Big Issues

AN: Another fun fight for you all to enjoy! Even managed to keep things on time again. I hope you all like it!

Vytal Tournament – Round Three!

"Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reconned with. And although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!" Port announces as the boys down in the arena wave to the crowds.

"Good luck Neptune!" Weiss let herself indulge with the energy of the fans for a few moments, much to the amusement of her teammates. It also helped to draw Blake's attention from the 'fan club' in another section.

The blue haired boy was the last to stop waving and finally got a look at the team he was to be fighting. He was momentarily stunned at the four young women but his cocky and flirtatious behavior came back fast and hard. "Ladies." He gave them a slight finger-gun and a charming smile.

And just like that, any support for Neptune from Weiss was shattered. "Break his stupid face NDGO!" She yells, equally shocking and amusing her teammates and friends at her proclamation.

If the boy heard her at all, he certainly didn't show it as he continued. "Alright girls, remember- hands, above the waist." He even gestures.

"Ignore him." Sun was quick to try to save face next to his friend, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "For he's…" He came to a loss of words to help and just went with what came more naturally to him. "He's dumb."

Team NDGO had mixed reactions, especially when the flirt winked at them. Octavia was angered, Dew was irritated, Nebula looked uncomfortable, and Gwen shared a look with Nebula, silently asking if this guy was serious.

Perhaps fate was kind to Neptune to spare him from more embarrassment as the holographic displays of the terrain randomizers were projected and began cycling through. They quickly settled on the desert and the choice rose into place, complete with a very bright artificial sun. Many fans in the stadium, especially those closest to the light, brought out sunglasses to deal with it a best they could.

"Ho-ho! Alright! Homefield advantage!" Nebula was ecstatic about the selection as she looked it over with the rest of her team.

"Don't get too cocky!" Sun grabs their attention. "That's my turf too." He proudly declares as he jabs his thumb at himself.

"I hope I don't get and in my shoes." Scarlet mutters, taking some of the confidence from Sun's boast away.

"Hey, be cool man." Neptune tries to raise his shortest teammates morale in his own way. Perhaps he should have been watching the displays…

"Hey, the ocean!" Gwen cheerfully points out and Neptune went stiff.

"Uh… What's wrong with Neptune?" Ruby asks at seeing her friends' plight. Next to her, Weiss was still angry and stewing silently, not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

"Oh no…" Blake drops her face into her hand and shakes her head. She knew perfectly well what was wrong from her many talks with Sun talking about his team. Of course, she had shared some things about her own team in turn, like DO NOT mess with Yang's hair in any way if you value your consciousness. "Neptune is… afraid of the water." She groans at the embarrassing weakness the boy has, her team and friends all shocked at the revelation. Even Weiss softened her expression a bit at the news.

Back in the arena, everyone was ready for battle with their weapons drawn except for two. Sun preferring to tart fights barehanded and was bouncing on his toes. And there was Neptune… stiff as a board next to him.

"Three! Two! One! Begin!" Oobleck shouts rapidly into his microphone. Everyone began to close the distance but Neptune darted between the members of NDGO almost faster than they could react, the result of a LOT of adrenaline fueling his fight or flight response… and he had obviously chosen flight. The unexpected action had the consequence of bringing both teams to a halt out of confusion.

"Neptune! What are you doing?" Sage shouts at his twitchy teammate who was scrambling up a tall rock formation. The tall swordsman even stabbed the tip of his blade into the stone floor out of frustration.

"On the enemies side?" Sun was beyond getting embarrassed by his friend at this point. Next to him, Scarlet shrugged off his red coat.

"They would never expect it!" He tries to save face from his perch high above everyone.

Dew turns to her leader. "He's not wrong." She was being too kind to the boy who had tried to hit on her a few moments ago.

"Open fire!" Was the purple themed girls order, taking advantage of the gap between the teams to try to eliminate one early in the fight. The boys surged forth as well, though it didn't take long for Sun to take to the skies with a powerful jump.

