Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY
Chapter 7: Explanations and Foundations
Once more, dawn's light washed over Beacon. Once more, Weiss Xiao Long cursed the arrival of morning. She had been having such a nice dream too, of being enveloped and embraced by a swirling vortex of soft rose petals. It had been so nice…
But the damn sun had to do its damn job so damn well and wake her up. Goddamnit.
Weiss slowly opened her eyes, accepting the inevitable. She noticed that the evil light of the sun was muted somewhat. This being due to the sheet that was covering her bed. That was strange; almost as strange all the sheets of paper covering the pillow around her head or the pencil that was jabbing into her shoulder. A strange and uncomfortable situation to be sure.
It took Weiss several moments to realize that something was pressing down on her chest; it was a very familiar weight. Looking down, she saw that it was Ruby; sleeping peacefully on top of her, with her head on Weiss's chest.
All thoughts about being uncomfortable were immediately thrown out; everything was perfect. Weiss wrapped her arms around Ruby, holding her close in a gentle but firm embrace. She closed her eyes and relax, listening and feeling the rhythm of Ruby's breathing.
Everything was absolutely perfect in this moment.
Almost perfect; Weiss felt a dark presence close by that was directing negative thoughts towards her. Reaching with her left hand, she raised the covering blanket and revealed two sets of eyes staring at her from just above the edge of the bed.
A brief staring contest ensured before Weiss's attention was brought back to Ruby. The young girl was shifting around in her sleep, rubbing her head against Weiss's breasts. As much as Ruby complained about having her face shoved into her sisters' cleavage when they hugged her, she had no problem using them as pillows when she was asleep.
Weiss smiled softly as her little sister settled back down into her sleep. She gently brushed Ruby's hair before kissing the top of her head. The white Xiao Long then turned to the side and gave the other two Xiao Longs the biggest, smuggest grin she could muster.
Sleeping arrangement among the Sisters were very complex, and when it came to Ruby, they became so convoluted as to be incomprehensible to an outsider. Seeing Weiss cuddling with Ruby out of nowhere, after insulting her just yesterday, made Yang and Blake feel just a little left out and envious.
Yang and Blake slowly lowered their faces until they were out of sight and Weiss let the curtain fall back down. She really shouldn't be acting so smug; chances were that she would be one glaring enviously at being left out of a cuddle session before the semester was out, but right now all she cared about was this particular moment with Ruby.
All good things had to end and after a few more minutes of peaceful rest, Ruby began to wake up. Her silver eyes fluttered open as she shifted around, rising her face to look at Weiss.
"Morning…" Weiss whispered softly.
"…Morning" Ruby echoed. The two gazed lovingly into each other's eyes for several moments before Ruby moved upwards and kissed Weiss on the cheek. The soft, love-filled kiss was short but it conveyed much. After the short kiss, Ruby nuzzled her head into the crook of Weiss's neck.
They laid there for several more moment, simply enjoying familiar warmth of the other body. It couldn't last, neither Beacon nor their sisters would wait forever, but they enjoyed it all the same.
"Come on," Weiss said reluctantly, "time to get moving."
Ruby let out an adorable whine but got up none the less. Weiss moved out from underneath her, opened the blanket-curtain and hopped off the bed. She reach her hand back in and took the plushie Grimm that Ruby handed to her. No matter what, Ruby always made sure that the plushie stayed with Weiss; it was her gift to her after all. Weiss placed the toy on her bunk as Ruby jumped off the bed herself.
Blake and Yang were on the other side of the room, packing their school bags and pointedly keeping their backs to the newly awaken pair. Ruby and Weiss smiled and shook their head at their sisters little antic.
"Let's get cleaned up. We'll double up in the shower." Weiss suggested, heading for the bathroom. Ruby nodded and followed along, closing the door behind her. The two quickly took off their clothes and got into the shower together.
Bathing together was a very common occurrence for the Sisters, and they were more then comfortable being naked in front of each other. Once the shower was going fully, they each took a bar of soap and began to scrub the other's body with practiced ease.
The bathroom door opened as they where shampooing their hair. Two people entered and placed something by the sink; there was no mystery this time as to who it was and what they had brought.
Ruby helped Weiss to quickly wash her long hair and they exited the shower. As they expected, their school uniforms had been laid out for them and their old clothes had been taken. The pair dried off and dressed quickly, with Ruby helping Weiss to put up her hair.
