CHAPTER 1: YOU CALLED ME CUTE

Remnant

Kingdom of Vale, City of Vale

October 26th

80 Years After the Great War

Jaune Arc, despite his dream of becoming a hero and a huntsman, had come to a realization about his life that was only possible with the hindsight that he now possessed. It was so simple and so prevalent in his life before Beacon Academy that it surprised him quite a bit when it first came to his mind.

He missed his normal life.

Just recently, he had engaged in a serious battle with an Ursa Major and had somehow come out on top. In terms of what the other students could do at the academy, this was hardly anything special. It wouldn't be surprising if most of his classmates could take on two or three Grimm Alphas at a time, but in his case, he needed that fight.

The fact that he had won had given him the much-needed confidence he desired. It also made him realize that he had new responsibilities not only to himself, but also to Team JNPR. Like fellow leader Ruby Rose had said to him the day prior, he no longer had the luxury to doubt himself. People were counting on him to take charge in battle.

Jaune came upon these realizations almost immediately following this event, but the revelation about how much he missed his old life had only come after his new reality sunk in, being that his life had changed in so many ways. Swinging Crocea Mors with the intent to kill Grimm was something that made him feel something deep inside. He couldn't say what it was precisely, but it was unlike anything he had felt when simply imagining himself doing it. The reality of it and the visceral nature left him processing the memories. He had nothing to compare what he was doing now to what he had done in his earlier years.

None of his civilian skills were at all comparable. He could survive in the wilderness thanks to numerous camping trips with his family, cook decent meals out of necessity for a household with ten mouths to feed, and even bust a move on the dance floor in no small part due to his sisters.

But how could any of that compare to live combat where life and death were two sides of the same coin and his fate was decided by a flip of the coin?

Was this sort of confusion natural for an aspiring huntsman like him or was this just something only he thought about?

Jaune certainly didn't get the feeling that anyone else thought about this stuff. To everyone else, killing Grimm was second nature. Maybe all of them had more experience and therefore were better-equipped to deal with any mental confusion than he was. Perhaps most of them had sorted out any initial puzzlement long ago and had adopted new ways of framing all of it. He wouldn't know about any of that. He hadn't bothered to ask anyone in the freshman year, not even Team RWBY or even his own teammates for that matter.

Within the world that was his mind, the knight lost sight of his path for all of a second. His eyes failed to look up to sight any potential hazards in his way and even if did at that moment, it was too late.

He felt the collision a few seconds before he could see what was going on. Compared to how the Grimm hit him, his body didn't register much of an impact, but he would recognize the feeling of bumping into someone anywhere. Had this happened months ago, he would have likely fallen over because his body was not nearly as developed. Now, he took only half of a second to regain steady footing.

That's when he set his eyes upon the person that he had come into contact with. He had been the fortunate one. He was still standing up, but he saw that whoever he walked into had fallen down. His eyes came to focus.

It was a girl, but to call her average would be incorrect not to mention downright insulting.

The first thing that caught Jaune's attention was her hair, which was the most bright orange that he had ever seen with a few strands standing up quite prominently. Fair skin leaning towards a more pale complexion was occasionally dotted with freckles. Her eyes were a very bright green, almost unnaturally so.

Her face wasn't all that made her stand out.

She wore clothes that were a stark contrast to the more complex and stylistic look of the people in the City of Vale, which were light grey overalls combined with a blouse. The attire was modest in nature, revealing very little skin. Even the short skirt she sported was accompanied by long black stockings. To top it all off, a single pink bow could be found located at the back of her head.

Jaune's mind quickly worked through her entire look. Growing up with seven sisters who were always looking for his advice on fashion forced him to take in information regarding the subject, despite his lack of interest in regards to himself. Taking everything into account, one word popped into his mind.

Cute. Jaune felt the word was most apt.

"Salutations!" The girl said from her prone position on the ground.

"Um, hi." Jaune grinned somewhat awkwardly. "Are… you okay?"

"I'm splendid!" She replied with a lot of enthusiasm. "Thank you for asking!"

