Welcome to another new chapter of RWBY: Shining Destiny. No extravagant intro this time. If you like this check out my other stories. Give some love to TheBurningRuler and Nightmare 6-4. Heads up this chapter goes into a bit of a darker area.
Quick shout out CyanideLegend99. I really appreciate that and I have no intention of stopping this story any time soon.
I found Jaune in the cafeteria before class sitting by himself. I grabbed my breakfast and decided to sit with him.
"So, are you sure it's really a good idea to be sitting alone with how Cardin has been treating us?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Jaune he's picking on me too you don't need to pretend." I said.
"What is he doing to you?" He asked.
"Well from the look of it, pretty much the same thing he's doing to you." I said.
"Oh…" He said.
"Well I mean it could be worse I suppose." I said.
"Yeah…" He said.
"So… Oh I hear you were able to get the Ice Queen to help you with your homework last night." I said.
"Where did you hear that?" He asked.
"Ruby told me." I said
"Yeah, I'm still kinda surprised she agreed to it." He said.
"See I told you being yourself would get you farther than whatever that act was." I said.
"Yeah I suppose." He said.
"Well if it isn't my two best friends." Cardin said as he and his team sat next to us. "How's it going guys?"
"Can't you just leave us alone Cardin?" Jaune asked.
"Aren't friends supposed to hang out together?" Cardin said.
"They are, so why are you here?" I asked.
"Why the hostility today guys?" Cardin asked.
"Maybe they're just not awake yet." Russel said.
"Yeah they're cranky this morning." Sky said.
"Well we can't have our friends cranky on such a beautiful morning right guys?" Cardin asked.
"Right" Dove, Russel and Sky agreed.
Cardin grabbed both our trays and dumped them on our heads as Russel threw a cup of water in each of our faces. The four of them headed off to class.
"I really don't wanna lower myself to their level, but we may have to if we want them to stop." I said.
"Its not like they'll pick on us forever. We might as well just let it go." Jaune said.
"I wanna agree with you, but I mean we're huntsman too. We're just as good as them we shouldn't be letting them treat us like this." I said.
"I guess…" He said.
"Well for now let's just go get cleaned up. I'm sure Ariana will let us use her perfume again." I said.
"Wait, again?" He asked.
"Cardin did the same this to me yesterday. She sprayed me with some of her perfume so I wouldn't smell like bacon all day." I said.
"I'm not really sure which would be worse." He said as we headed for the bathroom.
"Well I'm used to it since my sister would spray me with it all the time back home." I said.
"Most of mine would too. Can't say I enjoyed it though." He said.
"You have sisters too?" I asked as we started debreakfasting ourselves.
"Seven." He said.
"Wow I thought one was bad. I can't imagine the torture you went though." I said.
"It wasn't quite as bad as you'd expect. I was just forced to play dress up… a lot." He said.
"You too? Glad I wasn't the only one subjected to that." I said.
"Bunny costume, princess outfits, Even got dressed up as a baby once." Jaune said.
"Never got put in the princess outfit thankfully, but I've had to deal with the others. Especially the baby one when her friends would come over… Those were dark days." I said. with a small laugh.
We finished and headed to the classroom. As soon as I entered, I looked for Ariana and we walked over to her.
"Morning boys." She said before sniffing the air. "Let me guess, another one of Cardin's morning acts of 'friendship?'" She asked.
"Yeah, he got us both this time." I said.
She sighed. "You two could just stand up to him you know. Instead of smelling like a girl in class every day."
"True, but if I sit next to you people will just think you put too much on rather than think it's coming from me." I said.
"Unless we end up separated because someone volunteers to fight a boarbatusk in class." She said.
"Fair point. Can we just get this over with?" I asked.
"Alright let's go outside the classroom so it's not as obvious." She said.
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this." Jaune said.
"Too bad cutie." Ariana said dragging him out by his arm.
She sprayed the two of us a couple times before we started heading back to the classroom. I sat by Ariana again while Jaune sat Two rows down in a more vacated area. Shortly after he sat down the rest of his team showed up.
"Jaune, why do you smell like perfume?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune pointed towards Ariana and me. I gave a weak smile and rubbed the back of my neck. Before she could ask Professor Goodwitch came in to start class.
"Good morning students. We'll start todays lesson by having one on one matches. We'll start with Yang Xiao Long vs Cian Riley."
Yang and I headed to the locker room to change. Once we came back out, we took our positions and waited for Goodwitch to give the signal.
"You got this Yang!" Blake yelled.
"Show her who's boss Cian!" Ariana yelled.
