I'm really and truthfully sorry that this chapter has taken a long time, please forgive me TTvTT... I know I said last chapter that the next update wasn't going to take long but then I had to get a job and my job search has taken up a lot of that time so I apologize for that. But enough excuses, I'm going to get this chapter done and explain more at the Author's note at the end of the chapter. For now let the chapter begin.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY and more than likely that I'll never even work on it. All that shiz nit is claimed by Rooster Teeth.
So I was stuck at Beacon for a few days while everyone got to go home, including my sisters, because I was still too injured to fl back to patch. Yeah I was a little bummed but it got me to focus more on my Grimm side and keep that under control. Talking with Edgar and Orion to further figure out on how consume more Grimm into my body without changing into a monster. So far, all we had was that I might be able to emulate them outside of my mind. But we haven't been able to figure out how exactly to do that so we put a pin in that for right now. Other than that I was able to use my Grimm attributes from my companions more easily as time went on, my assumption with that is that the more I got to know Edgar and Orion, the easier I could call upon there abilities.
But on the last day I was to stay at Beacon, then I could go back home to Patch, Ozpin visited me in the infirmary, which had me a little nervous because the last meeting I had with the headmaster I admittedly almost pissed my pants. Either way, when he stepped into my room I straightened up a little made sure I was presentable and hoped he was in a good mood.
"Good morning Mr. Steele, I hope your recovering well." Ok, he's being polite so it's going well so far.
"Quite well sir." He seemed to raise an eyebrow and the word sir but he didn't say anything about it. "The nurses say I get released tomorrow so that I can go back home. Though I'm to keep the sparring and fighting to bare minimum, which I'm inclined to agree." He chuckled a bit before he took one of the chairs and sat down. His cane resting underneath his palms.
"I just came to see how you were fairing Mr. Steele. When I was told that one of my students had come back from an outing on the town with severe injuries and blood loss I grew a little concerned. Regardless of your... Knowledge, I still count you among my students and I don't take threats against them lightly." His face seemed to darken for a fraction of a second before returning to it's neutral expression. I rubbed the back of my neck with a nervous smile plastered on my face.
"Thank you Head Master, I appreciate it. Thankfully I'm able to make a full recovery and I can still be a full fledged Hunter."
"Mr. Steele is there something the matter? You seem nervous compared to how I see you usually act." Yes because right now you could kill me with a flick of your wrist.
"You see sir, the last time we had a conversation, you pinned me to a wall. I'm a little terrified that I'm going to say something and your going to do the same thing again." I finished as I was looking toward my lap.
"Ah, I see... Well Mr. Steele, rest assured that that will not happen again and I must apologize for my behavior, and for you to trust me that it won't happen again." I breathed a sigh of relief at his words and laid back on my bed.
"Oh thank goodness... You had me a little worried there Professor. Was there anything you needed me to clarify on while your here?" He looked at me with a small smile before he stood up and shook his head.
"Not at the moment Mr. Steele, you just rest up and be ready to return home tomorrow, I'm sure you're excited to see your family." With that he patted my good leg and left the room. I was pleased that he wasn't angry at me and looked at the time. It read 9:32 AM, so it was still pretty early in the morning but I had nothing to do really. So i just watched T.V, took a nap, ate lunch, called Ruby and Yang to see how Patch was doing. It was still Patch so nothings changed, so that's good. And before I knew it, it was the next day and I was released from the Infirmary. I headed to the air docks and waited for a Bull-head to take me to the Patch Air port.
I was greeted by my littlest sister tackle hugging me to the ground with a groan of pain emanating from my mouth.
"Ruby... He just got out of the infirmary, be a little more careful." Said Ruby looked up at me while I was currently cursing the sky. She at least the dignity to look sheepish. She then got up and helped me to my feet which I groaned again and held my leg. Hey, having your Aura completely depleted and suffering severe injuries is not fun. Plus having the blood literally sucked out of me didn't help in the slightest. I picked up my bag and hobbled my way to our house.
Dad's been excited to see you as well, but he was not happy about you staying behind at Beacon for being hurt so expect Papa Taiyang to come up." I groaned at Yang's words and from the look on her face, she was all too happy to see me suffer. The cheeky blonde.
"Dad! Ash is home!" I looked over to Yang with a look of betrayal on my face.
"This is payback for the first two weeks of Beacon 'dear' brother." The next few moments of my life is one of the most heart warming while also one of the scariest moments as well.
My adoptive father made his appearance in the hall way staring at the three of us. My other two sisters laughed at retreated to who knows where leaving me to my fate. I gulped and walked forward preparing for the worst. He walked, forward put his arms on my shoulders and looked me dead in the eye and said.
"Are you hurt?" This has been surprisingly tame... but besides not getting hurt multiple times I didn't think I had done anything wrong.
"Just a little sore really... All the injuries are however currently wrapped up and I'm to do as little serious physical activity as possible while the wounds heal." He nods breathes in a little bit and then lets it out.
