So, this is functionally the first time in a long, long time that I wrote a character dedicated to letting the characters relax, and so I really want your honest opinions on this one. Even if you normally don't say anything, it'd be appreciated, as I'm getting ready to do another story that's lighter.
- X Chandra X-
"Should we get the kids?" Chandra asked.
"No," Gideon said, reaching down to grab the half inch shard of metal and examine it. Red.
"Like, what the crap happened while we were gone?
"I don't know," Gideon repeated, annoyance leaking into his voice. He had been gone for a while too.
"Sorry, sorry," Chandra said, raising her hands.
"It's fine," Gideon said, "I'm just… I'm worried. Where's Liliana? Where's Jace? ...Who's here?"
Gideon stood up, tensing as he stepped towards the door with his sural curving back. Looking back to see Chandra's hair ignite, Nissa draw her sword and Ajani ready his axe as Dack carefully balanced the pithos holding Elspeth's soul on a window and draw his dagger, Gideon threw open the door.
And blinked as a button up shirt flew into his face, an indignant yell coming from the room, "Varian!"
"Who?" Gideon asked, reaching up to grab the shirt, only for Chandra (he could tell from the heat) to wheel him around.
"Trust me, Gids," Chandra said, "It's only gonna get more awkward if you look behind there."
"Mr. Jura!" Gideon held the shirt backward, feeling it get snagged off his hand and waited for Chandra to give him a pat and a nod to turn around towards Winter Schnee, whose clothes were distinctly messed up, as if she had pulled them on in a hurry, "I'm sorry, I had just finished bathing-"
"What are you doing here?" Gideon said, confused.
"I've been watching the place while you were gone," Winter said.
"Whose… uh… Varian?"
"Varian?" Winter asked, "Your newest… ah… ward?"
"Wh- oh!" Gideon nodded, "Right. Thanks."
"What's going on?" Gideon turned, staring at the boy with bags under his eyes and clutching a sword, "Who are you?"
"Varian," Winter said, "It's fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Ok," Varian nodded, "Ok."
- X Sun X-
"I'm telling you," Sun said as the new three way relationship sat around the table of a restaurant eating Mistralan food as a tv played behind him, "We should take a vacation to another plane soon. We have literal superpowers, and instead we're always using it to do boring stuff!"
"Being responsible," Blake said dryly, "Oh, the humanity."
"Hey," Sun said, pointing his chopsticks at Blake with as much menace as possible, ruined by the grin on his face, "We're kids, we shouldn't have to be responsible all the time."
Ruby laughed softly around a small roll of dough covered in sugar, "He has a point. I've never been to a Plane for a vacation before."
"I'm not saying it's a bad idea," Blake started, "I'm just saying his way of saying it is a bit- wait, what?"
Blake had stopped, jaw falling open as Sun turned towards the tv, eyebrows jumping up as he read the captions underneath it, Ghira Belladonna, former leader of the White Fang, is traveling to Vale in the wake of last week's attack on Patch.
"There was an attack on Patch?" Sun asked, sharing a bewildered look with Ruby and Blake as a waitress nearby snorted a laugh.
"Don't pay attention to the news much?" she asked, "It's all anyone's been talking about."
"We've been away from anywhere to see the news," Sun said, "What happened?"
"Group of those terrorists attacked some rich woman's house because Winter Schnee was there," she said as Sun's stomach dropped.
"Did they say her name?"
"Yeah, it was a weird one," she said, "Morado! What was the name of the woman that owned the house in Patch?"
"Uh," the man standing at the desk said, blinking, "Lil something? I don't-"
"Liliana?" Sun said, aware of Blake pulling out her Scroll and Ruby fumbling with her wallet, "Liliana Vess?"
"Yeah!" Morado said with a nod, "That's the one! How did you-?"
"We live with her," Sun breathed as Ruby hurriedly pushed a hand full of Lien into the waitress's hand and Blake walked out of the restaurant with her scroll next to her ear.
"Shit," Morado said, "Really?"
"Morado!"
"It's fine," he said, "and your friend is fine too, she had to go to the hospital, but she's recovering now."
So in other words, if Blake couldn't talk Lili down, the White Fang wasn't long for this world.
"Come on," Ruby said, snagging Sun's arm and dragging him after their girlfriend.
"Hey, wait! This is way too much!"
"Keep the change!" Sun called, stepping out of the restaurant to find Blake waiting for them with a serious look on her face.
"Ilia's gonna meet us at Mountain Glenn Memorial," Blake said.
"The park or the Hospital?" Sun asked.
"Does it matter?" Ruby asked, "One is outside the other."
"Good point," Sun nodded.
- X Ilia X-
Ilia sat on the picnic table, staring at the scroll with blank eyes. Finally, Blake, Sun and Ruby sat down across from her and she dropped it, focusing on them, "Hi."
"Hey," Sun said with a nod and a smile, "How's things going?"
"Not good," Ilia said, "Adam's on a warpath."
"What happened?" Blake asked, "The White Fang attacked Liliana? Why?"