When they exited the bathroom, they found Yang and Blake standing in the middle of the room with their backs towards them. Ruby and Weiss shared a look before slowly tip-toeing towards their sisters.
When they got close enough, they sprang forward. Ruby kissed Blake on her cheek while Weiss kissed Yang on her left. In perfect unison, they took a half-step back before side-stepping around each other, with Ruby in range to kiss Yang's right cheek and Weiss for Blake's left. With their kisses of thanks given, they took a long step back.
Yang and Blake turned around, also in unison, and gave their sisters a hard look with their arms crossed. Ruby and Weiss returned those looks with wide smiles.
Yang and Blake could only keep the act up for a few moments before their faces broke into big grins of their own. The four embraced in a big ground hug in the middle of the room.
"You good?" Yang asked.
Ruby and Weiss looked at each other before turning to Yang.
"We're good!"
The four sisters exchanged a series of kisses on the cheeks and forehead, all under three seconds. While a little miffed at having Weiss taking the first night cuddling with Ruby at Beacon, which should have only happened after fierce negotiations, Yang and Blake were just happy that things had been worked out. Any break in their Sisterhood, no matter how small or short, was hurtful for all of them.
Having this matter resolved was wonderful and it was with happy smiles and warm hearts that Team RWBY left their dorm to begin their day at Beacon.
Lunch time was slightly less hectic today then it was yesterday. Everyone was getting use to Beacon and how life was going to be like here. That include the sight of Team RWBY stuffing their faces with an absurd amount of food. Granted, they still got plenty of looks, but the shock was wearing off.
The girls demolished their first serving in quick order and moved on to their second. They took their time with this plate, eating in a more leisurely manner and conversing among themselves and with JNPR, who had only begun to eat their lunch.
"I can't believe that Beacon lets animals eat at the tables. That has to be a health code violation or something."
Several people turned at the loud voice and they all silently groaned as they saw that it was Cardin Winchester, leader of Team CRDL. He and his team were strutting through the cafeteria like they owned the place. After only a single day, they had given everyone the impression that they were a bunch of jerks and bullies.
And Cardin was the leader of this group and he had apparently found his next target. He led his team between the cafeteria tables towards where Blake was sitting.
The Xiao Long Sisters all spared a single glance to the approaching group before turning back to quietly eating their meals. JNPR noticed this sudden change and were unsure of the cause or what to do, silently deciding to wait and see what was going to happen.
Cardin walked up until he was behind Blake, the rest of his team standing a bit further back. Those three were already snickering, confidence that their leader was going to give them a good show.
"What do we have here? Looks like you got the wrong plate; don't see any cat food on there. Only thing there is stuff real people would eat." Cardin threw out these insults with a smug grin on his face.
None of Team RWBY acknowledged him at all. Blake continued to read the book she was holding off to the side in her right hand. Yang, who was siding next to Blake on her left, was slowly picking at her food while Weiss was sitting across from her and was calmly cutting a piece of her steak. Ruby was watching all of this across from Yang, a ghost of a smile on her face; she knew what was coming.
Cardin didn't; he had been so busy patting himself on the back after being named leader of his team, that he hadn't paid any attention to the rest of the ceremony. He completely missed the fact that this team of girls were all sisters, instead assuming that they were just a bunch of normal girls.
Normal was one word that never applied to the Xiao Long Family.
Blake continued to ignore Cardin, turning her head slightly away from him to fully look at her book.
"Hey! Are you listening?!" Cardin shouted, not appreciating having his well-thought out comments being disregarded. "Aren't those freaky ears good for anything?"
While Team RWBY wasn't reacting to Cardin's words, Team JNPR were furious. Blake had done nothing and here some asshole was making fun of her for being a Faunus. Ren and especially Nora understood how it felt to be picked on for things you really had no control over. Even Pyrrha knew that what Cardin was doing was unacceptable.
Jaune was almost shaking with rage. Broken arm or not, he wasn't going to stand for this happen to someone he considered a friend. He was just about to stand up from his seat when Ruby, who was sitting next to him, gently grabbed his left arm. He looked at her in confusion and was met with a knowing look as the Red Reaper quietly munched on a cookie.
Cardin was starting to get pissed. "I'm talking to you! Don't act like your better then me, you freak. Maybe I'll check and see if your freaky ear are working at all."
With that Cardin reached out with his right hand, going to grab Blake's left cat ear.
