Neptune sat in Ms. Goodwitch Sparring Class, contemplating the finer things in life when started class with a clap of her hands.
"Alright, class, since we have students here for the Vytal Festival and Tournament, I'd like to see some of you students not from Beacon take a part in today's matches." the huntress said, adjusting her glasses as she looked at her scroll tablet.
"So would anyone like to volunteer, or will I have to pick someone?"
Neptune looked up from his hands and rose his right arm. "I'll go."
Ms. Goodwitch looked surprised. "Well, Neptune, is it? We haven't seen much from you. Yes, come down."
Neptune stood up from his seat next to Sun, shot him a smooth look and some finger-guns, and walked down to the stage. Ms. Goodwitch looked up from her tablet. "Neptune, grab your weapon from your locker while your opponent is decided."
He nodded."Cool." and walked to the back of the stage. The doors opened up in front of him with a metallic clank, and he walked through, hearing Ms. Goodwitch say, "Now, do we have any volunteers to face Neptune Vasilias?
Neptune couldn't hear a reply before the doors closed, and he walked towards his locker, his boots clopping as they hit the floor. The locker room lay about before him, and he took his scroll out to open his locker. Inside, hanging on magnetic implements. He took it off the hooks, unfolded it to check if all of the parts were in working order, and reverted it to the collapsed form.
Walking out the locker room doors, Neptune was slightly startled to see Yang Xiao Long walking into the locker room, boots clip-clopping on the ground just as his did.
"I'm facing you, then?" Neptune asked.
"What do you think?" She said, grinning. "This'll be a nice match. I never did see your full potential out against the Paladin." She walked over to her locker, and Neptune saw her grab her Ember Celica, loading a band of shotgun shells into each.
Neptune realized he was staring too late before Yang turned around. "Hey, you know you don't have to stare at me putting on my gauntlets," she said, chuckling. It was a medium pitch, cute chuckle. Neptune decided he liked that laugh of hers.
"Heh, heh, sorry. I'll go get prepared to beat you down."
"Yeah, like that's gonna happen," Yang said smugly. "Get out there, Nep."
Neptune left the locker room slightly startled. Yang hadn't talked to him much before, especially at the club, although that was mostly because he was horrible at interrogation. I may have a chance to redeem myself. He thought. Question is, should I lose on purpose or should I try to win the bout? Neptune thought long and hard about it. Stalemate is my best bet.
Neptune walked onto the stage with his weapon in hand and nodded to the audience. "Let's do this." He grumbled. Getting into a calm stance, he waited for the brawler blonde to come out. And when she did, she winked at him like they were going to go out for a quick night of clubbing instead of a battle to the finish.
Honestly, either would please me.
Yang got into a stance, and the two faced off, arms up.
"3!" said.
Neptune squinted, readying his arm to pull out his weapon.
"2!" Yang moved her front foot forward, preparing for a strike.
"1!" Neptune gave Yang a wink. "See you on the other side."
"Go!"
Neptune flipped back to avoid the strike that came from Yang's Ember Celica as she charged across the room towards him. He took that time to whip his hand behind his back and pull out Behir's Wrath, and activate the transformation into glaive form. As the polearm came out, he swung it around, catching her in the middle of her punch. She flew through the air, but as she did, Neptune saw the glint in her eyes as she grinned. She flipped herself out of the downward spiral, and before Neptune noticed, she let loose a series of shots from her Ember Celica. The first shots hit him, sending him flying back. Using his glaive to steady himself, driving it into the stage, Neptune laughed, "Game over, Firecracker."
Yang raised her eyebrow at that remark, and prepared another volley of punches, saying, "Tsk, Tsk, Blue Boy, you don't get to call me that." But Neptune was too quick, transforming his glaive into ranged mode, letting loose a positive stream of shots; quick, precise, three-round bursts. A few hit Yang, but it seemed like it only angered her.
Neptune thought strategically. If I get her on the ground, I can whale on her in glaive mode. But when he looked up, he saw Yang was standing. She had reloaded her Ember Celica, something Neptune always managed to miss seeing, besides the empty shotgun shells on the floor. She put her front foot back, and now Neptune saw that Yang's eyes had turned positively deep red. What the fuck? He thought. But then he looked up at Sun, and saw him draw an imaginary line across his neck.
You're dead.
Neptune looked up and transitioned his weapon quickly into glaive mode. She's activated her semblance, the one Sun talked about at the Noodle Place. Every time she gets hit, she gets stronger. So…. I'll just have to….. not hit her? Tire her out? It was worth a try.
But then he saw Yang coming for him like a lioness after an antelope in some Vacuo desert, Neptune reacted in the only way he could.
