Chapter 2 The Morning Aftermath

Ch summary:

The sun rises on a new day and Jaune receives a surprising reminder that the number of important people in his life has just been doubled. His patience, sanity and strength of will, will be tested all before breakfast.

Author's Notes:

Welcome back lovely readers~! Sorry for the hiatus but here we are with the continuation of our awkward family love triangle . . . thing. Using some of your comments from the first chapter I hope to answer some questions and concerns I saw. So by all means keep voicing concerns and point out plot holes and I'll keep using your influence to expand upon this world.

Jaune lay in bed, alone, as the earliest rays of morning sun crept their way into his and Ruby's bedroom. Despite having the entirety of the queen-sized mattress to himself, he remained in his usual place along the left half of the bed. As his consciousness began its shift from dreamscape to reality, all the events that had transpired the previous night began to wash over him. Pyrrha's return, the introduction of their daughter Citrine, Pyrrha's recollection of her life or death struggle while he and everyone else thought the woman dead, and finally having kept his and Ruby's relationship a secret from the battle worn woman. Jaune's stomach twisted in knots recalling the intimate moments he shared with both Ruby and Pyrrha, how both of them had broken down in his arms. His mind was waging war with his heart, wishing that he could bring joy to both of their lives yet knowing he would ultimately have to choose one. There was a great weight building on his chest, a weight that was making it hard to breath, a weight that had sneezed. Sneezed?

Opening his eyes, the blurry figure of the young blond girl came into focus. While he had been asleep Citrine had apparently snuck into his room, climbed up onto his bed and was now straddling him while sitting on his chest. The girl was still wearing the oversized grey shirt and brown shorts she had been put to sleep in the night prior. Her loose hair, no longer in a ponytail, fell around her head as she looked down at the now waking Jaune. Citrine's small hands rested on his shoulders while her two eyes narrowed, staring intently at the pinned adult.

"uhh . . . Good morning Citrine." His greeting was met only with silent stares through the girl's increasingly narrowing eyes. Jaune couldn't tell if she was trying to intimidate him or was just searching intently for some unknown answer on his face. What he did know was that he was pinned under this curious child, but not in the way he had originally thought. It was around now that he noticed how difficult it was to move his arms and legs. Only his head was protruding from the sheets, so he had thought with the little girl sitting on top of him that the sheets had him pinned. However, upon further inspection that turned out not to be the case. Somehow without waking him she had gotten a rope and tied him to the bed. The rope, which wrapped around the bed several times, made sure his movements were drastically limited. He would have been quite impressed if he wasn't on the receiving end. Before she could enact whatever diabolical plan that was running through her mind, there came a rap on the door.

"Jaune are you up?" Ruby, still in her pajamas, questioned as she cracked open the wooden door. "Pyrrha can't find Citrine anywhere and we could really use your hel- eh . . . ?"

Upon seeing the man restrained under the child, Ruby's brain needed a few seconds to process what her eyes were telling her. With the intruder interrupting her plans, Citrine quickly hopped off her father and darted past the older woman and out of the room before the interloper regained enough composure to stop her.

" . . . Wow Jaune, I didn't know you were into that kinda thing." Ruby teased, finally coming back to her senses.

"Ruby please, right place wrong time. Now could you hurry up and untie me"

"Hmm now what if I don't want to just yet?" A fire had been lit in her silver-eyed soul after seeing her lover so defenseless. With Pyrrha's sudden and unexpected return, Ruby couldn't help but feel anxious that she could lose her beloved at any second. Unfortunately for Jaune, Ruby's subconscious was more than eager to exhibit her superiority over the Mistral beauty. With the child out of the room and the door ever so softly eased shut, Ruby gave into her subconscious instincts and sauntered over to the foot of the bed before crawling her way up his constricted body.

Jaune's predicament had shifted slightly. Now instead of a young blond girl straddling his chest there was a very adult, very dangerous dark-haired woman straddling . . . no grinding against his abs. Okay not slightly, this had shifted dramatically! If it had been a week ago, he might have played along with wherever this was going. But with two new people in the house, two people who could walk through that door at any second, Jaune was in no mood for these games. Though he'd have to remember it for a later date.

