A/N: OOOOOH bois we got a fresh one, new chapter straight off the google docs we write them on. Y'all ready? Cause here we fuckin go shit lips. Anything to add my boi?
Oni: Nah not really, go read the chapter tho
Chapter 12
The Trickster
Tensions had been high ever since Gwyn had to quickly make way to his brother, as apparently something had happened to land him in the hospital. That was about as much as they'd been told aside from little tidbits whenever Gwyn had time, namely that his brother was in critical condition and that he was in Mistral. But that was a while ago, and they hadn't heard from him in at least a week since he left.
"Has anyone heard anything?" Yang asked as she, the rest of RWBY, and JNPR joined REKT in their room as they waited once again for anything from their friend. "Anything at all?"
"He hasn't posted anything on any of his social media since we last heard from him…" Ruby said as she checked through her scroll, verifying that there was nothing there aside from his last post a week ago that read:
Some personal stuff came up that I really don't want to go into detail on, but because of it I won't be very active for a while. I'll be back once the situation is resolved, but please bear with me in the meantime.
"He hasn't even messaged any of us since he got on his flight to Mistral," Tabitha said as she checked her own scroll, seeing the message she'd sent a week ago that had only been left on read.
"What's worrying me the most is that his big bro is apparently a big-time Huntsman out in Vacuo, so it makes you wonder what he found out there…" Orion muttered in thought.
"...I can't think of anything or anyone who could be responsible…" Keith said, rubbing his chin in thought. "That being said, I never really paid any attention to the news…"
"Well, regardless of who or what it was, we need to make sure Gwyn is doing okay when he gets back," Pyrrha said.
"He helped out when we needed it to find Blake, so the least we can do is offer a little moral support in return," Ruby said as she began pacing the room. As she began, however, Orion noticed an incoming call on his scroll from none other than the topic of conversation himself, Gwyn.
"Wait wait wait hold up, he's calling!" Orion shouted as he answered. "What's up?"
"I'm on my way back, just got off the plane," Gwyn said, sounding a bit tired. "I should get back within about a half hour."
"How's your brother, is he ok?" Orion asked, hearing a sigh from the other end.
"They managed to stabilize him, but he's going to have some issues for a while," Gwyn said with a sigh. "I don't really wanna go into it right now."
"No man I get it, we'll see you when you get here," Orion said, hearing the end call beep. "So, uh, he's on his way back."
"How is his brother?" Ren asked, Nora scooting up a bit.
"He's… still around, right?" she asked.
"Yeah, he said he was stabilized, but that's all he really gave me," Orion said.
"Well, that's good, at least," Jaune muttered. "I can only imagine what he's feeling right now, I couldn't bear to lose one of my sisters…"
"We can worry about it when he gets back, for now all we can really do is wait," Orion said as he looked around the room. "We should honestly clean up in here a bit before he gets back…"
True to Orion's deduction, the room was rather messy due to their previous worries regarding Gwyn's brother.
Aside from Tabitha's stuff. Her stuff was perfectly clean, as per usual.
So they cleaned, taking longer than they thought. So long, in fact, that Gwyn actually ended up getting back before they'd finished, with the entire group turning to the door when he opened it.
"Oh, uh, hey guys," he mumbled, setting his bag down, kicking off his shoes, and hopping in bed. He moved incredibly lethargically, however, and the others could tell he had tired bags under his eyes.
"You ok dude?" Orion asked, poking his head up to Gwyn's bed. "I've never seen you so… tired before."
"I didn't get much sleep while I was there," Gwyn mumbled as he simply stared at the ceiling. "My brother kept telling me to go with the rest of my family back to the hotel, but I didn't want to leave him."
"Gwyn, you said he's okay now, so you should get some rest," Tabitha said as she leaned over from her bed. "You looked like you haven't slept in days."
"I haven't," Gwyn muttered back, still staring at the ceiling.
"Okay, no, bedtime for you then," Tabitha said as she hopped down from her bed. "Ruby, Jaune, thanks for the help, but we can take it from here. You and your teams can go now."
"You got it," Jaune said, gesturing for the others to follow him out.
"Just let us know if you need anything, anything at all," Ruby said as she did the same.
"It's the least we can do after you've helped us," Blake said as she followed her leader out, closing the door behind her.
"We'll keep in touch," Tabitha said before hopping into Gwyn's bed, shifting herself to a sitting position behind his head.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Keith asked.
