Okay guys, so I'm doing a bit of writing to finish off this weekend. The truth is I had some extra motivation because I know i won't be able to write for a bit once August hits, and I really wanted to get to this part of the story. As you can tell, I really am going to try and put more character development in here. Doing this with Jem, Nala, and Winter.

I'm going to try to incorporate more of RWBY and JNPR but its hard when the focus of the story is Jem and Winter, but like I said I'll try.

Now I do try and relate my own experiences in life with Jem, but there are a ton of differences but I want to make some things clear.

Jem at times may exhibit some qualities other would consider mary sueish, buuuttt I got some news for you.

If I mention Jem is a good singer, its because I actually used to be in Choir and still am a decent singer. If I mention hes fit, keep in mind I am pretty fit. If I mention the books he reads being classical literature, well thats because I believe a man should be well read and educated when it comes to fine literature.

I get it, that all sounds like some bullshit you expect out of perfect characters. But the thing is my personal beliefs that I try to live up to are that a man should be well read, that he should be strong, that he should have a sense of honor and duty. So when I put those qualities in Jem, its not out of some mary sue power fantasy, its because I genuinally believe those qualities are necessary and something that I myself strive for.

If you're not seeking to improve yourself in life, and getting better at being a man, then what the fuck are you doing with your life?

Next Morning in the woods

"Mister! Mister! Wake up!" Jem was feeling someone poke his face.

"Ugh, five more minutes." He said as Nala was still poking him.

"Plleeeaasse, I'm bored." She said as she had been awake for thirty minutes but didn't know what to do.

"Well okay." He said as he woke up and noticed it was seven in the morning.

"Eh, not a bad time to wake up." He said as he stretched his arms out and reached for his Betsy Ross shirt.

"What are we going to do today?" She asked as she was wearing her stetson.

If Jem knew any better, she didn't even take it off when she went to bed. It was kind of adorable.

"Well, we have to go back home today, but don't worry, there will be a lot to do."

He completely forgot what it was like to be a kid and have endless amounts of energy, hell even though he tried to wake up early to workout and everything, it still had nothing on the amount of energy kids had, he was certain when he was a kid he could spend the whole day running and climbing trees and doing whatever the hell he wanted and still have plenty of energy left over for when it was time to go to bed, meaning he couldn't sleep. But now, if he did something slightly strenuous, he had to take a nap afterwards. Okay it wasn't nearly that bad, but it also wasn't as easy to be an adult and having a limited amount of energy.

"So Mister? Whats your home like?" Nala asked as Jem started to pack up some of the camping gear.

"Eh well, lot of nice open space, great views, and peace and quiet all around." He said as he really didn't know how else to describe it.

"What about the others from Remnant? What are they like?"

"Well, mostly human, but one faunus, and they're huntsman teams from Beacon." He said as she looked confused.

"Wait...so they came from Beacon...but I'm from Menagerie...how the hell did we both get transported here by the same dust?" She asked as something wasn't adding up.

"Honestly kid, I don't really know." He said as he finished packing up the tent and all of his gear.

"Now my truck isn't too far from here, so lets go." Jem said as Nala still didn't have proper footwear for hiking, so she hopped up on his shoulders like a kid and rested her back against his hiking pack.

"Onward!" She said pointing a finger forward.

"..." Jem was honestly trying not to gush over how cute that was.

"Okay kid lets go." He said as he started the hike back.

Again, it wasn't very long, the area he was camping in had a small parking lot close by, mostly because this area was popular with hikers and campers, but hadn't been as popular since the Pandemic of 2020. So Jem mostly got it all to himself.

"And there she is, The Black Dahlia." Jem said pointing to his new and improved pickup truck.

He had finally traded in his old Dakota for a big boy truck. So He bought himself a 2019 Ram Big Horn. It was a tough choice to make because he was also looking at a Jeep Gladiator, and despite liking it, he wanted a more traditional looking pickup, so he went with the Big Horn. But it had everything he wanted on it, Four wheel drive, full size pick up, and it was great for his outdoor adventures, so overall he was very happy with it.

"Why do you call it The Black Dahlia?" Nala asked not being familiar.

"Well because of-" Suddenly Jem cut himself off.

Maybe telling her he got the name from a famous murder case wasn't the best idea.

"Eh, you know what, I misspoke, its actually called the black pearl!" Jem said covering himself.

"Oh? Whats that?"

"It's a ship from a pirate movie."

"OH COOL! CAN WE WATCH IT?!" Nala loved pirate movies.

