One
The moment his gaze locked on to dark, steely eyes that watched him from across the room, it felt like the whole world was falling to pieces. If only it would. If only the roof would crumble right then and there; how simple it could be if the building started to fall. He would never want to see his classmates get hurt, but perhaps it would only crush him and the two figures standing to the side of the dance floor. That would get rid of a few problems.
"Ren, what is it?"
Pyrrha's inquiry pulled him from his imagination. They were still waltzing, though the pace had slowed considerably. He felt bad for thinking such things – wishing violence upon himself was not a common occurrence. Weariness was taking its toll. Lie Ren looked at her and corrected his dancing as he gave a dismissive "Nothing" in reply. Unconvinced, Pyrrha scanned the room for what had distracted him. She was not as flighty as Nora or unintuitive as Jaune. After he spun her a few times and her golden gown flowed around her ankles, she resumed her search until she unwittingly hit the nail on the head.
"The new students are here. Mercury and… isn't her name Emerald?" The redhead's expression was calculating as she watched the pair. Ever since Mercury forfeited the duel against her, she had been suspicious of him.
Ren nodded and used his next step to turn Pyrrha away from them. Now they could see that they were being talked about. "Don't they seem quiet to you?" she continued, then snickered. "Not your kind of quiet, but… they're exclusive."
While Ren had the duo in his direct line of sight again, Mercury exchanged a glance with Emerald before he started to walk through the dancers, straight for himself and Pyrrha. There was going to be no stopping an altercation. The most he could do was keep his friends out of it. Ren stopped dancing and let go of her hand. Of course she was confused and perhaps a little hurt, judging by her frown, but he couldn't let that affect him. He nodded his head towards a gloomy figure that was seated on a chair near the back of the dance hall.
"Go dance with Jaune," he told her. Mercury had stopped in the middle of the floor to watch curiously.
"But you know he—where are you going?"
Through the nearest door that brought him to a hallway. As far away from friends and classmates as he could get. Heavy footsteps followed him; Mercury had come to the dance armed. Ren suspected he would. If anyone else knew what those two did, the whole school would have brought their weapons. Luckily, he prepared for this. StormFlower was hidden in the men's bathroom up ahead. Soon the sound of Mercury's steps was joined by quieter ones, no doubt belonging to Emerald. No one spoke – they all knew what this was about. Were he in the mood for humor, Ren would have gotten a laugh out of how they waited in the hall while he went into the bathroom and retrieved his weapons from one of the cabinets under a sink. If only the windows weren't so high, he would have taken the cheap way out. When he emerged from the restroom, his pursuers stood a few feet away with haughty grins.
Mercury held his hand up and waved. "Hey," he greeted. "We were gonna ask if you want some punch."