80

Despite being a more protected settlement, large and advanced under Atlas's support as the biggest port town in the trade between Mistral and Atlas, they wasn't exactly a lot to do in Argus itself in the evening.

Even so there were plenty of rather pretty landmarks around Argus as they attempted to recreate the remains of various ruins that the settlement had been built on and around as multiple areas of 'historical recreation' were hosted in an attempt to look into the history left behind by cultures that predated the Four Kingdoms.

Of course, no such things were open too late to the standard public, but with the influence and money behind the Schnee name, few things were impossible on Remnant.

Honestly it was to the point that Jaune sometimes even harbored the thought of using Jacques to try to get Menagerie its legitimization. Actually he'd already been sneakily taking advantage of it. Just a little.

Jaune laughed, helping take photos of his friends wearing what historians believed to be 'toga' a form of robe used by the ancient civilization that lived where Argus now stood. Flowy white robes that cut off above the knee with colored sashes decorated his and his friend's bodies, open toed sandals on their feet digging up dirt in the setting sun.

Despite his desire to be in the moment with his friends, his thoughts were spiraling into work-mode again: Jaune was fairly convinced that by directly using Jacques's influence alone he could 'bully' Atlas into legitimizing Menagerie, though Jacques would likely never pull back on his utilization of the Faunus workforce in Mantle for his Dust mines. That was definitely a conflict of interest of complicated proportions.

Would the Faunus be able to accept that outcome when they'd owe their Kingdom's recognition through the man most Faunus viewed as an enemy of their kind?

The weirdest part of the equation was that despite his kind's hate towards the man, the Schnee Patriarch just didn't care about either Faunus or Humans. Just his own pride and his pursuit of money and power.

He still seemed rather interested in Jaune's 'research' into alternative power, accepting that while not as versatile and powerful as Dust itself in a one to one, it was renewable, which was a niche and strength that Dust as a consumable would never be able to compete against. Something truly unique on this star outside of some rudimentary hydropower in the occasional rustic water wheel.

It was why he'd personally invested and had the SDC name slapped onto the geothermal efforts by Atlas down in the outskirts of Mantle, even helping redig up channels to open up pathways to warm Mantle via the natural energy of Remnant. Of course it was merely because he acknowledged that while the profits were 'smaller', it didn't cost anything further than his initial investment. At most he had to account for the bare maintenance of the system, letting him recoup investment costs without much effort given time.

Heating was cheaper in Mantle than it had ever been, additionally giving the man a pretty solid amount of the public's goodwill.

But that wasn't it. Not to Jacques Schnee. He always wanted more.

Thus he'd shown great interest in the fusion cells Jaune had created for the weapons of Victory Wing, though Jaune was still holding that bit of technology close to the vest.

Not only because it was a means of leverage and Atlas still had a lot of tech gaps that didn't make sense to Jaune himself (though he was only comparing it to the technological processes of another world, he couldn't help the dissonance in his mind) but as Adam's theft of his tech under the influence of The Crown, once something truly left his hands, he couldn't guarantee what happened afterwards.

He'd have no control.

And that was unnerving. Truly unnerving.

And while Jaune was confident he could swallow his discomfort and pride and work with Jacques Schnee for a better future despite his dislike of the man, the problem was that it wouldn't be possible to finalize anything so big such as using the Schnee name in support of Menagerie without Jaune giving something in return; namely getting hitched to Weiss.

It wasn't that Weiss was dislikeable or wasn't pretty.

She was really nice as long as you got under her shell and was honestly breathtaking (honestly it didn't even make sense how someone could be so pretty to him), but she wasn't sure if she liked him like that (as far as he knew) and he was currently sort of taken.

Oh.

He still had to talk to her about his situation with Yang and Blake, with Trivia holding in the wings just until he turned seventeen.

Gosh this was complicated.

Not even mentioning Emerald who was a… different can of worms, as she wanted to stay his blade and maintain their imbalanced relationship, but yearned quietly for his affection anyways.

He had too much power there and he worried that he wasn't a good enough person to not end up taking advantage of that by accident somewhere down the line. Knowing that Emerald had offered herself to him for practice had been a sort of hell on some of his self control after he'd been separated from Yang and Blake on his return to Sanctum.

