Jaune really should have been born a girl like his sisters.
That's what Pyrrha had honestly thought when she'd first seen her best friend in his customized Maid Outfit.
Even though at this point Pyrrha knew she had no interest in the same gender, she'd thought Jaune was beautiful, even if he waved it all off as the effects of makeup.
He could make jokes about being much less cute as a child (he was lying, he was plenty cute in his younger years from the photos he had sheepishly shared) and such all he wanted, that didn't change that in the current he was prettier than some of the girls in their class.
W-was it alright to take photos? She wanted just one, no three. Three would be enough, just as long as she got a few different angles!
M-maybe she should ask Emerald for help later? She was really good at that sort of thing. Honestly sometimes she was really like a ninja from a manga, always appearing from seemingly nowhere.
"Got your eye on some Arc Eye Candy, eh, Nikkos?" Chloris snickered as she waggled her brows at Pyrrha, who straightened her back, her face pulling into a neutral smile.
"I'm not sure what-"
Pyrrha leapt to her feet, walking forwards quickly in her tailored three piece uniform.
She was on break, but wanted to just stay in the Cafe and watch Jaune on his shift so that she could get a few minutes wandering around Sanctum with him when everyone would be let go to grab some snacks at the food trucks that had been allowed onto the campus.
Plus, despite the fact that she didn't particularly care for the interyear rivalries between the sixth years of Sanctum, she'd already given her word that she'd fully participate, and just taking her break inside the cafe was still good publicity for their class's booth.
Maybe a bit too much publicity.
Her hand snatched hard at the wrist of a Scroll being snuck low by Jaune's skirt as his back had been turned to deal with a customer, his tail lazily wagging as he enjoyed a bit of polite conversation.
There was no flash, but Pyrrha just gave a polite smile, even if her eyes were narrowed.
"Excuse me. While photography isn't disallowed, this is inexcusable." Her voice lowered slightly threateningly, her Aura bubbling with the scent of yarrow root and earth.
"We'll handle this, Miss Nikkos." One of the 'bouncers' for their cafe (just one of her family's guards that were hired in the aftermath of that accident two years ago) smiled as he pulled the rude guest from his chair. "You'll have to come with us, sir."
Pyrrha quickly deleted the photo of Jaune's bike shorts under his skirt and scanning the gallery to check if there had been any other strange-
"My hero." Jaune bumped his shoulder into her bicep, being shorter than her, he had long eyelashes, "But really, don't delete anything and give it to the teacher instead. Just in case anything needs to be kept for evidence?"
"Oh. You're right." Pyrrha blinked, quickly going into the settings instead and keeping the Scroll from entering hibernation from inactivity, just in case it had a password lockscreen. "Ok. I'll get it to-"
"I can take that." Class President stepped forward with a frown, "Sorry that happened Jaune. I was only looking the other way for a moment."
"We caught it quickly and we can't keep tabs on everything while we're working. Don't worry, Prez." Jaune just brushed past it all, "I've had weirder things happen, this isn't a big deal."
Weirder things?
"No man, that shiiiii-uh stuff isn't ok. I'm Class President, so I'll make sure this doesn't happen again." He reassured, holding off from swearing in front of guests and customers. Really, despite his womanizing, Neptune Vasilias could be pretty reliable… at times. "I'm going to make sure we have a rule on the board requesting all Scrolls to be kept visible on the table. We got celebrities in here, so people will understand, right?"
She stopped herself frowning at the word celebrities. While it was true-
Her back straightened as Jaune just looked up at her with a small smile and a pat on her back.
She swallowed involuntarily before smiling back at him.
"Alright, Pyr, go back and take a break. Gotta look pretty for the guests stopping in to see you." He joked as she rolled her eyes, feeling happy at the compliment.
"Not as pretty as you are right now." She teased back, though a bit distracted by how pretty Jaune looked right now.
"Ehe he he. Thanks, Pyr." Jaune scratched his cheek sheepishly, his cheeks flushing, looking extra cu-
Ah. He was reading her thoughts right now, wasn't he?! NOOO-
Pyrrha blushed as Jaune waved his hands in front of his pinkened face.
"R-really, it's not, you know, not mind reading!"
