Ah, here we are, and for what feels like the first time in ages there is no drama to report. No family members doing their best to harm themselves, or ridiculous drama otherwise. The week has been peaceful.

It has me on edge…

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 62

Cinder watched the match before her blankly, as uninterested in the outcome as she was with much else in Beacon. Her mind was on other matters, and quite lost in them, as well. Anyone watching might have said she was lost in a catatonic stupor.

They wouldn't be entirely incorrect.

"So, let me get this straight," Emerald said. "Ozpin and Ironwood want to make you the maiden?"

"That is what I told you several hours ago, and several times."

"I'm just struggling to wrap my mind around it."

While normally Cinder would have berated her underling for wasting her time like this, she felt that for once, and just this once, she could be forgiven. Of all the things they'd planned for and all the contingencies in place, there had been a curious lack of a plan for what happened if Ozpin just up and gave them what they wanted - mostly because the chance of that happening was all but impossible.

Impossible doesn't seem to matter in the face of my little brother's bumbling stupidity, she thought to herself. Really, he should have been caught the first time he came to Vale and snuck into Beacon, let alone when he transformed into his full Grimm form multiple times in front of his own teammates, and yet no, they had no idea.

Instead, he'd wormed his way into the confidences of their worst enemies, misled them, and was now planning to have the maiden's power transferred to her and made loyal to Salem. She might have complimented him on his plans or felt proud that she'd trained him to be so smart...

If it wasn't for the fact he kept outdoing her!

"Emerald," she snapped.

"Y-Yes?"

"Am I… getting old?"

Emerald didn't know how to answer, though she was smart enough to smell the potential minefield she was walking into. Mercury wisely kept his eyes focused on the match.

"Um… no?"

"Am I past my prime?"

"Definitely not," she said. "I-I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of guys who would kill for a chance with you."

Cinder shot her underling a quick glare. It wasn't her looks she was concerned about, though now that Emerald mentioned it... no, absolutely not. She was in the height of her youth, reaching her prime, and was about to ascend to maidenhood. Everything was going to plan - just not her plan, and in some strange way that irritated her.

But did it really matter?

Well, yes, otherwise she wouldn't be so miffed, but in the long run, she meant. She would become the Fall Maiden either way, so why worry about who had given it to her? And besides, she'd technically raised Jaune, so any successes on his part were only due to her own excellent ability as a mentor and surrogate parent.

Yes, that was her story.

And by Salem, she was going to stick to it.

"What happens now, then?" Mercury asked, looking around to make sure no one was listening in. With the match in full flow, everyone was distracted. "You're the maiden now, right? Do we leave?"

"No to both questions."

"To both-? Wait, you're not the maiden? You said no!?"

"Don't be a fool," she snapped. "Of course I said yes, that should be a given. Unfortunately, the headmaster doesn't want the aura transfer to begin just yet and as such would not accept an answer. There is also another candidate for the position."

"Who?"

"I don't know," she said. "Yet. I'll be sure to find out, and when we do said candidate might find themselves in a little accident. A shame, but there are all sorts of things that can go wrong in the Vytal Festival."

"But what about the old plan?" Emerald asked. "Is that still going ahead?"

The plan to discredit Beacon fighters to cause outcry and despair, and then to take over the CCT and turn on Beacon? It was a good plan, and so it should be since she'd made it. That said, going ahead with it now was something of a waste of time, especially when all she had to do was wait.

"We'll hold off for now. I do not want us to do anything that might jeopardise my becoming the maiden." It would grate on her nerves to have to play nice, especially in front of Jaune's friends, the General and the headmaster, but it was a necessary sacrifice to pay. "We'll also focus on performing as well as we can in the tournament, winning it if necessary."

"I thought we didn't want to attract attention?"

"We do now. I need to make myself the perfect option for the Fall Maiden. If I can do so legally, without having to resort to violence, then I will."

"Yeah, one problem," Mercury said, cringing.

Cinder glared at him. "And what would that be?"

"Adam."

"Ah." Cinder sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "And what do you expect are the chances I can convince him to hold off on his attack?"

Mercury and Emerald didn't answer. Neo cringed.

Yes. That might be a problem...

/-/

Jaune sat next to Yang and smiled when he heard Pyrrha laugh at something Ruby said a few seats down. It looked like his teammate had finally relaxed again now that the decision on the maiden was out of her hands.