Luckily for him, the ropes were just loose enough to allow some wiggle room. Had he been alone then maybe he could have wormed his way out of the childish trap. However, with Ruby currently enjoying her little seduction game, all his struggling and bucking only proved to added fuel to the fire of her passion. Ruby always did like to be cuddly and fool around in the morning; in fact, Jaune was quite sure Topaz was conceived during one such 'playful' morning.

"Ruby, what are you doing?" He tried to question dryly, hoping she'd pick up on his disinterest.

"I'm just saying good morning~" The last word punctuated with a purr as she slid her body down his, bringing their lips ever so close. Just before they could touch his, Ruby's attention was pulled elsewhere. She gave him the most wickedly playful look before trailing her right hand from his shoulder down his still covered body. Finger tips lightly grazing over his chest as they moved down towards their target.

"It seems this~ wants to say good morning too~" Her hand had reached its target, his noticeable bulge forming under the sheets. Ruby then shifted her body to get more comfortable, stretching out down his side which allowed her chest to press up against him. All the while she lightly stroked at the tent he was pitching.

"R-Ruby, please!" This was getting out of control. Jaune could feel his heart racing, yet he couldn't tell if it was because of Ruby's touch or the fact they could get caught at any second. His eyes said no, though obviously the message got lost in translation.

"Yes dear~" She cooed into his neck, an action that sent Goosebumps racing through his body. Her hand left its resting place only to help prop her atop his beating chest. Now Ruby was lying completely on top of him and nibbling at his neck while she slowly grinded her lower half against his. Her quiet moans echoing in rhythm with the movement of her hips did NOT help him keep a hold of his sanity, especially when his own low suppressed moans seemed to provoke Ruby to get all the more aggressive.

"Ruby . . ." The plea escaped his lips in a low, breathy, desperate moan.

"Yes, say my name~" She demanded in that sensual voice she knew drove him wild.

The lustful woman bit his lower lip, which filled him with a sense of euphoria. Jaune just needed one more push to be sent over the edge, and she knew it. As the two became lost in the pools of each other's eyes, their lips inched ever closer once more. Jaune could feel the warm breath escaping past Ruby's inviting lips as the distance narrowed to nothing. Just before their lips could make their long overdue connection, Ruby was sent flying off of him and over the side of the bed. With one powerful thrust from the man beneath her the lustful woman had been sent airborne, landing on the floor with an audible thud.

Milliseconds before Ruby and Jaune's lips could meet, he heard the door to their room creak open and, in an attempt to avoid the worst-case situation, his body acted on impulse. Deeming getting his dark-haired vixen off of him in the quickest way possible as the best course of action; his body decided to catapult the woman. The side of the bed she had been thrown to was opposite the door, which had hidden her from view. The sudden impact with the floor knocked the horniness right out of her while simultaneously pissing her off in the process. Just as Ruby finished pulling herself up off the floor, her hand rubbing the bump that had formed on her head, the door finished opening to reveal Citrine with her finger pointing in Ruby's direction.

"So, this is where you were Ruby." Came Pyrrha's voice from just outside the doorway. As her head popped in and caught sight of Jaune, whose tent had fallen flat the moment he heard the door's creaking. The once cheerful woman's eye's narrowed to judgmental slits and fell not on a flushed and injured Ruby but to her own little girl. Citrine merely bowed her head to her mother before quickly rushing out of the room and leaving the three adults.

"Good morning~" Pyrrha hummed, returning to her cheerful demeanor. "I'm sorry about Citrine. She has picked up a few . . . strange habits, but I hope she didn't hurt you Jaune. Ruby are you okay? It sounds like you hit your head hard while you were down there. Would you like any help undoing the knot?"

"The knot! Yes that, that's totally what I was doing. Umm please could you help." Ruby stammered out, her anger quickly being replaced by embarrassment and self-loathing for allowing herself to be so easily controlled by her desires, especially given the delicate situation they were in. Thank Oum Pyrrha had misunderstood what she was doing alone in a room with Jaune. The silver-eyed warrior kept her face hidden from view while she attempted to regain her composure, using untying Jaune as her excuse to avoid eye contact. But not a moment later the cries of Topaz, Ruby's own daughter, started to ring out from across the hall. Without needing to say a word Pyrrha stepped aside so Ruby could spring to her child's aid. She shot an apologetic glance towards the still captive man as she sped out of the room.

