• Better Than Ever • [8-Bone Shatter] Continuation | END |

"Nah, like, a big dick is fun and all, but it's not everything." She tried to wave it off and sound very mature, which, obviously she cared about more than dick size, which in reality she cared very little about size, smaller felt better sometimes in her opinion. Her words carried a sense of self awareness and knowing that she very clearly lacked.

"Okay then, what else? I know I love when Coco has fun little date surprises for me, what do you want, help us narrow it down." the bunny-girl offered enthusiastically.

"Yeah, see if we exclude Jaune from your equation." Coco rolled her eyes like it was ridiculous he was even in the running, which with the only qualifier being a foot of man meat, Amber found a little insulting that they were doubting him.

Even still she bit her tongue.

"Well. Like, when I find guys at the gym, they're always trying to prove how strong they are. They get so petty when I can lift more than them, or, like, insult me or try and say my muscles don't count because I'm a girl." Yang just huffs and crosses her arms under that impressive bust. "Like, I'd love to date someone weaker than me, I wanna be the strong one they ask to lift boxes, not find a guy to do it for me!"

"Girl power!" Coco agreed, nodding and throwing up a rock-on symbol with her hands.

"Exactly! And don't even get me started on guys that want to 'tame' me. Do guys really think their dick game is better than my hitachi??" Yang huffed with all the girls laughing along in agreement, even Amber joined in on the light jovial banter. "Seriously though, where do they get that?"

Coco chirped up "You mean the-" Her voice dropped an octave to an unconvincing male voice. "I'll break you with my monster cock?" Her giggling still as that suave stature her voice always held.

"Meanwhile if you fight back even a little they just melt in your hands?" Amber added, who had long ago settled the squat bar back down and had plopped that fat ass down on a bench, towel over her shoulders and water bottle in hand.

"Does it really work like that?" Velvet looked so hopeful, obviously she was thinking of all the boys who had teased her before she and Coco got together, they had always thought her so submissive. Maybe she had grand ideas of revenge and turning the tables on them?

Miss Xiao Long just nodded, "Hooked up with one of those heavy hitters in second year, guy was six foot two and talked a whole lot of game about leaving me in a puddle, two minutes later I had his hands pinned and he was begging for a break." She pondered that for a second. "I think I did break his hip, actually."

Velvet just winced at that. "So you like softer guys?"

Her face almost looked unsure but she obviously had to think for a second, chewing her lip and nodded. "Yeah, I suppose, like, boyish? That's not the right word, I like manly, just… also maybe meek is the word?"

"Submissive" Amber called over after swallowing down a large gulp of water.

"Yeah, I mean, that's a good word." The blonde agreed. "I want someone I can cuddle and kiss, that it's not a competition, like, rough can be fun but I want to feel like I'm enjoying it with them, not being like, sexed upon." She made a gravitos motion with her hands like she was shoving something off herself.

The group roominated on that, digesting what she wanted. Coco looked over at Velvet with a knowing glance, pulling her waist in closer. "Well that does sound like Jaune still."

"I was gonna say that!" the wolf girl gasped in agreement.

"I- No, I'm really not into Jaune." Though Yang did have some apprehension from that statement. She couldn't help but admit if he was satisfying all three of his teammates, he must be doing something right.

"Well, any more qualifiers?" Velvet offered.

"Uhh." Yang put a finger to her lips, trying to think of something. "I like having someone I can talk to, you know? Someone who won't just bottle up their feelings. I want them to actually care when I talk about my day, or like tell me if I've made them upset."

"Why are men so bad at that?" Velvet just shook her head.

"It's because if they admit they have emotions they think it will turn them into women." Coco snickered, getting a playful little laugh from Yang and Velvet, though Amber didn't join in this time around.

"I'm not saying I want a guy who cries all the time, but like, at least I want him to show emotions." giving everyone a second to stop snickering for a moment. But, Amber was unsure about how to process what they'd said, she wasn't stupid but her limited experiences were that people tended to be needly cruel to each other and she could never understand why.

Maybe this was just that 'locker room talk' Harpy had spoken about, that they were just making fun of people to lighten the mood, that it wasn't serious. Even still, Harpy thought that locker room talk was a bad thing. Amber didn't speak up though, she wasn't the 'in crowd' she didn't really get to tell them how to talk in their own gym.

"So, Amber, still sound like Jaune?" Velvet asked with some mix of doubt.

"Is… This is going to sound dumb, I think." The wolf girl's ears flattened and she turned inward, looking embarrassed. "Are… are guys not like that?"

Yang looked like she was about to speak up but closed her mouth, instead focusing more on the implication of what she was saying. "I mean, Jaune and I talk about our feelings a whole lot, it was hard for him at first but only because it was hard for him to trust people after all the bullying he went through, people treating him like he was a wimp because he had an emotional side."

Coco winced like she'd been stung, Amber hadn't intended for that to be a barb against them but there was an air of truth they had been avoiding. In their eyes they had done the right thing, a cheater had been expelled and rightfully he had been cast out of the tribe because he had done wrong.

