Yang and Jaune walked arm in arm back into the kitchen of the Xiao Long house. Tai was about to speak to them about Jaune's occupation when he noticed that Yang's hair was wet. Soaking wet, that was something that rarely ever happened.
"So then I told him, I have no clue what happened. The target just snapped and lost his head." Jaune said, finishing a story that Tai already knew. It was a story that had Yang laughing up a storm though whether that was because of the inert humor of the story or the bad jokes within was unknowable.
Turning to Tai Jaune continued. "I was telling her about the Yourabas job," as he spoke he tapered off noticing that Tai didn't seem amused.
"You two are wet!" he stated. His tone made it seem like he knew more than he was saying outright and it also made his aggravation clear.
"Yeah, what of it," Yang replied, picking up on her father's tone and not liking it. "We went for a dip in the stream"
"Your clothes didn't" Tai countered pointing out the obvious but also clarifying his mood.
Without bothering to speak Yang reached out and taking Jaune's left hand in her right she held up both wedding rings and their respective fingers.
The sight made Tai tense a little. He accepted that Yang was married but the thought of his little girl getting married so fast didn't sit well with him
"Do you even know your last name?" Tai snapped.
Jaune almost recoiled like Tai had struck him since he may as well have. Yang was not one to let her father hurt someone she loved like that even if he didn't mean to do as much damage as he did, shot back. "Are you fucking serious,"
Tai's lower jaw nearly bounced off the countertop before he managed to pick it back up. He was about to say something when Yang replied. "I would think that you of all people would know just how meaningless a name can be. After all you never bothered to divorce my mom before you shacked up with summer, as far as names are concerned you're an adulterous bastard." looping an arm around Jaune she pulled a little closer and subconsciously moved his behind her by a few inches. "I love him and he loves me, names are at best a formality."
Tai's first instinct was to return fire but he knew better. Yang was a lot like her mother and a lot like him. She lashed out because she was being defensive. That meant that names were a sore subject right now so he needed to change tact. "How well do you actually know each other?" he asked hoping to avoid another outburst.
Jaune wanted to ignore the talk altogether but he was a part of this now and he didn't want Yang to have to do all the fighting here. "We meet during initiation. My team became a sister team to her's."
Tai made a face that he meant to encourage the semi laconic boy to keep speaking.
Jaune thought about his words carefully. He didn't want to use the wrong ones, Yang deserved better than that. "The first time I caught myself watching her was when she ran to go check on Shiro after Winchester damn near killed him." he paused as he felt Yang's arm tighten around him.
"When I was done teaching Cardin the error of his ways I saw her. She had pushed her way through the crowd and was in the middle trying to wake him up. The way that she seemed terrified by a threat to her family, it spoke to me I guess. Family is a big deal where I come from and the fact that she cared so much her's was intriguing."
His words gave Tai what he wanted. An open line of dialogue with Jaune and the topic of family. "And just where do you come from?"
Jaune answered before Yang could shoot the question down again. "About a hundred miles north of here and maybe twenty miles east,"
The meaning of the directions hit Tai like a truck full of lead rolling down hill. "You're an Arc!" he almost yelled. He had known Jermiah Arc when they were younger and Jerimiah was said to have almost ended the word on several occasions.
Jaune griminced at the words. "I was an Arc, I've been disowned." he explained.
"Just like Jerimiah?" Tai said his words both a statement and a question.
"Yeah," Jaune answered looking down and to his right slightly. "Like father like son I suppose."
"You're Jermiah's son!" Tai shouted in shock and borderline fear. His little girl may as well have been married to the apocalypse.
"I haven't been told as much but I am already fairly certain," Jaune told Yang all of this before but now it was Tai's turn to learn. "I am pretty certain that Jerimiah had a child although I have no idea who my mother is, my gut tells me that I am that child."
"What?" Tai asked, still not understanding everything clearly.
"Jerimiah had a child and he wasn't supposed to, instead of killing me like Obidiah, my grandfather. Would have. John the man who raised me took me in since he was about to have a child of his own. My grandfather must have found out since Jerimiah killed him. That was what got him disowned by John."
Tai scratched at his rough stubble. "Must have been what killed him too since Jerimiah disappeared at about the same time."
"Must be," Jaune added, still looking down. Yang knew that look. The look of a child that never knew their parents. She had never known her mother but at least. She had Summer. Now Jaune knew John but as far as John was concerned Jaune was dead.
