Hey everyone! Welcome to the next installment of A Bond of Blonde. Don't really have anything to say, other than: I'm going to be focusing on this story, then I'll start writing more about A Shift in Power, and after some time I'll go back to What Remains. I've been getting better feedback for this story than anything else, so I'm just gonna go with it. Enjoy!

A Dragon and a Knight in The Hills.

Yang walked through the halls restlessly. The training had been going at an amazing pace, everyone had reached an entirely new level. Oscar was solid in his movements, Ruby could take Ren in Hand-to-Hand, Ren could easily keep a fight up for hours, Nora had been more focused than ever, Weiss' control over her defensive aura had improved dramatically, and Yang was as confident with her new arm as she ever was with her old one. But the biggest change was Jaune.

He had already been suited to defense, but he had really doubled down on the idea. His improvements to both Crocea and his armor suited him for prolonged combat, his already impressive aura seemed to have grown, and no one could match the new tenacity he seemed to have. Yang was beginning to believe his semblance had already been unlocked, and it allowed him to increase his skill exponentially. She had no proof obviously, but still… He was moving at an incredible rate.

"Yang, we need to talk." She came to an abrupt stop as her Uncle suddenly appeared next to her.

"Don't just pop up like that!" The Huntsman chuckled and poked her forehead.

"I've been here for ten minutes. I was watching you pace, looking like you wanted to go hit something. Something I should know about?" Despite his outward appearance, very little made it past Qrow's watchful eye. Though that may be reason enough for his appearance.

"No, I've just been really restless. Kinda anxious to go do something, you know?" Qrow nodded and motioned her to follow as he made his way to the common area. Most everyone was already there, the only ones absent being Ren and Nora. The two had volunteered to go get the groceries for this week.

"We've all been gettin' restless. So, me and Oz thought you all could use something to do." Ozpin walked forward, Oscar's young eyes glowing with an ancient wisdom. Still creepy.

"There has been an influx of Grimm activity. While Salem is still our priority, we still have a duty to protect Mistral. The hills to the south need to be cleared soon. They do not have large numbers yet, so it would be best to keep the party small. Any volunteers?" Jaune stood and started moving toward his room, a fire burning in his eyes.

"I'll be ready in ten. Let me know who's coming with."

Yang nodded her head towards the rest of them. "I'll go with him. If there isn't too many, then we should be able to handle it ourselves."

Ozpin returned the nod, Oscar's slightly more nervous eyes taking over soon after. "Good luck, Yang."

"Thanks, little buddy." She reached over and ruffled his hair before moving to her own room. We should travel light, but be ready for heavy fighting.

She gathered her gear and made her way to the airfield. Despite the reservations they had against Lionheart, he was still headmaster and therefore the one to assign missions to Hunters. A tricky situation, but instead of a two-hour hike, they had a ten-minute flight. Jaune didn't look excited, per se, but he didn't actually vomit.

"Hey, you feeling alright?" Jaune looked up to Yang's concerned gaze. The airship was a smaller, light-weight, recon vehicle, so there wasn't a lot room for passengers. The two were seated on a bench facing the bay door, pressed closely together.

"Yeah, I'm good. We got lucky, no turbulence means I don't owe you a new pair of shoes." Yang's laugh at the old memory filled the cabin. Jaune had apologized profusely after the incident and paid for new boots, despite Yang's protest.

"Hey back there, ETA 20 seconds to insertion. We've got a few Ursa near the DZ, so be ready to hit the ground running. This bird's quick, but it can't take very much punishment." They stood and readied themselves for a combat drop. The strategy they had was simple. Jaune had the bigger aura and the heavier weapon. With Crocea Mors in its two-handed format, he would drop from the aircraft while pumping aura into the sword, reinforcing the metal. As he connected with either one of the enemies or the ground, the resulting disruption would put the Grimm's attention on Jaune, leaving Yang open to drop in from behind.

