Here's chapter 65, everyone.
Whitley felt the worst, unable to bring himself to speak up to his mother. He wanted nothing more than to ask her when Weiss would be able to visit, or even Winter for that matter. Any family to see that wasn't his father, but he would never admit that out loud.
A knock on his door was the answering call he wished for, so he walked over and turned the knob, revealing it was his mother knocking. "Mother." He politely greeted, letting her walk in as she was wearing her normal attire.
"Good afternoon, honey." Willow smiled, happy to be able to speak with her own son. "I was wondering if you'd like some dinner. I asked Klein if he could make you your favorite."
The boy was surprised by that. His favorite dish wasn't one he thought about for some time, since he had a strict diet placed by his father. "I'm not to go against my diet, mother."
"You're a fit young man, honey. And your father is away on a business trip right now, so please, come have dinner with Klein and I." Willow begged, hoping her son would finally go against his father in some way.
"I… Very well, but only this once. I do not wish to stray from my diet." Whitley said, though he wished he didn't.
Willow didn't say much else after that, only waiting to speak with her son when they got to the dining room. When they did, Klein bowed respectfully to Whitley, seeing as the boy was almost never out of his room to see him. "Good afternoon, Master Whitley."
Even after the years of living under his father, Whitley never lumped Klein with the rest of the butlers and maids in the manor. "Yes, I suppose it is, Klein. Thank you for… The food."
Klein nodded, pulling two chairs out from the table for Willow and Whitley. As Willow took a seat, she thanked the butler, while Whitley sat and took in the food in front of him. "Go on, honey. The food won't bite." Willow playfully joked, and Whitley reached for the silverware.
As he stuck his fork into the turkey, he let out a genuine smile, bringing the food to his mouth as he took his first bite of turkey in some time. Willow was happier at that moment, seeing her son's smile as he enjoyed the turkey.
Willow took a bite of some turkey as well, but when she looked over to see Klein still standing a bit away, she playfully rolled her eyes. "Klein, sit down and grab a plate."
The butler always seemed to wait on Willow to tell him he could sit with them, even after the years of her wishing he wouldn't. Still, the man was very stubborn about how he showed respect. "Of course, Ma'am." He sat across from Willow and Whitley, grabbing a plate of turkey, and the potato salad he made.
"The turkey is very good, Klein." Whitley complimented, and the butler nodded, silently thanking the young man. "Did mother also request the potato salad?"
"I've always remembered both were your favorite, so I didn't need to be informed. I just hope I made it the way you liked it." Klein said.
Whitley was surprised to hear that. He didn't believe even after all those years, Klein would still remember his favorite food. "Well… I appreciate that."
Willow took note of how her son spoke, and with that, she could hear the differences in how he speaks compared to when he and Weiss talked. "How have your studies gone, honey?" She wanted to attempt some form of small talk.
"Well. They've been well." Whitley answered. "But… I would like to ask, why have you and father not-."
"Your father and I simply haven't had a lot of time to discuss some things, but don't worry, honey. He's very busy, and I've had some of my own priorities to deal with." Willow tried her best to not bring her son in on the problems she and her husband were having.
"What other priorities?" Whitley inquired.
Willow ate some of the potato salad on her plate, taking a moment to wash it down with a clear glass of water. "I do have my own hobbies, honey." She added with a chuckle.
"I'm not sure that answers the question, mother." Whitley remarked.
"Honey, I'm just spending time with some friends of mine. Summer and her old teammates to be specific." Willow explained.
Her son seemed content enough with that answer, so he nodded, going back to his food.
"What are we supposed to do with a dog?" Blake questioned, trying her best to stay away from the corgi, who was at the moment barking and running circles around Ruby.
"He's not fragile, Blake. Zwei can chill out with us while we're sparring with JNPR." Yang stated. "Maybe he can even join us in the fight."
Zwei yipped in response, while Blake gave Yang a deadpan expression. "That would be cheating."
"Not if he's an honorary member of the team he's not." The blonde grinned, hoping her sister would agree with her on that matter.
Ruby chirped up. "Sure, he's definitely an honorary member," Yang pumped her fist in the air. "But we are not letting him fight with us against Jaune and his team." The fist pump lowered in defeat. "It really would be cheating to go five on four, sis."
"Ugh, fine, but we are so bringing him on missions with us." Blake sighed after her partner said that.
"I don't think that's allowed." Blake retorted.
"Dad takes him on missions sometimes, so why can't we?" Her reasoning was only justifiable if they were full fledged huntress, not students.
Weiss cut in, finding the conversation to be ridiculous. "Can we focus on the task at hand? You know, finding out why your dad sent him here in the first place."
"Oh, right." Yang looked at the note that came with their dog. "Hmm, looks like dad is going on a mission with mom… So he wants us to look after him for however long he needs."