Of all the ways that she could have responded, this was not the way he was expected. He assumed she would get angry or at the very least annoyed. It only seemed the most normal and appropriate action to take given the situation. Her candid and friendly words as well as her energetic attitude were welcome nonetheless; this was a far more preferable response than what he had envisioned.

"So, I'm Jaune Arc." He scratched the back of his head. "It's short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, and the ladies love it."

It then occurred to Jaune just how much he wished he had simply said his name and left it at that.

How many times had he used that line to no effect?

No, he had better not answer his own question. His pride was on the line here.

"That's wonderful!" She nodded her head in understanding. "Thank you for sharing that with me!"

Did she seriously just accept his words at face value?

And if she did, should he be worried or excited that a girl finally spoke some words of encouragement?

"What's your name, by the way?" Jaune felt it was time to move on.

"My name is Penny Polendina!" She introduced herself. "It's so nice to meet you!"

"Uh, thanks." Jaune felt himself stumble a bit, but then he remembered what had just happened. "Here, let me help you up."

As he had done for Ruby when he first met her, he held out a hand to Penny. She gazed at his palm for a moment before taking it. As he brought her up to a standing position, he noted that her grip was strong, much more so than her build would suggest.

"Thank you very much!" Penny's chipped attitude was maintained. "I apologize deeply for running into you!"

"You don't need to do that." Jaune raised his hands. "If anything, it's my carelessness that got us here."

"I'm also guilty of the same crime!" Penny claimed, moving closer to him. "Therefore, I share at least some of the guilt!"

He would have argued further, but then a memory came back to him. Or rather, multiple memories came back to him. All of them were of him in a pointless looping argument about who was right or wrong, who was to blame and who wasn't, who did what and when, and everything else in between. He and his sisters could go on like this forever.

That wasn't a good idea now.

"Then how about this?" Jaune tried another tactic. "Let's say we're both at fault and call it even? Is that cool?"

"Yes!" Penny confirmed with a vigorous nod of her head. "I wholeheartedly agree!"

For some reason, the more he spoke with her, the more at-ease he felt. This girl was a much different breed from the ones that he was used to interacting with. Something about her seemed fundamentally easy to understand. His previous nervousness felt like a thing of the past.

But another feeling was beginning to grow within him: awkwardness. He wasn't used to a first-time conversation with a girl going this well. Plus, he didn't have any plans to go out and try to chat with girls. He was just here to let his mind wander for a bit, nothing more. This whole incident was uncharted territory.

Besides, right now, Weiss was who he was interested in.

"Yeah, so it was nice meeting you." Jaune flashed a small smile. "But try not to fall again. It'd be a shame to see such a cute girl like you get hurt. Later."

Well, that was something, I guess. The knight thought to himself. I probably shouldn't think into it too much.

After all, he probably wouldn't see her again.

RWBY - - - RWBY

Penny Polendina was a truly unique lifeform unlike anything the world had ever seen. That was not overconfidence or arrogance speaking, merely a statement of fact. She was the first synthetic individual with the ability to use aura as any human or faunus was capable of. Truly, she was a revolutionary marvel of technology and aura research.

But aside from a select few individuals, nobody would be able to tell the difference between herself and a regular human. It was absolutely vital that her very nature remain secret; in essence, she was a piece of classified Atlas Military technology, perhaps one of its most heavily-guarded secrets to date.

And she was wandering the streets aimlessly.

Penny was well aware of the dangers involved in entering civilian society as she was, but her curiosity for exploration was far greater than her desire to remain on standby and await the arrival of General Ironwood. There were so many possibilities abound in the world that it seemed impossible to remain in one place. If they wished her to be more obedient, then it would have been better for her father and the general to have given her a personality that matched that of a loyal soldier, not a normal girl.

Of course she would not reveal anything about herself that would indicate she was anything but a normal human girl. There were dangers involved in revealing what she really was. One need only look at the current state of human-faunus affairs to see the truth of the matter. The most probable reaction should someone find out was likely revulsion followed by denial of contact.

But she wanted to have friends. She wanted to chat with girls about boys. She wanted to go shopping. She wanted to do stuff with other normal girls. Maybe then she might just get an idea of how to be a better human.

