Arclight Foundries - Chapter 5

"Uh, hi." Jaune said, standing behind his counter and giving the massive mountain of flesh who had so suddenly appeared standing across from him over the counter when he had returned downstairs an awkward wave. He nodded in return and Jaune, part out of anxiety and part out of courtesy, asked, "Can I, uh, help you?"

"I am simply waiting on my partner." The large, Mistralian looking - if Jaune had to guess, at least - man answered, folding his massive hands on his stomach and smiling pleasantly down at him. Or as pleasantly as a man his size could manage, asking, "Is there somewhere I can wait on her without causing concern?"

"I'm not concerned, just… Big guy, standing there, dead quiet…" he shrugged, running a greasy hand through his hair and leaning with his palms on the counter, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have reacted that way. Just caught me off guard, that's all."

"Do not apologize, Jaune Arc. I am entirely used to my size and quiet bearing startling people. No offense is taken, I assure you of that." He inclined his head politely at him, and added, "And besides that base fact of my life, our mutual friend, Velvet, tells me you are one who does not act on prejudicial opinion or one's appearances. Instead, as you let the waters shift as the fish swim together, let us simply let the water under the bridge flow as it does."

"I… Did not understand any of that, I'm gonna be really honest." He shook his head, smiling good naturedly up at the giant of a man. When he returned with a polite nod and a warm, if small, smile Jaune offered a hand, "Jaune Arc, even though you already know the name. Part of a polite and proper introduction is telling the other person your name, my Dad always taught me."

"A wise man knows not to offer what he will not himself give in turn. Your father is a wise man, it would seem." The man nodded, reaching forward to clasp Jaune's hand and bowing slightly at the waist, his head lowered for a moment before he straightened. "I am Yatsuhashi Daichi, Jaune Arc. It is a gift of the world to meet someone of whom my teammates both speak so highly that I must ask the birds to carry their words down if I wish to hear them for myself."

"Yeah, still don't understand a word of what you're saying." Jaune sighed, letting the hand return to the counter.

"Few to none do, I have found. Such is life, with its little inconveniences and amusements." The man agreed, smiling almost knowingly at that statement. Before Jaune could comment, he gestured to the side along the counter toward the corner, "I shall wait there, if you have no qualm. My companion should arrive shortly with your meals. She simply bade me tell of her coming ahead of her wake."

"Wait, food? And is it Coco, or Velvet, or…?" Jaune asked, the man humming and walking off to the side to wait without another word. "I guess I'll just… Wait and see, then. Unless you want to tell me…?" No answer from the man, so Jaune sagged and took his seat, sighing, "Everyone I meet is some kind of crazy… Everyone. Why?"

"Man should not question why the flowers bloom or the birds sing, for such is simple nature, Jaune Arc." Yatsuhashi offered, smiling when the blonde groaned and gave him a look, "Yes, I get that quite a lot, too."

"Yeah, that's not helpful."

"The wind gusts and the wind blows, yet it does neither for a man's wishes or for his gains. We do not shape it to ours own whims and wants, but rather shape ourselves to its designs." The man answered simply, Jaune groaning loudly and running a hand over his face while the man chuckled, the sound rumbling in his chest lowly and almost threateningly if Jaune didn't know better.

"You're messing with me." He accused, the large man raising a brow curiously at him in return. A question, Jaune knew. "These weird… Sagey things, you're just saying them to mess with me, aren't you?"

"Perhaps I am, and perhaps I am not. Perhaps, even, I may be doing both at the very same time. Perhaps I take pleasure from teaching, and even further, perhaps I take pleasure from weaving these turns of phrase. Perhaps one day you will know which of these it is." The large man answered, blinking once before nodding his head towards the direction of the door. "Coco is here, by the by."

"How do you know-"

"Hey, Jauney!" Coco sang, pushing the door open and striding in with five pizzas from a small place down the road in her hands and bags of drinks hanging from one. "I hope you're hungry for something savory, Jaune, because you're going on lunch break with me for a bit since you dragged me all the way out here."

