Just a heads up this chapter does contain alcohol use and drunk characters so even though this is a T-rated fic, this chapter might warrant an M just for that.
FYI: I DO NOT CONDONE UNDERAGE DRINKING. STAY AWAY FROM THAT (for legal reasons)
Chapter 17: Ever seen a drunk dragon?
It's been a few days since the dance, Nova spent his time working the forge, crafting an intricately designed object using extremely expensive materials he'd bought in Vale a few weeks prior. He was only now given the time to actually use them. It took him a while, but he managed to finish it just in time... for today was a very special day for the blue-themed dragon.
Luna, on the other hand, had been training her powers, levitating objects, folding the bedsheets, moving items... anything to help her adjust herself to the strain that her power brought on. It was to prepare so that the next time she fought, she'd be able to do more than just swing her axe a few times.
Hex had her laptop running overtime, working tirelessly to decrypt the encoded call log information that she 'obtained' from the CCT Tower a few weeks prior. The system was rigged to send her a message the moment it was done, and as per Ozpin's request, sent to him as well. If the information everyone got was backed up by the clues in the messages, they'd be able to speed up the tracking process of their enemy. In the meantime Ozpin and Randolf would be constantly monitoring communication traffic by the CCT Tower itself, the intruder incident just gave them the excuse they needed to wiretap the entire system.
Team ASHNRWBY sat around their usual seats at the cafeteria, everything was normal, well almost everything. Since the joining of the teams, there were no secrets between each groups, both dorms were open and they did almost everything together.
"Yo, what's up guys!" Jaune said as he, accompanied by his team, pulled up alongside ASHNRWBY and parked their trays. Nora particularly eyed the two dragons curiously.
"Who's the new guys? What happened to Alexandrite and Sapphire?" Nora pointed out, jabbing her fork in the direction of Nova and Luna who just stared blindingly dumbfounded at Nora, until they realized they weren't wearing their costumes anymore so it was expected they weren't recognized.
Yang started laughing, "Dude, look at them carefully." she held her hands over the leader's mouth and nose to help the hammer wielder get a better visual.
Nora peered closely at the two, squinting her eyes, Nova and Luna felt like they were being eyed by a machine, scanning every detail they had, outside...and inside.
"I don't get it." She said after a few seconds of intense analysis.
Weiss sighed in disappointment while Ren just shook his head in disbelief. "Nora, that's Alexandrite and Sapphire. Don't you remember they introduced themselves at the dance?" he asked. staring blankly, it was a wonder how he picked up on it even though the pair didn't interact with them.
Nora proceeded to blink several times and do a double take. "WHAT?!"
"Yeesh keep it down, you wanna alert the whole school?" Nova said sarcastically.
"B-But you look so…different. Not that's it's bad, it's quite good, I mean you look good…" she said embarrassed that she hadn't recognized them.
Nova quirked his eyebrow, "Thanks?"
"So Alexandrite, why's your hair all you know, white." she gestured with her fork, again, as if the instrument of food consumption had become a glorified pointer.
"It's not Alexandrite, my real name is Nova Alexandrite Flareheart. Sapphire over here is Luna Sapphire Flareheart. This is our natural hair colour. A lot of things happened, and we decided it best if we came clean and revealed ourselves to everyone. As you can see, we are…well we're Faunus." He explained.
"OHHH THAT'S WHY YOU HAD MASKS, TO HIDE THE FANGS AND THE SCALEY THINGS." she said in realization. She leaned in super close to Luna, "Can I touch it?" she asked.
"Uhhh, sure?" Luna hesitantly replied. Within mere milliseconds, Luna was glomped by the orange-haired girl. Luna could only squeal in discomfort as she was squished and hugged to death, "SHE'S EVEN CUTER LIKE THIS!"
"I KNOW RIGHT?!" Weiss squealed with a sudden change in demeanor, she also joined Nora in the intense squishing session.
"Heelllp... meee…." Luna squeezed out weakly as she was being drowned by the pile of two girls, her hand sticking out as if to grab onto some invisible rope.