But Amber hadn't.

She liked Jaune and trusted him, he was her friend, and now their actions seemed callous, even if justified.

"I don't know, Jaune is really good at listening, he's always great at knowing if he needs to be mad and complain with us, or if he needs to be reasonable and try and help us through problems. And we're always there to try and help him through problems, I don't think we ever had issues with him being emotional." Amber just shrugged, it seemed obvious to her.

"Damn, you make him sound like a dream boat, Velvet, don't go leaving me for Atlas booty, alright?" Coco tried to lighten the mood and snuggled back into her girlfriend. The four girls sitting on opposite benches now just talking and shooting the shit.

"Fuck, I guess Jaune is my type, I can't really think of anything else." Yang shrugged. "Or I'm just dumb and missing something because I'm really not attracted to him."

Leaning back against a machine she just yawned, like she couldn't care less about anything in the whole world. "I'll find someone and until then, whatever, right?"

"My offer still stands to find you a hook up." And even though Coco offered it, Yang just waved her hand, tossing the idea away without giving it a second thought.

"Have you thought maybe you want a girlfriend?" Everyone turned to face Amber, looking at the wolf girl who had her water bottle between her lips, slowly lowering it.

Yang just let out a nice belly laugh, kicking her feet out and looking just tickled pink by the idea. "I mean, hey don't get me wrong, girls are plenty hot and it's fun to kiss them when I'm at a bar, but I'm really looking for a guy."

"Hey, you do you baby girl." Coco just twirled her finger in the air to indicate that she wasn't partial to any one direction.

"Besides you never know, Jaune might just be the stud you're waiting for." the shy bunny girl snickered along, all the girls joining in with even Amber laughing along, though in this case it was because she was starting to brew ideas on how to 'fetch' all of them for her master.

Which speaking of, she was starting to form the plan for each of them, even if Coco and Velvet were harder, she could think of a few ways to get them into Jaune's bed.

"So are you guys worried about your next match?" Changing the subject Yang directed her question at Velvet and Coco. "The two of you are fighting next, right?

"Coco and Daichi are fighting next, I'm not built for fighting other people, Grimm scare me enough already." Velvet bemoaned.

"Hey bun, you're plenty brave, the cutest warrior around-"

"Debatable." Amber retorted with a joking sly smirk on her face.

"-AND" Coco stole the conversation back "You're plenty brave against Grimm, I love going out on missions with you, I know you've always got my back." Giving her a little kiss on the cheek and made Velvet's face burn up red.

"Coco!" The bunny girl mewled, trying to push her away again.

"Mmm~ But to answer your question?" Coco did pull back this time and got a kind of worried look on her face. "Yeah, actually, That team from Haven is crazy good, that girl who two different colour eyes? I don't think anyone has even hit her yet. Plus have you seen mercury fight? Guy almost beat Pyrrha 1v1."

"Yeah he's scary, that Cinder girl is really intimidating, she doesn't even need to fight, her team basically does all the work without her lifting a finger." Yang made a face, then put up and hand and looked mildly embarrassed with herself. "I mean, not that she's going to give you guys any trouble, I'm sure you guys got this."

"Yeah! You guys kick butt!" Amber cheered them on, raising a fist into the air.

"Like you have to worry, Amber you're crazy strong, I doubt even Pyrrha will give you much trouble." the bunny faunus offered up to her new wolfish friend.

Amber just shrugged. "It's a tough call, Harpy and I going in? Hmmm, it'd be a toss up honestly."

"Okay, I get modesty, but come on, you wiped the floor with us." Yang protested, clearly not going to stand for her name to be tarnished by being an easy fight.

"Okay but we beat you with Jaune on our team."

"Jaune didn't even fight us." Yang raised a hand like she was waiting for Amber to put the answer to her query in it.

Amber made a face like she didn't understand and then made a surprised face. "I thought I was the only one who didn't know!" Putting her hand to her forehead her entire demeanour changed, obviously very proud she got to play the role of teacher. "So you know about Aura yeah?"

"Yeah?" Velvet put a finger to her lips, wondering where this was going. "It's a manifestation of our soul as fighters, it empowers us and defends us from harm."

"Ye, ye, ye!" Amber pointed a finger out and acted like that explained everything. "Right, Selmbances, well, basically we all have different levels of aura, it's something we're naturally born with like, uhhh, like if your mom and dad both have long fingers you might also have long fingers, yeah?"

"Okay?" Coco nodded, waving her hand for Amber to continue. "I mean, yeah."

"But like, we move aura through us when we need it, and can train it like a muscle, like when Big blonde-" Indicating towards Yang "-throw a punch we add our aura to the strike, and people with less aura rely on dust for their weapons because Grimm can only be hurt by dust or aura." Everyone was still waiting for her to continue, she sighed. "So normally it takes a lot of training and practice to control how much aura you use and not accidentally use too much aura when you're using a dust weapon, so people like ice queen bitch-" Referring to Weiss "-Always use way too much!"

