27

"...You're sure this will work?" Winter paced nervously, filling the room with the scent of mountain lilies. "Positive?"

"I can get a sense of the state of the room from my Shadows." Jaune assured, his mind faintly filling with her scent, "She's alone in a room right now. I don't know any other details, but that I know."

"Gods, Winter. You're gonna pace a hole into the floor." Clarent laid on her side in her recovery pod as she snacked on a bag of potato chips, the little plastic bag crinkling. "Just sit down or something. Yer being ridiculous."

"I am sneaking into my ancestral home, under my father's nose, with the power of my first friend's little brother's Semblance! There's a lot to be-"

"And everything's gonna be fine! Unless you screw it up with how nervous you are! And you didn't even send a letter to your brother! Only your younger sister!"

"Whitley's too young and would have given it straight to father! I at least helped raise Weiss to have some sense!"

Jaune's eyes flicked along with his tail back and forth like pinballs as his sister and Clarent argued, knowing that his sister's incessant bickering was weirdly helping Winter calm down.

He giggled.

"You two get along well."

"She's insufferable!" "Hell yeah, we do!"

"You're insufferable!" "Hell yeah, I am."

"I can't believe this." "Kehehehehe."

The smile still clung to Winter's face, even if she looked like she'd blow a gasket.

"As much as I'm enjoying this, let's get ready to go." Jaune called out.

"Yyyyup. Best of luck to you two. I'm incapable of being quiet, so I'll just stay here with my chips. I can actually do subtle or controlled, but not quiet." Clarent waved lazily. "Maybe watch a movie. Have fun but not too much fun."

"The only fun I'll have is my foot-"

Jaune rolled his eyes as he held Winter's hand, trying to keep his tail from flapping into overdrive. A cold sensation like falling backwards into a tube of slithering tendrils enveloped him. And Winter as well.

"-up, euegh. I do really dislike that feeling." Winter hissed as she shivered in place, although she didn't shake Jaune off her hand.

"...Winter?" A soft girl's voice called out from inside the dark room, lit only by a gently crackling fireplace.

"Weiss!" Winter spoke in a hurried hush, as she quietly leapt forward to hold the younger girl in her arms. "Oh, I missed you, sister."

"Winter!" The girl in Winter's arms exclaimed again, still trying to stay as quiet as she could as well. Jaune couldn't see her from inside her older sister's embrace. "I missed you, too!"

"I-I'm glad to see that you are well. I'm so sorry I didn't contact you sooner-"

"You had to trick father, I know. Otherwise he-"

"No. I, Weiss. Please." Winter pulled away, showing Jaune the figure of a pretty pale girl with soft clear blue eyes and soft white hair matching her older sisters. She looked like a doll, carved perfectly from fine china and ice, dressed in a silvery nightgown that came down to her ankles, revealing small and dainty feet in white wool socks.

"Firstly, let me apologize. And, please, wait for me to finish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't send any letters or call. It… it really wasn't part of any grand plan like that though, Weiss. The truth is that… I was just scared. I'm sorry. You… you deserved better than that." Winter admitted softly, repeating the words she'd been practicing with Clarent. "I was… I was worried that you might hate me."

The fairy girl, Weiss, shook her head, eyes teary, not even noticing Jaune quietly and awkwardly standing in the corner of her room. He was just trying to avoid staring just a bit too much.

"I'd never hate you, Winter." The fairy dove into the arms of an angel.

"Nice room." He could hear Big Brother Juniper mutter, breaking the bittersweet atmosphere for Jaune and Jaune alone. "Looks too grown up though. Guess little Weiss wasn't ever allowed to decorate on her own."

Jaune just nodded in agreement, not wanting to accidentally interrupt the Schnee sisters' moment.

"I… thank you, Weiss. Oh, how I've missed you!" A Snow Angel held onto a Snow Fairy in front of his eyes and Jaune's hands had to reach behind him to grab his traitorous tail and stop it from wagging relentlessly as it wriggled in his grip. "You've grown up so much in merely a year."

"How… how did you sneak in? The letter just said you'd be here as long as I was alone in my room. But father has guards outside everywhere."

"Oh." Winter suddenly sounded like she'd remembered Jaune. He could see her pretty face flush a bit pink. "Actually, that was thanks to a friend. Well, sort of two friends." She said with a giggle.

His tail vibrated.

"You mustn't be loud or surprised. Jaune's a nice boy." Winter grinned, suddenly a sort of cheeky mischievousness that he'd only seen on Clarent's face on hers. "You know he thought I was an angel when we first met."

"Only right to see that my sister is beautiful." He could hear the Snow Fairy in her sister's arms agree imperially, "He's smart."

"Oh he's very smart." Winter agreed, "He's also right behind me."

Winter held a finger up to her lips in a hushing motion, pulling away from her younger sister as she turned to Jaune who'd just been acting the part of a wall flower in the corner of the room.

"Sister, sister." Weiss tugged at Winter's sleeve as she pointed at Jaune's head. "He's got rabbit ears!"

"Yes, Jaune is a Faunus. And please, Weiss. it's… it's rude to point like that."

"Oh. I'm sorry, sister."

Jaune wasn't offended, reading that she'd only been displaying curiosity, even if he felt slightly uncomfortable. He got the feeling she'd seen Faunus, just not a rabbit one before. Her eyes now kept flickering up at his ears, wanting to pet them.

"Hi." He waved quietly at the fairy girl. "I'm Jaune, nice to meet you."

"I am Weiss Schnee." The girl curtsied with her silvery night gown, the material pulling up slightly to her knees as she did so. "Thank you for letting me meet with my sister."

"Oh it's no problem!" He waved his hands in front of his head with a flush, "J-just glad to help. Winter's friends with my sister Clarent now, so I was happy to help. I-if you want we can even try to make this a bit more of a regular thing."

Weiss's eyes (Winter's as well, the older girl panicking as they'd not discussed this) opened wide.

"Oh could we?!" Weiss softly gasped with a happy smile that made Jaune's stomach do a flip. "I would love that."

"Sure!" He spoke just a little too quickly. "Er.. just not Friday nights. I have hard promises for Friday nights, sometimes even extending after midnight hours."

He wasn't going to forgo his promises to Yang, Trivia, and Neo even for the snow fairy. He wouldn't be much of a hero if he did.

"How about Saturdays?" Weiss quickly turned to her sister with pleading eyes. "Winter?"

"I… I could do Saturdays." The older girl admitted. "We'd have to be careful and continue to coordinate times."

"I could use my Shadows to deliver letters? They can technically replace each other and carrying something that small shouldn't cause any issues, or I'd have been blinking around without clothes for years." Jaune supplemented helpfully. "You'll want to hide or burn them after so that your father can't know, though."

"That would be lovely, Jaune." Winter's smile made Jaune's heart beat funny.

Weiss gave a quiet squeal of excitement as she ran over to hug Jaune.

His brain cut out-

Amber was acting strangely. Had been since she'd left to use the bathroom during lunch earlier today.

Velvet Room showed that while the soft swirl of reddish pink and vibrant violet mark of a final act of love still lingered on her head, firm, although fading, and full of the violet lingering regret that clung to it. The mark of love was only maintained by Amber's own subconscious desires, though it was shrouded in a gray fog, as if the girl thought she was being haunted out of guilt.

All that over a shroud of wispy blue-gray ripples that lingered on her brown locks. That'd been new for Robin, but she supposed it was whatever Amber must have felt about her hair dye.

The problem was that Robin's jealousy had been sparked. A new emotion had taken her new friend prisoner.

She'd never been jealous before. It was thrilling, but ultimately hateful. She could do without it, personally. Perhaps jealous love wasn't for her after all?

Robin had snuck into the older girl's recovery pod, knocking upon it as if she needed to talk to Amber and flinging herself into the girl's side, refusing to let go as she'd shut the pod behind her.