"I've figured out something else I can do with my Semblance," Tabitha responded, placing her hands on both of Gwyn's temples. "So just take it easy… and go to sleep…"
As she spoke, she lit the area around her hands ablaze, Gwyn feeling nothing but a gentle warmth from her hands. She held them there and continued, noticing that Gwyn's eyes began to glow the same color as her flames.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Orion asked, watching as Gwyn's eyes began to slowly but surely flutter and close, culminating in them eventually closing and staying closed.
"I'm burning his pain…" Tabitha explained, keeping her hands there as she spoke. "When we were doing one on one Semblance work, we figured out that the reason mine works so well on Grimm is that my flames can actually burn emotions. And Grimm are basically nothing but big balls of anger, so that's why I can kill them so fast. But then we started talking about new applications, like burning away anger, hate, fear… even grief. They've actually had me down in the clinic to do it every once in a while, though it's mostly just this one girl who stops by. I guess her Semblance makes her hear voices or something, I don't really know the details. But, long story short, I can calm him down long enough to get him to sleep."
"That's awesome…" Orion said in amazement. "Handy as fuck too."
"Anyway," Tabitha said, removing her hands and putting them out, "he's asleep. Tada! Oh, but tomorrow you gotta take it easy with him. If you remind him that he should be feeling sad, he'll wind up sad again. Just do what you'd normally do."
"You're a godsend, Tabitha," Keith said, helping her down from Gwyn's bed. "Here, let's go get him some food. He probably hasn't eaten that much if sleep wasn't even on his radar."
"Yeah, you're right. Let's see what they've got in the cafeteria," Tabitha said as she and Keith turned towards the door. "You coming, Orion?"
"Nah, I'll pass. I'm gonna keep an eye on him and let you know if you need to hurry back and turn the sad boi into a sleepy boi again," Orion said as he gestured at Gwyn, who thankfully seemed to be sleeping peacefully. "Grab me some food too though, cleaning has made me hungry as fuck."
"Yeah of course," Keith said, offering a thumbs up. "No one will go hungry with me around."
Good old Keith.
So with that they left, leaving Orion there to watch over his partner.
"Get some good sleep man, you've earned it."
[-0-]
Gwyn actually ended up sleeping longer than anticipated, somewhat waking every once in a while to eat and only fully coming to the next morning.
"Oh, man… How long was I out…?" he mumbled, sitting up in his bed.
"Like 14 hours," Tabitha said, walking out of the bathroom and drying herself off. "Once you got back, you kinda just fell asleep and stayed asleep when you weren't eating."
"Oh, well then…" Gwyn said as he hopped out of bed, noticing Keith and Orion were still asleep. "I'm gonna go for a run. Wanna join?"
"I'd love to, but I agreed to go out with Pyrrha and Nora later today, they wanted to do something in town," Tabitha said, turning to hear a knock on the door. "That must be them, I'll be just a second!"
Tabitha finished getting ready rather quickly and put on her street clothes before heading outside to meet Pyrrha and Nora and turning to wave back at Gwyn and leaving with the others.
"I'll just go on my run myself then."
Gwyn quickly got up and got ready, putting on his workout clothes and heading out for his run, listening to his music all the way. A few students waved at him as he ran by, noticing them continue to glance at him after he waved back and passed.
His run lasted longer than he thought, getting back to the dorm after a few hours. Heading inside, he saw that Keith and Orion were up and about, watching tv on the couch.
"Oh, hey Gwyn, what were you up to?" Keith asked, getting up from the couch to meet him. "We saw you weren't in your bed when we got up."
"I went out for a run when I woke up, I just got back," Gwyn said, grabbing a water bottle from his minifridge and taking a sip. "I might go down to the sparring hall, either of you wanna join me?"
"You know I don't like fighting you," Keith said, sitting back down.
"I'd be down, but Keith and I are catching up on some shows we both watch," Orion muttered. "We didn't really have time when classes were in full swing."
"No, I getcha," Gwyn said, changing into his regular gear and turning to head out. "I'll see if I can't spot anyone there who wants to go a few rounds."
He ended up heading over alone, seeing Team RWBY heading over as well.
"Oh, hey Gwyn!" Ruby said, noticing him walking by them. "How are you doing?"
"Well, I'm more rested, but I've been slacking for a week, so I need to get back into the swing of things. I was actually gonna see if anyone around the sparring hall was down to spar. And, well, it looks like you guys are heading over. So how about it? Anyone down? How about you, Yang?" Gwyn asked, looking through the team. "I can't remember the last time we threw down."
