Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Jaune wasn’t ashamed of dropping out of huntsman school. Despite trying everything he could, on both ends of legality, things just didn’t end up working out, and that was okay. Now he found a nice village to settle down in, where he could work as a carpenter. He liked being needed by the community. He liked a small town where everyone knew his name and waved at him and said good morning with big smiles on their faces. He liked it.

That didn’t mean he didn’t wish sometimes things were different. That he was stronger, better, of course he wished that.

But there was nothing he could do.

“Ow, Pyrrha, get down. No biting,” he shook off the wild fox that started hanging around the shrine he’d been fixing up in the woods. It was supposed to be for some kind of ‘spirit of victory and battle prowess,’ at least from what he managed to gather looking over some of the carvings that hadn’t been totally weathered away, and despite his skepticism how much something like that would help keep the town safe, it always seemed like a shame to let something like that fall into disrepair. So he’d started coming around whenever he had spare time to make some repairs and clean up some of the junk that had built up around it over time.

Apparently in doing so, he’d disturbed a vixen that lived in the area, and despite some initial wariness of him, she’d eventually warmed up to his presence.

“There you go, you greedy fox,” Jaune muttered, feeding her the last of the jerky he’d brought out with him.

The food definitely seemed to help with that.

“Are you going to pray at the shrine today?” Jaune asked the little fox, amusedly, kneeling down to do just that.

The fox gave him a flat expression Jaune had to laugh at, spinning in a circle and lying down to sleep on the grass.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. You’re already the strongest fox in this woods, aren’t you; what’s the point in praying to a battle spirit?” He bowed his head, hands together to pray to the spirit. “Please, protect our village, give me the strength to keep the people around me safe. Please let the people around here keep the happy life they’ve built for themselves. Thank you.” He cracked one eye open, looking down at the dozing fox. “And if you have any time, getting me a girlfriend would be great.”

The fox looked up like it was scandalized, and Jaune laughed, leaning back and falling out of his kneeling position to lie against the grass. “I know, I know.” He waved a hand. “It’s not the kind of thing I should be asking any spirit, much less one like this. I just wanted to see if you were listening.”

The fox huffed, lying back down to sleep.

“Not like a spirit of battle could really help with that anyway,” he sighed. “Besides, first there’d need to actually be a girl in town who was actually available and that… doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.”

The vixen leapt onto his face before springing off, landing with a disgruntled bark.

“Ow, Pyrrha, what was that for?” Jaune sat up, rubbing his thankfully unclawed face.

She gave another chirping bark before bounding away and into the woods, leaving him alone like she was offended.

…or maybe Jaune was ascribing a little too much human reasoning to an animal.

In any case, his work there was done for the day and he stood up and dusted himself off for the short hike back to the village, hoping that farmer Horner’s plum trees were finally ripe so he could get a few this year before they all ran out again.

A drop of water hit his cheek and Jaune looked up at the darkening sky, feeling a few more steadily fall against his outstretched hand. “Rain again?” It’d never been something Jaune paid much attention to growing up, but living among farmers for the past few years, it was easy to pick out that it had been uncommonly rainy this year.

“Guess I’ll grab my tools and check to see if anyone needs more roof repair,” he mused to himself walking along. “Can’t have anyone get flooded out right before the-”

Beowolf.

Jaune’s hindbrain recognized it before his conscious thoughts could even attempt to, sliding back to dodge its initial strike by pure amateur reflex, which while he appreciated for the saving of his life, obviously, still left him with the problem of needing to deal with the beowolf in some capacity he was in no way capable of doing.

“So…” Jaune said uncertainly, backing away from the slowly approaching grimm. “Think we can talk this out, or…” the beowolf growled, mouth opening in obvious hunger. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

He turned and sprinted through the woods, trying to squeeze through as many tight spots between trees as he could, jumping and twisting to gain ground against the grimm’s ferocious speed.

“Give me strength,” Jaune muttered to himself, feeling his legs ache, his lungs burn with the effort of escaping the monster always inches from his heels. “Please give me strength, please.”

The forest ended in a ravine, a waterfall carving a deep furrow into the ground, sheer cliff below, and the ground on the other side far too distant to jump.

Jaune jumped.

The beowolf jumped with him, sailing out over the steep, unsurvivable drop, its hunger for Jaune’s flesh enough to override even basic survival instincts, it’s mouth opening to get a taste, just his leg, or his side, claws flailing to do the same.

Jaune felt like he was moving in slow motion, arms windmilling at his sides like they could keep him aloft that extra little bit longer, legs pumping against ground far beneath him.

It was a good life. Wasn’t it? It wasn’t the most exciting, he doubted he’d have stories sung about him. He wished it could have been a bit longer, definitely. He wished he wasn’t going to die a virgin. But maybe someone out there would look out a window and say, ‘hey, remember Jaune? I miss him.’ That’d be good enough, yeah.

It was a good life after all.

“And hey, at least I’m taking you down with me.” Jaune flipped a middle finger at the grimm as they both started to fall. “Guess I had the strength to protect the village after all.” Even if it was only this much.

Jaune’s eyes closed, thinking for a moment he saw a flash of red coming out of the treeline, but dismissing it easily enough. Whatever it was didn’t matter. Jaune was going to die.

He could accept that.

For a moment, it felt like tiny paws were on his chest, then it was warm, then unbearably hot, he felt like he was floating and then… nothing.

Was this what death felt like?

Pain, that was the first thing Jaune felt when consciousness finally clawed its way back into his mind. It was a deep, aching, pain, all over his body. Did moving help?

Jaune groaned.

No. Moving made it significantly worse. Good to know.

“Ah, finally awake, Jaune?” A familiar voice asked, deep and comforting.

“Reverend Greene?” Jaune mumbled, bleary eyes opening to see the tiny village chapel around him, the kind old man returning with a ladle of water for him to drink from.

“You gave us quite a scare, my boy. You know that?” He chuckled in that rumbling way of his. “You’re lucky Paisley found you when he did. What were you thinking?”

“How am I alive?”

“That was something I was going to ask you, my boy.” The reverend looked down at Jaune curiously. “You led a whole pack of beowolves away from the village, saved us all. I don’t know why you did it, certainly don’t know how you survived it.” He smiled, kindly. “But thank you, Jaune. Thank you for protecting us. This whole village is in your debt.”

It was a pack of beowolves? He only saw the one, were there more behind it? Ah well, it didn’t matter. “If the village is safe, that’s enough.” His ribs gave a twinge, making him groan again. “Hey, those beowolves aren’t gonna come back, right? Cause I don’t think I’m super movable right now.”

The reverend laughed, setting the ladle back into the water bucket. “Don’t worry, I called it out to the Hunter’s Association, and they’re already sending a huntress down to take care of it. I think you’ve led them far enough away we have some breathing room for that.”

“Oh, that’s a relief.” Jaune relaxed into the bed, yawning. “I hope the huntress they send is nice.”

“Come on, Jaune. Huntresses are meant to bring joy and support everywhere they go, and that includes little villages like ours.” He patted him on the cheek comfortingly. “Of course she’ll be nice.”

Fantastic. Weiss Schnee wrinkled her nose as she passed the townsfolk gathering at windows and staring at her on the street, she expected mostly for the fact she was wearing an all-white outfit without being covered in the same grime every single individual she’d encountered so far was.

Her first mission post-graduation and was it dealing with criminals in the city? Of course not. The White Fang? Don’t make her laugh. It had to be in a backwater one-horse town in the middle of nowhere to deal with a small group of beowolves any Beacon student could have taken care of in between bites of a sandwich.

“Oh, Weiss, it’ll be good experience for you,” she muttered to herself in a mocking tone. “Everyone matters, Weiss, it’s your duty as a huntress to protect them.” She waved a hand, growling. “I know that, but why does it have to be me that does it? Why couldn’t it be Cardin that’s out here tromping through mud in a town that smells like someone turned a cow inside out?”

She knocked on the chapel doors, running a hand along the firm craftsmanship for a moment before drawing back. “Reverend Greene? This is Weiss Schnee of the Hunter’s Association. I’m here to help.”

The door opened up to reveal a kindly old man in coarse brown and green robes, who bowed when he spoke. “Ah, welcome to Hundred Acres. If there’s anything you need to ensure your stay here will be a pleasant one, please don’t hesitate to let us know. I’m sure all of us are quite happy to have a real huntress here, so anything you need we’ll try to help on.”

“Yes, that’s very… generous.” Weiss brushed past that pleasantry. “Where was the last sighting of the grimm pack? I’ll need a map of the surrounding area to study, also.”

“Well, for maps your best bet would be Miss Jade, down at the library,” the reverend suggested. “As for the last sighting, you’d have to talk to our boy Jaune, here. Jaune?”

A door off to the side opened up, a man walking out in only boxers rubbing his hair with a towel in an attempt to dry it. “You called, reverend?”

“Yes, Jaune, the huntress is here. She was asking where the grimm pack was last sighted.”

The man, Jaune, apparently, ripped the towel off his head to look at Weiss, eyes widening before embarrassedly holding the towel in front of him to cover up. “Oh, uh, hi. I’m… Jaune.”

Weiss didn’t particularly know why he was trying to cover up, since he had the typical muscles of a young, healthy, workman, which didn’t particularly impress her given the training many huntsmen did, but weren’t shameful, really. Either way, it didn’t matter. Country bumpkins who couldn’t even fight didn’t exactly get her ‘motor running’ so to speak.

“Yes, I gathered that,” she answered dryly. “The grimm?”

“Oh, yeah.” He moved past her to the door. “We can ask Miss Jade for a map. I’ll point out where I think I was, maybe Paisley can help us get a better idea.”

“Goodie,” she muttered darkly. More bumpkins to interact with. The day just kept on getting better and better.

