Chapter 12 – Trust
Nadea Heart
Nadea sat at her table and watched the minute hand of the clock tick by. She had ten minutes of detention left the serve and then she was free to go. The reason for her situation was sat two tables away, tapping his foot audibly against one of the legs. With each small bang she could feel her annoyance grow. She did she best to keep quiet but with five minutes left, she couldn't take it any more.
"Stop fucking tapping," She spat at Nick only to receive a sneer in return.
"Piss off," he shot back.
"Language," Mr Pastell interjected, not bothering to look up from his papers. "And please do stop tapping Mr Eldrien, it is infuriating even me."
He tutted and leant back to put his feet on the table.
It was only half way through the day and Nick had already succeeded in annoying her more than usual. Their first class of the day had been Dust Application where Nick had managed to blow up their table along with all the notes for that lesson. The explosion had been strong enough to send Ella tumbling over the table behind them.
Their second class had been Engineering where had had not shut up once again about how her guns could have been better designed. Fortunately their third class had been History. Nick hadn't been sitting with them in History since his detention last week due to the fact that Miss Petunia has been giving him different assignments to the rest of the class.
However the detention they were serving was due to his actions in their final class. He had spent the entirety of Cultural Studies making remarks about her village and their beliefs until she fired back with some words of her own. While Nadea knew she should have ignored his poking, she just couldn't.
Thankfully Nick remained quiet for the last few minutes and when the desk alarm rang out, the teacher merely gave an idle wave of his hand to dismiss them.
"You're a little more touchy than usual, ain't you," Nick smirked as they walked out of the classroom and made their way towards their dorms. "You're time of the month or something?"
"And your being an even bigger asshole," she replied.
"How so?" He asked dismissively.
Nadea stopped and turned around to face him.
"You do realise you could have seriously hurt Ella today, right?"
"Okay, first off," Nick replied as he came to a halt too. "She would have gotten a mild burn at most and her aura would have healed it in minutes. Secondly, I was doing most of the work and it was you who passed me the wrong dust canister."
"I did not," Nadea said in disbelief that he was now trying to pin it on her. "I passed you the canister you pointed at."
"Yeah, and who was is that was fucking around with them beforehand while I was working huh?" Nick retorted angrily. "You switched their places without me knowing and then blamed me for getting them mixed up."
Now that she thought back on it, he wasn't wrong. Her and Ella had been debating which dust type was better out of electric or ice and they had both used a little of the dust from the canisters to show off.
"Fine," She was never one to deny when she was in the wrong. "That may have been partly my fault. But that doesn't excuse how much of a dick you have been for the rest of the day."
"Oh I'm sorry," he answered sarcastically. "Did a couple of words hurt your feelings. Grow up."
"I don't care what you say about me, but ridiculing my village is the same as ridiculing my family," she fired back.
"Like I care about your village," He sneered. "Your people would try and attack me the second they saw my horn. Why should I give a damn about insulting them."
That one took Nadea back for a second. Nick once again wasn't wrong. As much as she loved her family and friends back home, there were definitely beliefs they held that she didn't. One of the main ones being that Faunus weren't allowed in the village. She also knew for a fact that some of the people were more rough with faunus merchants they robbed.
"Is that why you don't like me?" she asked genuinely hoping he would say no. "Nick, I'm not..."
"You're not like them?" Nick interrupted. "What reason do I have to believe that? Like you said, I'm an asshole, but I'm an asshole to everyone and quite frankly I don't care enough to change that when I can be doing more important things. But you. Your fine with everyone but me. Silvic and Clay are assholes yet you just ignore them but when I say something, you jump down my throat."
"Silvic and Clay aren't my teammates," she argued. "I don't give a shit what they say because I don't rely on them to back me up. I'm supposed to know that you have my back in a fight yet every time you see me it's like you would prefer to be the one stabbing it."
"Then I guess neither of us trust each other," Nick concluded and shouldered his way past her.
That statement hurt her more than any other argument they had ever had. It was one thing to know that someone you fought alongside didn't like you, it was another to know they didn't trust you. Despite what she had said about Nick, she knew that he never would. In fact that statement felt like the only thing Nick had said that was wrong. She did trust him.
She had found a receipt in the trash yesterday for three notepads, two grey and one purple. Nick was the only person on the team who used them frequently enough to need multiple so she immediately knew that the receipt was his. She also suspected that Nick was the one telling Silvic not to spar with Ella because the day after the party once they had left the room, Nick had hung back when normally he would have gone straight to the workshop.
