Bite the Bullet

To say Roman was pissed wouldn't so much be an understatement, as much as it would be a blatant lie. He was completely, utterly, unfathomably pissed.

It had been a couple weeks since the job on the docks went South, and Roman's whole freaking life went to crap. The king finally found the balls to actually try and bring him in, and while Roman fortunately had the means and resources to hide from him, having established a network of safe houses ahead of time, this wasn't a longterm solution. Neo, in particular, seemed irritated by no longer having the luxuries of the condo with her anymore. Suffice to say, both of them were eager to get this problem figured out.

"You said that the White Fang could get things done," Roman said, turning to the side, "And yet they got their asses kicked by a bunch of students, and a pampered prince." Sitting across from him, partially cloaked in shadow, was a young woman. Not much could be seen of her, save for a pair of literally blazing eyes that were hard, and hungry, like a Beowolf picking out its targets.

"From what I've heard, you were the one the prince beat," the woman sneered, "And I suspect that says more about him than it does about you." Roman found himself actually biting through his cigar at that, cursing slightly (it had been a good cigar too).

"Whatever," he said, throwing it to the side, "But seeing as you are the one who came to me about this whole thing, how 'bout I..." He was silenced as there was a flash of heat and light, and Roman was blown back a couple feet; he wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but there was no a smoking pile of soot at the spot where he was standing.

"There should be no 'I' in your vocabulary right now, Torchwick," the woman said, as she stepped forward, revealing her appearance. She had shoulder length, black hair, that she kept swept over one shoulder, with a red dress, with a slender frame, and imposing gait.

"There is only what I want," Cinder Fall said, "If you get something out of it, then good for you, but you'll only have that through my good graces. Without me, you're nothing, is that clear?" Neapolitan's eyes narrowed as she took a step forward, only for Roman to hold up his hand.

"Transparently," he said; never let it be said that Roman didn't pick his battles, and this was certainly not one he'd pick.

"Good," Cinder answered, as the glow from her eyes faded, "Now, how about we figure out the next stage?"

(I) (I) (I)

Growing up with seven sisters (all of them princesses at that), Jaune initially liked to think that he had a decent glimpse into the feminine mind. But he still learned something new every day about the female species.

Parrying a strike from Blake, Jaune swung his sword, only for it to phase through one of her shadow clones. He then got kicked in the back, and knocked away, though his Aura still took the worst of the strike. Skidding to a halt, he turned and held up his shield just in time for the other part of Gambol Shroud to bounce off.

As he fought with her, it became apparent that there could be little doubt that Blake was the better fighter. However, Jaune was fine with that; who wouldn't want their partner to be a good fighter? She was a lot quicker than he was, and her Semblance made her hard to hit, if not outright impossible. The only real tactic to win was to have quick reflexes, but Jaune would be hard pressed to find anyone with better reflexes than his partner.

Blake then leapt at the prince again, swinging Gambol Shroud wide. He managed to parry the strike, and followed up with a slash, which the Faunus easily avoided. Jaune moved to press the attack, but the other end of Gambol Shroud hooked around his ankle, and brought him to the ground. Before he could get up, Blake was pointing her sword at his nose.

"I win," she declared, a satisfied smile on her face. Jaune just leaned his head back to catch his breath..

"Yeah, yeah," he said, between his pants. Blake then offered a hand to the prince, hoisting him to his feet. The two then made their way over to a nearby bench, where a couple of water bottles were waiting.

"By the Brothers, it's hot today," Jaune said, wiping his brow, before looking at Blake, and tossing her one of the bottles, "Are you really not that hot?"

"I'm from Menagerie," Blake answered, as she took a swig, "This kind of weather is normal there." Jaune nodded in exchange; one thing his partner had opted to share with him recently, was that she was not only from Menagerie, but that her father was the Chieftain of the place. However, Jaune had already made the connection, from the last name "Belladonna."

