Welcome back everyone to the newest chapter of Light Fire and Flowers.

Don't have much to say here so let's get right into things.

Reveiws:

None that I can say anything about… :(


Chapter 6: A Little Liquor Never Hurt


-Two years later: -

~Cinder age: 9 Ruby age: 4 Mason age: Unknown, Estimated 31~

A man dressed in strange armor calmly walked down the street. He wore a brown knights helm with a black visor. On his arms, he wore a set of black gloves and sleeves made with black Kevlar-like material. Brown iron shoulder pauldrons silently shifted as the man moved. A strange carved gold pate covered the upper chest of the man while the rest was left protected by more of the black Kevlar. Black, worn, leather boots made their way up to his mid-calf while the man wore a pair of black pants that were held up by a belt and gun holster. Strangely pieces of bone were strapped to the boots and sewn into the pant legs. Behind him, his tattered cloak flowed gently in the light breeze.

"Hey Neir, you got the time?" The man asked.

The ghost bobbed just above his shoulder. "Yeah time for you to get a-"

Mason swiped at the small drone as it bobbed out of the way. "Fine fine, it is 10:13 PM."

"Looks like we still have time before our meeting with the client." Mason said as he strolled down the street.

Street lamps lined the road as Mason walked, each casting a warm glow onto the sidewalk and buildings nearby. Instead of the normal stores that could be found in the residential and commercial districts of Vale, the Industrial districts was chock full of warehouses and several factories. A bar could be found on nearly every street, and the district housed more criminals than the Vale Police Department cared to admit. Mason was here often enough that he had come to calling it his home away from home.

Mason continued his way down the street making small talk with his ghost until he came up to the door of a pub. The sign above the door read The Last Lilly Pub. Nodding to himself Mason opened the door and strode in.

"GUESS WHOSE BACK BOYS!" Mason shouted as the door closed.

A resounding cheer filled the bar as the patrons held up their drinks in recognition.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." A massive, red haired, hulk of a man said from behind the bar top.

"You're best paying customer is what it dragged in." Mason made a set of finger guns and pretended to shoot the bartender. "DRINKS ON ME TONIGHT FELLAS!" Another resounding cheer filled the bar as patrons raised their glasses.

"Y'aint wrong about that." The bartender smiled through his beard and extended a hand. "How've you been Phantom."

"Not bad Lilly, not bad at all." Mason took off his helmet, a slight hiss of released pressure being heard. "Business is booming. I actually am meeting up with a client here in a bit."

"Hoh?" Lilly raised a bushy eyebrow "Bet'r not start trouble. Don't need 'nother incident like last time. It's on yer tab if they cause any damage to my bar."

"Yeah, yeah." Mason waved off the red-haired giant. "That's what we agreed on after that meeting went south. I'll pay you back for any damages plus your 'interest'."

"Good. Now you gonna have a drink or you gonna let everyone else drink away your paycheck?" Lilly said wiping his hands on his stained apron.

"Gimme the usual." Mason nodded toward the menu. "Chilled bottle of Capitol Hill."

Lilly grabbed a bottle from one of the many ice boxes and placed it on the counter, prying the cap off with his hands before handing it to Mason.

Mason raised his bottle. "To the small things."

Lilly laughed. "Th' small things indeed."

Mason downed his drink and set it back on counter.

"Ahhhh… it's been too long since I had one of those." Mason said. "I can't for the life of me find these anywhere else."

Lilly took the bottle and looked at it. "Pro'lly cause you're the only one who drinks this crap. Atlassian's can't brew a good beer to save their frozen skins. Should stick to vodka 's what I say."

"EH!" Mason feigned offence. "I will not hear anyone trash talk my favorite beer. Take that back or I'll get the entire bar singing. You remember the last time that happened." Mason smirked.

Lilly crossed his arms and laughed before looking Mason directly in the eyes. "Yeah. Nothing other than a bunch of drunk bastards singing out of tune and embarrassing themselves."

Mason returned Lilly's gaze. "Oh. That sounds like a challenge." Mason smirked. "I'll bet a case of Capitol Hill, that I can get everyone here minus you singing together."

"I'll take that bet." Lilly said, resting his arm on the counter top with a confident smirk. "What do I get if I win?"