Even then, Jaune didn't even know his mother's name but Yang had Tai. she held him a little closer and turned back to her father. " I hope that you are happy now, you just dragged up years of bad memories for him so that you could satisfy your…" Jaune gently waved her off.
"He deserved to know who I am and all the baggage I carry, just like you did. We are family now and if my past comes back you should all be aware." while he was clearly willing to discuss the matter his tone also made it clear that he wasn't going to keep talking about it.
Jaune wanted nothing more than to crawl into a warm and soft place and sleep after the draining talk he had just gone through but right now was exactly when he needed to hone his craft. His new craft.
When his bones ached and his skin split he would train harder and now that he was forced to employ a weapon that required focus and attention then he would have to train when both would be hard to achieve.
Gently unlacing Yang's arm from his shoulders he moved for the door. Yang was about to ask what he was doing but she figured it out fast enough. She let him be for now knowing that he needed to shoot as a form of practice as well as a way of letting go of the stresses that he had been carrying around.
He had told Yang everything after they had concluded their interpersonal activities. His father has banished from the Arc lands for patricide. A crime that seemed unbelievable to Jaune. It was safe to say that Jaune was ashamed of his father. And perhaps now of his family as a whole.
When her father went after him she almost tried to stop him but her gut told her that there was more to the older man than she knew. Yang had no idea who her grandparents were. She had never meet Raven's mother or Odin. and she didn't even know the names of her father's parents
Given the way that her father always dodged the topic she assumed that the answer was an unpleasant one but she never really pushed him.
…
Jaune was lining up his shot when he heard Tai approaching from the house. "How far ya shooting?" the old man asked.
"Dead tree bout five hundred yards down the valley." Jaune answered.
"Cast out by your own father huh," Tai half asked half said.
Jaune did little to suppress the growl that he felt at the question. " yes, can we drop it?" he just wanted to shoot and then he would go from there. The last thing that he needed was Tai trying to be a cool dad.
Tai walked off and Jaune went back to his work. He was about to shoot when a rifle boomed behind him and when he spun to assess the threat he saw Tai set up against a tree with an old bolt action rifle. He worked the bolt with practiced ease and fired again and again until the magazine was empty.
When Jaune looked back at the tree he was aiming at he saw that Tai had put down a solid grouping. Not as good as Jaune but given that he was standing with only a tree for support it was impressive.
"My name wasn't always Tai Yang Xiao Long." he said slinging the rifle over his shoulder. "I was born Leonardo Chapelle."
That explained his very Mistrilian name for a very not mistrilian man.
"When I was sixteen I lied about my age and followed in my father's footsteps becoming a sniper of a QRF tactical team. We were the SWAT forces for several cities and one job I was sent to get a line of sight on the male in a Bonnie and Clyde type scenario."
Walking closer Tai had a look in his eye like he was seeing into the past. "When I was given the order to shoot I froze. It was my older brother. He was the one robbing the place with his girlfriend." The team had a line of her and they killed her but that sent him into a rage. He butchered half my team with heavy rifle fire before I managed to make my choice."
Looking back to Jaune his eyes watered slightly as he said. "A week later my father found me and told me that if anyone else had killed one o fhis sons he would have hunted them to the ends of the time. But because I was his son he was going to let me live. Instead the punishment for killing my brother was that I could never see my family again."
Wiping the tears from his eyes he finished. "I was alone until Mako Xiao Long took me in. He was a famous Nuhuri Te teacher. He was called the western dragon. He lost his son in a war with the grimm so when he found out that I lost my father he didn't hesitate. That man did more to raise me in seven months than Micheal Chapelle did in sixteen years. I know what you're feeling. It never goes away but you learn to carry it better. Just hang in there." Having said his peace Tai gently patted Jaune's left shoulder and went back to the barn when had locked up his rifle.
Jaune was a good man and Tai could tell. All he needed now was to survive the storm he was in and he would be a better man for it.
…
Shiro woke up with a headache that he had understood from personal experience was a hangover. He knew better than to open his eyes in order to avoid being blinded by what he was sure was the sunlight on his face.
He felt someone move to his left and with a brief search by his hand revealed the person to be both a woman and not wearing any clothes. that warranted his full attention and he was glad that he did since once he opened his eyes he levitated off of the improvised lean to that had been set up last night.