It was a matter of far too long in her eyes, but was more likely less than an hour in reality before she had a rough bearing and went off into the woods to investigate it.

Finding the grimm tracks and broken trees wasn’t particularly difficult once she’d gotten out far enough, but it was concerning to find them this close to a village. According to a few people she’d spoken to, Jaune had been the one to lead them away by himself, without aura at that. Without him, it would have been a bloodbath.

If she believed that, of course. She found it far more likely he did it by accident trying to save his own skin.

A beowolf growled to her right and Weiss felt her senses light with the preparation of combat, Myrtenaster leaving her sheath in an instant.

Now, time to get to work.

Jaune was having difficulty. Difficulty moving, to be sure. His injuries and full body soreness hadn’t faded completely even after a few days' rest, but that wasn’t his main source of trouble at the moment. That honor belonged to Huntress Schnee, the one sent to deal with the beowolves straying far too close to the village. She was his age, a woman, and insanely beautiful, which if he was being honest was probably way more checkboxes than he strictly needed as far as dating material went.

He’d had one conversation with her, she was hopelessly out of his league, and he was in love. That was his main difficulty.

The good news was, she was a fully trained huntress so dealing with a few beowolves probably wouldn’t take her too long. She’d have to pack up and leave the village soon enough and then he could work on accepting being alone, like before. Truthfully, she’d been gone all day and by the time she came back it’d probably be the last time he saw her before she left. It wouldn’t be that bad.

“Oh, Jaune,” Reverend Greene caught him coming out of the market. “The huntress is gonna need a place to stay for the next few nights. I was thinking about sending her to your place, since you’ve got a bit of extra space. You’ll help her out, won’t you?”

“Wh- the next few nights?” Jaune repeated disbelievingly. “It’s a few beowolves. Will it really take her that long?”

The reverend laughed. “Of course not, my boy. It’s a standard huntress procedure to stay at the village a few extra days after a hunt is over to make sure there aren’t any lingering grimm left and reassure the people that everything’s alright. Heard it straight from the Association when I sent out the call.”

The good news was, actually there was no good news. Only bad news. Bad news was bad.

“Of course she can stay at my place,” Jaune said with the most forced smile of his life. “It’ll be greeeeat.”

“I knew I could count on you, Jaune.” The reverend patted his shoulder. “But no funny business with the huntress, you hear me?”

Jaune’s eyebrow went up, skeptically. “The huntress who could fold me in half and push me through a wall?”

“Mmm, good point.” He stroked his beard, moving past. “Maybe I should tell her no funny business then, mmm?”

“Yeah, that’s… hilarious,” Jaune muttered sarcastically, scratching the back of his head in frustration. “Guess I’d better clean my house a bit, if I’m gonna have a guest.”

A stunningly gorgeous, professional, visibly disgusted by him and the entire town, guest.

“Right.”

Jaune went back to his cabin and did his best to clean up and prepare a suitable place for the huntress. It was difficult, made more difficult by his injuries, but after a few hours he was fairly satisfied by his work. It wasn’t perfect, but he hoped she’d appreciate it.

There were more beowolves than she expected, if she was being honest.

Weiss leaned back against a tree, watching the pile of grimm bodies slowly disintegrate, her handiwork displayed in front of her for only her own admiration. She was tired, but not exhausted. Mostly, she was resting just then in case any more beowolves came along so she could be sure she hadn’t missed any.

Weiss felt her lips curl down into a frown.

Resting in case she missed any, hmm? She supposed that was about to be her primary activity for the next few days. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, she’d almost forgotten about the stupid waiting rule before that reverend reminded her.

What a pain.

She pushed off the tree and began making her way through the woods back in the direction of the village.

She knew everywhere wasn’t shiny Atlas or sprawling Vale, but even spending as little time there that morning as possible, she thought she’d go insane. A few extra days in bumblebee hicktown she already knew was going to make her die of boredom.

Finally, she found a path, which meant the village couldn’t have been that far off. By the fresh bridge over a small stream, this must have been the same work of the carpenter who made that door. She could tell they were both… crude.

Professional city carpenters were much better. Standards had to be pretty low out here.

A few more pieces of the carpenter’s work sprung up here and there, pruning branches, keeping bushes from growing into the path, he must have frequented this area fairly frequently. Finally she came across an old shrine seemingly fixed up by the same craftsman.

Another outdated practice. The town already had a reverend, what would they need something like this for? It’d be far simpler to just allow it to return to the wild, there really was nothing to gain trying to repair it.

A flicker of red appeared in the corner of Weiss’ vision, and before she could even turn to view it, the color darted past her and climbed onto the top of the shrine, a beautiful fox with shining fur and a slight glow around its edges. “An aura beast?”

It was a funny coincidence, creatures like these were actually the original cause for superstitions around spirits. Normal animals with their auras unlocked by chance or some wayward huntress would beat out the other animals in an area, and hang around their territory until some yokel would construct a shrine to pray to them for whatever random fancy they thought the beast could procure.