"Sure! When we get back!" Jem breathed a sigh of relief.

That was so much easier to explain then trying to explain the murder case to her. Even though based on what he had heard so far, her life had been anything but easy, considering how she was an orphan, he still only saw her as that innocent little lion cub who just fell out of the sky, so he was not going to try and potentially scar her for life with tales of a mutilated corpse.

Besides who cares if he had to change the name? The Black pearl was still cool! And it was a friendly topic for her. Granted even though the movies did technically have the living dead, he was certain it was still appropriate for kids! He threw all the hiking gear in the back of the truck and carried Nala over to the back seat of the truck, closed the door and did one final check to make sure he had everything he needed.

"Alright Nala, you ready?" He asked as she nodded her head.

"Yep!" Suddenly he heard something.

GRRRRRRRRRRR

"...Was that your stomach?" He asked as she blushed.

"Uhm...yeah...we didn't eat breakfast yet..." She said as Jem was reminded of that.

Needless to say, both of them had eaten that big ass catfish like it was nothing last night, and then he decided to cook the burgers up anyways, since they were both still hungry. So they ran out of food that night.

"Don't worry kiddo, I'll make us both some breakfast when we get back." He said as he suddenly saw a pinky stuck out from behind.

"Promise?" She said as Jem again felt like his heart was going to explode.

"Promise." He said as he held his pinkie out to her.

"Yay!" She said as Jem seriously just wanted to pick her up and hug her like a teddy bear.

"Don't worry kid, I'll make us a nice breakfast."

He was sure of it.

Winter

Winter couldn't believe what she was doing now. If one were to look at her, you would find nothing out of the ordinary, it was just a woman out on a run in a tank top and short shorts. But there was something a bit different. Winter knew she was going to go for a run this morning, especially since the weather was getting warmer and warmer, so she was going to finally be able to get out of winter clothes for running. The issue however was she remembered most of the athletic clothes she had been using were in the wash, and Jem's mother hadn't washed them yet. So she had to find alternative clothes.

Sadly the only options were Jem's clothes since no one in Weiss's friend groups had anything that fit her. Not even Pyrrha who was the closest to her in size had anything that could fit her. But that might have been because her athletic clothing was also in the wash with Winters, so there was nothing they could do. So reluctantly, Winter went to go get some of Jem's clothes.

But the closest thing she got was a pair of his Mjolnir ranger panties. And even though it was a bit embarassing, she didn't have anything else to put on, so she was currently rocking Mjolnir on her left thigh. On top of that she had to borrow one of his shirts. Which was a Rogue Fitness t shirt with 'Don't Weaken' across the front. Luckily she didn't have to do anything like borrow socks or shoes. But it still felt weird wearing the ranger panties.

But she decided not to worry about it, she put in some wireless head phones, borrowed one of Jem's old cell phones which still had spotify, and hit random.

Well, okay, she actually didn't. Mostly because she learned not to do that when connected to his spotify. Needless to say she learned not to do that again after the first time she heard Mayhem's Chainsaw Gutfuck.

But she decided to just hit the playlist labeled 'Gym' there was about a 50/50 chance of getting something catchy or getting something that would scare her.

"MAN AND MACHINE AND NOTHING THERE IN BETWEEN! THE FLYING CIRCUS AND A MAN FROM PRUSSIA!" Okay this was acceptable for her.

So his Gym playlist was mostly rock, metal, black metal, power metal, and various other types of metal. He also had his playlist simply listed as 'South' which was literally just multiple Hank Williams Jr songs, along with a lot of Southern rock bands. And don't even get her started on the 'Bad day' playlist.

But that was besides the point. She had a cup of coffee and got to running. The music of Sabaton helping her get her adrenaline going.

But that was not the thing that was on her mind. Since she had some time away from Jem, she found it odd that he was invading her thoughts like it was Poland in the 1930s.

The point was he was with her nearly 24/7 when he wasn't at work, after all they did share accommodations, but there was more than that. And it wasn't just the whole walking in on him naked. Granted that was a whooolle other problem in her head. But there was something else. Since she had been here she had maybe seen Jem's soft side maybe on a few rare occassions. She knew it existed, but most of the time she had to deal with the goofball side. He knew she was a serious person so why didn't he try to act more serious to match her? She didn't really know.

"Can you get the stick out of your ass?" A voice in the back of her head said and she got mad.

"I do not have a stick up my rear!" She said not believing the crudeness of the voice.

She shook her head of the thoughts as she picked up speed. Not even noticing Jem's black truck passing by as she continued her run.

