บท 59: 59
Yang groaned as she massaged her temples, Ember Celica hanging around her wrists.
"I would advise some over the counter aspirin, or foods rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids to help alleviate your headache, User Yang. Would you like me to send a message to your parents requesting foods rich in such nutrients for dinner?" Her MEDI armband asked from its place on her upper left forearm.
"It's fine, MEDI." She sighed, "Just Winter Finals getting to me. Thank the gods it's over."
"Understood. Please remember to speak up if you require anything."
"At least you get a MEDI unit." Onyx nudged her side, dressed in a short black skirt and black fishnet long sleeves under a simple black crop top. "My parents won't even let me get one unless I get into a Huntsman College. Must be nice."
Yang rolled her eyes at her friend's implication, feeling a faint flush at her cheeks.
"Just a year and a half to get one of your own then." She shrugged. "You're not as strong as me, but you're pretty good, Onyx. Cheer up."
"Two years sounds like foreve-"
The two friends turned to the sound of a bunch of girls screaming.
"Huh?" Yang frowned. "What's going on?"
They quickly ran out to the main courtyard-
Yang ducked back behind a wall.
What the fuck was Jaune doing here?!
"Omigosh!" Onyx on the other hand was squealing, because of course that's what it was, not people in trouble. "Yang, your not-boyfriend's here! How's my hair?"
"Your hair? How's mine?! I've been taking tests all day, I must look awful!" Yang hissed, pulling off her backpack to dig out her compact. "I didn't even put on any make-up today!"
"Oh boo you, miss Jaune Arc does my hair every week. As if you don't already have him eating out of your hand."
Because she really didn't! Honestly she… she'd only really accepted that she LIKED liked Jaune about a year ago and had been chickening out constantly, much to her embarrassment. Even mom Raven was giving her shit for it now!
It only looked like that to Onyx because she had no idea what Jaune was like on the regular!
It was extra hard because they already had a super comfy thing going and she was worried that they'd ruin that. And she had more competition than she was willing to admit!
AND WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING AT SIGNAL?!
"Hmm? BIG BROOOOO!" Yang heard her little sister shout excitedly, already knowing she was rushing towards him full force with her Semblance without even a hint of embarrassment. "Oh my gosh! What're you doing here?!"
A rush of muttering and accusatory whispers ran through the other Signal students around the courtyard, making Yang narrow her eyes. If she recognized any of them talk shit about Ruby, she'd make a note to beat their asses later in a spar.
"Ruby!" She could hear Jaune laugh happily as Yang quickly applied a little lilac eye shadow to make her eyes pop. "How's my favorite little cookie gremlin?"
"Jauuuuune!" She could hear Ruby whine, her mind's eye already seeing her sister hanging off of Jaune's back like always. "You're only allowed to call me that if you give me cookies!"
"She's just crawling on him, lucky-"
"Watch your language. That's my baby sister." Yang warned as she dabbed on some strawberry lip gloss.
"I'm allowed to be jelly, Yang."
"Not when it comes to Rubes." Yang sniffed, snapping her compact shut. "How do I look?"
Onyx looked up and down at her, leaning over to help fix the collar of her gray and yellow Parabellum coat, buttoned just under the low cut, highlighter yellow crop top Yang was wearing, leaving her midriff mostly exposed. Her Huntress symbol was emblazoned in a rusty red over her heart, a shade similar to her mother's own red.
Yang adjusted the Ribbon that Jaune had given her all those years ago when he'd first gone back home to Domremy, worn more like a scarf around her neck, nowadays.
She swore that it somehow seemed to grow with her, which should be impossible, but knowing Jaune there was a big science reason for it that he'd explained once and she'd forgotten.
"Like a hot piece of ass." Onyx said, slapping her across the butt of her compression shorts, getting Yang to retaliate with a poke to her ribs. "Chill, girl. You're literally the hottest girl our age at Signal."
"I'm not just competing with girls from Signal." Yang groaned. "Fuck it. I got this."