Weiss crouched down, reading the faded plaque. “I guess for you that’d be ‘victory and battle prowess’, huh?” Weiss smirked. “Victory against rabbits, I guess.”

The fox’s head tilted down, like it was glaring at her.

“Relax,” Weiss told it flatly, standing up. “I’m not interested in your territory; you can piss on whatever trees you like out here.” She looked away, back toward the village. “Shouldn’t be too far off now. Hopefully I can take a bath in this stupid-”

The fox leapt toward her, Weiss twisting surprised at the sudden movement. Objectively she knew there wasn’t any real damage a fox could inflict on her, even a fox with aura, but her reflexes still moved to defend herself regardless.

The fox curled around her sword arm, nimbly dodging past her blade to jump off. Weiss felt paws press against her chest for a moment, then the fox slid inside her.

It was like a ghost, watching it slip into her flesh. There was warmth for just a moment, before it turned to a hot poker slid under her ribcage, burning her from the inside.

Weiss buckled, kneeling down on the ground, clutching her chest, breathing heavily. After a few moments, the burning faded, leaving Weiss gasping on the ground, dumbfounded by what just occurred.

“Was that a semblance?” Her eyebrows furrowed, still feeling a strangely off sensation under her skin. No, there wasn’t anyone nearby. She would have seen them coming long before the fox could arrive.

But then, what was it?

She shook her head, rising unsteadily to her feet again. That was… strange, of course, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it just then. The most likely answer was that an ordinary aura beast had touched her, she’d imagined it going inside her, and her panic had briefly induced chest pain before her brain could catch up to the fact the delusion wasn’t real. That sounded… plausible.

The best thing, then, was to keep on the path and get back to the village. That way, she could finish the job, get out of there, and pretend this entire mission never occurred.

With that in mind, Weiss walked briskly away from the shrine, down the path, and eventually reached the village once again, not winded by the trek as her training precluded that, but annoyed nonetheless.

“Reverend Greene,” she finally caught the old man, who turned with a smile at her presence.

“Ah, huntress Schnee. I’m glad to see you’ve returned no worse for wear. Did you manage to find the grimm?”

“Yes, they’ve all been dealt with by now, no problem,” she assured him, and he clapped his palms together once.

“Excellent. I’m not surprised a Beacon graduate had no trouble with it, mind, but still nice to hear.”

“Yes, well, I’d hope so.” Weiss shook her head. “About my lodging. As you’re aware, the next step in an operation like this is to stay a few days to monitor the area. Can you direct me to the hotel, or I suppose, inn I’ll be staying at? There’s a report I’ll need to draft up and I was hoping to get started on it sooner rather than la-”

“Oh, no inn in the village, miss,” the reverend informed her with a wave. “Just a few farming folk here, we don’t get that many visitors, but don’t worry. I’ve already talked it over with Jaune and he said he’ll put you up in his house while you’re in town. It’s a nice place, believe me. He’s our village carpenter, you know.”

“Is he,” Weiss intoned flatly.

“Yes, his house is just over there, do you see it? With the toolshed out back?” The reverend pointed the way and Weiss… could certainly see it.

“Well that seems…” horrible? Cramped? As dirty as every other house on the street? Unacceptable? “...rustic.”

“I’m sure you’ll make it out, alright. I’ve already told Jaune no funny business.”

“Jaune, a man with no aura or combat training, you’ve informed not to try to do anything… to me,” Weiss clarified.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry. Jaune’s a sweet boy, I promise he’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

There were a great many ways Weiss could have responded to that statement, but she eventually settled on, “I’m sure there won’t be any problems.”

The reverend moved on, letting Weiss trudge through the muddy village road to the carpenter’s house.

Where she’d be staying.

Goody.

Stepping inside, and noting the large amount of dust falling through the light from the window with a wrinkle of her nose, Weiss swept her eyes across the sparse accommodations with a critical glare.

He had a table inside with wood carving tools for fashioning some of the smaller pieces as well as what looked like a few children’s toys. He had a kitchen, and a sofa with a very old television that she wasn’t convinced even worked in the modern age, a bookcase with very few books and only slightly more comics, and laundry just outside hanging on a line to dry, his underwear flapping in the breeze like a crude flagpole.

‘Rustic’ indeed.

“Oh, you’re here.” He stumbled out of the next room, wiping his hands on a rag of some kind and beaming down at her like he had any reason to be pleased with himself. “I heard you’d be staying here, so I cleaned out my junk room and got an extra mattress from Misses Peacock. I’ve got freshly cleaned sheets on there already, I was just making sure you still had a path to the bathroom without needing to step over anything.”

After a period of silence where he obviously expected her to say something, Weiss finally gave in. “And do I?”

Jaune blinked. “Do you… what?”

“Do I have a path to the bathroom?” She rolled her eyes. “Were you successful? Is it indoor or do you people use outhouses or some such thing out here?”

