Why has this taken three weeks to upload?

For those still asking, I was sick two weeks ago and needed a day or two off, which pushed all Tuesday fics back a week. It was explained on the last chapter that there would be a delay (added a note at the top 2 weeks ago) and I also mentioned it on my profile for a bit. Anyway, we're back to normal now.

Cover Art: JustFun101

Chapter 15

Adam knew he was more experienced than his teammates. It showed in everything they did, everything they said and the disparity between his skill level and theirs. In terms of combat, they'd catch up quickly enough, Beacon's quality of education being what it was, but here and now, still in their first year, the gap in experience was large enough to be noticeable.

All that experience meant so little when it came to the aspects of student life he had no history with, no understanding of, including what had seemed like a simple case of sneaking out of Beacon to meet up with Qrow Branwen.

"What are you gonna do in Vale?" Yang asked.

It was a simple question in response to his comment that he needed to head out into the city. The real reason was that he had to meet up with Qrow to investigate a White Fang gathering, but he obviously couldn't say that. Despite its innocence, there was a strange note to Yang's voice that Adam couldn't decipher.

"Stuff."

"Oh right, stuff. Yeah, stuff is important. I like stuff. How about you show me your stuff and I'll show you mine? Not gonna cut it, buster." Grinning, she laid down on her bed, elbows propped on the mattress and chin atop her wrists. "You're doing something in the city, aren't you? Tell."

Not fifteen seconds and Adam was already cursing up a storm in his head. "You're wrong. Completely wrong."

"That's a defensive response." Weiss said, turning in her chair where she and Ruby were doing homework. "You'd normally scoff and roll your eyes if Yang said something you thought was stupid."

"Someone's hiding something! C'mon, you can tell me. Is it a girl? It's a girl, isn't it?"

Ruby gasped. "You've got a date, Adam!?"

What was with these people? He'd never had to explain his movements before; he did what he felt was right and the White Fang accepted that. Even when Blake did ask, and in the rare occasions where he didn't just tell her, she'd have accepted a vague answer as him not wanting to say and leave it be. Team RYST's nosey behaviour wasn't a surprise, certainly not from Yang or Weiss, but the fact he needed to explain himself in the first place was. Still, Yang had given him a convenient excuse.

"It's a girl, yes. May I leave now?"

Weiss hummed. "It's not a girl."

What?

"Definitely not." Yang agreed. "I mean, you're not even dressed up, you're obviously in a bad mood and you haven't texted, like, one person all week."

"I was going to say he acknowledged it too easily," Weiss added. "If it was a girl, he'd have denied and tried to deflect it. Probably afraid you'd stalk him and ruin the date trying to spy on his new girlfriend."

"Excuse me? Yang Xiao-Long does not ruin dates."

"I am willing to bet cold, hard cash that you do, and that the ruining involves violence and property damage."

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Wei- I see you edging toward the door, Adam. Stay."

Scowling, he crossed his arms by the frame. "I'm no pet dog."

"No. You're my teammate." Yang kicked her feet off the bed and sauntered over to him. That a human would do that dressed in tight shorts and a revealing tank top was ridiculous on so many levels. Did she have no decency? The impish grin said no. "You're also my friend, which means when you're out doing mysterious things and won't tell us what they are, I get justifiably curious. Give me a sec to get changed and I'll come with you."

Qrow would kill him. "Absolutely not."

"Whoah. Super defensive. You realise that just makes this look more suspicious."

Student life wasn't all it was cracked out to be. Adam briefly considered and threw away what sounded like the most realistic excuses. Claiming to be going out clubbing would definitely have Yang tagging along, while going out for drugs would have him frozen to the floor and given a lecture. Humans in fancy schools did drugs, didn't they? He couldn't imagine Weiss Schnee allowing that.

Qrow had made it all sound so easy, just dodge his team and head out, but what team would randomly ignore the fact you were missing late at night? This was a huntsman school. If no one knew where you were, there was a good chance you might be injured and dying in the Emerald Forest.

"I have…" Adam sighed and went with the only thing he could. "I have business in Vale that I have to attend to on my own. It's neither as glamorous nor as interesting as you think it is, and I'd rather do it alone if you don't mind."