She could now hear Amber's breathing, slow and hot against her pajamas, in their close proximity. Her face buried into Robin's small chest, breathing deeply and slowly, having finally fallen into slumber after half-begging her to leave, even though she herself hadn't once physically tried to let go.

A sickly purple glow was wrapped about her neck in the velvet visions, signifying that Amber was feeling trapped by someone. It wasn't Robin. The trail of purple leapt off and pointed into the void. Somehow that was hateful and make Robin jealous.

The soft, ever-rippling golds of desire, pale and sickly pink jealousy, even the emerald green yearning that constantly wrapped about Amber were all Robin's though, leaping from her friend and licking at her Aura. It was needy and wanting. Amber wanted to be her friend. She wanted to be like Robin.

Flattering but meaningless, as Robin simply wished her new friend to be herself. To find herself and blossom like a flower. Robin wished to witness her friend discover herself and discover her true self.

Pupate like a butterfly? A moth? Moths were cuter. Fuzzy and fluffy.

And Robin was fine being the light that drew her friend in.

Her friend who'd lied about her name.

She knew it, she knew her little brother knew it, both Arc siblings wordlessly agreeing to not ever discuss it out loud.

Her little brother had become quite interestingly perceptive.

She and Farbiglas, her sister that shared her birth year, but with birthdays eight months apart, had been cooperating and coordinating in observations of Jaune as a fun sisterly side project.

But that would have to take a backseat to the friend who called herself Amber.

Robin found herself entranced. Perhaps that made her a bad friend, as she was trying to develop a friendship, partly by force, rather than letting it be natural. But she wished beyond reason for Amber's friendship.

She'd appeared as if out of a dream, lost in the scent of her brother's cooking, hungry and hopelessly pretty in a tragic way. When she'd first peered at Amber with Velvet Room to make a joke about some matching eyes, she'd been hooked immediately.

It was almost embarrassing at how desperate she'd been to gain the older girl's attention.

Amber was filled with regret, hands stained with sickly red-orange. She'd killed someone that loved her, likely the one that'd left a mark upon her head. Someone who's last act was a small, warm kindness, filled with the regret that they'd not done enough for her. She'd killed him after getting vengeance, brutal and passionate, against those that wronged her. Those that tried to break her.

It was beautiful. More than she could have imagined or wanted. Robin had almost run away at that moment out of pure embarrassment at how her heart fluttered.

Robin had never been into girls or boys. She'd even contemplated the fact that she was simply asexual, willing to make due with whatever her parents might expect down the line, enough to make them happy.

Maybe she was demi?

She wasn't sure if it was love or not, but she couldn't stop staring at Amber.

It was embarrassing, and not at all elegant, but for the first time Robin didn't care how she'd look. That was strange. Even if her parents did not adhere to it heavily, they did have a bit of a Mistralian upbringing that Robin had, well, flocked to effortlessly. Lovingly, even.

Now that could just take a big sock in the mouth and shove it.

Worst case she'd be happy, just to stay close to the girl. Being friends would be enough, though Robin would settle for nothing less than a best friend.

Robin had already been willing to live her life alone or put up with someone enough to have a child or two for her parents and ensuring a future protector of humanity at least one of them. She knew the world was an imperfect place, that people who were perfect for each other could miss the other out of a twist of fate.

Robin cooed as Amber wept in her dreams, her eyes dampening the front of her pajama top.

"There, there." She assured the older girl quietly, her eyes aglow in gold in the small pod. Their little world was painted in black and blue. "I'm here. I'm here."

She felt the arms wrapped around her torso tighten, pulling her in close unconsciously, fingers so surprisingly strong, that pressed against the skin of Robin's back, threatening to bruise them.

Robin thought that could be fun, new experience. It would be thrilling. Amber leaving something physical on her. Still, she focused her Aura slightly to prevent it.

Amber would hate it. She couldn't have that.

