Today was the day!

Weiss had risen at the first hint of daylight to triple-check that everything was ready while her friends slept in on their last day on school campus. That was ok, made it easier to sneak into JNPR's room to make sure they were all packed. 'I am not a control freak; I just want there to be zero mistakes.' Once she was certain that everyone was ready to go as soon as they finished their morning routines, she left to make herself some coffee in the common room.

Finals had been a nightmare for the unprepared. Port had snuck Grimm that were never covered in class onto his test, Oobleck had several essay questions that ranged from factual answers to opinions on certain events and their potential impact on the future, Peach didn't put anything new on her test, but rather it felt like she stapled every test they had that year into one packet and expected it done within the same allotted time limit. Luckily, she made sure everyone was more than prepared.

Blake was able to pull everyone up to Oobleck's standard on history while Weiss tutored everyone for Peach's 'Dust and Us' class. Nora kept everyone on track to pass their math tests, Ren and Ruby took charge of Weapons Engineering, and Yang along with Pyrrha took it upon themselves to tutor them in classic literature. But by far what was most surprising was Jaune running the Grimm Studies study sessions. In all honesty it was only thanks to him that they managed to get past those impossible questions Port added to challenge them. When asked about why he read so far ahead, he simply replied "If I'm going to be trusted to keep people alive, I need to know how"

It was an admirable trait, though a trait one would assume belonged to a less nervous individual. That had been the word she associated most with Jaune Arc lately. First it was obnoxious, then it was clumsy, and for a short while after the dance it was chivalrous. But now, and for the longest time out of them all, it was undoubtedly nervous. Even something as simple as being invited to this summer getaway seemed to set him on edge. She could never understand why that was. If it had been in the beginning of the year it would have been expected, but it almost seemed like the longer he was here, the stronger and smarter he got, the more anxious he became.

Maybe he needed this vacation as much as the rest of them, get away from the stress of being a leader in a combat school. Yes, that must be it.

Looking down at her empty cup the heiress decided to start brewing a second pot. After all, it was going to be a long day ahead.

The airfield wasn't nearly as busy as it was a week ago. They could barely hear themselves talk as they said their goodbyes to Pyrrha as she headed home ahead of them, luckily there were more hugging and tears than there were words so it worked out in the long run. But now, it was almost eerie how peaceful it was. She saw the occasional student hanging around but it was never too long before they got on a bullhead and headed to whatever destination they had in mind. Perhaps she should have waited for her team instead of bringing most of their luggage here an hour earlier than needed, but she wanted to make absolutely sure there weren't any delays. 'I am not a control freak; I just want there to be zero mistakes.' She paused for a moment before thinking to herself, '… maybe I should try to relax more this summer?'

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the remainders of RWBY & JNPR slowly walking onto the airfield heading to where she was sitting on a bench. It was so rare to see them in normal clothes she almost didn't recognize them at first. She herself decided to wear a simple sundress hat started as blue on the top with a gradient to white at the bottom and a small pair of heels. Blake had decided on a knee-height green skirt with an oversized black sweater, it almost looked like she was attempting to wear a bed instead of clothes. Yang and Ruby went far more casual, both in sweatpants and t-shirts, Yang's for a band she did not recognize and Ruby's had what she assumed to be a superhero on it. Nora was the only one who seemed to be wearing clothing more restraining than her huntress outfit, with tight hot-pink shorts and a black tank top. Jaune was wearing a tasteful white button-down shirt with some loose-fitting blue jeans, Ren followed closely behind him with… she couldn't believe it. Was that pair of torn jeans and a black T-shirt with some emo band on it? Weiss didn't know how to feel about that, but she wasn't going to be rude and mock his fashion sense in front of everyone. Though even Weiss had to admit, he looked good with his hair undone.

Standing up she addressed the new arrivals, "Well, it is about time you decided to show up lazy bones. I know it is summer vacation but that does not mean we should let punctuality slip away from us." She wasn't mad at them, not really. But she really needed today to go perfectly so that they could enjoy the rest of their vacation worry free. "Especially when we have a schedule to keep."