Wrapped up in her thoughts, she barely noticed the she had arrive back at the dorms until she was greeted by her two other teammates. Camea seemed to be digging through her drawers and Ella was sat in the window with her legs hanging outside, a position Nadea had grown used to seeing her in.
"Hey jailbird, how was detention?" Ella asked as she allowed herself to fall back into a graceful cartwheel.
"Boring," she replied dully. "What are you guys doing?"
"Helpin' Camea pick her clothes for her date tomorrow," Ella giggled.
"She says that but so far she hasn't been much help," Camea said with her arms halfway in the drawer.
"I said you'd look great in the last one," Ella laughed.
"You said that about all of them," Camea replied with a small amount of desperation in her voice.
"That's 'cause all ya clothes are kinda the same."
"She has a point Cams, you look great in them though," She agreed. Ella stuck her arms up in victory and fell back onto her bed.
"Really?" Camea asked with a sigh.
Nadea nodded, causing the girl to breathed out and shut the drawer.
"Ya take her word but not mine," Ella faked insult.
"That's because your idea of nice clothes is probably short shorts and a t-shirt," Nadea pointed out, earning a chuckle from Camea.
"You can joke but they'd guarantee a second date."
"Must have really dated some princes if that's your logic," Nadea jabbed.
"Eww, who wants a prince," Ella scoffed. "Don't think I could date someone who treats me like a princess."
"There is always Nick," Camea suggested with a smile. "I don't think he would do that."
"Oum no," Ella shivered. "I want someone who can tell me to shut up when needed, not fuck off."
"Where is Nick anyway?" Camea asked.
"No idea, we had an argument and he walked off," She replied with a sigh and walked over to her bed to sit down. "Do you two think I'm racist against faunus?"
Silence filled the room as she watched Camea and Ella glance at each other. It was clear that neither of them wanted to go first. Finally, the silence seemed too much for Ella and she broke it.
"Well..." She paused. "I don't think you are, but you are a little ummm..."
"... Dismissive of others being so," Camea finished.
That confused her, she couldn't remember any time when she had dismissed someone being racist.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I mean you don't really seem to notice it happening," Camea clarified. "From what I've heard about Vale, faunus don't have too much trouble, but I know faunus are still treated pretty badly in most parts of Mistral. Even more so in Atlas."
"People in Vacuo don't really have problems with faunus," Ella cut in. "If ya can make a livin there then you're accepted. Regardless of race, gender or colour."
"Even here at Haven, Nick get called names and stuff," Camea continued. "You were talking to your friend Verdain last week at lunch and she commented on Nick being vegan as him not wanting to eat his family."
"I heard, but she was joking," Nadea tried to argue but both Camea and Ella shook their head. "She wasn't?"
"It wasn't the first time she made remarks like that and she's most certainly not the only one," Camea finished.
"But like we said, it's not you being racist," Ella said. "And I'll talk to Nick tonight, he's been getting on my nerves lately too."
Nadea nodded back. "Thank you." Nadea was grateful for their honesty. As her friends it would have been easier for them to just deny it.
The next few hours passed with them laughing and joking as they helped choose Camea's outfit. While none of them brought up the earlier conversation, Nadea kept it in the back of her mind. Mostly she thought back to her conversations with Verdain and found that looking back on them, she could easily pick out moments where the girl had been less than pleasant about Nick and other faunus.
Now that she was aware of it, she was determined to keep an eye out for it in the future. Not only because she prided herself on being observant and to overlook something so big made her uncomfortable, but also because it might help towards making the issues with Nick better. Something she was willing to work on even if he wasn't.
After they had finished picking out her partners outfit, she decided to take a shower. After a rather frustrating day, the idea of standing under the hot water and letting it wash away all her problems was a welcome one. It wasn't until she stepped out and began to dry herself off that she heard the bang of their dorm room door opening and Nick muffled voice came through the bathroom door.
Nadea reattached her prosthetic arm and pulled on a pair of loose jogging bottoms and a tank top before she left the bathroom to find Ella once again sitting in the open window talking to Nick who was laying on his bed.
"Look, I understand Nick, I do, but she's done nothin' wrong," Ella was saying as Nadea walked into the room. Ella looked at her as she came in and gave a weak smile. "Sorry, would ya mind givin' us a couple minutes?"