He blocked the first hit, his glaive taking the full force of Yang's punch and a shotgun hit. But he couldn't block the second. The second punch connected with his face, sending him flying. Once again steadying himself with his glaive, he looked at their Aura totals. Yang had just a little more than him, enough that if he hit her once, they'd be equal. And then maybe, with any luck, Neptune could hope for a tie.
He activated his glaive form, and readied a strike, aiming for her midsection. Yang came after him again, this time kicking to knock his weapon out of his hand. Neptune held on, and instead of slashing at her with the glaive, used his momentum to knock her back with a punch before he went after her with his glaive. The hit connected, and Yang's Aura went down. Their Auras were exactly equal. Neptune had accomplished his goal. Yang's blonde, flowing hair waved in the air as she kept striking at him, yelling.
"Just let me hit you!"
But Neptune ignored her, jumping around to avoid her fists. He blocked a stroke from her with his glaive, and then, looking at the clock, said, "Go time." He had one minute before class ended to hit her again and win by default.
He dodged another punch and then readied his glaive, striking at her core. That was blocked by the side of her Ember Celica, not making contact with her aura. Neptune pulled back, trying to hit her again, but she countered with a barrage of gauntlet blasts. Thinking quickly, he dived down into a roll, dodging the shots that hit the forcefield behind him.
Good thing her shots can't track me.
Then he realized he had left himself open. She jumped at him, using the momentum of a pair of shotgun blast to charge at Neptune. He tried to block her hit with his own, swinging his glaive in hopes of connecting a hit that would send her off course.
Neptune's life almost flashed before his eyes as he swung the glaive straight at Yang's face.
"Diiiiiiiiiing!"
The bell had rung. Before Neptune could connect the hit, startled by the unwanted noise, Yang blocked his strike, grabbing the blade with her hands. She seemed ready to crush it then and there.
"Time's up." Said Good Witch.
"Your Aura totals are equal, so we'll call it a tie. Good fighting on both of your parts. However, Neptune, I'd suggest you work on your marksmanship." said, looking at her tablet. "And Yang, he was able to block your punches with his glaive, and although that is good for Neptune and leans towards his weapon simply being strong, this also means you need a better way to fight those with large swords and polearms. Take that into consideration." Yang nodded, running to the locker to put back her weapons.
"Alright, . I won't let you down," she replied happily. Stretching her arms, she came over to Neptune. "Good job, Sea Lion, but I want a rematch."
"Oh, I'm sure you do, but…. I don't know if I'd beat you as badly as I did here." Neptune said, smiling cockily.
She punched Neptune lightly on the shoulder. "This isn't over." And started walking to her next class. "At least you did better than with the Paladin, huh?" she said over her shoulder. "You should hang out with RWBY more often. Plus, Sun is always fawning over Blake so you have plenty of reasons to come. And I'm sure Weiss would be happy to see you. She always is." Yang walked out the door, following the rest of Team RWBY, while the rest of team SSSN walked over to Neptune.
Scarlet put a hand on Neptune's shoulder. "So, that's your new friend. I see. Well, you tried your best. Better stick with-" "I didn't say anything related to the dance- Wait, how do you even know about that?" Neptune looked quizzically at Scarlet, pushing his hand off his shoulder.
Sage walked over to Neptune, his piercing eyes looking straight at him. Sage was cool, and a good friend of Neptune, but he'd always freaked him out slightly with his huge stature. "Sun explained the predicament."
Neptune glared harshly at Sun. "Uh, guys, you weren't…. supposed…. to mention it…." He said, rubbing his neck.
Scarlet rolled his eyes. "Ah, it's fine, Sun, we'll confide in each other. I'm trying to go with a girl from Shade, and Sage is already going with Arslan from ABRN."
Neptune crossed his arms.
"Whatever, dudes. Let's get to the next class." Too many people were finding about his….. well, frankly, his taking a liking to Yang.
Nothing good could come of this, could it? Yang was the badass fighter girl who no boy as of yet could tie down. She carried herself not like a party girl that she seemed like when you first met her but now, Neptune could tell, there was more than met the eye.
Neptune was walking out of his last class of the day with the rest of Team SSSN, Sage was reading, as always, All In Tatters- Memoirs of The Great War, turning pages, his deep brown eyes following each.
Scarlet was messing with his hair ,as always, and Sun was, of course, trying to take off his uniform, fishing his shirt out of his bag. Neptune was looking at his scroll when he saw Team RWBY heading back to their dorm, all trailing behind Blake and talking to her. He tapped Sun on the shoulder and nodded his head towards the Beacon girls."Heyo, dude, let's go talk to them." Maybe he could talk to Yang, or something, but the Snow Angel might make that a problem if what Sun said was true.
