A/N: So here it is, better late than never right? In all seriousness this chapter took a lot longer than I had wanted it to. Partially because of school and schoolwork, partially because of job searching for after graduation. Anyway this story is going to get completed I can promise that. I got the chapters planned out it's just trying to find that balance of writing/school/job searching/ and social life you know? Anyway without further ado here's chapter 6.
Ch 6
Schnee Manor, Atlas
"Uh, hi mom. Hi dad. What are you two doing here?" Jaune asked nervously, scratching the back of his head.
"We are here son, because we got notified that one of our children had gotten married and changed their last name, so imagine our surprise when it wasn't one of our seven daughters." Jaune's father said with an upset look on his face.
"Well then, I guess you already know." Jaune said as he nervously leaned further back into the couch, wishing it would swallow him just to get him out of here.
"Yes, and that is precisely why it's just us two here and not the whole family." Replied his father.
"Yeah that would be a bit harder to handle. Thanks for not telling them." Jaune said.
"You have my gratitude as well. From what Jaune has told me it would be quite the arduous task to calm down his overprotective sisters." Willow said.
"Yes they would've been quite the handful when they got introduced to Jaune's, ahem, wife. Speaking of, why don't you formally introduce us. You'll need to start introducing her in the future anyway, or vice versa."
"Guess I may as well, even though I doubt I need to. Mom and Dad, I'd like to introduce you to my wife Willow Arc-Schnee."
"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you both. Albeit a bit sooner than I had expected." Willow said.
"That makes two of us. I didn't think I'd see Jaune getting married this soon, I figured it would be at least another ten years. Anyway, I'm Jaune's mom Juniper Arc. A pleasure to meet you." Juniper said.
"And my name is Nicholas Arc, it's a pleasure to see you again, Willow." Nicholas said.
"Well now that's out of the way we can all go right?" Jaune said as he made to stand before being pulled back down by Willow.
"Now now Jaune, your parents came all the way here I doubt they'll take you running off." Willow said.
"Thank you Willow." Juniper said as she glared at Jaune, before turning back to the white haired woman. "By the way, did you get cosmetic surgery done? You look years younger."
"Indeed you look younger than when we last met at that gala years ago." Nicholas added.
"Ah yes well officially I got cosmetic surgery however in all actuality I nearly perished and my wonderful husband pumped his aura into me and boosted it with his semblance. The specifics are still a bit murky but top Atlas scientists are examining my test results I gave when I was in the hospital." Willow replied.
"That's incredible Jaune! You think you can help your dear old mother look a bit younger?"
"I don't know mom, it wasn't really something I was trying to do. It was a stressful situation." Jaune replied.
"Indeed." Nicholas said, sounding much more serious than before. "Just what sort of situation drove you to do something so reckless."
"What do you mean dear?" Juniper said as she looked over to her husband.
"Aura transfer is usually something that gets taught in-depth during the second year of huntsman school. Maybe at the end of first year IF the student is incredibly talented. The reason for this is because the process can be EXTREMELY dangerous if it goes wrong." Nicholas explained, before continuing his questioning.
"So let me ask again, Jaune. Just what in the world led you to try a technique that could be that dangerous?" Nicholas asked as he leaned forward with a raised eyebrow, awaiting his son's response.
"I was trying to save her life." Jaune replied before getting a look of "duh dumbass, elaborate on it" from his father. Jaune scratched his head in his signature tick as he explained.
"Well, our bullhead got shot down by the White Fang." This caused a gasp from the Arc parents before Jaune continued with his story. "After I got up I noticed I was a decent bit aways from the rest of the wreckage and when I neared the main wreckage site I saw a bunch of white fang soldiers. I fought and beat them all but somewhere along the way Willow got badly injured. I remembered Dr. Oobleck mentioned it one time during a lecture and I figured I might as well try that to attempt to save Willow's life."
"Oh my, that sounds like quite the day but what happened after that dear?" Juniper asked.
"Well I remember just pumping as much aura into her as I could for as long as I could. Then an Atlesian bullhead appeared and out came some people from the military. They took over tending to her injury and I collapsed from Aura exhaustion about a minute later walking to the bullhead."
"After that I carried him into the bullhead before the medics helped him into an Atlas hospital upon our arrival back in Atlas." Winter said as she walked back into the room carrying a tray of various snacks and drinks.
"Thank you dear." Willow said as Winter put the tray down on the table between the newly weds and the Arcs.
"You're welcome, mother." Winter replied as she took a seat in an empty chair on Willow's side of the couch?
"Is she?" Juniper asked in barely a whisper.
"Oh no." Nicholas said knowing full well what comes next.
"Yes Juniper, this is my daughter, and Jaune's now step-daughter. Her name is Winter."
"Then that means…" Juniper said as she started to rise from her seat.
