Again, her bopping to the music was there, this time he lived a little and joined in nodding his head and wiggling his shoulders to the tune. "Oh I love this bit!" She sounded so excited as the music swelled. "Just for a little while~ Let me sleep on my side! Bring me back from the edge my dear, let this feeling die~ Leave whole again, leave with with a kiss, leave me whole again~ just for a little while~"
This time she didn't hold back, really vibing with the tune and lyrics, her voice was stunning, just had a natural melody to it, high but still had some rumble to it, she was good. Not just good, she was great actually. "Tell anyone I sing and I'll kill you- For a little while!!"
Jaune just waved his hand and shook his head, "I believe you, don't worry it goes with me to my grave."
The song ended and the record started onto the next song but she got up to take it off and switch over to something else. "You ever thought about singing, like, professionally?" He asked casually.
She stopped mid stride, the next song starting with her not stopping it right away. "When I was a little girl my dad took me to go see a concert, must have cost him a fortune because we were right up front, It was some pop group I was obsessed with, I thought the leader singer was cute. He hated that music and he didn't get many days off. Still he took me and we got icecream after."
Her voice was small, probably the weakest he'd ever heard her. She was somewhere else remembering something from a long time ago, long enough she was in some other life, a little girl that didn't exist anymore.
The saddest, most beautiful song played, just a guitar and the artist singing, it was dripping in raw unfiltered emotion. "Little girls get to have dreams, but it's a luxury I don't get to afford anymore."
The bitterness in her voice was heartbreaking, she looked over her shoulder at Jaune and maybe it was just the song, or maybe this was the first time she'd ever actually spoken about it. But, the look on her face was one of such raw sadness that Jaune felt his heart break inside, something truly terrible had happened to her, something that had left her more alone than he could have ever imagined.
His hand instinctively reached out for hers, taking her fingers in his. He didn't know why he did it, but there was some certainty to the motion. Her hands were soft, her fingers trembled only slightly. She looked away and tried to cover a tear rolling down her cheek by letting out and laughing and wiping her cheek clean.
"I fucking swear if you laugh at me for crying, I'll beat your ass. It's just this stupid song." She tried to play it off like a joke, but Jaune just held on tighter.
"I'm not laughing, looks like you could use a good sad song." He let another little rasp come out of her throat, she sunk down sitting beside him, his hand still in hers with her side pressed against his, both of their backs against the wall now. She wiped her cheeks clean again, more now just smearing her face with a wet palm. "What's this song about? It's beautiful."
"T-thi- song?" She stammered, the thought taking her mind out of her spiral. "I… It's about his wife passing away, promising that in another life they'll fall in love all over again. That even the dark can't keep him from seeing her light." A pause. "It's a cover of a much older song, my mom used to sing it to me."
"It's beautiful." Was all he said, he wanted to say something to make her feel better, but honestly from the way she looked at him and just laid the side of her head against his shoulder, he figured words would probably ruin this moment.
Luckily Harpy did not feel the same way. "I'm sorry. I was really shitty to you."
"You had every right to be, honestly."
"I… I don't know if I trust you yet, I still think you're just buttering me up to stab me in the back." There was no edge to that line, it was almost sad, like she hated that she truly believed it, even though she didn't want to with every fiber of her being. "I… I really want to though. Trust you, that is."
"You don't have to trust me, or Pale or anyone else just yet. You can take your time, take all the time you need, I'll still be here." He mulled over his next words. "Same with dreams, that's the thing about them after all, you can keep chasing them and they never really go away, it's not about affording them or not, it's about working hard enough until they're in your hands."
Jaune put his head against hers, listening to the sad melody of such heartbreak and love all wrapped into one. "I'm going to be here every step of the way to make sure you have someone to fall back onto, I'm your friend, we're in this together now."
"Fucking… . dork." She mumbled, sniffling through more tears. "... hey." She mumbled. "I… can I ask you something that's gonna sound weird."
"Yeah what's up."
