Arclight Foundries

"You know, Jaune." Coco started the next morning after their long day, the woman leaning against the counter next to the stove in a pair of jeans and a long white button-up, along with a pair of black boots that climbed halfway up her shin and a bright red scarf wrapped loosely around her shoulders almost like a shawl. "You haven't asked why I'm all dressed up today, when normally I've been running around in shorts and a shirt unless we're working."

"Coco, I don't think my sanity would survive thinking too hard about why you do stuff." He pointed out, smiling when she snorted and flipping over the little sausage patties. "Breakfast sandwiches are good, yeah? Couple fried eggs, some cheese, sausage, toast."

"Sounds delicious, babe." He gave her a short, surprised glance at the nickname before he could catch himself and she snorted, a brow raising in question. "Oh, is someone not ready for pet names yet? You've slept with me two nights now, but 'babe' is a bridge too far? Hm?"

"Why do you make everything sound so perverted?" He rolled his eyes, the woman doing little more than snort in amus.e.m.e.nt at him. He saw her other eyebrow rise over that c.o.c.ky smile she almost always wore, reiterating her question to him without speaking, and sighed good naturedly. "No, Coco, it doesn't bother me or anything. You just caught me off guard is all, as normal as that should be by now so… Heh, maybe I should be getting used to it."

"I do intend to stick around for a while, so yeah, might want to start getting used to me surprising you." She leaned in to peck him on the cheek and he let her, leaning to the side a bit so she could more easily reach. "And some sandwiches sound wonderful, Jaune. Nice and light before we go out."

"W-Wait, we're going out? Like, uh, like today?" He asked, straightening his tee anxiously at the idea. Red cotton pajamas and a dirty sleeping shirt weren't exactly walking around clothes, even with his probably poor fashion sense he knew that. "I, uh, when did I find out about this?"

"About a minute ago." She grinned, lifting herself with her arms - and a very slightly pained grunt he grimaced at but otherwise ignored - to sit on the counter by the stove and watch him cook. "S'a surprise, Jaune. You are comin' with lil' ole me to Beacon, to see the rest of my team and meet up with Ruby and her team."

"Her team…" He'd met Weiss already, but he guessed she would have two other members like Coco had one more he hadn't met. "I'll, uh, take my special medicine then so I can be out and about like that for today. Means I'll be fatigued tomorrow, though, but I was already taking it off to work on the armor and relax with you to watch the fights."

"You didn't tell me about your special meds' side effects… I didn't know if would fatigue you." She sounded guilty for a second and he sighed, before the woman caught it and shrugged, asking simply, "Are you cool with going out today then? I meant it as a surprise, to be nice and see everyone, but… If you don't wanna take the meds and be worn out tomorrow, I won't be upset or nothin'."

"Nah, that's why I have it, after all. And unless you're intended to run me ragged tomorrow, I'll be fine to rest up and deal with it here." He gave her a wink and smirked, adding, "Especially with my cute girlfriend around to dote on me while I recover from her wearing me out. Right?"

"Okay, now you're just milking it, Babe. Behave." She rolled her eyes at him, and then sighed and crossed her arms while he set the sausage aside to set to work on the eggs. "But to answer your question, yes. We will snuggle, watch the fights, and work on your armor a bit if you want to. If you ask really nice, I just might even let you touch my t.i.t.s."

"That's a heart attack just waiting, Coco." He grumbled, feeling the burn rise to his ears before he could. The woman snorted in amus.e.m.e.nt, but didn't push the teasing beyond that, and he asked, "Does everyone else, you know… Know about my heart? Since I, uh, mentioned it, I mean. N-Not the part about your, um, c.h.e.s.t, I mean, b-but about my c.h.e.s.t, n-not that your c.h.e.s.t isn't nice-"

"Jaune, breathe and relax, before you have another attack or something. Okay? I know what you meant." She reached out, running her fingers through his hair to straighten it out, and he let her. Enjoying the feeling of her playing with his hair, as weird as it was to enjoy that particularly. "No, Ruby and I haven't told anyone much 'bout it. We figured if you wanted to go, we'd be relaxing anyways, and if we needed them to know we could tell them together."