"Oh, that'd be fu-" Yang said, though Weiss cut her off.
"While I'm sure Yang would love to indulge you, Gwydion, we're on our way to work on team exercises, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait," she said, Gwyn simply shrugging.
"I mean, I could just spar with all of you at once," Gwyn suggested.
Weiss couldn't have looked more offended.
"Are you insinuating you could possibly compete with the entirety of Team RWBY at once?" she almost shouted, Yang coming up and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down, Weiss. We're working on team stuff, so what better way to make sure our practice is actually worthwhile than to have someone to try it out on!" she cheered, pulling her off to the side. "Plus, he's been having a pretty hard time, we can give him this one."
"Ugh, fine," she muttered, turning back around and facing Gwyn. "*Ahem* We will - just this once - let you fight all of us at once."
"Ok, just be car-" Yang said, though Weiss turned on her heel and went to the sparring hall, Ruby and Blake just shrugging and turning to follow.
"Weiss, come on man…" Yang mumbled, gesturing for Gwyn to follow and heading towards the sparring hall.
Eventually, the group got ready, Gwyn standing in the center with Team RWBY spread out around him.
"Ok guys, before we start I just wanna say, Gwyn is super ha-" Yang said, though Weiss again cut her off.
"Yang, now isn't the time for chit-chat, now's time to focus," she said, Yang simply rolling her eyes in response.
"I tried to warn you…" Yang muttered as Gwyn readied his weapon and set his scroll to record.
"I'm ready when you are," he said, settling into his combat stance.
"Then let's go!" Ruby shouted, turning to Blake and nodding. Blake nodded back and quickly threw Gambol Shroud at Gwyn, binding him in place for Ruby to dash forward towards him. Weiss mumbled something along the lines of "overconfident" before dashing forward, poised to stab at Gwyn.
Yang was the only one to notice anything, seeing Gwyn having rolled out a Holy Grenade just before he was bound, a sly look on his face as he winked at her.
"Guys, watch out!" Yang called in vain, only for Gwyn to trade places with the grenade and make a dash for her. The grenade then went off, blinding Weiss and Ruby and throwing Blake off balance.
She'd have offered more warnings, but Gwyn got to her fast, Yang doing her best to keep up with Gwyn's onslaught and trying to fit in any odd punches. She was sadly unable to do so, finding herself getting hit more and more while her teammates regained their senses and balance. Blake was the first to move in to assist, making a leaping attack aimed at Gwyn's back as Yang moved in for a hook, Gwyn glancing behind him and smirking at Blake before trading places with her. Her momentum now his, he kicked her into Yang and got her hit by a punch that knocked her past Gwyn and into Weiss, who had just righted herself mere moments ago.
"Sorry!" Yang called before turning back to Gwyn, seeing him rush Ruby and noticing that she was still suffering the effects of Gwyn's flashbang. "Ruby, look out!"
Ruby seemingly heard and moved to try and dodge, but she wasn't quite fast enough to get out of the way of Gwyn's attack and was knocked to the ground. Yang ran after him in an attempt to hit him while he was distracted, though he ducked and turned around in a smooth motion, hitting her with a hard uppercut slash that knocked her head to side and staggered her.
Weiss had managed to get Blake off of her and get back onto her feet in time just to see Gwyn dealing with the sisters, figuring that now was as good a time as any, holding up Myrtenaster and forming a glyph before shooting a few icicles at him. Gwyn simply responded by dodging through, blocking a few, and firing at Weiss, pushing the Schnee heiress back after she attempted to shield herself with a glyph. Though she focussed hard, she couldn't quite stop the bullet that came her way, yet was thankfully able to stave off most of the damage she would have taken. It still stung though, partially thankful that he had only used a hollow point. Anything a bit sharper likely would have been much harder to stop and hurt a lot more.
It was at this time that Ruby got back to her feet, shaking her head and rushing Gwyn and clashing with him a few times, being the one who was closest to matching his speed. He was still faster though, fitting in the odd punch or pommel bash that clearly took their toll on the poor girl.
"Blake, now!"
Gwyn was admittedly a little surprised when Ruby stumbled back and ducked, Blake leaping over her and wrapping Gambol Shroud around his neck. She landed behind him and, thanks to some help from one of Weiss' glyphs holding her in place, whipped Gwyn over herself and towards Yang.
"Say goodnight!" Yang shouted, her eyes turning red and her hair lighting ablaze as she planted her foot into the ground and reared back for a powerful uppercut.