"Sorry sis, you're on your own." Nova snickered, folding his arms and looking on at the scene, "Consider it your birthday hug?" he rationalized.
Every spoon at the table dropped in a resounded clang. "WHAT?!" was the simultaneous exclamation.
"Oh I forgot to mention? It's Luna's 15th Birthday today." Nova reclined.
"I remember you mentioning this a while back, but with all the life and death, terrorists and giant robots, I guess it slipped our minds." Yang pointed out bluntly. All of ASHNRWBY's heads turned to the sky as they remembered the events that felt like just yesterday.
"Life and death?" Jaune asked confused.
"Don't worry about it," Hex said as she patted his shoulder, he just sat there with a bewildered expression trying to figure out what happened in the last few weeks. They wanted to explain to JNPR all the events that happened, how Nova almost died, but Ozpin did inform them that it was classified, and they were bound to uphold the secrecy.
"So...how were you going to celebrate?" Pyrrha directed the question at the siblings.
"This is the first time we've actually been given the opportunity to celebrate... I... have no idea..." He rubbed his head sheepishly, "Luna what do you wanna do? It's your birthday after all..."
Luna managed to wiggle herself out of Weiss and Nora and stood up with a finger on her chin, "I've never really put any thought into it... usually around this time we're either running for our lives and/or trying not to get ourselves killed..."
"Again… what are you talking about?" Jaune looked at her concerned. "Again….don't ask." Nitro smiled scarily causing Jaune to back off the normally friendly red-headed boy could be quite scary when he tried.
"Don't worry about that, I have the perfect idea." Yang fist pumped.
-Junior's Club-
"This is what you had in mind, a night club?" Weiss folded her arms. "You want to spend a fifteen-year-old's birthday... here... of all the places? Why not a fancy restaurant or something?"
"Because, the owner here now owes me two favours. We get the place to ourselves!" the blonde fist pumped triumphantly
The three teams sat around a large joint table in the club, the place was empty as it was a Tuesday after all. The white dance floor and strobe lights made for a lively atmosphere combined with the pop music. Luna had never been in a nightclub before... well she'd never been to any social location other than school so, this was a wondrous new experience. She had to wonder if every nightclub greeted their customers with armed gunmen at the door, or if that was just a Yang thing.
"Wait isn't this where we came for information that one time?" Nitro pointed out, finally recognizing the place.
"Yeah, the owner still owes me a drink, HEY JUNIOR!" Yang yelled out to the man in a bartender outfit, who flinched at the sound of the voice.
"Blondie! Are you here as a customer or to blow up the place...again?" he asked nervously, moving to meet her from behind the counter.
"Customer. Come on Junior, you still owe me a drink." She poked his chest causing the short man to grunt in displeasure. "It's mini-blue's birthday so we're celebrating, don't skimp on the good stuff." She said pointing to Luna who sat in her dark blue dress looking up curiously at the man.
"Uhh… isn't she…." He started but Yang grabbed him by the collar, "Everyone here is over eighteen." She said with a dangerous smile. (A/N: Where I'm from, legal drinking age is 18 so we're rolling with that)
"Everyone?" He asked again nervously. She glanced down at the oblivious Luna before looking back, "Everyone."
In the reality of it all Vale's drinking policy wasn't as strict as Atlas, according to societal laws, they didn't condone drinking before the age of eighteen but if you were training as a huntsman then it was overlooked as if there was an unspoken loophole in which huntsmen and huntresses who were old enough to fight the dangers of the world, were old enough to handle their liquor.
"Alllll right…" he left signaling his staff. Within minutes trays of various foods and bottles of liquid that neither sibling had ever seen before were placed on the table.
"Wait is this stuff for us?" Jaune asked curiously, he'd never even smelled alcohol let alone go near the stuff.
"So it would seem, though I feel kinda bad…." Ruby started but then a steaming plate of cookies appeared in front of her, "...For absolutely no one!" She finished and she began viciously attacking the plate like a starved zombie seeing fresh meat. Nova just smiled.