Scarlet ran across the sand to chase after his opponents when one of them came to him in the form of Octavia using her Sandskating semblance to close the distance over a dune far faster than most could hope to run on sand. The pirate themed boy swung his blade at her chest but she bent back under with ease as she continued to slide behind him and away to pass between Dew and Sage as the tallest team members were close to clashing.

The dark-skinned boy came at her with a powerful overhead swing of his massive blade- Dew countering by rapidly spinning her spear to build momentum before swinging up to make contact blade to blade. The resulting collision was enough to push both hefty combatants back several paces. They came at each other again, their weapons creating sparks on contact as they swung a fast as they could at each other. It was a testament to Sage's strength that he could keep up with the rapid strikes of the spear, though he was soon overwhelmed as the lighter weapon didn't tire the user as fast, forcing the husky boy to use the broad blade more as a shield.

The weapons locked together as the spear was thrust at Sage, catching the sword near the guard. Sage managed to push the blonde back across the sand a few steps before she changed tactics and spun away, striking him in the back with the business end. With the brief respite as Sage stumbled a few steps, Dew flexed her hands as the shockwaves from the heavy blade had made them become slightly numb from the numerous hits, the power behind the blade was nothing to look down on either. So, she changed her tactics once again as she didn't want to risk a drawn-out battle with the boy.

Sage turned in time to see Dew pointing her spear at the sand and the green Wind Dust crystal embedded within the head glowing with the activation in response to her aura. A whirlwind formed where she was pointing. It began to twist itself away and Dew created two more and the sand they kicked up blinded him as the wind began to push him around. Dew was fine as not only was she heavier in a tall and thick-curved way, but she was further away from the dust devils she had spawned and now controlled so they circled Sage.

The boy braced himself the best he could but his weapons broad surface meant that it caught a lot of the air and his long coat acted much like a sail. The three twisters converged on him and melded as one, far more powerful whirlwind that lifted him off the ground and carried the boy towards the edge of the arena where he was flung over the boundaries where he landed hard but was disqualified by ring out. His sword stabbing deep into the floor not too far away from where he landed. It may be a credit to his own durability that the fight and crash had only whittled his aura down to seventy five percent.

"And NDGO takes the advantage!" Oobleck shouts as Sage pounds his fist on the ground out of frustration. Looking to his sword, he knew it would be a bit of a pain to pull out with how deep the blade was buried.

Gwen had made herself scarce, as had Nebula, more than likely hiding among the rocks and waiting for an opening to take advantage of. Octavia finally stopped as she had found Sun and Scarlet together. She wasted no time attacking, whipping her kris around to slash the air and release a combined pulse of Fire and Gravity Dust to blast the boys with scorching sand. Scarlet had little experience with such tactics and accidentally got some in his mouth and began hacking it up. Sun however, turned and ran from the sandblasting for clear air.

"Neptune?" He calls out, hoping to get the wayward teammate to assist. At the same time, Scarlet had to deal with waves of flames being thrown at him and clashing blades with the heavier girl who had no problems using her Semblance to launch her at her opponent and putting her weight behind her short sword for additional striking power.

The blue-haired boy saw the plight of his friends from his perch above the sands and leapt down. Octavia skated away from Scarlet after another clash of blades and saw Neptune coming towards her and used her trusted weapon to create another small sandstorm at him. The boy simply smiled as he lowered his goggles and fired his rifle. Octavia was able to deflect the shot with her blade but the act left her open for another attack.

Sun got the drop on the redhead by using the glare of the sun to conceal himself until it was too late for her to react. In fact, she barely noticed him before his sneaker made contact with her left cheek with his full weight behind it coming from a high jump. Her neck and jaw cracked from the force and she had to take more than a few steps until she caught herself enough to look back at her grinning attacker. She grits her teeth in anger as she charged at him, not bothering to react when Sun unholster his staff from under his shirt and it assembled itself from its collapsed state in the time it took him to spin it once in his hand.

