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Chance Encounter

Tukson hadn't heard much — he got a trickle of visitors from the White Fang who wanted information about Vale, but since he was attempting to lay low, he tried to limit contact to people who wouldn't mention him to leadership. Since Taurus had taken charge of the local chapter, the majority of those who stuck around under him were similarly radical. Most of Tukson's contacts had slipped away or found pretenses to get themselves reassigned.

Fortunately, there were still a few who owed him, and he promised to squeeze them for what he could. Hopefully, one of them can point the finger at Cinder, at least enough to make the connection between her and the woman Ruby noticed during the robbery she interrupted.

We also worked out an emergency code, though it was pretty simple — I used my [Computers] skill to write a simple app for his Scroll that would run quietly in the background. If he pressed and held down the central button for five seconds, it would send his location to me, which I would interpret as an emergency call. In the meantime, he would do his best to stall or flee to give me time to reach him.

The last thing we had planned to do in town was find an armorer. Ruby apparently knew him, as he was the former teacher of Signal's forgemaster, and she'd offered to make the introduction. His shop was a block away from the nearest shopping street; technically it was simply a warehouse on the edge of the industrial part of town, but that was a good place for a smithy.

I hung back momentarily as Ruby skipped ahead, catching Blake's eye as she took the drag position of our walk. I didn't speak, but raised an eyebrow. Blake smiled wryly and shook her head, so I patted her shoulder again and sped up to enter behind Ruby. Gonna have to make sure Blake doesn't completely fold in on herself again, but I think we're okay.

The inside of the shop was brightly lit, the walls a warm beige that made the weapons and armor lining it stand out without dazzling. All of it was well-made, although many of the items near the door were clearly display pieces, designed for form over function. And everywhere I looked, I saw the same maker's mark of a winged hammer.

Ruby zipped over to the counter and rang the bell twice, humming cheerfully even after the serious discussion we'd had earlier and peering at the knives under the glass with rapt interest.

"I know that's you, Little Bit," a gruff voice called. "Don't tell me you're redesigning that overtuned gardening tool again."

"Never!" Ruby cried. "Crescent Rose is perfect the way she is!" She folded her arms and nodded, despite the person she was talking to not even being in the room.

A moment later, a panel behind the desk slid open, wider than a standard door, and the owner of the first voice rolled his wheelchair through. For a moment, I thought this was Yang's boss Huffy, for the coarse, curly black hair and bright hazel eyes were almost identical, but at a second glance, some differences jumped out. Huffy had a prosthetic leg that caused him to walk with a limp, one of his shoulders was higher than the other, and his face was a bit lopsided due to an old injury that hadn't healed perfectly.

This man, while built along the same lines, looked like he would be a bit taller if he could stand, and was missing both his legs above the knee. He had prosthetics as well, cleverly hooked into his chair so he could easily slip into them and stand up without them getting in his way while he was rolling. His nose was a little straighter, and a his face was overall a bit more handsome. His gaze passed over us all, lingering a bit on Pyrrha and I, before returning to Ruby.

"Well then, why are you interrupting my workday, Little Bit?" he demanded, though his tone wasn't upset.

"My team leader is looking for some armor!" Ruby said brightly, darting back and dragging me forward by the hand.

"Hm, and it's gotta be custom, eh?" he replied, looking me up and down. "What makes you think you can afford Wayland the Smith, boy?"

"It doesn't need to be custom work," I corrected, raising my sunglasses to meet his eye and extending a hand to shake. "And if I can't get a few pieces in my budget, there are other smiths."

He bypassed my hand, grabbing my wrist and trying to twist my palm up. I wasn't sure what he intended, but I instinctively triggered [Reinforcement] and [Bull's Strength] and resisted the motion.

"Also, for the record: in this Kingdom, people greet each other by clasping and shaking hands, then exchanging names," I added sarcastically.

Wayland barked a laugh. "Try that on someone who doesn't know your father, boy."

"I'd have to find a mirror, seeing as I lost my memory last year and only met the man this week," I shot back.