With his attention now drawn to the red-haired beauty, he noticed that she too still wore her sleepwear, Jaune's old shirt. The golden rays of dawn that were still slowly creeping in from the cracks in the curtains reminded him that it was still the wee hours of the morning. Upon waking in a new place with her daughter missing, Pyrrha had of course been far more concerned with Citrine's location than her own attire. Seeing the outfit brought back memories from the previous night for Jaune as he did his best not to stare at the woman who was now crawling on all fours at his bedside looking for where the rope ends met.

"So uhh . . . Does Citrine do this often?" He asked, desperate to focus his attention elsewhere. Pyrrha had found the knot under the bed and was having some difficulty undoing it. Her butt was left wiggling in full view as the other half of her body was hidden under the bed. To make matters worse, her shirt had risen to reveal the red cotton hidden underneath and Jaune desperately needed that distraction.

"Knot tying was one of the skills she picked up from a nice huntress who often watched Citrine when I had to leave camp." It seemed that Pyrrha was too focused on the knot to realize her panties were now fully exposed and could be seen by the captive man, not that she'd mind.

"By the looks of it she has gotten pretty good at tying knots." Choked out Jaune as he watched the muscles in her legs move with her body while she struggled with the knot.

"No, it's just in a tangled mess down here." She replied, not sure if she had just made it worse or not.

". . . You can just cut it, you know. Or at least slide the rope down so I can crawl out."

"No no, I've . . . almost . . . got it!"

He could feel the ropes go slack, allowing him to finally free himself from his cloth prison. Making haste he quickly rolled out of bed, found a pair of pants and threw them on; partly to help hide the new bulge Pyrrha had unknowingly erected.

"Uhh Jaune . . ."

"Yes Pyrrha?"

"It's a little embarrassing to say but, could you help me please." The space under the bed, though large enough for a child, had proven quite tight for the adult Pyrrha to squeeze her way in.

"Help? How?"

"Jaune . . . I'm stuck. Can you help pull me out?" Now that her work was finished, she had found it difficult to back out. Reluctantly Jaune took hold of the woman's ankles, which gave him quite the view of her stunning rear.

"Are you ready Pyrrha?" Since he was doing his best to avert his eyes, he really did need that verbal cue.

"Yes, just . . . please be gentle." The woman couldn't help but giggle at the misleading line. Of course, her tease only caused him to roll his eyes with a smile adorning his own face before giving her a gentle tug. He certainly had missed her playful flirting, especially now that he could actually pick up on it. Unfortunately, after a few inches he received the call to stop.

"Jaune, I don't know how to say this," She embarrassedly admitted, "but I think my breasts are propping up my torso too high. I keep hitting the frame."

". . . What?" The mental image alone was enough to stop the poor man in his tracks and make him weak in the knees. Jaune knew they were big, but were they that big he wondered. Had they grown larger? Well having a baby did do that for most women, right? It certainly did for Ruby.

"Please don't make me say it again." She pleaded from under her wooden prison, bringing his attention back into reality.

"Wait, how did you get under there in the first place then?"

"Jaune!"

"Umm alright, give me a second. If I remove the mattress, then I can lift-"

"No no, I don't think you need to go that far. Just . . . uhh could you help me . . . adjust them?"

"What . . . ? I uhh . . . I don't think I heard you right."

"I can't reach. If I could just moves them around I think I could get low enough to slide out."

"Uhh I'll go get Ruby then so-"

"It's all right Jaune, I don't mind. Besides it's not like you haven't fondled them before."

"I'm not sure about this." Memories of their first few months of dating came rushing to the forefront of his mind. He couldn't help but wonder if he was always this much of a daydreamer.

"Look I don't mind if you want to check out my ass, yes I know that the shirt slid up, but I'd like to get out from under this bed. Now reach your hands under here and grab my breasts!" Pyrrha's mood was shifting from minorly to majorly annoyed.