"Begin." Goodwitch said.
I immediately began charging my semblance into my gloves and boots. Yang fired four shots from her gauntlets while charging towards me. I fired two punches at her first two shots and dodged the other two. I jumped up for a spin kick to send two shots from my boots at her. She dodged one and fired a shot at the other. I charged energy into my swords as she closed in on me. She started in on me with a flurry of punches and I blocked each one with my arms. I charged into my boots again and sent a shot to her abdomen knocking her back a couple steps. I ran towards her and sent a roundhouse kick with my still charged boot to her head knocking her back. She got back up and continued firing at me as she charged at me. The closer she got she started glowing yellow. I had managed to dodge her shots and charged my fist as it collided with hers. The force of the impact sent me flying back while she only slid a couple feet back. She started running at me as I drew my swords. Before I could use them, she kicked them out of my hands and fired a shot to my chest. Knocking me back to the ground.
"That's enough." Goodwitch said.
I checked the score to see it was forty-seven to nineteen. Yang walked over and offered me a hand. I accepted and we headed back to the locker room.
"So, if you can fight like that why do you put up with Cardin?" She asked.
"I guess it doesn't really bother me. If the bullying bothered me that much, I probably wouldn't still be wearing this mask. Plus considering what I've had to deal with between Ariana and my sister. What Cardin does is nothing. I'd rather come to class smelling like a girl than have to put up with my sister trying to put pony tails in my hair." I said.
"That honestly doesn't sound as bad." She said.
"Rubber bands, and it was never long enough to be really possible. So, it was mostly a bunch of hair pulling." I said.
"Still, you give him a fight like that, and I can't see him bothering you much longer." She said.
"I know, but is it really worth going down to his level?" I asked.
"No, I suppose I wouldn't wanna degrade myself like that either. Still, it's hard to watch a friend go through that." She said.
"You're free to break his legs any time." I said.
"Don't temp me, or give Nora permission." She said.
"Then don't worry about it, I'm not. I appreciate you and everyone else looking out for Jaune and I, but it's our fight. I don't feel like it's a fight worth having and Jaune… well I'm sure he's got his reasons." I said.
"Any idea why he puts up with it?" She asked.
"No clue, I think he's just hoping eventually they move on to someone else and forget about him." I said.
"If that's the case he'd better hope it's sooner rather than later." She said.
"To each his own." I said as we headed back to the classroom.
The next few fights went on with Ruby facing off against Pyrrha in a mostly one-sided fight with Ruby getting a few hard shots in. Ultimately Pyrrha walked away with the victory after a final score of seventy-four to eighteen. Next was Ariana versus a girl named Makoto Breeze. Ariana seemed to toy with her a lot which cost her quite a bit of her aura. She turned the battle around fairly quickly and came out with the win at thirty-nine to seven. After classes were over I made my way out to the fountain in the courtyard. I pulled my scroll out and called mom.
"Hello." Mom said.
"Hey mom, How's everything going back home?" I asked.
"You know nothing happens around here. More importantly how are things going there? Have you made any friends yet? Are you eating right? You're remembering to change your underwear right?" She asked.
I gave a small sigh. "Multiple, yes, and yes."
"I figured, But I'm your mom I have to say those things. How are classes going?" She asked.
"Port's class is alright, it would be better if he could stay on topic. Had my first combat class today. I didn't win, but it was close for most of it. I haven't had a lot of time with Dr. Oobleck or Professor Peach yet. I know Oobleck teaches a history class, but I don't really know what Peach teaches. It wasn't outlined very well." I said.
"Just make sure you don't fall behind. Not that I'm not happy to hear from you, but is there a reason you called?" She asked.
"I said I'd call." I said.
"Yeah, but I didn't actually expect you to. I was worried something was wrong. You don't need to worry about calling me. Go have fun with your friends." She said.
"Alright, but now you can't say I never call." I said.
"Yes, I can I'm still your mom. Aelita wants to talk to you." She said.
"What's up Dork ready to come home?" Aelita asked.
"Let's see friends who like me. Sister who tortures me. Think I'll tough it out." I said.
"I'm offended. I never tortured you." She said.
"Then what would you call it?" I asked.
"Sisterly love of course." She said.
"Riight." I said.
"I'm gonna hand the phone back to mom once you're done call my scroll." She whispered. "Alright Mom you can have him back. I'm gonna head to Jessica's."
"Alright have fun. She's just as much a handful as ever." Mom said.
"No kidding." I said.
"Well I won't keep you from your friends any more. Good luck, stay safe." She said.
"I'll do my best." I said.
