Chapter 21: Chassé
Another chapter… And 666 favourites! The number of the devil! Oohhh! Spooky! More plot stuff in this chapter!
He looked at the clock on the wall, watching its arms slowly slide over the face of the clock, ticking down to the eventual end of the lesson. The unease with Yang had mostly disappeared now that they had made up, the memory of those large round mammaries pressing against his fingers still a thing that bounced in his mind. Sienna had summoned him today and he was not going to disappoint her in the slightest, as she was a strict taskmaster.
Pyrrha had been slightly more reluctant to let him go, citing that it might be best that he have some of her training, as they wielded a similar weapon, yet there was that duty that he felt towards Sienna. The woman was demanding, yet the results that he had already gotten from the training were paying dividends. He felt lighter on his feet, easier in his stride and was able to actually kill Grimm with greater ease, provided they weren't old enough to be smart to anticipate the motions, like some of the Ursa that occasionally were showing up when they had their field expeditions in the Emerald Forest. 'She's really something though…'
His partner had stuck to his side like it was something of a personal duty to make sure that he was alright, her fingers occasionally fiddling with his hair as she arranged it, her gaze drawn to his face for some reason. 'She can't like me like that, that's silly…' Yang's little fiasco of a relationship had made him more cynical, as he had enjoyed the conversation that he'd had with her, to see the real her… but it had also made him aware that girls his own age were stranger than those who were older.
'Sienna, Kali and Willow make sense. Willow just wants me for my body, Sienna is focused on repaying her debts and Kali is just… Blake's mom.' He wasn't going to say that he had featured them in his fantasies more than once, Sienna especially. Sienna had that little thing about her face that she did when she was feeling particularly exasperated with him that just brought those eyes out, that fierce glare that set him right on the point where he could anticipate anything, before it relaxed and she seemed to smooth out.
It had been something of a relief to see that she hadn't been mad, yet that strange expression on her face featured more than a few times. 'Nah… She couldn't be checking me out. It's just frustration with her job working…' The Faunus woman was driven for her cause, at the very least. Her way of handling things was efficient, with little issue for him and her.
"Ready to get beat up by pussy, Jaune?" Yang teased as she nudged his side, her cheeks a little flushed even as the bell indicated that class was over, the din of people starting to get up and ready to leave something that he knew was more than enough for him to cover.
"Don't call her that." He said, his voice moderated, even as Yang smiled at him, a tender look in her eyes that seemed to indicate that she was indeed taking that advice into consideration.
"Alright... So, fun-tiger's going to be slamming you against the mats. What's new with her, anyways?" The topic turned to something a little safer, training, and he wondered privately what they were going to be covering next. Perhaps something with a little bit more force than just the usual wooden weapons training?
"Last time we dealt with threats. She's lethal with her whip." He realized how it sounded when Yang gave a little coo, brushing against him, her bountiful assets pushed against him.
"Thanks for yesterday, by the way." Yang's softer voice whispered in his ear, even as she ringed her arm through his, pulling him closer to her.
"So... She's been whipping you into shape, eh? I guess it's time that we get you on some EXTRA HARD CARDIO tomorrow!" The exuberance in her nature outwardly was something that she had put on in order to hide her tendencies to be just like Ruby, a defence mechanism so that there would be no awkward questions.
"Oh no... Whatever will I do? Yang Xiao-Long is going to give me some extra hard cardio session, leaving me gasping and groaning." She turned a little red in the face as he threw the words back at her, making sure to give her a little pinch, her eyes looking down, even as she smiled faintly.
"Keep that up and I'm going to have serious problems with you and keeping my mitts off, Jaune." She spoke a little softer than a whisper, even as her arm released his own. "I'm going to break those legs of yours, buster! Yang Xiao-Long doesn't do things half-way!"
"You're still shorter than me, Yang." He said, the blonde grinning up at him, grabbing Blake suddenly in a head-lock. The Faunus girl looked at her partner with wild eyes, terrified eyes.
"Blakey likes me just the way I am, right Blakey?" The teasing tone of her voice was another quick save, even as Blake struggled to get loose.
"Let go, I don't want this, Yang, hey, stop it!" The Faunus in the headlock tried to struggle loose, Yang only increasing the grip. "Fine, fine! I like you just the way you are." The arm released her, as Yang beamed at him.
"See? My partner proves my point. Xiao-Long, Jaune." She winked at him, before her face remained the same and those eyes gave him the look.
"Well, she's in a chipper mood..." Pyrrha said, her voice sounding a little darker than the usual, her eyes watching Yang and Blake strut off like they usually did, his eyes lingering a little on Blake's behind, that fine ass having a bit of sway to it that her mother seemed to have gotten down to an art form. 'Her dad is really lucky with a wife like that.'
