Hey guys. This one is going to be a little different. It's a montage/time passes chapter. Some of it is half-baked filler, while some of it is semi-important to the story but couldn't really fit anywhere else. Hope yall enjoy.
These hunters were beyond competitive.
Whitley had been to board meetings with the most cutthroat businessmen in the upper echelons of Atlas and never felt like he was in any danger. But on these trivia nights at Winter's, he always felt like these barbarians were only a few seconds away from attacking each other. Even his sister seemed coiled up to attack at a second's notice. Just how intense were their classes if this was the response to reading off their notes?
They needed someone to be unbiased and ask the questions, one that would not cheat for their team or for themselves, so he had been asked to be their 'game show host.' Well asked was a rather polite way of phrasing it. In truth the rude one he had come to know as Nora volunteered his services and the rest of them just accepted it as if that was the end of the conversation.
"He has nothing to gain by cheating and with that blank face of his he won't give anything away either."
A part of him felt he should be offended by such a blunt statement, but at the same time, that is why he trained so hard to hide his emotions.
Well, a Schnee does not work in half measures. If they wanted a game show host then that is what they would get. He took all of Weiss' notes and started studying himself, it wasn't like he had much else to do with his time. It only took a couple of days for him to have enough memorized that he didn't have to completely rely on the binders his sister packed. Why that girl insisted on the handwritten when converting it all to digital had been as simple as taking a picture he would never understand.
It was after he had finished creating the different categories of questions and downloading a proper randomizer to finish off the game that he noticed something. It was true that he had memorized nearly all these questions and answers, but outside of dust, he did not actually understand any of it. What was a landing strategy? What was truly the difference between a horde and a pack? Weapon shapes and calibers had virtually no standardization, how did they remember and sort through them all in their heads? Hell, even some of the dust questions had him clawing the very edges of his mind for the correct answer.
Maybe barbarians was the wrong word to use for them.
"Miss. Belladonna, Mr. Arc, you two are tied at seventeen points. This final question will be the tie-breaker." They were all in the living room, couches separated by teams even though tonight was an individual game. Did they even realize they always did that? "Please, hands behind your backs." The two warriors did as he asked while awaiting the question. In the full spirit of the game show theme, they had elected to use a buzzer system, though they had to settle for slapping the coffee table in lieu of an actual buzzer. And even then, the table was now covered in pillows, as Weiss of all people had hit it so hard on the first night that she split a table in half. "Miss. Rose if- "
"You can just call me Ruby you know." The multicolored-haired girl spoke as she was getting into position. He was honestly curious how she even did that; it was too consistent to be a dye job.
"Miss. Rose, if you would please keep an eye on their hands to see who buzzes in first." These last few questions were always the hardest to judge, as their speed got faster and faster as they got closer to their promised prize. To compensate, Whitley started using the first one to get knocked out of the rankings to help keep an eye on their hands.
Whitley opened his scroll, a custom model he had ordered that had one side completely blacked out preventing anyone from seeing what he was doing. Initially bought for privacy concerns, it seemed to double just fine for this strange situation he found himself in. "The final question is, 'Your team of four hunters come across a nuckelavee, armed with basic blade weapons and low-powered firearms, what is the textbook strategy in dealing with the beast?'"
SLAM
He did not need help for that one, Arc's hand was still halfway in the air. "Miss. Belladonna?"
"You lure the horse into a blind charge to damage itself." The panther spoke with great confidence. However, he guessed she wasn't a leader for a reason.
"Incorrect. Mr. Arc, this is your chance to take the game."
His face was a mixture of blank and focused. It was as if he was reading a textbook only he could see. "You have your team separate and run circles around the beast, confusing the imp and making all attacks predictable and allowing for slashes on the horse's body."
He decided to make a big show of double-checking the notes on his scroll, though it seemed that the others were already accepting that they had lost. "Winner by eighteen points, Jaune Arc."