"Sorry, just... " He g.r.o.a.n.e.d unsurely and flicked off the stove's power, letting the residual heat finish the eggs while he spoke. "Social anxiety?"

"You run a shop." Coco pointed out, a thin eyebrow raised in disbelief and head tilted to the side. "How does a literal shop owner have social anxieties, like, at all? Your entire livelihood is completely and totally dependant on you being the charmingly adorable son-of-a-Coco that you are."

"Don't you mean son-of-a-bitch?"

"S'what I said." She nodded, poking his cheek with a thin and cool finger, smirking knowingly. "And you are dodging the question, young man. Do I need to incentivize you, maybe show some skin? Little lip wrestling to pull the answers out of you?"

"Do you just w-want to make out or something?" He asked nervously, laughing awkwardly and deflating when she simply stared him down, patiently waiting on him to elaborate on what she'd asked. "Running a store is different, Coco… Like, it's all sirs and ma'ams, and typical questions, and I… You know, have work to distract me. Designing weapons, running numbers, that kinda stuff."

"Distractions, yeah?" He nodded and she returned the gesture, reaching up to the top of the fridge to get down the bred for him to assemble the sandwiches. "That won't, you know, cause problems for you will it? Just, you know, trying to wrap my head around all this stuff. Get it down pat before we go any further, you know, timewise."

"Yeah, I know, Coco… You don't do much to hide it, so I'd be blind not to have noticed." And boy did he, she was always so damn attentive with those big brown, watching him and listening like he was a lecturer whenever he answered her questions. "Not that I mind, it's actually… Actually nice, having someone know and care and just be learning it so they know how to deal with stuff, instead of out of pity or something."

"I suck your d.i.c.k, you die of a heart attack. You take a flash photo, I go blind for twenty minutes." She shrugged simply, though he saw her lips quirk at the fire rushing up to his ears again. "Takes adjustin' on both ends, and don't think I didn't notice you paying attention to me when you flick the lights on. I did, and I appreciate it."

"Why does every heart problem analogy you make involve something s.e.x.u.a.l?"

"Because I live every moment imagining you inside various parts of me, Jaune. So I just can't help but let it slip out sometimes." She winked to show the joke he knew it was even before he flushed and sputtered at her. "Maybe if someone were to… Help take it off my mind, maybe then I could stop?"

"Here, put my sausage in your mouth." He held out the sandwich to her and Coco snorted at the suddenness, one hand covering her mouth while she laughed in short and small snorts while the other took it from him. "Yeah, thought you'd crack up at that, you frickin'... Monster pervert that you are."

"Oh please, Jaune, you love how perverted I am." he rolled his eyes but didn't deny it and she took a huge bite of her sandwich, nodding appreciatively. "Hey, what do ya know. Your sausage tasted awesome in my mouth. I might need a bit more, to make sure I can remember exactly how it tastes."

"You're ridiculous."

"That's a weird way to pronounce 'adorable' or 's.e.xy enough to cause global heat waves'." She tapped a finger on her chin playfully, pretending to think about it for a few seconds before finally shrugging. "Guess you just made a silly little mistake, huh? Cuz there's no way you would ever say anything negative about me, right?"

"Yes, Coco. You are absolutely right about everything." He drawled sarcastically, leaning against the counter across from her with his own meaty sandwich. "And you're perfection, too, absolute art walking around on two legs."

"There you go, Jaune." She smiled c.o.c.kily, nodding her head at him and then waving a hand. "Now eat and go get changed, and take your meds too, so we can start getting ready to go out and see all of the people."

"All of the people?"

"Yep."

"Then I guess I better not keep all the people waiting on me." He said, sighing and carrying his remaining half a sandwich around the corner to start fishing for clothes. "I'm gonna grab a quick shower and stuff, should be good in… Half an hour."

