/ - A different story, but an idea I thought fun. 'Butterflies Effect' is - apologies - currently on hold, because I don't know where it's meant to be going. But I can tell you it isn't dead, and I'm working to solve it. I hope this story is worth your while, and worth attention away from the aforementioned (though, it isn't White Knight... sorry).

No MILF-hunter Jaune in this. Sorry again. Normal Jaune only.

This story is an AU.

Hope you enjoy, and Merry Christmas.

Jaune didn't know why he was doing this.

'302 Hal Road'

Firstly, he was used to dogsitting smaller, more timid dogs. Secondly, he had taken an offer from Yang, which, as told by his experience with her, never came to be anything good.

'302 Hal Road'

Thirdly, he had never dogsat for someone's relative before. The danger with that was that if he were to bomb this post, then Yang wouldn't let it drop for atleast a week. Then - if Jaune had been listening correctly to Ruby's explanation of her family tree - nor would Yang's uncle (Ruby's 'uncle'); who Jaune hadn't spoke to very much, but from the amount he had, knew, at times, exuberated the same schadenfreude personality as Yang.

Oh, and he was his literature teacher. Did Jaune mention that?

'302 Hal Road'

Yang had told Jaune that her name was Raven. That was it. Well, that she was her birth mother too. But that really was it. Well, and also that the dog was nothing like Zwei. But that really was it.

So, no pressure, Jaune. Just dogsitting for Yang's mom, whom he had never met, and would have to explain how he knew that she needed a dogsitter for this weekend - which meant having to explain how he knew her daughter without sounding like a casanova. Which he was not.

"Three-zero-two." Jaune stopped in his stride and, looking up from the gold-numbered house sign, gazed at the building. Like the others across the vast street, it was a sizeable and modern fully-detached bungalow, donning oak walls and a roof that was flat and metal, with a shiny polish decorating the exterior. Along the walls, several wall-height windows - which were cloaked by closed curtains - sat in symmetrical order, and the door, that sat in a small cavity, was a firm, brushed steel design, with an ironically high glass view at the top. It was surrounded by a healthy portion of grassy space, and from what Jaune had seen when walking along the street, it had a similarly large backyard aswell.

Jaune clutched his phone in his hand. He was here, this was definitely the place - 302 Hal Road - so all he need do now was...

Well, knock on the door. And say hello.

'Hi, I'm Jaune. Your daughter-'

'Hi, I'm Jaune. Yang told me-'

'Hi, I'm Jaune. I heard you needed a dogsitter-'

'Hi, I'm Jaune. I heard you needed someone to look after your dog?'

Yes. That would do. Uninstrusive, polite, relaxed. The perfect introduction - per Weiss' advice on introductions.

Jaune took meager steps towards the closed door, striding across the clean stone path that stretched forwards. Once he had reached the door, he raised his closed hand in preparation.

Alright, he would knock in three...

Two...

One...

Knock.

...

Had he knocked loud enough?

Wait, there was a doorbell - a small, translucent cuboid with a centered bronze button. He should've rang the doorbell.

No, he decided against it. It was too late now, if he did that he'd sound desparate. It would be better to wait until she answers the door, no reason to be impatient or intrusive.

...

Okay, there was no-one coming. Which was fine! She was probably asleep or something... at five o'clock, in the afternoon.

He would come back tomorrow. Simple.

...

No, he couldn't come back tomorrow. This was the only chance to ask. He hadn't found any more alluring work like it so far, because Yang had promised to match what Jaune charged if he actually did it. That was twice the earning, and if he were to get his pay for this, then he'd have plenty to splash for the Christmas holiday, which started two weeks from tomorrow.

...

Okay. He'd knock once more. Just once.

Three...

Two...

Before Jaune reached one, with the harsh snap of a lock, and the shifting crash of two metal bars, the brushed steel door opened, and a woman of equally intimidating nature peered around it's open side.

Raven, conveniently named so, had clearly not taken to being very active today from what Jaune could make out. The long, night-black locks that dressed her head and shoulders, and delicately adorned her face like a flowerbed, was scattered and unkempt. She had piercing scarlet eyes that sat with lax marks of fatigue about them, and her lips were fresh and liberal in expression. She wore a starkly old and worn sports jumper that was decorated with the signs of lifelong possession, and, to Jaune's surprise, adorned with the cursive-written words 'Beacon Maidens'.

The school sports team.

Jaune didn't check what else she was wearing, because he was polite, and he wasn't here to ogle Yang's mom below the waist. However, Jaune could definitely conclude it was her; he could certainly see the resemblance to Yang. The face, the hair, the... well...

