"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow stop!" I begged pitifully. Liya was pinning me down with her body weight, legs straddling my waist and hands, while she tugged on my ears. While I'm sure the scene looked comedic enough, it was no doubt very painful.
"You fought the White Fang? You listened to Blake of all things?!" Liya growled. "And you refused to let me know?! What would've happened if you got hurt? What if you were killed of all things and left me helpless to do anything about it?!"
Yang and Blake watched nervously as she pulled on my ears. She finally stopped. Dropping on my back, she sighed shakily. "I already lost a friend. Do you know what would happen if I lost another? My partner? Or any of you?!" she cried as she looked over to Yang and Blake, who looked away awkwardly.
I just rubbed my ears guiltily and Liya hugged me tightly. "Please don't do something like that ever again..." she whispered. "I don't think I could take it."
Sniffling, I nodded. She could feel my nod and she let me go. "Ozpin gave you all the day off, including me," she said. "What I want to know is why."
"We...explained everything to Ozpin. He let us go and get some rest, but we'll get zeroes on every assignment today and all homework due tomorrow," Blake explained. "I guess that's fair."
"Weiss was pretty livid about it staining her 'perfect grade record', which probably isn't as perfect as she likes. But, she isn't taking it out on any of us," Yang chimed in. "I guess even she knows when she takes part in something."
"Which also means no more investigating White Fang stuff directly," Liya said. "That also means no sneaking out, no dragging my partner into this, and no more stuff that puts us all at risk!"
Blake slumped and nodded. I wasn't sure if this would prevent Blake from working overtime in investigating the White Fang, but she seemed to take this seriously. Maybe this time around, she'd value her friends more than a vendetta.
I winced internally. That sounded harsh, even in my head. Sighing, I looked over at Liya, who was looking like she was slowly simmering down after her upset outburst. "The food was good, right?" I said.
Liya calmed down a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, it was," she said before leaning back and rubbing her forehead tiredly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get so mad, I was-"
"No. No, you're right," I said, quickly speaking up. "We shouldn't even be doing that kind of stuff since we're students and all. It's just that...well-"
"It's my fault," Blake said. "I got Markus to join...and my team. And with the dance coming up, I shouldn't be forcing them to be caught up in something I should be dealing with alone."
"Blake...you shouldn't have to be dealing with it at all," Yang said sternly. "I was serious when we said helping you out last night would be the last time we get involved in stuff like this."
"And even if we're going to deal with it in the future, you'll still have us," I said.
"But we can't just let-" Blake said.
"I'll talk to Ozpin," I spoke up. "I can explain the situation. Plus the info we got at the recruitment rally event was pretty useful."
"And we know the headmaster has some pull in politics," Liya quickly added. "It's not like he'll toss aside the issue like it's nothing: especially when some idiot students of his decided to take matters into their own hands again."
The remark was aimed at Blake and me, but there was no real heat behind it. I sighed and rubbed my still stinging Faunus ears. "I'm sorry," I said quietly.
"It's fine...just don't do it again," Liya said. Smiling to reassure me, she started to massage my cat ears, which both soothed the pain and felt incredible. Sighing, I subconsciously leaned into her as she pet my cat ears.
"I should probably be concerned that you're petting my boyfriend like that," Yang said.
"You all scared me half to death. Let me have this," Liya said. And I agreed. Despite how little we interacted at times, my partner meant the world to me. I couldn't change the way things were before, but I knew I could change how things were now and later.
"Liya...if you aren't busy-" I said.
"I'm not...not after I got banned from classes for the day after being lumped in with the rest of you," Liya said, though she didn't seem too sour over it. I suspect Ozpin knew about Liya's situation at the time and gave her the break.
"Do you wanna hang out in Vale?" I asked. "Maybe go to the arcade or an escape room or something?"
"Wow, am I old news now? Getting replaced by your partner?" Yang asked with a teasing smirk on her face before mock swooning. "I might never recover from this breakup. Or maybe it'll be exactly how I like my eggs."
I frowned. This made no sense at all. Unless... "Yang...I swear if this is some prelude to a horrible pun-" I said.
"I'd get over this breakup easy," Yang said, snapping her fingers and shooting finger guns at us. "Eh? Overeasy?"
I felt physically sick, as did Liya and Blake judging by their green faced expressions. Yang went blank as we struggled not to vomit on the floor then and there before sighing. "I'm just gonna go."
- the next day -
The next day was the day of Volume 2 Episode 5. Pyrrha was currently facing off against all of team CRDL, and just like in the episode: she was kicking ass without any difficulties. Sitting in the bleachers, I watched with awe as Pyrrha pulled off professional acrobatics and used her shield like Captain America plus anime ninja skills.
