Okay, here it's 00:00, midnight, of the 8th of February. Aka, my birthday. For you guys it's probably already afternoon or something, but I'm posting this at midnight on my side.

So... this is the prologue. Initially, A Rose Too Many was going to be a Modern AU, but if I am ever going to write that, I'm gonna change its name. This is instead an idea I got from watching Pyrrha's explanation about Aura. How everything not Grimm has Aura because only the Grimm lack of a soul. Not going to spoil anything else though.

Well, I am happy to have managed to write this. These days I've been sick, plus other bad stuff happened, so I really wasn't sure. Up until a hour or so ago, let's make it two, this chapter was literally half what it is now. I was on the verge of going 'fuck it' and keep it short, but thankfully my stubbornness won over in the end, and it's 4.1 k words. A little less than my new standard of 4.4k for Extension, DarkerShade, and Redemption, but hey, I can't win in all the fields.

Enjoy! ^^

Summer Rose was returning home early.

At the young age of six, Ruby Rose could still not understand many of the subtle hints that social interaction entailed. However, she could recognize visible relief when it washed over her dad's face, and she could see how Uncle Qrow seemed to sit a little straighter in his chair. Across the table from the little Rose, Yang perked up a bit. However, all that was nothing when compared to how much Ruby herself brightened up. Mommy would come back sooner from her mission, and that was incredibly good news! She even stopped downing cookies to let out a little squeal of joy.

Mom almost never returned earlier from a mission! If anything, she had to choose short missions because somehow, there always ended up being more and stronger Grimm than what the mission summary had entailed!

"When will she be home?!" Ruby cried excitedly. "Tomorrow? In two days?"

Her father smiled and ruffled her hair. "No, sweetheart, even better. She said she's already on her way back. Whatever the reason, she asked a couple of other Hunters to continue her mission since she had to come back home, so she will remain here for a good while! She should arrive tonight, or tomorrow at the latest."

"Yiiippiiieeee!" With another squeal, Ruby inhaled the rest of her cookies and began to zip around the room as fast as she could, making her father chuckle.

"We're lucky you still don't have Aura, or you'd cause a disaster every time you get excited," laughed the man, catching the cookie tray before it could fall.

"Is Mom okay?" Yang asked, a bit worried.

"I'm sure she is, Little Dragon," her father smiled at her. "She seemed calm enough, and she said she was fine, not even a little injury. You know how awesome your mom is."

Yang looked at him for a few more seconds before she grinned and continued to eat her breakfast, cereals in chocolate milk. "Yep! The awesomest mom in the world!"

"That's right," chuckled Qrow, screwing the cap back on his flask and putting it away. "Summer was our leader after all, and we would never allow a spineless fighter to be our leader!"

"But still, hurry up Yang, you have school soon," Taiyang reminded his eldest daughter, currently eight years old, who groaned miserably. "Come on, it's not that bad. Once you turn ten, we will unlock your Aura and start homeschooling you, so you'll enter Signal when you'll be twelve, but you need to hang on for two more years. Is being trained by your awesome dad worth going to school for two years?"

"No," Qrow replied flatly, making Yang giggle and Tai sigh. "But being trained by her cool uncle is! I'm gonna teach her how to hack baddies to pieces with an awesome weapon!"

"She takes after me, Qrow, she'll be an unarmed fighter," scoffed the father.

"Blasphemy!" Little Ruby stopped zipping around and pointed a finger at her father. "Blasphemy, I say! Everyone needs an awesome weapon!"

Qrow cackled while Tai groaned and face-palmed before glowering at his own teammate and best friend. "You corrupted my sweet little rose, didn't you?" he mock growled to amuse his daughters. "Ah, the betrayal! My own teammate, stabbing me when I less expect it! You turned my own flesh and blood against me!"

"Don't be so dramatic," countered the dark-haired man. "Consider this payback for the time you made me wear a skirt."

"Hey, I got you attention from the ladies! Weren't you the one who wanted to get snatched up by a pretty girl?"