"I'm in the Royal Family," he had said, after seeing Blake's jaw drop, "I have to know the leadership of the other nations in Remnant." The ensuing reaction from the Faunus had been a rather embarrassed (and in Jaune's opinion, cute) pout. But they continued their little tradition nonetheless.

The teammates sat in silence for a while, as they caught their breath and hydrated, until Jaune decided to talk.

"My favorite book when I was little was The Boy and the Dragon," Jaune said. The two had opted to continue their tradition of revealing one fact about each other each day; it was actually kind of fun, at least on Jaune's part (though he privately feared the prospect of getting into some more… personal stuff). As he said his piece, look of recognition flashed across Blake's face.

"I remember that," she said, "I often got my dad to read that to me before bed." With that, a thoughtful look appeared on her face.

"I was afraid of water until I was seven," she said. Jaune tried not to laugh at that; seemed there may have been more cat in Blake than she was otherwise willing to admit. But he supposed he shouldn't laugh, considering how he still owed her another fact; the condition of their spar was that whoever lost, had to share an extra fact about themselves.

"My sister's the author of Ninja's of Love," he said. The ensuing double take from his partner nearly made the prince burst out laughing, though he still had to fight it, especially as he saw her jaw hit the ground.

"Are you serious?" She asked, "She's Arc Cyanblood?"

"Well, yeah," Jaune said, blinking, "Princess Cyan D'arc." In that moment, the connection seemed to click in Blake as she flushed red, and looked away, causing her partner to chuckle slightly.

"When I…" Jaune suddenly stopped himself, as he realized what he was about to say, earning a glance from Blake.

"When you what?" She asked.

"It's… it's nothing," Jaune said slowly. He had been a couple weeks, and he still hadn't did what his dad wanted, and bring his teammates to the palace, and the latter was starting to get a little irritated with him to that end. However, Jaune was honestly dreading the prospect of bringing JWPB and RYNR to the palace. He remembered, when he was a kid, he brought a couple of classmates to the palace, and they had never looked at him the same again; the absolute last thing he wanted for that to come up with his team and friends. Unfortunately, when the King of Vale gave you an instruction, you generally had to obey it, doubly so when he was also your dad.

"C'mon, let's head back," Jaune said as he stood up, "We still need to study for the upcoming Dust test."

(I) (I) (I)

Though the two members of JWPB weren't aware, they were being watched, by two members of CVFY. Well, to be honest, watched by one member, with a different member just along for the ride.

"You know, if you want to talk with him, you just gotta go for it," Coco said, from her position behind Velvet, who was standing behind a column, watching the two, of more accurately the prince, walk off.

"Yeah, I know," Velvet said with a sigh, "But he's the prince. I just can't…" She trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence.

"Maybe I should just….," she began.

"Enjoying the show?" a voice interrupted. Both Velvet and Coco jumped slightly, to see one Ilia Amitola leaning on a column, frowning at them.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people," Coco said, as she pushed down her glasses at Ilia. Despite herself, Ilia found herself straightening up slightly at the older girl's look.

"And you shouldn't be spying on our charge," Emerald said, as she emerged around from the same column, folding her arms, "You have to admit, it's not the best look."

"We… didn't mean anything by it," Velvet said, as she looked off to the side. The guardswomen exchanged glances, before looking at Coco. Velvet did the same, to see Coco just pointed at Coco, and then jerked her thumb in the direction in the prince. A knowing look then came over Emerald.

"Oh, I see," she then said, before looking to Ilia, and gesturing with her head, "I don't think we have anything to worry about here."

"What're you…," Ilia started to ask, before pausing, and apparently realizing what Emerald was talking about, "Ah, okay then." With that, they both left, leaving Velvet and Coco alone.

"What're they talking about?" Velvet asked, as she felt herself growing warm, even if she already knew what the answer was.

"Don't kid yourself, Bun-Bun," the beret-wearing team leader said, patting Velvet's shoulder, "It's as plain as the ears on your head."