Yang scowled. "It dangerous?"

"Not to me."

"Tch. You realise you're sounding pretty arrogant, right?"

"I'm being honest. There's no danger to me. There probably wouldn't be for you either." Vale being a city wouldn't have strong White Fang members within it. Where the law was tightest, their hold was weaker. It would be volunteers for now. Team RYST were huntresses-in-training and more than capable of defending themselves. "There shouldn't even be any fighting. I'm going to meet up with someone I know, and he's going to show me some things."

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

Adam sighed. "Does it show?"

"Kinda." Ruby wore a sympathetic smile. "You're making this sound super sketchy."

"Like some illicit arms deal," Weiss said.

"This guy you're meeting." Yang said. "Is he a creep?"

"Absolutely." Adam couldn't quite hide his grin. "A complete creep, sketchiest man you've ever seen. He likes to think he's clever, though. Probably thinks he has a sense of humour and looks the girls drool over."

"Ha. Sounds like our Uncle Qrow." Adam felt the curious urge to hold his palm up for Yang to slap hers against. They were corrupting him. "Is what you're doing illegal? Is it something we should be worried about?"

"No. On both accounts. It's… It's school business," he finally said. "The headmaster asked me to do it."

Yang blinked. "Really?"

"Really."

"Really really?"

"I'm not repeating myself, Yang."

"Couldn't you have led with that?" Weiss demanded, turning back to her work with a hiss. "Getting us all worked up over nothing. You really are an idiot, Taurus."

"Am I? I'm not the one who got worked up over nothing, Schnee."

"Aw!" Yang wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Weiss cares about you…"

"I DO NOT!"

"Look, Ruby, it's their first lovers spat."

Adam scowled. No one in the White Fang would have mocked him like that or laughed as hard as Yang and Ruby did as he trudged his way out the door, slamming it behind him. Dealing with a team was hard. Or maybe it was just those three who were such a challenge.

/-/

"You're late."

"And you reek of alcohol, you human dumpster!"

"Whoah. Someone's in a bad mood. What happened? Someone wave a red cape at you?"

"Racist jokes." Adam spat. "How funny."

"That wasn't- shit, I guess it was. Ugh." Qrow scratched his head with a one-sided wince. "Okay. Do over. What's got your panties in a twist? It's not my fault you're twenty minutes late."

"It is. If you raised your nieces to be less demanding, they'd have let me leave without an interrogation."

"Ah." Qrow's smirk had him wishing he could cut it off. "Don't tell me the big bad Adam Taurus doesn't know how to handle a couple of girls. I expected better of you."

"Of course I know how to handle them. Cutting the spinal column usually works."

Adam was grimly pleased to see the humour wiped from the huntsman's face. While it wasn't exactly wise to antagonise him, he didn't want his fool to get it in their heads that they were anything other than strangers working together. They were not, and would never be, comrades, friends or anything beyond what they were now.

They both knew it was an empty threat for now anyway, more a reminder. You didn't expect a wild wolf to instantly domesticate itself if it ever could. Pushing past the scowling man, Adam looked out over the city of Vale, or more specifically its ruined industrial quarter.

"This place is a mess."

"Consequence of rising population." Qrow gritted out, still clearly unhappy. "Used to be bustling industry here, but as population rose and people needed space, they started to take away from the infrastructure. After the failure that was Mountain Glenn, the city decided to cannibalise itself for room, closing down and demolishing factories for apartment blocks. That had a knock-on effect that took others down with them as the economy dwindled. Manufacturing was outsourced to Atlas for the most part, and soon Vale's entire sector imploded. Only a few businesses remain now, grimly holding on."

"And as ever, the faunus suffer."

"I didn't even mention faunus, Taurus. You can't assume every little thing is shitting on you lot."

"You don't have to. I saw with my own eyes what you did on coming here. The apartments are run down and mostly occupied by faunus. There hasn't been a single human for the last two blocks. Most low-paid manufacturing jobs are faunus anyway thanks to the wage laws Atlas forces on its allies. Since we have less rights, it's easier to hire and fire us then it is to hire humans in the first place. When those factories fell, I guarantee it was faunus that were laid off."