Though, instead of a mocking look of schadenfreude on her face, he found a mocking look of pity. Yang must've gotten it from her father, because her mother was somewhat of a dispositional antithesis to Yang.

And Qrow, her brother (if Jaune was remembering correctly)... well Qrow must have learnt it.

She took Jaune for a postman, or something alike, and spoke sleepily. "The doorbell doesn't work."

Jaune froze for a moment, and instead of answering with his rehearsed line, he blabbered whatever came to mind. "I didn't ring the doorbell."

"You didn't?" The woman opened the door slightly further, her scarlet eyes narrowing. His rebuttal had seemingly woken her up.

He shook his head, nearly crushing the phone in his hand. "I knocked."

Her expression remained the same. "Just then?"

He nodded.

"Right..." She looked at him in disinterest.

Curiosity pooled in Jaune's mind, and he spoken again. Without thinking. "How did you know I was here?"

She gestured with her head to the top left corner of the door's cavity. Jaune looked up.

There, sat omnisciently, was a shining new, glass-frame CCTV Camera. It was blinking red, and felt like it stared into Jaune's soul.

He looked back at her. "And you were just watching that?"

Something clearly snapped, and the look of patience that had clinged to the woman's face was now lost. "What are you doing at my door?"

"Uh..." His rehearsal came into play. "I heard you needed-"

Conveniently, a tapping scratch of movement emanated from down the warmly lit corridor that was adorned with picture frames, whose contents Jaune couldn't make out. The echo of a harsh bark sounded the approach of a dog.

"That."

The woman, who had turned to face her dog, leered back at Jaune in puzzlement. "That?"

He scratched the back of his head to calm his nerves. "Yeah, I... I heard you needed someone to look after him... her..."

"Her."

"Her."

The woman rustled a hand through her messed locks of black. "Who did you hear this from?"

Jaune was told the relationship between Yang and her mom was somewhat touchy, yet sufficiently intact that Yang didn't have a warplan against her birth mother. He'd have to hope that mentioning Yang then, as a third-party stranger himself, who had just turned up in her CCTV, wasn't going to lose him the job. "Yang... told me."

Surprise flashed across the scarlet irises, and the sharp leer softened slightly. "Yang?"

He nodded again.

"I presume you're a classmate?"

"Yes. Just a classmate." A cough. "Mate from class." He laughed reassuringly, though it buckled and fell into nervousness and his cheeks flashed an unflattering red in embarrassment.

The surprise in her eyes was replaced with pity, but a tempered smile of amusement grew. "Right." She tapped her foot against the wooden floor and whistled, and almost instantly, a surprisingly lean and bright-eyed dog, which looked closely to a German Shepherd, appeared next to her right leg with a darting sprint. The dog sat attentively, panting in joyful anticipation. Raven entertained the boy's offer. "And why am I choosing you to look after her?"

He parried her question. "Have you had offers from anyone else?"

The pity was now replaced with a hint of embarrassed anger, and the smile disappeared. "No." She tapped her fingers against the door. "I haven't asked anyone, yet."

He nodded, and pushed again. "Okay, well I can do fifty for a day. " The balance of the conversation flipped in Jaune's favour, and, jumping on it, he offered the piece of paper with his phone number on it. "I can do as much as needed each day, considering it's the weekend."

The paper hung in the air for a mome- wait, no, no... she snatched it from him quite quickly actually, and glanced at the number. The firm, raven-haired woman sighed, and ceded that she may as well consider his offer. He was straightforward enough, and a friend of Yang's... apparently. That, and she wanted this over quickly so she could go back to lounging. "Fine. Don't get your hopes up..." A gentle swipe of her foot had the dog return inside the house. "...but I'll consider it."

He swallowed in relief, and gestured at the wandering dog with a smile, in an attempt to soften the mood. "She's a... German Shepherd?"

Okay, she was really missing leisure time here, thank-you-go-away. "German Shepherd-Border Collie. Mix-breed." She placed her hand on the back of the door, glaring at her visitor.

Jaune stared back, and couldn't think of what he had to say.

She raised her brow in suggestion. "Go. Go home."

He jumped slightly in place. "Right! Right, sorry." He went to turn around, smiling warmly. "My name's Jau-"

The door closed with a firm slam, and Jaune was left with only himself and a CCTV Camera to bear witness to his existence. "Right."

That wasn't so bad.

"Holy shit!" Another cackle sounded, and the bouncing cup of orange juice nearly spilt over with a flip. "I can't believe you actually... actually went and..." The sentence collapsed, and the cackle grew into a breathless wheeze.