Before anyone could see or react, Yang grabbed Cardin's arm by the wrist and pulled it forward, slamming his hand onto the table. At the same moment, Weiss tossed her knife at Blake, who caught it daftly in her left hand. Blake took the knife and slammed it right between Cardin's fingers.
Both JNPR and the rest CRDL could only watch as Blake proceeded to play a game of 'Five Finger Fillet' with a very unwilling Cardin Winchester. Blake stabbed the small space between his fingers, over and over and faster and faster. Playing this sort of game would be intense enough, but it was made more so by Blake not even looking at Cardin, instead keeping her gaze firmly on her book.
A high-pitch cry came from the would-be bully as Blake's stabbing became a blur. He wanted to yank his hand away as hard as her could but couldn't move for fear of having a finger removed; not that Yang would have him.
As fast as it started, Blake stopped and quietly handed the knife back to Weiss. Yang released her hold on Cardin and went back to eating her meal while Blake continued to read her book like nothing interesting had happened at all.
Cardin almost fell backwards onto the opposite table, yanking his hand back so fast. He stared at the sitting group of girls, both angry and fear on his face. After an intense internal debate, Cardin made a beeline to the nearest doors, his teammates scrambling to catch up. As Cardin exited the cafeteria, he swore that he would get even with this group of…freaks!
Everyone followed Cardin's retreat until he had exited the cafeteria before slowly turning back to Team RWBY. The four girls were simply finishing up their meal, like nothing interesting had happened at all.
"Wow…" Jaune said, breaking the silence. "And I thought I could hit a high note."
The Xiao Long Sisters looked at the blonde knight for a moment before bursting out laughing.
"HAAAAH! Y-you're right!" Weiss said through her laughter. "I don't know if I could go that high-pitch, hahaha!"
"Instead of Beacon, maybe he should have joined a choir!" Blake added as she banged her fist on the table, ironically making more of a mess then with her knife work.
The tension eased out the room as everyone went back to their meal, several snickering along with Team RWBY. Cardin had only received exactly what he deserved in the eyes of most of the student body.
Jaune and his team all breathed a sigh of relief that their friends weren't hurt or upset. When the Sisters finally settled down after several minutes, Pyrrha decided to speak up.
"Blake, are you…really okay?" she asked. "What Cardin said and did…it was absolutely atrocious."
"Yes, it is unforgivable that someone wishing to be a Huntsmen would engage in such behavior" Ren added, coughing into his hand as he finished.
"Yeah. If it was me, I'd break his legs," Nora added, "among other things…"
"It's fine, it's fine." Blake said, waving a hand. "I mean, it's not fine that he did that, but I'm okay. Unfortunately, it's something I'm used to."
"You shouldn't have to deal with stuff like that al all." Weiss said, her voice hard and cold. "The world would be better place without such vile, racist sacks of…garbage." Weiss visibly had to bite back a curse.
Blake reached across the table and gently took hold of Weiss's hand.
"I'm okay. As long as I have my family, simple words from a simple-minded bully aren't going to take me down." Blake smiled softly at Weiss, who returned it with one of her own.
"I know that. It's just…you're my twin; your pain in my pain." The white-haired girl gripped her sisters' hand firmly. "Anyone who messes with you has to deal with me."
'And me!" Yang added loudly. "Anyone trying to bully my little sisters is going to be in for a world of hurt"
The blonde brawler hit her fists together for emphasis before reaching out with her right hand to affectionately scratch behind Blake's left cat ear. The Faunus girl closed her eyes and tiled her head towards Yang, emitting a humming noise that sounded a lot like a cat purring.
Team JNPR all relaxed with this definitive proof that their friends had weathered that little storm just fine. They were family after all, so it was natural that they would have each other's back.
That thought caused Jaune, Ren and Pyrrha to watch the Sisters from the corner of their eye as they turned back to their lunch. While Nora eagerly returned to devouring her meal, the other three members of JNPR were thinking the same thing.
Team RWBY were all sisters…how the hell did that work? Weiss and Blake referred to each other as twins but it was literally black versus white; heck, one was a Faunus and the other wasn't. Neither of these two resembled Yang or Ruby and Ruby had a different last name from the rest; what was that about?
They knew that there were a hundred different explanations for this, and it wasn't their place to pry but those girls were so colourful and unique that they couldn't help but wonder. Jaune thought that maybe their situation was similar to his family but even then, there was a resemble between him and his sisters.
