- - -11- - -
Forced Pleasantry & First Meetings
VAV
V
Mercury still wasn't sure what to think about their relationship these days. Or more accurately, the pointed lack of one. They were still friends. Yang loved people with a ferocity that bewildered him ever when he was the one benefiting from it. But now there was an almost enforced rule between them, because no matter what, when they were together, there could be no silence. He didn't even know why.
The first time he even noticed it was when the two of them had been kicked out of the classroom that epee was training in. An opportunity for their teammates to come up with a handicap for them in their next bout. He already knew his would be something to hobble his aggressiveness. Small target areas were their usual preference, though maybe today they would just make things complicated to try and trip him up mentally. Yang's would be more complicated, probably to try and make her do some sort of combination and make her fight less off instincts and with more rationale. A solid plan, but a difficult path given how instinctive much of this was for them. Again, neither of them were worried about the bout, and if it had been a couple weeks ago they'd probably be not-quite flirting as they waited. As it was, they could have just as easily watch Weiss and Blake's foil bout without saying anything at all.
"Are you doing a senior project?"
Mercury was confident his exterior didn't show his own surprise at the question, even if that cost him a notable pause before responding. "They don't require it for business majors, but I'm working on one as a failsafe anyways. In case my last 400 falls out."
"Anything interesting?"
"Eh, I'm proposing a concept for corporations to run an internal blockchain currency system to increase accuracy on their accounting records."
"Weird."
"A little, but it's not entirely without precedent. I just thought it'd be funny to watch suits figure out they can't cook books with this. You?"
"Education department makes us as part of experiential class work. I think it's to make sure we don't slack off when volunteering at the schools off campus."
"Makes sense. What'd you end up with?"
Yang hesitated in answering. Almost making Mercury smirk as he realized she had forgotten the cardinal rule when it came to senior projects: fair trade information. Given who he was talking to though, and especially their last private conversation, he repressed his asshole nature and turned away from the foil match and Weiss' textbook lunge. Looking at Yang's own carefully maintained neutral mask as she finally answered.
"It's complicated, but the working title is 'Let Them Stand on Their Own One Foot'."
She looked towards him, eyes tired already from the semester's workload and wide enough that she could spot any reaction he might have. Clearly, she wasn't expecting his eyes to already be there. Stare locking for just a second, all too piercing for a safe response and worse, all too comfortable.
"Sounds like a poorly balanced outline." Leave it to him to break up the stare with an insult.
"Yeah, well, you could say the paper's In-toe-reduction embodied collisions." Leave it to her to break it with puns. Bad puns.
Turning away, they managed 5 whole seconds of more awkward silence before Mercury started to say, "What do you think our handicaps for this…"
Only to be interrupted by Ruby yelling "We're ready!"
And for him to finish his sentence with "…Thank Oum." Instead of whatever BS filler he might have come up with instead.
VAV
V
Yang and Weiss were surprised when they looked in on the study room and saw it empty. The ones by the dining hall were almost always full to the point of having campus cops called on the impromptu party or dead empty. And today they appeared dead empty, so bonus points for that.
Stealing the table in the back corner, Weiss started pulling out the books they needed for the homework while Yang started rearranging the furniture a little to make the work easier. The table had to get pulled out a little so it stopped blocking the floor vent. Weiss' chair was too far away, she didn't even have a chair. Minor details all around really.
Turning to steal the one that had been placed in from of the couch she found it occupied. Holding a book-bag and the cumbersome assortment of cables that lead to the couches sprawled-out occupants. To be fair on her and Weiss, neither of them could be seen from the entrance. That didn't make it any easier finding Mercury on his laptop suddenly right next to her, eyes fixed on some excel spreadsheet and ears plugged in to his headphones. Or for that matter to see the scarlet eyes of his friend, laying opposite to him on the couch with their legs pointedly not touching, fixed unflinchingly on her with what Nora might charitably call another resting-murder face. Though what muscles were at rest this time, Yang could not say even if she were feeling charitable.
Moving to grab one of the other chairs in the room, she did her best to break the friend's stare. "Hi I'm Yang. Guessing your Emerald, Mercury's mentioned you quite a bit."
Emerald took her time slowly pulling off her own headphones, sharing a look with Mercury that made him turn to look at her. Probably only caught a glance of her legs but it was enough for him to turn back and give her a somber shake of his head. Yang decided to back up his decision with a smile, which proved the wrong decision.
"Well, if we're being polite, the name's Emerald Sustrai. I believe your name is Yang Xiao Long."
"That's right."
"I think I know your dad, runs that gym out in Patch."
"Oh, you a boxer?"
"No, but I kept tabs on him after he moved to the new job."
Yang couldn't help herself, fist clenching as she leaned in a little. Giving her a rather upside down few when Mercury smirked with the inevitable fall out about to happen. Silently mouthing 'told you so' and putting his hands up to make it clear he wouldn't be intervening. On either of their behalf for all she knew. "You know between teaching one honor student how to use a Swiss army knife's can-opener, and finding out another is keeping tabs on a retired copper, I'm really starting to question how smart college students are."
"Smart enough to make it clear I don't like you without telling you why."
