Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I own nothing.

Chapter 17. Vacation Days 02

Weekend morning, on an apartment balcony

Nothing wakes up a body like the crisp autumn air of Vale.

The summer humidity has passed, and the biting winter chill was a long way off. If Jaune had any complaints, it would be the fading of color. More leaves were falling off trees than not, denuding the already sparse plant life of his view.

He sat on a chaise lounge chair- no, he rested, he reclined, he lounged on it, because nobody could remain vertical on such a perfectly-designed object. The balcony he was on overlooked other rooftops as the rows of apartment buildings dropped lower along a hill. In the far distance, one could see a boardwalk, and the sea beyond.

After their taxi ride, Jaune, Melanie, and Miltia discovered their mistake. The police had closed off the Club, and left a squad to guard the premises. The trio noted the obvious, that their appearances might spark questions, and they had little desire to spend the rest of the night in a jail cell. So, Jaune played lookout while his teachers snuck in the window of their room to grab a change of clothing and supplies (and to rescue a fox plushie with a red bow). An uneventful escape later saw them in the back of the same taxi, speeding off to one of Uncle Hei's apartment properties on the ritzier side of town. They left their new favorite driver a generous tip, swore that they will always call him for any rides they need, and entered their hideout for the night. Jaune didn't remember much after that, having showered and changed in a stupor before crashing on one of the beds.

Credit to Uncle Hei, he furnished the apartment with quality beds. Not even five hours on the mattress, and Jaune felt like he slept for a week. The twins had the right idea when they opted for this place rather than the ones infested by college students. With the new semester started, the dormitories likely never went below the noise level of a riot.

He preferred this. Just being able to lay back and quietly bask in the early morning sun.

It's much more preferable to last night's debacle when-

"Good morning, *yaaaawn* gopher~"

Melanie, freshly awakened, slumped onto the other chaise lounge. She curled up, looking ready for a revisit to dreamland. For all her provocative styles, whether casual or battledress, she wore a set of sweatpants and sweatshirt today. Her go-to for a day without plans.

"Hey, Melanie. Slept well?"

"Yeah? Well enough, I guess. The bed wasn't the best, and there's a coin or something under the sheets that dug into my hip, but I made do with it."

Jaune raised a brow. Was Melanie some fairy tale princess that can't sleep with a pea under the mattress, or was he a plebeian with poor taste in beds?

"Just don't leave a bad review." Melanie laughed.

"I really should! I'm not letting anyone rent this unit. It's mine, now."

"Terrible bed and all?" She sniffed imperiously.

"Replaceable."

The apartment was pretty nice, boasting a mix of modern and traditional Valean aesthetics with a heavy use of white. The room featured decorative wall panels from floor to ceiling, painted in white, with white parquet wood floor set in a herringbone pattern. The high ceiling carried a crystal chandelier, and the tall windows and the glass door to the balcony allowed sunlight to naturally brighten the rooms. The marble fireplace mantel pushed the apartment past chic and into the realm of opulence, although Jaune couldn't see any reason to use the thing when the unit has a modern heating system.

In contrast, he would have to admit that the furniture fell a bit short. Uncle Hei likely bought them in bulk to decorate all the apartments. The chairs and tables were the worst offenders, possessing that blocky and rough look that spoke of mass-produced goods. It matched the color of floor and wall, but would have worked better in an apartment with an industrial style.

Jaune tapped his chin.

"I would get some more couches instead of chairs, maybe with a sapphire blue accent to really pop against the white."

"Gopher, you are a man of taste. I like it. I, on the other hand,would like to see more kitchen appliances. Look at that counter. Look at that bottom-barrel coffee maker. This place is almost on the upper-class side of the city, and they'll laugh us out of the neighborhood if we don't have our own expresso machine and grinder. We need a press and a dripper, too." He met her with a roll of his eyes. Coffee snob.

Needless extras aside, the unit could use some sprucing up if they were to claim it. There was a basic set of pots and pans, and a few plates and utensils, but most of the shelves contained nothing.

The fridge had nothing inside, too. And the gnawing in his stomach could not be ignored much longer. Why was he so hungry?

And he was not the only one.

"Jaune, make food. Your master is starving."

"There's probably a breakfast place around here, we can wake Miltia up and go." Melanie blew a raspberry.

"Where's the love in that? I want breakfast food, but not the piles of grease restaurants make."

"Pancakes?"

A simple food that he has gained a lot of experience making.

"Hmm. Too heavy. Too plebeian."