"Alright, ready up! Light is green in 3, 2, 1. Light is green go, go, go!" Jaune clapped Yang on the shoulder and gave her a wink as he hurled himself into the sky.

When did he get so smooth?

Jaune felt his mind clear, his blood boil, and sent his aura surging through his blade. Despite how sick he felt in aircraft, actually being in the air was a pleasant experience. His cerulean eyes latched onto the black form of an Ursa and he tucked his leg in slightly to adjust his decent. Free falling was always an unusual set of movement. Every twitch could send you sprawling, but thanks to aura, his muscles could resist the drag of the wind. He neared his target and swung Crocea in a mighty arc, completing a full rotation before slamming into the creature at terminal velocity. The resulting cloud was sufficient to the cause.

Yang smirked as she fell. He was still relatively new to hunting, but boy could he make an entrance.

Can't be outdone, now can I?

The Grimm turned to the human that dared to intrude on their territory. It was one of the younger ones. It seemed strong, but it was small and outnumbered. The Major reared its head and bellowed a challenge. It lumbered forward as the human raised its shield. The Major had been in enough conflicts to know how to get around this defense.

It wasn't as sure what to do when the human plunged it's sword through the Ursa's foot, uppercut the beast with its shield, and then kicked the Major hard enough to throw it back to the rest of the Ursai.

Jaune rolled his shoulders as he raised Crocea. Huh, didn't think I could kick that hard. A fierce smile flashed across his face as he roared his own challenge to the Ursai. As much as Jaune would've preferred to have more than one person running distraction, he knew the small horde wouldn't take Yang long to work through. Alright Xiao-Long, time to show you what I've got. "Come on ya balls of fur, let's go!"

Yang restrained her urge to hit the ground with a bang, instead allowing her prosthetic to drag it's way down the trunk of a tree. She had overshot the field Jaune was in by a few yards, but she could hear him call out the "fur-balls." She chuckled as she ran toward the rear of the Horde. Confidence looks good on him. Kinda glad we got a few days to- Stop it! Focus! Horde, Grimm, big things with claws and teeth.

The horde was on the smaller side, only about twenty strong, including the Ursa Major that Jaune had managed to enrage. Yang laughed as she delivered a punishing right hook to the nearest Ursa. While their pelts were resistant to being slashed, the Grimm's floating ribs were fair game to kinetic energy.

The buckshot probably didn't help.

The well-over-600lbs beast was bodily thrown into his buddy, leaving both open to finishing axe kicks. Yang methodically punched, kicked, and shot her way through the horde. It took longer than she had anticipated, the horde was small but they were older and more intelligent. The Ursa knew they were slower so they tried to work in tandem.

I mean, yeah, they're smarter, but I'm still beating the crap out of them. Hopefully Jaune's not too tired. We've still got almost six kilometers to hike today. Yang paused with her prosthetic buried in an Ursa's mask. We did bring the camping gear, right?

Yang shook her head and continued destroying the last few. Surely Jaune had remembered. He was a team leader, he knew to keep up with this stuff. Especially with a teammate like Nora, right?

Jaune shrugged off yet another set of claws. He grimaced as he brought Crocea down in an arc, hacking through the Grimm's neck. The fighting wasn't necessarily hard, but holding ground alone was tiring. He couldn't move too much or the horde would lose attention, but the dirt below him had turned to mud with the blood of the Grimm. His shield arm burned from the weight of the impacts, and he had earned a small cut above his left eye. While not dangerous in any way, his aura had already healed the actual cut, the blood had flowed into his eye, blinding him.

As he removed his blade from the last Ursa's throat, he saw Yang moving toward him. She was completely fine, other than a little gore due to her fondness for 12 gauge shells. He grinned at her and collapsed his shield. Despite only gaining one small laceration, his once gold and white armor was now a stained and gruesome black.

"Hey there, killer. You look like you could use a shower." As Yang snickered at her own joke, Jaune got a devious idea. Thankfully any revulsion to gore had long since been removed by their training. Can't exactly be a Huntsman if you can't look at the thing you're killing.