Sun was more than ready for the well rounded and furious girl's attack of an overhead swing at his head, which he near effortlessly smacked away hard enough that she barely kept hold of her weapon and stumbled back a step. That was more than enough for the faunus to press his attack with surgical precision, jab into her soft shoulder to cause pain at the joint as well as keeping her off balance, another into the other shoulder of her sword arm, a strike to her left knee nearly had her collapsing under her own weight, a jab to her well padded gut knocked the wind out her lungs, and he finished with a twisting strike across her body hard enough to throw her back in a n ungainly flip to land hard on the sand.

"Oh! And now we're down to three on three!" Port announces.

Taking stock of the situation. Sun found Scarlet locked in a fierce duel with Dew. The smaller boy couldn't compete with her reach, either physically or by weapons and so was largely on the defensive. Neptune was kept occupied by Gwen throwing Dust-laced knives at him while Nebula hung back to occasionally fire a crossbow bolt at the boy. Needless to say, he was kept doing his best to avoid to avoid being poked by anything sharp and pointy and having marginal success at that.

Dew stepped back and summoned a massive twister at Scarlet's feet, which carried the pirate high into the air and screaming as he was twisted and thrown around like a toy before he was flung away by the winds. However, that would be his saving grace as he was able to use his own Semblance, Glide, to gently carry himself across the field to the shipwreck where he managed to land on one of the crossarms of the mast. Seeing the failure of their teammate to eliminate the boy as she had done with the other, Nebula and Gwen broke off their attacks on Neptune and chased after the pirate. Dew had to resign herself to dealing with the two boys in the desert on her own.

With their teamwork and weapons, Gwen and Nebula were able to take a fast route to Scarlet's level, by way of a bolt in the mast that had a knife thrown just underneath it as support to allow Nebula to use it as a springboard to launch herself high enough that she could quickly climb the rest of the way easily. Once on the crossarm, she converted her weapon to melee form, the bows arms folding back along the stock and a sword blade erupted from the tip of the weapon. She held her long sword with confidence while on a beam of wood that was as thick as her waist.

They engaged in a fierce duel of blades, Scarlet finding himself on the defensive early on, blocking her first strike and ducking under the second, deflecting the third, and his shorter weapon swung to keep her at bay. She wasn't deterred and while he was open from the swing, rammed her hilt into his chest that made him take a step back on the beam before kicking her in the face that sent her to the mast.

Nebula swung around the wood to land on the other side and turned in time to see her opponent acrobatically jump around the mast with a spin that had his sword swinging at her head, that strike was barley blocked. She took advantage of him still coming to balance with a powerful overhead strike that she put her weight into, making him bend backwards. He got out of the lock by grabbing the stock of her weapon and pulling it to the side off his own blade. Nebula stumbled from the unexpected shifting forces and was forced to hop as Scarlet swung at her ankles. While the attack missed, the pirate spun with his momentum and elbowed the girl in the chest hard enough to push her off the beam. Nebula landed hard on the sandy beach, barely missing the hull of the wreck itself.

At the time of the duel on the wreck was happening, Gwen turned back to help Dew deal with the boys. The blonde was on the defensive as they fought in the desert but the girl remembered a certain someone's reaction to the water and a plan came to mind. Sun hung back as Dew matched her spear against Neptune's guandao, the pair being fairly easily matched as their polearms repeatedly clashed on each other.

But the blonde noticed the ballerina wanna-be coming at him and moved to intercept her in the central arena floor. Meeting there, the two engaged in combat. Sun used his martial arts to attack her but Gwen was dancing out of the way of most of his attacks. At the same time, she kept trying to slash and stab him but he was unpredictable with his movements. And so, they were locked in a deadly dance but only those from the stands could see that she was leading him towards the water.

Not too far away, Dew noticed that her opponent was doing his best to keep his back to the water while fighting her. Any time that he could have the beach within his sight, he'd get stiffer and twitchy in his movements that would recede as soon as her turned away. She began making sure that she moved towards the shipwreck and by extension, her teammates. It didn't take long for him to freeze up and refuse to go further, leaving Dew open and without challenge to go after his team leader who was already occupied by Gwen.