Jaune, who had endured the laughter after confirming that he had, infact, gone to Yang's mom and offered to dogsit for her, sat awkwardly, clenching his chocolate bar in embarrassment.

Yang took a breath. "I didn't actually mean it. The dog was probably just going to come live with us for the weekend." She sniggered. "Yet nothing stops the Arc spirit, am I right, Jaune?" The blonde's words curled into yet another laugh, and she planted her head against the table.

Ruby, who didn't take Yang's behaviour kindly, protested against her sister. "Hey! Jaune did great." She frowned, looking to Jaune and muttering reassuringly. "You did great. Don't listen to her."

The boy nodded, but Yang continued. "Could you imagine... could you imagine him turning up at Raven's door... and... and offering to dogsit-!" She fell back into what was probably her tenth cackle. The other students who had sat cautiously at the end of their table earlier - caution was a suitable behaviour around Yang - had lost their patience in the barrage of laughter, and now stood up to find somewhere else to seat.

"You told him to! He's dogsat before - he dogsat Zwei." She planted a spoon in her bowl of jelly. "He did a good thing and offered a service. That's not bad!"

The blonde gestured at Jaune, still laughing. "They're complete opposites! He was probably wetting himself!"

Jaune ground his jaw in frustration. The entire canteen could probably hear them now, and he didn't need anymore reasons to look a fool. "I was just asking for a job, Yang. That you offered to me."

The napalm girl caught her breath, resting a hand on her chest to relax herself. She was on the brink of crying, and her cheeks were flamed red in hysteria. "Oh, Jauney, you are the best, sometimes, you know that?"

Jaune didn't respond, and fidgeted with the chocolate bar in his hands.

Yang wiped the newborn tears from her eyes with the back of a hand, calming herself in what small sympathy she had in the moment. "Aw, I love you really, Jaune."

She noticed the dilutely solemn look on the boy's face She rolled her eyes and rested her chin in a hand. "I'm kidding with you. I'm impressed. Just find it kinda funny, that's all."

He raised an eyebrow. "Kinda?"

She mused. "Well, maybe a bit more than kinda. But, hey! Look on the bright side, Jaune, now I know you've got balls."

Ruby quickly forgot about Yang's unpleasant behaviour, and now nodded in support. "Yeah, even dad's kinda scared of her sometimes."

Jaune looked at the two in concern. "Scared?" He snapped a square of chocolate from the bar. "Isn't that kinda worrying?"

Yang scoffed. "Nah." She shrugged. "They're on good terms. It's like how you're scared of me, you trust me - y'know, you know I'd never go too far or actually hurt you - but you still find me intimidating."

He bit down on the square of chocolate. "You're not intimidating, you're just frustrating sometimes."

"Yeah, so you're technically scared of me."

"Yeah - because you always embarrass me."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't embarrass you."

"I dropped that rack of test tubes in Biology because you smacked me on the back!"

"That was Blake."

"It was you, Yang. Blake was setting up your equipment. "

She feigned innocence. "It was a pat on the back."

He took yet another bite of chocolate, and sat for a moment in contemplation. The irritation of Yang washed away as his thoughts shifted to his job opportunity. While Jaune had, in all fairness, only asked Raven yesterday, it was a Friday and nearing the end of lunch, and he was yet to receive any indication of whether she had actually 'considered' his offer. He was betting a lot on the potential pay, and he didn't want the Christmas fantasies he had dreamt up the night before to fall away from a lack of spends.

Even if he wasn't needed, a simple message of thanks wouldn't hurt. The weekend was now only a matter of hours away.

The screech of a bell disrupted his thoughts, and the three set off for next lesson. Yang grinned, swinging her bag over her shoulder and once again jabbing Jaune lightly in jest. "Biology next, Jauney." She sang in tease.

Give him strength.

"Jame?"

Raven had never heard of such an inexplicable name before, and that was coming from her, whose brother was named after a bird. She, of course, was not named after a bird, she insisted; she was named after the illustrious colour, 'Raven' just happened to also be the name of a bird.

Was it a male variation of Jane? Or a recharacterisation of the name Jamie?

She examined the crumpled yellow post-it note closer, and upon further inspection of the scrawled writing, found that the gap between the 'a' and the 'm' may actually be a 'u', awkwardly fitted between an 'a' and an 'n'.

So his name was, 'Jaune'? Like the French? For yellow?

Imagine being named after a colour, poor boy. It was fortunate that Raven was named after such a magnificient bird.

