Happy Holidays to all of you lovely readers. Whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah or just the winter season you are celebrating I hope it treats you all well!
This was originally going to be a Lancaster one-shot based on Ruby attempting to get Jaune under the Mistletoe at their Beacon Christmas party, but that kinda fell apart when I ran out of ways to include the other characters in meaningful ways.
Instead – enjoy Jaune trying to make the most out of a seemingly awful situation and all of the fluffy, friendshippy goodness that comes with it.
The cold chilly weather of the winter season was out in full force throughout the city of Vale and – by extension – the grounds of Beacon Academy.
Much of the normally green campus was coated in a thick layer of white snow or slick ice, giving it a look that would fit any holiday film that might be airing.
There was still snow falling from the sky as the sun slowly set on what was supposed to be the last day anyone with plans for the break spent at the school.
Instead the scene set one of light melancholy – as students who had not been able to leave earlier in the week trudged back towards their dorms instead of to the bullhead docks.
For as sure as the ice held to the ground, so to did the wind that helped freeze it there blow in the frigid sky – making it unsafe for any of the mechanical beasts to ferry students back home.
Each scheduled flight – be it to somewhere close like Patch or further distances like Mistral – was cancelled and moved back at least a day. Meaning the remaining students who did not live within walking distance of the school – aka Vale – were stuck at the academy until the day after Christmas.
Thinking on this unexpected turn of events, Jaune Arc stood at his usual perch on the roof to the first-year dorms – overlooking the main courtyard.
His eyes were distant – showing how deep in thought he was – as he stared out over the frozen horizon as the sun slowly set.
Letting out a sigh that appeared physical due to the below freezing air, he lowered his head to rest against his arms on the guardrail.
"How am I supposed to fix this…"
Several hours earlier, Jaune had just finished what was supposed to be his final training session at the school for the semester, having showered in the locker rooms – he now headed back to his dorm to wrap up packing and give his teammates their early Christmas presents before they left.
Opening the door to his room, he wasn't surprised to see all of his team present.
Pyrrha was fiddling with her scroll with a very focused expression while Nora was lying in Ren's bed while said teammate polished the blade of one of Storm Flower's pistols.
"Hey guys!" the blonde knight said to make sure they knew he was there.
"Hi Jauney…"
The smile immediately dropped from Jaune's face. Instead he focused on the suddenly very clearly depressed ginger in the room.
Actually… now that he took a moment to get a feel of the room, the entire atmosphere oozed of disappointment and a contained sense of sadness.
"Okay… what happened while I was gone? When I left Nora could barely sit still long enough to brush her hair."
His partner was the one to answer him after she had finished whatever it was that she was using her scroll for.
"After you left, Ruby came by and delivered some… rather upsetting news for the season."
His normally chipper partner seemed to be in a similar funk to their team's bomber. A small frown etched onto her face.
"Please don't tell me that Weiss really did manage to steal Christmas like Rubes was spouting at lunch…"
There was a deafening silence that hung in the room before the wide green eyes of the four-time Mistral champion scrunched up in the adorable way they did when she began to loose a melodious laugh.
Nora soon joined in and even Ren cracked a smile and chuckled at the attempt to brighten the mood.
"No you dork! There is an ice storm running through Vale and Beacon airspace until Tuesday night… which means none of the bullheads can take us home until then at the earliest."
… yeah that would bring down the mood.
Pyrrha had been pretty excited to head back to Mistral and see her mother – she had attempted to convince her team to come with her, but Jaune was adamant on facing the music and confronting his family back in his own hometown.
Ren and Nora were also heading back to Mistral to enjoy the holidays with a family they were close with from back in their pre-Beacon training days… or at least they were before this news changed that.
"… I assume Ozpin has opened all of the facilities until everyone is gone right?"
A nod from the redhead confirmed his train of thought.
"Okay… I'll be back in a bit then. I should call my family and let them know the news."
Pyrrha gave him a weak smile and the other pair waved to him as he left again.
Even before he could call his family on his way up to the roof, he heard the girls of RWBY discussing what they were going to do now in somber tones.
Now the tallest member of their group was pondering what he might be able to do to make something of the mess that had been made of their holiday.
"I can't head into Vale on such short notice to grab stuff… all I have in the fridge is…"
If someone were walking through the courtyard at that moment, they might claim that a flash of light from heaven illuminated the surrounding area – when in reality it was the bright lightbulb that went off inside of Jaune's head.
Quickly ditching his lookout, he sprinted as quietly as possible down the dimly lit hallways of the dorm.
He silently opened the door to his room, not shocked to see the lights off and all of his teammates tucked into their beds as if they were kids again – sleeping tightly in anticipation for the presents Santa would bring.
Using only the limited light of his scroll, Jaune loaded several bags with supplies and tools from around the room to fit his needs.
And as If he was never there in the first place… the blonde knight slunk out of the room and through the door to the living area they shared with team RWBY.
He remained silent as he moved to the kitchen, setting some ingredients out that he brought from his stash and pulling others from the cupboard. With a few clicks the oven was warming up to help him make some famous Arc-style Christmas cinnamon rolls.
While he was waiting for the oven burners to reach the proper temperature, Jaune reached into his sack of goodies and began setting the gifts he and his team prepared for everyone under the tree that decorated the room.
If there was one skill that he was glad to have after dealing with snooping sisters for his entire childhood, it was the ability to hide and find presents better than anyone else on his team.
After the gifts were immaculately placed in position, he returned to the kitchen and tied Ren's patented 'Don't Kiss the Cook' apron around his waist and began his long night of work.
"No friends of mine are going to have anything less than a stellar Christmas on my watch, or my name isn't Jaune Arc!"
The sunlight was trickling through the blinds and into the darkened room of team RWBY.
After an emotional night in which the girls had found out they would not be able to spend Christmas as they originally planned – they had all agreed to sleep in and then spend the day just lounging around with each other.
That was until the young leader of the team drowsily stretched her arms out after trying to ignore the light shining on her face.
Ruby let out an adorable yawn and snuggled deeper into her covers, refusing to leave the warm comforts of her bed.
She was deadest on just remaining in her blanket burrito until either Yang or Weiss forced her to remove herself from it and join them for whatever activities they would do later with JNPR.
That was the plan… up to the point where a wonderful aroma of warm, gooey sweetness hit her nostrils and enticed her to follow its smell.
She would later deny it – as would the basic laws of the universe – but at that moment she floated out of bed and trailed behind a visible wisp of what could only be the smell.
Her body stopped at the door to the lounge room and at this point she was awake enough to rub her sleepy eyes and open the door.
Silver-eyes widened as they took in the changes that had seemingly happened overnight in their shared living space.
The fireplace was burning and providing a nice warm feeling to the entire room. Underneath the tree sat groups of packages, all wrapped to various degrees of quality. There was even a little more tinsel hung around the room then there was when they all went to bed the night before.
"Oh, hey Rubes. I was actually just about to wake up my team and then have Pyrrha wake you guys up. I just finished the last batch of rolls for breakfast."
She had seen Jaune cook before, but this time his disheveled hair was partially hidden under a Santa hat. The apron that normally adorned Ren's body was covering his chest and covered in various ingredients – some of which had still splashed onto him, like some icing hiding on his cheek.
The small Rose was practically vibrating in place as she looked at the nearly dozen plates, all piled high with what looked to be the most fluffy, gooey and delicious cinnamon rolls she had ever laid eyes on.
"Jaune!? Did you do all this?!" she tried to control her volume, but her excitement was really hard to control.
"Yup! Set all of it up after I talked with all of my sisters and my parents last night. It was pretty late, but I decided to set up a rushed Christmas morning for all of us. Complete with Arc-style cinnamon rolls!"
He barely finished his sentence before the petite huntress crashed into him and looped her arms around his frame.
"Thank you. Thank You. THANK YOU!" she didn't even bother trying to control herself that time.
He returned the embrace for a moment before shoving her towards the door she came out of.
"You're welcome Ruby. Now get your team up so we can eat and exchange presents!" he moved in the opposite direction towards his own room.
The reaper nodded to him rapidly before sprinting through the door and making a jumping leap up to her sister's bed. Crashing into the other blonde and wrapping her in a big hug.