"Yeah. She's not that bad, Pyrrha... But she's a bit overzealous." The real Yang was less exuberant than the personality that she showed outwardly, yet he was not a person who would reveal the secrets that she had told him. He had some personal integrity, even though he found the blonde to be attractive.
"Overzealous or not... I don't like it." She said, her green eyes looking at him with a look that was guarded.
"You don't... want to take her up on her offer, do you?" She sounded unsure, as if she were debating what she would do if he did. 'If it's what Yang implied... I dunno? Do Ren and Nora put a sock on the door when they want to have sex?'
It hadn't really occurred to him that he should've set some ground rules for that type of stuff. Pyrrha was great as a partner, but to be interested in him romantically? Nah, he'd rather believe that there was some good-looking guy out there who'd take her by storm, who'd claim her heart and make her smile. Pyrrha had a great smile, it really lit up her face when she did so. He made her smile quite a bit, though he privately thought that she was humouring him with his lame jokes. "No, we broke up, so I am not going to be taking her up on any offer that involves a lack of clothing."
At least for now, he wouldn't. It was hard to say whether he would be so confident in saying such in half a year's time, but he was not ruling it out yet. Yang had a divide between her personal and her public self, so there was always the balancing act to maintain. 'Saphron always says that girls have two faces.'
He wondered what Sienna would think of it. He hadn't really talked to her since the day before, so it was something that he was a little curious about asking her what the proper way was.
He'd get to it eventually, Sienna wasn't that bad when you considered the fact that she was willing to help him out. It was an odd friendship of sorts, yet there were no feelings aside from minor irritation between them, as far as he knew.
Willow Schnee was a woman of means, looking at her reflection in the full-length mirror of the room that she'd booked at the hotel, now more of a permanent accommodation than the temporary one that it should've been. The long evening dress sat perfectly on her body, the lengthy dress covering the important bits whilst still giving a hint of style to the womanly curves that she possessed.
'Just perfect...' She mused, as she turned around for her Scroll, snapping a quick picture and then putting it into the messaging group, watching as it loaded, subtitling it with 'Preparing to take my daughter out for dinner'. It was something of a fancy of her to go and eat something lavish with Weiss, the alcoholic compliment to the food usually being good enough to meet her standards, her message box groaning under the weight of a few more messages that had been sent during the three hours that she had spent in preparation, the place already booked for her and Weiss to have their dinner.
A whole restaurant closing down thanks to her whim was no real issue to her or the world. The Schnee Dust Company basically paid top Lien during every engagement with the public, though she did not really desire to have any sort of incidents occur. The Schnee family was something of a celebrity existence, so she was able to ensure her own desires to be realized... save for one young man who triumphed against the lure that she had set out.
A single dining room would suffice, with personal chefs preparing the food whilst they watched. There would be no cause for alarm... but the bodyguards would do their duty just as they were paid to do. 'Nothing will go wrong... but it never hurts to be careful.'
She looked at her reflection in the mirror, the absence of makeup yet something that she should fix. The shower and the bath had been something of an indulgence, to make the alcoholic burn in her stomach a little less prevalent, the wine that she sipped being a great year, even though she was only half-tipsy by this point in time.
"You look ravishing, Willow." She said to herself, her reflection smirking right back at her. "Why thank you, I think so too." She was just having dinner with her daughter, hear of her woes… and then it was back to getting to be the irresponsible mother again that Weiss and Winter and Whitley thought so little of. The mother who lazed in the gardens, drinking the finest of wines and burdening the family with shame.
She painted her lips red, her expression in the mirror a little delicate as she made a puckering of the lips happen, adding a small dash more to the lips, testing it out for a moment before being satisfied with it. 'Perfect attire… Perfect poise. Perfect Schnee.'
"Ma'am, we are ready to depart. The route has been scouted beforehand and checked." The bodyguard said, even as she let her gaze rest on her reflection for a while longer, her lips pressed tightly together. 'Security measures.'
Her daughter would need to be picked up from the docks first, before they could meet at the restaurant. One Schnee alone was an easy target… Two would be an absolute buffet for any ruffian with a grudge. "Of course, just a moment." She sprinkled a dash of her perfume onto her skin, the Weiss Schnee brand one of her favourite scents, no doubt because it had a pleasant mixture of vanilla with a dash of lemon and iceberry through it, lending a pleasing smell to the nose of whoever was close.