“Oh, yeah, no. Path to the bathroom is clear and it’s all indoor plumbing, here.” He lead her inside, where she passed what was apparently expected to be her bed, down a tight hallway and to a small bathroom with, thankfully, an actual porcelain toilet with water and everything. How disgustingly low her standards seemed to have fallen already.

“At least there’s that,” she sighed, turning back to the ‘room’ she’d been assigned. “I’ll be writing my report in here for the next few hours. See that I’m not disturbed.”

“Uh…” Jaune raised an eyebrow. “Sure? I’ll tell people you’re busy, I guess.”

She nodded to him. “See that you do.”

With Jaune quietly closing the door behind him, Weiss was left typing on her computer, filling out the report of the grimm extermination in relative peace. By the time she was finished and the document was saved, it had long gone dark.

She made an effort to inspect the space for any peepholes, cameras, or other assorted perversions before finally changing into her nightgown from under the sheets, setting her standard huntresswear flat on a table beside the floor mattress and finally laying down to go to sleep.

With the lumpy bed, dusty air, and patchy sheets she expected it to take forever to finally go under, but as soon as her head touched the pillow a wave of exhaustion pulled her under in just a few moments.

“Huh,” she yawned. “Must’ve been… more tired than I… thought.”

Weiss closed her eyes, letting dreamless sleep take her whole.

It was the middle of the night when Weiss’ eyes opened next, sheets wrapped as tight as they could be around herself, but freezing all the same. “I knew these sheets weren’t gonna be good enough,” she grumbled, forcing herself to stand so she could get something better.

There was some kind of heater in the main room, but after fiddling with it for a few minutes with only the light from her scroll, she eventually gave that up for useless. She had enough fire dust, she could definitely start a fire, but in an all-wooden house, that didn’t seem particularly smart.

Searching the house for blankets, she came up with nothing as well. It seemed like he’d trawled through whatever spares he kept in random closets just to outfit her measly bed. Anything else in the house was probably already being used by him.

Weiss paused.

“He must be asleep…” she mused quietly to herself, looking over at his closed bedroom door.

Would he really notice a missing blanket? Of course he wouldn’t. The man seemed as thick as the wood he worked with. She could probably steal his whole bed and he wouldn’t notice.

Creeping to the door, she carefully pushed it open, spying her prize on the modest bed just inside. It was just laying there, thick and heavy, warm and just waiting for her to wrap her arms around it.

A down blanket.

She silently slid to the blanket, finding it layered with several others he’d been hoarding to himself and carefully separated it from the ones just below it, peeling away to-

Weiss stared down at the bump in the blankets, visible even through the multiple layers.

Was he… hard right then?

Weiss’ head whipped over to his face, but he was still so obviously sleeping it couldn’t have been intentional.

“Gross,” she muttered, peeling off the rest of the blanket and dashing out back to her ‘room’, wrapping herself up in it and sighing in relief at the warmth.

“Ahh, much better.” Her nose itched being so close to the blanket, but she dismissed it as just more of the dust seeming to infest every area of the building.

With her warmth secured, she slid easily back into sleep again, dreaming of strong calloused hands gently stroking the top of her head.

When morning finally broke, it was far more comfortable than Weiss expected, definitely more so than the Beacon dorm beds. If it weren’t for the light streaming in from the window, she probably wouldn’t have woken up at all, but even then she wasn’t in any particular hurry to get out of bed.

She was warm, she was comfortable, and the blanket smelled like him.

Her eyes opened all the way.

In an instant, she stripped the blanket off herself and launched out of bed like she’d been fired from a catapult.

What was that? Why was that a positive to her sleepy mind? ‘Smelled like him’? What was that supposed to mean? He smelled like sweat and trees, it was disgusting.

Weiss shook the feeling off, making her way to the cramped bathroom and starting her day without thinking any more about it. She didn’t get much sleep the night before and she thought something weird. It really wasn’t complicated.

Walking into the kitchen, she could smell food on the air that already had her stomach rumble before she could stop it.

“Oh, you’re awake?” Jaune asked, turning around with an apron and spatula in hand. “I was just making breakfast. You want some?”

“I didn’t think you’d let me starve.” She sat down at the table, watching him give a confused look at that. “That’s a yes, if you need it spelled out for you.”

“...sure.” He turned back to the stove, something sizzling in a pan there Weiss was doing her best not to focus on.

“I hope you slept alright. I would’ve offered my bed instead and had us swap places, but I thought you might think that was weird.”

In fairness, she probably would have, but after the night before the idea tempted her anyway. “I slept fine, outside the cold,” she informed him a little stiffly.

“Oh, sorry about that. There might be a draft coming through that window. I can check it out today, if you want.” He grabbed a plate, dishing out some food onto it. “I’m a little surprised you’d be complaining about the cold, though, didn’t you say you were from Atlas?”

