Between Through The Darkened Mirror yesterday, and now this, I seem to really be on a roll! I just hope this chapter is good, too; please be sure to leave a review and let me know what you thought, one way or the other! Unlike the previous chapter, this is less exposition and more character-focused, and I'm not entirely sure I've pinned down some of the character's speech mannerisms yet.
Heh, Episode 4 was rather interesting, was it not? I had expected it to joss a lot of my Yellow-Trailer-related theories, but I was surprised when it wasn't the ones I'd been expecting. Even though it's incredibly unlikely that the Trailer happened between Episodes 15 and 16, it still wasn't outright denied, so... still technically viable? Even if it had been proven wrong, though, I would still have kept going with this story, and either way the new episode has given me some fun material to integrate into my preexisting plans for this.
Last, before we begin, I want to thank YellowSign and metimesthree for their reviews, and Darkerster and Professional Ninja for favoriting my humble fanfic. To everyone following, I hope this chapter lives up to expectations!
"Don't look now, but there's a girl in white watching us at half-past ten-oh-clock." Ruby whispered to Yang as she sat down at the table, handing out the drinks everyone had ordered. Naturally, Yang looked.
It was Thursday, two and a half days after the insanity at the docks, and between various questionings from the police and then the staff of Beacon, the first chance Team RWBY had had to relax. There was still clearly some tension in the air, but for now Weiss seemed to have let her misgivings go. The conflict between she and Blake hadn't resolved, but right now everyone was too emotionally exhausted to start it back up again. And so, they had all decided to visit the city of Vale again, and just relax in a café near the Airship tower. As Ruby had explained privately to her sister, she wanted to make sure Blake knew she was welcome, Faunus or not, and the best way to do that in her opinion was to treat the quiet girl to some quality time with the team without schoolwork or training to get in the way.
But now this had come up, and Yang felt some apprehension. Not for fear of whatever designs the stranger may have on them, of course, but the possibility that this could have a negative impact on their efforts to 'reintroduce' Blake to the team. Grimacing slightly, Yang leaned in to whisper "Why me?"
Ruby just shrugged. "Idunno, you could probably answer that better than I could."
"You guys know I can hear you, right?" Blake drawled. She'd seemed distracted with watching the pedestrians outside the window, but now turned to face her teammates nonchalantly.
Ruby was contrite, immediately bursting out with an incomprehensible spew of apologies. "Relax," Blake said, waving her hand downward as if adjusting the team leader's volume. "Please, let's all just… relax." She sighed and looked back out the windows.
Weiss glanced up briefly from filing her fingernails, raising an eyebrow in Yang's direction. "That still doesn't explain our mystery girl over there."
"Okay, seriously?"
Yang could only scoff in amusement at Ruby's reaction, but finally supplied an answer. "I honestly don't know. I didn't get a good look at her, but I'm pretty sure I've never met her a day in my life."
"Well, then there's only one way to find out, right? Why don't you go ask?" Ruby grinned, failing to disguise her own curiosity, almost as strong as Yang's by now. Weiss, however, had different ideas.
"You dolt! You don't just go ask someone why they're behaving suspiciously!" Weiss put her nail file down, crossing her arms over her chest in preparation for another lecture. Before she could launch into it, however, Blake spoke up.
"Um, guys? …Too late."
Yang was already striding toward the table in the darkened corner, and Weiss could only groan and shake her head.
As she approached, Yang took in details of the girl's appearance. As Ruby had pointed out, she wore a white, somewhat formal shirt that buttoned up along one side like Lie Ren's. She wore black khakis and high heels, and a greenish-white scarf. She looked somewhat overdressed for the café, honestly, but her hunched posture and frustrated expression seemed to offset it. She had shiny black hair that reflected the dim, warm lights nearby, long and straight, with perfect bangs that covered her forehead. Something about her appearance seemed familiar, but Yang still couldn't quite place it.
Flopping down and noting the forgotten croissant on the girl's plate, she thumped her hands down on the table – loudly, but not threatening. "Hey."
The girl, who had seen her approach and tried to avoid her gaze, sat up straight now, leaning forward. Her eyes were an intense shade of green, so intense that Yang was almost distracted from the dark circles beneath them or the sheer, unbridled rage in the stranger's expression. It was honestly somewhat disturbing on so pretty a face, and the lack of a response only made everything even more awkward. "So, um. I noticed you were kind of staring at me back there. Care to share why?"