"It's about Amber… see we've been looking for -"
She was cut off by the door to their room slamming open just as the song ended, peeling off the edge of the record and ending the album. "HARPY!" Amber roared from the main room. "Pale agreed! We talked about it and-" Her footsteps charged closer and Harpy's hand threw itself from Jaune's she scooted away to get some distance between them. "If we invite Jaune, she wants to FUUU-"
Pale and Amber both entered the room to see a still wet and red eyed Harpy very obviously a weird distance away from a very concerned and confused Jaune. "UUuuuu-ck" She finished.
"Smooth." Harpy grumbled.
Jaune blinked, his expression concerningly neutral.
"Jaune?" Pale murmured. "W-what are you two doing in here, why is Harpy… Uhhh."
"We were listening to music." Harpy growled, before she could say crying. Jaune, still just staring straight ahead at a blank wall.
"Well this is tots awkward." Amber whispered, stepping out of the room only to get pushed back in by Pale.
"Pale?" Jaune slowly turned his gaze towards her.
"Y-yes?"
"Did Amber just say that you wanted to sleep with Harpy and her?"
"...." Pale didn't say anything right away, "It isn't like that."
Jaune looked over at Amber and then Harpy. "Wow, I uhh… Didn't think that if I was living with three girls, they'd all end up together around me."
"No see, I was going to offer-" Harpy's cheeks flushed, putting a nail between her teeth, finding it weird to speak about this in front of the others. "See the issue is really me and Amber."
"Yeah!" Pale agreed, nodding "So when Amber and I were talking about it.
"You and Amber talked about it?" Harpy shot at her, sounding a little offended she wanted brought into the conversation.
"It was just a lunch conversation, we hadn't agreed on anything, we were going to bring it up to you two."
"GUYS!" Amber got loud enough everyone was looking at her. "Harpy wants it rough, I Like it soft, we were talking about bringing other people in because Harpy wants to watch, She was going to invite Jaune, I wanted to invite Pale."
No one said a word, everyone besides Amber had a deep flush on their cheeks.
"Oh my gods." Jaune whispered. "I died, this is heaven, I died and I'm in heaven now."
"I… we need ground rules, also I didn't agree to this!" Harpy furrowed her brow and stood up, distancing herself from Jaune. "I'm okay with Pale but-"
"Were you not about to offer to let him join?" Amber blinked. "I could have sworn that was the air." To which Harpy tried to say something but closed her mouth and just crossed her arms, clearly not happy about being undermined but also knowing that Amber was right and honestly she just didn't want to have to admit to being nice to Jaune even once.
"What happened while we were at lunch? Are you two...friends now? I use the word friends lightly." Pale seemed so confused.
"We just listened to music!"
"I mean, yeah? I think she still wants to punch me in the face, but yeah we're cool now, we talked."
"I always want to punch you in the face." She confirmed. "But… I guess you aren't all bad, especially if it means I get to see Pale naked."
"I feel objectified, but, I mean honestly, same." Pale admitted with a sigh.
"Wait, you like women?" Harpy raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, You like Harpy?" Jaune couldn't help but add in, really adding stress to 'Harpy'.
"Hey!"
"Why didn't you tell me you were into women?" Leaning forward he looked directly at Pale, her own posture slanted with her arms under her bust, trying to avoid his eye contact.
"I.. I don't know if I am. I mean, I'm just- curious? It's complicated, I'm not sure how I feel yet but I-" Her gaze shifted towards Harpy and then Amber. "I've wanted to do something special for you, and i'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking at them just as much as you have."
Jaune averted his eyes, was he really that obvious, as if reading his mind Amber just made direct eye contact with him and nodded.
"I demand ground rules!" Harpy called, putting her hands up in the air. "As fun and cool and totally not cringe as it is for you two to be gross, I'm not just letting you two fuck my girlfriend. I think we should all agree on what's allowed and what we want out of this."
"Okay that's fair, we can talk about this, maybe take some time to think it over, honestly we were planning on having this conversation and taking some time before we all met up together, we don't even have to do it today or even this week." Pale offered, trying to find a good middle ground, and even though Harpy was pouting she obviously seemed a little excited for the idea, red coiling over her features, and little wiggle to her hips.
"I mean, listen, please don't make me wait a week, you know how hard it is to get off living with 3 other people?" Amber groaned, getting a thousand yard stare.