Scarlet looked down from his perch and found that Sun was being forced to dance around thanks to Gwen throwing her knives at him from the sand by the ship while Dew kept creating whirlwinds that became saturated with water as they traveled over the liquid. The monkey boy was hopping from one small island to another to avoid their attacks.

Taking notice of the spinning and dancing that Gwen does as she throws her knives; the redhead of the male team draws his pistol and pushes a hidden trigger button. One that fires the guard from the grip with a cable attached. Gwen didn't know what hit her when her ankle was hooked or had time to think about it as she nearly fell on her face into the sand. The one who captured her was glad that he had momentum on his side from jumping down to counter the heavier weight on the other end, giving her a pleased smile as she rose overhead… though it could have been that he saw a flash of panties on his way down.

The heavyset girl was too occupied keeping her dress down… technically up, to prevent herself from being exposed to the audience to hold back the leather armor that held her blades. Those holsters, now facing the wrong way against gravity, released their loads and she could only gasp as her weapons fell to the ground. At the same time, Scarlet looked up in time to see the rain of knives coming down on him and between his surprise at the sight along with still holding the girl's weight in his hand, he couldn't move very well. He did find himself lucky enough to dodge the blades… mostly. One or two of them managed to cut into his shirt and pants to expose his skin.

"Phew!" Scarlet David was glad that he hadn't packed on as much weight as some of the other guys, he barely fit through the gaps as it was. He still managed to find some amusement in quickly tying the other end of the cable to the ships rail that looked sturdy enough to hold Gwen's weight. Her face was already turning quite red from a combination of being upside down, embarrassed, and humiliation. Still, she fought to keep herself decent.

Sun was having his own problems in the form of a larger blonde, who had leapt in an attempt to skewer him on her spear. Fortunately, he backflipped away to another small island leaving her with nothing but sand to stab. Once again, he tried to use the environment to assist him as he found a tree with coconuts he was able to grab quickly. With a smirk, he throws them as the girl in green who did not look as impressed as he thought she should be for the move. With a quick spin of her spear, Dew smacked the nuts back at the faunus with a small push of Wind Dust for additional power.

Scarlet had been running across the beach to assist didn't see the coconuts that his teammate had thrown or their return trip until one caught him in the face hard enough to make him stagger back with a spin… just in time for the second nut to find his own pair. The hit to such a sensitive area wiped out his already low aura down to zero and he fell to the sand, cradling his jewels tightly.

"Ah nuts." Sun mutters as he heard the boy whimpering after being hit. Sympathy pains wouldn't get to him for a while as he had other problems to deal with like the blonde woman who thought the elimination was highly amusing.

As amusing as things had been, that pushed Dew to go for another knockout for the round. She spun herself and whipped up another twister and flung it at the faunus, followed by more of the relatively slow but broad and unpredictably moving attacks.

"Um, Neptune?" Sun calls out as he jumps from one small island to another to avoid the swirling winds and water. "Buddy?" He asks again when he didn't get an answer and jumps with a small flip to see that his remaining teammate was on the central arena floor at the edge of the desert sands and facing away. "Could use a little help here!"

That seemed to get his attention. "Yeah! Uh, it might be better if you came over here!" He responds with jerky movements and even though he was facing the huntsman and huntresses and by extension, the water, he appeared to not really see anything. "We're in lockdown mode!" He declares before resolutely facing the desert again.

"What are you talking about!?" Sun yells in frustration, finally having a few moments to catch his breath, though despite all of his acrobatics since the start of the match, he was barely breathing hard. Behind him, Nebula had climbed onto the ship and used her crossbow to shoot the cable holding Gwen in the air, dropping the embarrassed girl to the ground with a thump. She did have to gather up her knives quickly, though her arms were a little sore from doing her best to keep her dress covering herself. "There's nothing to lock down!"

"Lockdown! Got it." Neptune repeats as he continues to refuse to look at the water surrounding his best friend.

