Chapter 24

At Junior's Bar

Jaye knocked back a glass of whisky, slapping the shot glass down on the counter. That was his seventh shot already, and Junior looked at him apprehensively.

'You should probably take it easy, it's nearly seven.' He said, and Jaye dropped his head onto the table.

'For once, I agree with you.' He groaned, rapping his head against the mahogany counter. 'Pour me another will you?'

Junior shook his head at the boy, and placed a glass down in front of him. Jay picked it up wordlessly, knocking it back, before realizing that it was water. He glared at the bearded man, and Junior simply ignored him. Jaye sighed, pulling himself off the stool, nearly slipping off the counter as he did so, and slung his swords over his back. Jaye pulled out his wallet, but Junior waved it away.

'It's on the house. Go get your girl back.' Junior told him, wiping off a glass carelessly. Jaye nodded at him silently, making for the door. Junior watched him leave, dropping the glass onto the rack in front of him.

'The blondie's sure as hell worth it.' He mused to himself, swiping Jaye's glass off the counter, and running it under the tap.

Outside

Jaye stumbled as he reached his bike, shaking his head. The alcohol would wear off in a while, but since he'd drank fast, it was kicking in all at once. He rubbed his temples, leaning against his bike. He groaned into his palms, letting his spinning head recover.

'Hey.' Jaye looked up at the voice, squinting as his head spun harder at the sudden movement. He barely made out a somewhat orange blur in front of him, and shook his head to clear it.

'You're a bloody mess.' Jaye groaned as the obnoxious voice rang out in front of him, and he slapped a hand into his face.

'Goddammit Kamina, if you're just here to pick on me, then shove off.' He muttered, and the fox boy laughed aloud, punching Jaye in the arm.

'Come on, what kind of welcome is that for the best friend you haven't seen in two years?' He said, grinning, and Jaye shot him a death glare.

'Yeah, someone want to explain WHY I haven't seen him in two years?' He shot back, and Kamina laughed again, annoying Jaye even further. Kamina's face turned serious.

'I was busy.' He reasoned, and Jaye looked at him incredulously.

'You were busy? YOU WERE BUSY?! Well I'm sorry that you're too busy to let your best friend know that you AREN'T DEAD!' Jaye got up from his bike, squaring up to the fox boy. Kamina looked away sheepishly, grinning nervously, and that only served to piss Jaye off even further.

'WE THOUGHT YOU DIED WHEN WE HEARD THAT THE DUST MINE BLEW UP! WHEN WE CHECKED THE BLOODY PLACE, YOU WERE LABELLED AS "DECEASED"! I BOUGHT A FUCKING GRAVE FOR YOU YOU GODFORSAKEN ASSHAT. WE BURIED AN EMPTY COFFIN! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW INDIGO AND I FELT?! DAMIAN ASIDE, WE WERE DEVESTATED! I LEFT THE FACTION BECAUSE OF THAT!' He yelled, and Kamina coughed awkwardly, scratching his ears. He grinned at the fuming boy, and Jaye turned away from him, walking back to his bike. His head was crystal clear at the moment, thanks to the adrenaline from his anger, and he swung his leg over the seat.

'I wanted to come back.' Jaye paused, his hand on the ignition, turning to face the fox boy. Kamina scratched his head sullenly, kicking awkwardly at the dust.

'Two years ago, I was captured by an organization, no idea who. I just so happened to stumble across a deal with Jacques Schnee when it was going down. He'd been dealing with them to illegally get faunus labor at cheap prices, by kidnapping them off the street. I intervened, let my guard down, and got shot. They wanted to kill me, but Schnee decided otherwise. He had me sent to the dust mines along with the rest of the faunus.' He explained, and Jaye rolled his eyes.

'I know that you idiot. We were tracking you down after you disappeared. The trail went cold for months, and when we finally tracked you to that labor camp nearly a year later, we found out there was an explosion in the mine, and YOU were listed as dead!' Jaye cut in, and Kamina held up a hand.

'I caused the explosion in the dust mine. I left pieces of my fur and uniform there, along with my half-destroyed identification tag to make it seem like I was dead. I needed to in order to operate in secret, so that no one would realize that it was a slave who freed the other slaves.' He explained, and Jaye sat up quietly, taking his hand off the ignition.

'If they realized that a slave broke out the other slaves, then they would increase watch inside the labor camps, which meant more beatings, harsher treatment, and more patrols. All to pacify them to ensure nothing like that would happen, and I couldn't risk that.' He reasoned, crossing his arms. 'If they thought the sabotage came from outside, then they'd increase patrols OUTSIDE the camps to prevent intrusion. It made things easier when I broke in, since I basically only had to worry about getting inside.'

Jaye looked at the fox boy quietly, and Kamina grinned back at him, the same shit-eating grin that Jaye had seen so often, and he looked away, returning his gaze to his bike's dashboard.

'Thanks to that, it meant that I couldn't quite risk getting caught on cameras, and that dust mine I was sent to was miles away from here. It made journeying back quite difficult. Not to mention I stopped a whole bunch of times to destroy other labor camps.' He said, and Jaye sighed, shaking his head.

'If you'd told us, we would have helped you.' He said, and Kamina shook his head, staring sullenly at the dark-haired boy.

'Maybe you would've, but would the Faction really let you? A single raid could take up to a month of planning, and as far as I remember, it was already hard enough to get a week off in that place!' He said, and for once Jaye had no argument. He was right, completely right. Faking his death made coming back to a city like Vale, where there are cameras everywhere, not to mention a strong Schnee Dust Company presence, in the early stages when his death was a fresh page in their record books, very risky for him. If he'd waited, which he had, then coming back wouldn't have been a problem anymore, since his death would have been old news. Getting caught on camera wouldn't matter since no one was keeping an eye out for him. They'd be too focused on catching the masked man destroying their camps to bother about a slave back from the dead. Jaye sighed again.

'For once, I don't actually have an argument for you. I guess you actually use your head every once in a while.' He said, and Kamina's face darkened slightly.

'In those camps, you've only got your head. If you don't use it, you wind up dead. Or worse.' He muttered, and Jaye looked at him quizzically.

'Or worse? Like what?' He asked, and Kamina shrugged.

'I dunno. Just thought it would be a cool line to say.' He admitted, flashing that same shit-eating grin, and Jaye suddenly wanted to punch him again.

'Well in that case, I want back the money I spent on your funeral. It was almost 14000 credits you know.' He told the fox boy, and Kamina grinned wider.

'Whaaaat? That little? That's like an eighth of a job. I thought I was worth more than that.' He jested, placing a hand over his heart, a look of mock horror plastered on his face. Jaye rolled his eyes, kicking his bike into gear.

'Not to me you're not. Now if you're done, I have a dance to catch.' He said, revving the engine. Kamina let his hand fall to his side, looking quietly at Jaye.

'You mean the one at Beacon?' He asked, and Jaye stiffened slightly. He froze for a moment, his hand pausing on the accelerator.

'Yeah, why?' He asked, and Kamina's face fell.

'So it's true then. That thing with that blondie, Yang?' He asked, and Jaye glanced at him. The fox boy looked at him quietly, a complicated look on his face, and Jaye couldn't read it.

'What about Indigo?' He asked, and Jaye shrugged non-committally.

'We talked about it.' He said shortly, and Kamina's facial expression turned pained. He watched the fox boy quietly, as neither party said anything. After a short while, Kamina scratched his ears.

'She seemed pretty broken up earlier.'

'You saw here?'

'Yeah, that's why I came to find you.' He admitted, grinning sadly at his best friend. Jaye looked away, avoiding eye contact.

'I assume she told you why we decided to end it? I've made my decision. Besides, even if I hadn't, it was made for me.' He spoke quickly, nearly tripping over his words as he did, and Kamina's ears drooped.

'Dude, you're in denial. I supported both of you from the start. You guys were like…destiny man! You'll never find someone better for you than her. You know it too!' Kamina took a few tentative steps towards Jaye. 'You could still be together! It doesn't have to be this way just because you left!'

Jaye revved his bike into gear wordlessly, turning to the road. He blinked as an orange flash of light darted in front of him, and Kamina stood, blocking his way.

'Move.' He spat shortly, and Kamina grimaced, shaking his head. Jaye flashed a shard of ice at him, and Kamina punched through it easily, bits and pieces scattering across the ground. Jaye's eyes narrowed, and his hand creeped to his sword.

'Don't do that. We both know you're not the best fighter when you're half-drunk, and I doubt I'm that much of a pushover.' Kamina warned, extending a claw. Jaye made a sound of frustration, dropping his hand to the throttle. He drew a foot up onto the seat, hugging it to his chest, and Kamina walked to him slowly, stopping as Jaye spoke.

'Look man, you weren't there. You were dead. Okay? You. Were. Dead.' He spat, staring the fox boy in the eyes. 'Think about what that meant for us.'

Kamina opened his mouth slightly, his breath catching in his throat, and Jaye rubbed a hand across his eyes, speaking rapidly.

'You were everything to us, you know that? You were what held us all together. Back when Indigo and I were still kind of on the ropes with each other, what with my fantastic social skills, your brashness and lack of brains set the path for us to talk.' He said, jabbing a finger at the faunus. 'We got closer thanks to you. You drove conversations when there was nothing to talk about. Even when Damian came in, God forbid how he is now, you bridged the gap between us! We all became friends thanks to you, we became a team because of you. You were the center! You were all that held us together.'

Jaye pushed himself off the bike, pacing angrily, kicking at the dirt. For once, Kamina had nothing to say, and quietly watched his best friend.

'When you died, everything fell apart.' Jaye stared sullenly at the alley wall, the graffiti and dirt coating it, and Kamina rubbed his arm awkwardly.

'Damian was the first to leave. We were so broken up over it, that once we came back with the results, he actually jumped continents. He ditched Vale, went to God knows where, and in the end, we all sort of…drifted. I don't know if it was because he actually cared about you, or if he just needed the excuse, but either way, he left. Once that happened, half the team was gone, and Indigo and I only had each other. That's when it all ended.' Jaye pulled a small necklace out of his shirt, staring at it quietly. It was a small silver locket, with a purple Orchid flower emblazoned on it. Kamina wordlessly pulled an identical locket out of his vest.

'It meant the end of us too. Your death drove me to leave the Faction. I couldn't bear to live another day in the place that we knew. I had to change things, I needed things to be different.' Jaye muttered, clenching the pendant in his fist. 'Indigo and I…we were a constant reminder of the life I left behind. Of the life you lived. The life that took you from us. I couldn't take that.'

Jaye dropped the locket back into his shirt, and Kamina shoved his hands into his pockets awkwardly, clearing his throat.

'Wow man, didn't know I mattered to you that much.' He grinned, and Jaye scoffed at the fox boy's stupid face. 'But you know, I'm alive? Remember that? That means everything you just said has been rendered void! The gang's back together!'

Kamina flashed over to Jaye, gripping his friend by the shoulders. Jaye glared at the familiar grin plastered across the fox boy's face.

'You two are supposed to be back together, understand? That'll put everything back into place!' Kamina waggled a finger in Jaye's face, grinning even wider, and Jaye sighed in frustration.

Jaye swatted the hand out of his face, turning away from the faunus boy and swinging his legs back over his bike. This was the third time he'd done that, and he was dead set on leaving.

'No. We made our choices. Indigo and I have made our choices. We're not team RHKD anymore, these are the lives we've chosen to live. We can't just…go back to being who we were, you can't just shake something like that off because someone's back from the dead. We can't take back the things we've done, the things we've said. It doesn't work that way. It changed us, you see? Bonds like ours…once they're broken they can't be unbroken. So, we're going to live our lives. Whether you're in it or not.' Jaye declared. He turned the key in the ignition, and the engine revved to life. He turned back to face the fox boy.

'I'll never forget you, or who you are to me. I'll always carry RHKD with me, from now till the day I die.' He laid a hand over his chest, feeling the slight bump of the silver locket against his skin. 'But we're just a locket and a faded photograph. That's what we are now. That's how we'll stay.'

Jaye kicked his bike into gear, speeding out of the alleyway. This time, there was no orange flash, no shit-eating grin, and no furry ears to block his way, and he sped back down towards Beacon.

Hurtling down a highway, Jaye impulsively pulled the locket out of his shirt again, flicking it open. Inside the silver casing, glued to the back, sat a small, faded photograph. In it, Jaye, Indigo, Kamina, and Damian stood together, smiling at the camera. Kamina sat right in the center on Damian's shoulders, his usual shit-eating grin they'd come to love glaring out for all to see, arms looped over Jaye and Indigo on either side of him. Jaye and Indigo stood hand in hand, laughing at the grinning faunus. Damian sat right at the front, a look of mild annoyance cresting his sharp features as he tried to shove Kamina's legs off him. Jaye ran a thumb over the picture, staring sullenly at the happy smile that suddenly seemed so foreign to him. He noticed the tip of the CCT loom over the distance, Beacon academy coming slowly into view, and flicked the locket shut, stuffing it back into his shirt.

Back in the alleyway, Kamina stood, clutching the locket to his chest as the cold wind blew past him, stinging his cheeks and ruffled his fur. His furry ears had wilted, drooping down the sides of his head. An orange light flashed, and the boy vanished from the alley, leaving behind nothing but a strand of orange fur, and a few melting shards of ice.

Hope ya'll enjoyed the "coming clean" chapters, where we delve into the characters of Kamina, Jaye, and Indigo. I enjoyed writing it, and I tried to be as consistent as possible. But pls forgive if there are any mistakes.