RWBY: First Contact!

by Captaindrake123

First contact, the long dreamed of moment when humanity discovers it's not alone in the universe. Well its here, but its not as glamorous as everyone thought it would be. Instead, a sixteen year old boy is ripped from his home by an unknown occurrence, forced to fight, adapt, and learn to survive. "If there's a way here, there's a way back! I'll find my way home no matter what!"

11. Chapter 10 Cons of Being a Vigilante

Captaindrake123: Hello again everyone, hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!

A quick note before we get into the next chapter wanted to address something real quick before people ask about it. I understand that the RWBY fandom does not really like a lot of OCs in the fanfics they read, and if you got from the context of the last chapter, there are going to be quite a few OCs used for the story. And there's going to be a bit more screen time for some of them in this chapter.

The main reason is: Patch.

We don't know much about it whatsoever, there isn't much to go on at all! Despite it being the home of two of the series protagonists (Ruby and Yang)! This is actually very good for me since I can use a lot of creative liberties in molding the story for First Contact, but it also means I have to create meaningful characters for Drake to interact and socialize (ew) with. Drake's gonna be on Patch for a while, so this is necessary.

You guys have been pretty awesome so far and seemed to not mind some of the characters I've made, but you also haven't commented on them much either, which is fair since I haven't developed them much yet. But I am going to let you know that while I will be making OCs, there will only be a few ones that I will focus on for the most screentime, the others will have their backstories and characters develop passively, so don't worry about Drake and Ruby losing screentime themselves.

For all the OCs that I will be writing, however, I plan to develop thoroughly for their part in the story, small or big, because I have to; the world wouldn't feel alive if I didn't. I have to make Patch feel alive and full of colorful characters.

Anyway, let's begin Arc 2 shall we?

---

Chapter 10: Cons of Being a Vigilante

"Ow…ow…" I muttered to myself as I laid my back on the futon, sprawled all over it with my limbs resting in various positions.

That is what my existence for all morning has been, along with the mutterings of the word 'ow' and 'fuck' over the course of it, both caused by physical and mental agony.

The physical part is obvious of course, getting bashed around by a super-powered maniac tends to rattle one's bones…or at least it did mine.

Mental anguish though? Could it be because of the one-brain cell move that I pulled back in that hideout against that lieutenant? No, although I'm still both berating and justifying my own actions back there to myself, causing more than a few headaches.

No, the mental pain comes from a far more…'public' opinion of my stunt.

"-this tragic event was caused by, if our sources are to be trusted, a White Fang terrorist cell hiding in plain sight"

I listened to the news on the weird holo-screen television that came with the apartment…which, isn't actually a hologram from what I can tell, at least not a traditional one. But I don't have the energy to analyze it at the moment.

"Fuck…" I groaned, moving a little, letting some of the ice and hot packs fall off of me, too annoyed to care about them hitting the floor.

The news was clearly a replay, I'm honestly surprised they got it out so fast. As I listened in, I groaned to myself about every action I took last night.

"What was I thinking…?" I grit my teeth as I feel my right leg throb, aches in my bones, and soreness in my muscles "I got everything I wanted, but at what cost?"

After my high from making it out alive and completing my objectives, it quickly faded along with the adrenaline on my way back to the apartment.

I had crawled through the window to avoid being spotted by anyone, only to barely make it in without crashing anything, and then flopping to the floor. I was so tired and hurt that I had simply laid on the floor for a full ten minutes before forcing myself to move.

My thoughts lingered on the dull pain in the upper right of my back, I winced to myself at the memory of stitching up that wound…

---

Last night…

I trudged over to the futon, trying to keep down my grunts of pain as I unceremoniously dropped the ice packs from the freezer onto the cushions. I had long since ditched my outfit, barely managing to get some pants on but leaving my upper body bare.

"Fucking damn it…" I grit my teeth and tightened my fists as another surge of pain made its way up from my right leg and upper back "C'monc'monjustalittlemore…" I quickly muttered to myself as I went to the lab table.

Digging through the pile, I put my hands on the table to support my weight, my arms a little wobbly "Fucking universe…!" I grumbled as I pulled out my homemade hot packs, nothing fancy this time, just some rice in a pair of socks, don't have any calcium chloride for an exothermic hot pack…gonna need to make that later. Will need to make hydrochloric acid and calcium carb-

'No, stop, focus on your health now, worry about other things later'

Taking them off the heating mantle, I shut it off before grabbing a case off the counter and trudged back over-

"W-whoa!" I tripped over myself, stumbling the rest of the way and landing face-first into the futon "Ugh…!" I groaned again as I felt the ice cubes cool my chest.

'I'm not moving anywhere else' I thought, it was a simple fact; one of my legs is cramping up and twitching.

"...now for the hard part" I grumbled to myself, doing my best to ignore the cramp and let it die down on its own 'This is gonna suck so fucking hard…'

Holding up my powered-off phone, I angled it to see the reflection of my upper back: a nasty wound showed on the screen, a quill lodged deeply into my red and irritated flesh.

"Get it over with" I told myself, knowing that I can't put it off, I'm so tired I could easily fall asleep if I'm not careful.

Popping open the small box at my side, I pull out the tweezers, and then twist myself to place it over by the quill…

"C'mon, piece of shit…" After a few failed attempts due to my shaky left hand, I finally get a good grip "Yes…alright…"

'Should have got something to bite down on, fuck it' Taking a deep breath, knowing that I might scream, I shoved my face into the pillow…and then pulled.

Squelch!

"Ughhh….!" The pillow muffled my loud painful groan, and the sound of my flesh moving hitting my ears, I only got it out by a few centimeters.

The universe has to be shitting me…!

This went on for a few minutes, getting it out bit by bit, trying to cause the least amount of damage possible, before I finally decided I had enough.

Raising my head from the pillow, I take another deep breath through my clenched teeth and then shoved it back down 'C'monc'monjustgetitoverwith…!'

I pulled, hard and fast.

And then I fucking screamed.

"...RRRRRRRRmmmmmm….!" I shoved my face deeper into the pillow as I let out a shout of pain, the quill finally out, but not without leaving behind some agony for the road "Fuckfuckfuckfucking damn porcupine…!" I can easily hear my own muffled shouts, I momentarily wondered if anyone heard it but tossed it aside in favor of cursing to relieve stress.

I let my hand lose it's grip on the tweezers, dropping them into the futon as my limbs fall, panting and trying to not move at all.

"Hah…hah…" I winced as I breathed, before trying to twist myself to touch the wound, I could feel wetness hit my fingers as the spike of irritation told me I had touched it.

'Not…done…just one more thing…' I'm exhausted, I want to sleep, but I can't leave that wound alone, it's gonna need stitches.

I carefully take out the thin needle with thread, if I drop it I don't know if I can get up to retrieve it, I also take out the tiny bottle of alcohol 'Ah, more pain, just what I need' My mind supplied sarcastically.

Foregoing any hesitation, I quickly open it and pour it on my upper back, feeling the burning sensation of it seeping into the wound, a few tears escape my eyes as I grit my teeth harder.

Letting it settle in for a minute, I prepped the needle and thread, picking up the tweezers to hold the needle…

"How the fuck am I gonna do this…?" I questioned quietly, I've only seen some videos on suturing, I've never practiced it, and I don't know how good of a job I can do for a wound I can barely reach myself with only one hand.

'You've got this far' If I do nothing, it'll get worse by morning, could get infected; I'm not getting infected on an alien planet, and going to a hospital is out of the question.

I twist myself around to get a good angle, putting the needle through the skin…there was the pinching sensation of sharp tiny pain, but I could handle it.

'Not as bad as I thought, still fucking smarts…'

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be thankfully, but it was still really hard to just…get at the right angles. I felt a lot of frustration as I threaded the needle across the wound, snapping the end off, and then repeated the action, over and over.

It was so fricking tedious, I just wanted to sleep.

But finally, after a while, I judged it to be done and over with, there were still some loose strings to cut later, but I'll deal with it after some sleep. My eyelids are already heavy.

Snapping the case back together with the tweezers and needle, I take one of the towels I brought over and wipe the wound off, I take a good look at the towel covered in bits of blood.

'...maybe I should…freeze some blood?' My tired mind thought groggily, might be a good idea for later…maybe make pain medication. But I'd have to be careful not to get addicted to anything I made.

"Ugh, I don't want to think about making drugs…stupid assholes, that's not what chemistry I do…" I grumbled, distant bad memories flashing my mind; the aches in my body soothed a little from the ice and hot packs I laid on myself, but the pain was still a constant.

So sleepy…

My head dropped to the pillow, my eyes shutting on their own '...I…I did good, right?' I think tiredly, the little girl and her family crossed my mind, along with all those messages from the White Fang, my lead to finding a way home 'I think I…deserve a rest…'

The great relief of unconsciousness met me, taking away the pain until morning.

---

'That fucking sucked' I thought to myself groggily, continuing to listen to the news.

"He said he was a superhero from the stars to her" The mother smiled behind her daughter, her eyes watery as she patted her child's head, happy to see her smiling "...l-like a falling star that grants miracles, he…he was, he saved us each and every time when it looked like it was all over"

"...I really had to go and say that?" I couldn't help but let my face scrunch up "I was just trying to lift her spirits…"

Like hell I was a superhero, I did this entirely for selfish reasons. I wanted to investigate the White Fang to find a way home, that's all there was to it. I never went in expecting to save a bunch of people.

I simply stumbled on that situation and dealt with it. I never wanted to be branded as a superhero.

"-it was like he was invincible"

Those words from the screen made me scowl "Like hell I am…" I grumbled to myself, my current state was direct evidence to the contrary. I'm fucking fragile.

I hate thinking that but I am, what I did last night was, admittedly, pretty awesome…but it cost me. While I surprisingly have no broken bones, although I still hear popping sounds every now and then as I move, and the bruises across my body and the wound from the porcupine spike are manageable…

The sharp pain in my right leg made itself known as I shuffled it a little 'My right leg is fucked…I pulled a muscle there somewhere, it's gonna take a week or two to heal'

How the hell am I supposed to keep going after them on a bad leg? What about my jobs?

'I can still walk on it, but I can't run, I can't put too much weight on it or it'll take longer to heal; I accomplished everything I needed but it could set me back by weeks, making all the information I got totally obsolete by then' I clenched my fist in frustration, only to wince as it caused a wound there to pipe up.

I was stupid, I should've waited, should've planned better, and prepared better! I was too impatient and it cost me! What was the point if everything I did amounted to nothing-!

"Thank you Miracle!"

My internal tirade stopped suddenly, hearing the cheerful voice of that little girl on the screen, I looked at it; seeing her eyes alive and vibrant in contrast to the despair from before…

The little girl shouted into the microphone "Thank you for saving mommy and daddy!"

.

.

.

"...Miracle is a stupid name" I huffed to myself, but a small smile reached my lips, I pick up the remote and shut off the news, not willing to hear anymore.

'What's done is done, I'll have to deal with it another way' My thoughts run as I slowly pushed myself off the futon.

It was gonna be difficult to get to work today, but I can manage I think. I'm mostly running on willpower at this point.

'But how am I gonna chase after them like this?' My thoughts drifted back to the messages I found; there were some that I had already read over earlier this morning, I think I can track down a meeting area for some sort of supplies, but the details were vague and strange.

'It'll happen in the next few days, that much is certain, but can I be ready in that time?' I wince as I walked to the bedroom.

After getting dressed, I made it into the kitchen and simply grabbed an apple (don't have enough patience to make a breakfast), I leaned on the walls to help me get around better.

'I have to get more equipment done, and a mode of transportation…I can't rely on parkour anymore' I winced again 'I have a few ideas that I can get started on now, but if more problems like this come up in the future I'm gonna need to upgrade my setup quickly'

It's not like I wasn't planning on it, I just hoped that I would have more time to get it ready, but I guess I was hoping for too much. I'm out of potassium nitrate, and the kind of nitrate I have leftover… I don't have the proper chemicals to convert it to something I can use conventionally, so I can't effectively make any more explosives or smoke grenades.

'Gonna need to make nitric acid myself, there's none on the market, and I can't go scurrying around for bat guana' Shoving the throwing knives in my sleeve, I make my way to the door, I sighed to myself.

"It's gonna be a long day…but I can do this" I reassure myself, walking out the door-"Whoa!"

I trip, stumbling forward and letting my hands hit the railing-"Guh!" I hiss at the pain in my hand, the one that was bitten. The bite wasn't too deep but it was enough to leave behind some puncture marks.

My leg pulsed again, so I just laid on the bar for a full minute "...c'mon, you got this…" I encouraged myself again 'You have to'

Pushing myself away, standing on both feet, I take a deep breath before grabbing some gloves on the side of the doorway, shutting the door and making my way down the stairwell.

'You got this Drake, you can do this…even if it's a bitch to deal with…!'

---

Making it through the doors of Patch delight, I was painfully aware that I was over fifteen minutes late, the strain running would put on my leg would be too much for me right now and could make it worse, so I simply sucked it up and walked.

'Need to buy a bike or something' I put that thought on hold as I saw my manager look directly at me, I forced myself not to wince.

"Drake, your late!" Auburn called out from behind the counter, his arms crossed.

I try to explain myself "Sorry, I got held up-"

"Don't care, go help out in the back, but be ready to wait on tables" The redheaded manager stated simply and succinctly, walking away to grab change for the register.

My face scrunched for a moment before relaxing 'He really never changes that no-nonsense attitude…' Holding back a sigh, along with a grunt of pain, I walk over to the counter to grab my notebook and pen for orders.

Olive's form catches my eye, seeing her carrying some towel wipes and walking my way.

"Hey Drake" She called with a small wave, a small and tired smile on her face, the same one I normally see on her every day "Auburn's really one-note, huh?"

"You heard that?" I asked in confusion, there's no way she heard from the other side of the restaurant, is she actually a faunus in disguise-?