Ah, she'll kill me for this.

Eh, worth it.

Jaune dropped his weapons and charged forward.

"Ah, anyway- Wait, no no no no no, Arc don't you dare! Jaune!" Jaune ignored her protests and wrapped her in a tight embrace, letting his cuirass stain her long duster. It was made for a Huntress, so he knew the blood would come off relatively easily, but it was just inconvenient enough to bother her.

"Ah, there we go Yang. A big hug after a successful fight, don't you feel better now?" She buried her fist into his ribs, causing him to fall off her.

"I hate you." He stood and looked at her cute pout. He booped her on the nose and smirked.

"You know you love me."

You'd be surprised how true that is.

Jaune sighed as he sat on the bank of a small river. Thanks to the two Hunters aura they made good time on their hike. They would need to move a bit further before they got to the next nest, but Yang decided they should rest for the night.

Jaune didn't argue too much, as it gave him the chance to clean off. Despite the water being bitterly cold, it was refreshing and clean. He stood from the bank and moved his armor to the cave where they would be camping, letting it and the rest of his clothes dry. He had brought a spare pair of pants and an extra hoody, so thankfully he didn't have to stand completely naked.

Yang walked into the cave with an armful of dry twigs and her duster. She placed her jacket near the rest of Jaune's gear and began stacking the wood for a small fire. She looked a little guilty, which made Jaune narrow his eyes.

She's done something. Yang literally never looks guilty. I don't even know what she would have done that would- Jaune's eyes widened.

"Please tell me we didn't." Yang looked up at him, saw the look in his eyes, then turned back to her fire.

"…Yeah… Kinda." Jaune knelt next to her and sparked the fire with a flint and steel. He shook his head and moved back towards his armor. He grabbed a small bag from under his cuirass and returned to Yang's side, unfolding a small emergency blanket. He spread it out on the ground next to her, took off his hoody and gave it to her before moving toward his still wet shirt.

Jaune put the shirt on, shivered, then pushed his aura into his skin. He couldn't dry it or even heat it, but his aura should keep him from getting sick due to the cold. He used the second blanket he had as a sort of makeshift cloak, seating himself on a stone near the entrance with Crocea by his side.

"Wear my hoody and go to bed close to the fire. The blanket should keep you from losing too much heat to the ground and the hoody should keep you warm along with the fire. I'll stand watch."

Yang was about to protest, but she could understand the need for a guard. They were behind enemy lines.

"Wait, why do you have two blankets tucked into your armor?" He smirked as he watched the night sky.

"Team JNPR protocol. Each member has at least one piece of survival equipment at all times. Together we make up a basic survival kit, but any combination of us will work well. Ren has medical, Nora has the sleeping bags, I have these blankets and some gear to start fires, and Pyrrha had the hunting and cooking equipment." Yang was impressed. JNPR was a lot better prepared than RWBY typically was.

"You certainly thought that through." Jaune chuckled as he rubbed the pommel of Crocea.

"We tried to prepare for anything we could think of. Obviously, we never could, but it made for good team building. We got good prep in, and we got to understand how each member would think through a problem." Yang smiled a little at how Jaune talked about it. He's so caring about his team. And… well, everyone now that I think about it.

She put on his hoody and reveled in its warmth (and maybe reveled in his scent. Just a little.). She walked over to him and planted a gentle kiss on the crown of his head. "Thanks for taking first watch. Make sure to wake me up after a few hours, okay?"

He nodded and bade her a good night. As she curled up on the blanket she looked at the Blond guard. You'd better not try and stay up all night just to let me sleep, Buck-o.

Yang stirred as she woke. She certainly wasn't warm, but she wasn't freezing either. The reason for this became abundantly clear as she moved her arm. Not only was the fire at full strength, Jaune had placed his own blanket on top of her.

She turned her head to look at him, and noticed that, thankfully, he wasn't shivering.

She did get concerned when she noticed that his shirt was actually starting to gather a layer of frost. He must be using his aura. Even for him that's a long time to keep up constant use.

