Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY which belongs to Rooster Teeth and the late Monty Owm.

Chapter 9: Where Ruby plays Video Games

"Well…I did not expect Jaune to have the guts to oppose me in any way yet" she mumbled just as the blonde left her.

Her breathes were…surprisingly deep and if she didn't know better, she must have felt something when Jaune's eyes looked at her own and demanded her to submit to him. It was a feeling she didn't often get.

Worse was that she suspected she liked such a disgusting feeling.

Despite the fact that she had told Pyrrha that she more or less crippled Cardin Winchester for the time being due to him being a threat to Jaune, it was more due to the fact that the brat had connections thanks to his family's name and was snooping around targets he could bully.

Eventually he would find that Cinder had also faked her transcripts and would try to use her. At that point, even if she had taken care of the issue, the fact that someone had investigated into her origins would still be there. That was a problem.

Then it would be just better to get rid of Cardin as far as possible besides disposing him and putting the blame onto the concern team-mate and partner of Jaune Arc. In hindsight, she did not realise what the effects of doing such a thing could do to her team. And wasn't that a painful notion? Cinder Fall having a team.

Emerald and Mercury were both subordinates of hers and she did not consider them equals as teams may imply. However weeks of interactions with just them seemed to have changed her for the worse. She had plans. Dozens of dozens of them that would eventually let her gain power and make Beacon, Vale fall!

And all of that was being unravelled by the stems because of her.

Jaune was a surprisingly kind yet flawed person that she helped grow and admittedly was getting close to. Pyrrha was someone that could've been a rival in the past that pushed her to her limits. And Ruby was an innocent child that still had that naïve and wishful dreams that almost made her dream for a better future again.

The fact was that a small part of her was fine with the current state of things. To stay in the team, letting the disguise and lies become the truth. To-

She crushed such feelings in her.

"No, I won't let that happen" she growled.

She was Cinder Fall and she was going to be the complete Fall Maiden. She was going to burn down Beacon and Vale alike while fanning the winds of war.

(And yet she was Cinder Fall partner of Jaune Arc whom she lost his trust and team-mates of Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose who no longer believe in her and that hurt)

"Damnit" she slammed a fist to the wall. It cracked slightly.

Out of all things about her, Cinder would not lie to herself. She would lie to others, use them, manipulate them but she would never deny any desires of hers to be false. And the truth was, she was slowly changing into someone she would've spat on as inferior.

Searching her feelings she quickly concluded that thankfully, she still desired power.

However while she still desired the power of the Fall Maiden, her will to serve under a cruel mistress like Salem was quickly disappearing. The reason why she was feeling this way wasn't because she was that power-hungry to betray the Master of Grimm but rather because her loyalties were being shifted.

Towards Team JCNR.

"This is a fine mess I got myself into" she sighed. This was a problem and she knew it. It had only been a short amount of time and already the team was working their way into her heart.

More than event that, the option to 'switch sides' was increasingly becoming more and more easier to consider.

But that did not mean that she wanted to go to Ozpin's side. The man was more cunning than people expected and she had no doubts that he would use her to only throw her away just like Salem would for the 'good' of the world.

She was already his enemy by his standard.

"But Jaune…Team JCNR…I may want to be their side" she muttered. While they were in Ozpin's web currently it didn't mean they would always be. She was still their team-mate no matter how strained their trust was right now.

She needed to mend those bridges and she had all the time she needed. It would be easy to do so.

Pyrrha was world famous but would rather not use the influence that came with that fame. She would want a friend or possibly a rival in her. Ruby had potential but was rough in all matters of things and was just still a child no matter how mature she tried to be. She could easily become a sister-figure to the girl.

And Jaune? He was currently too weak but he had the potential to be something great if he ever manages to tap into his full potential. She could be many things to him. A friend, lover, life-partner…

What was the best way this?

For better or worse, Cinder cared for team JCNR and she didn't really know why but rather acted to make sure she wouldn't get hurt by rejection. If there was one thing she had to name she didn't like, rejection would be pretty close to the top of the list.

Her mind raced through simulations of how her team would react several times over with modifications on their actions and variables before she reached one conclusion. She needed to apologise to them.

Before meeting them individually and build back her friendship with them and possibly give something they didn't hate her for.

"I'm a dumb idiot for even considering this kind of plan" she grumbled.

If things didn't go right, she was going to outright seduce all of them. That way there was at least less complaints if she pleasured any of them.