Qrow looked unhappy but also unable to deny it. "Maybe," he admitted, "But it's not like most humans like that. It's the few in control."

"Of course. That doesn't change `most humans` hating us for `taking their jobs` however, does it? Like I said, businesses prefer to hire faunus for manual labour because of those exploitative laws. The humans passed over for us tend to take that out on the ones they feel are responsible."

He didn't need to say that wasn't the humans in charge.

"The world is messed up." Qrow said. "But the faunus aren't the only ones suffering. I've seen people ruled by a might makes right philosophy. They espouse abandoning your own family as children to see whether they're strong enough to survive on their own. They kill, steal and take what they want, arguing it's okay because the people they take it from are too weak to stop them. They're human and faunus in that lot. They don't differentiate on race."

"Yes." Adam sneered. "Truly we must be terrified of that beast known as equality, lest meritocracy turn us all into bloodthirsty savages. Quickly, let's find and stamp on a faunus before we turn evil."

Qrow groaned. "That's not what I said!"

"What you said is immaterial to me, Branwen. I'm here to prove myself to Ozpin. That's all I care about here. I don't care about you, I certainly don't care to prove myself to you, and I don't care what your thoughts on the psychology of your fellow man. Do you have a job for me or not?"

"Fucking ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

Adam turned on his heel. "I'm leaving. I'll tell Ozpin you wasted my time."

"Wait! Wait!" Qrow gripped his shoulder, and while Adam slapped the hand away easily, it slowed him enough for the gruff man to get his words out. "Fine, we'll go for the White Fang now. I'm just trying to get a feel for you. You can't blame me wanting to make sure you're not a nutcase when you're on a team with my nieces. I don't trust you around them."

"You misunderstand something, human. I don't blame you not trusting me. I don't care about you not trusting me, and I don't care to prove myself to you. You don't have to explain the issues you have with me, because: I. Do. Not. Care. As far as I'm concerned, they're your problem. Get over them or don't. I'm content to ignore you entirely."

"Is that a defence mechanism?"

"No." Adam showed several inches of crimson steel in clear warning. "This is. Stop wasting my time."

Qrow Branwen sighed. "The White Fang are holding recruitment meetings in an abandoned factory several blocks deep. I can get in without being seen easily enough, but the last few haven't been any use to me. They're not giving away valuable intel other than when the next meeting is, yet things are happening over the city. Raids on dust stores and the like."

Wilt was sheathed with a metallic click. "They're receiving orders via scroll."

"You sure? That leaves a pretty obvious way to trace it…"

"Don't forget, Branwen, that these are amateurs. The one in charge is an amateur, too. Likely a volunteer from the city taking orders from someone in Menagerie. They will hold speeches and get more disillusioned faunus signed up, but no one can be trusted. Any of them can be police plants or cowards unable or unwilling to do what is needed." He tried to keep the scorn out his voice. "Rather than risk everyone by revealing their plans out loud, the one in charge will personally contact individuals to give them specific tasks. They might not even know why they're doing what they are or for what purpose. This way, only the one in charge knows what is going on, and even that isn't a certainty. The handler in Menagerie might be feeding them false information in the event of capture."

"So, only the ones in Menagerie will know the plan? Are your lot really that paranoid?"

"It's only paranoia if you're wrong – and considering we're hated by every Kingdom, I wouldn't say it is. Besides, the fact you're here at all shows they're right to think like that."

"The fact we're here. You're in this, too. You're here fighting the White Fang with me."

"I am aware." Betrayal of the highest order, and for what, his feelings for Blake? Disgusting. He would be the first to admit it. That his loyalty could change so easily didn't portray him any better than it did Blake. It was too late to back out now, however. "And I have made my choice."

"Good." Qrow held out a white object.

A White Fang mask.

Adam looked up. "Why?"

"You can wear it to infiltrate the meeting and get close to the one in charge." Qrow frowned when Adam burst out laughing, practically rocking back in his mirth. "That a bad idea? You're a faunus so you can sneak in, can't you?"