Wondering what was going on, Winter looked from the woman who was rising from her seat to her own mother and finally to Jaune who only seemed to be giving her a look of pity. She quickly learned why as Juniper captured her in a hug going on about how happy she was to have another grandchild even if by technicality.
Quickly trying to think of an escape plan she realized she wasn't the only technical grandchild. "Mrs Arc-"
"Call me grandmother dear." Juniper said cutting Winter off mid sentence.
"Uh, Grandmother, I'm not the only child of Willow."
"You mean there's more?" Juniper asked with a big smile painted on her face.
"Yes there is. If you go up the stairs, to the right and three doors down you'll find my little brother, Whitley, more than likely in his room." Winter said, hoping to escape the clutches of the over affectionate grandmother.
Quickly letting go of Winter, Juniper raced towards the staircase to follow Winter's instructions and meet her other new grandchild.
"You realize Whitley is probably going to be upset at you using him as a distraction to get away from my mother right?" Jaune said as he watched his mother race towards the stairs.
"Eh, I have the feeling he'll be fine." Winter said with a small smirk as she leaned back in her chair.
"Not gonna lie, that's about how I expected Juniper would react when she realized she had three new grandchildren technically." Nicholas said with a chuckle. "She was like this when Adrian was born so I figured it would probably carry over, but don't think this distraction has gotten you off the hook yet Jaune." Nicholas said as he began to look at Jaune again.
"I didn't think it would." Jaune said as he let out a sigh.
"By the way I didn't see Crocea Mors on you when you entered. Is it in your room?"
"Oh, I left it with Pietro."
"Uh, Pietro?"
"Yeah Pietro Polendina."
"You mean Dr. Polendina? Like Pietro Polendina, the renowned Atlesian scientist?
"Yeah that's him."
"How in the world did you meet him?" Nicholas asked, being very surprised to find Jaune already on a first name basis with one of Atlas' smartest scientists.
"Winter helped introduce me to him, and I became friends with his daughter shortly after because she was in the lab at the time. He gave me a test to test my character. After I passed he told me to drop the formalities and call him Pietro."
"Well anyways, I hope he's not going to do anything to it, even if it's still a usable sword it's still a family heirloom after all."
"Nah, don't worry dad. He's just using it as a reference for when he's designing my new weapon."
"A fully custom weapon huh? Man getting in good with the Schnee's must mean good connections if he's designing you a new weapon." Nicholas said with a chuckle.
"Yes it does, speaking of that I'll be right back." Winter said as she stood up and pulled out her scroll, before exiting the room, to presumably call Dr. Polendina to check the status of Jaune's new weapon.
"Her departure does remind me, are you both ok with this? I mean I know your former husband was a piece of crap but remarrying so soon? And Jaune, are you ok with having a stepdaughter older than you? Given the aura events that have happened I doubt much of this is relevant anymore." Nicholas said as he clasped his hands in front of him.
"Why are you asking this?" Willow asked
"I just wanted to hear both of your thoughts on the matter. Call me a concerned father." Nicholas answered as he remained in the same position, eyes still watching both Willow and Jaune.
"Well I guess I'll start first being most of the issues that are obviously pertaining to me." Willow said before taking a breath and continuing. "I will admit that when this started I was definitely a little concerned. I had thought I signed myself up for another Jacques case, however those thoughts calmed down a little following our outing afterwards."
"How so?" Nicholas asked, now intrigued as to what his son had done to dissuade such thoughts from the woman's mind.
"Well when we went out to go shopping because someone broke my bra by sitting on it," Willow said as she turned and looked at Jaune with a small smirk. "He was very gentlemanly and very respectful."
"I'm glad to hear that. It means we raised him right." Nicholas said like the proud parent anyone would be when someone complimented their child.
"Yes but mannerisms aren't always everything. That's something I learned all too well with Jacques, which is why I was delighted to see that Jaune had this warm genuine side that was very caring to those around him when he wasn't drinking."
"When he wasn't drinking? What is that supposed to mean?" Nicholas asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I-" Jaune tried before being interrupted,
"Shush now dear, let your wife handle this." Willow said with a smile and a small laugh as she gently placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder before turning back to face Nicholas.
"And to answer your question, I included the not drinking part not because he wasn't nice when he was drinking rather, I had already seen his kind caring side. It showed itself when we were drinking the night before at the bar when he comforted me about my daughter having yelled at me when I went to talk to her in person about the passing of Jacques."
"Well I'm certainly glad to hear that. Good job son." Nicholas said as he seemed to relax a bit more.
"Uh thanks, I guess?" Jaune replied
"Of course you've already heard the rest of our story from earlier or from Ozpin himself so I'll spare us going over the other stuff again. All in all I know the Arc promise means a lot and it is rather nice to have this sense of warmth back in the house now that Jaune is around so, I'm perfectly okay seeing where this goes." Willow said before she stood up and gestured to Winter.
