A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone. Here's a story about Jaune bringing Pyrrha home for Christmas.
An Arkos Christmas
"Okay, I got the cart out," Jaune shivered at the back of the car while Pyrrha stood by the backseat. "Ready to load the presents?"
"Yup, just a sec…" went Pyrrha. She propped open the door and readied a stack of presents. "Ready when you are." Jaune brought the cart over and the two began loading it up with many boxes wrapped in colorful paper. "Geez, between your family and your sisters' own families, Christmas time must be a hell of a time, not to mention expensive."
"Boy, ain't that the truth. I dunno how Mom and Dad handled it by themselves before the oldest of us started working and could share in the gift buying, but that sure changed when Saphron got married, then Bleu, and so on." Jaune stacked the final present and marveled at how the stacks were as tall as themselves.
"I think I can get used to such massive gatherings though. Before Beacon, Christmas for us in Argus was me and Mother dressing up to attend the citywide festival."
"I heard of those. Everyone in the cities and towns decorates their towns and gather to partake in music, dancing, and don't they do some kind of gift exchange?"
Pyrrha nodded. "Yup. Everyone brings one or two gifts wrapped up, and we swap them around to everyone, and we keep exchanging until the time is up and we keep whichever gift we end up with."
"Sounds like fun. Maybe we should spend Christmas at Argus next time." With that said, the two pulled the heavy cart down the street and towards the massive Arc house that shone through the falling snow. When they reached the sidewalk leading to the front door, Jaune stopped in place. "Look, before we get to the door, can we go over something?"
"What is it?"
Jaune took a glance towards the grey sky and let out a long sigh. "If we go ahead and tell everyone that we're together, just be ready for the attention you'll get from my family." He noticed a smile on Pyrrha's lips, as if he was merely joking. "For real, the attention you used to get from your tournament fame will pale in comparison to the love and attention you'll get from my family, my mother especially; she'll coddle you like you were one of her daughters. I think it would be better if we stuck to being friends for tonight, you get me?"
Pyrrha nodded, but deep down, she felt this was not the right decision, and she was debating whether to defy Jaune's wishes. The two approached the front double doors and Jaune knocked three times sharply. A moment later and the doors opened to reveal a big, burly man with a face shrouded in scruffy blond hair and a beard. "Jauney boy, how are ya, son?!" his father boomed, snatching his son into his arms.
"Urgh…hi…dad…" Jaune moaned.
"And this must be Pyrrha! Jaune has said a lot about you back when you two were at Beacon! Come in, come in! Let me take care of the gifts!" He released his son and grabbed at the cart, pulling it with such ease into the house. "You two get comfortable, I'll get these under the tree." He moved past them towards the living room.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting…wow…" Pyrrha mumbled as she watched his father carry the gifts off with ease.
"Didn't expect such a weakling like me to come from him, huh?"
"Now I wonder what your mother is like, especially one that gave birth to eight children."
They hung their coats up in the hallway closet and moved towards the connecting living room and kitchen. In the kitchen, most of the women were at work whipping up a Christmas dinner feast, including the older Arc sisters and Jaune's mother Claire, while the rest of the sisters and the men were in the living room chatting it up, drinks in hand, bowls of snacks on the coffee table between them, and a Christmas movie playing on the big-screen TV. Jaune pointed out a tall woman carrying a casserole dish with a pair of oven mitts that she placed on the kitchen island. "That's my mother."
Pyrrha's mouth fell open. "No way, that beautiful woman? She doesn't look like a 40-something mother!" she whispered back to him.
Jaune simply shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, but don't act surprised given how gorgeous your mother was when I met her."
"My mother also didn't experience eight pregnancies and childbirths!"
"Oh my, this must be the Pyrrha Nikos I've heard so much about!" exclaimed Mrs. Arc, who threw off her oven mitts and bounded over, giving Pyrrha a big hug. "You just make yourself at home, okay sweetie? You don't have to worry about a thing!"
"Thank you, Mrs. Arc." Already, Pyrrha decided that she liked this woman.
"Please, call me Claire, and feel free to refer to my husband as Foncé too." Claire turned and introduced her to her daughters, Saphron, Bleu, Eden, Iris, Citrine, and the twins Daisy and Honey, all of whom gave Pyrrha a wave. "Now go mingle with everyone while we continue cooking the feast." She pushed the two towards the living room where they sat down with Foncé, Saphron's wife Terra, the husbands of the other sisters, and all the children, the latter of whom were gathered in a corner playing with toys.
"So good to see you again, Pyrrha, it's been too long," said Terra, shaking Pyrrha's hand as she sat down beside her.
"Almost two year, if I remember right." Pyrrha remembered how after they graduated from Beacon, Jaune introduced her to her eldest sister Saphron, her wife, and their kid Adrian, who conveniently lived in her hometown of Argus, practically a hop and skip away from her own house. "How have you been?"
"Just wonderful. I'm due for a promotion next year, but enough about me…" She scooted closer, taking note of how Jaune was deep in conversation with his father and both Bleu's and Citrine's husbands. "…are you and Jaune finally together or is he still as dense as ever?" Pyrrha blushed a deep red. "Oooo you are, aren't you? About time. How did it happen?"
"Well, we were stationed at a village in Vale to protect it from any wandering Grimm, and we got stuck with a single bed room at the local inn, and well, it just kinda…happened. We chose to share the bed, we found ourselves a little too close, some internal feelings were shared…"
"Oh, I see where you're going with this."