"I know you will. Goodbye, love you." She said.
"Love you too." I said before hanging up. I called my sisters scroll right away.
"Yo" Aelita said.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Just wanted to make sure everything was going alright I know if something is bothering you, you aren't going to tell Mom to keep her from worrying." She said.
"Its going fine. I've got at least eight new friends so far. One kinda friend. I'm not sure what I consider her yet. And only one team that's picking on me. No worse than you ever did." I said.
"Okay two things first off a girl you don't know what to consider? You'd better explain that." She said.
"She's on my team. She likes to make people uncomfortable just to get a reaction out of them. The way she does it though is by flirting with them, but it's like incredibly sexual. I'm not sure I consider her a friend yet, but she's my teammate so I guess I can't really hate her." I said.
"Just make sure you tell her to back off if she does something you don't like. I'm the only one who gets to pick on you like that… That came out wrong." She said.
"I'm just gonna pretend you said what you meant to avoid making that any more awkward than you already made it." I said.
"Anyway, speaking of people picking on you what do you mean you have a team picking on you?" She asked.
"One of the teams has been tripping me and throwing food on me. Like I said it's nothing compared to what I had to deal with after living with you." I said.
"You're gonna stand up to them, right?" She asked.
"I didn't plan on it." I said.
"Why." She asked in a serious tone.
"Like I said. I've gone though worse with you so…" I said before she cut me off.
"Damnit Cian you can't let people walk all over you just because I used to fuck with you. Do you think Dad would tell you to ignore them?" She asked.
"Don't start…" I said.
"You wanted to be a huntsman. Fucking act like one. Don't let people bully you. Give them a reason not to fuck with you. You let them walk all over you now you'll lose any respect you have and more and more people will continue to take advantage of you and walk all over you." She said.
I didn't say anything. I wanted to, but I couldn't get the words to come out the way I wanted.
"I know you didn't get a lot of experience with hat back home, but you're not a kid anymore. You need to stand up for yourself if you want to be taken seriously as a huntsman. You kept saying you wanted to be like Dad, right? We both know if he were in your situation, he wouldn't be taking this. Maybe I should have gone easier on you and maybe I should have had this conversation sooner. Maybe then you wouldn't be so afraid to stand up to someone. I know it's not generally in your nature to retaliate against something like this, but you're going to have to get used to it if you wanna be a huntsman." She said.
"Yeah I know. That doesn't mean it's easy." I said.
"I know, but you're in the big leagues now. You can't just continue putting up with shit like that. It's a little food and some tripping now, but how far will you let it go?" She asked.
"Alright, I'll try to deal with it." I said.
"No, you'll try to keep up with your grades. You WILL deal with this." She said.
"Alright." I said.
"I wanna see you succeed where I couldn't." She said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Nothing don't worry about it. I gotta go. The next time I talk to you I better hear this situation isn't a problem anymore." She said.
"If you say so." I said hanging up.
'Where she couldn't? What does that mean?' I thought as I started heading back to the dorms.
As I entered the building, I saw Cardin and his team walking away from a girl that was on the ground crying. She had shoulder length brown hair with fox ears folded downward and was wearing a light blue long sleeve cutoff sweatshirt with a pink crop top underneath and a white skirt. I walked over and knelt down next to her.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"What do you think?" She said hiding her face.
"You're right, stupid question." I said.
"I'm fine just… leave me alone." She said.
"I can't just leave you here like this. Let's at least go somewhere else. You don't need people coming by and making rumors about you." I said.
I helped her up and we walked outside.
"So, what did Cardin and his goons do this time?" I asked
"I'd… rather not talk about it…" She said.
"That's fine. Anything I can do to help?" I asked.
"Nothing you'd probably be willing to do…" She whispered.
"Never know until you ask." I said.
"Kill that son-of-a-bitch." She said.
"Well… I wasn't expecting that. Look he picks on me too, but that's no reason to want him dead." I said.
"Near fatal injury?" she asked.
"Still might be a little far." I said.
"Full body paralysis?" she asked.
"Okay, I wasn't gonna press this, but what did he do that was so bad for you to want this?" I asked.
"First let me ask you something. Why do you even care? We don't know each other, you just happened to stumble across me when you walked by." She said.
"Well that jerk has been bullying me and one of my friends. I saw another victim of his and I wanted to help." I said.
"Then why didn't you go after him instead?" She asked.
"Cause there's no point in going after him if I don't know the reason I'd be going after him. You can't go into a fight like this with no prior knowledge of the situation. Besides four against one I'm not going to win." I said.
