Symbiote Knight

Chapter 21: Sing the Knight Away

It was Friday night and teams JNPR and RWBY were going out to have some fun together as a group. It had been a long week with a test on Friday and mostly everyone felt like they needed something to cheer them up. Weiss was confident about her test scores, as were Pyrrha, Jaune and Ren, after that it was a bit of a mixed bag. Yang and Blake felt they did fine, while Ruby and Nora hated tests. Mainly because they got anxious about them all the time.

It was especially tough on Ruby as she had a two-year gap, so she had to double down on her studying, thankfully everyone was willing to help her out. Jaune had his own 'help' with Valor of course but the group sessions helped him to fill in the blanks or understanding the concepts better.

"I really could use something to relax to," Ruby stretched out as the groups made their way to the airfield for a ride in town.

"Yeah, this week just seemed to drag on," Yang nodded. "All that extra studying on top of the assignment that was due on Thursday?"

"Please, don't remind me," Nora moaned she was just thankful for the weekend to finally relax a bit.

"Well, this trip should help blow off steam," Blake shrugged. Honestly, she wasn't much of a music person, but Yang said they could swing by a bookstore before they got to the karaoke place, she found. That worked out as she had a few books on order she had been trying to find the time to pick up.

Thankfully it wasn't to Tukson's books, it was a shame she had to ignore his store. Being part of the White Fang he was one of their contacts in the city and she was pretty sure Adam would have put the word out about her by now so staying away from a place like that was important. Also walking in with Weiss after she had left the White Fang, well that's just asking for trouble.

She mentally sighed, it was a shame, she liked Tuskon, he was a good man but now that she had abandoned the White Fang, she was most likely as seen as a traitor now among who knew how many members by this point.

Thinking about it logically she came up with several scenarios. Either he would inform the White Fang where she was, which she didn't think he would do, but even if he didn't, another member might see her there if she visited at the same time a White Fang member was also visiting that knew her. That was something she wanted to avoid, while she was sure he wouldn't say anything if the other members found out he would be in trouble with them by protecting her.

So, in the end it was best to just stay away and avoid putting him into a bad and had found a new bookstore, it wasn't as warm and friendly as Tuskon's but it was decent enough, even if their inventory didn't match up with Tuskon's.

"So Jaune you got those vocal pipes warmed up?" Yang lightly teased him elbowing him.

He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, not so confident in my musical talents."

Especially not after the disaster that was when he tried to play a love song to Weiss with a guitar he barely knew how to play. He should have taken more lessons as he barely knew how to use it.

~I could help with adjusting your vocal cords while you sing~ Valor offered.

Jaune considered it but thought against it, he just wanted to have fun with everyone and while his team knew about Valor, if he suddenly started singing super well suddenly when team RWBY heard him sing originally it might be a bit too much to hide. They knew he was training and working hard to explain his rapid increase in strength and skill but suddenly singing without issue? Weiss of all people would pick up on that detail he figured.

So, he would relent to just not having a good singing voice, after all no one was perfect. Although maybe he could at least practice the guitar a bit more. That at least was a skill he could work on like his fighting skills. All you needed was time and practice.

"Well, it's more about just having fun anyway," Yang shrugged.

Jaune nodded and then looked to see she was wearing her weapons although in compact form. "Are you expecting trouble?"

Jaune pointed to her wrists as she looked down and shrugged. "Call me paranoid but things in Vale have been a little tense with all the vandalism going on. I just wanted an insurance in case something comes up, plus I'm the only one that can carry around their weapons without it being noticeable."

Jaune had to admit she had a point about the last bit, her weapons when not extended looked like fancy bracelets. While they were able to carry around weapons as students, but generally when they went out into the city they didn't, for several reasons.

'Hey Valor, are you going to be okay with the music in a small room?' he asked his symbiote.

~As long as it's not too loud, at best it would give me what you would equate to as a 'headache' I believe~

He was a little in thought about that, he didn't want his alien partner to get hurt from him trying to enjoy himself. He noticed Yang was looking at him strangely.