Once again Jaune found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, well not so much a 'hard place' so much as a soft/ squishy place. Not being sure what was the correct action to take he just did what he had done before; left the decision up to his instincts and prayed for the best. As she embarrassingly waited for one of his hands to make contact with her pliable flesh, Pyrrha was beginning to lose the last of her patience when no hand appeared. Having received no response from the man following her little outburst, she was getting ready to scold him for his reluctance when she was stopped by the sound of his footsteps. He now stood over the trapped Huntress, his feet on either side of her torso. Jaune stared down at her defenseless figure before allowing his instincts to take over. Gathering up all of his pent-up lust, Jaune firmly placed his hands on their target and nearly effortlessly lifted the bed frame off the trapped scarlet beauty. The unexpected action resulted in a squeak of surprise escaping past her lips.

"Pyrrha, can you get out now?"

"Uhh yeah." Her response drenched in the surprise of her sudden freedom. Quickly she scooted her way out from under the bed and past the man's towering legs. The sound of Pyrrha returning to her feet gave Jaune his queue to relax his grip and place the piece of furniture back upon the floor.

Returning to an upright stance, the muscles under his shirt flexed and stretched at the cloth which clung to his body leaving little to the imagination. A brief glance was all it took to lock the two star crossed lovers into a trance. Their eyes had been hypnotized by the rise and fall of their partner's chest, the pulse of their neck, the pool of their eyes.

"Pyrrha . . . I uhh, I'm going to go take a shower! I'll see you down stairs!" The words rushed out of Jaune's mouth unexpectedly, and did not suppress his eagerness to get on with his day after the . . . 'eventful' morning.

"Uhh yeah, sure." She fumbled out as his figure flew towards the doorway leaving a shocked Pyrrha alone with her thoughts.

After his long and very 'very' cold shower, Jaune was now fully dressed and headed downstairs to join the now four most important women in his life for a very early morning breakfast. He couldn't remember the last time he had gotten up before six without a 'Topaz alarm clock'. Thankfully the little girl liked to sleep in now, giving her parents a little more time to snooze most mornings. He wore his jeans and a black shirt. The shoulders of which were dotted with water droplets from his still drying hair as he walked down the stairs in his newest pair of Converse shoes. When he reached the last step of the staircase, he could hear the two adult women arguing about something from the other room.

"Waffles!"

"Pancakes."

"Waffles!"

"Pancakes are clearly the superior of the two breakfast items." Pyrrha's voice rang out. "They are simple, easy to make, and can even be made when traveling. Why is this a difficult concept for you to accept?"

"That's far too boring!" Ruby interjected. "Besides you are just choosing pancakes because Nora has you brainwashed. Too many years of Ren's pancakes have you taking their side. Waffles are WAY better than pancakes. They have freakn' syrup traps for crying out loud!"

"Morning, you two seem energetic." His voice had broken them out of their heated debate, steering their attention in his direction as he rounded the corner into the kitchen.

"Good morning ~! Losing a daughter will do that to you." Pyrrha joked. She was still wearing Jaune's old shirt, but was now clad in his robe too. No doubt picked up after he abandoned her in his room.

"Morning Jaune." Ruby followed up, a slight blush painting her cheeks as she avoided eye contact with him. She too still wore her sleep attire, but her pajama pants and tank top were in full view.

In addition to the two women, Citrine was sitting patiently at the kitchen table watching the back and forth as the rude woman argued with her mother. Topaz was nestled comfortable in Ruby's arms, the child's own little digits happily moving about.

"We are trying to decide what to have for breakfast. I think we should make pancakes, and Ruby-"

"And I say we make waffles~! We even have that fancy new waffle iron we never use from . . . that time, for that thing . . ." Ruby's words trailed off as she remembered that the waffle iron was a wedding gift from Yang.

"It's currently one to one, you're the deciding vote Jaune. Should we make pancakes like back in the day?"

"Or go for gold with delicious golden waffles?!" Ruby voiced enthusiastically enough for Topaz to join in with an unintelligible babble at her mother's infectious energy.

"Uhh . . . actually I like French toast." Jaune shyly admitted, the third option having brought silence to the room.

