Symbiote Knight
Chapter 25: Getting to Know You
-Weiss-
The clashing of swords rang out in the training area as Weiss and Jaune were sparring. He had managed to ask for another session with her, which turned out to be much easier this time. He had to admit that Weiss was a lot quicker than Pyrrha, while his partner was stronger, Weiss put more work into agility and speed with her attacks.
The plan on getting to know the girls was starting up and he figured he might as well start with the hardest one first. He figured if Weiss really wasn't interested then maybe that would make it easier between Yang and Pyrrha. They had started off with Weiss showing him some more fencing techniques and theory before trying it out, now they were sparring.
Weiss was also using her glyphs to move around, she came at him at angles he wasn't used to fighting but thankfully with his symbiote enhanced body he was keeping up, although Weiss was getting close at times, apparently, he wasn't the only one learning.
Weiss had finished up with one of her combination attacks noticing that Jaune was still standing tall and defiant. She smirked a little, he had come a long way, and she remembered the bumbling buffoon he had been. Now he was competent as a fighter, he was surer of himself, and his movements were more practiced and fluid. She was also finding out that she was starting to enjoy these little sparring sessions.
He took it seriously as she could see the focus he had on his face and especially his eyes. Outside of combat he was more carefree and relaxed but inside he seemed to change into a more focused version of himself. She had to admit that he did have drive when he chooses to show it, she had seen him throw himself into his studies for awhile now in the library. She had seen him improve in the combat classes and even in general classes his grades were improving.
It was like a couple of months so suddenly a switch in him had been flipped. She could relate to the drive to improve, to show the world what you were capable of that you were more than what people assumed you were, or what your family name meant you should be. She rushed forward again thrusting once bouncing off his shield, making a feint with a twist of her wrist to try to get around it only for it to be parried by his sword.
'He really is learning quickly,' she mused as she counted his own counter attacks.
The two of them got into a rhythm, almost like a deadly dance between the two as the world seemed to fade away and it was just them. Just them going back and forth, lost in the sounds of their blades matching each other.
That is until a buzzer sounded that broke the spell and both of them paused as the door opened up.
"Jeez how long are you two going to take?" this was Coco walking in with her team. "You guys were going at it pretty hard."
"Oh, guess we lost track of the time?" Jaune looked to Weiss who was surprised to see that their allotted time was up.
"Well, we won't keep you all from training," Weiss politely stated.
"Cool, because next time we're going up against you guys, we're going to have a plan to deal with Pyrrha," Coco smiled in a friendly manner at Jaune.
"I'm sure she'll be looking forward to that," he smiled back as he politely nodded to everyone else as they passed by.
Fox did pause when he passed by Jaune giving him a curious look at the back of the blonde's head. There it was again, almost like an 'echo' of something coming off Jaune, like there was this extra presence of some kind. It was faint but he could feel it when he was close to the younger man.
"Fox?" Velvet asked seeing him staring.
"Nothing it's, no it's nothing," he shook his head.
Weiss and Jaune were now in the hallway, and both were sweaty from the hour of training they had gone through.
"I think I need a shower and a nice cool drink." He stated starting to feel some of the aches from it forming but thanks to Valor they were quickly starting to go away.
"Both sound nice," Weiss agreed. She had been so focused by the end there she hadn't noticed how her legs and arms were feeling.
"Want to meet up and get something at the student lounge?"
She thought about it, normally she might have been on guard for some attempt to ask for a date, but she had to admit that lately he had been a lot less bombastic about asking to spend time with her. Lately he had just wanted to do that, just spend time and she had to admit when he wasn't trying to actively date her, it was much easier to get along with him.
"Very well, let's meet up int the student lounge." She told him.
A quick shower in their dorm rooms and change into their school clothing since their combat uniforms were now in needed to be cleaned and they met up at the student lounge area for the first years. Every year and wing had their own, this was a place for students to relax and enjoy their off hours. The area was large enough to hold several teams if needed but at the moment only a handful of people were there.
Jaune had arrived first as he went to the vending machines, he grabbed himself a soda and a cold mint tea for Weiss. He didn't have to wait long for her to show up as she walked in seeing him at a small chair and table.
