Ch. 32 A very sunny morning
Jaune woke up tired. Maybe it was the fact that it was dark out and the sun wouldn't be coming up for a while yet, or maybe it was the late night study session Ruby forced on their team. It didn't really matter.
Jaune got up as quietly as possible and went to take his morning shower in the hopes that it would help him wake up.
Something he didn't account for was the sheer number of activities he had stuffed his schedule with during the summer. Now that school was back in session he simply didn't have time for all of them.
Even the book he borrowed from Ozpin, something that had interested him initially, lay on the sidelines of his schedule now.
With the setback that the Lightning Rod became after only one sparring session he simply had no other choice but to focus on other avenues of improving his arsenal. More armour and a variety of simple weapons.
Jaune sighed and shut off the water and started drying himself off. He glanced at the mirror only to see that his face had grown a bit of fuzz. It wasn't to the point that he needed to shave right away, but it was something to keep in mind. His hair similarly had gotten longer, it felt like he would catch up to Ren soon.
He pushed those thoughts away for now and went to wake Ruby up. A silent kiss on the cheek later Ruby was up and about. Their morning routine was quickly becoming an integral part of their day.
After digging through his school bag for a minute Jaune collected all he needed to do some work in the morning. It reminded him of back when he first came to Beacon, when all he needed was a pencil and a sketchbook. After working with Ruby though he now carried a bit more than that. Among the new additions to his toolkit were several rulers, a compass and a wide array of coloured pencils for notes and revisions.
Jaune sat at the coffee table that now adorned the blanket fort. It was one of the improvements they had made on their third reconstruction of the fort. Mysteriously enough the amount of blankets and pillows increased every time they did.
Opening his sketchbook, Jaune started working and soon lost himself in his sketches. It wasn't until Ruby laid her head on his lap that he realised that Ren had already woken up Nora.
When their eyes met Ren uttered a single word.
"Tea?"
Jaune nodded silently before returning back to his work.
Ruby didn't seem to mind Jaune losing himself in his work and was content with reading a book while spending her time with him. Jaune ran his left hand through her hair distractedly as he thought about the next weapon he would build.
Eventually he put down his pencil and picked out a red coloured one to make a few notes while mumbling to himself under his breath.
"... canvas… hmmm… might as well… red and white?... guess it's a classic for a reason…"
Ruby had a smile on her face as she half listened to her boyfriend though the majority of her attention had been on reading the book Jaune borrowed from Ozpin. There were so many stories that she knew from her childhood and she quite enjoyed learning more about them.
The sound of a teacup placed on the table announced the end of their peaceful morning. Nora had finished her shower and joined them at the table.
=O=O=O=
The sun had long risen above the horizon and as there were no clouds to obstruct its brightness, it was shaping out to be a warm and sunny day. Team RNJR was walking through the courtyard with the majority of team SWNY.
Cardin was suspiciously absent, with the reason behind that being the topic of conversation between the girls of both teams.
Sky along with the rest of the boys wisely stayed out of that conversation in favour of talking about the recent spar that left the training grounds out of commission.
"So I heard Goodwitch confiscated your weapon? That true?"
"Not really, but close enough to it. I can't use it while at school."
"That sucks."
"Yeah… seriously though how do you even fight against someone like Pyrrha with a polearm. I went against Nora and could barely keep up."
"It isn't easy, but if there's two of us we can sometimes win against her."
"That's an achievement considering she routinely wipes out entire teams in combat class."
=O=O=O=
Sun was walking towards the rest of his team. Sage, Scarlet and Neptune were waiting for him in front of the transfer students' dorm.
The monkey man himself went to fetch the girls he made friends with when he left his team behind on a passenger liner while he himself decided to save himself about a week by stowing away on a cargo ship.
Out of the three guys Neptune knew the most about team BSMT and even he only gathered that while two of them were somewhat high profile people, the other two were far scarier. He didn't even catch their names from Sun.
"Hey guys!"
As the three guys turned to their leader they all froze in shock.
Sage was frankly absolutely flabbergasted that Sun wasn't exaggerating and was actually acquainted with them enough for the whole team to come spend time with them.
Scarlet meanwhile was doing his best to keep himself from fanboying over Weiss Schnee. Her music was always something that resonated with him and from the smug look on the monkey's face, Sun knew exactly what his reaction would be.
Neptune though had a more noticeable reaction. He would never lose his cool in front of these ladies of course, but his inner reaction made his first impression a bit more jittery than he would have liked. In the back of his mind, behind the mask of a calm cool dude he was panicking.
Sun didn't generally exaggerate when estimating how dangerous something was, in fact he often did the opposite. So if logic follows that the two girls that are neither the brunette Sun couldn't shut up about or a Schnee, were even more dangerous… just how dangerous could they be.
"So these are the boys. Sage Ayna, Scarlet David and Neptune Vasilias. Guys, these are the girls I told you about."
"Not that you ever told us their names."
Pointed out Sage.
"Didn't want to spoil the surprise, right Scarlet!"
Sun slapped Scarlet on the back eliciting a high pitch "RIGHT!" from him.
As the introductions continued Neptune felt a bit stuck. Sun was obviously trying to get closer to Blake and Scarlet had started talking with Weiss about her music.
Sage had started a conversation with Cocra, apparently interested in hearing more about the events that led to them meeting Sun. Maroon meanwhile smiled at Neptune though before he could say anything though she leaned in close and said something he didn't expect.
"I can smell your fear, cool guy."
In that moment Neptune felt like someone dumped an entire ocean on him.
=O=O=O=
Jaune wasn't sure how exactly they got in this situation.
In an effort to find Cardin their group approached the transfer students' dorms and happened upon team BSMT.
Now what he expected to happen was that they'd introduce themselves and be on their way. Instead he was now stuck in the middle of a shouting match.
"My name means sunny dragon!"
"My name is literally Sun!"
"Well obviously we can't have two sun themed teams, but seeing as we have the home advantage here, I'm thinking you guys should change."
"Nuh-uh! Since you guys are from Beacon I bet it'll be easier for you to change it here."
Sun and Yang were yelling at each other while almost everyone around tried to stop them from fighting. Sage and Neptune were currently holding Sun by his arms, preventing from activating his semblance. On the other side Pyrrha was holding Yang back by a combination of brute strength and subtle use of her semblance.
"I don't get what the big problem is. They're read differently and have a different acronym."
"I think it's about the team's identity and standing out. Someone who has never heard of either team might confuse the two fairly easily."
Ren and Nora were discussing the problem calmly, like it wasn't happening right in front of them. Team RNJR as a whole was content sitting on the sidelines, though Ruby was silently cheering for her sister, she knew better than to fan the flames.
As for team BSMT, Blake took the opportunity to run away from the situation, dragging her team with her, much to Scarlet's disappointment. Neptune on the other hand was glad he didn't have to be around them anymore. He could handle the shouty one, but the silent kind were dangerous. Add the fact that no one noticed Maroon threatening him and you've got some seriously scary stuff on your hand.
"So… should we do something, or…?"
"As much as I hate to say this, there is nothing I can do to stop Yang. She's always been stubborn."
"So do we call Qrow? Or your dad?"
"Do you want to escalate stuff? Cause that's how you escalate stuff. Plus dad's on Patch and Qrow is who knows where…"
"Didn't he lead the mission team CFVY went on?"
"... so both are out of reach anyway. Not like we can make Yang listen to a scroll call."
Ruby ignored Ren's interruption to the conversation and continued without missing a beat. Jaune furrowed his brows in thought and made another suggestion.
"What about Cardin?"
"...that… might work. I'm gonna go look for him."
And just like that Ruby disappeared inside the visitors' dorms, leaving behind a mess of rose petals.
=O=O=O=
Ozpin sat at his desk, looking over a spreadsheet of this year's missions. They were all supposed to be done by today, yet three teams remained unaccounted for. All three teams were second year students and as such were acting on their own unlike the first years, though not completely without supervision like the two years above them.
As such Ozpin was certain they were alive at least. The lack of details on their status was simply the unfortunate result of the overseeing huntsman for that area being Qrow.
In fact Qrow's involvement was likely also the reason for their late return. There was a reason Qrow wasn't exactly the first choice when it came to supervising students on their missions. Unfortunately the ongoing investigations forced his hand and left Ozpin with no choice but to assign Qrow as a supervisor.
Of course, what little information Qrow did provide proved that while the area was in dire need of culling the Grimm, it had little to do with their main goal, except for proving that line of investigation to lead nowhere.
Ozpin closed the spreadsheet and opened a different one, this one showing the missions available to first year students.
"Seems I'll have to make some more changes… hmmm perhaps I could nudge things in the right direction."
=O=O=O=
Ruby returned abruptly, walking through the building's door at normal speed. Only a few minutes had passed since she went looking, but judging by how red her face was, she found more than she was looking for.
Before Jaune could make sure she was okay the doors opened once more, revealing a pair of dissatisfied students.
Cardin was a bit dishevelled, his jacket was open, his shirt was buttoned up wrong and only tucked into his pants on one side, and his face showed signs of barely controlled anger.
Mint, who followed closely behind him, was dressed absolutely immaculately, as if to contrast Cardin. Though that did nothing to hide her own dissatisfaction.
Cardin walked up to the two profanities shouting blonds and grabbed Yang by the collar with both hands, lifting her slightly off the ground with only minor help from Pyrrha.
His voice was quiet and relatively calm, but a slight edge of underlying anger could still be discerned.
"Now listen here Yang. I don't know what this is about, and I don't care. What I do know is that your sister found it necessary to find me in order to put a stop to this shit. Normally I wouldn't care. But she interrupted something and came very close to seeing more than she should.
In other words, this ends here. And I'll make sure you pay for the time Mint and I lost today."
"How's that my fault! Ruby's the one…"
"Oh that's right, give me a moment."
Without loosening his grip he turned to where Ruby and Jaune stood.
"Jaune! Keep your damn leader in check would you! Put her on a leash if you have to, but keep her from walking in on us."
Without waiting for a reply from either of the blushing duo he turned back to Yang.
"Now that that's taken care of, where were we… Oh yes! Making sure you don't cause trouble. How about we ask professor Port for counselling. I'm sure he has tons of wisdom he could impart on you."
"No, not Port's stories! Nooo! Run Sun save yourself!"
And that act of camaraderie was the last Sun heard from Yang for the entire day. Oh sure, he saw her later during the day, it's just she didn't seem to be mentally all there. On that day Sun gained a newfound fear of the Grimm studies professor and as a result has never brought up the naming issue ever again.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
I'm no longer writing scenes with more than two teams present, i find it a bit too hard to balance.
Regarding the Maroon Neptune conflict, I want to explore how reading into his insecurities may change things. Rest assured it isn't just a throwaway line, it has bearing on the story.
I'm a bit short on time, so I'll cut this note here
I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 33 Time and management