Weiss would hardly know her preferences as far as it came to eating and preparing for such an event, as she had no real desire to mingle with her mother… her oldest daughter even less enthused by the prospect of spending time with her. 'Have I failed as a mother? Probably. Have I failed as a woman? Likely.'
She was not prone to rash decisions, unless she was able to make sure that she would incur no damages. Things were to be smoothed over, discussed and then appropriately bribed. Only with her... friend, Sienna, were things differently. The Faunus had little clue of what exactly went on inside the office of the High Leader, her frequent visits bringing with it a stack of paperwork and her bodyguards remaining mostly in close contact with her, the hashing out of an initial 'treaty' of sorts being made between her and Sienna privately, with only small notes being passed on to the secretaries of both sides.
The Schnee Dust Company and the White Fang were diametrically opposed to each other in ideology, the latter under her husband's management, whilst the White Fang was a typical organisation that championed Faunus rights. Some meeting in the middle may be a ground for some cooperation, possibly more acceptance of the Faunus... but they would have to hash such a thing out, which took time.
'Mantle wasn't built in a day... With my husband still satisfied with Sienna's small inches of progress and the woman's reputation for being a fierce fighter, nobody has clued in that we're actually getting drunk as friends.' It was a delicate game that would see Sienna labelled a traitor to the cause, yet those who were in the know on the personal affairs of the High Leader would not find it too odd, due to the similarity of their own statuses.
Sienna was a driven woman with a career in politics, desiring a young man who totally was in a different league than her, able to deliver biting wit and snarky commentary without batting an eye at it. She herself was a driven woman with a career in macroeconomic Dust sales, who wielded the power to ruin lives with a simple 'No', who desired a young man who could be her son, able to goad the opponent into making a mistake through sheer wit... 'Ooh, it wouldn't be so bad to have a bit of play... I wonder if that'll make him take up that offer.'
She still wanted to fuck him. He had something about him that was like a fresh piece of bloody meat hung in front of a starving pack of wolves, something that pulled her in and made her feel young again. The competition with Sienna for his graces was already stimulating her in her competitive side, taking the young man out for clothes shopping in order to find something a little more suitable for his wardrobe than the same sweater and hoodie combination.
"Ma'am?" The bodyguard came once more with his voice intruding in her thoughts, even as she made her eyelashes glow faintly with an accent, the small brush put away in its proper receptacle.
"Done. Get the car ready." The command was given and Willow Schnee was ready to get herself something to eat. Her stomach rumbled slightly, a reminder that she had barely eaten anything today yet. 'I'm going to get the biggest steak they've got.'
She got in the car nearly ten minutes later, her high heels pulled off the moment that she was in the car, allowing her feet some freedom, even as she pulled the cooler open, spotting the bottle that she'd had put there before they'd depart. It was a standard ritual, as she pulled out a glass and poured herself a glassful of the liquor, toasting to an unseen partner before tipping it back.
The nerves that she'd felt for a moment were calmed, as she took in that deep breath that she'd been holding, feeling the satedness of being somewhat free once more, her whole body tingling with that light sensation of airiness that came with meeting her beloved daughter.
She looked out of the tinted window, made from Dust and Bulletproof glass, her eyes spotting the neon signs of the buildings as they made their way through the traffic, her eyes catching sight of the happy couples that gathered there, her fingers tracing over her chin, even as she let her mind wander off slightly. 'Would it be a bad thing if I asked Jaune whether he'd...'
She was aware that her thoughts were going in an inappropriate direction, yet she could not stop herself. A challenge laid there, a challenge that did not know that he was one. She would have fucked him if she could, yet something stopped her, a sense of something that only seemed to heighten her whole mind's eye to the situation that had occurred.
"Ma'am?" The voice of the bodyguard came and distracted her once more. "Your daughter has been sighted, Jean-Armand is on his way." She supposed that it was a good thing that her bodyguards knew what they should do. Having to micromanage everything was a sure-fire way towards getting herself sent straight to the military academy... and she did NOT like men with less personality than a doorknob.
"Of course." She said, waiting politely, the glass in her hand still empty, as she realized that she'd only had one single glass. 'I must be getting old if I'm forgetting my fun.'
The door opened and her daughter entered, dressed in a simple white dress that accentuated her features, her weapon at her side, as she looked at her with eyes that held something that could be yearning inside them.
"Hello, mother." The formal tone was just something that irked her at this time, even as she sighed deeply.
"Good evening, Weiss." She said, her daughter's eyes widening slightly as the casual mention of 'good evening' brought her off her guard, even as Willow put the glass back where it belonged, along with the bottle, scooting over to her daughter and wrapping an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug.