But first, she needed to contact Emerald and Mercury if there was any need for a change in their plans. Bringing up her spare scroll, she called.

"Hello?" Emerald's voice came through before they both switched to video call. That way, both of them knew the other wasn't being held hostage…well less chance of it at least.

"What's the percentage of dust you have gathered using the White Fang and Torchwick?" Cinder asked.

"Around 60% of the amount we need for the plan Cinder" replied Emerald. "Mercury is off collecting more for the moment. How's Beacon? Have you…"

"I am perfectly fine where I am" she snapped. After the third time, even she would get tired of people doubting her skills in infiltrating Beacon. "Class is pitifully easy for someone like me and most of my time is taken making connections and keeping my team from exploding from failure."

"Aren't you on the same team as that Mistral Champion and that girl who took out Torchwich?"

"The former likes to take care of my 'leader' to the point she's willing to neglect everything else while the latter is someone who likes to play around too much" she sighed. "Even I am dragged into their antics."

Emerald smiled from the other side of the scroll.

"It looks like you're having fun."

Cinder had the sudden urge to snap something in her hand. Preferably something that was highly flammable as well.

"I'm not here to have fun. I'm here for our plans and if there is even a chance that I fail…well I heard that General Ironwood is coming soon to Beacon for the Vlytal Festival. Not to mention my mistress…" she warned.

Emerald's face took a complex shape before returning to normal, "Cinder, are you sure that it's okay for you to…lower yourself to other people? I mean, you're perfect! But I feel like you mellowed out ever since you went to Beacon."

Had she? Emerald was one of her most trusted subordinates. She made sure that she was. And because of that Cinder trusted her judgement quite a bit over almost everyone else. Even whatever minor bond with Team JCNR was nothing to it.

"Have I? I am not sure but I needed to dumb myself down to make sure that I didn't try to kill anyone the moment I stepped into this school."

"True but I saw that you smile more often now. And you didn't threaten to burn off Mercury's balls because he annoyed you that one time."

"Enough talk about this. What about the circumstances with the White Fang? Torchwick can be dealt with easy if he ever goes rogue but that group can be dangerous if only due to sheer numbers that they can throw around" she asked.

"The White Fang is more or less under my control. Give them food and shelter and most of them immediately betrayed that Adam fellow. As for the leader, he's under the impression that this 'Blake' person came back before he executed her. That really made the others feel a lot more wearily taking orders from him considering I looped them into the illusion till they buried the 'body'." she explained.

Cinder smiled at the progress. She knew that this Blake was probably the one from Team RNBY but she didn't expect how idiotic the leader of the White Fang was. Well it wasn't like the girl needed to know on how much the White Fang was fracturing.

Still, Emerald's performance wasn't perfect.

"You could've disguised someone else as 'Blake'. It would've doubled as Adam being mentally unstable while killing off a comrade of the White Fang causing more harm to their little gathering" she said.

The tanned girl looked surprised before shivering with a crushed look on her face. Cinder rolled her eyes at how much Emerald seemed to response to her words and sometimes even disappointment.

"My Apologises Cinder. I've failed."

"No you have not. In fact you had succeeded quite well though it was far from perfect. Well the method I told you might have cracked the White Fang into smaller fractions which would've made it more difficult to manage."

The original plan was for using the White Fang to attack Vale to cause more chaos along with Grimm to further more chaos before she would find and extract the power of the Fall Maiden.

So far, she found no reason to change this but those who cannot adapt will simply be buried with the plans of others.

"Make sure you gain the loyalties of some useful ones. You don't need to be the new leader of the White Fang but I would prefer that we have some options in case our plans change" she ordered.

"Understood."

"Also tell Mercury to get some blackmail on people who have positions in the police."

"Right. Anything else? Your team might be waiting for you" there was a strange bitterness when Emerald asked that. That confirming that no, she didn't have any more orders to give her, Emerald ended the call.

"Was she perhaps jealous? Well, it's not like I can meet her often. Most of the weekends are spent on Jaune" she mused.

-o-

"I'm sorry."

Team JCNR tensed at those words. It was not like Cinder saying she was sorry was a bad thing…well Jaune knew that Cinder wasn't the type to ever apologise for her actions. Sure she would acknowledge any mistakes but never apologise for them.

Therefore, all of this was unexpected.

More than that, from what he could tell from her expression, posture and general mood, she had just apologised to them and sincerely as well. Did he perhaps fall into some bizarre world?