Then proceeds to hit me over the head.
I recoiled in pain and looked at him.
"Ash Steele Xiao Long, do you know how worried I was?! Not just for the docks, but to hear that this wasn't your first serious injury! First with the Nikos girl who stabbed you, which I learned from your sisters that it was because you were reckless with your Aura, then the next I hear is that you took on an Ursa Major by yourself and that with how your semblance works you started to turn into a Grimm. Then to top it all off you go up against the BLOODY MARY, who I might add as a kill count at least four times my age?! I was afraid when I heard from Yang and Ruby that you had become just another statistic to her numbers. Oum Dammit Ash you had us all worried. And then to top off it all, I learned it all from your sisters, not you. Not so much as a call once while I was here growing grey hairs worrying about you." He finished his 'little' rant by running a hand through his hair and blowing out a frustrated sigh.
"I'm not old enough to get gray hairs yet... That's Qrow's thing but he makes it look good." Now that I look back on it, I really did fuck up on this one.
"I'm uh... Sorry? But my intent was not to cause you start growing grey hairs." He just gave me a flat look at that.
"Then please tell me young man, just what was your intent then?" Surprisingly this is not what I expected when I came back home.
"Well... the Thing with Pyrrha was really stupid of me, making my Aura like that was certainly not my smartest idea, then the Ursa Major thing was me making sure one of my classmates didn't die which ended up with me getting hurt. Then the Bloody Mary incident... I'm gonna be honest, the only reason why I think I didn't die was because she got distracted by a giant green laser. If that laser was a few seconds later I would have been another one of her statistics. Just another blood pool inside that creepy sword of hers" I stopped there because the thought that I was that close to dyeing again really hammered that in. Tai saw this and hugged me calming me down but now that I was thinking about the incident I was starting to hyperventilate. He shushed me and cradled my head with his palm.
"It's alright now... Right now your safe, she won't be able hurt you here." And for the first time in a very, very long time.
I had started to cry. Telling him how terrified I had been, not knowing if I was going to survive the encounter. If my last words to my team were 'Shut up Weiss, your being a baby' I don't know when but a sudden wave of exhaustion hit me and I was really tired. I separated him from his hold and wiped my face.
"Are you alright now? Feel better?"
"Yeah... I barely got a wink of sleep last night I need to rest up a bit. Wake me if you need anything."
"Alright son... Get some rest." And I headed off for the sweet release of sleep.
3rd person view (Living room)
Yang was giddy with joy to see embarrassment on her brother's face for she saw it as way too easy payback. Yes, she loved him and she assured herself that she always will, but it was nice to see him on the other end of the metaphorical stick. But to her slight disappointment he was not there in the living room like she thought he was. It was just her dad watching T.V. on the couch. So she plopped down next to him with a smile on her face.
"Soooo... How it go? Was he all flustered and embarrassed?" She asked her father with a hint of giddiness to it.
"Yang... Do you know what exactly happened between your brother and Bloody Mary?" She was a little confused by the question but she took nothing of it.
"Not really... All our team knows is that he got into a tough fight. But he came out okay." She shrugged her shoulders at her fathers question. In truth they hadn't asked him what exactly he was going through. Just a little tid bit of what happened.
"He almost died that night Yang. You didn't hear it from him because he was most likely still in shock but your brother was dealing with a lot of troubling things inside his mind. And I'm not talking about the Grimm." This sudden news from her father hit her like a ton of bricks. She never knew he was hurting because he was always happy and go lucky, even when he had his big brother moments.
"Is he fine now?" Her voice filled with worry.
"He seems fine, like you saw he's just a little hurt. For know don't bring it up with him unless he does so first. Bringing it up might trigger something in him that could cause it to worsen." She nodded her head and sank back into the couch. For now she might have to play the rock to both her brother and her younger sister. She never had to pull a double duty like this for as long as she has known Ash. Normally he's the one to comfort one of them in their time of needs. Which admittedly wasn't a whole lot of times. Her father however looked over at Yang with serious glint upon his face. She thought he had something else to add about Ash so she sat back up and looked over to her father.
"So what's this I hear about you having 'fun times' with other people?" He said with a stern face. Her face went paler than usual before she knew of only one person that knew that. Well the one person who would tell her father.
"ASSSSSHHHHHHHEEEEEEEE!" And with that scream she had woken up her brother from his wonderful sleep in his amazing bed.
"Oum damnit."
Good hopefully? Yeah I realize that it's far from my best chapter but please do not fret and think that this story is dead. I promise it's not, but with me still looking for a job and preparing for college next fall I do not have as much free time as I would like to have, Far from it actually. So I can not guarantee that I will get the next chapter out in a reasonable time, but it will come out... Just not anytime soon. So I am well and truly sorry about that. Good news, well slightly good news, I have a semi decent plan for this story and I plan to get to the parts that I have planned out at least. Again I am well and truly sorry. But that's it for me for right now at least. I thank you all for reading and I will see you guys at a later date. Peace!
