Arclight Foundries

Carefully, Jaune pressed a flat piece of metal only an inch long and a tenth of that thick to the inside of the brace held in front of him, using the torch in his other hand to melt the edge resting against the stronger steel and melt it to it. When he pulled the torch away, the metal glowed cherry red, and he set the torch aside and opened his mask so he could see. Reaching up, he grabbed a smaller arm attached to the larger vice and maneuvered it to hold the piece in place while it cooled.

Once the color vaded back to the dull grey of iron, and the blackened blast marks around the connection point, he removed the fastening arm and reached for a pair of pliers and his torch, sliding his mask back in front of his face and holding one on each hand through thick gloves to protect his hands. Carefully heating the metal until it softened enough, he bent it into shape, and then heated the end to a cherry-red state and pressed it against the metal again, using the torch to melt it onto the brace and then once again using the smaller arm to hold the metal in place until it cooled.

The result was one of probably a hundred small circles for wiring and coolant cables to be fed through, and that was just one of the several pieces that would make up the powered bracing system he was developing. They'd need to be smoothed before wires could be run, of course, to keep the rough edges from cutting wires or cables. But already he was well on his way to his own invention, his first ever truly original and unique Arclight creation, and with every bill paid up to boot.

Standing and stretching, Jaune pulled the gloves off and laid them on a machine behind him, and the welding mask went back to the rig with the rest of the welding tools. He still only barely had the legs done, not including the feet - that came next, though, so he could at least use it for that much - but the power-assisted brace was coming along quickly and nicely, even if he didn't quite have a full picture of what it would end up as in his head just yet.

Progress was still progress, after all, and he was at least making some of that.

Heading upstairs, he first went to the sink, washing the ash, soot and oil that had accrued over the first half of the day's work from his fingers. It didn't take long, of course, but it was still something he had to do before he made something to eat. Halfway through the sandwich, he fished out his Scroll and opened the messenger to check for anything he'd missed while he'd been working. The Scroll had been on, of course, but in his rig and welding, there was simply too much noise around him and too loud for him to hear it going off.

Unsurprisingly, he'd missed a few messages. Several were from companies he'd paid his bills to, confirming payment and the like, and a couple more like it. Several were from Ruby, though, and he opened the folder that had them.

"I did like you said, and me and Weiss fought for an hour. We're going to see Headmaster Ozpin together in the morning. :("

"We went to see him, like you said, and he explained everything to us. He said I would be a better leader than Weiss, and I thought she'd explode, but she… Didn't. She's been quiet all morning, now, and I'm worried. :("

"Can you message me when you can? I want to bring Weiss to see you, she asked who told me to talk to her at lunch. She even said she was sorry for how she was acting before, and that she'd be the best partner ever. :)"

Smiling, he opened up the reply box, typing while he took a bite of his sandwich, "Of course you can, I'd be more than happy to meet your partner. I'll be up in the workshop, probably, I'm about to get to work polishing off the order of rounds that came in yesterday, if you want to help out."

It took a few minutes before she responded, Jaune fl.i.c.k.i.n.g open his Scroll as he descended the stairs from his apartment to read it, "Sure, I can come head that way now, if you want. I just have to message Weiss and we can get on a Bullhead. :)"

"Kay. I'm going to start paying you, when I can at least, too. You do enough to deserve it. More than I thought you would when I brought you on." Something he'd been thinking about since last night, really.

"That would be nice." She said, another message coming in a second later, and then a third as well, "Not that you have to or anything. I didn't mean it to sound rude." The first said, "I wouldn't tell you no, though."

A polite way of asking him to, since he'd mentioned it, he knew as he typed back, "Alright. Let yourselves in and come on up, but make sure your partner knows not to do anything dangerous up here. I don't want her getting hurt or something."

"That would be kinda bad. :)"

"Then why the smiley face?" He snorted, shaking his head while he set to work getting the ammo presses warming up and the Dust set out for him to use, checking seals on the containers as he went to make sure everything was safe before he got to work on his own and waited on Ruby to show up.