"I'll do you a favor. I'll do a job for you on the house. No questions asked, no payment required." Mason said.

"That seems awfully weighed in my favor. You're pretty confident yer gonna win."

"As if I'd let myself lose this." Mason scoffed. "So, we have a bet?"

"You're on Hunter." Lilly put out his hand.

"Finally, someone gets it right!" Mason shook the burly barkeeps hand.

Mason got off his bar stool and made his way to the center of the center of the bar.

"OI FELLAS!" Mason shouted. Silence overtook the bar as everyone turned to face the hunter.

"O'll LILLY HERE SAYS HE DOESN'T LIKE OUR BAR TUNES!" Mason threw a finger to point accusingly at the bartender. "SAY'S HE'LL KICK US OUT IF WE DO IT AGAIN."

Muted grumbles could be heard throughout the bar.

"Oi! I never said-"

"YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK?" Mason smirked. "I THINK HE DOESN'T APPRECIATE GOOD MUSIC WHEN HE HEARS IT!"

More grumbling could be heard.

"HOW ABOUT WE SHOW HIM A REAL SONG? ONE SO HE MIGHT APPRECIATE US AND OUR PATRONAGE!"

Nods of agreement and shouts of indignation greeted Mason in return.

"SOME ONE GET THAT PIANO PLAYING CAUSE IT'S THE END OF THE NIGHT AND WE AIN'T GOING HOME TILL LILLY LEARNS A LITTLE APPRECIATION!"

One of the patrons made his way over to the old worn piano that sat against the far wall and began to play.

"ALRIGHT BOY'S YOU KNOW THE WORDS! LET'S GO!" Mason threw his fist in the air.

(AN: For those who would like to listen to the song while reading, Look up End of the night By the Dropkick Murphys, some words have been changed to better fit the environment.)

After a few bars of notes the Mason started to sing. "Oh The amber, the fire is starting to fade, but it's now that I'm at my best. Give the angel on my shoulder a break for the night, 'cause the devil ain't getting no rest. I've got thousands of stories, you've heard them before, yet I tell them again and again. Come on pull up a stool now and buy me a drink and please think of me as a friend."

A Patron at a nearby table stood and sang back to mason in a deep voice. "We live for the weekend, each city's the same, There's a bar on the corner where they all know our names. There's plenty of drinkin', they've been savin' our chairs. It's our second home, we ain't goin' nowheres!"

Soon the rest of the bar joined in for the chorus. "It's the end, end of the night. But we aaain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we aaain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we aaaaain't… Goin' hooooome.

The bar quieted as Mason and the other gentleman who had sung earlier continued on with the song.

"This life it ain't easy, still we manage to win." Mason sang.

"There's times to be knocked down, yeah we live with our chin." The other patron returned.

Together they put their arms over their shoulders and chorused together. "We're generous guys with our hearts on our sleeves, misunderstood though the boss disagrees. We can't catch a break, wrote the book on bad luck. WE'D HOLD DOWN A JOB IF THEY DIDN'T ALL SUCK!"

The bar fell back into the chorus and everyone swayed to the song. "It's the end, end of the night. But we aaaain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we aaaaain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we aaaaaaain't goin'… hoooome."

Mason broke away from his singing partner and made his way on top of the counter to continue the song once more. "The bartender's spoken and he's made it clear. If you ain't goin' home, then you ain't stayin' here. You can't shut us off and you won't turn us down. There's plenty of jugs so be grateful to have us around!"

The Patrons continued the chorus again, starting quiet before building up to a roar. "It's the end, end of the night. But we ain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we ain't goin' home.
IT'S THE END, END OF THE NIGHT! BUT WE AAAAAIIIIIIN'T GOIN' HOOOMMMEEEE!"

Mason immediately went into the next verse. "Well you've been beaten me black and you've beaten me blue, the scars are well worn on my face."

Mason's partner picked up next. "I've packed up the bags and I've sulked off in shame, For one last walk at these streets!"

The bar fell into chorus for the last time, everyone belting out the lyrics like their lives depended on it. "It's the end, end of the night. But we ain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we ain't goin' home. It's the end, end of the night. But we ain't goin' home… We ain't goin' hooooooome….. We ain't goin' hooooooome….. We ain't goin' hooooooome."

