Arclight Foundries

"My dad ended up selling rights to the mines and taking up Huntsman missions again to pay off the hospital bills." And transport for doctors, and the litany of tests, and the fees to have an emergency clinic built in case something happened, and so many other things… "The farming industry there keeps the family fed, and there's plenty of water from the mountains, so… Aside from for out careers and family business, Lien never really matters, so Dad never cared. He always said we got lucky, that they had so much build up around them when I… Happened."

"That's a f.u.c.k.e.d up way to phrase it." Yang grumbled, getting an elbow in her ribs from her raven-haired partner for it and grunting, "What? It is f.u.c.k.e.d up, Blake!"

"Yes, but you didn't need to say it in front of him." The other woman leaned forward, smiling apologetically at him and nodding her head politely in spite of Yang's offended huff. "Ignore Yang, she doesn't have a filter between her mouth and her small, badly battered brain. Weiss thinks too much hair dye and head trauma is the problem."

"Hey, I do not dye my hair!" Yang sighed when Blake shrugged, giving Jaune a bright, apologetic smile. The kind that, before Coco, would have set Jaune's skin to doing its best impression of Ruby's cloak, especially coming from someone who looked like Yang did. "I, uh, I do tend to lack on the brain to mouth filter department though. I didn't mean anything bad, just… Kinda f.u.c.k.e.d up, puttin' all that on your kid, to me."

"I mean, I was… Sixteen or so, so it's not that bad. And he didn't mean anything bad by it, not really." He knew that, more from how his dad always acted than anything else, and something so subjective was hard to argue. "It's not that he was trying to hurt me, or anything like that. I asked him to tell me about it, and… He did honestly, because he respects me and respected the question."

"Your father sounds like a good man, Jaune. Truly someone befitting the title of a Huntsman, in every sense of the word." Weiss said from her seat on one of the chairs from the table, and for a moment Jaune could swear she sounded jealous about it. "You are quite lucky to have a father like him in your life."

"Y-Yeah, I… Hope to be a dad like him myself, some day." And Brothers if Weiss didn't scream of baggage when she said that, with her eyes downcast and shoulders sagging. Too late, he realized what he'd said and who he was leaning against, feeling Coco's grin far before she said anything and turning to cut her off, "Coco, no, don't-"

"The only person that gets to call you 'Daddy' for a couple years at least is me, Love." She winked, the blonde engineer feeling the heat shoot across his skin and up his neck while the girls around him laughed. "And if you want either, we gotta figure out how you do the dancing between the sheets without a visit from Skeletor's classical cousin."

"Coco…"

"I have needs, Yatsuhashi!" She waved a hand theatrically, grinning maniacally all the while like a mad scientist pitching another in a long line of insane ideas. She waved the hand at herself, lingering around her c.h.e.s.t, and added, "All of this just… Goin' to waste! It's practically a crime against all mankind! He hasn't even held the girls once! And we've been sleeping in the same bed for days!"

"Do not remind me." Yatsuhashi growled, grinning thinly at him and casually cracking his knuckles. "That he has kept from 'holding your girls' is why he has hands in general. That and my dislike of separating a master craftsman from his tools, and thus robbing the world of his art."

"I can hold 'em for you, if you want. Jaune can even watch if you-" Yang winked, grunting as her partner's elbow once again slammed into her side. "Come on, Blake-y, let me have some fun…"

"She can hold 'em if Jaune okays it." Blake elbowed Yang again, earning a loud laugh from Coco and a roll of Jaune's eyes, the two women squabbling while she leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "How are you doin'? I'm not teasing too hard or anything? Only askin' cuz Yang is doing it too, don't want to be a d.i.c.k about it."

"I'm okay, promise. I'm more than used to the teasing by now, and I know if you really wanted me to do anything you'd say so." He leaned against her more for a second, smiling at her concern and she squeezed his hand to agree with what he'd said. "And they're taking all this really well… So I'm not, you know, stressing out about that."

"Any more, at least." Coco teased, the blonde rolling his eyes but letting her reach up with her off hand to play with his hair a bit. "There's a few assholes, sure, but Beacon is full of good people. I figured they'd just roll with it, and they did, so… Yeah. Girlfriend is always right."

"You misbalanced the catalysts for a Dust grenade three days ago that would have made a fragmentation grenade into a particularly thorny flahsbang." He pointed out, the woman pulling his hair playfully for it and earning a snort of amus.e.m.e.nt. "Sorry, sorry… Don't pull the hair, come on, I know it needs a trim again."

"Nah, I like it right about here. Just long enough to play with, just short enough to avoid, you know, getting caught on fire in your 'shop." She twisted some of it around a finger and hummed, the sound vibrating into his shoulder warmly. Raising her voice she asked, "Anyone know where Little Red and the Bun are? Been a minute now since she went to get her."

"I'll call Rubes, see what's up. Probably just tellin' her about stuff like you said and started rambling." Yang said quickly, hopping up and fishing her Scroll out of her blouse where all women seemed to store their stuff in lieu of just wearing pants with real pockets. "She does that sometimes, 'specially if she gets nervous. And I could, you know… See her getting nervous tellin' someone about this for them."

"Yeah, uh, might have been a bad call, actually." Coco admitted, Fox and Yatsuhashi both shooting her shocked looks with mouths gaping. She flipped them both off, grinning brightly all the while, "I'd say f.u.c.k both y'all, but you're not my type, sad to say. Enjoy your stay in the friend zone, boys."

