"Come on Rickel. Three more, and then we're done. Sound fair?"
"..."
"She said th-"
"I know what she said Vargas. Three more and I have to take apart and clean her gun afterwards. Plus, I need to get her a big bag of dill pickle sunflower seeds." Colden replied turning his head to face the flaming-haired boy was sitting on the bench just beside where he stood. Rather, sitting on the back of it, with his feet on the seat as he watched the duo go through the motions once more. Vargas had changed from his red robes and black armour to a much simpler red t-shirt over a grey long sleeve and black jean ensemble due to the fact that it was a weekend and other male teammate had done the same, changing out of his 'traveling' outfit and into something more casual, when not wearing the uniform. He was now dressed in a white vest that had a beaked hood attached to it. Said vest was accented by dark blue lines running down each side of the chest and was left unzipped, showing that he wore a dark blue t-shirt underneath, accompanied by his black boots and blue jeans. The only things that stayed from his previous outfit were the burgundy-coloured gloves with the star-studded wristbands, and his headphones, placed gently around his neck. Rickel had kept her beloved hat and denim vest combo with the only changes being a dark purple shirt worn under the vest, and a light blue denim skirt that went past her knees, leaving a gap between the skirt and her boots.
"Huh. You're actually getting pretty good at that. It took me years to figure out her language fully. How did you pick it up in only a few months?" Vargas asked, cracking his neck by moving it side to side, closing his scarlet-coloured eyes and furrowing his brows as he did so. Sitting around for two hours as a guy tried to catch a high-speed fruit in his teeth wasn't exactly an activity that left you limbered up.
"Maybe it's because unlike you, I didn't spend my time trying to give a pouty look at anyone that came within ten feet of her?" Colden quipped, raising an eyebrow and grinning. However, he was forced to duck as Rickel took a swing at him one of her guns, shaking her head in disapproval. It was more of a disciplinary blow than it was defending her boyfriend, who in turn stood up and got right up in Colden's face, letting off a low growl.
"You wanna say that again?" Vargas furrowed his brows and crossed his arms, sticking his bottom lip out just slightly.
"There! There it is! There's the look!" Colden laughed and dodged a swing from Vargas, even taking a few steps back as he chortled, which only caused the flaming-haired boy to flare up even more. Just as Vargas was about to reach for his weapon, and Colden was standing still in front of him, a halberd came down between them, with the small point touching Vargas' neck, while the axe head was against Colden's. If either boy dared to look at the owner of the weapon, they would have seen the last member of Team CRAV, Amy MacTavish. The strawberry blonde-haired girl was currently sat upon the bench Vargas had previously been occupying with one of her hands, encased in simple grey gloves, holding her weapon forward, while the other leafed through a book on her lap. Her dark green eyes were downcast, focused on her literature, her face almost hidden by the waist-length hair she had. Two bangs popped over a silver metal headband she wore over her forehead, perfectly framing her face.
"Colden, that was out of line, even for you. Vargas, please de-stress yourself, and let this one go. He's cranky this morning." She spoke in a bored tone, as if she had done this many times before, licking her thumb before she turned the page yet again.
"Now, I'm going to put Xeimon down again. Colden, I want you to apologize." Amy continued, leaning her halberd against a nearby railing, letting off a deep sigh.
"I'm not cr-"
"Colden, I've lived next door to you all my life. We've been friends since we were in diapers. I know that when you don't eat, you get quippy and petty with said quips. Now apologize. And for god's sake, eat something" Amy cut off Colden as he started to speak, giving him a harsh look that caused him to shut his mouth rather quickly, and then look down at his feet.
"As usual, Amelia, you're right. Vargas, I'm sorry, I was out of line." Colden said after a moment of silence, sticking out his hand for Vargas to shake. After a moment of hesitation, Vargas grinned and grabbed his hand tightly. It quickly turned into a quick game of who could grip the other's hand the tightest, while also trying not to let go.