Yang simply rolled her eyes while taking Weiss' seat on the bench, "Relax Weisscream, we still have thirty minutes before dad is even supposed to be here, and that's assuming the bullhead is even on time." She turned her head and saw all their luggage neatly piled to the side and then started looking Weiss up and down, "How did you even manage to get all our stuff here by yourself anyway?"

"That's not important, what is important is that we remain on schedule today."

They fell into a comfortable routine of banter and teasing as they waited Mr. Xiao Long to arrive. She never met the man, never so much as seen a photo of him, yet she heard a lot about him from the sisters. After he came out of his depressive state from his wife's disappearance, it seemed that the man was intent to make up for lost time with his daughters. From what she understood he attended every event he could, was supportive of every choice they made, showered them both with love, and tried to fix every problem they had regardless of his own knowledge on the subject. Weiss could not decide if that sounded like the perfect dad or a dreadfully overbearing father. 'Couldn't be any worse than mine. Just stay polite and try to make a good impression.'

When she brought up the need for an adult to accompany them Ruby instantly volunteered her father for the position, Yang quick to follow her sister's lead. Apparently, he had been taking a lot of missions for the last year and the blond was worried about his health, and that this was the perfect excuse to get him to rest. How could she say no to that?

Soon enough a bullhead pulled up to the flight deck and lowered its ramp allowing the few passengers it had off. Mostly adults, other parents or relatives she presumed, along with a few students that were not leaving until the next few days. She never got the chance to spot the man before she heard an ear-piercing squeal from her left.

"DAAAAAAAAAAD" An explosion of rose petals shot out from the group and into a tall and broad-shouldered man with the same blond hair as Yang. If she had not already known, the fact that he did not so much as flinch at being tackled by Ruby showed that he was a huntsman. As Yang walked towards them with a much calmer speed and demeanor, Weiss tried her best not to listen in on the conversation. Growing up in Atlas she hated that whatever words her family said in public would be recorded for any trash magazine to print for thousands of readers so she always tried her best to give others some semblance of privacy. But at the same time, she couldn't help but study his appearance.

The man was dressed in a set of casual clothes, a set of brown cargo shorts and a button-down shirt that she could not decide if it was brown or orange. His skin was much tanner than either of his daughters, perhaps he has been taking jobs in the hotter areas in Vale. And his hair, while the same color as his eldest child was much shorter and he seemed to have the beginning of a beard growing. Whether that was a choice or a consequence of forgetting to shave she had no idea. All in all, a very handsome man, but he also seemed very familiar to her. She was quite certain they had never met but there was just something about his appearance…

It wasn't long before the family made their way back to the group, introductions were made as quickly as possible by Ruby in her excitement but it seemed that Mr. Xiao Long was absorbing everything she said with practiced ease. Yang however didn't look as at ease as the rest of them, she actually looked confused and what Weiss could only identify as horrified. Right when she was about to ask her what was wrong the brawler barreled right past her as if she was on a mission.

"Hey what are you doing? Put me down!" Jaune yelled as Yang lifted him up onto her shoulder and started carrying him back to where she was standing, only to be slammed down to his feet right besides the older man.

… oh dear lords. There were differences but the obvious resemblance between the two was uncanny.

"Well that's disturbing"

"Dad what the hell?!"

"Maybe he's just a distant cousin of yours?"

"How did we never notice this?"

While the girls gossiped amongst themselves, trying to find an answer as to how this was possible, the two blonds looked to Ren for an answer but all the silent young man could offer was a shrug and a clueless expression.

The pelican Weiss had rented out for their trip to Argus was perfect for their eight-hour flight. Of course it was, that is why she picked this company after careful research. The large vehicle was set up like a train with four private rooms, two on each side, set up for passengers to enjoy and rest as they wanted. Two large plush seats faced each other with plenty of legroom between them, a button on the wall allowed the floor to raise to make a table for meals or board games, and every room had a window that could be tinted with a slider so that passengers could either enjoy the view or sleep as they pleased. The storage compartment had more than enough space for all their luggage as well, being intended for groups of 16 to 22.