This whole situation was so confusing, she was still in denial about more of the 'primal' thoughts and dreams she had about Jem. It was mostly overshadowed by the fact that she didn't really know a lot about him. She may have been living here for awhile, and yet just last night she learned a lot more about him just by actually stalking his social media pages. And while she could see a hint of what he was like in those, she never saw him doing any of the wise mentor stuff since she was here, granted, he also didn't go COMPLETELY out of his way to act like a parody of himself, but most of the time he was still acting like fun was his main priority in life.

So how did she get the other side out of him? She thought back to that one conversation they had a while ago back when they were discussing JRR Tolkien's work and Jem's philosophy for life and health. She thought about it long and hard, and she remembered how he mentioned that sometimes he did things to irritate her because she made it so well known that she disliked some of the things he did and didn't bother to hide it.

But then there were other times when she was relaxed and they would talk like normal people. Almost as if the tension from having to deal with conflict made him act a certain way in order to prevent him from having to open up to-

Winter stopped dead in her tracks.

Come to think of it, they had only had their good conversations when he had been completely relaxed, but if there was tension in the air, he wouldn't talk about anything like that, and would seek to distract her with annoyances. And that was when it hit her, while he was certainly not free of guilt, she saw that obviously the way she was acting to her host wasn't usually the kind that warranted nice conversations, but usually a Bert and Ernie type of situation, where the goofy one distracted the smart one.

"Now that I think about it, most of the time when he says or does something I find irritating, I usually don't let it go..." She usually just tried to get him to stop.

"...Well, he does still irritate me, but, maybe if I get him in a more relaxed setting, we could learn a lot about each other." Winter started to think.

Most of the times at night right before bed, Jem was pretty relaxed, and she rememebred how usually before bed, both would be reading their books in silence, occassionally talking about what they were reading. It was nice and peaceful, and Winter was certain she could ask Jem more about himself without it devolving into pure annoying antics.

"Hmmm, I'll try later tonight." Because Winter would admit, she had an interest in Jem ever since she saw his softer side on his instagram.

She turned around and started making her way back, a new wave of determination hitting her. She knew it wouldn't take her long to run back, after all, she was much faster than the average human on this planet. So all she had to do was keep her current pace.

"What should I ask him about though?" She figured she would have to do it in a way that didn't sound alarming.

After all, she told him she had stalked his instagram before, and he didn't take it too well and thought it was creepy. So he doubt that telling him that again would do her any good. But that started another problem. How did she talk to him about his soft side? She needed something to bring it up without sounding creepy? But what was she going to do?

She saw his motorhome and slowed down to a walking pace. As she got closer and closer she smelled the sweet aroma of food cooking.

"Hmmm, smells like bacon, eggs, and pancakes." She smiled a bit at that.

Jem must have gotten back from his camping trip and was cooking breakfast. Hopefully he was making some for her too. Despite her little incident with eating too much bacon, she would admit it was good, and she did enjoy his cooking.

And the fact that his protein pancake recipe was actually good and healthy made her happy.

But something was different she could have sworn she heard Jem whistling a tune. That was new. She also heard him laughing a bit as she heard the sound of food cooking.

"Odd, he's never that happy when he cooks, I guess that camping trip did him good?" Winter said to herself as she went up to the door of the motorhome.

"There you go! Nice bit of eggs, pancakes and some bacon! Didn't I tell you it would be good?" She heard Jem's voice say as she got confused.

"Thank you! It looks so good!" She heard another voice say, and she got even more confused.

Who was that?

"Morning Jem I was-" Winter took a step in and froze as she saw what was going on.

She saw Jem ruffling a little girls hair...a little FAUNUS girls hair as he was serving her breakfast. ANd she was nothing but all smiles.

Both heard the door open and both saw who had just peaked her head in.

"Oh hey Winter! You're ba-" Jem greeted but was cut off as he noticed Winter was wearing his Mjolnir ranger panties.

"Wow you look..." He was actually surprised at how good she looked.

"Mister can I eat now?" Nala asked as he looked down at her.

"Of course Sweetie, looks like I need to cook for three anyways." He said with a warm smile as Winter couldn't believe what she was seeing.

It wasn't the fact that he was cooking, it wasn't the fact that he looked so warm and loving when he was talking to that little girl.

It was the fact it was a little FAUNUS girl...on Earth...when they were the only ones from Remnant here...

"Oh...Yeah...uhm Winter...we got a lot to talk about." Jem said as he went over and started cooking more food.

Oh that was an understatement.