"Shouldn't you be practicing for tomorrow, Jauney?" Nora asked, helping move around tables and chairs as her brother set up the coffee machine. "It's going to be your first time doing a song live."
"Eh. It won't be any different from performing for the family." Jauney shrugged as he tested the coffee machine, hitting a few buttons, probably to test its functionality.
You didn't live with Jauney without picking up a bit of vocabulary.
"Nora, more to the left." Class Bike (prez) called out, turning to warn another student lugging a portable Dust burner to be more careful.
"Got it, blueman!" Nora shifted the table a few centimeters to the left, aligning it more or less to the other tables before turning back to her brother. "But Jauney, it's different this time. You'll be performing in a dress."
The both of them ignored a few snickers that flew around, as well as the thirsty grins by a few other classmates.
"Nora, you're my eighth sister. You know I've been half raised in a dress, it's not a big deal. Why does everyone make a big deal out of it?"
"Hold up!" One of Jauney's (ugh) fangirls squealed, "Are there pics of young Jaune in dresses?!"
Nora turned to glare.
Bark! Guard Dog Nora Mode engage!
"Nona your beeswax, Marssen." She warned with narrowed eyes, "Family photos are for family eyes only!"
"D'aw, she doesn't mean any harm, Nory." Reese Chloris (she was already having fun dressed in her butler outfit early) called over as she hung up decorations on the classroom walls using her VariableTactics-Hoverboard Zephyr. "She's being pretty tame after our class's communal reaction to Jaune's new drip."
Her friend snickered as Nora tried (and failed) to keep a smile off her face. Reese was a fellow young soul like Nora herself (it totally wasn't that they were childish), and had respectfully neglected their reaction to Ren in his maid outfit as well.
Mama Nora likey. Valetorian Maid outfits worked on his slim frame.
"Nobody got that happy about seeing me in a skirt." Class Bike pouted from the side, getting Teal (his current girlfriend starting just this morning who really should know better) to come to his side and comfort the boy with a hug.
Ok, maybe she was being a bit mean to blueman Neppy. But Renny's friend or not, he'd broken a lotta hearts from the other girls in class that Nora hung out with on occasion. She was allowed to be a little vindictive on their behalf.
Especially had to be when everyone found themselves liking him enough as a friend to let way too much be bygones. Even the girls he stopped dating sort of moved past (most of) their bad feelings after a few weeks.
"As always Jauney went an extra step further!" Nora smirked, puffing out her chest, ignoring how Class Bike and the boy with the funny lisp in the corner of the room turned to her right at that moment. "Jauney doesn't do things by half!"
"If I'm going to wear it, I might as well give it a personal touch." Jauney stepped around, sipping at a white cup filled with coffee. "I know my normal outfit isn't exactly custom, but I'm a Huntsman in training too, y'know."
Nora didn't really usually like coffee, but it smelled good. And Jauney always even made gross veggies taste good. A maxed out Househusband stat was a beautiful thing.
Did that count when his cleaning skills were just him shoving most everything in his inventory? Hmmm. So he had a negative Cleaning demerit for increased Cooking Power.
Also, coffee beans were veggies, right?
"They're technically seeds from a kind of cherry." Jauney read her mind again, the wizard, "It's closer to fruit. Also I don't know how many times I have to tell you it's not mind reading."
"It might as well be!" One of their classmates snorted as they put together the menus.
He handed her the cup, getting a shout of warning from Reese.
"Wait! Think of what you're doing, Jaune! Nora and caffeine!"
Nora took a sip, feeling a happy warmth run through her as the latte slipped down her throat.
It wasn't as good as Jauney's usual stuff, made by a machine instead of Jauney himself, but it was still gooood. Something about the bittersweetness (sugar was a must) of coffee after being smoothed by a splash of cream was niiiiiice.
"It's decaf." Jauney chuckled up at Reese who let out a sigh of relief. "I'm not crazy."
"But I like caffeine." Nora whined as she nursed the hot drink, ignoring how the rest of the class winced and edged away before letting out a breath of release at his elaboration. "It's like a rush from Strumvindr."
"We're back with the fridge." Her Renny (gosh that still made her feel gooey) called out as he helped wheel the appliance into their classroom. "How's everything?"
Nora quickly handed her cup back to Jauney, running a quick hand through her hair and sniffing a pit to make sure she didn't stink. Everything was fine.
"Let me help ya with that!" She quickly ran over, almost knocking over Class Bike to reach Renny's side.