Robin hummed a bit, a tune to one of her brother's songs, feeling Amber shift at the melody.

Sad but soothing, the tune of 'Cold' echoed softly inside a velvet room for two.

Robin felt a thrill that Amber seemed to respond well to the sound of her soft humming voice and the strange musical dreams of her brother. That was already halfway to family.

Cinder awoke to the scent of copper and iron. Not like blood, but damp anyways.

Layered under was the scent of lavender and soap. Soft and gentle against her sinu-

Her amber eyes snapped open.

Her head jerked back into dainty thin arms, but not scrawny and lean like her own, as they maintained a surprisingly firm grip that wove into her short messy locks. Gentle and small fingers almost massaged the back of her scalp as they clenched at her hair. Her vision was filled with damp red cotton and a soft gentle swell.

"Mmmmm." Her face was buried back into that damp but warm red cotton, her face now flushed equally crimson as her own arms unconsciously pulled the warm body closer.

Cinder felt the urge to run. She wanted to be anywhere but here, even if she didn't want to move at all.

Also had she been crying in her sleep?! Cinder wanted to die.

Not only that…

She was endangering her by staying. Not just Robin, but her brother Jaune that'd also treated her kindly. Their family and extended family. All good people that didn't deserve whatever was to come from the strange voice from the drone that now owned her future and freedom in his hands.

But she had to stay, otherwise she'd lose her freedom again. She'd be locked away forever, only if she was lucky. Or unlucky. Honestly Cinder would prefer death to imprisonment.

Maybe she should just k-

"Hmmmnn." Robin sighed in her sleep again, drawing Cinder in tighter, making the lashes of her eyes flutter against damp red cotton as she began to grow comfortable, wanting to fall back asleep as well.

Nonono. She had to wake up. She had to wake Robin as well. This state was embarrassing.

Cinder fell asleep again in a warm and comfortable but conflicted agony.

Perhaps it truly was summer vacation, as a month passed in the blink of an eye.

"So it seems all that's left is finishing the programming for Project PENNI, eh?" Jaune grinned excitedly, his fingers clattering casually in a blur as he talked to the good doctor.

"Yes indeed. The General insisting on your new coding language was slowing us down, however, so I'm glad you're able to lend a hand." Dr. Polendina laughed as he stretched his tired hands. "My hands aren't as young as they used to be."

"Once PENNI is active, she can certainly help you with that." Jaune laughed. "I mean, she's going to be alive with your Aura. That makes her like your daughter, right?"

"I do suppose that it would be the case." The man grinned, "Which is fortunate. I've always wished for a daughter."

"Wait." Jaune's hands didn't stop, but he stared up at sight of his Big Brother Juniper, floating in the air as he observed the physical body for Project PENNI, currently a pair of frames in different stages of life, although one was technically more of a fancy remote consciousness controlled drone, despite still being of Nikke origin. "Does that make me her brother? Or like, uncle? Godfather? How does this work?"

"I'd argue godfather." The doctor laughed. "While I've done the final designing and the majority of the work, it's certainly based on a good amount of your own work. You can think of yourself like an uncle though. They're sort of similar enough in practice, I suppose."

"That's cool. So I'd be like Qrow but without the drin-well. Actually he's not drinking anymore, huh?" Jaune yawned, his typing pausing for a bit before he continued. "Ah, well. Godfather. Yup."

"You alright there, Jaune?" Dr. Polendina gave him a worried look. "We're not working you too hard, are we?"

"Uh yeah. Fine. Lemme just doublecheck this. Yeah ok, it's fine. I just slept kind of late two nights in a row is all." Jaune sniffed. "Not your fault. I'm the one that volunteered my Sunday morning on top of it."

Maybe agreeing to late night Friday and Saturday promises back to back wasn't the best idea. Or maybe he needed to nap during the day more on those days. Actually why hadn't he thought of that? That was a smart plan.

Blake had taught him catnaps could be nice. Err. Pun not intended. Although it was kind of funny. Cuz y'know, she was a cat Faunus.

