{THIRD PERSON POV}
It had been a day since Miles left for his mission, when Luna got a call from him early in the morning saying that he was coming home today.
She... she should have been happy that Miles was coming home early... she should have... but she couldn't bring herself to feel happy when she heard his voice. The last time his voice sounded like that was two nights ago, when he revealed to her the real reason why he stopped Jaune's training.
She had a strong feeling that she would have to arrange another family trip to try to cheer up Miles. Yesterday's picnic trip was supposed to cheer him up, but unfortunately Ozpin was being a bastard and just had to ruin her plan.
Why did Ozpin need Miles to search for a missing Maiden? Didn't he have his own people to do that? Miles may be close to Anbar, but it had been almost 17 years since they last saw each other. Miles wouldn't magically know where Anbar would be just because they were close years ago.
"Sigh," Luna let out a sigh before she picked up her Scroll and opened it to see today's date, because she wanted to arrange a trip to the beach to take Miles's mind off whatever had happened on his mission.
When she looked at today's date, her eyes widened before she put the Scroll down. "....That explains a lot of things.." What did it explain, you may ask? Today was John's death anniversary. Miles was always... depressed at this time of the year... not that she could blame him. Having to hold onto your father as he dies could make anyone depressed.
She should have known something more was going on when Miles stopped Jaune's training, but now it was in the past... if she could slap her past self, then she would.
Thankfully, after that day, Jaune never brought up anything about becoming a Huntsman again... when usually that was all he would ever talk about... how he wanted to be a great Huntsman just like his dad... and his dad's dad... which didn't help with Miles's trauma.
She herself could attest that after the death of his father, it took Miles about seven to eight months before he got a little better... and that was only because Artoria was born and he had to slap himself awake because he now had another child to take care of.
As for Saphron? Well, in those months that he was depressed, he tried his best with Saphron... but she could tell that he wasn't his usual self. Thankfully, by the time she was pregnant with Mordred... he had come back to his usual self.
So... planning on arranging a trip... how would she do that today? She was probably going to look at the schedule of her kids first, Saphron most importantly.... she didn't want Saphron to fail an exam because the day she was out of school was the day an exam took place, or an important subject was being distributed by the teachers. Yesterday, Luna was lucky because Saphron's school was flooded; one of the students had pulled the fire alarm and, unfortunately, broke most of the appliances there, so they gave the students a day off.
She opened her Scroll again and looked at the day, and thankfully, it was Thursday. Miles probably needed a whole day to relax at home after this mission, and on Saturday they could go to the beach.
Speaking of beaches... the kids, thankfully, also loved swimming... well, not Mordred. If it was snorkeling, then she could do it, but if she was floating on top of the water and the waves were slightly too strong for her? Well, the whole ocean was going to be in range of what Mordred liked to call... her "splash zone."
She wondered how Mordred would fare in her future career as a Huntress. She would have to fight on a vehicle someday; Luna herself had experienced fighting on top of a moving vehicle.
Well, now that she thought about it, Mordred could probably win that kind of fight by vomiting on the Grimm.
Speaking of Grimm, it had been a while since she last saw any. She thought the last time she saw a Grimm was almost half a decade ago, when Mountain Glenn fell for the second and last time and she had to volunteer as a healer...
It was the first and hopefully the last time she had seen so many corpses left behind. That was a tragedy... a massacre... there was no other word for it.. its almost worse than the first time it fell from what the reports said about the first time it fell..
She had used her Semblance hundreds of times and depleted her Aura at least more than a dozen times in the span of five days... five days of running on only caffeine and energy drinks.
Thankfully, Saphron and Artoria were old enough to take care of their siblings, and the people in town were kind enough to help the kids with anything they needed. She had a feeling it was Jaune's doing... because, from what she knew, out of all of her children, the only one who helped around town was Jaune, and Mordred only if he dragged her.
Luna once asked him why he did what he did... because they were basically strangers to him and he was a child. Shouldn't he be playing video games with Mordred or playing with his friends?
<=======]==¤
Luna watched from the porch as her husband mowed the lawn, while the rest of the children played with each other or simply minded their own business.
"Saphron... where is your brother?" she asked Saphron, who was also on the porch, snacking on some fruit.
"Jaune? The last time I saw him was two hours ago... he was with Artoria," Saphron replied to her mother. "Is there something wrong?"
Luna shook her head. "No... there isn't anything wrong. I'm just looking for your brother, that's all." She then scanned the yard and looked for Artoria until she found her watching over her younger sisters as they played near a tree.