Wayland paused at that, looking me over more carefully. This time his eyes lingered on the scars on my face, and he stopped trying to turn my wrist. "From your tone, my old apprentice didn't make the best impression," he observed.

"Whatever skills you managed to teach him clearly didn't involve reading a room," I deadpanned, and he barked a laugh.

"I'd ask when you got so serious, but you already told me you don't remember," he sighed. "Fine. I'm Wayland." He clasped my hand normally and shook it. His grip was strong, but not crushing.

"Any relation to the Hephaestus who sold me my bike?" I asked curiously.

"My cousin," he agreed. "A good smith himself when he sets his mind to it, but he always liked tinkering with machines better. Now, what are you calling yourself?"

"Jaune Arc," I said. "I may not be on speaking terms with my parents, but I'm not at the point of giving up my name quite yet."

"I hope you don't reach that point," he said seriously. "Names are important. Now, normally I'd give you more of the runaround and try to pass off some of the showy crap out here, but in light of the Little Bit's introduction, and because I know how infuriating Jack can be, we can cut to the chase. What are you looking for?"

Nodding happily, Ruby moved away to join Blake and Pyrrha by the door, inspecting the arms and armor for sale.

I shrugged off my Handy Haversack and pulled my armor pieces out one by one. "This is my current gear," I told him, laying each piece on the counter: breastplate, pauldrons, rerebraces, and gloves. "Along with some aramid jeans and the boots I'm wearing. It's been fine, but I'm looking for some additional segments to the cuirass to cover my abdomen better, at least one vambrace for my sword arm, and something for my lower legs. And before you ask, I'm strong enough that I'm not worried about the extra weight."

Wayland just grunted. "Sword and board, is it?" he surmised.

I reached into the backpack again and withdrew the Family Sword. "If you know Jack, I'm sure you're familiar with this."

"Crocea Mors," he whispered reverently.

"Not anymore, but I'm working on it," I muttered, since the comment wouldn't make sense to anyone but me.

Wayland froze, and his eyes jumped from the sword to mine. Ruby, Pyrrha, and Blake were still across the large room, so no one could hear his hoarse whisper. "It's lost its name?"

That… is not a reaction I expected. I thought back to the Family Sword's first description. "Lost, but not forgotten."

Wayland stared at me for almost a full minute before he returned his gaze to the sword. Reaching out, he lifted an inch or so of the blade clear of the sheath, looking at the flat, matte silver. His hand shook a little, and he let it drop back into place. "You're working on it?" His voice was almost pleading.

"It's beginning to wake up again," I said. "But there's always another step on the path."

"So goes the tale," Wayland murmured. "So goes life." Shaking his head, he returned his attention back to the armor I'd laid on his counter. "There's nothing wrong with Jack's work on the pauldrons and rerebraces," he said, as if the past few minutes hadn't happened. "I'll have to replace the breastplate if you want it longer, but the vambraces, greaves, and poleyns, I should be able to resize to suit you." He glanced up at me again. "If you're already planning to wear that much, you ought to consider a helm."

"Got anything that won't obscure my vision?" I asked. "I don't need any more scars because I didn't see something coming.

Wayland hummed, setting down the pauldron and rolling out from behind the counter, over to a rack of helmets. "You want your eyes and ears clear, but something to protect your noggin. Maybe something like this?" He picked up one particular helmet off the peg, tossing it my way. "That won't fit your head yet, but tell me if you like the style."

I caught the helmet and examined it. The top of it was round, reinforced at the cap and brow. The front was open, while the back would come down to protect the back of my head and a bit of my neck. It looked like it would cover most of my forehead without slipping down over my eyes, and while the ears were left open, there were a set of cheek guards on slight hinges that widened as they came down, leaving my peripheral vision clear but protecting my cheekbones and jaw. "Does it come in white?"

Wayland barked a laugh. "That's the easy part, boy. Let's find you the rest, get them resized, and then I'll take your measurements for the new breastplate. It'll take a few weeks, but it'll match fine with the rest of the pieces."