Unintentionally, the three musing members of JNPR all took a sip of their respective drinks at the same time.
Team RWBY… a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Their curiosity made them want to find out, but common curtsy prevented them from just asking. It would be too rude to blurt their question out, so instead they were thinking about how they could discreetly pry the information out over the course of the semester…
"Hey, how can you guys be sisters if you don't look alike?" Nora blurted out casually.
Team RWBY turned to look at JNPR, drawn by both the sudden question and the sound of Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren suddenly spitting out their drinks. The three coughed for several moments before their throats were fully cleared.
"NORA!" They shouted in unison, glaring at their teammate for being so rude. The Pink Valkyrie looked back at them in confusion.
"What? I'm only saying what we're all thinking."
Any attempt to admonish Nora for her behavior were halted as RWBY started to laugh again. It wasn't as loud or uproarious as before, but it was clear they found this hilarious.
"Geez, don't you think we get asked that all the time? It's completely fine." Yang said through her chuckles.
"We don't want to pry or anything…" Pyrrha said meekly. She knew that she was hesitant about talking about her family life, though for her own reasons.
The Sisters waved her concerns down; barely a month seemed to go by without them explaining or clarifying some aspect of their family's situation to somebody. They knew that while their relationship was perfectly normal to them, that it was very atypical to other people.
The Sisters proceeded to tell their new friends about the Xiao Long-Rose Family. Ruby and Yang were half-sisters with the same father but different mothers. Yang's mother had left soon after she was born and it was Ruby's mother, Summer, who had helped raise her. They explained that Blake and Weiss had been taken in 12 years ago after an incident caused them to lose their family and their memories. Since then the four had lived together and were sisters in every way that mattered.
They made sure to not specify that it was the Light of the North/Cat's Paw collusion that was the incident that brought Weiss and Blake to Patch. While it wouldn't take much for someone to connect the dots, they didn't want it to become open they were survivors of a disaster that famously had no survivors. Their parents had done everything to prevent the media from finding out about their past and turning their lives outside down again just for a compelling story.
Like their parents before them, Weiss and Blake wanted to find out who their original families were by their own efforts. It was their personal quest, not something that a journalist could come and take as their next big scoop. The time may come that they would have to go public to find the answers, but they would wait until they were both adults and full Huntresses. That would give them more leeway in dealing with media.
But that was for the future; now they were just getting use to Beacon while explaining to their friends how their family worked.
It took several minutes for the Sisters to fully explain the majority of their background, with each one taking turns talking. JNPR listened with rapt attention, feeling sorrow at the pain they had experienced and joy at how far they've come. Nora and Ren both understood what it was like to lose your family while Pyrrha was more then a little jealous that they had such a loving and supportive family.
"So yeah, that pretty much all about us." Yang said, finishing up their explanation. "It was just great that that they let Ruby in early and even better that we all got on a team together."
"Yeah" Weiss commented. "I don't want to think what it would have been like to leave her behind, or if we had ended up on separate teams. Everything is at it's best when we're all together." Weiss patted Ruby on the head, messing her hair for a few seconds before her little sister playfully slapped her hand away.
"I can understand what you mean." Jaune said. "It wasn't easy leaving my family to come here."
The elder Xiao Long Sisters silently scoffed at him. It was doubtful that anyone, let alone an Arch-Pervert like him, could understand the depths of their familial bond.
"So…your close to your family?" Nora asked, curious. Ren and Pyrrha leaned in, interested as well.
"Oh yeah. We live out in a small village outside of Vale. It's a bit out of the way, but we come to Vale fairly often and travel to other Kingdoms a good amount as well. Still, it's just us most of the time, so we're all really close. 'Family is the most important thing you'll ever have, so don't squander it'. That's something I've been told all my life."
"I thought it was 'All girls look for is confidence'?" Ruby said.
'That's my Dad's advice." Jaune response. "My Mom is all about the importance of family."
Jaune took a bite of his dinosaur-shaped chicken-nuggets "Mother Opal on the other hand is always talking about helping those in need, while Mother Jasmine goes on about standing up for what is right." He took another bite. "It can be odd having four sets of parental advice to follow, but at least they don't contradict each other."
It took Jaune several seconds to realize that the others were all looking at him with very confused looks. He quickly swallowed his food and began to explain.