Her daughter did not struggle against her, too taken aback by her actions, even as she could see the frown on her daughter's face, the makeup that she'd had done by someone of her team looking amateurish, to her own careful eyes... but that was neither here nor there.
"Give me a hug." She tried, her daughter's face as still as it could be.
"I would rather not, mother." Her heart froze slightly, even as she put the smile on her face. 'This is how you're going to play it...' She knew that her daughter was not a great fan of her, yet she had at least... hoped for a hug.
'I'm not... sad.' She was, but she did not want to think about it. Her eyes felt a little moist, yet she showed no tear, putting a smile on her face as she kept on that little bit of the facade. "So... Want a drink?"
"Mother, is it really the time for you to get even drunker? You will take one for yourself as well, you always do." Her daughter's reproachful tone was hard as she spoke with disdain, a glass already seized by Willow's hands. She was just to reach for the regular juices, as she knew her daughter did not like the taste of alcohol, stopping after a moment.
"Of course." She said, though she felt horrible on the inside, her hand passing the glass to her daughter, who gave her a look. "Some orange juice?" She asked, Weiss' eyes looking at her with a look that she knew well.
"That would be lovely, mother." There was no 'mama' or any sign of closeness between them now. She felt her heart tear just a little more, to know that their conspiratorial talk about boys had been a one-off, Weiss needing the advice of her for an instant.
She poured the glass silently, filling it up mostly, her eyes not looking at her daughter as she let her gaze rest on the carton of orange juice, filling her own used glass with it and downing it in a single gulp. 'One of the perks of liquid breakfasts...'
"I have ordered a private room at the Valean bistro, just for the two of us." Her daughter's face was conflicted, the restaurant being in good standing, even as Weiss seemed to be so distracted by her own worries, leaving her to feel bad about it.
"It's okay." She said, even as Willow leaned over, a little touch between the two of them occurring.
"Tell me about your boy." She said, hoping to forget a connection with her daughter through their shared joy of acquaintance, the look of her daughter's face turning red bringing her a small measure of peace, even as the girl's gaze slid down, her cheeks still flushed red.
"It's... not, not like that." Willow rolled the juice in the glass a little before taking a sip. 'This requires wisdom...'
"So, what IS it like?" She asked, voice as moderate as she made it. It was hard, as she knew her own personal feelings on the subject, yet did not voice them. A toy for the night... a young man who would make love to her, ignite the flames inside her again. 'I feel so alone...'
"He makes me laugh, even if he's being a dork. His... ex, has a habit of talking about him. I think she still likes him, even though they've made up. I caught him with his hands on her breasts and..." The girl trailed off, as she looked down at her not-as-impressive chest. 'Motherly advice...'
"You will grow. Look at Winter, she's grown quite a lot in that regard." Her oldest daughter had been flat as a washboard until she was fifteen-sixteen, until she'd gained a fine set. Idly she wondered how Winter would react to the thought of her making out with the young blonde, before that thought was shelved.
"I... I know, mother. It is hard to... You know." She swallowed. "look at him. I just... I see a dork, a boy who's not good at being a Huntsman... But then I just..." She paused, her cheeks flushed a deep red. "I just see him busy and I see his wee-wee make this big round bulge and..." The girl's gaze was nervous, even though she had busied language that Willow hadn't heard since the girl had been six or seven... '...'
"You can call it a penis. It is what it is." She did not add that she'd had a feel for it as well. 'Pretty sizeable. Not a bad choice. Bigger than my husband, at least.' Her daughter seemed uncomfortable even more than she was.
"And when Ruby asks for his attention, I've caught her checking herself in the mirror for a moment, looking as if she wants to make sure that she looks fine. Mother..." The girl was thawing, even as she seemed to vent her personal frustrations. "I don't want to be..."
"Why not show him the goods? Just enter his room, a thin nightgown on, sneak into bed with him and then give a slow rub up and down his body." It was advice that she would have given whilst still in her funk, advice that did not suit the girl in the slightest. 'Weiss needs to woman up and grow herself a pair of tits. If I was her age...'
If she was her youngest daughter's age, Jaune would be pressed up against a wall with her uvula getting very intimate with his glans in some secluded place, maybe a park or something.
"But..." Her daughter said, even as she placed a finger on her daughter's lips.
"Men aren't that smart, sweetheart." Her husband aside, of course. The man was smart in the art of finance and in ruining lives, yet there was little love lost between them. "Sometimes, a Schnee should just be bold." Weiss frowned, leaning forward and then sniffing loudly.
"You're drunk again." Willow felt her heart clench at those words. "I knew I should have asked Winter about this..."