"Then let's talk price."

[Haggling success! Bargain has increased by 2!]

Oh, good, that setting tweak worked the way I hoped, I thought. Now, I think I'll send the girls back up to school before I head home. Thinking about how I couldn't tell Wayland that my Semblance would resize any armor to fit me had made me realize I should probably have explained my power to Amber before now. I considered it the night I left home, but it never felt like the right moment… and now I'm betting no moment will feel right because I'm so used to hiding it. But I trust her. She's my girlfriend, and she already knows I have 'magic'; she deserves to know–

I was jarred out of my thoughts when someone bumped into Ruby and knocked them both sprawling. She caught herself on her hands and knees, Aura flaring briefly, and then froze as she stared down into a pair of bright green eyes set in a freckled face that utterly distracted me. Oh! Is it time!?

Ruby didn't move for a moment, until Pyrrha bustled over and hauled her to her feet. Her partner's touch seemed to snap Ruby out of her funk and she apologized frantically. "Sorry! I'm sorry I ran into you, are you okay?"

"I'm very well, thank you for asking!" the girl she'd collided with replied cheerfully. She was wearing a green dress over a cream-colored blouse, a detached black collar with accents that matched her eyes, and her ginger hair held back with a big pink bow. "Salutations, my name is Penny!"

She made no effort to rise, so I extended a hand, idly casting [Observe].

[Name: Penny Polendina]
[LV 49]
[Title: That We Dreamed Not Before]
[Model: M374]
[Race: Synthetic Soul]
[Age: 2]
[Job: Trainee Huntress]
[Class: Battlemage]
[Semblance: ?]
[HP: 4276/4276]
[Stats: 73 STR, 94 CON, 61 DEX, 62 INT, 13 WIS, 13 CHA]
[Background: The creation of Pietro Polendina's Foundation for Intelligence Growth in Advanced Robotics, P.E.N.N.Y. grew beyond his expectations and he now considers her his daughter. What was originally a donated fragment of Pietro's soul is now undoubtedly her own, regenerating without need for external input. Penny recently travelled to Vale to scout her potential competition in the Vytal Tournament.]
[Emotions: Inquisitive, excited, happy.]
[Relationship: Acquaintance.]

"Jaune Arc," I introduced myself, grabbing her wrist and hauling Penny to her feet.

She blinked. "You're very strong."

"Thank you, I try," I grinned. "What brings you to Vale?"

"Why did you assume I'm not from Vale?" Penny tilted her head cutely, and it was all I could do not to ruffle her hair.

"You have an Atlesian accent," I pointed out, still smiling. I couldn't help it, Penny was bar none my favorite character in the entire show, and she was just so precious. "Are you in town for the Tournament?"

Her green eyes widened. "What? No! -hic-" She hiccuped loudly. "I'm just… visiting! -hic- My Papa is coming down here soon for work, and I wanted to explore the city."

I glanced at my team. Ruby was still blushing a little, Pyrrha wore her typical polite smile, and Blake as usual had curiosity in her eyes despite the RBF. "We're planning to join the tournament; we were actually taking care of some prep in town today. Would you like to join us for dinner?"

"Weren't we going back to the school?" Pyrrha asked.

"Actually, I kinda felt like cooking, and I was planning to invite you guys over anyway. I should ask my girlfriend first, though." I fired off a text to Amber asking if she minded guests for dinner. She answered immediately in the positive. "Cool, let's hit the butcher, I need to buy a ham. I think I have everything else. So?" I turned back to Penny, who looked stunned.

"You're… inviting me to your home?" she asked slowly.

"Yep," I replied, once more stifling the urge to pat her on the head. "It's been too long since I've had friends over." I thought about it. "Actually, I haven't had friends over at all since I moved there. Although Blake has been there before, I suppose."

Penny's eyes sparkled. "Are we friends?"

I could practically sense Blake's raised eyebrow behind me, but I just gave Penny a kind smile. "Do you want to be friends?"