A hand flew to grasp his heart, as Jaune felt an arrow lanced through his being. This was the second time his tastes have been cast into doubt.

"Crepes!"

Jaune and Melanie turned towards the voice to see Miltia leaning on the door, wearing a short robe over her chemise. She waved.

"I want something sweet, so let's make crepes."

Crepes, or as Jaune liked to call them, pancakes-but-harder. All it took for pancakes was to pour the batter into the center, wait for bubbles to burst, then flip. The thick slices kept the form well, and turned easily. The crepe's thin layer allowed little mistake in heating and flipping, and required a deft hand and more attention. The best way to turn the batter over, he found, was to leave the spatula and instead use the fingertips. Less batter breakage, but the tradeoff was more fingers burned. In short, pancakes-but-harder.

Often served with various jams, spreads, or fruits, they were light and sweet as the sisters desired. Their meager heft can be compensated through quantity. A glance to Melanie confirmed the order of the day.

Crepes.


M&M's Cooking Lesson #01 Crepe

Step 1. Get someone else to do it.

"Please, Jaune, pleeeease."

"We'll mess it up. You do it, Jaune."

Miltia looked on with pleading eyes, as Melanie batted her lashes. They, and Jaune, were waiting while the blended mixture of milk, eggs, flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt rested in the fridge. To tide themselves over, they picked at the sliced fruits throughout the half-hour, during which time the sisters admitted that they did not actually know how to make crepes and couldn't help. Personally, he thought they just liked having other people pamper them. When it came to Melanie and Miltia, it was always a possibility.

Oh, he would end up cooking it all, no doubt on that. Crepes were harder than pancakes, but that was all relative. He had the hang of it by now. For the moment, however, he would enjoy their frustration. Unfortunately, Melanie had other ideas.

"How about I make frappes, while you take care of breakfast?"

What did she say?

Melanie's statement stopped Jaune in his tracks. She had just suggested that the overpriced deliciousness that was a frappe could be made at home. If so, she had made an offer he could not refuse.

Then again, he knew from experience that she would shamelessly lie to get her way. She taught him to do the same, after all. Jaune voiced his doubt.

"I don't think we have the ingredients." She flashed a smirk.

"Way ahead of you. I bought a pack of ground coffee earlier. We have milk and sugar here, and that's all the ingredients you really need." She noticed his incredulous stare. "Pffft. The cafes only make it seem difficult to charge high prices."

*Ding*

The timer signaled the moment of destiny (and that the batter was ready). Was this deal enough? Could Jaune agree to make breakfast for this?

Uh. Duh.

He poured the mix into a heated pan, then swirled the pan so a thin circle of batter filled the bottom. A minute later, he checked the underside to see a perfect golden color. Jaune pinched the edge, and lifted the crepe up and over to the other side in a smooth motion.

A head poked over his shoulders. Miltia was looking at the crepe with shining eyes.

"Huh. That's easier than I thought." Jaune nodded.

"All you need to do is to have confidence, and complete the flip in one movement. Don't worry about the hot pan."

Wait, did I believe dad's advice because it worked in cooking?

Miltia ignored his moment of self-reflection, and bumped him out of the way with her hips.

"Let me try the next one."

"Sure, sure. Let me finish this piece. Remember that this side takes about twenty seconds to cook, so don't get distracted."

In the end, even Melanie tried her hand at one. And smacked his shoulder when her fingertips were burned, setting off a poking war. Taking advantage of their distraction, Miltia stole the choicest pieces of strawberry for her crepes.

Spotting the danger, Jaune and Melanie put aside their differences to stake their own claims.

The main draw of crepes for Jaune was the many combinations he could make. Banana, hazelnut, and caramel made for a popular choice, and peaches and cream was a simple yet understated personal favorite.

None of that mattered, because the three of them attacked the stacks of crepe like starving rats. Two hours it took to shop and cook, and they finished breakfast in twenty minutes, sacrificing taste in favor of speed to sate their ravenous hunger.

Which jam did he spread on the crepes? All of them.


M&M's Cooking Lesson #02 Frappe

After their meal, Jaune once again sat before his teachers for another lesson, one that held as much importance as any they've taught before.

How to make a frappe.

And the knowledge shattered him.

"I've been paying eight Lien for this!?"

Coffee, sugar, milk. A blender and an ice tray. He had access to every single one of these items back in the Club. He stocked them in his Beacon dorm. And he never looked up the recipe, instead going days at a time without this drink.