Pale and Jaune both just shivered knowing all too well how difficult it was to find any time to be intimate.
"Pffft, Maybe if you're a coward." Harpy retorted.
"Okay so we are agreed, tonight then?" Amber offered, which got a little surprised expression from everyone, unsure about doing this so soon.
"Wait, tonight is too soon, I'm still deciding if I even want to be in the same room as this guy, let alone let him anywhere near you."Harpy growled, jabbing her thumb across the room towards the still seated Jaune. She was standing beside Amber, with Pale having moved over to rest her hip against the bed frame, the room split down the middle with the two couples on either side.
"Are you sure?" Amber asked, her voice getting a little lower. Which surprised both Pale and Jaune, they'd never heard her sound… well… sexy. "You don't want to see me sandwiched between them, moaning about how much better they are than you?"
Jaune was floored, what the fuck, he didn't want Harpy to hate him more than she already did, and the idea that Amber could even say anything that- "Fuck." Harpy let a rattled breath out, she was… she was into that? Which was. Wow that was something that caught everyone else in the room off guard. "Okay, fuck, you win. Just save it for tonight." She grumbled.
"Oh she likes it rough." Pale mumbled like she was just realizing something for the first time.
"Perfect, so we can all talk about boundaries and safety and such, anything we want to do specifically- yadda yadda." Amber rolled her wrist to indicate they could really talk about anything.
"Okay but, consider, I'm still just hearing about this for the first time, is this just like… What Pale and I've been- well, we haven't." Jaune tried to stammer through the words, clearly unsure if he should really spill the beans about how little he and Pale have really done, or the fact that he's pretty sure he's the only virgin in the group of them.
"I mean that's up to you, you don't have to do any more than you're not comfortable with, and if you're not comfortable with the rest of us doing anything then we don't have to. The whole point of talking about it is finding boundaries, it's the same for us. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the idea of you and another woman in general, this is all so… outside of my comfort zone." Pale admitted, pushing some hair out of her face and rubbing the bone of her wrist. "But, I want to do this and if I can make you happy doing it, then I suppose I trust Amber. However if you're uncomfortable with that, or seeing me with Amber. We won't have to do anything, and if I decide I don't like the idea of you with her, well, hopefully you'll also be okay with no doing that."
"Of course, baby. I'd never do anything to make you uncomfortable, I promise. I'll- uh- Think about this, It's all so sudden I'm still not sure about any of it." Jaune tried to laugh it off but it was a torn horrible uncertainty, on one hand, this was every guy's dream right? Three beautiful women, but there was so much pressure, so much he could do to mess this up. Not to mention something Pale had made him see was that he had a worth too, that sex wasn't something he was expected to just give to women or want all the time. That it was okay to have boundaries and didn't have to do everything his partner wanted all the time.
Not to mention he loved Pale, care about her more than the moon and stars. He didn't want to jeopardize that because he was horny and figured he could just bang everything with legs. He cared about Amber and Harpy was growing on him, and they certainly were beyond gorgeous, but he cared more about Pale than just letting his dick do the thinking.
"Awww you guys are so cute!" Amber practically squealed.
"I want to vomit and die." Her partner grumbled.
"Okay I'll go with Jaune and we can talk about Harpy and expectations, we can go buy from protection too!" Amber clapped her hands together, a big wide smile on her face. "We can all get together in pairs and talk about this and what we want, then get together before the big event just in case anyone decides to drop out. And no judgement if someone does, if we call this off we have to promise no hard feelings, right?"
"Yeah, that goes without saying." Harpy rolled her eyes, both Jaune and Pale nodding.
The conversation winded down without much more incident, they moved it towards their living area, Harpy and Pale getting talking about what happened after they both left the gym, listening to music.
Harpy even openly confessed to faking her transcripts, which luckily wasn't as big a deal as she thought it would be. Everyone agreed to keep it a secret. Amber even took some soda cans out of the fridge and started popping them open for everyone.
Which Pale put a coaster under every one of them right as Amber put them down. It all worked in such fluidity that Jaune had to just sit and feel amazed that it took them a week and one good cry-
As well as agreeing to fuck each other
-before they were working together like an actual team.
