A/N: AND I WILL WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES.
Blake: Signal Not Found
Ruby: 208 Leagues
The clash and din of a tavern. Flickering lights.
Footsteps at one o'clock. Motor oil. Orange blossom perfume. A halo of gold.
"If you need something, then just say it. If you're coming to kill me, then at least tell me your name."
"Adam Taurus?" Two steps forward. 'A woman. Boots?'
"Yes. Now, if you would be as so kind as to tell me your name?"
"Yang. Yang Xiao Long. Do you mind I sit?"
"Go on." Seven steps, the scrape of a chair, and weight falling in it, buckles clattered. "Are you Yang from Beacon?"
"Y-you can't see me?"
"No. Just your hair."
"Wait, how? How did you get here then? Where's Blake? Where have you been since Beacon?"
"I'm going blind. I walked. I don't know. I've been looking for her. Someone's coming."
"Hello, Adam, good to see you've made it back safe." Different perfume, too much of it. Heels. "Who's your new friend?"
"Exactly that. Do you want anything, Goldie?"
"Surprise me." The heels clicked away.
"Why are you out here Yang?"
"I'm looking for my sister, I mistook you for her, what with all the rose petals."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment."
The heels came back, Yang cooed at one glass as it hit the table. Another was pressed into his hands, warm in a mug. "Rice milk hot chocolate, no cream, sugar, with a bit of cayenne, not too hot. I asked the Boss. You're welcome." The heels clicked away.
"How are you getting around?"
He switched the mug to one hand, digging for a Scroll two and a half times its normal size. "Yeah, you're going blind." It slid open. "Oh gods, you're gonna blind me!" He thumbed over to MapApp.
"Luckily for me, this has voice directions. Unluckily for you, it's apparently too bright."
"Is that Blake's ribbon?"
He put the glass back, holding the mug with both hands, sipping at the tepid brew. "It is. One she gave me. Aren't you asking a lot of questions for a Huntress?"
"I...never got a chance to thank you for...hacking off my arm that day." Several gulps. A lighter glass hit the table. "The doctors said that your quick thinking saved my life, I would have been in much worse shape. So thank you. I owe you. So I figured, since you're going blind, and we're both looking for somebody, I'll help you out."
"I have to get Boss to let me go. He's a bit...overprotective."
"What's he look- Oh sorry."
"Don't mince words. He's large, sounds like a foghorn after too many drinking songs. Has longer horns than me; they scrape the doors."
"Oh...I see him already. Oh no he's coming."
"SON!" A wide, thumping gait. "How are you doing?! Is this the girl you've lost?"
"He's your dad?!"
"He's appointed himself that. And no she isn't."
"Well, sadly, we're closing up for the night. Will you be taking a room, young lady?"
"I think I will."
She eased down the stairs, dawn breaking through the stained glass windows. "Adam?" It echoed through the beer-hall, the old stone construction betraying the sleeker buildings on the horizon.
"I'm in the kitchen." Behind the bar, on the right side, past the pantry stood the boy with bull's horns. In proper lighting, they were larger than she'd remembered and so was the blindfold on his shoulders, the black edge of ribbon clashing with the red of his shirt, the fabric mildly disturbed by muscle underneath. A brand seared off a eyebrow and reddened a eye to ruin, '"SDC" in carmine, blocky letters. 'He'd be cute, if he wasn't stark raving crazy...but that's what Blake said. And Blake's...fuck her.'
"Is...that what Weiss was apologizing for?"
He looked up from his Scroll. "Indirectly. This...that's three years old. Sorry, I thought I would be alone."
"What are you doing anyway?"
"Cooking. And yes, I can see enough to do that."
"You live in a bar?" She walked over, finding broths boiling, ignoring the "No, I don't, I'm just helping out," meats smoking and a array of vegetables waiting to go under the knife. "Awww, man! I wanted to live on a ship!"
"You'd make a good pirate with that arm of yours." She looked at him, her less fleshy arm, and back up at him, his hands now gloved and working on those vegetables. using the knife and fingertips to measure, working slowly. "I can hear it whirring, if you're wondering how I got that. And no, you don't get super hearing. You're just forced to pay more attention."