"Am I…dreaming? Cinder just…apologised for something" Jaune muttered to himself with disbelief clear on his face. He was sure his two other team-mates were the same.

"I…know. I'm scared" Ruby mumbled while curling up as if there was a predator close by. There was something fundamentally wrong about a person like Cinder saying sorry for anything.

"Is it that strange that I wish to get along with everyone?" there was a bitter smile on Cinder's face and…regret? She was regretting what happened to Cardin?

Jaune at this point was openly gaping and Pyrrha and Ruby were similarly shocked and didn't know what to say.

However Cinder looked the same as always if a bit humbled which just looked…unnatural that Jaune was tempted to go over and pat his partner's forehead to see if she was running a fever or check her breath to tell if she was drinking.

In fact he did that.

Neither a fever…nor drunk or taking drugs" he said with a bit of awe. The black-haired woman only rolled her eyes and allowed him to do this with great restraint.

"Are you done yet? Perhaps you wish to pinch yourself to see if this is a dream as well?" she suggested sarcastically.

"No no" Pyrrha waved her hands butting her way into the conversation. "We are just…surprised of this sudden change."

"Change?" Cinder asked. "I haven't changed at all. It's only natural that I properly apologise for any harm that I may have caused to the team even if it was emotionally. The fact that I didn't consider the repercussion of my actions on the team speaks poorly of me and as such I can only apologise and hope for forgiveness."

"In that case we can still mostly ignore and shun you and you wouldn't care?" he asked.

Cinder flinched. She actually flinched. "Well…I wouldn't be able to stop you from doing that but…"

"This has to be a trick. Some…sick trick to make us let our guards down" Pyrrha got up and started pacing. "Just a mere hour ago you were casually talking about removing Cardin if he bothered you. No matter how you prettied it up by saying it was for Jaune and the team, in the end it was for you that the plan happened."

"Yes and I freely admit that. The fact that it benefited a number of people including the team as a side-effect as just a bonus" she admitted.

Stunned by how little Cinder seemed to be defending herself, the three students didn't know what to do. It was entirely in their right to practically isolate Cinder from their team from now on but at the same time doing so when she was admitting her crimes and sins to them was a pretty big dick move.

"We…" Jaune turned to his other team-mates, "May need some time to digest all of this. You do realise the whole team breaking apart thing and us hating your gut thing all happened in the same day right?"

"Yes" she smiled at him

"Yeah" he ruffled his hair in stress. "It doesn't help if you make things more complicated when you sudden say you're sorry about everything."

"Of course. I already made the mental calculations and apologising is the quickest way to get into best grace again" Cinder explained. For some reason all three team-mates sighed at the same time.

"I really need to sleep on this so…we'll talk about this tomorrow" he nodded. Soon enough, the team got dressed in their pyjama (Jaune changed separately of course) before going to sleep.

He really needed to sleep on this. From the beginning of the morning, till now, it was a roller-coaster of emotions one after another for Jaune. It wasn't like he didn't want to accept Cinder's apology.

But it was rather out of nowhere and he didn't even have 24 hours before she decided things should be fine between them. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge but rather he was still going through how he felt and should feel from today and this didn't help him at all.

Hopefully everyone else would have less complicated emotions on this matter.

-o-

The next day wasn't as good as he hoped. Cinder was awake, before any of them but if he had to tell, she probably slept a lot less than him which was surprising, as he was sure that his team slept lightly yesterday.

"Are you ready to make your decision?" she asked and in a way that didn't at all expect any of her emotions aside from 'acceptance'.

"Not yet" he groaned as he got out of bed before he made a spit-back at what he just heard.

He repeated the words in his head before looking at Cinder, as undisturbed by her action as before since she decided to apologise. If there was ever a time to empathise something over and over again, this was it.

Cinder Fall was a prideful person who would never accept any results that she didn't like.

She was a task-manager from hell that would drive the team into insanity if it meant they would perform as well as she expected. As such, there was never a time when she simply looked like she would 'accept' anything. Therefore he must have been dreaming all this time and needed to wake up.

"You're not sleeping" his partner said in a surprisingly gentle tone. It was a lot pleasanter than he ever expected and he suspected he was still dreaming because of that. Cinder was surprisingly pretty when she kept her mouth shut and just looked like a beauty.

She rolled her eyes, "You do realise that you tend to speak your thoughts when you just wake up right?"

A familiar smirk appeared on her face as his eyes widened in horror.