It was Friday now, and her weekend-long business trip (which was very much so a business trip, because Raven Branwen was currently not fortunate enough in life to be playing with double entendres) was closing in on her. She would normally ask Tai to look after the dog, but the last time she had done that was nearing on two years ago, and she'd gotten cold feet since then. Like she was weaker.

No, she wasn't weaker - far from it. She just didn't need it in her life; she'd be independent and ask a third-party service, she wouldn't burden Tai and Summer (and Zwei) with her own dog. Of the third-party services she had asked, Jaune was, in all fairness, currently her best option.

He was also her only option, because she hadn't asked anyone else, and even when she had gone grocery shopping this early morning, she had failed to stop in her stride to check any advertisements for dogsitters. She also hadn't visited the dog shelter, which required reserved booking... so that was out of the window.

She didn't know if leaving her prized companion... only companion with a seventeen-year old boy who she had only met for five minutes yesterday, and only knew about her predicament because she had unintentionally implied it to Yang by text, was a good idea.

Yang, annoyingly, was very good at decyphering her mother, no matter how much Raven tried to insist the contrary. Even reverse psychology failed her.

She already had the number logged, named as 'boy', given she hadn't taken much care to figuring out what his name out at first. What was it the cost?

Forty...

No, no it was fifty, because the halfway of zero and a hundred was ingrained in her mind as a satisfying play of symmetry. Yes, it was fifty a day, which would bring it to one-hundred for the weekend.

While it was logically a less certain solution than leaving the task to a trained dog-handler, or a shelter, she did have the advantage that Jaune knew Yang, and in turn would, presumably, know Ruby. Which meant Maiden - her dog, hello? - would probably end up in familiar hands if Jaune really had any problems, and he'd be able to get advice from people who knew her; what food she liked, what toys she liked, where she liked to go on walks.

She nodded to herself, sighing. "Fine." Her fingers took to the keyboard, and she typed away a draft message.

'Hi, it's Raven, messaging about your offer. I'll accept fifty a day. If you could come round tomorrow at midday, then you can meet Maiden and I'll give you all the details. Thanks, Raven.'

She pondered with the message for a moment, and the steadfast soul of Raven inside her died little at how tender she was being. She'd even said her name twice, who was to say he shouldn't address her by a title? He didn't have the liberty of using her first name.

'Hi, it's Mrs-'

No.

'Hi, it's Ms. Branwen-'

Okay, now she sounded like a teacher. This was ridiculous. All she had to do was write out a message, the name didn't matter.

'Hi, it's Raven. You're hired. Come tomorrow at twelve to meet Maiden.'

Her typing fingers paused. It was brief, indifferent. There was certainly no emotion in it. Delivered the point effectively.

It would do.

And...

Send.

'what did you get?'

A pause permutated, then a ellipses of typing, and soon text.

'got a B'

Ruby, in her excellent ability to type at near the speed of sound, replied quickly.

'better luck next time jaune'

She relished in her achievement.

'you're in the year below me. your tests are easier'

Maybe, but...

'yeah but you have an extra year of experience'

Means a lot.

'in harder stuff and longer tests'

Not important.

'still beat you'

Relishing.

'by one grade'

Still higher.

'got an A, i win'

Another pause permutated between the two, but the space wasn't filled by an ellipses, or a surprisingly quick response. Despite the shift, Ruby wasn't worried that she had insulted Jaune to any degree; sure, he was a soft soul, but he wasn't a weakling like Yang seemed to think.

'oh shit'

The ding of a message brought Ruby back to reality, and she quickly responded.

'what?'

Jaune was quick in response.

'guess who just texted me'

Uh?

'dunno'

Another pause, and Ruby presumed she was expected to have known the answer, which was a tad embarrassing.

'raven'

Oh... oh indeed.

'wait for real?'

'yeah. she said that i'm hired.'

'you're not joking?'

'i'm being serious'

'photos'

Ruby giggled to herself and bit her lip in a contained grin. She couldn't believe it, this was great.

After a moment had passed, a large block of media came through on her phone. A photo.

'Raven

Hi, it's Raven. You're hired. Come tomorrow at twelve to meet Maiden.'

Ruby's giggle thrashed into a laugh, and she jumped to respond. It was real, Raven was the estranged mother, and Maiden was the dog. Jaune had got the job.

'oh wow. so proud of you'

'thanks mom'

Ruby's laugh jolted with momentum again, and she looked up from her slouched position on the couch to search for her sister, though making sure to not wake a sleeping Zwei, seated in her lap, in her movement.

"Yang?" She called out. It reverberated throughout the near interior of the house, but garnered no response. She turned to her fellow lounger. "Mom, where's Yang?" Her mother, who was just as equally slouched on the other couch in the room and fiddling with the batteries and wiring in the back of the TV remote, looked at Ruby.