She turned her head away from her daughter, as the tears came. She craved the touch of something solid, something manly to hold her, even as the words cut deep, as her attempt at inspiring her daughter had failed, having shamed herself once more.
She made sure that her breathing did not show any anomalies, as the tears came heavily, the realisation that she had never gained the trust of her daughter aside of some rare instances where emotions dictated things over logic. She looked like a mess in her reflection, yet her makeup was done right. She wouldn't make a mess. She brushed the back of her hand over her cheeks, erasing the evidence of her emotional oversight.
"Sometimes..." Her voice was the perfectly calm voice that she had when drunk, even though the torrent of emotions inside her continued. "Sometimes you will need to make a choice. Go for something, or watch someone else snatch what you want away."
'Sienna, dear...' Her heart ached, as the urge to be held, to be cherished... to be loved and to give herself up fully, was overpowering her. She could feel the heart beat a little faster, even as her expression changed. 'I'm afraid that this is no longer going to be just... fun.'
"What do you know?" Her daughter's response came to her words, as she had repeated the advice.
"Enough." She said, as she felt so terribly alone right now. She had the urge to grab her Scroll and... give him a call, to hear his voice and to feel... to feel a little less empty on the inside.
She went for the hard liquor, the rest of her orange juice downed in one gulp, pouring the glass dangerously full and then, without a care for the taste, just downing it. Her daughter had already tuned her out, a look of indifference on her face, as she tapped on her Scroll, the sound of her swallowing enough... and she still had to survive dinner with the young woman.
'I don't want to know my life anymore.' What use was a woman her age if she was unloved by anyone, with too much Lien in her bank account to ever spend, who would wish for something real, something physical.
'I just want to be loved.' Weiss did not notice that she shrank in on herself, the heavy emotions warring inside her.
Sienna's eyes watched the young man with a careful expression on her face, watching with perfect judgment whether he would have the ability to block the strikes, the wooden shield that he had in his hands enough to block the chain whip from penetrating, even as she flicked it at him, the head clicking, as it impacted against the wood, jerked loose. "Sloppy." She said, her voice like a drill instructor.
She caught sight of the young man cowering behind the shield, a solid strategy, yet her whip was in motion again, as she tried to pull the whip out of the shield. "You're going to get your ass sent straight to the hospital again, human." Her voice was not kind, as the whip twisted through the air, his shield blocking the swipe with an effort, the whip as comfortable a weapon for her as it could be, the air laden with the scent of something, even as she realized that he was making an effort for her. 'At least he is worth it...'
It had not been long since she had been able to deal with his presence. As he stood there, his eyes holding that growing confidence, she let them linger just a little bit longer on his form, her stance still in the easiest for assault, her tongue sliding over her lips, her gaze held for a while longer. "Go ahead."
"Yah!" He charged, shield-first, her body moving immediately in an evasive maneouver, twisting around and sweeping his legs from underneath him, her elbow slamming right into his gut even before he'd landed on the floor, her breathing not even heavy, even as he struggled with his breath, his eyes looking up at him.
He looked delightfully sweaty and sticky, like a man who she had just gotten her hands on... and then she smelled something different. "Get yourself clean, boy." Her mood shifted entirely as she watched him get up. "It's been three hours, it's getting late. You'd best go back to Beacon. I've got no more time for you."
She watched him leave, her ears twitching lightly as she heard the steps, her chain whirling out and wrapping around something, a savage twist and a soft 'eep!' sound coming, as she turned to see a green-haired young woman land on the floor. "May I know what you are doing here, human?"
The girl's eyes were red, she could say, even as she tried to work on the chain, trying to loosen it, a jolt sent through the metal, the shock enough to make the flesh numb on good times... She'd not made sure that it was set to the safer setting, so the girl managed to give a grunt and a groan.
"Cinder sent me to... Ah..." 'Fall...' The woman had left a bad taste in her mouth upon the first meeting, even with the nebulous happenings that were occurring. Of course it would be some spy sent by Fall, to check out whether her interaction with the boy was going as planned.
"Follow me to my office." She said, her voice directing the girl to get up, the chain loosening with another twist of the button, the gravity Dust repelling the chain from the girl's leg. "We need to have some words then." She was not going to be a bother about things that involved Fall, even as the girl sent a look back at the showers, Sienna having little patience.
"Whatever trick you were using to block our eyes from seeing you... Use it again." The girl would follow along. Sienna had a perfect blip on the girl's motions, so whatever she tried... 'Scent is one of the things that humans always forget we have the advantage in.'