"Though I do appreciate the compliment" she placed her finger on her lip, "But try not to tell Pyrrha and Ruby. They tend to get jealous of me quite easily and you wouldn't want more fighting now because of you right?"

"Of…course not" he said this time and consciously as well. He had no idea what his partner meant by that but he also didn't know what his sisters tended to do or feel most of the time as well.

He chalked it up to 'girl stuff' and set a reminder to ask one of his sisters if he ever bothered to contact his family within the year. He wasn't going to contact them now considering its early in the year and he hadn't proved that he was 'good enough' to be in Beacon yet.

Looking up, the steady movement of the bed above him told that Ruby was still sleep and from across the room (though next to the bunk beds) was Pyrrha's sleeping form as well. Really, it was Cinder whose bed was furthest away from everyone else and that was not recent.

Jaune decided to wait until his team was completely awake before making any decisions. While he was their leader (even in name only), he wasn't going to condemn anyone just by his own personal feelings. He wasn't that smart but he wasn't stupid to think he had that much control over people he only met a few weeks ago.

"So are you going to make a decision yet?"

"Are you going to keep asking me that until I give you the answer you want?" he shot an irritated look at her.

The only thing he got back was a smile.

-o-

Tap left, left, square, circle, right, down, circle, circle, circle, circle.

"Nooooooo-" Ruby's face looked in agony as her classic 'Hero' fighter was stomped down by her 'Evil Villain' fighter that she had to use if only for irony.

More than anything else, her enjoyment in seeing the younger girl despairs so badly over a mere video game surpassed any enjoyment Cinder had playing the game. It was a bit therapeutic flexing her villain muscles like this.

"Too bad Ruby. You almost had me."

"That's a lie and you know it" she pouted.

The screened with the words 'YOU WIN' as if confirming that she was indeed superior to Ruby in this game that she had just picked up. She smirked at her knowing that the red-cape girl spent hours and many weeks trying to master the art in hopes of beating her older sister in the same game.

Wait…wasn't she supposed to be losing to Ruby to show that she wasn't unbeatable and could be relatable?

Seeing the pouting Ruby, Cinder had the strangest feeling to ruffle her hair while teasing her heavily on things that she found out. Like how she smuggled cookies from the kitchens into their room or that she had taken an interest in the books Blake read.

"Around round?" she suggested seeing the pout was lasting a while.

"Sure!" and almost immediately, Ruby's expression turned into a smile.

A few buttons later and they were back in the game. Cinder took the chance to talk to the younger girl about a couple of things. Gossip was often the best tool to getting into someone's best graces quickly.

"So…Pyrrha had been spending more time with Jaune again" she spoke up.

"Yeah" Ruby absently answered. Her fingers were rapidly punching the buttons on her controller though the game wasn't one to response even if you mash the buttons faster.

"Well I don't think you need to worry about it. I think it's less of a partner issue than her developing a small crush on our leader now."

"…WHAT?!"

To Ruby's wide eyes Cinder could only smirk even more. It was amusing to tease her like this. No wonder why Yang did it all the time.

"Jaune's isn't exactly on the best terms with me yet and at the same time Pyrrha suddenly decided to take the time to help him more often personally without us. How else can I see this but Pyrrha staking her claim" she raised an eyebrow.

It wasn't like she cared if the two shacked up. Not at all, it would just complicate the team even more if two of them hooked up and one of them was the leader and not the partner to the other party.

"So Pyrrha wants to hog Jaune?" Ruby put up a questioning look. "I don't get it. I mean Jaune is great and all but I think it's more of a friend thing right now."

"Though at this rate it might develop further" she added.

Ruby bobbed her head in agreement, "Yeah, I can see Pyrrha…hmm…are you sure you don't want to stop her?"

"Why would I do that?"

"I mean if what Pyrrha is doing can be seen as a crush then don't you have a crush on Jaune?"

"What?"

Where the hell did that conclusion come from? And more importantly, was she sputtering in denial right now? Yes. Yes she was. Damn, a reaction like that always ended up in misunderstandings.

-o-

One Ruby Rose excited her team room in confusion. Well it was more because Cinder was confusing but that still didn't stop her from being confusion. So it was like…hmm…vege-cookies tasting nice.

Yep, that could sum up her situation with her team-mate and sort of friend nicely.

"I wonder why she seems to focus on Jaune so much" she mused.

Ruby liked Jaune but sometimes it was difficult to take care of him. Yes, take care of him. If she had learnt anything about Jaune, he was rather dependable when he needed to be but otherwise was…a bit dependent on others around him for things he didn't know.