What she had just experienced, however, was something else entirely. Instead of meeting girls, she had just met a boy. It wasn't a planned event, but it happened regardless and the incident was replaying in her memory databanks.

Jaune Arc. He was exactly 73 inches, or 185.5 centimeter tall. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a build of a moderate athlete, greater than the average person, but not at the level of a huntsman. He proclaimed himself to be able to attract the opposite sex easily. He had an easy-going attitude. He was polite.

But that wasn't what mattered to her. No, it was the last thing he said to her that stuck with her the most. He had said it so casually to her that it took her a moment to realize it and that was amazing considering how fast she could process information.

He called me cute. Penny said to herself. He called me cute!

Now she wasn't sure if that was the case, yet she was absolutely positive that her audio receptors were not malfunctioning.

But she had to be sure.

So she ran as fast her legs would carry her until she placed herself directly in front of his path. To his credit, this time, he was able to stop before hitting her with only a small bit of space between them.

"What did you call me?" Penny leaned forward on her tippy toes to try to compensate for the considerable height difference between them.

"Huh?" Jaune looked confused. "I, uh-"

"You called me cute?" Penny met his eyes with much intensity. "Am I really cute?"

"Eh, y-yeah, of course." Jaune fumbled a bit, his eyes cast to the ground. "I mean, I wouldn't lie about something like that."

So the synthetic girl felt her emotions growing stronger. A grin sooned dawned on her features as she threw her arms around him. For some odd reason, this feeling felt really good. She barely knew this boy yet he had given her a compliment that she thought she might never hear from anyone.

"Thank you so much!" Penny squeezed him. "Nobody's ever said that I'm cute!"

"Can't… breathed…" Jaune's voice was raspy. "Please… let go!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Penny heard him and released him. "I forget my strength sometimes!"

"So I see." Jaune gasped a few breaths, taking a few seconds to regain his balance.

"You don't seem all that surprised about how strong I am." Penny tilted her head to her left side. "Why is that?"

"Well, I have some friends at Beacon who hug just as tight as you do." Jaune appeared to realize something, then looked at her. "Are you a student at Beacon Academy by any chance?"

"Oh, no!" Penny shook her head, seeking to correct him. "I hail from Atlas and I am combat ready!"

"So, you're from Atlas Academy?" Jaune scratched his head. "That is the name of the huntsman academy in Atlas, right?"

"Yes it is!" Penny affirmed his question. "And since you mentioned Beacon Academy, am I correct in saying that you're training to become a huntsman?"

"Yeah, although I've got a long way to go before I'm at the level of my peers." Jaune sighed, his face sullen. "A very long way."

"You look upset." Penny moved forward even more, then her face twisted into panic. "If I've offended you, I apologize!"

"It's not your fault." Jaune attempted to wave off her concern. "It's just that I've got so much to do and I feel like I'm not getting there fast enough."

"Are you saying that your training is not adequate?" Penny tried to ascertain the meaning behind his words.

"No, not the training itself, just me." Jaune pointed to himself. "I came into Beacon lacking the right kind of preparations. Training, experience, equipment, you name it."

"But why?" Penny was now even more confused. "Why go to a huntsman academy if you were not prepared?"

"Because… I've always wanted to do something important, make a difference, you know?" Jaune's eyes fell to look at the ground. "But I didn't go through the proper motions beforehand and now I'm paying the price for it, but I can't just back out. I've come too far to bow out now."

As the ginger-haired girl regarded the blonde, she couldn't help but look at him and feel something in herself. Here was a perfect stranger, barely an acquaintance, sharing with her something that appeared to be an uncofiortable subject. He wasn't obligated by any means to reveal such information nor would she be so rude as to press him for it. Still, disregarding the conversations' bearings and his current emotional state, he had revealed all of this of his own volition.

He had doubts and concerns and worry about himself.

Just like she did.

Penny felt that her next move might be out of place not to mention inappropriate, but against her logic and rationality, she reached out with her right hand and gently patted Jaune's head, petting his hair as if he were a domesticated animal. The first thing that she noted was how lush and soft the feeling was. She had played with her own hair before so she was familiar with the feeling, but touching someone else's hair was an entirely different experience. Where hers was sleek and smooth, his was ruffled and messy, but between the two of them, softness wasn't any different.

