, Ruby, but humans don't walk around like that."

Ruby looked at Blake before turning to Weiss as she continued the thought, "Humans are more modest. They don't just want anyone seeing them like that unless it is a special reason. Or more often for a special person."

Ruby nodded, thinking on what they had just told her. Jaune on the other hand was grateful for those two for explaining it to her. Now he just hoped that she would get off him before she had anymore questions about this subject.

That hope was gone as soon as Yang stood up from her spot. She turned to face him fully as she crossed her arms underneath her, in his opinion, impressive chest. Almost like she was trying to emphasize them all the more. As much as he tried to fight it, he was staring at them. He eventually pulled his eyes from them and to her face but she knew he was staring if the knowing and flirtatious smile was anything to go by. "Well, what if I want him to see?" she questioned.

"What?" Jaune barely squeaked out.

Yang turned back to him and took a few purposeful steps towards the still downed blond. She stopped just far enough so that Ruby wasn't blocking his view of anything below Yang's stomach. But he was adamant on not lowering his gaze. She just looked at him with a sultry but mischievous look, "I don't mind you looking at me, I can't think of anyone else I would want to see me like this, Master~"

Jaune swallowed at that emission, not expecting that at all. "Yeah, me too." Ruby added.

His eyes instantly snapped to her, "Huh?" he added weakly.

She nodded, "Yeah. It's not a big deal to me if you see me like this. And if I don't mind than what is the big deal?" She said with a big smile.

Jaune just stared at her face, making sure his eyes didn't stray down or to her sister, who was still giving him that look. What was he supposed to say to that? And was his heart beating too quickly right now?

He didn't need to figure that out since Weiss walked over and pulled Ruby off him. "That's enough Ruby." She told her. Jaune quickly turned away when she managed to get back to her feet. Weiss held the slightly younger catgirl by the forearm as she picked up one of the bags Jaune was carrying. "Come on." She said as she started to pull her along. "You should put on the clothes Ma- Jaune got you."

"But clothes are so annoying…" Ruby whined as she was dragged away.

With them gone, Jaune sat up and sighed to himself. He relaxed as he felt the blush slowly leave his cheeks. He looked to the side to see that Yang had managed to clear the few feet between them and was now knelt right beside him. She just looked at him with that same look and with a more suggestive smile. She leant in close enough to whisper into his ear, "Are you sure you want me to put on some clothes?"

Jaune's blush was back in full at her tone. But she was quickly pulled away by Blake when she wrapped her hand around the blonde catgirl's upper arm. She had the other clothes bag in hand. "Enough teasing him, Yang." she told her. "He wants us in clothes so we should listen."

Yang shrugged but followed after her, "Had to try." She walked away with a noticeable sway to her hips. She peaked over her shoulder to see his blush was a bit deeper and was completely hypnotized. She just grinned to herself, 'Won't be much longer, Mater~' she thought to herself as she left the living room completely.


It was a few minutes later and the four of them came out dressed in their new clothes. Each one of them wearing a pair of jeans that seemed to fit them alright and he was shocked to see that each one of them was wearing the hoodies that he had gotten them. With Ruby and Yang's aversion to clothing, he was sure that they would've gone for the t-shits he had gotten them. Maybe Weiss was right in saying that they all enjoyed the softness that the hoodies provided. If he ever walked into a room to see all four of them curled up in their hoodies for a nap, his heart may just give out from cuteness overload.

Ruby and Yang went back to their game, having paused it when the younger sister decided to welcome him back home. Blake and Weiss took to sitting on the couch while Jaune went to the guest room, where the four of them changed. He quickly picked up the discarded clothing and made his way to the small room that held his washer and dryer. He threw the clothes in and started the wash to clean up the clothes the girls had borrowed from what Nora and Pyrrha had left here.

When he was done with that he checked on his phone. He had a few more messages from Nora. Ranging from asking, 'if he was okay' to 'whoever had kidnapped her friend, she was going to make them pay.' He chuckled to himself. He quickly sent her a message apologizing and just telling her he got busy doing a few things.