"Welcome to Argus, Miss Schnee, Mr Schnee." Pepper smiled politely as she gave a casual salute.
She shaped up whenever they spent summers in Atlas, but when in Argus, despite being a Specialist, she was allowed to be more relaxed. Honestly, she'd gotten so used to it by this point that Pepper wasn't sure if she'd even be able to work back in Atlas proper in the future.
Maybe she'd just retire early to a beachfront in Menagerie in the future? Honestly, that tropical flair was really relaxing. She could even do some casual work to keep in shape while helping some good people, to boot. Could be nice.
Weiss and Whitley Schnee just both gave her a polite nod and hello as some servants helped unload their luggage from the inside of the airship.
And it seemed Weiss Schnee was a big packer. Pepper understood the desire to carry her wardrobe everywhere (she'd been tempted to have Jaune's assistance in doing so sometimes, but she didn't think that'd be very professional) but even she wouldn't have been strong-willed enough to do as such.
Though knowing the rough estimate of the Schnee fortune, the six large compartment trunks were probably only a fraction of her actual wardrobe.
"Thank you for coming to pick us up, Specialist Gyarul." Weiss gave another polite word of thanks as they loaded up into their armored car. Even so as VIPs, they got the one with the plush and comfortable leather interior. Even the driver's seat was snazzed up, feeling plush and bougie. "We do appreciate it."
"Aww, don't mention it." Pepper slipped back into casual cadence now they were outside of earshot from their stuffy attendants. "Jaune asked me to come and greet you because he's currently busy working at his class's little cafe."
Weiss gave a contemplative frown.
"I don't understand why they have him working like this for a festival, though. It seems beneath him."
"It's a part of the culture for education in Mistral." Pepper laughed as she began driving out of the landing strip and towards Argus proper. "Twice a year they celebrate the Spring and Fall Equinox, even if they're handling the Spring one early thanks to the Vytal festival. Fall handles the Athletics while Spring is the Culture Festival where students get a hand at seeing what other schools are like normally and so the hosting students make an event of it all. Usually it's more staggered out over Spring so that you can go visit other schools and academies for all walks of life inside Argus, but that's less of a focus this year because we have a bunch of foreign guests coming in."
"I did a bit of research and read that normally it's an event that takes two to three days at most." Whitley chimed up excitedly, "But it's going to be a full week long this year, right?"
"Right, taking advantage of Vytal Fesival's added tourism." Pepper nodded, turning into a street. "Plenty of time to not just see Sanctum but Argus as well. It's not as fancy as Atlas, but it's pretty, isn't it? Hold up, we'll crest this hill in a moment and you'll get a view of the settlement proper."
The car crested at the top of the hill, looking down at Argus's northern half, the sight of a city built upon numerous hills adding patterns of asymmetric colors that caught the eye. Sanctum was located on a hill near the wall to the southeast. The ocean was clear and bright today, as luckily a bit of a warm front had rolled in, though that made Pepper worry slightly for a cold snap in the coming week.
"It's quite pretty." Weiss noted calmly, though Pepper could see her blue eyes glimmer.
The Schnee girl was as pretty as her older sister, and Pepper could see just how her young ward was quite smitten with her appearance. Even so, she'd seen how he'd suddenly got more touchy with his childhood friends Yang and Blake in Menagerie.
She barely hid a grin.
She was looking forward to how all of this would turn out once Weiss was finally informed of such changes. She wasn't a bad girl, but she'd definitely become more than complacent no small part in what the Arc Family joked was Jaune's Schnee Fetish.
At the rate she was going, she'd just lose her chance entirely before she'd even decide that she wanted to pursue Jaune or not.
Either way it'd be fun for her to watch as some weird mix between surrogate big sister and aunt. Aside from Jaune looking for privacy so he could go off and play mad scientist somewhere he really did treat her and Specialist Briarsong like family. A truly sweet kid.
Still, you really had to make your own fun on an assignment as long term as watching over and protecting Professor Jaune 'The Centennial Genius' Arc.
He was growing too old to be kept being referred to as the Little Professor anyways, even if he was on the shorter side. It was something that the General and Professor Polendina was pushing to make sure Jaune didn't end up with an image issue as he grew into an adult. Plenty of bitter naysayers would use his old title as a way to bring him down, after all.