Nova would have joined Ruby in the slaughter-fest, as sitting directly on the table before him... was plate piled with thinly cut, gorgeously red tuna slices. His eyes met Blake's, there would definitely be a fight for this... but they needed to refrain. "Before you start eating, I wanna give Luna her present." Nova said digging into his hoodie pocket.
Everyone watched curiously as he drew out a small box, the type one would fit jewelry in. He handed it over to the blue girl to which she lifted the cover and peered inside... the moment she did her eyes went wide like saucers.
"T-This is...holy shit..." She said in surprise, her potty mouth unintentionally breaking through. Yang bounced up and down in anticipation, "Come on girl don't keep us waiting. What is it?!"
Luna slowly drew out the necklace that was inside. It was a beautifully crafted sapphire pendant with titanium and silver dragons wrapped around the marquise cut gemstone, inside was a shine of cyan blue crystalized ice dust, it looked like a dragon's eye.
"That's incredible…. It's absolutely gorgeous… where in the world…" Weiss was in awe, dumbstruck by the fine craftsmanship of the piece, it looked like it was worth several thousand Lien, maybe even ten thousand given the size of the gemstone and the quality of the cut.
"Where in gods name did you find it, its amazing. Nova you have seriously good taste to pick this out." Blake commented, it was such an incredible sight that she even forgot the tuna before her, even Ruby tore herself away from her cookies to inspect the piece of jewelry.
"Forget where, the question is HOW?! This must've cost a fortune, this is real sapphire, polished titanium and silver, this stuff isn't cheap. Where did you get money to buy this?!" Weiss flailed. The fact that the heiress was completely thrown for a loop by this surprised everyone.
"I didn't buy it…. Well I bought the materials but I figured that nothing at the store matched what I was looking for so I bought some crystallized dust and sapphire and worked it in a forge. It's a bit cruder than I wanted but for my first piece of work it's not bad." He admitted.
"Hey Hex?" Yang asked turning to her girlfriend, she just looked at the blonde curiously. "You think a three-way marriage is legal? I wanna include our leader." Hex smacked her girlfriend over the head. "I won't let anyone else have you!" She yelled and pulled Yang into a restraining hug, away from Nova who just looked terrified at the hissing purplette.
"If you can't have him then can I? You don't mind do you Ruby?" Weiss held the girl's hand, pleading into her eyes.
"W-Why would you need my permission?!"
"I must say I'm impressed Nova. The level of technique and skill you used to craft that is incredible." Pyrrha commented smiling her usual motherly smile. "Hey, why don't you get me stuff like that?" Nora asked turning to Ren who just groaned and face planted the table.
Jaune looked bashful, "Way to set the bar high man... I feel bad for not bringing a gift now..."
"Sorry Jaune, but only the best for my sister."
"Jaune it's fine, really. You didn't know about it... and besides... having you guys as friends? Everyone here? That's the best gift I could ever ask for!" She chirped with a smile that could give a dentist a cavity. Everyone clutched their chests from the adorable cuteness.
Nora hugged the girl, "YOU *sniff* ARE SO *sniff* PRECIOUS!" she said in between sobs. Jaune and Ren felt their sweat drop at the scene.
"Since Weiss and Yang are out of the way... do childhood friends get brownie points?" Blake asked scooting closer to the male dragon to which he just shot her a blank look and held her at distance with a finger. "Sorry I don't date felines." he snickered at her reaction.
Ruby looked absolutely panicked, "NO! He's MY BESTIE!" She cried latching onto Nova's arm which both confused the boy and made him happy that she was defending him.
"STOP! No one is marrying my brother without MY consent!" Luna yelled forcing everyone to back off. "Chill out Luna, I'm only kidding." Weiss smirked as she pointed to the shard of ice dust in the sapphire. "Huh? Come on, that was good right?" she looked around to see everyone else just groan at her failed attempt at pun.
"It's only funny when I do it." Yang said smugly to which everyone simultaneously said, "NO IT'S NOT!"