"Yup. With how much you paid so far, you could have a whole coffee station to make those really strong expresso frappes. Too bad, so sad, now focus!" Jaune picked up his notebook and pen. Melanie continued. "We're making do with the cheap coffeemaker, so brew it darker than you would with a normal coffee. Add sugar, but milk can go in later." Miltia tilted her head.

"Later as in, like, a minute?" Melanie matched her sister's look of confusion, head tilted to the same angle.

"Noooooo?" Realization dawned. "Oh! You thought- damn, you're going to be disappointed. Watch."

She swirled the sugar into the coffee, and poured the coffee into the ice tray. A suspicion crept into Jaune's mind, and it was proven correct when she placed the tray into the freezer.

"We're not getting frappes anytime soon, are we?" Melanie scratched her cheek, showing a nervous smile.

"It takes, like, five hours to freeze."

"It'll be evening by then."

"…Coffee tastes good no matter the time of the day."

"Yeah, sis, but Jaune and I would like to sleep at night." Melanie rallied.

"That's fine! We can use the caffeine rush to watch a movie or something, and follow the caffeine crash to sleep better."

That…huh.

"Is that how it works?"

Melanie crossed her arm, and displayed a grin full of confidence.

"That's how it fucking works."

Tapping his chin in contemplation, Jaune wondered if there could be some actual logic to Melanie's madness. He had heard that drinking coffee in the morning can make a person drowsy around noontime. So if a person would like to sleep at midnight, and drank a cup of coffee at 8PM…

His curiosity has been piqued.

-o-

With the lesson on hold, Jaune and the sisters proceeded to their next task of the day: Lazing around on a weekend afternoon. Jaune found it a novel experience.

The Club, even in the slowest of days, had dozens of people running to and fro, and a hundred tasks that Uncle Hei would try to palm off on his unpaid nephew. A minion would come running in, like clockwork, to report on tougher troublemakers in the neighborhood that Melanie and Miltia must deal with. Some kind of shenanigans would start behind the building, ones that Jaune would inevitably get dragged into. Lacking all else, the twins would pull him along to explore the city. Life in Vale was busy.

Beacon hardly improved the situation, piling more responsibility on Jaune's head. Time free meant time he could use to expand his reputation, or train with his team. He spent nights agonizing over ways to survive the next Combat Class, and opened a store on top of everything else. All of that, plus his trips to meet his teachers where they squeezed out every minute to have fun, kept him running full speed the past month.

Today, he passed all of those things to other people. His team was defending the store from the depredation of the Beacon student body. Uncle Hei's lawyers were doing the opposite, attacking Vale's police department with the zeal that only money can buy. Without staff and management, The Club closed for the weekend.

He almost had days like this before. Days before big events, and he conserved energy in preparation. Or days after incidents where The Club was left barely standing, or he was laid up in bed from injuries or illness. Those days always came with an anticipation of excitement to come, or a weariness beyond his years. This afternoon, spending his time on a couch playing a game, Jaune found tomorrow to be too far off to worry about. Neither did he feel that bone-deep exhaustion that made him want to shut his eyes and sleep the day away. That mattress was magical, no matter what Melanie said.

Either that or he was just numb from the things he did last-

A head dropped in his lap. Looking down, he was met with Miltia staring back. She has occupied most of the couch, and now claimed his leg for her Kingdom. Turning the scroll in her hand, she thrust the screen in his face.

"Check this out, the Night Market's doing a winter festival this year!" Jaune tried to read the screen pressed against his eyes.

"Did they not do this in past years?"

"Nope, the cold weather usually shuts all the stalls down. But this year the Council approved a higher budget because of the Vytal Festival. We're going to get industrial-strength heating units to keep the whole street warm!"

From her spot on the balcony, Melanie stopped her online searches for furniture to shout.

"Junior says it's at the end of December. Does Beacon start its break that week or the one after?"

A check with the schedule posted on the Academy's website revealed good news. The winter recess began two days before the Night Market's first night of the festival. At that, Melanie declared furniture shopping their top priority.

"You think Junior won't try to make us work during the festival if he sees we're free?" Miltia gasped.

"We can hide here for the week! Melanie, you genius!"

"Yup, yup. I am, no doubt."

Their plans set, they fell back into the tranquil afternoon. From time to time, Miltia would show them a meme or video she thought was hilarious. Melanie might interrupt to ask their opinion on a coffee grinder or whether they should get decorative folding screens. According to her, all the best Yakuza had them in their homes. They would laugh, argue, or sometimes merely hum in agreement, but soon enough a content silence would reign again.