He jogged over to Team RWBY, hearing Sun muttering behind him, "I thought I was supposed to be the outgoing one." Neptune walked over, tipping his head with an imaginary hat on it to the girls. "Afternoon, friends. Could I interest any of you in a game of Remnant? I know you want a rematch after I smashed you last time, Yang. Now, Blake, I know you're not big on board games, but….. " Blake ignored him, sighing. He could see the bags under her eyes as she turned around and kept walking.
"Hey… is she alright? Seems tired." Neptune observed.
"She hasn't been sleeping well since the fight. I think she's worried about the White Fang and Torchwick's new 'deal' or whatever." Ruby piped up.
"She needs to slow down." Yang replied.
"But I can hang, if you want." Weiss piped in. "Why don't you bring the rest of SSSN? We haven't met them yet. We can even go off campus if you want." She said, a big smile on her face. Which, as far as Neptune could tell, was very unusual. Even Ruby piped up. "Uh. Okay. Sure….. where do you guys want to go?" she said, looking at Neptune.
"I say ice cream!" said Sun. He'd gotten Sage and Scarlet over, even though Sage hadn't looked up from his book. "Ruby, Weiss, Yang, meet the rest of team SSSN.
Sage is the tall guy, Scarlet is… well, Scarlet. Did your mother name you Scarlet for a reason?" Sun said quizzically.
Scarlet rolled his eyes. "Apologies for him, although I think you all have already met. Yes, I'm Scarlet. I'd shake your hands if this was a formal gathering."
Sage looked up from his book. "Hello. Name's Sage. I'm sincerely sorry you met Sun first."
Sun punched Sage on the shoulder. "Hey, you're supposed to be the strong, silent one," Sun quipped. "But yeah, if you all are going to go into Vale with us, can it be calmer than the last time we did that? I'm thinking less giant robots and bullet holes everywhere." Sun replied.
"Alright, sure." Yang said. "And if we need, I know jussstttt the club for us to go to."
Neptune screamed on the inside. "Heh….Heh….no," he said. "Let's just have a calm night. Hey, Sun, that noodle place waw pretty awesome. Wanna go there again?
"What noodle place?" Weiss and Ruby said in unison.
"Uh, duh, the one we went to after we got kicked off the freeway." Sun replied.
"WHAT?!"
Team SSSN and Team RWBY (minus Blake,) walked through the streets of Vale, talking and laughing. Sage was strangely talkative tonight, and had even treated the crew to all the noodles they could wish.
"Gee, I wish we could get Team JNPR out here." Ruby said. "Although I'm not so sure that Ren would be pleased."
Weiss rolled her eyes, although Neptune couldn't tell why. He hadn't really interacted with Team JNPR much, but they seemed like cool people, and from the fights he'd seen, pretty powerful, too.
"So, how about some ice cream? I'm craving a banana split, dudes." Sun said, visibly rubbing his stomach.
"Of course you are, Sun." Yang said. "Let's go."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
As they began walking again, Scarlet was trailing behind the group, and dragged Neptune over. "So, Neptune, ice cream. That's a food that people can eat together. Now I'm not extremely friendly with any of these girls, but I bet you and Yang over there have…. an opportunity here. How much Lien do you have on you?" He said, ever while the rest of the crew kept walking.
"Uh, dude, okay, I get the point. I got fifty lien on me. I'll do it….. probably. Wait…. what exactly are you suggesting?"
"Uh, you share an ice cream. What else?"
"Good." Neptune said.
They made their way to the Ice Cream shop, Neptune telling the story of the food fight from his perspective, getting a laugh from Sage (something rare, for sure,) and Weiss started walking next to him. Shit. Neptune thought. Uh….Shit. He couldn't think of anything to do, so he just kept walking in silence until they made it to the ice cream shop, a modest affair with picnic tables for seats. Neptune went up and ordered a large, vanilla milkshake, and threw ten lien on the table. "Hey, Uh, Mr. Shopkeep, see the lady with the blonde hair over there?" The shopkeep nodded quizzically. "If this pays for whatever she gets, pay for it." He picked up his milkshake and walked away.
Neptune sat down at a nearby bench with the rest of SSSN. They were all cradling their ice creams like they were mugs of fizzling ale, spooning giant scoops of caramel-coffee-vanilla-flavors goodness onto their mouths and all over their damned outfits. Scarlet and Sun looked at Neptune greedily while he took an almost dainty sip of his milkshake.