She took a deep breath, straightening her back, a hand brushing against her gray leather side skirt armor and the purple silk side skirt cape beneath. One of her thigh high orange socks drooped down to her knee high boots, but Yang shrugged, finding that somehow that seemed alright. A little asymmetry caught the eye, right?
"I got this." She repeated, stalling.
"Come on already, girl. And introduce me while you're at it!"
Yang rolled her eyes as she rounded the corner to look at Jaune again.
Unlike when he was at Atlas or Mistral, he wasn't wearing his usual beanie, his long blond rabbit ears swaying in the early December breeze. Vale tended to go easier on Faunus, even if it wasn't perfect, and Patch especially had very little beef with Faunus as a whole as well.
He'd gone through a whole bit of a light punk-rock phase this past year, having two black earrings near the outer base of his left rabbit ear and one on his right.
It worked on him. It took his more 'pretty boy' androgynous features and gave him a little bite that was just… woof.
Spiky medium length hair was tied back in a light ponytail, currently covered by Ruby's white and red cloak as she rested her chin on the top of his head, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her legs around his torso, her mouth already covered in crumbs and cheeks puffing out adorably.
Jeez, how did she not find that embarrassing at all at her age? She was thirteen now.
Ruby's white high collar blouse and bustless black corset and a ruffled white skirt with red and black underlayers that fluttered in the wind, any straying eyes towards any potential upskirt peeking towards her baby sis hidden by the monster of a bike that Jaune was leaned up against. Red leather combat boots with black laces hung off Jaune's waist.
Somewhere behind him, she knew Ruby still had Drei hanging off her waist, the adorable little nerd.
Shit, she was jealous of that bike, even if it wasn't her style.
Honestly it was strange, the look of the bike as if it had two long arms holding a wheel each in the front, exhaust pipes extending in the back, almost like thrusters on an airship. It was definitely not standard.
Jaune had probably made that from the ground up.
Yang's jealousy was real, but Dad said that if Yang wanted her own bike, she'd either have to work for it, or wait until she graduated Signal. It was totally unfair, because they could completely afford one right now. At least she'd take a part time job to pay for fuel.
…or get Jaune to whip up something for her. Think smart, not hard, right?.
"Yang!"
Jaune smiled brightly at her, a stark contrast to his almost skintight black short sleeved band shirt, the brand icon in a bright green, showing off thin but leanly muscled arms. His pants were made of black leather with silver and gold zippers scattered up and down the legs. Around his waist was a simple gold and green studded belt with his family crest as the buckle.
"Grats on finishing your finals!"
Little bright neon green stud earrings shone on his human earlobes. That was new.
She pretended that all the jealous looks from the other girls her age didn't bother her. She was mostly used to it already from the fact that guys wouldn't stop staring at her great legs or her solidly above average bust anyways.
Still the level of jealousy she was feeling right now was definitely new.
"Of course it's XiaoLong-Branwen." She heard someone grumble. "Big tiddy bimbo."
Jaune, however, immediately glared at the classmate that had said that, sending her scurrying.
Yang grinned. Her hero. But she had that handled either way. It wasn't that big a deal. It was only natural for them to be jealous of her body. Especially if Mom Raven was any indication, Yang was going to be HOT when she was full grown. Well, not that she didn't think she wasn't hot already.
Boys were already throwing compliments at her left and right. She'd even heard some new ones calling her 'thicc' for some reason. Some boys were weird.
The problem was getting Jaune to feel that way when he had what his sisters jokingly (but unfortunately accurately) called a Schnee Fetish. And it had all started with Winter. Ugh.
The worst part was that unlike Weiss, she actually liked Winter. Winter was alright. Cool, even.
Still she kept that thought off her face.
"Sup, Jaune? What're you doing here?"
Ruby muffledly spoke with a mouthful of Jaune's cookies.
Jaune snorted.
"What she said." He laughed, one hand rising up to ruffle Ruby's head over her cloak.
"As if I could understand cookie gremlin." Yang teased, getting a muffled sound of indignation from her sister as she hung from Jaune's back. "I'm going to need a recap."