"Artoria! Come here for a second!" she called out. Artoria nodded, said something to Jeanne and the twins, and walked over.
"What is it, Mother?" Artoria asked in her usual disciplined tone, tilting her head slightly.
Luna shook her head to clear her thoughts before looking back at Artoria. "Have you seen your brother?"
Artoria's lone strand of hair twitched before she shook her head. "No..."
"When was the last time you saw him?" Luna asked.
"Jaune was with Mordred two hours ago, after he asked me if I wanted to join him to go into town," Artoria answered, and Luna let out a sigh.
"That child of mine... well, if you see him later, can you tell your little brother that I want to talk to him about something?" Artoria nodded before walking back to Jeanne and the twins.
Three hours passed, and just before Luna started making dinner, she heard Mordred talking loudly. If Mordred was there, then there was a good chance that Jaune was also there.
She didn't know how, but for the past year, Jaune and Mordred had been really close with each other.
Not that she was complaining; their personalities bounced off each other really well.
When Jaune and Mordred came into the kitchen, Mordred whispered something to Jaune. He nodded, and she then went upstairs to her room, most likely.
"Mom! Artoria told me that you were looking for me!" Jaune smiled brightly and jogged over to her.
"I guess I was," Luna replied coyly. "And why would a mother be searching for the whereabouts of her son? I wonder why?" She smirked before ruffling Jaune's hair.
"Come on, help me make dinner for you and the others." She didn't exactly need Jaune's help... but it was a good way for her and her son to bond, and it also helped that, surprisingly, Jaune was responsible enough for her to trust him not to cut his hands. Not that she let him use a knife; he usually helped with mixing and things that didn't involve blades or fire.
As they made dinner, Luna looked at Jaune before opening her mouth to ask him something.
"Jaune... you never told me why you always help around town. You do know that you don't need to do that, right?" She glanced at him and saw he was still smiling as usual.
"Why? Well... I... I always have this... feeling in my heart, like I want to help them... like it's... like I have to do it. And I enjoy it too..." He hummed. "And I guess... strangers are just friends you haven't met yet, right?"
<=======]==¤
"Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet... that child of mine is something special. He would be a heartbreaker when he grows up; that I can bet on." Luna let out a chuckle before getting off her bed, planning to go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast before the kids woke up.
But she wouldn't say no to Jaune if he wanted to help her. Nowadays, if she were sick or away (which was never, because she couldn't go away for a day or two without worrying about her kids), she could trust Jaune to make the meals with a bit of help from Saphron.
When she arrived at the kitchen, she started taking out a couple boxes of pancake mix, eggs, and bacon, because Mordred loved them. It wasn't an elaborate breakfast, but it would do, and it wasn't like any of her children were picky eaters... thank God for that, because if all eight (seven) of her children were picky eaters, she didn't know if she could survive. She couldn't imagine making eight (seven) different meals every time food was served.
After twenty minutes, Saphron came down with Olivia and walked up to her.
"Mom..." Saphron yawned. "Good morning, Mom." She greeted her mother and put Olivia into her chair. "Good morning, Mama..."
"Good morning to you too, Saphron, Olivia..." Luna began plating the food on the table as the rest of her children trickled in with good mornings of their own... except for Jaune, which was weird.
It was strange enough that he didn't come down to help her, and it was even stranger that he wasn't here now to eat.
Well, maybe he was just tired, which was understandable. Yesterday at the park, Jaune played everything her daughters asked him to play, from freeze tag to climbing a tree because Noir kicked a ball way too hard and got it stuck up there.
As the rest of her kids started to eat, Jeanne looked around before looking at Luna. "Mom, did Jaune already eat? Why isn't he here?"
Luna shook her head. "No. I have a feeling that maybe Jaune is a little tired from yesterday. How about one of you wake him up?"
Mordred, who had been silent the whole time, quickly shoveled a few pieces of bacon into her mouth before standing up. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll drag his ass back here." She left before any of them could reply.
When Mordred went upstairs and reached Jaune's door, she didn't even bother to knock, because his room was basically her room now with how many times she had come in and stayed until late at night to get tutored by Jaune... which she hated. She was the big sister, for fuck's sake... it was supposed to be the other way around.
When she got inside his room, it took everything she had to stop herself from screaming for their mother, because Jaune was curled up on the floor with sweat all over his body, clutching his chest in pain.
"Jaune!"
[You could read up to 10 chapter ahead if you support me on patr30n. At patreon.com/Zaneninjacat]