"You know, if you keep looking at Pyrrha like that I might get jealous." Yang smiled to show she wasn't entirely serious.

"She was upset yesterday. I was just checking to see if she felt better."

"Yeah, yeah, I could see that myself. Saw her walking the corridors like she didn't know what to do. I was going to step in but you beat me to it."

"Did you listen?" Jaune asked.

"Nah. Figured you could handle it. Why? Did you get up to anything naughty?"

"I'd never cheat on you."

"I-I was just joking," Yang said, laughing past her red cheeks. "Anyway, Ren and I are going to fight in the doubles for the next rounds. You decided who will fight for yours yet?"

"Not yet," he replied.

Their team had been forced to fight their first round again after the postponement between their and Cinder's team. Luckily, they'd had no problem dismantling Team FNKI earlier – especially once they'd realised the enemy team relied heavily on a roller-skating faunus and a man with a trumpet for their offence. Turned out roller skate speed really didn't mean much when Ruby could run just as fast, and that Flynt Coal ought to have made his trumpet out of something other than metal.

Or not, but, well, it was just bad luck on their part really. Pyrrha's Semblance really did seem unfair when just about everyone had a metal weapon. Was the tournament really that much of a foregone conclusion? Probably not – but he could only imagine Cinder being able to hold her own against the championship fighter.

"We'll probably put Pyrrha through," he said, ignoring the obviously sarcastic eye roll from Yang. "I'm not sure if it'll be me or Weiss who fits the other, though. I've got plenty of endurance but Weiss is far more versatile."

"No to Ruby?"

"Not when we might have to fight you," he said, eyeing his girlfriend. "You know everything about her. We're not going to make it that easy for you."

It was more than that, of course. Like him, Ruby was a very two-dimensional fighter. They both had pretty much one fighting style with an added technique or two – his tentacles for him, and her sniper rifle. The odds of coming up against someone who could counter that was pretty high though, especially when everyone had seen the first matches and would now be specifically coming up with counters.

That was one of the main reasons Weiss had demanded he learn to swim, actually. In her words, no one was going to beat their team by throwing buckets of water into the ring.

A loud noise brought their attention back to the main ring in time to see Penny take advantage of an opening in her opponent's guard, hooking a foot under that of the Vacuo student before her and yanking it away. As he fell, she caught him by his collar and hurled him out of the ring.

"That's the match!" Port called. "A wonderful display of acrobatics and not a bad show from Atlas' team either."

"Peter, I think you have it backwards…"

"And that marks the end of the first rounds of the Vytal Festival. Who will make it through the perilous doubles rounds? Who will be crowned victorious? Which lucky lady in the audience will have a chance to spend her time with Peter Port? Find out next time, ladies and gentlemen."

Jaune ignored the muffled argument taking place on the other side of the microphone to lean over the railing and cheer for Penny. Her eyes scanned the crowd and when she saw him and Ruby – and saw them cheering for her – she hopped up and down excitedly. He had a feeling they'd be having intercourse later, and not the kind Yang ought to be worried about.

"Well, we're through," Yang said. "The only ones we're really worried about is you lot, so there's a good chance we'll make it through to the singles round as well. If we do, I'll be going it alone. You going to cheer for me?"

"Of course."

"Heh." Yang smiled proudly. "You know, my Dad was thinking of coming down for the tournament to see me compete. He saw mine and Ruby's match on the TV the other day. He also asked about you. Quite a lot about you, actually. I think that's the real reason he wants to come by."

"You told your father we're dating?"

"Not me, and not Ruby either," she added. "I cornered her earlier to give her a sisterly talk on the sis-code, and what not to tell Daddy…" Yang's eyes flashed red for a moment. "But she says she didn't and wouldn't. I believe her."

He did, too. Ruby couldn't lie to save her life. "Who told him, then?"

"Uncle Qrow, I'm guessing. He's the only one I can think of." She sighed and ran a hand over her face. "Now I get to face twenty questions, including some pretty embarrassing ones." She eyed him through her fingers. "If dad asks, we haven't had sex."

"We haven't anyway," Jaune pointed out, blushing.

"I know. Just making it clear."

"Is your dad protective or something…?"

"Eh…" Yang dragged the sound on, not quite answering or meeting his eyes. "Well… eh… it's… hm, how to put it?"

"He's going to kill me, isn't he?"

"He probably won't."

"Probably…?"