"Well, to reiterate." Jaune pointed behind him with a thumb. "To celebrate you being done with your Winter Finals, I brought an early birthday present. Figured after Menagerie when the Vytal Festival touches down in Mistral in early February we can go tour the Capitol on them. Maybe even Oniyuri and Argus if things line up."
"Yang, you lucky bitch." She heard Onyx moan as she hid behind her. "Gosh he's dreamy."
Yang didn't really even hear Onyx as her eyes glimmered at the sight of what looked like a bike covered by a bit of black cloth behind Jaune's monster of a ride.
"No fucking way. Jaune, no."
"Jaune, yes." He grinned. "I asked if it was ok to give it to you last year, but Team STRQ said to wait a year so you'd have some more driving experience on Tai's old hog, so here it is."
Yang walked past him and pulled off the cloth to see a sleek yellow and black motorcycle, her Huntress symbol emblazoned in black on the sides by the front. It didn't look like anything she'd seen on the market, so Jaune must have made it himself.
"It's fucking beautiful." Yang felt breathless.
"Eh." Jaune shrugged. "Compared to you?"
She blushed as he joked at her expense. The worst part was that for all of Jaune's mind reading BS, he never seemed to be able to pick up anyone's romantic interest in him. That somehow was his one weakness.
"Oh shut up." She laughed as she lightly punched his shoulder. "This is… crazy, thank you."
"I figured we could ride back to the cabin," Jaune tossed her the key, it landing with a solid smack into her left palm. "Don't worry about fuel either. Bumblebee doesn't need any."
Yang couldn't help but to laugh.
"Like your song? You're such a nerd, Jaune!"
"Y-Yang." Onyx mumbled as she kept hiding behind her back. "A-at least introduce me!"
"Oh." Yang felt a bit dumb for having completely forgotten her friend. "This is my friend Onyx. Say hi."
"Hi! I'm Jaune." He held out his hand all friendly like the doofus he was. "Nice to meet a friend of Yang's."
"I KNOW!" Onyx squeaked too quickly. "I'm a fan!"
"Cool." Jaune chuckled, looking faintly strained at how excited Onyx looked. "Uh, did you want like, an autogra-"
"YES!"
"FASTER!" Ruby whooped as Jaune revved the engine of his motorcycle, feeling petals scatter from her Aura as she felt her heart race, holding onto her adoptive brother. "THIS IS AWESOME!"
Snow sprayed amidst the wet pavement as they soared.
She could feel juniper berries overload her senses as he happily agreed without a word, his bike Fenrir rearing up as it tore down Patch's coastline, the twin 'arms' of his bike lifting as twin tires spun off of the ground. The black helmet on her head fit snugly as the strap fluttered under her chin.
Next to them Yang also let out a whoop of joy as her new bike Bumblebee tore down the dirt path next to them, the motor roaring loudly with pistons pumping at full force and torque. Jaune said it was simulated, just for show, but the details didn't matter right now. Right now was the sound of cheers and whoops, of pumping steel.
Despite the short ride back and both bikes racing at high speeds, there was electricity in the air when both bikes arrived back at home, slowing down as they arrived on muddy dirt paths.
Something about the ride back felt… right. Almost like a flash into a world when Jaune had never left their house. Had stayed with her and Yang.
Ruby could feel her face flush with excitement and the windchill despite her Aura.
This felt RIGHT.
"THAT WAS AWESOME JAUNE!" Ruby felt Yang leap over and pull both her and Jaune off his bike in a bear hug. "HOLY CRAP!"
Her bright yellow helmet clacked against Ruby's and Jaune's, making all of their heads rattle in a funny way.
Jaune laughed happily as he let his legs flail, just like Ruby herself, as Yang swung them around.
The moment she placed their feet on the ground, Ruby giggled as Jaune this time let out a cackle as he picked up both sisters and swung them around instead, the three of them slipping in the snow and falling backwards. Their Auras protected them from the icy snow as they giggled like idiots and started to flick snow at each other.