"I just can't believe you made that!" Ruby's eyes sparkled now turning to the dragon. "Tell me… everything!" she and Nova sparked up a long conversation about gemstone forging and the benefits of dust infusions while the rest of the gang partied it up. Bottles were popped open and soon enough everyone was either buzzed or fully drunk in the case of Yang. Ruby's only reason for remaining sober was that she was too nervous to actually pour one out for herself, and she was too afraid to ask.
It was probably only an hour or two when everyone was now fully out of it... except Luna and Jaune who either refused or were two scared to touch the stuff. Their friends didn't push them to drink because they respected their decisions. Luna was eagerly chatting away with a hammered Nora and tipsy Weiss while Yang and Hex were dancing with each other. Nitro was eating all the food on the table and Ren looked like he was sober, except that he was more spaced out than usual. Pyrrha stood up talking to Ruby who was humouring the drunk girl.
"Aand like... I couldn't tell him how I felt you knowww? But it worked out!" she said placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder. She was apparently telling Ruby about her grievances when confessing her feelings to Jaune, which reminded Ruby of her current situation with Nova. The dragon in question was drunkenly playing with his new scales, calling his claws out and retracting them, grinning like an idiot. Ruby spotted the action and giggled, even drunk, he was adorable. Then she saw Yang whisper something to him, before he got up and walked over to her.
"Heeyyyy Reddd." He slurred, clearly drunk. "I wassssss dared by Yang toooo sayyy hi." He stared at her as he held her shoulder at arms length.
"W-w-wah?" She was flustered.
"Hi." He said with a droopy smile that had her reeling in laughter.
"Hey don't make fun of meeeeeeee." He slurred again. Pyrrha took that as her moment to leave, not before winking at Ruby.
"Yang what's this about?" Ruby asked her sister. Yang stumbled up to her, barely coherent, with a red face.
"Dragon- *hiccup* boy needs to *hic* grow a spine…" she stumbled away again for some reason trying to chase Nora.
"What was that about?" She asked Nova who just laughed like a madman and pulled Ruby into a hug. "You're so much fun you know that? Ruby we should really like hang out, like not like before. I wanna hang out as in ah waz dah word…" he began speaking but slowed down to think.
"Like, chilling? Friends? Daring adventures?" Ruby added trying to get him to figure out his own thoughts.
"D, Da, Dah, DATE! Yeah a date!" Nova said still clearly too drunk to fully comprehend himself, having all his inhibitions removed via alcohol he was saying what he really wanted.
"Are you asking me out?!" Ruby asked incredulously.
"YESHHHHHHHHHHH! But not like for the dance... like real date." He slurred.
"I I…" She started to answer but Nova had already waltzed away.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS! HERE'S TO YOU!" He raised his bottle up in the air.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUNA!" A resounding roar from the members of the party and a round of applause.
The little girl just blushed and muttered a thanks.
"Here Ruby you should have some of thishhh!" Yang thrust a mug of weird red looking liquid into the young leader's hand.
"Is this alcohol?" She said as she sniffed the strange concoction. It didn't smell like alcohol, rather something she had never smelt before, like a mix of fruits and a scent that sent a sharp kick in the back of her head. She definitely wanted to try this... whatever it was...
"It'shh fine, live a lil!" Yang emphasized as she wobbled. Ruby was hesitant, having never drank before, she didn't like the way it made people incoherent but at the same time it looked fun.
Well bottoms up. She thought before downing the entire mug in one fell swoop. This was followed by a resounding "WOOOH!" from Yang, Weiss and Hex.
"I expected you to sip that not down it all! Way to go girl!" Hex commented. Instantly Ruby felt her head get fuzzy and light, her body was slowly becoming numb and she could feel heat rising in her cheeks. It was definitely a new experience for her/
"Heyyy thissh stuff ishnt sho bad… NOVA!" She instantly started slurring which surprised her to the point she started laughing at herself.
The young dragon turned his head. "WAH?!" He said also still tipsy himself.
"DANCSH WIFF ME!" she giggled as she pulled him onto the dance floor.
"Ruby are you drunk?" He asked emphasizing the 'k' sound.
"PFFT nooooo…." She said waving her hand. "DOnnnnnt worry, mee too.. to? ..Two hahaha," He said making a peace sign. The two waltzed to electro music.
