A lovely clear sky. An infinite expanse of blue not even broken up by patches of white puffy clouds. Great weather considering it was spring, though the rain was always welcomed in Vale more often then not. Well, there was something in the sky. Amity Colosseum floated in all of its glory, a shining beacon to the unity of the Kingdoms... even if they had been scarily close to war only a few years ago.
With its new upgrades, the arena was keeping itself up with more efficiency then ever. Though what it actually did was a mystery to the general public, it was known that it had something to do with the defence of the capital.
Speaking of which, the sprawling city was a buzz. Half of the citizens were excited, and the other half upset, but all of it was centred on the same event... the royal wedding. The King of Atlas would finally be married, and it had driven a wedge between the Faunas and non-Faunas communities. Both in Vale and throughout the rest of Remnant, people were split into two sides based on reaction to the news of Whitley's wedding. Many were in celebration of it, but many more were upset, loathing the idea that the Schnee's were Dragon's once more... and that soon there would likely be more of them. Though, as it stood? There was currently only four Schnee Dragon's. While one of them did posess the entirety of the Dragon Formula, both the Queen of Vale and the King of Atlas weren't exactly thrilled about the prospect of sharing that with the rest of their family just yet.
Well, admittedly they never planned to make their father a Dragon. Their mother would have to put some real work in if she wanted to be one, but their elder sister was a guarantee. She only had to ask... or even be offered. But the stubborn nature of Winter Schnee prevented her from accepting any offering from Weiss in such a way... the Queen was quite tempted to simply send her wife over there herself to make Winter get over her pride, but the Queen Consort of Vale was still on house arrest. Technically.
Though perhaps that wasn't a necessity anymore. With Vacuo unwilling to support Mistral in a war with both Vale and Atlas, it seemed that peaceful times were ahead.
Focousing in on one individual who was rather bored with the idea of peace, a boy sat in a private room. A place that was made to almost resemble a classroom, baring the fact that there was only one student ever in here. Different tutors depending on the subject would be here a few times a day and force him into studying something he had no interest in... which was made a million times worse by the fact that they seemed to repeat themselves. He could only listen to someone rant and rave about the Great war or the Atlas Dust-Spike so many times before it became like nails scrapped across a chalkboard... the only fun lessons were the magic focoused ones. That tutor was a million times better! Ms Goodwitch was easily his favourite, every lesson was something new and refreshing, every new piece of magic he learnt about or explored was a new fresh source of fun!
Not that he planned to use them for nefarious means of course. He was strictly banned from coming up with any plots or schemes... however, that meant experiments were still on the table! He had been cooking up one recently as well, a rather fun experiment he liked to call... ok, he didn't have a name for it. But, names were important right? He would name it if it worked, that was fair.
His body tensed and vibrated with excitement as the door opened, and one of his more boring tutors stepped in.
"Good morning, your Highness-" She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence, a large sound filling the room and probably a good portion of the hallway as a pitch black smoke enveloped the room. Her coughing filled the space afterwards, and he quickly made a tactical retreat past her and out the doors, running down the hall and to his favourite hiding place. His pure red cloak trailing behind him as he ran as fast as he could.
Weiss Schnee
"And how is the new armour coming?" Her eyes didn't glance up at the person she was talking to, rather her concentration remained on the papers in front of her. The Queen signed away paper after paper, only really glancing at a few places here and there on each one before approving it with the ease only practice could provide.
"Umm... the example we were sent is... frankly amazing. But, we're having trouble... reproducing it." The man that had the displeasure of telling her this news today was rather nervous. Perhaps that attitude was justified, being brought in front of the Queen and council of Vale probably hadn't been in his job description. The poor artificer was an older looking Dwarf who looked incredibly ill-prepared to be here today, from clothing to confidence.
"As to be expected... send a report to the Royal Wizard and coordinate with her on this. With any luck, she'll be able to simplify the blueprint." Weiss had to struggle to not smile as she spoke of Ruby. Even after so much time of being together - from a humans perspective - even just thinking about her brought a smile to the Queens face. Though, her heart was equally shared by someone else now. Someone she had come to properly know and love just as much as her wife.
Weiss let out a gentle sigh and put her pen down, she was smiling now... no use in fighting the good mood.
"Did you have any other questions?"