Gwyn simply thought for a moment before closing his eyes and smirking.
"You," he said before trading places with Weiss, getting her hit with honestly one of the strongest punches from Yang he'd ever seen, throwing her into the ceiling and devastating her aura. It didn't hold, the blow knocking her unconscious and causing her to fall limpy to the ground. In the moments after he'd traded though, Gwyn had used the glyph Weiss had made to shoot Blake a couple times, as she was unable to move while it was active. Her aura wasn't quite sturdy enough for that kind of firepower though, the first hit knocking her back and the second hitting her square in the head and knocking her unconscious, falling onto her side and dropping her weapons.
"Two at once, nice, nice," he said as he looked between Ruby and Yang, the sisters looking in shock as Gwyn had taken out half of RWBY in one fell swoop.
Pulling out another grenade, he pushed the advantage and held onto it as he charged Ruby. Yang sprinted at her in the hopes of protecting her little sister, though Gwyn had planned for that and feigned an attack at her, causing her to block. When the hit didn't come, she looked around to see that Gwyn wasn't there anymore, instead seeing the grenade there instead.
"Yang, behind you!" Ruby shouted, though she was too late. Before Yang was able to turn, the bomb went off and blinded her, knocking her back into a two-handed uppercut swing from Gwyn that caught the base of her skull, finally getting through the last of her aura and sending her stumbling forward. She didn't stay on her feet for long, finally tumbling over and hitting the ground. She remained conscious, but no aura meant no more fighting.
"Dang…" she muttered, letting her head fall back to the floor.
Ruby turned back to Gwyn and moved to attack, though just as before Gwyn was able to match her with relative ease. She tried to change it up and disengage, running around and shooting at him from every direction she could, hoping to confuse him through sheer volume of bullets. However, Gwyn proved capable of keeping track of all 4 of RWBY's members at once, so one person shooting at him from different angles wasn't something out of his field of expertise. Blocking any shots Ruby took at him, Gwyn found an opening and shot right in front of her feet, trading places with the bullet and sweeping her feet with his sword, sending her tumbling face-first into the wall. And with that her aura gave in, Ruby pushing herself off the wall with a nasty red mark on her forehead.
"Owowowowow…" she muttered as Gwyn walked up to her, offering her his hand and helping her up. "You're… so crazy good man, I can't even begin to figure out how you did that."
"I've had a lot of practice," Gwyn said as he went to check on the other girls. Yang simply pushed herself to her feet and stumbled for a moment before glaring at Gwyn.
"I don't like you, Elgin," she muttered, holding out a hand. "That was a crazy fight though."
"As always," Gwyn said, taking her hand and shaking it.
"Oh…" Weiss said as she came to, holding her head in pain. "What happened? Did we win?"
"No, Weiss, we did not win," Ruby said as she went over to check on Blake with Yang.
"Now how did that happen?" Weiss said as she got back onto her feet. "It was a 4v1, we should have had that!"
"That's what I tried to warn you about, Weiss," Yang said as she helped the now-awake Blake to her feet. "Gwyn has always been crazy good at fighting teams, even back at Signal. His fighting style was so weird to fight against, just so ungodly confusing, that some of us gave him a nickname to reflect it."
"Oh no, that?" Gwyn said nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "I haven't heard that in a while!"
"Wait, you don't mean…" Ruby said as realization hit her. "You mean to tell me that this entire time we've been living next door to Gwydion the Trickster?!"
"Sis, how many more Gwydions do you know that could have possibly been the Trickster?' Yang asked as she shook her head.
"Look, you know how bad I was with people, I never managed to put a face to the name!" Ruby hissed back.
"What happened in here?"
Gwyn and RWBY turned to see Orion and the rest of REKT walking in, glancing around to see RWBY pulling themselves back together while Gwyn kinda just chuckled.
"Elgin proved that he's still as good as he was back in Signal…" Yang muttered. "The Trickster will always be the Trickster, I guess…"
"Did he… just fight all of you?" Tabitha asked as she looked around. "And win?"
"Hehe, yeah…" Ruby said nervously.
"What are you guys doing over here, anyway?" Gwyn asked. "I thought you were all busy with something else or another."
"Yeah, about that…" Keith said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Keith farted so bad right when I got back, so we had to air out the room," Tabitha said as she glared at him. "We might need to run into the city and get some more air fresheners, by the way. I used what I had left to keep myself from throwing up my lunch…"
"Look man, that taco place messed me up pretty bad," Keith retorted in a sad bid to defend himself.