"Oh, I just saw you two and guessed" She smirked knowingly "You get a sense of what he talks about when you've been here long enough"

'...fair' I thought to myself, he's not all that complex; just do your job and everything will be fine 'I think I'm still wound up…no shit I'm still wound up' I held back a wince.

But I must have not done a good enough job, because Olive's face was suddenly creased with concern "Are you alright? You seem a little tense"

A pulse of pain makes its way through me, and I'm suddenly self-conscious of all the bruises and the dull aches in my muscles "...I'm fine" I state after a moment of hesitation, keeping the pain held back "I just worked out a little too hard over the weekend, still feeling the effects"

"Oh?" Olive suddenly had a small curl in her upper lip, I'd never quite seen that look on her before and I don't like where it was leading "Working out huh? Trying to impress a girl?"

'What, just because I work out it automatically means I'm trying to get a girl!?' I feel a spike of irritation at that, only enhanced by the litany of a series of aches in my body 'Dating is the last thing on my mind'

But whatever gets me out of this line of questioning works, she can think whatever she wants.

"Sure, let's go with that" I look at her with a neutral expression before walking past her to wash some dishes. It shouldn't be too strenuous, and the warm water might help the soreness in my hands.

"O-Oh…" I hear Olive let out behind me, before her hasty walking got her to walk by me "Who's the girl? Ruby?" Her voice was surprisingly curious, and nosey.

I can't say she wasn't a little bit of a curious person before, but she seems more persistent today.

Pushing open the kitchen doors, I made my way inside and felt annoyed that the line of questioning isn't over with "What about Ruby?" I asked with a roll of my eyes "We just hang out sometimes"

Okay, maybe more than 'sometimes', but I really don't see why she jumped to her, we're only…what?

What the hell was my relationship with Ruby exactly?

I stared at the sink for a moment…and then simply started getting the dishes ready, it was too early to be thinking about my social interactions with people.

Got other things to think about-

"Well, she really seems to enjoy being around you ever since you came to Patch" Olive says as I hand her one of the dishes, she dries it off and places it on a stack to the side counter "And…well…I heard that something happened with her old friends, it doesn't take a lot to know that you helped her through that"

'Seriously? How did mentioning a workout get to a conversation on Ruby?' I internally groaned, hating that I'm being dragged back into that line of thought again. My head felt cloudy and hot, and my patience wearing thin.

I've been beaten the crap out of, I'm out of chemicals to make proper explosives with no way of buying them as I would back home, and now I have to deal with Olive suddenly being in a pestering mood!?

"Yes I helped her out" I groaned out, feeling my leg pulsed again and my irritation rising, it was too early for teenage gossip-screw that, I'm never in the mood for teenage gossip "And now I'm her rebound friend, she'll move on after she gets over what happened"

.

.

.

I blinked at the sudden silence '...wait, did I say that last part out loud? Shit!' My mouth just moved on it's own, I just wanted her to stop 'Idiot! Put a lid on it!' I berated myself internally, knowing the deed is already done and I can't take it back.

My head turned to look at Olive to see her reaction, her hand was still holding the plate just halfway towards the stack, and she had this surprised and baffled expression, her green eyebrows (their eyebrows are weird colors too!?) scrunched up, and her body stilled as she put her focus on me.

"That's…" Olive hesitated, I simply stared at her as she had this angered look came to her eyes "You would just dump her off?"

'The fuck…?' I think to myself in confusion, that wasn't remotely what I said whatsoever.

"...look, I'm not close with Ruby or anything, I've never had the chance to talk to her since she's an underclassman" Olive started talking as if getting ready to make a long-winded tirade, she took an angry huff of breath "But even I know that those girls dumping her in the park was cruel…!"

I tried to interrupt "I really don't see how that-"

"-you taking her out and talking about weapons and science stuff was clearly the highlight of her day" Hold up.

'What the hell?' I thought in realization, her voice tuning out as I got lost in my thoughts. She couldn't have known about that. And she said so herself that she wasn't close with Ruby, and had never even talked to her, so she couldn't have gotten anything about what happened from her.

Noticing that Ruby was off and deducing what happened is one thing, but those specific details she just said?

'How would she know that? How did she know about it happening in the park? There's no way bitches one through three would've said anything for fear of Ruby's hulk sister, so how-' Dark thoughts crossed my mind, the reason why teenage gossip was so petty to me 'Was she…?'

"I thought you were a good guy" She glared at me in anger, setting the plate down and crossing her arms judgementally, I noticed the tight grip she had on her arms from clear frustration "You always seemed to get along, the fact you would just write her off as soon as-!"

"Shut up"

She did, her mouth clamped shut, my tone must have caught her off guard.

It caught me off guard, at the anger surfacing in my head and spreading throughout my body, my fist shaking a little from a mix of pain and anger.

A nasty glare from Olive's blue eyes pierced into me "You-!"

"How did you know that?" I interrupted her, not giving a shit, and making her shut up again in the process.

"..." She paused, her mouth opened but no words came.

'Suddenly your mute!?' My anger flared again "...were you eavesdropping on us?" All those times Ruby came to visit, I wonder how much she listened in.

A lot it seemed like, apparently, privacy meant fucking nothing on this planet!

It'd be one thing if she just heard something as she walked by, but she said way too much for that to be the case. Ruby and I only talked about those specific events a handful of times, the other times were just discussions on huntsmen and weapons, along with general chatter like complaining about school or work.

She had to have been actively listening in to get that much detail.

"I-"

"Did you spread everything you heard around Signal too?" My glare hardened toward her, freezing her in place "Were you talking behind Ruby's back?" I growled, wondering just how much damage was done.

Shit like that, those murmurs and gossip, was once upon a time the most painful thing for me. To hear them talking about you at the edge of your hearing, suddenly shutting up when you walk by and then laughing as you walk away.

I long since stopped caring, but I fucking remember.

"Is her feelings a fucking game for you? Just another bit of gossip for you to act righteous and know about?" I know that in the back of my mind that this is escalating quickly, this wasn't the time or the place, but I really can't bring myself to give a shit.

Ruby doesn't deserve that, she was the kind of girl who loved weapons and enjoyed just hanging out or chatting, she was helpful and understanding, I remember all the little things she did for me.

Having someone to talk to, complaining about people, the ten lien she gave me, helping carrying the parts from the junkyard…

Walking up to Olive and glaring straight into her confused eyes "Hey, speak up" I growled again "where the hell did your voice go? You said it yourself, she's not your friend, why the hell should you care, right? Not like you cared before"

Before she could say anything else, I grabbed her shoulder, giving my glare all I could muster, uncaring about the knowledge of the clear power difference between us.

I've faced death in the face multiple times since I came to this world, I've beaten the odds against me, and it's not the first time I've faced someone with aura.

Some gossipy teenage-wannabe huntress rookie doesn't fucking faze me at this point.

"I really don't have any patience right now Olive" My voice grew low, almost a whisper, but deep and full of conviction "so if I find out that you've been making her life more miserable with some petty teenage fucking gossip, aura or not, I will make your life a living hell"

After I finished that statement of fact, I immediately dropped my hand from her shoulder, glaring at her as we stood in tense silence, waiting for her response.

.

.

.

"Hehe…"

'The fuck?' I stared at her in utter bafflement, not expecting this reaction at all, as that small laugh escaped her lips.

She started giggling, holding her hand to her mouth "Hehehe…!"

My anger flared again, and my fist clenched 'You think that I'm not serious-!?'

"-hehehe, Ruby's lucky…" Olive stated as her shoulders shook from mirth.

'-wait, what?' I felt my anger die down, and bafflement filled its place.

"I think we got a little communication issue here, hehe…" She let out one last giggle before looking at me with a wide smile on her face "...uh, sorry about that, I was just surprised by that passion of yours" She said awkwardly.

Passion? "What are you-"

"Sorry" She apologized again as she interrupted me, her hands in a placating gesture in front of her, "I thought you meant that you were just being with her out of pity or something, and would just get rid of her as soon as the pity well ran dry…glad I was wrong" Her smile grew a little at the last part.

"...how do you get that from what I said?" I grunted in annoyance "I meant that she would move on and get other friends, nobody has enough pity to keep up an act for this long" I looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Eh, that's true I guess…" Olive scratched her cheek sheepishly, looking away from me "Yeah...anyway, about… sorry for the uh…listening in a few times-"

"Eavesdropping" I cut in.

"I-It wasn't intentional!" She stuttered as her cheeks lit up a little.

"Sure…" I totally believe her.

Her blue eyes won't meet mine, as she looked off to the side "...okay, I might have gotten a little curious, I'm sorry okay? It gets boring around here…" She looked back at me, her eyes finally meeting mine this time as she gave me a serious and stern look "...I didn't say anything about it back to anyone at Signal, I promise, I don't have any right to talk about something private like that"

.

.

.

I sighed tiredly, leaning against the counter as the anger and irritation subsided, and without it, I am painfully aware that I need to get some weight off my leg.

The sheepish feeling left in me didn't help either, I jumped the gun on this one.

"...sorry for assuming" I stated awkwardly, looking towards the dishes again 'Let the pain irritate me too much, I jumped to conclusions, clamp it down'

"Don't clam up now" She said, a bit of a teasing tone entering her voice as she interrupted my thoughts "Apology accepted, we both just had a little bit of a miscommunication" She laughed awkwardly, I handed her a dish and she took it to wipe it off "Your not a very social person, are you?"

I glanced back at her, the tension in the air removed, but my irritation remained "No shit?" I asked rhetorically.

"Hehe…" She giggled again, the sound practically grated on my ears at this point "Oh man, you're a lot different now than the past week you've been here"

"I'm pissed off" I grumbled, up until now I've been keeping everything professional, but I can't seem to muster up the will to pull up the facade now that it's out there "I'm extremely sore, I find out my coworker is eavesdropping on private conversations" I gave her the stinkeye, and she looked away guiltily "and I was worried that Ruby was getting more shit than she needs right now, sue me" I stated with finality.

"Ah, for a 'rebound friend' you're pretty concerned for her well-being" Olive teased again, I catch her smirking at me from the corner of my eye "to even go as far to confront someone with an aura and none of your own, while having a bad leg on top of that"

'She noticed?' My brow creased in frustration, I haven't been hiding it well enough.

"...what's it to you anyway?" I made an attempt to switch topics "You said yourself that you're not close with Ruby at all, that you've never even talked to her"

"Hmm…" She hummed in agreement "Not gonna ask about me noticing your leg?"

"Why? So you can tease me about working out too hard and pulling a muscle?" I snipe back, the explanation came out dry but meant for a good cover story.

Olive glanced back at me, looking somewhat amused by it "Oh, you caught me~" She sighed afterward "...well, yeah, I'm not close with Ruby at all…I only know about the fact that she's the little sister of Yang, my senior and the most popular girl in school"

I already knew that, it's been hammered enough into my head. It makes me wonder what Ruby's sister was actually like, but not enough to want to meet her.

I continued listening to Olive, finishing up the last dish and handing it to her.

"But more importantly I'm an upperclassman to her" She wipes the plate off, and I listen closely as her voice grew soft "I'm supposed to watch over the younger years, or at least I think an upperclassman is supposed to, I certainly wished someone did that in my first couple years…"

"..." I don't ask her what that means; if she wants to say anything she can.

But if she doesn't, that's fine. We're not close whatsoever, and I have no right to ask.

"It's tough training to be huntsmen and huntresses, even if it's just for the prep schools like Signal, there's so much competition and training that people often overlook each other" She shrugged lightly "I guess it shows how everyone is serious about it, but it's a shame that nobody helps each other more often, we're all gonna be out and facing the grimm together one day after all, what difference does it make who's the best?"

'...is the competition that bad at Signal academy? Ruby never mentioned it' I glanced at her again 'She doesn't make it sound like it's actively toxic though, more like…it's just forgotten, or pushed to the side…lonely'

"Sounds lonely" I voiced the thought "But it's not something that's reserved for huntsmen or huntresses" I walk by her as I help restock the food for the chef.

"Really?" Olive asked, looking at me curiously "How so?"

"Everyone gets caught up in their own lives to notice what's happening to others, it's happened to me, and I'm sure it's happened to you too, all we can do is be a little more self-aware and take a look around every now and then" I shrugged, not finding the fact disturbing, just a simple fact of life: you can't worry about everyone.

But that doesn't mean you can't notice what happens around you.

"...your an interesting guy, Drake" Olive said, I turned my head to see her looking at me curiously "Your definitely weird, I can't put my finger on what the weird part is though"

'Please, guess, you get three tries' I think sarcastically, giving her a deadpan stare "I'll take that as a compliment" I state flippantly.

Olive snorted at it, carrying the food bags and dumping them in the various containers "Definitely weird…but anyway, about Ruby"

'Seriously? Ruby again, didn't we already finish this?'

"I remember when she asked you to hang out on your second day here, she didn't sound like she wanted a rebound friend" Olive simply walked past me as she finished up filling the condiments "I don't get the impression that she's gonna move on and just leave you behind, she doesn't seem like that type of girl"

"..." I don't respond, my thoughts scrambled from her words.

I don't know what to make of that, or if I should even take it seriously.

"Just something to keep in mind I guess, you don't seem to have that much experience having friends, so I just figured I give you a heads up" Olive gave me this look, as if she was deigning me with sage-like advice from an expert.

'You little…two can play at that game!' My mind was set on being spiteful, pushing the situation with Ruby aside, and putting my focus on Olive.

"Like your an expert?" I asked sarcastically, before huffing "Please"

"W-What's that supposed to mean!?" She exclaimed as her head snapped toward me with a glare.

"I haven't seen one person from Signal even so much as say 'hi' to you in my entire time working here" I crossed my arms as I sent a pointed look at her "I think that's pretty telling"

Looking like she had her hand caught in the cookie jar, she stuttered "I-I...they don't come around here a lot!"