She didn't answer for a moment, although the grin splitting her lips hinted that it wasn't a bad thing. "I would like that very much!" Penny reached out and grasped my hand in both of hers. "Thank you for the invitation, Jaune."

[Increased closeness with Penny Polendina.]

As we set off, Blake actually lengthened her stride so she could look back at me, just to make me acknowledge her incredulous look. When I finally met her eye, I answered her unspoken question by mouthing 'Trust me'.

Pyrrha seemed to catch it, too, and her shoulders untensed a little. I raised an eyebrow, curious, but she just shrugged and looked away. All right, then.

Ruby, meanwhile, was happily describing Crescent Rose to a, by all appearances, fascinated Penny.

"And that's when I figured out that I needed another gear assembly to let the blade rotate up, so I could have momentum behind a cut without needing to pull the trigger."

"You mean like a war-scythe?" I asked innocently over my shoulder. "A real weapon that people use for fighting?" Ruby, knowing what I was implying, was already pouting mightily, and I laughed.

My improved [Bargain] skill got me a kilogram of ham and half-kilo of salami for barely over 300 lien. I also picked up a block of mild white cheese and two loaves of long, narrow Valic bread, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of a baguette and the closest to what I needed that I would be able to lay hands on.

Along the way, Ruby's innocent friendliness and Pyrrha's politesse had unlocked Penny's chatterbox protocol. I counted it as a win when Blake occasionally added a snarky comment of her own.

"–It was after I'd spent the summer with Papa James, my father let me try out the Atlas Academy Entrance Exam. There is a section of taiga below Atlas that is patrolled and kept seeded with low-level Grimm for Academy students to combat under supervision. Papa James had been teaching me to use a sword, and I was able to defeat the beowolf pack without much difficulty. But a rather large ursa ambushed us, and was about to attack my father. I was too far away to reach the ursa with my sword, so I took Corporal Luna's rifle and shot it in the eye. The momentum from the shot caused it to fall over and miss my father, and the soldier snatched back his gun. Father started to scold me, but I didn't understand why. I said, 'Wasn't I supposed to save people from the Grimm? I almost lost you, Father!', and that is when my father decided I needed to spend some more time with Papa James, and they would get to work on designing a weapon for me, before I could go to school." Penny bounced on her heels slightly. "I had a lot of fun last year, but I'm excited to join my peers."

I wasn't sure what my team thought of Penny at that moment, as even Ruby seemed too stunned to ask about her weapon. For my part, I just smiled at her as we rode the elevator up to the penthouse. "You did the right thing back then, Penny. And I bet your new weapon solves the issues you had with reach and mobility, doesn't it?"

Penny's eyes widened. "How did you guess?" She sounded genuinely shocked, and it was all I could do not to laugh.

"Because covering your weaknesses like that is the smart thing to do," I said earnestly. "I wasn't trained enough the first time I tried to fight a Grimm, and I was stupid enough to go out by myself." I raised a grocery bag-laden hand to tap the scars on my cheek. "When I got out of the hospital all of my focus was on making sure I knew how to fight properly, and was strong enough to kill Grimm safely. Since then, my focus has been on shoring up my defense, so that I won't be shoved around so easily even by big Grimm. I actually bought some new armor today, right before we met you."

I scanned us into the apartment, and Amber met us at the door, taking the groceries so I could take off my boots, prompting everyone else to lean against the wall and take off their shoes.

"So… you've been focused on improving your weak points first, when you discovered you were not combat-ready," Penny murmured, cupping her chin in her hand.

"You could look at it like that," I said, causing her to look back up curiously. "But I think it's fairer to say that the first thing you should do is decide how you like to fight. Or even if you like to fight. That tells you what you should practice the most — your primary combat role. I prefer it when the enemy's attention is focused on me, because every attack I block is one that isn't aimed at my teammates. I get to be the persistent distraction, getting close and being too dangerous to ignore, so my Hunting partners can take the perfect shot. But that's not the only way to fight."