"You know why!" Woah, there. The girl's voice had a nasal, somewhat whiny-sounding accent, making Yang think of some acquaintances from various farm communities further inland from Vale, but the annoying tone was contrasted sharply by her furious rage.
"Uh… no, I really don't." Yang gave a helpless shrug, frowning at the stranger with confusion. "I don't think I've even met you before."
The girl gritted her teeth, her gaze growing harder. "Oh? I'm fairly certain we have. Or do you really think I'm that stupid? I wouldn't forget the face of the bitch who gave me this!" She reached up, pushing her bangs aside to reveal a nasty purple bruise spread horizontally across her forehead. Yang could tell it was from a roundhouse kick, and she found herself starting to believe the stranger just maybe could be right. Still, with the stress and adrenaline fueling her for the past five days, events had already begun to blur together in her memory, and though something certainly looked familiar about the stranger, she just couldn't place it.
"So you're someone I fought, then. Okay…" Yang thought hard for a moment. "Sorry, but still not ringing any bells." Glancing back at her group with a wry grin, she added "There's been a lot of fighting going on the past few days."
The mystery girl slumped somewhat in her seat, glare intensifying as she let her bangs back down. "Okay, then here; thanks to you, my sister and I nearly lost our jobs, had to rush my employer to a doctor who wouldn't turn us in, and will have to wait at least a few weeks before the club has been repaired and can reopen."
Yang took another moment, but comprehension finally dawned. "Oooh, you're one of those twins I fought, right? At Junior's place? With the heels?" At the stranger's nod of confirmation, she put out a hand to shake, beaming like a spotlight. She looked surprisingly different without the feather and makeup, but now that Yang looked again, the resemblance was definitely there. "Nice to meet you! My name's Yang." When the other girl refused to take the proffered hand, she put it back down, grin turning sheepish. "Oh, yeah. Busted club. Nearly lost job. Right." A long silence stretched between them, Yang scratching the back of her head. "Sorry about that."
The lonely twin's arms immediately slammed down on the table, hunching forward aggressively, but just as quickly, her shoulders slumped as she glanced around the café. Turning back to Yang, her anger clearly had not abated, but her next words weren't shouted, instead streaming out in a furious hiss. "Oh, you're sorry, are you? Because sorry clearly fixes everything! Why, I feel so much better knowing that after beating my boss halfway to death and humiliating me, at least you feel sorry!"
Yang shrugged apologetically, not in the mood for a fight at the moment. "What am I supposed to say? It's not like I can do anything to help fix it, I think. I had a lot of things on my mind at the time, but maybe I shouldn't have escalated the situation. I don't know; the past is the past and neither you or I can change that." She paused a moment before chuckling, despite the seriousness of the conversation. "Though Junior was kind of asking for it. I still can't believe he actually fell for 'kiss and make up.'"
The other girl seemed to be wavering, half smiling at Junior's stupidity and half frowning at how lightly the brawler seemed to be treating this. "Well… still." Her frown deepened, and Yang leaned back to wait. "Just… gah!" She gripped the edge of the table, knuckles whitening with the pressure, and Yang noticed she looked a bit dizzy. She couldn't help but give another uncertain smile, realizing she must have been the source of the headache. This hadn't been the first time she'd seriously injured someone in a fight, often landing blows that cut through other students' auras before they even reached the red zone in sparring class. Wait…
Leaning back forward again once the sranger's pain had passed, Yang spoke quickly, but earnestly, hoping her companion would listen seriously. "On the other hand, I don't mean to brag," Ouch, not the best way to start, but she couldn't afford to backpedal now, "but usually people don't last long against me in a fight. That you and your sister managed to hold out as long as you did… Well, I had other concerns at the time, but in hindsight, I'm honestly impressed! Heck, that had to be the only time during that whole fight that I thought I might actually lose! So… yeah. Good job." She finished lamely, shrugging but grinning. It was all true, too, but Yang knew she didn't exactly have a way with words like some of her teammates did.