From teaching him the small and subtle cues of how a Hunter acted to even helping him train to become stronger, there wasn't much time to develop a deep friendship that she had hoped with her leader that was sometimes her student. It wasn't the instant 'team is a family' relationship that her dad always talked about but she was seeing it was getting there.

-With Jaune at the centre of it all funnily enough.

Thinking about it carefully with the relationship everyone had with Jaune, Ruby came to a sudden realisation.

"Holy muckins! Jaune is creating a harem…and I'm in it? Am I?" she tilted her head to that.

By definition a harem was made of a person with at least three partners…having two lovers according to Blake was having 'a flower on both arms'. But she didn't like Jaune that way. At least…she didn't think so?

Honestly, Ruby thought that Cinder was overreacting to her partner being alone with Pyrrha. They were friends. All of them were friendly friends that help each other. Cinder is the strict one, Pyrrha is the nice one and Jaune is the one who is dependable when they didn't need to take care of him.

So why the talk of relationships beyond that?

Agggh! This is so confusing!

Instead, Ruby thought of the relationship Jaune had with Ren.

Both were admittedly male though both 'confessed' that they had worn dresses before. Both were leaders but had surprising little control over their own teams for their own reasons. Nora was a handful and Cinder was…

Perhaps because of these two things, the two boys were strangely enough close to each other. More surprisingly as she found out a few days ago was that Jaune and Ren were strange people to begin with when it came to talking to girls.

Both had made no reaction other with slight discomfort when more…feminine topics were brought up…which of course led to Yang trying to lead them on.

Even thinking of the topic would cause her to blush but all Jaune did was tilt his head before talking as normal. Her blonde leader was also surprisingly knowledgeable about periods then she ever thought he would be. Although he backed that up by the fact that he had seven sisters and was a bit too used to what girls did than other boys his age it didn't change the fact that she felt it was weird.

Her embarrassment back then didn't exactly help with Yang asking for some good discounts for tampons to use and Jaune actually replying seriously about it. The group laughed at her red-face and while she felt like she wanted to crawl up into a ball and disappear then, she didn't mind the chaos.

Now? None of them were talking and that was a bit bad and super bad in a way.

There were no small-talks, jokes here and there and even the embarrassing things that she rather not hear for another couple of decades.

In the end, it all led back to Cinder.

They could do to the Headmaster about what she did to Cardin and get Cinder expelled. But that would leave Team JCNR a member short and worse Jaune without a partner, someone to protect him like she and Pyrrha did.

Ruby knew Pyrrha would always help her and she would always help her.

But did Jaune know that with Cinder? Of course Ruby knew that she would help Jaune no matter what and so would Pyrrha but the role of being partners fell onto Cinder before anyone else.

Even Team RNBY was split between their partners with Ren and Nora being obviously closer than they were to other people and Yang and Blake being closer to each other than the others. Ruby and Pyrrha were split from Jaune having to be the closest person that Cinder had and vis versa.

It had her frustrated when she thought about it.

Still…seeing Cinder not doing anything mean or remotely questionably bad at all was a disturbing sight. It almost made her wish that the cookie-stealing meanie was back.

-o-

Pyrrha ducked as a kick flew above her head and rolled forward making sure she blocked the next three hits with her shield before swinging around to parry another blow before pressing a trigger to extend her weapon as she attacked.

Her attacks were dodged or parried as well and the cycle of attacking and defending at the same time repeated and repeated over and over again with the two fighters. If anything, the red-head learnt that you could tell a person by the way they fought. And even Cinder was exposed in how she fought.

No matter how she made herself seemed submissive, no matter how she talked or moved or even acted, when she fought and truly let go to the fullest, Pyrrha could tell that Cinder really didn't care about what she did to Cardin. That alone should've been a sign that she should reject such a person in her life.

Her eyes widened as the glass sword shattered into pieces as she hit it before Cinder used her blow to retreat back before reforming it into a bow already stringed with three arrows that she knew wouldn't explode but hurt a lot if they actually managed to hit her. Eyes narrowing in determination, the champion leaped forward as her foe fired.

One hit her shield.

Another missed.

The last knocked her weapon out of her hand.

Without another thought, Pyrrha threw her shield at Cinder and back-flipped/leaped to where her weapon was, reaching it at the moment her shield rebounded 'mysteriously' back into her hands. She was currently unbalanced and she knew that Cinder could win if she attacked now.