The short-haired woman looked up. "Oh, she's in the kitchen with dad." She smiled, though dropped a battery in her distraction, and the loud crash woke Zwei, who jumped from Ruby's lap and dashed towards the kitchen in the wake of hunger. Which made Ruby's life easier.

Ruby beamed. "Thanks, mom." She climbed from her seat, and dusted away the near miniscule amount of hair from Zwei that was scattered across her t-shirt and joggers.

"No problem, sweetie." She smiled back, then clambered for the dropped battery before it rolled under the couch, like a guilty child found messing around with something they weren't meant to have.

"And what happened to training today?"

Yang shrugged and took a bite of apple, swinging her legs back and forth as she sat on a clean kitchen surface. "Coach is sick. Like, hospital sick." Another bite of apple, and she spoke with her mouth full. "Pneumonia."

Tai, unaffected by Yang's lacking manners - as Weiss would put it, scrubbed a cloth around a bowl with ease, and flipped it over under the tap. "I could've trained you today."

She looked at him in jestful doubt. "I'm seventeen now, dad, I don't want to go away for elder abuse."

The man scoffed, placing the clean bowl on a steel drying rack. "You think you could beat me, do you?"

She nodded in confidence, raising her arms up in emphasis. "You haven't done a slight of boxing since I was born."

"Yeah, but I remember how to throw and block a punch." He grinned in reassurance to himself.

Yang narrowed her eyes in faux assessment. "Yeah... but can you get those joints into a roundhouse kick?" She made a charade of pain and discomfort, making a creaking noise to mock her father, a strong grin on her face.

He threw the cloth into the sink. "Okay, well I ain't that old, Yang. And that's kickboxing you're getting into. Your coach must have hit you real hard in the head if you've forgotten the difference."

She frowned her brow. "Very funny. I meant kickboxing." She threw the apple from hand to hand. "He teaches me kickboxing, you taught me kickboxing. You forget about that with age?"

"No. I did not, my memory is fine." He thinned his lips. "You said boxing."

"It was the first word that came to mind, I just said whatever - meant to say kickboxing."

He leant back against the sink. "So we'd kickbox then?"

"Yup." She took another bite of apple. "And I'd still beat you."

Tai shrugged. Before he could speak again, a dashing ball of fluff ran in and assaulted the dog food cupboard with his front paws, a vicious pant of excitement emanating from him. "Look who's here."

In his wake came Ruby, who was tapping away on her phone. She gestured at Zwei. "He just woke up, so he's gonna be really hungry."

"And I'm the one that has to feed him?"

"Yup, I'm showing Yang something."

Tai only muttered to himself. "You two are so lazy sometimes."

The blonde, taking another bite of apple, looked to her sister. "Huh? What's happened?"

Ruby only smirked, tapping on the photo Jaune had sent her to bring it up in full picture. She hopped onto the surface next to Yang, and held the phone infront of her.

Yang's violet eyes darted across the screen, and she read through the text.

'Raven'

Oh!

'Hi, it's Raven.'

Oh.

'You're hired.'

...oh.

'Come tomorrow at twelve to meet Maiden.'

...oh grief.

"Oh my God." She looked at Ruby with unbeckoned mirth in her eyes, and contained the rupturing fire in her chest. "Is that real?"

Ruby only nodded, containing a laugh. "I'm pretty certain. He got the job."

Yang cracked into laughter, and the image of Jaune co-operating with Raven only kicked her into hysteria again.

Tai, who was now further curious on what exactly this 'thing' was, stood up from feeding Zwei, and turned around. "What? What's going on?"

Yang shook her head and contained herself, taking a breath. "Nothing, it's nothing, really."

Tai slumped. "Ruby?"

"It's nothing. Promise." The rosy girl beamed in reassurance, giggling.

Tai tongued his teeth in frustration and decided not to pressure his girls further. Oh, what it was to be young.

Jaune knew exactly why he was doing this.

The news had been a wholehearted delight to him. It was now an hour after Raven had confirmed he'd landed the post, and he was still buzzing from the moment. This was a lot more than perfect, given his thought up fantasies of Christmas spending were no longer at threat of crumbling. A great deal of elation had blossomed in Jaune's chest, a great deal more than he thought was possible for simply getting a job dogsitting.

Jaune wins this one, Yang, for he has come out top, and come out a great deal richer too (theoretically, if she holds her promise).

Saturday, twelve o'clock, three-oh-two Hal Road.

A Christmas miracle.