Evening came, and rather than cooking, they ordered food to be delivered. Jaune tried to champion the cause for pizza, but Melanie vetoed the idea on account of the greasy smell that would cling to her apartment. Miltia wanted meat, her carnivore side rising to the surface after having only eaten fruits and sweets that day. They settled on Vacuan kebabs with rice and salads. As for dessert, there was…

"It's ready!"

""Whoo!""

Jaune and Miltia cheered for their long-awaited drinks. Melanie dropped the cubes of coffee ice into the blender and added milk. Then, in a move that sent Jaune's heart aflutter, she poured in another cup of chilled coffee.

"Regular ice makes the frappe too watery, but coffee ice makes it a bit too thick, so I like to add a bit more coffee to thin it but keep the strong flavor."

All Jaune heard was an excuse to mix coffee with more coffee. It was a decadence that he suspected would ruin café-made drinks for him in the future. This frappe was worth Eight Lien. He watched in rapt attention as Melanie divided the smoothly-blended drink into three glasses, topping each with whipped cream. She presented the frappes to much applause from her audience, and they moved to the balcony to enjoy their treats.

"What do you think, gopher? Best you ever had?"

"I'm regretting every Lien I've ever spent. This is delicious!"

"Good. As long as you're happy, this was worth it."

Smug satisfaction radiated from his teacher, and she sipped on her own drink. Jaune followed suit, enjoying the jolt of bitter flavor as he took in the night view.

Oh.

The thought came to him as he lounged under the moonlight, that this day was a day for him. He glanced at Melanie and Miltia, smiling when he caught their eyes. Yes, he was certain.

From the cooking and the inane conversation on drapes and beds, to the coffee and the comforting touches, all were their little ways to ease him from the events of the previous night. The twins have been where he was. They spent their entire life in the criminal underworld, and have encountered the many deaths of both enemies and allies. They might not have psychology degrees, yet the sisters developed their own methods to help him through their past experiences.

Would it work long-term to stave off the guilt and regrets? He has no clue.

But this day was worth it. Past the excitement, struggle, pain, and violence that was a Yakuza's life, he found a peace in this apartment that gripped his heart. He had been here a day, and he wished he could stay forever. Turning away so the two girls would not see, Jaune blinked away the teardrops.

They could be violent, they could be cruel, but unfailingly Melanie and Miltia would show him a kindness beyond anyone else.

How could what he did be a mistake, if it meant they were here with him?

Laying back on the lounge chair, Jaune sipped his frappe and thanked his lucky stars that he walked into The Club last summer.


"Sleepy yet?"

"Nope."

Gaining on midnight, Jaune's eyes refused to close. The coffee crash has not hit any of them yet, and they were watching their second movie, squeezed into a couch made for two. At this rate, they will likely watch a third.

Ah well. Sunday existed for people like them. Jaune settled in to watch the journey of a girl disguised as a boy, running off to war and adventure. On his left, Melanie checked the time. He felt her stiffen.

"Uhhh…Jaune? Look at your scroll for me." He complied.

"11:52PM. Sounds about right. Why, does yours say different?"

"Check the date."

Jaune did so, noting nothing unusual.

Well, besides the fact that it was Sunday eight minutes before it should be Sunday. Miltia leaned over to see the screen.

"What happened?"

Oh, nothing important. Except that they slept for all of Saturday instead of five hours. No wonder he woke up so rested, yet so hungry.

Jaune contemplated his options. The last Bullhead already stopped that night, and the first Bullhead won't make it to Beacon on time for classes. Goodwitch will have his hide, unless he set out at this very moment through the forest to get back on campus. A night of fighting through Grimm could see him back before the first bell. Or…

His muscles relaxed, his back meeting the cushion of the couch. In the tone of an enlightened man, he spoke.

"I'm skipping tomorrow."

Why march towards capture and punishment, when he can eke out another day of happiness?

Besides, Melanie and Miltia could use his help sprucing up this place.


Author's notes: A bit of slice of life because those three needed it.

Crepes. Flip with a spatula, flip the pan, or flip with the fingertips. Everyone seems to swear by a different method.

Frappes. A lovely homemade treat, if one cannot find a Café that does them well nearby. Chain stores use too much ice :(

Conquered Menagerie had its third chapter to round out the intro arc. New idea will get its first chapter next month.