#benisato

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Jaune sat on his bed, still in his nightclothes, actually laughing as he played with the Vacuo Death Viper without a care in the world. Which of course made his team very apprehensive. Each one waiting for the moment when the vile creature would attack their team leader.

"Guts, there is nothing to worry about."

"Says you." Nora responded, a desk chair clasped in her hands, ready to be used as a makeshift hammer.

"Jaune could you please?" Pyrrha whimpered. The invincible girl not being a fan of snakes, or for that matter spiders, rats or mice.

"You want to hold her?" Jaune asked, a warm smile on his lips as he held the deadly creature out towards his friends.

"I'll pass." Ren replied, "You said your mother is here? I take it because of the... snake?"

"Yes. This one is usually perched about her neck. It was her first tattoo, much like how the Valean Pit-Viper tattoo about my neck and shoulders was mine."

To accentuate the point, Jaune smiled and suddenly from around the collar of his t-shirt the scaled head of another serpent appeared. It slithered out from under his shirt and coiled about his shoulders, even going so far as to affectionately nuzzle Jaune's cheek.

The Death Viper, not to be out done, scaled Jaune's extended arms, and faced off against the Pit-Viper. The pair of serpents rose, their eyes starting at each other. Their forked tongues flicking in and out of their mouths, tasting the air.

Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha gasped and froze as the pair of venomous snakes both opened their mouths, exposing gleaming fangs.

"Are you guys tired?" Jaune asked as the pair of snakes, "That was a couple of big yawns there."

"Yawns?" his trio of teammates asked, utterly stunned, as Jaune lifted both serpents casually from around his neck and laid them on the bed.

The Pit-Viper coiled tightly upon itself, with the slightly larger Death Viper coiling around it, ending by laying its head over the neck of the smaller... if his friends didn't know better... it looked almost as if the pair of vile beasts were cuddling.

But before anyone could make a comment, there was a series of knocks upon the door. The slightly unnerved trio of Jaune's teammates stepped away from the door, just enough for Pyrrha to answer it.

“Oh, Professor Goodwitch, and?” Pyrrha eyed the woman standing next to the Deputy Headmistress. She had an air of authority much like Goodwitch had, but unlike the Professor’s aura... this woman’s was more sinister.

“Mom.” Jaune greeted the woman, who eyed up Pyrrha for a moment before stepping past and into the room… uninvited.

“Jaune.”

“Mom?” Nora asked, looking at Ren, “I thought she’d be blond?”

“So did I.” Pyrrha added.

“Well, Mrs Arc I have escorted you to your son, I shall take my…”

“I require access to a room with a sparing circle.” Benisato commented out loud. “Is there such a place available?”

“Mom?”

“Jaune, you ran from home. Your sisters were in tears. Your father was a nervous wreck…”

“You don’t und…”

SMACK!

“Do NOT tell me I don’t understand! Your father and I did not suffer all that horror in the frontier so you could be a stupid little shit and go and get yourself killed because you wanted to be a HERO!” Benisato screamed at the top of her lungs, tears forming in her eyes. “We thought we lost you! No calls, no messages! We thought you died!”

“But…”

“There is no BUT Jaune!” she continued to scream at her son, all the frustration, fear, and anger of the last several months bursting forth. “Your stupidity nearly tore your family apart!”

“I’m sorry…” Jaune responded, still holding the cheek his mother had struck with the palm of her hand.