The office was empty, yet her paranoia automatically filled in the spots where camera's could be put up. Her check of the office in the morning had found nothing, yet she made a personal thought to have them check the wiring either way. 'When messing with the Khan, you're going to get a whole load of trouble.' "Speak." She said.
"Cinder wanted to know a quick progress report on that which was spoken of earlier." The message did not say exactly what was required, yet Sienna could guess at the contents of the conversation, well enough that it was like that right as of this moment.
"Since the... horrid event at the docks, there has been a pushback against our movements. I am afraid that there are too many issues right now in order to properly deal with the request from Miss Fall." She kept it general, as if she was too busy. Technically, she WAS, but her secretary was able to handle a lot of the simple filing enough for her to keep busy.
"I am sure that your mistress knows well the issues when dealing with humans for one of my kind, yes? It is not as easy in this age of 'equality' to find a stable force to properly... prepare." The words were veiled, the word 'equality' dripping with sarcasm, her eyes looking at the red-eyed girl's face, seeing her gaze indecisive.
"What... What of the blonde human guy?" The girl asked, Sienna having a sneaking suspicion that she hadn't been prompted to ask about him from her Mistress' command. 'Feh.'
"Did you not observe us?" She said. She was glad that she chose to personally keep her private feelings and her public persona strictly separated, showing nothing but the Leader that the White Fang needed.
"I did... But..." The girl seemed to look away. "You were kind of harsh on him." Sienna grinned at that. 'Pity for the blonde...'
She craved excellence. She craved control. She craved the respect that she was due as a woman, as a Faunus. She craved... things that were not best mentioned to anyone else save herself. She had entertained thoughts, horridly wicked thoughts that would have let teenage Sienna blush red like Adam's hair.
"Was your mistress not harsh on you? I owe the boy. He has managed to let us avoid a PR disaster and I am NOT ungrateful to those who know the proper way to respect the Faunus." Jaune often looked a little terrified when she trained him, undoubtedly due to her attack pattern, unpredictable and thus, not easy to spot for him. Her eyes bored into the red-eyed girl, as she licked over her lips.
"N-no, but..." Sienna's eyes narrowed. "She's not as harsh to us as you are to him." The admission to her was private, yet Sienna cared not one whit for it.
"Harshness aside... Stay out of it. The human gets what he deserves." Her voice was implacable and resolute, her eyes bringing with it that message that told the girl just where exactly the thoughts were heading within the tiger Faunus' mind, as she looked at the girl carefully.
"Al... alright. I'll just leave you be and inform Cinder." The words were enough for Sienna to realize that the woman had more pawns under her control than she had thought.
'Now... where is my...' The girl made for the door and her chain whip lashed out, wrapping around that neck. "Give it back." She hissed, the girl's face turning red as the chain whip sparked, the girl dragged back, even as something shone in her hand.
A memento of the time where she had still been one of the new members of the high command of the White Fang, a single silver minted coin with the White Fang emblem on it. It had mostly sentimental value yet it was worth a pretty penny on the illegal circuit, especially now that she had been the High Leader for a while. 'I better tuck this somewhere safe.'
The girl handed the coin back, the empty socket from which it had been pried filled up once more. "Try that again and they'll never find your body." It was a threat that she took seriously... and the girl was intimidated enough. If you knew the White Fang and you knew Sienna Khan, you knew that if she wanted you dead, there would be a howling mob of Faunus outside your door ready to tear you to shreds.
"A-alright. So... I'll leave." There was no confidence in the girl's stance anymore, as Sienna knew that she had beaten the girl, disturbing her stance by snagging her during her observation and the second, when she had seen that the girl had snatched the prized memento. ´I better do another check...'
She was not going to store the good stuff in her office anymore, she decided.
It was ten minutes later that she realized that she had left Jaune in the showers, without properly seeing him out. It would not be proper for the young man to find his own way out and come across some of the shadier members of the White Fang, after all.
She had standards to maintain for her people.
She looked at her daughter, the steak in front of her seasoned perfectly by the chef, the smell of the food delightful, yet her daughter's appearance not even making her twitch, the morose expression hidden with a careful manner. 'You should DO something, Willow. Say something.'
"The food is good, isn't it?" She said, the conversational topic bland and useless to them, yet she was not going to give up on communicating with her daughter, Weiss' face showing clearly that she was not as willing to share comments with her mother anymore, after the weakness that she had shown in the car.
"It is suitable, mother." The tone of her voice was distant, cool... just like how her son referred to her, when he thought she would not hear. Her oldest daughter occasionally called her Mama, yet that was only sparsely, when she was not as drunk as she appeared to be and Winter was charitable. 'My family is a mess...'
