Ch. 29

BAM!

The loud sound of a crate being smashed quieted the normally bustling White Fang hideout. Everyone stopped what they were doing, except for two individuals.

"What the hell were you idiots thinking?!" yelled Desmond. He wasn't exactly angry, but clearly unhappy.

Before him, working on the Xanthelus were Bantus and Verruckter. The doctor had his gloved hands working on the inner workings of the cockpit while Bantus sat nearby on his pet ghoul, a box of tools right beside him.

"I beg your pardon kid?" Bantus asked.

"You guys screwed up!" Desmond continued. "That recruitment meeting was going smoothly until you both decided to just pilots your mechs without permission. Seeing a rogue Paladin will most likely alert the authorities and ruin our chances of catching them off guard. Especially with Ironwood currently in the city."

"Two little rats were spying on the meeting. You expect me to not take the chance and hunt them down? That ruins the fun!" Bantus replied.

Verruckter stood up and dusted himself off. "I agree with my comrade. It was the perfect opportunity for a test run for my creation. Now I can better equip it for future incursions."

"And yet not only did we lose one of our mechs, but you failed to capture them!" Desmond retorted.

"Stand down Desmond!" From behind the boy came the one responsible for the entire operation, Adam Taurus. "There's no need to reprimand them. They performed well, and as for the humans, now they have been given a little taste of what we're capable of."

The doctor bowed his head in gratitude. "Thank you, Mr. Taurus." He then went back to his work on the Xanthelus.

"Capturing them would've been an added benefit though. Blake was one of the huntsmen we engaged," Bantus added.

"I am aware," Adam replied. "Don't worry about that. We still have a plan to follow, can't afford to rush things. We must take it slow. Continue with what you were doing."

Bantus smiled. "Aye aye captain."

Adam nodded towards Desmond, who took it as a sign that he too should get back to work. Adam then made his way back to his quarters, but ever since he found out that Blake was in Vale he couldn't get her out of his head.

"I will get you back Blake. One way or another."

XXXXXXX

"You got any plans today bro?" Abaddon asked Jurano as the latter left the bathroom.

"Yeah dude, I'm going somewhere with Velvet to pick out her dress for the dance. Although, she probably won't let me see it until the weekend," Jurano replied.

"Haha, of course, it's a surprise! She'd probably wanna see your jaw drop when you see her in it." Abaddon flopped over onto his bed with his hands crossed behind his head. "Meanwhile, I'm gonna relax until Emma gets here. She said she's making dinner in the kitchen and I wanna taste it."

Jurano chuckled as he finished putting on his clothes and was ready to depart when he heard someone's scroll ring on the floor nearby. He picked it up and looked at the screen.

"Hey Abb, you got a message." Jurano tossed Abaddon's scroll to him.

The faunus caught his scroll and checked his messages. There was one from Kathleen that said:

Hey. If you're not busy, come to meet me in Vale in front of the tea shop. And don't bring your gauntlets, just you.

"Who is it?" Jurano asked, seeing Abaddon put his shoes on.

"Kat wants to meet me in the city for some reason," Abaddon replied. "I'm gonna go see what's up."

Jurano leaned back against the room door. "Alright. But what about Emma?"

Abaddon pocketed his scroll and put on his hoodie. "I didn't tell her that I was staying. She's gonna be cooking for a while, especially with the teacher she has. I should be back by the time she does, I think."

"If you say so, bro." Jurano opened the door and left. "I'll see ya later. And good luck."

"See ya." Abaddon exited their dorm, locking the door behind him. He made his way to the school airpads and boarded a ship to Vale.

"I wonder what he meant by 'good luck'," Abaddon thought as his stop came up.

He exited the airship and walked through the city to the tea shop Kathleen mentioned. Even though she didn't say its name, he knew what shop she was talking about: the same one where Sun had been with Blake some time ago. Its original name was Tea Guru, but despite its name the shop did sell other drinks, foods, and services. Abaddon made it to the building but didn't see Kathleen at all.

"Hey, up here!"

Abaddon looked up and found his partner sitting on the rail of the second-floor balcony. The boy jumped up and grabbed onto the rail, then pulled himself up to sit right next to Kathleen.

"So, what's up?"

Kathleen smiled. "Just wanted to hang out is all. Plus, I kinda want someone with me to make a final decision on my dress."

"You sure you want me to help you with this kind of thing?" Abaddon asked.

"Well, of all opinions, I do trust my partner's the most," Kathleen replied. "Come on, let's go."

Kathleen jumped down from the rail to the ground below. Abaddon followed suit, landing right beside her.

"Aye, aye captain," he said with a salute.

The duo traversed the town until they found a clothing store that suited Kathleen's fancy. It was different than the other few stores they visited last semester, for it was much bigger and had a larger variety of men's and women's clothes to try on. The store just so happened to be having a sale that day, but it wasn't crowded at all.

Abaddon scratched his head. "Guess we lucked out today."

He had planned on buying Kathleen's dress for her and anything she wanted with it as he already gave Emma Lien for her dress and he didn't need anything since he already had a suit from Jurano, who had brought a spare from home. He still had more than enough Lien to buy a dress and more, but he was cautious since he wanted to save as much as he could.