The white haired teen looked down at the corgi, letting out a small smile as she knelt down and rubbed his head. "Well as long as we don't get in trouble for having a dog here, I don't see why not."
Zwei's tail wagged back and forth as he licked her hand, making Weiss giggle. "Yay! Zwei gets to stay!" Ruby cheered, and the black and white corgi jumped up in the air with joy.
Blake wasn't convinced on getting close to the dog, so she kept her distance and found it annoying that this dog would be staying the same room as her. "Shouldn't we get to the training room…"
Ruby looked at the time on her scroll. "Oh man, you're right! Okay, team, we're gonna win for sure, now that we have Zwei watching as our good luck charm."
"I don't know if I consider him a good luck charm…" Blake mumbled to herself, luckily no one hearing her say that.
Weiss took a breath, deciding on how she wanted to go about their team sparring match, since she could immediately use her 'semblance', but she still felt her abilities without it were just fine too. "Whatcha thinking about?" Ruby asked, snapping her girlfriend out of it.
"W-What? Oh, um, just deciding on if I should use my semblance or not." Weiss explained.
"Hmm… I think you should wait a bit, then use it. Y'know, go with both styles of fighting." Ruby suggested as she was loading up dust rounds in Crescent Rose.
Her partner looked over at the other end of the training room, watching closely as JNPR was getting ready for their match. "I suppose that wouldn't be a bad idea. But what do I do about… Um, you know, my clothes…"
Ruby could easily notice the blush on Weiss' cheeks, so she decided to play with her a bit by leaning over and planting a kiss on her lips, making the red tint on her girlfriend's cheeks brighten up. Yang saw that, but said nothing, knowing Weiss would probably threaten her the moment she did.
Weiss wasn't about to complain about a kiss, so she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her partner. Luckily only Yang had seen them, so the others wouldn't be able to tease them about it.
As they pulled away, Weiss sighed. "You know, that doesn't answer my question, you little dork."
Ruby poked Weiss' nose, giggling a little. "I know, Wolfy, but don't worry. I'll use my semblance and put your clothes on one of the seats. Jaune and his team will understand."
"Well… Okay, but don't get used to using your semblance to just get my clothes somewhere. I don't want you wasting aura on that." Weiss said.
"Only when I absolutely have to, or when you ask." Ruby assured, smiling at her girlfriend as she couldn't help but hug her, making Weiss blush again.
"W-What is with all the affection right now, you dolt?" Weiss stiffened.
Ruby pulled away and shrugged. "I don't need a reason to wanna be around you."
"Okay, not staying quiet on that one. You two are adorable." The blonde brawler teased when she walked over, but she could hear her white haired friend growl in response. "Easy, ice wolf. You know it's true."
"You won't be saying that when I trap you in ice, you oaf." Weiss warned, but the two were kept from going back and forth when they heard a whistling sound.
"Ey! Come on, ladies!" It was Nora. "We got a match to win!"
Blake sighed, seeing just how much energy the hammer user had compared to her own partner. Ren was in the same boat as Blake, not caring too much on the match winner itself. The two teams got on the arena, with Zwei barking happily from the seats.
"I still can't believe your dad sent a dog over here." Jaune commented, and Ruby chuckled a little.
"Yeah, it was super unexpected, but I'm not complaining. I love having Zwei around." Ruby glanced over at the corgi. "Cheer for us, Zwei! We'll win it!"
The corgi barked, nodding as Ruby gave him a thumbs up and she readied herself for the fight. "Okay, so are there gonna be ground rules to this or what?"
"Oh, uh…" Jaune thought about it for a moment. "Well, I guess we don't overdo it?"
Yang rolled her eyes. "Relax, we'll stick to not destroying the training room. Besides," She jumped off the arena and ran over to one of the consoles, tapping the screen a few times to extend the arena the two teams were on, almost knocking Jaune off balance.
Pyrrha held his arm to keep him from falling over. "W-Whoa, thanks, Pyrrha. Wasn't expecting Yang to do that…"
The other blonde jumped on the arena again. "Sorry. Had to be sure we had enough space for this." She activated her gauntlets, and Jaune gulped, readying his sword.
The scarlet haired huntress in training was ready to go as well, giving her partner a nod. "Don't worry, Jaune. I'm sure we'll do fine."
Jaune didn't say anything back, mostly because he thought more about how his team would easily do fine in the fight. He still felt that he couldn't keep up, but would still do what he could to at least be of help.
In those times, Pyrrha would always try to encourage him. Her words were enough to get him to train harder, but the real reason he continued pushing himself was because of how Pyrrha was hurt during initiation.
Nora looked over at Weiss, raising an eyebrow at her. "Hey, not gonna use your semblance?"
Weiss could see that she was the one being asked that, so she shook her head. "I can fight like this too, so no need on wasting aura right now." Myrtenaster was in its rapier form, and Weiss was ready to prove her words were true,
The orange haired girl grinned, her hammer ready to go. "Alright! If you say so! Anyways, who wants to count it down?"