"You damn idiot," Adam chuckled, wiping a hand over his one good eye. "I am Adam Taurus. That name is one recognised by you, and yet you expect it won't be by them? After my betrayal of the White Fang, and now with my appearance in the newspapers of Vale, do you really think my name won't be on the tongue of every loyal White Fang member in the Kingdom?"

"Is it really that bad? Most huntsman won't even recognise your name."

Of course they wouldn't. That was how Atlas liked it, and Vale's `alliance` with Atlas was more akin to snivelling subservience than a partnership. "My name will be known to faunus," he said simply. "Trust me on that."

"Then what do we do?" Qrow asked. "You're the one who knows the White Fang."

"We take advantage of their limitations, Branwen. When the man or woman in charge isn't told anything, the lines of communication become safer, but less secure. They are accepting that they know enemies will intercept them or their agents and are banking on the lack of coherent information to protect the greater plan from that. Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle."

"We need to gather all the puzzle pieces."

/-/

Blake spied Team RYST entering the library and tensed. It was only the three female members however, no Adam to be seen. Given that the school was as large as it was, that wasn't too unlikely or impossible, especially on a weekend. When the three girls took a table and pulled out a game of Remnant, Blake almost laughed. Adam would never accept playing a game like that with someone. Instead, it turned out they'd invited a fourth member in the form of Pyrrha Nikos to take his place.

The championship fighter had taken to sparring with Adam in the mornings from what she'd seen. It wasn't as much a surprise to Blake as it probably was to everyone else. For all his faults, even she would agree Adam was a brilliant taskmaster and drill sergeant, not to mention an exceptional combatant.

This might be a chance to figure out what Adam has been doing on his own time, she thought. Should I ask to play with them? It was tempting. If she could ask questions about him under the guise of curiosity, she could have so much answered. What if they mention my name to Adam, though? No, I can't interact with them.

That didn't mean she couldn't sneak a little closer, though. They didn't even react as she picked up her book and wandered over to take a seat on the table to the left of theirs. It was a public library after all, and the tables were made for reading at.

"You couldn't convince Adam?" Pyrrha asked.

"Didn't have a chance. He had `stuff to do` in Vale."

Blake froze. Panic raced through her, burning hot and bright before turning down to a simmer bubbling away in her stomach. This didn't bode well, especially not if he'd been as evasive as Yang Xiao-Long was implying. Blake's eyes flicked to the door, the idea of charging out and hunting him down passing through her mind before she dismissed it. Whatever he was doing, he'd gotten away with it tonight. There was no way to find or stop him now.

I'll have to keep an eye on him in the future. Who knows what he's doing? He could still BE with the White Fang! If he was, that might be all the proof she needed to expose him.

"Not like he'd play anyway," Weiss said. "I'm not even sure why I let you talk me into this."

"Because you promised to if I did all my coursework ahead of time," Ruby said.

"It was a rhetorical question. And I'm here, aren't I?"

"You are! Thanks, Weiss!"

"Yes. Yes." The Schnee looked embarrassed. "Honestly, if you want Adam to play then you probably need to do something similar. I shall play as Atlas, by the way. If you all don't mind."

"Fine with me." Yang said. "I prefer Vacuo anyway. Desert warfare for life. And yeah, you're probably right. Need to find something we can bribe him with, though. Or blackmail. You think he has any spicy secrets we can root out?"

They had no idea…

"Adam?" Ruby laughed. "Even if he did, he'd just cross his arms and refuse to budge if we tried using them." She adopted a gruff tone that didn't sound even remotely like a man, let alone Adam. "Tch. You will have to do better than that to convince me. I claim Vale."

Pyrrha smiled politely. "That does sound like something he'd say."

Blake rolled her eyes. Really, that girl was far too polite. She made sure to turn a page, listening in while also imagining just what Adam must have been like as a teammate. Not easy, that was for sure. He was demanding when he was in a good mood and she couldn't help but think his mood would be anything but when she kept avoiding him. Thankfully, it didn't look like he'd taken it out on his little partner. She'd have felt awful if he did.

Adam wouldn't throw away his cover like that. At least I hope he wouldn't.