It wasn't long before Pale and Harpy were talking about music, musicals and artists. Swapping stories in their vastly different fields of knowledge. Which left Amber and Jaune to leave to go buy some things for tonight. They were planning drinks, they were planning condoms, they were planning on some good takeout.
Well really, it was just an excuse for Jaune and Amber to finally get some time together, feeling like months since the two of them had just been alone together. Walking through the halls of this prestigious school that they entered together, once so foreign now a familiar place they both called home.
"You did pretty good back there." Amber offered out of the blue, hands behind her back with her fluffy big tail wagging back and forth. "I didn't think you'd win over Harpy so easily."
"She's… Well you were right, she's better once you get to know her." he let out a small tired sigh, feeling stupid for ever having doubted his best friend. "You know, I- Uh well, if you just want to do Pale, I… I don't have to join in, it might make things weird. Since we're supposed to be friends, and all that nonsense."
Amber just looked out of the corner of her eye at him, quirking an eyebrow. "Jaune you seem to greatly misunderstand what my intentions are."
"Feeling particularly conniving today?"
"Jaune, I'm the convi-iest. My mind is a puzzle not even you could unravel." She gave him a conspiratorial wink. Rounding the corner so that they were outside. "Like a kaleidoscope of intelligence and cunning."
"You truly are amazing, is that why you're just barely passing chemistry?"
"No! I'm doing great in chemistry, they just think I need to stop licking the chemicals, which is a load of-!" She was stopped by nearly running into a stop sign, to animated in her discussion and needing to be stopped by Jaune reaching out and grabbing her waist, pulling her back. "Ack!"
"Whoa, don't walk out into the road." He looked both ways but no cars were coming, glad he at least stopped her from going face first into a metal beam. His hands slipped off her hips but she reached down and gripped his fingers tightly. Looking down so he couldn't see her face. "Amber?"
"I… Do you hate me for being with Harpy?"
Well that was a turn.
He tried to laugh it off but the sound was hollow in his throat. "Yeah, I hate you for trying to be happy." There wasn't any resentment but he knew that wasn't what she was looking for, he was just trying to keep the mood light and failing miserably at it. "She's cool, I see why you like her."
"Yeah… She's great. I just… I didn't like having to hurt you." Her voice was small, a little on edge, like she wasn't sure if she should be talking at all. 'Having to hurt you' came out weird but was definitely the wording she wanted to use it seemed.
"Amber, you being happy didn't hurt me, it was how quickly it happened, it was just a lot all at once but I'm more happy for you than anything else. It was shocking, not upsetting." Which wasn't a lie, and a week later there was no bad blood, even if their relationship had been strained, they were back where they used to be, for the most part at least.
"You… You don't understand."
Why did she sound so torn on talking about this? Jaune furrowed his brow and felt her press back against him, her plush ass pushing against his crotch and making him wince, the smooth flat of her back against the muscle of his chest and abs. "Am-"
She cut him off by tugging his arms around her tight, the two of them hugging right at the street corner. It was so simple but Jaune felt his throat close up, it had been so long since they'd been able to touch skin to skin. All the nights he woke up with her laying across him, the scent of her hair tickling his nose. He craned his neck to let the air filter through his breathing, it felt like those nights when he wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing. When he was alone and the only person he had in this cold unforgiving word was the wolf in his arms. He wanted to cry, not for a day had he realized how much he missed her.
And he realized that she missed him too, their emotions linked, their thoughts the same. They had both been longing for that connection that they'd so willingly given up. A friendship that was beyond any stupid bitterness of love or betrayal. But it wasn't betrayal, not like he'd known, Amber hadn't tried to hurt him, he loved her, that meant more than any lingering resentment he felt. They cared for each other, more than what she'd felt when it had turned out he was going on a date with Pale, when she'd felt like he betrayed her.
They were together and that meant more than any star in the sky or planet in the stars.
Jaune buried his nose in her hair, enjoying the texture on his skin, the warmth from her body. "Amber…"
"Jaune I… I want you to be happy more than anything. I promise." There was some urgency to her voice.
