Chapter 10:
Going out in style

Friday.

A day which heralds the end of the weekdays and the start of the weekends. A day which students look forward to. Doubly so, when classes are cancelled on that day. Triply so, if you have a date arranged on that day. And Pyrrha Nikos greets that day with a cheer triple the normal amount. First, because classes are cancelled so that the faculty can prepare for the incoming transfer students arriving to attend the Vytal Festival. Second, because she has a date with Jaune...

Granted its more of a friendly date than a romantic date, but she can still count it as date, right? Even if all they're doing is visit shops to look for things that are suitable for Jaune's arsenal, they can still eat some snacks a long the way. The plan is to look at shops, then have lunch and meet Team RWBY near the docks, since they want to see the incoming transfer students arrive. The important thing is that she and Jaune are gonna spend a morning in Vale alone together.

Therein lies the problem. Pyrrha Nikos cannot just spend a morning alone with a boy in Vale because she is Pyrrha Nikos. The moment she steps out of the bullhead, she'll be recognized, and it wouldn't take too long before she is mobbed in the streets by her fans. Don't get her wrong, she likes making people happy... But sometimes, sometimes she wishes that they would just leave her alone. Give Pyrrha some her time and not just make her be an idol all the time. Being popular is tiring.

And that leads her to her current destination. Popular people have a way of knowing popular people for a certain set of skills or a characteristic. The same way she knew Weiss based on her singing career as much as her status as heiress to the SDC, and Weiss knowing about Pyrrha because of her tournament career. Pyrrha knows someone on Beacon for their fashion sense, and another hidden skill, their ability to make disguises. And that someone is Coco Adel, team leader of Team CFVY, and her senior.

Pyrrha finds Coco inside her dorm room. She knows its location because Coco secretly advertises her disguise making skills to popular people that attend Beacon. She knocks on the door and waits for someone to answer. The door opens and she sees Coco wearing her cocoa-colored shirt, black trousers, and her signature beret.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Pyrrha Nikos, I knew you would find your way to me eventually. Come in, come in." Coco greets Pyrrha as she invites her inside her dorm room.

"It's hard not to when you need a disguise every time you go need to go to Vale." Pyrrha replies, nodding to both Fox Alistair and Yatsuhashi Daichi, Coco's teammates.

"That's the price of popularity sister, you need to cater to the masses. Alright boys, you know the drill." Coco replies, as she shoos her teammates away to give her and Pyrrha some privacy.

"I'll get straight to the point, I need a disguise to go out to in Vale." Pyrrha says, she's not usually this bold but the friendly date with Jaune has given her enough confidence and determination to make sure it goes well perfectly.

"Straight to the point, I like that. Now tell me more, what's the purpose of your visit to Vale? Need something inconspicuous to visit a shop? Something nobody will notice you in?"

"Hmmm, something like that, but I need something more... appealing." Pyrrha states, blushing lightly at her own boldness.

"Ohhhh, sounds juicy. I won't pry, but I need to know... is this serious, or a one night stand? Cause different causes would mean different clothes." Coco notes with a smirk, noticing the redhead's embarassment.

"...Uhmmm. I want it to be serious but this is just a friendly date." Pyrrha answers with a wince.

"Ahh, got it. So you want a disguise that would knock the socks of this dense guy and still not get you recognized as Pyrrha Nikos?" Coco answers with a cringe, and proceeds to suggest a disguise to lessen the uncomfortableness of knowing that Pyrrha Nikos is crushing on a dense idiot.

"Yes, basically. Do you have anything that could help?"

"Depends on what you want sister. You want the innocent, friendly, girl next door look or do you want the bold, assertive, badass look?" Coco smirks, getting into the rhythm of designing disguises.

"Uhmm, I'd like to try the bold one please..." Pyrrha says while blushing. Knowing Jaune's dense nature, she would need to be bold to get his attention.

"I got just the thing sister. But this will cost you a favor. Are you up for that?" Coco asks with a grin.

Pyrrha hesitates, but ultimately nods. Deciding that owing a favor is worth it to have a nice day out with Jaune.

"Yes, I'll be in your care."

"Oh you already are sweetling, you already are." Coco chuckles out, making Pyrrha a bit nervous if she really did the right choice.