"Definitely not," Amber put in. "There are as many styles as there are Hunters, because letting everyone find their own role is how we conceptually hold ourselves apart from the uniformity of Grimm."

"Then that lesson was hammered home when Blake and I fought Krios the Amalthean," I continued my story for an enraptured Penny… and it didn't escape my notice that Ruby and Pyrrha were also listening raptly as our four guests crowded around the breakfast bar. Well, it's not like any of this is a secret. "I still wasn't strong enough to fight something like that, and I got disarmed pretty quickly. But I learned from my mistake, and I wasn't alone this time. Blake caught it by surprise, stabbing it clean through the throat, and giving me a chance to double-tap it."

"Wait, I thought you didn't have Dawn Cracker until right before school?" Ruby asked, confused.

"I didn't, this was a civilian pistol I took from, ah, the day I met Blake," I finished circumspectly. I liked Penny, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being cautious. Penny's first loyalties were to her fathers, and neither Ironwood nor Polendina had any business knowing about Blake's past. "I never got the model number, but it was a .45, about yea big–" I changed the subject by describing the pistol as well as I could remember.

"Did it have a curved or flared trigger guard? A safety? An exposed hammer?" Ruby peppered me with further questions in between mumbling model numbers to herself before whipping out her scroll and searching for something. "This one?" She showed me, naturally, a picture of the exact gun I'd described.

"Yep, I used that up until I ran into Samiri, but it got stepped on." I swallowed as I thought of Ginger Nash. "That's when I asked Olivia to commission Dawn Cracker for me, because I needed the ranged option back. I also spent a lot of time focusing on agility training for the rest of the summer."

I took the groceries back from Amber and headed into the kitchen, now wearing my house slippers.

"Thanks for your patience by the way, mon trésor," I added, pecking her on the cheek on my way past. "This is my team; the brunette is my partner Blake, and this is Pyrrha and Ruby. And Penny is a friend we made today, I didn't want to be so rude as to not invite her to dinner after we knocked her over in the street."

Ruby suddenly took an inordinate interest in Amphivena's two-tone mask, mounted up near the vault of the ceiling.

"It was very kind of you," Penny smiled, though she still looked a little nervous, like she was expecting at any moment to be asked to leave.

"Everyone, this is my girlfriend Amber, she's the reason this place is decorated tastefully."

Amber flicked my ear, but she was smiling as she nodded to our guests. "It's nice to meet y'all," she greeted. "I've heard about you from Jaune; it's good to put faces to the names. And you're more than welcome, Penny. Any friend of Jaune's is a friend of mine."

Heh, she has no idea how much that'll mean to Penny, I thought, suppressing a smirk as I headed into the kitchen.

[Increased closeness with Penny Polendina.]

"Sen-sational!" Penny cheered, pumping her fists. "I can't wait to tell my father how good I am at making friends!"

Pyrrha and Amber chuckled, and Ruby offered Penny a fistbump, which she returned after a quick explanation of the concept and meaning. Blake's eyes, however, were once more boring into the side of my head. I gave her a quelling look and a nod, acknowledging that the situation seemed odd, but turned a smile on Penny.

"I'm sure he'll be proud of you. I haven't met your father, but I know he has a lot of friends himself. Including your Papa. I actually met him last week."

"Is your 'Papa' from Vacuo?" Blake asked shrewdly, knowing where I'd been last weekend.

Penny blinked. "No, both my Father and my Papa are from Atlas. How did you meet Papa James, though, Jaune?"

"He was on the call when I spoke with Professor Ozpin and the other headmasters on Tuesday. They had some questions for me about why Amber and I were in Vacuo over the weekend." I wasn't normally a fan of my apartment's open-concept design, since 99% of the time I wasn't entertaining people… but it did at least suit the current moment by allowing me to keep talking while preparing dinner. Amber joined me in the kitchen, grabbing ingredients that I asked for while I sliced the ham and salami with the causal ease of 25 ranks in [Knife Mastery].

