(sigh) Not gonna lie here but slow chapters like this one kinda bore me to bits. I was on vacation for a bit but having to work on this chapter made me lose all motivations to continue. Well that and the fact that when my friends found out I was on vacation it all of a sudden became open season on my ass. Gotta love and hate them for that. Guess it goes to show how good my friends are after all this time.


Things were finally coming together on the design choice for the new uniforms, but even then her mind was filled with worry over what to do about their lessons. Winter cupped her chin in thought but after a good few minutes of thinking she decided to throw caution to the wind and try to use every second she had available to teach them. There was no telling if it would stick given the time she had available but if she could get them to remember even one dance correctly then maybe there was a chance.

"Just one dance" she whispered to herself as she pulled out her scroll and typed a message for both teams. If she could get them to learn just a single dance then she could run interference and keep them off the dance floor with some help from the Ace Ops. It was going to be tough but if she could get the teams on board with her plan then everything would work itself out. At least she hoped.

/

Jaune looked down at his scroll around the same time the rest of his team did along with team FNKI. In the message Winter told them all to gather in the Atlas academies great hall for an emergency meeting. When he looked up to the rest he noticed several pairs of eyes looking to him for an answer. Jaune met Flynt's gaze and received a shrug when his fellow team leader couldn't make up his mind. That sucked royally because it meant that it was now his decision to choose if they went with their agreed plans or canceled them.

His eyes fell back to his scroll, decision made in less then a second as he deleted the message and blocked the Specialist from any further communication. Jaune closed his scroll and pocketed it before looking back to his on lookers. "We've been running ourselves ragged these past few days without any down time after what happened in Shelter. And anyway we already covered our bases when we asked the General for permission. The way I see it, it can wait till tomorrow" the blonde said with a smile.

Everyone traded glances with each other but it was Ciel that asked the real question on everyone's mind. "Are you sure" she asked, "you know this means disobeying Winter of all people".

Jaune thought about it for a second. He owed Winter a lot for all that she had done for him, and in any other situation he might have considered it. But after going back to class, then being called to fight in the arena and then getting slammed with homework on top of that, they needed to unwind desperately. More then that he needed to unwind. He may have grown accustomed to being a workaholic but the team itself was too new to deal with such a strain. Jaune nodded, "shut down communication and enjoy your downtime, team leaders orders".

Flynt wore the biggest shit eating grin imaginable before he said, "You all heard the man, leaders orders". Neon whistled loudly while the others started laughing amongst themselves. Internally Jaune apologize to his mentor but couldn't find it within himself to regret his decision too much. Although, he really couldn't understand why Flynt was smiling so much. That bastard was the leader of his own team so he was just as screwed as he was for disobeying Winter as well.

The teams followed his instructions and blocked any further communication from Winter just as the bullhead landed. Flynt was the first to step out onto Mantles landing pad and waited for the rest of the group to join him. When all were ready and accounted for, he and Neon led them through Mantles streets to a small bar they regularly visited after long missions out in the field.

The door swung opened and the bartender looked up from the shot glass he was cleaning. Weekdays were the slowest but if there was anyone who'd ever come down for some drinks during those days it'd be his most loyal customers from Atlas academy. The bartender was in his mid 40's with shoulder length black hair and the most roguish smile you can think of. He smiled charmingly as team FNKI entered his domain, then his smile grew twice in size as a second team entered in behind them. After all more customers meant more money and who didn't like more money?

"Welcome back Buster Brown, what'll you be having" the bartender asked as Flynt came to the bar.

Flynt bumped fists with the elder man as he took a seat, "the usual if you would, and maybe something sweet for the first years". The rest of team FNKI put in their own orders and sat quietly at the bar casually listening to the music playing in the background. They'd been here so many times before that they knew this place like the back of their hand. A second home away from home where nobody judged and you could drink with prices that didn't take all your money away at once.

