Did you miss me? Did you miss me?! Before I go on my traditional list of thank yous, I'd like to address something that Darkerpaths pointed out to me regarding the word 'Faunus'. I had only heard the word before, so I ended up asuming the spelling was 'faunist'. Please forgive me for that, from here on in it will be the correct spelling. Now chapter five is posted I've gone back and fixed chapter 2. Thank you so much for pointing it out to me. I've also got two other towns for them to visit, and I am really happy that you liked the world building Fence provided. They won't leave for a chapter or two yet though.

Without further ado, let me go on my custumary rant of thank-yous and shout outs. Starting with the newset reviewer, shout-outs to Darkerpaths, cinderhasfallen, claraowl, and Guest: Andrew. Now for the followers, once again starting with the newest, 7Artemis7, Darkerpaths, Alleycat826, clarowl, and cinderhasfallen. Without you guys I'd never have the motivation to do any of this.

Here's the story for all of ya'll.

Chapter 3: Can't Win

I woke up to Emerald being in my arms. It's fucking weird. Why the hell are we sleeping like this? Ah, right it's a rule. Rules are a big deal for Emerald.

How can I get her to get us out of here? Can I use her rule making against her? No, that's not gonna be a good opener. Shit, Emerald always worked that part out when we did things like that bookshop guy.

Let's see. Would: Hey Emerald, I've figured out a job for us that let's us travel, is high paying, and, oh yeah, get hell out of this claustraphobic labryinth that could fall into the ocean at anytime, work? Maybe not the last part.

If I could work the travel, high-paying, and isolated part, then maybe she'd listen. Wouldn't have to lie all the time. Could look for Cinder. Get paid. Good deal all around.

We'd need things. Maps for one. Seed money. Shit. How would we get around? It's not like people have all-terrain vehicles they're willing to lend out.

Land and flight-able Grimm to deal with too. Need a bigger gun. Shit. I tossed around a bit. That must've woke Emerald up.

"Mercury? Are you going to get up at any point?" Emerald asked me. I fiegned sleepiness.

"Mhh? Right. Breakfast." I flipped my arm off her, and she got up. We turned away from each other to straighten out our clothes. My emblem cloth was too wrinkled for my liking. Did this place have a iron?

I turned around to Emerald combing her hair with a cheap comb. She took out the top drawer of the dresser and put it on the bed. It had a bunch of cheap combs, a bar of soap, travel sized conditioner and shampoo, and a couple of condoms in it. I ignored the last one, but I took out a comb and started becoming presentable.

We stashed our duffle bags under the bed instead of unpacking in case we had to leave quickly. We hadn't payed for last night. Who knows where to get breakfast around here. It'd probably be disgusting and hideously expensive. Emerald couldn't say I'd backed out on our deal though.

We left the room and locked the wooden door behind us. We squeezed past a family of five down the narrow hallway. The worn stone stairs proved to be a bit tricky without guard rails for their son. He fell onto my back. I set him upright before Emerald could notice anything.

The dinning area was packed with people. Kaitlynn directed us to hot plates, a pantry, some bowls and silverware, and a menu with a price tag. I loaded up on baccon, eggs, and buttery toast. Emerald grabbed a little bit of everything. It translates to all of my pocket money being gone once we got to the cash register.

Emerald started up a conversation.

I woke up as Mercury's pillow. It wasn't as uncomfortable as disorienting. I'm never going to tell him that though. My arm had fallen asleep. Once he started tossing and turning I bugged him to just get up.

We left the room after hiding our stuff beneath the bed and fixing our bed head. Mercury had a little boy fall onto him on the stairs. He's really bad with people, but not so much with kids. He set him back with his parents, and I pretended I hadn't seen. His tough guy pride would've been hurt.

Kaitlynn's antlers stuck out of the crowd of people at the bottom of the stairs. When we got close enough she gestured to the other end of the bar she was sitting behind. We followed the line to hot food. A family behind us was talking about ticket prices. It had to do with the number of packages they were planning to carry.

"It's not like we can take everything with us. There's a strict two bag policy. They have to have room for food as well."

"But couldn't we pay just a little more?" The man whined.

"That's not how it works. This is the only boat home. We have to obey the rules. I heard there's a market you can sell extra things at for a good price."

"But we need our stuff!" He protested.

Breakfast wasn't cheap so I tuned them out to focus on enjoying it. I wonder how much a ticket for the boats cost. The money Ebony had gotten at the Cloth Market could cover his ticket, but probably not all of his stuff. The sheer amount of people going to Vaccuo meant he'd have to sell the Bullhead.