"Daaaad!" whined Ruby. "Stop! Girls and boys together like that is icky!"

"Is girls and girls or boys and boy any better?" inquired Yang, a little curious.

"No!"

"Now, now, girls, let's not use this discussion to skip out on your duties. Ruby, you go and wash your teeth. Yang, get ready to leave for school in five." Tai narrowed his eyes at the two. "And no hiding in the closet like yesterday, okay?"

Both girls groaned.

/-/

"Tai! Ruby! Yang! I'm home!"

"Mooooooooooom!"

The redhead woman giggled as she was hit by two coloured blurs, one red and one yellow, the second she stepped through the threshold and made her presence known. "I thought you two'd be in bed by now."

A huff was heard before Qrow appeared from a door, panting heavily. "Yeah… sure… you try… to make them… go to bed… when you… are coming… back early."

Summer smirked at her teammate before narrowing her eyes at her daughters. "You two… you've been stressing Tai and Qrow out, haven't you?"

"It's two hours they can't stop moving," groaned her teammate. "Two hours. Honestly, from where do they even take so much energy? Taiyang's comatose on the couch…" He sighed before shaking his head and focusing on the woman, who was still hugging the two girls. "Anyway, what brings you to this humble abode, my lady? I thought your mission would take several more days at the very least. Not that I'm not happy to give up babysitting, of course."

Summer smiled. "I know you love babysitting them," she laughed before her smile dropped. "Well… when your Semblance doesn't act up too much, of course."

"Mom, for how long will you be staying?" Ruby asked from… somewhere pressed into her mother's cloak.

The woman chuckled warmly, wrapping her daughters in another hug. "For quite some time, I think. I have incredible news for all of you, and for Tai as well. Ruby, Yang, you'll have a new brother!" A strangled exclamation could be heard by the adjacent room, followed by a yelp and a crash. "I found him while I was on mission, and since he had lost his family, I decided to bring him home with me. Although he only trusts me, so that's why I cannot go on other missions anytime soon. He would just follow me."

Taiyang appeared at the doorway, rubbing his head, relief clearly written all over his face. "Oh, so you didn't mean…"

"No, Tai, I am not pregnant," laughed Summer, amused by her husband's clear relief. Then she detached her daughters from her and walked back to the door, scanning the darkness outside. "Jaune! Come here, I want to introduce you to my pack!"

"Your… pack?" asked Qrow, frowning.

"Wait, and you'll see," smiled the woman before kneeling and returning to look for any sign of this 'Jaune'. "He is pretty shy around new people, but there shouldn't be a problem with meeting you. As long as you're friendly with him… Oh, here he is! Jaune! My pack is here!"

Ruby and Yang both peered from behind the woman as a young wolf pup cautiously made its way to the house. It was too young to pose a threat to anyone, much less a Huntress like Summer, so Taiyang and Qrow were more confused than wary.

Summer, though, did not share their confusion, and neither did her daughters, if their twin squeals of joy were anything to go by. Preventing them from running up to the little wolf, Summer offered a hand and smiled, "Come on, Jaune, don't be afraid. They are my pack, and now they are your pack too."

"Wait, that is 'Jaune'?" asked Qrow, glancing at Summer. "I thought you said a new brother, not a new pet."

"You'll understand later, for now let's just have him get acquainted with you," replied the woman, still waving the wolf closer.

Slowly, the animal moved up to the door, still wary of the other humans but not as much as Qrow or Taiyang would've thought. He seemed to be careful, not but hostile nor on the defensive. "Is he used to being around humans?" asked Taiyang, scratching his head.

"Yes he is, or at least he got used to it." Summer finally managed to get a hold of the wolf and dragged him in, ignoring his surprised yelp. "Here! Jaune, this is my pack: my mate Taiyang, my pack brother Qrow, and my pups, Ruby and Yang. Guys, this is Jaune, my new son!"

"Hi!" both girls said at once, both eager to meet at the young pup. Yang's grin was the wider one of the two. "He's so cute, he is like a dog pup… but better!"