"I guess that makes sense. I just wish he'd leave me alone already…" She said tears starting to form in her eyes again.
"Tell me what he did and maybe I can help." I said.
She looked around before pulling me further from campus. "You know I should have no reason to trust you since I hardly know you right?" I nodded. "Then I want you to swear on your life that you won't tell anyone about this."
"I swear." I said.
"He's been… sexually assaulting me…" She said.
"What? I don't mean to sound insensitive, but you're training to become a huntress how do you just let him get away with that?" I asked.
"You think I want him doing that? I hate it I hate him. I hate that my teammates don't even seem to care. Besides he's bullying you too, how can you let him do it to you?" She asked.
"Yeah that's fair. Wait, what do you mean your teammates don't care?" I asked.
"They think I'm just saying this stuff to get attention…" She said.
"You've gotta be kidding me. Don't you have any friends you could go to for help?" I asked.
"No. I don't." She said.
"Have you tried telling any of the professors or Ozpin?" I asked.
"Do you know how hard it was just telling you?" She asked.
"Alright then why did you tell me instead of them?" I asked.
"I don't know…" She said dropping to the ground again.
"Hey, I'm sorry. This is serious though you can't just let him get away with this." I said.
"I know, but I don't know what to do…" She said.
"I think you should at least inform one of the teachers so they can look into it in case he's doing this to anyone else." I said.
"Okay… I'll do it tomorrow…" She said.
"Do you want someone to go with you?" I asked.
"No… I can do it." She said.
"Alright let me know if you change your mind or just want someone to talk to." I said.
"So, I'm guessing you want my number then?" She asked.
"That would probably be a good idea. It's a good thing you mentioned it I'd have probably forgotten." I said.
We exchanged numbers and started heading back to the dorms.
"So, tell me again… why are you being so nice to me?" She asked.
"I saw another of Cardin's victims, and I wanted to help. I just never expected Cardin would go this far." I said.
"So, you had no other motive? You're not just trying to lure me into a false sense of security or anything?" She asked.
"What? No! Never!" I said with a slightly raised voice.
"Alright calm down." She said.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'm getting kinda hungry. How about we head to the cafeteria?" I asked.
"I don't know…" She said.
"We'll sit with my friends. They can be pretty weird, but they're trustworthy." I said.
"If you say so…" She said.
We made our way to the cafeteria and I saw team RWBY and JNPR already eating together. We got our food together and sat next to them.
"Hey Cian. Who's your new friend?" Ruby asked.
"This is… um…" I started saying.
"I'm Hailey Sakura." She said.
"Did you really not know her name?" Blake asked.
"I never got around to asking it." I said.
"Didn't you look at what I put in your scroll?" Hailey asked.
"I was going to… eventually." I said.
"You got her number before you even got her name? I'll admit I'm impressed." Yang asked.
"It never came up." I said.
"Well with how well the two of you seem to be getting along you'd think it would have come up at some point." Pyrrha said.
"Unless they were having too much fun." Nora said.
"Nora!" Ren and I yelled.
"It wasn't anything like that. He just helped me out after Cardin was bullying me…" She said.
"You too? How many other students are they attacking?" Yang asked.
"Someone has to put an end to this." Ren said.
"Well in that case!" Nora said standing up before Ren pulled her back down.
"Without getting kicked out." Ren said.
"So, was he picking on you because of your ears?" Blake asked.
"He has in the past…" Hailey said.
"I saw him push her down after knocking some books out of her hand. So, I helped her pick them up." I said.
"That jerk." Ruby said.
"Hey, lets change the subject. Pyrrha and Ruby had a good match in class today." I said.
"Are you kidding? She totally kicked my butt." Ruby said.
"You did better than you're giving yourself credit for." Pyrrha said.
"Considering you she's a four-time Mistral Regional Tournament champion you should be grateful you did as well as you did." Weiss said.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" I asked.
"For the Ice Queen yes." Yang said.
"Hey!" Weiss said.
After we finished eating Pyrrha and I walked with Hailey back to her room.
"You know you guys didn't have to walk me back right?" Hailey asked.
"Yeah, but we're usually just to nice for our own good right Pyrrha?" I asked.
"Right." Pyrrha said.
"Well I guess I'll see you guys in class tomorrow." She said.
"Looking forward to it." I said.
She went into her room and Pyrrha and I started heading back to our dorms.
"Why did you lie about what actually happened?" Pyrrha asked.
"You saw through that? She made promise me not to say what actually happened. I don't intend to break that promise." I said.
"You know we can't help if we don't know the truth." She said.