"Keep the quips less personal, Mr Anime Hair, and yeah, we're good." He said with a grin, finally letting go at the same time as Colden, both holding their hands behind their backs to hide the pain. It lasted about two minutes before they broke off at the exact same time, clenching and unclenching their hurting hands afterward. Amy was slightly astonished at how quickly the two started and ended their argument, without so much as a punch thrown. Even she would hold a grudge for at least an hour, minimum. Then again, more than a few psychology books that she had read suggested that boys have pettier arguments and could let it go much easier. She mused that her surprise was misplaced, and then returned to the sixteenth book in the Ninjas of Love series. Xander was about to confess his love to Kwan, and a ninja war was looming on the horizon…
Amy ignored another gunshot from Rickel and Colden's attempt to catch the grape in his mouth. She also furrowed her brow as Colden began to choke on said grape, and tried her best to ignore the groan that followed when Vargas gave Colden an impromptu Heimlich by punching him in the stomach. She simply sighed and tried to bury herself in her book again. Sometimes, she regretted being the only-
"Why is it that you guys are teammates?"
Amy fought the urge to groan, fetched her bookmark from her book bag, and closed the volume. She should have known better than to try to catch up on her reading on the last day before the second semester started. Or during the day, period. Colden would always drag her into whatever took his fancy. Extreme manhunt, high-altitude hide-and-seek, full contact tag, racing across the tops of bookshelves in the library. And all of that, surprisingly, without getting in trouble once. They always made an endeavour to make sure nobody had known they were there, even go so far as to fetch older students from their school to help them re-forge or simply help undo dents they made in walls or lockers. Most often it was Galant, a truncheon-wielding blacksmith with an extremely laid back personality and a knack for being able to fix anything. Plus, seeing the spiked, flaming bat making contact with the heads of those who broke whatever Galant was fixing was satisfying to watch.
"Well Weiss that is a long, long story. Mostly revolving around our orientation." A red-faced Colden wheezed as he recover from his choking fit, giving the heiress a weak wave and Vargas patted him on the back a bit too hard, sending him to the ground again.
"Not really a long story. Our actual orientation was the longest part. The story is actually pretty simple." Vargas countered, giving Colden a hand up onto his feet, where he began to catch his breath.
"Do you have the time to listen to it?" Colden asked, spurring Weiss to quickly check her scroll, and then shrug.
"I have ten minutes before Ruby is supposed to show up. But-" Weiss began lifting a hand up as if she was trying to make a point, but was cut off as Colden began to speak.
"Great! Well, to explain how we met, you need a bit of context about what our orientation actually is at Asmund Academy." Colden began, shoving his hands into his pants pockets to keep them occupied.
"In the simplest terms, it's a month-long survival mission on the huuuuuge glacier way out in the middle of nowhere. Nobody can cheat and hide in some building in a nearby town" Vargas continued, Amy suddenly jumping into the conversation with a tone that was a few levels above emotionless.
"It's gotten so large that we have to parachute in at the start, and the glacier has developed its own ecosystem and by extension, its own Grimm infestation. Due to some art that one enterprising and creative student put on one side, it's affectionately known as "Asmund's Asscrack", even by Headmaster Asmund himself." She had opened up her book again, and had relayed the information without even looking up.
"How-" Weiss began again, before getting cut off. AGAIN.
"Eidetic memory. That, and first-hand experience." Amy answered, turning the page of her book after licking one of her fingers. Weiss actually looked to Rickel, expecting her to say some little tidbit of information. She only gave a shrug and an apologetic, sympathetic look, as if to say "Sorry. You can't stop 'em once they get going."
"So anyway. Month-long survival mission on Asmund's Asscrack. And it's this whole lesson about dropping your pride and working together with others, no matter who they are. Only catch is, you're forced to partner with the first person you see." Colden jumped back in, actually jumping a short distance to gain Weiss' attention, before she spoke again.