"I'll send messages to everyone." He waved a hand at her to show he'd heard, heading into the bathroom to get cleaned up and ready. "See ya in a bit." She raised a finger to say something and, without looking, he shouted back, "No, I don't need you to wash my back. Or my front, for that matter."

"Spoilsport… Taking all the fun right out of teasing you." He laughed at her cute, playful little pout, shutting the door on her to get ready.

XxX----XxX----XxX

"I feel like I should have dressed up more…" He complained quietly, adjusting the blue semi-suit jacket around his shoulders and grimacing at the dark blue jeans he'd worn over his normal work boots. The Bullhead shuddered as air beat against it, the stiff winter wind coming in off the ocean playing hell with the craft, and Jaune added to distract himself, "Beacon is… A big deal, you know? Like, the biggest of deals. The place is probably responsible for saving thousands of lives…"

"You've saved a good baker's dozen at least too, you know." She pointed out, sitting next to him in the almost-empty Bullhead, rigged for personal transport with two lines of comfortable seats and a cool white paint-job instead of the militaristic grey cargo craft used. "Everyone does a job and every job has somewhere people learn it, that's all it is, Jaune. Not that big a deal, so don't make it that."

"But this is the Beacon! It's-"

"Just an old, fancy school." She nudged him with an elbow, raising an eyebrow coyly and asking, "Which of us goes there? Yeah, me. So trust me, babe, I know my own school and how it goes. It's just like any other Academy, 'cept it's a bit bigger than some and a lot older than others. An old Academy is like an old Huntsman-"

"They have to be special to be able to survive to old age, but they're not actually different from anything else." Jaune finished for her, the woman cracking a surprised and moderately pleased looking grin, c.o.c.king her head to the side curiously. "Dad's a Huntsman, and he's gone almost… Almost fifty now, been Hunting all his life too. I heard that a good little bit growing up, he always loved sayings like that."

"I mean…" She shrugged, rolling her eyes at him and leaning her arm against his for the contact. "Maybe I'm just used to Beacon? So it's not, you know, special to me any more. It's hard for something familiar to also be special, usually."

"Maybe, yeah…" Something about the way she'd said that bothered him, for the shortest second, before he felt the craft shudder gently and angle up. Landing, he could tell it easily enough because of how these sh.i.p.s moved and his understanding of machinery, "So, anything I should know before I meet the family, so to speak?"

"You have met two of them, and slept with one more," she flicked a finger towards herself with a playful wink when he sighed sufferingly, "so I don't know what you mean. I guess you should know Fox is blind?"

"Wait, he's blind?" That was a surprise, and kind of ironic given Coco's own eye problems. An observation he wisely didn't point out, of course, instead asking, "He's a good fighter though, right? I mean, he'd have to be to get into Beacon."

"Yeah, his Semblance lets him get around it though. He can control and feel air pressure, and that lets him 'see' around himself by feeling it." The ship shuddered and she stretched her arms over her head to limber up after the ride, rolling her neck until it popped while she spoke. "He's actually one of our close combat experts. He can rip Grimm up with his air currents if he gets a hand on them."

"That is…" Awesome, definitely, but not something that quite described what he was feeling right now. Instead, he went with something more accurate to what he felt. "Absolutely the most terrifying idea I have ever heard of. And I could die from a brisk jog."

"Nah, he's a little teddy bear, promise. Even if he can blow you up from a pat on the back. But don't worry, babe, he won't do anything to you." She stood and he followed, the woman glancing over her shoulder and winking at him. "After all, you are dating the real scary one on my team. Who else runs around with a collapsible, explosive shell firing minigun on her hip?"

"That's… A good point, actually." Not that that made her more scary than someone who could blow you to bits with literal air, of course, but Coco wasn't referring just to her gun in that. She was also referring to the dating aspect, and something else he wasn't sure about, in the teasing pseudo-threat. "But I mean… I only met Yatsuhashi once, and Velvet's been off for a while, and I haven't met any of them as your, you know… Boyfriend."