"I mean, you wanted the rounds made." He grumbled, sighing but smiling at the Huntress anyways. "Fine, head up to the apartment while I lock up, I guess. Are you staying too, Yatsuhashi?"

"No." The man answered simply, "Coco asked me to meet her here and carry her order of ammunition to Beacon for her." He smiled, nodding his head at Jaune respectfully, "I also very much wished to meet one who had made Velvet so happy and treated her so well. You seem a good man to me, Jaune Arc."

"Thanks, but I haven't actually…" he shrugged, waving his hand in the air weakly in search of the right words, "I haven't done anything to make her happy. I just let her buy a gun from me and some… You know, ammo."

"Is that what you think?" He chuckled, shaking his head for several seconds before finally asking, "Would you kindly fetch her rounds then, please? I would like to head on my way, so you may enjoy your meal with my team leader. Velvet is waiting for me at Beacon."

"Yeah, sure, of course. Just gimme a minute." He said, turning to follow Coco up the stairs to fetch the ammunition for the large man. Once he'd gone, laden with the round tins of ammunition for the boisterous woman under his arms, and Jaune had locked the door he returned to his apartment for his apparent surprise lunch break.

Upstairs in his living room, he found the woman lounging on his couch in her uniform, the pizzas laid on the counter in his kitchen while she reclined on his cushions and sighed, "Ah, this couch is actually really comfortable. Shoulda told me, Jaune, I'd have come up to your room sooner."

"Eh, not that comfortable to me, at least. But if you like it, you're welcome to stretch out on it if you want." Jaune said, leaning against the counter beside the pizza while he nibbled on a slice, adding, "Thanks for the food, by the way, Coco. You didn't have to get me lunch, though, you know. You did pay for the bullets, after all."

"Eh, the pizza and the pleasurable company isn't for the bullets. It's for how you treated Velvet, a little thank you, you know the deal. Probably got the spiel from Yats when he was here too." She answered, sounding relaxed for a moment before she asked, "Mind bringin' a pizza in here, Jaune? I don't like just talking to some voice from another room, you know? Plus I kinda wanted to talk to you about some stuff."

"Sure." He nodded, lifting one of the boxes and carrying it to the side of the couch where her head was, setting it on on the low table next to the couch and watching Coco straighten on it, the woman smirking at him when his eyes lingered on the stretch of her thighs her skirt didn't cover. "D-Do you need a drink or anything?"

No, I'm alright for right now, thank you, though, Jaune." Her smirk grew even wider, eyes sparkling in amusement, and she added, "I see you're enjoying drinking in the sights, though. I didn't take you for a thigh man, though. Is that why you like Velvet so much?"

"W-What?" He asked, surprised as her smile faded and she crossed her arms, leaving the pizza untouched and gesturing at the floor across from her for him to sit.

"She has killer legs, smooth, toned, and muscled just right like mine, and you were ogling two inches of mine just a second ago. So is that what you're after with Velvet?" He made a confused face, shaking his head and trying to come up with the right words, but Coco was going on already. "I think you're a good guy, Jaune. But this is Velvet, she gets it rougher even than other Faunus because of her ears, but she's too good to let it get to her or ask people about it. So I'm asking nicely instead."

"I… No." He shook his head, voice quiet for a second before he raised it, "N-No, I'm not trying to… To sleep with Velvet or anything, I-I can't sleep with anyone, I…" His jaw clicked closed, and Coco's brow rose, her head tilting curiously as he turned and stared into the floor, voice rasping quietly. "Please, Coco, just… Just leave."

"Make me." She said, the blonde looking to her suddenly, a small and knowing smirk breaking across her face, "Make me leave, Jaune, and I will. I won't fight you, so stand up, grab my arm, and pull me to your door. Or we can talk about this like adults, because I just want to protect my friend. And if you're a good person, then I want you to be my friend, too."