While boarding Blake instantly claimed an entire room for herself, she made her intentions of sleeping the entire flight abundantly clear. The Rose Long family had taken the room across from hers so that they could have more time to catch up while Nora dragged her two boys to the room behind theirs. That left Weiss in the last room across from them… alone.

'I guess I really should have seen this coming,' she thought to herself. The white-haired girl understood there was no malice in what they did, it was unlikely they even realized it happened, but it still hurt a little to be left by herself for eight hours. 'We have three months to spend together, you are not alone. You simply have to wait' She spent the first three hours enjoying the last bit of sunrise and then reading a book she had in her travel bag. Yang had surprisingly good taste in literature, the one she lent her was filled with adventure, fencing, revenge, daring escapades, and jokes that made even her icy exterior break out in uncontrollable laughing fits, but the part she was enjoying most was the romance. The story of a childhood friend turned pirate on a mission to save his princess, collecting friends along the way in a race against time so that she was not married off to someone she did not love. How had she never heard of this book before Yang? Why it was 'inconceivable'!

After so long she needed to rest her eyes but wasn't sure what else she could do. She was too caffeinated to sleep, had no one to talk to, she really didn't want to interrupt family time or whatever was going on in JNPR's room, so her options were limited. She supposed she could text Whitley to see if he made it to the house already, but after thirty minutes and no reply she gave up on that avenue.

It was then she remembered there was something she could do. Exiting her room she walked the short path to the cockpit of the pelican. On her way she could hear some of the chatter from the other two groups, plus Blake's snoring. JNR seemed to be in a heated discussion over some game they were playing while the Rose Long family was all laughing as someone was attempting to finish some story. It made her happy to know everyone aboard felt safe and at ease here, but it still made her feel alone all the same. A strange mixture of emotions she never felt before.

Hesitantly she knocked on the cockpit door, hoping that she wouldn't be distracting the pilot from their job too much. After a moment and no response she turned to leave only for the door to open behind her. "Sorry for the wait there, had to make sure to avoid a flock of birds. What can I do ya for?" A woman's voice called out from the room. Weiss made her way into the room, a lot more spacious than she would have thought for a cockpit but she was no expert in aviation or transport vehicles. The pilot herself was dressed in a simple yet professional-looking uniform with grey slacks, a white shirt, and a blue vest with the company logo on the right side of her chest. Her short-cut grey hair had two feline ears poking out, a snow leopard faunus perhaps? As soon as she turned around in her seat and saw who was at her door she instantly stood up and put on a much more professional attitude. "Ah, Miss. Schnee. I am terribly sorry, I didn't realize who it was. Is there something wrong with the flight?"

There was a time in her life when Weiss would relish in the 'servants' jumping up to serve her, but that time was behind her. Giving the pilot a sincere smile she said, "No there is nothing wrong with the flight. It has been lovely so far. I actually wanted to come up here and thank you."

She saw the tension slowly lift from the faunus, but that was replaced by poorly hidden confusion, "Thank me, ma'am?"

"I understand my reservations were very last minute, it must have been a pain for your company to fit us into your schedule." Another reason she had made sure to hire this company. It was a small, local company owned by faunus. Of course that wasn't the only reason, their reviews were glowing and other than some obvious racist filing baseless reports, they seemed to be the cleanest company on the market right now. As far as Weiss was concerned, this all pointed to one conclusion. Invest and hope they grow. "You have been nothing but kind and courteous to us this entire trip, and I just wanted you to know it is appreciated." After seeing the relief on the older woman's shoulders and the look of joy from the genuine compliment, Weiss politely dismissed herself from the room so she could get back to work. At the last minute however she thought to ask, "One last thing, could I get your name so I can include it in my review?"