"I suppose I take Mistral, then?" Pyrrha asked. "I'm new to the game, so…"

"Each faction has its own deck of cards," Yang explained quickly. "Atlas cards are super expensive but generally better than everyone else's. Vacuo's are cheaper and weaker with lots of card draw. Vale is the pure middle-ground faction, while Mistral has strong synergy cards that take a little getting used to. Ruby, you mind switching with her?"

"Sure!" Ruby swapped decks with Pyrrha. "Vale is the beginner faction to play, so don't take it too bad. Mistral is super good if you play it well, but it's not for beginners."

Pyrrha didn't look offended at all. "I shall take your word for it. A shame Adam isn't here. He could have played the faunus factions."

"Yeah and get pissed off at it. Their cards are by far the weakest. I don't think I've ever seen someone playing faunus actually win a game. Maybe they can come second or third if everyone else betrays each other, but their cards are just crap. It's like they're not even meant to be balanced…" Yang trailed off into a slow and deathly silence. "No. You don't think…? It's not…"

"Intentional?" Weiss' voice was clipped. Cold. "I did not until you said that."

Blake had to fight hard not to smirk behind her book. If anything, she was afraid the satisfaction would make her look like Adam. Then again, she'd never disagreed with him that the faunus were mistreated or that the world was unfair, only his methods. Team RYST were only just scraping the barrel if they thought this was it. Faunus were usually sidekicks or villains in movies, and even when they were on the side of good, they were portrayed as comedic idiots toeing the line to the brave human. The same occurred in books and plays, while heroic characters – even in video games – were traditionally human.

"I'm playing faunus!" Ruby Rose said doggedly, snatching the deck.

"Let's just give it a shot." Yang said. "It's a good game, Pyrrha, I promise. Right, so your basic goal is to take everything – but we usually play to a set time and rank scores when time runs out, otherwise it goes on forever…"

Blake went back to her book for real as the explanation and the first few turns played out, only really tuning back in when they raised their voices and interrupted her. The first time was when the initial peaceful expansion phase of the game – the one where the players were rolling against neutral Grimm to claim territory and shape their empires – ended, and the borders of each Kingdom met. At that point the game turned from into a pure competitive experience practically designed to end friendships and turn family gatherings into warzones.

"I play invested resources to gather more dust for next turn." Weiss said. To Pyrrha, she added, "Atlas pretty much has to play a turn in advance because my cards are so expensive. You can see that Yang does a lot of things at once, but when I get my card out next turn, I'll basically be eating her land up."

"I see… Then I play reinforced barricades? Is that right? To this border with Ruby?"

"That's a good play. It basically makes her units have one less attack because they have to get over them. The only way to remove them is to have a card or go around. Ruby?" Ruby had her cards fanned out in front of her. She didn't look happy. "Ruby!"

"Huh. What?"

"It's your turn. Do you have a card to get around Pyrrha's barricade?"

"Uh. No."

"Then you'll have to fight through it."

"I can't. All my units have, like, one or two attack. They're as weak as the Grimm. And these cards…"

"They all bad?" Yang asked sympathetically.

"Not bad but… well…" Ruby whined and picked one out. "I play `Terrorist Lines` to make it so Pyrrha can only bring one unit to fight this turn. Then I play `Thievery` to steal one card from Weiss' hand. Blind."

Weiss held her cards out and Ruby picked one. It clearly wasn't an important one to Weiss since she didn't look displeased by its loss.

"And then I play… I play `Faunus Savagery`…" Ruby sighed and put her hand down. "Why did I never think these card names were bad before? The Thievery card is in the faunus deck. Half the cards have `terrorist` or `terrorism` written on them, and it's `Faunus` Savagery. And look at this – Overwhelming Swarm, Dust Bombs, Cull the Meek, Faunus Uprising. All the cards are basically evil."

"They're clearly based on the White Fang. Maybe the deck is meant to represent them."

"Why is it called `Faunus Factions` and now `White Fang` then? And they're not masked on the pictures."

Weiss sighed. "I don't know, Ruby…"

"It's not like faunus only steal stuff either. There are plenty of human criminals."

"I know. The SDC suffers more from its human managers and directors embezzling funds then it does any one faunus. It's just a game, though. I'm sure they don't mean anything by it. Besides, stealing cards from other decks is strong."