Summer laughed as she stroked Jaune's dark fur, trying to calm him down. As it turned out, there was no need, as the wolf's dark blue eyes were staring at Summer's 'pups' without fear. When the woman released him, the young wolf slowly trudged up to the two and pushed his nose into Yang's hair, making her giggle.

Two minutes later, the wolf was on his back, enjoying belly rubs from both his new pack sisters, much to the amusement of the adults. The young wolf, as Summer repeatedly reassured, was dangerous only in terms of chaos he could create, but even then both girls could bring far more mayhem than he ever could. He was too young to really have claws, and his teeth tickled more than hurt.

As the children played, the adults watched them from the couch Taiyang had crashed on earlier. "So," began Qrow. "What's with the story of him being their new brother?"

"Jaune has Aura," explained Summer. "I unlocked it when I accidentally injured him. I was fighting some Grimm and when I killed one, it fell on the poor wolf. I felt guilty so I unlocked his Aura to let it heal him, but then he began following me around. I think his pack was killed by the Grimm in the area."

"So, to avoid getting him killed, you ended the mission and brought him home?" asked her husband.

"Well… it is not that simple, actually. I continued my mission for a while, but I also taught Jaune how to behave. He was very fierce when I found him. He may be a pup, but he really tried to lick me to death after I saved him." The adults chuckled slightly. "Yes, that was adorable. Anyway, he continuously followed me around, and he even helped me during the mission. Nothing much, of course, he just helped me drag a couple of people out of a collapsed house."

"He looks a bit too small to do that," Taiyang pointed out.

Summer sighed and nodded her head as she watched her children play, including her 'new son'. "That's when his Semblance comes in."

Qrow and Tai exchanged a glance. "His… Semblance?" asked the former. "He has one?"

Summer nodded. "Yes he does. All being with Aura can have Semblances, even though it's far rarer for animals to unlock it." She weakly rubbed her forehead. "The point is what his Semblance is. Jaune, come here for a second, please."

The wolf whined, but a stern look from the woman made him stand up on four legs and walk to the couch where the adults stood. Unfastening her cloak, Summer draped it on the wolf so that only his head was visible. Ruby and Yang giggled at the sight of the caped wolf, and the animal didn't seem pleased about that, something that only made them laugh more.

"Jaune, please, use your Semblance," Summer spoke softly, caressing the wolf's ears.

He nodded his head in response, and soon after a soft white glow surrounded him. The light wasn't particularly strong, it would've barely lit a small room, but it completely hid the wolf from view. A soft whine was heard and Summer reached out to pet his head through the glow. "Come on, Jaune, don't be afraid."

The light soon died down, but when it did, Taiyang and Qrow gasped and fell off the couch. Yang and Ruby quickly ran over to see what had happened, and they squeed at the sight before them. Summer sighed at the adults' reactions, having expected something similar, but she was inwardly amused by their shock. At the same time, she was also happy her daughters had taken it well.

For now, wrapped in the white cloak, there was no more a wolf, but a little boy no older than Yang. His eyes were exactly like when he was a wolf, thus kinda eerie on a human face, and his straw-coloured hair fell down on his eyes, making him peek at them from under his blond bangs. His skin was pale, very much so, arriving to compete with Ruby's, but not unhealthily so. He also had furry wolf ears on the top of his head, and his teeth seemed to be ever so slightly more pointy than normal. He was also very very naked, though Summer kept the cloak wrapped around his frame, but he didn't seem to care. A black wolf tail stuck out from the cloth, moving slightly as the boy hopped from one feet to the other, not liking the cold tile floor.

Summer could swear that Qrow's and Tai's jaws had unhinged themselves for how much they were gaping open-mouthed. She chuckled as she ruffled the wolf-boy's hair. "Indeed, little Jaune here surprised me too when he used his Semblance for the first time. I had been denied access to an inn because of him in wolf form, and he had noticed. My guess is that he unlocked it to be allowed in the local."