"Not even to visit you every now and then, at one of the most popular places for Signal students?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow "For an entire week?"

"..." She was silent, turning her head away from me very quickly, refusing to meet my gaze "I-I'm busy with my job!"

"Ah, the work excuse, classic" I lightly smirk at her "Is it actually because of your eavesdropping habits? That'd make more sense"

Her head quickly snapped towards me with an expression of embarrassed fury, completely red-faced "Shut up! I'm not an eavesdropper!" She shouted at me, and I can only make my smirk bigger in response, clearly hitting a bullseye.

"Um…"

We both paused in our positions…we slowly turn our heads to the source of the new voice.

The chef was standing off to the side by the grill, he was a purple-haired man with an equally purple mustache, he glanced between us "...I understand that your teenagers, and drama comes with the hormones and all, but could you please do it outside of my kitchen?" He asked dryly, but his violet eyes held a certain mirth of humor to it.

'He…he was listening to us the whole time' My mouth clamped together, my eyes shut as I wished to be anywhere but here.

Hesitantly opening my eyes, I see he was still there.

"..." My shoulders scrunched up, and I could see Olive did the same; the embarrassment of everything that unfolded being on full display to the chef was overpowering.

So we did the only thing that made sense.

"Sorry…" We both muttered towards him in sync, eyes not meeting his from shame.

"Ah, it's fine, I was young once too!" The chef simply laughed it off as he put the net around his purple locks "Why, I remember when I was arguing with one of my friends over a girl we both liked…"

'Oh fuck no' I think to myself, glancing at Olive to see her do the same to me with the same scrunched up expression 'Not another long-winded fucking story' This wasn't the first time he did this, he's so boring I can't even remember his name.

"Drake! Olive!" My eyes looked over to where I heard Auburn's voice, through the window in the wall, his head popping through "We got some customers, stop helping back there and take some orders!"

'Thank the fucking universe!' I thought in relief.

"Yes sir!" We both immediately took the chance, scrambling to get out of the kitchen.

His brow furrowed in annoyance, a frown clearly marked on his face "And don't call me sir or I'll cut your paychecks!"

"Yes Auburn!" We shouted back quickly.

The pain was still a constant, and I felt tired and quite frankly like if I made one wrong move I could easily fall on my ass and my legs would refuse to get up.

But the words Olive said stayed with me, keeping my mind occupied from it. What she said about Ruby sent mixed signals throughout my head, and I couldn't come to a conclusion about it no matter how much I wracked my brain, too tired and confused to really make any progress.

And yet, I can't help but wonder if Olive knew that would happen to me, that she did this on purpose to give me something to distract myself from my leg's painful surges that came every time I took a step.

If she did, I would thank her…in my head that is, there's no way I wanna see that smirk of hers again! To think that after working here for a whole week I found out what she's really like, I thought I had a decent read on her, but I guess she was putting up the same professional facade that I was.

Either way though, it's still gonna be bitch to get through the day. But I think I can manage it.

---

'Oh fuck, I can't manage this!' I force down another wince, keeping my expression neutral.

About four hours have passed, it's around one O'clock, and I don't think I can manage to get through the rest of the day.

'That's… quitter talk!' I forced myself to move, keeping the plate of food in my hands steady.

My stomach has been acting up recently, it was a dull ache before, but I think that after digesting the food in me it felt like a stronger, but not overwhelming pain. The main problem was the nausea I've been fighting off.

All the injuries on my body are a constant, it feels like I'm pushing my limits and it's making my head feel dizzy. I have to take a moment to just stop and let it pass every now and then as I serve tables.

'At least business is slow today' That was the one saving grace, the only time things got hectic was during lunchtime, but even that was tame in comparison to the lunch rushes I dealt with before.

Now there was only a measly two people in the restaurant…well, technically three. In one of the corner booths, there was a ponytailed black-haired and blue-eye mother with her young son that couldn't be more than four years old; his skin was darker than hers, likely from his father, and had black hair and brown eyes. The sight of a mother playing with her child and having fun with crayons and the color-in paper I had supplied earlier was nice to see.

I quickly set down the food, looking at the gray-haired man in the booth I was serving. Looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, although I could be wrong, alien planet and all that. That and the fact that he's a faunus; not an obvious one, but I could see hints of scales on his skin near his neck.

My nerves were at an all-time high, but they held, leaving my facade of a professional waiter intact with the same smile and positive attitude…even if he was a prick the entire time, which both infuriated me and yet oddly comforted me; if he is a White Fang scout, then he's a shitty one. But I genuinely don't think he's anything to worry about, the White Fang will lay low and steer clear of this town after last night to let the heat die down if their previous actions are anything to go by.

This is the second serving of food I have given him, the plate from before was 'a clear slight against him' because of his race supposedly, with the well-made medium rare steak being apparently too well done.

I'd call bullshit under normal circumstances, I may not remember his name but I know the chef well enough to know he takes making food seriously. But I am on the clock and it's not appropriate to call out a customer for their crap.

"Here's your order sir" I stated pleasantly, switching the plate to my other arm to let my right to rest, my muscles were starting to twitch "Sorry again for the mistake earlier"

"Whatever…better be good this time" The man grunted, digging into his food after sending an annoyed glare my way with his green eyes.

'Prick' I think to myself, already knowing he won't leave a tip. I turn around away from him, letting my smile fall once he couldn't see my face.

Making my way towards the front counter, I set down the tray briefly and took a moment to lean against it, glad that Auburn's focused on whatever task he was doing instead of working at the register 'C'mon Drake, you can keep going…' My teeth ground together as my leg felt like it was on the verge of cramping up, the nausea in my stomach returned 'I've already used up a break, and I still have the rest of the day to get through…maybe I should just go on lunch'

Not like there was a lot of people anyway, I assume that the news feed from this morning made people not in the mood to go out much.

'Alright, c'mon Drake you gotta move' I think to myself, hearing the sound of small footsteps from the kid echoing in the back, vaguely wondering if I should go help Olive restock the freezer, but knowing that at least one person should be out here with the customers.

Sighing to myself, making the decision to wait until those customers to leave before lunch, I move to go grab a wipe cloth to clean up the tables.

"Onyx, wait!" Just as I turned around with it, I was in a perfect line of sight to watch the kid zooming by and arms hanging out with an action figure, the kid was waving it everywhere; I briefly found myself imagining it was one of my siblings from years ago, a bittersweet feeling filled me as I made a small nostalgic smile.

Clink!

"Wha-HEY!"

…and it was immediately wiped off my face and replaced with a frown, the kid had just knocked the faunus customer's glass and spilt it all over him and his food. The guy was glaring at the kid and standing up from the booth.

My eyes widened as the kid froze, but was thankful when the mother grabbed his shoulders and put him to the side, facing the man in his place "I'm so sorry about that sir!" The black-haired woman addressed him with sincerity, making a small polite bow of her head "It's my fault he got away from me, I'll make sure to pay for your food"

'A little old school' I briefly thought, but then wondered if that was actually normal in some parts of Remnant to apologize that way. I'm still not completely caught on with the full cultural differences and similarities between Remnant and Earth, and I'm not sure if I ever will be.

My ears catch the ring of the front entrance bell, but I ignore it for the moment, I can get to them after cleaning up the mess.

Seeing that the situation seemed to be resolving itself, I take the cloth and made my way over to clean up the ruined food and drink, but stop when I see the man look up and down at her.

'...no, he's not-'

"Oh?" He suddenly said, a dirty smirk littered on his face, I couldn't help but almost gag at how sleazy it looked "You wanna make it up to me do yeah? Maybe just you and I can hit up a bar and catch a drink?"

'...what the fuck, her kid is right there' I've never seen something like this in front of me before, at least not so brazenly, this guy seemed to have no sense of tact or awareness.

The woman's face scrunched up for a moment, before giving a fake smile "Sorry, but I have to watch over my son, but I'll gladly pay for the food"

He crossed his arms as he glanced at the kid, who was hiding his head behind his mother's leg "Eh? You can drop the kid off at a daycare or something, if you really wanna make it up to me you'd say yes"

.

.

.

'...what the fuck!?' I watch for a few seconds as the man kept being persistent, the mother refusing and the man growing increasingly irritated, all while she was trying to calm the situation.

It'd be one thing if this guy was just flirting with her, but he was trying to guilt trip her into going out with him. I knew this guy was entitled and rude, but this goes beyond just complaining about some food.

'Just clean up the table Drake' I think to myself, irritated and done with today, as I walk closer to them 'I'm sure it'll pass, just some stupid guy pushing his luck'

It's not like there was anything to get worked up about. The guy will eventually back off and the woman will leave with her kid, and that will be the end of it, I don't have to get involved.

"Leave mommy alone!" The kid suddenly shouted, peeking his head out from behind his mother's leg.

The kid's glare morphed into one of fear when the man looked back at him with an annoyed glance "Me and your mom are having a conversation here kid, adults only"

I stood in place, my leg aching, and finding myself getting increasingly frustrated. He wasn't gonna stop anytime soon, was he?

'Gotta be fucking kidding me' I think as I throw the stupid cloth on the table next to me out of frustration, I'm not in the mood for this.

'Couldn't have been Olive or Auburn, no, I have to fucking deal with this' The universe just keeps throwing curve balls my way and I'm sick of it 'Why couldn't one of them play the fucking white knight, I've filled my quota already damn it!'

Walking again towards them, my leg continuously making me aware that I'm not in top condition, I open my mouth and spoke.

"Sir" I called out, stopping right in front of them and making the two adults look at me "I have to kindly ask you to not harass the other customers, I will have your table fully cleaned up and give you a refund for the ruined food"

I don't really have the authority to give him a refund out of the register, only Auburn and the owner, which I still haven't met yet, could do that, but I'll pay him out of my own pocket if that's what it fucking takes.

My offer was apparently not good enough for him though, he scoffed at me "Buzz off, I'm not harassing nobody, just having a conversation"

Feeling my eyebrow twitch, a crack in my neutral expression, I made to offer it again-

But he just completely ignored me and turned to the mother again before I could speak "Your kid made the mess and now you have to pay me back, all I want is an outing with you after you drop the kid off"

The woman's expression was clearly torn, I could see the signs of a scowl being suppressed, but also a strange note of hesitance, not out of fear, more like she's weighing options.

She shouldn't have to weigh options, I open my mouth again "Sir I will gladly give you a refund out of my own pocket, but please-"

"Shut up" The man stated, cutting me off, I'm dumbfounded by his stubbornness, and he turns and smirks at the woman "So what do you say, not a bad deal right?"

"…I'm sorry, but I have to decline" She stated after a moment of hesitation "I'm a widow, my husband died last year and I'm still not over it"

My eyes widened a fraction, glancing towards her ring finger, it was bare 'She's a single mother-?'

"You have to get over it eventually" The gray-haired man stated, not losing any momentum as he started reaching out to touch her, making the woman try to back away; the sight makes my chest feel tight and uncomfortable, anger-inducing uncomfortable.

"I'll treat you right by the end of the night-" His hand stops.

Not of his own volition, it was stopped by another hand: mine.

My gloved hand was clenched tightly around his wrist.

'Ah, it seems like I've had enough of this shitshow' I think to myself, too tired and in too much pain to care about keeping all my patience.

"Sir" My voice was deeper, not to the point of a growl, but just enough to become sterner "I've warned you once already, do not harass the other customers"

"Hey!" The man's shoulders shook, trying to pull his hand away, I let go after a few seconds of him failing at doing so, making him stumble back a bit.

My narrowed eyes reached his wider ones as he retreated his hand, I catch the sight of the mother's surprised glance, but ignore it "We have a strict policy about harassment, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave-"

"Shut up!" He shouts angrily, pushing his hands out and shoving me in the chest.

'Fucking damn-' I try to right myself, adjusting my right leg to keep myself standing, only for the sudden change to be too much for it and it's muscles seize up '-shitshitshitSHIT!'

My leg collapsed and I fell backwards, my back hitting the table behind me, right into the upper part of my back "Ah-…!" I let a small gasp as the pain became ten times sharper, but silenced it as I hit the floor.

Voices reach my ears as I shut my eyes tightly, trying to drown out the pain.

"-are you alright!?" A woman's.

"-shouldn't have started it!" A man's.

"-Waahh!" The scared cries of a child.

They were distant, for a moment I let myself submerge in the pain, writhing in agony on the floor, right next to the table I hit.

"Did that little throw break your aura?" Her voice taunted in the back of my mind.

The memory of last night flashed through my eyes, the situation was too familiar. Weak and injured, lying next to a table I was thrown into by a faunus, a mother and her child trying to get away from said faunus.

'Get up! You're gonna die! They're gonna die!' I forgot where I was. Where am I?!

"Kill the human scum!" The voices of angered men echoed in my head, followed by gunfire.

I quickly grabbed the table above me and pulled myself upward in one move, lifting my leg to keep weight off it as I used my strained arms to have myself upright.

My eyes shot open, shooting straight towards the man's (giantess's) form, the boy and his mother (Lemona and her mother), my eyes grew wild but focused, primal instincts of whether to fight or flight kicked in, and the answer was fight!

The man (giantess) widened his (her) eyes, backing away a little, closer to the mother and her son (daughter).

'Get away from them!' My good leg coiled inward, ready to launch and shoulder ram him away from them-!

But that was stopped short when a gentle hand clenched my left shoulder "That's enough"

I froze, my mind completely baffled. 'There shouldn't be any other fang-wait, that's not right…!' The thought stopped in its tracks, my surroundings finally registering in my mind again.

This isn't the bakery shop, I'm not facing off against a White Fang leader, I'm at work.

As my expression falls, I noticed my quickened breathing and tried to slow it down, mind catching itself back up to reality, someone steps up from behind me and stands by my left side.

"I'd like to ask yah to bring any complaints you have about our establishment to me" The voice was femine, but it didn't sound like any woman I knew "Like this young man here said, we have a strict 'no harassment' policy"

'An employee?' I think, my brain still jumbled, I turned my head to look at her.