"Hey, I grabbed you a cold mint tea," he slid the can over to her.
She raised an eyebrow as she sat down. "How did you know I liked that?"
"I uh, well I kind of noticed you always pick that," he really hoped it didn't come across as creepy or something, like he was making note of every little thing she did and just something he noticed.
"Well thank you for that," she opened it as she took a sip feeling a bit more refreshed now. The cool drink did wonders for her, she reached up and rubbed her shoulder as she was relaxing. Their little training had been a bit more intense than she had predicted and her shoulders, especially her sword wielding one was starting to feel the strain.
"You alright?" Jaune paused seeing the movement.
"Happens when you strain yourself sword fighting," Wiess commented off hand, "You get them a lot when you first start training, but they still happen now and then even after years of experience."
"I could help with that," he then saw the look she was giving him as he quickly tried to explain. "I mean I give Yang a helping hands all the time during the workouts; she says it really helps with her shoulders and back when I work out the muscles for her because they're too hard to reach. You can ask her about that."
Although looking back on it, he was starting to wonder if she had ulterior motives for him doing that.
Weiss did actually know about that, Yang sometimes had talked about them and normally Weiss wouldn't think of it, but things were a bit different now. She had started to see him in a new light lately, he also wasn't pestering her with horrible ways of asking her out and seemed to just want to enjoy her company. There was also the fact that her shoulder was stiffening, and she knew if she didn't get it taken care of, she was in for a rough night's sleep with it bothering her.
"Fine but nothing inappropriate." She warned him.
"O-of course," He couldn't believe she was letting him do this.
~Just keep calm and let me help~
'Yeah, just like with Yang…who I think enjoys them a little too much.'
~Imagine what she might ask for if she knew about me and what we could do fully~
Jaune tried not to think about it as he started to massage Weiss' shoulders. He stayed on top of the school outfit as he started to look for what was bothering her, he soon found a lot of knots, this was more than just her fencing. "You got a lot of stress built up here."
"It's…been an interesting semester," she vaguely stated. The whole school life wasn't something she was used to, it was so much different here than in Atlas, not to mention stress from her team. She winced when he pressed against a tight muscle, but he gently was working through it. She sighed when she felt the relief. It was odd, like his hands and fingers were like tiny little pressure points all working together.
'Yang was right, he does have talent,' Weiss idly thought as his palms were rubbing her back as his thumbs dug in making small circular motions. Weiss closed her eyes as she started to feel less stressed as he worked out the kinks and tight muscles, she hadn't even been aware of until now.
"You seem pretty experienced in this," She stated.
"Well, my dad always said you should know how to be a good husband and he's had to help my mom with her back and legs through seven pregnancies." Given that he had a pair of twin sisters they only counted as one.
"I can't even imagine having to do though that seven times," Weiss muttered wondering how his mother even did it. Her own mother stopped at three and Weiss didn't think she would like to have more than two herself one day in the far future.
Jaune smiled remembering when his younger sisters were being born and how his mother was during those pregnancies.
Weiss moaned as she felt him start to work on her shoulder.
"Too hard?"
"A little but nothing I can't handle," she told him as he continued on. She couldn't believe she was even doing this, back home having a male that wasn't part of your family or that you were actively courting would be considered scandalous.
'But you're not in Atlas,' a little voice in her mind told her.
When he was done with the shoulder, she felt his hands go to her exposed neck, she wasn't sure she should allow skin on skin contact but when she felt his hands go to work on the skin all thoughts of stopping him faded away. She let out a small moan as she felt his hands work magically over her skin. Her mind went to how Yang would come back from working out looking a bit more refreshed and then her mind went to how Jaune had said how his father would work his mother's back and legs.
The image of Jaune sitting in front of her, her boots off as his hands worked on her feet, her calves and then reaching higher.
She blushed as she suddenly realized where her mind was going and jumped.
"Whoa, are you okay? I didn't press anything painful, did I?" he asked concerned.