"Those two are adorable, when are they going to realize they're made for each other?" Pyrrha said as she leaned back against Jaune, her arms around his chest and his around her shoulders. "It took us a while didn't it?" Jaune laughed.
"ITSHH BEEN KILLING ME!" Yang exclaimed pointing at the two, gesturing at them to the rest of the gang. "Nova hashhh my approvaall, he jussttt needsht to grow a pair."
"Agreed, he really needs to step up his game." Hex said sipping on regular water. She was trying to sober up, apparently she got a notification from her laptop saying it'd just finished decoding the information she'd received back when she visited the CCT Tower with Weiss. It took way longer than expected to decode the information, but now that she had... seeing it now... she'd just have to forward it to Ozpin. Her team didn't need to concern themselves with it right now. That was tomorrow's problem.
"Heeyy how come your not drunk, you've had the same as me." Blake pointed out, slurring a bit as her ears flopped up and down.
"I was quite gone, but I do need to maintain some composure. Besides, who's gonna make sure she's alright?" She gestured to Yang. "Speaking of couples, Nitro, what's your deal with Scarlet?"
Nitro almost spat his drink, "T-There's no deal... we went to the dance together... that's. it. He's cute but the whole emo pirate thing is just not taking to me."
"Well, there are plenty of fish in the sea..."
"Really? Even you're doing it now? Yang's getting to you...
"The first time I met Nitro, he tried to make a move on my brother, it was weird seeing this happen. Scarred my innocent young mind," Luna said pretending to faint as she recalled the memory. "It didn't help that Nova isn't completely straight either, pretty sure if Nitro wasn't like a brother to us, those two might have ended up as a thing." she finished.
"WAIT NOVA IS BI?!" This time it was Yang's turn to look stunned.
"Yup," Hex said popping the 'p' sound.
"Oh the possibilities..." Nora said drooling at her own imagination and for some reason, Ren felt a very cold chill run up his spine.
"Yah know dragon boy, you've got some really sweet moves," Ruby said, acting flirty in her drunken state.
"Whazzat mean?" Nova asked tilting his head. Ruby just reached up and ruffled his hair.
"You fight like a master at armssssss, and you dance like a god." She twirled around him.
He laughed, "Only matched by your gracefulness."
"Shuddup, you're too cute for your own good." She retorted causing him to blush.
The two danced the night away and sadly wouldn't remember half of it when they woke up.
"Ugh anyone get the plates of the truck that hit me?" Yang said as she groggily sat up in bed. Her yellow mane was sticking up from bed head and she smelled strongly of booze. Weiss was very much awake, looking down sternly at her sleeping friends.
"Come back to sleep, it's too early," a feminine voice arose from next to Yang, she instantly turned red to see Hex curled up next to her in Yang's bed.
"Holy shit I was busy…" Yang muttered before collapsing back next to her girlfriend, leaving the unspoken implications of her sentence hanging in the air.
Weiss rolled her eyes and proceeded to open the windows, golden rays of sunshine pierced through the atmosphere of the room causing everyone to just groan and roll over in their beds.
"Fuck off, it's too bright outside…." Blake clamoured out of the bed to draw the curtains closed.
"Who the fuck…." Luna mumbled, laden with a potty mouth from her rude awakening.
"Seriously has no one noticed that our leader is missing?" Weiss asked, apparently the only coherent one awake.
"She's in the bunk…" Yang lazily pointed to Ruby's bed.
"No….that's Luna…" Weiss stated plainly. Yang looked up to see, low and behold, Luna Flareheart curled up happily in Ruby's bed.
"Then where the hell is Ruby…" Blake asked.
Team RWBY made their way to the shared kitchen to find, resting on the couches in the common room, were Ruby and Nova, peacefully sleeping, wrapped up in each other's arms.
"Nora… psst hey Nora!" Yang whisper yelled as the orange haired teen walked into the common room.
"Why are we whispering?!" Nora yelled whispered back. Yang just pointed to the two on the couch.
"OOOOH" Nora proceeds to pull a camera from the Nora dimension and snap a picture.