"Pardon me," Penny asked hesitantly, and I turned to visibly indicate that she had my attention. The shy girl seemed to appreciate it, because she sounded a little more confident as she asked, "Is it true that you were the Trainee Huntsman who held off Samiri the Marathonian and saved the lives of the Flight 1387 passengers and crew?"

"I saved most people who survived the initial crash," I corrected gently. "There was another fatality later, when a passenger tried to help me in the fight after I got knocked on my ass." It wasn't something I liked dwelling on, but I sure as hell wasn't going to pretend that Ginger's death hadn't happened. "It was incredibly brave of her, and I can only hope she'd be glad that she helped protect everyone else."

We all took a moment of silence.

"But yes, that was me," I went on. "Though, I was more of a Tyro than a Trainee at the time. My sister Violet arrived to help me kill it, and also brought enough medivacs to ferry all of the survivors back to Mistral. That's Samiri's mask there over the fireplace."

Blake was barely paying us any attention, and I triggered [Eavesdrop] in time to hear her mutter under her breath "Other headmasters… James? Headmaster James…" Then she jerked upright and said loudly, "James Ironwood!?"

Penny tilted her head. "Yes, that's correct. He was the one who taught me how to fight and helped design my weapon, Floating Array."

I suppressed a snort. Programming puns. I'm guessing the Doc named it.

That brought Ruby back into the conversation. "Oooh, what kind of weapon do you use? I couldn't show you earlier but-"

"Don't whip Crescent Rose out at the counter, please," I interrupted, without looking up from mixing some salad dressing — a citrusy oil-and-vinegar mixture that I mentally identified as 'Italian' — with orange juice and lime juice to make an approximation of mojo. I could imagine Ruby's answering pout, and Pyrrha's giggle told me my mental image was dead on.

I turned back around, only to pull up short. Blake had slipped into the kitchen and was standing right behind me. "Did you not think it worth mentioning that you spoke with the most powerful men in the four Kingdoms?" she hissed in my ear while Ruby peppered Penny with questions about her weapon.

Amber shot me and Blake a curious look, but busied herself cutting up the loaves of bread into six pieces before slicing each in half, sub-style.

"Not particularly," I answered her softly, setting my largest cast-iron skillet on the stovetop and starting to heat it before tossing the ham slices in the dressing. "I can't talk about most of it anyway."

Blake's yellow eyes narrowed. "Why 'can't'?"

I shrugged. "Professor Ozpin — all of them, really — asked me to keep the majority of the topics discussed to myself." Seeing her mutinous look, I added, "I won't lie and say 'it's not important', but it is need-to-know. And frankly, I probably shouldn't. Most of it isn't my story to tell anyway."

After confirming no one was allergic to the traditional condiments, I started the sandwich assembly with a swipe of mustard and a row of round pickles. At my direction, Amber was cutting the cheese into triangles, onto which I layered the salami and the dressing-covered ham. Closing each sandwich, I buttered the outside crusts and set three of them in the cast-iron, laying a piece of foil on top before weighing it down with another skillet.

"You seem to be making quite a few decisions about who needs to know what." Blake flicked one of her ears under her bow for emphasis, and I grimaced.

"I'm sorry," I told her bluntly. I held my arms out for a hug. "I thought it was for the best and I was confident it would turn out well. But I still pushed you into talking about it before you were ready, and I apologize."

Blake studied my face for a moment before sighing and accepting a brief hug. When she pulled back, she observed, "I notice you didn't promise not to do it again."

"My oath doesn't say anything about honesty," I joked, flipping the sandwiches so the other side could toast. "Sometimes infosec is in the interest of goodness and justice. But while I can't tell you much more about that meeting…" I flicked my eyes toward Penny. "There is an explanation you four are owed tonight."

"I'll hold you to that," Blake promised before returning to her seat.

Checking on the sandwiches again, I found them pressed and toasted, so I carefully dished them onto three plates before buttering and pressing the remaining three. "Penny, Ruby, Pyrrha, do you want these right now? The rest of us will be a few minutes."