"Wait, aren't the vents in your room connected to ours?" Yang said as her eyes widened in horror.
"NOOO!" Weiss shouted, coming to the realization that her room would reek of Keith farts upon her return, as they didn't have the foresight to crack a window before leaving. "Why did such a good day turn so sour…?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but my day is going much better," Gwyn said with a laugh. "I really needed to just cut loose after that whole debacle in Mistral. So, I appreciate it."
"Hey no problem, I'm glad we could help!" Ruby cheered, putting her hands on her hips and wincing in pain. "I just wish it didn't hurt so much…"
"Here, I'll take you guys out to eat," Gwyn said, rolling his shoulders. "And since my teammate was the one to basically gas your room, I'll go in and open your windows and turn on your fans for you."
"That would be divine, thank you," Weiss said. "We'll plan your funeral in case you don't make it."
"It wasn't that bad!" Keith shouted, though Tabitha shook her head.
"You had me crying from the scent, Keith, it was absolutely that bad," she said as she took the mask Gwyn had off of his belt and pressed it into his hands. "You're going to want this, and probably your goggles too. It's bad."
"Note taken," Gwyn said as he turned to leave, grabbing his scroll and ending the recording. "Might as well do it now, so discuss where to eat."
"Will do," Yang said, casually offering up some finger guns and wincing. "Still a bit too sore for that…"
"He hits real hard for such a lean guy," Ruby lamented. "My shins still sting a bit."
"Enough licking your wounds, you sound pitiful," Weiss said, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain in her chin and her head.
"I remember before initiation, you had him whimpering at the thought of having to fight you, what happened?" Orion asked with a laugh.
"Gwyn in pajamas and Gwyn with a weapon are two completely different people, I swear," Yang said as she rubbed the back of her neck in pain. "I guess suddenly having complete control of basically the entire flow of the fight is pretty emboldening…"
"And the scary part is that Pyrrha can 1v1 him to a standstill," Tabitha said in agreement. "We've got a couple monsters for classmates."
"Honestly man, if my fights were any indication, I'd put Orion up there too," Keith said as he pat Orion on the back. "He's got a cheat code Semblance and what is basically super strength. If I know anyone who could fight like them, it's him."
Tabitha couldn't help but nod in agreement. "Honestly yeah, it wouldn't surprise me."
"Ok, you guys get two fighters like that?" Yang asked as she glared at Tabitha. "That's not fair."
"Blame Ozpin, not me, I didn't choose this team," she said before doing her best to loop an arm around Keith and Orion's necks. "But I wouldn't ask him for any other even if I could."
"Daaaw, look at that, Ma's being wholesome again," Orion said with a smile. "That's that good shit."
"Anyway, Gwydion offered to take us out to eat, so I'm holding him to it," Weiss said resolutely, brushing past the others. "I have a few places in mind that sound appealing, so we should start calling ahead to make reservations."
"Reservations? I can't think of any burger places that need reservations…" Keith muttered, Weiss turning around and stepping up to him.
"I will not simply head to a fast food restaurant after having my entire team beaten in a fight. One humiliation I can handle, but two is a bit much," Weiss said, turning to see Tabitha smirk and raise an eyebrow while cocking her head to the side. "What?"
"You do know who you just fought, right? One of the biggest content creators on Remnant?" she asked, shaking her head. "You are about to be on the front page of CineMaker, whether you like it or not, and at least one person who watches his stuff is gonna meme on you to hell and back."
"Well-! That's-! I-!" Weiss stuttered, turning around and crossing her arms. "I happen to know a very expensive restaurant I think I'd like to go to, and I know who to talk to in order to get us in."
"Man, that's cold, Weiss," Ruby said in mild amazement. She wouldn't complain though, as she and Yang usually only went to fast food places; a high-end restaurant would be a nice change of pace.
"So many people insist on calling me Ice Queen, so I may as well be cold," Weiss said as she turned away in a huff. "I can't let people think I've gone soft!"
"There's the Weiss we all know and love," Orion said fondly.
"She'll warm up more eventually," Ruby said with a smile. "Anyway, let's eat! I'm hungry, and Gwyn has hopefully gotten out of the dorms alive!"
"I can only hope it clears out by the time we get back," Blake lamented. "The nose of a Faunus is… sensitive, to say the least."
"We can worry about that stank later, for now let's figure out how the hell we're getting there," Orion said, holding up a set of keys. "I, for one, can take like three of you. I know Gwyn's got a bike."