"But I've gone through this with Velvet four times now." She added, grimacing slightly, "A guy sees her ears, and her nice legs, and that cute butt, and decides he wants to bed a bunny girl. So I decided to talk to you about it." She waited for a moment, and when he didn't speak, added in a quieter and softer voice, "I'm not here to hurt you, Jaune. I just want to make sure Velvet doesn't get hurt herself. That's all. Please, understand that. Do you have a sister?"

"I… I do." He sighed, grimacing and pinching his nose as a headache threatened.

"Velvet is as good as mine." Coco said quietly, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, for once not making some kind of flashy show of some part of her to tease him. "A little sister, who is always facing abuse, and can't even go to a store without her team to make the bigots behaves themselves and act like adults. And then that little sister tells you about a guy she met who runs a store, and called her ears 'cute', and is so very nice to her. What would you think?"

"That she was being manipulated." Jaune understood the woman's fears, nodding his head slightly before continuing. "That this guy just wanted to hurt her, or maybe sleep with her, or something… I get what you mean, Coco, but like I said… I can't."

"Why not?" Coco asked quietly, eyes narrowed almost suspiciously, but with something else mixed into her eyes. Curiosity, and a touch of concern, in the back of her eyes and the tightness of her mouth. "Whatever it is, Jaune, I won't judge you. And I won't say a word about it outside this room, but… Velvet."

"I… Have a condition." He started quietly, drawing up his knees against his chest and hugging his legs, a habit he'd never quite grown out of. "It's a heart condition, if I over-exert myself without a lot of medicine and being very careful, I could die. S-So I'm not trying to get Velvet into bed because, you know..."

"There's easier methods of suicide?" She asked, a weak joke to inject some levity to the situation. It earned a snort from him, before she added, "I'm sorry that I upset you, Jaune, but… Velvet is precious to all of us. A little cinnamon roll that needs protecting. And I needed to know, before something happened because we didn't bother to ask."

"I understand what you mean, I guess." Jaune said, forcing a small smile and shrugging, "I would have done the same if it was my sister or if I'd, you know, had a team with someone like Velvet on it. Being protective makes sense, especially for a Faunus."

"A lot of people would try to get with her just for her ears, you know?" Coco agreed, smiling warmly again and leaning back, jerking her head to the side and adding, "A real life bunny girl? Hell, I'm straight as an arrow, and even I'd crawl into bed if Velvet asked me to, and I'd be damn happy I had."

"Everything is about sex for you, huh?" He chuckled, leaning forward to grab a slice of pizza to eat now that the drama and tension had passed.

"Hey, sex is fun, I have it sometimes with a cute enough guy if one happens by and I'm in the mood." She said, laying an arm across the back of the couch and waiting for him to take a bite before smiling almost predatorily adding, "Hell, if you ever want the experience, I wouldn't mind giving you a whirl. Long as you take your meds and don't die on me."

"Hgk-" He choked on the pizza, gagging for a second while she laughed before he groaned, "Coco, you're evil, you know that?"

"Oh, hell yeah, I am. One of the evilest bitches you're gonna meet for the next few years, unless you shack up with a terrorist or something." She agreed, standing up and pressing her hands against her hips to pop her back, sighing and adding, "I'm also the most honest bitch you'll meet."

"How do you mean?" He asked, the woman smirking the kind of smirk he'd learned meant trouble already.

"Well," she started, stepping towards him and leaning down suddenly too fast for him to react before their cheeks brushed together and a hand landed on the back of his head, the woman speaking right into his ear while the warm smell of chocolate washed over him and her hair and breath tickled his ear, "I don't make offers I don't plan on keepin', Jaune. You just say the word, and all you'll have to do is lay there. How's that sound?"

Jaune, being the brilliant and charismatic man he was, eloquently squeaked in surprise and responded with a long whine, and Coco chuckled. "Yeah, I expected that kind of response." Pulling back, she gave him a peck on the cheek and straightened, plopping back onto his couch and reaching for a slice before asking, "So, got any movies or something we could watch? I don't feel like dealing with Velvet just yet."

