It returns!

Four months of university and other projects, as well as a road block, hindered me here...

Ah well, I'm back now. Hopefully still as "good" as before.

Enjoy!

For want of a Knight

Chapter 28: boat trip!

"Ruby, get out of the suitcase."

"No! Take me with you!"

It wasn't really easy to pack for a voyage lasting two weeks. A girl acting like a clingy dog and sitting down in the suitcase did not help at all. Blake felt her headache approaching already.

"We can't, Ruby," she reasoned, or at least tried. "Any more humans would be difficult to explain, and we're a huge group already."

"You can smuggle me along! No one has to know!"

"I won't have any place for spare clothes!"

Ruby, still sitting in the open suitcase, scoffed. "Who needs spare clothes?"

"We do. Menagerie is hot and humid, and the sea air alone can leave some salt residue on your clothes."

"But..."

"We would be on sea for fourteen days at the most. Seven at the least." That those estimates were still generous, with the threat of Grimm lurking even at high sea was left unsaid.

Ruby finally conceded, but did so with a pout. "You could carry me in a second suitcase, but nooo, Blake Belladonna is a girl who doesn't pack much, so it gets suspicious!" That had been Blake's first counter against Ruby's first argument to take her with the "retrieval force". The actual and official name was "ambassadorial group", but the girls were united in naming the brave faunus – and Neo – who dared to venture in the den of the terrorists as such.

Also it sounded more awesome, as Ruby, Reese, Neon and Nora insisted. Go figure.

"Ruby," Weiss finally intervened. She had held back long enough to watch, in Blake's opinion. Yang was understandable; that girl was all for her adorable sister acting like this, but Weiss?

The heiress absent-mindedly patted her leader's head as she spoke: "Just believe in Blake, okay? She will do her best to bring Jaune back to us unspoiled."

Ruby was confused. "What does 'unspoiled' mean?"

"Unsullied," Weiss supplied. A quizzical and plain cute head tilt was her answer. She had to hold back on treating Ruby like a puppy for a good while now, and that gesture was not helping.

Sue her, she was a dog person.

"Still virgin," Yang resolved after a hearty guffaw. Obviously, the buxom brawler had a good time watching all of this. It was prime entertainment to her!

"That," the heiress confirmed as she still was petting Ruby like the puppy she seemed to be. The girl in red leaned into the touch on instinct, reminded of a happier time where her mother was still alive. This, however, was also quite good; Weiss' hands were really soft.

"This is precious to watch, but can I finally get my suitcase packed?"

"Not yet," two partners chorused.

/-/

"...and remember to hold back," Nora demanded. "Team JNPR gets first dibs!"

"Why you?" Ruby demanded to know. "I am his first friend!"
"And we are his team," Ren interjected. As soon as he spoke, some girls mulled over what was said. They had all gathered at the docks to send the "Task force" off on their noble mission to retrieve their husbando. Weird how they had united under one purpose and had, somehow, agreed that sharing was better than risking their friendships. Of course, abandoning their quest for the Arc's Arc had been an option, but then he had all those little moments with each of them!

Arslan found herself beyond jealous. The first guy she was genuinely interested in, and so many others vied for his attention. It was frustrating, sure, but it was also fun. Joking around, flirting a little...hell, she and Reese shared a little moment where they experimented-

This was not the time to think about that. Ever since Jaune and her started doing yoga together, team ABRN's leader was beyond sexually frustrated. She saw his bulge during their positions, along his blushing face! He had been checking her out while she was stretching herself and showing off, which only turned her on even more!

Perhaps Coco knew some remedy. If not, the literal second Jaune would crawl out of JNPR's dorm, she would abduct him, tie him to the nearest bed and, along with Reese, go to town.

Yup, she needed that remedy. Especially after briefly imagining the tender embrace of- how in the hell is it that this stuff gets so romanticized while hetero stuff is reduced to the sexual? Arslan shook her head. It was best not to travel down that rabbit hole.

Speaking of rabbits…

"Neo," Velvet stared at the diminutive assassin. "You're hiding something."

The girl indeed looked like the cat that caught the canary. While it was a fitting innuendo for whenever Blake would corner Jaune, Arslan noted, something about this girl's expression didn't sit right with her. Said ice-cream fetishist looked mockingly aghast, complete with a 'who-me?' gesture.

Ruby was not having it. "Spill."

The girl was spilling alright, but it was limited to her scroll. The only one present who could decipher her sign language was Mama Arc, and that woman looked out of it. Something something utter happiness. The ashen blonde wouldn't have to lie to say that she liked the woman, even if she was a tad much.

Kind of like a Nora lite, but with less fixation on pancakes and explosives.

So, not much like Nora.

Fuck these comparisons, whatever Neo had to 'say' was more important.

Boy, did she have something to say.

"You did what?" yelled Ruby along with her team. The gnome urged them to read further, but Arslan found it difficult to pay attention, what with all this jealousy.

That goblin had slept with her man, apparently using some emotional weakness as her 'in'. Several girls looked inches away from murder, so it had to be an adult who would bring back the order, right?