Jaune on the other hand didn't know this place at all and took in his surroundings as he looked behind him while the others were occupied. It was a decent sized establishment with two pool tables on one side and a small dance floor on the other. The room was lit blue thanks to the lights but it wasn't like there was anyone else around but them. Jaune turned back to the rest of his and FNKI's team and had to ask if they were really going to be served alcoholic drinks despite only being 17 and 18 years old.

At that moment the bartender came back and placed several glasses down in front of them and eyed the blonde. "What was that? You guys aren't 21, you know the legal age limit"? His eye's roved over each of them for a moment making both Jaune and Ilia shrink back from his gaze before he cracked a smile. "Man Flynt that's pretty cold, not give your friends the update on the hunters game".

Team FNKI's leader cracked a smile and took one of the glasses with his drink in it. "Come on Frank, did you really think I'd pass up the opportunity to see you pull one over on them? Besides, how was I suppose to know that our junior's didn't know about the special privileges we hunters in training get. I mean everyone knows about them...well, almost everyone" he said eyeing Jaune and the faunus girl next to him.

Ilia blushed at being caught unaware and turned to Ceil and Penny. "You guys knew this and didn't tell me"? A cough from her other side had her amending her question. "Us, I meant, you didn't tell us".

Ceil shrugged her shoulders and wore a small smile, "you never asked" she eventually said. It was the truth but even she couldn't help watching them squirm when the opportunity presented itself. Besides that she was still a little bitter at her team for what they did to her previously. Sure they endured her punishments when brought up but that was for spitting the drink in her face. But for embarrassing her in the Generals office with the smell...oh, it was definitely going to be a while before they earned her forgiveness for that bit of humiliation.

"Ggrrh" Ilia scrunched her nose at her teammate, "I can tell your thinking something terrible from that smile of yours". She looked away from Ceil and eyed Penny who just sat there with a perfectly innocent smile that gave nothing away. "And what about you Penny? Don't tell me your going to use the same excuse as little miss evil over here did".

Penny shrugged her shoulders, "oh, I didn't know either" she answered honestly. On the other side of the bar Flynt started to cough uncontrollably, having not expected her answer after she seemed so calm during their joke.

Jaune sighed and watched them all talk casually with each other over the drinks they were given before he sipped his own. It was nice to have a little downtime like this among friends, even better when drinks tasted as delicious as this one. He didn't know what the name of it was but it didn't have the overpowering taste that beer always seemed to have. One sip became two then all of a sudden his drink had vanished completely as if by magic which left him feeling a little bummed. "Excuse me can I get another glass"?

The bartender gave a lopsided grin and quickly went to work on the next drink for his new customer. The drink was orange colored when brought over before the bartender added a red liquid at the top then finished it off with a cherry. In the blondes eyes it was a work of art and tasted even more incredible then it looked. As he drank more of that delicious drink he became more aware of the music playing in the bar and couldn't help but feel like it wasn't working with his new good mood.

Jaune put his fifth cup down and sighed, "he boss, can't you put something a little more enjoyable on". The others stopped what they were doing and turned to the blonde.

The two teams didn't know who he was talking to but the bartender caught on real quick and smiled at the nickname. "If you'd like there's a computer over there that you can pick and choose what songs you want to hear. There's no lock on the computer so help yourself".

Jaune nodded and got to his feet, his vision swayed just a bit but he still made his way to the console with little trouble. Tapping away he decided on a song that he thought they'd all get behind. Soul wasn't exactly something he had a problem with and there were actually a few songs he quite liked among them. But even amongst the few he knew there was one that held a special place in his heart that he never told anyone. As soon as the song started playing a smile spread across his face and he swayed to the rhythm of the song. Stand by me by Sign. A song performed by one that can only be described as a legend to us mere mortals.

Flynt instantly recognized the song as soon as it started playing since he too was a musician on more then just the battlefield. He picked up his glass and took a swig from it. "Well at least he's got good taste, but I hope he isn't expecting all of us to get up and dance because of it". He turned to his right to see if maybe he could give Neon a little push if she was truly interested in the guy, only he needn't have bothered since she was already gone before he even noticed. Like a hunter cornering her prey, Neon had closed the distance between them, said something and was pulling the blonde away from the computer and to the small dance floor.