"Ah, well you're about to- Motherf.u.c.ker." The ramp lowered at the back of the modified Bullhead, which used a back ramp for exiting instead of the side doors most had to add seating, and Coco flinched slightly at the light. Her hand was quick to reach up and knock her sunglasses down off her head and onto her nose, the woman grumbling, "Ow… That was annoyingly bright."

"You okay?" She waved him off, smiling happily at his concern, and started making her way towards the ramp. "Well, uh, what were you going to say?"

"Hm?" She hesitated at the door, grinning after a second and letting him step past her down, and freeze at Yatsuhashi's massive frame at the end of it, glowering at him. "Oh yeah, that's right. Yats is the dad of the group, and might know we've been sleeping together."

"H-He knows that-" Jaune's face scrunched when the normally gentle giant rumbled forebodingly at her words and he turned to glare up the ramp at her, "Stop phrasing it like that, Coco! He's going to eat me!"

"I'm no cannibal, my small, clever little friend." The man said, resting wide and heavy hands across the backs of his shoulders. "I won't eat you, though I may wish to have… Words with one who has so smitten my dear leader, Coco, as to be welcome in her bed more than once as you have been."

"Fox and Velvet are waitin', Papa Bear." Coco pointed out as she joined them at the bottom of the ramp. "Also, no laying a hand on the boy toy. He's, ah, brittle to say the least, but…" She gave him a questioning glance and he nodded, knowing the conversation he was going to have today already. "Well, when everyone's together, we're going to talk about all of it. You'll… Get my interest then, promise."

"Very well, Coco." The hand moved and Jaune, frozen until that point, was quick to hide behind Coco's only moderately larger frame, the woman barely more to hide behind than a light pole. The large man and the woman both chuckled, the large man pointing out, "I would never harm you, my small friend. Such would harm Coco, and likely result in me being maimed in some way."

"Castrated, have the scissors back in the dorm." Coco offered, making a 'snip snip' sound and gesture with a couple of fingers, reaching her other arm around and twisting to wrap it around him and pull him around in front of her. "Don't worry, Babe, your little chocolate snack will protect you from the big, bad papa Yats."

"Chocolate… Snack?" Yatsuhashi rumbled, tilting his head to the side and smiling in a chillingly friendly way at him. "My, but you are ever braver than I thought and seem to appear in my eyes even more with every moment, young engineer."

"I-I… I do not call her my c-chocolate snack! I don't! I really, really don't!" He squeaked, the two Hunters walking ahead of him without comment or note. Following, he came up beside Coco and gave her a look, "Coco, tell him I don't."

"Would you prefer I tell him about how I call you 'Daddy' because it makes you excited?" She asked coyly in a fake whisper, grinning mischievously when the large man rumbled threateningly and Jaune w.h.i.n.ed pitifully. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and said, "Jaune and I just cuddle, Yats. Nothing hard has poked me anywhere but through the sheets sometimes when he's sleeping, so chill. Just givin' him a hard time."

"I see." Yatsuhashi nodded, smiling, "Good. If he made you do such l.e.w.d things, I may have needed to fire him off into the forest in one of the rocket-lockers."

"Oh, oh!" Jaune bounced on his heel excitedly, grinning like a child in a candy shop might. "Can I see the rocket-lockers? I've always wanted to look at them! The technology is awesome, I did a small paper on them when I was thirteen for my licensing."

"And there he goes." Coco mumbled while Jaune fawned over the tech, only loud enough for Yats to hear her and rumble pleasantly in response. "He'll calm down in a few minutes, don't stress. Just... Let him ramble while we walk."

And ramble he did, for the ten minutes of walking they had to go through to navigate Beacon's myriad hallways and get to the rec-building of on the East side. A tall, regal looking thing that matched the buildings around it, with a small statue outside of an open book that had been weathered by enough years that the edges had started to round and whatever had been written on it was illegible now beyond a couple isolated letters. Inside was a simple hallway, long and with doors spaced a few feet apart on either wall and staircases by the door and at the end of the hall by a fire-door that led up to the three other floors which would, he assumed, look identical to this one.