"I know… It's a difficult situation. I convinced her to talk to one of the professors tomorrow. I think just having a few extra friends for now will help some. She seemed a little better after we changed the subject." I said.
"Hopefully she'll remember to talk to someone. They can't keep getting away with this." She said.
"I hope…" I said.
After I returned to my dorm, I saw a message from Hailey.
"You didn't tell Pyrrha what actually happened did you?" She asked.
"No. She asked but, I told her you made me promise not to say anything. Pyrrha isn't one to push the envelope but she seems worried about you. Just make sure you tell someone tomorrow so we can hopefully put an end to this." I replied.
"Alright. I'll try…" She said.
After that I tried to get some sleep. A week had passed by, and Hailey hadn't told anyone about what was going on. Things had only seemed to get worse. Cardin was getting more violent with his bullying towards Jaune and I. I don't know what he was doing to Hailey, but she seemed to only get more and more depressed. Today for combat class Pyrrha and I decided to sit by the door so we could stop her from leaving.
We left the classroom and waited for Hailey to walk out. As soon as she did I grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.
"Not again. Please just leave me alone" Hailey said. closing her eyes.
"Hailey calm down." I said.
She opened her eyes and saw me and Pyrrha. "What are you guys doing?"
"You promised us you were going to tell one of the professors what's been going on. We didn't want it to come to this, but it's been a week and things have only been getting worse." I said.
"We just want to help you. We want this to stop just as much as you do." Pyrrha said.
"Did you tell her?" Hailey asked scarred.
"He didn't tell me anything. We can see that whatever is going on is causing you a lot of mental anguish though. We don't want to see you getting hurt." Pyrrha said.
Once all the students had exited the classroom, we walked her in.
"Do you three have a question?" Goodwitch asked.
"Not so much a question." Pyrrha said.
"We have something important we need to talk to you about." I said shutting the door to the classroom.
"We'd like to keep it anonymous if at all possible." Pyrrha said.
"I'm listening." Goodwitch said.
"Cardin has been bullying multiple students Including myself, Jaune and Hailey. It has only been getting worse over the last week." I said.
"Is this true Ms. Sakura?" Goodwitch asked.
"Yes…" Hailey said.
"What has been going on?" Goodwitch asked.
"It started out just stupid stuff like name calling and tripping people. He's been progressively been getting more violent. He's pushed people into walls, slammed their heads down into their lunch trays. Among other things…" I said.
"You've all witness this?" Goodwitch asked.
"Hailey and I are victims. Although what he's been doing to her is much worse." I said.
"Cian…" She whispered.
"Is this true?" Goodwitch asked.
Hailey didn't say anything.
"Ms. Sakura if something is going on you need to be able to tell us." Goodwitch said.
"Hailey I'm sorry, but if you don't tell her I will. We can't let this continue." I said.
"…I know… He's… been… sexually assulting me…" Hailey said standing up. She undid the button on her vest and took it off revealing bruises all over her arms. Pyrrha placed her hands over her mouth in shock.
Goodwitch looked over her arms. "How long has this been going on?"
"… since about the second day of classes." Hailey said.
"Why haven't you told anyone until now?" Goodwitch asked.
"I was scared…" Hailey said.
"How long have you two known about this?" Goodwitch asked.
"I'm just know finding out. I knew something was up not this." Pyrrha said.
"I've known for about a week." I said.
"Why didn't you say something?" Goodwitch asked.
"I made him promise not to…" Hailey said.
Professor Goodwitch sighed. "I'll inform Ozpin about this and we'll look into it. In the mean time I recommend having someone with you when you're not in your dorm. Would you two be willing to help out with that?"
"Absolutely." Pyrrha said.
"Of course." I said.
"Very well. Ms. Nikos if you wouldn't mind taking Ms. Sakura to the infirmary to get looked at better. I'll write a note, so she isn't asked too many questions. I'd like a word with Mr. Riley." Goodwitch said.
"Yes, mam." Pyrrha said.
Hailey put her vest back on and the two of them left the classroom.
"Mr. Riley I understand wanting to respect your friends wishes, but something this serious should have been reported as soon as you found out." Goodwitch said.
"I know, but I wanted her to at least know she had someone she could trust. It sounded like I wasn't the only one she told, but the first to believe her." I said.
"Then let me ask why you believe her if others don't?" She asked.
"Because I first found her crying as Cardin and his team were walking away. They've been bullying me, Jaune and who knows how many others. So, I had no reason not to believe her." I said.
"I see. As I said. I'll be informing Ozpin about these incidents and we will be looking into them. If anything else happens you need to let us know." She said.