"What's wrong with Velvet?" He asked, curious and flustered, and forcing a stiff face in an effort to pretend the second wasn't the case even as he felt his ears burn. Coco snorted at either the question or his flushed face, and he grimaced, "What's funny?"

"Oh, nothing." Coco sighed, waving him off with an uncaring sigh, "She's just going to talk my ear off for coming and talking to you like I did. It's whatever, don't stress it. I'm used to her grounding me and whatever when I do crap that annoys her."

Maybe he was feeling a bit vindictive, but right now he couldn't quite bring himself to feel any sympathy with her over that. Not with his headache, at least.

Luckily, he did have something for them to watch, an old war movie he could play on a small television tucked away in his closet. It wasn't much, but Coco seemed content with it at least, and she wasn't giving him the third degree anymore so… It was enjoyable, actually, just hanging out with a day off and a friend to spend time with. Even if she insisted on teasing him constantly, which got old really fast for him.

But he didn't mind, simply nibbling at his pizza and watching the movie with her, even if he did flush whenever she'd make a lewd comment or groan when she'd poke fun at his television. It was all good-natured, though, and he surprisingly found himself enjoying it after a bit even as it annoyed him. Which was… An odd experience, to say the least, but he wasn't about to kick an attractive woman out of his room for teasing him about the size of his television of all things.

"So, what's this thing going to be?" Coco asked an hour later, when she wasn't hungry anymore - and teasing him became dull, she'd added when he asked, drawing a groan from him - and they went down to his workshop to hang out, and so he could get a bit of work on his pet project done. "Looks like… Metal pants? Really, really big metal pants with… Wires?"

And the latticed contraption hanging on his wall did look like a pair of metal pants, the wires he'd finished running and large, round, heavy boots at the bottoms made of molded grey metal making it look like a demented set of footy pajamas cut in half. The right side had thin metal sheets, barely a third of an inch thick, bolted into place along each section of latticed metal to give it a slightly better aesthetic - and protect the wires when it moved, of course - with insulated padding on either side of the lattice-work for comfort and added protection against discharges either electrocuting hire directly or sparking along the internals and frying something important like the power unit.

"It's not done yet, but it'll be a suit of power-assisted work armor." Jaune answered, moving to join Coco beside it and pointing at the exposed knee, "This is a powerful actuator that will help me run and lift without straining my own body, and the arms and back will have similar. With this, I can move my machines, make heavier weapons for customers without needing help, whatever I want. And no chance of my heart flaring up, especially if I can get something onboard that will monitor my vitals for me so I know when I need to stop.."

"It… Sounds kind of cool, actually." Coco nodded, sounding genuinely impressed and looking over the armored leg. "Kind of, ah, skimping on the armor though, aren't you?"

"I mean, it doesn't need armor, that's just for looks mostly. And to protect the wiring, of course, but the padding underneath could do that by itself if I wanted." He shrugged, tapping a knuckle on the thin metal. "This is my T-1 series, it won't see any actual fighting or anything. So why bother with real armor? This is meant to help me move around, and heavy metal armor would slow me down."

"I mean..." Coco stepped back from the half-suit, making a sour face and clicking her tongue before finally crossing her arms and finishing her thought, "I feel like armor would be a good idea anyway, but, you know… Huntress. So maybe my opinions are just more fighting minded or whatever."

"S'normal, my dad did the same thing a lot back in Ansel." Jaune agreed, nodding and reaching out to check the locks on some of the small metal plates that covered the mess of wires and padding. "I wonder if anyone would buy them, though… With some armor plating, real armor I mean, I wonder if people would want them."

"Huntsman wouldn't need 'em, we're either speed based or hit hard already. So you won't find many buyers in our market, but…" He heard her formal shoes clicking against the concrete as she approached the legs again and hummed, close enough he could smell that maddening scent of chocolate again and their shoulders brushed, "You could sell it to security companies and maybe the military? If it can hold enough weight, they might like it."

"It should be able to, once I work out a good power source for it." He gestured at the wall, a black block the size of his own chest leaning against it under the legs almost tall enough for the boots to rest on it, and shook his head, "That is the power source, by the way. It would last it hours in the field, but… It's too big."

"Use a smaller one?"

"Can't, the system has to have enough energy to move the entire structure, run the systems, do both those things for a long time and when strain is put on the frame itself it draws more power to compensate for the extra work." He explained, as though she didn't think he'd considered a smaller battery. She listened politely while he spoke, though, which was… Almost surprising. "I could use one a third of the size, but then the weight augmentation of the frame would be mitigated or you'd kill the battery inside an hour. Maybe less, depending on what you did with it."

"What about several smaller batteries, then?" She asked, the blonde turning to look at the woman's warm brown eyes, close enough to see them through her sunglasses. She bobbed her head at the machine, pointing at the 'hips' on it and explaining, "Put two smaller power systems on each side and a processor on the back, and that powers the legs. Same for the shoulders, and a small one in the chest in case one of those fails for redundancy, and double that as a processing unit for the power itself."

"It would lower the power efficiency that way, though." He pointed out, the myriad cycles of processing and redirecting power would inevitably lead to systems for that that would need to themselves be powered and draw energy. Not to mention normal bleed-away of power, negligible as that was.

"A bit, yeah, but I don't know of any other ways to actually power the thing the way you want, Engy." She shrugged, straightening and looking closer at the thing's waist and leg joints. "And, I mean, it looks like it would fit. Not an expert, though, so… Take my words like a grain of sand in Vacuo."

"Oh god, not you too now… I had enough 'sage wisdom' earlier today, I don't need more, thanks." He sighed, nudging her aside and looking at the exposed half's wiring, humming in thought as he ran his hands over the dead wires to trace them. "I could fit them at the top of the hips without much work, there's already a junction of wires there. Wouldn't be impossible to redo that section with a small conductor/power unit system."

"I feel like there's a but coming up, and I don't think you're talking about the cute one attached to me." She bumped her hip against him teasingly, and almost pouted a bit when he didn't really react beyond a slight flush.

"But," he started, giving her a look and smirking challengingly, as though a comment about her butt would match other things she'd teased him with and over already, "it would be expensive, I'd have to buy compact-power units and new wires to couple them into the system. The last bit is kind of cheap, but the power units are-"

"I'll buy 'em for you." Coco interrupted, the blonde blinking in surprise and turning with a shocked and surprised look. "Look, Jaune, I make a lot of money as a Huntress. But that's not where most of my cash comes from. Know where it does?"

"No." He answered honestly.

"Well, my favorite little engineer," she smirked, poking him in the chest and walking her fingers up to his chin as she spoke and then trailing one along his jawline teasingly, still playing her game even as they spoke and forcing Jaune to let her if he wanted to hear what she had to say, "I invest."

"Invest?" He asked, swallowing nervously as the finger graced his earlobe and began tracing back down, doing his best to keep his cool even though he felt her cool finger sending fire across his cheeks.

"Yep. About a third of my pay, I invest, after every mission. Sometimes in stores that are opening up and need a hand, sometimes in the fashion scene, which is why I get such nice stuff." Her finger poked his chin up and then her hand swept to the side, the same long and delicate digit pointing at the machine, "And I invest in inventions, too, if I think they'll work out in the long run. And something like this has applications outside fighting, too. Imagine rescue services having this stuff? Hell, imagine miners outfitted with these?"

"I guess you're right. It could be a lot of help to people, I never thought-" His Scroll buzzed and he fished it out, grunting at the alarm he saw going off and turning it off, sliding it into his pocket and heading to a small lockbox he had in the corner by the stairs, unlocking it while he spoke and Coco watched him curiously from where they'd stood, "Like I was saying, I never thought about it."