"Do you all know what Jaune's class is doing for their festival booth, by the way?" She grinned, already setting herself up to tease Jaune mercilessly later. "Did he tell you two?"
"He mentioned that they'd be working a cafe, but that he wouldn't be the one doing the cooking or brewing and would make machines for his classmates to work instead." Weiss recalled, still gazing out the window at the Argus scenery. "But by his claim that the coffee machine was merely up to minimum standards that likely means it's probably more than viable as a commercial product, so I'll have to talk about it later with him."
Ah yes, because the poor girl was being groomed into being a businesswoman on top of a Huntress. She'd been used to get some small products out of Jaune for collaborative works with the SDC which had been branching out into domestic products amongst other things.
It was funny because most of those household appliances were merely things that Jaune had made to make his parent's lives easier, but now the whole world was benefiting.
Even if most of those weren't new things, they were more reliable and better than anything on the current market, even years after they were released onto the market. Still, even though he'd promised the current coffee machine he'd made to his homeroom teacher, Pepper would definitely be asking for a copy later.
"Which is a shame." Whitley chuckled. "Jaune's cooking ability is astonishing. However, his classmates wouldn't be able to keep up and they'd certainly get complaints about inconsistent quality."
"That's why he's working as a server only."
Weiss frowned, as if affronted that her not-boyfriend was being made to serve as a waiter (having no clue he was working as a waitress instead).
"Is that wise? Mistral isn't very kind to Faunus."
It was something that Noire Briarsong found more interesting than Pepper herself, that Weiss Schnee (despite her headstrong and unyielding personality) was actually quite protective of Jaune, and by extension, Faunus in general. Though she'd had little real success in really changing their plight, it appeared that at the least inspections of mines that used more Faunus labor got a bit more direct company oversight in a vague attempt to humor the girl.
Though it only really caught cases of embezzlement, it was excuse enough to enforce searches on mines and had. in a very minor way, caused Faunus treatment to marginally increase.
"They have working guards from the Nikkos family at the moment. Young miss Nikkos is likely watching him work on break. Those two are pretty inseparable."
"Yes, Pyrrha's told me as such." Weiss smiled excitedly, not seeming to notice Pepper's insinuation. "We keep in touch often, though I will be surprising her by meeting in person."
On one hand she'd gotten a different result than she'd expected. On the other…
"Oh? Miss Nikkos isn't expecting you?" Pepper didn't let herself smile as she gazed back through the rear view mirror.
"Oh no, the additional week of leisure… well it came as a surprise to both of us. I'm sure even Jaune was a bit surprised, as I'd more or less been made to board the airship before I could really get a message off. Father isn't usually quite so…" Weiss pursed her lips.
"Relaxed?" Whitley offered for his sister.
"...something like that." She nodded.
"Hmmm." Pepper didn't know enough about the Schnee household to offer any further input. "Well either way, you'll be arriving roughly when Jaune performs today. Any thoughts on hearing him sing?"
"He's actually got a rather remarkable voice." Weiss complimented fairly with a nod, "Though he doesn't seem to care about the fact that specific detail as much as his songs themselves. He's actually helped with some of the chorus for the songs that my father's people had written for me to perform. I suppose it will be interesting to see him sing in person rather than something recorded on a Scroll."
"I'm excited!" Whitley smiled.
Pepper smirked.
"I been watchin' you lately~ Chasin' your tail and it drives me crazy~ You'll never get that gi~irl~"
These were one of those songs he hadn't performed for his family because it was clearly meant for a female performer. Still, although he'd learned how to play the guitar fully on his own, he'd freely used Gacha Abilities to allow him the ability to play other instruments so that he could record his own accompaniment on occasion.
It just cut VI and other people's interpretation out of the picture and let him just recreate his dream songs as perfectly as he possibly could.
"She don't see in you the things that I can see~ The girl's ice cold, it-ain't meant to be~ Look, you'll never land a part in her world~"
But considering that he was dressed (publically for the first time) in a girl's outfit, meh, it was a nice way of getting one of his dream songs off his chest.
