Meeting a few new faces

Reality has a way of always proving us wrong and no matter how much you think that you know better in the end life will find a way to give you a surprise.

And that surprise came for Jaune when his feelings for his new family started to take root and grow sooner than even he could ever have expected.

But the shower of love and care of his mother, the safety and awe he feels whenever he is near his father and the many chaotic emotions he feels whenever he sees all of his sisters showing their love each in their own unique way. It has all been slowly slipping past the defences he has built and the vacant spots on his heart after his previous family were erased from his memory started to slowly be filled.

And it is just like they say: time can bring down walls and fill moats.

And by the time he was 2 months old, he had already gone through an enormous shift on his attitude towards his family.

Where earlier he would deliberately choose to sleep during a good portion of the day so that he could have time to reflect alone and undisturbed at night.

Now, he is starting to actually enjoy the time he is spending alongside his family and instead of constantly thinking about the dreadful future and formulating plans alone in the dark he is finding himself being able to enjoy life thanks to them as whenever he is with them he can temporarily forget about the many questions that keep eating away at him.

So if you ask him if he now feels like a part of the family, his answer would still be no, he still has a knot in his heart that unless it is resolved he will not be able to take the last step to accept himself as part of this family, but he is now much closer to them and the distance is only shrinking as time passes.

Jaune is currently sitting inside his cradle, which although he isn't capable of doing it without help thanks to his lacking upper body strength, the ability to stay in that position is already an improvement over just laying down for the whole day.

But that doesn't stop him from moving around and doing very simple exercises whenever he can in order to build up strength to the point of one day being able to move independently.

The door then opens, and his mother walks in with her usual cheerful smile and approaches him as he remains unresponsive and just remains looking to the opposite side with a thoughtful expression.

"Jaune, guess who came to pay a visit!" Hearing his mother he is immediately taken out of his stupor and turns to face her.

The room then becomes silent as she makes a dramatic pause before revealing it.

"It's your grandfather Julius! Come, let's go greet him. He must be arriving in Ansel very soon."

"Abu" I reply in a plain tone as she picks me up before leaving the room and heading downstairs.

...

She makes her way through or big home, that could easily be considered a mansion and descend the stairs going towards our living room.

After entering the living room, i could see the rest of the family already waiting for the guest's arrival.

My father was giving one last cleaning in preparation for the guest. Saprhon was looking after the second youngest Violet, Rouge and Rosemary were playing and running all over the place, Aquamarine was in her own space reading a book while Opal and Lazuli were arguing with each other causing a bit of a ruckus.

Mom then sits on the sofa while I was put sitting on her lap, her arrival somewhat calms the usual chaotic atmosphere.

And like that we stayed for a few minutes while mother and Saprhon exchanged small talk and father gave the house it's final touches.

Then a knocking on the door signalled the arrival of our grandfather, the atmosphere then turned very lively as the girls stood facing the door while father started making his way towards the entrance.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." Saying this as he approaches the door, he then opens and greets the person on the other side.

"It has been a while, dad" Nicholas says in a friendly and welcoming voice.

"Indeed it has, son" Julius on the other hand speaks in a more dismissive manner.

The two of them spent the next seconds just staring at each other in silence, but mom quickly cuts in putting an end to the tense mood between both of them.

"Darling, why don't you stop staring at him and instead invite the guest inside" She says to dad with a clear underlying threat mixed in promising him pain if he doesn't behave.

Hearing this, Julius happily replies "Alexandra!, it has been so long since we last met, has my useless son been causing any issues to you? Let's catch up and you can introduce me my newest grandson." His tone of voice makes an 180° from when he talked to dad and shows eagerness and care, as he says this he passes straight through my father ignoring him and finally comes under my view.

Entering the house is an tall, very muscular old man with a mighty grey mane atop his head and a thick white beard, his eyes are blue like father's and his face structure is very similar to dad's from the nose to the eyebrow. He is currently wearing some great War era military garb that enhances his air of authority. His expression though is very joyful and his movements energetic showing that time hasn't shown down this old man one bit.