Yang picked up her scroll and opened the program to look at their aura gauges. Her eyes hardened when she realized two things.

1: It was far past the time when Jaune had promised to wake her. Meaning he was definitely planning to take the entire shift.

2: He had already burned through a quarter of his aura. While that might not seem like a lot, it told Yang quite a bit. He would have to use more aura the colder it got, and Jaune's reserves were almost double her own. He shouldn't have gotten to a quarter until at least dawn, unless it got much colder.

Or he did something stupid like give up one of the few things giving him warmth.

Yang sat up and cleared her throat.

His head snapped to the sound, but he stayed calm.

"Hey, Yang. You've still got a little time, go back to sleep." She narrowed her eyes, and lifted his blanket a little.

"Oh," he scratched the back of his head, "Well, you seemed a little bit cold, so I put it over you. My aura is keeping me warm, so don't worry."

Yang stared him down, and slowly lifted her scroll. Jaune's eyes widened, then narrowed at the little device. Blast, of course she would check.

"Jaune Arc." Meep. Welp, kinda figured this was coming.

"Yes?"

"Get over here and go to sleep."

"Yang you don't have to take watch-"

"I'm not, idiot. We're both going to sleep. I don't know why I fell for it earlier, but we just destroyed the Grimm that lived here, so there is absolutely no reason for a guard. Now," she sat up a little more and pinned Jaune with a sharp glare, "Get in here before I make you. And take that shirt off, it literally has ice on it."

Jaune nodded his head and complied to her commands. The look she wore brooked no arguments. He moved closer and laid himself next to her. Outside the blanket.

"Jaune."

"Yeah?" She lifted the edge of the blanket.

"Inside the blanket."

"Uh-"

"Now."

"Yes Ma'am."

Jaune slid himself next to her, holding his arms above his head to avoid any mishaps. Yang shook her head and brought his arms to lay around her waist. Jaune stiffened, but pulled her closer still. As she felt the warmth from his bare torso seep into her, the confidence she had vanished.

Uh, okay. May have been a little hasty here. Ummmm…

"Hey, Yang?" She could hear his heartrate skyrocket.

"What's up?" His grip loosened around her, and Yang had to stop herself from vocalizing her disappointment.

"I, uh, I need to tell you something. Before I miss my chance." Miss his chance?

"Go ahead Jaune. I told you I'd be here for you." Please let that be true, Yang.

"I think… No, I'm sure."

"Yang, I love you." Yang's breath caught, her heart stopped, and her eyes widened.

Wasn't… I don't… I was not ready for this. What do I do? Well, actually, I guess that's pretty obvious.

She looked up from his chest to see his rather rosy complexion.

"Hey Jaune?" He tilted his head to face her, their noses gently touching.

"I love you too." She closed the distance and gently pressed her lips to his. They were cold and chapped, but they were Jaune's.

He pulled the two tightly together again and reciprocated the kiss. Their sleep went uninterrupted and was pleasantly warm the entire night.

Hey y'all. So, I know I literally just said I was going to focus on this story, but I'm realizing the more I do that the harder it gets to write for it. So I'm going to apply myself to no schedule whatsoever. I know that'll be really irritating to wait for a chapter update and not know when it'll come. But I've got like three different story ideas that I want to get down before I lose the thread, so I'm going to try for those. I know this is obnoxious but I'd ask you guys to bear with me as I get my feet under me. Also; I'd like to add little bits of trivia to my stories. So for the first one, here's something about Jaune's sword and Yang's shotgun. The two handed mode of Crocea could be referred to as a Greatsword, Broadsword, Claymore, and many other names. Technically they all refer to the fighting style, not the sword itself. The sword itself would be called a Zweihander, German for 'Two-handed.' As far as Yang's shotgun, 12 gauge shells have better range, but much more recoil. I would assume that she would need the heavier gauge to kill an Ursa given their thick hides. Sorry for the super long AN.

Happy Holidays!