“A long time ago.” Weiss’ eyes narrowed slightly. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

He walked over and set down a plate of bacon, toast, and eggs, all of it smelling good enough Weiss had to pinch her stomach from underneath the table just to stop it from growling again. “I thought it, like, always snowed in Atlas. How’d a little Eastern Vale weather get you down?”

“It doesn’t always snow in Atlas, we have Summer over there, too, you know. It doesn’t get as hot as Vale does, but don’t act like we’re huddled up in igloos all the time.” She picked up a knife and fork, slowly cutting up the food and piercing it to lift up to her lips. “Plus, we actually have central heating to-oooom.” She shuddered, covering her mouth, train of thought completely derailed.

Fuck.

This bacon was insane. Did he cover it in heroin? Why the fuck did it taste so good?

“Do you need a bucket?” Jaune asked, concerned. “If it’s no good, you don’t have to eat it. Misses Spinner cooks way better than I do, you could always ask her to-”

Weiss held up a hand, eyes closing to carefully savor the flavor absolutely assaulting her tongue. “Shut up,” she told him, doing her best to ignore him while she chewed the heavenly morsel.

When she’d finally swallowed, she laid her head back on the chair and took a deep breath.

Sweat, and trees, and bacon.

It was… a disgusting smell, of course. But on reflection it wasn’t that bad. Maybe her sleepy mind wasn’t too crazy.

“This is fine,” she pronounced, piercing another few forkfuls. “I’ll need more of course.”

“Oh, yeah. I hear huntresses eat a lot, cause of the aura.” He turned back to the stove. “That’s cool. I can make more.”

“More bacon,” she said suddenly, covering her mouth a moment later and coughing, embarrassedly. “Especially.”

Jaune smiled, the genuine emotion in the action enough Weiss felt her stomach squirm a bit to be in front of it. It was like she’d been kicking a golden retriever all day and it still wanted to play fetch. “More bacon, coming right up.”

This was ridiculous, Weiss thought as she ate. She didn’t even particularly like bacon, or any meat for that matter. Sure, it was nice to supplement a dish, she couldn’t live off of fruit and veggies alone, but she usually looked down on the Beacon meatheads who couldn’t seem to go a day without pounding back a steak. Now it felt like she couldn’t get enough of it, was it really that good?

And the smell, what was up with the smell? Everything felt crisp and sharp today, it should have been annoying to have that dialed up to eleven somehow in a man’s bachelor pad in the middle of nowhere, so why did everything smell so good?

“So,” Jaune said once he’d set down more food, including a heaping plateful of bacon on the table and sat down himself to eat. “What are the big huntress duties today?”

“I have to walk the village’s perimeter looking for any signs of fresh tracks.” She tore into another strip of bacon. “Mostly a formality, I’m fairly certain I got them all.”

“Sounds fun,” Jaune commented.

“Actually, it sounds like busywork, because that’s what it is.” Weiss leaned back in her chair, satisfied. “I won’t be slacking off, of course, but I’d have to be moving exceedingly slowly for that to take the whole day.”

“So what are you doing once you’re finished with that?” He asked, eating his own breakfast. “More reports?”

“Not unless I actually find grimm. More likely than not, I’ll stop into the library and find something to read once I've done my check of the perimeter.”

“Oh, what do you like to read?” It wasn’t a question she’d never heard before, but the genuine interest in his voice was a little off-putting. Usually something like that was reserved for random small talk.

“Weapons manuals, philosophy.” Weiss hesitated before adding. “...a few mysteries.”

“That makes sense,” he chuckled lightly. “I bet you figure out the mysteries way before the end, right?”

“Not usually.” Weiss looked down, pushing a bit of leftover toast around her plate. “Spoils the fun.” He didn’t answer right away and Weiss took that moment to stand up. “Anyway, I’d better get started.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Come back anytime, I’ll fix up some lunch if you make it back in time,” Jaune told her, and Weiss buckled her sword by her side, nodding to him as she left.

“Back to work,” she sighed, walking out to a perimeter checking for tracks. “...busywork.”

Weiss was sweating by the time she finally finished her perimeter check. Not even from some great effort, just the weather, hot and humid out there in the countryside, enough too much of her hair had frizzed up out of her ponytail, but that wasn’t what bothered her the most, no. That was the bugs.

Weiss slapped another bug off her arm trying to bite or suck or hump, or whatever disgusting things bugs in this part of Vale did, she didn’t care. All she knew was that it felt like her entire body was littered with squashed bug corpses by that point, and she was itchy all over from the few bites that managed to get through.

She wasn’t even sure how they managed to pierce her aura, but the top of her head, chest, and space just at the bottom of her spine felt like they were taking turns being on fire just about three steps into the woods, and she’d been out there all day.

Now, finally stepping out, she had to resist scratching her backside just to not appear like some kind of baboon. Forget the library, she needed a shower. If one even existed in this hick town.

“Oh, Huntress Schnee,” Jaune called out, hitching up a pack of groceries further up his back. “Welcome back, everything good on the perimeter?”

“As far as grimm goes, yes,” she answered stiffly. “Please tell me there’s a shower somewhere in this town.”