Another look of surprise from the pilot, but she answered fairly quickly, "Of course ma'am. It's Jasmine, Jasmine Earhart."

With one last nod to Jasmine Weiss started her walk back to her room, only to stop dead in her tracks. Sitting with his back to the far wall was Jaune Arc, reading something off his scroll with an intense focus usually reserved for his textbooks. This better not be bad news, this trip was going so perfectly.

Making her way to the blond knight she tried to get her mind to stop listing the possibilities of what was wrong. Did something happen to his sister? Perhaps he was needed back home and he was looking up ticket prices. Did he forget his toothbrush? "Is something wrong Arc? I doubt the floor could possibly be more comfortable than the seats in our rooms."

The boy jumped at her voice only to give her a shy smile, "Oh, hey Weiss. Nothing's wrong, nothing at all. Am I bothering you right here? I could move."

There it was again, those nerves of his. How a ball of anxiety like him made it into Beacon she would never know. "No Jaune you are not bothering me, I simply wanted to know why you choose the floor over a comfy room with your teammates."

"Oh, it's nothing really. Our trip happened to land on Ren and Nora's date night and she wanted to keep up their three-month streak of never missing one. So I got kicked out." The look on his face showed that he found the situation humorous so at least there was nothing to worry about, but that didn't explain everything.

"And you decided to spend the rest of the trip in the hallway?"

"Well Blake locked her room up tight, and it's been so long since they've been together I didn't want to ruin the family reunion. But hey, I'm fine. Ren won't let it go on longer than a few hours. Five tops."

"So most of the remaining flight?" All she received in response was a shrug, "Jaune there is a difference between being kind and being a pushover. Besides, you forgot one of your options." Weiss turned to walk towards her room but stopped at the door when she noticed the boy hadn't moved, "Well, are you not joining me?"

It took a moment but it finally seemed to click inside of his head that she was inviting him to spend the rest of the flight together. The school year really must have fried him if it was taking him this long to pick up on basic social cues. She should ask Pyrrha if there was a spa they could bring everyone to for maximum relaxation.

Taking their seats Weiss found herself sitting close to the window while Jaune sat on the opposite seat closer to the door. They would have to turn to speak to each other, but perhaps he just needed the extra legroom with his height. 'I am not short! All the blonds in the world are just freakishly tall!'

"So what was it you are reading? It's rare to see you so focused outside of class."

Jaune again looked surprised to be spoken to, "Oh, I was trying to read up on dust powered upgrades for my shield. I tend to fight more defensively than the rest of you so I thought it would be a good idea to add something to my arsenal." She agreed wholeheartedly. He grew much stronger over the last year but agility would never be his strong suit. "I just can't figure out how to narrow my search. Ice would allow me to better control the battlefield but fire would allow for more damage which would translate to shorter battles. And so on and so on."

"Jaune, it is commendable that you are still thinking of ways to improve yourself but please remember that we are on vacation. The entire point of having this break is so students do not burn themselves out."

The boy looked embarrassed by her light scolding, but ultimately closed his scroll to give her his full attention. "You're right, I guess I'm just afraid of losing what little progress I've managed to make."

Little progress? She knew the young man had some self-confidence issues but that was… She would set up a meeting with the others about that later, one thing at a time. "Well once we all get settled in we could all develop a light workout routine, I am sure you and Yang will come up with something you could do together. And I could turn some of our old notes into a quiz game we can play once a week to keep our minds sharp. How does that sound?" The grateful smile he gave her made her confident that he took her words to heart. 'Good, we don't need anyone collapsing anytime soon' "Enough about that, we shall be seeing your family often on this trip. Tell me about them."

If she hadn't been expecting it his change in demeanor would have frightened her. Suddenly he was sitting up straight, a wide toothy grin on his face, and his eyes sparkled as if he was meeting his childhood hero. Leave it to an Arc to get this excited about family. "Oh you guys are going to love her! Saphron is the best, just don't ever tell her I said that. She's kind to a fault, she would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She protected a lot of us from the bullies at home, helped raise us when mom and dad were too busy, and her cooking is incredible. That's why she moved to Argus you know, to open her own restaurant. Last I heard business is doing great as well."

From the short summery she sounded a lot like Winter. Except for the cooking, Weiss didn't believe her sister ever took a single step inside of a kitchen.

"And Terra, that's her wife, is super smart. Some sort of computer prodigy. She works at the local communications tower, but I could never wrap my head around what exactly she does. Too complex for me." Without warning he was leaning in closer to her as if he was about to tell her an important secret, "But to be completely honest with you, I wasn't planning on visiting this summer to see either of them."

"Really? After that glowing review, I would have guessed otherwise."

Jaune started pulling out his scroll again, looking for something in its photo gallery if she was seeing correctly, "Nope! They just had a son not too long ago and I can't wait to meet the little guy!" Before she could even process what he had said she had a scroll being shoved in her face. Normally she would have been furious at such a display of poor manners and inconsideration, but that anger was instantly washed away when her eyes focused in on the baby pictures on said scroll.

Swiping the scroll from him before he could even consider taking it away from her she started cooing over the photos. "He's so cute!" It was her weakness and not one she was proud of. Puppies, babies, old couples on benches, she just couldn't resist the cute things of the world.

"I know, I haven't even met him yet and I already love him. I'm going to spoil the shit out of this kid, I can already see half my huntsman wages going towards toys. My goal in the past was the be a passable huntsman and save people. Now I have a new goal, be the best uncle ever."

The fencer reluctantly gave the scroll back to its rightful owner, the only thing giving her the will to do so was knowing that she would meet the real child later. "I am sure you will be, it's going to be hard to beat 'my uncle killed an ursa last week' in playground duels." The laughter from their carriage was so loud she feared it would draw some of the others to interrupt them. It had been so long since she managed to coax Arc into a real one on one conversation with her, for the most part they primarily engaged while part of larger groups.

"We're supposed to be meeting your brother as well, aren't we? What is he like?"

She looked down at her lap while trying to find the right words, "That is a complicated question. I suppose you could say he is like I was at the beginning of the year. Under our father's thumb we both become cold and cruel, I to a lesser extent thanks to Winter but we were blind to the fact that he needed our help as well. Even though we live in the same house I fear we lost contact with each other years ago. To my knowledge he has no real friends, I don't know any of his hobbies anymore, and worst of all I am convinced he hates me."

A large and calloused hand enveloped her own, encouraging her to look at him once more. "I'm sure he doesn't hate you. Family may fight, they may even grow to dislike each other, but deep down they will always love each other." He didn't know what he was talking about, not really, but the intent of his words was enough to bring back the cheer she felt only a few moments ago.

"Yes, I suppose so. That is the reason I invited him after all, to reignite that sibling love."

Silence fell over the two, but a comfortable one. A good friend could talk to you for hours on end and never lose steam. A great friend knew when it was time to be quiet and enjoy the moment for what it was. Weiss decided her eyes had rested enough after such a long talk and that it would be safe to continue reading her new favorite book.

"Oh hey I know that one. My grandfather used to read it to us when we were sick."

"Has everyone but me heard of this masterpiece? In any case, I will have to ask you to not talk to me about it until later. I am only halfway through and I will stab anyone who spoils this story for me." She was exaggerating. Mostly.

"Right, my lips are sealed. To be honest I prefer the movie adaptation anyway."

And there was a movie?! "You'll have to watch the movie with me later then"

Jaune's eyes went wide and his body language became more unsure, "Oh. Right. Yea we can do that. I'll see what I can do."

And there were those nerves again.

Authors Notes;

I'm not particularly proud of this one. Especially Taiyang's entrance. I had so many jokes that just didn't seem to work once written down.

The casual outfits were mostly off the top of my head, but for Ren I couldn't resist using this image post/138861871054

You should all know what book Weiss was reading, if not you disappoint me.