"Adam," Ilia said, "He did it without telling anyone but the team he brought."
"But why?"
"Don't take this the wrong way," Ilia said, carefully, "but because of you, Blake."
"What?" Ruby said.
"Adam's obsessed with you," Ilia explained, "He's been in love with you since before you left Menagerie."
"In love?" Blake said, "In love? How does 'in love' translate to him attacking my house?"
"You left us," Ilia said, "You began living with humans and training to be a Huntress-"
"So?" Blake asked.
"-So Adam feels like you don't care about us anymore," Ilia said, a spike of annoyance at being interrupted rising up.
"So he's an entitled jackass," Sun summarized, "He thinks that because he has a thing for Blake and she doesn't return it, he's allowed to attack her friends."
"Pretty much," Ilia said.
"Yeah," Sun said, drawing a shotgun, "C'mon, Rubes, we got an asshole to shoot."
"Sun!" Blake rebuked.
"What? He broke into our house, tried to kill our friend and- oh, son of a bitch!"
"What?" Ruby asked.
"I brought Varian to the house," Sun said.
"Crap," Ruby said.
"Who?" Blake asked as she stood up.
"New guy," Sun said, "Ilia, you mind coming to Patch with us? I need to see what happened."
"You want me along?" Ilia asked.
"You didn't go with Adam, did you?"
"No."
"Then I don't see why not," Sun shrugged.
- X Blake X-
Blake sat between her… her boyfriend and girlfriend (and those words made her kinda want to give a giddy laugh), holding their hands. In spite of the the joy at being home and with Ruby and Sun again, however, Blake couldn't help the feeling of dread coiling in her stomach.
Adam was 'obsessed' with her. So obsessed, he had attacked Liliana Vess. How was that 'in love'?
Blake blinked back tears at the shiver of revulsion that rose up her body. How would Adam have acted if she had joined the White Fang, but decided she didn't want to follow the dark way they had been going?
Blake blinked as Sun pushed her towards Ruby, who wrapped her in a hug that Sun joined in on. Blake's shoulders shook as hot tears spilled out of her eyes, sinking into the hug, "I'm scared."
It was a soft, weak admission, one that probably wasn't needed, but one she felt the need to say nonetheless. If someone had told her a year ago that Adam liked her, she would have been so happy.
But in the past year, she had gone through things that divorced her from that world. The Blake from a year ago hadn't fought men twisted into monsters, hadn't helped a revolution find victory. She hadn't met Chandra Nalaar or Nissa Revane. She hadn't met Ruby Rose and Sun Wukong.
Hell, if you had told her she would be in a relationship with two people a year ago, she would have laughed. But Ruby was right, compared to most things they had gone through, it really wasn't strange.
"Don't worry," Sun said, "He isn't gonna hurt you if we have anything to say about it."
"I'm not scared of that," Blake said, "I'm scared about what he might do to you two, if he finds out…"
"Don't worry about it," Ruby said, "I didn't survive New Phyrexia to let some jerk beat me."
"Yeah," Sun said, "We're not like Lili, you know her, she probably stood there and took a bullet or something because she didn't even think a gun would hurt her. We have our Aura and are good fighters."
"But Adam's a good fighter too," Blake argued.
"It'll be fine," Sun said.
"So, uh," Ilia coughed, drawing their attention for the first time since they had gotten on the ferry leading to Patch, "I guess you got into some really, uh… different stuff, since you began living with the humans? I mean, uh, it kinda looks like you three…"
"Are in a relationship?" Sun finished, "We are."
"Sun!" Blake hissed, feeling her face light up.
"What?" Sun said.
"Oh," Ilia had also flushed, skin turning red, "Um, uh… when did that happen?"
"Earlier today,'" Ruby said, yawning, "it's been a long day…"
"We can pass out after we check on Varian," Sun said, "Shouldn't be much longer before we dock."
- X Varian X-
Varian looked up from his newest project as the door slammed open, causing him to reach under his desk and wrap a hand around leather grip of the sword resting there. Pulling it loose, he snuck towards the door to his room.
It had been so, so tempting to just leave, to flee from this house and never look back. But he couldn't. If he was going to save his dad and get revenge on Rapunzel, he needed to learn magic.
Jumping out of the door, Varian readied his sword, gripping it like a club, ready to hit the nearest person. Before he could make a remotely threatening gesture, however, a metal tube pressed against the back of his head and a second to the side as the black haired girl pulled out a weapon, "Do us a favor, put the weapon down and step away from our girlfriend."
Varian froze, eyes wide as he realized he was pinned, and did what seemed smart. In his workshop, Orin stood, grabbing his axe. The one behind him gave an annoyed sigh as the one next to him pushed the gun further into his head, "Dude, seriously, we've had a really tiring couple of weeks, we came here to make sure you were alright, just put down the sword."
Slowly, mechanically, Varian lowered the sword and the two weapons were in turn removed from their place next to his head. Then the one behind him span him around, pulling him into a hug, "Bro, you don't know how worried I was when I realized you had to be here when that fight went down."
"Uh, what?" Varian blinked at Sun, who was grinning at him.