She was so proud of being able to teach the things Jaune and Pale explained to her, it felt like she was the smart one, and she understood why people studied now, it was so exciting to be able to teach people things!!

"Okay…" Yang looked like she was going to call out Amber for being rude to her friend, but instead she could put that off for now. "So… what does that have to do with Jaune?"

"Jaune can link his Aura with others, feed them his own and if he focuses really hard, he can even manipulate our aura for us." Amber nodded emphatically, so overly proud of her master and how impressive his semblance is. "So we don't even need our aura most of the time, he can just control it to stop specific hits, or empower us exactly how much we need, we're never wasteful and it lets us outlast pretty much everyone."

She even brought up her arm to slap her bicep. "Like, Pale says I have a buttload of aura I just can't control it for dick. Apparently most people have their aura in like a bubble around them but mine it just flowing out at all times. So without Jaune I'd run out of stamina pretty quick!"

She started smiling big and bright, to which everyone realized; Jaune was like a limiter cap on her. Yang remembered what being hit by Amber was like, the idea of that being a tamed down, love tap, was horrifying.

"I didn't realize Jaune was such an important part of your team." Coco just whistled, obviously impressed by the story. "I'm terrible at controlling my aura, that's why I hang back and let my gianduja do all the work, rat-a-tat-tat, baby."

"I can't use it for defense at all." Velvet bemoaned, leaning onto Coco's shoulder and making a sad little noise in the back of her throat. Which got Coco patting her hair down.

"I've gotten better at it but it makes my brain hurt, thinking about it while trying to fight, like, it was so much easier when I just hit things really hard. Now I gotta think about how to hit things? It's just insane, what's next? Thinking about where to stand while hitting things?! What's the world coming to?" Amber groaned, agreeing with Velvet.

Yang… Well yang just nodded, agreeing under her breath but not adding to the conversation. She… She didn't even know she could manipulate her Aura. She'd seen Ren do it once, but only in a video recording, maybe it was her ignorance but Yang had assumed it was the asian girl's selmbance. She always kept her aura on reserve to use her semblance, just keeping it up all the time to absorb any hits so she could blast it all out in a big fiery explosion.

Jaune really controlled the aura of all his teammates?

She couldn't even control her own.

Judging from the words of everyone else, it seemed like they weren't much better than her.

"Clover keeps telling me it's not super important, that it comes with experience but like, isn't it just the coolest shit to deflect an entire attack with just your hands? Winter does it sometimes when she wants to show off but I know she likes when everyone is impressed, but I know." Amber nodded solemnly and made a face like she was so obvious of that talent.

"I've seen Ren do it." Yang idly said and immediately regretting it, Amber was about to go fight Ren's team. She shouldn't be giving away secrets like that.

"Lia can do it too? Oooo! Jaune and her hit it off, I really hope they hang out again, Harpy too!" The squealing wolf girl looked overjoyed. Everyone else looked Baffled.

"You guys are the weirdest people I've ever met." the leader of Velvet's team just shook her head. "Alright bun-bun, we should get some food before all the stalls run dry, You want us to grab you anything Girls?"

"Oh, Udon please~" Yang waved for them.

"Pale's actually out there right now, she's grabbing me a jumbo-dog, so I'm tight, G!" Amber waved goodbye to the two and watched them leave the gym with good-lucks and good-byes in equal measures, all four excited to exercise and gossip again together once the next round of the vytal festival was over.

Coco and velvet walked with their hips bumping against each other, little movements that collided with arms wrapped around each other's hips.

"You nervous?" the bunny girl asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it but obviously a little nervous for her girlfriend.

"I mean a little, but I'm not so easy to take down." Coco gave her little bun a wink, slowing her stride so she could rest her head in the faunus girl's hair, taking in a deep breath of her lover's shampoo, like strawberries. "I'm going to take team CVFY to the finals, don't you worry bun, ain't no pretty boy-band types going to stop that."

Velvet couldn't argue, she believed Coco could beat anyone, even the Atlas dream team. She might not have been famous for her competitions like Pyrrha but Coco was every bit as strong, and twice the tactician.

Their fingers touched just at the tips before they fit perfectly into the empty space of the other. A small chaste kiss filled with pride and love in every inch shared between the two before continuing down the hallways. "I love you." Coco muttered between their shared breaths.

"I love you too~" Velvet practically mewled out, nuzzling into her lover's chin. "I believe in you, Coco, I know you've got this."

"Well if you believe in me, I can't fail, can I?" Coco turned so she could press her butt into the push door, opening it with her back and leading Velvet by the hands out towards the large festival style outdoor food market.

The sounds and people were as varied and rich as the scents and sights of delicious food. You could see someone from every team no matter which direction you looked. Coco could see team RWBY's Blake sitting at a table with another faunus boy, Sun wukong from Vacuo, both of them laughing as he seemingly had clones carrying various different trays of food because his hands were already full of plates.