Yang's eyes narrowed and her feet started unconsciously spreading apart into a wider base of a fighting stance. Right now, anyone could see for the world Emerald was pissed at her and old instincts were telling her that it meant a fight. Even if the opponent was kicked back on a couch with a friend standing between them who would, probably, be willing to stop anything from escalating. Unless he was bored. Only thing stopping Yang from going first was that last phrase, which seemed pointedly unrelated to her dad.
"If you two are done measuring dicks, I believe we came here to study."
The tension in the air redirected itself towards Weiss, standing with arms crossed and toes tapping with unrestrained impatience at the women holding back her work. The picture of authority, were it not for her utter lack of anything that might be called imposing.
"…Mine's bigger."
Emerald's facial expressions had changed suddenly from anger to a blank slate that would have any theatre major reeling with envy. Her deadpan statement filling the room with the same level of seriousness as Weiss' best leader voice, as she met the petite authority head on. Leaving Yang and Mercury to share looks, one of bewilderment at her flatmate saying the word dick for possibly the first time ever and the other of amusement.
"Well, ahem, that's, um, very good for you. However, we, we really do need to do this assignment." Weiss tried so very hard to keep things formal. Yang knew she did, they had been friends for four years and she knew how hard it was for her to relax outside of strict social roles. Only Emerald seemed to be taking the room away at this point, and Yang didn't even know where it was going.
"Metaphorically speaking, of course." Emeralds voice somber.
"Oh, well, I see." Weiss said, trying her best to turn back to the table
"No, I don't think you do." Mercury's legs were shifted for him as Emerald stood up. Yang had to admit, she had never seen him this relaxed around someone other than herself. He even tensed when Jaune patted him on the shoulder, a guy that couldn't even scare someone if he was holding a live grenade. Instead he just flipped off Emerald and went back to his computer. Emerald moved around Yang to get to Weiss, bending over the petite woman as she continued. "Maybe I should show you."
That was her cue to start edging away from the table
"Merc." Yang whispered, "Merc." Her volume increasing until finally she just pulled off his headphones part way.
"What?"
"Is your friend hazing or flirting with Weiss?"
"Huh?"
Yang gestured rather emphatically over at Emerald who at this point was whispering in Weiss' ear and turning white cheeks into a scarlet shade that would have made Pyrrha's hair look brown in comparison.
"Oh." He said, taking a quick look at the two women with more than a little apathy to spread around. "Both."
"Let me rephrase this, do I need to punch her?"
Mercury tilted his head, clearly weighing the problem against how entertaining the ensuing fight would be to watch. "Probably not, Em just has a thing for debonair girls. Your friend is gay, right?"
"As a rainbow."
"Well, best of luck then." Clearly considering his work done as he pulled his headphones back into place.
Leaving Yang alone between a guy who she had slept with more than once, a girl who apparently was holding a grudge against her for who knows what, and her flatmate who was now grabbing said grudge holder by the collar so she could whisper whatever back. Nope, nope, she did not need to think about whatever it was those two were whispering between them. She was single and utterly focused on finishing out her bachelor strong.
"Come on, we're going for snacks." She said, slapping Mercury in the shoulder.
"Why?"
"Because if we stay Weiss will have some excuse for not actually making a move, Because I don't want to see my adopted sister making out, and I'm betting you can say something similar."
"Eh, wouldn't be the first time." Course even as he was saying that, he was already closing his laptop and swinging himself over the couch back. Never losing that primal drive that made him always seem so deadly, even after he looked half asleep just a minute before. "This is usually when I start making animal noises to piss her off."
"Moo?" Yang said, her idle curiosity working ahead of the rational part of her mind. The part which still needed to do the homework that had brought them here.
Emerald's aim was poor, which given the size of the book thrown was luck. Mercury smiling over at Yang as the two of them ducked instinctively. "Yeah, just like that."
Yang reached the door first, opening it only for Mercury to wave her through. She never did understand why he never liked other people helping him, even something like holding doors open. Clearly it made sense in his own head though. Even when she shut the door on him and held it, throwing a raspberry in his direction, all he did was smirk. Dodging the second book, this time by Weiss oddly enough, he braced one foot against the frame and hauled both the door and Yang open. "Nice try." He said as Yang sprawled back into the room, giving them a second to fight for the door once more even as something was loaded up in the background by the unamused friends.
The third book actually hit.
VAV
V
Hey, I'm not dead. I am extremely busy (I should be working on a midterm for one of my graduate classes right now), but I wanted to get this out there. Not one of my better chapters, in part because it was supposed to be a three-part of short clips to establish time passage of the presently single main characters. Along with the ever-present question in any school story: when do they do homework? The third part however deserved a chapter of its own, furthermore I would really like to do something else with the Midsomer University Series. Unfortunately, running three plots concurrently is a lot more difficult than one plot-free piece of fluff that I started this all with.
So, I do hope you enjoy, and I'll be honest this is not me getting out of hiatus. Work, graduate school, and applying for (career) jobs are top priorities on this side. But I am not going to abandon PC&S or my Midsomer crowd. Because gosh-darnit, I didn't start this story to not get a strong happy ending. I'm taking it up with the writer otherwise.
