Shiro walked into his dorm and was suddenly met with the fact that he had never spoken to Willow who was now doing her best not to cry. Remembering the way she had looked when she ran off and the threat that Jaune had given him Shiro moved a little closer and sat down next to her on the bed she was laying on.
He couldn't look at her with what he was about to say and that was fine. Willow was face down in her pillow and had just now managed to stop shaking. "I'm sorry." Shiro said.
Her response was muffled but Shiro could understand her. "What for?"
It was clear that she was trying to find out if Shiro was sorry for not loving her. And he wasn't totally sure how to answer that question. His first instinct was to tell her that he was sorry for hurting her but that was too vague. He needed something more specific
"I'm sorry for not seeing sooner, my blindness put you in a very bad position. I'm not going to pretend to love you, you deserve better than that." he reached out and set his hand on her shoulder. When he felt her tense up before relaxing he cursed mentally.
He was telling her that he didn't love her but also going so far as to try and physically console her. That was counterproductive. Smoothly pulling his hand back he continued. " there is someone out there who will love you the way you deserve to be loved, but that isn't me." getting up he chose to give her the room for a little while but when he was at the door he finished their talk by saying.
"I know that this isn't fair, but I can't change that, but I can't lie to you, you're one of my best friends and dear partner but," he paused for a moment. He knew that his words were gonna sting but they still needed to be said. "But I am not in love with you."
Gently closing the door Shiro decided to take a walk. As he was doing so he saw Jaune and Yang emerging from their maintenance closet while putting some of their clothes back on. When they saw Shiro Yang started to turn red at the fact that her cousin was seeing her in her underwear but Jaune made a beeline for him.
Wrapping his hands around Shiro's collar he shoved the boy against the wall before asking him. "My sister is crying, why is she crying?"
Shiro wasn't sure how Jaune knew that he had spoken to Willow but somehow he did and Shiro wasn't going to argue with it.
"She knows where she stands, and I did it as gently as I could" Shiro said, hoping to placate the nearly raging beast in front of him. It seemed to work as he was set down and Jaune left without another word. Smoothly wrapping an arm around Yang and walking in the direction of the team JNPR dorm.
Shiro knew that he needed to get his outfit ready but first he had to make sure that the rest of his team was okay. Checking his scroll he saw that Naomi was back so he called her. There was a few rings before Sun answered. "Hello Naomi is a little busy, who is this?" Shiro wasn't known for his anger but he was getting tired of having his teammates either not answer their scrolls or answer them long enough to offer an excuse for why they weren't where they should be and then hang up.
"I'm her team leader and if she isn't the one holding this scroll in the next ten seconds I'm gonna kill you the first chance I get." he growled. The monkey faunus nodded his understanding and quickly handed the scroll to Naomi who had been working at her desk.
"Hey boss wadaya need?" she asked.
"Are you okay?" he knew that in hindsiught that would seem stupid but he needed to get a status report from her.
"yep I'm at team SSSN's dorm working on a project for Oobleck," she was going to say something when he looked at her scroll and said. "I have a second call coming in. I'm gonna talk to you later." the call ended and Shiro sighed in annoyance. He was about to call Olivia when she rounded the corner with her arm around one of the soldiers from the Atlas forces she had been staying with.
"Morning boss, this is Mitch, we met last night." She sounded like she was still drunk and from the smell of both of them he could tell that they were.
Nodding his head Shiro said. "Mitch is it?" when the boy nodded Shiro leaned in close and started to whisper into his ear. Olivia couldn't hear him but she could see Mitch's face. It quickly twisted in fear and disgust before he took his arm away from Olivia and ran back the way he came.
"Mitch, Mitch where are you going?" Olivia yelled after him. When he was around the corner she looked at Shiro with death in her eyes. "What did you tell him?" she growled.
"Nothing, " Shiro answered. " Just who your father was and what he was going to do to Mitch when I told him the two of you were stumbling drunk towards the team dorm."
Olivia yelled out in frustration wildly swinging a right hook at Shiro that was telegraphed and easily slipped. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a boy to even look at me?" she yelled trying again with her left hand this time.
Shiro ducked the shot and L stepped away to Olivia's left. He then hit her with a light teep kick that staggered her into the came back still swinging wildly which meant that Shiro kept slipping the hooks and when needed countering with body shots that were more akin to a shove than a strike. After several attempts Olivia yelled. " You bastard, I finally got a boy who was willing to spend time with me and you run him off."
Shiro was starting to think that he may have made a mistake but that wasn't true. If that boy ran off the first time he heard the name James Ironwood then he wasn't sticking around for long. But Olivia was still a little buzzed and angry so he needed to get out of this minefield.
He didn't want to hurt her so that ruled out using his kickboxing in any serious capacity. Instead he needed to wrestle or find a way to lead her into their dorm. Given that the last time he tried to wrestle he woke up several days later in a hospital bed he was going to go with the later option.
Shiro dropped his hands and leaned to his left. He was trying to draw out a right hook of straight both of which he could evade and then work to create a new angle that allowed him to back into their dorm. .
If he hadn't spent years training his reflexes then the right round kick that Olivia threw at him would have probably taken his head off. More frustrating was the way that she threw it. Unlike Shiro who threw round kicks like his leg was a club Olivia brought up her leg bent at the knee and snapped her lower leg out at his head.
It meant that letting her swing threw and give him a better angle wasn't going to happen. If he was willing to take out one of her legs then he very easily could. A heavy leg kick to someone on one leg would be very painful for her but she earned it when she tried to head kick him.