Not that he minded working on his own, of course, humming as he measured out Dust and metal both and counted ammunition in almost a meditative manner.

A couple of hours, and a hundred of the small rounds, later he heard Ruby call from downstairs, "Jaune! We're here! You still upstairs?"

He stood, taking a few steps from the unstable Dust before shouting back, "Yeah! Be careful, I'm making rounds up here, live Dust is out. So watch yourselves when you come up, you know the rules, Ruby."

The two were up the stairs a minute later, the white one trailing behind Ruby and looking around curiously, murmuring, "Decent enough of a workshop, I suppose. For Valean standards, at the very least." Her eyes landed on him, pushing back his seat slightly and waving at Ruby in greeting, and then the Dust in front of him, and her face brightened. "You're making the ammunition yourself?"

"Uh, yeah." He nodded as he stood, Ruby shuffling by him and easing into his chair to take his spot and keep going while he went to talk to the small woman. "Jaune Arc, owner of Arclight Foundries, and newest engineer in Vale. Glad to meet you, Miss…?"

"Schnee." The woman nodded, glancing at his hands and grimacing, "Weiss Schnee, and I'd offer my hand for you to shake, but you have some Dust on yours, so…"

"Ah, yeah. Let me just take care of that, clean up a bit, then." He turned, picking up a special rag and running its polarized surface over his fingers.

The cloth was polarized and special, costing a pretty amount of Lien to get in all the way from Atlas, and rendered loose Dust particles neutral for safe storage in the jar he picked up off the rolling table that the cloth had set on, brushing it into the small jar and sealing it tight before replacing it and putting a little yellow 'Caution' icon on it, setting it beside three others just like it and then the rag on a rung next to them. Weiss watched him all the while, almost appraisingly, with a single brow slightly raised and hands clasped politely in front of herself.

"You know what you're doing, it seems." She noted, sounding oddly pleased and impressed at the same time, smiling so slightly he almost missed it. "You're one of the few here in Vale I've seen that treats Dust so respectfully and carefully. Aside from letting that Dolt handle it, of course."

"I told you I made ammo, Weiss." Ruby whispered behind him, voice low to avoid agitating the Dust more than was absolutely necessary. The machines might be louder or vibrate more, but they were doing so regularly, and sudden shifts could cause problems with something as s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e as Dust. "And you said you'd stop making fun of me for what happened before Initiation this morning."

"Yes, I did, didn't I? I apologize, Ruby. Old habits, you know the saying." Weiss sighed, sounding almost… Angry, but not at Ruby, to Jaune's ears at least. But he couldn't be really sure, and she moved on before he could think on it more, "So you're Jaune. I suppose I owe you some manner of thanks, I don't know how much longer I'd have played the fool if you hadn't told Ruby to speak to me in the manner you did."

"It's, uh, not a problem." He shrugged, turning to look at Ruby working away and grimacing, "You know, your school uniform isn't exactly standard working attire, Ruby." She waved him off uncaringly and he grumbled, turning back to Weiss, "Just don't get any on your skirt or legs, unless you wanna wipe down your legs with the rag too. "

"I'll buy some overalls and stuff when you pay me, Boss. And my sis would kill you if you did try that. So, yeah, don't do the thing. I like you, you're a pretty good dude." Ruby chuckled quietly, shaking her head as she set aside another fresh-made round. " And I can do this, Boss Man. You know that, so what's up?"

"Nothing, just… In a mood today, I guess." He shrugged, stepping past Weiss towards the stairs, talking over his shoulder, "You can come up if you want, Miss Schnee. I don't have much else to do today except the rounds, and the store is technically closed for today because I had work to do."

"Make me cookies, please, if you're feeding people." Ruby asked, giving him a pointed look with a small smirk and a raised eyebrow, "You did say you'd pay me, and I take cookies whenever Lien isn't around, Boss~"

"I mean, if you only want to be paid in cookies…"

"N-Not always, you know, just... Jaune?" She was quick to say, holding a hand out at him as he chuckled and turned, heading towards the stairs. She looked to Weiss instead, smiling nervously, "Weiss? P-Partner?"