He wouldn't really have an excuse to perform this song normally, as it (for some reason) was some sort of love song from a girl to a boy. Actually it could be to another girl, he wasn't sure. Still some of the songs he sometimes got out of Dreams of Purpose were odd, but maybe it was just a result of him still trying to figure out his complicated romantic situation?
The subconscious mind wasn't always logical, after all.
"I been spendin' time wondering why~ Nothing that I do can catch your e~ye~ Just can't capture your attention~"
Wait, that meant this was his first performance of this song, wasn't it? Hmmm. Farbiglas might get a bit miffed that she wasn't here to record this, even if plenty of people had their Scrolls out doing so.
Oops?
He'd make it up to her later.
"Maybe I'm too tall or not your type~ But I'm not givin' up, I'll get it right~ Being close to you is my intention~"
Pyrrha seemed to be enjoying it, bobbing her head along, though not very specifically paying attention to the lyrics as much as she did the flow of the beat and song. She was always more of an enjoy first, analyze the fight later kind of girl, after all.
"I see more in you than the rest of them do~ And I'm not gonna let you fall~ (Let you fall~) I'll swallow my pride~ (Swallow my pride~) Time after time, 'cause you're wo~rth i~it all~"
Gods, Bi-Vocal was so useful for singing his own harmonies and chorus moments, though trying to position his lips for the overlapping words was a bit hard, even if the almost subconscious separation of his vocal cords and lungs came easy to him.
"Whenever I think of you~ How I wish you only knew~ You might be my dream come true~ But what do I have to do to make you notice me?~"
Still, just singing and playing music was fun. It was something selfish and just for him, no matter how much other people could be there enjoying it.
His eyes closed (catching Big Brother Juniper just laying back in the air, fingers tapping along to the beat on his chest from his right hand) as he continued to sing, bouncing on the balls of his toes, dancing side to side, occasionally spinning, his hands strumming his guitar (a black V guitar to not clash with his outfit) as he lost himself entirely to the memory of his dreams.
"Oh, ya know that, you and I, we would be alright~ We could dance on the roof, we could light the ni~ight~ Gotta make you see me in that way~ (That way~)"
What the hell was Arc even half the time?
Neptune was just enjoying the music, same as anyone else, but even though he'd assured the rest of the class he'd have no issue with performing publicly (there wasn't a single video of him doing so online, nor had he ever offered for the sake of their class before so it had been a legitimate concern he'd had for his classmate) Jaune hadn't mentioned that he'd written a completely new fucking song for the Spring Festival!
"Why don't ya forget about the little chick-in-white?~ She don't care about you and she's so uptight~ Let me put a smile on your face~"
Teal swayed as she squealed and clapped her hands along to the music under his arm. She wasn't really a first choice kind of girl, and he'd not really super considered the intelligent type before, they were meshing… surprisingly well.
Maybe smart girls were what he should look for going forwards? Honestly he was actually enjoying their conversations, rather than just the physical affection stuff. Not that he didn't want physical relationships either.
"How I wish that you knew that I'm crazy for you~ When I'm with you, time just flies~ (Time just flies~)"
But Jaune Fucking Arc performing a new song for the first time in their cafe while in a maid outfit and looking honestly more like a girl (Neptune was suffering some weirdly conflicting stirrings) than some of the prettier girls in their year was surreal.
And of course he wrote a fucking love song.
Leave Arc's love life alone. Ren said. He's got it complicated enough as it is. Ren said.
Yeah as if there weren't girls going to take it the wrong way now that Arc was singing love songs. Yeah, sorry Ren-man. Good luck with your brother.
He had enough love issues as it was, as he just couldn't stop himself from flirting with anyone that'd give him the attention.
Just because he was Class President didn't mean he'd be stepping into that mess that would inevitably be coming up. Never mind the fact that most of his love issues were of his own making.
He wasn't so blind that he didn't know that he himself was kind of the problem.
"I'll get you alone~ (Get you alone~) Make you my own, it will be~eee~ di~ivine~"
Even with his eyes closed, Jaune could play a mean little guitar solo, skirt spinning and swishing as his fingers danced over his instrument as he bounced up and down. Actually with how much he was bouncing on his toes and getting into the music, it was weirdly better that he was a boy and not a girl.