Ah he was smiling at her~
"Thanks Nora." He leaned over to kiss her cheek.
Mayday! Ren has used Sweet Kiss! It was super effective! Nora hung on with a Focus Sash with 1HP!
Still she stumbled back quietly into a chair as her face felt too hot.
Gaaaaah! This wasn't like her at all! She just didn't know what she was supposed to DO in this situation! At least she wasn't fully shutting down immediately now? Grrrrr.
"I got this though." Ren finished.
"We got this, you mean." Bolin sighed, looking bored as always, looking a bit like he could be Renny's cousin the way a lot of Mistral boys were (though they were both better looking than the average by far). "Not like I wasn't helping push this thing or anything."
"Of course." She could hear her Renny apologize, "My apologies, Hori."
"None taken. Better dealing with your cute thing than Vasilias's ever changing flings."
"Hey!"
"Overworked and underpaid. Fuck I ain't getting paid anything." Raven sighed. "There were two today, but I'm almost finally done with this shitty list."
Still, added up all together, there had been just over a dozen (fourteen to be exact) brainwashed by The Crown in Menagerie.
At least the brat had given her a full list of every member of the White Fang that had been in Vacuo (and how the fuck he put that list together was a question in itself) instead of asking her to scan the whole of Kuo Kuana and La Hau. She'd still have done it, but it would have been so much more of a fucking pain in the ass.
She was already losing sleep over it all due to the difference in time zones as it was. Was that why the damn brat would take random naps on the weekends all these years? She'd just assumed it was Yang's and the other girls that clung by him wanting him to sleep in their laps, but maybe it had dual purpose.
And even though Raven hadn't been given a deadline to scan the whole list of people for mind control by The Crown, she'd rather be done with it sooner than later. Frankly, with how long Menagerie had been trading with Almurawij, it was a miracle that even though she had mostly gone through the full list by this point, so few people had been affected.
Then again, by the bits of reports that Qrow had handed over (he'd gotten a coat that protected his mind ages ago at her request, though his was inlaid with gem-like threads inside of the lining rather than being Dust-woven) the leader of The Crown, Jax Asturias wasn't exactly the kind of man to go actively seeking every advantage on his own, his sister being the smart one.
And honestly it seemed after following up on it all out of personal curiosity, the most they'd really done had been to garner slightly better trade deals for Almurawij, only one of them having been used as any sort of an active agent.
That was being taken care of in house with the Fang's Guardsmen, so she didn't have to bother with it, thank the gods, though she'd be getting a copy of the report to pass to Qrow later. Plus, she did mention it to both Jaune and Qrow so that they'd handle the situation from both of their sides. Now it was out of her hands and others would be wrapping up the rest nicely.
Raven let out a yawn.
"Ready to head back soon, Raven?" Kali asked, bringing her a cup of tea.
She just grunted with a nod, taking the offered drink from the family friend. Eh, well. Despite the fact they weren't exactly very similar, she'd gotten along well enough with the Belladonna matriarch to somehow end up forming a link through Kindred Bonds with her.
Possibly her daughter's current situation as a not-quite girlfriend with her daughter didn't hurt things either.
"Yeah. Just helping the brat with a bit of follow up on something he needed looked into. Nothing big."
It wasn't worth giving the lady the scare that a megalomaniac with an insanely annoyingly useful mind control Semblance had been messing with her almost Kingdom. Rather, the fact that Jaune could only apply that new Mind Buttress effect of his to something moderately armored was frustrating, because a civilian like Kali that wasn't Aura awakened wasn't going to be wearing something like that on the regular.
Wasn't like the sand rat was going to make his way out of his den anytime soon, but Raven saw nothing through the bubbling rush of hazy quantum foam that made its way over Kali's form as she sipped her drink.
Never hurt to fucking doublecheck.
While Ghira had an armored coat to protect him now, his wife didn't. And she was nice for a civvie. Maybe a bit too cheery, but Raven put up with Summer (well, that was technically the other way around in a lot of ways) so Kali was fine.
"Well, I know it's not really my place-"
"After he's put his mouth all over both our daughters, I think it's exactly our place." Raven bluntly (she was aware she wasn't a people person) interrupted the warm Faunus woman, making her giggle. "Shit. Sorry, continue."
"I was just saying thank you for helping Jaune with his work."