He looked over his shoulder and saw Team RWBY begin to order their frozen treats. When Yang went to give in her Lien, the shopkeeper shook his head held up thirty lien. She then asked him a question, upon which point he pointed over to the table SSSN was sitting at. Neptune quickly turned away, going back to staring at his friends and sipping his milkshake. Neptune soon felt someone tap on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Yang standing their, with a vanilla soft serve cone in her hand, complete with blue and yellow sprinkles. (That was odd. Had the shopkeep pulled a fast one on him with the sprinkle coloration?)
"Hey Sea Lion, what's this?" she asked.
As soon as he looked up, so did the rest of SSSN, and they almost fell over jumping out of their chairs and moving over to talk to the rest of RWBY. Sun flashed them both a huge, gleeful grin as he left.
Yang sat down across from him, and Neptune almost averted his eyes, sipping his milkshake.
"So chivalry isn't dead, huh?"
Fuck.
Shit.
Damn.
Do i know any other curse words?
Uhhhhh… fuck again.
Neptune was staring at Yang like a deer in headlights. She looked at him as though he was a sad puppy who had lost his way and had tried to hump her leg.
"I guess not…."
She perked up. "Ah, so, he speaks. That's good. I thought maybe you'd gone mute. I don't think I'm that scary."
Neptune chuckled. He needed to get back into it, or he was gonna lose. "Well, considering how you fared in our last battle, I don't see any reason for me to be scared."
Yang's eyes flamed up for a minute. "You better know that's not over. If it wasn't for your fucking weasel tactics, I'd have won that."
"Well I better stick to my weasel tactics then." Neptune chuckled again.
This felt good. This felt normal. He was getting into his groove, doing what he usually did. Suave, smooth-ass Neptune.
Yang rolled her eyes, and took another lick of her ice cream. She looked over at the rest of the group, and Sun kept shooting them sideways glances.
God, I wish Blake was here so he would stop fucking annoying me.
Yang looked back at him. "So what's the deal with the rest of your team? They seem…."
She looked back at them, and Scarlet cracked a smile
"Kind of strange."
Yeah, that's right. They're fucking me over.
"Yeah, they can be both amazing and a complete fucking bother. I've known them long enough that I get used to it though. At least Sage doesn't talk much."
"I heard that!"
"Heheh. Nice." Yang replied. "Our team's one big happy family, besides Weiss.
"I also heard that!" Weiss yelled.
Both Neptune and Yang laughed. There was that chuckle of hers again. Neptune enjoyed that to his fullest.
"Well, listen, Sea Lion. I like the gesture. I'll take free food anytime." Yang rose from her seat at the picnic bench, grabbing her ice cream. She walked over to the table where the rest of the crowd sat.
I have no idea what the fuck just happened.
A soon as she sat down, Sun jumped up. He'd never seen the monkey boy move as fast as he got out of his chair and walked over to Neptune. Sage and Scarlet followed suit, tossing the remains of their various ice creams in the trash.
'Oh! Okay! Bye!" Ruby said.
Sun slid into his seat and made finger-guns at Neptune.
"Neptune, Neptune, Neptune," Scarlet quipped. "Apparently your parents forgot to tell you about not talking to strangers."
Sage punched Scarlet on the arm. Hard.
"Ow!"
"Don't be a dickwad."
"That hurt!" Scarlet whined.
"Anyway, how'd it go?" Sun said, ignoring his other team members.
What do i say to them? I don't quite know how it went either. She liked the gesture? That sounds friendly… but just friendly. Not flirty. Shit.
Fuck.
It was like a dust bomb had exploded in Neptune's brain. All of his essential functions went out the window.
He dropped his head on the table.
"Does not compute. LMAO." Sun said, patting Neptune on the head.
"You're not laughing your ass off." Sage said.
"Yeah, but by exponen—-"
"No. Stop."
Soon, the rest of RWBY walked over. Ruby giggled as she looked at Neptune.
"What happened to him?" she asked.
"We've got no idea," Sun replied.
"Well, let's get out of here! The transport ship leaves in twenty minutes!"
Sun grabbed Neptune and dragged him out of his chair before he stood up, snacking him on the back, painfully. He then whispered in Neptune's ear. "We'll continue this discussion back in Beacon."
Neptune walked with the rest of the group solemnly back to the transport station, thinking all the way. What's my next move? When's my next move? She liked the gesture, but did she like me? What the fuck am I doing with my life? Should I just focus on the festival tournament?
He was still thinking when he boarded the transport ship, slightly tuning out Weiss as she talked to him.
He was still thinking when he got back to his dorm room, and lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling while Sun snored next to him, and Sage read on his bed.
Yellow hair and purple eyes clouded his vision as he drifted into sleep.