"What's up?" She asked him. "You got that deep thinking face on."

"Oh uh," He really needed to work on his poker face when thinking or talking to his symbiote in public. He thought of what excuse he could bring up. "I just hope it's not too loud, I got sensitive hearing."

"Really?" Yang arched an eyebrow at that.

"Oh, he does," Pyrrha jumped in realizing what was going on. "He's told us this."

"He did?" Nora asked before Ren nudged her gently. "Oh! Right, now I remember, it doesn't come up often, so I forgot."

"I'm the same way," Blake commented although for her it was because of the cat ears she hid behind her bow. "So as long as things don't get too loud, I should be fine."

It was one of the problems being a Faunus, sure better hearing and sight are great but being in large crowds with lots of yelling and extremely loud music was not the best thing for her or those with heightened hearing. She was pretty sure that Velvet had similar issues with her rabbit ears.

"Damn, loud is part of the fun," Yang sighed but she didn't want to put Jaune and Blake out of the fun. Blake was her partner and Jaune, well that was a very complicated set of emotions for her. "Okay we can keep it to a level for everyone to enjoy."

"Fine with me," Ruby chipperly said.

"You're in a good mood," Nora commented.

"Hey, it's the first time both our teams got to hang out that wasn't in school. I haven't done anything like this since I left Patch." She explained. Ruby used to have her own circle of friends that she could hang out with after school but now they were two years behind her. She might never see most of them again, and even if they did come to Beacon, they would be first years while she would be a third year.

Another thing she hated was that she knew she was losing touch with them, she used to write every day but then it was every week. Now she had to remember to write them, and their responses were going the same route. She hated it but she knew that they had totally different lives now. It was one of the reasons she wanted this day out to go well. Blake, Weiss and team JNPR were here only friends here (well friend was still a little strong with Weiss, but she was sure they would become BFFs eventually).

"Yeah, we don't get to all hang out much outside of school," Nora nodded her head.

"Exactly!" Ruby pointed out.

The flight over to Vale was short and sweat and Jaune was again super thankful that his symbiote got rid of his motion sickness while flying. Vale was as busy as usual as first they hit the bookstore for Blake. Although while there a few of the others decided to get a few things themselves. Ren found a book on healthy diet foods that he wanted to try out later. Jaune while disappointed with no comics or even paperbacks, he did find a sci-fi book about someone traveling the stars.

Or as Valor pointed out after giving it a quick scan 'Sci-comedy' as there were so many things the writer obviously didn't know about space. Still, Jaune thought it would be nice to see how it stacked up with reality.

Ruby found a book on the history of weapons, with full illustrations and blueprints, after seeing that she had to get it. Blake got a few books she would read later, one of them part of a series she currently got into.

The rest looked around, but nothing really interested them at the moment. After that they left and went on to the club area that Yang found. It was a slim building they came up to with a glass door and a sign over head that read "The Velvet Room". Yang smirked at the sigh.

"You think Velvet secretly has a side job?" she joked.

"Velvet is a common name," Blake rolled her eyes.

"True," Yang nodded as they walked in. There was a small gathering area with someone working the desk off to the side.

"Hi there, how can I help you?" She asked politely.

"Yeah, we wanted a room," Yang stated. "I booked one for use through the webpage." She pulled out her scroll to have the confirmation email she got pulled up. The woman scanned the part that had the barcode on it as the system gave her all the info.

She told them the price as they all decided to collectively chip in as it was a group event. Weiss did offer to cover for them all but between the eight of them it was easy enough to cover their time. The woman gave him a key with the number 5 on it and gave them directions. They walked up the stairwell two flights to get to their room. The place had a central stairwell in the back and a small hallway on each floor with four rooms per floor.

They did notice the soft drink and snack machines on each floor as they entered their room. The room itself had two long couches on either side of the wall and one in the back making a large U form. There was a table in the center of it and a stage by the door with the teleprompter and stereos.

"Not bad," Yang nodded her head.

"Sweat," Nora jumped landed her butt onto the couch. "Oh, what's this?"