The left side of the room exploded into cheers, if you can call one girl an explosion, while the right side offered up polite but dejected applause. The only one who seemed to be truly happy with the outcome was Weiss. 'Did I remember their team assignments wrong?'
"And your grand prize for this week's game of Beacon Review, you get to choose tonight's take-out order."
"Pizza."
"Now dinner isn't for a few hours so you still have time to think- "
"Pizza."
"-and do not be shy about trying new things. So shall we reconvene in two hours' time?"
"Whitley, stop stalling. We're having pizza tonight."
Whitley just let out a long, tired sigh. Perhaps barbarians was the right word to use in describing these people.
Weiss was not a morning person by any means. She absolutely loathed alarms, and if she ever got out of bed before the sun rose past the horizon someone might end up dead. So, when she was awoken when the sun had just begun its journey into day by the sound of closing doors and heavy steps, Weiss decided to give whoever was making such a racket a piece of her mind.
Still in her nightgown, she marched downstairs to find the culprit. Halfway down another door could be heard closing, this time in the direction of the back of the house. 'I swear, if I find Yang setting up some stupid prank, I am going to freeze her hair to her back.'
Quietly sneaking past Tai, envying his heavy sleep, she made it to the door and was seconds away from shouting at whoever had woken her from blissful slumber. Carefully closing the door behind her so as to not wake anyone else up, she turned to face the object of her wrath, only to have all her anger drained as she saw her brother and Ren together.
Ren had set himself a spot on the grass to mediate facing the ocean, Whitley was further behind him, sitting on a stool from the house's bar with an easel in front of him. He must have seen her out the corner of his eye for he addressed her without turning his head. "It's rare to see you up so early. Did the sound of your own snoring wake you up?"
And the anger was back. "Actually, the sound of slamming doors and someone stomping their feet outside my room woke me. Any idea who that could have been dear brother?"
His hands paused, brush a hair away from the canvas, "Then I must apologize, the easel was awkward to carry and I ended up hitting my door closed with it. You can go back to sleep, the others are not due to rise for another couple of hours." She recognized that tone immediately, it was the same one she took when being chastised by father.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have been so snippy." The only acknowledgment she received was a small wordless nod. She hated her temper, always flaring up at the worst of times. "So… I did not know you were a painter."
"There are a lot of things you do not know about me."
She deserved that, she would like to think they were on the path of healing but she had put in so little effort it was laughable. It's not that she didn't care or didn't mean what she said about wanting him in her life, she just did not know how to start. "I'm sorry. You're right, there is a lot I do not know, but I am willing to learn."
He would not look at her but she could see in his shoulders that he was tense. "Klein decided I needed a hobby one day. 'A young man needs to stimulate his own interests' he said. The old fool bought me a starter kit along with some how-to books."
"Hey!"
"What? Either one of us could buy out an entire arts and crafts store without making a dent in our allowance and the man decides to buy something for me out of his own pocket." He finally turned away from his blank canvas but still wasn't looking at her directly. As he spoke he started to stroke the brush in his hand, only now revealing how worn down the wood had become. "It was the best present I have ever received in my life." For the first time that day, he looked her in the eyes, "This is actually how I met my two best friends. I signed up for some art classes online that did not require cameras and met them in the student chat. We must have talked for months before I felt ready to reveal who I was."
Weiss didn't know how to respond at the moment. She wanted him to keep going without interruption, to willingly tell her things he enjoyed in life, but she had so many questions she wanted to ask as well, questions that would undoubtedly either annoy him back into silence or distract him from his original story.
"I told them only my first name and an address to meet at and sent them some money for the cab fare so they could make the trip. Jade is from Mantle and Cherry is from a middle-class family in Atlas. When they got to the gate, they called me to laugh at the hilarious joke I just pulled on them and asked where I really wanted to meet. They were not laughing when Klein ushered them in." His friends may have stopped laughing, but Whitley sure hadn't, how long has it been since she heard him laugh this hard? "We have been friends ever since. They do not care about my name, they even call me by my online name most of the time, they only care about me."