Meanwhile Velvet could see the green haired girl, Emerald she believed, from Cinder's team sitting and smiling while she spoke with Ruby and Harpy from Jaune's team, an odd trio that Velvet never thought she'd see getting along. However, there they were, all laughing and eating food together.

Coco pulled on her girlfriend's hand, dragging her to a lineup for a speciality noodle cart. "Pyrrha!" Coco called out with enthusiasm. "How's my favorite gladiator babe doing?"

"Huh? Oh!" Pyrrha smiled and waved when she saw Coco and Velvet striding up to her. "I am well, how are both of you?"

Even from the poorly made smile mask on her face, the two could see she was far from okay, it seemed like she was extremely nervous, barely holding herself together.

"You sure, baby-doll?"

"Yeah, if you're nervous about the fight you can tell us!" Velvet tried to sound encouraging. "Or, well, anything really, whatever you need."

Pyrrha couldn't though, she literally could not talk to anyone about it, well besides the teachers and- She shook that thought from her head. Just forcing another smile and reassuring them she was fine. "Just a little nervous about the fight, Jaune's team is really strong, I'm just making sure I'm all prepped!"

"I feel you!" Coco laughed nervously, both girls sharing a smile even if Pyrrha had much bigger concerns than just the fight, she was still nervous about it. Her team was depending on her, they needed her at her A game and she wasn't even close to being there. "If you wanna do some sparring tonight I think Yang is still down to do some combat practice."

"I-I'll" Pyrrha paused, seeing the line move in front of her, quickly she looked back at the two girls and tried to grab her bag to step forward. "I'll let you guys know okay? It's always so good to see you two!"

"You too!" Velvet called back, being pulled along by the waving Coco, both of them already moving onto their own cart to grab their lunch. Leaving Pyrrha alone in the line, so terribly alone.

Why did she agree to be the maiden? She knew she should, that she had to do it. That was a responsibility that she could hold. But, it wasn't a choice she had made, was it? More a responsibility that was thrust upon her, the stakes were so high she was never truly given the chance to say no.

Her options were literally, save the world, or tell everyone good luck. What a joke of two options.

Then she'd answered so quickly just so she could get an in with Jaune, what a silly, stupid, little girl motive! She was an adult woman, she should be making life altering decisions with that in mind.

There was a justification to every inch of ground she gave, but in the end all the reasons felt like silly excuses for the fact she had felt like the immediate and pressing reward was peace of mind about her ex-teammate, everything else had been pushed to the back of her mind and only when the word 'yes' has left her lips did the ramifications really become clear.

Not that she would change her answer, she would have said yes anyway. She just hated the reason she said it.

"Next!" The voice called from the other side of the cart, Pyrrha taking a step forward and bumping her shoulder against someone else and knocking the purse from her hand, watching it drop alongside the handbag of the person she bumped into.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" The woman's voice came, soft and lovely, Pyrrha didn't even look at her, face turning red from embarrassment and kneeling down to help pick everything up.

"No, it was completely my fault, I have to apologize for that, my head was somewhere else."

"Nonsense, I bumped into you!" The two girls laughed as Pyrrha lifted up the handbag about to hand it to the person she had knocked it away from only to finally see the person who had said those words.

Amelia Pale looked down at her with equal surprise to her own face. "Pale?"

"Pyrrha." Her voice felt colder, significantly devoid of that early bashful warmth.

"Either of you ladies gonna to pay for your bowls?" Both of the girls looked over to see the man holding out his hand with their orders waiting on the counter.

"Sorry sir, just let me-" Pyrrha started rooting around in her bag looking for her scroll, she had it right on the top before she dropped it.

"I'll get both." Pale handed over her scroll and tapped it against the machine to transfer her lien over. Pyrrha didn't even have time to protest before it was paid for and the man in the cart was handing her a steaming hot server of noodles.

"I uh- Thank you!" She bowed to the server and took the bowl, turning around to thank the tall amazonian of a woman but she was already sauntering away, her hips shaking with each step. The red head quickly tried to catch up, trying not to spill her food or bump into anyone but did managed to saddle up next to the significantly taller woman. "Thank you too! That was very kind of you, You didn't need to! I mean, I'm thankful you did, however-"

Pale just stopped and turned to look at the blabbering girl, only a slight smile on her lips but judgement and annoyance in her eyes.

"That's to say- thank you." Finally managing to get the words out through stammered syllables.

"Don't worry about it, it was just simpler." Pale shrugged, trying to turn away and go enjoy her meal but Pyrrha kept pace with her.

"Well still, maybe I can get you a dessert? I don't want to be indebted to anyone if I can help it!" Pyrrha put on a bright smile, trying to put out the impression they were already friends. "Do you like strudel or cinnamon rolls?"

"I'm perfectly capable of buying my own dessert thank you." her voice was warm and level but it was clear there was a tension behind her tone. She found a bench she liked and set her bowl down on the table to start eating, holding her chopsticks in front of her face and about to pull them when she noticed Pyrrha sitting down across from her. "Can I… Can I help you?"