He'd merely limited himself to the occasional hug and semi-frequent lap pillow (as that had been still plenty normal before everything suddenly went crazy) to keep his cravings for physical affection in control. And everytime he found himself wanti-

Oh, Weiss had turned to him, expecting an answer.

Uh, gosh she was pretty, the perked brow, lips tugging at the corners in a way she herself probably didn't realize, enjoying going around without worrying about her father's employees reporting her every action. She wasn't tense like she often was.

She was also hungry, not having eaten enough recently, must have missed lunch while attending a last minute something before she had flown over to Argus.

"We talking about what to do for dinner? It's late." Jaune smiled, hoping to have gotten it correct.

"Only if you don't have something squirreled away in your Semblance, you dunce." Weiss's words were sharp tongued, but it was warm in a way that he couldn't describe to people that couldn't feel out intent like he could. "Pizza's been recommended, as it originated in Argus, despite being an attempt to recreate something depicted in a wall mural. Gods know how authentic that can really even be."

"Actually I have a few pizzas somewhere." Jaune noted, his fingers reaching to flick through his Inventory. "We can grab someplace 'authentic' and then try mine afterwards."

Nora whooped in the background at the mention of pizza.

Honestly his knowledge of Earth culture was mostly limited to the ARK of Humanity, but the margarita pizzas of Earth that were supposed to be the more 'traditional' pizza of Earth (he thought, though that could be wrong) were pretty similar to what the 'classic' interpretation of pizza was on Remnant. Honestly it just made Jaune wonder if all worlds simply shared a few similar threads of culture.

Weiss laughed at him, covering her mouth daintily with one hand.

"What, so we can get wowed by your cooking afterwards?" She teased, her hand lowering to reveal a pretty smile.

"What? No." Jaune flushed. "Mine are modern interpretations and tend to be a lot more Valean in style. This way we can just have multiple perspectives, is all."

"I actually like how Valean pizza style is denser than the original Argus interpretation." Pyrrha admitted guiltily, "Even though my parents say that it's heresy."

"We're Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. We need more calories, is all. That's not weird at all." Jaune laughed. "Besides, it feels better to eat one thicker pizza than to eat two or three thin ones. Makes me feel less like a pig."

"Right?" Pyrrha agreed. "Weird, because it's the same amount of food either way most times."

"Do we have pineapple?" Nora drooled, "I liked that Menagerie style pizza you made that one time."

"Uhhh." Jaune scratched his cheek recalling when he'd used some of Menagerie's fresh fruit to make a 'Hawaiian' style pizza once, calling it Menagerie style as a joke. As a sugar fiend, Nora had taken to it quite instantly. "None that I made beforehand."

"D'awwww."

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha frowned. "Nora, fruit does not belong on pizza."

"Just you try it before you knock it, Pyrs!" Nora shot back, "I don't know about other fruit, but pineapple on pizza is based."

"I think I'll just reserve judgment for now, but you're picking up too much of Chloris's slang sometimes. What does based even mean?" Pyrrha frowned.

"Based on de-"

"Ok, that's enough." Ren slapped a hand over Nora's mouth, muffling her words. "Let's just go get pizza after we change out of these robes."

"Togas." Pyrrha corrected helpfully.

"Yeah, togas." Ren nodded. "I'd love a bite right now, let's go."

"Well it… isn't as if I wasn't prepared for the possibility, though I am surprised." Weiss rolled her eyes, sipping her coffee (a cortado, Jaune had called it), "Congratulations."

Blake watched Yang blink owlishly, wanting to giggle at the expression on her face. They'd both rushed to arrange things so that they could come earlier than planned to have a sort of face off with Weiss Schnee after learning of her sudden appearance in Argus, but the girl had been rather understanding.

More than either of them had expected, although Yang was certainly more taken aback.

"...I, uh… thanks?"

"Although Jaune and I have agreed it is yet necessary to maintain our public 'facade' until we attend Beacon, I shall… more or less step back fully once the three of you begin your relationship in full. Although I may still have to attend the first Homecoming Ball together with him regardless and have a 'public' break up afterwards. Is that agreeable?" Weiss was prim and to the point, much the personality that Blake had come to know in their few meetings.