She hated to bring down the mood, but she just couldn't stop herself from asking, "And father is ok with this?"
He did retreat to himself slightly, but for the most part, he was still the most open she had seen him since the beginning of summer. "As long as I keep up my studies and other responsibilities, he does not say anything about it. It is not like I am teaching myself how to stab monsters for a living."
The rest of their morning was spent in silence. Weiss fetched a chair to sit on while watching her brother paint the horizon with Ren taking the center focus. The only human contact they had for the next three hours was Tai bringing out three mugs of coffee along with a tray of sugar packets and a cream pitcher. It was worth it to see the end result of Whitley's labor. "It's perfect." If she had not watched him paint it herself, she would have sworn it was a photograph taken by Neptune.
"No, it's not. His shoulders are all wrong." For the first time she had seen today, Ren moved only to raise his eyebrow at the young Schnee. "In the painting I mean."
The Nikos household wasn't large by any means, probably built to house three occupants comfortably. She was not that surprised, as Pyrrha was a very modest person, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was some other reason to not move somewhere more comfortable. Oh well, questions for another time.
"Thank you all for coming here today, are we sure that Jaune has not followed us here?" It was time to bring this meeting to start, she would make sure he got the help he needed and step one was his team.
The living room, which was already becoming a tad crowded, housed Weiss and the remaining three hunters of JNPR. "Oh yea, he won't be back for a few hours at least. Ruby dragged him to see some movie about-"
"I just needed to know he was not here Nora. Thank you." She didn't mean to be rude, but you had to stop Nora early or else suffer for who knows how long. "I called the meeting here today to discuss with you your leader and his health."
This seemed to get their attention, Pyrrha and Nora looked worried while Ren looked to be awake and present. It was his partner who answered for the group, "What do you mean his health, is he hiding an injury? Is he sick?"
Weiss felt she should be worried that Pyrrha's first instinct was hiding an injury. "No, I am speaking of his mental health. I know that Jaune has suffered from self-confidence issues for as long as we have known him, but I fear that it is getting worse."
It didn't take her long to go over her list, from comments he made on the flight, to his constant nerves that seemed to be getting worse, and most recently his worries about there being something wrong with him on the beach. Though she had to skip a lot of context for that one, as she was not sure how much of that he wanted his teammates to know. But the weird thing was the more she talked the more relaxed the three became. Was she not explaining themselves properly? Did they not care for their cute and dorky knight? Was she speaking to a group of imposters?
"I'm sorry Weiss," The now suspect Pyrrha started, "but, umm" She started looking to her team for help.
The hammer wielder spoke next, "You just described Jaune after getting better."
The quiet man spoke for the first time since arriving, "I know it is hard to believe, but he used to be a lot worse. It took a lot of patience, many interventions, and as much… 'counseling' as we could manage without a professional to guide us, but the Jaune Arc you know now is actually on the upswing."
Upswing? How was that possible? Just during this trip, she had seen the young man deflect compliments no matter how deserved, speak about himself in a negative light, blame himself when minor things went wrong, and much more. It was all the classic signs, and this was supposed to be the upswing? But this was his team. They were far closer to him than she was, so she would give them the chance to explain themselves. "You are going to have to be much more detailed in this explanation. I am close to shoving him into a therapist's office and locking the door, then when he's done, I am going to grab the next in line." She didn't mean to eye Pyrrha as she said that, but she didn't regret it either. "The more I think about it the more appealing the option sounds."
"Well," the champion started, "there was the first time he beat Cardin for starters. He said it was a fluke and wouldn't accept the win for what it was. He even tried to get Professor Goodwitch to 'fix' the record so he wouldn't have to adjust for the outlier every time he looked at it." She had her head in her hands as she spoke as if preemptively trying to ward off an old headache. "It took five wins for him to finally admit that he was earning those victories."
"Pfft, you think that's the worst one? No, the worst was when he started being able to hold his own against Ren while sparing." Gods even Nora looked exasperated as she recalled the events. Did she not know her friends as well as she thought she did? "He literally started screaming at him for taking it easy on him. Saying stuff like 'How am I supposed to get better if you keep babying me' and 'I may as well go fight Coco, at least she will hit me back!'"
Weiss couldn't believe it. How had she never heard of this? Ren decided to continue the story, "He apologized to me for days afterward. No matter how many times I tried to assure him that I understood it was an emotional outburst he just would not accept that he was forgiven. I love him like a brother, but if he ever apologizes for that event again, I don't know what I'm going to do to him."
"I know that none of this is the most comforting of news, Weiss, but please believe us when we say that we are well aware of the issue at hand and are doing everything in our power to help him." Pyrrha was smiling, and while it was genuine it did not quite mask her own anxieties over the situation. "But thank you for looking out for him. It means the world to us that others are keeping an eye out for his wellbeing."
Weiss was at a complete loss. While politely making her exit from the Nikos household, she could only think one thing. 'How does Beacon not have a therapist on staff?!'
Whitley didn't understand the appeal of this movie. He could recognize the superb acting, and the polite nature of its cast was certainly a breath of fresh air from all the mindless action movies Jade dragged him to see, but besides that he had nothing good to say.
Perhaps it was the characters that prevented him from getting excited by the sword fights and games of wit. The thought of going to such great lengths to avenge his father was a laughable notion, and he was still too burned by his latest relationship to sink into the 'true love' plot the story was centered around. His sister on the other hand was enthralled by all of it, gasping and cheering like a child.
The blond boy had at some point made a promise to watch this film with her and she was forcing him to uphold it. It was just the three of them in the house for the night. Ren and the rude one were on yet another date, the tall blond woman had dragged Miss. Nikos somewhere in town, and Mr. Xiao Long had taken his remaining daughter and Miss. Belladonna out to dinner. Seemingly this was deemed the perfect time to bring this film up on Winter's big screen and pop a bucket of popcorn for the two hunters and himself.
While keeping one eye on the movie, he was much more entertained by the sight of Weiss hunched over and staring at the screen as if it held the secrets of the universe. Mumbling under her breath without realizing it, ducking when fast objects moved towards the camera, and eyes lighting up whenever the princess and the pirate were on screen together. It was as if they were little kids back home, watching a movie with their mother watching over them.
Before he could get sucked into a spiral of memories, he switched his focus to the tall blond boy in the room. Considerably more relaxed than his sister was, but any time the girl swayed towards him, or scooted closer to him on the couch he got more and more tense. Though whenever he looked over and saw his sister's face, he got the fondest smile to spread across his lips.
… interesting.
They may be on vacation, but it felt good to get active again. Weiss and Pyrrha had decided to join Jaune and Yang on their trip to the Sanctum Academy Gym. Not as well fitted as the Beacon Gym, but it was well equipped for a light workout and had a working air conditioning unit so it was perfect for their needs. The fact that they were almost completely by themselves with only a few other hunters in the building certainly helped complete the relaxing atmosphere.
Yang was excited to try out the free weights with Jaune, but Weiss decided to just stick with some basic cardio and ran laps around the building with the amazon for now.
She liked Pyrrha. It shouldn't be a surprise but she just clicked with the girl. She was incredibly sweet, almost as nurturing as Yang, as patient as a saint, and above all else she was genuine in her kindness. For the longest time Weiss just assumed that she only ever saw her media persona, but when it finally clicked into place in her mind that this was the real Pyrrha Nikos she felt so lucky to have her as a friend.
"And then my manager thought it would be a good idea to sign me up for a photo op without asking me first." Another thing about Pyrrha, she was the only one Weiss could talk to about the woes of fame. She was a star athlete and one of the most promising future huntresses in the world where she herself was a world-class singer and heiress to the Schnee fortune. At first glance, you would think they would not have much in common, but annoying fans and others thinking they knew better than you were universal symptoms of fame it seemed.