"Eh." Raven shrugged, finishing the cup. "I owe the brat enough to lend a hand sometimes. I'm just looking for some stuff and getting rid of a few pests. Nothing to worry your husband over either, since it's almost done."
"Well that's good. Do make sure to get some proper sleep in when you get back. It's probably about…" Kali quickly counted, her fingers curling as she adjusted for the time difference. "About three, four AM in Patch?"
"I'll just snooze a bit longer than usual is all. Need to stop by the Parabellum camp for something first though." Raven handed the cup back to her friend (weird having a civvie friend, but that's just what happened when you hung around the brat long enough, she supposed). "Was good tea."
Was just a bit of quality pearls she'd received as a thank you gift from one of her merc band's jobs. She'd get the brat to make it into something presentable for Summer, Taiyang, and herself so they could have something matching.
"Just a bit of chamomile that we've found grows decently well in Menagerie." Kali laughed, "It's a strain from a warmer part of Mistral that we've found grows well here. Maybe even better than expected."
Raven nodded with another yawn, cutting open a portal back to Patch.
"That's nice. I'll see you soon."
"Same time the day after tomorrow?"
"Probably yeah. I'm sure me swinging by every day would be a pain."
"Raven, you might be rough around the edges, but I'd still like to think of us as friends." Kali chuckled. "You're welcome anytime."
Raven grumbled as she opened up a portal.
Her neck was warm.
"Please just laugh instead." Jaune sighed, a hand on his hip and neck craned to the side as Blake and Yang just silently rapid fire snapped photos on their Scroll, the cameras flashing explosively as they did so.
"No, this is amazing." Yang grinned, dressed in her normal Huntress outfit as Blake flushed faintly, wearing his usual black wool-knit beanie (he didn't want her to get harassed over her Faunus features). "Seriously Jaune, you look good."
Jaune just rolled his eyes, letting out a tired huff of air, trying to keep a blush off his face.
"You guys really go all out at Sanctum." Blake agreed a bit quietly. "You really do look good, Jaune."
The words good enough to eat weren't something he needed to read right now from his practice buddies.
Like Yang's own armored Parabellum coat, her coat-tailed buttoned vest was now lined with a sewn-in underlayer of thin titanium alloy plate layers, held with a single silver button on the front. That button was, due to his concerns in the aftermath of his confrontation of Adam, decorated with almost arcane inscriptions of Dust (unreactive to impact) like the pieces of armoring hidden in the lining of the vest, also inlaid with swirls of Dust granting the Mind Buttressing effect.
Underneath that was a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt, similar to Yang as well, though more reserved about her cleavage. White shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg layered over tight black stockings. She'd completed putting together her Huntress outfit after officially deciding on joining him and Yang at Beacon, though she'd never bothered to do so before.
But unlike Yang, whose wrists were born the mecha-folded Ember Celicas, Blake had left both Guardian Shroud and Umbral Hare back in Menagerie.
Putting that new development aside, despite Class 6-B's BIG banner stating the words Cross Dressing Maid & Butler Cafe ft. J. Arc & P. Nikkos people kept assuming he was one of the girls dressed in a normal maid outfit.
He'd had to reject three confessions asking for a date while working his turn at the cafe today before his practice buddies got to show up via Shadow.
"Yang-a-rang! Blakey! What's up girls?!" Nora blurred past him, dressed in a borrowed costume from the Drama Club, looking mostly like an 'authentic enough' female butler. "Holy crap! Did Jauney bring you over?"
Emerald in the back, dealing with another customer, passed a casual nod that wasn't returned by Yang or Blake who were more busy with Nora's bear hug. Yang did glance in her direction with a gasp, however.
"Hey Nora." Blake let out a cough in Nora's slightly too strong hug. Maybe Penny had developed it from Nora somehow? That shouldn't have been possible, the two of them had never met. "I need to breathe though."
"Whoopsie~" Nora laughed, letting their friends go. "Still! Welcome to Class 6-B's Spring Equinox Crossdressing Cafe!"
"Wait. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I just thought it was a regular festival thing for something in Mistral." Yang blinked a bit confused. "It's still January. Spring isn't here for at least two, three months."
"Eh." Nora shrugged. "Apparently they bumped it all hard forwards because the Vytal Festival is coming soon."
"It's a chance for the prep schools in Mistral to advertise themselves right before the Vytal Fest because people from the other Kingdoms are coming in early. Even casual foot traffic passing through is pretty significant." Jaune shrugged, the soft cotton of his baby blue maid outfit rubbing against his shoulders.
