Author's note: Two Chapters within twenty four hours? I'm not as think as you drunk I am. I've done a lot of reading in my lifetime thus far, so a lot of elements from other writing styles may have bled into my writing style, so I'm not sure if that counts as plagiarism or if I'm just heavily inspired by the works that I have read until this point. If it does count as plagiarism, I apologize and will edit the parts that seem like plagiarism. Plus, half the time I'm drunk, so the majority of the time I'm writing, I tend not to let it sit before I go back to edit.
Jaune opened his eyes to see Ruby's face just inches away from his own. He slowly moved his face out of Ruby's lap, careful to not wake the sleeping beauty. Jaune stood up to face what his aura had become. He stared in awe as his aura had expanded to a large golden orb embroidered in rubies, surrounded by a swirling storm of white and red energies. The knight reached out to the ball, as if the ball was drawing his consciousness in. As the tips of his gauntlets were about to graze the surface of the orb, Ruby grabbed and pulled his arm back.
"What are you doing?" Ruby demanded, snapping Jaune out of his trance.
"I don't know," Jaune managed to mumble, still dazed from the irradiating power of the orb, "I feel like it's calling out to me. Like it's a part of me."
"Jaune that is a part of you," Ruby reminded, "It's your aura, your very essence. I guess now that I'm involved, we're linked in a way. Just don't let yourself get consumed."
Jaune readied himself and reached out to touch the orb. As the metal tip of his gauntlet's finger plates touched the surface of the orb, the finger sank slightly, popping the orb. The explosion of energy quickly cooled and expanded into a light show of dense energy which then began to swirl and condense into a small form. The white energy formed a rectangular space, then the golden aura coated the prism in a thin golden border. The strings of Ruby's aura pierced the object, binding the three layers on one side, then piercing it through the middle countless times. The object, still clothed in the light of the auras, came down between Jaune's curious arms. The light dispersed with a soft flash and a light warm gust that passed through both Jaune and Ruby and revealed a leather-bound book with bright red binding threads. The front had the silhouette of Ruby's flower embroidered in white, while red filled the cracks to complete the circle and the crescent from the Arc family's emblem formed the sun in the background being eclipsed by the circle that the flower formed. Jaune curiously opened the book to reveal the first page only to see a hologram of his family tree and his lineage through his father. He poked Bruno's face on the lineage which collapsed the hologram and revealed a recorded message of the man.
"Jaune, my son, I don't know what form your aura is going to take, but I left a piece of mine so I can leave this message," the hologram spoke, "Like I should have explained before I merged the family's aura with yours, our semblance is called 'Perfect Inheritance.' We have the ability to transfer power down through the lineage. Think of it as the power that you grow in your base form is duplicated and added into the family's pool of aura which reinforces your own. Of course, this power can't be turned off, you can control it. Because of the circumstances of why I haven't passed this power down to any of your sisters, I wanted to make sure I inspected all of you and look out for something special. I gave a little bit of this power to each of your sisters, that is the reason why there were tears. This is why I had Ruby help seal the tears. This is the first time in our lineage where something like this has ever happened, so I have no idea how it's going to turn out because some of Ruby's aura will remain in you."
The holographic message disappeared and returned to projecting the Arc family tree. Ruby leaned in and poked a red ball of light that switched the color of the projection to red and displayed the Rose-Xiao-long family tree which ended with Ruby's face with a dotted line connecting to a picture of Jaune's face.
"That's weird, why would a book, created with my aura, still have a display to your family tree?" Jaune asked out loud.
"That's because I had to leave a bit of my aura to seal yours," Ruby twiddled her fingers and pushed the tips of her index fingers together, a slight blush forming across her cheeks, "I told you that we're now connected, in a way."
"It seems that your family tree is the only thing left in here by your aura," Jaune said as he swiped through the pages, lightly skimming through the contents of the centuries of memories, "I only see the memories of my family and my own. I don't see any of yours."
"You're trying to find some of my embarrassing memories, aren't you?" Ruby stared accusingly, her face turning red, "Since my memories aren't there, too bad."
"I don't know, probably," Jaune coyly said as he shut the book and smiled to hold back his laughter.
"Dammit Jaune, I'm ready to wake up," Ruby said after slapping her knight.
"Ow," Jaune recoiled from the assault, "I don't know how to. I didn't even know that this was a dream."
"Just put away the book," Ruby said as she snatched the book from his hands, which she shoved into his chest. The book of aura phased right through Jaune's armor and disappeared into his chest, "To be honest, I wasn't sure that was going to work."
Ruby's vision went black as she began to fall. She tried her best to reorient herself, but found herself just hopelessly flailing about. As she felt herself turning to face what she thought was down, a pillar of light came shining through. Ruby did her best to fall towards the light, and as she began to approach the bottom, a chair came into view. Ruby's vision went black once more as a jolt ran through her body and the sensation of falling came to a sudden stop.
"Should we ask when they're awake?" Nora asked, perplexed as Ren was at the sight of Jaune and Ruby.
"Maybe we shouldn't," Ren suggested, "we could be stepping into a mine field if we did."
Team sloth went about their day, starting with Ren cooking breakfast and Nora eating what came out of the pan almost immediately. Then exploring more of the kingdom of Mistral, doing the things they couldn't do when they were kids. The two did their best to catch up on the childhood the Nuckelavee had stolen from them both. The couple had come up to a high point in the city with a magnificent view of the specks of city that seemed to compliment the surrounding nature.
