July 27th 1999…. Seconds after disaster.
Alan Ozpin and Jaune Arc had just finished picking up the package that contained Mina's wedding dress and had opted to stop at a local barber shop in the same nearby town for haircuts, neither had realized at first that Alan's car had been towed while they were in the barber shop.
"Aw crap. Mina's wedding dress was in the car!" Alan said to Jaune as they both stood there dumbfounded at what had just transpired.
Alan paced as he pondered his options, whoever towed Alan's care didn't even take the time to check and see if they were still in the area or even attempted to confirm how long the coin operated parking meter had been expired for.
As he paced Jaune looked around and noticed a sign saying "Towing enforced by RAINART TOWING". Jaune snapped his fingers to get Ozpin's attention to him. Alan looked at Jaune and the sign he was pointing at. "Wait, so you think the car was towed over there?"
Jaune wrote out a note saying 'I can't think of where else it would be.'
"Okay, let me call your mom and I'll tell her were going to be late and to not wait up for us." Alan Said.
Jaune waived at Alan and showed him a note saying 'Might not want to tell her about the whole "we lost your wedding dress" thing yet.'
Alan nodded as he started talking to Mina over his cellphone. "Hey uh... something came up..."
About and hour of walking later Jaune and Ozpin arrived at the front office of Rainart Towing. Both figured this was the place based on the faded sign with the semi functional fluorescent tube hanging over the door of the office building. The actual lot itself was a decent size and the pair could see roughly twenty vehicles inside the fenced off enclosure.
As the pair walked in Alan walked into to the front desk and spoke to the blank staring two tone haired woman sitting behind the desk. Both recognized her as Neo "Motormouth" Politan.
"As I live and breathe you two sure do clean up purdy don't yall?" Neo said to the pair. "You ain't giving my future husband here a bad time are you Oz?"
Jaune blushed and broke eye contact as Neo "accidentally" leaned over in a way that gave him a view down her wife beater tank top.
Alan laughed "What you and Roman break up again?"
Neo smiled "Well shucks, we always had what we call an 'open relationship' Anytime he ends up in jail I can date whoever until he gets let out."
Jaune signed out [Is that why your working here?] remembering that Neo's once told him that she had a younger cousin who was deaf, so she learned sign for him.
"Yeah he took the fact that his business is kind of an open secret round these parts a little too literally and tried to sell a double dime-bag to an out of towner." Neo mused "So single at the moment," she said giving a sly wink to Jaune.
Jaune chuckled. Neo knew that Jaune and Ruby were close, and she often cracked jokes about how cute of a couple they made, but she still enjoyed teasing him every chance she got.
"So anyways, what brings the two cutest off the market boys I know over to my place of employment today." Neo asked.
"I'm here to collect the ruby red 1977 Pontiac Firebird that got towed in about an hour ago, how much do I have to pay to have it released?" Ozpin asked.
"Well fiddlesticks Mr Ozpin, I am mighty sorry but I can't release any cars till the boss comes back" Neo aid to Ozpin as Jaune tried to ignore certain aspects of Neo being aimed in his direction.
"How long will it take Neo?" Alan asked. "I don't necessarily need my car back right away but I need a couple things from it."
"Well the boss has drivers still collecting cars, but he's not in office will the second of august, unfortunately he also said that I'm not even allowed to take down payments to get cars out of the yard or let out there." Neo said with a relative calm.
"No doubt because he could charge the storage fees for those extra days." Ozpin said with a ton of frustration in his voice. "Can you make an exception? I need to get my wife's wedding dress from the car."
"Ah'm sorry Sweetie, I know how important this is, but his rules are the law round here." Neo said before she leaned in close brushing against Jaune to whisper something to the pair. "That said, I might be able to help, if you don't mind doing something somewhat distasteful."
Jaune signed [As long as I can keep my pants on, I'll consider it, what do you got?]