"I… uh…," Velvet stuttered, but Coco was already walking away, leaving the rabbit to sigh ruefully, and follow her.

(I) (I) (I)

"I owe you an apology."

"What?" Jaune asked, looking at her in surprise. Weiss, honestly, wasn't sure she appreciate the implications (intentional or otherwise) around those words. However, on the other hand, all things considered, she may not have earned the benefit of the doubt from the prince.

The two had taken a walk away from the landing area, and were now making their way through the otherwise empty Beacon courtyard, eventually coming to the inner square, where the statue of King William was standing. Even the Royal Guardsmen weren't present yet ("yet" being the optimum word if Weiss had to guess). In light of that, Weiss figured now would be as good a time as any to engage with him.

"I came to Beacon with a few distinct goals in mind," the heiress explained, "Foremost amongst those goals, was doing right by my family. To fulfill the standards my grandfather set, to follow his example..."

"To make you worthy of them." Weiss looked at in surprise at the interruption, and was taken slightly when she saw the knowing look on Jaune's face.

"I know how it feels to live under a legacy," the prince said, as he kept walking, looking up at the statue of King William, "And to have the responsibility of the legacy as well. To look back on all the accomplishments of the past, and wondering how you can ever hold your own against them. It can be overwhelming at times, and there are times when you don't think that you can ever really live up to it." Weiss was silent for a time, as she looked at the ground.

"Well, I'm sorry nonetheless," Weiss said, "For how I talked to you."

"To be honest, I think Blake probably warrants an apology more than me," Jaune said, "Though I accept it." Weiss looked back at the ground, as she kneaded her fingers. Despite herself, she had to admit that the prince was right.

"So, what are we to each other, then?" Weiss asked.

"How about we start friends?" Jaune said, offering a hand, "Or maybe even just as teammates?" Weiss looked at the hand, and then at the prince.

"Well, I suppose that's as good a place as any," she said, as she took his hand.

(I) (I) (I)

It had been about a month since then, and Weiss got the impression that things were getting better. The teams actually were hanging out together again, as they'd come to do quite frequently. Weiss was somewhat turned off by this (teams were teams for a reason after all), initially, but began to notice that it did both teams good, so she knew she couldn't complain. Besides, she figured that while the four-person teams were the building blocks in Huntsmen organization, teams only thrived when working together. As her grandfather would say: even the biggest castle is composed of a lot of little blocks.

For her own, Weiss was sitting off to the side sorting her Dust bottles, while Jaune was playing a video game of sorts with Ruby. Yang, during all this, was just messing around on her scroll, and Pyrrha seemed to be actually trying to take the time to study. Ren seemed to be trying to do the same, though Nora wasn't really letting him. That just left Blake, who was in the corner reading, and despite herself, Weiss felt her eyes linger on her slightly longer than normal.

Admittedly, Weiss had yet to apologize to her, and a small, bitter part of her didn't want to. If Blake really was former White Fang, then she did things that hurt Weiss and her family, and that could never be undone. However, another half of her knew that she wasn't that person anymore, and that. It was these two pieces pushing and pulling at each other, that prevented Weiss from actually going up to her. At any rate, the two still talked sparingly, and if anything, Blake seemed to be avoiding Weiss as much as Weiss was avoiding her.

Weiss was broken from her thoughts as she saw the prince having stepped away, an unsettled look on his face. Ruby called out to him, but he didn't pay attention, as he pulled out his scroll. With that, Weiss decided to act on what Jaune recommended, and try to be a friend (or at least a teammate). She went to follow him, but stopped when she heard him talking.

"I've been meaning to, but things keep on coming up," he said. Weiss, against her better judgement, pressed her back against the wall.

"Dad, can I please..." He kept talking after that, but the big word Weiss picked up on was "dad". He was speaking to the king! At this point, Weiss' curiosity was too strong to ignore, and she kept listening.