It was odd how he seemed to be drawing Yang and Blake's gazes more than the other way around for once. It was different, but not bad. Flattering.
Apparently they liked thigh highs. And suddenly his skirt felt sort of too short as they glanced at his legs.
For some reason when he'd seen the first iteration of his outfit, it had weirdly pissed him off. Too simple, bright, and cutesy. Not him at all. He could do cutesy, but he just hadn't been a fan of how the thing had turned out.
So he'd taken it back to the dorms and replaced the white frills and apron with black, adding some asymmetric zigzags of black and pink ribbons to clash against the blue and make it less visually boring. He'd been pretty sure that his classmates would be angry about his personal touch, but figured that he'd just deal with the aftermath.
But it'd weirdly been a hit with his (female) classmates, being forced to even add some little ribbons and bows on his rabbit ears and hair. Well he'd done his own hair, having had a Gacha skill for it and grown it out over the years (usually keeping it in a small ponytail), though a classmate in the Drama Club had done his makeup.
It was a complicated feeling when he looked in the mirror and felt he was looking at a girl and not himself. His Green Hornet guise felt different and separate from himself thanks to the wig, even having been able to admire himself and decide that he looked pretty good in a skirt. But without that distinct visual separation?
…it was sort of embarrassing the more he looked at himself, so he chose to not do so.
He'd additionally vetoed the twintail request. Even when Pyrrha seemed curious about how he'd look in it. He'd sort of felt he'd lose something important if he'd done that.
"Oh, huh. I mean I guess that makes sense. We have people that live in Vale but room at Signal. Even have a few Vacuo kids." Yang nodded at the reply, although Jaune might have to have Raven look into the Vacuo kids, just in case (was this Kingdomist?), "But more importantly, who do I have to thank for this premium sight?"
Jaune groaned again as Yang, Blake, and Nora all giggled.
"I don't even remember how it started." Nora giggled, although Jaune gave her a squint.
"Nora, YOU started it."
"Lies!"
"You bragged that Ren and I would look better in a dress than Reese Chloris and made it a competition."
"Oh, yeah I did do that, huh?"
"...Chloris wouldn't talk to either of us for a week after that and before Winter Break when we started drawing ideas for our class's booth, we had a tie between a maid cafe and a drag show so the teacher slapped parts of it together." Jaune sighed, pinching the brow of his nose with his currently black and pink painted nails. "Also, I'm on break, but you're not. Go back before Class Prez gets mad."
"Pft. As if the Class Bike could do anything to me." Nora waved her hand as Blake and Yang both gave him a questioning look (he mouthed "Later"), "I'll just threaten him with a bucket of water."
"Nora, no harassing our Class President with his phobias."
"Awwwww."
She was only half joking at least. Nora had been more than willing to give Neptune Vasilias some trouble, just not with water.
"So you're on break, right? That's what we synced some time for?" Yang hooked her arm around his with a grin. "How long are you free?"
"We haven't gotten to visit Sanctum, or Argus for that matter, at all before." Blake hooked his other arm, also pressing up against him. "I know you said we could visit daily, but that's still a lot to see for the little time all three of us can have together. We'll only have an hour or two daily."
"Uh, sh-should be an hour or so." He admitted. "I-I just got off, so-"
"Perfect." Yang suddenly seemed even taller than she normally was to him. "Blake and I want a tour. We'll start with your room."
He was in danger, his instincts cried out. But he didn't let go, just giving instructions a bit weakly as he was more or less dragged away.
That thing was a monster.
Kamina Hitenmaki (formerly Aomaki before he'd ascended to the position of Clan Heir) felt sweat creep down the back of his neck as he and his team tore south, firing signal flares into the air and sending out an emergency signal for pick up.
It must have been some sort of a variant Gheist that took over a prototype Atlasean mech. Hopefully. Because the potential for an intelligent controller was much too frightening. Though he had to face the facts that it seemed to have human level intelligence regardless of what the fuck it was.
Why such a thing had been on Mistralian soil was a question for after he and his team got the fuck out of dodge.
His Aura flared again, Fatigue Recovery pushing all of team KRCA (Karacha, like the red-orange tea) with another burst of second wind.
"Kamina!" Ramune Highroad panted, the Valean boy's sky blue Aura was wrapped around the whole team's feet, his Semblance Tailwind barely keeping them ahead of their pursuing hunter. "We can't keep this up! I'll run out in two minutes!"