Flynt turned around in his chair with drink in hand along with the rest of his group to watch the drunken dancing that was about to take place. His scroll came out and started recording only for him and the rest to be equally surprised by what they saw.

/

Jaune had been so entranced by his music choice that he didn't even notice when Neon ended up right next. She smiled up at him, tail swishing behind her before she asked if he'd like to dance. There was a certain look in her eye that he couldn't quite place but he knew what it did to him, and that was make him vocally unresponsive except for the simplest nod he could give. She took his hand in her's and dragged him to the small dance floor.

All those years of learning to dance with his sisters kicked in and Jaunes hands found there proper place on his dance partner. The dance routine was practically burn into his memory along with every other dance his sisters deemed important for them to learn. Thanks to his dad for being away on missions a good amount of the time, he was left to be the fall guy for whatever his sister's desired to learn such as cooking, cleaning, dancing and so much more. For the first time in forever he was glad for those lessons. The muscle memories alone proved invaluable already but being able to dance like this with a girl not blood related was a dream come true.

It took a little bit, even up to the ending of the dance when he recognized that not only did his dance partner keep up with him but that she had no difficulty doing so either. Well the bartender seemed to know them pretty well so maybe they came here dancing before.

"Wow your pretty good" Neon said happily, "Flynt's the only guy I know who can keep up with me like this".

Jaune chuckled at the comparison, "well these things tend to happen when you grow up with 7 sisters".

Neon stared at him like he had just told her the most terrible secrets of the universe, at least until she was able to collect herself. "W-Wow, your mom must've really loved your dad if she was willing to give birth to 8 of his children like that. Honestly maybe 2 or 3 would be more then enough but I guess that all depends and the family". Although she was blabbering on, she still couldn't really wrap her head around the idea of getting pregnant so many times. Scratch that, who in their right mind would even subject themselves to such a tortures lifestyle.

Jaune smiled warmly as he thought about his family back home. Sure there was a lot of family members in their household, and yeah things could be very cramped at times when they were all together. But, even then and even now he wouldn't change any of that for the world. "Yeah, my mom and dad are like the epitome of what I believe a happy and positive marriage should be like. They share in each other's struggles and although they can argue with each other for hours they never go to bed with those feelings". Jaune's face took a complicated expression as he came to a sudden realization, "and maybe that's why there are so many of us"!

At this new revelation Neon burst out laughing. One of her hands quickly came up to stop herself but even then the small giggles got past her fingers. Jaune frowned at her, but instead of apologizing for her outburst she pulled him along as an all new song started up. Neon wrapped her arms around his neck just as his hands found their place on her hips. "You know" she said just loud enough for him to hear, "this has been pretty fun so far, talking and all that". Jaune nodded in agreement until he noticed just how close she was, and how much she was grinding herself against him.

Maybe it was the booze in his system or possibly the way she was looking up at him, who could say, but things suddenly felt a lot warmer now then before.

"We could...I mean, I wouldn't mind talking a bit more, just the two of us if that's okay with you"? Neon cocked her head slightly to the side and smiled a little bashfully up at him. It was well executed and cute, and judging from the way he watched her as if she was an interesting curio she knew she had his interest. That was when it started. She could feel those butterflies in her stomach starting to form and how it made her heart beat just a little bit faster when his grip tightened on her waist a little.

Jaune was at a loss for words as he tried to make sense of the situation he suddenly found himself in. A girl, a real hot cat girl who happened to be just a little older then him wanted to hang out with him alone. Jaune wanted to shake his head to dispell those impure ideas from his head. What was he ten years old or something? Just because a girl wanted to hang out with him didn't mean it was an invitation to a romantic encounter. But then again she wanted it to be just the two of them alone, didn't that mean anything? Should he get his hopes up? Was he even ready for something like that?