I switched from my croissant to cheesy eggs and baccon. I puzzled over the deliema of how to not get surup on my biscuts. I ended up applying blueberry surup inbetween the pancakes to avoid spill over. A thought occurred in my mind. It wasn't fully formed, but had a little merit.

"I have an idea for a job. I'm going to need some time to check it out though. If it doesn't pan out I don't think we have very many other options," I told Mercury before washing down my pancake with a glass of grape juice.

"Do we need more code words?" Mercury asked.

"You're not going to let that go, are you?" He gave me one of his cocky grins. I rolled my eyes. He always does this.

I noticed the door frames were a little higher than usual. Even the giant Mercury fought could fit in with ease. I guess it was to fit Kaitlynn's antlers better. Luckly the person I wanted to see walked right through them. I gave Mercury a look.

We played the waiting game. Lots of smiles and stuble looks. Ebony first talked to Kaitlynn before coming over to us. The two of them got kind of heated. I finished up my sausage and biscuts and motioned Mercury to do the same. Ebony set his hands down on our table and pulled on a big grin.

"You guys want to go on a walk? Find out more about the place?" Ebony asked us. A child could tell that he wanted someone with him so he could have justification for walking in here and having an arguement with the innkeeper. He was apart of my plan. I let him be.

"Sure! Lead the way. Just let us clean up first," I said with a smile. Mercury didn't. He's really got to work on his people skills.

We washed our plates at the sink by the windows. Mercury mouthed something to me. I couldn't tell what he was saying though. We turned slightly toward each other.

"Marshal and Essie?" He mouthed a little clearer at me.

"Marshal and Essie," I mouthed back.

Ebony waited for us at the door. He took us to a ton of different places while 'Essie' kept up the conversation. The playground, salt processing room, the fresh water spring, the Black Box Cafe, and the hospital all stuck out. The last one more so than the rest. When she saw how many people were hurt fleeing Vale Emerald stopped talking.

At first Ebony was still rambling on talking to the receptonist, so he didn't notice. I tried a gentle elbowing to her side. Still nothing. We had just had lunch. She wasn't hungry. I took over from there.

Ebony volunteered us to help Dr. Orchid make her rounds. Emerald went to the kitchen to help cook lunch while Ebony and I changed bandages. It became mechanical. Of course he had to have his heart to heart right then and there.

"Marshal, you got to promise me something. I'm getting on that boat tomorrow. Promise me that you'll help Kaitlynn in any way you can. She's under a lot of stress, you guys have some skills most people don't, and I want Ivory to know her sis has someone looking after her."

I shouldn't have glanced at Ebony. He looked like his ticket to hell had already been paid for. The man who had given us a ride to and tour of Fence was gone. My face was still neutral when I looked at all the blood. His face had turned pale.

"I know you and Essie aren't like most kids, hell most people. That's why I'm hoping you can do something around here I can't. It's why I'm giving you the Bullhead. Promise me you'll take care o' them. My Bullhead, sister-in-law, and Essie all need some help.

Why is it that every single time we manipulate people for a while things like this happen? Always the heart to heart, feel-good hypocritical crap fest. I have to sit through Ebony giving me the whole promise-to-help-my-sister speil, followed by the do-right-by-Emerald talk. Emerald gets to lounge around a kitchen where she can steal all the scraps she wants. Neither of us like this part, but she wasn't in the right state to really deal with it.

The shattering of glass caught our attention. Emerald was shaking. The tray in her hands was empty, just like the shattered cups of glass at her feet. I moved to pick her up and away from the shards, and she stepped backwards. I guess I had too much blood on my hands from changing bandages. I'd triggered her.

The doctor rushed over and helped Emerald out of the glass shards area. She then spun on her heels and walked to a room with a curtain. I looked at Ebony. He seemed to read the situation for once and pointed me to the bathroom.

I washed the blood off of my hands and nearly broke the counter from smashing my hand against it. There goes everything I've ever worked for. Everything I'd done until now had been careful so that I wouldn't see that face on Emerald. I focused on my breathing. Deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. No rage.

I crept past Ebony sweeping up the broken glass. I paused outside the curtained alcove. I pushed open the curtain a crack to find Emerald. She was sitting on the wrap around stone chair. Our eyes met.

Deep breaths.

Slowly the realization sank in.

Two mice against the world could not win.

I realized last chapter didn't give out what kind of faunus Kaitlynn was. We've already had named faunus of the cat, monkey, bull, and (rat? wolf? puma?) persuasions, in order: Blake and Neon, Sun, Adam, and Tuskson, so since antlered or deer faunus are canon it made sense to have more representaion.