"I just.. Well.. thought you might want some company?" fiddling with her utensils, shoulders arching up in obvious anxiety. "I can go if you want?"

Pale just looked down at her noodles, obviously she was thinking it over in her head. "You have something you want to talk about, don't you?" Pale finally waved her hand so that Pyrrha was welcome to sit and say whatever she wanted. "You look like you have a lot of weight on your shoulders, something you can't talk to your team about?"

"I don-" Pyrrha tried to wave it off but there was such a welcoming breath that she took pause from it. Pale was just easy to talk to, she just seemed so kind and understanding, it was easy to see herself oversharing. "Yeah… It's not something I can talk about at all really. I was asked to do something very important but very dangerous, it seems like I'm the only one who can do it, and if I don't a lot of people could die."

Pale just tilted her head to the other side, not making a judgemental face but rather interest.

"It's just hard to hold onto something without being able to talk about it." The redheaded girl explained.

"Especially when you have a team you need to lead?" Pale added.

"It's hard to be a leader when my brain is somewhere else." a single nod of agreement before letting her head droop forward. "I feel like there are a hundred plates prepared for me but no one considered my palette."

"That's got to be really tough." Her voice filled with empathy, Pale put her chopsticks along her bowl and laced her fingers together. "Is there anyone you can confide in?"

Pyrrha's mind instantly went to Jaune, a little red slipping onto her cheeks when she shook her head. "No, not besides the ones offering me the… uh.. Job."

Pale carefully considered her next words, looking off towards the pavilion with all the students playing around, joking and smiling. "You all haven't fought grimm yet. Not really. Sedated, young, overseen by teachers and staff." her vision was distant, like she was looking beyond the students she saw. "When General Ironwood gave us our introductory speech at Atlas he warned us first about the dangers of the Grimm, told us that we were likely to die."

She paused.

"He said it would be worth it because each Grimm we kill is thousands of innocents that get to live. I remember him saying that there was no shame in leaving, that a life at home, one full of love instead of violence was not a coward's decision, that there was pride in choosing to live." Her gaze turned back to Pyrrha, a certain sadness lingering behind her eyes. "I remember thinking that maybe I should just quit, I wasn't fit for combat, for fighting."

Pyrrha looked so intently, completely engrossed in seeing where this was going.

"I remembered seeing Jaune be named as the class representative, I overheard him talking to Ironwood about not being read and that decision being a mistake." Pyrrha felt her mouth go dry, avoiding Pale's gaze when she spoke about Jaune.

"He was weaker than everyone besides me, he was terrible in classes, the teachers thought he was undisciplined and useless, but Ironwood saw something in him. I kept watching, I saw him in the library after hours, asking them to keep the lights on so he could keep studying well into the evening. I saw him sneaking into upperclassmen's classes to learn more advanced materials. I saw him working out with Amber even though it looked like the effort of trying to keep pace was torture." Pale smiled fondly, eyes glowing with adoration. "I saw him and couldn't help but feel that he fought so hard to meet that expectation Ironwood set because someone finally believed that he could be more than just the wimp he was at Beacon."

Pyrrha…. Pyrrha wondered what she had felt. In a small way she remembered that when Jaunee had confessed he faked his transcripts, it was like he was looking for someone to finally believe that he was worth it.

How had she not realized that until now?

"I wanted to be better because I believed in Jaune." Pale explained, "I want to be better than I ever was before, better because Jaune worked hard to be better for me, so I could be better for him."

There was a lingering thread, wondering how this all connected back to Pyrrha's issue. "It would be really easy, in fact it would be the simple answer to say, I believe you'll do the right thing and save the day."

This time Pale reached out and touched her fingers to Pyrrha's and wrapped their hands together, giving her a squeeze. "But like Ironwood said, there is no shame in desiring peace." It felt like there was a but attached to the end of that sentence. "However, I know that I have something to fight for. That drives me more than anything, that fighting for each other is the most important thing in the world, that's what Jaune says at least."

The tall white haired woman just smiled brightly with a somewhat apologetic expression on her cheeks. "I'm sorry I don't have better advice, I will say, since you're probably working on that same project my sister is working on, she might have some good advice for you." Pale shot her a wink.

Pyrrha let that pink in her cheeks turn bright red. Looks like Pale knew more about the situation than she let one, though thankfully not that many details. "No! Thank you, I'm not sure what to do just yet, but I appreciate the advice."

There was still a hint of nerves coiled in her throat. It wasn't exactly the advice she needed, even if she didn't know why it wasn't satisfying but that pit in her chest wasn't filled even if her heart felt so full with how garious she was for the taller woman's advice.

"Well, I'd want you at your best for tomorrow's fight, Harpy would be horribly upset if you weren't at your best." Her shoulders arched in a shrug and she reached for her utensils to finally start eating.