"Yeah," Ruby said miserably, "And this middling card I took from you is now the strongest card in my entire deck. My Kingdom is the smallest because even the Grimm were kicking my butt in the first few rounds."

Yang winced. "Well the deck is the hardest to play…"

"It shouldn't be so hard I lost before even meeting another player. I wish Adam was here…"

"I'm glad he isn't!" Weiss said. "Because he would be apoplectic by now!"

Blake snorted. They must have heard because they looked over, but by that point she had her nose in her book, and they assumed it must have been a funny line. Adam would have been furious at the cards, though not entirely surprised. She wasn't. When you asked most people what they knew about the faunus, the words `White Fang` tended to come to mind.

It might not even have been an intentional bias on the part of the game developer; they'd just not known or hired any faunus and likely asked themselves, humans, to define a faction based around them. Without even meaning it, they'd type casted all faunus as terrorists. Naturally, no one saw a problem with that because the only times you heard about faunus in the news was when they were protesting or blowing places up. It was just the way the world was.

Once upon a time, Adam promised her that would change. And he hadn't changed it. Adam continued the death and the misery, and now here they were, with her unable to take anymore of it. Blake tuned out for the rest of the game, though it predictably ended with a faunus loss. More surprising was the Vacuo win, though from the sounds of Ruby Rose, that was more to do with Yang's skill as a player. Atlas second and Pyrrha coming in third, beating Ruby even though she didn't know how to play the game.

"We need a new game." Yang said. "Something we can get Adam into that won't drive him up the wall."

"You're really determined to drag him into this, aren't you?" Weiss asked.

"Of course! Look at the guy, he's always so stressed and wound up tight. He needs to unwind. Honestly, he needs to get laid."

"Yang!"

"Yang, nooo!"

Blake looked up to the heavens for help. Really, Adam was over twenty and it wasn't like she and him hadn't laid together plenty of times. He probably could do with getting some and burning away his temper, but she wasn't going to be any part of that.

"I'm just saying, sheesh. Not like I was offering myself up. We need to find something that he'll like, though."

"I thought he'd like strategy games," Ruby said. "He's always talking to me about what makes a good leader."

He would, Blake thought. Adam was so used to being in charge that he must have chafed at being under someone so young and inexperienced. To be honest, she felt the same under Jaune, though at least he tried his best and listened to her, Nora and Ren. A little too much to Nora, sadly, but you couldn't ask for miracles. Strategy games weren't a bad choice for Adam, provided you didn't try and convince him chess was a substitute for war. He despised that claim and would go off into a rant about how so little of it applied. Maybe it once had, back in the days of ranks, line formations and melee cavalry, but nowadays with guns, dust and aircraft, it really didn't fit.

"He likes sparring," Pyrrha offered.

"We said a `game` Pyrrha, not more work. If I wanted to get my ass kicked, I'd wake up at five in the morning for the privilege. No thanks. Something active might work. How about dancing or karaoke?"

Blake could have choked.

"That's an awful idea, Xiao-Long. Adam would set you on fire with his eyes alone."

"Well, you got any ideas?"

"A few, actually."

/-/

Adam stamped down on the wrist of a middle-aged faunus, forcing him to release the small knife he had gripped onto. He flicked it away with the tip of Blush, having not drawn his weapon for facing so weak a foe.

"Why?" the man cried. "You're faunus like I am. Why are you doing this?"

The pleas dug into his heart. It was vented in the only way he knew how, an angry snarl. He didn't answer, however, instead knocking the man out with a swift blow to the temple. Kneeling, he rummaged through the man's jacket until he found the scroll.

By that point, Qrow had deigned to show himself, an uncomfortable look on his face as he caught the scroll tossed his way and added it to the sack. "That makes twenty now," he said. "I can have someone crack these open and see what messages come through. You think this will be enough to piece together what they're after?"

"I think it will be a start. You and Ozpin can work the rest out from there. I take it this proves my commitment. I wouldn't want your generous headmaster going back on his word."

Qrow looked down at the unconscious faunus sadly. "It does for me."

"You forget, Branwen. I don't care for your approval. Will it be enough for Ozpin?"

"I'll make sure it is."