"B-But… but that's impossible!" exclaimed Taiyang, looking at the boy with wide eyes.

"Aww, he's cuter when he's a puppy," Yang complained with a pout while Ruby was rubbing his ears to feel them. "Can he turn back?"

"Of course he can. Jaune, wolf." Another white glow surrounded the boy, but this time it also travelled up Ruby's arm, who yelped and leapt back into her sister. Summer sighed as they waited for the glow to be over. When it did, she took her cloak back to show that Jaune was back in his wolf form. "He can only understand a few words I've taught him, like his name, 'pack', 'Semblance' and 'wolf'. I think that despite him having a Faunus form, it'd still be better to also teach him how to be a wolf, so we'll need to teach him that too."

"But… how can this be possible?" asked Qrow. "How can an animal turn into a person? Does he become as intelligent as a human or does he remain animal in mind?"

"He seemed very intelligent even before he unlocked his Semblance. I am not sure if this is because of me unlocking his Aura, but he definitely behaved differently from other animals," Summer explained as the wolf went back to being squeed upon by the two girls. She smiled at the sight. "I thought of bringing him here. Yang and Ruby are too sweet to be afraid of him, and a family will be good for him. But at the same time, we are all adults who have seen their fair share of weirdness, so if there are problems, we would be the best suited for the task."

"Should we tell this to Ozpin?" asked her husband.

"Of course we should!" Qrow butted in tactlessly. "This is… this is… this is unheard of! Completely unbelievable! Ozpin should know about this asap!"

"No!" Summer dipped her head when her shout had everyone stare at her. Fearing she was distressed, Jaune stood up and trotted up to her, resting his head on her leg. She sighed and caressed his fur. "Ozpin may be knowledgeable, but he's cold. Very very cold. He might know how to help us, but I have no doubts he would try to 'recruit' even unsuspecting animals for his missions."

"You mean… her?" asked Qrow.

"Who?" Taiyang frowned when neither answered. "Hey, you may be my wife and my best friend but that doesn't give you the right to just ignore me!"

"Don't worry Dad, it happens all the time," Yang comforted him. "Whenever you and Mom are arguing in the bedroom, and I or Ruby come to tell you we can't sleep because of the noise, we always have to wait until you're done arguing before you listen."

"Arguing?" repeated the man.

"Yeah, you scream and there are lots of noise, what would you be doing if not arguing?" asked Yang.

"Tomorrow we'll give you The Talk, sweetie, and we'll explain everything," Summer cut in swiftly before turning to Qrow. "But yes, her. If he finds out… if anyone else finds out… Jaune would not grow up happy, and all the other animals wouldn't either. We cannot do something like this."

"But if it allows us to succeed…"

"Qrow, humanity has survived without animals fighting for them for millennia," Summer rebuked angrily. "I'm not gonna allow the Council to take advantage of that, nor I will let that paranoid do the same 'for the greater good'. I am sick of that excuse."

"But it is true!" retorted the man.

"Both of you, stop. You're scaring the children." Taiyang picked up both his daughters and placed each on one of his legs, Yang on his left and Ruby on his right. "Now, it's far too late to discuss this, whatever 'this' is. Why don't we all go to bed?"

"Can Jaune sleep with me?" Yang asked innocently.

"No, with me!" protested Ruby, pouting.

"You can all sleep in the same bed for tonight, if it makes you feel better," smiled their father. "Tomorrow we'll start adapting to having three children instead of two."

"In terms of beds it won't be much of a problem," shrugged Summer, still absent-mindedly petting the wolf's head. "I had him sleep curled up with me since I feared he would wander off on his own during the night. He still tried, but at least it woke me up."

"Should we worry about him being a nighttime presence?" asked Taiyang. "Because frankly, when he'll be a little older, seeing a wolf wandering in the house at night is gonna be creepy even for me."

"Today he's too tired for that anyway, but I honestly don't know. Sleeping with me, he never really got the chance to. If he doesn't sleep during the day, he won't have energies to stay awake at night." As if on cue, Jaune yawned widely, exposing his small fangs. "See? But if he does… well, it's better to start warning our guests."