If Jaune had been a girl with tits that would have been bad with how much motion he put into that all. They'd already had a weird issue with some dumbass trying to get an upskirt photo, if in the alternate universe that Jaune had been a girl, there would be a lot more issues with him being recorded right now on top of that.
Would have been nice if Teal had been slightly bigger.
But speaking of bigger boobs, who were the two girls that came to visit him on break? He'd played a bit of an emergency wingman and distracted Pyrrha by getting her to help move a few things, but as a result he'd missed it when they'd disappeared.
Don't give my brother shit about his love life. Ren said.
Shit, Ren was lucky they were friends or he'd be grilling Jaune about all the juicy details. That blond girl had been hot. The black and white one had been pretty as well. Something about girls in knitted clothing, even if just a beanie, really hit just right.
And-
Holy shit, was that Weiss Schnee?!
"I can keep on waitin'~ 'Cause my heart, I been savin'~ I think you're gonna figure it out~ I'm the one for you and there's no one else~"
Weiss blinked.
"Why is Jaune in a… a what is that?"
"Wait, that's Jaune?" Whitley confusedly whispered at her side, sounding incredibly befuddled. "How?!"
Yes, that was a communal feeling right now. Just quite confusion.
"Shh." She hushed, trying to still catch the remainder of the song. She'd heard the guitar solo before she'd stepped in from a bit down the hallway, but she still wanted to catch the rest of it.
"Whenever I think of you~ And how I wish you only knew~ That you might be my dream come true~ What do I have to do to make you my baby?~"
The only reason she'd recognized him on sight was that… well. Jaune was more or less, her closest friend.
Best friend, arguably, though more by merit of being the only friend she got to meet on a regular basis. With very few exceptions she hung out with him on Saturday nights, though usually in the presence of both of her siblings (only occasionally without Winter's supervision), usually in Vale (very rarely in Mantle) via the honestly ridiculous flexibility of Jaune's Semblance.
He claimed it was a variant of Item Manipulation, but she was pretty sure that it was in actually some fascinatingly interesting adaptation of Umbrakinesis. It was very rare to have a Kinetic type of Semblance and she'd never really heard of shadow manipulation before Jaune.
"Whenever I think of you~ (Oh, whenever I think of you)~ Only knew~ (Oh, how I wish you knew that I'm in love with you~) Dream come true~ (Ooh, woo)~ What do I have to do to make you notice—"
Of course a few such variants had to exist somewhere on Remnant (if not in its history) but perhaps his trauma of running away from home as a child had affected him more than he let on?
In an attempt to help her through her own issues with her… ugh 'Daddy Issues' sounded so juvenile and silly, but it was more or less the truth of the matter.
"It's gonna be you for me, and me for you~ (Think of you)~ We're gonna shine a light and make a dream come true~ Gotta get it right while we got the time~ (Only knew)—"
Didn't he need to breathe? Rather it seemed strangely, as if the additional bits of chorus and accompaniments weren't pre-recorded. No. Was he singing multiple lines simultaneously?! WHAT?!
Couldn't her friend just make sense? Gosh, Jaune could be so frustrating.
"Gonna win your heart, I'm gonna make you mine~ Come on, come on~ (Dream come true)~ Come on, come on, come on, come on now, baby~ What do I have to do to make you notice me?~ Me~"
She'd have to get someone to show her a version of the song from the beginning, considering that she'd been waylaid by a few reporters on the way in. Or get Jaune to play it again at some point. She was caught up on all of his current music and this one was definitely new.
She clapped politely as the rest of the slightly packed classroom cafe whooped and cheered as Jaune fished with a short outro of "Notice me~ Noti~ice me~"
Actually all the boys were wearing maid outfits and the girls were in suits, now that she observed properly.
Was this a Mistral thing?
It was humorous, she'd have to give them that. It likely wouldn't have flown in Atlas as being 'improper' but would have been acceptable down in Mantle as well as in Vale from what she'd been able to gather to this point.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Nikkos." Whitley Schnee gave a polite bow, clearly looking out of place even if he didn't let it show on his face.
She could still tell though, as his muscles were tensed up nervously.