And as Coco takes care of our champion. A certain knight is having an unexpected encounter in the Cafeteria.

It's a nice day out in Beacon, we see our knight stretching with Nora, just having finished a light jog around their dorm room. They kept their workout light today in consideration of Jaune and Pyrrha's day out in Vale today. To be honest, Jaune did invite Ren and Nora.

"Sorry fearless leader, but I don't want to die, so Renny and I will stay here and train today." Nora says, knowing that she's not safe if she ruins Jaune-Jaune and Pyr-Pyr's not date-date.

And that was that, so it was just him and Pyrrha hitching a ride to Vale after breakfast, then meeting up with Team RWBY in the afternoon at the docks.

Having changed into his regular pumpkin pete hoodie and jeans attire, he sees Ren just shake his head at him. He thinks it's weird that Ren would disapprove now, when he didn't react to his hoodie before. Jaune reaches the Cafeteria with Ren and Nora, and sees only Blake at their usual spot. That's another thing he has on his mind. Blake's secret heritage and possible White Fang connection.

Now isn't the time to confront her about it. She's been nothing but quiet and friendly whenever we talked. There's no reason to think she's still with the White Fang. Who knows? Maybe she ran away. I'd certainly be familiar with that position if it is true.

"Good morning Blake, where's your team at?" Jaune greets Blake as he, Nora, and Ren sit down with their breakfast.

"Good morning everyone, Ruby and Weiss woke up late, they usually wake earlier than Yang so they can take a quick shower. Just so happens that Yang got to the shower first today so they've been waiting for her to finish."

"Oh, good… Listen Blake, abou-." Jaune starts, but before he can finish what he was about to say, they hear a cry near their table.

"Ow! Please not my ears…."

Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Blake turn towards the sound and find Team CRDL harassing the same bunny faunus again as last time. Cardin's grabbing her ears from behind as his team places themselves around the faunus.

"Really? They're doing it again? Disgusting" Blake sighs furiously, eyes narrowing at the bullies.

"Please stop… It hurts." The faunus cries with wet tears behind her eyes.

The last time this happened, Jaune didn't intervene because he was afraid of Cardin. He knew Cardin would beat him and expose his secret back then. This time is different. Jaune has beaten both Cardin and Dove, he's proven he has potential, and plus, Cardin owes him his life. So before he knows it, the next thing Jaune sees is his fist meeting Cardin's face and punching him away from the faunus.

Jaune blinks.

Cardin blinks.

The bullied faunus blinks.

Everyone blinks at the sudden turn of events.

"What the hell Arc?! You wanna die that much?!" Cardin shouts as he grabs his cheek, assessing the damage.

"I thought I told you to leave my friends alone, Cardin."

"What friends?! You don't even know her! You're practically strangers!" Cardin replies, pointing to the bunny faunus again.

"Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." Jaune answers, automatically going back to the advice his mother gave him.

To prove his point, Jaune turns around to face the faunus and talks.

"Hey, my name's Jaune Arc, short, and sweet. Wanna be friends?" Jaune asks her with a smile.

"..Hi..my name's Velvet… Velvet Scarlatina.. I would love to be your friend." Velvet whimpers shyly, still in pain from her ear being grabbed.

"See, that's how you make friends, Cardin. I knew you were a bully Cardin, but a racist? That's just low, man"

"I prefer the term equal-opportunity tough guy."

"...what? That's not how it works!"

"Of course it is! I push around both humans and faunus equally!"

"You bully Velvet for being a faunus!"

"Well, I can't bully her for being a human can I?!"

"That's literally racism!"

"Enough talking! You're in for a world of pain Jauney-boy!" Cardin answers as he cracks his knuckles menacingly.

"You can try, I beat you and Dove before, I can do it again."

"It was a close victory, Jauney, you won't get so lucky next time. And It's 4 against 1 right now."

He's right, despite how much I improved, I won because of luck and a large amount of aura. I won't be able to take more than one of them.

"Don't you mean 4 against 4?! You didn't tell us you pick fights now, fearless leader! Let's break some legs!" Nora shouts, and suddenly appears on his left.

"Indeed, we have your back Jaune. Nora, let's not break any legs, we don't want to be expelled" Ren says supportively from beside Nora.

Blake just looks at Jaune from his right, silently giving him her approval and standing beside him.

Both sides tense up, looking towards each other. Each side waiting for the other to break the staredown. Eyes move to any object they might be able to use as a weapon, trays to be used as shields, a bread so hard you could use as a sword or club, tomatoes and watermelons you can try as bombs or bullets. Hands tense, legs coil, they're in a lit powder keg about to explode.

But before they can start the fight, a sound interrupts their staredown.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Glynda Goodwitch has arrived, deputy headmistress and the unofficial sheriff of Beacon. The one law in town nobody wants to cross. Unheard by anyone in the Cafeteria, a powder keg's light slowly fizzes away.

Both groups freeze, caught in the headlights of Beacon's most feared disciplinarian. They look at each other's eyes, seeing a fellow criminal caught by Beacon's law and order. They do what every criminal has done every time they are caught….

""""Nothing Ma'am."""" They deny, like the liars they are.

Seeing that the Cafeteria hasn't devolved into chaos yet and there is no evidence of any fight occurring, Glynda Goodwitch can only narrow her eyes at them.

"Make sure it stays as nothing. We are busy preparing for the Vytal Festival. We do not need any incidents to make our jobs harder. Now dismiss!" Glynda announces as she leaves.

""""Yes Ma'am!"""" Everyone present salutes the disciplinarian, not willing to draw her ire.

With the disciplinarian gone and silence returns to the would-be battleground, both sides disengage, turning to their own sides of the Cafeteria.

"Uhmmm… You didn't need to do that." Velvet says quietly.

"Uhmm, we kinda did, he was harassing you." Jaune replies.

"But why? We didn't even talk to each other before today?"

"Because helping someone in need is always the right thing to do. Plus we're friends now aren't we?" Jaune answers with a smile.

"...Yes… Thank you.." Velvet answers shyly.

"Where is your team anyway? I expect this wouldn't happen if they were with you?"

"..Uhmm. They're still in our room. My leader, Coco, told me she has some business she needs to finish first. I might just go back there to see them"

"Oh cool, maybe we can walk you there, no need to go alone when Cardin can just ambush you in a different place. Is that okay with you guys?" Jaune says, while asking his friends if it's okay with them.

"Oh… I'd like that. Thank you Jaune." Velvet answers with a smile.

"Aye-aye fearless leader!" Nora agrees.

"We're good with it, just need to take some breakfast out." Ren speaks in his support.

"Mhm, I see no problem with this, just let me get my tuna sandwich." Blake smiles, happy that they are helping a faunus sister in need.

"Great! Let's go guys! Maybe we can see if Pyrrha's ready now, wherever she is." Jaune says, wondering what Pyrrha meant when she said she needs some time to prepare.

As they walk towards Velvet's dorm room, they see her teammates standing outside the door. Velvet introduces them to Yatsu and Fox and tells them what happened in the Cafeteria.

"Hey Yatsu, hey Fox. Is Coco ready yet?

"I think she'll be done soon, they've been there for some time already." Fox replies.

"Coco will want to know what happened, Velvet." Yatsu pipes up.

Yatsu and Fox are understandably angry, but they are also thankful to Jaune and his friends for stepping in when they needed to. Velvet cringes at what reaction Coco might have, she's always been protective of what she views as hers. And to Coco, nobody touches her team and gets away unscathed.

Knocking at the door, they wait for Coco to answer. When Coco answers, she sees who knocked and smiles.

"Hey bun-bun, what's up? We're almost finished here." Coco greets them as she blocks the view from the doorway.

"Hey Coco, uhm… I was actually wondering what was taking you so long. Are you ready yet?" Velvet asks.

"Me? I was born ready, my friend here on the other hand is just about ready to start her day. Speaking of friends, who are your new friends?" Coco answers with a smile.

"Hi! Name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, and rolls off the tongue." Jaune smiles, trying to put his best foot forward to Velvet's team leader.

"Name's Coco, Coco Adel, and you are in need of a sense of fashion. Come in, I want you to meet a friend of mine" Coco says, while criticizing his hoodie.

"Jaune?" Someone from inside says his name, for some reason the voice is familiar to him. What Jaune sees though is a stranger.

A beautiful stranger looked straight at him. Black cat ears situated on top of her head. Long black hair falling across her face and back, accentuating her beauty. Sparkling emerald eyes that you could get lost in. Curves covered by a white crop top under a black biker jacket that is just tight enough, and tight black leather pants constricting her long legs.

"Uhm, hello, who are you? How do you know my name?" Jaune blushes at the attention he receives from the beautiful stranger. If he didn't know any better, Jaune would say he was talking to Blake's sister.

But even Blake is surprised with wide eyes, maybe because they have the same color scheme or because of the cat ears above her head. It just shows that Blake doesn't know this stranger.

This beautiful, sexy, and badass stranger looking at him. As Jaune continues to blush and stare, he can't get the feeling that he should know this person. The posture, the frame, the voice, it's all familiar to him. Like he should know who this beautiful person is.

"Oh… Uhm.. I guess this is working perfectly if you don't recognize me… It's me… Pyrrha." The now revealed Pyrrha introduces herself shyly.

Jaune could only gape silently at the change in his partner. But just because he's speechless doesn't mean everyone else is.

"What?! That's you Pyr-Pyr?! You look amazing! You look sexy! You look badass!" Nora exclaims excitedly, coming closer to Pyrrha and inspecting her clothes. Pyrrha can only blush at the compliments thrown her way. Even Blake is complimenting her choice of colors while looking at her cat ears that turn out to be props.

Jaune could only stare stunned at his partner, still not computing how or why this happened.

"How?... Why?... Pyrrha, you look beautiful but why this?" Jaune asks dumbly, confused and still stunned why his partner needed to change into this.

Pyrrha could only blush at her partner's words, not wanting to say she wanted to look appealing for him just yet.

"Ha! Idiot, you forgot who your partner is. Pyrrha Nikos is Pyrrha Nikos. She is so famous that if people on the streets see her walking around Vale, they would mob her for autographs and pictures. She needed a disguise." Coco explains in lieu of Pyrrha.

"Coco! Don't call Jaune an idiot, he just forgot, that's all." Velvet defends her new friend.

"Oooohh, getting feisty there bun-bun, anything I should know?" Both Coco and Pyrrha narrow their eyes at the bunny faunus, wondering why she would be defensive about someone she just met.

And so Velvet recounts how she was being harassed by Team CRLD, and how Jaune and his friends stood up for her. After the whole retelling, Coco has a higher degree of respect for Jaune.

"Alright, I'm glad you helped my Bun-bun out Jauney-boy." Coco says after listening to the whole story.

"Don't call me that." Jaune replies.

"Pyrrha, forget that favor you owe me, consider this payment enough. I'm gonna put this partner of yours into something a bit more respectable. Now everyone else shoo, mama needs to concentrate." Coco says, ignoring Jaune's complaint.

Without a complaint, everyone else leaves the room overpowered by Coco's personality. Jaune is then left to the tender mercies of a determined fashionista.

—-

Blake Belladonna is surprised. Surprised at how easy it is to feel comfortable around Jaune.

It started yesterday when they bonded over their shared hobby. She was so happy she could finally talk about something and not be judged for it. She even shared her favorite hiding spot for reading Ninjas of Love. She also pointed him to Tukson's Book Trade just in case he wants his own copy of any book he likes. Tukson's! Her fellow defector's bookshop.

Blake was surprised when he wanted to share his opinion on the faunus subplot of the books. She got a lot more pleasantly surprised with what he told her next.

"I think they're all wonderful, beautiful people. Wonderful and beautiful just like us."

Don't tell anyone else but Blake Belladonna almost blushed at that. Hearing Jaune say that they're all wonderful and beautiful people while looking at her eyes almost made it too easy for her to imagine he was saying it to her, and not just describing the faunus in general. But she remembered that he was just describing his stance being for faunus equality.

Still though, what would he think if he knew I was a faunus? We already share a hobby, and have similar views on the faunus, would it really be so bad if I share my heritage with him?

And to back up his stance on equality Jaune stood up for Velvet, her fellow faunus, during breakfast against Cardin. Blake is ashamed to say that it took someone else to jump in before she even thought of interfering. That just shows how serious Jaune is about combating racism. Him, saying what he said after the encounter just made him look a little more heroic.

"Because helping someone in need is always the right thing to do."

It sounded like something the Rusted Knight would say on one of his adventures.

Good taste in books, is pro-equality for the faunus, and a tad bit heroic in fighting against racism? Yup, I think I could count Jaune as one a good friend to have.

Seeing his positive traits now, he could guess how someone like Pyrrha would be attracted to the guy. Don't get her wrong, she could see his appeal, but Blake Belladonna has a certain type. She knows that it fits Adam somewhat and she knows how that ended, but you can't help but like what you like. She's a 17 year-old girl, sue her..

She acknowledges what they had was toxic and resolves herself to find a better version, someone still willing to fight for the faunus, someone who doesn't see any race as inherently superior, someone like Jaune but with a bit more of the bad boy type and stronger.

While Jaune is getting stronger, he isn't there yet, and she doubts Jaune could be a bad boy. While she escaped from a terrorist organization and lied her way into Beacon, Jaune probably begged someone to let him into the academy. She knows there's a betting pool that says Jaune is Professor Glynda's nephew and she just let him in to keep an eye on him, it doesn't change the fact that they're so different.

Still, she has to admit that Jaune could pull the casual bad boy look very well. Looking at him right now after Coco was done with him, she sees him wearing a tight white shirt accentuating his growing physique topped off with a tight black leather jacket, with tight black pants to cover his lower body. Blond hair slicked favoring one side, he looks like the type of guy that rides a motorbike around Vale.

"Damn, how do you like mama's work? I didn't have enough time but I styled him just enough to be respectable when you hit the streets of Vale." Coco presents proudly, showing off her fashion skills.

"..Hey guys, what do you think?" Jaune asks shyly.

"Fearless leader! You look amazing!" As usual, Nora says excitedly as Ren smiles in support beside her.

"...Yes Jaune, I agree, it suits you." Pyrrha says coyly. Taking the time to appreciate her partner, and seeing her fake ears twitch, how does she do that anyway?

"...Indeed, you look good, Jaune." Blake says in support, smirking at Pyrrha's reaction to her crush.

"Awww, thanks guys. By the way how do you have cat ears Pyrrha? Do they move?" Jaune thanks them and asks something she has been wondering about ever since she saw Pyrrha earlier.

"..OH! Uhmm, they're just props attached to my head up until behind my ears. You can surprisingly move them by flexing some of your muscles near the ear. Technology is amazing, isn't it?" Pyrrha answers.

"Wow! I actually thought they were real." Jaune says as he just grabs Pyrrha's cat ears, causing Pyrrha to blush at the contact.

Blake's eyes widened at that, she knew it was fake but she couldn't help but think of it as real from her perspective. Touching the trait of another faunus as an intimate act, its sensitive, and letting others touch it is a sign of trust usually reserved for lovers or family.

Looking at Jaune and Pyrrha standing together, they really do look good with matching outfits. They surprisingly pull off the bad boy-bad girl look very well. Still looking at them like this, Blake can't help but see herself in Pyrrha's place!

Right now, Pyrrha has cat ears and black straight hair, the same as Blake! Put them side by side, and you'd think they were related! Imagining herself standing in Pyrrha's place looking up at Jaune from that perspective causes her to blush. Now imagining herself standing side-by-side with Pyrrha while Jaune holds the both of them? Well, that almost causes her to pass out. It's like a scene from one of her books!

Shaking her head to push away the weird thoughts, Blake catches the rest of what Coco is saying to both Jaune and Pyrrha.

"...remember, those are just borrow-ons, you need to buy your own clothes, here's the list. Now shoo, Team CFVY still has to relax before we go on our next mission. Don't forget to bring the clothes back when you're done."

With that, Team CFVY separates from Team JNPR + Blake. Listening to the innocent conversation, Jaune and Pyrrha eventually move away from them to head to Vale. She wishes them to have fun but can't help a pang of jealousy of their carefree life, so different from her who is still hiding her faunus heritage. She hears Nora plan to follow the two partners in secret together with Ren. She shakes her head and walks back to her own dorm room.