"I will." I said.
"Good. You're free to go." She said.
I headed for the infirmary and passed Ruby along the way.
"Hey Cian." She said.
"What's up?" She asked.
"I'm gonna go meet up with Pyrrha and Hailey." I said.
"Oh, Is everything alright with her? I feel like she's been getting quieter and I'm worried we might have done something wrong." She said.
"It's nothing you guys did. Hopefully it won't be an issue soon. Although you might be able to help." I said.
"Just tell me what to do." She said.
"Get your team and the rest of JNPR together and Pyrrha and I bring Hailey by to explain." I said.
"Anything else?" She asked.
"If I think of anything, I'll let you know." I said.
We went our separate ways and I continued to the infirmary. When I got there Pyrrha was waiting outside.
"I'm guessing she's being examined?" I asked.
"Yes, did you know it had gotten that bad?" She asked.
"No. I knew about the abuse, but not that it was going this far." I said.
"How can anyone be so cruel yet want to be a huntsman?" She asked.
"Maybe that's it. Maybe he isn't wanting to be a huntsman. Could just be an excuse to get stronger." I said.
"Whatever his reasoning is, it's not right" She said.
"Yeah… While we still got a bit to talk. I have Ruby getting her and your teams together. Hailey will probably be upset at first, but we're gonna have to tell them so they can help her out too until this whole thing is resolved." I said.
"It won't be easy getting her in their room you know." She said.
"It wasn't gonna be easy getting her to talk to Goodwitch either. This is just the same plan part two." I said.
"So, if you don't mind my asking. Have you developed feelings for this girl?" She asked.
"I'm not really sure if its that or I just can't stand to see her suffering like this. Why is someone getting jealous?" I asked smiling.
"What! No. I was just simply asking is all." She said.
"Really? So, this has nothing to do with the fact Weiss and Jaune have been getting along surprisingly well?" I asked.
"Of course not. As I said, I'm happy for him." She said.
"I believe you, but I also feel like you're trying to hide how you really feel." I said.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're referring to." She said.
"Alright, I'll let it go for now." I said.
A few minutes later Hailey emerged from the examination room.
"Hey… I hope you didn't get in too much trouble because of me…" Hailey said holding her left arm.
"Nah, she just wanted to clarify a few details about my situation in this." I said.
"Oh, that's good at least." Hailey said.
"Did the nurse say anything?" Pyrrha asked.
"Not really. She gave me a note to get out of having to participate in combat class for a week or so until my aura heals my wounds… Provided they don't get worse." Hailey said.
"Don't worry, we'll make sure Cardin doesn't get another chance." I said.
"We?" Hailey asked.
"Ms. Goodwitch did say to have someone with you until this is sorted out." Pyrrha said.
"Cian Riley and Pyrrha Nikos at your service m'lady." I said bowing.
"Umm, thanks." Hailey said blushing. "If you don't mind, I'd like to head back to my room for the night."
Pyrrha and I looked at each other.
"Is something wrong guys?" Hailey asked.
"Actually, Ruby was planning to have a movie night tonight. She wanted me to see if you'd like to come." I said.
"It would be a good way to relax after everything you've been though." Pyrrha said.
"I don't know…" Hailey said.
"We're not gonna force you to come, but I think Ruby was really looking forward to hanging out with you. I think she's just as worried about you as we were." I said.
"You didn't tell her anything did you?" Hailey asked quietly.
"I swear I didn't." I said.
"Alright… I'll come." Hailey said.
"Sweet, then let's get going before they start without us." I said.
The three of us walked to team RWBY's dorm. I knocked on the door and Ruby answered.
"Hey Cian, Pyrrha, Hailey. Come on in." Ruby said.
We walked in and I shut the door behind us. Pyrrha and I stood by it.
"So, what's up Cian? Why did you want us all to meet up?" Yang asked.
"Cian?" Hailey asked confused.
"I'm sorry Hailey, but we're all your friends. They deserve to know too." I said.
"Know what?" Nora asked.
"Alright before I start. Nora and Yang, both of you have to swear not to do anything." I said.
"Cian please…" Hailey begged.
"Hailey you can be mad at me all you want afterward. We're all worried about you. We all want to help. Well except maybe Weiss." I said.
"Hey!" Weiss said.
"Hailey, it'll be alright. I promise." Pyrrha said.
Hailey looked toward the ground. "Alright…"
"Alright… So, this isn't gonna be easy to explain but… Hailey has been getting sexually assaulted by Cardin." I said.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Yang yelled.
"Hailey…" Ruby said quietly.