She certainly wasn't a friend (though more as a result of Yang's beef than Blake's despite her heritage), but she'd always been polite in the few times she'd met the girl through Jaune. And more courteous than Blake admittedly had given her credit for.

Yang frowned, looking contemplative as her nose scrunched prettily.

They'd been given a corner of the cafe, cordoned off by a bit of movable curtains, Emerald (who was on break) volunteering to keep any curious passersby from getting too close. Though she claimed she was doing it simply for Jaune's (her master's) sake, Blake still appreciated the green haired girl's actions.

"I'm not sure how I had expected it to go, but it wasn't this." Yang admitted. "Uh… thanks, Weiss. You're not too bad after all."

"Well, Jaune and I are much more mature than others of our age, not a dig at you, XiaoLong." Weiss said diplomatically, taking another sip of coffee. "Once I arrived in Argus, we had a discussion last night, as he felt it was only right to bring it up in person. Especially now that we'd be spending a bit of time together as a result of the Vytal Festival. Jaune is a… a good friend. I like him, just not romantically, I think. And even if I did… well, there's a rather large part of me that doesn't much like the idea of letting my father have his way regardless."

"A bit of teenage rebellion?" Blake asked, picking up her Earl Grey tea, with a splash of heavy cream and sugar.

Weiss let out a giggle.

"I suppose." The Schnee heiress admitted calmly to them. "I know we're not very close, though I think most of that was a result of Yang's jealousy at play-"

Yang had the decency to wince at that, knowing that she hadn't exactly been the nicest person when Jaune had first introduced Weiss to the rest of them. Even Blake would easily describe it as 'rude' if she was forced to be objective.

"-but now that you've gotten your feelings across and that I've made my own current stance clear… I hope we can attempt to… try again? Perhaps be friends?"

Blake nodded, taking a sip of tea before reaching over the table with her right hand.

"I'd like that." She smiled, the thought of being friends with a Schnee was… well it was definitely odd.

Most Faunus wouldn't see it positively, but Weiss was friends with Jaune for quite some time now and had stated she found the whole issue with the poorly managed Faunus labor to be distasteful. To reject her friendship would be the same as rejecting her desire to make things right. To embrace change.

"Let's be friends, Weiss." Blake smiled, her hand still outstretched as Weiss looked down at her hand contemplatively.

Still, Jaune wouldn't be friends with Weiss if she was a bad person. He was a pretty decent judge of character.

Weiss beamed, her back straightening more somehow as she shook hands with Blake.

"Delightful. I'm glad we were able to come to an accord."

"You can just say you're happy we're making peace and being friends." Yang grumbled, "No need to be uptight about it, but yeah. I'm sorry for giving you a hard time. That wasn't really very nice of me when you weren't doing anything wrong. Man, I hate saying I was wrong, but y'know, I was wrong to be so antagonistic and stuff."

Her blonde kissing partner reached out her hand to shake as well, the fingerless black gloves on her hands flexing as her palm opened up.

Weiss leaned over slightly to offer her hand to shake.

"I will… attempt to be less wordy. I'm not quite as practiced in casual conversation the way you two are." Weiss nodded, trying to find some middle ground.

It seemed that Jaune had been right as usual in that Weiss was just a lonely girl that wanted to make friends, no different than a lot of kids their age. It was sort of silly how obvious it seemed now that Weiss no longer seemed like some sort of looming threat that would steal Jaune away.

"So I'm glad to start this all over fresh with you two. I am Weiss Schnee, heir- actually. That doesn't really matter right now does it? Er… I am Weiss Schnee. I-I enjoy shopping and sampling sweets, prefer coffee over tea, though I enjoy both aplenty, and am training to be a Huntress like my older sister Winter, who I know Xiao- sorry, Yang, has met, although I'm not sure about Blake."

Blake smiled. Yang had been freaking out over it all over the Scroll, but this had turned out a lot better than either girl had been expecting and she was just happy to accept things as is.