"I think you're doing a wonderful think wanting to join this noble cause!" She expressed her honest opinion. "Being a huntsman is a difficult career and the fact that you're so committed despite your inner doubt proves that you are strong!"

She watched Jaune closely as his eyes lifted up. From staring at those deep blue irises, she felt as if she could interpret a various number of emotions. He said no words at first, his body doing more of the talking. The fact that he had not backed away or displayed an outright negative reaction seemed as good an outcome as she could hope for.

"I appreciate the thought." Exactly seven seconds later, he found something to say back. "Really, I do."

For some reason, his tone of voice didn't feel like they had connected with the intent of what he had spoken. It left her strangely unsatisfied.

Jaune cleared his throat loudly. "So… not that I'm complaining, but we're really close."

Penny blinked, then determined the distance between them, which was almost nothing at this point. "Oh! You're right! I'll step back now!"

She stepped back, a blush dawning on her features. This was most definitely not the proper way to start off a relationship with a boy. Such intimate contact should be reserved for those who were very close, yet the gesture she had performed felt only natural to her. If anything, being the one to comfort someone was a much better thing to be doing than her worrying about whether or not she looked and acted human.

"You know, you remind me of one of my friends." Jaune sounded less downtrodden and more upbeat. "Both of you are so upbeat and friendly."

"T-thank you very much for the compliment!" Penny put her hands behind her back in bashfulness. "I sincerely appreciate it."

For a moment, there were no words carried between them, just a mutual feeling of happy feelings between them. That's when his head turned to look off somewhere else, but only for three seconds, then he looked back to her.

"Do you… want something to drink?"

"...yes!"

RWBY - - - RWBY

Jaune honestly felt proud of himself for being able to do this. It wasn't everyday that he managed to get a girl's attention let alone ask her out on a date of any sort. The advice his entire family had given him in relationship to women was officially garbage. That was a massive problem considering that most of his family was female.

But then again, he hardly used any of their advice in this case. This girl was a far cry from the girl that he was currently crushing on. For one thing, Weiss carried herself with far more dignity and grace than most girls her age. The snow angel was hardly comparable to Penny, who came off as more enthusiastic and innocent. In that respect, the latter was closer to Ruby if he had to make a comparison.

Jaune shook his head. Why was he focusing on girls that weren't here when he had one that he was supposed to be talking to right now? That was just plain rude.

He was having a coffee with this nice girl who happened to be cute and nice and kind of funny in a way he couldn't vocalize. He ought to be focused on what was right in front of him at this time.

For a moment, he entertained the idea of bragging about this date-like event to his friends back at Beacon, but he was pretty sure there was only one way that was going to end: them not believing him and expressing that disbelief in their own ways, which would annoy him and demoralize him.

Which sounded about right. All he had to do was think about all the times he flirted with Weiss.

Again, he blamed his entire family.

It might be a better idea to just treat this girl as a friend and nothing more.

The blonde boy watched as the orange-haired girl carefully blew on her hot drink before taking a small sip. It was kind of cute the way she delicately handled the cup. It was like she was afraid she was going to spill her drink. That was the sort of thing that he expected a child to do, not a teenage girl.

"Can I ask you a question, Penny?" Jaune now had something to talk about.

"Of course, Jaune!" Penny lowered her cup enough so that her face was completely visible to him. "I'll do my best to answer!"

"I've never met someone so… out of touch with the world." Jaune did his best to word his thoughts. "This is just a feeling but… it looks to me like you don't get out that often."

It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn that the ginger-haired girl looked torn about something.

"My father is… very protective of me." Penny said sheepishly. "He would prefer that I don't go too far from Atlas, but…"

"Huh." Jaune felt a very familiar feeling of deja vu. "I can't say that I understand that feeling at all."

His parents, while not necessarily supportive of his dream of becoming a huntsman, simply let him do as he pleased. The blonde knew why that was the case. His mom and dad figured that should he fail, he'd come right back home and things would go back to normal more or less. That just made him want to succeed all the more.