"I have one dad, three moms and seven sisters." Jaune held up the appropriate number of fingers with each number, struggling slightly to move two fingers on his right hand to make the seven. "There are twelve of us in total under one roof, though my eldest sister had recently moved out to live in Argus. When I say, 'My Mom', I'm referring to my birth mother, but I still see the other two as my mothers as well. My sisters are my sisters too, even if I'm only half-related to most of them. We're one family, no matter what."
It took a minute for his friends and teammates to fully comprehend what he had told them.
"Wait, wait." Yang finally spoke. "Your Dad's got three wives? Their part of some kind of harem?"
"IT'S NOT A HAREM!" Jaune shouted, slamming his fist onto the table and making the dinnerware shake. The others were all taken back; this was the first time they had seen him even raise his voice. Even when his arm was broken by Nora, he hadn't shown even a hint of anger.
Jaune's blue eyes blazed with anger before quickly disappearing. He turned his head and looked way. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout…sorry…"
"N-No I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said something like that." Yang was uncharacteristically contrite. No matter her personal feelings towards someone, she would never stoop to insulting their family without cause.
"No, No, it's just…I hate when people call my family a harem, though I guess I should be used to it by now. It makes it sound like my Dad only married my Moms for sex and that me and my sisters are just a…by-product. It's so much more then that."
Weiss spoke up, cautiously. "But if your dad has multiple wives, isn't that technically a harem?"
"It depends on how you view it" Jaune answered calmly. "I see a harem as being about one person having several partners who otherwise have no connection to each other, To me, that seems so selfish and hollow, and not really stable at all."
A soft smile formed on his face. "My parents are in a polyamorous relationship. My Dad is married to three women, but my Moms are all married to each other as well. They love each other as much as they love my Dad. If for whatever reason my Dad was taken out of the picture, they would still want to be together. The four of them are together because they want to all be together, and they have so many kids because they wanted a large family. There is so much love and affection in my house that it's almost suffocating; lots of mutual and equal love."
Jaune looked at his friends. "So, in my mind, my family isn't a harem; it's something much, much better."
The rest of the group silently contemplated what he had said. It sounded more then a little weird on one hand, but then none of the others had what could be considered a 'normal' childhood either.
"That's…a…well…" Pyrrha stuttered, trying to come up with the right words without being insulting. "It's just…is that legal?"
Jaune turned towards her, a bit surprised but more then happy to answer.
"It is. After the Great War, there was quite a large gender imbalance in the Four Kingdoms, as most of the soldiers killed had been male. With all the losses from both the War and rampaging Grimm, the Kingdoms were facing quite a population crisis. Polygamy was made legal in most places and it was encouraged for men to have multiple wives and lots of children. Most of those relationships were either fairly casual or all business but there were lots that were completely genuine.
"It fallen off in the last few decades, with the population stabilizing, so you don't hear or seen it very much in the main parts of the Kingdoms. Most polygamous families, like mine, live out in more rural districts or in villages. This is both because you need the space to raise a large family and to avoid possible discrimination; an unfortunately large segment of the population still views this lifestyle as deviant and degenerate."
Jaune shook his head angrily at this. "It not like we're different or anything. We do all the same thing as any other family; there just more of us in one house."
Ruby placed her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
"I understand; some people just don't get it. More then one person had told me that Weiss and Blake aren't really my sisters because we're not related by blood"
"Or that we aren't twins because of the same, which is complete bullsh-…balderdash" Weiss added, again replacing a near-curse.
Jaune looked at the Sisters, who all nodded at him. They understood how important family was and how frustrating it could be to have it questioned by others. Personal feeling from the elder Sisters aside, they were more then willing to give support and solidarity to someone with a similar background.
Now if only he wasn't such a pervert…
Jaune's teammates were lost in their own thoughts. Pyrrha could barely comprehend what a close, loving relationship with one other person would be like, as much as she wished she could, so an intimate relationship with multiple people almost made her head spin. Still, she had to admit that it sounded kind of nice, if it worked out like Jaune described.
Nora had similar thoughts as well.
"Married to three people…three people who love you unconditionally…that sounds really nice…" A soft smile began to form on Nora's lips before turning to a frown as her thoughts turned darker. "But that's impossible for someone like me. I'm a monster after all."
Ren noticed the small change in his partner and decided to shift the conversation. Coughing loudly, Ren looked at Weiss.