"Blake Belladonna. I've decided recently to also aim for Beacon Academy. I like books of all kinds, my favorite food is fish, specifically salmon and tuna. Sweets are also pretty nice. Jaune's really good at desserts. I've never met your sister personally, but from my understanding she's very kind and polite, although strict on both herself and her friends."

"He really is, isn't he?" Weiss laughed. "In another life he'd have just opened up a sleepy little cafe and have enjoyed quite a bit of success. Also that's a rather accurate assessment of my sister." She nodded in acknowledgement.

"Jaune's cooking is pretty damn good." Yang nodded in agreement, enjoying when their mutual male kissing partner got complimented, "I'm Yang XiaoLong, I like riding motorbikes and just a bit of thrill seeking in general, really. I'm not picky about food-"

"Unless it's mushrooms and bell peppers." Blake teased.

"-hey!"

"Yang, you're a Huntress in training." Weiss smugly crossed her arms. "You need to eat your vegetables. You're not exactly a child anymore."

"The hell is this, pick on Yang day?" Yang grumbled, though she stopped pouting when Blake leaned in to kiss her cheek, a bit of pink dusting her cheeks and looking back at her if she wanted to kiss her back.

She did so, leaning in to peck Blake's own cheek.

"I'd tell you two to get a room, but we're already getting some private consideration." Weiss sipped her cortado, a brow raised curiously. "And I have some questions about… well the whole curious relationship the three of you have built, but I'll let Yang finish her introduction properly first."

"Thanks I guess." Yang sighed, "Yeah, ok. I like punching stuff and shopping as well. I'm pretty touchy though, so you'll have to get used to a shitton of side hugs, Weiss-cream-"

"Excuse me?"

"She likes puns." Blake explained, smiling into her tea. "She thinks they're funny, it's cute."

"-there's nothing wrong with puns! You laugh at them here and there too, don't pretend that humor is entirely Blake and white."

Blake and Weiss both groaned in unison, giggling after they met each other's eyes.

"Well I see I'm outnumbered here. I'll make sure to share puns with Jaune later and none with either of you. I didn't even go the full length and say Blake and Weiss, so I don't know what your problem is." Yang grumpily pouted, her arms crossed as she scowled.

"Even if you told the worst jokes in the history of Remnant, Jaune would laugh at them because you're his friend." Weiss deadpanned, though the corners of her lips tugged faintly upwards. "That's a low bar."

Blake shrugged.

"Weiss isn't wrong about that."

"Ok, Neptune, was it?"

The blue haired boy flashed an easy smile, he was pretty good looking in all honesty, as he turned away from Weiss who looked a little pink as she was chatting with Jaune's Class President, now in his normal Huntsman outfit rather than the maid dress his fellow male classmates were in.

Likely off the clock.

"Hmm? Oh, hello there, gorgeous." Neptune looked faintly confused. "Uh, you're one of Jaune's friends from out of town, right?"

Yang smiled, tilting her head as her eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, I am. Yang XiaoLong, hotter than the sun."

"Agreed." The boy smiled, he wasn't that different from some of the better looking guys back at Signal. The guys that looked good, knew it, and leveraged it with everything they had. "Couldn't have put it better myself. Neptune Vasilias."

"Yeah, Jaune's told me about you. You're dating that Teal girl in your class, aren't you?"

She could see Weiss blink before narrowing her own eyes, her back propped up against the wall as Neptune leaned over her, his hand placed confidently above her.

"Err. Y-yeah, I-"

"Yeah, how about you get back to your girlfriend and stop hitting on mine, hmm? Otherwise I'm going to have to pass on some words to Jaune to tell-"

"I'm gone! I'm gone!" He quickly retreated, glancing in multiple directions, probably to make sure he hadn't been seen by his girlfriend.

"...'s what I thought." Yang snorted.

Jaune told her that he was a good guy, but more than a bit girl crazy. That he had very little self restraint. He'd only mentioned it in passing, clearly not using it as a dig, but Yang immediately made a mental note of it.

Admittedly it had been originally to keep an eye out for Blake if he tried to pull anything, as Yang was definitely the protective type, but hadn't expected to have to tip off Weiss about it.