The bar was filled with raucous cheers as everyone raised their drinks. Some continued to sing while others laughed along. Mason got down off of the counter and sat down. "I do believe that you owe me a case of Capitol Hill my good man."

"Gurarararara." Lilly let out a boisterous laugh. "A' should'a known I'd lose. That song might as well be these boy's anthem."

"Come on pay up." Mason smirked.

Lilly laughed again. "Don't worry. You'll git yer beer. I restock tomorrow. Stop by and you can take yer case. I'll throw in an extra if you help bring everything in from the truck."

Mason smiled. "We'll see."

"So whose this client of yours?" Lilly rested an arm on the bar top. "I know 'im?"

"No idea. It was an anonymous request. I won't know for sure until they ask you they are looking for Phantom."

Lilly nodded. "So the usual then."

"Yep. It's probably going to be some down on his luck crime boss who needs his next job to go well or he's done for." Mason said dismissively.

Mason and Lilly continued to make small talk, talking about the current state of the underworld, the oncoming crackdown on criminal activity that comes with the new school year, and how one Roman Torchwick recently stole a heavily guarded Schnee dust convoy. As an information broker, Lilly provided Mason with the latest news on the happenings of the underworld, for a fee of course. Nothing is ever free after all.

Time past and the bar became less and less populated as people retired for the night. Soon it was just Mason and Lilly alone in the bar.

Lilly let out a dry chuckle. "Looks to me like you've been stood up."

"Nah, it's what? 11:30? They should be here any moment." Mason said.

"Whatever you say Phantom." Lilly said, grabbing a broom, before going to clean the floor of the bar.

Five minutes later the door to the bar opened and in strode a man. He had Raven black hair, red eyes, and unkempt stubble on his chin. The man had a deshelved appearance but somehow still managed to look professional. On his back was a tattered red cloak and a sword was strapped to his back.

"Well looky here. My second best paying customer." Lilly said.

"Second best paying customer?" the man said tossing a flask to Lilly. "Didn't realize I lost my title."

"Snarky as ever eh' Qrow?" Lilly laughed as he made his way back behind the bar.

Mason tensed at the name.

"No idea what you're talking about." Qrow said.

"The usual?" Lilly said.

"No just fill the flask. I'm here on business and as much as I wish I could drain your stock tonight it'll have to wait." Qrow said, sitting down on one of the bar stools. "I'm here to see the Phantom."

Mason nearly broke the glass in his hand when he heard his code name.

"Hoh?" Lilly looked surprised. "And what's a huntsman like you doin' meetin' with the Phantom."

"That's not your problem." Qrow said. "I'm supposed to be meeting him here."

"And what's the drunken huntsman want with me." Mason squinted at Qrow, distrust showing on his face.

Qrow turned to face mason. Electric blue eyes meeting blood red ones. The two stared at each other for a moment sizing the other up.

"Information." Qrow finally said.

"Information?" Mason raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're sitting in front of the second-best information broker in Vale, so excuse me for not believing you."

"I know who I'm sitting in front of. I also know who you are Phantom." Qrow took his flask back from Lilly. "Master thief, assassin extraordinaire, and the only person to have successfully broken INTO and Atlassian prison, kill a target, and get out undetected."

"And how would you know that?" Mason glared hand slowly moving for the knife strapped to his belt.

"Your employer for that mission was not as tight lipped as you thought. Bragged about being able to hire you specifically." Qrow took a swig from the flask. "Naturally only your code name was leaked. No one knows anything about you which made trying to find you a real pain in my ass."

"So why are you looking for me. Going to arrest me? 'Cause I can tell you right now, I will resist and someone's going to get hurt."

Qrow shook his head. "Like I said before, Information. I have no interest in arresting you right now. I've been looking for answers for years I can't find anything. None of the legal methods have worked and none of the illegal ones helped either."

Mason removed his hand from his knife. "So why me."

"Through my years of searching, your name was mentioned several times. That if someone wanted a specific piece of info on anything and they could pay for it then you'd be able to get it for them. You're my last chance at getting what I want." Qrow finished the flask and handed it back to Lilly.

"Then what do you want?" Mason asked cautiously. "Assuming you can pay that is."

"Summer Rose." Qrow said. "I want to know what happened. There are no records of her death, no failed mission reports, not even her husband knows what happened. She's just listed as MIA in the Huntsman registry. A huntress of her level doesn't just disappear without a trace. Something happened and I want to know what it is."