"Amber, what do you mean? You're trying to get at something but I have no idea what."
She fidgeted managing to turn herself around in his grip so that his hands were on her hips and hers were against his chest. Bodies still pressed together, now front to front. "I… I might have, maybe messed up my big plan, and made this all so much more complicated than it needs to be."
"Amber you're not making any sense." Jaune chewed the inside of his lip, what was she even talking about? She sounded so heartfelt but he couldn't even think of something that had happened which would warrant this kind of reaction. He was genuinely concerned about her now, wondering what had happened, did this have to do with the event tonight? Was she backing out, did it not pan out the way she wanted? He was glad she was bringing it up now then, so he could back out and make them think it was a him issue instead.
"I, okay, so- When we got to Atlas I felt how lonely you were, how sad you were. I knew you had a bunch of friends back at Beacon and you were used to sisters being around you all the time but every time I tried to make friends people would look at me weird. But I felt how they reacted to you, some thought you were cute, some wanted to get to know you." Her voice was trailing, rambling through her thoughts and it took Jaune a second to keep up with everything she was saying, even without any real substance to it.
"So, I tried to think of ways to make you happy, I- I really wanted to be with you, but I didn't want to be the only thing for you, - I knew you'd be happy but you'd just have me, just me for so long and you deserve so much more than just me"
"Amber, you're-" He was going to say more than enough but she cut him off again, a hand over his face.
"Please let me finish, this is taking all the power my gigantic balls have." Jaune blinked at that statement but let her continue, more out of bewilderment and pure shock than anything else. "I don- I don't have balls by the way, just- well- so you know."
She let out a staggered little sigh, taking a breath to collect herself. "I wanted to give you everything, things to make you happy, and well, I knew that Harpy and Pale thought you were cute, I-I always planned on having them both together to uh, well, do exactly this."
Jaune blinked, then blinked again, she… Planned this?
"I started seeing Harpy to butter her up, talking about how great you were and slowly planting the idea you might not be as bad as she thought, putting you as a wedge between me and her so that she'd eventually snap and you two would be forced to talk… well… exactly the way you did." Which sounded like a horrible idea, but then again it had gone exactly as she planned, apparently, so maybe she just knew them better than he thought. "And I knew that being closer to Harpy would push you to Pale."
Which.. It had.
"But, it fucking sucked. I hated seeing you look at me like that, I didn't like leaving you alone knowing she was kissing you and I wasn't. I- I hated it, gods I hated it so much." She was shivering now, trying hard to keep all that resented sadness locked up even just for a little longer. "I just wanted to be the one kissing you, holding your hand, sleeping next to you."
"I tried to get them to just be fun things, like toys, like I was buying you a gift for your birthday or picking up a girl from the bar to join us for the night." Jaune couldn't help but find that statement stupidly exciting. "But I ended up really liking Harpy, and Pale is just so sweet. I pushed too hard with Pale and you ended up getting feelings for her too, I just… I messed up and made this tangle that I'm so scared will fall apart and you'll hate me for real." She let out a shaky breath. "I don't want any of my friends to get hurt, I just want to be with all of you."
Amber.. Really was a mad genius, wasn't she? Jaune couldn't help but marvel at it, she'd moved pieces around, hell he suspected that having him walk in on her and Harpy to push him closer to Pale was probably intentional at this point. She'd played all of these pieces like chess, and did it all with even really manipulating them, without lying, she just showed them what they felt and led them by the hand to see what they really felt.
It was impressive really.
"I… Wow." Jaune stammered like an idiot. Clearing his throat to get real boy words out. "You did all of that for me? Because.. You love me?"
"Yes, dummy." She sniffed through sullen tears.
"I… I'm such an idiot, trying to ignore my feelings. I wanted to just push my feelings for you behind me, try and fight through them to be faithful to Pale. I resented that I still had feelings for you, I felt like a bad boyfriend, a terrible partner." Putting his lips to the top of her head, he took in the warmth of her body, letting his breath waft over her scalp. "I love you too, and I think Harpy too, I… I'm the same, I just can't help it, you all- just fucking matter so much to me. We're both so stupid, playing around and trying to keep everyone together without ever talking about our gods damned feelings."