"...he came on to me while he had a girlfriend? That's right, I didn't make the connection without the skirt and makeup, but he was with a girl yesterday when I met him!" Weiss looked both confused, furious, and a little horrified. "Wait, I-I wasn't thinking about it when he was pressing against the wall like that, but he knew I'm 'dating' Jaune and he still came on to me!"

That fact still made Yang uncomfortably jealous, but it was something that she knew was fake and Jaune had just been using it to help her… friend (sure she'd known Weiss for a few years, but they hadn't really been trying to be friends until just today) for a few years now.

It wasn't even her fault, really, even if Yang still felt miffed that Weiss got to play as his girlfriend in public. Lucky little bitch. Didn't help that she was apparently Jaune's type, either. Fucking Schnee Fetish.

"Some boys are just like that. And apparently he's been better about his womanizing than he was last year. Still, I think I know now exactly why Nora called him the Class Bike yesterday."

"...Class Bike? Oh, most of Jaune's classmates are girls. I… I think I'm going to be sick." Weiss spat, looking pretty upset. Shit.

Yang had only really made some peace with Weiss earlier today while they were waiting for Jaune to finish his shift. Hell he was still working, just getting close to being off as Yang and Blake had gone to wander around with just the two of them for a bit first before they did so with Jaune.

And just because Weiss being here when Yang, Blake, and Jaune hadn't planned or accounted for such a situation ahead of time got a bit in the way of some of their not-date (but totally a date) plans, didn't mean that it was really Weiss's fault either.

Her father had (for the first time apparently, which was kind of fucked in it's own way) given her and her brother a week off (yeah, their first week off as long as either of them could remember, holy shit) and pretty much threw them on a private airship to Atlas.

The more she took a deep breath, tried to look at things objectively (and that shit was fucking hard because Yang was more of an emotive thinker type) she realized that Weiss had it rough. Always cooking and crushed by expectations in a way that her own family had never put on her.

Weiss wanted to be a Huntress and Heiress because she had wrongs to right and shit to prove, but Yang only really wanted to be a Huntress because… well she'd started just to be more like her parents, but now it was just because fighting was fun. She enjoyed the thrill of it all.

Her own motivations for being a Huntress were pretty petty and selfish when Yang thought about it.

Even when Jaune told her that Yang finding joy in the thrill of it was enough and she didn't need to overthink it if she was doing good (oh yeah, because that's totally what Jaune was doing, just feeding his hero complex, as if, considering he'd been saving people and shit since the day she'd met him, her dumb and cute little fucking hero) that didn't stop her from feeling back when she asked herself sometimes why she even wanted to be a Huntress.

But this really wasn't about Yang herself right now. No time for introspection. She could mope about it later and get Jaune to cheer her up with kisses and cuddles.

"Hey, don't worry too much about it." Yang tried to comfort but Weiss wasn't having it.

"I was just a conquest. Like land to be settled! I-I'm rather furious." Weiss glowered, her Aura rippling as she clenched her small fists. "I can't believe I let myself get swept up in his honeyed words!"

Not much in tracts of land to- no. Bad Yang. You were trying to be friends with Weiss, not roast her. The dynamic has changed. Nice Yang mode, not Mean Girl Yang.

"Believe me, I've dealt with way too many guys like Neptune back at Signal. People like that, regardless of gender, are everywhere. Don't let it eat at'cha girl." Yang put her back to the wall next to Weiss, wrapping her arm around the shorter girl's shoulders in a friendly way. "Hormones makes horny assholes out of a lot of kids our age. You just never had to really put up with it with the rest of us normal folk."

Weiss frowned, her gaze falling to her feet.

"...I feel like I've definitely taken Jaune's consideration and manners for granted." The heiress sighed. "I'm going to have to apologize for it later."

Hmmmmm. On one hand, good.

He deserved that for Weiss never really (from Yang's perspective, that was) giving Jaune enough thanks for how much he did to help her, despite the girl not giving him a single romantic thought which admittedly was better for Yang herself.

But Weiss realizing that Jaune was a catch wasn't exactly ideal for Yang (and Blake of course) either.

"I'm sure he already knows you never meant it like that. Jaune's just happy to be friends." Yang emphasized, "Hell, Blake and I had to get slightly drastic for him to get it through his head that we were even into him."