"Come Winter, let's go save Whitley from your Grandmother's clutches." Willow said with a laugh as she walked out of the room to rescue Whitley.
"I guess I do owe it to Whitley for using him as a distraction so I guess I'll go help rescue him." Winter said with a sigh as she made to follow her mother out of the room, leaving only Jaune and Nicholas.
"Well son, now that I've heard Willow's side of things, what about you?" Nicholas said as he turned to face Jaune directly.
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean Jaune, is specifically are you ok with this? Do you have any concerns or fears? You know basic stuff a father can offer advice on."
"I wasn't aware that getting drunk, then drunkenly married, and having to deal with our family's promise was a common thing a father could offer advice on." Jaune said with a laugh before he was lightly smacked in the back of his head.
"Ha-ha smartass. Look, your situation might be a bit of an odd one but everyone still dates and gets married at some point. My father offered advice to me when I was close to tying the knot and some even afterwards. So in all seriousness Jaune, are you ok with this?" Nicholas said as he moved to sit next to Jaune.
"Well dad, I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'm going to mess up, I'm afraid of what might happen to the SDC if I do. I'm afraid of what my team and my friends will think. I just, I don't want to screw up and let anyone down." Jaune said as he slouched forwards and put his head in hands.
"Don't worry son, that's a normal feeling to have." Nicholas replied as he placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder before continuing.
"Now look, that feeling of what if I mess up, well that's not going to go away anytime soon. It hangs around and it's something I even deal with to this day. What if I get the wrong birthday present, or forget mine and Juniper's anniversary? You see things do happen so you will mess up, no one is perfect and you will forget something. Here's the beautiful thing though, everyone is human so we will all forget something, we will all make some mistakes. That's why people forgive each other so look, just try your best and let people know when you have concerns so they can help you."
"Thanks for the advice dad." Jaune said as he gave his dad a hug after both of them had stood up.
"You're welcome, Jaune."
"Oh hey, what about my friends and team? You never really answered that."
"Well uh," Nicholas said as he raised his arm to scratch the back of his neck, "Well you see the key there is…. Yeah I got nothing, they're your friends not mine so I know nothing about them. Just talk to them and everything should be fine, right?"
Letting out an audible sigh Jaune sat back down on the couch and leaned back into the comfy cushions of the couch before a pair of slender hands wrapped themselves around his face and the hot breath from Willow's "Guess who," hit his ear.
After jumping up with a little bit of a scare, as that was one of the last things Jaune was expecting to have happen, he turned around to face Willow with a heavy blush on his face.
"See Juniper, I told you he'd react that way." Willow said as she made her way around the couch over towards Jaune.
"I certainly see what you mean when you said he'd jump." Juniper said with a laugh as she walked into the room, followed by Whitley and Winter.
"Mom! Willow! What the heck was that?" Jaune shouted in embarrassment.
"Oh relax Jaune, it was just a bit of teasing. Honestly I don't know how you'll be able to handle any sort of affection, much less the more fun bits that come later. I do want more grandchildren after all." Juniper said bluntly.
The blush becoming even darker on Jaune's face was a clear sign for Juniper who let out a little squeal before hugging Jaune.
"I really didn't need to know about my mother and Jaune's sex life." Winter said with a sigh.
"At least you don't live here still, I'll probably have to see and hear more teasing like that or worse." Whitley commented with a slight shudder, as he stood to her left.
"First Willow, now you two as well? Ugh, I don't even want to think about what my sisters will do." Jaune said as he plopped back down on the couch.
"Oh relax Jaune. You survived all those years at home before you went to Beacon. What's a few days here and there when they come to visit?" Juniper said as she took a seat next to Nicholas.
"On a similar note to Jaune's suffering, Dr. Polendina said the prototype is ready if you want to go inspect it." Winter said.
"How is that on a similar note to me suffering?" Jaune asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because we'll need to train with it to make sure it's a good fit." Winter said with a smirk, as Jaune's face went a shade paler.
"Oh joy." Jaune said as he stood up.
"Oh admit it, you're excited to see what he's come up with." Winter fired back.
"Of course, I'm excited about the new weapon. I'm just considerably less so about the training part that follows after. Alright, let's go. I'll see you in a bit, Willow." Jaune said as he started walking towards the door, followed by Winter.
"Mind if I come with you two?" Nicholas said as he walked behind them.
"Sure I don't see a problem with it. What do you think, Winter?"
"I'm sure Dr. Polendina wouldn't mind one more guest. Plus you could use the chance to get Crocea Mors back seeing as Jaune won't need it anymore." Winter said as they all walked out the room together.
"So, when can I expect mini Arcs running around the house?" Juniper teased as she wiggled her eyebrows.
