Ch 82: Pillow Wars (2)

---Saturday, May 1---

"It's boring to just go to sleep like this." Yang said after Ray had finished sending them all to heaven after putting them through hell for the fourth time this semester.

"Why don't we tell each other ghost stories." Velvet quickly suggested. Despite what most people might think, she loved to listen to ghost stories and watch horror movies. The scarier, the better.

"That sounds like fun." Blake the book worm agreed.

"Umm, how about we all braid each other's hair and try on new nail polish." Jaune timidly suggested the first thing that came to his mind as an alternative. He did not want to listen to a bunch of ghost stories right before bed. But, having seven older sisters, braiding hair, and doing nails were all he could think of. If someone like Weiss had made the suggestion, the others might have agreed. However, with Jaune making the suggestion, everyone just looked at him funny before quickly agreeing to the ghost story idea.

Eight hours later, except for the two Faunus girls, all of them were still lying awake, huddled together in Ray's room, regretting their decision. Velvet and Blake's ghost stories were original and horrifying, but the way they played off each other made it impossible for any of the rest of them to get to sleep after hearing their stories.

[[Never again.]] They all decided as they huddled together in one big pile for warmth, comfort, and security throughout the night.

---Saturday, May 8---

"Truth or Dare!" Yang shouted as she pointed at her sister.

"Dare." Ruby replied.

*Grrrr* "Why don't you pick Truth?" Yang growled in annoyance. She had proposed playing Truth or Dare to try and force her siblings to tell her why they were fighting with each other, but both of them had been choosing dare all night.

"Because we know you will ask us to tell you what's wrong, and neither of us wants to talk about it." Ray replied dryly.

*Hmph* Yang snorted, then an idea struck her. "Then I dare you to tell us what's wrong." Yang smirked triumphantly at her stubborn siblings, confident she had them now.

"My older sister keeps trying to force me to talk about stuff that I don't want to talk about." But Ruby countered her sister's dastardly trap was languid ease.

"Aww, come on." Yang pouted.

"My turn. Truth or Dare, Yang." Ray said.

"Dare." Yang said on reflex, if they were going to always pick dare, then she would see how they liked it.

"I dare you not to try to force out of Ruby or me why we are fighting for the rest of the game."

"What!? You can't-" ""Approved."" Everyone else's shouted verdict of approval drowned out Yang's protests. They had all had enough of this sibling bickering and just wanted to enjoy the game. Hearing all her friends rule against her, Yang crossed her arms and sat there pouting in annoyance till it was her turn again.

Ruby and Ray exchanged a reflexive fist bump of triumph before remembering that they were still fighting and quickly went back to pretending to ignore each other.

---Saturday, May 15---

"I'm queen of the castle. I'm queen of the castle." Nora chanted as she waved the king stick in the air above her head.

"What is your command, your majesty." Ren exaggeratingly bowed and asked.

*Hmhmhm* Nora chuckled evilly as she eyed all her friends sitting in a circle with her to play the King's Game after their massages were finished.

"I decree, number 5, kiss number 4!" Nora pretended to declare haughtily as she looked around excitedly to see who she had picked.

To her horror, Jaune and Ren turned over their sticks to reveal numbers 4 and 5.

"NO!" Jaune cried and tried to bolt from the room, but Coco and Ruby on either side of him grabbed him by the arms and held him down. Giggling at the poor boy's expense

"Come on, Jaune. Don't be a spoilsport." Coco teased.

"Sorry, Jaune. The king's orders are absolute." The grin on Ruby's face and the laughter in her voice made her apology sound very insincere to the struggling blond.

"No. please." He begged with teary eyes. "I don't want to lose my first kiss to a guy!"

"No, *ah* wait a minute *uh* I meant number 5 kiss the king! No, wait, I don't mean that. I mean *uhhh*" At the same time, Nora started to panic as well. Not wanting Ren to give away his first kiss to a guy either, but too embarrassed to admit that she wanted it instead.

"Sorry, Nora," Yang said as she patted her shoulder with mock sympathy on her face as she tried to hold in her laughter. "The king's orders are absolute."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!" Jaune wailed and struggled as Ren sprits some minty fresh into his mouth as he approached. Fox and Ray leapt over and grabbed Jaune's flailing legs to secure the way to Jaune's virgin lips. Closer and closer, the pretty boy got to the trapped wannabe hero until...

*Chu* Ren kissed Jaune on the cheek.

"Huh?" **BWAHAHAHA* Everyone burst out laughing at the shocked look on Jaune's confused face as Ren coolly took his seat in the circle again.

"What a cop-out." Weiss said with a shake of her head.

"She never said where they needed to kiss." Velvet said around her giggling.

---Saturday, May 22---

"So, where's Jaune" Yatsu finally brought up the question everyone had been wondering about as they all lazily sprawled across the pillows littering Ray's floor.

"I know I SAW him at training." Fox joked, trying and lighten the mood, raising his eyebrows to accent his blind pupil-less white eyes.

"We don't know," Ren admitted. "He's been hanging out a lot with Cardin lately. Maybe he's with him."

"That punk that's always picking on him and Velvet?" Coco asked, her eyes narrowing in anger as she propped herself up on her elbows. "Why on remnant would he want to hang out with that idiot?"

"Let's just go to sleep." Pyrrha said. Hearing the annoyance and pain in the red head's voice, nobody protested as she turned out the lights. Ending their sleepover without the usual festivities that they had all enjoyed the previous weeks. It was apparent the members of team JNPR really just weren't in the mood to be playing around without their leader present.

---Saturday, May 29---

"I'm left-handed. I'm ambidextrous. I'm right-handed." Weiss said when it was her turn. Tonight they were playing two lies and a truth.

*Pfff* "That's easy. Everyone knows you wield your rapier with your left hand. Your left-handed." Everyone quickly agreed with Ruby's guess. Except for Ray and Velvet.

*Hmmm* As someone with photographic memory for her semblance and as someone who was always paying close attention to Weiss, they weren't so sure.

"You're ambidextrous." Ray finally said with confidence. Velvet nodded in agreement beside him.

"Correct," Weiss said, smiling at the two. "I'm ambidextrous."

""Yes."" *pa* Ray and Velvet high-fived.

"Ok, Jaune. Your turn." Coco said.

"I have seven sisters, one younger and the rest older. I made my own weapon. And Uhhh, I cheated my way into Beacon." Jaune hesitated for a moment but finally said. Ray and Pyrrha exchanged a look but didn't say anything. They were surprised but proud that Jaune would feel the need to tell his friends about that.

"You have six older sisters and one younger. You told Ray and me on our first day at Beacon that Crocea Mors was a hand me down." Ruby said with confidence, not even thinking the last one was worth considering. Again, everyone else agreed with her. Except for Ray and Pyrrha, who kept carefully neutral looks on their faces, and Ren and Nora, who frowned in confusion.

"I thought I remember you saying all seven of your sisters were older?" Ren said contemplatively as he wondered if he remembered wrong. Nora nodded in agreement with him. Pyrrha and Ray still didn't give their answer as they watched Jaune struggle to admit the truth even after going this far.

"I… I cheated my way into Beacon." Jaune finally admitted softly.

Everyone forgot the rest of the game as they bombarded Jaune with questions, and he explained to them how he had gotten his hands on some fake transcripts and how Cardin had found out and had been blackmailing him, which was why he hadn't been around much lately. At this point, Coco, Yatsu, and Fox wanted to go down the hall and pay the bully a visit and give him a taste of what would happen to him if he ever tried to make good on that threat. They already had a bone or two dozen to pick with the boy for how he was always bullying Velvet, but she was far too nice to let them do as they would like with him. Believing that if she showed Cardin respect and tolerance, he would eventually learn to show the same to her.

Yang, Nora, and Ruby were all for it as well. While Weiss and Ren advised a subtler approach was more appropriate while looking at Jaune with either disapproval or disappointment.

Jaune, Velvet, Ray, and Pyrrha quickly calmed the others down and explained to them that Ozpin and the professors had always known and had decided to give him a chance since the luck or skill required to get one's hands on a fake transcript could be just as important as fighting ability and if he could get his combat capabilities up to acceptable levels by the time finals arrived then everything was fine. If he couldn't, then he would have been expelled anyway.

After some scolding from Weiss and Velvet and some reassurances all around that they were still friends, Jaune felt much better about himself. He was now more determined than ever to prove that he was worthy of not only being here at Beacon but of being friends with such unique, kind, and gifted people.

---Saturday, June 5---

"My head hurts." Jaune moaned as he rested his face in the open book in front of him.

"Come on, Jaune. Just a little bit longer." Velvet encouraged him. As the smartest of their seniors, Velvet had been tasked with helping Jaune study and making sure he was ready for their upcoming midterms next week. The boy was determined, but there was a lot of material to go over, and as someone who wasn't use to studying, it was a painful process for Jaune.

Around them, Ray and the other members of team CFVY were helping the other first years study in small groups.

"All right. I can do this." Jaune tried to pump himself up as he sat up straight and focused his attention on the notebook full of notes Ren had let him borrow.

"That's the spirit!" Velvet cheered him on, her eyes glowing slightly from the Aura concentrated within them. Ever since she had broken through into the Aura Sight realm during her last Aura Manipulation class, she hadn't been able to stop using it. The details and secrets revealed to her from seeing and feeling the flow of Aura around her brought a beauty to the world that absolutely fascinated her. She just couldn't bring herself to turn it off.

Like how Weiss unconsciously circulated her Aura around inside her head while she was concentrating.

How Blake subtly increased the strength of her Aura whenever someone got near her around where they were about to touch.

How Ray's Aura constantly flowed in steady stream throughout his body, just below the surface, like an endless river ever flowing smoothly from the mountains to the sea. But if you looked closely, you could see the thundering currents raging beneath.

How Yang's Aura was bright and shiny on the surface but hid smatterings of darkness beneath.

And how Ruby's tended to gravitate towards Weiss and her siblings whenever she was focusing on something or became absent-minded.

How pure Pyrrha's was, how energetic Nora's was, how confused Ren's was, and how vast, yet unfocused, Jaune's was. Despite how hard he had been working, it was clear he had only gained control of a fraction of his enormous reserves of Aura.

How tightly Yatsu held his Aura in and in contrast how Fox's spread out around him, touching everything.

And how comfortable and reliable Coco's made her feel whenever she was near.

---Saturday, June 12---

"Right foot red." Ren announced. With their midterms finally over, they had all been in the mood to do something active even after they had survived this week's Hell Training. So, after deciding against a midnight water gun fight or flashlight tag, they had settled on a game of twister. A decision many of the guys were starting to both regret and anticipate now as they watch a blushing stoic-faced Yatsu become more and more intertwined with Yang, Pyrrha, and Velvet.

[[Switch with me!]] Ray, Fox, and Jaune shouted in their minds at their lucky comrade through Fox's telepathy semblance that they had been using to make comments about the beautifully supple and sensually flexible bodies of their fairer teammates that they would just as soon keep between the guys.

Ren and Yatsu struggled to keep their faces neutral as their voices resounded in their heads as the samurai struggled to maintain his balance and keep his sword in its sheath while soft bodies and delicate fragrances wafted around him and the ninja struggled to maintain his professional mask while watching closely to completing his mission as referee of the match.