"Whoa! Nice ride, Jaune. That thing's a monster." Ruby heard Drunkle Qrow (Sober Edition) laugh as he stepped out of their cabin house. "And this would be the bike you wanted to make for Yang last year, eh?"
"Hey Uncle Qrow! What the heck!" Yang yelled as she threw a handful of snow at him, sitting up, the snow sticking to her coat. "I could have had this last year! That would have been so cool!"
"Yeah well, you almost crashed your old man's old bike a few times during that time. You know how many memories that thing had? You needed to learn more patience. You're too much of a thrill seeker for us to hand you motorbikes left and right. We're not made of money."
"Psh. I would have been fine. Plus by the stories you tell, most of those memories were him picking up chicks before he got together with our moms."
"Yang are you not going to mention how you almost fell off at that last turn." Ruby laughed as Jaune got a mouthful of snow for ratting her sister out. "Ptooey!"
"Did not!"
A snowball fight commenced quickly, all four of them whooping and hollering as they leapt around with Aura enhanced speed and leaps, devolving into yelling children. Uncle Qrow was, of course, the biggest child of them all.
"What do you mean it's missing?!" Blake shouted, stomping her foot into the ground, wincing internally as the cobblestone cracked beneath her Nikke prosthetics. "That was Jaune's! We can't have just lost a Multi-Fabricator! It can do a lot, but not grow legs and run away!"
"Miss Belladonna, please. We are looking into it. We don't want to let down Professor Arc either, truly!" The White Fang representative assured weakly. "We are working on it. We promise."
Blake groaned as she pinched the outer bases of her cat ears.
"Oh no. No no no. I'm going to be sick. How does nobody know what's happened to it STILL?!"
"Blake. They're on it. They'll track down whoever stole it." Ilia assured, patting her shoulder. "There's no way something that big or heavy would go missing that easily."
Blake sighed, feeling guilty. Umbral Hare hung off her waist in its armored skirt configuration (though it was more an armored belt and protective plates on the sides of her thighs), the weight of it helping her focus her thoughts on anything else right now, as Guardian's Shroud, her TacticsVariant-BullpupRifle left a pressure on her back that felt heavier than normal.
Ok, maybe coming directly to the White Fang HQ after helping clear some Grimm in the surrounding badlands hadn't been as great of an idea as Blake had planned.
Ilia's parents had recently died in a mining accident just last year and she had moved back to Menagerie after having an issue at Atlas Academy. She had been relying on Blake to keep her grounded and emotionally stable as a result of some… admittedly mixed results.
Blake had done her best, but she'd never been great at being an emotional anchor, despite how much she tried to be more like her mother. Her mom was bright and cheery. An absolute people pleaser, but Blake was more muted and soft spoken most times, more introverted. Trying to be her mother was just stressful and emotionally draining for her.
It was just another failing of hers. It always felt like she was never able to keep up with the world around her, being what her people needed from her. Never living up to her parents legacy. No matter what she always felt like she wasn't doing enough, or being enough of a role model. Just always falling short.
She wanted to run away sometimes, but she couldn't do that. Not when so many people were depending on her. When Jaune believed in her.
Now the friend she was supposed to be supporting and helping was being forced to help her instead. It was sort of pitiful. Like as if Blake couldn't do anything on her own.
"I- no. You're right. Sorry, Ilia." Blake sighed as she kept pressure on her ear's pressure point. "They'll… they'll track down who did this. I should just trust them."
But something about the way the White Fang had been acting the past few years had Blake on edge. It wasn't as if she disagreed with their more aggressive decisions entirely, but sometimes things just felt off.
Both her parents as well as Blake herself had been uncomfortable when a year after Sienna had taken power and she'd announced that as beautiful as the dream of a perfectly peaceful protest system was, it was important to protect their own people. That the White Fang would cease to be an absolutely peaceful protest organization.
That wasn't to say that the White Fang had ever gotten violent or acted aggressively by attacking any person or group, but they had just begun more aggressive pushing for independence and recognition.