"Hopefully not anytime soon as I don't want to pull Jaune from Beacon for that, I do believe I need some tea though so I'll be right back." Willow said as she quickly stood up and moved towards the door. While a quiet "I knew I should've gone with Winter and Jaune." came from the armchair Whitley was seated in.
"Oh relax dear Whitley, you'll understand in time and maybe be teasing back at your friends too."
"That'll be the day." Whitley said as he leaned back further in his seat.
Atlas Academy Laboratories
After a short bullhead ride, Winter walked into the Atlas Academy's laboratory towards Dr. Polendina's office. Following behind her were Jaune and Nicholas, with the latter looking around everywhere taking it all in like a new student would upon seeing for the first time. Much like his son did not too long ago.
"Dr. Polendina's office should be right up ahead." Winter said as they approached the end of the hallway.
"I hope Dr. Polendina doesn't mind me tagging along." Nicholas said as he scratched the back of his head, giving Winter an idea as to where Jaune got the habit from.
"He shouldn't. Dr. Polendina is rather accommodating and mild mannered. His daughter is something different entirely though." Winter said as she slowed letting Jaune take the lead so she could talk to Nicholas.
"I'm not sure I understand." Nicholas responded.
"Oh don't worry you will." Winter replied as she saw Jaune open the door to Dr. Polendina's lab.
"Friend Jaune!" Penny shouted as she tackled the blond knight. "Salutations!"
"Uh hi Penny. Can you let me up please?" Jaune asked as he laid on the floor.
"Sure!" Penny said excitedly as she stood up and pulled Jaune to his feet.
"Ah. I see what you mean now." Nicholas responded after watching all this unfold from outside the lab.
"Indeed. Let's go in now that the tackling threat has happened." Winter said as she entered the laboratory.
"Friend Winter!" Penny said as she saw Winter enter.
"Hello Penny, is your father around? We need to speak to him regarding Jaune's new weapon."
"He is. He is talking with friend Neon right now." Penny eagerly replied.
"When do you think he'll be done speaking with Neon?" Jaune said as a door to the side of the room opened and out walked Neon alongside Dr. Polendina with the former holding her nunchaku weapon.
"Thanks for the help Doc. I couldn't figure out the problem but I knew you could because of how Penny always talks about your inventions and ideas." Neon said as she idly twirled her weapon about.
"Not a problem, I'm always happy to help one of my daughter's friends. Speaking of," Dr. Polendina said as he turned towards the newly arrived guests and Penny. "Hello Jaune, Winter, and I'm going to guess you're Jaune's father?" Dr. Polendina finished saying.
"Yes, I'm Jaune's father. My name is Nicholas Arc. It is a pleasure to meet you Dr. Polendina."
"Please call me Pietro, I thought I made that clear last time to Jaune and Winter. I'm not really a fan of all the formality stuff." Pietro said as his chair moved over towards the group.
"Ughh tell me about it." Neon groaned. "Everything here is so bleak and dull. White this, grey that. There's no color, speaking of color though." Neon said as she skated in front of Jaune.
"You aren't adopted, are you blondie?" Neon asked Jaune
"No he's not." Nicholas chimed in with a bemused smirk, thinking he might know where this was going.
"Well how about you and me go have some fun later on blondie?" Neon said as she leaned closer towards Jaune's face."
"Sorry but he's taken." Winter said as she approached the pair.
"Oh, are you trying to stake your claim, Winter?" Neon said as she turned to the side to face the approaching Schnee.
"I think if you look at his left hand, you'll see a claim has been staked already. There's no need for me to stake one." Winter said, standing besides Jaune and Neon.
"Wow, never would've you the type to land someone like Winter here blondie. You gotta tell me your tricks sometime." Neon said as she put her arm on Jaune's shoulder.
"I'm not married to Winter." Jaune said as he lifted Neon's arm off of him.
"Really then who's the lucky lady?" Neon asked.
"Her mother." Jaune said with a smirk, pointing a thumb at Winter.
Letting out a laugh, Neon turned to Winter to see her reaction to Jaune's joke, only to find Winter not doing anything? "Uh Winter, this is the part where you make a joke or a quip back. That's usually how it goes."
"Friend Jaune is telling the truth, friend Neon. I found their marriage certificate in Atlas' databases. One Mr Jaune and Mrs Willow Arc-Schnee. According to this, they married not too long ago in Vale." Penny said as her shining eyes returned to their normal green color.
"Penny! What have I told you about accessing Atlas' databases without authorization?" Pietro said as he looked towards his daughter.
"To not to?"
"So, can you tell me why you accessed the database then?"
"Because I wished to verify their story. Why else?" Penny answered with a confused look.
With a groan, he made his way over towards a storage box in the lab. Moving past the others including Neon who was now on the floor, holding her sides as she laughed.
"Yes yes. It's all very funny." Winter said with a roll of her eyes as she looked down at Neon who was starting to stop laughing.