Ruby instantly jumped on the opportunity. "I got this! Ready, everyone?" When the teams nodded together, Ruby smirked. "Alright, ready, set… Fight!"
Yang immediately shot forward, aiming for Pyrrha, while the scarlet huntress in training held her shield up, blocking the punch.
Blake had used her semblance to get behind the team, but was met with Jaune covering their backs, surprising her slightly.
Weiss was on the offensive, going for the boy in green, knowing his mid range attacks were his best course of action, still meeting her blade with his that he had on his Stormflower.
Ruby had only one person she could go after at that point, but she kept her distance, sniping at Nora, who did her best to dodge the incoming dust rounds.
Zwei was watching the whole battle, blade met blade, shots rang out, and both sides had no intention of losing out on any advantages they could get.
Ren managed to get Weiss away at a good distance to begin firing shots at her, and while she did take a few hits, she managed to dodge most of them. In a battle, taking your eyes off an opponent was the last thing you wanted to do, so she couldn't check how much aura she lost and went with her gut.
Still, she knew using her semblance then would be too much, so she began to use dust from Myrtenaster, elegant swings were made, all aimed towards the boy in green as the first type of dust she used was earth dust, sending waves of stone at Ren.
His guns weren't strong enough to take down the rocks by simply shooting them, so he had to dive out of the way, only getting grazed on the side of the leg by a wave of stone.
With that, he was knocked off balance and landed on his side, giving Weiss the chance to strike, but as she sprinted to do so, she was intercepted by Nora, who only grinned and swung her hammer at the girl, who did her best to hold Myrtenaster up to block the attack.
The force of the hammer sent her flying back, even if she was able to block it. Ruby had used her semblance to quickly catch her, causing Weiss to blush. "Gotcha!"
"O-Okay, you can put me down now." Weiss said, feeling her girlfriend releasing her to her feet. "I don't know if I can get a good shot in with Nora defending him like that."
Ruby swapped Crescent Rose to scythe form, looking over to see Nora helping her partner up. "I'm gonna distract her up close then." She instantly shot forward with her semblance and went in for a slice, but Ren saw the attack and met the blade of Crescent Rose with his Stormflower, giving Nora enough time to try and swing at Ruby.
Unlucky for her, she was met with two ice blasts that froze her feet to the ground. Weiss was the reason for that, and she got close enough to make quick jabs at Ren's chest, since he was locked with Ruby at the time, sending the boy back and doing a good bit of damage to his aura.
Nora didn't like seeing her closest friend getting hurt, so she smashed the ice with the butt of her hammer, and as she glared at Weiss, she was quickly met with a smirking Ruby, who swapped back to focusing on her.
All the while, Pyrrha was too quick for Yang, swinging her spear around and smacking her in the back, making the blonde growl in anger. "Ugh," She tried punching the ground with gravity dust in her gauntlets, sending the purple shockwave towards Pyrrha, but Jaune pushed her out of the way, getting trapped in the gravity well.
Blake took the chance to jumped up and kick him down, making him gasp for air when it was knocked out of him. Yang found it annoying that she missed her target though, and pushed on, punching at Pyrrha, who stayed calm as she blocked the punches with her shield, responding with a swipe to the legs, knocking the brawler down on her back.
Pyrrha aimed her spear at Yang, waiting to see if she'd give up, but didn't realize that Blake would take the opportunity to fire several rounds at her, so her aura took a hit when she was shot a few times in the shoulder.
Jaune saw that and did his best to get up, the gravity keeping him off balance, but as he saw Blake running at Pyrrha, he forced himself out of the gravity pull.
The scarlet huntress in training met Blake's blade with her spear, holding her back. "That was a good sneak attack." She complimented.
Blake wasn't one for talking during a fight, so she simply nodded and jumped back, not allowing Pyrrha to try and do what she did to her partner. Yang was up again, side by side with Blake as they were both facing Pyrrha.
Jaune hesitated for a moment when he realized he was behind Blake and Yang, shaking his head as he couldn't let Pyrrha fight alone, so he started running to hit Yang from behind, but the other blonde could hear his footsteps, so she turned around and went in for a punch, only to meet Jaune's shield, making her groan in anger.
"Ugh, shields are starting to piss me off…" Yang faced Jaune at that point, back to back with her partner as they had swapped opponents.
Whitley still has his own story to go through and Willow won't give up on him, so I'll try to get more scenes for Whitley in this since he does have a part to play as well as him growing as a character. Oh and Zwei is a cheer dog.
To JJ- Cheer dog Zwei! And yeah, Yang will need to start watching what she says, or else she'll end up in a lot of pain. Lazuria truly just wants to live a normal life again, so yeah it's sad for her, but now she has people who will do what they can to help. Let's see if they really can help though.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 65. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 66.