Wrong. Goodwitch looked like she was about to explode, while Arturia was over the moon, bouncing in one place and chanting 'grandbabies' quietly to herself.

Lip-reading was a useful skill to have.

Finally, Pyrrha, despite seeming to want a skewered Neopolitan right now, shouted at all of them to keep quiet and read the rest aloud. That girl had a surprising set of lungs on her. Then she was wilting back into her blushing shyness and all was normal again.

Relatively speaking.

It was Weiss who read the rest of the message, about how Jaune seemed to be actually polyamrous; that is to say, able to love them all equally without being a player. They all quieted down to take in those words. Well, save for Mama Arc, who utterly lost it and ran around the pier, raising her arms and laughing like mad. Then she ran over to each and every one of the girls and kissed them on the head. Orphans like Nora looked utterly mollified and happy with that motion.

The fact that 'Operation Ultra-Mighty-Harem-Of-Awesome' (trademark pending) was a definite go notwithstanding. It was Nora's idea, down to the name, even if it was more of a polyamorous relationship in between all of them.

Hence the experimentation with one another. Some liked it, others not so much. To each their own.

"That...is good to know," Miltia conceded.

"But you're still on thin ice," Melanie added. Neo took the remaining and fading hostility in stride. Hell, even Glynda looked a little calmer now, even as Tori hugged the life out of her.

"Well, change of plans!" Nora announced. "Whoever gets with him on the boat trip or on Menagerie is on time out once you all get back. And JNPR gets first! I will be the bacon in the bacon pancake sandwich! Mmm, bacon pancakes..."

"Remind me to introduce you to Solitas-style pancakes," Neon yelled back as she ascended the catwalk with her pink suitcase. "Everyone on board! The ship won't wait forever!"

"I'ma kick your ass when you get home, ice-cream!" Yang yelled up at a silently giggling Neo running on deck.

/-/

"You can release me now, Tori," Glynda sighed as the commotion erupted again; some girls swearing vengeance for their stolen thunder, others yelling for souvenirs. The teacher could swear there were more of them in the crowd…

Then again, she could use a cruise as vacation. Let Tori handle the girls; this teacher will get a tan. Now there was a titillating thought...a certain blonde kissing along her tanlines…

shelving that for later.

"We are going now! Let's go, people! Onward and forward!"

"That's the same thing, Neon!" Ciel yelled up to the ship as Coco laughed.

"Hey, Velv!" she yelled. Once he's back, we get our costumes and give him a good night, yeah?" The bunny answered with a blush and a shy nod.

Glynda could only sigh to the heavens at such frivolous banter. Then again, she was the one fantasizing about her student, who so happened to be the son of her friend…

This was too confusing.

'Screw it,' she decided. 'This is my vacation now, I decided so, and nobody will stop me.'

/-/

CantRushTheThrush: and the ships have left the harbor!

ReleaseTheDoves: You mean ship

CantRushTheThrush: I know what I said.

MonkeyBusiness: I live!

SkyHigh: where have you been

MonkeyBusiness: hungover

SkyHigh: but you were sober during the battle

MonkeyBusiness: I drank some more

MonkeyBusiness: Nolan brews the strong stuff

NorthNolan: that I do

ReleaseTheDoves: I still don't approve of you using that nickname

NorthNolan: and I told you that you can suck it.

SkyHigh: shame about Merc being a terrorist though

CantRushTheThrush: I KNOW. Dude was fun to talk to

SkyHigh: I mean

SkyHigh: I saw Mr Arc go to his jail cell

SkyHigh: maybe rehab?

ReleaseTheDoves: that's for drugs

ReleaseTheDoves: btws, has anyone seen Cardin? He hasn't been back since yesterday.

SkyHigh: he only wrote: "Need to pay my mom a visit after this shit went down. She's a worrywart."

SkyHigh: been gone since

MonkeyBusiness: think he's got a gf?

ReleaseTheDoves:….

SkyHigh: m8

CantRushTheThrush: If he has, we party. Nolan?

NorthNolan: already mixing my stuff

MonkeyBusiness: you know how that sounds, right?

NorthNolan: ?

MonkeyBusiness: nvm

/-/

"What the fuck is that?!"

While the girls were going after him on the boat and some serious stuff was resolved with the amazing ease of maidens on a long-term mission, Jaune was busy dueling the chief cook on the ship. Sienna and the other faunus of the White fang looked on with amusement at the cook-off. Some of the more supremacist faunus had expressed open doubt that a mere human could keep up with a faunus in terms of cooking when Jaune had asked to use the kitchen. For the cook, this was a thing of pride, so the cook-off was initiated, with Sienna allowing it to happen. The sole condition was to waste as little on ingredients as possible.

Reasonable, considering they were still on a ship, and every gram of food counted.

When it started, two things were unveiled soon enough. One, Jaune was a very competent cook. He moved with precision and pure focus, preparing a few seafood dishes alongside a steak, seasoning them all and cooking all of it in different pans. Braising the fish and handling the shakers never before seemed like an art form to any of the people watching, but here this human was.