"Yang! Wake up! Christmas!" the childlike wonder of the season couldn't have been captured more perfectly if she had tried.
Clearly having years of experience with this particular maneuver, Yang wrapped an arm around Ruby and pulled her into the covers.
"…mhm we can stay in bed a little longer Rubes…"
Ruby complied, ignoring the waking forms of Blake and Weiss that had been startled awake by the sudden rush of noise. Instead she snuggled into her sister's side and enjoyed the moment.
Several moments later, Yang's lilac eyes opened blearily and squinted down at her little sister's adorable face. She couldn't help the grin that overtook her face.
"Didn't we say it was a sleep in and relax day since we didn't have anything planned?" she questioned the smaller girl in her embrace, receiving two varying noises of agreement from the remaining members of their team.
Ruby pulled back slightly and nodded.
"That was the plan… until I smelled something coming from the lounge and went to check it out. You won't believe what Jaune did last night!"
The megawatt smile portrayed the goodness behind the statement and the apparent cause of their early awakening, which was now confirmed to be at least partially the fault of the leader of JNPR.
"What could the dunce have possibly done that made you this excited?" their resident Ice Queen questioned as she straightened out her sleepwear and began making her way towards the area in question.
The rest of her team wasn't far behind her in that regard, all of them outside of Ruby wondering what was going on.
Similar reactions to what Ruby displayed flashed across her teammates' faces as they took in the work Jaune put in.
Yang was the first to recover – sprinting back into the room and returning seconds later with a bundle of presents to add to the already large pile under the tree.
Blake's wide eyes morphed into a warm acceptance as she made a move to stand closer to the fire while Weiss' expression took on a thin, warm smile as she nodded to Ruby.
"This is an acceptable reason to wake us up."
Following the 'as close to praise as she was ever going to receive from Weiss' statement, the other door burst open, revealing Jaune trapped in a death-grip by a squealing Nora – followed by a lightly blushing Pyrrha and a chuckling Ren.
"You are the best Jauney!" Nora roared as she spun him around a few more times before setting the stunned boy down.
He stumbled a few steps, only being steadied once Pyrrha grabbed hold of him. Once his center of balance was returned, he coughed in his hand – embarrassed at the praise.
"It really isn't that big of a deal Nora…"
"Oh, I beg to differ Vomit Boy!" Yang chimed in.
If it was possible, Jaune's pale skin became even paler when his fellow blonde threw an arm over his shoulder and smirked up at his messy face.
"Yang…" he started.
Only to be cut off as she ran a finger across his cheek, collecting the icing that had settled there whilst he was cooking. She brought it to her lips and made a show of licking the offending appendage clean.
"Sweet, just like what you did for all of us. Now accept the praise like a man so we can emasculate you when we find out you cook better than any of us."
The brawler retreated, and the flood gates opened.
The others all thanked him for his hard work, which he accepted by blushing like Blake when Yang discovered her secret stash of… 'adult literature' and fidgeting slightly.
And once all of the thanks were said, the two sister teams dove into the breakfast prepared for them.
The meal was devoured with haste and not a single roll was left uneaten come time to exchange gifts.
Throughout the rest of the morning, into the afternoon and well past dinner, both teams laughed, ate and enjoyed the day that was supposed to be a wreck turned success.
A/N: I really liked how the middle portion turned out, but the beginning and end are definitely not some of my best work.
I finished this after my family Christmas party in Christmas Eve so if you are reading this when it is posted Merry Christmas and I hope everything turns up Aces for you.
I plan on having another chapter ready for New Years, this one not particularly themed around the holiday, but more something that typically goes hand and hand with it (points to you if you can guess the theme).
I have three more chapters planned in advance for the New Year proper after that too.
In order of when I think they will be released, it will be:
In Which Jaune moves in (2)
In Which Jaune is a faunus
and In Which Jaune is a brother
If you can guess the theme of the last one then I will give you bonus points!
Heads up, I am still looking for a beta, but not as seriously any more since a writing buddy of mine decided to help me out a little bit with the story in general. I still would love for everyone who reads this to review either with what you like about the story, what you would like to see touched on or continued or even just ideas you might want me to try!
Any way you support is good support!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays - CP