"Sure," she replied.
"Thanks, Camea went for dinner," she said purposefully. "We'll be down soon."
Nadea understood and left the room, making sure to grab her Scroll and her right gauntlet on the way out. She slipped the gloved gauntlet over her right arm and made he way down to the cafeteria, hoping that the conversation Ella was having with Nick would help. She had noticed that while it didn't look like it on the surface, the two of them got along rather well. Ella seemed to be the only person that Nick didn't insult constantly and he seemed much more tolerant to her poking him when he said something out of line. Admittedly there was still the occasional name calling when he was in a bad mood but for the most part they were rather close.
It didn't take her long to find her partner in the cafeteria. She was sat at one of tables closest to the doorway with two plates of food in front of her and talking to Correl, the leader of team Cassiopeia. Correl was one of the people she had come to like in her time at Haven. The ginger-haired girl was kind to everyone and seemed to exude an energy that almost always made atmosphere around her a happy one.
"Hey Nadea," The girl smiled as Nadea sat down. "Love the Pyjamas."
"Thanks," she smiled back.
"Correl was just asking about organizing a sparring match with us," Camea stated as she pushed a plate of lasagne towards her. Nadea accepted it and took a bite of the delicious food.
"Sounds fun," She replied after swallowing her mouthful. "Teams or pairs?"
"Pairs, team fights take too long for simple sparring," The other team leader answered. "So just us three and Sapphire."
Taking another bite of her food, she gave Camea a nod of agreement.
"We're free on Friday if you want?" Camea said.
"Absolutely," Correl got up and cracked her neck, the only habit that Nadea had ever come across that made her cringe. "Training room two at 12 o'clock."
"Looking forward to it," Nadea called after the girl that was skipping away. As she dug into her fork into the lasagne once again, her hand suddenly crushed the fork and seized up. "Dammit."
"Is everything okay?" Camea asked with a little concern in her voice.
"Yeah," She groaned. "Just didn't have a chance to sort it out before coming down."
With a sigh, Nadea removed the gloved gauntlet and prosthetic. She would rather have done the maintenance in their dorm away from prying eyes but since that wasn't possible at the time, she resigned to have to do it at the table. The only other option was to not have use of her right arm until she got back to the room.
Fortunately it didn't take too long to find the problem. It seemed one of the limiters that stopped her from gripping things too tightly had come loose and the sudden forced of her grip on the fork had caused a rod to pop out of place. Not able to fix the limiter till she got back to the dorm, she slipped the metal back into place and hoped it would stay put.
"I really need one of those arms from Atlas," She sighed and accepted another fork from Camea.
"I could talk to my mom," Camea offered kindly. "Quite a few people on the council owe her some favours and they are in regular contact with the Atlas council due to trades."
Nadea appreciated the offer but shook her head.
"Thanks Cams but I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway," She replied. Money was only part of the reason however. While she wasn't as against the council as Nick was, she was definitely not keen on asking for such a big favour from them.
"Well the offer stands."
The two of them continued to eat and engage in idle chitchat for a couple of minutes until Ella and Nick joined them at the table. Whether Ella had been successful in her goal she didn't know as Nick didn't say a word. However Ella simply smiled and asked Camea to come to the food counter with her.
Once the two of them left, and uncomfortable silence came over the table. Nadea was sure that Ella had led Camea away for a reason so she waited for Nick to break it. Sure enough, with an initial tut, he spoke.
"I acknowledge that my earlier comment was out of order," He grunted, not looking at her. "You've never been outright racist to me and it was unfair to say you were."
While not a proper apology, Nadea knew it was most Nick would be willing to give.
"It was, but Camea and Ella helped me see that I have been ignoring some of the stuff that's been said by friends of mine," Nadea said. As always, she was willing to accept her part in it. "While not my words, I apologise for any part I may have played in it."
Silence one again fell over the table as they processed each others apologies. It wasn't until Camea and Ella began to make their way back that Nick spoke again.
"I still don't like you, Bubblefuck," Nick sneered.
Usually that insult would have annoyed her; but in that moment, she found she appreciated it. Talking seriously to Nick was awkward and she knew that it was his attempt at dispelling the weirdness.
"Feelings mutual, Dickolas."
She knew this wasn't going to be the start of a great friendship she hoped it was the start of something more amicable. Wanting to further that, she took a leap.
"So you said you could improve the blades on my guns?"
Nick only laughed in response.