"It's not that." Neon said as she stood up. "It's the fact that your mother got herself a new man so quickly, meanwhile you still haven't gotten anywhere." Neon said with another laugh, before continuing. "Hey hey Winter, maybe you can convince your mother to share "daddy" with you." Neon said as she raced out the door followed by a red faced upset Winter shouting something about "Skinning a cat."
"Well that happened." Nicholas said
"Yup. Reminds you of home doesn't it, dad?" Jaune replied
"Oh yeah. Just as crazy but with less blondes." Nicholas said before turning his attention back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, Pietro, you said you were gonna show us Jaune's new weapon?" Nicholas said as he moved over towards Dr. Polendina.
"Come on Penny. Let's go see my new weapon." Jaune said as he moved over to join his father and Dr. Polendina.
"Oh yes friend Jaune. Father made a very cool weapon for you." Penny said as she eagerly skipped over towards her's and Jaune's fathers.
"Ok Jaune, here it is." Dr. Polendina said as he gestured towards a box sitting on his desk.
With a nod of his head, Jaune walked towards the desk before carefully reaching out to the box and opening it to find, Crocea Mors?
With a confused look on his face, Jaune pulled out Crocea Mors and looked towards the inventor. "Uh Dr. Polendina, isn't this just Crocea Mors?"
With a smile the man looked Jaune in the face and spoke. "Indeed it is, dear boy. I simply wanted to see your reaction, and the emotions that seeing the old weapon would incur. Your actual weapon is over there along with your new armor in that changing room. So go on and become a new knight. Oh but do put Crocea Mors back in the box, as your father will be using that box to transport it home."
With excitement growing on his face Jaune put Crocea Mors back into the box, and headed towards the changing area Dr. Polendina pointed out.
After entering the little changing area Jaune saw the same knight armor on a stand he saw last time, although now it was customized. The silver armor now had golden trim going around it while a light blue cape hung behind it.
The most notable of the customization was the pauldrons. The left one now bearing the Schnee crest and the right now bearing the Arc crest.
After Jaune had finished putting on the armor, Jaune looked around a bit more now for his new weapon as he was realizing that he got so focused on the shiny new armor he didn't see his new weapon when he came in.
Gingerly he reached out and grabbed the sheathed sword before inspecting it. The sheath was a polished white with golden trim running around the outside of it while the same light blue as his cape patterned the sheath before coming to a stop near the top where the Arc and Schnee crest had been placed.
Drawing the sword out, Jaune found the sword's blade to be the same shiny metal of his armor with a single white stripe going down the center of the blade. Almost seeming like someone had colored in that center part of the blade.
Moving on he looked towards the handle of the blade he was holding to see the grip was the light blue color he had been seeing while the handguard and pommel were the same color as the gold trim decorating his armor and the sheath to keep it consistent.
He also noticed a few things here and there on the sheath and the sword but well, he decided he'd let Pietro explain those to him rather than risk him damaging it by not knowing what each thing did. So he put the blade back into the sheath and attached it to his belt, before he exited the little area.
"Friend Jaune, you truly look like a knight now!" Penny said as she moved over to look at everything now that Jaune was wearing it all.
"I agree with the girl, Jaune. You look like the fitting warrior who should be attending Beacon, not like a runaway with some old armor and sword." Nicholas said.
"Speaking of." Jaune said as he detached the sword from his belt, "I saw some things on the sword, could you explain them to me Pietro?"
"Sure my boy." Pietro said as he navigated his chair closer. "If you look here towards the pommel, that switch opens the mechanism and allows you to insert dust, making the blade use dust for added firepower."
"That's really cool. Is this how the dust goes into the sword?" Jaune said as he pointed at the white streak in the blade.
"Yes, that helps disperse the dust throughout the blade so no one part gets too much dust and hurts the blade in any way. Given it would take a lot of dust but it could happen so I'm just trying to be safe."
"Now if you look at your sheath you'll find it turns into a shield just like your old weapon." Pietro said as he pointed towards the sheath.
A moment later Jaune had the sheath in shield mode. Now, it was clearly obvious the pattern was the Arc crest surrounded by the light blue lines which now formed a circular pattern with the Schnee logo in the background behind it.
"Now my boy, if you look on the interior side of the shield you'll see a little marker that's unlit right now. Try pushing some aura into the shield." Pietro said.
Jaune followed Pietro's advice and the shield extended further as a light barrier activated. Shocked Jaune stopped pushing aura into the shield causing it to falter and making the light barrier to fade.
"What was that?" Jaune asked.
"That my boy was the hard light addition. Now being hard light dust is the rarest form of dust it can be quite expensive to purchase after the long task of simply finding it as most is sold for military purposes. Fortunately I had a research breakthrough so I outfitted the dust mechanism with that invention." Pietro said with a smile on his face.