"Dad's a total softie," Yang laughed, ignoring the worrying thing she'd just said. "He'll love you, trust me. Just so long as your love for me is pure and you don't do anything to upset me. And if Qrow hasn't poisoned him against you." Yang eyed him. "Actually, he might have it in for you because you've got blonde hair and blue eyes."

Jaune blinked. "What?"

"He has this weird theory about people like that scoring with their whole team. Considering your teammates include Ruby, he might be on edge. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Isn't your father a fully trained huntsman?"

"Like I said, I wouldn't worry about it."

He wasn't sure Yang understood what warranted worry and what didn't, especially when they were talking about a professional huntsman, i.e. the exact kind of person who had trained all their lives to kill people like him, or Grimm like him.

Still, Yang and he were in a relationship. If he wanted to take that seriously he needed to go through the motions and that meant meeting the family. Gods, he'd have to think about introducing her to his as well, otherwise she might think he was ashamed of her or something. That wasn't a conversation he relished.

"Alright, well, at least you're giving me time to mentally prepare," he said, noticing quickly that Yang wasn't quite meeting his eyes. "Yang? Yang, when is your father coming here?"

"He's already on the way. He'll be here this afternoon."

Jaune's eyebrow twitched.

"And when did you know he was coming?"

"Yesterday," she admitted awkwardly. "I did try to tell you," she said. "That was why I was roaming the corridors. I was trying to find the right thing to say. But then I saw you talking with Pyrrha and it looked important, so I figured I'd hold off."

Ugh, great, and now he had limited time to prepare. That was even assuming he knew what to do in front of her father, which obviously, he didn't.

"Just make a good impression," Remy said. "How hard can it be?"

"You realise you've damned me with that comment, right?"

"Oops?"

/-/

Cinder cornered him the moment they got back to Beacon. It was while Yang went off with Ruby to plan their father's arrival – essentially cleaning their rooms in case he looked and, in Ruby's case, hiding her porn. Pyrrha and Weiss had left for the cafeteria for food and strategy, while Nora had slipped off with Sun, who had come by – as he always did – to try and talk with Blake.

With so much going on, it was understandable no one noticed the slender arm slip around his throat from behind and drag him away. Not that they'd have done anything if they did, since they apparently now considered Cinder something of a heroine for saving him.

She dragged him away from the cafeteria and into Port's classroom, which, due to the festival, was empty. He wondered if she'd done that on purpose, since all the fake Grimm busts and imagery of people slaying them made him nervous.

If he'd expected Cinder to be happy he'd done all her work for him, she was not. In truth, he hadn't expected her to be. He knew her better than that.

"So," she began. "I see you've been busy, little brother."

"Oh? Whatever do you mean?"

"Playing dumb?"

"Is it really playing when it's me?"

"No, it's not." Cinder's smirk grew. "Now stop dancing around the subject. I'm not going to attack you."

Jaune let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. "You're not angry?"

"I'm surprised, confused and a few other things like that, but no, I'm not angry. Perhaps a little miffed that you didn't tell me earlier, and that you apparently asked General Ironwood and Ozpin to talk to me without warning me." Her eyes narrowed. "You do realise I nearly killed them on several occasions."

"Oops?"

"Idiot," she whispered. "Never mind. What matters is that they're considering me for the position of the Fall Maiden, and I understand I have you to thank for that. What I want to know is just why you decided to go through so much effort for this. You never agreed with mine or Salem's plans in the past."

"I had a change of heart."

"I very much doubt that."

"It's a gift?" he tried.

"And the occasion?"

"Mother's day."

"It's not mother's day," Cinder said. "And I'm not your mother."

"Sister's day?"

"Does not exist. And it's not my birthday, before you suggest it – nor is it Valentines, though I'd raise an eyebrow at you giving me the soul of a dead woman for Valentine's Day regardless. Or maybe I wouldn't," she mused, hand on her chin. "It does seem like a gift a real Prince of the Grimm ought to give…"

"Um…?"

"Regardless, I would have the truth. You've shown no interest in our goals before. What changed?"

Jaune let out a breath through gritted teeth. He'd always been bad at lying in general, but lying to Cinder was an effort in futility. There was no one who knew him better. "I don't want Beacon to get in trouble," he finally said. "You have a plan for it, I can tell." He ignored her raised eyebrow. "I don't know what it is, but I can guess it would be bad. But you want the power of the maiden, so if I give it to you, that plan won't be necessary."