The other thing though, and that amazed Sienna, was that her fiancee was immensely pedantic in terms of cooking. He had chanted to himself "just need to burn some eggs, just need to burn some, ground myself, ground myself..." and it had puzzled the tiger faunus. Little had made sense about that, but she was soon enough distracted by the utterly heavenly smell of a butter-basted steak with a touch of grated cheese – the good one from Vale – and some mashed potatoes as garnish. Her very own dish that she couldn't wait for.

Who knew that a man cooking for her could be a turn-on for Sienna?

Then it began. The incensed screaming as Jaune was done and looked over to the cook, who felt his pride on the line and committed a no-go among chefs.

He was cutting corners.

"This fish, fucking look at it," he yelled, his face a vicious grimace. "Is this what you planned on serving, dickface?!"

"I'm not dickface, you pretentious human," the chef yelled back. "This fish is perfectly fine-"

"Perfectly fine?!" Jaune parroted, his voice breaking in his anger. "Touch it, you fuck! I counted the time on that and I can tell you it's raw in the middle!"

The chef refused, staring at this human daring to question his ability. His fellow faunus protested, defending their own, until the Khan stepped forward. Taking her heavenly steak – it glistened with juices! Taking fork and knife and gushing on the inside on how good it looked, she cut a piece of this slice of heaven and bit into it.

'Oh, you are going to get laid today, husband.'

While her thoughts rushed a bit forward, her mouth was in paradise. Cooked to perfection and seasoned just right, tasting this thing made her purr out loud! She couldn't help herself and dug in fiercely.

Meanwhile, Jaune had cut the offending piece of fish and revealed a pink inside, presenting it to the stunned chef.

"I..." The man slumped in defeat. "Just..."

The blonde sighed at him. "Look. I get your pride in your cooking. I get too intense with it myself, which is why my mom came up with this ritual where I purposely burn my eggs. Neither of us know why it works, but we don't question it. It still works; the last time I got so worked up was long ago."

Jaune had his hand on the chef's shoulder the whole time. The man looked at this human and saw neither malice nor contempt or superiority. He saw compassion and drive.

This was a good human.

"Care to teach me some tricks, human?" the man asked.

"It's Jaune," the 'prisoner* replied. "And sure."

Meanwhile, Sienna and the few chosen people for testing the meals were enjoying a taste experience unlike any other. The Khan was not alone with her fantasies of their hostage in an apron.
And nothing else.

/-/

Two days had passed on the high sea, ever since they departed, and not much could be said at all.

Glynda was enjoying taking a load off while Tori wrangled the girls with gusto. This should have been a relaxing trip, at least until they got to Menagerie, where they had to negotiate for releasing her boyto- student.

Ever since Tori started teasing her about things, her fantasies strayed further and further, becoming naughtier and naughtier.

"uuurgh..."

The moment was ruined. Goodwitch suppressed a sigh. She had expected seasickness, people getting drunk at the minibar or fiddling with the stuff Ironwood asked them to take with.

It had been part of a reparation effort towards the faunus community as a whole. A miniature CCT, a node point tower that ran towards Vacuo and, from there, the whole world. Some engineers accompanied them to assemble the thing, too.

All of it to get a stronger hand at negotiations, then and in the future, something she appreciated the man for.

What she did not expect were stowaways.

"Ahh, this is nice," Nebula sighed as she laid down on the chair next to Glynda's, basking in the sun. The entire team NDGO had successfully hidden themselves in the cargo hold inside the ship. It was utterly irresponsible of them but Tori had convinced her to take them with them all on to land.

They were now hired as bodyguards of Arturia Arc, and their payment would consist of cookies.

Fine and dandy, maybe, if this mission wasn't so crucial to the survival of your own son, Tori. However, that woman was a tad stubborn in regards to acquiring future daughters-in-law, so nothing could be done.

Not even as May Zedong climbed out of another crate.

Belladonna nearly had an aneurysm out of rage, which the MatriArc had to mollify by hugging. The sniper of team BRNZ was hired as well, with the same pay as NDGO. Neon welcomed the newcomers, Velvet facepalmed and Neo-

Well, she repeated what she said to the others back at the docks.

One chase sequence later and everyone was calmed down enough to see reason. Same old, same old. Peace was restored and the girls were thirsty.
Literally. The first thing they did was guzzle one whole water bottle each.

Enough of that, though. Glynda was intent to make the best of all this, even as her silence was disturbed by the creaking of another chair, being burdened with another body.

"Oh my fuck! May!" Dew Gayl could be heard. Miss Goodwitch turned around to chastise her, only to see the reason for this commotion.

Miss Zedong had shed her usual attire for a rather skimpy bikini, unveiling a bafflingly voluptuous figure. The young woman's boobs were massive, rivalling Glynda's own. With May, more on display, considering the good witch's apparel was the more conservative in between the two.

The poor girl blushed under the catcalls and quietly complained about it. "No other swimsuit could fit me..."

This was going to be less relaxing than Glynda thought. She sympathized with the girl's plight, having had a similar problem in her age.

"Well, I think you should flaunt it," Nebula Violette interjected, her voice hinting at her surprise at May's figure. "I mean, wow."

The girl in question shrank into herself. Yup, this was going to be difficult...