"I trust you have tea?" She asked him, following him up the stairs without acknowledging her partner - and earning a w.h.i.n.e at that. He nodded, and she smiled, "Wonderful. It's been weeks since I last took tea with someone. Would you mind?"

"G-Guys?" Ruby tried, looking between the two of them anxiously, "I l-like cookies, but, you know… Lien buys cookies."

"Not at all, Weiss." Jaune smiled, gesturing with an arm to the stairs, "By all means, ladies first. Mi casa es su casa, as my dad would always say."

"You guys are jerks…" Ruby pouted after she'd finished the last of the order and joined them about an hour later, sitting next to her partner on Jaune's couch while he cleaned some dishes in the background.

"Didn't stop you eating the cookies, did it?" Jaune called from the kitchen area, Weiss smiling at the weak w.h.i.n.e that left Ruby's mouth as she slumped in her seat. "How were they? Mom always said I was a decent baker, but I never knew if that was just mom talk, you know?"

"They were delightful, Jaune, thank you." Weiss said politely, and when Jaune came to sit across from them on a stool from downstairs, her legs were crossed at the shins and her hands were folded elegantly in her l.a.p with her mug held in her hands. Ever the picture of a polite, dignified, Atlesian woman, and that was probably something that had been drilled into her. "I have to say, the tea was just the same. I'm surprised a, er, if you don't mind me saying, that is…"

"You won't hurt my feelings, Weiss." Even if she seemed to be absolute garbage at being actually nice, and trying not to be rude.

"I'm surprised that a simple engineer, running a small shop such as this, is so polite and gracious as a host." She said nervously, or what he guessed was nervously for her at least. Presumably because he didn't bite her head off for it, she relaxed a bit and took a sip of the frankly cheap tea and asked, "So, what is it you're working on downstairs? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

"It's going to be a powered bracing system, that's… About all I know, though, honestly." Jaune answered, with not a little bit of dissatisfaction. Even so far into the construction, all he knew was that he'd wear it and it would make him a lot stronger. "I have the basics down pat, and… Just kind of hoping that the rest comes to me when the time comes, I guess."

"I hear many inventors run into those sorts of problems." Weiss shrugged, smiling politely at him and leaning so slightly forward he almost didn't notice. Atlesian formality, he recognized it from some tutor or another one of his sisters had when they were younger. It included how you sat as much as how you spoke. "Don't let it bother you, just work at your own pace and I believe you will get it down eventually."

"Yeah." Ruby agreed, suddenly back to her normal, energetic self. Until he smirked and gave her a look, and she smiled bashfully, "W-What? She's right, I know you can do it. You'll get your… Your, uh… Brace thingy up and running and, and then you'll figure it all out from there."

"Yeah…" Jaune shrugged, pushing it aside, for now at least, to move on while he had people to hang out with, "So, Ruby, you never told me how Initiation went. I'm guessing that's how you and Weiss actually, you know… Made partners?"

"She," Ruby smiled, Weiss rolling her eyes and sighing dramatically when Ruby said it, "tried to ditch me. All alone, in the middle of a burning forest-"

"The forest was on fire later." Weiss pointed out dryly, "And you set it on fire, Ruby Rose. It didn't just spontaneously combust into a flaming inferno for no reason."

"Details." Ruby waved her off, leaning forward and bouncing her legs on the floor rapidly in excitement. "Oh! And I cut the head off a Giant Nevermore. All by my little self."

"The whole team helped you!" Weiss sounded affronted, surprisingly so, and g.r.o.a.n.e.d when Ruby waved her off and kept telling her story. Though Weiss did continue chipping in little tidbits, correcting Ruby's story as she told it.

Eventually, well after the sun had gone down behind the walls of Vale, the two young Huntresses in training left to head home. So Jaune locked up, killed lights, and went upstairs to catch some rest himself. A nice, easy, kind of fun day.

Hopefully, every day would be like this one.

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