"We can wait for yours to be done," Pyrrha offered, drawing nods from the other two, so I stuck the finished sandwiches in the oven on lowest heat to keep them warm, then started packing away the meat and cheese until the timer dinged.

Blake returned to her seat so I could distribute the six plates of pressed and toasted quickie-Cubano sandwiches. Four plates went onto the bar with Amber's help, and I set the remaining two on the work surface for Amber and I.

No rank in [Cooking], hmm? I guess sandwiches don't give that much EXP, even if I had to improvise a bunch.

All of them picked it up with varying degrees of curiosity, and I watched their faces as they each bit into it. Penny was innocently curious, and I wondered briefly if her sense of taste differed from a human's, but there wasn't really a way I could ask. She kept eating, so I guessed she liked it well enough. Pyrrha let out a surprised sound and started eating faster. Blake was, as usual, hard to read, but she too was still eating.

Ruby was chewing slowly, a frown beginning between her eyebrows.

Catching her eye, I asked, "Something wrong?"

She flushed. "I don't really like pickles."

"You should have said something," I chided her gently. Opening a drawer, I gave her a fork to remove them. "The vinegar flavor is important, but the dressing provides enough that I could have skipped them."

Amber was halfway through her sandwich and eating with obvious relish, which boded well for my girlfriend liking one of my favorite meals. Nodding to myself in satisfaction, I picked up my own sandwich and took a bit.

It was… not quite right. I'd known it wouldn't be; the bread and cheese were Remnan substitutes and even then, this was the quick and dirty recipe that didn't involve marinating a roast pork. But it still managed to hit almost right, and for the first time in over a year, homesickness for Earth swept through me. I'm going to have to figure out how to bake my own damn bread. And make proper mojo to marinate some pork… does anyone even cultivate sour oranges in Remnant? I've got a lot to research tonight.

After dinner, Penny checked the time and realized she needed to get going. I offered to walk her to wherever she was staying so I could explain why she was late, but she waved me off cheerfully. After she put her shoes back on, she hesitated for a moment, then threw her arms around my waist and hugged me tight enough that my ribs creaked. "Thank you for having me over, Jaune. It was a wonderful dinner!" She took turns hugging everyone, including a reluctant Blake, before heading for the elevator.

[Increased closeness with Penny Polendina.]

[Relationship with Penny Polendina is now Friendly.]

Once the doors slid closed behind her, I closed and locked the front door, turning to find Amber directing everyone onto the sofa. She headed back to the kitchen herself to clean up, and Pyrrha joined her.

Pyrrha hadn't said much tonight, and I was worried she might be feeling left out, but she wore a contented smile as she stacked her empty plate on top of Amber's. I should still make some time to chat with her. Maybe we're due for another 1v1.

Since the cleanup was handled, I dropped into the easy chair facing Ruby and Blake, the latter of whom was watching me expectantly.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm getting to it," I told her, causing Ruby to tilt her head in curiosity. The problem is, I was planning to explain about Penny being a synthetic soul, but… I don't want to take away her decision to reveal that to people she trusts. It's not my place. But now I have to figure out something to explain why I already knew her even though she clearly didn't know me…

Speaking up so everyone could hear me over the running sink, I added, "I know you're all wondering why I went out of my way to bring Penny to dinner, but to explain that I have to start with a different story. Before I fought Samiri, I was actually in Atlas visiting my sister Azure, and the two of us helped capture and arrest a traitor who was stealing information from the Atlesian military. And, well, as it happens… I ended up with a copy of the data he'd stolen, and I've been slowly going through it ever since."

"What." Blake's flat delivery almost made me laugh, but Ruby spoke up and redirected my attention.

"Jaune! That's illegal!" She flapped her arms. "If him stealing it was bad then you having it is also bad!"