Cinder sighed. "Is that why you instructed Ozpin not to let me make the decision immediately?"

"What?"

"Ozpin," she said. "I tried to tell him that I accepted his offer, but he mentioned that you demanded he give the candidate time to think and consider and not to let her rush into something they might regret."

Jaune cringed under her narrowed eyes. Trust Ozpin to take his request for Pyrrha literally and give it to Cinder, too. It spoke well of the man, though at a time not exactly convenient. Couldn't Ozpin have been a manipulative bastard just this once?

"I didn't mean that for you…"

"Then for whom?" Cinder asked. Her eyes narrowed. "Ah, this other maiden candidate. The headmaster mentioned there was another, no doubt hoping it would alleviate any stress I might feel at being forced into the role. You know who it is, don't you?"

"No."

"Jaune, I can tell when you're lying."

Damn it. Cinder always said there was something he did when he lied, but she refused to tell him what it was, simply saying `Well, if I told you, I wouldn't be able to catch you lying, would I?` His Big Sis could be mean like that.

"You're not going to tell me who it is. I see." Cinder hummed. "She must be someone close to you otherwise you wouldn't have gone through so much effort. And she must be female." Her brows drew down and she scowled, no doubt realising how little `female` narrowed down the list of possible people. It ruled out Ren. That was it.

"What would you do to her if I told you?" he asked. When Cinder didn't respond, he continued. "See? That's why I can't tell you. You promised me you wouldn't hurt my friends and I'm holding you to that. I'm giving you the maiden, Cinder. Just… just leave it be. You win. There's no need to hurt anyone."

"And if this other candidate tries to take it from me?"

"She won't. I've already spoken to her about it and convinced her to say no. She messaged Ozpin to refuse. I was there when she did it."

Cinder's brows rose. She looked quite impressed by his thoroughness, or perhaps just how devious he was being about the whole thing. He wasn't sure it was a good thing to be praised for, but she did eventually nod, agreeing, if silently, to leave the matter be.

"Very well, I'll play along for now. If you've convinced her as you say you have there should be no need for me to interfere."

"Thank you…"

"I feel it should be the other way around, with me thanking you," she said, chuckling. "I don't say it often but… I… I am…" Her brows drew down and her lips into a thin line. She struggled with the word, forcing it out slowly. "I am proud of you," she finally managed, seemingly unused to the word. "You've done well, Jaune."

"Should I be concerned about how hard that was for you?" he had to ask.

"Put yourselves in my shoes and ask that question; I have to deal with Tyrian and Watts most of the time, and your sisters when they're not around."

"Okay, fair point."

He mumbled a silent apology to Tyrian there, but, well… Tyrian! An awesome Uncle he may have been, but you wouldn't trust him with a spoon. It would be embedded in the heart of a toddler the moment you looked away. It was a long-running theory among his sisters that Tyrian was the reason mom's hair had gone white.

"Now that you have, or will have the power of the maiden, there's no need to do anything against Beacon. You can be loyal to the school-"

"I'm not loyal to the school," Cinder interrupted. "I'm loyal to your mother."

"Yes, but you're just here for the maiden and you're going to get it without even trying," he pressed. "That means there's no reason for you to do anything else. You can just wait for it patiently." And peacefully, he refrained from adding.

Because in the end, that was the real worry, that Cinder had some kind of plan – and when did she not? – to harm Beacon and claim the maiden by force. Considering she had no idea where it was being kept, it was the only solution he'd been able to come up with.

"There's no need for another breach and no need for anything else like it. No sabotage at the CCT, no working with terrorists and no one getting hurt."

"That is an entirely optimistic view at best. There are plans already in motion. Not all of them can be stopped."

"But you could join our side," he insisted. "If Ozpin is going to make you the maiden, you could fight for Beacon, at least for now."

"And what of the White Fang?" she asked. "What of Torchwick?"

"Big Sis, I know you. You don't care about them." He smiled and she made no move to protest against it. "Just betray them. They served their purposes, but people only stay allied as long as it serves both parties. Isn't that what you always told me?"

"It is…"

"And the White Fang no longer serve your purpose," he pointed out. "They're going to try and hurt Beacon, which is bad since Beacon is going to give you the Fall Maiden's powers."

"That's true. It's not as simple as you put it, but it's true."