Now that he thought about it that way, maybe his parents didn't want him to become a huntsman. Maybe they were low-key telling him to come home so that they didn't have to worry about him being dead.

"Actually, I take that back. I kind of understand." Jaune folded his hands in front of him on the table surface while looking into his coffee cup. "My parents, they probably don't ever say it out loud, but I guess they want me to come back home, be safe with them, all of that, kind of like how your father worries about you, even though you're combat ready, as you said."

He couldn't say for sure whether or not she could fight, but nothing she had said had led him to believe that she was lying to him.

"I don't comprehend the logic." Penny's face, for the first time, adopted a frown. "My father knows as well as I do that I can fight, and yet he still wants to protect me as if I have no combat prowess. Why?"

"Because it's in a parent's nature to worry." Jaune didn't pretend to understand how his parents felt fully, only seeing the worry. "After all, children are a part of their parents. They don't want to lose a part of themselves, you know?"

This seemed to be a point of contention between the girl and her father and now that they were discussing this, what about her mother? Where was she in all of this?

"I only have a father." Penny could either read his thoughts or she was correcting him on his assumption of her family. "I don't have a mother."

"Oh." Jaune had only come across situations like these every so often and that made it awkward for him. "Sorry. I didn't know."

"Oh, no! It's nothing as drastic as you're imagining!" Penny waved her hands as if to assuage his guilt about broaching the subject. "There is no tragedy to talk about. I just don't have a mother. I've never had one in all my life."

"Never had one?" Jaune felt that her wording was strange and his curiosity got the better of him. "As in, you've never known her? Or just… you don't have any memory of her?"

Penny listened to him, then suddenly appeared very flustered. "O-oh, u-um, I-I, y-es! I… never knew her! I don't have any memories of her!"

As soon as those words left her mouth, she abruptly let out a hiccup. He noticed it, but aside from it momentarily distracting him, he simply passed it off. What he was more focused on was her unforeseen change in tone.

"Are you okay, Penny?" Jaune wasn't clear about what to make of this.

"Yes, everything's fine, Jaune! There's nothing to worry about!" Penny said, then she hiccuped again.

The first time was a coincidence, but the second time was just a little bit suspicious and now that he was looking at her more closely, he could see her face looking somewhat anxious and tense. Her eyes seemed to be looking all over the place, as if she was trying to look for a way out of this path of conversation.

"You should probably finish your drink." Jaune's eyes fell to her cup. "It's not as good when it's cold."

"Yes, I agree!" Penny agreed instantly with his suggestion and tried to drink while hiding her face. "This is really good!"

She was definitely trying to switch the topic, that much he could see, but he wasn't one to pry into the personal matters of others, especially when it came to delicate family matters. He had a whole family, so he always felt bad for those that didn't have that, but they had circumstances that he didn't understand on a personal level, so who was he to comment on something that he had no experience with?

But now he had another problem. Now that they had effectively ended this trail, he wasn't sure how he ought to segment into the next topic. He could only look to his left, wracking his brain for inspiration.

"What's Atlas like?" Jaune realized that he didn't know much about her home, so there was that. "I've never been there before."

"Atlas?" Penny returned her eyes to him, appearing perplexed by his question, but then lit up quickly. "Oh, it's a wonderful place filled with all of the latest technological innovations that the world has to offer. Most people can't help but admire the view from the sky."

"I can only imagine." Jaune knew as much about the northernmost kingdom as any average person who had never been there. "What's the coolest sight there?"

The boy listened to the girl as she began to describe the place that she came from. It was clear that she thought much of her home. That was a good thing; she clearly associated many good memories with Atlas. That had to be a good sign.

But that didn't explain why she wanted to get out so much. If she loved where she came from so much, what reason would she have to wander so far from home? The best guess he could make was that there was some greater purpose guiding her. Maybe she had a goal of some kind that she needed or wanted to fulfill. He would like to think that was how she felt because he knew the feeling of loving his home, but wanting to leave it.

We could be more alike than I thought. Jaune kept that thought to himself. Here's hoping, right?

