Some people really do get it right.
Most of them do really fall in love for life; some never seem to get it quite right. But the unfair fact is that some of them really do actually get it right, let's see how these mortals do.
Being a God was…
Well it was a lot of things that mortals would never truly comprehend, most of them would wish to be able to live forever; but when the millennia overwhelm them, they would realise that eternal life was a terrible responsibility.
The great thing about life was that it was just that; a life.
It was not ever lasting, the fact that you know your days are numbered should give you the purpose to live it to the fullest.
Not that a God would expect a mortal to understand this sentiment.
The eternal life did allow multiple stories to be watched, particularly stories of love; one of the most powerful forces in the universe.
And you can believe a God on that.
Now love was a fickle thing, it came in so many different ways that some people never even knew they had it.
Ruby had never been more alive than when she was in a battle to the death, she loved the pure thrill of swinging Crescent Rose around and the fact that she got to still do so even all these years after Salem was an added bonus.
Ruby could still remember that fateful day where she faced the Queen of the Grimm, the 2 had battled fiercely and then the moment the Relics were all brought together, they both placed a hand on the completed set they were brought before the Gods.
Ruby couldn't remember what it was that she had said to them, nor could she remember what Salem had said.
All she knew was that when she returned back to Remnant, Salem was not there and the Grimm still were. The Relics turned to dust (not the energy kind the stuff that was constantly around her house, how was it still all over her floor!) and then the real fight had started.
Not only was Salem apparently nowhere on the face of Remnant but Oscar had said that Ozpin was nowhere in his mind, he was free of the soul merging.
Ruby had been over the moon; humanity had lost its greatest threat and now the Grimm were just mindless monsters once again with nobody to conduct them.
She could also finally be what she had wanted all along in her life; a true Huntress. She had taken every extermination mission she could, because despite Salem being gone, negativity would still reign in the world and it was a Huntress' job to fight the hordes and put their lives on the line. Her mum was the first to teach her that lesson; then there was Pyrrha, then there was Clover, then Marrow, then there was Maria who died laughing and smiling, Emerald and Mercury who died to make sure she could write their wrongs and so many others during the Fall of Beacon and the battles of Atlas and Mantle.
Her job was never going to be done, but that was okay because she had a great team behind her. They weren't team RWBY, but they were family of a different kind.
"Oscar where is she?" Ruby asked in what she believed to be a stern tone, it was slightly offset by how tall her husband had grown over the years.
"Uh, I honestly don't know. She kind of blurred right past me."
"You couldn't see her?"
"Honey she has double your energy and double your speed, Ren never senses her when she blast in for a hug and even Penny can't track her most of the time."
"I know I'm so proud." Ruby squealed. "SUMMER ROSE YOU BETTER GET BACK HERE OR NO COOKIES FOR YOU!"
A blast of white petals later and Ruby was tackled by the most important being in her life.
"I'm sorry mum, I just got carried away by the new move that aunty Yang showed me and I really wanted to try it out on that Ursa, please let me have cookies."
Ruby had learnt something over the years, whereas before nobody could resist her puppy dog eyes, it was coming back to bite her in the butt all these years later as she couldn't resist her own daughters puppy dog eyes.
Beautiful silver as they were.
This was the life that Ruby had always been searching for, surrounded by people that loved her, untied in there front against the forces of darkness, determined to make the world a better place.
As she smiled at her daughter and her husband, the positivity radiating off of her had cleared the area faster than even she could with her eyes.
Nora brought the axe down again chopping the wood.
That made nearly 500 by her count and she was beginning to feel it in the scars. Those lightening scars always made her ache after a while, placing her in a discomfort for a long time, not that she had never powered through it before, why she could still remember the battle into Salem's giant whale Grimm. JNR had held the line, well technically it was JNPR as Pyrrha was always with them, and her fearless leader had given her the best gift ever at the time.
Lightning
Nora could still remember the power she welded back then in that battle, oh if Pyrrha could have seen her back then her sister would have been so happy for her team. Jaune commanded them with the utmost confidence, defending them from every hit, truly being their shield. Ren was laughing! Renny was laughing through the fight with tears of happiness in his eyes and smiling at her and yelling about how much he loved his family, his positive emotions being amplified by Jaune to unheard of levels and they were scaring the Grimm, causing them to forget that they were even fighting Hunters, they were invisible to the monsters because of Ren and Jaune.
But Nora was anything but invisible, the lightning crackled around her in waves, the thunder rolled over her head, and the wind howled her name. The pain from the scars had faded in that moment and instead they were conduits of power for her, given by the greatest leader in history; her Jaune-Jaune. She blasted through swarm after swarm of Grimm, safe to say that nobody could match her strength in that moment.
All of them fighting in the loving memory of their fallen family and nobody could stop them.
That was the day Salem disappeared. Nora still had the nightmares that she would return, they all did, but with Glynda as the headmistress of Beacon and Ruby training the next generation of Hunters, Nora could say that she slept easily.
Speaking of rest…
Nora left the forest with her cart full of chopped wood and pulled it into her village.
Immediately she was overwhelmed with people to help out one of their defenders.
After the fall of Salem, JNR had travelled back to Mistral and the 3 of them had taken back Kuroyuri, rebuilt it and transported people there that just wished to live without the mindless politics of the kingdoms. They had made it a beautiful safe place for people, with Nora and Ren as the defenders of the village, and Jaune whenever he came by to visit.
Leaving the cart with the villagers as they would make sure it was given between then people fairly and evenly, Nora headed home.
Home…
It was so lovely to think that was where she could finally go after all this time, as she turned the corner on to the street leading to her and Ren's house she saw him open the door and give her one of his trade mark smiles. She never thought that Ren would have a trademark smile other than his little smirk.
Nora rolled her eyes. "LET ME GUESS WHEN I TURNED TO CORNER!" she yelled at him as she got closer.
"No, from when you entered the village." Ren responded calmly. "An was when you turned the corner." Ren then stepped aside and let Nora view her little girl who shyly waved at her mother as Nora then pulled her into a tight hug.
Once she set her daughter down she gave Renny a big kiss that made her feel all tranquil and at ease.
"Was it the scars again?" he asked in a concerned tone. She knew she couldn't lie to him, well she could try but he would be able to tell, and not because of his powers but because he knew her so well.
"Yes, started aching after 5oo logs."
"Only 500?" Her of so loving husband teased. She loved how much he had grown into his emotions and as a person over the years, ever since the mission to save Oscar from the whale he had been much more open with her and Jaune and with everyone. They all probably saw it as a massive change, but she saw the progression and she loved him for it.
Loved everything about it, because the 2 of them finally had what they had always wanted, a home.
Weiss shifted through the papers on her desk and sighed loudly, running the largest corporation on the planet has taken its toll on her, she was pretty sure that there were a couple of grey hairs mixed in with the white, something she really didn't like to see and something she hated whenever a certain someone would point out to her…
But right now she was done with the office work and she could finally go home.
Pulling up outside Schnee manor and making her way up the steps she smiled, in the place of the statues her father had of giant knights, she had replaced with those who had given their lives to defend Atlas and Mantle.
Clover
Ironwood (while Yang would argue, there was no doubt that in the end the man had given his life to a noble cause)
Maria
Pietro
And finally Whitley…
Weiss paused for a moment in-front of her brother and smiled at him, he had made her so proud when he dived at the Hound to save May, he was certainly worthy of the tile of hero. "Little brother I wish you could have taken the reigns of the company, maybe you would have the grey hair and not I that way."
Opening the front door Weiss breathed a sigh of relief and removed her coat, just as Winter rolled into the room on her wheelchair.
"And how goes the corporate world little sister?"
Weiss closed her eyes and shook her head. "I understand why mother choose to drink all those years ago."
"Weiss you shouldn't joke about those things."
"I know. But to properly answer your question; stressful as of late, we have been experimenting with a new energy source since dust is a limited resource as you know, the results have been less than satisfactory."
"I can tell by the grey hairs." Winter teased as Weiss turned on her and glared.
"Why you – you – you -"
"I think they make her look good." Said Ilia as she made her way in from the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Weiss' waist, giving her wife a kiss on the cheek. Winter rolled her eyes at the display of cuteness in-front of her and wheeled herself backwards out of the roof.
"Oh no the girl that is so thirsty for my sister thinks she looks good; looks like I was wrong!" she cries out dramatically.
Weiss feels Ilia giggle against her cheek as the CEO then turns around to face her wife. "Hello."
"Hello honey, how was your day?"
"Do I really have some greys in my hair?"
"Babe you are 27, your hair is fine. Besides, I could make mine silver to match if you like?"
"No I would feel like I would be kissing myself."
"I like kissing you so I'm sure you would too."
A loud CRASH interrupts the 2 of them in their tender moment and they both race out of the room to see Winter halfway up the stairs as her chair had fallen off the lift and she was sprawled on the halfway point.