"Now before anyone goes off and tried to beat some sense into him, Nora Yang, we talked with Ms. Goodwitch and they are going to look into this. For now, the best course of action is to leave it alone and act like we don't know anything. We all wanted this to be resolved and we're one step closer to that. We just need to wait for now." I said.
"You seriously want us to just sit here and pretend nothing is going on?" Yang yelled.
"Cardin is going too far now you can't expect us to just ignore this." Nora said.
"Trust me I'm not happy about this whole situation either. This is what we wanted and unfortunately this is the result we have to deal with." I said.
"You really expect us to just ignore him?" Weiss said.
"I mean you guys did a good job at it when you only knew about him bullying Jaune and I. You never jumped up to help us out without us asking. If I remember right we kept getting told to stand up to him ourselves. Not only that but like I said you guys wanted a way to have this dealt with without getting expelled. We have that chance now." I said.
"He's right. We may not like it, but this is the best course of action." Ren said.
"But Ren…" Nora said.
"There has to be something we can do at least." Blake said.
"Well Goodwitch did ask us to look after her while they are looking into this." I said.
"So, if anyone would be willing to help, I'm sure it'll be appreciated." Pyrrha said.
"That's what friends are for right?" Ruby said.
"It might not be much, but at least it's something." Blake said.
"I'm in." Jaune said.
"Really?" I asked.
"Well if you can take a stand like this. I don't see why I can't." Jaune said.
"Nice I assume Ren is on board as well so that just leaves Yang Nora and Weiss." I said.
"If I have time. I'll do what I can." Weiss said.
"Alright, but if anything else happens tell us right away." Yang said.
"If he does anything else Yang and I'll make sure he gets it back twice as hard." Nora said.
"Nora." Ren said.
"What? He gets away with it." Nora said.
"I might have a few ideas that won't leave marks." Yang said.
"Yang." Ruby said.
"Okay how about this. If he tries anything else, then you can use violence." I said.
"Deal." Yang and Nora said.
"I opened pandora's box again, didn't I?" I asked.
"Probably." Pyrrha said.
"Damnit… Oh well. Anyway, Hailey I suppose I should…" I paused when I saw tears falling from her. "Hailey?"
"Thank you… everyone. I'll try not to be a bother for you all…" Hailey said.
"All in a day's work for the Hero of Beacon" I said bowing.
"Lame!" Yang said.
"Really? Queen of the terrible puns is calling that lame?" I said.
"At least mine are pun-ny. Eh?" Yang said.
Ruby threw a pillow in her sister's face.
"So, if that's settled, I sort of promised Hailey a movie night. So anyone interested?" I asked.
"I've got homework to do." Weiss said.
"Oh, come on Ice Queen you've got all weekend to do it. Relax for a bit." Yang said.
"Given what we'd just heard I suppose that would be a good idea to calm us down." Ren said.
"So… what are we gonna watch then?" Ruby asked.
"Action!" Nora yelled.
"How about a comedy?" Yang asked.
"You could use the new material." I said.
"Oh haha." Yang said.
"We could watch a romance movie and get these "men" to cry." Pyrrha said with a small laugh.
"You really want a whole room full of people crying after this whole situation?" I said.
"Afraid to have a certain someone see you vulnerable?" Hailey asked.
"Really? You too?" I asked.
"Aww does Cian have a little crush on someone?" Yang asked.
"I never said. that." I said.
"He didn't deny it either." Blake said.
"Can we just get back to picking a movie?" Ruby said.
"Does anyone actually have a suggestion?" Jaune asked.
After a few more minutes of arguing we finally decided on the movie This Means War. Ruby closed the curtain while Blake set up the movie. Ren and Nora left briefly to get some snacks. Once everyone was back in the room we started the movie. I messaged Ariana telling her to let Archer know I'd probably be back a bit late. She replied telling me to have fun with a winking face.
'You'd think I'd learn to phrase things better with her by now.' I thought.
About halfway through the movie I started dozing off. I was shaken awake by Pyrrha.
"For the record I tried to stop her." Pyrrha said.
"What are you talking about?" I said before yawning.
"You know, you two do look really cute together like this." Yang said looking at her scroll.
"Huh?" I asked.
Yang hopped down from her bed and showed me what she was looking at. Apparently after I had passed out Hailey had done the same thing. The picture showed Hailey with her head on my shoulder while we were both passed out.
"You're gonna blackmail me with this aren't you?" I asked.
"Who's not funny now?" Yang asked.
"Speaking of which, where is Hailey?" I asked looking around.
"Ren and Nora took her back to her room a few minutes ago." Blake said.