The hopes of her heart for some reconciliation were dashed, even with the hurdle of communicating with her youngest daughter between her. "Good."
'What do I say? If it was Sienna, I could be as blunt about it as possible, ask her what crawled up into her ass and laid eggs...' Her daughter was special. She was the one who had been the heir for the Schnee Dust Company after Winter had decided to run towards the Academy to become a Huntress and eventually a specialist, Weiss remaining and... not being treated as well as she had been. 'I was a mess...'
She cut into the steak some more, her thoughts ruminating on the efforts of the past month, straying towards the blonde young man once more, even as her hand moved the fork, pricking the meat and bringing it to her mouth, taking a slow bite of the flesh. 'It tastes good... But my stomach is a mess.'
Not eating a single thing made the food that DID enter her stomach ache, her eyes looking at the half-way drained glass of red wine that she had requested, Weiss picking a non-alcoholic beverage, seemingly to make a point. 'Jaune...'
She wished that he was here. That he would sit at her side at the table, that she would be able to touch him, to see him smile. Her heart pumped a little faster at the thought, even as she wondered how it would be to have… selected otherwise.
'They would have a father. A young man who cared for their mother.' It was not adultery if the marriage had failed ever since the first assumption of the spot of CEO, Jacques Schnee being the ultimate climber in the social aspect. 'I'm… I'm thinking about it and considering it.'
It was a dangerous line of thought. A very dangerous line of thought, one which led to financial ruin… yet she could not help herself. Her hand grabbed the glass of wine, raising it once more to her lips, sipping it, even as she exhaled sharply, condensation making the glass fog up a little as her hot breath basked the insides in warmth, the rich red wine sliding down her throat. 'He could be your son. You could…'
Her body reacted. Sinful, horribly sensual thoughts arose, as she realized that… things could change. Money was everything in this world. She had the financial power of a BULWARK of the industry behind her. She rubbed her thighs together, a complicated expression on her face. 'You would be stealing him from your daughter…' She gave Weiss a look, the girl busy with the stir fried shrimp salad, delicately eating it, like the princess that she nearly was.
She could SEE her daughter's face twisted in lust as she moaned below the taller young man, her whole body heating up like it had gone mad, as she realized that he had a good shot at actually becoming her son in law. It would be… fortunate, if he were to get with her daughter…
Yet the selfish part of herself told her that she wanted him for herself. She wanted to be the one who was held, the one who felt that young man erupt with a passion inside and who would be able to run her fingers through his hair as she lavished kisses onto his skin, who would be able to feel his warmth through the nights that had been lonely once upon a while.
The glass shattered in her fingers, leaving her to hold only the stem, a surprised look on her face, as she hadn't realized that she had been squeezing it that hard. "Ah… That's unfortunate."
A waiter came with a towel, allowing herself to clean up a little, the dress already ruined, as the man profusely apologized, the glass perhaps having had a weakness, perhaps some unseen flaw, even as she brushed the towel over her dress. 'At least Weiss looks surprised.'
Her daughter was looking at her, concern within those eyes at the sudden action, Willow's eyes catching sight of her fingers bleeding. "I would appreciate it if you could bring me a plaster or somesuch. I seem to have cut my fingers. It is no fault of yours… I must not know my strength."
The words were as much defusing as well as the gentle request for a fix, the look on her daughter's face still concerned, even as she smiled at her daughter. "At least the food hasn't been soaked in wine. You know… I quite like coq au vin." The Valean stew was something that she'd had years before, during a business lunch with a traditionalist entrepreneur. The wine had been good too, pulled from the private stock of the man.
"Mother…" She sighed, even as Willow cut another piece with her bandaged fingers holding the knife awkwardly, as a fresh glass of wine arrived. 'Who cares about a little stain? She is at least talking to me.' The hopes that she had right now, were getting higher.
"So… What are you going to do?" She asked, Weiss looking at her with that same angry look.
"Nothing, he's… He's probably not interested in me. I've got to compete against Yang… and Ruby is making eyes at him too. She claims she's just looking out for her best male friend but…" She wished that she could hug her daughter.
"Make a move." She said, Weiss looking at her, about to say something but then… then she looked a little less certain. "You've been raised to be the best at what you do. Seize the opportunity and strike whilst the Dust deposit is full."
"Mother, I…" She sighed, as she glanced at her for the longest of whiles, her plate given a glance, then to her once more. "Forget it. Winter has more experience in that field than you do. You married father young."