"We are the first to get here, as first years are still in class for the day. Their last day, to note, and only a provisionary lecture on the Vytal Festival itself now that it has been going for a few days." Yatsuhashi explained as he swiped his scroll over the black little box that would read its internal i.d. and let them in, a dull buzz announcing just that as the door clicked and opened slightly for them. "I believe they should be on their way here even now, however."

"Cool. So we just…" He gestured at the room they were filing into with a wave, "We just chill out however, yeah?"

"These rooms are rented, and so we may do as we wish with them and in them short of destroying the furniture or structure or, well..." Yatsuhashi spared him a glance, mouth set into a firm line, "Disrobing is also not allowed, save for changing clothes in certain circ.u.mstances."

"Not like I'm gonna drop 'em around my ankles and bend over the couch for him, Yats." Coco poked him as she passed, giving him a playful little wink and adding, "Unless he just likes an audience?"

"Gods damn it, Coco… Does everything with you have to be perverted? W-We haven't even done anything l.e.w.der than cuddle and kiss a little!" She shrugged noncommittally and he sighed, looking around the room curiously and shaking his head at the antics Coco seemed to live off like he lived off food, metalworking and water. "It is nice in here, though."

Typical of Beacon, or he guessed it was, even the rental rooms for study nights and student get togethers was well made to the point of being fancy. Thick walls made of what looked to him like stone, rather than concrete, with almost Mistralian wooden panelling along the walls and warm, orange lighting every few feet around the room at waist level. Fluorescents rested overhead, recessed into the ceiling, but apparently Beacon opted for the warmer lighting just in case people wanted it. Thick, soft carpeting painted a warm brown and dark white paint on the ceiling further cast the room into a muted, warm sort of feeling that he found himself enjoying.

Particularly when he saw Coco take off her sunglasses and set them back on top of her head, which had him smiling slightly. A smile she caught, smirking at him until he coughed awkwardly and glanced away.

The furniture was equally dark and warm, and fancy as well of course. A long, dark wooden table sat in the back of the room with red-padded chairs around it, and a small counter in the corner made of the same material presumably to sit food and drink on if one didn't want to use the table. Closer to the door, a U-shaped black couch made of thick cloth, with a short coffee table in front of it made of warm, brown mahogany, took up most of the rest of the space nicely.

"Jaune, come." Coco plopped onto the couch at the curve of the U, patting the spot beside her and smirking amusedly at the naughtier implications. Jaune rolled his eyes but took the spot regardless, the woman wrapping an arm around his shoulders and whispering, "Do you want to tell them one at a time, or wait for everyone to get together?"

"I guess it'd be better to go ahead and-" With a click, the door swung open again and Ruby came in, chatting away with a bored looking blonde beside her and with three others trailing behind. "Wait until they get here, since everyone showed up as soon as I tried to answer your question. Which is just about right for my kind of luck, yeah."

"Hey now," she whispered, leaning close enough for her breath to heat up his ear and send a flush creeping along his neck, "if you're upset with your bad luck, I could always help you get lucky."

"Jaune!" Ruby cheered before he could react, flashing to stand in front of him and scattered a handful of petals behind her. "You came! I thought you'd have stayed home for sure because of your," Coco coughed, and Ruby stammered, "J-Job. Your job. S'what I meant, yeah, your job."

"Coco, be nice and don't tease Ruby." He chided gently, watching the dark-skinned man leaning against the door and staring at the ground for a minute before asking quietly, "That's Fox, right?"

"I am." He said suddenly, voice low and raspy from where he stood. Jaune blinked in surprise and, probably surprised themselves, the blonde and brunette beside him shuffled to the side. "I'm blind," he explained, smiling thinly in a resigned sort of way, "but I can hear better than anyone else. I'd guess Coco told you?"