The new woman was in casual clothes, a simple white t-shirt that said 'New Mom' in red bold letters and a pair of jeans with some black and yellow tennis shoes; she had short blonde hair pulled up into what looked like braids on the sides, and she had striking yellow eyes that went well with the contrast of freckles near her face. She was also noticeably buff, at least from what I can see from her muscular arms, yet she was a few inches shorter than me.

She smiled at the man with a toothy grin "Well? Let's hear it, I'm always willing to listen to a customer's complaints"

While she was grinning, it clearly didn't reach her eyes. They weren't blinking, and felt cold and lifeless.

Scoffing, the gray-haired faunus pointed at me "Well my waiter was clearly harassing me! I was defending myself, I was just minding my business having a nice discussion here with this lady and then this psycho-"

"I saw the whole thing, I know what happened" She stated simply, her grin still on her face, eyes still dark.

"Yeah?" The guy questioned, crossing his arms while glaring at me, I resist the urge to deck him in his jaw "Then get the manager and fire this guy!"

'...shit, am I actually getting fired?' I think anxiously, the guy was clearly full of shit, but I know damn well how cut-throat some businesses can be just to avoid complaints…not to mention I was about to launch myself at him 'What was I thinking? Shit-'

"Oh, you don't need the manager"

.

.

.

We all went silent for a few seconds after the blonde stated that, both and me the mother looked at her in confusion, the faunus even more so, almost ready to shout at her.

'Wait' A thought comes to my mind, a stupid meme from back home, but with how she acts like she works here, minus the uniform, and that statement she just made…

The woman walked up to the guy, hands on her hips "No, you good sir" She said like she was eating something sour as she spoke "are talking to the owner of this fine establishment"

'No fucking way' I blinked owlishly.

Her smile turned vicious, making the man freeze up "My word is law here, and if I say no harassment…" She put a hand on his shoulder-

I can barely comprehend what happened next, one moment he was standing there, the next he was raised over her shoulder, his arm in her right hand and her left placed over his chest.

"That means…!" She says as she lifted him over her head, making me gawk.

Watching the event, I can only think one thing: 'What the fu-'

"...NO HARASSMENT!" Following through on the judo throw, she brings her arms down and slams him into the floor.

"GAH!" Gasping on the floor as he hit his back, the mother and child backed away a bit as he hit the ground and coughed, completely disoriented.

"Puh!" The woman spat on him, the bit of saliva hitting his chest as she glared down at him, the expression on her face would make you think she was looking at garbage "Get out of my restaurant! We don't serve anyone who harasses mothers, children, and employees!"

"Y-Your fucking crazy!" The guy scrambled up and started running towards the entrance.

The woman's glare came back full force after he said that, glancing at the kid for a moment before focusing on the terrified man, bringing her foot up and pulling the shoe off, winding her arm back with it in her hand…

"NO SWEARING WHILE CHILDREN ARE HERE!" She shouted while chucking it at him.

"OW!" It hit his head, making him bump into the wall before he finally managed to open the front entrance, ringing the door's bell as he scrambled his way outside.

I blinked owlishly again, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me and it was all a hallucination. I rubbed them for a few seconds, then looked up again.

Nope, she's still there. My (apparently?)boss let out a satisfied huff, and I could see that Auburn and Olive were now at the counter, with chef poking his purple haired head out of the order window.

'...why do they look so calm?' I wondered, seeing Olive and the chef smiling with a look on ther faces, like it said 'it happened again, huh?', meanwhile Auburn grumbled to himself while rubbing his nose in exasperation 'Is this normal for you!?'

"Anyway" My head whipped to my boss(?) as she wiped off her hands, turning to the mother with a grin on her face "Now that that's over with, I'm sorry about the trouble he caused you and hope it doesn't affect your opinion about my restaurant, I'll make sure he's banned from coming here again"

"T-Thank you" The black haired mother said as she regained her composure, just as surprised as I was, before looking down at her son "C'mon Onyx-" She paused as she looked at her kid, noticing he wasn't moving from his spot "Onyx?"

My eyes followed her line of sight, the kid was grabbing on tightly to his mother's pants and hiding behind it, his eyes were puffy and his hands were trembling.

'...of course he's still scared' The kid just watched some guy harass his mom, shove me to the floor, and then suddenly have said guy get judo flipped in front of him. The only reason he wasn't wailing was because he was in too much shock.

"E-Eh?" My boss(?) suddenly lost her composure, looking lost as she saw the kid's lips quiver and his eyes tear up, his mother already by his side and cooing at him to calm him down "D-Don't cry! I'm sorry! I'm not scary, see?" She tried to crouch down towards the kid, giving a wide smile.

"S-Scary…" The kid shook as he hid in his mom's arms.

My boss's(?) face fell immediately at that, looking crushed.

I glanced towards the others, seeing Olive, Auburn, and the chef hesitant to approach, not wanting to crowd the kid.

Looking back to the mother and her child, the kid sniffling and looking around warily as his mom hugged him to calm him down, I wondered what I would do if it was one of my younger siblings that I had to cheer up from something like this?

Searching through my memories of when my younger sisters were, well, younger, I stopped after remembering times when they were scared '...ah' Inspiration hits 'That would work'

"She's scary?" I suddenly said out loud, raising my voice in fake confusion, I see the kid look at me from suddenly pitching in "You're definitely scarier than her"

I feel eyes looking at me, probably questioning what I was doing, but I keep my focus on the kid as his eyes stopped watering, instead filled with a four-year old's curiosity "...I'm scary?" He asked quietly

"Mmm-hmmm" I hummed, nodding a little dramatically before pointing to myself "I mean, you saw that the guy pushed me when I tried to cut in, right?"

The kid was hesitant for a moment, before nodding, it was barely noticeable, but it was there 'Good, he's paying attention' I think to myself as I get ready to put on an act.

"Yeah, he did that to me, but he wouldn't dare touch you" I make a waving motion towards him, pretending to shiver a little "You scared him good, a tough guy like you could take him on easily, and he knew that"

"...really?" The kid asked after making a small hiccup, his eyes less sad and more excited.

"Heck yeah!" I crouch down to his level, leg still messed up and I can't walk on it, scooting myself over to him, glancing at the mother with a silent asking for permission to get closer.

She looked a little confused for a second, before giving a slight nod.

"You sir, are one tough and brave little guy" I pointed at him, making me sound like it was in awe of his presence "That mean man saw this brave kid standing up for his mom and knew he couldn't win"

Gesturing to the others "Heck, we were too scared to move until you shouted at him" I glanced back at the others, urging them to play along.

My boss(?) seemed to catch my meaning, she nodded vigorously "Yeah, you inspired me!" She exclaimed, holding a hand over her heart "Your show of bravery moved me, I couldn't help but step in to help! Not that you needed it, your scary yourself" She flattered him.

That's good, a kid's ego is the best card to play. He's only four, he wants to feel special, he wants attention…

I watch as the kid glanced down at himself, no more tears in his eyes and only sniffling a little, staring at his tiny hands before looking back up at the owner…

"RAWR!" He shouted, suddenly putting his hands in the air like claws.

I immediately put my hands up "Ah!" I pretended to gasp, noticing my boss(?) do the same.

"Haha!" The kid laughed in excitement, point at us "I got you!"

"Man, don't scare me like that…" I pretended to sigh in relief, seeing the kid laughing eased the mood in the room. The mother was smiling softly at him having fun, glancing back at us gratefully.

I see everyone start to relax, but I wasn't quite done just yet…

"Hey" I lowered my head towards him, mock whispering towards him while dramatically glancing around in fake paranoia "A tough guy like you is perfect for this secret mission I have"

"Secret!?" He exclaimed, an excited gleam in his eyes, kids are curious and want to know everything, especially the stuff their not supposed to.

Nodding at him, I wave towards myself for him to lean in, I watch as he glances at his mother for permission, she looks hesitant at first but nods in acceptance.

The kid shuffles his way towards me, leaning his head in, I raise my hand to block the view of the others from my left eye "Your scariness makes you perfect for this secret escort mission" I mock whispered.

"Es…cort?" He sounded it out, thinking about it a lot "I heard mom say that once…"

"It means you gotta protect someone to get them somewhere" I explained quickly, pretending to glance around in paranoia again, I briefly see Olive muffling a giggle with her hand but ignore it before turning to him again.

"Your mom is the one you gotta escort" I point at her for him "She wants to go home, but she's scared there might be weirdos like that guy you scared off"

"Mom is scared!?" The kid exclaimed, the very idea being totally unexpected for him.

"Shush" I say dramatically, his eyes widened as he realized he said that out loud, he clamps a hand over his mouth, I can hear faint giggling again but ignore it "She doesn't want you to know, but she's really scared, that's why you gotta protect her, alright?"

"Like a huntsman?" He whispered.

"Exactly like a huntsman" I nodded at him "But the secret part of this mission, is that you can't let her know your on a mission"

"Wha? Why?" He asked, voice filled with uncertainty.

"She doesn't want you to know she's scared" I say, catching his attention fully "She's acting brave for you, you don't wanna make her feel silly, right?"

"No…"

"Then you gotta protect her in secret, you gotta scare off all the bad guys with your muscles" I state while patting my bicep, watching him nod at me, eyes narrowing in as much determination a four-year-old can get, I lean over to him and look him in the eye "Only you can do it, only can protect your mom, will you do it?"

Most importantly of all, kids want to feel special, they want to be unique and have a special role.

He gives a hard nod, pumping his tiny fist "Mm-hmm!" He hummed, spinning around and running to his mother's side, sending a tiny glare to everyone around him, crossing his arms sternly as he stays by his mom's side.

"Oh~" The mother puts a hand on her chest, sighing in relief "I feel so much safer all of a sudden" She was smiling widely, looking straight at me in gratitude, she mouthed a 'thank you' in my direction.

I simply smile and shrug, there wasn't that much to it.

Afterward Auburn escorted them out, the kid glaring at him all the while to make sure his mom was 'safe', I sighed in relief after hearing the entrance bell ring.

"Well, what do you know~" Olive ducked her head down to look at me in my still crouched position "You're surprisingly good with kids~" She said with a teasing voice.

I scoffed, shaking my head "I'm the oldest among four siblings" Waving it off, not impressed with her tone "That's not even close to the hardest thing I dealt with"

Ignoring her for a moment, I grabbed the table nearby and made an attempt to stand-

"Ugh!" I grunted as I immediately fell back down, my leg was even worse now.

But I didn't want to be on the floor, I still had a job to do, so I grabbed the end of the table to push myself up again, willing myself to ignore the pain and at least stand on my good leg.

Suddenly feeling a hand under my left armpit, I felt myself being lifted up "Wha-" I almost squirmed, but stopped when Olive simply righted me as she held me up.

"Oh, relax, I'm helping yah!" Olive smiled at me, I gave her an annoyed glance in return.

"I can stand on my own" I state stubbornly, trying to get out of her grasp…only to fail, her aura-enhanced strength not budging 'Damn aura super strength, such bullshit…!'

"Hmm…I don't think so" Olive said with a shake of her head, making a pointed look down toward my feet "Not on that leg"

I glare at her, knowing she won't budge, and a feeling of frustration built up in me…but I ultimately sighed as I let myself be supported by her, if only a little "Just help me to the table" I stated, hopping on my good leg.

I wouldn't budge either.

"...fine" Olive huffed, looking annoyed herself, helping me hobble over to the seat.

"...this doesn't make up for the eavesdropping" I stated.

"Would you let that go!?" Olive shouted, completely frustrated and a little flustered, helping me over to the table as I grumbled a 'no' her way, only making her fume more.

I sit down and scooch into the booth, I set my hands on the table and clenched them as another wave of agony crawled up my leg and through my body. My right leg itself is still trembling, shaking in place as the muscles contract 'Damn it…!'

While waiting for the pain to die down, I barely notice the other end of the booth suddenly being filled, the blonde who said she owned the place sat down in front of me with a big smile on her face.

"Well now, I finally get to meet my new employee!" She extends her hand to me "The name's Rouxanne! I'm the owner of Patch Delight, which makes me your boss!"

'So she is the owner, huh' I look at her hand, waiting a second for the pain to die down, before reaching out and grasping it "Drake Joseph, nice to finally meet you" I introduced.

She hummed "Nice grip" She stated, before pulling back "Drake Joseph huh?" She then paused, blinking in confusion before turning to look at Olive "...Drake…Joseph?"

'Eh?' I look between them, unsure of what's happening.

Olive simply shrugged "That is his name" She moved her eyes toward me, and then looked back to her boss "He said that was the one he was born with"

"...huh" The owner's freckled face scrunched up a little "...is Drake a color? Doesn't sound like one…and Joseph sounds even less like a color…"

'Oh, that's what it is' I internally sighed, already sick of the stupid color rule "My parents did not name me with the color rule in mind, I was raised far outside the kingdoms" I state simply, then a thought crossed my mind "...shouldn't you already know this though?"

"Eh…" The blonde rubbed the back of her head "Auburn sent me a text about you, but I only skimmed it, was a little preoccupied at the hospital"

'Hospital?' My eyes make their way to her chest, reading the words again, and then glancing at Olive 'Olive said something I think, what was it, my second day working here?'

She said someone was having a baby.

Looking back at her, pieces coming together, I voice out "Your Roux? Short for Rouxanne?" I asked.

Both Olive and Rouxanne turned their heads back to me, Rouxanne letting out a smile "Eheh! Yep!" She laughed a little "It's a little nickname I have around here"

"So I take it your the one Olive was saying was having a baby" I glanced at Olive, almost accusing "She made it sound like you were an employee rather than the boss"

'Yeah, that would've been nice to know!' I think hysterically.