"What's that?" She asked when he pulled a small orange bottle of pills out of the safe, opening it and tossing three of the small yellow pills into his mouth.

"My medicine." He answered after he'd swallowed them, the woman raising an eyebrow. "It's for my, uh, my condition. Keeps my heartbeat lowered and regulated, and same for my blood pressure, so I don't keel over on accident because someone jumped out and surprised me or… Whatever."

"Is it that bad?" She asked quietly as he moved back towards her, face softened from what it had been before.

Her mouth parted slightly in surprise and a hand curled into a fist at her side, the one she'd been teasing him with before he noticed, her eyes wider than normal and softer too, looking him up and down. Like she hadn't believed him when he'd told her about it, he guessed. Maybe she'd taken his answers and not really bought it since she hadn't seen any evidence of it yet.

"Yes and no." He waved it off, smiling warmly at her and crossing his arms anxiously. "I don't like people knowing for this reason right here… They always freak out about it, like I'm made of glass. I'm fine, Coco."

"I shouldn't have teased you, your heart could have given out or-"

"Teasing won't do anything to me, Coco." He sighed, grimacing and deciding to be a bit more direct, "You'd have to do something a lot worse than poke me or make jokes about your butt. Unless you pan on p-pinning me against a wall and m-making out with me, or kicking me in the ribs really hard, or something, so just... Relax. Okay? I'm fine as long as I get my meds."

"But what if-"

"Then I die, Coco. But I die a normal man, at least, and that would make me happier than being treated like glass!" He almost shouted, the woman flinching in surprise at the sudden anger but saying nothing.

Sighing after a minute of silence and shaking his head as he returned to where he'd stood before and gave her a pleading look, "I'm sorry… I just want to be your friend, Coco. You tease your friends, I can tell that much already, so I want you to tease me too. I don't want people to treat me differently because I have a weak heart."

"If you say so, I'll trust your judgment." She said, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him against her, wrapping an arm around him in a surprisingly gentle hug while a hand went to the back of his head to play with his hair and hold his head against her shoulder. "But no being a badass, okay? I kinda like you, and Velvet does too, so it would suck if you died off. And if I ever push too far-"

"I'll, uh, say something." He promised, awkwardly putting his arms around the woman for a second before she let him go and he coughed. "So, that all out of the way now?"

"Yeah, I think the drama is done for now." She nodded, smiling and adding, "You got some kind of pair on you, though. I like it. Now, how about you walk me out and tell me how much these power units're gonna cost me?"

"Sure." He agreed, turning and leading the woman through his workshop and downstairs while they talked a bit. More relaxed, like before, now that they'd aired everything out and put it behind them.

He unlocked the door and pushed it open, stepping through to hold it open but almost falling when he stepped on something and slipped. Coco, faster than he could even see, was under him and lifting him up before he could hit the ground, letting him down without a thought while they both looked down and he murmured, "What the fuck…"

"Jaune," Coco started, kneeling and picking up the crushed and mostly melted bag of frozen carrots, looking at him worriedly and then to a small sign he'd hung under the small window on his door that morning that read 'No Discrimination Allowed', and added, "I'm staying the night here, tonight."

"Why-"

"Because you're a wonderful moron, Jaune, and you're too damn good for your own good." She answered, tossing the carrots into a small can under a streetlight a few feet away and guiding him back inside. He didn't quite miss the glances she shot up and down the road before plucking the sign down and pushing him inside, handing it to him, "That was a bad idea, Jaune."

"But-"

"I didn't say it was a bad thing, but…" She sighed, rolling her eyes, and waved him off, "Come on, let's make up your couch so I can crash. People around here have short memories, and it was probably just a prank, happens a hell of a lot more than you'd think, but I want to be safe. I'll explain while we make up the couch for me, kay?"

"Sure, I guess." He shrugged, scratching his head but doing as the woman said and leading her back upstairs.