"Hell of a fighter, huh?" Liya whispered as we watched Pyrrha mop the floor with Sky and move onto Russel and Dove. "Hard to believe I could keep up with her at all."
"Don't sell yourself short, you're badass," I whispered back. Liya grinned slightly under her mask. I looked back to the match, just in time to see Cardin smack Dove aside with his two handed mace, intentionally or not. The rest...I need not explain.
"Well done, Miss Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament," Goodwitch said. Pyrrha thanked the combat professor and returned to her seat, "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers? Ms. Belladonna?"
The thud of a book slamming echoed through the room, and I noticed her wince. "You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you-" Goodwitch said.
"I'll do it."
Mercury Black stood up with his hand in the air.
"Mercury, is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent. How does Mister-" Goodwitch said before Mercury spoke up again.
"Actually...I wanna fight..." Mercury looked directly at me. "Him."
"Me?" I said. Immediately, I was put on suspicion. Why was I singled out over Pyrrha? Was I somehow under suspect or a potential threat to Cinder's plans?
Of course "Very well. Mister Onissa, will you and Mister Black please change into your combat uniforms?" Professor Goodwitch said. As I left the room, I fell into subconscious thought.
No. Of course Cinder would be suspicious. She has no way of knowing what I know, the details of her plans, but I've run into her operations three times in a row. She saw me at the Dust store, no doubt Roman told Cinder of the failed Dust heist at the docks. And there was absolutely no way Cinder didn't know of me sneaking into the White Fang rally.
I finished changing my clothes and made my way back to the arena, where Mercury was just coming back. He shot me a cocky little smirk before getting serious.
"No weapon, Mister Onissa?" Goodwitch said.
Nope. I didn't need Mercury working out any weaknesses to my combat style. "Sorry, my belt's being repaired," I said.
The professor sighed before raising a hand. "Begin!" Professor Goodwitch said. Without hesitation, Mercury dashed forward and performed a front flip aimed directly at my head. I countered by spinning to the side and delivering a punch to his knee.
I impacted his prosthetic and deflected his kick. To Mercury's credit, he spun out and landed as if he hadn't bounced. Narrowing his eyes, the silver haired boy jumped forward and performed a flying roundhouse kick and a leg sweep upon landing, all in one consecutive move.
I was grazed by the roundhouse, but I managed to jump up from the sweep before countering with my fists, a hook to the arm and a mean slug to the chest. He took both of those hits in stride.
"Be careful. Don't act too good or too bad. I'm pretty sure he's still just testing my moves. I don't think I'll need my semblance for this one..." I thought quietly to myself. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by a jump kick that sent me careening backwards, landing on my feet and rushing forward to counter again.
Mercury dodged my kick, before spinning on a heel to deliver a horse kick. And it was a nasty one. Stumbling back, he went for the advantage and went for a gut kick. Dashing back, I grabbed his foot just as it missed me and pulled. Mercury flipped over me as I spun out, bringing both of us to the ground.
I could hear the others murmuring in surprise. No doubt Emerald was going to give Mercury shit over that little move when class was dismissed. No doubt Mercury was pissed as well, judging by how he rubbed his nose upon getting up.
"I forfeit," I called as I let go of Mercury before he could retaliate. Professor Goodwitch raised an eyebrow, as did Mercury when he got up. "I wasn't really ready...sorry."
"I see. Well, given the circumstances, I suppose I don't blame you," Professor Goodwitch conceded. "But you must learn to properly fight without your weapon. You won't always be armed."
"I will," I said awkwardly. As the bell rang, the students got up to leave. "That is all for today. And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses," Goodwitch announced.
Looking over to Mercury, I reached a hand out. And Mercury, following his disguise of fitting in, took it. "Sorry...bad day," I said.
"No worries, man," Mercury said as he dusted himself off. "You weren't half bad."
"Umm...I know this is gonna be weird to ask...but are your weapons your boots?" I said. "They felt really hard, and I thought I felt some mechanics or something in there."
"Yep," Mercury said proudly. Holding up a boot with a hand, he showed me the machines and the shotgun belts in them. "Talaria. My pride and joy."
"If you fire out of your feet, that means mostly kicks and...are you a breakdancer by any chance?" I asked. If Mercury was taken aback, he hid it as he lowered his foot with an easygoing grin.
"I may know a few tricks," he said, preening slightly. I took the chance to offer something, something stupid.
"The dance is coming up, and I wanted to try something for it," I said. "You ever wanted to just steal the dance floor?"
"Huh?" Mercury said. I barely noticed Cinder and Emerald approaching us.
"Dance competition. It's part of the dance," I said. "I know some breakdancing as well, but I bet you would totally steal everyone's attention."
"You think?" Mercury said.
"Yeah...if you're OK with it-" I said.