"You said you don't remember where you came from originally? If you pardon me, but from your appearance I would hazard to guess-"
"That I'm probably from Atlas?" Weiss cut him off. "Yeah, and Blake's most likely from Menagerie, but beyond that we don't know anything."
"Have you ever gone to visit Atlas or Menagerie? Maybe that would help you remember" Jaune suggested.
"I wish…" Blake said wistfully, "But it's never been in the cards for us"
"Our family's never been rolling in money, so big vacations around the world are out of the question. Day trips to Vale are the most we've ever got" Ruby explained.
Nobody noticed the tight look on Weiss's face when their family's finances were brought up before she schooled her expression quickly.
Yang spoke up next. "One of the reasons we're becoming Huntresses is so we can travel the world. Huntsmen get free travel when on official business and it's easy enough to make money on the road. So, we can go where ever we need to find clues, all the while getting into crazy fights and helping people, so it one big win all around."
JNPR nodded; that was a very sensible and earnest goal to have.
Pyrrha thought back to the fight Weiss had the day before and something bothered her.
"Weiss, I noticed your Semblance is based around glyphs. From what I know, it looks similar to the Schnee Family's Semblance, and they're from Atlas; might a connection be there?"
"You're not the first person to bring up that similarity." Weiss sighed softly. "Some people suspected I'm some sort of long-lost Schnee 'princess' or something just because of my looks and glyphs. There are lots of people with white-hair in Atlas and the Schnee's don't have a patent on glyphs or something."
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you" Pyrrha said hurriedly. Weiss looked at her in surprise.
"What? No, it's no problem. Geez, you don't need to walk on egg-shells around us. As long as you're not a jerk like Cardin, you can ask us anything."
Weiss waved down another apology from Pyrrha before continuing.
"Anyway, I've gone over the Schnee connection several times with no luck. All the members of the family are accounted for. Nothing in the public records suggests that one of the young girls suddenly died or went missing twelve years ago, so I'd say that angle is a bust."
Weiss propped her chin up with her hand in a thoughtful pose.
"For all the man's many, many flaws. Jacque Schnee has never been accused of being unfaithful. He's a horrible, greedy, racist piece of garbage who obviously only married for the name but he as two and only two children; a Winter and a Whitley Schnee. So there doesn't appear to have been room for me in that family, thank god.
"Besides, all the Schnees inherit the exact same Semblance, which uses white glyphs. My glyphs are black, so I can't be related to them. I may be distantly connected, as records about the Schnee Family from before Nicolas Schnee's time aren't complete, but I can't be sure."
"I'd think it'd be pretty interesting if you were related to the Schnee's" Blake said. "Think about it; a young princess from a frozen kingdom is cast out by the winds of fate. She is found, lost and abandoned, by a new family who raises her with the love and care she never had before. When she is old enough, she will return to reclaim her throne, depose her cruel relative who stole it in a truly epic battle and then usher in a new age of peace and justice for the people!"
Blake's voice rose as she spoke this impromptu monologue. She started to stand up partway through and by the end was standing on top of the table. Her eyes were closed, and she made dramatic, sweeping gestures with her arms in time with her dialogue and finished with a spinning twirl; remarkably she didn't knock anything off the table with her movements.
JNPR, and the rest of the students presents, could only chalk this up as yet another oddity of this particular team. Blake's sisters could only sigh amusingly at her antics.
All those years of community theatre had quite the lingering effect on her. She could go from being calm and cool to loud and overly-dramatic in a heartbeat. It had started out simple, Blake re-enacting the scenes from their favorite stories for Ruby at bedtime. She enjoyed it a lot and so her parents suggested that maybe she should take this interest further.
A few summers at theatre camp, top marks in drama class in school and several critically praised performances at the Patch Community Theatre later, and Blake had developed superb acting skills. Lots of people had remarked on how good she was on stage and that she could have gone on to a professional theatre or even a movie career.
Of course, Blake had chosen to be a Huntress, so the closest she got to the stage now were these bouts of dramatic speaking.
Blake opened her eyes and blinked several times after she was done before quickly hopping off the table and returning to her seat. This wasn't because of any embarrassment on what she had just done in public, but because she needed to be seated for the next part of this fairly regular routine.
Blake pulled out a small notebook and a pen, one that actually belonged to her, and began to write furiously. She quickly filled several pages, muttering to herself all the while and seemingly oblivious to everything around her.