“Uh, hotsprings. Will that work?”

A place to scrub clean before relaxing her aching and itching muscles in purifying warm water? “Yes, that should do fine.”

“Great. It’s right over here, I was thinking about going, myself, when you arrived.” Jaune began leading the way through town, Weiss’ hand continually twitching to scratch the bottom of her spine, but resisting as she was in public.

It was surprising, though; Atlas’ bathhouses were large enough to accommodate spaces for men and women, but most of the hotsprings she was aware of on her travels were much smaller. She wondered how they split them up to-

“It’s co-ed?” Weiss shouted, scandalized once she saw it, men and women mainly in the older and child age ranges playing and relaxing in the moderately sized natural springs.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a small town, so…” he looked at her, surprised. “Sorry, does that make you uncomfortable? I grew up with a lot of sisters, so when I came here I didn’t even think about-”

“It’s fine,” she cut off sharply. She wasn’t about to be outdone by some yokel. “Where can I scrub before getting into the spring?”

“Right over here,” he directed her to an open air wooden setup with buckets and towels, as well as soap and scrapers. “The water comes from the springs, and when you pour it out it all goes toward irrigating the fields, so-”

Weiss considered herself lucky this part at least had a curtain for some measure of privacy. “Good enough.” She stepped inside one of the pseudo-stalls, closing the curtain without another word and disrobing.

“Aaaggh,” she furiously itched her backside, chest, and head, finally private enough she could do so. How was it possible to be so hot in this village during the day, but so freezing cold at night? This was farmland, not the desert. It was absurd.

Her hand brushed up against the itchiest part of the bottom of her back, feeling a palpable bump there and hissing in frustration. “Bugs here must be the size of cats,” she muttered.

She found a bucket of water and poured it over herself, scrubbing clean with soap that smelled like they just ground up a bunch of lawn clippings into a bottle.

When it finally felt like she’d gotten clean enough, she wrapped herself tightly in a towel and stepped out, moving quickly to the hotsprings and dipping into the closest one, submerging herself as much as possible under the steam.

Instantly, Weiss felt the warm water relaxing muscles she didn’t even realize were aching, easing the stress on her shoulders and fighting back the persistent itching that had been plaguing her all day. “Ahhh,” she sighed, satisfied.

“Glad you’re enjoying it,” Jaune commented, sliding in beside her.

Weiss jumped, head whipping around to stare at his chest, still glistening wet with muscles she may have been… uncharitable with before. Huntsmen who underwent constant rigorous training developed far more significant musculature, but there was always something artificial about it. The natural flow of his muscles had its own appeal, and…

Weiss’ eyes flicked down to the bulge against his towel, remembering the night before when she saw it poking up through the blankets.

Not many huntsmen had that, as well. At least not that… size.

Weiss wrenched her gaze away. What was she thinking? Was she really that starved for romantic attention she was ogling the country bumpkin?

“I know you’ve probably been to more impressive ones, but there is something I think can’t be beat about ours.”

Weiss was tempted to find a ruler and agree.

She slapped her cheeks, hard.

“Uh, you alright?” Jaune asked.

“Fine. I’m fine. It’s just been a long day, already.” Keep it together, Weiss, you’re a professional.

“Well if you just wanted to eat and take a nap, I can whip something up at home after we get out of the hotsprings,” he offered guilelessly.

Weiss stared at him. Why was he so nice? It wasn’t unusual to receive some kind of assistance with mundanities while on assignment, and Weiss was more than familiar with people being nice to her for her beauty or status. But this was just… nice. Was he seriously like this all the time? For everyone?

“Ah, but you probably want someone else’s cooking for lunch, right? I know mine can get a little stale.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

“N-no.” She waved her hands. “No, I’d… enjoy your cooking again.”

He beamed, smiling wide enough Weiss’ teeth hurt to look at it. “Okay, then. I’ll mix you up something nice.” He thought for a moment. “Hey, since you liked the bacon from this morning so much, how do you feel about sausage?”

Sausage.

Sausage.

Sausage.

The word pounded in Weiss’ brain as her imagination carefully stripped away Jaune’s towel, bent down and…

Weiss sunk into the water, her whole face flush with heat completely unrelated to the spring itself.

Keep it together.

She could keep it together, totally.

It was the middle of the night, and Weiss was freezing again. How could this even happen? She’d already stolen one of Jaune’s blankets. She’d been hot all day, now suddenly she was cold? Couldn’t her body just pick a lane and stick to it?

And Jaune, all damn day, why did Jaune have to be so nice to her? What was his angle? Breakfast in the morning, then the hot springs, then lunch was incredible. He took her to the library and they read mysteries together and she wanted to bury herself in his arms and-

Weiss slapped herself again.

This place was screwing with her. She didn’t know how, but it was. It had to be something in the food. Food wasn’t supposed to taste that good, it was drugged, had to be. She had to send a report up to the Association that they were drugging food down there. Get them all arrested, that’d show em.