Meanwhile the redhead just stared down at her bowl. "I get the feeling she doesn't like me. Harpy, that is."

"None of us do." Pale didn't even flinch when she said it, pinching noodles between her tongs and lifted them up to her lips. She didn't even seem to register the aghast staring redhead, sadness seeping into the corners of her face. She had hoped she was at the very least becoming friends with Pale.

"I… Is it because of what I did to Jaune?" Her voice was sullen, meek behind her words.

Pale thought about this while she slurped on the noodles, careful not to let it drip or flick broth anywhere with her palm before wiping her lips clean with a napkin. "I suppose that's the majority of it. I wouldn't say I hate you, I wouldn't have Jaune because of you… so in a way, I suppose I'm thankful to you."

She took another mouthful but dealt with it much faster and smacked her lips open. "But I hate what seeing you does to him. He's happy in Atlas, being back at Beacon hurts him even if he doesn't show it. He puts on a good smile, it's not like he's letting it ruin him, but he's hurting, I can feel it."

Her eyes finally met Pyrrhas. There wasn't hatred behind them, there wasn't disgust or any of the other emotions she thought there would be, it was worry.

Even when she wanted nothing more than to hate Pyrrha for what she'd done, it would be easier for sure, he was trying to bury the hatchet because she wanted to bring Jaune Peace, to make him whole.

"I…"

Pale interrupted her by speaking just a little louder. "I thought we'd gotten back at you and the young Schnee girl, but it only made things worse. I thought we'd show you how much better he was with us…" She trailed off and let her voice tilter into a sigh. "I just feel… guilty I suppose isn't the right word, I suppose I'm embarrassed about it, not my proudest moment." She turned her bowl around to see it from a new perspective. "I suppose I have complicated emotions about you and I'm worried that I make bad decisions when you're involved, and I'm trying to not let that become a habit."

Pyrrha touched the hem of her hair, putting the fork through the space between her fingers, looking at the broth and noodles in front of her. "I don't like it either, I don't presume I can wish to take back what I did. I also don't think I deserve forgiveness, even then I don't know if what I did was wrong. I just know that I regret the decision."

"Are you sure that you regret it?" Her voice had a leading hint to it when Amelia spoke. "I don't know why you regret the decision, but do you think you'd regret not turning him in?"

The gladiator didn't have an answer for that.

"I love Jaune, with my whole heart, he is my everything, my world. I didn't think love like the movies existed until him." Her words were so heavy, weighed down by all the feeling and emotion she stuffed into them. "I don't think anyone here would have appreciated him like I do." Pale shrugged and made a face. "And you're going to find someone who feels like that about you too, but would you be able to find that person if you were still pining for him without saying anything?"

Pyrrha's face went bright red. "I don- I don't have feelings for Jaune!"

"Don't you? You saw what he could do to the three of us. He's funny, attractive, intelligent and acts like he's none of them. I also do, in fact see the way you look at him when you think none of us are looking." This time Pale stretched out her tongue to reach for the noodles when she brought them to her mouth, twirling them around her tongue and making a grand sensual show of it

The redhead couldn't blush anymore, still she was practically vibrating with embarrassment at being teased so fragrant. "I suppose he's not… undesirable, but I would never try anything, an-and that's not the reason I-"

Pale cut her off again. "You're fine darling. I'm hardly opposed to sharing, all us girls have an arrangement, and since you've already seen it in action, yes we're more open with physical pleasures than most couples." But before Pyrrha could protest or voice her enthusiasm, whichever was more applicable. "Not that I'm inviting you, honestly, Harpy already put a hard no on you, no offense, she just particularly doesn't like you."

"Why? I figured she would be the one who cares the least."

"No idea." Pale shrugged. "I guess I'm saying all of this just to let you know that I don't care if you fancy him, it would hardly be fair of me to condemn you for it when I'm pretty sure he's shared a bed with at least a few of the students here. Amber tends to fetch him new girls fairly often."

"M-May I ask a question?"

"I suppose you have a few about that. Go for it." Pale offered taking another mouthful of noodles while Pyrrha measured her words.

"H-how does your relationship… are you all together, like together, together? Don't you get jealous? Are you sure you should be telling me about this, it feels rather personal? Also I do want to apologise for peeping on you before.. I just, I didn't mean to."

That got Pale to crack a big smile, practically laughing when she tried to answer the first question. "Well. Hmm, I suppose, think of it like we are all each other's significant other. Amber and Harpy are both my girlfriends, Jaune is my boyfriend, in the same way Jaune is all our boyfriend. It's a little complicated but when you take any two of us and ask if we're together, the answer is just, yes." She shrugged and honestly didn't have a better way to explain it. "It didn't even start around Jaune, I fell for him and started dating him first, but Amber and Harpy were together first, the only thing was that Harpy started to get feelings for Jaune and Amber suggested a foursome purely for a physical thing."

"Only it stopped being physical, we went from friends to lovers, all just learning that we had enough love for the lot of us. It's not even like we could add another, because we didn't 'add' any of it, it just grew." She tilted her weight from one side of the other and leaned on her elbow against the picnic table. "That being said, I do still get jealous, Harpy is only ever really herself with Amber or when she thinks we aren't looking, she opens up more to Jaune but I love when shes cute and homely with me" She looked almost distant for a second, remembering a fond single memory. "Uh- That's to say, sometimes I get jealous of their relationships."

"I think… I think that's really sweet, actually, I don't think I could ever love like that, it just doesn't feel real to me." Pyrrha tried to wrap her mind around it but was having a lot of difficulty.

"You don't have to, monogamy is probably a preferable option, this is just the relationship that works for us." A shrug followed her words. "Plus we're weird, all of us have our own reasons for inviting people to… uh… spend the night. Amber can literally feel the pleasure other people feel, so she really enjoys it for that reason. Harpy- I uh, shouldn't talk about her, I suppose." Pale made a face like she was avoiding that topic. "I just like seeing Jaune happy honestly-"

The way that Pale shivered made it clear she was thinking of something specifically. Her cheeks crept red while her teeth found her lower lip even if just to graze the surface. "I.. I love thee look on his face when he's overwhelmed by pleasure, to see his mind melting when there's tongues all-"

She paused. "Uh…when there's more partners to make him feel good." Pale cleared her throat.

Pyrrha was just staring, her throat was completely dry, her hands were between her legs while her knees pressed tightly to keep her palms pressed together. "I s-see, yeah." She breathed a hot throaty breath. "I uhh, think I can understand that."

"Besides that, I don't mind you peeping, I'd be lying if I said we weren't fucking in the living room with the door open to let anyone spy on us for days hoping that all of this old friends would get jealous about how good he has it." Pale felt her blush deepen, eyes darting to the side. "I'd also be lying if I said it wasn't a tactic for Amber to lure more people in. She's really good at 'fetch'."

"I can see that." Pyrrha whistled, nodding while she tried to come to terms with what she just heard.

Pale just smiled and reached her hand out again, touching her fingers to the Red headed gladiator's. There was a shock of electricity, or maybe Pyrrha just imagined it. "She's lovely once you get to know her, she and Jaune just have a very special relationship, she's quite protective of him."

"Well I hope she gives me a chance like you are." The worried expression she wore made it clear Pyrrha truly hated the prospect of someone not liking her.

"I'm sure she will, Amber loves everyone, Harpy on the other hand tends to hold a grudge. Then again I just hope we can bury the hatchet with Jaune first, I'm open to the idea but the others harbor a little more resentment." Pale felt bad about it, she didn't like having bad intentions for someone, but she also could completely understand her teammates emotions. "Maybe after the fight tomorrow I can talk to them? They'll be in a good mood."

Pyrrha quirked her eyebrow up and couldn't help but smile. "Confident, are we?"

Amelia just laughed, batting her hand in the air. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to say anything about your team with that, It's just, well, you haven't seen Amber fight yet."

"We saw her last round though, she was impressive, sure, but honestly I'm more worried about Harpy."

The taller woman shook her head, like that notion was just silly, and to be fair, it was, even if there was no way for the redhead to know that. "Amber is just playing around, she's a lot stronger than you think. If you asked me Amber could've done the whole tournament by herself, that girl is something else entirely."

Pyrrha had her doubts "I may be hard to convince of that, but it's good to know for tomorrow."

Pale put both of her hands on either side of her bowl, looking altogether pleased with herself. "Speaking of, I should probably go help those two compete, it was wonderful dining with you."

The redhead looked down at her still full bowl of noodles she hadn't touched yet and looked shocked at how blissfully enthralled she had been by this conversation. Quickly she grabbed up her bowl and checked to see it was only vaguely lukewarm.

She in some measure of a panic started to slurp her noodles up, trying to enjoy them even as the warmth ebbed from the sodden broth.

"Oh and, before I go.." Pale got Pyrrha's attention once more, forcing the redhead to look up with noodles still coming out of her mouth, a hand quickly coming up to cover the sight. "Do you…" she looked off towards something behind Pyrrha, something that seemed far away. "You see, I can sense people their auras… If you want to watch again…"

The question was left in the air. Pyrrha practically choked on oher noodles. "I! Uhh-hu"

"Sorry that was a weird suggestion, I must have been mistaken." Pale put her hands up in a shrugging gesture. She started to walk away but didn't even make two steps before Pyrrha spoke up.

"I… I'll think about it. I didn't.. I didn't hate it." The redhead gladiator admitted with a measure of uncertain guilt. Pyrrha had felt only ashamed and guilty about watching it, never had she considered she enjoyed the show. Now that she was offered the chance to watch again? W-well… she wanted it more than she thought she ever would.

She pressed her knees together, then her gaze went down towards the bowl of swirling broth, she remembered it all so vividly and kept trying to push the images of lust and ecstasy, her mouth started to water, hell she was practically drooling.