"Like, holy shit, was that scary," Sun said, "You don't know how to fight, do ya?"
"How-?"
"You were holdin' that sword like a baseball bat," Sun said, "and sorry for the gun to the head thing, it's been a rough couple of weeks on our end, we're a bit jumpy, you know?"
"Sure?" Varian said, feeling taken off guard.
"Sun," the girl Varian had been about to attack sighed, "You're confusing him."
"Sorry, sorry," Sun waved, swinging an arm around Varian's shoulders like they were best friends, "C'mon, let's go to the hangout room, do introductions there."
Varian glanced at Orin, before sighing and going along with the group of four. They reached a room at the end of the hall as Ruby pulled out a key, slotting it into the door and swinging it open.
Sun let go of Varian, grabbing Ruby and the black haired girl by the hand and dragged them over to one couch, all three flopping onto it with a laugh. Varian looked around the room, noticing the wall mounted monitor on one… wall, a bookcase with books and cardboard boxes against the other, several balls of various sizes around the room and a couple of tables.
"Excuse me," Varian turned to the pretty, brown haired girl standing behind him, "can I get through?"
"Uh, yeah," Varian blushed, stepping aside so she could go towards the table and take a seat. Varian walked into the room, looking around, "So, uh, introductions?"
"Yeah," Sun said, grinning as he pulled out a thin bit of white material with a golden circle in the center, "Hey, did Lili get you a Scroll before things went to hell in a handbasket?"
"A… Scroll…?"
"You don't know what a Scroll is?" the brown haired girl said.
"Varian's from way, way out from the Kingdoms," Sun said, "He'd never met a Faunus before, either."
"Really?" She said, "I guess we didn't exactly create a good impression, huh?"
"Eh," Sun said, fiddling with his 'Scroll', "I've seen worse first impressions. Oh, hey, Blake, you're parents sent a message saying they're heading to Patch a few days ago."
"I didn't have my Scroll on when we got back," the black haired girl said, "I didn't think we needed it."
"I'm just sayin'" Sun said as the wall mounted monitor turned on and he leaned back, doing something on his scroll as the image of a roaring dragon on a curved wall appeared, "Anyways, introduction time! Varian, this is Blake-"
"Hi," the black haired girl said, pulling off her bow to reveal a pair of fluffy ears and rest her head against Ruby's shoulder as they both watched Sun's game, hands laced together as she yawned, "Do you mind grabbing a book for me? I'd grab it myself, but I'm ready to pass out."
"Uh, sure," Varian said, grabbing a book and handing it to Blake, who promptly took it and flipped to the start.
"-and that's Ilia," Sun said, nodding to the girl sitting at the table.
"Hi-"
"Ruby?"
"Elspeth!" Ruby's face lit up as yet another person Varian didn't know stepped into the room, leaping off the couch (To Blake's hiss of irritation) and rushing towards the black haired woman, colliding with her gut and pushing her back.
"It's good to see you again," Elspeth said.
"I'm just glad I finally-" Ruby's voice cracked, "-finally got to bring you to Patch."
"It's interesting," Elspeth said, "I walked through the forest with, ah, Nissa, is it?"
"Yeah," Ruby nodded, "What do you think?"
"It's beautiful," Elspeth said, running a hand through Ruby's hair.
"Beautiful enough to be a home?" Ruby asked, voice soft.
"I think after all the work it took to get me here, it has to be," Elspeth said.
"I'm not making you stay," Ruby insisted, waving her arms back in forth.
"It's a metaphor," Elspeth said with a laugh, messing up Ruby's hair in a move somewhere between maternal and sisterly, "Though we do need to figure out a way around my… hindrance, of course."
"Where's everyone else?" Ruby asked.
"Relaxing, mostly," Elspeth said, smiling, "I was finding my way around the house. I'll let you get back to those two before… Blake's glare gets worse."
Varian looked back at Blake, who was giving a tired glare, eyes drifting open and shut several times.
"Guess it's probably about time for bed," Sun sighed, scooping Blake up, "C'mon, Rubes. Ilia, feel free to crash on the couch! See ya tomorrow?"
"Yep," Ilia waved as the four disappeared, Elspeth continuing on after Ruby opened a door for Sun and those three disappeared in side, "Listen, Varian?"
"Yeah?
"I want to apologize," Ilia said.
"For what?"
"For the attack," Ilia said, "Adam, he was rogue when he did it."
"How do you-? You're with them?" Varian fumbled with his sword, only to notice Ilia's weapon on the table.
"Relax," Ilia said, "I'm not here to finish the job or anything, I just-"
"I don't care," Varian hissed, turning and storming out of the room.
- X AN X-
So, I was tempted to make a joke about how romantic Elspeth and Ruby's dialogue can be read at, but decided that not even Sun would make that joke during their reunion (as they didn't really have much time last chapter). This is also the first time since Forged in the Light (Nope, not what you thought I was gonna say, as Forged is a bit of an Old Shame for me, which is why I might reboot it soon) that I wrote characters in an open relationship.
Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh?