Late into the night, Noir sat at the dinner table with Taiyang, and his two professors, Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck. The four of them had been conversing for several hours from the start of the professors' arrival in Patch. The dark-haired Faunus hadn't felt the need to leave the room even once, partaking in the conversations that strung, and even finishing a story of his own.
"...and so, since Check had lost the bet and I'd won the race, he not only had to pay up to me, Sherry, and Midas, he had to walk around the entirety of the next day in one of Sherry's ballgowns and call himself "Cherie".
Oobleck joined in, adding to the current story, "My history class that day was not a boring one! He was very dedicated to his role that every time I said, 'Mr. Cremissi' he'd reply with, 'Miss' I had to hold my laughter inward so hard I almost lost it in the middle of class."
"Hell, you broken entirely afterward and spent the next half hour telling every teacher the story!" Port added, and the two shared a laugh.
Strangely enough, Noir was laughing along with them, a sound that was barely heard by any before that evening. "Sherry had an utter field day with that. I'd never seen her so smug. Even Coco was making fun of him for days afterwards."
Port moved his attention to Tai, "oooooh, speaking of smug, remember the Leg Boy escapade?" The lights within Taiyang's eyes sparkled in remembrance of those days.
"Oh, do I ever! So, kid," He softly smacked Noir's back. "When I was a freshman at Beacon, I had first met Qrow and his sister. I learned how smug that jerk was during the 'grouping' exams. Sadly for me, he became my partner. So once we became team STRQ, I got together with a few friends from Signal and we concocted the most wonderful plan."
"I dread to hear where this is going," he spoke with humorous sarcasm.
Port shook his head as he thought about that day. "Well, to cut the devious plan short, in comes a young Qrow Branwen with Raven Branwen and they're both wearing the same uniform - skirt and all." He tried stifling his laughter but could not, "I was only a TA at the time and I-I didn't know what to do, so I left the room to laugh!"
Noir burst into laughter at the mere thought of Qrow in a schoolgirl uniform. "Sweet dust, what a sight that must have been!"
"Much to our dismay, Professor Palm wasn't the happiest man that day," Tai remembered.
The portly Huntsmen chuckled as he sipped his drink, "I had an earful from him about it."
The blonde Huntsmen continued, "Well, he'd never worn a uniform before! So it was easy to convince him that it was a kilt!"
"How terrible!" Oobleck added, yet despite his words, he was giggling with them. "What's wrong with you! Y-your own teammate!"
"Hell, I did that guy a favor! The girls all told him he had nice legs. But to make it better he -"
Port interrupted him as he held up his leg on the table "Like what you see?" He quoted Qrow, laughing before losing his balance and almost falling on the floor.
Tai's story wasn't yet finished, "The next year, around the beginning when Qrow and Silver started dating we told this exact same story to SLVR. And next thing we knew, Ven yells out to Qrow 'LET'S DO IT TOGETHER, MEN STICK TOGETHER MY BROTHER!' Daring Qrow to do it again and Qrow daring him. See who lasted longer."
The most stoic one of them all was laughing so hard, he needed to stand to grab a glass of water, drinking it down quickly. He finally regained his breath. "Ahh...you sound like quite the bunch. Teams CMSN and CFVY were similar, especially when Coco and I began dating."
"Hell, I think it got Qrow and Ven laid from wearing those skirts. Did it do the same for you?" Taiyang wiggled his eyebrows.
Oobleck and Port looked at him with grins on their faces, this conversation turning into a big guy talk moment right out of the blue.
Noir grinned ear to ear, "On the contrary, Check prided himself as a pickup artist. After wearing Sherry's ballgown, he could not escape the girls who had cross-dressing fetishes. Nonstop, almost daily. Coco, mischievous minx that she was, even set him up with one who never took no for an answer."
The History Professor laughed, "I think I remember seeing Mr. Cremissi with a new girl every week!"
"Reminds me of someone we know" The Grimm Professor sipped his drink while glancing at Taiyang.
The accused set his drink down, hands up in the air, "Woah woah woah, I was never a player!"
"Fathering two children of your two teammates. If Qrow were a woman, I bet that would have been three!"
The room laughed as Taiyang pretended to vomit with the thought of being intimate with Qrow, even a female version of him.
Noir set aside the empty glass he held, "Ahh...good times. Heh, I was the subject of embarrassment too, you know. Tai, you remember I said Sherry set me up with Coco?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, before that, I had a crush on her. A huge one, in fact, you couldn't keep me from glancing at her. Sherry knew it, but could never convince me to say anything. Pressuring me day and night, she was, every day telling me to ask her out. Until finally, during lunch no less, in front of both our teams, she walked over to Coco, tapped her on the shoulder and said, 'Hi, have you met Noir?' And just walked away. Leaving me there. Unable to speak to save my life and so red it matched my eyes."
They all clapped and laughed as they reveled in Noir's past, silly misery.
Yet an important question came to Port's mind, "What had happened between you two? As I saw, you two had a good thing going."
Noir sat silent for several heartbeats before answering, "I broke things off after everything went down in our second semester. I needed to be alone. And honestly? Coco didn't need any of that."
To the two professors who knew Noir for several years, the reasoning behind it all made sense as to how he would handle the situation.
"In any case, when I found out she and Fox started dating, it brought a smile to my face. Fox is a great man, and I'll freely admit a better fit for Coco than I was."
Oobleck grinned at the Faunus, "Then have you recently found a better fit for yourself?"
The others eyed Noir, waiting for the answer to that very question.
"I...really haven't been looking to tell you the truth. Given everything that happened, it frankly was the last thing on the mind. In fact...the last girl I even spoke to in private...was Yang." He glanced over at Tai as though expecting to be skewered. As did the two others.
Taiyang's eyebrow twitched a small bit.
"Oh boy, a man talked to me in private. I'm pregnant now."
Noir completely tensed at those words, his red eyes slowly turning to the doorway, recognizing the voice. "Look who it is…"
Yang smiled at the group as she walked into the kitchen, lifting herself onto the counter. Chuckling to herself as she saw her father's angry face at Noir, from just the mere mention of her being pregnant. Noir couldn't help but give Yang an 'I hate you' look, now Tai was eyeing him like a Grimm. "Well, glad you could join the world for once."
She shrugged at his words, "Yeah, well, a part of me can't. Never again."
His smile dropped instantly after hearing this, looking slightly irritated, " ...You're alive, aren't you?"
With her remaining flesh hand, she lifted up her five fingers, indicating that that was the fifth time he said that to her.
He knew what she meant, "And I'll say it till it's hammered so deep in that iron-thick skull of yours, you'll be saying it from now to Armageddon."
"She'll only have to worry about Armageddon when she's ready to go out there in the real world, but that'll take some time," Tai added.
She rolled her eyes, "Such a Dad thing to say."
"And it's so very true. Noir isn't even ready yet and he's man enough to say so. If you truly think you're ready to be out there, then you lost some brain cells along with your arm."
Everyone in the room froze from hearing this, the tension in the room reaching straining levels. But when the silence cleared, it was cleared by a chuckled, "You Jerk", from Yang.
Oobleck let go of the breath he held in, "So we are addressing the Goliath in the room now?"
Port whispered to his colleague, "Appears so." He turned his attention back to Yang, "If you don't mind me asking… why haven't you tried the new arm, yet?"
Oobleck, in usual hyper fashion, stated, "Yes yes! It is a rare piece of technology from Atlas after all! And specially made for you too! The effort it must have taken for it to get here. It appears that there are those who want to see you back on your feet."
"I can think of at least 5." Noir said rather flatly but clearly with goodwill."
Yang playfully rolled her eyes at her family's guest, but answered with honesty, "It's frightening… This," she gestured to her lack of an arm, "Is my new normal now. And, it's just gonna take time for me to get used to this as is. I cannot replace what is truly gone from me, and I can't forget it either."
Tai nearly groaned at her words, "Normal is what you make of it. That doesn't have to stop you from being whatever you want to be, or whoever you want to be."
"Fear is an emotion. And much like any emotion, it comes and goes. It's how you handle it that matters. I find myself wrestling with that emotion from time to time." Port's professor lecture kicked in.
It was intoxicating as Noir chimed in, "As do I. And frankly...given the last few days, I'm shocked to be alive, looking back."
Oobleck smiled at the young huntsmen-in-training, "Well, we are glad that you are here now, Mr. Har- Noir." He corrected himself, it being the first time he had addressed Noir by his first name.
He had noticed this too as he smiled, "It's good to feel wanted for once."
Tai faked looking hurt "Hey! We wanted you, just didn't know it at the time."
As the room smiled and laughed at this, Noir found himself glancing elsewhere. For a second, a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, Noir's expression became one of longing and a contradiction of his previous statement on having not been looking. But this expression was gone so fast it was as though it hadn't been there. "In any case, I'm certainly glad you two came, Professors. I was honestly concerned for my teachers after I left Vale."
Peter smiled at this, "How kind of you, Noir, to worry about us. Although the work is hard rebuilding Beacon, it surely is rewarding. Glynda is working round-the-clock, you know how hard she works."
Hearing about Glynda, he grew more concerned for her, "She's going to hurt herself at the rate she's going…"
Before Noir's concern grew, Oobleck reminded him, "She's a grown woman who knows her limits. She just needs to focus on... Other things. And the rebuilding of Beacon is her perfect escape."
Despite this reassurance, the gears in the bat Faunus's head were now turning. That of the old Batman-esque look of calculation from before the Fall came to him, as though he was calculating advanced coding in his mind.
Yang recognized the look on his face, "He's talking about Ozpin, Noir." She bluntly stated.
Hearing her speak, he looked up at her, and his expression went from contemplative to more saddened than it had ever been. Ozpin's death. The one thing he'd been trying desperately to put out of mind, and the only thing he wasn't succeeding in forgetting.
"So you see, Noir, Glynda is going to be fine, she just needs a constructive output."
He nodded then shook himself a little, putting those dark thoughts aside. "In any case, apologies for bringing the mood down."
"Oh no, Don't think about that too much - the night is still young!" Port enthusiastically claimed.
"It's 11 pm, Pete."
"It's still young!"
Noir couldn't resist a smirk at this, "Well...for me it certainly is." For all Tai's efforts, Noir was still very much nocturnal.
As the night continued on, happier stories came up from each individual in the room, even Yang herself. Every day was a struggle for each person there, for one reason or another. Yet, at this moment, they felt as if they had no troubles at all.