"I didn't get the chance to ask."
"I'm answering it preeminently." He paused, holding a apple, flipping it. Examining it as best as one could without a microscope. "What is this?"
"That's a apple."
"I needed the tomatoes..." She swept over, grabbed the tray of tomatoes and handed him a few with gloved hands. "Oh. Thank you." A hour went by like that, subbing mistaken ingredients.
"Y'know, Blake said you were...a lot more domineering than you come off as."
"Blake..." He put down the knife. "Doesn't like anyone who tells her what to do. I get angry; I will admit that I have a temper. But don't believe Blake at face value. Her words and her actions don't match."
Her Scroll buzzed. 'Contract Delivered.'
"Adam?" He looked over at her. "I'll be around these parts for a while. If you need me, let me know."
"I've heard those words before. Let me know when I can trust them." He knelt down to open a oven door, a timer ringing off.
-.-.-.-. * -.-.-.-.
He sat in the same spot as the night before, wrapped in a black cloak with embroidered rose petals falling towards the hem where they piled up, rain howling outside the window. She sat down, making a racket of it, he didn't even budge.
"Hey," He looked at her. "Good to know you don't move around much."
"I can hear everything from here. You should slow down in this muck."
"Are you going to tell me about Blake now?"
"Why? She didn't say how you know her, just that you're friend- I smell smoke?" She reached around and patted out the ends of her hair. "She said that you're friends and partners, that you're very nice and cannonball-ready. Then she said that she was going to the store, she needed something. The next day, Beacon fell."
"You haven't seen her since?" A pair of heels caught his attention, the silver haired girl from yesterday bringing food for two, a large bowl of salad topped with grilled vegetables and a plate of country fried steak with potatoes. "Sorry, Boss saw you come in. Adam," she tapped her edge of the bowl to his fingertips, setting a fork just above the rim. "And the young mistress. If it's not to your likin-"
"Oh this is fine!" The waitress handed her a fork and knife. Her gold hair went in a ponytail and the steak was soon smithereens. Adam took his time.
"I haven't seen her since. Then again, I'm sure she ran for good this time."
"Why?"
"You'll...this isn't important." A thunderclap rolled through the sky. He picked aside carrots. "Just know that I'm a better man than I was, and I'm only seeking her to give her back Gambol."
"...Gambol Shroud?" A better man? What are you talking about?"
"Every rose has its thorns. I know mine better than I should."
"Stop talking in circles."
"Give me a reason not to." A dull cyan eye glared at her before returning to nothing at all.
The streets of Arbor Meadows rolled forth from its sister town, the fallen spire of Beacon missing from the sky. The center plaza was rife with warrants for Grimm, a gaggle of Hunters browsing for their next excursion.
Ember Celica reloaded, she scrolled through the board. 'How many Beowolves can fuck in a week? Good grief.'
"Excuse me, Ma'am."
She turned to find two police officers, one holding a digitized clipboard. "Have you seen this man?"
Cyan eye. Auburn hair. That scowl. "No, I have not."
"Thank you, have a nice day."
She whirled back towards the board, searching for missions in the next town over, lining up all the easiest ones. 'I gotta get him out of there! He's a bull in a culling pen!' She patted out the ends of her hair, hustling back to the beer-hall.
"Adam!" She flew into the kitchen, there he was, headphones in his ears. "ADAM!"
She dragged him up the stairs to the paid rooms, the knife clattering to the floor. "What is your problem?!"
"The police are looking for you. We have to go."
"We?!"
"I-" She breathed. "You want to find out what they're throwing you in prison for? Stay. I'm leaving. And you can sit there and wait."
"Why?!"
"I owe you. Take it or leave it."
He sped past her, hand tracing the wall, mass shuffling spilling from the door he rounded. She stuffed her nightshirt into her duffel bag and grabbed Bumblebee's keys, leaving payment on the bed.
Taiyang didn't pick up. "Bàba, I'm not coming home." She recorded a voicemail. "I ran into trouble, and now I gotta take him with me. I owe him my life. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted."
She closed the door to find him standing there, his cheeks reddened, a gray and red duffel in his hand, rose petals stuck in his hair. "Thank you. Let's go."