Vernal was asleep at his side and she was very naked. that was until she seemed to wake up. not letting the woman who tried to kill him and who he until seconds ago thought he had killed try and return the favor he looked around and when he found his sword he grabbed it and leveled the muzzle at her and it wasn't for a few more seconds before he realized that he was also naked.
when the woman noticed their nakedness she seemed unfazed. The weapon pointed at her however seemed higher on her list of priorities. "I'm not Vernal," she stated, holding her hands up in surrender. When Shiro responded with clear confusion she explained. "my name is Autumnal I'm her older sister."
Shiro shook his head in confusion but parts of last night did start to come back to him. "you wanted something from me, what was it?" he was trying to remember and he was only getting vague words for his effort.
when Autumnal stood up Shiro found his pants loosely hung around her hips. she swayed her way over to him saying. "My sister exiled me and since you killed her you can let me back in, I really really want back in." the fact that she was trying to use her femenine wiles to get her way was obvious from her lack of any clothes besides his pants to the way she was practically hanging off of him.
firmly shoving her back he snapped. "I offered your sister mercy once and she used the chance to throw dirt in my eyes. you had better give me damn good reason not to leave you here to rot." the words felt both wrong but also right.
He was telling that she needed to prove to him why he should be a good person, that went against the rest of his moral code but the last few weeks had changed much about him. and he was learning more and more that he once thought was wrong.
"I think I can do that." she said moving her lips closer to his only for him to rebuff her attempt again responding.
"Not what I meant, if I do this then I will be sticking my neck out for you and you best give me a damn good reason for doing that." as he spoke he looked around for the rest of his clothes or even better for Autumnal's. When he concluded that neither was going to be found he walked off intending to get back to his tent.
As he did he heard Autumnal follow after him and in an offended voice she snapped. "Excuse me, am I not pretty enough for you is that it!" she yelled. She may have been trying to embarrass him in front of the rest of the clan by drawing attention to his naked state but honestly Shiro was currently out of any fucks that could have been given.
Opting to ignore her only listening enough to understand what she was getting at. Several attempts to question his sexual preferences later she found herself standing in front of Raven's tent.
The sight made her blood chill as she realized that she had followed Shiro back into the camp and as such if he gave the word she would be killed like an intruder. The noise had roused Raven who exited her tent to see Shiro standing there naked as the day he was born with Vernal's exiled sister standing next to him like a deer in the headlights.
Before she could speak Shiro turned to Autumnal. "Why did your sister exile you?" The price of lying was obvious and explained to everyone why he had let her rant and rave at him all the way to Raven's tent.
Were she less annoyed about being woken up Raven might have even cracked a smile at the subtle but powerful move that her nephew had just made. In him she saw everything that her brother wasn't and that was important to her. Raven wasn't getting any younger and it was about this point in his life that her father began to groom her to take his place.
When she did Odin willingly stepped down the unspoken rule of the clan was that the leader was to always protect the clan and that meant letting the strongest rule. Raven was deceptively a woman of her word.
That was the same honesty she saw in Shiro. An honesty that she was going to count on one day.
"We…" Autumnal hesitated. This led to Shiro turning to the nearest man and opening his mouth to tell him to kill the intruder when Autumnal found her privacy to not be worth her life. "We were both pining after the same man and Vernal wanted me out of the way."
Shiro turned to Raven who nodded in agreement telling the Autumnal was being truthful.
After a moment of thought that Raven knew was all for show Shiro turned to Raven. "She back in," he stated carefully to not let his words sound like a command and instead make them sound like an acknowledgement of fact.
With that Raven nodded in her own way showing her appreciation for Shiro's work to both obey the power structure and also assert a certain level of power that he was due as the second hand of the clan.
Heading off to his tent Shiro noted that Autumnal was following him. He wanted to tell her to fuck off but he knew that doing so right after he allowed her back into the family she had always known would be counter productive.
Once in his tent he was attacked by Mao Lin. he was one of Raven's higher subordinates who clearly wanted Shiro's spot.
This was far from the first attempt on his life that Shiro went through and with practiced ease he slipped the wild swing of the sword and jabbed the pommel of his own sword into Mao's solar plexus. Mao's brother Zhan Lin was right behind him but when he watched Shiro drop his brother he stopped.