She found a binder on the table next to a tablet device. Opening it she found a list of songs printed there with a number next to each song. It wasn't hard to figure out that you input the number for the song to play. Next was the seating, as there was a bit of an awkward pause. Jaune was hoping to sit next to Weiss, who wasn't really thinking about who to really sit next to, while both Yang and Pyrrha were hoping to sit next to Jaune.

Blake and Ruby sat down so Weiss did the same, Yang saw the opening and saw that Jaune was moving most likely to sit next to her. She knew it was a little dirty but all's fair in love and war and all that. She was in a better position and sat down next to Weiss. Given it was all members of team RWBY sitting together it wasn't something out of the ordinary anyway.

Jaune paused but mentally shrugged, it would have been nice to sit next to Weiss, but he got along with Yang, so it wasn't all bad as he sat next to her.

Pyrrha seeing this knew exactly what Yang had pulled and had to give the blonde credit in tactically sitting next to Jaune. She decided to sit on Jaune's other side given they were partners it was only natural. Ren taking the empty spot between Nora and Pyrrha as the last man standing.

"So, who wants to go first?" Jaune looked around.

"I say let the profession go first," Yang nudged Weiss. "Show us how it's done."

"Yeah! I want to hear Weiss sing!" Ruby knew her partner could sing but she never got to hear her do it live. She had found a few videos online of her singing and she had a great voice. But hearing her life would be even better in her mind.

"I'm not sure," Weiss took the book from Nora and scanned through them. She knew some of the songs, but her strict upbringing meant she had little exposure to certain types of music. Her father wouldn't allow such things. Then she saw a very familiar song, familiar because some of the songs she had sung were on here.

Not all of them but a few at least. She saw the song 'This life of mine' and picked that one.

Ruby looked over her shoulder to see what she was typing in. "Oh hey that's one of yours, neat."

She remembered that song from one of the few songs she managed to listen to before.

"Really? Your own song?" Blake questioned.

"What's wrong with that?" Weiss asked standing up and going to the stage.

Blake shrugged. "Just thought you would want to get out of your comfort zone is all."

Weiss mulled it over, but the song was starting up. Maybe she could try a few others out later but right now she wanted to warm herself up and singing something familiar to that she knew the words backwards and forwards to would help. The song started as she heard the familiar music, and she took a breath and got into her mindset she used for concerts.

She closed her eyes for a second and went into the song. She dove into it, a song she had sung plenty of times but each time she put her soul into each word. The others sat there surprised by Weiss, they knew she could sing but hearing it and seeing it were kind of different. Weiss didn't move around much and when she did her gestures were carefully minimal for just the right moments of the song.

For Weiss she just pushed the world away, her world was the song and so she lived and breathed it. By the time the song ended she hadn't felt the sense of peace in such a long time. She was snapped out of her thoughts as everyone clapped. She was used to that, but it felt more special that it was this small group and not a crowd of faceless people. She could see their expressions from her singing this time as she wasn't blinded by stage lights.

"Damn way to show everyone up," Yang told her with a smile.

"I don't think I want to follow that," Blake admitted.

"Weiss, that was beautiful," Pyrrha told her as the clapping ended.

"Yeah, I knew you could sing but wow," Jaune didn't know that a live performance was so much better than just listening to a recording.

Weiss heard it all and although she wouldn't admit it, she felt touched by it. She had heard the crowd cheer her at other concerts, but these were people she knew and for the most part trusted. This was a much more intimate singing then she realized with them in this small room, and she felt a touch of nerves she hadn't felt since her first time singing in public.

She quickly schooled herself as she could hear her father's voice of how a Schnee should act. However, she did allow for a small smile, she nodded her thanks to everyone and stepped down.

"I want to go next!" Ruby jumped up and started to look through the songs.

From there is was like a dam broke as everyone started to get into it. The singing quality varied of course. Ruby went into a classic rock song their dad liked to listen to, with her moving to the music as best she could. She didn't care if she couldn't sing all that well, this was just for fun.

Blake ended up picking a blues song, Yang went for a more energetic rock song herself, Nora went with heavy metal with a lot of head banging and yelling. Blake and Jaune almost had to leave the room for that one for similar reasons. Jaune tried his hand at a random country song, but he really felt embarrassed about it by the end even though everyone clapped he knew he must have sounded tone deaf.

Still, it was all in good fun.

Some of them eventually got the idea to try duets. Yang and Ruby went up to sing a disco song together that their dad listened to. It was made for two female singers, so the sisters were able to do a decent job with the song. The atmosphere in the room was just one of pleasantries and just having a good time with everyone.

Even Weiss was starting to enjoy herself, she never got to go out like this before. Every time she left the mansion it was to big events and balls and such. Never just a group of friends hanging out. Everyone was having fun, Nora even managed to push Ren on stage and for a quiet person like him, this was not something he liked. He didn't like the spotlight on him or public speaking, they weren't his strong suit, but Nora had told him that everyone had to sing at least once.

Sighing he had picked a lounge song about the moon, by the end he felt totally embarrassed but everyone said he had done a good job.

Eventually Blake needed a bit of a break, some of the songs were getting a little too loud for her as she made an excuse for getting some snacks and drinks. Being out of the hallway she sighed as she reached under her bow to massage her cat ears a bit. Thankfully the rooms were soundproof even to her enhanced hearing. She was so tempted to take off the bow but keeping her Faunus heritage a secret was something she wasn't ready to break just yet.

She did her best to adjust it and try to sooth her ears a bit. She heard the door open and quickly tried to readjust the bow.

"Hey Blake," Jaune stated coming out. "I came out to grab some stuff too for my team."

"Oh okay," She looked at the vending machine and just decided to grab what looked nice as Jaune went to the soda one and got four cans.

While Jaune didn't have to go, he made the excuse to give Valor a break. Overall, the symbiote didn't mind the noise but a few of those loud songs were like scratches on chalkboard to him, only instead of hearing it, it was like feeling it. The symbiote did notice something odd though about Blake.

Her ribbon moved, taking a closer look he could see that it wasn't on straight and there was something else there. She was hiding something under her bow, he realized.

"Soda machine is free," he told her as he placed the cold cans under one arm.

"Thanks," She nodded getting the last of the snack foods and went to the soda machine.

Valor did notice that her bow moved again, he was certain there was something living under it. The only thing he could think of were Faunus traits. The Velvet girl had long bunny ears, so maybe Blake had something similar? Not rabbit ears that's for sure but something much smaller and could be hidden? He wasn't sure but obviously the girl had secrets, and he wasn't going to be the one to ruin it but the girl's bow looked a little unstable.

~Tell her that her bow is crooked~

'Huh?' Jaune blinked and looked, and it was a bit off. 'So?'

~Trust me, she'll want to know~

That was odd but his symbiote hadn't let him down before. "Hey, Blake, did you know your bow is crooked?"

Her golden eyes widened as she nearly dropped everything before her free hand went up to it. She could feel that it was off as her heart was hammering in her chest. Did he see? Did he know something about her secret? Looking at him she saw the slightly confused look he was giving her.

'Okay, maybe he doesn't know,' She hoped. "Thanks for telling me, I'll fix it up."

He shrugged if off. "Sure, no problem. You really like that bow huh?"

"More than you know," She cryptically said.

Jaune went on his way totally obvious as he went back to the room. Blake watched him go before quickly setting things down and readjusting the bow. She should have known better than to mess with it in public, but she hadn't been thinking. She found the window close by with the reflection to slightly help herself out as she fixed it.

'Well, that was weird,' Jaune thought as he handed out everything.

~She has her reasons, let's leave it at that~

'You know something?'

~She has a secret and it's not my place to tell~

'Fair enough,' Jaune figured if it was important his symbiote would tell him. Plus, it was like Valor said, it wasn't his place to tell someone else's secret. Whatever a secret a bow could hide he had no idea, but he respected Blake's privacy.

As the night went on Yang had to admit this was a lot more fun than she originally thought it would be. It was just nice to let all the steam and pressure just blow out and let loose like this. They weren't students of Beacon at the moment, they were just teenagers having fun together. Currently she was watching Weiss and Ruby try a duet. Ruby bless her heart was trying and you could see the almost physical pain Weiss was in trying to match the song with someone way less experienced.

She noticed how everyone was paying attention and decided to strike. She leaned up against Jaune who was a bit startled by the contact and looked at her.

"So, you want to try one together as well?" Yang asked him.

"You and me?" he blinked surprised by her offer.

She smiled up at him. "Sure, why not?"

He really didn't any reasons why not, he was just a bit surprised by it was all. Yang picked out a song as they got onto the stage. Jaune wasn't familiar with the song, it was a slow one, from the beat of the music. As the lyrics started up it was a story about two people wanting to tell the other how they felt. Yang knew this was a bit of a gamble, she figured Jaune might not get the subtly of it, but she hoped that maybe something might spark in the boy.

Jaune had to admit that while Yang was not in Weiss' league, she was still a better singer than he was. He tried to keep up with her and do his best, although it was strange. As she sang, she would look right at him and for a moment he thought it almost looked like she was singing to him. She would then look back to her friends and he figured she was just getting into the song like she had with the other ones she did.

Pyrrha felt like Yang had gotten a little ahead of her, picking such a song as the two of them singing it almost made it look like they were singing it to each other. She bit her lip a bit as she started looking through the book. She was hoping to get another song similar to that that she could sing with Jaune.

She figured two could play that game.

However just before the song ended there was a knock at the door as the hostess looked in. "Sorry to tell you this but your time is nearly up."

Pyrrha cried in her head, she was still looking for a song but now she couldn't finish looking for one or get her turn on stage with Jaune.

"Aww, and we were having so much fun." Ruby pouted.

"Yeah, this was fun," Nora sighed.

"Well then let's do it again," Yang said putting the microphone back. "We still got the rest of the semester to come up with fun stuff to do."

"It was pretty nice," Weiss admitted. She was surprised that she did find it fun, she couldn't remember ever having done an activity like this back home. Just to go out and have a good time as it were. For the first time she wondered if this was what it was like to be just totally free of her father and his expectations of her? She was surprised again to find out that she hadn't once thought of 'being a proper Schnee' during her time here. It was kind of liberating in a way.

"I'm up for doing more team bonding," Jaune said as he helped to put the empty snacks and drinks in the bin in the corner with Pyrrha and Blake helping. "This felt really good, maybe we should come up with more group stuff we can do?"

"That sounds fun," Pyrrha nodded as she too despite the ending, had enjoyed herself. She never got to hang out with her friends much back home because of her busy schedule. Now that she no longer had the championships or the sponsors to deal with, she found she had more free time than what she knew what to do with.

She usually just filled her extra time with training or helping Jaune with his training after she was done with her schoolwork. Tonight, had been a fun relaxing time for them all.

With that the group finished tidying up as they left talking about what to do next time. Some things like movie night were brought up, Blake hesitantly brought up the idea of a book club, Nora wondered if Vale had a go cart track or something similar, Yang offered to say if they could go clubbing one night together. There were a lot of ideas being thrown around as they walked through the streets of Vale.

It was getting late as they were talking and laughing at some of the things, they had sung that night when the peace was shattered by the sound of glass breaking, an alarm and suddenly a bunch of rowdy voices.

"The hell was that?" Yang asked.

"Sounds like trouble," Ren stated as the rest rushed forward and saw a group of people dressed in matching red caps as they had broken the front of a electronics store and were laughing as a few went in to take some items, a couple were using spray cans to tag the wall of the store.

"So much for a quiet night out," Weiss muttered wishing she had her weapon on hand.

"Do we call the police?" Ren asked.

"Might be too late," Ruby said as the group noticed them and were making their way towards them.