"NO! *Ahem* No, nothing like that," She could feel the heat in her cheeks ass he looked away. She couldn't believe her mind had been starting to go that way, this was Jaune after all and she was thinking of him…her face heated up again as she quickly drank the rest of her tea. "W-Well I must be going, thank you for that, my shoulders feel much better thank you."
She made as quick an exit as she could while trying to remain graceful, it was a mix result.
~You see how red her face was?~
'Yeah, did we do that to her?'
~Pretty sure we did, I'd say her interest in you has gotten a bit stronger~
That only make Jaune smile.
-Yang-
Yang was in a good mood, when Jaune had come up to her today and asked if she wanted to hang out, she agreed. There was still a window of opportunity to make her fellow blonde fall for her charms so she wanted to see if she could. She wanted to take him out clubbing but given what happened the last time they went out, maybe it wasn't that good of an idea. Things were slowly easing off it seems in Vale with the cops going out in force and cracking down on all the street crime, but it wasn't back down to previous levels yet.
Also, she only knew about one decent club in the city, and she was pretty sure she was now banned for life there. Also, those twins seemed to be from there and she wasn't interesting in a round three. She was still looking for a decent club for later at least. She thought about playing video games in the dorm, but Ruby would want to join, and she wanted just a moment for the two of them.
She wanted something active but not something they usually did, something that could get a little alone time.
In the end they ended up on going for a jog together on school grounds. She wore her usual work out clothing of her gold and black shorts and tank top with running shoes. She had a little belt to carry a bottle of water with her as she saw Jaune appropriately dressed. It was still fairly warm out for the season, but they would be working up a bit of a sweat from the jog.
They were warming up in the quad, stretching out, Yang made sure that when she stretched to touch her toes, she was giving him a good view of her backside. She caught him looking as he blushed and quickly looked away as a small grin on her face was hidden from his sight. She might not have Blake's size, but she was confident in her well-toned ass was still a sight.
As soon as they were jogging, they made their way down the long path that led from Beacon with the forest trees on each side.
"Hope you don't mind the jog," Yang told him as they kept a steady pace. "I feel like working a bit on my cardio lately."
"No, it's a good thing," he admitted. "I've been kind of neglecting that a bit lately too."
She nodded her head at that, if was important to keep your stamina up as a Huntress as you never knew just how long a fight could last for.
Jaune cast a side long look like how her hair was tied back into a ponytail pouncing along with her movements. He also caught two other things bouncing along. He quickly stopped looking at her chest, not wanting to be disrespectful but anyone could see that she was very gifted in that area.
~Personally, I never understood the appeal of the shape and size of things like legs, asses, breasts, tails, horns or spot color~
'Wait…tails, horns and spots?'
~Different species have different views on beauty, for us we view what's inside of the host, the outside is just kind of there for a Klyntar. We don't really do the aesthetics of beauty like most other races~
"So," Yang stated as they continued their jog. "Not that I'm complaining but why did you want to hang out with me specifically?"
She was actually fishing for something like 'I just want to spent time with you' or something like that.
Jaune shrugged. "Well, we've been spending a lot of time together, training, gym and hanging out with our teams but I never really got to know you personally. I mean I know you and Ruby are technically half-sisters even though you two don't show it, that you're both from Patch, a little about the place from how you two talk about it, you like physical activity and playing video games, oh and you got that cool bike."
Yang smiled, "Yeah my Bumblebee is my precious baby, my dad got it for me as a sweet sixteen present since I busted my ass to get my license permit and kept my grades up for the year."
Jaune could see the mental images of the happy little family celebrating and Yang giving Ruby joy rides. "Sounds great, my family had to be a bit more careful with the spending. Don't get me wrong we still celebrated, and everyone got presents but nothing that expensive."
"I can see that," Yang nodded. "You got one hell of a big family so that's got to be really expensive."
"You have no idea," Jaune sighed knowing his parents worked hard to keep their kids fed and happy. He never really knew how hard until he was older to understand such things. "But family is important."
Yang nodded. "Yeah, it is, it's one of the most important things." Yang had a mix of memories, the good times like how loving her family was and the bad ones like losing their mom, learning about Raven or how she nearly got herself and Ruby killed as kids. She loved her family with all her heart and worried constantly about her little sister sometimes.