"Well…" Neo whispered "I could be motivated to forget to remind Tyrian to turn on the security camera on the yard tonight if you want to try and sneak back there. Ty is the only guard we have most nights and it's frankly a lazy little shit."
"What is this going to cost us?" Ozpin asked
"Seven minutes in heaven with Jaune." Neo cracked up seeing their shocked faces. "Oh mah gawd you two, Ah'm aware he's sixteen."
Jaune and Ozpin exchange worried glances as Neo kept going "Nah just save me a slice of the wedding cake and we'll call it good. I like you guys too much to want to screw yall over like that."
Alan nodded "Okay, we'll come back tonight okay?" Jaune just shot her a thumbs up.
Alan and Jaune left to plan their evening. But first they had to stop by the local goodwill store.
Jaune and Ozpin waited outside of the fenced area in a nearby ally way, the pair had borrowed a car with the aid of Neo, who had driven them back over to the tow yard.
Jaune didn't like this one bit, but he understood the need for it.
"Okay Jaune, as the most athletic one of us we need you to hop the fence and get the box, i'll stay outside and be their so you can pass the box off to me when you get back, you have the wire cutters?" Ozpin said
Jaune held up the wire cutters so he could cut the barbed wire on the top of the fence.
"Also take these brass knuckles, in case you have to punch out the guard." Neo added as she slipped a heavy metal lump in his hands.
Jaune got an exasperated look on his face [Wait, your talking about your coworker! Your asking me to put your coworkers into the hospital!]
"He's a bit of a pervert who like leering at me all the time, your doing me a solid if you smack him for me" Neo said.
Jaune zipped up his coat and put on hardware store dust mask he got at a goodwill store today, Ozpin was already similarly done up, they both exchanged glances as Ozpin said "Don't get caught."
Jaune signed out a quick okay and stepped out of the car and started to run towards the fence. Pulling his heavy duty work gloves on in the process.
Even though he was not the most athletic person in the school he could still climb the fence with relative ease. Once he was up towards the top of the fence. He tried to hook one arm around the fence and cut the barbed wire on the top of the fence with his arm. He found that to be a surprisingly difficult feat as the as the wire was pretty hard to cut, not to mention the awkward angle he had to work with. He eventually did manage to cut out a length of the wire however freeing him to get into the yard itself.
Once he was over he kept a careful ear out for the sounds of anyone nearby as he kept low to the ground. He was able to hear someone laughing off in the distance at something and he could see a light, but he figured he would be okay if he kept low and quiet.
It didn't take him long to get to where the Ozpin's car was parked, and he could still see the box with the dress sitting in the back next to a duffel bag Ozpin kept some spare clothes in. when he went to fish for Ozpin's keys he realized with some horror that he didn't have them. It was then that he remembered that they were in the pants he was wearing before he changed for this night time invasion. "Ah fuck, I don't want to go all the way back just for that…"
Jaune stayed low watching the light as it looked like it was slowly maneuvering in his direction. He tried to consider his options when it came to him. "Didn't mom say something once about how glass damage claims were free to repair through insurance in our state once?"
Jaune realizing he didn't have the time to really dwell on things slipped on the brass knuckles and waited for the light to aim away from him before he reached back.
And punched out the side window of Ozpin's car….
Jaune winced at the loud noise as the light turned in his direction almost instantly, he threw the door open grabbing the box and duffel bag and started to quickly relocated behind another nearby car.
Once he was in a good he kept low and tried to keep his breathing quiet as he saw the now slightly recognizable face think twitchy man that came to check out the damage. "Aw shit shit shit, I'm going to fucking gut who ever did this!" the man said with an unpleasantly rat like voice.
While Jaune slowly put together where he seemed to remember that man from. He decided to file it away for once he was not longer trespassing on private property with a bag of "stolen" goods and having just committed vandalism on his principal's car.
Jaune grabbed a rock and threw it as hard as he could past the man, it was luck that he hit something with a car alarm that went off causing the man to turn and run off in the direction screaming in rage.