"…Really?" At the girl's expression, Yang immediately winced. She knew it was hardly the best consolation in the world, but part of her had still hoped- "You really mean it?" Blinking in surprise, Yang looked back at her companion. At second glance, the other girl looked somewhat conflicted, torn between wanting to accept the salve to her badly wounded ego, and wanting to reject it due to the unwelcome source. "I mean, it's not like I care about your opinion, just…"
She was actually telling the truth there, Yang could tell, but she also knew from experience that the stranger's own opinion of herself wasn't in the best shape right now, and even the slightest praise from the worst enemy was worth something. Internally smiling at a job well done, Yang considered the next step. She was hardly one to apologize for a good fight under normal circumstances, but even ignoring that the past several days hardly counted as such, there was just something about the girl's justified anger that made her feel the need to repair at least a bit of the damage.
Looking intently at the stranger, another idea popped into her mind unbidden. "…Say, you and your sister were Junior's bodyguards, right?" This would need to be handled with tact and grace, two things which Yang knew she lacked in any significant quantities. Still, she put on her best smile, hoping she wouldn't mess this up.
"Are his bodyguards. What are you getting at?" A green-eyed gaze bored into purple ones, daring the brawler to insult her.
Here was the moment of truth. Yang swallowed unconsciously, aware that what came out of her mouth next would affect how this conversation ended. "Well… while my friends and I have sparred a lot, I think I could stand to branch out a bit, try to go up against less-familiar styles a bit more… and I thought I may be able to help you get a bit better, too." She closed her eyes childishly as she awaited a response, missing the rush of conflicted emotions running across the twin's face.
"…Don't patronize me." Yang's head fell a bit. Okay, fair enough; I can't blame her for not exactly being my biggest fan at the moment… But the bodyguard wasn't done speaking. "Just tell me when you're available to meet."
Giving a cautious grin to the volatile girl, Yang hid her shock that this had actually worked, somewhat. "Well, it's winter break for me right now. I'll probably still be doing things with my team, but I can make the time to come down and visit. When are you available?"
"My sister and I have been taking shifts. Someone has to keep an eye on our boss, while he recovers, after all." Some venom returned to her voice, but her glare softened –albeit slightly- after a moment. "I'm open from six to noon in the mornings, for now. Let's meet here, since we both know where it is." She finally broke eye contact with Yang, and the latter released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
As the girl rediscovered the croissant still sitting on her plate and took a vicious bite out of it, Yang mentally reviewed her schedule, knowing Ruby likely had some 'team-building' exercises planned once everyone had had a chance to recover from recent events. "Well, maybe not tomorrow, but the day after should be open. The flights from Beacon don't start up until eight, so I'll meet you here at about a quarter to nine or so?"
The girl was still chewing, so simply gave a curt nod until she could swallow. "Okay, then. Sounds like a date." Any other time, such a phrase would have elicited embarrassed reactions or some crude snark, but her authoritative tone brooked no such nonsense. Yang nodded in agreement, and got up to rejoin her table.
"Oh, by the way," the brawler paused as something else occurred to her, "What's your name?"
"Melanie. Melanie Malachite." Melanie bit into the croissant as if to punctuate the statement, or perhaps just trying to avoid further conversation.
Either way, Yang let her be with nothing more than "It was nice to meet you, Melanie," somehow doubting her new acquaintance felt the same way. As she strode back toward her teammates, Yang found herself coming away with nothing more than mild bemusement and just the slightest hint of guilt. Nothing for that now, though the question of what the next Saturday would bring was certainly more than a bit intriguing.
"So what was that about?" Three voices asked as she plopped back down at the table. Ruby and Blake fixed her with curious stares, the latter likely eager to have the attention taken off of herself for a moment, and even Weiss gave her a somewhat more expectant look.
Glancing back at… Melanie… who seemed to be studiously avoiding looking in the group's direction, Yang shrugged. "It's a bit of a long story, but I guess for now, I'll just say that I may have gone a tiny bit overboard while searching for you last weekend."
Blake shrunk down a bit more, grinning slightly despite herself, while Ruby made a small noise of understanding. "That was when you punched that one guy out that window, wasn't it?"
Yang nodded, mentally chuckling at Weiss' slightly disturbed expression. Blake just made a small, oddly cat-like squeak of incomprehension. "I don't know what to say…"
With a rougish wink in her partner's direction, Yang leaned back into the booth in relaxation. "S'all good." After a content pause, she added, "S'ides, it looks like I may have made a new friend." Having finished her croissant, Melanie strode past them to the exit doors, pushing roughly to get out quickly as possible. "I think we'll just have to see."