Weiss launched herself up the stairs with her glyphs and reached Winter in a second to help her sit back up.
Winter gave her a tired smile and then looked down at her legs. "I thought they were getting stronger, I can move the toes around, but I still can't do anything more than that." She said sadly.
Weiss gave her a sad smile in return. "That's okay Winter, I'm going to be here for you ever moment until you are back on your feet."
Winter chuckled as Ilia brought over her chair and put hands under one of Winters arms and then the 2 of them lifted her back into her chair. "I thought you were going to say every step of the way."
Weiss scoffed. "Please, I love puns, but I'm not a basic pun bitch like Yang."
Winter gave her a little smile and then looked back down at her legs sadly. "Do you think I will ever walk again?"
Weiss paused for a moment; the accident had happened a month and a half, a mammoth Grimm had smashed her into a building, only after Winter and the rest of the Ace Ops had managed to clear a massive horde out in the sewers of Mantle. The doctors said that the likely hood of her walking if she didn't have Aura would have been 10%, but because she did it was speeding up the healing process. The doctor then told Weiss privately that he had not seen damage at this level in a long time.
But she still had hope; Jaune was making his way to Atlas and he could help by saving Winter the same way he had managed to save Weiss all those years ago and how he saved everyone since then. So Weiss knew that Winter would walk again.
"Winter, I think you will be running." Weiss never thought when she was younger that she would be the one to put such a happy expression on her sister's face, nor on her wives. But seeing the both of them so happy with her, made Weiss super happy as well.
And other than bunk beds; this was what she really wanted, a loving family.
Yang rolled over in bed.
Lazy Sundays were the best days ever.
Just lying there, relaxed, no pressure. Just puuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrfect.
Hehe, Blake would love that.
Rolling over to nudge her partner Yang saw that her side of the bed was empty and then realised that her favourite (she got in trouble for once asking Blake if she was going to look like her mother when she got older) kitty cat wasn't there.
Then she heard the cry from the shower.
"YANG!" Oh no, it was her irritated cry, Yang was in for it now.
The bathroom door burst open and the shower steam rolled out as Yang then sat up in their bed and – oh Yang couldn't be afraid of her wife right now.
"YOU NEED A HAIR CUT!" Blake cried out.
"Babe I-"
"DON'T YOU 'BABE' ME! YOU HAVE CLOGGED UP THE DRAIN AGAIN!"
"Bl-"
"No Yang I won't have it, and you are going to be reaching into that drain and pulling you hair out, and you are not using your robot arm."
"Uh Bl-"
"I don't care if that is mean, and don't bother flashing me those 'eyes' either, it won't work, you are going to learn from your punsihmen-"
"BABE YOU ARE NAKED STILL!" Yang finally managed to interrupt as she waved her arm at, in her opinion, her very sexy naked wife who was angry and posing in a way that 'presented things' to Yang, making it very difficult to catch her attention on her anger and not on 'her'.
Blake looked down at her. And then up at Yang. Down at her. Then up at Yang who wiggled her eyebrows in what she probably thought was an enticing and seductive way.
Blake rolled her eyes.
"Yang you are such a dumbass." And then she crawled into the bed with her.
'Yeah lazy Sundays were the best.' Thought Yang
"CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG!" Cried the crowed in the bar as the 2 opponents downed the massive mugs in-front of them as fast as they could.
Qrow then slammed his mug down as hard as he could on the table, a split second after Joanna slammed hers down and stood up victorious.
"YEAH THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT WHOOOOOO!" She yelled out as Qrow let out a loud belly laugh.
Fiona had her head in her hands at the display and quietly apologised to the waitress as she came by to collect the numerous mugs of beer the 2 had downed during their many, many competitions.
A while back Qrow promised to stop drinking as a way to cope, but now he had a different reason for his drinking. He drank to honour, to remember, to celebrate and more importantly he drank with friends.
The Happy Huntress' were his friends. A group of miss fits and outcasts from society; Qrow loved them all.
Joanna was tough love if there ever was a personification of it, and Qrow was raised on tough love so the 2 of them got a long great, add that to the fact that she loved competition and Qrow loved a challenge, and he might even dare to say she was his best friend in the group.
Fiona is certainly the secret powerhouse of the group, Qrow had seen this woman make entire boulders disappear, where he had no idea and honestly, she scared him a little. If she wasn't such a sweetheart who was so kind and timid around everyone Qrow would be a lot more worried, as of now however, he had resolved to protect her in social environments and from the faunus racists.
May was perfect for him to bounce off, the jokes and the endless sarcasm between the 2 of them never seem to end, no matter the situation. Qrow was honoured to call her his friend, and was disgusted after learning how little her parents cared for the decision to defend Mantle, but that was overshadowed by how amazed he was by her bravery to leave behind the comfort and stick her hands into the mud and sort out the problems for herself.
And then there was Robyn.
Robyn had helped to pull him from a dark place; she had talked to him, cared for him, trusted him and listened to him. He didn't think he should be around anybody after what happened with Clover, and he was prepared to just up and leave everyone after the defeat of Salem.
But Robyn had held his hand and asked him if he really wanted to leave.
He couldn't lie, not to her after everything she had done for him.
So he chooses to stay with them.
He did try to get them to change the name, but they overruled him.
Besides he still had the legs for a skirt anyway.
Jaune laid the flowers down at the base of Pyrrha's statue and looked up at the face of his partner, he grinned at her. She still looked as beautiful as the first time he saw her. He remembered talking about that with Weiss when he was in Atlas and she brought up with Ilia how badly he flirted the first time. Weiss compared Ilia to him and she got offended, but after hearing the stories, Ilia said they were actually quite similar.
At least he had managed to heal Winter almost completely, the next step was just time and waiting, but he was expecting to hear good news any day now.
As he sat down on the bench nearest to the statue he looked at a fallen leaf that flew past, he liked to think that was her way of making him know she was still listening and still watching over him.
Jaune took out his scroll and played the video.
He always watched this video whenever he came back to Argus.
"I'll always be there for you Jaune."
He then put his scroll away and looked back at the statue. "Then I guess you saw me when I fell down the side of that mountain back in Vale right? Well I have an explanation for that, there was this apple that I really wanted and it was right there on the tree so I reached, but forgot I was on the side of a mountain and I feel… see perfectly good explanation right?"
He swore he could see the shadow of the statue shake a little in laughter, the way the light from one of the lanterns making lines across her face so that she was almost smiling at him.
"Yeah you would find that funny." Jaune chuckles as he shakes his head, disturbing the snow that was falling.
"I don't think a day goes by when I don't think about how much I miss you Pyr. You were truly the first person to believe in me."
He says this every time, but as all his friends know he is a man of his word and he means everything he says.
"Also your mum finally showed me all your baby and school photos; why did you get to be such an adorable kid? Seriously you got lucky with no sibling to dress you up, put make up on you, braid your hair – actually – you would have loved that. You would have loved them, and I know they would have loved you if I finally got the nerve to introduce you to them."
He was silent for a bit.
"I went to see mum and dad for the first time in a long time, since before Beacon even. That wasn't easy. I told them everything; you Ren, Nora, RWBY (the team) about all our friends really. They listened, then they told me they were sorry for how they never believed in me; I yelled, they yelled, I cried, they cried, I yelled some more, they cried some more, I think I cried a lot at that point and then there was nothing. I'm going back over to Vale next week for another mission, so I might show them I'm still alive."
He looked up at his partner; no way would he ever not be looking up at her.
"They asked about children…" this was when the weather turned suddenly, now it was raining, but Jaune didn't feel wet.
"I told them… I told them not to get their hopes up… I just don't think I can… it should be with someone I… and I have tried looking, I've been one dates set up by my sisters, Ruby, Nora, Yang, Weiss, I even went on a date with Glynda once, that was a terrifying night, I went on a date with one of the Ace Ops, Elm, didn't go so well."
Man it was really raining right now wasn't it? But he still didn't feel wet.
"Because the truth is Pyrrha… I realised a long time ago I only ever loved one person enough to even consider children… *sniff* you might know her; badass, red hair, out of my league, great legs too." He chuckled at the last part.
This rain just wouldn't stop.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that some people really do get it right, but I'm not one of them… I'm not one of them…"
The rain had stopped.
"Sorry Pyrrha I got to go now, search and destroy mission in the woods, a giant Deathstalker was spotted and you know how I feel about those things."
Jaune stood up and brushed the snow of his legs and amour, one hand going to his sword. "Us hunter really got to work hard don't we?"
A fallen leaf flew behind him as he left the park heading for the bullhead to meet with the students of Sanctum, time to teach them a lesson he himself had learnt long ago.
"Mr Arc what is a landing stategy?"
Now he was sure he could hear Pyrrha's laughter loud and clear.
Love comes to everyone differently, enjoy the new year.