Jaune took the opportunity to quickly run back to his exit point where Ozpin was waiting. Alan clapped his hands and signed [Toss me the dress!] to which Jaune did as he hurled the box over the fence on his first try before he threw himself at the fence and started to scale the fence quickly. When Jaune got over the fence the sleeve of his sweater caught on barbed wire and tore a hole in it, but he managed to make it over otherwise unharmed.
Jaune felt himself pulled to his feet and pushed along but Ozpin as he whispered "Go go go" to his soon to be stepson. Since Neo was a block away they stuck to back alleys that Alan had mapped out and was just reaching Neo when the first signs of sirens started to blare out in the distance. By the time they were both at the car Jaune quickly ditched his now torn second had sweater and ditched his gloves and mask in a dumpster near where Neo parked.
They were a good distance away by the time they saw the first police cars driving by. None of them paid their vehicle, which was driving casually much mind.
"Hooooly Shit what the hell happened back there?" Neo said with a laugh
[I kinda forgot Alan's keys in my other pants and had to improvise] Jaune said.
"Improvise how?" Alan said with a look of concern.
[I might of had to make it look like I was randomly breaking into your car to get the dress, that's why I got this duffel bag as well.] Jaune chuckled.
"Well I'm glad you got my dirty Gym clothes as well, but how did you get in?" Ozpin asked.
[I broke a window?] Jaune signed meekly as Neo burst out laughing.
"What on earth do you find so funny about this Neo?" Ozpin said in an exasperated tone "I just asked my fiancé's son to break several laws because I forgot to go out and put a damn quarter in a parking meter at lunch!"
"Well because the vehicle was damaged in our yard's care, we can't charge for storage anymore." Neo took a pause to laugh "He probably just saved you like a 120.00 bucks just now!"
At this point even Ozpin had to let out a slight chuckle at this. "You all know we have to take this to our graves right?"
[As the youngest person here, I feel like I can tell this tale on my deathbed if that's cool right?] Jaune signed up front
"Fine by me, but yall sure do know how to show a girl a good time I'll say that much." Neo said with a giggle. "Lets get yall home while our cover story of me offering you a ride back still holds water."
"Yes, let's please do." Alan said as he rested his head on the back of the seat.
Ozpin and Jaune both walked in a little past eleven that night, roughly eight or nine hours later than they had planned, Alan in particular claimed dibs on the shower as Jaune personally handed the hard earned dress box to his mother.
"So what kept you two out so late?" Mina asked with a less than amused tone.
[Long story short, Alan's car was towed and I had to break into the tow yard to get the dress back after they closed.] Jaune signed with a deadpan look on his face.
"No, really, what happened?" Mina said with an amused chuckle.
[Well the car part was true, but we just ended up making a day of it and eventually Neo gave us a ride back home after she got off work.] Jaune said with a more convincing look on his face.
"Ah okay, well Ruby's mom called and asked me to have to IM Ruby when you got in, she's missing you or something." Mina said to her son as she cracked open a beer.
[Ah right yeah, she wanted us to hang out today, guess it slipped my mind] Jaune said as he waved to excuse himself and walk off to his own room.
The phone rang a few moments later and Mina answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey Mina, it's Tai. Hey is Alan camping out there tonight?" the voice of Tai rang through
"Alan, it's for you!" Mina said as she waited for him to pick up the other phone and she hung up hers.
She got a few sips into her beer before she heard Ozpin shout from across the house. "My car's been what!?"
So that was a chapter if I do say so myself. Now while the idea behind this was slightly based on true events, my brothers truck was towed a day before his wedding with his now wives dress in it. I was resolved with a lot let crime involved. The Wedding Arc is only going to be about three or four chapters in length since I don't have that many idea's of things that can go wrong at a wedding. But weddings never seem to ever go off without a hitch and their's always at least one thing that goes comically or less than comically wrong.
That being said, I hope the hard shift in tone during the wedding arc doesn't detract from your enjoyment of the story to bad. Either way way, thanks again for reading and i'll see you all next time!