Shiro backed up letting Mao get back up and press forward. To the young this looked like Shiro was on the back foot to the wise this looked like Shiro didn't want to get blood in his tent.
Mao swung wild. He was drunk and it was about to cost him his life. After walking Mao to his desired location Shiro waited for Mao to attack. Conveniently for Shiro Mao swung downward allowing Shiro to use his icepick grip to parry and force the blade down and off to Shiro's left and as he did so Shiro stepped around to his right switching from his right-handed icepick grip to and left-handed orthodox grip.
Swinging the blade back behind and above his right shoulder Shiro saw the exact moment that Mao realised he was dead. In a swift motion Shiro swung downward cutting Mao's head from his shoulders and sending Mao's body to the ground in front of his own tent.
Mao's wife stepped out of the tent to identify the comotion and screamed at the sight. Holding her husband's headless body in her arms as she sobbed.
When Shiro turned around he saw Zhan and he stopped. Seeing his dead brother Zhan sank to one knee and bowed his head in submission. The man now had two families to care for and he didn't want to risk them any further.
"Come to my tent later, I have something for you," Shiro half said half whispered. As he walked back to his tent he made sure to keep his back straight and his head up. This was when everyone would watch him. He had thwarted all the other attempts without blood but Mao was very dead.
Raven saw all of this, she also saw what he wasn't showing. Shiro had killed before but that was using an Atlas drone or one of his summons that he still hadn't fully mastered. Killing in person was different, so was decapitating someone in front of the family for that matter.
Shiro made it back to his tent and put on a second set of pants before he almost collapsed into one of the chairs he had. Autumnal knew what was happening. He needed some time to get himself back together and so without a word she grabbed a shirt and stood outside of the door to his tent.
taking his time he rubbed at his eyes and temple wondering if he was ever going to be able to push the sight of Mao's wife screaming with Mao's body in her arms. his hand was halfway to the bottle of whiskey when he froze.
was this, was his father went through. was this why his father drank so much. to hide the pain and horror. pulling his hand back SHiro made himself a promise. He wasn't going to become his father. no matter how bad things got he would never let himself turn into that man.
Autumnal stepped back through the door and said "Zhan is here."
Shiro responded with a nod that told her to let him through. she disappeared and Shiro stood reaching for the lockbox he kept. The last few weeks had been busy for him and as such they were also very profitable. Most of what Raven had him doing was collecting protection money and clearing out sections of Grimm. he was encouraged to skim a little off the top as a means of taking care of himself but he was also warned about damaging the bottom line of the clan.
just as Zhan walked in Shiro had opened it up and began to count his money. Zhan stood still in front of Shiro still unaware of what Shiro wanted. "You think I am about to kill you," Shiro stated, looking at the sword less than a foot from him. Mao's blood still on it.
"yes," Zhan responded. by the law of the clan Shiro had every right to kill Zhan and exile his family for what he and Mao did.
"good," Shiro declared standing up with a stack of bills in his hand. pulling off a stack he handed them to Zhan. "bury your brother properly," handing over the rest he added. "this should see you through to my next job, when that happens I will take you with me, you are now my left hand."
Zhan bowed his head at the act of mercy. but it was more. It was a master stroke in the politics of the clan. there was no love lost between Shiro and Mao but now all of Mao's children would be raised with the knowledge that even though Shiro killed their father he also made sure that they were taken proper care of.
he had in effect made an allies out of his enemies. thinking fast Shiro grabbed an elaborate belt he had been given by a merchant who was almost behind on his payment. The belt had earned him a little bit more leeway on his next payment since he was going to be out of the area for some time but still wanted his home protected.
handing Zhan the belt he commanded. "Your first commitment is in your soul, and is to the clan" as he spoke he tapped his finger on the Brawen clan tattoo the Zhan had on the back of his head. "your second is in your heart, and is to your wife." grabbing Zhan's left hand he held the wedding ring up at eye height. "your third is in your wallet and your belly, that is to me," he finished handing Zhan the belt.
the grateful man quickly put the belt around his waist and hung his wallet from the strap before bowing his head and leaving. The belt was mostly for show but it would serve to remind Zhan of both the priority and nature of his life. It also served to show everyone what happened to those who challenged him and those who didn't.
To anyone who knew what Raven was planning, he was shaping up to be quite the chieftain.