'That doesn't mean that I didn't do stuff with boys! How can you…' It was a sign of how far she had sunk. Her daughter didn't seem receptive to the lesson that she was trying to teach, either due to shyness or due to inferiority. ´It's not in the tits where a man seeks his solace… It's in being the one to claim his attention and take it.'
On the trip back, it was a silent Weiss who sat next to her, not even willing to talk, her face complicated as she looked out of the window. The mother felt uncertain around her daughter, knowing that there was a conundrum for her to puzzle about... something that could go wrong and yet... not wrong. 'This is a mess. Sienna likes the boy, I like the boy, a whole pack of teenage Huntresses like the boy...'
"Good night, Weiss." She said, as she tried to lean in for a good night kiss to her daughter, only to feel her daughter's hand against her chest.
"No." Came the answer and her daughter got up, opening the car door and then stepping out, the door slamming shut behind her, leaving Willow awkwardly leaning forward.
"Ma'am? To the hotel?" The voice of the bodyguard reached her ears, and she gave a soft nod of her head.
"Yes, please." She said, even as her world came crashing down. "I need to make a call. Please... please give me privacy."
As the shades worked to obscure her and the noise-canceller worked to shield her from outside ears, Willow Schnee's head went down, hands seizing her face as tears came, heart-wrenching sobs coming from her mouth as she realized that she had lost whatever tie that bound her to her daughter.
It did not stop easily, as the tears kept on coming, her emotions going haywire, as her own daughter had denied her the chance to give a good night's kiss... had not even said goodbye to her own mother.
'No...'
He shrugged off his clothing, stepping under the shower. Sienna had been brutal in her training, his stomach hurting just a little from where her elbow had delivered a hard blow to it, her eyes having been fierce and unforgiving in their sharpness, her posture looking like she was just about to beat him senseless... Yet she had restrained herself.
She had taught him important things through doing them with him, with an eagerness that seemed to be more than just a little thought on the subject... and her clothing was tight and form-fitting, the top that she wore fitting her well, whilst her toned legs really showed through the leggings.
His hand reached for the shampoo, rubbing it into his skin, the smell of the shampoo good enough to wash away some of the worries of his mind, even with his hands working the shampoo into his hair, the hot spray of water battering his body with cleansing water.
He could hear the door open up, the tread of feet a little lighter than a man's showing that it was a woman, the faint shut of the door and the soft exhale that definitely was feminine appearing to come from Sienna, though the tone was a little deeper. "I'll be right out, so you can take a shower."
The woman must've paused for a moment, getting her shoes off or something, as he could hear the rustling of clothing, a jacket of some sort hung up, even as he heard the faint click of a belt buckle being undone. 'Did she wear a belt?'
He rinsed the shampoo from his scalp, the water clean enough, groping outside of the shower section for the towel, finding nothing. A giggle, a little richer than Sienna's, sounded, and he felt the towel be handed to him, the giggle's tone barely registering. "This isn't funny, Miss Khan." He rubbed the skin dry, before wrapping the towel around his waist.
As he emerged from the warmth of the shower area, he caught sight of red hair, a set of amused blue eyes looking into his own. "Good evening, Mister Arc." A set of horns grew from the hair, the face definitely familiar, even as he was grabbed.'Adam?'
Hands pressed him against the damp shower wall, his utterance of "Adam, what in th-" smothered by the fact that one of those hands had just torn the towel off, throwing it to the side, his gaze following the motion where that hand had been and then realizing that there was a VERY nice set of breasts that bounced lightly with every breath that 'Adam' made, a set of blue eyes looking into his own. The lack of a burn scar over one of the eyes was definitely something that clued him in that this wasn't just... regular old Adam.
"My..." The Adam with Double D's lookalike said, as her hand reached out and seized a hold of his lower sword, a faint brush of fingers giving a tug. "The name's not Adam, hunky boy..."
Her lips pressed ever so gently against his own in a kiss. 'Does this make me gay, when I'm kissing some sort of hot version of Adam?' He hoped that it did not. Adam was a nice guy, but kissing him... Yeah.
"Call me Eve. Eve Taurus."
The woman smirked, showing teeth. It was a very Adam-like smirk. 'I either went into an alternate universe where Adam is a hot chick, or he's not told me that he has a sister.'
Oh yes. Adam has a sister. They don't exactly see eye to eye. (Pun not intended, but I heard Red Bull gives you wings.) More history on Evelyn 'Eve' Taurus... yeah, sometime when she's hitting up Sienna.
She's not someone who Adam likes to speak of, though they were members of the White Fang together. Willow though... she's in a very bad spot, mentally.
Next chapter in 2 weeks. Leave a review! Things are afoot!