"Your Semblance." Jaune nodded, and then kicked himself when he realized he wasn't sure if the man could see that. For the rest of the room, since the man had broached it, he explained, "You can feel and use air currents, and that lets you feel the shape of the room to see. Like a sort of… Silent echolocation."

"Indeed." The man nodded, turning his head slightly to regard the two woman leaning against the wall quietly beside him. "I can see everyone and everything in this room as clearly as you all can. So relax, I can feel the tension in your shoulders."

"That's kinda creepy…" The blonde complained under her breath before turning a beaming smile on Jaune and seemingly moving on entirely. "So you're short, blonde, dorky and dating the hottest chick in Beacon, huh? Name's Yang, but you already knew that from my lovable sister who's probably told you everything down to my cup size."

"So you're a blonde too?" He asked in response, tilting his head to the side and fighting the grin that tried to escape when her grin fell and her eyes dulled. "Ruby hasn't really talked about you all that much, honestly. I don't know anything except your name, and I don't even know Coco's cup size-"

"Oh sweetheart, I wear double Ds." She cut in, smirking when his jaw clicked shut and his face flushed. Yang murmured a 'damn' and chuckled while Weiss rolled her eyes and took a seat and then, before anyone could do anything else, Coco prompted him with, "Babe, I think you should take the chance to explain your… Problem to everyone here, since you said you wanted to."

"Problem?" The raven-haired woman asked unsurely, whose name he hadn't learned, seemed interested at that for some reason, casting a quick glance up and down his body. "What kind of problem, precisely?"

"Let everyone get settled in, and I'll tell them when Velvet gets here." He sighed, grimacing and nodding. "Just a thing to deal with, right?"

"I'm right here for it, and you too, Babe." Coco pointed out quietly, sliding a hand down his arm and lacing her fingers through his. Raising her voice for everyone, almost yelling but not quite to get her point across, "Settle in kids and monster-killers, story time is here. Ruby, you already know, so go find Velvet. She should be at the cafeteria, getting snacks."

"Yep!" She was gone a second later, and Weiss was speaking.

"I guess I can make the formal introductions, since the Dolt did bolt." Yang snickered and, surprisingly enough, Weiss didn't bat an eye and instead simply said, "The laughing bimbo is Yang, Ruby's sister, and-"

"This is my partner, Blakey!" She said excitedly, yanking the aggrieved looking woman into a one-armed hug and grinning ear-to-ear. The woman shot him a pleading look, but Jaune didn't do anything but smile apologetically while Yang started rattling things off, plopping into the seat next to him with Blake trapped against her side. "She's shy, but adorable, trust me. You'll get along great."

"Right." He nodded to the trapped woman and smiled softly, "Hello there, how's captivity treating you?"

"Blake Belladonna, actually." She corrected with a tired sigh and glance to Yang, smiling in spite of both. "And my captivity is fine enough, I suppose. At least it's warm and soft. Gods help me if Weiss were the cuddly one."

"Washboard, or even flatter." Yang whispered, just loud enough for the Schnee standing in front of them to hear, grinning ear to ear and looking to her as though surprised. Eyes wide and mouth a little 'O' of it, she gasped. "Oh, hi, Weiss."

"You're insufferable, and I am not a washboard." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose but sitting on Blake's other side. Prim and proper as he was willing to bet she always was, she added, "I'm simply petite, and not top heavy like some people are. Classical beauty is the term, I believe."

"Yeah, yeah, Weisscream. Guys like 'em bottom-heavy too, and I've seen you when we're changin'." Yang dismissed, rolling her eyes and turning to give him a look, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Lacy and racy, in case you were wonderin'."

"Honey, he really wasn't." Coco said c.o.c.kily, tugging the front of her shirt just low enough down that he could see the top of her lacy brown bra and flush violently at it. Grinning madly at his reaction, she finished with, "He likes 'em brown and lacy, trust me on that one. I would know."

He g.r.o.a.n.e.d and settled in for the teasing he knew was coming while he waited on Ruby and Velvet. And storytime, of course, not that he was looking forward to that particularly.