"Heh, that'd be a sight to see," snorted Qrow, shaking his head in amusement. "When Yang'll start bringing boys home, you could 'accidentally' forget to warn them, and watch as they piss themselves in fear."

"When Yang'll be old enough, she'll be going at Signal, and any boy she might bring home is gonna be a fighter, even if not a good one," Taiyang reminded him. "He might instead hurt Jaune, maybe severely so."

"And you think we are not going to train him too?" Summer smiled slightly. "Oh no, we absolutely need to. Not only that, he's already proven his hatred for the Grimm, so keeping him away from fighting is going to be very difficult."

"Really? Why does he hate them?"

"Well, he hates Beowolves and Gorehorns," shrugged the woman, and at the mere mention, the wolf seemed to pout. "I think he hates Beowolves because they are the abomination of wolves, so he despises them."

"And Gorehorns?" asked Taiyang. "I mean, they are Grimm deer, so they aren't really related to wolves. Prey, maybe, but I doubt he would consider a Gorehorn 'prey'."

Summer looked sheepish at that, and looked away with a cough. "I… Well… the Grimm that fell on him might have been a Gorehorn…"

"Oh, so it's revenge, heh," chuckled Qrow, ruffling the wolf's head. "The pup's got fire, it seems."

"I said he hates them, not that he fights them head-on. It's just that when I fought them, he seemed to be cheering me on," remarked the woman, but no one listened. Yang and Ruby had dozed off on Tai's legs, and Jaune seemed about to follow their example. 'Children instincts,' she smiled. 'They always fall asleep together.' "Well, let's get these sleepyheads into bed, shall we?"

"Yeah, and I've better get going," groaned the dark-haired man as he stood up and stretched. "I'd like not to stick around for when you two decide to argue some more in your room."

"There is something else too," added Summer, snatching his arm before he could flee. "Jaune's Semblance is… extendable."

"What do you mean 'extendable'?" asked her husband.

"I mean that hadn't Ruby removed her hand earlier, she would've turned into a wolf too." The two men gaped at her in shock, and then at the wolf. "I cannot say if the effect is temporary or not, he panicked and immediately reverted the process the one time it happened, but he can."

"That's…" Qrow hit the side of his head as if to clear his ear from water. "That's way more than just unbelievable. How did you feel?"

"Well, honestly it was too brief to really remember, but I felt… normal, I guess. Just on all fours rather than upright, and covered in fur." Summer grinned. "I'm sure I was a beautiful wolf though."

"And how long can he last in Faunus form?" asked Taiyang. "Maybe if he has a limit, then the people he turns into wolves have that limit too. Like, an hour, or two…"

"Honestly, I don't know." Summer bent slightly and picked up the now sleeping wolf, whose tail wagged slightly in his sleep as she rubbed his belly. "He always did it purposefully, and I never saw him run out of Aura. He does have a lot of it, but I don't think his Semblance uses Aura. Like yours, Qrow. Yours is passive, and it never uses Aura."

"Mine is a special case," Qrow pointed out.

"But still, it isn't unheard of for Semblances to either take a miniscule amount of Aura to work, so small it refills almost instantly, or none at all." The woman shook her head and sighed. "Let's just get them to bed now. It has been a long day, and I'm sure you both still have questions, so we'll have to stay awake even longer."

Accepting her temporary pause, Qrow took Ruby from Taiyang and the three of them headed upstairs. Fitting the three young ones in a single bed did not turn out to be a particularly difficult task. If anything, the three of them seemed fan of cuddles. Ruby, the smaller one, was in the middle, with Yang embracing her right side and Jaune curled up on her left. Two different races, yet the three children seemed not to care about each other's race. Jaune was a little used to sleeping with Summer, but that didn't mean he was used to sleeping with humans in general.