"She kinda is…?" Olive sounded confused herself, shrugging her shoulders "Roux usually works with us in the restaurant since we're so short-handed, I kinda forget she's the owner sometimes"

"What do you mean you forget!?" I exclaimed in unison with Rouxanne, I glance back at her to see her just as baffled, only to straighten up her posture again.

"Uh-I mean" She hesitates when she saw me looking at her, before staring at Olive seriously "What do you mean you forget I'm the owner?"

Olive glances back towards the counter, I see her exchanging glances with the chef, he was just shrugging at her, and when she turned back she looked pensive as if she was thinking back on something "...well you never really act like a boss, you always help out with everything and act casual with everyone, it's sometimes easy to forget you actually own the place I guess" She explained.

"That just makes me a helpful boss though, right?" Rouxanne grumbled before facing me again, smiling as she points to her shirt "But anyway, yeah! My wife recently gave birth to my little boy! I'm a bonafide mom now!" Puffing out her chest, she laughs a little, though it sounded a little strained.

"More like a newly made mother who is anxious about the baby's well being" Auburn called out, the front door's bell ringing and making his way towards us "and is consequently stressing out their spouse, said spouse sending you over to check on your restaurant to get you away for a few hours"

"G-Guh!" She let out a gasp, as if she was stabbed, Auburn's words clearly hitting a mark. I noted the small bags under her eyes, and now that I was looking closer, I could see a few strands of her hair were sticking out from lack of brushing.

She glares at Auburn "You couldn't let me keep my cool boss image to the new guy for a little longer!?" She paused, before shouting "And I'm not stressed!"

'Eh, I guess she was kinda cool?' I think to myself as I see the owner of Patch Delight complain to Auburn about 'ruining her first impression' on me 'More like chaotic though, I can still feel whiplash from how she went from polite to kickass in an instant'

But there was something a little more important on my mind to worry about, and I think I've just about had my fill of beating around the bush, so I'll just make it as polite but direct as possible.

"So…" I interrupt them in the middle of their tirade, Rouxanne's head turning back to me curiously "If you don't mind me asking, am I gonna be fired or what?"

.

.

.

Roxanne, Auburn, and Olive's eyes widened as if they were surprised by my question, which they have no right to be if that is the case, it was completely warranted.

So I just continued, putting my focus on the boss "I don't know if Olive or Auburn saw, but I was about to tackle that man" I said, no point in ignoring it as there's no way the boss didn't catch it, I briefly noted Olive and Auburn's expressions twitch before continuing "That's why you stepped in, right? I was about to start a fight, I could've handled that situation far better than I had, so am I fired?"

The owner of Patch Delight stared at me, her eyes squinting for a moment, I felt myself tense a little from the anticipation of her answer, already expecting for the worst.

She then stopped, smiled, and glanced back at Auburn who was standing behind her side of the booth "Your judge of character was spot on again Auburn" She smiled widely "He's a keeper~"

'Eh?' I watch in bafflement as Auburn smirked, pleased with himself.

"You ain't getting fired dummy" Olive supplemented, walking over to my side "I mean c'mon, you were in the right here, the guy was full of himself and a complete jerk"

I send a small glare her way "That's not what I was-"

"It's alright" My eyes turned back to the owner, her smile a little softer "You said you lived outside the kingdoms, right?" She asked suddenly.

A little bit of guilt built up in me for a moment from the lie I made, but I bash it down and simply nod at her.

"I understand that it must be tough living out there, surrounded by grimm" She brings out her hand, showing her wedding ring "I'm married to a huntress afterall, I've had to help her calm down after a few night terrors or spikes of panic, sometimes I have to remind her where she is so she snaps out of it…that was what happened to you right?" She asked gently "You thought you were somewhere else?"

"..." I opened my mouth to refute, then closed it after thinking better of it.

I did.

It wasn't in some far-off place outside the kingdoms like she thought, but it was still the same thing she described. I thought I was back there…in that bakery shop…and…I think the warehouse too? When I first got here?

'Fuck, am I getting PTSD?' The thought pops into my head, but I put it away into a box, something to unpack for later.

"...yeah" I simply answered, making it clear I don't want to go any further than this.

I felt a spike of irritation at the sympathetic looks I received from Olive and the others, although Rouxanne didn't thankfully, I wasn't gonna let that fact run wild and let them get ideas.

I briefly considered that it might be beneficial for me to let them think that, in the sense that I could manipulate them with sympathy, but I don't want to manipulate them. Their people, living and breathing people with their own lives and feelings, and I have no right to treat them like tools.

And I don't want to be seen like a charity case.

"Quit looking at me like that" I snapped a little towards them, making Olive flinch, although Auburn simply dropped the sympathy look "I'm not some traumatized orphan, my family is alive and well, I just had some bad encounters before" I stated, putting an end to it.

"I-I didn't say anything" Olive mumbled, eyes looking away as she rubbed her arm a little.

"You were thinking it" I sniped back, she gave an annoyed huff before crossing her arms and not making eye contact with me. I narrowed my eyes at her for a moment, thinking the reaction to that was a little weird from her, but ultimately disregard it.

The clapping of hands was heard by all of us, we all paid attention to Rouxanne as she clapped and laughed a little "Alright then, now that that's cleared up…"

"So I'm not getting fired?" I had to be sure.

"Oh my oum-kid, no, your not getting fired" Auburn groaned at me "A few scuffles happen here occasionally, it's just bound to happen when your a popular spot for hunters in training, we've more than handled a few bouts of people being idiots"

"Yep!" Rouxanne nodded, pointing at me "And we especially have trouble keeping people working here, most don't last a couple days" She smiled widely at me as she pointed my way "You however have been here a week, and just tried to help a mother being harassed by another customer, there's no way I'm giving you up!"

'Why do you make it sound like I'm trapped here now?' I ultimately sighed though in relief, glad that my main source of income is intact.

"But anyway, moving on now" Rouxanne kept her momentum going "I think you should all go home and get some rest, I'm closing down the restaurant for the day"

'Seriously?'

I notice Auburn nodding at her "Yeah, there's not a lot of business today anyway, we can afford it"

"Because of the whole White Fang thing from the news, right?" Olive piped in, seemingly over whatever was bothering her a moment ago "Not a lot of people wanna go outside right now, and most of the other people at Signal are probably gonna be busy with training after school hours"

'Speaking of, why is she here during said school hours?' I think to myself curiously, Olive is a Signal student too after all, but I didn't voice it, not my business to ask.

"Buh!" Rouxanne waved it off, her braids swinging back in forth as she threw her head up "People overreact, this will blow over eventually, besides they got taken out by…uh" She snaps her fingers "What's his name? Something with an M?"

"Miracle" Olive supplied.

"Yeah, that guy!" Rouxanne nodded "Not to mention that we don't have a shortage of huntsmen around here, and the police are already on it, and I'm sure that Miracle guy is going after them too"

'Stupid name' I almost grumbled it but withheld, finding it hard not to feel self-conscious as they talked about my...persona, I suppose is the term for it.

"So yeah, go home and kick your feet up, especially you" She pointed at me sternly "You gotta rest up that leg! You all have the day off tomorrow too, you'll be paid for your full hours, but I expect you all back by Wednesday all rested and ready to work"

"Yes mam!" Olive happily saluted to her, I notice Auburn's eye twitch at the action but he didn't comment.

"So just clean up and close up shop!?" I hear the chef shout from the back "I'll get started!"

Yeah, that was really generous of her, and…really good for me, I could certainly use some of that time to heal up and work on my projects, as well as go through those letters from the White Fang.

I don't think I can stand all day on my leg anyway, but I could atleast help clean up-

"Bup bup bup!" The owner held out her hand to me, stopping my motion to get up from the booth "No way buster, you just sit there and look pretty, rest a little before heading home"

I can't just sit here while everyone else is cleaning up! "But-"

"No buts! Buts are for sitting!" She chuckled, I can hear a murmur under her breath that sounded suspiciously like: "Heh, got the mom jokes down…"

I really wanted to protest, but the hot sensation of my leg making it's agony clear made me shut my mouth, I nodded to her begrudgingly "Thank you, mam"

"Oh, just call me Roux or Rouxie, everyone else does!" She nodded to herself, picking herself away from the booth "Anyway, I'm glad to have finally got to meet yah, I hope you continue to work hard for this place I hold dear" She smiled warmly "I gotta get back home to my loving wife, so I'll get out of your way-"

"Where do you think your going?" Auburn suddenly cut in, moving right in front of her to block her path to the exit with a stern expression on his face-er, more stern than usual that is.

The whiplash from the change in mood confused me, I looked to Olive for answers, but she just smiles at me like it's normal.

"Ehehe…what are you doing Auburn? I have a loving wife and kid to get back to" The nervous tick to her voice was clear to everyone here.

Auburn put a hand on her shoulder, his green eyes piercing into her yellow ones, stern and unrelenting "Oh? Without doing what a good boss should? Like going through all the paperwork that's built up at your desk? The papers you were still not caught up on even before your wife was in labor, that you promised you would finish?"

"Uhhh…" The owner let out a scared tone of voice, avoiding eye contact with him "I'm sure you can handle it-"

He leaned over to her, dead serious "I insist"

"NOOOOOO!" She suddenly shouted, scaring me a little as she tried to run away but was stuck in Auburn's grasp "You can't make me! I got a loving wife and a kid to get to!"

"She sent you here for a reason! Quit stressing her out and do your job!" Auburn retorted, refusing to relent as his boss squirmed and shouted 'no' over and over again.

As I watched the scene unfold, an epiphany hit me.

No wonder why Olive forgot that she was actually the boss, it sure doesn't look like it from here. Auburn looked so much more like the boss than she does, and acted like it too. I just take one look at the green-haired girl next to me to see her staring back, the questioning expression on my face all she needed to know to understand my silent question.

"This is normal" She stated casually, before starting to walk away to get started on clean-up "You get used to it"

'What is my fucking life?' I wondered, watching Auburn point the owner to her office door on the other side of the room, Rouxanne sniffling as she trudges over reluctantly.

I sighed again, very tired and just letting the pain in my body wash over, my upper back was still aching, I discreetly touched it to make sure there was no liquid there '...okay, nothing, don't think the stitches broke' I let my hand drop to the table, a little relieved.

"Hey, Joseph" I looked back up to see Auburn standing over my table, holding an envelope in his hands, and setting it on the table "This is for you, your tips"

"Oh" I let out dumbly, almost forgetting about it "Uh, thanks, how much did I earn again?" I can't remember, I lost count after the pain became too distracting.

"Four-hundred and twenty-five lien" He stated matter of factly.

"Mmm" I hummed, pulling the weirdly heavier-than-usual envelope towards me "I see, sounds…right…right?" I slowed down.

Wait a minute, back up!

My head whipped to Auburn, eyes wide and almost bug-eyed "...four hundred!?" I questioned in shock.

"And twenty-five" Auburn added.

'What the fuck!? That can't be right!' There was no way that was accurate, I quickly open the envelope and peek in, and just from a glance, the number seems accurate, much to my dismay.

There's no way I got that much money, I could maybe get seventy to around a hundred lien a day from my past week working here, maybe more if it's really busy, and both of those were only a maybe. It has to be some kind of mistake.

"I didn't earn this money" I stated, shaking my head, the money made it extremely fucking tempting to just not look a gift horse in the mouth, but I know this can't be right, so I set it down and slide it back over to him "I can't take this"

"Yes you can, it was the money that was tipped to you for the service you provided" Auburn simply slid it back over to me.

I could feel the irritation piping back up, I seemed to have a temper today "I never once saw enough money on the tables to even make half of this!"

"True" He nodded, gesturing his hand towards the door "The woman with the kid gave three hundred lien to me before she left, saying that she didn't tip you properly before leaving"

"That…that can't…!" I stuttered, baffled and my frustration rising "Why would she do that!? She's a single mother, why would she spend that much money to tip me!?"

Auburn shrugged "I assume it's not a problem for her, she must be a successful huntress if she thought she could afford to give you that much"

"That-" I stopped, something in that sentence didn't make sense "...huntress?"

Auburn nodded, his green eyes as serious as they always were, he wasn't the type to mess with someone over something like this either. I tried to think of anything that would've given that fact away…and focused on the words of her son.

"Es…cort?" He sounded it out, thinking about it a lot "I heard mom say that once…"

"She was a huntress?" I asked again, more to myself, it was only getting more confusing by the second "Then why didn't she just-"

"Shove him aside and move on with her day?" Auburn cut in, I simply nodded at him, he sighed and shook his head "...because a huntsman or huntress hurting a civilian is a lot more of a taboo in the eyes of the law, she could've very easily hurt him with her superior strength, at least enough for her to be charged against and brought to court"

'...oh' I remember reading about that, hell, even just witnessing that in everyday life since I came here.

There was a huge divide between a regular person and a huntsman: people with superpowers easily created a gulf between them and the common folk, they were simply stronger and faster than most ordinary people. The pure physical advantage they had over others with their aura is…well…fear-inducing.

I'm a living example of what a person with aura could do to an ordinary person (even if I'm not exactly 'ordinary' in their sense of the word), of how easily you could be overpowered by them. People know their not invincible, but huntsmen have a distinct advantage over others, so the law puts a lot more scrutiny on them when they're involved in a crime or a supposed incident.

It doesn't seem to be that much of a problem in Patch what with the high huntsman population, but every now and then when you see some kids from Signal walking by with their weapons on them, lots of people tend to walk just a little further away than they normally would to get out of their path.

"I know you said that the population of huntsman was high here, but there really are a dime a dozen of them on Patch" I grumbled to myself, I wouldn't have known she was a huntress if Auburn didn't say anything, I imagine that's another thing the law takes into consideration, just figuring out if someone has aura was probably a big factor in court proceedings.

"...dime a dozen?" Auburn voiced in confusion.