Abaddon sat in the waiting area of the dressing room as Kathleen went out into the throng of clothes to find anything she wished to try on. He waited for about ten minutes before his partner returned with at least seven dresses in hand.

"Damn Kat!" Abaddon chuckled.

"Hold on, this isn't everything I found." Kathleen went inside the dressing room and dumped her clothes in one of the stalls. She then went back out to grab the pairs of shoes she left in her search and brought them into the stall as well.

"Don't suffocate in there alright," Abaddon exclaimed as Kathleen closed the stall door.

"Now back to the waiting game." Abaddon laid back in his seat and waited for Kathleen to try on her first outfit.

"Here we are." Kathleen came out with a skin-tight purple sleeveless dress that exposed her right leg up to her mid-thigh and had a three-buttoned collar. She also wore a pair of white gloves that reached halfway up her arm, some diamond earrings, and purple heels.

Abaddon smiled, looking up and down. "That one's fine but let's see the next one."

Kathleen disappeared for a few minutes. When she came back, she wore a long black dress with light brown fur trim that went under the shoulders. The ends of the sleeves were decorated with floral patterns and the bottom of the dress was cut on the sides to expose her thighs. In addition, Kathleen wore several necklaces, had black heels, and her hair was fixed up in the back by two pins, allowing some of her hair to cover the left side of her face.

"What about this one?" she asked.

Abaddon went up to her and brushed her hair away from her eye. "In my opinion, you shouldn't look like your going to a Mistralian ballroom dance."

Kathleen chuckled. "You would say that. Ok, I'm gonna try on another one."

"Alright." Abaddon sat back down while Kathleen rushed back into the dressing room.

Kathleen came out once again with another outfit. This dress had a custom corset that exposed a bit of her upper bosom with a burgundy strip going vertically down the middle and black on both sides. Under it was a burgundy skirt that had a darker colored skirt piece on each side adorned with a burgundy rose. She also had long black gloves, two silver necklaces with one sporting a burgundy jewel, black dance shoes, and a headband adorned with roses.

"Whoa, whoa, whoaaa, you don't have to be that hot for a school dance," Abaddon said.

"I know, but I still like it," Kathleen said as she twirled around to allow the skirt to flow. "Ok, just one more dress to go."

Abaddon nodded, and Kathleen went back to her dressing room. When she came out, she wore a long black and midnight blue sleeveless dress that left her back entirely bare. It was held up by two straps that went from her lower back to the top of the dress which was tied around her neck. The lower back was also tied in a large bow to keep it off the floor. In addition, Kathleen sported a black blue flower on the left side of her head, blue star-shaped earrings and black heels with blue soles.

"Whooaaa, I'm liking that one." Abaddon walked around Kathleen as he looked up and down.

"Hmmm, I still like the others though. What should I choose?" Kathleen asked.

"Like I said, I really like that one, but it's your choice that matters. You're the one who's gonna be wearing the dress," Abaddon replied.

"True, true. Hmmmmm." Kathleen thought of all the colors and accessories she had just tried on and came up with a solution. "Oh! Hold on, this will take a while."

XXXXXXX

Late at night…

"And how long did she take?" Emma asked.

"Close to half an hour I think," Abaddon said as he stared up at the ceiling.

He and Emma were the only ones awake now. Jurano and Kathleen had gone to bed several hours before, and Abaddon would have too if Emma hadn't chosen to jump on him right when he was about to close his eyes.

"You're lying. Kat doesn't take that long," Emma purred.

Abaddon sighed. "The more you purr, the less likely I'm gonna be able to sleep Em."

"Nothing new. So what dress did she pick?" Emma asked.

"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me, even though I was paying for it. Said it was a secret until the dance," the boy replied.

"She's probably gonna pick the one you like the most," Emma told him.

"What? Why would she? I told her to pick what she liked," Abaddon huffed.

"Uggh! Abby, you're so fucking dense!" Emma huffed, glaring at her brother.

"Hey, language. You're not old enough to say 'fuck'," he retorted. "And how am I dense?"

"Kathleen's in love with you for god's sake! All the times she blushes when you're near her, she gets defensive when other girls touch you like when Cinder flirts with you or Coco smacks your butt, and especially the fact that she's your partner. When you were gone for those three years, she had trouble coping since we thought you were dead. Half the time she was alright, but the other half she seemed…empty. Like a part of her was missing. We knew it was because of you all along. I promised I wouldn't tell, but watching you acting so freaking dense went from being funny to annoying. There, I'm done!" Emma buried her in her pillow. "I'm going to sleep. I hate ranting."

Abaddon stayed silent the entire time, taking in every word of what his sister just said. He never thought of that about Kathleen that way, nor did he bother to notice those things about her. Looking back into his memories with Emma's words in mind, he saw all the telltale moments of Kathleen's affection for him, whether they were mild or shockingly noticeable to the dumbest of people. And in all that thinking he thought of one thing:

"I'm such a fucking idiot."

Author's Note:

I haven't done any of these notes before, and it probably won't be often. For those who do read this story, I appreciate it greatly. I've had a lot to think about what I want to put in this story. The last time I updated was like January, and after that I had been focusing on five college classes, one of which I barely passed. I've been working on other fiction stuff, but most of all I'm a lazy writer. A very lazy writer. I sleep a lot, I game a lot, but I'll try to make myself pump out chapters more often. Thanks peoples.