"Nora, we've been looking out for each other for so long," Ren turned to his partner in crime, "It's been so long that I can barely remember a time that didn't have you right next to me."
"I know, Ren," Nora smiled as she stared into his eyes, "at first I was scared that you'd find me annoying, and once you had enough of me, you'd abandon me. But you held onto me, even when I wasn't even strong enough to hold your hand."
"You were all I had," Ren cupped Nora's hand in his, "there's no way I can ever imagine my future without you in it, so will you be in the rest of my future?"
"Ooohhh, Ren," Nora smiled and held back her tears, "It's only been a week since we've been like together, together. You couldn't have waited until we got to know each other more intimately?"
"You're so silly," Ren chuckled a bit, "We've kept this waiting for too long, we already do know each other so intimately. You know my thoughts before I even think it, I see you as a part of me."
"Ren, you've been my rock for so long, I just don't know what to say," Nora tried her best to hold back the tears that had already fallen, "I lied, I do know what I want to say, but I don't know how to."
"Then don't," Ren reached up to Nora's cheeks to dry them, "You've probably said it before, or you'll eventually know how to say it. If it's the latter, then I'll wait as long as you need before you'll be able to say it."
"Are you asking what I think you're asking?" Nora cupped her mouth, "Please, Ren, you'll make me cry."
"Then let me be a little selfish and ask you to cry for me, because you're happy. I'm sure at one point or another we both just knew that we're going to walk through life together," Ren said as he got down on one knee, before producing a green box wrapped in a pink bow, "Nora Valkyrie, my own goddess of war, my best friend, my first and only love. Will you continue being my angel until you can take me to heaven?"
"Oh my God, Ren, that's so cheesy," Nora managed to breath out through her ugly sobs, "I love you so much, but I hate you for making me cry."
"I don't hear a 'no,'" Ren teased as he unwrapped the bow, plucked the ring from its cradle and slid the ring onto Nora's left ring finger.
"Dammit, Ren," Nora's sobs slowed into a sniffle, "Even if I really wanted to hate you, I just can't say no. You're the only one I'll ever be with, I just can't leave you."
"I know," Ren smirked as he got up to wrap his arms around Nora, picking her up with a kiss and twirling her around. After putting his fiancé down, Ren threaded his fingers through hers before guiding them back to the inn.
The two walked into Jaune and Ruby's room to find them already awake and awkwardly staring at each other, whilst still cuddling. Nora spotted the blush starting to form on the younger couples' faces and couldn't help but smile and pull out her scroll to take a photo. "Should I have to ask about asking about this?" Nora giggled.
"Neither of us are actually sure," Jaune tried to mutter out.
"To be frank, I don't think either of us actually wants to move," Ruby admitted as she stared into Jaune's eyes.
"Now that I think about it, this is kinda comfortable," Jaune pondered.
"Well, I cooked pancakes this morning, help yourselves," Ren waved as he led Nora into the other room.
"Sorry, I took all the syrup," Nora shouted, unbuckling her belt as she followed Ren.
"A-are you hungry?" Ruby stuttered.
"Is that even a question?" Jaune teased after hearing an audible groan come from Ruby's belly.
"Syrup first?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, Syrup," Jaune muttered as he began to shift to untangle himself from Ruby. The two took a moment to sit next to each other on the side of the bed. Ruby turned her head to look at Jaune's face, and found it coming closer to hers. Ruby's body onto Jaune's as she leaned into his face while puckering her lips. Ruby held herself over Jaune, eyeing his cheek, and lowered herself to peck his cheek with her lips.
"Syrup?" Ruby smiled.
"Syrup," Jaune said confidently before raising his face to kiss Ruby's forehead. Pushing Ruby onto her feet gave her momentum to pull Jaune to his. After the two were upright, they laced on their shoes and went off into the cool breeze of Mistral's Autumn afternoons.
"So, am I linked to you, or are you linked to me?" Jaune asked as Ruby pulled him along.
"I think we're just linked together because I shared my aura with you," Ruby slowed to think of her response, "In a way, I guess you can't live without me?"
"Isn't that the same as being married?" Jaune asked nonchalantly.
"I wouldn't protest to that," Ruby teased and turned her head forward to hide her red face, "you know, we're both legal in Vacuo."
"Maybe we should give Vacuo a visit," Jaune entertained the thought, "The headmaster at Shade should know about Salem's plans."
"It would be the responsible thing to do, right?" Ruby nervously asked, "Tell me I'm right, Jaune?"
"Yeah, Ruby," Jaune smiled at the thought, "we still have business to take care of, so I'm pretty sure the responsible thing to do would have to be wait until we can move on to that point."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Ruby dejectedly sighed, with hope still in her heart. The girl looked up to find themselves walking aimlessly lost through the city, "Do you just wanna go to a restaurant, you have the lien, right?"
"Yeah, you have a place in mind, right?" Jaune asked, "I've just been following this whole time."
"Following me? You've been mumbling random directions this entire time," Ruby jokingly argued.
"Well, I guess I'll just pick a random restaurant," Jaune grabbed Ruby's hand and marched aimlessly down the street. Ruby couldn't help but giggle as she followed along with Jaune's charade.