Masons grip shattered the glass in his hand. "Should have figured one of you would come knocking sooner or later."

Qrow's expression hardened. "What do you mean by that…?"

"You said you knew Summer's husband?" Mason said dodging the question while picking the glass out of his glove.

"Yes. My teammate Taiyang was her husband." Qrow said.

"Fucking..." Mason sighed. "Meet me in two days at noon here outside. Bring Taiyang. If you can get Raven then good for you but seeing as she's back with your 'tribe' I doubt you will."

"How'd you-" Qrow started to say.

"I'm one of the best Qrow. Something like that wasn't hard to find out." Mason waved him off. "Can you do that?"

Qrow stared at Mason for a long time before nodding. "I can. How much is this going to cost me?"

"My bar tab." Mason nodded towards Lilly as he stood up and walked towards the door. "Consider it a major discount on something that would normally cost you an arm and a leg."

Mason walked out of the bar just as Qrow nearly passed out from looking at the bill.

Outside Mason walked down the street.

"Mason." Neir appeared over the hunter's shoulder.

-Warning Potentially M rated scene for strong language-

Mason round housed a lamppost, bending it to have an awkward angle.

"SON OF A FUCKING-! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS ONE OF THEM!" Mason shouted.

"Mason calm down." Neir said. "If you-"

"ALL THOSE FUCKING YEARS SEARCHING AND IT'S THE PEOPLE I CAN'T FUCKING APROACH!"

Mason punched the wall of a building, his eye's glowing an unearthly orange.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!" Mason yelled as he cut down another light post with his knife. "SHE'S MY FUCKING KID NOW DAMMIT"

"Mason if you don't reign in your-"

"I CAN'T JUST GIVE HER TO THEM!" Mason's fists started to flicker with fire as he continued to punch the building. "BUT I FUCKING CAN'T NOT TELL THEM ABOUT HER! FUCKING BLOODY MORALS!"

"MASON!" Neir shouted.

"WHAT DAMMIT!"

"Calm down or you'll lose control again." Neir said now that he had Mason's attention.

Mason looked at the blackened fist prints in the concrete, breathing heavily.

"You're a natural born Gunslinger Mason. You know how that affects your light. Your Sol light is much more volatile than others since you can't use Arc or Void." Neir said sounding concerned. "You remember the last time you lost control? You put a hole clean through the WALL Mason. Imagine what would happen if you lost control here."

Mason remained silent, still heaving in breaths while his flaming hands flickered dangerously.

"Mason, I need you to calm down." Neir said more forcefully. "Now."

Mason stared at his ghost until he closed his eyes, let out a long sigh and extinguished his hands.

"Fine." Mason said through gritted teeth. "Let's head home."

Mason turned around to walk away before stopping and heading back the the bar. "Forgot my fucking helmet."

-End M Rated Scene-

-Two Days Latter outside The Last Lilly Pub-

"Qrow?" A blond-haired man said. "What was so urgent that I had to come to Vale? And why are you being so cryptic? Your being Ozpin levels of cryptic right now."

Qrow took a swig from his flask before answering. "Not sure Tai. Just that the Phantom said to bring you if I wanted answers."

"See! This is what I'm talking about! Who's this Phantom guy and what are you looking for answers for? Taiyang said exasperatedly. "Wait. Is this about Summer?"

Qrow didn't answer.

"Qrow… We've been over this." Taiyang sighed. "It's not your fault she went missing. It's time to move-"

"Qrow Branwen. Taiyang Xiao Long." A voice said from behind Taiyang.

Both men turned to face a tall, well-built, man with electric blue eyes and salt-n-pepper hair. He was wearing a black t-shit, a pair of blue jeans, hiking boots, and a pistol holster around his right leg.

Taiyang glared at the man. "And who are you?"

"I take it you hevent told him then and he doesn't interact with criminals very often" the man said looking at Qrow.

Taiyang tensed up. "Criminal?"

Qrow nodded.

Qrow sighed. "Taiyang relax. This is Phantom. The man who said to bring you here."

The Mason nodded. "Speaking of. Are you ready?"

Qrow nodded and stood up from where he was leaning against the building.