His Sniper-GunLance Breaker flew to the side, the hollowed drill tip spinning as it deflected a round of what felt like heavy ammunition fire.
Fuck. It couldn't just be a Grimm, could it?
The moment his teammate had spoken, mentioned his remaining Aura, it had focused him with precision. How had it even heard him from this distance?
Was it an assassin he'd never heard of? There'd been dozens of new contract killers that'd begun to creep out of the woodwork when Marcus Black had suddenly disappeared one day, leaving a contract for the now greatly weakened Spiders Gang incomplete. But perhaps Sanctum's craziest little 'firstie' (he should be in his sixth year now, right?) had something to do with that. It wouldn't surprise him in the least, but that was a thought for later.
His arm strained, the veins and muscles pulling taught as the gunfire from the forearms of their strange metal pursuer chased relentlessly.
It had to have been remotely controlled. There was no way a human being (possibly even a Faunus, judging from that long hooked tail) could have chased down a fourth year Haven team that was near the top of their year this far.
But what if it was? If freakish outliers like Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikkos could exist in the same generation, what prevented one from having hidden in the shadows this long? Rather, wouldn't it be stranger if anyone had heard of such a monster, when it was this effective?
"How many more flares?" Kamina shuffled twice with Shunpo, using the increased distance to fire twice at the armored nightmare.
A sort of rope dart with a wide blade edge like a shovel erupted out like a little rocket, thrust and all. It anchored into a tree trunk, reeling to allow the metal bastard to dodge the shot, using its tail to spin around the tree trunk to slow itself, tearing up the bark along its length as the corded blade retracted. Fucking hell, the worst part was that that had been pretty slick.
"Tell me we've gotten a response on the emergency band!"
The metal beast wordlessly twisted around the treeline, clinging to the sides of the mighty trunks with its long golden claws coated in dried blood, shaving away as it tore at the bark. The anchoring knee blades erupted out on occasion, allowing it to zip forwards and begin to close the gap they created by their Semblances working in conjugation.
"No responses!" His Partner Craya Chloris spat, slamming the Scroll on the inside of her Sawblade-Shield. "We're still jammed up!"
"Three flares left and I'm empty!" Aether Gaam replied with his Shotgun-Gundao folded up in its firearm configuration. "We're near that merc camp we flew over on the bullhead on the way here! They might spot it!"
"Fire another! Pray that they'll take our Lien after! We can't handle that thing alone!" Kamina roared, swinging Breaker to deflect a shot towards Aether as he passed by him, protecting the orange haired South East Mistralian. "Fuck! That bastard knows what we're saying!"
"Keep running!" Aether fired another flare up into the air in the direction of the camp. "We're not much further!"
"We can-"
The air was knocked out of his lungs as his body was flung forwards, feeling the rippling of an explosion sending him flying.
He swore that he saw a streak of light appear from the clear sky above.
"We didn't even get to tour Sanctum at all!"
"Oh don't be such a big baby." Yang teased, "We've got all week to get the lay of the land. Besides, nothing wrong with a bit of cuddling."
"Bit more than cuddling." Blake also reminded with a faint, soft grin, her hand raised to help fix his makeup. "But that comes with the territory."
Jaune tried not to cough, his eyes closing as Yang 'fixed' his lipgloss by using her own, painting his lips with the tip of her finger.
Replaced was more like it.
And rather the scent and taste of strawberries was hard to get off his mind right now.
Doubly so when it was painted directly on his lips.
"How do girl's wear this and not accidentally lick it all away?" He grumbled, getting giggles from the two girls. "It just feels and tastes kind of like I have ice cream dried on my lips."
"Practice, mostly. That and usually not getting any flavored ones." Yang admitted, leaning up to his rabbit ear, her lips brushing against his piercings, "But it's more fun when you can taste it."
He tried to not let that rile him up as the two laughed at him.
"Yeah well-"
There was a cracking sound that made his eyes flicker open.
His room was a two man dorm, shared with Ren on the bunk above. They both had their own table to work at, and his desk had a variety of knickknacks and gifts from his friends over the years decorating it.
An earthenware tea cup that had been a gift from his old upperclassman Kamina had cracked ominously out of nowhere.
"That was my favorite teacup." Jaune frowned. He had an odd feeling.
"...we'll get you a new one." Blake put a hand on his knee encouragingly. "That was weird though."
"...yeah. Weird."