Sun looked back as he saw Nebula jumping off the ship to land near where Scarlet lay, still holding himself and the girl's eyes did flash some pity for him before hardening to focus on the fight. Gwen had gathered enough of her knives that she felt confident to continue to fight and began to run towards him. The sound of rushing air was his only warning to jump out of the way as Dew came crashing down on his little island, spear tip first, and creating a small crater under her feet where he once stood. She did not look happy that she had missed him.

"I know that you're afraid of water but-" Sun was interrupted by Dew leaping at him once again from behind with weapon raised high and a yell, only to be blasted by a powerful lightning Dust round to the stomach that blew her back and away from the boy.

"There! I helped!" Neptune yells as he watches Sun watch where the taller girl landed in the water before she was joined by her teammates helping her up. "Are you happy now?"

Sometimes Sun wondered how the guy was his best friend with the way he acts, his hydrophobia, near obsessive need to be 'cool', the constant attempts to ask girls out on dates… actually his friend might be in a bit of trouble after the latest attempt right in front of Weiss… And it looked like he was done poorly defending his fear of water.

The splashing of several large women running through the water at him got his attention. "Neptune!" He yells with more than a little irritation. There was no way he wanted to try dealing with all three on his own, not that he doubted that he could take them but he had someone who could help… if he could make him.

"Fine! I'm coming!" Neptune responds and raises his rifle and takes aims at the charging women who had their weapons held ready. He pulled the trigger and a round was fired. Dew held her spear up to deflect the bullet but the weapon and herself were soaked in water… something she realized a bit too late as the round made contact and the shock was conducted into her. The electricity also hit Nebula and Gwen, the three girls stumbling from the zaps.

Refusing to go any closer to the water and seeing what his normal rounds are capable of, the blue-haired boy fires a few more times at the girls, each one conducting to the other two targets as well. In a matter of seconds, their auras were dropped into disqualification levels and they were left to kneel steaming and twitching in the knee-deep water.

"And with that, Team SSSN advances to the doubles round!" Port declares the boys as the official winners and the friend's chest bump each other in victory before starting to dance a little… though Neptune was far twitchier than the smoother moves of Sun. "You know what I call that victory?" Peter asks his co-host.

"Shocking?" Oobleck adjusts his glasses, thinking he was being set up for a joke.

"Well earned." Port was more serious than most hear from him. "What you said was stupid." At least he had the sense to turn off the mic for the last part.

Back at the Crowbar, the owner whistled in appreciation. "Now that was a match!" He continued to clean the cup on his hands as the payouts for the bets were made and his share was added to the winnings.

"Pah! That was a mess." The patron at the bar scoffs.

"What? You didn't like them? Or the Vale kids? Or any of the rounds before that? What fight are you here for?" The owner grills the man. There were some limits he was willing to tolerate and the man had been paying for his drinks.

The sound of an airship flying by drew their attention. The craft was unique as in has a sleek cylindrical body with a slightly pinched 'waist' before tapering to a sharp point. Just ahead of the 'waist', four arms branched out on an X formation, each of which had a large portion that bent at an 'elbow'. Each arm was as long as the ship in total but they were obviously meant to help with maneuvering in the air. Yet each wingtip had a ribbon trailing behind them twice the length of the ship, mostly for decoration, though they could be justified as distractions for any airborne Grimm.

"That one." The man says as he stands up and drains his glass and slamming it to the bar. "Happy Vytal Festival." He tosses some Lien on the surface and staggers out the door.

The owner glances at the payment and can tell at a glance that it's actually a bit more than what he'd owed. He sat down the glass he'd been cleaning and reached to the recently drained one, only to accidently knock over the clean one and watch it shatter on the floor. "Oh, g-darn it." At least that extra money would pay for a new cup, without touching his winnings from the bets.

"That was so close!" Ruby sighs as she slumps heavily back into her seat, her chest and belly helping to block out a bit of the arena she could see, if she had her eyes open.

"Looks like the dorks made it to the next round!" Yang comments, though she nearly had to shout to be heard over the crowds cheering and applause.