"Just a saying from back home" I answered his implied question before turning to him again "But it still doesn't explain why she tipped me so much, the owner's the one who flipped the guy who harassed her, I just got thrown into a table"

"True" He answered with a nod "But you were the first one to step in"

"Well, yeah but-"

"You also had a bad leg while doing so" He continued, a little annoyed apparently, but not done explaining "And afterward helped cheer up her frightened son in a calm and concise manner, I would say you went above and beyond in your duties"

"For being a fucking decent person!?" I growled, the pain crawling up me again and making me lose my temper "I didn't do that to be rewarded damn it! I did it because that's what you're supposed to do, I don't expect everyone to act like some saint and help everyone they see, but if you see something like that is happening in front of you then you either get someone with authority to stop it or help out yourself!"

I breathed heavily after that rant, seeing Auburn's eyes widen a little at me as silence filled the main dining area, it was the first time I've seen his composure falter, even if only a little.

'...shit I just shouted and swore at my manager'

After regaining my breath, I bowed my head towards him, reminiscent to the mother from earlier "...I apologize for swearing and shouting at you, I lost my temper" I apologized sincerely, he doesn't need to hear me ranting about something so trivial.

"...it's fine, don't let it happen again" He said, regaining his stance, but a small smile now on his face.

It was the first time I think he really smiled since I came to work here. There's been a lot of firsts today.

"I admire the standards you hold yourself to, I really did make the right decision hiring you on the spot" He chuckled lightly, combing his hand over his red hair with a tired sigh "Most people wouldn't be 'decent' by your standards though, many don't hold themselves to that much"

I watch as Auburn's face grew stern again "That's probably why that woman gave you that money, to show you her appreciation for being a 'decent' person in a world full of 'not decent' people, so take it, feel grateful for it, even if you feel like you don't deserve it, because that's her showing appreciation for what you did, and a reminder to keep meeting those standards"

.

.

.

As I let his words process in my mind, I looked at the money in my hands with narrowed eyes. Part of me still feels like I don't deserve it, that I didn't do anything special to earn this.

But if I just threw it back at him…I would just be spitting on her thanks, wouldn't I?

Rubbing a hand over my face, I sighed "...I wouldn't be able to catch up and find her to give this back, could I?"

"Not unless you knew where she was going, which I reckon you don't, in which case she's already too far away at this point for you to follow" He shrugged.

"...I guess I'll just take it with gratitude then" I said reluctantly, my shoulders slumping, a dull pain from the upper right of my back making itself known as I did so.

'Well…I got a lot more money to work with I guess, this is good, right?' I still felt a little guilty for taking this much lien, but I can recognize that it would definitely help me and my plans 'Maybe the universe is just finally giving me a break…I mean, a few days off and a ton of money? What's there to complain about?'

But there's a gnawing thought in the back of my mind that this was just some sort of trick, like this was just the calm before a storm, a bait the universe set up to make me let my guard down. It sounds paranoid but after my time here in Remnant I feel I can't afford to not be cautious.

'...but I can at least take a moment to appreciate this' I think to myself, glad that there are kind people on this planet too.

After a moment of silence, I take the envelope and put it into my pocket "Thanks Auburn" I say to my manager, grateful for his words.

"Don't mention it" He waves it off "Just don't expect me to talk you through all your problems" Auburn sighs before continuing "You're a hard worker Joseph, most other people tend to get bored and leave or just not show up at all while giving excuses; you however have worked diligently and given great customer service, and going as far as to come into work on a bad leg where others would have stayed home after going through a minor inconvenience"

He smiled, green eyes shining a little with respect towards me, like he was impressed "I look forward to working with you for the rest of your time here, get some rest before heading out, make sure to stay safe on your way home" Auburn turned around and went to help with the clean up with the others.

'...definitely the weirdest job I've ever taken, with the strangest people, and it's very stressful all around' I think to myself as I watch him head into the back room 'But it's not…all bad' I relent to myself.

I relax in my seat and let my leg rest, before deciding that if I was gonna take advantage of the break, I might as well get some shut-eye. A quick nap would do me some good.

Resting my head on the table, I let out a quiet yawn as I buried my head in my arms, surprised by how sleepy I was with my injuries making my pains receptors go off so often, but was grateful for it.

'I got somewhere I should visit first, on my way back…but I can worry about that after a quick nap' I shut my eyes and let myself go off to dreamland for a bit.

I didn't dream, but it was nice to just not think about anything for a bit.

---

Walking away from Patch Delight, feeling a little refreshed, I promptly ignore my leg's protests, which were thankfully less painful than before but still a constant. My coworkers were just finishing up by the time I woke up, we made our goodbyes and closed up shop, leaving only Auburn and Roxanne at the restaurant.

Roxanne clearly did not want to be there, but Auburn wasn't gonna let her leave without finishing her work…so, yeah. She's not gonna leave until she gets that paperwork done.

I chuckled at the thought of a boss getting ordered around by her employee to finish her work, it was absurd but a fun sort of quirky, I can learn to appreciate the dynamic. It was nice to finally meet the owner, and she appears to be an…aggressive…but kind person.

'Hope Auburn takes it easy on her…eh, who am I kidding, he won't' I finished the thought as I caught sight of my destination.

Stopping at the building that was my destination, it wasn't anything particularly special: a small and orange-bricked two-story building with a garage to the side, a sign with a pair of red shears cutting branches, displaying large and bold green letters.

'Marrow's Lawn care and Landscaping'

A small landscaping business, one that I've been dealing with during my time apartment hunting as a side job for getting cash as a volunteer worker but not a full employee, and I'm about to collect my earnings.

'Said it would be ready by monday' I think to myself as I push open the door, greeting the receptionist at the desk with a wave "Hi, here to see Marrow about my pay?"

The receptionist peaked over her light screen monitor (still gotta figure out what the heck that's made of), giving me a small polite smile "Ah, Drak, right?"

"Drake" I correct politely.

"Oh, my mistake" She apologized as she brought up some information on her screen "So many people come through here, it's hard to remember everyone's names" She joked, giving a slight laugh.

I laughed along with her a little, if only to make the mood less awkward "Hehe, I can imagine…" I totally could, I don't remember her name at all. And she doesn't have a name tag or even a little corner sign with her name at her desk to help me.

It also doesn't help that everyone is named after a damn color, some of which are just really obscure. A customer at Patch Delight came in with the name Mascarpone, Mascarpone! Is that Italian or something?

After finding whatever she was looking for, probably notes on a schedule or something, she smiled at me "Your all set, you can head in and ask Marrow, he's currently in the garage"

"I appreciate it" I nod at her, glad that's over with and that I don't have to feel guilty about not remembering her name anymore.

Walking over and opening the door, I cross the hallway to enter the main workshop…

I hear the grinding of metal nearby, the place was filled to the brim with various shears, chainsaws, clips, and any other gardening or lawncare tools you can imagine. There were two vehicles in the center, an old truck that's used to help transport any crew to a destination and carry dirt or other supplies for landscaping, and a sizeable riding lawnmower farther away from me.

'Still as messy as last time' Carefully making my way through the maze of gardening tools, some just haphazardly left on the floor (I make sure to put them to the side so no one cuts a foot), and get closer towards the grinding noise.

I catch sight of a man in a white muscle shirt and a pair of cargo shorts, tanned skin with some of it covered in dirt and grass residue along his forearms, and short spikey platinum blonde hair that was held back somewhat by the set of safety goggles he had on as he sharpened a pair of dull sheers against a grinder.

The sound of metal grinding against metal was…painfully familiar.

A knife scraping against the lid of a garbage can, a pan blocking the head of an axe, and more sounds like it seemed to bounce around in my head, all of them distant yet close…

I shake my head, taking a deep breath 'Stop it! You're fine, relax' I take a second to clear my head, not sure why this is happening now of all times 'Shove it in the damn box, priorities first'

After that little mental gymnastic, I looked back to the man I wanted to meet, seeing him still sharpening the blades.

After waiting a full minute of him grinding to find a moment to intervene, I only got as far as a breath before he starts again multiple times, and the headache coming on was running through my patience "Marrow!"

Shzzzzzzz…!

I grunted in frustration, my headache getting worse, taking a deep breath before shouting "MARROW!"

The grinding sound stopped, a blessing for my ears and headache, Marrow turned his head to look at me, lifting up his goggles to reveal his surprised brown eyes.

He laughed in delight "Drake! It's good to see yah buddy, didn't expect you here so soon!" Setting down the pair of shears, he turned to me with a wide smile "You quit your waiter job and come running to work for me full-time?"

'Little on the nose much?' I shake my head "Nah, just got the rest of the day, and tomorrow off from the owner, fully paid"

"F-Fully paid?" He stuttered for a second, face showing shock, before regaining his composure "I mean, oh, good for you!" He laughed it off, before it leveled off "You sure you don't wanna work for me full time?"

"I'm fine where I am, but thank you" I stated with certainty, Patch Delight gave me a bit more of a stable income and regular hours than this would, not to mention the more exhausting labor this causes and that my waiter job gives me the chance to get more money from tips as extra income, an example being the lien I got in total earlier.

It is a little tempting to take his offer, since I'm not particularly fond of being a waiter myself, but I earn more money by keeping my waiter job and doing some volunteer paid work for him on the side. I can understand why he's a little pushy about it though, he's trying to replace someone who seemed to have just stopped coming in a week ago, some old huntsman guy who retired.

"Had to try" He smirked, patting my shoulder "Your always welcome to come by when you have the time to help out, we could use the extra hands even if your not full-time, and if you ever want to join up then your always welcome, the boys get along great with you"

'Great? I guess that means 'not terrible'?' I didn't particularly think it was special when I went out with them to do some yard work, we got along fine I guess, I mostly just kept quiet and did my work, helping out when someone had trouble, but I've only been here three times in total so I can't say I know any of them well…or remember their names.

'I really got to work on that at some point, it's a problem that's popping up more and more' I'm not used to going around and talking to so many people! Keeping track of their names with everything else going on is just not on the top of my priority list.

"Let's see here…" Marrow ruffled through his messy desk, pulling out drawers and shoving aside some handsaws to drop to the floor "I know I put it here somewhere…"

"You really should organize this place" I pipe up as he searches 'This guy's more disorganized than my brother…' I winced at the thought '...aaaaand I just depressed myself' The homesickness came back fiercely for a moment, only compounding the headache in my skull.

"Aha!" I was thankfully given a distraction though, Marrow held up a white envelope with a few green bits on it, likely grass stains "Knew I put it somewhere between the dust vials and the buzzsaw…"

I could feel a bead of sweat drop down from the side of my forehead from the anxiety-inducing sentence he just made 'That doesn't sound safe at all-scratch that it's a fucking safety hazard, seriously, organize your shit!'

"Here you go!" He handed it to me happily, and I take it after hesitantly glancing back at the drawer he took it from, figuring that he was either messing with me or that he just knew what he was doing, he's survived five years running his business after all.

"Thanks" I nodded, opening it up to count the lien, making sure there was a hundred-fifty like he said…and found two hundred?

'Okay, I'm noticing a pattern here' I glance up at him, brow furrowed, wondering if he just miscounted "...uh, there's two-hundred lien here, more than the one-fifty I earned"

He smiled at me, waving it off "Oh no, that's just a bonus for the stump removal you helped with" He suddenly switched his expression from happy to curious, almost desperately curious "What'd you say that stuff was again? Potassium…?"

"Potassium nitrate" I said evenly, trying not to feel bitter about my lack of having any more of it. Another reason for my shortage being that I used some of it to help speed up the process of an already partly rotting stump "I'm guessing that it helped speed the rotting process quicker?"

"Yep!" He piped, sounding pleased "It was ripe for digging out just yesterday! I'd love to get my hands on more of the stuff, much easier and than usual, you mind telling me where you got it?" He asked, leaning in, definitely hopeful for more details on the chemical.

It wasn't anything particularly special…well…at least on Earth it wouldn't be, potassium nitrate is typically used as a stump remover agent, you would drill a bunch of holes and then shove some potassium nitrate in, pour hot water over it for a few days. The microorganisms and plant life near the stump gorge on the nitrogen for nutrition and tear apart the stump slowly from the inside out.

Of course, this usually takes from up to a few weeks to a few months of time for the potassium nitrogen to fester and feed said organisms, depending on the size of the stump, but the one I used it on was already partly rotted, I just quickened up the pace to get the job done a little faster.

"I made it myself" I stated simply, I considered not mentioning that but figured it was already out of the bag. I probably shouldn't have used it in the first place, but I had a readily available solution to a problem they wanted to be done with to move on to their next task.

I was also fucking tired from having sleep trouble in a hotel at the time so that might have had something to do with it too.

"Can I buy some more off yah?" He asked readily.

I paused, considering it, I don't think he would use it maliciously or even know what else it can do, but if someone else looked at it and thought to mess with it…

"I'll think about it" I state, and wave him off "But don't get your hopes up, I don't have the needed materials to make more at the moment"

"Darn, could've been useful for some of the tree stumps in that area we were paid to cut down" He sighed wistfully, but immediately shrugged as if to say 'what can you do?' "You should patent the stuff if you get the chance, I don't think anyone else has made the stuff, you might just make a killing with it"

'HAHAHAHAHA!' I feel myself laugh internally, there was a hysterical tinge to it, the humor in the situation wasn't anything actually funny, unless you had a morbid sense of humor 'The SDC would KICK my ass if I did that! Or a military guy from Atlas would drag me away! Heck, maybe just some government secret agencies will strap me to a table and fucking dissect me after realizing I'm an alien!'

Yeah, no, I'm not gonna be doing that. Maybe it is a bit of an overreaction, but it is still a very valid concern. I can't draw too much attention to myself, and while I'm still studying about this planet's technologies and the resource known as Dust, I can already tell that my knowledge of multiple different resources and scientific principles is something that they would salivate over, more than ready to get their hands on it.

"You okay dude?" I break out of my thoughts when Marrow waves his hand in front of me, looking concerned "You spaced out"

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that" I apologized "Was just thinking about what you said, I'll probably want to get more materials and test it out more before patenting" I won't publish anything about it, but he doesn't need to know that.