Stepping back into range, Shiro again lowered his hands and leaned to the right. Most folks had a hard time throwing a round kick with their lead leg and Oliva was standing with her left foot enough she swung a wide left hook.
Too wide it was a setup for that round kick, and he was waiting for it. Blitzing in, Shiro caught her kick at the thigh looping his left hand over and then feeding it out under her leg while his right grabbed a fist full of her jacket at the left shoulder.
Olivia was hoping to stay on her feet so when Shiro kicked her hard in the back of the left thigh she went up into the air and came down on her back. Shiro didn't need to see her to know that she was winded. Instead he kept his overhook on her leg and rolled her onto her belly pinning her right knee to the floor and threading his left leg into the back of her right knee. Leaning forward he grabbed and under hook on her left shoulder and an overhook across her face and down to his left hand. He locked his hands together in what his Uncle had called an "s" grip.
He had been taught this pin by his Uncle so that if he ever needed to do what he was doing now he could. Of course it was meant more for Yang than an angry teammate but that was irrelevant. Olivia wasn't going anywhere until Shiro allowed her to.
He could have made the pin hurt more but that wasn't the point he didn't want to hurt Olivia he wanted to remind her who was in charge and who wasn't.
He would prefer that she not need him to do that in such a violent way but if she was going to force his hand then so be it.
After a few seconds of struggling Olivia gave up and waited for Shiro to let her go. Which he promptly did. Releasing his grip and getting up. When she did likewise he opted no to speak and simply pointed at the door to their room. His face made his mood clear and after the way their last fight went she wasn't going to argue with him.
She shuffled off with her metaphorical tail between her legs. Once the door was closed he went back to planning what was next. He had been intending to get something to wear for the dance but then he saw Willow and then Jaune and then Olivia.
He used his scroll to find out where he could find a decent set of clothes. Reaching into his wallet he took out his spare key to Bumblebee. It wasn't a commonly known fact but Shiro was also licensed to ride a motorcycle. Although he would have to use Yang's he would have to bring it back before Yang noticed but something about the way her and Jaune were walking told him that she was going to be a little busy.
Heading down to the garage he got Bumblebee and loaded it onto a bullhead. He was in luck as a fourth year was running down to the surface to do the same thing as Shiro. The ride there was uneventful and when they landed the fourth year told him to be back in one hour.
Shiro was about to ride out of the port when he saw Odin walking up to him. He hadn't seen Odin in several years and the man looked like he had aged poorly. His one jet black hair was now mostly gray and his face showed many wrinkles and a few scars. When he reached Shiro he said. "Young man you seemed to be heading for the nearest Tailor and I know just the place in mind if I show you the way."
Before Shiro could respond the older man got on his own bike and headed off for Shiro to follow him. Shiro's instincts told him to go after him so he did. The next few hours seemed kinda blurry to Shiro but what he remembered was that he and Odin did some catching up and Shiro got fitted for a high quality suit.
When he told Odin that he wasn't able to afford such a good suit Odin told him. "Fret not I lead you here I will pay for the suit." Shiro was about to question this when Odin pulled out a large wad of lien and paid the tailor. They were about to head back when Shiro checked his watch and realized that the fourth year would have left without him. He was about to say as much when Odin motioned him to follow once again. This time back to the port and to Odin's personal airship.
On the ride back Shiro told Odin who he was going to the dance with. The old man seemed a little shocked. "Does this Blake person have a last name?" he asked.
"Belladonna," Shiro answered.
Odin let out a light laugh before saying. "You're going to the big dance with Ghira the Growler's daughter? I almost feel sorry for you,"
Naturally Shiro was confused and concerned by this. "Who's Ghira the Growler?"
"He's a man that I met in my youth. He was part of the original White Fang, and as for the growling well he's got a large chunk of panther in him. Back then whenever I would piss him off he would start growling at me." Odin said
Shiro was going to ask how he met Blake's father when they landed at the Beacon garage. "You should get going Ozpin isn't going to like me being here,"
Not questioning the matter Shiro grabbed his suit and rode Bumblebee out and into her parking spot. Odin departed and Shiro was setting the helmet back where he found it when he realised that he was being watched. Turning around he saw Yang and Jaune waiting for him.
Jaune looked down and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "You really need to stop finding ways to make us enemies." he said.
Shiro was about to answer when Yang interrupted "you stole my BIKE!"
Shiro looked at his cousin for the first time in the conversation. And she was angry, hair on fire angry.
"I didn't steal your... " once again Yang interrupted him again.
"I want one of his teeth," with that she walked away as Jaune started towards Shiro
"Don't run or fight you just make this worse." Jaune said.
Shiro was about to do one of those two things when Yang turned around and started laughing. Jaune did likewise and gently set one of his hands on Shiro's shoulder. Shiro wanted to say that the prank hadn't worked but if he was being honest then he was terrified.
Jaune and Yang left him there to go presumably harass some other person. Which left Shiro to make a call. His father answered quickly and seemed to be shockingly sober all things considered.
"Hey do you know a man named Odin?" his question seemed to sober his father up even more.
"What did you just say?" Qrow asked
"Do you know a man named Odin?" Shiro repeated
"Where did you meet him?" Qrow's response was making Shiro nervous.
"We played chess when I was younger and I just bumped into him in Vale. Who is he?"
Shiro was expecting to hear that Odin was an old enemy of his father's which made the last several hours rather weird.
The answer he got was as shocking for him as it seemed to be for his father. "He's your grandfather."