The leader of Team JNPR opted to stop overthinking and simply listen to what she had to say. He could worry about the details later.

RWBY - - - RWBY

Penny moved along the sidewalk, humming merrily to herself. Today had been a very nice day. She had met someone new, he called her cute, they spent time together, and best of all, he didn't know about her secret.

But he had come awfully close to hearing about it. She had nearly spilled the nature of what she was to him and if there was one thing that she didn't want him to know, it was that she wasn't normal.

The girl with carrot-colored hair didn't want to lose a potential best friend on account of him knowing that she was a synthetic life form. She didn't have many people that she could call friends. Her father didn't really count. General Ironwood was more of a boss than a friend. Winter Schnee was highly professional, so there wasn't much going on their either. Compared to the rest of them, Jaune just treated her like a normal person, a normal girl.

She liked that feeling and she wanted to experience that feeling again if it was at all possible.

Penny ceased her footsteps and her processes came to a realization: she had no means of communicating with him. She had not asked him for his scroll number nor had he requested hers. They had parted ways without any way to get in touch with each other.

"No, no no!" Penny felt her good memories of today turning sorrowful. "Why did you forget to ask him?!"

At this point, trying to find him would be hard. Well, not really. She knew enough information about him to guess where he was going at this time. He was likely on his way back to Beacon Academy to return to his teammates. Unlike herself, he was a student and as such, he had his own set of tasks to attend to, no doubt.

Wait. Penny thought of something. I know how I can find his contact information.

Her father had given her a plethora of tools and software in order to make her interaction with technology easier. Although her primary purpose was to be a weapon to fight all threats posed against Atlas, she was more than capable of performing many other jobs such as cyberwarfare, subterfuge, stealth operations, reconnaissance, Grimm extermination, protection, whatever need that the military required, she could do it.

So why not just hack into the CCTS and retrieve Jaune's information?

There was one issue when obtaining information like this; it was possible that when she returned for maintenance, her data logs would show that she had performed a hacking into the CCTS in order to obtain information on a student of Beacon Academy. That could lead to a lot of questions that might not bode well for either her or Jaune.

So how could she do this without having to go through a lengthy explanation as to why she did this?

That's when Penny come to a conclusion that seemed so obvious that she chided herself for not thinking of it before.

Why not just erase any traces of her accessing the CCTS once she was done?

If anyone asked her why she had Jaune's information, she could say that she had met him and wished to correspond.

That wouldn't be a lie.

All RWBY FanFiction shippers, be advised. Curcuit Breaker is currently rolling out a new story. At this time, Lancaster is a no go. How copy?

In all seriousness, welcome to a new romance story in the RWBY fandom. I did say that I would begin a new one with the completion of One-Night Brand. I did make good on my promise on the romance part. What I didn't do was make it a Lancaster ship.

Why is that?

It's my opinion that at this point, Lancaster has become popular enough that it's not really a crack ship. I mean, when I first rolled out my Dragon Slayer, this ship was sort of a thing, but not really something many poeple paid attention to. I would like to think that Circuit Breaker falls within that same vein.

So how about some of these names for the ship?

Curcuit Breaker? Is this the most popular one? What is its meaning derived from?

Arc Reactor? Cute.

Lost Change? Eh, not feeling it.

JcPenny? Someone needs to elaborate more on this one.

Robotic Knights? Kind of haphazardly put together in my opinion.

Arculus Rift? What's the story behind this one?

There's one other name, but I don't even want to get into that one.

For those of you wondering why this is rated M where there is clearly no mature content to be seen, I'm simply doing this to leave myself room for the possibility of mature content down the line. There's no telling if it will happen, but better to leave myself some room just in case.

I swear that some of you just thought of dirty things. I know that you deviants are out there.

Bear with the less than creative art cover. Right now, I am not a good artist as I still have a long way to go. I will get something better up in the future.

So what do you all think about this pilot chapter? Yes, I did say pilot chapter. I anticipate more to come. What'll happen, I don't know, but I'll think of something, just like I always do. If you sight any grammar issues, let me know too.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all around next time.

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

Abraham Lincoln