"Anyway, you sure you wanna give me fifty extra lien, I didn't do anything special to earn it" I asked, raising the envelope.

"You used something you personally owned to help get a job done quicker, and from what I can tell it's valuable, seeing as you seem a little annoyed that you don't have anymore" He shrugged.

"Jeez, am I that easy to read today?' I sighed, seeing his point "...I guess I'll just say thanks then, this will help out"

What is with people and giving me extra money all of a sudden? If this becomes a trend I will fucking throw it back, I don't care what Auburn said, I'm not just taking handouts. The only reason I'm more agreeable this time is because I did personally sacrifice something that was important for me to help out.

Making my way to the exit, I wave at Marrow "Anyway, thanks for the cash Marrow, I'll be sure to visit when I have free time to help around again" I stated, already feeling tired and ready to leave, wanting to lay down and rest.

"Will do Drake! Have a safe trip home!" Marrow exclaimed as he waved back, before immediately returning to the grinder "Now where did I put those shears…?"

'Yeah, another reason to not work here full time, the guy in charge is kinda ditzy' I think to myself, my life has enough stress as it is, I don't need his misplacement of dangerous objects to add to it.

As I leave the building, I take out the envelope again, looking through it…and then taking out ten lien, for something important later.

'Alright, better head home' I glance down at myself, I let myself relax a little and saw my hands start shaking after doing so, I was consciously trying to hide my pain better throughout my talk with him, it seemed like I did well.

But honestly, the best way to deal with that is to get some rest, my leg is fucking killing me.

---

When I arrived home I immediately went to my room to pick up some clothes, then went straight to the bathroom and threw my uniform off me, and finally sat in the bathtub to take a shower.

I couldn't stand in it, I didn't trust my balance on the slippery surface at the time. So I just sat in the bathtub while putting my bad leg up, elevation helped it a little. The warm water was nice and relaxing for the full forty-five minutes it lasted.

It was a bitch to get out of the tub afterward and get dressed, but I do feel refreshed.

'Heh, that rhymed' I sighed in relief after plopping down on the couch. And now that I have my regular clothes on I also feel more comfortable, my jacket was warm and nice compared to that stuffy uniform.

Putting the ten lien into my jacket pocket, I leaned into the couch to relax a little…only for it to fail 'Damn it, I'm too antsy'

I was already done sorting through the money and where it would go, setting my priorities straight and all.

I had gotten Six-hundred and twenty-five lien today, a hundred went to grocery shopping, my rent and utility bill for the month was already saved up from last week's earnings, and the ten lien that I set aside was not for personal use.

So that left me with five-hundred and fifteen lien to use however I saw fit, in other words, to fuel my arsenal to help me in my goal to hunt down the White Fang for answers.

Glancing over at my personal chemistry lab table, covered by the curtain, I decided that it was finally time to get that firebrick I need for my metal working station.

I should be resting, but I can't help it. I got too much to do.

To make some basic firebrick I will need to make an insulating material that can withstand high temperatures, such as molten steel or other various metals. I don't have to go overboard, just make something that can help me mold metal into different shapes that I cut into it.

"Gonna need to make a few things for that" I rubbed my chin, pulling out my iPhone and scrolling through my notes: one of the simplest things I can make for firebrick ingredients is plaster paris, or in chemist terms, calcium sulfate dihydrate.

And from what I can tell, I can only make that by using a very important chemical for obtaining the needed ingredients.

Hydrochloric acid.

Now, normally the actual answer to that would be sulphuric acid, H2SO4, the stuff that's in car batteries back home, just pour some of that on some calcium metal, or even just calcium carbonate and get a double displacement reaction, replacing the H2 with Ca, and boom you get Calcium sulphate or CaSO4.

But the thing is…I have to make sulphuric acid too, and the only way I can do that, at least reliably at the moment, is through the calcium chloride process, because I am not gonna go through hell just to make some hydrogen peroxide right now or sodium metabisulfite, it's just my best option. And I can only make calcium chloride with hydrochloric acid.

"Of course, I'll also have to make nitric acid through the Ostwald process too, if I'm gonna make any sort of nitrates reliably I'll need nitric acid and be able produce it regularly" I rubbed my chin, wondering where the hell I would find some platinum for a catalyst-

I feel a thump hit the couch next to me as I plan "Whach'yah thinking about?"

The familiar feminine voice interrupted my thoughts, I wave my hand nonchalantly as I keep my eyes forward "Just about gathering materials to make different acids for chemical compounds, probably make gunpowder too once I get everything"

"Cool!" The voice chirped, sounding excited and supportive "Can I help!?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, I guess you could-wait a fucking second!" My brain suddenly caught up to what I just heard.

"Swear!"

My head whipped to the source of the very familiar voice, the sight of a girl with shining silver eyes and black hair with red tips sitting next to me on the couch.

Ruby Rose is in my living room, somehow, someway, I don't know how.

'...WHAT!?' My mind scrambled, wondering if I let her in and just forgot about it or something, but it came up as a complete blank. I didn't let her in here!

"Wha-how-" I stumbled as I stared at her, seeing her tilt her head like she was confused at what I was asking "HOW ARE YOU IN HERE!?"

Ruby blinked, before mouthing "Oh!" She pointed over to the, apparently, open kitchen window, smiling like she was proud of herself "I crawled in through the window! Good thing it was unlocked!"

.

.

.

No.

Fuck no.

This is not gonna be a thing!

My hand struck out lightning fast towards the door, pointing my index finger at it, Ruby jumped at the sudden action from me.

"Get out"

Ruby's eyes widened at my stern tone, looking hurt of all things, she was taken aback "I…I-I'm sorry? Did I-what are you-?"

'Don't act like you don't fucking know!' I think hysterically, pointing at the door again "You know exactly what I'm talking about!" I stated sternly. Did her parents teach her no fucking manners!?

The hurt in her expression seemed to melt away, looking more confused than anything.

It only made me glare at her harder, leaning towards her and staring into her worried silver eyes; ready to make her understand how she shouldn't ignore common decency.

"Get out, and fucking knock" I growled, making her go quiet and still.

.

.

.

"...swear-" She had the gull!

"OUT!" I shouted, thrusting my arm again, she squealed and scrambled from the couch, making it towards the door.

She glanced back at me like a kicked puppy as she put her hand on the doorknob, I thrust my index finger again at the door, not having any of it!

Looking towards it dejectedly, she opened the door and walked out, closing it behind her.

And after a few seconds, I hear her call back "...can I come back in? This is dumb!" She yelled through the door.

"You know what to do!" I shouted at her, glaring at the door.

I could've sworn I heard a sigh on the other side of it 'You have nothing to sigh about, it's your own damn fault!'

Knock! Knock!

Calming down a little after hearing that, I call out "Who is it!"

"...Ruby" The red huntress-in-training on the other side of the door sounded a little exasperated "Can I come in?"

"What's the magic word!?" She can shove that exasperation somewhere else, if she didn't want this to happen she shouldn't have just snuck into my apartment through a window!

"...can I pretty please come inside?" Ruby asked, a little quieter than before.

I let the silence drag on for a few seconds, making sure the lesson sticks, before sighing "...you may!"

Ruby opens the door, face scrunched up in annoyance "Did we have to do that?" She shuts the door behind her and walks back towards the couch.

"Apparently yes!" I threw my hands up while watching her sit back down beside me "For freaking-oh my universe Ruby, you snuck in through my window! How did you think I was gonna take that!?"

"What's the big deal?" She asked, crossing her arms "I didn't break anything!"

"Big deal!?" I dragged a hand down my face "You snuck into the apartment of a single teenage boy living alone, what the hell made you think anything about that plan was a good idea!?"

"Pshhaw…" She waved her hand at me, looking a little flustered by the thought but otherwise unbothered "We're friends, it's not the same!"

"Ruby, if I did that to you, would you be happy!?"

"Well-"

"Because I guarantee you, you wouldn't be, because I'd be dead" I state, pointing my finger sternly at her, making her eyes go a little wide "Your family would tear me to shreds, and don't pretend you don't know why, I know you do" I challenged her.

Ruby looked away and crossed her arms, grumbling as she looked off to the side "Was just trying to surprise you…"

"You sure did, in the most obnoxious and rude way possible" I dragged my hand down my face again, my headache was back "Is this normal for you? Do you do this to other people?"

"...I mean" Ruby paused, as if taking a moment to think about it "Me and Yang tend to do it to each other a lot, and back when I hung out with…my…classmates" She hesitated, her face scrunched up like she was eating something sour, it made me relax a tad in sympathy "We tended to just visit each other through the window, it was quicker, and I remember hearing about other people starting to do it back at Signal"

'Is this some sort of weird trend that's going on at Signal right now!?' I really hope that some teacher there is clamping down on it, there's no way everyone is gonna take that well!

Slumping in my seat, I let the aching pain wash over me "Well I don't want you to do that, alright? Knock or call ahead like a civilized sapient being"

"Sapient…?" I hear Ruby mutter, before shaking her head "Guh, it's not like I can call you anyway, you still don't have a scroll!" She exclaimed, both sounding and looking frustrated with that fact.

I raised my finger to retort-

"That isn't your weird black one!"

I froze at that, glancing at the iPhone in my other hand '...she's…not wrong' I pursed my lips, I remembered mentioning off-hand that it doesn't connect to the CCT network when she asked about it, and I don't think it could without me busting into it and probably violating a few laws, which I'm not willing to try.

Taking a breath to calm myself, I look over at her "...your right, but you still could have knocked" I relented.

Ruby had the sense to at least look sheepish "Sorry, I guess, I still don't really see what the big deal is, it's not like anything's gonna happen, and besides the fact that I trust you, I'm also stronger than you, so it's not like my family has anything to worry about" She said casually like it was just a common fact.

"Geh…" I muttered to myself, my pride definitely taking a hit from that. This five-foot-two girl whose arms look almost like twigs is freaking stronger than me for universe's sake, what even is my life!?

"Eh!" Ruby let out as if suddenly realizing what she just said, probably noticing my more depressed mood "N-Not that you're not strong! For a guy without aura anyway! It's just that with aura…well if I didn't have it you'd surely be-!"

"Save it" I wave it off, brushing aside the small part of me that still somewhat cared about my bruised masculine pride, it was useless anyway "It still leaves the blaring problem that you came into my apartment uninvited, what if I called the cops because I thought it you were a burglar?"

Ruby deadpanned at me "You don't have a scroll"

'Damn brain fart!' My eye twitched as I saw her victorious smirk, I took a deep breath "...alright, you asked for this, here's the big guns"

I leaned over to her "What if I was in my underwear?" I stated, dead serious.

.

.

.

"W-What!?" She shouted in shock, backing away with a flustered face.

"This is my apartment, I live alone in it, what if I was getting changed in the middle of the room? Or just walking around in my underwear?" I elaborated, staring her down with crossed arms "Your gonna be labeled a pervert if you keep crawling through my window and one day witnessing that"

"I-I-I'm not a pervert!" Ruby shook her head, growling a little out of frustration and to avoid showing me her red face "Who walks around their home in their underwear!?"

"Oh don't act like you haven't done it before!"

"I haven't!" She refused to meet my eyes.

"That's a bald-faced lie! Your face says it all!" I point out at her.

She pushes my hand away and points her own finger at me "No, your a liar!"

"No, you are!"

"Jerk!" Ruby snipes at me.

"Scatterbrain!" I snipe back.

"Meathead!"

"Shorty!"

"Potty mouth!"

We both glared at each other, growling at one another dramatically, ready to face off…

.

.

.

And then the frustration just melted away, leaving only two people to realize their argument devolved into kindergarten-level name-calling.

"Pfftt…" Ruby snickers, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes filled with mirth as her lips curled up.

"Hehe…" I let out a light chuckle, trying to suppress my own smile, my shoulders shaking a little "What are we doing?" I asked, shaking my head in amusement.

"Being dumb?" Ruby asked rhetorically, a full-blown smile on her face as she giggled a little more.

"Mmm…accurate analysis" I hummed in agreement, the tension leaving my shoulders.

Suddenly all the worries I had today just seemed to lessen. Like the burdens got a little lighter, and all that was left was just some dumb argument that was…actually, just fun. It was still there, all those worries, but it's like I gained some perspective on it; that if I can still enjoy myself doing something as simple as this, then I'm gonna be okay.

'Jeez, that was so dumb, I wouldn't normally do that sort of thing around other people…but she just seems to bring it out of me' It really surprises me how she can do that, it's just…so easy to click with her. It's a little scary sometimes, but also comforting.

"Thanks" I say, my voice a little tired, getting Ruby's attention "I think I needed that, it was a long day today…" It really was, going through the motions was just agonizing with my injuries, and the stress building up from having to deal with that and with what happened with that asshole back at Patch Delight, this was a strange but welcome reprieve for me.

Ruby's eyes widened in surprise at my thanks, before morphing into a sheepish but very real smile "Um, you're welcome! I think I needed that too, I had a long day at Signal myself…" Ruby sighed, like she was stressed and just had some relief, curling up her hands around her red cape.

I watch her for a moment, wondering if I should ask if anything in particular happened, but figured it wouldn't be appropriate to bring it up now. I couldn't bring myself to ruin the atmosphere, so I sighed in response "Just one of those days where the universe likes to mess with you, huh?" I offered subtly, if she wanted to say anything right now she could.

"Mm-hmm" She hummed back, leaving the specifics vague, evidently she didn't want to go into it at the moment.

I can't say I wanted to get into my problems either, not that I could completely explain it to her anyway, so maybe a change in topic was in order.

"So, why'd you stop by anyway?" I asked curiously, Ruby's head perked up at the question "Knowing you, there must have been a reason you were in such a rush to meet me that you don't even knock" I playfully rib, smirking a little.