But I couldn't see him for long as my sisters immediately surrounded him and and started a group hug that in grandfather's merit, he managed to stay standing despite having the weight of 7 girls on him and just like that things descended back into chaos.

"Grandpa is back!"

"Have you brought any gifts?"

"I'm your favorite granddaughter and not Opal right?"

"No, I'm obviously his favorite granddaughter and not you!"

"Will you tell us your stories?"

Julius in turn just smiles and hugs back all of his granddaughters, unable to take a single step forward.

"Eeek!" The daughters then suddenly disperse as they feel an ominous gaze and looking back to their mother who is staring at them with an ominous smile, they decide that is better to retreat. And I honestly can't blame them since I can feel the chills crawling through my skin despite the gaze not being directed at me.

Julius than approaches us while releasing a boisterous laughter. "Hohoho, it seems my grandchildren have grown a lot since I last saw them, now I can barely hold them" He then looks at me with curiosity and asks "Who is this little one?"

"His name is Jaune, he just turned 2 months old and is already pampered by everyone on the house" She introduces me to him before taking me off her lap and letting her father-in-law hold me.

"I'm already felling sorry for whomever tries to date your son and take him from you" He quietly chuckles before continuing "Jaune was the name of my great uncle, it makes a good fit! A strong name for a strong boy!" He then starts to laugh as he lifts me air and shows his more playful side.

To be honest, I was quite eager to meet my grandfather since he is not only the previous wielder of crocea mors as I never saw dad take it with him to missions and a great War hero but he is also the one that inspired the original Jaune to become a hero when he read stories to him of his ancestors and he was as far as I can tell the only member of the family to support him in that decision.

He can be one of the keys to ensure that I'm capable of getting some training early on, but that is only when I'm at little older.

Julius then sits on the sofa putting me on his lap before addressing my sister which still hadn't recovered from mom's stare "Come closer all of you!, I have plenty of stories that I'd like to share with you girls." After hearing this all seven of them sit in a circle around him, eagerly waiting for him to start, while my parents just smile at the side as they watch the scene unfold.

...

Grandfather stayed with us for about a day before leaving, in this time he told many legends and tales of our ancestors, had a meal with the whole family except for me since I still couldn't eat solid food and gave gifts to his grandchildren with mine being a ring that I currently can't wear since it's too big for me. In the following days things have gone as normal with nothing interesting happening on this time.

Then one day mother goes buy groceries nearby and decides to take me along with her which allows me to finally have a chance to look around the village.

On the way we met both familiar faces such as our neighbor Camille and her brother Joseph which I met when they visited our home and the village's doctor which I was taken a few times, as well as completely new faces such as the local smith Ferrus that seems to always be grumpy, Natasha a seamstress that seems to have an compulsive need to know all the gossip that is around and the owner of the local market Brook that despite having an look that is similar to the stereotypical crooked merchant he has an golden heart underneath it.

Considering how small the village is, it is kinda hard not to know everybody.

So in this types of community cooperation is vital, you will always have an acquaintance that is willing to help you out and they in turn will expect the same from you when they're in trouble and considering that mom is a retired huntress and wife of an active hunter that is vital for protecting the village it's safe to say that she is quite popular among the residents.

I've made sure to try and memorise some of their names since you never know when you might end up needing their help.

This trip also served as a much needed breath of fresh air, you don't realize how much you need to have a change in scenery until you spend most part of two months trapped inside of a cradle.

Finishing buying all the groceries, we return home and she leaves me in my sister's hands while she goes of to finish a few more errands.

And just as expected, this led to me having to endure all sorts of unpleasant experiences such as having my cheeks pinched, having to be passed around so all my sisters except the youngest ones could hold me and have to on top of all that make myself seem as if I'm enjoying all of that.

But this challenge can no longer intimidate me in the slightest as I'm already starting to get used to it. On this pace, by the time I grow up my patience will probably be comparable of that of a monk.

"Should we try and dress him in girls clothes next?" There comes the phrase I've been dreading the most ever since my Reincarnation.

'Happy thoughts Jaune, think of happy thoughts and just let it all pass.'