It was an ability she realized she'd developed suddenly out of almost nowhere one day, as if Jaune had been rubbing off on her more than she'd realized.
Sure all it was really just a variation on her ability to read the split-second sign of her foe's muscles tensing to attack (and it was almost useless on Jaune because his musculature was unnaturally lean and didn't show much) to just read the physical state of others.
It really only was good for sensing nervousness or aggression and little more, but it still had some value.
Although he attributed it to something Nora helped him realize, there was no such thing as a useless technique, simply that it required the user to apply it effectively.
"Nice to meet you, Whitley." She smiled, as he and Weiss were both siblings it wouldn't exactly be right to call him Schnee in that moment when Weiss was also in earshot. Also referring to people by their family names primarily was a Mistralian thing, and might be strange to somebody from Atlas. "I've been penpals with your sister for a while."
"Oh I'm quite aware." The boy smirked, his gaze turning to Weiss who was currently getting a photo taken by someone from a newspaper with a slightly uncomfortable looking Jaune who immediately began smiling like a goof as Weiss squeezed in closer to him. He'd brought it up once in passing that he thought Weiss and her older sister were both very pretty, but seeing it in person was oddly uncomfortable. "She won't stop bragging about it at home. Rather she won't shut up about it."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"No, no. Nothing to apologize over." Whitley gave a short laugh, "My sister and I don't have many friends. Jaune's been one of the best friends we could have ever asked for, but aside from him, we're not allowed to associate with anyone that our father doesn't order us to get close to, which isn't exactly a large list either."
He leaned in conspiratorially, requiring Pyrrha herself to lean down to hear him whisper towards her.
"Honestly some days she just stares at her Scroll waiting for messages from you and Jaune, so thank you for keeping in touch with my sister."
Pyrrha giggled, smiling as she leaned back and nodded.
In many ways she and Weiss weren't too different after all.
"I'm glad to be friends with Weiss, though we'd never had much ability to meet in person." Pyrrha happily admitted. "I wasn't expecting to be able to spend time with her until the Vytal Festival, but I'm excited to get an extra week to hang out."
Whitley smiled, satisfied, as his frame let go of some tension.
"That would be swell. She's been looking forward to it much more than she's been letting on."
"You best not be putting any words in my mouth, dear brother." Weiss was scowling as she walked back towards Pyrrha and Whitley, her arm was locked in Jaune's. "I am quite capable of speaking for myself, thank you very much."
"H-hey, Whit." Jaune smiled at the younger Schnee, his arm slowly beginning to pull out of Weiss's his face red. "Whassup."
"Nothing much, Jaune." Pyrrha saw the boy give a casual grin that she hadn't seen on the polite boy until this point. "Nice skirt."
Jaune used that as an excuse to pull away full and do a twirl.
"It's too bright for my taste, so I slapped some black on it, with pink for contrast. I don't understand wearing white aprons. That's so dumb. Any stain will show on it immediately."
Whitley coughed into his hand.
"Pretty sure that's supposed to be a presentation thing, showing that they can cook so well that they don't need to even get a stain on their clothes."
"Eh." Jaune shrugged. "Difference in philosophy, I guess. Real food needs love, not pride."
That was such a Jaune thing to say.
"Speaking of pride-" Pyrrha interrupted, her fingers cracking, "Because of the festival I haven't been able to get any exercise in. You want to grab a training room for a spar in a bit, Jaune?"
"Oho?" Jaune's face gave her a smirk that she couldn't help but match. "That a challenge, Pyr?"
"If you think you can keep up in that skirt, Jaune."
"Hold up! Wait, that's brilliant!" Class President suddenly butt in, pulling away from Teal's face, fixing his collar roughly. "How about you two do an exhibition spar in uniform? We can put it up online as advertisement! I'll give you both half shifts tomorrow in return!"
Pyrrha felt her eyes light up, turning to see Jaune had the same idea, turning in her direction.
As celebrities (she hated that word) known with inter-Kingdom fame, they had a full two hour shift every day of the festival as there would be a lot of complaints if at least one of them didn't show during operation hours. But if they both got a half shift, they could go and have fun at the festival together! Probably with Weiss and her brother in tow.
"DEAL!" They both laughed, as they turned back to Vasilias.