There were so many questions and possibilities to consider, and yet no answers to any of them without taking the chance. While he thought it over, time itself didn't wait for him to come up with a satisfactory answer. His silence caused the faunus girl he was with to start doubting his enthusiasm at the prospect.

Neon couldn't help but wonder why he suddenly went quiet like that. Wait, did she perhaps come on too strong and scare him a bit? Strong willed woman can be a bit intimidating to some guys, and to others a complete turn off. Or, what if he wasn't into the idea? Was it because she was a faunus? No matter how hard she tried to resist the feeling she could tell the doubts were crushing her resolve as the seconds ticked by. Maybe she could play it off as a joke or even a misunderstanding if she moved fast enough.

"That sounds good-".

"It doesn't have to-"!

The two spoke at the same time and froze when their words came out a jumbled mess. They both chuckled nervously and offered each other the chance to go first when a third voice cut into their discussion.

"Jaune, I would like to dance with you if your done".

Neon and Jaune turned to see Penny standing nearby with an unreadable expression on her face. When she had got there neither of them knew but Jaune couldn't have felt happier at seeing his teammate, especially seeing as he might have misunderstood something with Neon. Taking the moment the faunus was lost in thought to step away from her, the blonde slapped on a smile and chuckled. "Sure thing Penny, but can you give me a second to get a quick drink first? Thanks"! The blonde sped off before anyone could respond.

The red head watched as her teammate slipped off to the bar and asked for a cup of water. When she turned back it was to see Neon staring back at her for a long second before she smirked and put her hands on her waist. "So you finally got tired of standing by and decided to do something about it, huh? Your lucky. Just a moment ago I almost closed the deal with our golden boy over there, and I would've if you hadn't stepped in like you did". Neon raised a finger at the red head, eyes narrowing slightly as she got serious all of a sudden. "Just to let you know, I'm no push over and I sure as hell ain't going to give up anytime soon, so be ready cause all's fair in love in war".

Penny remained silent as Neon walked passed her to the bar to rejoin the others. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as a sudden wave of anger she couldn't understand came over her. Jealousy wasn't so easy to understand when you were going through it, and even more so when you rarely ever felt it in such a short time span. Jaune rejoined her a few minutes later while she was still mulling it over, which made things a little awkward when he asked what she was feeling up to.

Penny knew she could've downloaded dance routines so she could easily keep up with her dance partner like Neon did, only a new and more promising thought made her hesitant to do so. It was manipulative, but was that really such a bad thing? "Jaune, I don't know how to dance" she admitted before turning her head away to avoid his gaze. Penny wondered if maybe she was being too obvious for the blonde. Jaune was smart, and since he knew of her ability to download information of the net then it was natural that he'd suggest as such.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of" Jaune said sincerely. He took Penny's hands in his and helped put her in the right position just as a slow song started up. "We'll go slow and I'll help you when you need it, alright"?

Either he knew and didn't care or he forgot and was still being nice to her anyway. Penny followed along, made some mistakes but had a blast as she danced with her team leader for the rest of their night out.

/

"You sure your alright with letting things go like that"?

Neon took her eyes off the first years enjoying themselves on the dance floor to look at her team leader. She wouldn't exactly say that she was fine with the way green got in her way, but she wasn't lying when she said that she almost had the blonde locked down. Sure she was unsure of things the moment they were going down but that didn't mean it was all over because she missed the first shot. No, there were going to be plenty of opportunities to get the win, she'd just have to be a little patient in the meantime.

"What about you? Don't think I haven't noticed how your eyes have been trailing after green for a while now". Neon reached a hand out and flicked her leaders hat up so that she could see his face better. "Those sun glasses can hide a lot of things but they don't work well against me".

Flynt smirked and tugged his hat back down. It wasn't that he was interested in Penny like how Neon was for Jaune, it was just the way she acted that caught his attention and had him drawing up blanks. The girl was powerful but acted like she was new to just about everything in the world around them. Many would say she was naive, but he would call her pure...if that made any sense. Even now with Jaune teaching her how to dance, the smile she had on her face was the same as that day on the wall. One of pure innocents.