"Of course," Cinder said out of nowhere. Mercury turned around with some degree of shock as the young amber eyed fiery woman lay a hand on the silver boy's shoulder. "Mercury here just loves dancing, after all. I'm certain he would jump at the chance to...show off his skills."
She turned to Mercury with a very glass grin on her face. A grin that hid her demand. "Isn't that right?"
"Uhh, yeah!" Mercury said nervously. At least, I knew it was nervous due to how Cinder tended to be. Specifically her "say no and get burned" mentality. Still, I acted as if I didn't notice.
"That's awesome," I said, grinning. "Don't expect me to go easy on you, I got quite the moves. And so do the others."
Mercury just grinned. "Bring it on, I'll wipe the floor with you guys."
I looked over to Emerald, who waved and smiled. I grinned back, waving a hand. "Sorry for keeping your teammate," I said.
"It's fine," Cinder said before reaching over and grasping my wrist with a sensual motion of her hand. "You know, you're quite an outgoing individual. I like that in a man." Hiding my shudder, it took me all it had to not sweat at the young woman's smoldering gaze.
"Heh...thanks. You're gorgeous but...I already have a girlfriend," I said. Cinder hummed in thought before releasing me as slowly as she grasped me.
"A shame," she said. "But thank you nonetheless. Mercury has been struggling to make friends lately. You understand, right?"
Emerald was struggling not to laugh as Mercury had a look of both embarrassment and anger, though he simply aimed it at Emerald. As if that did anything to stop her struggle to not laugh.
"Ehh...he doesn't seem like an introvert. Just probably scoping the competition is all, I'd do the same," I said.
"Perhaps. Mercury has always been closed off. Hard to read, so to speak," Cinder said before peeking behind me. "Your partner is waiting for you. I hate to draw your attention away from more...important matters..."
I looked back to see Liya waiting with crossed arms. "Right. Sorry. Nice to meet you all. See you at the dance?" I said.
"Count on it," Cinder said. "Save me a dance, will you?"
"Count on it," I said, throwing her words back at her. With a wave, I left the three of them and rushed to Liya. "I need to talk to Yang," I said frantically.
"Oh, uhh she's over at the lockers-" Liya said before I rushed over to see her. She was talking with Ruby in the weapons locker room, and I rushed to get to her. "Yang!"
"Huh?" Yang said, surprised by my sudden appearance.
"You're in charge of the dance, right?" I said.
"How did you-"
"Ears," I said. "You're in charge? What's the chance of you squeezing in a fast paced dance competition in there?"
"I dunno...I'll have to convince Weiss to agree with it. And you know how hoity toity she is," Yang grumbled. "Why?"
"I'll owe you big time for doing this," I said. "Think you can do it?"
"Yeah. Why?" Yang said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.
"I'll dress up like a catboy maid and let you play with me and be my master for a day," I said on automatic.
"Deal!" Yang said, her face going from suspicious to excited in a split second. And not the normal kind either. Wiping the drool from her mouth, she whipped out her scroll. "Hey Weiss, we're gonna add dance!"
I sighed in relief before looking at Ruby, who was also drooling. "Can you call me master?" she said.
"That depends. Are we dating?" I said. Ruby deflated instantly, and I sighed. "You can pet my ears and have cookies I bake."
"Yay!"
Sighing, I just grinned on the inside. I just got myself a distraction for the dance, and all it took was tempting my girlfriend with my body.
...
Oh god, that felt weird to think.
- a few hours later -
I sat at my desk, typing the next chapter of my web-story on my scroll. Blake was sitting next to me, reading through notes and suggestions, as well as performing grammar checks on her own scroll. We were sharing the same document as well, meaning she could see what I was typing and make edits of her own.
She promised not to try and tilt the story towards her favor or ideals. But she did ask a lot of questions, especially on the romantic parts. While some of it was...annoying, to say the least, writing was much easier with her helping me, and we were able to work together on some of the battles and important segments of the story. It also came to no surprise of mine that she offered to write the mature scenes on her own. Liya and Yang weren't too interested, so they let us do our thing.
As we worked on the story, I looked back to Blake. "Hey, uhh, about going after Torchwick earlier," I said. "You would back off, right?"
"I said I would. Why?" Blake asked.
"Just making sure. I'm not in the mood for that kind of stuff again..." I said. "N-not to say you'd be reckless and start-"
"No, you're right to be worried. I've been getting worked up on this. I said I'd take a break, but I will be going back to this matter later on," Blake said as she went back to reading what I wrote.
I sighed. "Just...be careful, OK?" I asked. Blake nodded and we went back to a content silence, enjoying the peace as we went back to storybuilding.
My writing was interrupted by my scroll ringing. "Sorry," I said. Blake nodded and I took the call. "Hello, who dis?"