Still, Winter and Clarent were getting along surprisingly well despite their opposing personalities, assisted by Jaune's abilities helping connect the older girl with her sister, and finally after three weeks of dragging her feet, her younger brother.

Winter was still concerned that the boy (a kid Ruby's age) would ruin things for them, not out of maliciousness, of course (he was lonely and surprised but happy to see his eldest sister) but because the influence of their father Jacques Schnee was strong. That he'd slip up.

Her paranoia was enough for even Jaune to angrily speak up on Whitley's defense before he'd even met the kid, pointing out to her that if Winter was so scared to reconnect with him, not only was this all pointless, but that she'd just end up pushing him to her father anyways.

And then that would become her fault.

Whitley was aware of none of this, but once he'd met him with Winter and Weiss in tow, it was clear to him that the younger boy was just a kid that was glad to be spending some time with his siblings. Although Weiss did seem slightly miffed to lose monopolizing Winter's attention. She also didn't seem to care for her brother too much, even though they were beginning to mend the gap a bit now under Winter's hopeful watch.

And his own, he supposed. Winter was glad for him being so insightful, which made him happy, even if she was embarrassed to take so much advice from an eight and a half year old. He'd just pointed out he had a less dysfunctional family and they'd gone through their own issues, so he had more of a baseline to give perspective.

She'd ruffled his hair and ears at that in thanks. His heart did flips. Was there something wrong with him?

"If you're sure. Why don't you take a breather anyways to be safe? Some fresh air would do you good."

"I will after this last bit." Jaune acquiesced. "I just wanted to work a bit more on this today."

Because it would get him away from Amber.

He knew she had some sort of trust issues and after two weeks of weird mood swings and borderline panic attacks, she was finally getting along with Robin normally again. Or as normal as Jaune had known her to be.

Still, he'd begun to make a habit of not looking at her directly and avoiding her mostly outright because she would be more comfortable that way. She, like Nora, seemed to think Jaune could read her mind, which wasn't true. He could read people's intent and feelings, some better than others.

For some like Trivia and Neo it was easier. Because they couldn't talk they were expressive in other ways he just couldn't really describe. He didn't understand how more people didn't read into what she wanted.

But Cinder was just a constant ball of fear and guilt that just wanted freedom and strength.

Both, in his opinion, were perfectly reasonable things to want on Remnant.

Jaune felt she clearly needed love (not necessarily romantic) and emotional stability more than anything, having gone through his own runaway episode, but maybe everyone was different. He wanted to ask Juniper about it, but this was Robin's friend.

He shouldn't step into her problems more than she asked him to.

There was a second hiccup when she'd also found out he was the Little Professor around the same time and for some reason she'd nearly had a heart attack. So many emotions and thoughts passed through her amber eyes at once she'd actually become unreadable for a while.

There was a small concern she'd relapse into her previous funk, but Robin seemed to keep her anchored. Somehow. His sisters were great.

And there was the odd delusion she kept having that her being here put them all in danger. But she wanted to keep that from affecting Robin (and as an extension Jaune and all of his friends and family) so much he couldn't help but to trust in her anyways.

Whatever it was they had all of Team STRQ, his own parents, and all of Atlas Academy.

Frankly, Jaune wasn't worried at all. It would be weirder to be worried. He wasn't so dumb to say 'let them come' or anything, but there were so many Heroes on their side it was comical to be afraid.

Outside of wondering what would happen at the end of Summer when they'd go back to Domremy and Argus. They couldn't exactly bring Amber with them. Could they? Rather he was more worried about what followed at summer's end.

He'd have to leave Amber with a bunch of Lien to keep her going. Just in case.

"Well then, how about once you finish, we discuss the ball?" The good doctor's wheelchair rolled up next to him as he gently pat Jaune's shoulder. "It's coming up soon, isn't it? It only happens twice a decade, so I hope you're a little excited."

Jaune groaned.