"Nice!" she said a little too loud.
They all clamoured up when they heard the subtle ruffling of clothing. "Ah shit they're awake..." Yang hissed in a whisper.
Nova honestly had never felt this bad ever, his stomach hurt, his head hurt and there was a mysterious weight on top of him.
"Ughhh, fuck I'm never doing that again…" Nova cursed, with extreme effort he opened his eyes and attempted to get up. Yet the mysterious weight held him back down.
"Five more minutes please…." The weight murmured. Nova's eyes lazily drifted downward to see that Ruby Rose had somehow managed to fall asleep on top of him... again.
If this becomes a habit, I wouldn't really mind… he thought. He was about to poke her cheek/pet her head until she awoke but a loud AHEM! Was heard.
His head whipped up fast enough to give him vertigo. "YANG!" he exclaimed, at this point he felt too groggy to even try to justify his situation. Nova poked Ruby's cheek repeatedly. "Yo, Red, it happened again."
"Hmmm…. Ugh… huh?" she raised her hair sleepily, her hair now sticking up and her eyelids droopy.
"Morning Nova…NOVA?!" She instantly bolted up.
"Looks like you two fell asleep on the couch after last night." Blake said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"I don't really remember much…" Ruby said sheepishly.
"Yeah that's because you drank like a pirate!" Nora said fist pumping.
"Uhhhuh…." Ruby rubbed her arm.
"You probably don't remember dancing the entire night together then?" Weiss asked with a sly smirk.
"WHAT?!" Ruby and Nova turned red and looked at each other back and forth. They were both too tired to move yet the mere thought that they'd shared a few moments together that they didn't even remember made them flustered. Weiss had to wonder just how dense were they to each other's feelings?
"Yeah you were stuck to each other like glue, couldn't pry you apart at all." Yang said getting into the taunting, she pulled out a picture on her scroll of the two leaders dancing on the club floor, Ruby's head resting on Nova's chest and his head on hers. Both teens wished to crawl in a hole and disappear, they couldn't muster the willpower to even look at each other now. Weiss just rolled her eyes, "Really you two look so happy like that... and you're gonna tell me you don't like each other?"
"I... Uh... we...don't.." they simultaneously began sputtering, unsure of how to proceed with this interrogation.
"FUCKIN' HOOK UP ALREADY!" came the outcry of, not Yang, not Nora, nor Blake, but Luna. All eyes in the room locked on to the blue girl who just stood there smiling awkwardly. "Whoops… too loud…ehehe…" she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"Did anyone know she could curse?" Weiss asked perplexed.
"She has outburst sometimes," Nova said shrugging his shoulders, leaving the rest of his friends to wonder just what terrifying secrets was the small blue girl holding.
"Rrriighhht…. Well I'm gonna take a shower…" Yang said completely dumbstruck. The other members of RWBY followed suit leaving Luna, Ruby, Nova and Nora alone in the room.
"Hey didn't Nova ask you out last night?" Nora pointed at Ruby, recalling her observations between the two.
"Uhh…. Did I?" Nova blushed, he tried and failed at failing to remember.
"Yeah…" Luna said smiling devilishly. She folded her arms and looked accusingly at her brother.
"What was your answer?" Nova asked not looking at her.
"Um…" Ruby started but they were interrupted when everyone got a simultaneous beep from their scrolls.
"Hold that thought, looks like Ozpin wants to see us…" Luna said.
"Yeah grab everyone," He nodded to Ruby.
"Huh I didn't get…" Nora said but everyone was already gone, "a message…"
"Sorry Nora, team ASHNRWBY only!" Nova said with a salute out of the doorway
Short chapter I know... but this was mostly just filler before unveil the next arc, the next big turning point in the fic.
Special mention to KawaiiMomoko-chan for all the constant positivity. It really means alot to actually 'hear' someone enjoying my work. (^_^ )
That extends to everyone else who's enjoying this fic. Even if you aren't saying it, just reading and enjoying it is enough. Just seeing the readers and new people following/favouriting, y'all are amazing. The positive feedback makes me unbelievably happy 3