As he did that, he saw it was around one o'clock and he thought to himself, 'Should probably make us some lunch. Something light though since I'll probably order a few pizzas for dinner. It'll be easier to feed us all that way.

He went into the kitchen to see what he still had in his fridge. "Still have that rotisserie chicken… I have celery and mayonnaise, could make some chicken salad." He then looked over to the cabinet. "And tuna too. Tuna and chicken salad sandwiches it is."

He grabbed what he needed from the fridge before going over to the counter. He got out two large bowls before pulling apart the rest of the chicken left on the bones and placing it in one bowl while emptying three cans of tuna into the other. He diced up the celery and added about half to each before adding a large amount of mayo to each bowl with a decent helping of pepper and paprika. He then mixed the contents of both bowls thoroughly. He grabbed his loaf of bread before making ten sandwiches, five of both variety.

With that, he cleaned up the utensils he used and rinsed out the cans the tuna had been in so they could be recycled. He threw out the rest of the chicken carcass before placing all the sandwiches on one of his larger plates and made his way to the living room.

He saw that Yang and Ruby were still playing the fighting game, probably on yet another rematch. Meanwhile, Blake was back to reading the comic from before and Weiss was just watching the screen and what the two sisters were doing. That was until he walked in and she turned to look at him. He grinned, "I made lunch if any of you are hungry."

Before he even set the plate down on the table, Yang and Ruby had already scrambled over to sit on the floor opposite to the couch, their game completely forgotten. He chuckled to himself, 'Some things will never change.'

Each sister picked up a chicken sandwich and hummed at the taste. "This is so good!" Ruby said with her mouth full.

Weiss scrunched her nose at that, "Ruby, please don't talk with your mouth full. No one wants to see that." She picked up her own tuna sandwich before taking her own bite. Humming similar to the other two as she did so.

Jaune was about to walk over to grab his computer desk chair but stopped when he felt someone grab his forearm. He saw that it was Blake and she kept her grip on him as she shifted to be more center of the couch. She gently pulled him to try to get him sit down where she had just been. Seeing no reason to fight her on this, he did just that.

She grinned at him before taking her own tuna sandwich. He couldn't help the smile on his face when he saw her cat ears twitch after her first bite. He grabbed his own and they all ate in a silence before Ruby spoke up, "Master… I mean, Jaune?" He turned to her, "When we are done, can you play with Yang and me?" She then gave him the human equivalent of her big kitten eyes. "Yang keeps beating me."

His heart melted and he just grinned, "Sure, I don't see why not."

"Yay!" she cheered. Yang playfully rolled her eyes with a grin before gently ruffling her hair, being mindful of her ears.

He then turned to Blake, "By the way, Blake, are you actually reading that comic or are you just looking at the pictures?"

She had just put the last bite of her first sandwich in her mouth, so he had to wait for her to finish before he got his answer, "No, I'm reading it." That earned her a shocked look from him. "When I was still a cat, I would usually cuddle up to you when you read or were studying. I saw the words and letters but it really didn't sink in before. But now…" she shrugged slightly, "It just clicks."

"Huh." He said out loud, unsure on what else to say. 'Maybe things they saw me or other people doing just makes sense now that they are humans? Like looking at something from a different angle?' He thought to himself. He then shook his head, "Well anyways, feel free to help yourself to any of my comics or even the few novels I have laying around. Just put them back when you're done."

"Really?" she asked and his answer was just to smile and nod. She gained a large smile before kissing his cheek. That earned her a blush from him but she just smiled before grabbing another tuna sandwich.

They all continued to eat and as soon as they were done, both sisters grabbed Jaune by the arm and dragged him to in front of the tv. They sat him down and Ruby gave him the controller she was using. Yang quickly picked up the other and just gave him this competitive look. Jaune just smiled back and got ready to play.