"What are you ladies talking about over there?" Foncé asked.
"Nothing!" Pyrrha hastily spat out, her face still red.
Terra, however, had a different answer, one she said rather loudly for everyone to hear. "Pyrrha was just telling me about how she and Jaune are finally together." Pyrrha slapped her hand over Terra's mouth, but it was too late. The silence that fell over the room was so great, you could hear a coin hit the floor.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" yelled Foncé, grabbing his son in a monster bear hug. "YOU FINALLY GOT YOURSELF A PRETTY GIRL!"
"MY LITTLE BOY IS IN LOVE!" Claire screeched, pushing aside her daughters to get to Pyrrha, picking her up and swinging her about. "OH THANK YOU, PYRRHA, YOU WONDERFUL GIRL!"
"WAY TO GO, JAUNEY BOY!" Saphron went over and gave him a light jab to the elbow.
Bleu let out a screech as she bounced on over, dancing between both Jaune and Pyrrha. "I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTY!"
"You're already an aunt, ya buffoon!" went Eden.
"But now I can be an aunt to Jaune and Pyrrha's children!"
"Okay, I just have one question, as the husband of one of the Arc children!" proclaimed Bleu's husband Shade. Everyone fell silent as he stood up and turned to Pyrrha. "How much of an oblivious dunce was Jaune from the day you fell in love with him to the day he finally got the hint?"
"For real! Why are all the Arcs such ditzes?!" shouted Terra, who jumped to her feet and pointed at Saphron. "I practically had to grab this woman, shake her violently, and yell at her 'I love you, you idiot, don't you get it?!'"
"Ugh, I know!" went Honey's husband. "When I told this girl I loved her, her response was, and I quote, 'uhhh what? You sure?' I had to prove it to her several more times after before she finally got the hint."
Claire got between everyone. "Okay, okay, that's enough talking about how how ditzy my children are, everyone, we should get the tables set for dinner, alright? Then afterwards, we can unwrap the gifts. Come on now." Everyone moved into the kitchen and gathered the plates, bowls, silverware, and glasses and moved into the dining room, which held a massive square table that surprisingly was able to fit all of them, plus a smaller table off to the side for the children to eat at. Everyone set the table and one by one carried the food out.
Everyone sat down, each of the Arcs with their respective spouses by their side. "Shall we say a prayer?" asked Claire. With hand in hand, everyone bowed their heads (with Saphron asking the kids to stay quiet and to at least bow their heads), Claire began. "Dear Gods Above, thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for blessing us with such wonderful people to call family, truly. May we all live happily till the end of our days."
"Thank you," everyone said in unison before raising their heads. The food was passed around, everyone soon dug in (with compliments to Claire and her daughters). Discussions about everyone's families soon began, each of them with plenty of good news to share. After dinner was finished and the dishes were gathered (later to be cleaned by the men), everyone returned to the living room to unwrap the gifts. Excitement rang about as each gift was unwrapped and opened, the children cheered as they were greeted with new toys, the wives were all astounded to receive jewelry and all kinds of things and the men were overjoyed to receive whatever their minds visioned as the best gift per their tastes as well.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Goodness, who could that be at this time?" Claire wondered aloud. She opened the door and found a beautiful woman with red hair and bronze glasses standing before her, Pyrrha's mother. "Um…hello…um…" mumbled a blushing Claire.
"Thetis Nikos." She introduced herself, shaking Claire's hand before stepping inside with a cart of gifts behind her. "Sorry that I don't have enough gifts for everyone, I didn't know who else besides the Arcs would be here." She moved into the living room and Pyrrha was surprised to see her mother. "Pyrrha, sweetie, sorry I didn't notify you ahead of time. I managed to get a flight to Vale before the blizzards started and I wanted to surprise everyone." One by one, she handed a wrapped present to each of the Arc children and their parents, as well as one for Pyrrha. "I hope you two have had a wonderful year since I last saw you both."
"We have," Pyrrha answered, taking Jaune's hand in hers, the sight which made Thetis smile.
Claire stood up and observed the massive family before her. "Well, I say this has been the most wonderful Christmas we have ever had yet!"
"It's not over yet," Terra exclaimed from behind Jaune and Pyrrha. The two glanced back and saw her holding mistletoe over their heads. "C'mon, you two, you know the rules."
"Do it do it do it!" Bleu squealed.
"Haha go on, boy!" boomed his father.
"I don't feel comfortable doing it in front of everyone…" Jaune mumbled. Pyrrha, however, thought differently as she grabbed him by his cheeks and pressed her lips to his with a soft hum, much to the joy of the entire Arc family who exploded into applause and coos.
"Ooo I hope this means I'll have some grandkids eventually!" went Thetis.
"Whoa whoa whoa, Mother, thinking a little too fast there," Pyrrha laughed.
"Then how about marriage? When can we expect to welcome Pyrrha into the Arc family?" went Bleu.
"Oh, don't you worry about that, she's already family to me." Claire went over and embraced Pyrrha in a warm hug.
"I think I can get used to Christmas with your family, Jaune." Pyrrha smiled as the Arcs all surrounded them, giving them hugs and congratulating him.
Truly it was the most wonderful Christmas for the Arc and Nikos family. Come next year, Jaune would bring Pyrrha back home to celebrate, this time with rings on their left hands and her sharing his name, and in another few years, they came to Christmas with a baby girl added to their family, but that is a story for another time.