"Ready for what?" Taiyang asked.

"Follow me and you'll find out." Mason said as he turned to walk down the street towards the bullhead landing pads.

Tai looked to Qrow for answers but he just shrugged and followed Mason.

Ten minutes of walking later they reached the landing pads.

Mason turned to face the huntsmen and held out two blindfolds. "Put them on. Don't need you knowing which ship is mine."

Qrow put his on but Tai didn't.

"Oh no you don't." Taiyang said. "I am not putting this on until I get-"

He was abruptly cut off by a punch to the side of the head and the world went dark.

Tai woke up to a gut churning feeling. Opening his eyes, he rolled over and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

"Oh god. What the hell was that." Taiyang said.

"What was what?" Qrow said still blindfolded.

"I'm surprised Qrow. Most people show at least signs of motion sickness when they are first transmated." Mason said as he tapped Taiyang with his foot. "Like your friend here."

"Trans-what?" Qrow said.

"Nevermind. Take the blindfold off."

Qrow did as he was told and took the blindfold off. Blinking a few times as his eyes readjusted to the light while Taiyang groggily stood up.

They were in a clearing standing on a concrete pad that was off to the side of a small home.

"Where are we Phantom?" He looked around suspiciously.

"Home." Mason said walking towards his house.

"You live here?" Qrow said.

"Yes."

"Okaaaay." Taiyang said. "I would ask where here is I have a feeling you're not going to tell us."

"Very observant of you." Mason said as he continued to walk. "You're surprisingly calm Taiyang, considering how you reacted initially to getting on my bullhead."

Taiyang went to say something but Qrow cut him off. "Why are we here Phantom?" Qrow said. "You said you'd give me information not take us on a camping trip."

Mason stopped and let out a bitter chuckle.

"I'll do you one better." He said. "I'll give you answers. Follow me."

The three men walked around the house and walked to the end of the clearing. They came to a tree with a metal pole sticking out of the ground in front of it. Tied to the pole was a small strip of dirty white cloth. A round stone rested in front of the pole.

"What's this?" Taiyang asked.

Mason turned around and looked at the huntsmen, before slowly walking away. As he walked he put his hand on Qrow's shoulder just as the huntsman was taking a drink. "Take all the time that you need. I have to go grab something."

Qrow immediately froze. "You mean-" but Mason was already gone.

"Take all the time that-QROW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"


AN


And that's the chapter. Bit less fluffy than I like but when you write the story tends to write itself. I am sorry for that bit of a cliff hanger at the end but I still need to work out how the next half is going to go. I can't seem to get the flow right.

Anyway, for those who are curious about the whole natural born guardian thing let me explain.

The idea originally comes from AceArcalas's Destiny Stories Tormented and Redacted (Which I highly recommend reading BTW) and is being used with their permission.

Basically, what it means to be a natural born is that the guardian in question is only capable of using one subclass. Example: In Mason's case he is a natural born Gunslinger so he is unable to use both the Nightstalker and Arcstrider/Arcblade subclasses. To offset this major imbalance natural born guardians can do absolutely crazy shit with their natural subclass. So duel wielding golden guns or having a golden gun sniper is well with in a natural born gunslingers abilities. This is how Mason can 'summon' and control small embers of flames like when he entertains Cinder.

So yeah for those who were curious that's what a natural born guardian is. Now I also revealed the rest of Mason's outfit this chapter so here is that for those curious souls.

Helmet- Iron Companion Mask

Arms- Iron Companion sleeves

Chest- Exultation Vest

Legs- Bones of Eao (exotic 1/4)

Cloak- Cloak of Taniks

Artifact- Memory of Gheleon

Primary Weapon- Lord High Fixer (Hand Cannon Destiny 1)

Ghost- Chocolate shell

Ship- Fatal Vision

So there is his full combat armor loadout. Weapons will be revealed in later chapters.

Some might have noticed the (exotic 1/4) I put nest to his leg armor. Mason has 4 exotics, the rest will be revealed later on. Same rules apply as in game and he will only ever have one weapon and one armor piece equipped at one time. None of these are the 'broken exotics' (Pre-nerf Thorn and G-horn I'm looking at you) so I can keep things interesting so feel free to guess what they are.

Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, and remember to leave a review!

Have a good one everyone!

-Zeak-