"What does it do?" Jaune replied
"Well it takes the impact from anything while the hard light shield is up and converts it into energy sending it back into the crystal and thus extending the crystal's life. For how long I'm not quite sure yet, but ultimately the goal is forever so this sort of stuff can be adopted more widely around Remnant." Pietro explained.
"That's amazing Pietro! I can't express how much this means to me." Jaune said excitedly.
"But wait there's more." Pietro said in a very commercial like fashion.
"What, do I get free shipping too?" Jaune said with a small laugh.
"Haha you played my own joke. Anyway if you were to put the sword back into the sheath, I'll show you." Pietro said.
After doing so Jaune held the sword out to Pietro and the inventor showed him what to do, but didn't tell him what it did.
After taking the sword and sheath back, Jaune repeated the actions shown after which, some whirling was heard as the sheath split apart before moving upwards forming a greatsword.
"And that is for when you really need to hit something or someone hard." Pietro said with a laugh.
"This is all amazing, thanks Pietro." Jaune said as he switched the greatsword back to its normal sword and sheath form before attaching it to his belt.
"Not a problem my boy, just don't slack off on your training now that you got proper gear."
"Speaking of training," Nicholas said "I think it's time we test out what kind of shape you're in."
"Alright let's go. Bye Pietro, bye Penny." Jaune said as he began making his way to the door.
After giving his goodbyes as well, Nicholas followed his son out of the lab.
After about four or five minutes of walking Nicholas turned to his son and asked "Jaune, do you know where you're going."
"Uh, somewhat?"
"Somewhat? You've done training here, I expect you'd know how to get to the training grounds."
"Well usually I just follow Winter there." Jaune said as he nervously scratched the back of his neck.
"Are you guys trying to find the training facilities?" came a voice from behind them.
As both Arcs turned around they were greeted by the sight of a teenager the same age as Jaune. He was dressed in what looked like a suit but without the suit coat, instead opting just to wear the vest over the dress shirt. He had a light blue tie that wasn't tied around his neck and a fedora with a band around that was the same light blue as his tie. Strangely enough he also had on a pair of sunglasses even though they were inside.
After getting past the appearance of the teen who appeared before them, Nicholas was the first to speak.
"Yeah we are. Jaune has been there before but apparently he's forgotten how to get there."
"Hey when I'm going there I'm usually following Winter or she's dragging me out after the butt kicking she gives me, sorry the training she gives me."
"Haha no worries guys. I was actually heading there anyway so I'll show you how to get there, come on. Maybe we'll even run into my partner on the way there. She got a new weapons upgrade so I figure she's probably there."
"Cool, thanks for helping us get there man. I'm Jaune and this is my dad Nicholas."
"My name's Flynt, nice to meet you both." Flynt said as he led the way.
"So what are you two doing here. You don't look like an Atlas student and your dad definitely isn't." Flynt followed up as the trio walked down the corridor.
"Well the reason we're here is my son got everything he has on him, weapon included, from Pietro. We're on our way there so I can give him some "training" with his new gear."
"So you guys know Dr. Poledina too eh?"
"Yeah, Jaune's step daughter introduced him to Jaune and subsequently me when I decided to come this time."
"Step daughter? You don't look older than me, how does that work?" Flynt asked, the confusion clearly written all over his face.
"Well I-" Jaune began to say before being cut off by his father.
"Jaune drunkenly married a MILF." Nicholas said with a smirk.
"PFFT! Oh my Oum, that is hilarious. Nice job though dude. You must've done well though to get connections like that. Anyway it should be just around the corner." Flynt said as they approached the turn in the hallway.
"Sounds like someone is sparring already." Nicholas said as the trio rounded the corner only to see a brightly colored blur go flying past them.
"That would be my partner." Flynt said as another blur went flying by this time though it was white. "And that would probably be who she is fighting."
"Yield Katt." Winter said as she stood above Neon.
"Fine, I yield. Happy?" Neon sarcastically asked as she rolled her eyes
"Yes, very happy indeed." Winter said with a smirk as she strode over to the benches and grabbed one of the bottles of water before throwing it at Neon, which bounced off the unaware girl's head.
"Can you warn me first before you throw something at me?" Neon asked. "What was that even for? Did you work out enough anger at not getting any during our spar."
"It was for your hydration, but now that you mention it, I could go for another spar if you want to." Winter said with a grin.
"No no I'm good, this water will do fine. Oh and hey look Jaune and his dad are here, Flynt too." Neon said as she grabbed the water and raced over to the trio.
"Damn that armor looks good on you blondie." Neon said as Winter approached the group as well.
"I must agree, the armor does look quite fitting on you. I know I said I'd spar with you but I'm not feeling a little tired so I feel it would be best if you fight your father and I'll offer tips and guidance from the sidelines." Winter said after reaching the group.