It was a good thing, but sometimes it felt like her parents' dreams were being left behind when they leapt to defend themselves when bigoted humans got violent. She was happy less Faunus were being hurt as a result, but it felt a whole lot messier wherever a fight broke out during a protest.
Not only that, but it was also hard for her to participate in anything White Fang related in recent years when she had her hands full just helping her parents run Menagerie. Jaune had to step in himself to convince her father to delegate more tasks, even, as he (ironically very much like Jaune himself) took too many responsibilities on.
Blake sighed tiredly.
"...I should talk to Adam."
"Blake, no. Really. Everytime you talk nowadays all you two do is fight. I'm tired of it." Ilia groaned, "Let's just go take a line to the Green Laurel and unwind. We both need it."
"Sorry, sorry. But he's in charge of a lot of the militia nowadays, not to mention the White Fang Guardsmen that he created a year ago. Regardless of which group messed up it was his people's responsibility-"
Ilia wordlessly grabbed her arm and dragged her away, grunting as Blake found herself dragging her feet a little.
It was for the best that her friend pulled her away from the situation on hand. She really wasn't contributing anything to the situation by just nagging over it. Ugh. She needed to release some stress.
Bolt Unit 2B appeared seemingly out of nowhere, pushing Blake from behind, helping Ilia, making her friend giggle.
"Ugh. Ok, I get it! Get off, 2B." Blake sighed with a tired laugh. "I get it, I get it. We're going, ok? No need to be a nag. Aren't you supposed to be on patrol with 9S today at this time? You two love hunting Grimm."
2B just looked at her and bumped into her side again as if to tell Blake to mind her own business and stop deflecting.
The robot dog was a bit of an enigma. 2B and 9S were clearly special. Jaune hadn't given any of the other BOLT units any designations like that, usually referring to them by the role they played in whatever he needed when he wanted extra hands (which was more or less always) in Menagerie.
But he'd given these two codenames that seemed to mean something to him.
Not only that but they were… well they were smart.
Like sapient smart.
Everyone else seemed to think that they were just more advanced VI or AI, but Blake had gotten over her discomfort of them specifically because they seemed more like… people than dogs.
And they were even modified to show how unique they were, 2B being built tougher and bigger for combat and 9S being plenty combat capable, but smaller and faster. Better for scouting.
They made a good duo and people joked that the two weren't sibling units, but rather mates. As if they were actual dogs and not just a pair of robots.
Even though she'd quickly gotten used to the standard BOLT units, it had taken Blake an embarrassingly long time to get on good terms with 2B and 9S, though that was, admittedly, all because of her own hang ups.
It wasn't her fault that she wasn't really a dog person! A lot of feline type Faunus didn't often agree much with canines in general. It even occasionally led to feline and canine type Faunus butting heads here and there. But it usually wasn't that big of a deal for normal people. It was people with Aura that tended to be more in tune with their animal heritage sides, was all. Most normal Faunus only suffered light discomfort at best, but Blake had Aura, so things were just a wee bit different.
Either way 2B gave her a reassuring nudge, as if telling her and Ilia to go off and relax, that Jaune would forgive her either way. Certainly he'd probably add a tracker to any of his donated gear moving forwards just to prevent such a thing from happening next time.
He'd never done it before to her knowledge as nobody had ever been so stupid before.
Even so none of this should have happened under her watch. Jaune had trusted Blake with his things in Menagerie, occasionally messaged her to check up on something for him, even secretly snuck into Menagerie on occasion when she'd expressed that she'd… been lonely.
Well it wasn't fair that Yang, Weiss Schnee (Blake really tried not to judge and dislike the girl for her father, but sometimes the girl made it hard to, even as she did genuinely try to look at the world from a normal person's perspective), and Jaune's other mystery friend in Vale got to monopolize so much of his time! Blake only asked for his company on rare occasions!
She wasn't selfish. Much.
Regardless of that all, she'd always strove to do her best to meet and go beyond his, frankly, pretty minimal expectations.
But one of his high-tech fabricators had been stolen in the night a few weeks ago.