Yang turned to JNPR, an amused grin on her face.
"Behold, you are witnessing the creation of another of Blake Xiao Long's award-winning stories."
Blake absolutely adored stories and especially the process of making and telling them. To take an idea and craft it into something that could connect with other people, to make they feel strong emotions and become immersed into a whole new world had always struck Blake as being beyond amazing. She strove to be the best writer and performer she could be, seeing it as a way to reach people she otherwise couldn't.
That didn't mean she didn't struggle with it, as Weiss now explained.
"This book will tragically not be winning any awards…Because it will be shortly abandoned alongside all her other stories."
Blake suddenly stopped writing and tossed her pen into the air. She grabbed her fork with her now free hand and used it to stab a stray meatball form her plate, which she proceeded to fling at Weiss's face.
Her twin was more then ready for this attack and caught the edible projectile deftly in her mouth. She grinned widely at her sister as she chewed.
Blake caught the falling pen and pointed it at Weiss, her eyes having never left her notebook.
"None of my novels, scripts or screenplays are 'abandoned'. They are just in various stages of completion." She settled back to writing, at a slightly slower pace. "The road to excellence is a long one."
Seriously, did Weiss need to bring up that none of her novels, which were definitely award-winning in her mind, had never been published? The key word was 'yet'; it was all part of an author's journey. She would finish each story had started…one day…eventually.
Weiss swallowed the food. 'While I do think that my life is the epitome of 'excellence', perhaps it would be better to use your supposed origin as inspiration?"
"There's barely enough there for a short story, let alone a novel. You make for a much better muse."
Blake noticed form the corner of her eye that Team JNPR were all looking at her expectantly. They had been getting all of their backgrounds this meal and certainly wanted to know her possible origin along with Weiss's. Leaving an unsatisfied audience was unforgivable to a storyteller like Blake, so she decided to indulge them.
"As Weiss said before, we're pretty sure I'm from Menagerie, but beyond that I don't have a clue. Being a Faunus can mean I have two Faunus parents or that one of my parents is human. My parents could be cat Faunus or any other kind of animal under the sun. And while Menagerie may be organized and run more like a village then a Kingdom, it's by no means a small place. There also no CCT Tower, so not much in the way of digital records or the like, so finding anyone who may have known me will be a needle in a haystack."
Blake was quiet for a moment, tapping her pen on her notebook.
"It be best to focus on finding where Weiss came from first; there are better odds there."
'No." Weiss's response was short but forceful. "We've talked about this. We are not going to put your search on hold in favor of mine. We are going to find the truth; together and at the same time."
Blake smiled at her twin's insistence. Simple logic would dictate that they had a much better chance of finding clues in Atlas, thanks to its advance digital infrastructure, then in the less advanced and organized Menagerie. Thus, it would naturally be more efficient to focus first on finding Weiss's family; Weiss was all about being logical and efficient.
Except when it came to her family, then emotions tended to lead the way. Weiss was not going to let something as important as finding Blake's family be sidelined by reason and logic. When they finally become Huntresses and they had to pick a place to start their search, they were certain to get into a fierce fight, each arguing to start looking for the other's family first.
Blake didn't care; hearts often overruled the head in the Xiao Long family and it simply made her love her twin sister all the more.
Yang touched Blake's shoulder and gave her own determined look. She would help them out as well, alongside her search to locate her own birth mother. She didn't have many nice things to say to Raven when she found her, but she was going to find her none the less. All three of them were working together to find the answers of where they had come from.
Ruby was the only one to not give any kind of silent support to this ongoing endeavour. The Search was the one thing she couldn't share with her sisters and it was safe to say she had complicated feelings regarding it.
After a few quiet moments, Blake returned to addressing JNPR.
"That all about us for today. You pretty much got the whole story about us; time next it will be you guys telling us about yourself."
Blake took note at how Nora looked down at her plate, how Ren suddenly had a small coughing fit and how Pyrrha had a look of barely-contained horror on her face. The prospects of talking about their pasts seemed to be very unpleasant for them. Blake quickly turned her attention to Jaune.
"You said you had seven sisters? You got to have loads of stories to tell."
"Oh, definitely. I love those girls to death, but they also drive me absolutely crazy sometimes. I'd be more then happy to tell you guys about it later." Jaune replied, ignorant of his teammates reactions.
The Sisters nodded, with Blake taking note of the relieved expressions on the faces of the rest of Team JNPR. She would tell her sisters about it later, about how they didn't seem ready to divulge their pasts yet. They would respect that choice for now, but they would try and get them to tell all at a later date. They truly wanted to know more about them, and they knew from personal experience that the bad things of the past won't go away if you simply try to ignore or forget about them. The only way to get pass it was to talk about it with others and when the time was right, they would be more then willing to lend an ear.
But that was for the future; a ringing bell signaled that lunchtime was over and that afternoon classes would begin soon. The two teams quickly finished the rest of their meals and hurried on out.
Overall, everyone was quite satisfied with the meal, both with the food and with the conversation. Team JNPR was pleased to find out more about their new friends and were almost in awe that they could have taken such hardships yet still be so happy and driven in their lives. Team RWBY didn't get as much information out of this exchange as they had given but they were still happy to share their story with them.
They were surprised at learning about Jaune's background; it was certainly unique but so was their life. His words and reaction left no question how much he valued his family, which was something he had in common with the Xiao Long Sisters. Yang, Weiss and Blake had to admit that their respect for him had increased a bit.
They still though he was an Arch-Pervert and if he so much as tried to touch Ruby they would end him in a heart beat but were beginning to think that maybe being forced to be friendly to him by Ruby wouldn't be so bad after all. His genuine dislike of the concept of a harem let them know that he wasn't going to attempt to seduce multiple girls at once like they had thought, so he wasn't the absolute worst kind of man.
Once again, the overprotective sisters were more then a little off in regard to Jaune's intentions. It was true that he had no interesting forming a sexual harem, for the reasons he had stated before. His attempt to be confident and flirting had backfired on the first day, so he wasn't going to be 'seducing' anyone; that wasn't really him to begin with.
But if they had asked him would possibly want to have a polyamorous relation in the same vein as parents, the kind he had talked so passionately about before, then the answer would be a very definite 'yes'.
Things were going to get very interesting in Team JNPR.
A somewhat shorter chapter with lots of exposition. We see how the Sisters deal with both internal problems and external threats and get some more unique characterization for Blake.
In regard to the girls' relationship with one another, the main idea I'm going with is that the girls are pretty much one step away from being romantic with one another. They are comfortable being naked in front of each other, bathing together and love to sleep, hold, touch and kiss each other. They have a few boundaries in place, but overall their relationship is much deeper then with normal siblings due to their unique circumstances.
This is the earliest point where I could shed some light on why Weiss and Blake weren't found by their original family or why no one knew who Weiss was right off the bat. The full story will be reveals much later, when the Schnees and Belladonnas are introduced fully into the story for the Vytal Festival, which is quite a way off, so the main summary is;
By the time the CCT was restored, everyone on board the ships was declared dead so neither Blake or Weiss's family tried to look for them. Weiss's physical traits are fairly common for people of Atlas in this story, so no one would know who she is just by looking at her. Weiss saying that there are no public records of a third Schnee child should make it clear that Jacque Schnee erased her from all the records after she was presumed dead. I'm going with that Winter was the heiress for the family until she disobeyed her father to join the military and thus Weiss, as the second child, didn't receive much in the form of media attention for her early life. Only those close to the family remember who she was, and Jacque has made sure that they never talk about her.
For Blake, her family is so far removed from everything in Menagerie that most people don't know who the Belladonnas are, and their private life is unknown to most, including that they had a daughter. Ghira is still the leader of the White Fang while Kali is the Chief of Menagerie and both are busy trying to keep Human-Faunus relations from breaking down.
Alongside Pollination, this story will feature a romantic relationship between all the members of JNPR with each other. Jaune comes from a polyamorous family and in turn would like to have a polyamorous relationship, though he has no clue how to start one and isn't trying to make one right out of the gate. Sufficed to say, Jaune is pansexual and is open to anything, with the others developing feeling for one another as the story goes on. I feel this is quite a unique take on things and will lead to an interesting relationship between the members of Team JNPR. We'll be going more into this next chapter.
(P.S. Does anyone know of a good ship name for a poly JNPR? Juniper Berries was the best I could find, but there not a lot of names for it out there, mostly because there are so few stories of it compared to Pollination. If you have any suggestions, let me know.)
Once thanks for reading this story and please leave a review or PM to share with me any thoughts, questions and ideas you may have for this story. See you next time.