As they played, Jaune quickly realized that Yang had very little idea on what she was doing. She was just button mashing, hitting the buttons as quickly as possible to hopefully prevent him from fighting back. But Jaune knew how to block and several combos that put an end to that. He noticed that she didn't even block, just kept trying to fight back despite that not working. It didn't take long for him to beat her. He turned to her and she was just staring ta the screen in shock before turning to him with a glare, "Rematch." She practically hissed at him.

This carried on for the better part of an hour and every time Jaune would win. Although she was getting better. After the first few losses, she calmed down enough for him to be able to give her a few tips. She listened and would try to implement them. Their latest match was coming to a close but like every match before Jaune won again, although this time she got him down to about half health. "I was so close!" she said in annoyance afterwards.

Jaune just smiled at her, "Hey, you're getting better. A few more matches and maybe you can beat me."

She looked at him with that competitive smile, "Is that a challenge, Jaune?"

He grinned back, "Maybe."

"You're on!" she answered as she took up her controller again.

They were about to start again but they were interrupted when they heard Ruby yell before something slammed onto the ground. "Ruby!" Jaune said, slightly panicked. He dropped his controller and ran down the hall and into the kitchen. There he saw Ruby sprawled out on her back on the floor. The half-gallon of milk from the fridge laid broken besides her, covering most of her, from her stomach to her head, and the floor in its contents. Ruby was just looking up to the ceiling in shock.

"Ruby, are you okay?" he asked her as he walked over to her.

She slowly sat up as she looked around at the mess she made. She looked down and nodded, "I'm alright."

He knelt down beside her, "What happened?"

She was still looking down and was playing with her fingers, "I wanted some milk and you were busy playing with Yang. I didn't want to interrupt so I thought I'd get it myself. But I somehow slipped and made I huge mess… And I ruined the clothes that you just bought me…" she added sadly.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with a sad look in her eyes, "Ruby, I don't care about that. It was an accident. What I care about is whether you are okay or not."

"You're really not mad?" she asked. She knew Jaune wouldn't lie to her but she needed to be sure. She never wanted him to be mad at her.

"Unless you did this on purpose then I'd probably be. But no, I'm not mad at you." He answered with a calming smile. She gave him her own smile before he held his hand out to her, "Let's get you up and I can start to clean up."

She took his hand right after and he pulled her up to her feet. He grabbed his paper towels and started to soak up the milk that was still on the floor. He placed the broken plastic container in the sink before grabbing a bottle of cleaner from under his sink to clean up the last remnants of the milk with more paper towels.

When he was done he turned back to Ruby and was thoroughly shocked by what she was doing. She was holding her arm up and was licking at the milk that had begun to sink into her hoodie. "Uh, Ruby? What are you doing?"

She stopped and looked at him while tilting her head adorably at him, "Cleaning myself?"

He shook his head, "You can't clean yourself like that. You aren't a cat anymore."

"Well, how am I supposed to get clean?" she asked.

"A bath." He said before realizing what he just said.

Her eyes widened to extreme proportions before she took off down the hallway. "No!"

Jaune stood there before placing his hand on his face and sighed, "Damn it… Ruby, come back." He then followed after her. He looked down the hall towards the living room to see the other three just in the doorway looking at him, "She didn't go that way, did she?"

They shook their heads. "What's up with Rubes?" Yang asked, concern clear in her voice.

He shrugged, "She made a mess and needs a bath." He said weakly. That got him two giggles from Weiss and Blake while Yang devolved into full blown laughter.

Ruby was by far the worst to give a bath when she was a cat. She never held still and he had to fight her the entire town. It was practically a workout. Blake and Weiss were never too happy to have one but they didn't fight him that much but they could be difficult when they were inclined to. Yang was the complete opposite, she loved being bathed. She used to take the longest because of all her fur but that was probably why she loved it. To her it was like an extended petting session that none of the other cats could interrupt.

He turned to go down to the laundry room, knowing where her favorite place to hide was. He saw that the door was half open and when he looked in, he saw the young woman trying to squeeze into the half a foot space between the dryer and the wall. She used to go in their to hide from him and it was such a hassle to get her out of there. But now, she couldn't even get halfway in there. Not that she wasn't trying to make it possible.

