Chapter 12: "Like coke to gold"

"So then what?" Weiss urged, watching as the boy shook his head, before taking a large drink of the punch.

"Sure was sour." He complained, referring to the punch, before refilling his cup, recollecting what happened, he talked a bit, before taking another large gulp of the lemonade.

Before picking up where he left off, he explained that he was in school while his cousin ran errands for the royal family, so he didn't find out until after his family was ran out of town.

"Find out what?!" Weiss seemed to plead.

"Benson, poisoned our King and Queen." He sighed, before correcting himself. The apple was a lie, the stall vendor was a phony who had wanted to poison everyone in our nation's capitol, by spreading a powerful virus throughout it's unsuspecting people, before attacking it, but his plans changed, after he spoke to Benson. He took the virus straight to the King and Queen's doorstep. The two rulers ate the apple, then fell ill later that day. The medical staff traced it back to the servants, asking if they were experimenting with any new recipes, or ingredients, but the only thing they could come up with was the bags of apples and Benson. It didn't take them long to find out that they weren't what the vendor claimed them to be. In the royal court, held by the late King's brother Midas, the third, Benson and his family were sentenced to death, whereas the rest of their family, were banished. The Carriette family took up residence in Vale, some time afterwards.

"So that's how The Sapphire Kingdom fell?" She gasped, never knowing that he was once considered royalty. "Why didn't Benson tell them about the salesman?" She wondered, convinced that would have cleared his name.

"The authorities couldn't find the man anywhere, nobody in town recalled seeing the oddly dressed bastard, even though Benson provided a description, it didn't help, he was just some foreigner." He explained, feeling sadder than he usually did.

"What'd he look like?" She wondered watching him finish another cup of the lemonade.

Coincidentally, the man's description and taste in clothes matched Roman's, to a tee. Jude, without batting an eye, demanded that their teams must band together to find and kill Roman for spreading the horrible virus that eventually destroyed his homeland, as well as many of his friends and family.

"Okay, so we're lookin for the same guy. Now we've juss' gotta figure out where-the-hell he is!" He roared, speech slurring.

"Y-yea...yeah! That's w-whut I wuz meaning to tell ya about!" She remembered, speech beginning to slur. "Ima need to ask of a fa...a faver." She stated, mispronouncing favor. "My company...erm, father's company, needed to have som sortta escort ta' guard some dust, while it's bein' transported, cuz that Roman asshole is always getting the White fang to cause shit for our people...s'we need some sortta body guards." She explained, becoming noticeably drunker with every sip. Drunkenly, he said that he was up to the challenge.

"Ima find that sumbitch f-for you, not just for me or my family and friends...cuz I hafta tell you something, it's important, okay?" He asked, after vowing to defeat Roman.

"Sure wusup?" She answered, tripping over nothing, and using the boy to keep from falling on the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She apologized, trying to stand in the heels while holding onto him for balance.

"No, juss lissen..." He urged, holding onto her, gently. "I'm doin' this ta' prove I love you, cuz it juss ain't enough ta say it, ya know?" He asked, holding both of her hands while looking her in the eyes. "I do this for you, cuz I love you." He demanded, before they kissed one another.

Ruby and Lee were drunk, before they seen each other, but after they did, they heard a song that they both liked.

"Lee, you wanna dance?" She asked, pulling him to the dance floor, without, waiting for his answer.

"Fuck it, ya know how?" He quizzed, holding her hands while she looked at her feet, as if searching for some sort of confidence, before answering yes.

Elsewhere among the crowd of drunken, wobbling students, swaying left and right where they stood, as opposed to dancing, Neil had more than enough lemonade to keep him feeling good for a good, long time.

Tighten up, by The Black Keyes played from the plentiful speakers. The beginning tune, along with the alcohol made Neil want to dance, so him and Blake made a drunken dash to the dancefloor, after the conclusion of the song, a different song came on, however unlike the previous band, Blake and Neil couldn't stand this one, so they returned to their seats.

"I didn't know ya were able t'dance like that." Blake admitted surprised.

"Yeah, me either." He admitted, before they both burst into laughter. "...hey, I hafta tell you: I'm sorry for being a total prick, earlier." He admitted, once more, laying on his back with his head resting on her lap, while they sat on the patio, looking at the golden moon.

"Ah, don worry bout it, besides we both said our apologies, what's left ta say?" She asked, rhetorically, while playing with his bangs. "I'm juss glad that everythin has settled down." She decided with a smile.