Blake lets out a small smile before looking back to the boys dancing in the middle, Sage was helping Scarlet to his feet by the ship and medical personnel were already assisting the three girls out of the water, Octavia making her way to them on her own, though obviously sore and upset at the loss. But it was the blonde looking at her that caught her attention, giving her a pair of finger guns with a charming and mischievous smile.

"Emphasis on dork." She blushes as she tries to avert her eyes. She couldn't lie that she had been watching him the most during the fight, but she did like how he had handled the one girl so easily and had managed to deal with the attacks when it was two on one.

"And that concludes our matches for today! Please leave in a calm and orderly fashion!" Oobleck announces.

"Come on! Let's go congratulate them. Yang waves on her team and stands up. Behind her, RWB, JNPR, and DT rose to join her.

The sight of an airship flying nearby the stadium catching Weiss' eyes made her come to a sudden stop, causing Ruby to smoosh into her. Maybe all of their extra padding did come in handy for contact like that.

"Oh! Uh… What… are you doing?" Ruby asks, pulling back and expecting her friend to snap at her. Yet the heiress continued to stand there and stare at the ship that was slowly flying by, as if it was giving the passengers a good view of the stands inside.

"She's here." Was all that Weiss said before rushing for the stairs to leave. Ruby stood in shock for a second before following after her.

"Not bad guys." Yang was quick to greet the team leaving the locker room with the others right behind her.

"Ah, thanks! It was nothing." Neptune replies, trying to wave it off and getting several deadpan stares directed at him.

"Would've gone better if you would get over your fear of water." Sun elbows the taller boy in the ribs.

"Really need to work on that." Denko grins. "Hey sis, think some exposure therapy is in order?"

The little fox grins widely. "I think I can arrange that." Immediately, the blue-haired boy take cover behind Sage and by extension, Scarlet who was still unsteady on his feet and holding an ice bag.

"There's no need for that!" The hydrophobic teen says from the relative safety of his teammates. All of which were looking rather thoughtful of the idea.

"How much is it gonna cost?" Scarlet asks, much to Neptune's fear.

"Fifty a day sound good to you?" Her ears twitched and tail swayed.

'Do we get to watch?" Sage asks, apparently liking where this was going.

"How would you like to help? I do need the exits covered."

"Traitors!"

"Don't worry man, you'll be in good hands." Denko laughs. "Any other volunteers?" He asks.

"Oh! I will!" Nora was jumping in excitement.

"You will have to fight near water at some point." Pyrrha's words weren't as encouraging to Neptune as they were to others.

"I wouldn't mind helping to teach him to swim." Jaune shrugs. Ren was silent but not countering any of his teammates.

"What about you Weiss? Wanna see him in trunks?" Yang asks only to be met with silence. She blinks as she recalls the shorter girls rage from early in the match and thinks the girl is giving him the silent treatment. "Weiss?" The blonde looks around only to find that the girl was missing from the group, so was Ruby. She did see that Sun and Blake had moved away from the group to talk.

"So… how'd we do?" The blonde asks as his tail swishes around behind him.

Blake smiled as she had noticed that his tail was a decent way of reading his moods, much like her own ears… when she let them be seen. This particular pattern was indicative of him expecting praise while being proud of his actions. "You did fairly well." She teases.

He slumped a bit at her words but played with the joke. "I do my best but the other guys… I guess we could have done better." He admits with a shrug. The biggest problem with the match was the presence of the ocean terrain and Neptune's reaction to it. What few plans the team had been thrown out the window, just like how their morale was partially shattered thanks to the boys' fear.

"I guess you weren't kidding about how bad he was." Blake rubs her left arm.

Sun hung his head. "Yeah… I dunno what we can do to help him. He told me about how it started once but… how do you help that? His Semblance is all about bringing water to him."

"That… could be difficult." Blake admits with wide eyes as they stop by a small alcove and lean against the wall. It was far from a surprise that her rear made contact with the cool wall before her shoulders. Sun settled across from her in the small space.

Silence settled between them but it wasn't uncomfortable. Just a time of peace that they enjoyed together. Thankfully, the crowds didn't come near where the locker rooms are, though there were a few who either got lost or exploring. The sounds of thousands of people moving in the stadium to leave was a steady background noise.