He sighed and closed the door behind him. The click of the door caused her to freeze. "Ruby, please stop."

She slowly pulled herself out and placed her back to the wall. Her eyes were wide and were darting around the room, looking for some sort of escape route but finding none. "I refuse to take a bath." She growled at him.

He ran a hand through his hair, "Have I ever done anything to hurt you?" Her eyes snapped over to him in shock before she shook her head instantly. "So, can you just calm down and trust me? I only want what's best for you."

She was quiet for a bit and was just looking down at the ground. She slowly looked back to him, "Do I really need a bath?"

He nodded with a small smile, "Yes you do."

She gave a whine before she pouted slightly, "Fine."

With that, she begrudgingly stood from her spot on the floor. She followed behind him as he led her to the bathroom. Once inside, he grabbed a towel before placing it on the side of the sink. He knelt down beside the tub and started to fill it with warm water, making sure it wouldn't be too hot or cold. As it was filling, he added a bit of bubble bath soap that Nora had left here the last time her and Ren stayed over. It didn't take long for the tub to fill and layer of bubbles to cover the top of it.

He stood up. "Alright, it should be ready for you-" He turned to her but quickly placed his hand over his eyes with a faint blush, "Not again." he whined to himself.

In the time that he was filling the tub, she decided to be proactive and took off her clothes while he was still in the bathroom with her. "Don't I have to take my clothes off to bathe?"

"You do." He conceded. "I was just hoping that you'd wait until after I left the room…"

With his eyes covered, he didn't see her move to the tub before he felt her gently brush past him. When she spoke up again, he could tell that she was standing by the tub. "Are you sure there's no other way to get clean?"

"Sorry but no." He said, eyes still covered. He heard her groan with his answer. There was a few seconds of silence before he heard something enter the water. Ruby gasped at first but she soon started to sigh in contentment.

When he was sure it was save, he peaked between his fingers to see that Ruby was completely in the tub and a content smile on her lips. "This feels nice… It's never felt this good before..." she hummed out.

He just smiled, "Glad to hear it." He turned to the door before reaching down for her clothes, "I'll throw these in the wash while you get cleaned up."

Her next words froze him in place, "You're not going to help me?"

"W-what?" he managed to stutter out.

"I've only ever cleaned myself the other way and I never really paid attention to what you did when I was a cat." She then muttered to herself, "Was too busy trying to escape…" When she spoke up again, it was back to her normal tone. "So, can you help me out? That way I know what to do from now on."

Jaune stood there for a bit. He had no idea on what to do in this situation. 'Are they trying to kill me?' he thought to himself. 'This is the third time today something like this has happened. But… This is Ruby and she needs help…'

He sighed, "Could you sit so your back is facing me? That way it'll be easier to do this." He then thought to himself, 'Well easier for me.'

"Sure!" she answered happily before he heard the sound of her moving through the water. "Ready!"

He looked over to see she had done what he had asked of her. He took a deep breath before he walked over to kneel down behind her. "Please close your eyes until I tell you to open them."

She followed his instructions, "Ok." She told him when she did.

He poured water from the tub over her hair to get it damp, being careful to not getting any of it into her ears. He then grabbed the shampoo and squeezed some into his hands before gently working it into her hair. He was especially careful with her ears, not wanting to hurt her. As he was doing this, she was purring and was trying to lean more into his touch. Acting more like her sister than ever before in a bath.

"I'm going to rinse it out of your hair now." He warned her before he started to pour more water over her head. He didn't want to surprise her with it. When he was sure that it was all gone, he spoke up again, "That should do it. Let me get you a washcloth and you can clean up the rest of yourself."

"Can you do that again?' Ruby asked. "It felt really good."

He stopped and shrugged, if this was going to make her more comfortable with baths and showers going forward, why not? "I could use some conditioner if you like. I think Nora left some here."