"Tell me about it, one time my father organized a concert and forgot to tell me about it until the last minute. I had two weeks to meet the orchestra, pick out a set, practice with them, and get a new dress for the event's theme!" It was easy to laugh about it now, it also felt amazing to have someone who understood.
The two had finished a fourth lap around the gym's track when they decided to slow to a walk and catch their breath. They could have kept running for hours with the shape they were in, but there was no point in over-exerting themselves. The same could not be said for their blonds. As they got closer to the free weight section of the gym they could hear Yang practically screaming, "Come on Jaune you can do it! Just five more, you're almost there!"
Once they were in view they decided to stop and make sure they weren't about to break anything. What they saw was… holy shit. 'Were his arms always that big?' The young man was laying down on a bench with Yang over his head spotting him as he lifted what looked like three hundred pounds. "Come on man just three more." Weiss watched as he strained to push the bar above his head, form impeccable and movements slow. At some point while they were separated he had decided to remove his shirt, not a new sight by any means but all the same Weiss couldn't take her eyes off him.
It was only when she realized she was staring at him the same way those floozies at the beach were that she managed to turn away from the display. After taking a small moment to force the heat on her cheeks to retreat, she felt a pair of eyes staring at her. Turning she saw Pyrrha with a very out of character teasing grin on her face, her shoulders shaking as if she was holding back laughter. "Did you see something you like?"
"Before we start, know that I am not above using ammo you so graciously gave all of us during your school girl crush. Ask yourself, do you really want to play this game?"
"Perhaps we should continue our run."
"Perhaps we should."
The baby was cute, but it wasn't that cute. Yang just couldn't understand the spell Adrian had over Weiss and Jaune.
Saphron and Terra were in the other room, trusting them not to hurt their son but at the same time it was obvious they needed a break. It must be exhausting, having full-time stressful jobs and coming home to yet another full-time job. If they needed a babysitter to come by just so they could take an afternoon nap, then she was willing to oblige. However, she wasn't convinced the other two even realized that they left the room four hours ago.
That was fine by her, they could play airplane and try to coax out his first words until their faces turned blue, she had another mission and now was the prime time to execute her plan.
It was time for operation; obtain blackmail.
Jaune, the poor soul, had let it slip that he needed to hide the photo albums before they could see them this summer, but he never accounted for the distraction that was his nephew. She had been sitting on the couch completely in the open going through each of the three binders she had found using her scroll to make copies of the more embarrassing moments of his life.
No wonder he looked that good in a dress, it turned out he had a lot of experience wearing one over the years.
Of course, there were other reasons to go through these albums. It was surprising what you could learn about a person by viewing a collection of freeze frames of their life. Look long enough and you could eventually notice some patterns. Yang was noticing one of those patterns now, and as she looked up to see Jaune and Weiss helping the tot practice walking a lot of things were starting to make sense.
"I cannot thank you three enough, we really needed that." Yang nearly jumped off the couch as Terra called out to them from down the hall. Stretching her arms and the mess of bed hair confirmed Yang's theory of them simply needing a nap. "It wasn't too much trouble, was it? We didn't mean to leave you alone but Saph saw the opportunity and I just couldn't say no."
"Don't even worry about it, my uncle used to cover for our dad whenever he just needed a day to chill. Looks like Jaunes already taking on his family duties." It was then the two realized that the other hunters in the room haven't so much as looked up as they were talking, still unaware of her presence at all. Yang honestly couldn't decide if it was hilarious or exasperating. "Alright, I'll hold Weiss down and you try to extract the child."
How did he end up here?
He knew the answer, but he still did not understand it. The older man had walked into the room as he was playing chess with Arc and Ren and declared tonight was 'guys' night.' That had been alright by him, while they were gone he could ask the Belladonna woman about her book collection. What he had not realized at the time was that guys night included him for some reason.
Since when was he one of 'the boys?'