"After we showed her the picture too." Yang said.
"You did more than that Yang…" Ruby said.
"What did you do." I asked slightly worried.
"Check your scroll." Blake said.
"Again, I tried to stop her and Nora." Pyrrha said.
I looked at my scroll and saw that the same picture was now my background.
"You should probably think about putting a lock on your scroll." Blake said.
"Please tell me that's all you did." I asked.
"Yep that's all I did." Yang said.
"Nora sent the picture to Hailey using your scroll." Weiss said.
I sighed. "Anything else?"
"No, after that we managed to get your scroll away from them." Blake said.
"Okay so what did they do that wasn't on my scroll?" I asked.
"Nothing. By then Nora and I had our fun." Yang said.
"Was that really a good idea considering what she's been though?" I asked.
"We told her it was only a joke to try and help break the tension a bit. We assured her we'd delete everything once we'd had our fun with you. We didn't send the pic to anyone other than the two of you. Besides you two looked so cute together I couldn't not have you two see it." Yang said.
"Even after we explained everything, she didn't seem that upset about it." Blake said.
"Really? That's kinda surprising." I said.
A knock came at the door.
"I got it." Pyrrha said.
Pyrrha opened the door with Ren Nora and Hailey on the other side.
"I thought you guys were taking her back to her room?" Pyrrha asked.
"About that…" Nora said.
"When we got there, we saw that Sky was there. Apparently, he's dating one of Hailey's teammates." Ren said.
"Great… because that isn't gonna complicate things further." I said.
"So, we got a few of her things and said we were having a girl's night and that she'd be spending the night in our room." Nora said.
"What about Ren?" I asked.
"Oh, I just said he lost a bet and was forced to be our butler for the night." Nora said.
"Which is why I'm carrying everything." Ren said.
"I told you I could have taken some of it on the way back…" Hailey said.
"We had to make it convincing though, in case they would have followed us." Nora said.
"I'm sorry Ren" Hailey said.
"It's not a problem." Ren said.
"So, I guess we're having a sleepover then?" Ruby asked.
"Looks like it. Unless anyone has any objections." Yang said.
No one said anything.
"I guess it's settled then." Ruby said.
"I'll get you a sleeping bag." Blake said.
"Thank you again." Hailey said.
"No problem." Ruby said.
"You guys know this is only gonna work for the weekend, right?" Weiss asked.
"She's right, we'll need to think of a backup idea." Jaune said.
"We can save that for tomorrow. For now, we should probably get some sleep. I should probably be getting back anyway. I'm sure Archer's got some speech he's ready to give me for coming back late." I said.
"Well then I guess you're stuck here too." Yang said.
"Wait what?" I asked.
"Well there's no point in going back now if you're just gonna get yelled at. Besides you I'm sure you wouldn't wanna leave poor Hailey after what you just found out. She'd want her best friend with her." Yang said smiling.
"You know, I know you're playing me. Sadly, you're also right. As long as Hailey is alright with it." I said.
"I-it your choice." Hailey said with a slight blush.
"I mean I'm sure I could just crash in JNPR's dorm too." I said.
"Wow, I'm not sure who's denser between you and Vomit-boy." Yang said.
"Huh?" Jaune and I both said.
"Never mind. You're crashing here." Yang said.
"I'm not winning this argument, am I?" I asked.
"Nope." Yang said throwing me a sleeping bag.
"Alright I give." I said.
"And just like that his kryptonite is showing." Blake said.
"No I… but… oh screw it." I said opening the sleeping bag.
"I'm gonna let that one slide." Yang said.
I let out a sigh.
"On that note I suppose we should be saying goodnight." Pyrrha said.
We said goodnight as team JNPR headed to their room. Once Hailey and I had our sleeping bags situated we turned the light out and tried getting some sleep. I probably would have fallen asleep right away if my scroll hadn't gone off. Hailey had messaged me.
"I'm sorry you got forced to stay the night." She said.
"Why? It's not your fault. If anyone should apologize its Yang." I replied.
"Speaking of which… I'm guessing you saw the picture…" She said.
"Yeah… I'm really sorry about that." I replied.
"It's alright, I know they were just joking around." She said.
"Just out of curiosity… What did you think when you saw it?" She said.
"Well at first I was mostly upset with Yang and Nora. I will say Yang was right about it being kinda cute though." I replied.
"No, I mean that you looked cute like that." I replied.
"I mean the pose was cute." I replied.
"I'm gonna stop before I say something worse." I replied.
"Lol It's okay." She said.
"For the record. You looked cute too." She said.