"You'll join us, then?"

Cinder sighed. It was a long and suffering sigh. "Against my better judgment…"

"YES!" cheered Jaune, jumping in the air.

"Don't act so childish," Cinder snapped, not nearly as amused. "I'll fight alongside Beacon, but it's a temporary measure, and if all works out then there won't be any fighting at all. I will… I will attempt to deal with Adam."

"And Torchwick?"

"Torchwick is a coward. He'll be over the moon for the chance of this not happening. The real problem is Adam, and that's a problem you should leave to me," she said when he opened his mouth. "Adam does not trust any human, let alone what he considers a sub-human like you. Words will not change his mind."

Jaune as afraid to ask what would, but judging from Cinder's cruel expression he already knew. He told himself it was none of his business, and that if Adam really was a murderer and leader of a dangerous terrorist organisation, then it wasn't anything to be worried about.

All that mattered was that he had Cinder on board. He'd actually got her working with Beacon, even if only temporarily and only for her to get what she wanted.

"You win this time, little brother. We'll try things your way – but I do mean try. If this doesn't work…"

"It'll work," he promised.

"Hm. We shall see."

"You know, since I helped you get the maiden and since that was what mom wanted you to do, is there any chance we can play the whole thing about me running away as an elaborate plan the two of us cooked up?"

"Don't push your luck."

"Aw..."

/-/

Nora slapped the crop in her hand against the whiteboard behind her. On it was a picture of a familiar faunus with black hair and yellow eyes. "This," Nora shouted. "Is our enemy. This is our target. This is Blake Belladonna, the focus of this strategy session."

"She's not really my enemy-OW!" Sun winced when the crop whipped down onto his hand. It didn't hurt much thanks to aura but he still cradled the hand against his chest. "What the hell was that for!?"

"Silence in class. No one interrupts Nora's lessons."

"Now you're talking about yourself in the third person?"

"Nora thinks you're being a loud and terrible student."

"Yeah? Well Sun thinks this pointless," the faunus stood and marched toward the door. As he reached for the handle, Nora called out, mimicking his voice.

"Yeah? Well Nora thinks Sun is single and has never so much as had a chance with Blakey."

Sun came back and sat down.

"That's the better. Now, this is our enemy and our target in one. What is your goal?"

Sun rolled his eyes. "To make her like me?"

"WRONG!" Nora yelled. The crop struck down again, though this time on the wooden desk. "There is no `making` her like you. Blake is her own person and has her own thoughts, opinions and personality. Don't think like you'll be able to make her do anything. If you try, she'll resist. If I don't punish you first," Nora added with a little giggle.

"I-I didn't mean it like that," Sun protested, more afraid of Nora than what she'd implied. "I don't want to force her into anything."

Nora laughed. "I know that, silly. I wouldn't be teaching you how to do better with her if I thought you'd try something like that."

"Aren't you just using me because you're hoping it'll make her stop looking at the guy you like?"

"Such accusations," Nora chided, waving the crop threateningly. "But even if they were true, and they're not, I'd still not try it if I thought you would actually be bad for Blake. She may be my rival in love but she's also my partner, so don't mess this up, abs-boy."

"I'm trying not to…"

"I know. Well, the point still remains that you shouldn't think like you're making Blake do anything, even if it's liking you. Instead of thinking what you want her to do, you need to start thinking what she might want you to do."

"Hop on a ship to Vacuo and leave her alone?" Sun groaned.

"Okay, maybe more like what she'd like in a prospective boyfriend."

"Don't people always say you shouldn't change yourself for someone?"

Nora rolled her eyes. "In that case, give up. If she doesn't like you and you're not willing to change, then it'll never work. I'm not saying you should become a different person; you should just tone some things down and do some other things differently."

"Like what?"

"Well, how about trying to talk to her?"

"I do," he said. "Whenever I see her I try to talk to her."

"Well, if that was bumping into her it would be fine, but `whenever you see her` basically means whenever you have hunted her down, doesn't it?"

Sun's cheeks heated up. They also confirmed his guilt.

"That's my point," Nora said, poking his nose with the crop. "Blake's not stupid, silly. She knows when you `just happen to be in the area`, you've been looking for her. It doesn't feel natural and that instantly makes her feel weird. And not in a good way," she added. "It's why you come across as a stalker instead of a normal person."

Sun sighed, though for once he didn't protest against it. "Then what do I do?"