"Anything you wanna do?" Sun asks randomly, not really expecting her wanting to do much.

"Let's just get some dinner." She suggests with a shrug. There was enough excitement with the tournament going on and participating in the fights, so doing something more mundane was fine with her.

"Works for me." He smiles as he was up for a good meal, even if the cafeteria was still rationing the meals.

"You are my star

You are the one

You make me smile

When the worlds become undone.

You are the one who sweeps me off my feet!

Yeah!"

The faunus look up to see a speaker playing music above them in the ceiling. Somehow, they had missed that little detail or had been too wrapped up in their conversation with each other.

"You totally rock

You're crazy and cool

Everything's all that I love about you

Girl of my dreams you make my life complete!"

They look at each other and laugh, remembering some of the music that had been played during the dance. Their slight blushes encouraged them to look away but they didn't move.

"And like the autumn leaves

I just can't help myself

I've fallen there's no doubt

It's you and no one else."

Memories of their interactions played out through their heads, from when they first met at the docks, the fights they were in against Roman, to the dancing they did just over a week ago…

"Is there any chance

For this dream romance?

Should I just give up?

What's a fool to do?"

Blake remembered her time with Adam and how she had thought her feelings were for the man. How they changed in the time she had known him. How she tried to deny reality for too long when he was involved before she gave up on him and ran away.

"Could you fall for me

Like I fell for you?"

Those lines… maybe it was thanks to her experience from Adam of how things can go bad but with how the boy with her now was… there were no ulterior motives that she could see. He was from Vacuo who had moved to attend Haven and was only here at Beacon for the tournament. But the thought of him just leaving to go back to his school put a bad feeling in her gut. Looking at the blonde, he seemed to be having the same thoughts as well. Maybe she really did have something for the boy who had done nothing but help her since they met.

Sure, he may have inadvertently had caused her and Weiss to have the hours long argument that led to her revealing that she was a faunus and running away, but he was the one strolling through the campus grounds who found her and provided company until she was ready to speak. It was him who helped change her ideas about the state of the White Fang to match reality and provided another view point. The attack at the docks was only possible thanks to the information he had and it was him who had to save her because she rushed in without a real plan.

She was still giving him a chance, just like when they went to the dance together, but his odds were looking pretty good right now. Maybe if when he went back to Haven…?

"We're done teasing Neptune now!" Yang announces from next to Blake, making the cat girl jump in surprise and crash into Sun who managed to react quickly enough to keep her upright, even if she'd driven the air from his lungs with her shoulder.

"Yang!" Blake screeches at the now laughing blonde.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare ya!" She had to pause to get some air. "But damn that was funny!"

Blake scowled at her teammate before noticing that Sun was still holding her. She did have half the mind to smack her for the scare but another blonde was keeping her from doing so.

"Alright, you had your fun. Leave them alone." Denko pushes Yang ahead of him as he walks by the alcove.

"See you at dinner, I'm gonna make sure we get some desserts for the victories!" Itazura waves as she follows the blondes as the others marched by, Neptune looking shaken by the ideas that were passed around at his expense. Scarlet was still being half carried by Sage, though the smaller boy seemed to be moving fine on his own now.

"Um…" Sun released his hold on her waist.

"We better go." Blake says quickly as she begins to walk away, not noticing that she was making a very tempting and bouncing sight for the monkey's eyes to do their best to avoid staring at as he followed after her.

AN: I guess you all are just waiting for the introduction of a dusty old bird in the next chapter, aren't you? Still, I felt the need to change up how the fight between SSSN and NDGO went a bit. Not just to make it fit with the changes to the students but also to make it a bit more serious. That's why Sage lasted more than ten seconds this time as one example and I tweaked a few things towards the end to remove the gag and just plain weirdly bad ending to the fight. Though, I doubt anyone will complain much about keeping some of the amusement of the fight intact. Scarlet might need more ice but he's got a buddy willing to help him.

Reviews are welcome! Thanks for reading!