"Me too, I can take someone," Yang said, producing her own set of keys. "Blake?"
"Sure," she said, stepping over to her partner.
"We'll ride with the big guy," Keith said, gesturing to himself and Tabitha.
"So that leaves Ruby and Weiss," Orion said as he turned to the girls in question. "So, what'll it be? Who's going where?"
"I'll go with Gwyn. I don't wanna be in enclosed space with Keith after he managed to clear out a dorm, nooo thank you," Ruby said, Keith just kinda shrugging.
"Yeah fair."
"So I suppose I'll ride with you, so long as Keith promises not to… expel any more gasses while we make our way over," Weiss said as she glared at Keith.
"I'll try, but I can't promise anything," he said with a shrug.
"Oh dear…" Weiss muttered, the others having a laugh at her expense.
Eventually, they were able to confirm that Gwyn was able to survive the hellscape that was the flatulence-ridden dorm room of RWBY, and made their way to the restaurant Weiss had chosen, the Schnee Heiress being rather pleased when she saw him go a little pale upon seeing the prices.
He may have won the fight, but the war was hers. He took it like a champ though, which she gave him credit for.
Thankfully, after arriving and getting seats, Gwyn received news that his brother was released from the hospital with the stipulation that he refrain from Huntsman work for a little while. He did, however, leave Gwyn with a warning.
Dad was right, nothing good for us in Mistral.
"Well, that's certainly ominous…" Ruby said, glancing over his shoulder.
"He's right though," Gwyn said as he pocketed his scroll. "He always told us stories growing up about Mistral. It's just… not a good place for Elgins."
"Why not?" Yang asked.
"You know, that's… not really something that should be talked about," Gwyn said, deflecting the question. "Family stuff, you know how it is."
"Oh, don't even get me started on family stuff…" Yang said as she rolled her eyes and rested her head on her hand.
"Oh, is Ruby really that bad?" Weiss joked, earning a quick jab in the shoulder from Ruby.
"I'll have you know I am an awesome sister, thank you very much," Ruby said as she shifted back into her seat.
"I'm clearly kidding!" Weiss shot back, sipping from her drink. "I have to thank you again for footing the bill, Gwydion. I've been dying to come here for quite a while."
"Yeah, no problem…" Gwyn said with a nervous chuckle, trying to ignore the burning hole in his wallet. "I said I'd take you guys out to eat, so, well, here we are. For eight people was… just a bit more than I was expecting."
"I'll commend you for it though, even with my allowance this would have been pricey," Weiss said with a smirk before taking a sip of her drink and transitioning back to her meal. "It's absolutely worth it though, this steak is positively divine!"
"I'm just glad they remembered to take my order…" Keith said, additionally surprised to have found a burger on the menu.
"I don't agree with you much, Weiss, but I agree now," Tabitha said, taking another bite of her own steak and indulging in the flavor. "Absolutely perfect."
"The fish is sublime," Blake said as she took another bite.
"The drinks slap," Yang said in agreement, knocking another one back. "Thank God refills are free!"
"Yeah, thank God…" Gwyn muttered, Orion nudging him from the side.
"I'll help pay, don't worry bro," Orion said, noting how Gwyn seemed to relax a fair bit.
"Thanks, this is a lot, even for me," Gwyn said under his breath. "Them CineMaker dollars been hitting later than they should be."
"Well, at least you've got all of break to earn those dollars back," Orion said with a chuckle.
The group continued to laugh and have fun for the rest of the night, eventually finishing their meal and returning to their dorm.
Break was shaping up to be better than they thought.
A/N: There's the chapter, now for the memes. Here we go! Wahoo!
Oni: Yep, bonus chapter time.
REKT Chibi
Episode 2
No Rest for the Wicked
Now that Gwyn was back and back to his usual cheery self, it was time to have a nice, relaxing break for all to enj-
"Who's been using my fuckin' shampoo?!"
Or not, that's fine too.
Yes, apparently someone had been using Orion's coveted (and expensive) Cinnamon Twist Shampoo, a fact that angered him a great deal. So much, in fact, that he burst out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.
"That bottle shoudn't be fuckin' empty already! Shit's expensive too! So who's using it?!" Orion shouted, looking around at the members of his team lazing around.
"You know I can't use regular shampoo, it doesn't mask the scent well enough," Tabitha said as she glanced down from filing her nails.
"Not too much a fan of the scent, so not me," Gwyn muttered as he edited a video. "I much prefer citrus."