"I know, but…" He stopped, as he listened to the person on the other side. It was then that a look of what could best be described as resignation slowly took shape on his face. He then sighed.

"I understand, sir," he said, "I'll be there tomorrow." With that, he turned off the Scroll, and Weiss quickly hid herself, and pretended to be walking around the corner as the prince did the same.

"Oh, pardon me," Weiss said, making a show of being surprised, "Is there something wrong?"

"I really hope nothing's wrong," the prince said slowly, as he went back over to where the rest of the team was, Weiss in tow.

"What's with that face?" Yang said, glancing up, "You look like you just got told off by Glynda."

"Yeesh," Ruby said, shivering, "That face is still scarier than most Grimm."

"You would know," Yang said, glancing at her sister, "That's what happens when you break the law."

"Like that time you thrashed that bar?" Ruby said sarcastically.

"Yep!" Yang answered, either not noticing or caring about the sarcasm.

Wait!" Jaune suddenly said to Yang, "You were the one who did that?"

"You got that right!" Yang said proudly, "You should've seen me I… Wait, how do you…." Jaune couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I was helping my dad in his office when the news came to him that a 'disreputable' nightclub had been wrecked," he explained.

"Your dad?" Ruby asked, as if confused, before her brain caught up, "Oh! You mean the king!"

"Yes Ruby," Ren said, "I believe he means the king." Ruby briefly felt her face growing hot, as she heard Nora snigger at her.

"So your dad knew about that?" Yang asked, suddenly looking a bit nervous, "What did he say?"

"He said that such behavior cannot be tolerated, and that the Royal Forces were to spare no expenses tracking down the perpetrator, and locking them up."

"… really?"

"No," Jaune answered laughing, as a couple others laughed a little as well, as Yang glared, and looked away in embarrassment. Jaune continued to laugh, before he slowed down, and looked off to the side.

"Is there something wrong?" Ruby asked, cocking her head. With that, the prince took a deep breath, and looked back at them.

"I guess just gotta bite the Dust bullet," he said, before opening his mouth…

Note: And we have a Cinder! Cinder actually went through quite a bit of processing in this fanfic. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with her going into this. I'll go into more detail later, but I eventually settled that her story as it was was more or less enough.

Anyway, I wanted to settle on a pairing for Jaune before I got this volume started, mostly so I could start building on it sooner rather than later. To that end, I can now say that I have settled on the ship, and no, I won't tell you it here, you'll find out on your own. I will say that I gamed out the ship from the "burgeoning feelings" stage, all the way to the "big damn kiss" stage, because I wanted this to work its way into the story organically, and chose the one I liked the best. Don't worry, you'll probably find out which one it is in short order.

Please leave a comment.

I will now take a moment to talk about RWBY Volume 9, and well… *sigh*, I guess I'll take that crow medium-rare, please. I was holding my breath the whole finale to see the fate that awaited Jaune, and thank the gods, he ended this season fine. All in all, it was an OK volume, though the finale was definitely the best part in my opinion. Beyond that, the comedy at times got a little eye rolling (like they were trying a bit too hard to make people laugh), and the pacing could be kind of off at times. Also, if we're being honest, it didn't contribute that much to the story, but I don't that was a bad thing necessarily. This was clearly an arc devoted to character development, and in that regard, I think it worked. Just want to reiterate here, I have no strong opinion on the Bumblebee ship, so I don't have any strong opinion to it becoming canon (I'm glad we won't see it getting constantly teased within an inch of its life anymore); though the two can't seem to even be in the same shot without Twitter gushing about it. Give Jaune a girlfriend, and I'll be a bit more excited (White Knight did get some real teasing in this), though I suspect Twitter would throw a tantrum. We also learned the origin of the Brothers in this, and while I don't know what the writers plan to do with them, I really hope they don't just make them the archetypal "Jerkass Gods", and make them actual characters instead of just tropes.