Sure it would hurt her but-

Cinder was already set up with another arrow to fire at her but strangely enough didn't move long enough that when she did, Pyrrha was already on the move to dodge the arrow with ease.

Three seconds later, her weapon was clashing with the duo sword style that Cinder used as they closely danced around each other while looking as if they were trying to kill each other. There was no hesitation in a spar like this.

A single blow could potentially kill another and the survivor could just say it was an 'accident'. She felt a shiver of fear as she realised that she couldn't use her semblance to potentially avoid a fatal blow with Cinder using glass weapons made from dust and her own semblance from what she told everyone.

Not to mention there was so little metal her foe was wearing that made it difficult for her to 'adjust' slightly to give her a minor advantage each time they moved. Pyrrha wasn't so arrogant that eventually the woman in her eyes right now wouldn't notice what she was doing with her semblance that she had hidden from everyone.

Eventually she managed to get the upper-hand; she had destroyed the glass weapons fast enough that her opponent could not remake him in time for her weapon to slip next to her neck

"Good spar" Cinder closed her eyes before letting out a huff. "I would say you improved but that would be a lie."

"You were a bit…out of it" said Pyrrha. She had noticed that Cinder's strikes were lacking the sharpness that they used to have this time. Perhaps she was holding back and this was the result.

"You could say so. Jaune hadn't been talking to me again" the black-haired woman muttered while checking the level of dust she had left. Ah, that made sense. Cinder was a prideful person and being ignored like that must have hurt her ego more than she showed.

"That sounds counter-productive."

"Not really. He's been talking to me but not talking to me. It's a bit frustrating."

Cinder while…emotionally and morally stunted in many ways was a genius when it came to communication and reading tells from other people before adjusting her own actions. She could probably read Jaune more than anyone could have expected.

"Really. He hasn't been talking that much to me as well" she mused.

"That's quite normal" Cinder retorted. "You have your hands full with Ruby and he has his hands full with the team. I doubt he really has that much time to be personally with anyone with the way we're making him train."

"Still, it's a shame since the previous incident could've been avoided if our bonds as a team as closer."

"Cardin would still be hospitalised one way or another. The fact that Jaune would take it so badly was out of my calculations."

"So you are admitting that you were wrong?" she smirked.

"…Yes."

Cinder had a bad habit of hiding things from people that she didn't want them to know and that she was good at such things. But at certain times, it was easier to read into her emotions.

"I am surprised though" Cinder said after a moment. "I didn't think you would be the one who would open up to me again first considering our…"

"Rivalry? I like to call it a rivalry. Anything else would be wrong since we're not exactly friends but people who see each other a lot" said Pyrrha.

The red-head saw the other taste the word on her lips before she smiled in such a way that you could mistake it for a smirk. Really, how was it that it was she who was currently on best terms with Cinder?

She was angry not at Cinder for doing such a thing but rather how it affected the team because of said actions. Was it because she was already half-expecting something like with what happened to Cardin to happen or was it because she was already on bad terms with her that there was no way but up with their relationship?

Pyrrha didn't know but she found that she didn't care much about what Cinder did or intended to do. She was a rival and that was all she needed to know.

Really, the night sleep was really good at sorting out emotions.

-o-

Ruby woke up the next day hearing a feminine scream. At once, her body reacted and she reached out for Crescent Rose but the next words following the scream only made her sigh.

"CINDER WHERE ARE YOUR CLOTHES?!"

She girl groaned knowing that Cinder definitely planned this out. Modesty was something she would easily throw away if it meant one of her plans working.

"My my Jaune, barging in when I was taking a bath."

Cinder was definitely having too much fun teasing Jaune in Ruby's opinion. Not to mention she was sure that Yang was listening into the conversation for teasing materials later. She sighed.

Jaune needed to learn not to give any ammo for her sister to use against him.

"What bath?! You're standing there half-naked! Stop stripping!"

"Silly Jaune. I need to take off my clothes to take a bath. Would you like to join me?"

"NO!"

A crash was heard from all the way she was now sitting and the young Huntress wondered if they needed replace a couple of things her leader broke while tripping. A moment later, the blonde exited the bathroom with a strange grin on his face.

She knew that kind of face.

"Pervert" was all she muttered before lying back on her bed and trying to get some sleep.

A/N: This got a rewrite so please excuse some parts that didn't click together perfectly. Also, how many people think Cinder knows the concept of shame and modesty? I certainly don't.

Finished revising chapter 11...now to write the epilogue.