"Ugh really Jaune?" Disgust was nearly plastered all over Ruby's face.

"How disappointing." Followed Pyrrha, who's head slowly shook side to side. Citrine mirrored her mother's action and began shaking her head too. She also did her best to put on an equally disappointed face.

"I know, right? It's like I don't even know him anymore."

"Ruby, Pyrrha, please. It's too early for this. Do we even have the ingredients to make pancakes or waffles?"

As the five of them sat around the kitchen table, bowls of cereal sitting in front of four of them, Pyrrha was the first to break the awkward silence of the room. "This really is an impressive house, it reminds me a lot of our dorms back at Beacon, I think I even saw the same painting that was hanging in our room."

"It is the same." Jaune admitted through a mouth full of cereal very 'matter of fact-ly.

"What, really?" Pyrrha didn't expect her joke to backfire on her like that.

"Yeah, Yang grew attached to the one in our dorm." Chimed in Ruby as she wiped Topaz's mouth. "When she asked Ozpin if she could take it after we graduated, he let her. I think the same one was in all the rooms though. Talk about lazy decorating."

"Oh my, that is quite unexpected. I wouldn't think Ozpin would be that willing to give away school property."

"Yeah, I don't think he was supposed to do that." Jaune added while using his empty spoon to point in Pyrrha's direction. "I heard Glynda really tore him a new one once she found out he was just giving away stuff to a lot of students." His spoon flickered about imitating Glynda's riding crop.

The mental image of Ozpin dodging a furious Glynda as she tossed all manner of objects at him using her semblance brought the three into a nostalgic fit of laughter.

"That reminds me, when I was going around searching for Citrine earlier, I was a little surprised to see the choices in décor. Do forgive me, but if I didn't know better, I'd say this place was a staged home. I'm sorry, but it doesn't really feel lived in."

"No, no you don't need to apologize; you're not exactly wrong." Ruby started, now cleaning up spilt milk from the wild child's highchair. "Remember when I told you how Weiss gave us this house? It just didn't feel right to change anything. It still feels like this is Weiss' house and we are just guests, even if everyone has their own room. The whole place was fully furnished when we got here and no one had the kind of lien to waste on replacing the furniture. Besides no one is usually here for very long because of missions anyways, so nobody really wanted to bother with redecorating.

"Except Nora." Added Jaune. "We had to stop her from knocking down walls and covering the place in pink paint." The memory brought a smile to Ruby's face while draining the color from Jaune's. Certainly, trying to control an enthusiastic Nora was no easy task.

"Not even one picture of everyone though? I'm sure we took a few together when we graduated at least." With how long her friends had lived in the house, Pyrrha found it hard to believe that not even a single picture of anyone made its way onto any of the walls in the large building.

"Oh we've all got quite a few pictures." Jaune quickly reassured her. "We just keep them on our scrolls. I think Ren and Nora put a few pictures up in their rooms though."

"Yeah Blake's room has a picture of her family and a lot of book shelves. Yang still has posters hanging up in her room and a workbench for her arm. Sometimes I hear her tinkering with it late at night. I've even heard her and Blake cursing because of it before."

Pyrrha wanted to say something, but thought it best to bite her tongue. Lucky for her, Pyrrha's stomach rumbled loud enough to catch everyone's attention.

"Yeah, cereal isn't much of a breakfast." Admitted Ruby. "Let me see what else we have, BRB."

"Oh no, please don't trouble yourself Ruby. It has just been far too long since I've last eaten any processed food." The same could apply to Citrine who continued to stir the mysterious orbs around in her bowl. Granted she had never tasted anything like them and was a fair bit reluctant. "My body must not be used to it anymore."

"I think I read about that actually." It was Jaune's turn to clean up after Topaz now. "Something like when people rework their diet to eat healthier, but then they can't stand junk food that they used to love?"

"I do suppose that is one way to look at it."

This time a rumbling noise came from the small girl beside them who was having a hard time forcing the strange new food into her mouth. Still, she wasn't one to waist food.

"Citrine, you don't have to force yourself to eat it if you don't like it." Jaune's words did nothing more than confuse the young girl. How could anyone waist precious food? What a fool this man must be. But before her eyes could question her mother on the subject, another voice grabbed everyone's attention.