"Eh, we should be able to take them," Yang cracked her knuckles granted she still had her weapons on her, but they were still in their compacted form. She knew it was a good idea to bring them with her but given none of them looked very armed she was certain a group of huntresses and huntsmen in training could deal with them.

She did cast a slightly worried look to Ruby, mainly because she knew that her little sister skipped out on closer quarters combat as she relied on her weapon way too much. Dad and Uncle Qrow did try to teach her more than just basic unarmed combat, but she was nowhere near at her own level and that worried Yang.

"Oi, look at what we got here gents," A tall one said with a grin on his face.

"You lot shouldn't be out so late, shouldn't you all be in bed?" An older man of the group asked.

"What should we do?" another asked the group holding a TV in his arms. "Cops are busy but they'll eventually show."

"Well, the bosses did say to cause trouble, maybe a little more should do it." The Tall One said again as she stepped up. "Alright here's how things are going to go, you hand over all your lien and maybe we let you get on your way."

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "So you're mugging us?"

"What, that white hair means you're older than you look? You need a hearing aid there granny? Yes, hand it over or maybe we have our own fun, Scarface."

Weiss' eye twitched, never had she been talked to like that. First insulting her hair, she could let that go, but to tall her old because of it? Then to make fun of the scar she had on her face which she got because she had to fight for her right to go to Beacon? Now with Weiss her blood didn't boil, it just froze in a very cold anger.

The others also didn't take kindly to those words either as they all tensed up getting ready for a fight. Weiss was about to give the man a verbal togue lashing before she was going to educate this man just how to talk to a lady.

Before she could say anything Jaune stepped up. He heard what he said, and he didn't like how anyone talked to his friends like that. Months before he wouldn't dream of saying anything or stepping up. He could have been too scared to try but that was then, and this was now. He was going to be a Huntsmen and he couldn't do that by being pushed around, not anymore.

Valor had been a big part of helping him to not only get stronger but to gain more self-confidence. He could feel his symbiote boosting his courage and stoking the fire burning inside of him. Granted while Jaune was the tallest out of their group the guy in front of them was still half a foot taller. It didn't matter to Jaune, he felt a burning sense of justice in his chest.

"Apologize."

"Huh?" He looked down at Jaune confused.

"Apologize to what you said to her and put all that stuff back," Jaune told him with many of the others nodding their heads. Although he could feel a little fear still there it was being pushed back in this moment. This is what he was training for, what they all were training for after all. He wouldn't let himself be pushed around, not when something wrong was going on right in front of him.

The Tall One just grinned. "Look at the balls on this one? What she you're girlfriend or something?"

Although he'd like to say, 'yes' to that he immediately said, "She's my friend and I don't like people talking to my friends like that."

The man laughed and looked over his shoulder. "His friend he says."

In that moment he twisted back with his first raised as he tried to use the moment as a distraction to get in a surprise punch. Jaune however saw it coming, or well thanks to Valor saw it coming. He felt like his reactions and vision were suddenly boosted as he caught the man's fist in his palm. The taller man blinked surprised the boy had caught his punch.

Jaune did grow some muscles in all his new training, but he wasn't some hulking body builder, he was however a lot stronger than he looked thanks to his symbiote. Without a word Jaune threw his own punch with his right fist.

He remembered some of the things Yang told him about boxing during some training together in the gym. How the real places you needed to hit someone were the temple, the bridge of the nose to break it, the ear if you wanted to be dirty but one of the best places? The tip of the chin, it was harder to hit depending on a person's face but if you did hit the tip of the chin, was the sweat spot.

His fist hit it and the man's head snapped back as he stumbled. Jaune thought the guy would just fall but instead he took a few steps back on wobbly legs before falling onto his eyes. The man had a glassy look in his eyes like he was aware but not processing anything.

There was a moment where no one said anything.

"Get'em!" one of the red hatted thugs yelled out.

"So much for a quiet night out," Jaune lamented as he got his fists up as everyone else also got into fighting stances.

TBC..

For those wondering the Ruby and Yang duet I was thinking of was Dancing Queen by ABBA.