"We had that in our orientation too, but-" For a third time, Weiss was cut off. She just couldn't catch a break!
"After that, though teams are flexible, usually with a maximum of six or seven. So it is kind of a priority to find your friends. Or at least one of them." Vargas was the one to cut her off this time, placing a hand on Rickel's shoulder, the flaming-haired and raven-haired couple sharing a smile and warm look.
"But Lady Luck was feeling…meh…that day. So I ended up finding Rickel making herself a little treehouse while I was running through the trees. She had, after about a day, tied a bunch of branches together to make a floor and a few walls. One of which I crashed through by accident." Colden continued, making a high pitched noise and shaking his hand a little bit to signal the tipping of scales when he first began to speak, taking a more relaxed position as he continued his information dump.
"And I encountered Amelia as she was finishing off her…" Vargas paused, looking to Amy so that she could finish the sentence.
"Third."
"..Third Ursa. After a day or two, we found the Pup over here hanging upside down from a tree branch, using himself as bait while Rickel snuck up on the Beowulf.
"I wouldn't say I was bait so much as I was…"
"You were bait, Colden." Amy interjected into the conversation.
"Yeah, I was bait. Anyway, since by some chance we managed to find each other's friends, girlfriend in Vargas' case, there was no choice, so we teamed up. But Matches over here and I still butt heads on occasion." Colden finished. And finally, after getting cut off three times, Weiss was able to speak.
"But I already knew most of that."
"…What?" Amy said, her monotone finally breaking, actually sounding mildly surprised.
"I've been trying to say that I knew about that stuff. You just kept cutting me off."
"So you knew everything?" Colden asked, pursing his lips together in a thin line.
"Save for the Asscrack thing, yes. I did my research before choosing to come to Beacon."
"So you know that our school is an old war fortress?"
"Yes, I do Colden."
"Huh. Then I guess there was no point to that whole information dump then, eh?" Vargas asked, Rickel slowly drying of silent laughter, holding her stomach as she stood doubled over.
"A lot of pointless exposition done for no reason." Weiss nodded in agreement, her arms crossed as the four visiting students, her expression one of mild amusement. She had to admit, it was kind of funny, seeing them standing there slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
"Well…sorry to keep you." Colden replied, scratching the back of his head nervously. What followed was about a solid minute of silence before another voice suddenly broke it.
"Is that Ninjas of Love, Volume Sixteen?"
Quite literally out of nowhere, Blake Belladonna had appeared, perched on top of the bench that Amelia was sat upon. Colden and Weiss jumped at her intrusion, with Weiss bumping into Colden, who was quickly over the scare. Instead, he was staring at Blake, his brows furrowed, a small frown upon his face. But now that Weiss was closer to Colden, she could see something sticking out of the bush that made up his head of gray hair. Were those...
"You know, I almost thought you were my owl. He appears out of nowhere like that all the time." Amelia said as she placed the bookmark within the volume, handing Blake the book so that she could look like it.
"Is he magic or something?" Weiss suddenly asked, looking from Amelia and then back to Colden again. Her hairstyle was so severe in comparison to Colden's bush. It was almost as if he was hiding something...
"No. But he has earned the affectionate nickname "Hoo-dini" from my teammates. And embraced it." Amelia replied, a small smile gracing her face, her voice finally gaining a tone that expressed interest and warmth.
"Huh. Well, I'm one volume behind, and I can't seem to find it-" Blake began, and was suddenly silenced as Amelia produced Ninjas of Love Volume Fifteen from her book bag, holding it out to the dark-haired girl, who fully sat down on the bench as she took the book into her hands, looking as if she had found the holy grail.
"How-"
"My dad knows a guy who works at the publisher. I get advance copies all the time."
"Can I-"
"Yes you can borrow it. It will be fantastic to have someone to talk to about this series."
"And Volume Seven-"
"Seventeen arrives next month. And quite frankly Miss…" Amelia trailed off, hoping the dark-haired beauty would introduce herself. Despite her usual habit of cutting people off, her tone of voice was actually quite chipper, her eyes full of life.