When it was suggested that they head to a dance club Whitley practically wilted. He was all set for a quiet night indoors with a good book to read and now he was being dragged off to babysit some drunk hunters while they listened to a blown-out speaker system play nothing but base. And how was he even going to do that? He had nowhere near enough strength to restrain these three if they decided to get rowdy tonight, and he had no clue what their limits even were. Did aura increase alcohol tolerance?
But when they arrived at their destination, he was pleasantly surprised. It was a smaller-scale business than he was expecting, but it was well-lit and clean. There was a small bar but Tai had led them all to the other side of the building to order some nachos and mozzarella sticks. And the music, while still louder than he would personally like, sounded much classier than he was expecting. Not a high bar mind you, he was expecting nothing more than a continuous loop of bass and drums for the night.
They had been there for a couple of hours at this point, Whitley watching from the sidelines as Jaune and Ren were competing in a dance-off while simultaneously performing the exact same routine. It didn't seem that complicated. It was a slow dance, seemingly focusing more on precise footwork than any overcomplicated spins. Well, if he was in a dance club he may as join them and dance.
He had only lasted ten seconds before he fell. Trying to mimic their routine had caused him to sprain his ankle and fall face-first onto the floor. Thank the gods above this place was clean. The blond boy was the first to notice, stopping his dance on a dime while accruing no injury to himself. "You alright there bud? Here let me help you up."
He appreciated the help, raising his hand to be pulled to his feet so he could walk back to the table, what he did not expect was to be picked up bridal style and carried off the dance floor. "Put me down this instant you oaf! I am not some child to be manhandled!"
"Sorry about this, but we have to make sure your ankle is ok before we let you walk again."
"It's just a sprain, not a life-threatening injury you have to dot over."
It was Ren who answered in his stead, "It's just a precaution. It may feel like a sprain but we need to make sure it's not broken or in danger of breaking. It happens more often than you think." Resigned to his fate, he made a silent prayer that no one was taking pictures of him at this moment.
It was a short walk to their table, and after being set down the knight took a knee to examine his leg. He was impressed he had to admit, one would expect such a large man to be rough and use much more force than the situation called for, but his touches were soft and caring. His fingers just ghosted across his skin and he only felt gentle squeezes as his ankle was prodded for more substantial injury. "Well, looks like we were worried for nothing."
"I told you as much, next time listen to me."
If he was insulted by his outburst he didn't show it, "You know, I can actually fix this right now if you want. Wouldn't take more than a minute."
"Fix my injured leg? You know what, sure. I would love to see how you plan on doing that."
Honestly, what was he going to do, find a stethoscope and pretend to listen to this foot's heartbeat? Whitley knew he was the youngest one in their group, but he was no child! After this he was going back to Winter's and… and… why did his leg feel so much better?
Looking down he saw a white light surrounding Jaune's hands and slowly seeping into his skin. It was a warm feeling, as if someone wrapped him in an electric blanket, and he could feel his muscles loosen with every second. All too soon it was over, and he was left sitting there missing the warmth. "There, that should do it. Just sit there for a minute to let your foot rest and then you should be ready to come back and dance with us."
He watched as the two hunters leave as if Jaune had not performed a medical miracle only a moment ago. What kind of life had his sisters gotten themselves into?
Blake's favorite spot was quickly becoming the roof of Winter's vacation house, where no one but her ever ventured.
She loved her team and their friends dearly, she really did, but she also needed breaks from them. You can only live with the same people every day for so long before you got tired of their voices. So when she saw that there was a tree next to her window that had the perfect climbing path to the roof she grabbed the opportunity by the throat and didn't let go.
Hopefully by the time next summer came, she was ready to go home.
She was enjoying the sun when she noticed a peculiar sight leaving the house. There below her was none other than Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, dragging along the poor knight she had come to know as Jaune Arc. She had to stifle a laugh at the sight of it all. The girl would kill her if she ever heard her say it but the image of such a short girl attempting to drag a six-foot-tall man was one of the funniest things Blake had ever seen. Like a small kitten trying to lead around a golden retriever.