Weiss let out a chuckle.

"Oh I'll bet. Jaune's kind, but I can already imagine the hoops you had to jump through. Despite only having met you a few times, even I could tell that the two of you liked Jaune. For someone so smart he really can be rather dense."

"Surprised he doesn't sink in water." Yang joked as she got a slightly unladylike chortle from Weiss who quickly coughed into a fist to try to hide the sound. "I heard that."

"I'm afraid I have quite no idea what you mean."

"...I should tell Teal, in all honesty." Jaune glared, gods this was why he couldn't bring himself to be friends with Neptune. He really was too girl crazy, and come to think of it most of Jaune's friends were girls (not even counting his eight sisters).

Would that be considered Jaune being territorial, or that he was dyed in a bit of their feminine fury?

"I know I messed up." Neptune Vasilias groned, still bowing to him in the curtained off corner of the classroom they were using for storage. "She was just so pretty that I started hitting on her without thinking. Especially since she wasn't your girl I shouldn't have done that. Fuck, I'm sorry."

The moment Neptune asked if he could talk to Jaune in private, the guilt that hung off him like a cloak had been prominent, despite the casual poker face of the usual easygoing smile he always wore.

Usually it was to hide some insecurity or other feeling of inadequacy. That was the reason he'd volunteered to become Class President two years ago, after all. To feel more important, braver, more confident. And he was diligent, did his best at the job. It did actually make the whole class like him more, even when he failed to be a proper leader.

Even though Jaune could see that Neptune realized that he'd seen the taller boy's guilty conscience, he nodded quietly and accompanied him to the side.

Everyone deserved to explain things with their own words. So there were moments when Jaune hated his own ability to read people's feelings to the point sometimes he could feel out specific words. There were even low moments when he hated himself for it, as it was something he'd unfairly earned just because he wanted to win at a card game as a little kid.

"It's not me you need to apologize to." Jaune sighed, "I-"

"I'll apologize to her later, yeah. But I have to apologize to you first. I know we're not friends, but you're Ren's brother and I'm his friend. I owed him better for sure. Still owe you better as well, especially since I'm also our Class President. I-I don't know why I'm like this. I'm sorry."

Jaune knew that it was just that Neptune hit on every girl he met because their reactions made him feel confident, proud of the changes he'd made to make himself more appealing. It was a huge confidence booster and he'd come to be reliant on it. Jaune understood a thing or two about being reliant on something to help keep his own spirits high, so even if he was a bit irritated, he did sympathize.

Probably the taller boy just didn't realize that last bit on a conscious level, was all. But with the addition of his raging hormones it made him a bit of a menace for sure.

Jaune just put a hand on Neptune's shoulder.

"I'll bring her over here and you'll apologize to Weiss. As long as you do that, I'll forgive you no matter the end result. You might be more girl crazy than almost anyone in Sanctum, but you're not a bad person, Prez. Most people would have just tried to hide away the fact they'd done that and moved on, but you came to me because you genuinely felt bad. And not just because you thought I'd find out eventually."

Neptune chuckled.

"Imagine thinking you can keep a secret from Jaune Arc."

"I'm not infallible. I fail to read things sometimes too, or even sometimes missing entire plots against me. I've had my trust betrayed before I'd even noticed something was wrong. It's not as if you couldn't have possibly gotten away with it."

"I can't run from my responsibilities." Neptune sighed again, his head still bowed low. "Not like that. I… I know I have some issues, but I don't want to be like that. I know I'm not a real leader. I'm not meant for that, I think. People listen to me mostly out of obligation and because they know I'm doing the job nobody else wanted. Just that nobody else wanted to be President, but I am Class President. I take that seriously."

The fact that Neptune felt he had a responsibility to look after his fellow classmates went unsaid, but both boys could feel it. Knew it. And knew that Neptune was truly sorry.

"I know. Thanks for being honest with me." Jaune nodded, "I'll be right back with Weiss."

"Got it. And I know you're tired of hearing it, but again, I'm sorry, Arc."

Forgiveness was a mere slap on the cheek by Weiss Schnee.