"N-no, Ma'am... i-i mean, Your Majesty...!!" She chuckled a bit as he corrected himself, and with a nod she dismissed him. Hopefully he wouldn't be too stressed out for the rest of the day... lord knows he probably worked harder then she did. Speaking of which, she glanced over at the Commander of Vales Knights. Ozpin had grown rather frail looking recently. As if all of his age had been held back and had started to hit him all at once... she had only noticed it really affecting him over the last four years... really ever since he said he was dying, which was probably related.
"Ozpin-" Her offer for a holiday or even early retirement was cut off by the door to the council room suddenly opening. It wasn't the slow and careful swing she had expected from the nervous Dwarf, rather a panicked and quick swing from someone else entering at the same time the older man left. Weiss let out a sigh as she saw the woman, knowing the situation almost instantly just from the black smoke still emanating from her clothes. "What did he do now..."
"Your Majesty, i tried my best to find-"
Weiss raised a hand, cutting her off. "The start of the lesson or the end?"
"T-the... the start..." She hung her head in almost shame, and Weiss wasn't sure whether to be impressed or annoyed at her sons ability to defeat someone so thoroughly with a single spell.
"You're dismissed for now, Jessica. Maybe go home and take a shower, hopefully that should get the smoke out..." She almost mumbled that last part, partially distracted as she gestured to a nearby guard for a Scrying Orb. After recieveing the device, she called up the one person that could handle this better then anyone else. "Honestly... he's usually such a serious boy, why does he have to be like this for his tutors..."
Argus Schnee
The spells were set. The Dust crystals were primed and all placed carefully. The rituals and runes had all been double, triple, and quadruple checked... and of course, his hiding place was perfect. Hidden away in a perfectly secret and safe spot, giggling like an evil or manic gremlin.
"This totally isn't nefarious."
Definitely not.
With everything set in place, it was time for the most important piece of the puzzle to enter the playing field. Argus held his breath and focused his hearing, trying to tell what was happening on the otherside of the far away door that served as the main entrance to the library... and finally, it happened! His smile grew in scale as he heard the doors open, and with a slight shuffle he moved to get a peek at the sight. Stepping through the large wooden double doors was a woman. She was dressed in comfortable almost leather looking clothing, of course unlike all the other lady's in the castle she wore boots instead of heels, and the main feature of her whole getup was her cloak. It featured white fur around the neck area, almost like plumage, but the main colouring of the rest of it was a brilliant red not unlike his own cloak. Of course, her hair was similar in colour as well in certain places. The long and rather spikey looking hair was tied back, and while it was black in colouring for the majority of it, it featured a nice red tint to most of the thinner areas... honestly, he had wished he had gotten that hair colour.
"Let the games begin." He put on his best evil voice, and with an equally evil grin... he sprung the traps!
A whistle sounded from his current victim, the woman glancing around at the library and seeming a bit in awe. "Wow... how long did this take you?" She held a genuine and bright smile, one that didn't even waver as a bolt of energy shot past her head, barely missing her and slamming into the now closed wooden door instead. She had dodged simply by tilting her head, and stood with a hand on her hip. "I'm glad you remembered not to use elemental magic this time."
Admittedly, that hadn't been his brightest idea... fire, water, and pretty much any solid impact was a bad idea to fire around a library, especially one as big as this. No, simple mana shots were a way better idea!
A large barrage of those same attacks fired from all different directions, the shots each missing their target and instead collapsing as they collided with the ground or furniture. His victim was having a rather easy time of avoiding them all, but after they picked up the pace, he actually managed to make her turn into rose petals! Argus quickly tried to stand up to throw his hands up in excitement, but instead just hit his head on the bookshelf above him. Currently, he was laying down completely on his belly in a higher up shelf that he had... moved... the books off of.
"Alright... now where did you-"
"Boo." He jumped in surprise and hit his head once more. A chuckle sounded from next to him, and a hand around his ankle suddenly pulled him from his hiding place easily with one tug. The boy let put an almost scream of surprise as he tumbled towards the ground, but a big red claw caught him by his front, gently laying him down onto the ground. His eyes slowly looked up at the boots standing in front of him, and connected to them was a sight very familiar... his mum, standing smug at her victory.
"So... I believe that's... fifty to zero?"
"You can do without the smugness!" He shot up and tried his best to stand tall... but she still towered over him.
"You talk more and more fancy everyday, kiddo." Ruby pat his head gently, and begrudgingly he didn't resist.
"Mother says that's how I'm meant to talk..." A soft blush slowly formed over his cheeks, and the parent in front of him chuckled much softer this time.
"You're allowed to be a kid, Argus." After turning, she lead him over to one of the tables and sat him down. "So... why'd you run off this time?"
"The tutor was repeating-... she was saying the same stuff as always..."
"Oh. Is that all?" Her expression, voice, and posture, all showed how little she understood.
"You don't get it! It's so boring!! She just keeps on repeating the same stuff over and over and over-"
"See, your mother actually told me that you ran off before the tutor started the lesson." Another bright blush worked its way over his face, and he hung his head a little while averting his eyes. "That sound about right?"
"M-maybe..." She joined him, sitting down next to him with a small sigh. "But she would've said all the same stuff again..."
"Probably..." Lord knows he had fled his lessons enough time for that same reason by now. "But, have you maybe considered that's the point?"
"What do you mean?" He glanced back over, his mismatched eyes still nervous and not willing to fully look at her yet.
"How about an example? Each kingdom has a unique method of defense for their capital, do you remember Vale's-"
"Only Vale and Mistral have working defences. Vale has a barrier, and Mistral is hidden in mountains covered by illusion magic. Atlas didnt bother with finishing their floating city project because the fleet was strong enough to not need it, and Vacuo's whole 'moving city' thing used too much mana to be viable." He felt a little smug after saying all that, but Ruby continued on with her less potent point anyway.
"What im trying to say is... You don't learn something properly by hearing it once, Argus. Repeating stuff is a good way to make sure you understand it."
"But I do understand it..."
"Yeah?" Ruby stood from the long wooden bench, stepping over and kneeling in front of him.
"What are you-" He stopped talking as she grabbed one of his shoes, ripping one of the laces and undoing it in a single motion.
"I've shown you how to tie your shoes before right?" He was already frowning, now staring into her eyes again as she smirked. "Well? Surely you understood my explanation? You did at the time afterall... and I've shown you quite a few times." He grumbled something in response, turning his eyes away. "What was that, Kiddo?"
"...Can you please tie my shoelaces...?" She raised an eyebrow, waiting for the rest of the sentence. "Please...? Mum...?"
She smiled again, moving both hands down and working away at his laces. "Hey Argus?"
"Yeah...?"
"Fifty-one to Zero."
He let out a massive groan. "Muuumm!" All his complaining did was make her laugh a bit. Once his shoelaces were redone, she stood and started fixing up his hair a bit. "Mother usually does this."
"Yeah, but I think I've figured out how she likes it."
"What about how i like it..." She stopped almost immediately after his mumble.
"Do you want it done another way?" She had so quickly switched from playful to full 'mum mode'.
"No... just... I guess some stuff maybe...?" They weren't talking about hair anymore.
"Argus... I know this won't make much sense right now-" She continued fixing up his hair, the white locks looking nothing like her own, much straighter and lacking any of her spikey spots. "But... you're five. As smart as you are - and trust me, you're an incredibly smart kid - we do know some stuff better then you do."
"Like the fact that I can't leave the castle...?"
"Hey, neither can I." She flashed him a big grin, but it didn't change his expression from a frown. "I promise. When you're older, you'll be able to leave as much as you want. Just... for now, if you want to head out? Just gotta send one of your Aunties with you."
"Hey, umm... mum...?" She tilted her head, sitting down again to join him on the long chair. "Are... are you and mother fighting...?"
"What? Why would you think that? Did she say something...?" Her worry was somehow more powerful then earlier.
"No I... well... kinda...? L-last night... I... well, I had a bad dream... I wanted to talk to you but... when I got to your door... I could hear yelling..." He nervously looked at her after he finished... but she didn't look how he expected. Rather, she seemed more embarrassed or flushed...
"O-Oh. Umm... I... I wouldn't worry about that, ok Kiddo? In fact... how about we go grab some cookies. And in exchange, you don't tell your Mother that you heard that."
"O...k...?" Maybe she was right about knowing some thing better then him... he didn't get that at all.
"So..." The air was thick with a tense atmosphere. Every word left Ruby flinching and averting her eyes... Argus felt a little bad for her, but not so bad that he would admit any fault of his own and suffer his mother's wraith same as Ruby currently was. "What i am to understand... is that you took our son to the kitchen for cookies, after he ran out from his lesson. Again." The Queen stood tall and proud, an unimpressed expression on her face completing the look that her whole outfit seemed to be going for. A rather lovely blue dress that sat on the shorter side, it seemed to switch from a dress to a suit half-way down, and somehow gave off the aura of both.
His other parent was currently kneeling on the floor, resembling a child in trouble a lot due to this situation... though in reality she was probably just kneeling because Weiss was shorter then her otherwise. The Queen stood with crossed arms, a good few metres away from her wife and a tense aura radiating from her as she stared the woman down.
"I mean... that's not exaclty how I would describe-"
"Ruby." The girl in question let out a squeak, and Argus held in a laugh. He himself was standing a bit off to the side, watching this take place... and knowing that he was probably up for the chopping block next. "Explain your exact thought process."
"Umm... well... y-you see..." She awkwardly glanced at Argus before her eyes darted back to Weiss. His mum raised her hand and snapped her fingers, a barrier quickly shooting up and around the Prince to cut off any and all sound from entering. He couldn't tell exaclty what was said between them, but the barrier dropped a few seconds after... and both Queens were averting their eyes from each other with a light blush.
"I... I see." After clearing her throat, she turned to Argus and concentrated her eyes onto the young prince... he had somehow forgotten that he was up next. "So. Why did you leave your lesson. Again."
Before he got a chance to answer, his mum had stood quicker then he had realised and stepped between them. "Woah umm... Weiss, I kinda... already talked to him about it."
Ruby was once again the subject of the Queens cold stare. "And was that just a talk, or was he punished."
"I mean... he dosent need to be punished." She was fighting a losing battle, and everyone in the room knew it.
"Ruby... I don't appreciate you making me sound like the bad guy here." In one sentence, his mother had managed to completely and utterly defeat Ruby. The woman in red glanced between them both, before letting out a sigh and stepped back out from between them.
Argus gulped as his mother approached. He had known that this was coming, yet his fear was enough to root him in place rather then force him to flee. She stopped in front of him, her eyes staring into his own for a moment, before she pulled him in for a hug. "You're lucky I love you..." The words left her with a sigh, and just as quickly as the hug began did it end and she step back away from him slowly... but he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her waist again anyway. The hug resumed, and all was right.
Ruby Schnee
"So, how are things?" She gave her guest a smile as she put her drink down, glancing around momentarily to make sure Argus wasn't going to try and get a sip of the amber liquid again. But the boy was nowhere in sight.
"Oh, you know... busy with wedding preparations." The literal redhead gave an awkward laugh, but Ruby frowned a bit in response.
"Hasn't it been like... four years since you got engaged?" There wasn't exaclty a delicate way to put that, or more accurately perhaps, was that Ruby wasnt willing to find one.
"Y-yes... we haven't even gotten to the actual... planning... part of 'wedding planning'." They shared a look for a moment and Ruby wasnt exaclty sure what to say. The situation between Jaune and his family right now wasnt... great. His oldest sister was fighting to be the family's heir after Jaune had told them he was engaged to Pyrrha, unfortunately Conquest was too honest for her own good and was upfront about her inability to conceive. Thus, Saphron had made an argument that Jaune and Pyrrha wouldn't be able to continue the family line, so Jaune was unfit to be the head of the family.
Things would have been smoother if Jaune had just let that go, but both Pyrrha and his mother refused to let him give up on his right... which was only technically his because he awakened the power of the Hero.
"You know, Weiss and i could probably-"
"Ruby, as much as i would appreciate the help... getting outside support would more then likely prove Saphron's point..." This was already a touchy subject to bring up, but adding Pyrrha's aversion to help into the mix was sure to make things even worse.
"What point?"
"That Jaune and I aren't a... 'strong' couple." The redhead had to do her best to not use air quotes, but Ruby mostly ignored that... instead focusing on the ridiculous nature of the sentence.
"Strong...? You guys are- You're-! He's-!" Ruby couldn't even finish her points, the complete and utter confusion overwriting her anger, so much so that she stood up from the couch in a huff.
"I know... I know... trust me, I was... quite upset when she said that for the first time as well."
"I bet!" She returned to sitting and immediately reached for her drink. "But seriously... she actually said that to your face?"
"Apparently the title of Conquest dosent inspire much fear in her."
"Did you try actually using Conquests power on her?"
"Ruby-"
"I know, I know." It was a question that didn't need to be asked, of course she didn't. Pyrrha never used the active 'Conquering' power that her title granted, in fact she mostly kept it purposefully weakened. If the Amazon didn't do that, it was highly likely that she'd have more copied Affinitys available to her. Currently she only had Jaune's, Ruby's, and Yang's. Not that any of those were exactly bad to have.
"Hey, Mum?" The voice made Ruby immediately whip around and eye the boy down, her vision focoused on him standing behind her and she tried her best to work out how long he had been there before saying something... but, to no avail. "Mother told me to come check on you."
"Really?" Ruby reached over and casually pulled him up and over the couch, plopping him down beside her and opposite Pyrrha. She shifted her drink a bit away from him on the table between the two couches as well. "What did she say exactly?"
"Something about... 'not losing control and nearly starting a war'?" He seemed quite confused at the request, but the damage it did to Ruby was still all the same. Only dulled by his lack of knowledge on the subject.
"Yeah... fair enough." Only after slumping back into the chair did she notice Pyrrha's expression, one of empathetic pain.
"She's still bringing that up?"
"It's more of a joking thing nowadays... besides, I might have done some stuff today that deserved it." Ruby had a bad habit of being too lax on Argus, and while that did make him really like her... it also had the adverse effect of often forcing Weiss into the 'mean parent' role. She could catch it sometimes, but more often then not Ruby ended up doing more harm then good by being too gentle with their son.
Sometimes it did feel like she was the only one that remembered he was five and not ten, though.
"Speaking of which, how is your... eating habits?" A question of concern from a friend, and so soon after she herself had denied help from Ruby?
"Classic Nikos hypocrisy."
"Mums really weird with eating!"
Ruby twitched a bit, as if an arrow had hit her. "Thank you for just yelling that out, Argus."
"Its true!" She couldnt be too upset with him about this, mainly because the bright and chipper attitude was rarely seen from the mostly serious Prince. "You don't eat meat-!"
"I mean, that's a rather normal dietary-" Pyrrha's defense was appreciated, but cut off quickly.
"Or anything soft! I once caught Mum eating a frozen strawberry!"
"Ok, now bringing that one up was just plain cruel."
Pyrrha slowly and really rather awkwardly turned to Ruby as if to ask for confirmation on that particular story... to which the Queen Consort could only turn her head away in embarrassment. "I just... really wanted to eat one again..." It hadn't tasted the same anyway.
"Have you... gotten help with this, Ruby?" A rather serious tone to suddenly switch to, one Argus caught onto immediately.
"I... there's no point. Nothing can change that I still remember it... the feeling... the..." She glanced over and Silver eyes met Argus's own mismatched ones, orbs usually so serious looking were widened in concern for his parent... which Ruby couldn't allow. "Ah, but it's fine! I still got cookies, right!?" Her attempts to change the tone back to happy or chipper were desperate, and obvious to both her friend and child... not that they could judge.
Pyrrha barely ever opened up about her own problems... and as seen by earlier today, Argus had some problems of his own that Ruby would have to sort out. Her issues with food didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, after all, it had been over five years since then. She was pretty used to the way she ate by now.
"How is your combat training going?" Pyrrha seemed to pity her plight, and threw the Dragon an escape rope to move on with the conversation.
"Well, I can beat Blake when we're not using magic now." Even though it came naturally to her, there was still a lot of training necessary to properly wield a scythe. "Next target is Yang, then who knows... maybe I'll go after you." She smirked a bit, but Pyrrha just shrugged gently.
"Or you could challenge the Queen."
"Weiss wouldn't beat you in a fight."
"No, but in terms of refined skill and mastery over a single type of combat, she has me beat. Weiss is better with a rapier then i am with any single type of combat." Ruby rolled her eyes. As usual, Pyrrha was neglecting to bring up the fact that that was mostly due to her using many different fighting styles... all of which she was probably only slightly lower on the skill range then Weiss in. "Would you say you're better or worse then Qrow with a scythe?"
"Don't know... haven't gotten the chance to test it out." She smiled gently, though it was rather pained. Qrow had been stuck in Vacuo with only short breaks for the last five years... Weiss had recalled him after only the one, but the Harbinger had insisted on remaining to watch... though, soon that was going to change.
"Speaking of, any news on when he may be returning?" Pyrrha's question changed Ruby's slight smile to a proper one, and she gave a quick nod.
"Will I finally get to meet Uncle Qrow?!" Argus's excitement was back, but Ruby was momentarily stumped by if it was right or not for him to call Qrow 'uncle'.
"Yeah. He should be coming back next week." She patted his head gently as she spoke, and her smile was on fullblast.
Vale would soon have both of its Harbingers again.