Now that she thought about it, the two were spending a lot of time together. It wasn't that out of the ordinary, the two teams were essentially one unit at this point, but she couldn't recall Weiss ever seeking out Jaune. Maybe it was classes getting in the way, or perhaps they were best friends and she just never noticed. It wasn't as if she paid him too much mind. While they were undoubtedly family it was only natural to be closer to some more than others and Jaune happened to land on the lower end of that spectrum for her. Maybe she should correct that, he certainly seemed to make the heiress happy.
"For the last time Arc we are going to the bookstore."
"Yea I get that, but why?"
"Because there seems to be an entire world of great works out there that the world has conspired to hide from me! You are coming to point out the ones that I need to read."
"Well, I guess we could grab a copy of The Steel Giant."
'Are you serious?' Blake had been trying to get her to read some of her collection for months now and she was always gone unheeded. But one trite little fantasy book and she was fully on board with starting a collection of her own? Fine. Great. What did she care that all her friends stuck up their noses whenever they saw her signed copy of Ninjas of Love? She was going to finish her nap on this roof where no one could bother her.
Argus was as beautiful as it always was, he could easily see why Saphron decided to start a family here.
Jaune was leaning against a railing behind the house and watching the sunset for the night. It was one of those nights where he just couldn't stop thinking no matter how hard he tried, and watching nature always seemed to help calm him down. Ren had also been teaching him breathing techniques for when his thoughts started to get too loud, always looking out for him. He was so glad that his friends were being taken care of this summer, but there was still a part of him that was angry that he wasn't the one to fix their problems. He was their leader, wasn't he? It was his job to make sure they were ok, and he never once asked them where they were heading after school.
'No, stop thinking like that. Just breathe and watch the sun.'
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the short white hair of Whitley heading towards him. It was an odd sight to behold, his face was stoic as ever and his posture was perfect, but at some point in the day Nora had wrangled him into a flower print shirt and shutter glasses. It was hard to tell if he secretly enjoyed it or if he was too scared of Nora to take them off. "Hey Wit, did you need something?"
Whitley just stared at him unblinkingly. Did he mess up? Was the nickname too far? Was there something in his teeth? When he finally spoke, it was short, blunt, and to the point. "You like my sister don't you."
Oh, was that all? "Yea, I do." There was no point in denying it, not like it was some grand secret. He was pretty sure everyone knew that he still had a torch for her. It is why he was so shocked at being invited here in the first place. He knew she didn't hate him, he knew she considered him her friend, but he could not understand why she would put herself in such an awkward situation. It's just, why in the world would she trap herself in a house with an annoying boy who still liked her even after being told no? It didn't make any sense.
Whitley had been silent for a couple of minutes now, but he had a good idea of what was going on. Turning to face him so that he knew he was being honest, "You don't have to worry about playing the protective brother. I already know how she feels about me, she made it perfectly clear. I'm just a friend, I know that."
He was still silent, still just staring at him. Eventually, he just shook his head and let out a weary sigh, "You are both such idiots." He turned to head back to the house, but halfway there he called out, "I suggest asking her one last time. Her favorite food is Mistalian Sushi, or at least it was the last time I checked."
When he was out of sight Jaune turned back to the sea, the sun already set and darkness was starting to take hold for the night. "If you only knew man, if you only knew."
Authors Notes;
for those who want Ren and Jaune's dance routine, look up RvB Get Lucky
Welp, there are only three more chapters left of this story. I didn't expect anyone to really read this, just wanted to get it down on paper and out of my head but the amount of regular viewers this story has is staggering.
This is mostly just a collection of ideas that I had that couldn't be expanded into full chapters by themselves, or small bits of story that I couldn't figure out how to put in the story proper without disrupting the flow too much. We will be back to regular chapters next time though.
As always reviews and comments are always welcome. They tell me what I did wrong, what I did right, and I just enjoy getting them.