Ignoring Blake's look of confusion, Jaune's voice filled my speaker. "Markus! Oh, good! Can you come to JNPR's room real quick? It's an emergency!" he said.
"Uhh...sure," I said. "Gimme a hot second." I ended the call and sighed. "Jaune needs to see me."
"It's fine," Blake said, smiling in understanding. "Go."
I left to team JNPR's room, knocking on the door and waiting. Jaune opened the door and yoinked me in without hesitation before slamming the door behind him. "Good, you're here. Real quick, how did you and Yang do your date?" he asked.
"Huh?" I said, confused.
"How did you and Yang have your first date...what, a few months ago? How did that go, and what did you do?" Jaune asked.
"Umm, is this about Pyrrha?" I asked.
"YES!" Jaune cried before he saw my ears wilting at the sudden rise in volume. "Oh, sorry. But yeah, I need to know how exactly you and Yang had fun."
"Well...I got picked on in the streets, Yang saved me. I got picked on again, Yang saved me. I cried, Yang reassured me. Then we danced, drank, until we dry humped each other and making out while drunker than drunk," I said. Jaune flushed a bit, and we both sighed.
"Knowing me, I'm pretty sure it'll be the same way," Jaune said.
"Making out while drunk?" I said, waggling my eyebrows. Jaune punched my shoulder and we shared a small chuckle before we went silent.
"I meant being picked on. Pyrrha's...she's big news. And no doubt people will pick on her and everything. And I asked her out on a date regardless," Jaune said. "What if she realizes that she could settle for better?"
"Jaune. If Pyrrha Nikos could have anyone or anything she could ever want, why would she pick you?" I said, before answering without giving her the chance to speak. "Because you are somone she could ever want the most."
"How do you know-" Jaune said before I interrupted him.
"Because I thought the same. Yang is gorgeous, and I was worried she'd get sick of having to stick up for me because of these," I said, pointing at my ears. "Yet she promised she'd always stick by me. By her family and friends. Because she's someone who cares a lot. Pyrrha is too. I know she'd defend you in a heartbeat no matter how much you put yourself down."
"I don't put-" Jaune said before sighing. "I just feel like I don't deserve her..."
"Don't tell me," I mumbled.
"I mean, I cheated my way into Beacon!" he said. "How could she-"
"Jaune, do you need me to beat the answer into your head?" I asked with a grin. Jaune went silent at my Yang-like statement. Huh, she's really been rubbing off on me. "You care for Pyrrha, and you lead your team, one of the best teams. The reason why she likes you is because you're genuine. You snuck here with no aura or training because you wanted to be someone who people can rely on. You risked everything to follow your dreams."
"And it was dumb," Jaune said.
"Yes. But here you are. Catching up rapidly and easily being one of us," I said before falling deep into thought. "I mean, I had no training and aura when I joined. And my partner had to tutor me too. Plus there was the whole issue with bullying and-"
"Thanks," Jaune said. "It means a lot."
"No problem. Also, where's the others?" I asked.
"Pyrrha's busy training, and Ren dragged Nora off to study for once," Jaune said. "And I'm prepping for our date."
"Nice. Any idea where you're gonna eat?" I asked.
"Oh, I had something in mind," Jaune said. "There's this diner. Hole in the wall near the movie theater. Very cheap and they load up on food like a lot."
"Oh, going the glutton route?" I said jokingly.
"You should see how much Pyrrha eats when it's not from the school cafeteria," Jaune said, smiling a bit. "I mean, she goes for big meals. Which she should with how hard she works herself, but man, she loves food, especially food from Vale. Told me how she loves unhealthy foods but avoids them out of habit."
"And you wanted to let her indulge herself," I said. "Not bad. What else you got?"
Our talk was interrupted by Nora barging her way into the room, a panic in her eyes. "Guys, help me! Ren's making me-" she cried before Ren grappled her to the ground with the grace of a ballerina.
"Nora, you knew what you were getting into when you agreed to this study session with me," Ren said. "What about all the pancakes I promised you?"
"No amount of pancakes is enough for this torture!" Nora wailed as Ren dragged the tantrum throwing girl out of the dorms and back to the library. Jaune and I looked at each other before we broke out into a brief bout of laughter.
"Well, it's been fun but I gotta get back to work," I said as I got up. "Don't worry about the date, things will be fine. As long as you're both having fun, there's nothing to really get all worked up about."
Jaune sighed. "Yeah," he said. "Thanks."
I grinned and left the room. When I entered the dorm, I saw Blake still on her scroll. Looking up, she waved a hand lazily. "Hey. Anything wrong?"
I sat back at my desk, smiling silently in content. "Nothing wrong, Blake," I said as I got back on my scroll to my web-story. "Nothing at all."