"Try talking to her not as someone who fancies her. I mean actually talking to her like a normal person. What do you normally talk to her about?"

"Nothing, basically," Sun said, shrugging. "I ask what she's up to and she gives some lame excuse. I take it because what else am I supposed to do? If I call her out she'll just admit she's lying to get rid of me and then we'll both feel bad."

Nora nodded, eyes closed and arms crossed. "Hm, I see."

"It's like yesterday; I went up to her and Ruby when they were obviously worried about something, and I asked if they needed any help. It almost went well until I… uh…"

Nora's eyebrow rose. "You…?"

"I, uh… when I admitted I'd climbed up to her window." Sun cringed when he saw Nora's expression, "And yeah, I know that's a bad thing now. I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, goodie. I guess that means I won't have to kill you for maybe seeing me getting changed." Even so, she didn't quite put down her weapon. "Okay, I think I'm seeing your problem here. You went up to Blake and asked her what she was doing and if you could join in, right?"

"Yeah."

"And is that what you always do?"

"Pretty much."

"Ugh, I see I have my work cut out for me. Okay, lesson one – small talk. The next time you want to talk with Blake, how about talking to her about some topic not related to what she's doing. If you come up and ask what she's up to, you're being nosey. Try asking her about the tournament instead, or her books – actually no, not her books – but maybe school or homework, or even me!"

"You?"

"Anything," Nora said. "Anything that is a normal conversation you can actually talk about, as opposed to being a desperate attempt to spend time with her."

Sun winced. "Is that what it looks like?"

"Well, that or that you're a hunter stalking your prey across the savannahs of Beacon."

He winced again.

"It's not that there's anything wrong with you," Nora said, suddenly a little gentler. "You seem nice enough and you have amazing abs."

"Um-"

"And that counts for a lot, you know? But if all your conversations with Blake are basically you asking if you can spend time with her, then she's not going to be impressed. I bet you didn't do that to make friends in Haven."

"No, I just talked to Neptune about how we were nervous to try and become huntsmen," he said. "We both agreed to hook up and watch out for one another in initiation, and we kinda stuck together after that." Sun blinked, suddenly realising the obvious. "My God, I'm an idiot!"

"Yep."

"Okay, so I need to be more casual with her and talk about things we have in common. Any ideas?"

Nora pointed to her hair.

"Hair?"

"Ears."

"Blake likes ears?" Sun was just planning how many piercings and where when he noticed Nora's suffering expression, and the catlike motion she was making. "Oh, being faunus. I get it. Yeah, I guess that could work."

"Blake's all about equality and not hating someone for their species. That's why she joined a faunus terrorist group."

Sun blinked. "Isn't that backwards?"

"I didn't say Blake made sense. Anyway, talking to her normally will be a good step. If you want Blake to stop avoiding you, then becoming a friend will help."

"Don't girls always say friends shouldn't date friends?"

"Sun." Nora placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled sympathetically. "That's the excuse we give when we're turning a friend down."

"Oh…"

"Yeah. Now, if we liked that friend, that rule would be thrown out the window faster than you can blink. You've got looks going for you – and abs – so you just need to work on getting close to Blake, showing her that she can trust you, and then letting her make the final decision." Nora's crop waved before his face. "And respecting it. I may be helping you, but Blakey is my partner. Tread wrong and no one will find your body."

"I understand." Sun nodded, and actually looked a little more confident, even revitalised. "I'll go find her right away and-" he trailed off, noticing Nora's expression. "Or maybe I'll wait until tomorrow when we're sat near one another in the stands and chat with her there. Less stalking that way."

"Good call."

"Thank you, Nora," Sun said, moving over to take her hands. "I… I don't know what to say. I'll totally do my best for her, and even if she says no I'll respect it and be grateful to you. Even if it doesn't work out, I'd just like to have her as a friend, you know."

"I know," Nora said, nodding.

"Uh, my eyes are up here."

"Your eyes aren't your best feature."

"I thought you were into that Ren guy."

"I am, but that doesn't mean I don't have eyes. You could wash laundry on those abs."

Nora paused.

"Can-"

"No," Sun said.

"Meanie…" Nora sighed and tore her eyes to his, standing with a laugh. "I'm glad I could help, and I think Blake would be okay with this, if only because you acting normal around her will be a relief. Anyway, you can keep this. I don't need it anymore."