"What's it like having a big family like that?" Yang asked.
"Well first off, you can forget about privacy," Jaune stated. "Granted being the only boy I did get my own room but with so many siblings both younger and older, well privacy wasn't an option."
"Yeah, I share a room back home with Ruby," Yang nodded her head, they did have a smaller room but that was a guest room or for her uncle to crash at when he was in town. "I can only imagine the chaos with so many siblings."
"That's one way to put it," he nodded he loved his family but at times it could be a bit much. "But I wouldn't change it for the world, granted I don't think I want a family that big for myself."
Yang snorted, "No kidding, your parents got to be real troopers to go through all that. I'd think one day I'd like a small family, maybe a boy and girl and that's it."
"You thought about it?" He was curious now.
Yang shrugged. "Sometimes, although that's like way off into the future. I want to travel the world and go on adventures first, you know really experience life before I settle down."
Jaune thought of how he wanted to be a hero as a kid, he would look up at the family weapon hanging there over the fireplace and imagine what it would be like to use it to help people like in the stories he liked as a kid. "I can see that, I always wanted to go out and help people."
"Well, here you are," she smiled at him, and he had to admi she had a really nice smile. "Who knows maybe we can work together after graduation, go off and see all of Remnant, fight Grimm, save towns and people from time to time."
Jaune kind of liked the sound of that, he wasn't sure what was going to happen after graduation after all. Would team JNPR stay together, or would they have to all go on their separate ways? "Do you know if teams stay together after school?"
"I mean, sometimes?" Yang would only think of the team her family had been on. "My dad's a teacher and my uncle Qrow is still active but other than that, what about your family?"
"There actually hasn't been a huntress or huntsman in my family for generations," Jaune told her. His family hadn't had anyone like that since his great-great-grandfather who had fought in the war. That was the reason that Crocea Mor was a valued family heirloom because of that ancestor and his actions during the war.
"Wait, so who taught you?" Yang looked at him seriously thinking he went to some school like she did, but she also had help from her dad and uncle growing up.
"I'm kind of, self-taught," he explained which was pretty close to the truth, he was learning everything about being a Huntsman here at Beacon. "There was no official schooling in my village, it's kind of out of the way and not in a big enough city that can hold an academy."
That last part was true as well.
"Oh, that explains so much," Yang thought about how horrible Jaune was when he first started out. The fact that he had grown so much in such a short amount of time was incredibly impressive to her. To be able to get in without formal schooling wasn't easy, okay sure she knew that Blake also got in without schooling from her talks with her, but she had skills to back it all up.
Jaune looked to have barely made it in when he first got here, so it really impressed her with how well he did it.
As they came to the end of the long path, they took a breather although she noticed he was holding up a lot better than she was. 'God his stamina must be insane.'
What she didn't know was that he had help with that with his symbiote keeping his body functioning better than a normal human's would.
"I think I need to work on my cardio more," Yang took a sip of her water. "You look like you could do two twice this."
"Well, I've been training hard lately to catch up," he did have some sweat on him as he didn't see anything to wipe himself off. So, he pulled the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face off giving Yang a quick look at his bare chest. She knew he had been growing a lot lately but seeing his bare chest and abs she couldn't help but take it in.
'God that's hot,' she swallowed wanting to feel those abs and chest with her bare hands. 'Down girl, boy I'm going to need a cold shower after this is if this keeps up.'
"So Jaune what else do you like to do?" She asked.
"Not sure, I've been trying to find some new hobbies since I left home but schoolwork and training take up a lot of time."
Yang had to nod her head at that, the weekends were fun, but she could only do the same things so often in the dorm and school before she got cabin fever. "Don't suppose you like to dance?"
"Well, I know how to dance, why?" He remembered how when his older sisters needed to learn how at school dances, they used him to practice on, so he had years of experience.
"I like to dance, you know go out to the club and just have fun. How about we go sometime?" She figured getting him alone in a club she could see not only see how he danced but it would be a nice little way to get some alone time with him, although she needed to find another club first.