"Whelp, I guess we can't put off that trip to the grocery store any longer." Ruby had finished rummaging through their kitchen and found their food provisions were far below her standards. Not even one of her precious strawberries remained in the house. It had become increasingly hard to stock up once they learned that Topaz also loved the small red fruit.

"Oh why don't you take Pyrrha into town then." Chimed in Jaune as he cleared the table. "You could show her around and I'll give you both a break from the kids." His heart was in the right place, as it often was, but neither woman seemed too pleased with the suggestion.

"Jaune, perhaps you could show me around. You know, give us time to 'catch up' with each other." By now Pyrrha had gotten close enough to look up at him with those big, green, puppy dog eyes of hers. "Ruby, if you don't mind watching the kids of course."

"OH NO, of course not." Ruby's hand waved before her, dismissing the thought of being burdened. "Why would I, mind . . ."

"WONDERFUL! I'll go get ready and then we can take off~" But before Pyrrha could round the corner and dart up towards her room, Jaune's question stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Do you have something else to wear? Err I mean your combat outfit would be a little 'weird' for the grocery store. Did you bring any kind of casual clothes with you?"

Standing with her back to the kitchen, the room still only illuminated by the raising morning sun, Pyrrha stood shrouded in the darkness of the house. "I- we didn't bring much, just the essentials. We actually don't have much."

"What do you mean?" Questioned Ruby, Topaz now in her arms being burped.

I didn't bring much with me to begin with when I went on my mission, and Citrine only had hand-me-downs and scavenged clothes to begin with."

"You mean you never got her some proper clothes once you got to Vacuo?

"Given the situation, it wasn't high on my priority list."

"Okay that settles it!" Exclaimed the woman in the rose print pajamas as she handed off her daughter to Jaune.

"Settles what?"

"We are going shopping! We are going to get you both some nice, clean, fitting clothes."

"Thank you Ruby, but that's not really necessary."

"Shh shh shhhhhh. The poor girl is walking around in dirty rags Pyrrha." Ruby had covered the girl's ears so she couldn't hear the insulting words, Citrine merely tried to shake off her grip. "She at least needs some clean underwear. She is wearing underwear, right?"

"Ruby has a point, even if she could have worded it better." At this point Jaune was glaring at the woman for her rude, yet honest words. "Since you two will be staying here, you'll need daily necessities."

"Oh but I couldn't possibly trouble you two-"

"Pshh don't worry about it Pyrrha." Ruby dismissed, starting to get excited about a girl's day out, or any reason to get out of the house. Since Topaz was born, Ruby hadn't had much time or energy to get out and do anything. She was growing quite stir crazy and needed to stretch her legs.

"But I don't have much lien on me, so I wouldn't –"

"Don't worry about it, we've got you covered."

"Think of it as a 'welcome home' gift." Jaune said, returning Topaz back to her highchair and handing the toddler one of her toys.

"Thank you, but that's far too generous."

"Pyrrha please, Weiss lets us live here rent free. She also takes care of all the bills so we've got plenty of lien to spare by now."

"But . . . "

"Give it up Pyrrha. You can either go with Ruby or hope she doesn't get you anything weird. Hahaha"

"Gah, rude!" Ruby's hand flew to her chest in a playful manner to suggest she was hurt by Jaune's comment.

"Ha ha ha okay, okay I surrender. But can I make a slight suggestion?" Pyrrha said. Returning back to the table with her hands raised in defeat, she walked over and picked up one of the young girls. "Why don't we take Topaz with us Ruby? That way Jaune and Citrine can watch the house and spend some one on one time getting to know each other."

Author's notes:

Like I promised this chapter is shorter than the first; but wasn't that fun, isn't Citrine a cute scamp, who is really here for the babies? And most important question of all; Waffles or pancakes?! Leave your answer in the comments and I'll post the results next chapter lol. Let me know if there is anything you want to see in the story (Nora and Ren will show up and I have a fun idea for Yang but shush, secret.) and I'll see if I can work it in. Thanks for reading you lovely person you~