He looked around and found a smaller bottle of it. He then started to do the same with it that he did before. And just like before, Ruby turned into purring mess. This time she was nearly coming out of the bath with how hard she was trying to lean into his hands. In no time, he was done lathering her hair with the conditioner and was rinsing it out. "Okay, Ruby, I'm done. I'll get that washcloth and you can finish cleaning yourself and then you can-"

Before he could stand up, he saw Ruby spin around in the tub. Her hands lashed out and grabbed the front of his shirt before she pulled him towards her. He managed to place his other hand on the tub to stop himself from crashing into her but that wasn't where it ended. Ruby's arms wrapped around his neck, pulling herself close to him so they were chest to chest before she kissed him.

His eyes widened in shock at the action. In turn, Ruby just hummed as she continued to kiss him with her eyes closed. She eventually pulled away with a sigh, "So, that's what a kiss is like…" She gave him a bright smile. "I really like it."

He swallowed and managed to find his voice, "Ruby, where did you learn that?"

She shrugged but kept her arms around his neck, "Yang told me that's how humans tell each other that they love them." She looked to the side slightly, "She told me when you and Weiss went out. I wanted to kiss you as soon you came back. But I was too nervous to do that with the others there and would see me do it." She looked back at him with shining eyes, "But we're alone now. So, I knew this would be my chance."

Jaune was reeling from this, "You… you love me?"

She nodded, "Of course I do. You took in me and Yang after we had nowhere to go. You've cared for us every day. And better yet, you gave us two more sisters. You gave us a family. A home. Why would you think I wouldn't love you, Master?"

The way she said all of that made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He still didn't know how it was possible that his cats had become these wonderful girls. But he was still just baffled at how deeply they cared for him. Like he was the center of their worlds. How do you even react to having this happen to you? Let alone three times in a single day.

As he was still just looking at her in shock, she leant back up and when her lips were only a few centimeters from his lips, she whispered, "I love you, Master." Then she sealed his lips once again with a kiss.

The feeling of her lips was the last straw and he used his other arm to wrap around her back, pulling her soaked form closer to his own. He then returned her kiss. She purred and kissed him just a bit harder. The kiss lasted several seconds before Jaune tried to pull away. She let out a disgruntled sound before she pushed forward to reseal it. Too bad that when she did that, it sent Jaune tumbling backwards and with his arm still around her, Ruby came along for that short ride.

Neither were hurt and Ruby just resumed the kiss she wanted so badly. For the second time that day, Jaune had the brunette catgirl laying on top of him. Just as naked as before but much wetter and her body still holding the added heat from the bath water.

She pulled away again and just looked down at him with a sheepish smile, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to do this."

Jaune couldn't help the light laugh that passed his lips. His free hand came up to gently hold her cheek. She leant into it as she continued to stare at him with those familiar silver eyes. "What am I going to do with you?" he asked rhetorically.

"Kiss me again?" she asked.

He couldn't even respond before she did so again. It wasn't long until their tongues were introduced. If you asked him if it was him, her or both that initiated it, he wouldn't be able to tell you. What he could tell you was that it was much slower. More loving. More romantic.

Who knew what was going to happen next. But they were interrupted when they heard a familiar voice shout from the living room, "Who are you three!?"

Jaune's eyes widened to see Ruby's just as large and her ears standing straight up. They pulled away with a string of saliva still connecting them. Jaune sat up before grabbing the towel and wrapping it around her, that way he wouldn't see too much, again. "I'll be right back." He told her and she just nodded.

With that, he stood up and left the bathroom. Quickly shutting the door and racing down the hall. When he got to the living room, he saw Weiss and Blake still on the couch and Yang still situated at the front of the tv. All three were staring at the people at the front door.

And standing there was none other than Nora and Ren. Ren looking thoroughly confused while Nora was just looking around at the three of them, a mix between shock and confusion. That was until her eyes snapped to Jaune as he entered the room. "Jaune! Who are these women?! Why are they here?! Why do they have cat ears!? And why are you soaked?!" she asked him rapidly and loudly.

He looked at her and Ren before turning to his three former cats. Each one of them just looking ta him in concern, not knowing what to do in this sort of situation. When he turned back to his best friends he could only say, "Uh… It's a long story?"