"It's coming too soon. Mom's been unbearable in how she's running about and getting everyone their outfits. I think she might have wanted kids more than Dad just for moments like this."

"Mrs. Arc had been glowing rather radiantly as she dropped you off today."

"We went shopping for a tux for me this morning, before we came. I'm glad she had fun."

The implication that he hadn't was enough for Dr. Polendina to laugh at him.

"Well, at least the whole family is coming with you. Events like this were always going to be unavoidable. Believe me, I learned that the hard way myself. I always preferred to avoid the attention at such events. It was always my rival Watts that relished in it back then. He loved the politics of it all, even if he'd pretend it was beneath him."

"Oh. I don't think I've met Dr. Watts yet."

"...You won't, child. He passed about two or three months before I met you."

"Oh." Jaune suddenly felt awkward. "I'm sorry."

"Oh don't be. I've had my time to mourn. He was a hot-blooded, but good man. That's all that you need to know." Dr. Polendina waved away. "Meticulous though. Rarely liked working without setting schedules and hated it when people were late. Better at improvisation than he'd give himself credit for. Perhaps that was something he'd picked up from his coding."

"Sounds like you liked him."

"Before we lost him I'd finally come to friendly terms with him. We'd butt heads and argue quite passionately before that, though. He always made me feel twenty years younger, even if my doctor always had to warn me about my blood pressure because of him."

The two shared a little laugh as monitors filled with green code hummed in the background.

"I've a photo that I could show you, if you were interested?"

"Sure. It'd be cool to see a friend of yours, Dr. Polendina. He sounds like he was a cool guy."

"Interfere with the order of commissioned fireworks, check. Hack into the fireworks barge and adjust the planned program, check." Arthur muttered as he nibbled at a cinnamon sugar pretzel in one hand, having developed a taste for the damn things back in Kuo Kuana, Menagerie.

"Assign aniseed seasoned food and drinks, check. Shame he's not an adult. It'd be so much easier to get him drunk rather than drug him off herbals. Still, theoretically, the dog Faunus part of him should make this work."

He brushed a bit of sugar from his mustache, disliking that he'd have to rely on people.

"Bribe or blackmail service staff company, check. Blackmail was chosen, which is good. Always saves some money, too."

The current Bank of Atlas had his programming as their base, resulting in all the rounded off fractions of Lien in a taxed transaction to enter a small side account rather than disappear into the void to combat inflation. It meant that he was always trickling in some money (actually a pretty decent amount without just hacking and siphoning funds), but there was no point in spending it all without a care.

"Ah. Florists. I have to adjust the- hmph. It shouldn't be too late, should it? Rather, worst case I'll contact the interior decorator, have them rearrange some of the bouquets by hand. Unless he wants the image of them cheating on his wife with his daughter's best friend to enter the public eye. Let's see…"

Robotics was always more reliable, not because they were inherently superior, though they tended to be, but because of code. They simply did exactly what they were designed to do by his hands. No matter what, even if things became bad, all they did was as their coding dictated.

If only people could be programmed.

"I suppose all that matters now depends on whether or not the girl can follow simple instructions." He mused. "She only needs to do two things. If she fails, I have all the doctored documents I need to frame her as a Mistralian agent."

He chuckled bemusedly.

"How convenient that her orphanage also sold off children to the Crime Families. It's almost too easy."

He thumbed an adjustable (the new digital ones were so easy to spoof if you knew what you were doing) fake ID and three Skyport tickets, one for each of the other Kingdoms.

"And if she succeeds, she gets exactly what she wants."

She'd already gotten the image of the items and he'd seen the need in her eyes through the baby monitoring programs in the Scroll he'd given her.

"Stick and carrot indeed."

He held his arm to the side, a small white drone quickly sucking it all into a hidden compartment, a small piece of Fire Dust within ready to incinerate the incentive should the girl fail to uphold her half of the bargain.

"It's time for a party indee- oh. The holographic window displays. Have I- yes. Yes I have."