Jaune thought about it, it might be a good way to spend time with Yang to figure out his feelings about her, it's not like they could just keep going on runs like this. "Sure, that sounds like fun."
Yang beamed at that. "Great, just got to find a decent place and we can paint the town red."
-Pyrrha-
Metal rang again metal as Jaune and Pyrrha sparred in their usual spot. This was most likely the hardest thing for Jaune to try and do was to try and get to know Pyrrha. She was his partner and to be honestly she was just so amazing that it was hard not to prop her up onto a pedestal. Maybe that's why he never noticed her feelings, because he was so sure she would never think to be interested in him.
~Look out!~
Valor's warning came just in time as her sword nearly hit his face before his shield came up. Sure his aura would have stopped it but it was still a sword strike to the face, it would still hurt like hell.
"Jaune, are you okay?" she asked worried.
"Yeah sorry," he told her.
"You've been off all night, is something going on?"
Jaune sighed as he sat down against the solid railing. "Guess I'm just having an off night tonight, can't keep my thoughts calm and focused."
She sat down with him. "Anything you want to share?"
'More than you know,' he thought. "Just a lot of stuff lately, I mean there's the whole training, school, being bonded to an alien."
~Hey~
'I meant that in a good way.'
Pyrrha fiddled with her weapon a little as she pursed her lips, there had been something she was wondering about lately and she wasn't sure how to go about asking about it. She shifted as the quiet between them seemed to just drag on with her until she had to ask it.
"I've noticed that you've been spending time with Weiss and Yang…" she started but wasn't sure how to finish it.
~Uh oh~
"Oh, well I know Ruby really well and so given Yang is her sister and has been working out with me and Nora I felt I should get to know her better," That was technically true, but it wasn't the only reason, but he couldn't come out an way right to her face the actual reasoning for it. "Plus, Weiss in on her team and we've been getting along lately so I wanted to see if I could gain a friendship with her."
"And Blake?" she asked.
"Blake's…kind of hard to get to know," Jaune had to admit he would like to get to know her better, but Blake was kind of hard to approach. It's like in school you want to try and get to know that cool loner girl that sits at the back of class but feel kind of intimidated to try. "I'd like to get to know her more but she likes to read a lot and I doubt she'll care much about comic books like me and Ruby."
"Oh, I see," Pyrrha knew that Jaune had a crush on Weiss, but she wasn't so sure about Yang. What he said made sense, but she knew that Yang wanted Jaune just like she did. Being alone with the blonde gave Yang plenty of opportunity to gain his attention.
Seeing her conflicting look, he decided to try and change the subject. "You know Pyrrha, we're partners but I feel I don't know much about you. You never really talk about yourself."
"Oh, well I'm not one for it," she didn't like to flaunt her past celebrity status, so she just didn't talk about it. That was in the past and she wanted to do something else with her life. Something that felt more like the real her and not what some company tried to make her out to be.
"Well tell me about it," he said as he placed a hand on hers making her blush a little at the unexpected contact. "I want to know you Pyrrha, the real you."
She felt her heartbeat increase at those words, all she ever wanted was for someone to see the real her, she had spent so many years as Pyrrha The Champion she felt at times she didn't even know her real self anymore.
"Well, okay then," she paused trying to think of what to say. "I was born and raised in Argus for starters."
"Oh hey, my sister and her wife live there." Jaune remembered.
"You've been there?" She asked.
"Not yet, maybe when we can go visit them and you can show me the sites." He figured maybe on break the whole team could go. It would be nice to see his sister again and Ren and Nora really had nowhere to go as orphans so they could make it a team thing.
For Pyrrha all she was thinking that Jaune wanted to take just them to see his family, she could only imagine what her mother might do if she brought a boy home for the first time and yet, the mental images of such an event didn't bother her. In fact, she liked what she saw, she could show him Argus and the image of them walking along maybe arm in arm was a pleasant fantasy her mind was coming up with.
She suddenly stopped as she put those thoughts away for now. "That sounds lovely."
"So, what was it like growing up there?"
"It was, fine." She stated. "When I decided to become a huntress and started training, I quickly rose up to the top of my class. It got to the point where the school decided to put me in an advance training program. I met my first coach as they put me into the Mistal Tournament for the first time soon after."