That would do. It would have to do. Adam breathed out fiercely through his nose, nostrils flaring as he picked at his bandage. It itched. A more poetic person might have said it itched with unshed tears over what he had to do, but that would have been a lie. It itched because his face was twisted into such a furious snarl that his sensitive skin kept rubbing against the fabric. He took it off and aired the wound, itching the edges where blistered skin bubbled up.

"Shitting hell…" Qrow whispered.

"What?" Adam snapped. "Never see a man scarred before? And here I thought you'd seen everything."

"Never seen letters branded into a person's face. Does it hurt?"

"No." He fixed the bandage back over it, closing off half his vision once more. "It feels wonderful. There's nothing quite as nice as feeling your skin pop and burst if you touch it too much. The best part is when it weeps blood if you scratch it-"

"Fuck. I get it. I asked a stupid question. I was trying to be nice."

"Don't. We're not friends, Branwen."

"Are you and Ruby?" he asked suddenly.

"Ruby is my team leader."

"Is that all she is?"

"It's in her best interests to hope so." Angrily, he walked past the man, slamming their shoulders together. "I'm done. I can only handle being pitted against my own people so much in one night. Maybe next time Ozpin wants me to hurt faunus, he'll make sure they deserve it."

/-/

Adam slogged his way back through the halls of Beacon only to come to a stop as he saw someone waiting outside their door. Yang had her back against the wall to the left of the closed doorway, her arms crossed, and one foot balanced on the wallpaper in a way that would have surely earned her a lecture from Goodwitch.

Her eyes moved slowly his way, widening briefly when she saw him. The smile that settled over her face was a little strained for seeing the state he was in, but still there. Adam huffed and marched forward and was unsurprised when she moved to block his path.

"Hey. You alright?"

"I'm fine."

"You look pissed," she said. Zero tact, this one. The White Fang knew to get out his way when he was like this. "Everything go alright? You don't look like you're hurt."

"It went as planned. I'm simply annoyed at my time being wasted."

"Ah. Yeah. I get you. We played some games in the library with Pyrrha. Was an eye-opening experience." He wondered what she meant by that, but not enough to ask. "You're really in a mood, aren't you? You realise Ruby is going to jump on you if you walk in like that? It's going to be the concerned puppy trying to make sure you're okay routine, then getting more and more hurt and pathetic when you won't answer her."

That… sounded too much like Ruby. He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. "I'm not in the mood for that, Yang. I'm really not."

"I can tell. Why I'm warning you."

They stood in the hallway for a long moment. Silent. Him wondering how to get past Ruby and whether his patience would snap at someone who didn't deserve it, and her probably hoping he'd get over himself. It wasn't that easy. As willing as he'd been to do what Ozpin said to get out of trouble, the reality had been painful and infuriating. He'd felt like one of those cowardly faunus who did the human's bidding to avoid punishment.

He felt like Velvet Scarlatina. Pathetic. Weak. Compliant.

"Hey." Yang punched his arm suddenly. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make him take a step back. "Wanna go have a fight?"

"What…?"

"A fight," she said, grinning wildly. "You and me, fist to fist. Nothing serious – no bets. Just two people knocking the crap out of each other until we feel better. Then hit the showers after, work all the kinks out and come back nice and tenderised."

Adam wondered if she knew what it sounded like when she invited him to hit the showers with her. Probably not. The showers at Beacon weren't communal. "If you're trying to cheer me up then I'm not sure letting me beat you to a pulp is the best way."

"I don't see why not. You're not one for all that deep meditation and calming your thoughts crap, are you?"

He snorted. "I am not."

"Neither am I. I like fighting. I like a good scrap. Helps me work out the stress. And to be honest, Adam, you're looking pretty damn stressed right now. So, do you want to unleash it on poor little Rubaby, or work it out with me?"

This was a bad idea.

Yang was right, though. He was about to snap.

"Ruby and the Schnee don't find out. I don't need your sister worrying or Weiss' lectures."

"Trust me, pal. I don't need them either." Yang grinned and hooked an arm around his shoulder. "Let's go beat the snot out of each other."

Ah, love at first haymaker.

Next Chapter: 29th September

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