"So, Keith it is," Orion said as he turned over to Keith, who shook his head as he ate a sandwich and watched T.V. "What?"
"Smell my hair bro, it's not me," he said, gesturing to his hair.
"So then who's been using my shit?" Orion shouted, his entire team collectively shrugging. "Well it's gotta be someone, and I'm gonna make it everyone's problem until I figure it out!"
"Just make it everyone's problem somewhere else," Tabitha said, blowing some dust off. "If I wanted today to be loud I'd head over to the range."
"Too bad, it's your problem now too!" Orion shouted, everyone else stopping what they were doing and looking at him.
And shortly thereafter they locked him out of the room. Classic.
"Couldn't even let me grab some pants or something…" Orion muttered. "Oh well, time to find the fucker who's using my shit."
Walking down the hall, Orion knocked on RWBY's door, seeing none other than Weiss answer the door.
"Hello Orion, how can I he-..." she said, only fully realizing after a moment that she was standing before Orion wearing nothing but a towel. "Um… You're aware that you aren't wearing clothes, correct?"
"Yeah, sorry about that, my team locked me out…" Orion muttered, seeing Blake look up from a book and glance over at him.
"You were being awfully loud in there," she said before going back to her book. "It was shaping up to be a rather peaceful day too."
"Yeah, well, someone's been using my shampoo, and I'm gonna get to the bottom of it," Orion declared, Ruby lowering her high-end weapon magazine and looking at Orion a bit skeptically.
"So you decide to come over to an all-girl team's room all naked like that to investigate?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, not the brightest idea ever, but using my shampoo isn't very bright either," Orion said, making sure to keep a hand on his towel.
"Take your nude investigation somewhere else, man, we didn't take your stuff," Yang said, hopping over to cover her sister's eyes. "Think of the children."
"Yang, I'm only two years younger, if anything you're a kid too!"
"Anyway, go put some pants on, you weirdo," Yang said, walking up and closing the door in Orion's face.
"Ok yeah that's fair," Orion muttered before turning towards JNPR's room, seeing Jaune leaving to head somewhere else.
"Hey Jaune," Orion said, using his free hand to wave as Jaune walked by.
"Oh, uh, hey, dude…" Jaune said as he noticed Orion's glaring lack of clothes. "You trying a new style or something?"
"Nah, I was gonna take a shower and saw my shampoo was empty, so I'm trying to figure out who stole it," Orion said.
"Oh, well, good luck with that then," Jaune said as he left, Orion waving to him.
"Yep, see you around man," he said before putting back on his serious face and heading into JNPR's room. "Aight, listen up; someone's been stealing my shampoo, and I'm gonna figure out who it was. So if it was you, own up now."
"My dearest Thunder Buddy, why aren't you wearing pants?" Nora asked as she and the others took note of Orion's nudeness.
"Look man, when you gotta shower without shampoo there are things that need to be done," Orion said as Ren came up and offered him a robe, hoping that he would fit in it.
"Coco is doing rounds today, so interrogating the other teams nude perhaps isn't the most enlightened of decisions," he said, thankful that Orion could barely squeeze into it.
"Well my shampoo is important so I need to know!" Orion shouted, taking Ren aback. "Who stole mah fuckin' shampoo?"
"I'll have you know I am quite content with my Samurai Shampoo, thank you," Ren said, holding up the bottle. "Though I fear I too have suffered from the hands of a shampoo thief…"
"What do you mean?" Orion said, thinking for a moment. "Do we have a serial shampoo stealer on our hands?"
"Ren, it's not that bad, Jaune just needs to borrow some shampoo until we go back to the store and pick more up," Pyrrha said, Orion turning to Pyrrha in shock.
"Jaune?" Orion said. "Jaune's being stealing the shampoo?"
"Well, he was, but he's since said he found some new shampoo to use until we… go get… more…" Pyrrha said, realization dawning on her. "Oh, Jaune…"
"He's been stealing mah shampoo!" Orion shouted, storming out of the room and coming face-to-face with Jaune, a bottle of Cinnamon Twist Shampoo in his hands.
"Oh, uh, hey, Orion…" Jaune stuttered, seeing Orion look angrily between him and the bottle of shampoo in his hands.
"So you've been stealing my shit," Orion said, snatching the bottle back from him. "You're lucky I like you, or I'd throw you out the window."
"Look, come on, ever since Ren realized I've been using his Samurai Shampoo, he won't let me use it anymore! And I don't have any money to go get any shampoo right now, so I needed to use something!" Jaune pleaded, seeing Ren shake his head behind him.
"To use another man's shampoo without his consent, for shame," he said, his eyes closed.
"Ren," Nora said, completely deadpan. "It's shampoo. He should have asked first, yeah, but it's not that big a deal."
"Shampoo is very important, Nora, you know this!" Ren declared, Orion nodding in stark agreement.
"Very important," Orion said, running a hand through his hair. "If I'm not silky, then something is wrong."
"Ok yeah I'm with them, the way my hair feels is super important to me too, especially with how long it is," Jaune said, Ren and Orion turning to face him.
"You have no room to speak here, thief!" Orion shouted, Jaune holding his hands up in defense.
"Jaune, seriously, if you need shampoo, you could just ask Nora or myself," Pyrrha said, shaking her head. "We have plenty between the two of us."
"Ok, but how soft does it make your hair, that's the real question," Jaune said, doing his best to play his cards right.
"Here, feel," Pyrrha said, stepping forward and holding out her ponytail.
"Oh, dang," Jaune said as he ran his hands through her hair. "Ok yeah, this will work."
"To be fair, I also have a whole hair care routine, so if you want your hair as soft as mine then there are many steps to follow," Pyrrha said, earning a shrug from Jaune.
"It's nothing I haven't done before, seven sisters and all," Jaune said.
"Oh, good, now I have two willing testers!" Pyrrha said in glee.
"Who's your other tester?" Orion asked.
"Gwyn," Pyrrha said nonchalantly. "He was so sweet during tournaments, more often than not when I'd win our smaller tournaments he'd ask if I needed to practice my make-up on him for the awards ceremony. But with tournaments getting bigger and more high-profile, we had less and less time to see each other…" she lamented. "Oh well, now that we're going to the same school, I get to practice on him all the time!"
"Tabitha does that all the time, honestly it's rare that I come back and Gwyn doesn't have on some new eyeliner or something…" Orion said, earning a gasp from Nora.
"*Gasp* Pyrrha, he's cheating on you!" she warned, earning a laugh from those present.
"When it comes down to beauty and beauty products, I don't mind sharing," Pyrrha said with a chuckle. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Jaune, apologize for stealing Orion's shampoo."
"Ok, fine… I'm sorry Orion, it won't happen again," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah, it's no problem man, just don't do it again," Orion said, "lightly" jabbing Jaune in the arm. Naturally, this was one hell of a punch, so Jaune immediately started holding his arm in pain. "And if you end up needing it, ask, don't just take it."
"Y-yeah, sure thing…" Jaune muttered, doing his best not to yell in pain.
Orion, satisfied with this turn of events, went back to his room, encountering none other than Coco on the way.
"Oh, hey, uh… Any reason in particular you're not wearing real clothes?" she asked, lowering her sunglasses and looking Orion over. "You've got a lot of girls on this floor, and I don't need you looking suspicious."
"Someone had stolen my shampoo is all, just had to get to the bottom of it," Orion said, producing the bottle of shampoo in question. "It's all good now."
"...Right, anyway, get back into your room and get some pants on or something, I don't wanna tell Glynda you're causing a disturbance or anything," Coco said as she gestured to the room.
"Heading back now, don't worry about it," Orion said, going up to his door and finding it was still locked, knocking and calling out. "Guuuys, I found my stuuuff…"
"You gonna quiet down then?" Tabitha said through the door, Orion sighing in return.
"Yeah…" he muttered, hearing the door unlock again and seeing Tabitha open it up.
"Good. Now go take your shower. Just be warned, Jaune came by to use our toilet again," Tabitha said, heading over to Gwyn's desk and trying out some new lipstick on him.
"Oh, yeah, about that, Jaune was the one stealing my stuff," Orion said, holding up the bottle. "He wasn't taking a shit, he was taking my shit."
"Oh, that's why his hoodie looked like that," Keith muttered.
"Anyway, situation is solved, so I'm gonna go get clean," Orion said, heading into the bathroom and taking his shower, sighing in content as he prepared to put in his shampoo, only to come to a startling realization.
Shit was still fuckin' empty.
"Fuck."
A/N: Boi like to be silky. That being said, hope you guys liked the chapter, more will come when we can. Schedules changing and such. Anyway, off we go to fuck around and find out.
Oni: Ye, new jobs and what not. We'll write when we can.
OniHelix out!
'Till All Are One!