"You know, if you like, I-I could put you on the waiting list for an SDC charity program?" He gave Weiss a look of surprise and she stiffened, actually looking fl.u.s.tered and stammering, "F-For the implant, I mean. If you like. There would, understandably, be a waiting time. But we're friends, I think, not that the Dolt would let me act any other way regardless, a-and I mean no offense-"

"She's terrible at this. Being genuinely nice is hard on her, we've found in our time together as a team." Blake pointed out, waving a hand at the offended and now flushed looking Schnee, the young woman swelling with anger at the implications, small hands balled in her l.a.p and arms shaking slightly. "What she's trying to say is that she can get you on a list for treatment charities if you want."

"Yeah, I got the gist." Even if it was kind of funny watching her fume, for some reason he couldn't quite place. "And no, thanks though, Weiss. I… I'm happy as I am, and I don't want to risk it on some heart surgery I don't need to be successful. I prefer making my own way, as… Stupid and stubborn as that sounds."

"Hey, I think it sounds bad a.s.s." Coco pointed out, grinning and wiggling her ears. "Gets my engine runnin'. Wanna head to my dorm, have some fun? I have costumes and I'll dress up for you if you ask reaaally nicely."

"Is she always like this?" Blake asked when all he could do was flush once again and groan embarrassedly. He nodded and the raven-haired Huntress simple smiled apologetically and said, "You have my condolences then. Not that my partner is much better, mind you. I think her attempts to get into my pants are… Mostly jokes."

"At least a third of her flirts and passes are jokes, I feel." Weiss offered helpfully, the taller woman groaning at the implications. The Schnee laughed, and so did he, finally relaxing fully against his girlfriend and enjoying time with his new friends. "For what it might be worth, Jaune," she said when they calmed down a moment later, waving a hand towards her scar, "I understand not undergoing dangerous procedures and instead accepting yourself."

"So do I." Blake added after a second, and while Jaune waited a moment to see if she'd explain, but the woman didn't. Instead, she stood up as the door opened, smiling at the sight of the two women so laden with pizzas that everything from the h.i.p.s up was hidden behind them. "Do you think you have enough pizza?"

"Less teasing, more helping!" Ruby squeaked, Blake joining Yang in pulling pizzas off the ridiculously tall pile to lighten the load. Once the youngest girl's face appeared over the hot boxes she smiled at Jaune, "Hi! How'd everything, you know, go? No one's… Screaming or upset, so…"

Always adorable, always awkward.

"It went just fine, Ruby, now put the pizzas down before you drop them." Weiss chided hotly, but with a small smile Ruby returned that told Jaune there was no real heat there, joining the other three members of her team in laying out most of the pizzas. "Don't put the cheese pizzas next to the pineapple- Why do you have nine pepperonis, you dolt? You were supposed to get four!"

"Everyone loves pepperoni, so I bought extra!" She defended, letting her blonde sister take the last of the pizzas and set them on the corner-counter to wait until the others were inevitably eaten.

"But that was my Lien-"

"Shush and eat pizza with me~!"

"Let go of me- You are going to drop the pizza! Calm down!"

"We're celebrating winning, Weiss! Come on, loosen up~!"

"Hey Jaune. How you going?" Velvet asked, plopping down onto the couch next to him and looping an arm around his shoulders to pull him into a pizza-smelling hug, holding him there against her comfortingly. "I had no idea your health was so bad, you could have told me before I let this monster take over your life."

"Bitch, I'm adorable and lovable. You're just jealous 'cause my a.s.s is nicer than yours, Bun." Coco squawked in faux-protest, pressing a kiss to the side of Jaune's head when he leaned back into her. "And he was nervous that people would treat him like glass about it, so he wanted to let people get to know him before telling them. Easier to avoid problems that way, 'least in theory."

"Have they done anything?" She asked quietly, ears quirking on top of her head at the sounds behind them.

"Pizza!" Ruby cried excitedly, carrying two plates laden with the delicious slices around and handing one to Jaune and the other to Coco, grinning widely and hopping away after. "Now for mine!"

"Nah, I think… I think it's fine, actually." Which surprised him, in part, but everything that he'd gone through with Coco and Penny - as insane as the revelations about her, few as he'd gotten, had been - he was more prepared to just believe it. "Biggest rule? Don't stress my condition. So go get some pizza and hang out."

"Sure." She hopped up, hesitating for a moment and turning to look at Coco, "Also, my a.s.s is much nicer than yours, Cunt. You have the nicer rack, not the nicer back."

"Oh f.u.c.k right off and go eat your food." Coco waved a hand, taking a bite out of a slice of her pizza and rolling her eyes. "She's getting spunky lately… Once I'm patched up and back in the fight, I'll have to get her back in line before she starts takin' over the team."

"Be nice, Coco." He chided gently, the woman chuckling quietly while he ate and relaxed, ready to enjoy the get-together for the evening ahead of tomorrow's fights. "Still gonna watch the fights at my place?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind. The team wants to hit up the festival grounds, and my leg still isn't up for that much running around." She winked at him, grinning widely, and added, "Besides, your bed is so much more comfortable than mine. And I don't think you've said anything against me using it."

"Of course not." He enjoyed the snuggling, after all, not that he'd tell her that lest she tease him for a week about it. "It'll be fun, watching the fights together."