"Your staring again" Neon whispered annoyingly, next to his ear.

Flynt raised two fingers and pushed them into his teammates forehead, forcing her to back up. Okay, so maybe he was a little interested, but that wasn't an invitation to pester him about it. And who knows, it probably wouldn't mean anything in the end anyways.

The rest of their night went on like that with little else happening. They shared small talk, some got up to dance, Neon got on people's nerves, and the night ended on a high note if nothing else. Getting back to Atlas had proved a bigger hassle then any of them could have imagine what with Kobalt getting drunk and Ivori trying to seduce him at every turn. Flynt kept stepping in between them to keep things from escalating and Neon kept herself out of the way, deciding it best to stick with Jaunes group for the trip back.

'Now if only I wasn't caught in the middle of a tug of war between these two' Jaune thought. Most guys would kill to be in his situation, and maybe he felt a little happy about that, but when two highly trained huntresses are the one's that are pulling it tends to take all the fun out of it. Penny tugged his right arm and pulled him closer to her, causing his shoulder to sting a little. Neon noticed Penny's action easily enough and did the same on the opposite side causing Jaune to wince. The blonde looked to his other teammates for help but got ignored by the both of them as they were deeply engaged in their conversation.

This continued until they reached the entry way for the academy where Penny pulled him close again and glared at the faunus girl. "Jaunes dorm is this way fortunately, so if you could, would you mind releasing him so that we may return to OUR room now". Penny's emphasis on the word caused the cat faunus to frown at the red head. The frown vanished a second later as the cat faunus snuggled up to the blonde, knowingly pulling his arm into her cleavage. "Well I guess I don't mind sharing for now" she said before leaning in closer to the blonde, "but I draw the line when we are on our date".

"Date"?! Penny looked horrified at the the thought.

"Date" Neon nodded happily.

"Date"! Jaune said looking equal parts confused and excited at the same time.

Penny and Neon both gave him different looks, one that said to agree and the other that said to refuse the invitation. "Right, date, I'm looking forward to it" Jaune said, clearly not reading the wide eyed look Penny had shot at him. Neon smiled victoriously for the span of a few seconds before that smile vanished as quickly as it appeared when the faunus noticed someone approaching their group at a brisk pace. Jaune easily recognized the way those heels clicked against the floor, having heard them plenty of times in his training days.

"Whelp, we had a good run" the blonde said with a voice full of despair. He'd just gotten his first date and now his world was about to end so abruptly. Fate was a cruel, cruel mistress.The footsteps stopped just behind him and when he turned to greet his executioner he found his mouth frozen shut with actual ice.

"Seeing as you couldn't even respond to my message earlier I don't require you to speak now". Winter glared at him with enough heat to make him automatically regret that life choice. The specialist took a deep breath then eyed each one of them, taking in the various states of drunkenness from two individuals especially. "What I have for you is an urgent matter, but it's best to wait until you've all recovered enough to hear it. Report to the auditorium tomorrow morning for a debriefing, and yes you will be exempt from classes for this".

Everyone gave their own form of a yes ma'am except for Jaune, who was busy trying to break the ice mask covering the bottom half of his jaw. Winter eyed the blonde for a long moment before looking to Flynt. He had received her message as well but chose to ignore it much like Jaune did. She could have blamed him for their lack of response as well since he was also a team leader and older then the rest. That she didn't was mostly because she hadn't worked with them for very long, unlike with her student who should have known better.

Winter looked back to the blonde, saw him struggling to smash the ice mask, smiled and figured that was enough for now. A Schnee could be very vindictive when underestimated. She hoped Jaune committed that to memory the next time he even thought about ignoring her. With a smile the Specialist walked off to her next destination, leaving the two teams to handle their affairs before going to bed.

Neon stared after the Specialist and sighed, "definitely the one to beat".


The end of a glorious - if frustrating - new chapter. In the end Neon pulled off taking the lead in the race for Jaunes heart. On to the next.