"Belladonna. Blake Belladonna." Blake suddenly said, wanting ever so much to crack open the book and start reading.
"Quite frankly Miss Blake, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship. I'm Amelia MacTavish" Blake simply nodded in agreement, taking a seat beside Amelia and cracking open the volume
"Colden. Are those...Wolf ears?" Weiss had finally found the words she wanted to ask, her head slightly tilted to one side to get a better look at them.
"..Yeah. Why do you ask?" Colden asked, reaching up to flatten his bush of hair, showing off two silver ears that were distinctly wolf-like. He twitched one, and then the other, as if waving hello to everyone.
"You're a Faunus?" Weiss continued, rubbing her temples with her fingers. It did make sense, in retrospective. Hyperactivity was a common trope among puppies...
"Is that a problem? You don't seem to have a problem with the cat Faunus over there. She's probably known since the first time Rickel and I sat at the table." Colden casually said, pointing over to Blake, who only looked up from her book in mild surprise.
"I've suspected he was a Faunus of some kind, from the way he smelled. Couldn't tell which kind though." Blake confirmed Colden's claim in a distracted tone, her eyes now downcast on the book again, Rickel and Vargas looking awkwardly at each other, and at Colden.
"Well, you could have at least told us, or your teammates, for that matter!" Weiss said with a huff, crossing her arms and raising her nose slightly, looking away from Colden, who winced a little bit.
"Actually.." He began, Vargas stepping as Colden trailed off...
"Rickel and I, well we're Faunus too. Phoenix and Alkyonide" He said simply, suddenly pulling up his shirt, a pair of dark red wings, which had hints of orange on the edges, popping free. They were almost five or six feet in length, so Vargas curled his around himself to avoid hitting people with it. As it was with his hair, the wings looked as if they were mildly burning, letting off a few embers and puffs of smoke, with harsh edges making them look as if bat wings had been stuck onto his back and set on fire. Rickel, on the other hand, had feathery wings that looked as if they were frozen, and shed a few snowflakes as they unfurled. They were about equal in size to Vargas, but clearly Rickel had more dexterity with hers, from the way she moved them around, stretching them out and shedding more snowflakes onto the ground. She gave a bemused look to Vargas, shaking her head as she looked upon her partner's position, stuck with his shirt up around his shoulders. Rickel seemingly had small slits into he back of her clothing so that so could easily reveal and make use of her wings.
"I forgot to wear the right shirt, alright? I, didn't think we'd be showing them off." Vargas said, his face going a shade of red that matched his hair, giving a harsh looks toward Colden. Colden silently pointed a finger toward the still-reading Blake. She had triggered his reflexes and made his ears pop up. Not that he was explicitly trying to keep it a secret, mind you. Speaking of secrets though. Team CRAV and Blake might have to swear to secrecy about how they drove the Schnee into madness, judging from the anguished sound coming from her mouth.
"And what about Amelia, huh? Is she hiding a tail under that dress or something!? Weiss asked, pointing to Amy before starting to pace back and forth, fuming and mumbling under her breath.
"No, actually, I'm the only human on this team. Also, this shouldn't have come as a surprise, if you did your research. Asmund Academy has an 85% Faunus enrollment rate." Amy replied, still smiling as she leafed through her book. Blake looked up from her book, giving a look of mild surprise at the tidbit of information before going back to reading. She just had to get caught up...
"I...urgh...but...RRRRGH!" Weiss' mind had finally had enough, so the heiress stormed off with her hands balled up into fists, grabbing the arriving Ruby as she went, dragging her back toward the castle by the end of her cape. The confused scythe wielder simply shrugged, and then went with her fuming teammate to wherever the destination was.
About a minute later Weiss stomped back in with Ruby still in tow, pointed at Colden, and spoke.
" By the way! If you want to do that STUPID bullet catch trick, you need to bend your knees more and relax your jaw. Now good day!"