"Ah, what's the matter Winter? You getting too old to do multiple spar sessions?" Neon quipped with a smirk
"I'll show you old Katt." Winter said as she summoned a glyph and sent Neon sliding away into the arena before chasing after her again.
"Are those two usually like that?" Jaune asked as he looked over to Flynt.
"Depends on the day mainly. Neon's just the type to tease and I think it helps Winter unwind from the stress of being the right hand person for General Ironwood." Flynt said before pausing for a second.
"Hey Jaune, what's your relationship to Winter? I've never seen you around here before so I can't imagine you're a student and you look too old to be a prospective person. So?"
"Yeah I'm currently a student a Beacon actually. I'm in Atlas on something like a leave of absence from school that Ozpin assigned me." Jaune answered as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, unsure of how much to say given how much was already said earlier.
"So it's like a special mission from Ozpin?" Flynt asked with a curious expression.
"Yeah, something like that." Jaune said as he began walking towards the arena.
"Alright Jaune, let's go over everything about your suit and your weapon one at a time before we try any live sparring sessions. First thing first, try circulating your aura through your armor and running around." Nicholas said as he stood off to the side.
"Ok let's do this." Jaune said as he began concentrating and started to circulate the aura through his body before bolting off to the side into one of the walls.
"Try not to run into the wall this time." Nicholas said with a laugh, followed by some snickers from Flynt as well.
"Yeah yeah, very funny." Jaune said as he got up to try again before going into a different wall.
"BHAHAHAHA." Nicholas and Flynt bellowed out using each other as support so they didn't fall over.
"Son, you need to try circulating and then moving. You can't run before you walk." Nicholas yelled.
"Alright, I got this." Jaune said to himself as he got up and began circulating his aura throughout the suit once more. As he kept doing this he felt himself get lighter.
After taking a minute or two to get used to the new lightness, Jaune began slowly moving around.
After a few laps around the arena, Jaune started into a slight jog. After another few laps of that he went running full speed.
"Alright Jaune that's enough." Nicholas yelled as Jaune approached them before Jaune slowed down to a walking pace.
"Here." Nicholas said as he tossed a bottle of water at Jaune. "Drink some of that and we'll move on to the next part of training.
"And what would that be?" Jaune asked after he got done taking a big drink of water.
"I'm glad you asked. Here let me show you." Nicholas said as he reached for a red rubber ball only to throw it at Jaune after picking it up.
"What was that for?" Jaune asked before getting hit in the side of the head by another ball. This time he turned to see it was Flynt who threw the ball, and he was holding another with several more at his feet.
"This Jaune, is a game of dodgeball, a game where hand to eye coordination is crucial in well, trying to dodge things thrown at you. Given bullets will travel a lot faster but this will really help make sure that you can control that suit under more pressure than just running around an arena." Nicholas explained.
With a big sigh Jaune just looked at the man. "You just wanted a reason to hit me with things didn't you?"
"Well that's not THE WHOLE reason. This will be helpful for you, but yeah mainly for some stress blow off for me and punishment for you for running off to Beacon in the middle of the night." Nicholas said as he grabbed another ball from the pile by his feet. "Oh and Flynt is going to be helping too. To add to the pressure." Nicholas added.
"You ready Jaune?" Flynt called from his side of the arena.
With an audible sigh Jaune got into his stance before responding "Sure. Why not?" Before a ball was quickly thrown towards him. Followed by several more…
After about an hour of dodging the red rubber balls being hurled at him by his father and Flynt, Jaune collapsed down onto the bench covered in sweat.
"Aw come on you can't be THAT tired we haven't gotten to your weapon training yet. Besides, all you had to do was dodge some balls being thrown at you." Flynt said looking just like he did when the trio walked into the arena. Not a hint of sweat anywhere, with his showing a similar appearance.
"That's easy for you guys to say. You just had to stand there and throw a ball. I had to run around dodging all of them. Or trying to anyway." Jaune replied.
"Hey we had to aim, you know. It wasn't JUST 'throw a ball'." Nicholas retorted with a grin.
"Alright let's move on to your weapon." Nicholas said as he grabbed Jaune's weapon and tossed it on him. Jaune let out an oof as the sword and sheath shield landed on his chest.
"Actually I think it might be best for us to return to the manner soon as it's getting late and mother will probably have dinner being prepared soon." Winter said as she approached from behind with Neon following behind her.
"That's probably a good idea." Jaune said as he checked his scroll to see how much time had passed and sure enough there was a message from Willow that read "I'm having the cooks start preparation for dinner. They should be done in an hour and a half. See you then."
"Willow sent me a message about that. She said dinner was going to be ready in an hour and a half according to the chefs." Jaune added after seeing the message.
"Well when did she ask that?" Winter asked.
"It was..." Jaune said as he checked his scroll again. "30 minutes ago so we should probably start making our way there." Jaune replied as he stood up.