"I keep hearing that, but no one's ever really explained it to me," Jaune stated.
"Oh, well it's a special tournament kind of like the Vytal Festival but only in Mistal although it is open to other Kingdoms." She started to explain to him. "It's where young and up coming Huntsman and Huntresses compete again each other, it's very popular in Mistral and in other parts of the world. I'm surprised you never heard of it."
She had been curious about it herself that first day that she arrived in Beacon, and he had no clue who she was, she had never experienced it before, but it was nice having someone meet her without expectations for once.
Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Well, we only had the one TV and with you have seven other siblings and two parents it gets limited what you can watch."
That made sense to her, as an only child she had no idea what it was like to grow up with siblings. Seeing Ruby and Yang did make her wish she had at least one sibling growing up.
"Well at you know I was winning the tournaments several years running."
"And that led to you being put on a cereal box?"
She had a twitch of a smile on how he phrased it. "In short yes, I was winning so many times and so soundly that it got me noticed. People who do well in it usually draw sponsorships which is helpful for someone trying to be a huntress." The money she had earned had helped, her equipment wasn't cheap to make or maintain after all and dust bullets weren't exactly cheap. Most of her money went to support her parents.
It wasn't that they weren't struggling or anything, but she loved her parents and wanted to make sure they were taken care of given everything they had given her growing up.
"Can't imagine what it's like to be that famous," Jaune said looking up at the sky.
Pyrrha looked down as she thought about what to tell him but since he said he wanted to know her he should know the real her. He told them all about Valor so why should she keep this little secret from him?
"It actually wasn't all that great," she told him solemnly. "I was always doing commercials or photoshoots while not at school or training. My life was mainly going to school, train, then sponsorship or tournament related stuff. I really didn't have much of a personal life, especially since a lot of the contracts for sponsorships had clauses in them. I had to be careful of what I said or did in public all the time, not to mention it…isolated me."
"Pyrrha," Jaune was at a loss as he could clearly see how this was distressing her, so he gently grabbed her free hand in his as she returned it.
"I didn't really get to make friends," she admitted. "Sure, there were people that were nice and maybe hung out but when I got famous it's like everyone was afraid to be near me and those that did just wanted to use me because of my fame. So, I became very isolated."
She looked up with him with shining eyes, "it's why I'm so glad I came here. With you, our team and team RWBY, I feel like I have actual friendships now. I feel you all treat me as one of you and not this famous person."
Jaune winced. "I hate to admit it, but I have done that at times, sorry I didn't know, it's just that you're so amazing at everything."
"I'm not the only one," she told him. "Ozpin made you team leader for a reason, back in initiation when we had to fight the deathstalker you were the one to took charge. I've never been part of a team before now so I never would have known how to command a team, but you did it so naturally."
"Really? I just kind of, well I kind of just went with my gut I guess." He never really thought about that day but looking back he had kind of taken command.
~As I have told you, you have talent, others like her have seen it too. You just need to believe in it yourself~
"You should be more confident about yourself Jaune," she told him. "You've come a long way in such a short amount of time, and you have a nature talent to lead."
It felt nice hearing her say that all his life he hadn't really felt special at all but lately he had been gaining more confidence in himself thanks to everyone around him.
"So, anything else you want to talk about?" He asked her.
She paused to think as she nodded. "Yes, so what's it like growing up with siblings?"
"Oh boy…where do I even start?" Jaune asked thinking about it.
At the end of the day Jaune flopped onto his bed taking a rest, he had been thinking long and hard about how all three outings went and to be honestly he still wasn't sure on things.
~You got any idea on what to do?~
'None,' he sighed rubbing his face, thankfully he was the only one in the room at the moment. Ren went to make himself some tea as Nora went to go for a snack. He wasn't sure why, but Pyrrha said she was meeting with Yang oddly enough. He hadn't known they had gotten close enough to hang out as friends honestly.
'Another thing I missed, am I really that dense?'
~Maybe? I'm not exactly an expert in human culture or social norms~
'At least we can be socially awkward together,' he mentally joked.
TBC…