I shrugged. "Nobody ever asked if I had it, so it's not like I lied. And they'll have patched the hole in their security by now, so it's not live information; they could have changed all of it by now." Okay, they probably hadn't, but like hell was I giving up a potential advantage in this fucking Death World. "It's not like I'm planning to hurt people with it or overthrow the kingdom," I soothed my heroic teammate. "The point was, I was trying to figure out exactly what Watts was trying to steal, in order to make sure he didn't leave any traps behind, and I ran across something called Project Blue Fairy, which turned out to refer to Penny. I recognized her, and I wanted to get to know her today to make sure she wasn't a danger to anyone."

[Acting has increased by 1!]

Ugh, we're back to this? I'm gonna prestige this damn skill before the end of this conversation at this rate.

"You invited her to join us for dinner almost immediately after we met," Blake pointed out. "That could have been an excuse to find out more about her, but instead you spent most of your time answering her questions."

"I flatter myself I'm pretty good at reading people by this point," I said dryly. "Penny's obviously a sweetheart who couldn't lie to save her life. Like someone else I know." I smirked at Ruby.

"I can so lie!" she pouted in response. "I just don't because it's wrong. I'm an honest person."

Pyrrha tittered from the kitchen, causing Ruby to pout even harder and fold her arms indignantly, utterly shattering the interrogation atmosphere as even Blake's lips twitched. Conversation lightened as Pyrrha and Amber emerged from the kitchen, perching on the arm of Ruby's and my seats respectively, and we chatted for another hour before Ruby's jaw-cracking yawns prompted Pyrrha to stand back up.

"We should get back to Beacon," Pyrrha said, offering her hand to help Ruby to her feet. "Will you be staying here, Jaune?"

"Probably, but I'll walk you back to the bullhead station."

"No need," Pyrrha waved me off just like Penny had. "Thank you again for dinner, and have a good night."

Ruby and Blake echoed her, and I closed the door behind them, smiling. It was nice to actually spend time as a team. I need to do better about that.

I turned back to Amber, opening my mouth to ask if she wanted me to make something for dessert. Hopefully I could use that to break the news of my Semblance gently. When I spotted her, though, I paused. She had gotten to her feet and was watching me with her arms folded, a frown on her face.

"…Amber?" I asked, skipping the petname. "Is something wrong?"

"You told me you lost your memories." She wasn't just upset; she looked hurt, and I couldn't figure out why.

"I did–" I started to say, but she cut me off.

"I've never heard of the sandwich you made tonight. It's not from Patch or Ruby would have heard of it; likewise for Pyrrha growing up in Mistral, or Penny in Atlas. You've never made it or even so much as mentioned it before tonight, so maybe it was a family recipe… But I saw the look on your face when you took a bite, and I sure as hell know what nostalgia and homesickness look like. You wouldn't be feeling that way if you really had no memories before last year."

What the actual fuck. I'd underestimated my girlfriend, which was stupid because I of all people knew how high her INT was. I moved slowly over to the couch my teammates had recently vacated and sat down, not looking away from her.

"I don't know why you've been lying about having amnesia, but I'd like to hear the truth now," she said coldly.

Name: Jaune Arc
Level: 57 (Next: 84.59%)
Title: Academy Student
Race: Human
Age: 18
Job: Beacon Student
Class: Paladin
Semblance: The Gamer
HP: 7470/7470
MP: 4080/4080
STR: 212 (100)
CON: 261 (101)
DEX: 150 (53)
INT: 128 (50)
WIS: 105 (52)
CHA: 143 (52)
Points: 92
Money: 1,0751,938L
Status: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]

A/N: If you aren't in my Discord, this chapter was intended for mid-late December, but I hurt my back in the gym in a way that made sitting up for more than a few minutes very painful. It took a long while to recover, but I'm finally back on track. I'm actually going to try to get ahead of this story, because I have a decent plan for the next couple chapters and it would be nice to have a buffer again.

If you've made it this far into my fic, I can only assume you know not to be afraid of OCs.

Penny has two dads. 'But Backslash that's just fanon-' Yeah, it's fanon I like, deal with it.

Salami belongs on a cubano sandwich, fight me.

And I legitimately did not mean to end on this much of a cliffhanger, but here we are. See you on the other side.