She laughed at that, a laugh of surprise and joy. "I think Pale is the same way, and trust me from the way Harpy looks, she does too." She mustered up. "We're all such hopeless romantic idiots but talk like we're middle schoolers with crushes, we're really fucking stupid aren't we?"
"Well maybe I am." He snickered, hugging her tighter. "Apparently you're an evil fucking genius."
"Mad scientist wolfy coming through." She pressed the face of her face against his chest, her soft cheek squishing against him with her arms wrapping around his frame, giving him a big bear hug. "I… I love you, Jaune. You and Pale, and harpy."
"Me too, Am, I love you and everyone else so much, I'm such an idiot for trying to pretend like I didn't."
With a reluctance that was tangible in her claws against his back, she pulled away. Eyes drifting towards the ground. "Can.. Close your eyes."
"What?"
"We don't have a lot of time, we were only supposed to be gone for a little bit, so close your eyes." She grumbled, hair standing up on end, and when he didn't immediately close his eyes instead she reached up and put her hand over his face, covering his vision with her palm.
"Amber what are you-" He was cut off by lips against his, her other hand against his chest, she must have gone to her tip-toes to kiss him. A small chaste kiss, lips together but it was soft, tender. There was love behind it, pressed together with a longing of days, weeks apart. She'd missed him, regretted not doing this sooner.
He met every emotion with equal intent, a melting longing of his own regrets coming together in one fleeting longing kiss. Before she pulled away again, her hand leaving his face the same time her lips left his. When his eyes opened again she was already standing where she had been before. "I- I wanted to do that for so long."
Her voice was breathless, wistful. Which was good because she'd left him completely speechless. He just nodded dumbly, trying so hard to form a single sentence but couldn't.
"I… We should go, buy you some protection, so we can make this night really, really special for you." She paused, looking down at the ground, double taking back up to him before kicking the ground with her toe. "M-ma- erm… Special for you… Master."
Jaune felt his heart stop, and well, blood flow to his lower body in a lurch. Master, that was.. Wow that was really hot. And something he felt in his soul, even if he hadn't really earned it, he could tell she'd been wanting to say that for a while now.
"I really appreciate your gift, by the way." He tried to sound confident but his voice was all breath, so taken aback by how utterly spoiled he was by this amazing woman in front of him. By the amazing women in his life in general. He was trying to play the part but had no idea what to do, or call her.
But the excited look on her face was childlike wonder, she was overjoyed that he was accepting her, that she'd found her 'master'. Even if he didn't feel like he was.
He raised his hand and put it against her head, ruffling her hair between her ears. Finally giving her that pat she'd asked for when she first arrived in Atlas.
Jaune watched Amber melt, her knees went weak and her eyes rolled upwards with her face becoming dooey "Ooohhh~" It wasn't exactly sexual but she -really- liked that. "E-earr~"
He smiled, laughing at how apparently she loved being pet, which was an amazing fact to learn. "Gods you're so cute, I cannot wait to tell Harpy about this, she's going to love it."
"N-nuuu only you~" She mewled, wriggling out of his grip, glaring up at him. "No! Must be good! Condoms and chips, and pets later!" But she got this deep red blush on her face, looking away. "Okay maybe one more and then we go to the store?"
Jaune just reached up with both hands, running them through her hair, petting her cheeks and head, rubbing her ears and practically getting her orgasmic and vibrating from the action "Awww yuuuuus!"
The scene winding down with a faed out of two idiots standing on a street corner, Jaune petting his new girlfriend while going to buy condoms for his other two girlfriends, in broad fucking daylight.
This isn't the end of his story, but it is the end of the beginning.
They had hurdles, had ups and downs, fights. Watched movies, got jealous over each other, went to concerts, studied for classes, went on missions.
But the important thing is they did it together. They did everything together.
They just loved each other too much to do it any other way.
To be continued.
Next chapter we get the last flashback as we get the actual scene with Jaune, Harpy, Pale and Amber spending the night together for the first time.
Then we get to the actual story proper with real canon content!