"It was nice to meet you, Flynt and Neon. Maybe I can come back and train with you two again, well train with you again Flynt. Maybe get the chance to train with Neon if she isn't too busy antagonizing Winter." Jaune said as he glanced over to Neon.
"We'll see blondie." Neon responded with a smirk as she began walking towards the exit waving her hand.
"I'll see you later Jaune." Flynt said before he turned to Nicholas, "It was nice meeting you too sir." Before he went off following after his partner.
"How long do you think it will take us to get back to the manor, Winter?" Jaune asked as he turned back to face her and his father again.
"Not too long, so we can take a short showers before leaving for there." Winter said as she grabbed her sword and made her way to the women's locker room.
Jaune looked at his dad before grabbing his sword and shield and heading off to the men's locker room, with Nicholas grabbing his weapon and following suit.
After enjoying a quick shower everyone met back at the docks, before boarding the bullhead that would take them home.
Schnee Manor, Atlas
As Jaune, Winter, and Nicholas approached the manor it was clear that Jaune in his new attire really stood out more as quite a few of the people working around the house garden's didn't seem to recognize him until they saw him from up close.
This was only further proved when they entered the house and the same thing happened to the few people still running around the house.
When they entered the living room Jaune saw the worst nightmare of every teenager whose partner was left alone with their mother. She was showing Willow his baby photos from a big photo album she had apparently brought along for the trip.
"Mom! Why did you even bring those?" Jaune questioned after seeing the album.
"Because it's a mother's job to embarrass their child." Juniper said as she took notice of his new attire. And speaking of, look at that, my boy is all grown up." Juniper said as she stood up and hugged Jaune. "You look so handsome."
"Thanks mom." Jaune said as he scratched the back of his neck.
"I have to agree with your mother dear, you look quite handsome. Now much more fitting of being my knight in shining armor." Willow said as she planted a light kiss on his cheek as she walked up to him, causing Jaune to turn as red as Ruby's cloak.
"T-thanks Willow." Jaune stammered out.
"Come along now everyone, dinner should be ready." Willow said as she walked towards the dining room.
As the group entered the dining area they saw an absolutely amazing spread which Jaune would've thought fit for a king.
"What's the occasion?" Jaune asked with a chuckle as he motioned to the table.
*What do you mean? This is just normal dinner for a group of 6. Of course they'll probably be leftovers if you want a snack later in the night." Willow said as she pulled out a chair and sat down with the group following suit.
Later after dinner was finished Winter and Whitley decided they were gonna go to bed early and everyone else moved to the living room. After they had sat down Jaune's parents started questioning him about his friends, his teammates and just life at Beacon in general.
Jaune showed them a picture of his team and explained who each person was in the picture. He briefly went over Ren and Nora again, before 'introducing' Pyrrha who he really didn't have to. Apparently only HE didn't know his world famous partner before she informed him.
After that he showed a picture of their sister team, Team RWBY, which was a little weird to explain how one of his sister team members was now his stepdaughter, but oh well.
After finishing up talking about his team and his friends, he asked about how things were at home and heard how his sisters were upset that he left. It was at his point Jaune decided it would be good to invite them out hopefully before he had to go back to Beacon. Speaking of, he probably needed to get into contact with Ozpin again, just to make sure he wasn't missing or forgetting anything.
After about ten or so minutes more of small talk everyone decided it was getting late so they should all go and get ready for bed.
After Jaune had gotten ready for bed he decided it would be a good idea to call his team again and just update them on what was happening with him. However, after a few rings of Pyrrha's scroll it went to voicemail, so he wound up leaving a voicemail for her to listen to later.
After putting the scroll on it's charger, Jaune walked over to the bed and slipped under the covers into its comfortable warmth. Only the warmth seemed a bit too, well un-bed like. After turning his head to the left he saw Willow's face looking back at him.
"Uh, hi."
After letting out a small yawn she replied back with a quick "Hello Jaune."
"Um Willow, why are you in my bed?"
"Because your parents are using my room that's why."
"And that's the whole reason? Doesn't this place have plenty of more bedrooms?"
"Well there are certainly many more rooms in this house however there are only a few other bedrooms not in use."
"Then why-" Jaune said but was interrupted by Willow who resumed talking.
"Well the other reason is the other night at the hotel, even on those hotel beds, was some of the best sleep I have gotten in a long time so here I am again trying to get some more great sleep. I have a suspicion it's just a being next to you thing." Willow said as she pulled Jaune closer and basked in his body heat.
"Good night Jaune." Willow said as she drifted off to sleep not wanting to discuss this more.
"Good night Willow." Jaune said with a laugh before he too drifted off to sleep. They say the woman is always right in the relationship and Willow was right. It was one of the best night's sleep Jaune had in recent memory.