"Not ta be negative, but I'm sure that, while we sit here exchangin pleasantries, somethin is happenin, or gettin ready to, and whatever happens is gonna put us through some hard times." He guessed, looking on the dreary side of it all, as per usual.

"Well I guess we'll just hafta make pleasant memories that we could look back on to put our minds at ease whenever we face those hardships." Blake suggested, moving his bangs from over his mask, before removing it, exposing the eye patch. "How's the...thing?" She worried, gently touching the eye patch.

"It's okay now." He admitted, silently.

Tilting her ears to show sadness or worry, she reminded. "Ya know ya gotta be more careful than that!" After they kissed, he told her he was glad that she cared.

"I have an idea." He decided, before whispering something in her ear, making her giggle and blush.

While everyone else danced, and partied, Blake led Neil back to his team's dorm, after he locked them in, they had a few more drinks of the spiked lemonade. It was so much lemonade that both had difficulties getting undressed. They had consumed so much alcohol, that by the time they reached their underwear, they passed out. Blake lie on the foot of the bed, in her black and grey skivvies, while Neil slept on the floor, at the edge of the room, dressed in his black and blue skivvies.

At some point they repositioned themselves. Neil had a death grip on his pillow, probably mistaking it for Blake, while the girl wrapped herself in his covers so that only the toes of her left foot could be seen poking out of the lump of covers. Awaking the next morning, Neil moved his pillow away, before noticing Blake's head poking out from the bundle of covers.

"Oh fuck." He gulped, knowing they had school the day after the Halloween party. "We're so screwed!" He thought to himself, pained by how stupid he was, and by his eye that seemed to pulse with a stinging pain. The boy tried to shake her so she could wake up, but to no avail. "Damn it!" He cursed turning on the lights, television, and radio, hoping to cause her to stir, but even that had no effect. Feeling flustered, he got on the bed and shook her with all of his might.

"Whaaat?" She grumbled, digging her arms out of the covers to shoe whoever was trying to wake her away.

"Blake, wake up we slept in!" He explained, ceasing his shaking.

"I don't wanna go to school, the human kids make fun of me and pull my ears." She complained, thinking she was still a child, begging her parents not to send her to school.

Waiting a minute he thought to himself, "Well that's rather depressing". Eventually she opened her eyes, looking around for her parents, only to find Neil, sitting by her side.

"What're you doing in my room?" She wondered, making sure she was covered up. "Oh...did we?" She began to ask, waiting intently for her answer.

"No, we didn't, but we did sleep in the same bed, and that's a start." He tried to joke, but Blake was not amused. Turning around, he gave her privacy while she got dressed. "Sooo..." He said, being at a loss for words. Cutting him off she expressed her anger at herself for doing what she did, though they only kissed, before and after they entered the room.

"If we're caught..." Her voice trailed off, as she slid on her costume.

"...we're gonna be in deep shit, I know...and that goes double for me." He worried, finishing her sentence, knowing that this would probably get him tossed out, thought he would have one strike left.

"In this situation, they'll probably label me a whore. You'll just get high-fives from your 'buddies', for something you DID!" She explained, sure she was going to be the victim of horrible rumors, much like Neil's sister.

Laughing he explained Ozpin's warning, after his team's battle with Clayton's. "After I treated him so bad, after my victory, Ozpin initiated, what him and I know as 'Three strike rule'. I'm pretty sure he'll skip strike two, for this."

"How could this happen?" She sighed, before remembering their iPad-like device. She used it to tell her friends to enter Nigel's room and bring her clothes. The plan worked, and everyone got their clothes, even Neil's team was able to get dressed. (Alice included)

"What a day." Sighed Yang, sitting at the table with Weiss, Jude, and Ruby. There was a moment in which everyone, fell silent, looking at Blake and Neil.

"Helluva way to get cockblocked, brother." Mocks Alice, opening a soda, while their friends laughed.

"Don't y'all have somewhere to be, dammit?" Asked Neil, shoeing them away like flies and hinting that they had class.

Watching them leave, Blake shut the two of them in the room.

"Answer honestly." She demands, making him back away from the door. "Did we really 'do anything'?" Questioned Blake, who simply walked closer to him.

"No, you were too drunk, so I left you alone. After I covered you, I got undressed, and passed out, before I could climb to Jude's bunk." He swore,holding his arms for a hug. Blake remembered seeing a bruise on his right shoulder. He acquired the bluish lump by falling off of the small ladder leading up to his friend's bunk, which would explain why he was at the foot of the bed when he awoke, later that night.

Remembering feeling a cover over her, before she cocooned herself in it, she admitted, "I believe you" as she embraced him, happily.