Sun looked down to the crop in his hands. "What am I supposed to-" He looked up. Nora was gone. "With this…" he finished, trailing off. "Great. Now what?"

"Where is my weapon!?" the loud and very angry voice of Miss Goodwitch bellowed from the corridor outside.

Sun paled.

/-/

Despite spending the last twenty minutes or so telling her boyfriend to remain calm, Yang was anything but. Ruby wasn't either, and she didn't even have a boyfriend to introduce. Dad had that effect on them. You could never tell whether he was there to be awesome or to humiliate them, but lately it had been more of the latter. The worst was when her school friends had – rather unanimously – decided her dad was a `dish` and needed to be healed (sexually, if possible) of his grief.

She'd never been able to look at her friends the same way again, nor had she invited them to stay over since. They were probably just joking but, well, she wasn't taking the risk. It was bad enough he and Qrow were considered the hottest teachers in Signal. If she had to see one more graffiti love heart in a bathroom stall with her Uncle or Dad and a random girl whose name she didn't recognise, she'd snap.

But yeah, she'd never introduced a guy to him before. There was probably a whole procedure for that, and the help articles she'd read online hadn't actually done much of the helping. Most of those assumed the father couldn't – quite literally – stand up and rip your boyfriend limb from limb.

They also assumed said father was reasonable and not protective, and Taiyang had basically come all the way from Patch to Vale the moment he'd heard she had a boyfriend. That didn't bode well.

"Is he here?" Jaune asked, stood next to her watching several people arrive at the docks of Vale.

"No."

"What does he look like?"

"A tanned version of you," Ruby said. "And you'll know he's here because Yang will panic."

Ah, good old Ruby telling blatant lies. She wasn't afraid of nothing, not even her dad – oh Gods, there he was – PANIC!

"Yang, Ruby!" the tall figure called, holding his muscled arms high.

Yang's panic wasn't that she didn't love him, because she totally did, so much as a complete brain death of all the things she'd planned to say. All she could think was that Uncle Qrow was stood next to her dad, which meant that bastard had totally sold her down the river! That son of a bitch.

"Dad!" Ruby yelled, leaping forward and into his arms. He scooped her up easily and spun her around, earning more than his fair share of stares from single women nearby. Good looking, friendly, fit and now showing he was a good parent. Yeah, she could see several women hover around longer than they had to.

"How's my little girl?" Taiyang crooned, rubbing his nose against Ruby's.

"D-Dad! Stop being so embarrassing."

"Embarrassing? But I love my little sweetheart."

"Daaaad!"

"And where's my dragon?" the man called, turning to her. His eyes slid over Jaune, definitely seeing him but choosing to pass him up for a moment as he spotted her. His smile grew. "There she is. Come give your dad a hug."

"I think I'd rather not have my spine snapped," she quipped. "You lookin' good, old man."

"Old man? Since when?" Taiyang ignored Qrow's snort. "Well if you won't give me a hug, I'm sure there's someone else who'll be eager for one."

There was? Yang felt a little confusion seep into her, before her father whistled and a grey shape hopped out from behind. Her eyes lit up, as did Ruby's, still in her father's arms.

"Zwei!" they yelled in unison.

The corgi heard his name and looked to Ruby first, seeing her incapacitated (and out of reach) before he turned his attention to Yang. The little ball of fluff's eyes lit up and he scampered forward, skidding on the spot for a moment before he reached peak acceleration and hurtled across the concrete floor of the docks.

Yang laughed, momentarily forgetting the prospect of boyfriend introductions to hurry forward and kneel down to scoop up the little pup she hadn't seen for so long. She knelt with her hands cupped before her, ready for him to leap in for a cuddle like he always did.

She was therefore a little surprised when he slipped between her hands and ran under her legs. The corgi growled and leapt into the air behind her, quickly doing his best impression of a surface-to-air missile made of fur and teeth.

He latched onto her boyfriend's face a second later.

"ARGHHHHHH!"

Yep, this was going to go swimmingly. She could just tell.

Oh, Jaune. Well, it's a chapter of ups and downs for you here. On the one part you've got Cinder on side, albeit she's already sort of set an invasion in motion. On the other, Qrow is being his usual helpful self. One can only wonder what Taiyang has been told.

Nora and Sun. Will it be a thing? No, but hey, he does have great abs. There's no denying that.

Next Chapter: 19th April

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur