With the Power of an Avalanche
Chapter 15
-Whitley-
Laughing, Whitley once more tried to copy the motion Yang was showing him, his dart going wide as it went outside the scored ring of the dartboard.
"Hah, glad to know you suck at something Wonder Boy." Yang laughed, the bombastic blonde lazily flicking her wrist as her own dart made an easy bullseye.
"Yeah, yeah, mock the guy who's never played darts before." Whitley rolled his eyes, but the grin never left his face. The backyard of the house he owned in Vale was lively as the cookout was in full swing, those he'd become closest to over his time in Vale all in attendance.
Yang had drug himself, Ruby, and Pyrrha over by the shed in the backyard to play darts. Or more accurately grandstand at her skill with darts given she was the only one of the four to have played before.
Over at the grill, Jaune was cooking up a storm, his best friend having not realized the little 'apron swap' until Velvet had blushed and Coco let out a wolf whistle. That he had made sure to hide any other aprons only added to the amusement as he saw Coco and the Malachite Twins all working to make the blond cook turn red.
Unfortunately, for them, the spite was still strong with Jaune.
He could see Junior mixing some drinks, sending a strong stink eye Yang's way which the blonde was thankfully ignoring.
Velvet was sitting with Fox and Yatsuhashi, the two giving Velvet a break from Coco's teasing.
There were even his newer friends, Nora and Ren. Or, more accurately, Nora had decided he was her friend and there was no compromise given nor surrender taken.
Honestly, none of them, or this, would have been accepted back in Atlas but that just made him love it, and Vale, all the more.
"So, Whitley, what are you gonna do with the court money?" Ruby asked as she sipped on her soda, giving him a grin at the fact that he'd helped her swap out the 'caffeine free' one Yang had tried foisting on her for a regular one.
"Jaune and I were actually talking about expanding." Whitley answered, eyebrows pinching in concentration as he made another throw with the dart "Open branches in other Kingdoms. Gonna start with Argus for now, Jaune mentioned his favorite sister lives there and she'd be able to help spread word and knows a few people who need jobs."
"Argus, isn't that where you went to school Pyrrha?" Ruby glanced over at her partner, the redhead nodding in surprise to learn that Jaune had family there as well.
"Yes, yes, it is." Pyrrha didn't seem displeased by the notion, however.
"Even Velvet mentioned she was considering investing her court winnings with us." Whitley nodded to the rabbit eared huntress, "Will say, branding alone would be worth bringing her on."
"What, cause of the ears?" Yang gave him an appraising look, silently questioning whether it was a race thing or a 'sex sells fetish' thing but not wanting to say it in front of Ruby.
"No, because we can rename the Café's from 'White Crescent Café' to 'The White Crescent CFVY House'." Whitley grinned as Ruby and Pyrrha both groaned miserably at the pun while Yang cackled.
"Hah, nice one!" Yang laughed, slapping him on the back hard enough to make him stagger, "By the way, is it just me or does Jaune look smug?" Whitley didn't even need to glance over to know what she was talking about.
"He is and he's earned it." Whitley nodded, a vicious smirk flitting across his face before he suppressed it. Unfortunately, not before the three girls noticed.
"What happened?" Ruby's eyes narrowed in her best attempt being intimidating. It was more adorable than scary, but he answered anyway.
"Jaune's dad is a prick, so Jaune got a chance to call home. He was happy to tell his sisters all about his accomplishments here in Vale and made sure that his dad overheard him."
"Prick how?" Yang narrowed her eyes, surprisingly serious.
"I'm not going to share details, those are for Jaune to decide." Whitley shook his head, not going to air the secrets his best friend had entrusted to him, "But one thing I don't think he'd mind me mentioning as an example was that his Dad didn't think that he could make it as a Huntsman since Jaune liked to do 'woman's work' like cooking."
As he shared the, not secret, things that Jaune had told him, Whitley never noticed the extra unnoticed guest narrowing two colored eyes.
-Clover-
Whistling to himself, Clover strolled through some of the seedier streets of Vale, near the lesser used docks. He wasn't in his uniform for now, simple jeans and an old, faded hoody. The last thing he wanted was for people with the stolen Atlas tech he was tracking to spot someone in an Atlas uniform. Winter would have stood out too much, uniform or no, so he had her going through records for any large shipments heading into Vale.
The Paladin was massive and not exactly something someone could smuggle into the city using a briefcase. A war mech of that size, as well as the armaments it would use and the tools to maintain it, would take up a lot of space. They'd have to be brought in by Bulkhead, train, or ship, meaning there would likely be some form of paper trail somewhere. Likely forged but if they could find it then they had a starting point.
Following his gut, he stepped into a small run-down store selling fishing lines and bait "Hey," he grinned, not batting an eye at the Anglerfish antenna on the man's head, "what sort of fishing lines do you have for sale? I haven't been fishing in ages and need a full set of kit." He'd learned a long time ago that the best way to use his semblance was to follow his gut. Those little nudges in the back of his mind often seemed random or asinine but nine times out of ten they were just what his semblance needed to get the results that he wanted.
"Hnn." The salesman grunted, all but slamming an old rod on the counter along with a bucket of bait "Five hundred lien." Not bothering to argue the clearly jacked up price, Clover forked over the cash and took the items.
"Thanks." He nodded to the man and set out to find a spot where his 'good fortune' told him to stop and fish. Settling on an old pier, he dropped his line in the water and waited. He could feel eyes on his back as he fished. Someone was watching him now and so he just had to wait for them to act, or to leave.
It was still fishing after all; he was just the bait.
-Omake-
-Whitley-
"…Are you as confused as I am?" Whitley whispered to Jaune who nodded dazed, the ever-cranky Blake Belladonna just as bewildered as they were as the three sat down together at a Restaurant in Vale.
The reason?
Kali Belladonna did not accept the word 'no'.
He'd been building his found family since he got to Vale.
Jaune had become the brother he'd always wanted.
Yang and Ruby were the sisters he wished his had been.
Professors Port and Oobleck were honestly something like fun Uncles with how often they checked in on him.
Junior looked out for him and the Malachites gave as good as they got with teasing.
He knew Jaune felt the same, his partner not having the best relationship with some of his own relatives. It was something their friend circle was all aware of by this point.
Then the Belladonnas had shown up at Beacon and apparently decided he and Jaune needed new parents.
"So, how has school been you three?" Kali Belladonna smiled happily as if the awkward atmosphere didn't exist. She was either more oblivious than anyone else he'd ever met, or Remnant's best actress.
"Um, good?" Jaune glanced over at Ghira Belladonna with a silent 'help me'.
"Answer your mother properly son." Ghira Belladonna apparently lacked the fucks to stop the chaos that was his wife. Next to him, Blake's head slammed against the table as she let out a miserable groan. If he wasn't still annoyed at her treating him as evil for a last name he might have felt some sympathy for her.
Might.
AN: After the recent talk in chapters and reviews about how Whitley was replacing Weiss and Winter with Yand and Ruby as 'new better sisters' this mental image showed up and wouldn't leave, so I had to share it.