Gladly meeting the topic change, Ruby's mood rose a little as she huffed "Still think you overreacted a little" She then smiled widely, bringing out her scroll and showing me a date marked on her calendar "But guess what day it is!?"

"Monday?" I asked rhetorically, trying to think of what she was talking about. Is it some sort of Remnant holiday? Might explain the money giving…but then again, I haven't read anything about holidays coming up.

"Nop-well, yeah" She amended, before backtracking and shaking her fist excitedly "But it's also the day the Vale Weapons magazine's new issue comes to Patch! I have a subscription for it and I'm gonna head out to pick it up!"

Then she calmed down a little, rubbing the back of her head "And um…yeah, I wanted to see if you would join me? Maybe we can just have fun window shopping or something? Maybe we'll find something you like! "

'A weapon's magazine huh? And going out shopping?' I think it over, considering it.

On one hand, I'm fucking hurt, I really shouldn't be moving my leg too much. On the other hand…

I glanced at my lab table area, my earlier thoughts coming back into play 'I'm gonna need to buy materials and other things to help make things go more smoothly, there's just some items I can't get on my own, at least not without it taking an obscene amount of time, time I'm not willing to waste'

Honestly, it would be good for me to go window shopping and figure out what I can use or reasonably buy for my chemistry lab, not to mention that I am actually interested in the magazine itself; the weapons of this world are, to be frank, confusing yet also beautiful works of art. I can't say a lot of them would be practical on Earth, but the people of Remnant make it work.

'...and maybe finally solve a blaring problem that Ruby's brought to my attention numerous times' I glanced at her scroll again.

"I'm really tired, but I suppose I could go" I answered her after thinking about it, turning to face her excited smile with a question in my mind "And while we're out, you wouldn't happen to know where I could buy a scroll would you?"

Ruby's eyes practically screamed excitement, she gasped, appearing in front of me in a red flash "You got enough money for a scroll!?" She exclaimed, full of energy and anticipation.

"Yep" I smiled, pushing myself up and off the couch to face her, the weight going back on my leg was painful but not agonizing "One good thing that came out of today for me was that I got a good amount of money from work, I should be able to buy a decent scroll" Putting on my shoes, I readied to head out "I got one good thing out of my long day, I guess it's time for you to get yours with that magazine, and I don't mind joining you"

"HMMMM!" She hummed in excitement, practically vibrating in place "I know just the place! And it's not far from where I wanna go!' Zipping across the room to the door and opening it already, Ruby urged me along "Alrighty then! Let's head out, a Ruby and Drake shopping spree hangout session!" She exclaimed with a wave her hand, like she was narrating an epic tale.

As I exited the door, I was suddenly stopped by Ruby's finger, a mischievous glee in her eye "You better be ready to put my number in that scroll first Drake! I'm sick of not being able to call you, I'll punch it in myself if I have to! And I'll make my contact name whatever I want!"

I snort, shaking my head "I don't have a lot of people to call Ruby, I'll make sure you have the first spot in my contacts list"

"Good!" She stated with finality, smiling with humor as I shut the door before seeing Ruby waving her hand for me to follow "C'mon! I'll show you the way!"

Locking my door, I put away my keys and begin following her, placing them right next to the ten lien in my jacket pocket, I fiddled with the strange currency for a moment '...nah, not yet, she'll just get uppity about it'

Admittedly I'm still very stressed and hurt, but I wanna think that I've gone through the worst of today. I don't want to just lay in my house and do nothing and heal, that's not gonna help me get any results quicker, but I do need to relax, this seems like a good middle ground. I just have to be careful and take it easy on myself, go slow and steady.

'Besides' I think as I listen to Ruby go on and complain about how it's 'totally stupid' that Patch gets the Vale Weapon's magazine a week behind everyone else 'What can go wrong on a shopping trip?'

.

.

.

I just jinxed myself, didn't I?

---

Captaindrake123: Haha! New chapter! I both enjoyed and hated writing this one, but I can say I feel pretty good about how it turned out. Quick note, Rouxanne is my favorite OC so far, she's so fun to write. I've gone through multiple choices of what her personality should be like; from a stern straight boss to anxiety ridden and overworked, and found that I made a completely new one while writing this chapter, that's the type of stuff that makes a character fun to write and feel alive. Originally, Drake was supposed to throw the asshole out himself, but Roxanne had other plans, that's how spontaneous and fun the writing on that was (I do have proper plans for her later though).

I'm sure some people won't like that I'm using so many OCs, which is fine, but I do hope that most of you like them so far or at least give them a chance, they'll be making up the island of Patch for the whole Patch Vigilante arc for the most recurring characters. Don't worry though, Drake and Ruby will be doing a lot more together next chapter, and for those of you who want fights, there will be that too.

But onto other matters, holiday break is coming up so hopefully I'll have more time to work on this, but that depends on how many family outings we'll have and all that. Chapter 11 is started already and is being worked on, but in the meantime here's an omake for you to enjoy, it might help any of you who are confused by Drake's science rambling.

---

Omake: Drake the Science Guy!- RWBY CHIBI (Non-canon)

A video starts fizzling into existence, showing the landscape of a forest with various tools and equipment littering in front of it.

"Is it on?" A voice comes through, the camera pans to look at the source.

A sixteen-year-old guy with brown hair and seemingly dark brown eyes looked back at the camera, he sported jeans and a sci-fi shirt with a strangely shaped starship on it along with the words 'Star Trek', wearing along with it a black and orange jacket with an orange arrowhead-ish shaped symbol with a star inside of it displayed on it's left side.

He was also practically a bobblehead, but that's unimportant.

"Ruby, you got it yet?" He asked again.

"Yeah, we're on!" The voice behind the camera chirped readily, showing her thumbs up in the camera's view.

"Alright, good!" He nods, waving his hand at the camera "Hi! For those of you who don't know me…that makes perfect sense, I'd be scared if you knew who I was"

"Anyway" He continued, as if that wasn't a strange thing to say, bringing over a whiteboard to display behind him, the words 'Terran Science Class' written on it "My name is Drake Joseph! And I'm gonna be teaching you about real science! Not that stupid hocus pocus dust stuff every one of you uses"

"What's a Terran?" The camera girl asked, shaking the camera a little.

Drake pauses, eyes looking off to the distance with a conflicted expression "A lot of things" He answered vaguely, waving it off "Not important! What is important is that I'm here to explain some of those science terms and principles I go on about sometimes!"

"Ohhhhh…!" Ruby's voice sounded interested "Yeah, I don't know what you say half the time when you get like that!"

"Yeah, I don't always dumb it down because I already know so much about it, no offense" He placated with his hands to the camera.

"None taken! I just figured your super smart!"

"Appreciate the compliment Ruby" He stated, a small smile on his face as he looked off at the sky "But I spent a lot of hours and hard work to get this smart…" His expression grew pained and stressed "Long…arduous…torturous hours!"

"Hours that didn't need to be wasted!" He suddenly shouted, going manic, his already huge eyes going wild as he shook his giant head "All because so many people go 'nooooo, we can't be bothered to actually tell you what this thing is or does, we're just gonna throw a bunch of fuzzing terms at you that you won't understand and expect to you learn from it' and all that doo-doo! Making me going through so many frizzing sites and books to get actual proper explanations, that turned out to bE SO FUZZING SIMPLE BUT PEOPLE NEEDLESSLY COMPLICATED JUST TO MAKE THEMSELVES SOUND SMARTER-!"

"Ummm…" Ruby said nervously, camera shaking a little.

Drake heard it and seemed to calm down, taking a quick breath "Whoo! Sorry about that, didn't know that old bit of stress was still there! Yeah, learning on your own is hard, but I did it!" His eye twitched.

"Anyway, on to business, roll the intro!" He waved his hand dramatically.

"...oh…" Ruby let out awkwardly.

"...what do you mean 'oh'!?" Drake shouted, expression falling and utterly confused.

"I uh…kinda lost it?"

.

.

.

"Damn it, that was a Bill-Nye parody song and everything in it!" Drake complained as he slapped a hand to his face, then sighed, turning back to the whiteboard "Whatever, let's just get this over with"

Drake drew a bunch of circles, all of them together representing a round object with little spheres orbiting around it "This! Is an atom, it's all from our basic science class! We all know what it's made up of, right Ruby?"

"Uhhh…" She sounded out.

"Protons, neutrons, and electrons!" Drake shouted, tapping the electron portion "But we're just gonna focus on electrons today as part of the lesson!"

Moving back to the camera, Drake clapped his hands, and was now suddenly standing on the moon.

Wait-what?

"Video editing" Drake answered before continuing, showing Remnant out in the deep darkness of space on the camera "You can think of electrons as like a moon, orbiting the planet, said planet of which would be the protons and neutrons of the atom"

In the background one could see a light and dark figures of dragons, both of them looked over at the strange boy giving a lecture, pausing from a fight that they were having.

"Um, what is that?" Ruby asked, sounding very concerned.

"Unimportant" Drake stated simply, clapping his hands, they were back in the same forest again.

Drake clapped his hands again, creating two models of atoms.

Pointing at the electron on the outer part of the atom models, Drake continues "Most chemical reactions are based on the donating, sharing, or giving up electrons! How each element combines with others is all based on the number of electrons"

"In fact, here's a general rule for you to follow!" Drake claps to create a model with seven electrons and one with one "The outermost shell of an atom, or rather the electrons that are the furthest away from the nucleus of protons and neutrons, are valence electrons, this is where the reaction occurs"

"Atoms in general want to have a valence set of electrons of eight, we call this the octet rule!" Drake writes the rule down on the whiteboard "Atoms want to be as stable and energy efficient as possible, and eight is just the right number for them; granted there are exceptions, but just follow this rule for a general idea of how most reactions work" He raised a finger "Fun fact! The reason why 'noble gases' are called that is because they are not very reactive, and the very reason for that being they have eight electrons in their valence shells!"

Drake brings the two models together "There are multiple ways that electrons are displaced or move to form a bond, but let's just say that the electrons are being shared in general, when this happens the two elements that were alone before, come together to become a chemical compound, becoming a different substance than if they were alone"

"Ohhh, it's like…the electrons are the atom's kids, and they're trying to bring their parents together!" Ruby exclaimed from behind the camera.

"A good example of explanation Ruby!" Drake smiled toward her, over the camera, going back to the whiteboard afterward "Now with the basics down we can get to what I'm trying to do!"

"Basically what I'm trying to do is a series of additions and subtractions, only instead of numbers it's the elements in chemical compounds" Drake explained, walking over to the beakers, clapping his hands.

Olive appeared along with Rouxanne, both blinking in confusion.

"Wha-What just happened!?" Olive shouted in confusion, eyes widen and frantic as she whipped her head around "Where am I!?"

"This is neat…" Rouxanne was comparatively more calm, she waved toward the camera "I'm on TV! Hi Honey! I'm on TV!"

"It's not TV! It's Dusttube!" Ruby called back.

"Hi honey, I'm on Dusttube!" Rouxanne simply smiled more.

"Let's use these two to help with an example!" Drake cut in before it could go any further, clapping his hands again while shouting "Edit!"

Suddenly they had some accessories on them, some wrist bands: blue, red, green, and orange. Olive had the orange and red ones, while Rouxanne had the blue and green ones.

"Alright, here's the rules!"

"What rules, what's even happening!?" Olive shouted, shaking the accessories "Why me!?"

"You know what you did!" Drake yelled while pointing at her dramatically.

"Is this baby proof?" Rouxanne asked, inspecting her new wrist bands "Y'know…because I have a kid now, I really don't want him to choke to death on something…really should baby-proof the entire house later…" She muttered to herself, as if in a trance.

"Uh, yeah so anyway-" Drake tried to continue, only to be interrupted by the rustling in the woods, the camera panned over to see someone stepping out of some bushes.

Auburn stood there, expression determined as his gaze set on Rouxanne "Hey! Your not done yet with your paperwork!"

"Wait Auburn, stop!" Drake called out.

"NOOOOOO!" Rouxanne screamed, running away from him and knocking over the atomic models and whiteboards "YOU CAN't MAKE ME!"

"Drake!" Ruby called out, the camera shaking she ran towards him, zooming in on his face "Are you alright?"

"Owww…." Drake muttered, shaking his head "What the heck is happening?"

The camera panned to see litters of trees were destroyed and on fire, with Olive just ducking her head and hitting the dirt, looking straight at the camera "It's crazy, it all happened so fast-!" A tree rammed into her and shoved her out of the camera view.

More fire began to spread everywhere, shouts to get back to work and defiant protests made in the distance.

.

.

.

"Well…that happened" The camera panned back to Drake, who was trying to clap the problem away "...hm, I guess their too powerful for editing at this point"

Looking directly at the lense, Drake sighed "Ugh, sorry everyone, looks like I'll have to finish this another time, I gotta deal with this mess I made…somehow" He paused "But I'll just finish up what I was trying to do real quick alright?"

"Better hurry, somehow my Dad's car got thrown into a boulder, he's not gonna be happy…" Ruby whimpered.

"Oh my universe this was a disaster" Drake groaned, wiping his hands over his cartoonishly big head "…anyway, what I was trying to say was that you can get certain results by…switching the elements around in compounds! Like taking one element from one compound and exchanging it into another, that's what a displacement reaction is! Then I keep going, using different compounds to react to switch around enough ions to get a desired product! Like calcium sulphate!"

"Drake, Olive's hair is on fire!" Ruby warned, she then gasped "...and I think I see my sister approaching!"

"Ah-alright, next time I'll explain the naming conventions behind chemical compounds, until next time!" Drake shouted, scrambling to get the situation under control, camera whipping back and fourth wildly "WHERE DID YOU ALL EVEN GET AN ELEPHANT!"

"THEY STOLE YOUR EDITING POWERS!"

"OH MY OUM-!"

The video ends there, with the last image of it being the landscape filled to the brim with elephants, paperwork, baby cribs, crushed cars, an angry older sibling, and two friends trying in vain to fix it all.