It had been the one that he'd preset to help make the exoskeletons that helped the lithium (as well as other rare metals) miners help bear heavier loads and strengthen themselves. Even protected them a small amount from debris and even some falling rocks, though it wasn't perfect by any means, as nothing was.
It certainly wasn't as good as having Aura was, but a lot of lives had been saved as a result of it. It even had an oxygen tank attachment that allowed them better breathing in the dustier parts to help prevent miner's lung. That and potentially hazardous gasses.
Their pickaxes had a 'heat' function (the miners often called them Heat Picks) that let them dig faster through regular rock, but if it struck a lithium vein the wrong way it could be dangerous from the gasses that formed should the lithium catch fire. Usually it wasn't an issue as it tended to require more prolonged heat for the rare earth metal to catch fire and release gasses from the high temperature of a Heat Pick impact, but accidents could happen regardless.
Luckily nobody forced anyone to use the heat function, so it only tended to be used pretty sparingly, even though some of the more reckless miners did admittedly get gungho about maximizing their digging with it. Either way, Menagerie took the safety of their workers seriously. They weren't the SDC.
And sure, both the exoskeleton and the Heat Picks required batteries, but the suit could carry it all. Plus, thanks to the Solar Farm, Menagerie pretty much always had power to spare. Though Jaune did worry that they were a bit too reliant on just solar, even having put together a small experimental plant along the coast that was also recently connected to Kuo Kuana's powergrid last year that took the energy of the moving ocean waves and somehow converted that to power as well.
But it wasn't a time to gush about Jaune in her head. Gosh, she did that too much sometimes.
This not only affected the miners that relied on the machine to repair their gear and help ensure their safety, but her… well there was no way to say it without being clinical or embarrassingly factual.
Her love interest.
Kya. Ugh. This whole 'maiden's heart' deal that her mom assured her was… normal was still just embarrassing.
And she was just gushing again. Ugh.
And certainly not something that her romance novels often talked about. Even the more… promiscuous ones that she'd begun to develop an interest in recently.
It was because of the good storytelling! Really!
How was it her fault that people who wrote smu- adult works were those that were often very passionate about writing a good romance plot to go with it? They often came hand in hand! That was out of Blake's control!
"Lucky." Ilia sighed, "Green Line Four is coming this way. We'll be there in five minutes without any additional stops."
"Most people in District 4 should be busy at home getting dinner this time of day." Blake almost mechanically regurgitated, looking up at the sun still bright in the sky. Winter it might be for the rest of Remnant's Kingdoms, but it was summer down here in Kuo Kuana, Menagerie. "We should be good."
"Nice. We can get dinner after a good soak and massage then. Get you pampered and destress." Ilia giggled as she gave Blake a hug from the side. "My treat."
"Nope." Blake bumped her head against her childhood best friend, "Mine. I've kind of been a bad friend today, dragging you from place to place. I'll pay for dinner."
Ilia laughed and nodded as Green Line Four slowed as the Trolley (Jaune insisted they were called Cable Cars, even though nobody else called it that) Conductor on duty waved lazily at them, letting them board as the vessel moved at its slowest speed, not fully stopping, before speeding back up to a comfortably brisk pace.
A single wired earbud rose to his left human ear as clawed feet in open toed sandals tapped to a beat.
She and Ilia began to lean against each other, Guardian Shroud (chambered in 5.56 with 30 round magazines) pulled between her legs from its magnetic holster on her back as she sat on one of the trolley benches. The foregrip could open up and launch a harpoon blade with a length of super tough, super light black ribbon in lieu of rope for grappling and detaining foes. Usually for binding Grimm so she could tear them apart with Umbral Hare as the ribbon retracted via the internal motor..
Her eyes gazed up at Kuo Kuana's now truly modern crawl of large buildings, the occasional apartment complex and stretches of suburbia passed by, bringing a smile to her lips.
Soon Jaune would be here which meant she could be a little selfish and see him every day.
The change on the wind filled her heart with hope.
…as long as he wouldn't be too mad something happened to one of his machines.
…she'd make it up to him somehow, she flushed, not completely from the summer heat. Y-yeah. Somehow.
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