"Jaune said something to me after the first time we fought Grimm, I didn't handle it well… He could have told me that I was doing the right thing, that I was brave, whatever to keep me going." Her voice started to get small before it started to rise back up. "He didn't though, instead, he sat me down and gave me a cup of hot chocolate. He looked me dead in the eyes and said that he wanted me to be happy."

The air hung around them, tense and unmoving. Pyrrha felt a chill run down her spine, her whole body had a shiver it wasn't expressing.

"He said that I didn't need to throw my happiness away to try and save other people, that I wasn't responsible for every single person." her words carried a shrug. "He gave me the option to quit, in fact he encouraged me to do it. But, he didn't take the responsibility and weight of what I was doing away, and for the first time in a long time, it finally felt like MY decision."

Had Jaune really said that? It felt polar opposite to the goofy nerd she remembered from the first few weeks at Beacon. Pyrrha wondered if he would say the same thing about her situation? If he would give her the option of an out, or if he would just make her feel like she just knew the right option?

"I… Thank you, Pale."

"Don't thank me yet." A pinging sound came from Pyrrha's scroll, a message with a picture attachment. "Now you can thank me~"

Pale said those words with such a heavy note of sultry lust. That pushed Pyrrha over and made her whole body shiver from head to toe. "Enjoy that one, and good luck, it was good to finally meet you, Miss Nikos."

Pale added an extra sway to her hips. She didn't look back to see if Pyrrha was watching or if her eyes were glued to the picture she'd just sent, but regardless she knew that she was living rent free in that Gladiator's head for at least the rest of the day.

Steps carried her far across the courtyard until she passed by Winter, Clover and Deserie, even though they both had white hair, Amelia and her sister looked almost nothing alike, Deserie was a shorter woman, skinny with almost no chest to speak of, she had wide hips and slim shoulders. Even though she was the oldest Pale sister she looked like the youngest. Amelia remembered all the boys in highschool calling her sister "Jailbait." And even now sitting with Winter and Clover she looked like the odd couple's oddly old child. Like they had a kid in their teens and now were in their mid thirties with a 16 year old daughter.

She made up for that with a mature, prim and proper hairdo, the lab coat and oversized glasses that made her look at least like a medical student.

Little did anyone know she was lead scientist in the development of aura based machinery. Had more doctorates than someone could count on one hand and still somehow managed to have a healthy hobby of teaching aura studies at the academy. Amelia knew she was in her forties but no one, literally no one would think she was Pale's older sister.

They waved at her and Clover gave her a pleasantly wide smile.

Then Pale passed by the lovely modelesk Cinder Fall of Haven academy and her silver haired partner. She imagined they had the best chances of making it to the finals against Amber. Cinder gave her a smile wave, a sultry smile on her face.

Pale looked forward to seeing Amber toss her on her ass, she was too cocky for her own good.

She smiled back politely though. She went over the plan in her head. They suspected that the match would be Pyrrha and Lia Ren against Harpy and Amber, where Amber would deal with Pyrrha and Harpy would be able to outclass Lia, all her technical skill and speed would matter with her advanced reflexes. Then Amber would no doubt be fighting Penny or Mercury, maybe Sun wukong. It was hard to see the brackets laying out any other way.

Saddling up to the table that was her destination, she spotted a truly odd selection of people all sitting together. Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose, Penny Polendina, Emerald Sustrai, Lia Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Amber Gold, Ariel Harpy, and lastly the man who somehow managed to bring them all together, Jaune Arc.

They all looked at her and there was a mix of smiles and waves, eagerly welcoming her to the table and catching her up on the conversation's held, the gossip and the stories of mishaps and adventures of wonderful friends in good company.

It was smiles, laughs and cheers.

Pale wouldn't have traded it for the whole world.

Her eyes moved over to look at Jaune, who was smiling at her, eyes asking if she had a good day, and when she nodded he seemed to get an even bigger smile on his face, just taking joy in the fact she enjoyed herself.

It was no wonder he was able to bring these people together, he just drove them to be better than they are, he made people want to be an even greater version of themselves. He always preached looking out for each other, that we were better together than apart.

A table like this proved it.

It didn't matter if it was the worst day, or the best, broken bones or midnight kisses, Jaune had been there for her. He had been there for Nora and Ren, for Amber, Harpy, Penny. She was sure he would be there for the others.

And she couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life with him. Every single second of it.

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Hey everyone! Note from the author here, thank you so much for reading and enjoying Better than Ever. This chapter was a lot of fun and a really great chance to explore some new writing techniques. This time around I really wanted to try and do a "Long take shot" in writing format, the 'shot' never ending but rather the point of view character just changed.

I was really happy writing a chapter just about the characters existing and living in the world, no real need to progress the story, just establish some of the characters and how they are feeling.

Well if you made it this far, please consider joining me over on discord! And also leaving a comment below with what you would like to see in future chapters or which characters you'd like to see show up or interact with the new cast of lovable scamps.

Either way, thank you all again for reading! Can't wait to see you again!