"But-"
"I SAID GOOD DAY!" Weiss cut Colden off before he could speak and dragged Ruby off again, heading toward the town as she had originally intended. Ruby, sensing that her teammate would need to rant soon enough, simply gave a weak wave and then pointed to Blake, as if signaling that she would explain. And after a minute of silence, she did.
"Don't take that last part personally. Apparently she's always wanted to say that to someone." Blake explained, having got the silent cue from Ruby to speak.
"So...if I ever want to talk to her again I should...?" Colden asked, pointing in the general direction that Weiss and Ruby had left in, his lips forming a thin line as he waited for an answer.
"Give her a day or two, let her process the information and rant. You did drop a big information bomb on the daughter of...well.."
"One of the families that are most targeted by Faunus extremists?" Colden finished, raising an eyebrow.
"Correct. " Blake simply replied, suddenly leaning closer to Amy to whisper something, pointing at the page her book was open to. It took a moment, but Colden suddenly had a look of realization and knowing on his face.
"Well, I need to go get lunch. Vargas, Rickel, you coming?" Colden suddenly asked, putting one hand on each of his friend's shoulders.
"Wait, aren't we going to finish-" Vargas was cut off as Colden smacked him upside the head, and began speaking through gritted teeth.
"Let's go get some lunch. Leave the book club alone." Colden said slowly, motioning his head toward the pair on the bench. It took Rickel giving him a look that screamed "we need to leave" for it to finally clicked in his mouth. His mouth opened and made an "o" shape in realization and closed silently before he nodded and patted his stomach.
"Yeah, I guess I am famished." Vargas said, the trio stopping to pick up their weapons before heading toward the castle, engaging in mild conversation.
After that, there was a long silence as the pair sat there, reading their respective books. Finally, Blake lifted her gaze from her book and turned to look at the strawberry blonde.
"Amelia?"
"Yes Blake?" Amy said as she closed her volume, sticking a bookmark in it before turning to face the Faunus girl with a smile.
"Why do you cut people off when they ask questions?" Blake inquired. It was mildly annoying that Amy never let a word in edgewise while in conversation.
"Usually because I know the answer before they ask the question."
"That...actually makes more sense than it should. I'm guessing Colden frequents the same question alot."
"Three times a day, usually. Rickel usually handles reminding Vargas though. Has some interesting ways to make Vargas remember things."
"And all without saying a word?" To that question, Amy just shrugged her shoulders and gave off a small smile.
"Apparently she can talk using her body language, but I've yet to decipher it. It might be a matter of time, or maybe it's a Faunus thing. Did you hear anything just before they left?" Amelia asked, absentmindedly scratching an itch on her knee.
"..Now that I think about it, I did hear some faint rumbling coming from her direction." Blake said, blinking as a look of realization coming over her face.
"Perhaps it's best if we leave it as a mystery."
"Agreed." Blake said simply before the duo cracked open their books again, taking advantage of the mid-day weather to the best of their ability.
"Amelia, those are some...eccentric teammates you have there." Blake commented after a minute, casually turning a page.
"They're crazy, loud, destructive...and quite frankly, make it impossible to get any homework done. But-"
"You love them deep down and wouldn't trade them away for anything." Blake smirked as she cut off Amelia, who nodded with a similar smirk on her face.
"Correct. And please, call me Amy."
Okay...WOW. I am a lazy ass who really, really needs to start writing faster. Like, holy shit there's one week until volume three. Wait...THERE'S ONE WEEK UNTIL VOLUME THREE!
SEE NOTE HERE: Since I saw the hype for volume three, I have updated Colden's weapon to something slightly more original, with a different name. Go back to chapter two and re-read that if you want to know
Anyway, in the next chapter, I will get into the Volume Two content, starting with the ever so glorious...well...you can guess. Also, could someone, anyone give this story an actual review on ? Even if it just says five words, I'd be happy.