Weiss sighed, head thunking against the wall. What was she even thinking?

She was too tired for this. Too cold to sleep.

…Jaune wouldn’t notice if she took another blanket, would he?

Weiss crawled out from under the blankets, standing up and tip-toeing through the kitchen and toward Jaune’s room again, carefully easing his door open and slipping inside.

He was asleep. Good.

Weiss leaned over, carefully separating out the top blanket and peeling it away from the others to see-

“Unbelievable,” she muttered.

Was he just hard all the time?

She peeled off the rest of the blanket, wrapping it up around herself. She should leave. She really should leave and get back to her room before he wakes up.

She kept staring.

The blanket’s warmth sunk into her shoulders, his smell lingering on the fabric tickling her nose.

He wouldn’t wake up if she just took a peek… would he?

Weiss’ eyes slid over to his sleeping face, waving her hand in front of his head a few times without any reaction whatsoever.

No. He wouldn’t.

Slowly, delicately, Weiss curled her fingers under his blankets and pulled them back.

Of course he slept naked, she thought to herself. Why wouldn’t he?

Her hand grazed down his bare chest, rising and falling with soft breaths, down to his waist, and then…

Weiss’ eyes widened when she saw it, only half hard and finally exposed to the night air: Jaune’s thick, throbbing, cock.

It was perfect. She couldn’t believe how much. Soft skin but firm muscle underneath, girthy and gorgeously juicy, she couldn’t look away.

Her hand reached out, fingers brushing against it as she felt a thrill run through her chest, the cock twitching at the contact with her.

Her eyes went back to Jaune’s face, still sleeping soundly.

He’d never know…

Weiss reached over and slid her fingers around the cock, gently squeezing it to full hardness rising in her vision tall enough she had to suppress a nervous giggle at the sight.

“What the fuck, Jaune?” She muttered to herself, peeling the skin down and back up, watching glistening precum begin to gather at the tip. “You’ve got a dick like this, you’ve been hiding in the middle of nowhere, how is that fair?”

It was so warm under her hand, heat like a furnace in the otherwise cold night air as the precum dribbled down the sides, slicking her hand so she could go faster.

Weiss felt her heart beat quicker, ears burning as she watched herself jerk off the magnificent cock like she was looking at it from the outside, her body moving without her brain’s input.

She didn’t know why she started doing it, but once she began she didn’t want to stop. She wanted to feel how hard it could get under her touch, she wanted to trace every vein with her fingers, but most of all she wanted to feel it cum.

She had to. It was like her body had been consumed by this desperate curiosity what it would feel like, and after so much accidental teasing from him today, she deserved a little outlet for her frustrations.

Weiss’ other hand slipped down under her nightgown, feeling her pussy dripping wet, aching with every stroke she gave his cock. She shuddered as her fingers stretched her apart, shlicking inside her even as Jaune’s cock began to twitch in increasing intensity with her motions.

Weiss bit her lip, stifling a moan as she felt it start to buck under her touch.

“Come oooon,” she whispered, feeling it so close to cumming as her own orgasm drew close. “Come on. Do it.”

If anyone walked in at that moment, Weiss with her hand digging deep into her cunt, wrapped in a stolen blanket jerking off a sleeping man, she would have evaporated entirely from embarrassment.

As it was, the fact she was doing it, the fact she could be caught at any time, that lit her heart with excitement like nothing else she’d ever known.

“Come on. Come on.” Her back seemed to burn as she drew out her own release waiting for his. “Come oooon.” She could feel it so close, the thick, sweaty, scent of his precum drilling into her brain until finally. “Yes.”

She felt her eyes roll into the back of her head as she let herself cum, Jaune’s cock spasming in her hand, releasing rope after rope, of viscous cum onto his own well-toned, chest, the fresh scent of it overwhelming her as she sucked up a shuddering lungful, squirting down her legs onto the floor of the bedroom of man she barely knew.

It took another minute for the shaking Weiss to finally get some kind of control over herself again, but with the satisfaction of her release finally piercing the haze of lust that had descended on her mind, embarrassment made its swift return.

“What the fuck am I doing?” She hissed to herself, the full ramifications of what just occurred pounding into her brain. “What the- am I insane?”

She quickly covered Jaune back up in his remaining blankets, the one she’d stolen still wrapped around her as she dashed back to her room and shut the door, curled into a ball on the guest bed, head swirling.

“That must be it: I’ve gone completely insane,” she decided, curling further into the blanket that still smelled so maddeningly of him. “But it was kind of fun…” she shook her head furiously. “No. No. No. No thoughts like that. Bad. Never again.”

Weiss closed her eyes to go to sleep, never quite able to get the feeling of Jaune’s throbbing cock against her hand out of her head. And when she dreamed, it was of cum slathering against her face, soaking into her tongue, tasting it, loving it.

The next morning presented two major problems, and only one of them was her bedsheets soaked in the night by her own wet dreams.

The other was much worse.