The woman was thankful he didn't seem to be worried about sleeping with someone else than her. That could've been quite the problem, especially since she couldn't exactly kick Tai out of the bed just because Jaune was afraid of sleeping with him nearby. Not that she'd never kicked Tai out of bed before, but it was still better if Jaune could sleep with someone else and, with time, learn to sleep on his own without wandering around in the night. Especially not in wolf form.

Summer chuckled. Yes, having a wolf wandering at night in the house was really going to be a problem. She was going to teach him how to be human, or rather Faunus, but she also wanted him to grow up as… well, as a wolf. She'd allow him to roam in the forests outside in wolf form if so he wished. Who knew, maybe he'd end up teaching something to them too.

'After all, he isable to turn other people into wolves. It is indeed a chance. Maybe we could all turn into wolves and try how it is to be wolves?' She laughed silently at the thought of Qrow as wolf. The mental image of a pouting dark grey wolf trying to drink from a flask flashed through her mind, and she doubled over trying not to let out a sound lest she woke the children. 'Yes, we are definitely going to use his Semblance both ways. Even just for that, it's too hilarious not to do that. I wonder if Yang and Ruby will like it though. Being turned into wolves might be traumatic for them… but if I am going to do this, it's better if I start soon. Later might be too late, even if it's just a few years.'

She smiled as she imagined her 'pack' running through the woods. She knew the colours were probably wrong, but she thought she'd be a large white wolf, while Taiyang and Yang would be golden ones, and Ruby would have a reddish shade to her own fur.

'Yeah, we are definitely going to do this.'

So, explanations.

Pyrrha said how even animals have Aura, and Zwei definitely has it (his Semblance is Invincibility, of course). So I thought what would've happened if an animal with Aura happened to awaken his Semblance, and for his Semblance to be... turning human, or at least part-human, or part-Faunus? Here Jaune definitely looks more wolfish than a wolf Faunus.

And thus, this idea was born.

As for why Summer doesn't want to tell Ozpin, it's because of course Ozpin would rush to use all the animals in the world against Salem. But Summer is a smart cookie. If things never changed for millennia, why enslave animals just 'for the greater good'. This 'for the greater good' is more or less the only motivation Ozpin has to do stuff. I'm not saying he is in the wrong, mind me, just that from other people's point of view, he would seem quite paranoid and maniac.

Hehe, the part with Summer imagining Qrow as a wolf was fun to write. ^^

Anyway, unfortunately I will make a timeskip to much later, more or less to Beacon, in the next chapter. It would be pointless to write the daily life of the new Rose-Xiao Long 'pack', so I won't. There are some parts I would've liked to write (like Tai's prediction to come true with the first time Yang brings a boy home, hehe), but eventually they are few and far in-between, too far and few to actually make a good chapter. I hate to use timeskips in a chapter, so either I wrote very short chapters, like 2k or something, or I skipped to Beacon and recalled events from the past later.

Of course, Ruby and Yang will be slightly different from canon, heh.

Now, why a wolf? Because the wolf fits Jaune to a T. Maybe use Ruby as Wolf Faunus, but think about it: wolves are very social animals, they live and do everything in packs, and are weak on their own. Yes, they are. Despite popular belief, a healthy adult can win against a wolf, barehanded, if they are smart enough to not allow the wolf to tear their throats out. A wolf is essentially a wild big dog.

Ruby is not social, and is definitely not weak on her own. Heck, at least in Initiation with Weiss, it shows how she actually is not good at teamwork, disrupting Weiss's attack to hit the Beowolf.

Jaune, instead? He may be socially awkward, but he does befriend Ruby, and despite all his self-esteem problems he start a conversation with Weiss without the slightest hesitation. He also shows teamwork skills, at least at knowing when he's useless and thus not trying to butt in. And while in V2 and V3 we see him fighting a little, he definitely is weak compared to the rest, thus filling in the third criterium.

Ruby might be... dunno, hummingbird? A lone predator maybe?

Anyway, it's almost time for me to post this, so let's upload it on FFN first.

Until next time,

Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh.