Chapter 6: If I Get Too High Now Sugar Come On, I Might Never Come Down...
"She's waking up."
"She is? Ziz?"
"L... Lagune..."
"Ziz, don't sit up, relax."
"Lagune, where's... where-"
"The baby's fine, here, you can hold him."
"Haaaa... haaa- o-oh my God. He's... he's so big."
"Heh, yeah, they're saying it was the biggest baby they ever seen, weighing at 10.4 pounds."
"Pfheh, he's my... our little fatty. Our big ol' baby boy."
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Cardin."
"What?"
"That's his name, Cardin Winchester."
"Ziz, you already came up with a name?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, it's ju-"
"-You don't like it? HE came out of me, Lagune, I should get to name him."
"Ha ha, okay, okay sweetie. I wasn't saying I don't like it, I was just surprised you could come up with a name so fast."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you that I already came up with names."
"Hm..."
"..."
"..."
"... Lagune."
"Yes?"
"What are we going... to do now? Where do we keep Cardin when we start?"
"Don't worry about that, we have two hunters to keep him safe. Richard, and Sure-Shank."
"Oh, goo..."
"... Ziz?"
"Sure-Shank? You're trusting someone called Sure-Shank to keep our baby safe?"
"I know it's not a pretty name, but he can be trusted."
"Uh-huh, yeah, you better hope he can, and what about this Richard?"
"The same goes for him. If you weren't even here on this island, he'd probably be the toughest huntsmen on this island."
"Where are they going to keep him though?"
"We have that figured out too, Ziz, don't worry about it, we found an abandoned mansion that'll be safe for them and a few dozen prisoners to keep guard of Cardin."
"You didn't say... fu- fine, okay, that sounds... good."
"Yes... yes..."
"..."
"..."
"... He has your hair, you know."
"Yeah, I noticed. But everything else about this wittle guy came from you."
"Heh heh, his little claws are cute..."
"Hey, hey..."
"..."
"... Psst, Yang, YANG, wake up."
"I am up, Ruby." Yang shouted, muffled due to having her face shoved into her own pillow.
"Oh, good, so..."
"Soooo... what?"
"Yang," Blake started, stopping Ruby from saying what it was she was going to say, "it's been twenty minutes since we got back to our room. You need to go now or Cardin might leave."
"Ugh-I knooow, I know, it's just... why does it have to be that bastard? Why Cardin? Why couldn't Port just get Pyrrha to tutor me, or just... anyone else, anyone who isn't that jackass?"
Ruby, somewhat sheepishly, replied to her big sister, stating, "Yang, I... look, don't let whatever he did in the past bother you, okay? That doesn't mean you have to approve what he did. Just... ignore all of it, and you can make it through."
Yang brought her head up to look at her little sister, visibly shocked by what she heard. "How can you just be okay with saying that?" She asked.
"I'm not okay with saying that, but... you really don't have anymore options, Yang, other than trying to... tutor yourself. Which- and no hard feelings- I'm sure you... can't really do at this point." There was just silence that followed Ruby's statement, leaving the three members of RWBY to wait for Yang to only sigh, accepting her fate of relying on Cardin to teach everything she needs to know to pass Port's class. She was already having a difficult time in that class by herself, choosing to continue out without a tutor would be a suicide in terms of passing the first year.
"Yeah... you're right, Cardin... I guess he's... egh- my last choice, isn't he?" Yang inquired to no one in particular, getting out of her bed and picking up her notebook used specifically for grimm studies. "Unless..."
She looked over at Weiss, who only stared back at her, raising one of her pale brows in question, yet already knowing what Yang could be thinking of. "You want me to tutor you, instead of having Cardin do it, right?" Yang didn't say anything, only giving the small heiress a small grin instead. "If that's the case Yang, then no." Then her grin dissipated.
"But why?!"
"Yang, you already have a tutor, which again, is Cardin. You don't need a replacement if you haven't even had a session with him yet. Besides..." Weiss felt a warmth of small envy fill her up. "He's probably a better choice than... me. It's like that brute was raised by grimm; he's basically the most well-educated here at Beacon when it comes to knowing... well, everything there is to know about grimm. Port essentially praises him everyday he's in his class, so, again, I believe Cardin is the best option for you, Yang."
Hearing Weiss admit someone was better than her when it came to school was an alien thing to listen to for the three girls, something that Yang would be bellowing in laughter about. But in this case, no one was even quietly giggling, due to knowing how right the Schnee girl was right.
Yang, now accepting her fate once again, slowly nodded her head, understanding Weiss' reasoning. "Okay, okay... then I'll be going I guess." She opened their dorm room door, saying "bye" before reaching for the doorknob, stopping when someone started knocking from the other side.
"Hello? You in there, Yang?" Upon hearing Cardin's voice, the blonde let her head fall back, huffing out air before reaching for the knob again, twisting and opening the door, intentionally hitting Cardin as she pushed, who let out an "oof" while moving back for Yang to fully open the door, seeing her with notebook in hand, barely glaring at him, which he didn't even notice while she shut the door behind her. "Oh cool, you are. I got tired of waiting so I came here for you. Are you ready?"
"... Yeah, I'm ready." Yang replied to the hooded behemoth in front of her, sounding a bit disheartened, which Cardin was able to distinguish in her tone.
"What's wrong? If you don't want to do this in the library then we can always do it in my room." His alternative choice of their spot to study did little to appeal to Yang, who would have rather chose to be stuck in a room with Remnant's most vile and violent grimm, rather than be alone with Cardin, or god forbid his whole team.
"Ugh- no no, the library is fine, Cardin. I-"
"-Or if you want, we could study in your room. I wouldn't mind either way."
The brawler interrupted Cardin, snarling as she said, "Cardin, the library is fine, okay?"
"... Okay." The Winchester answered in a hushed tone as an effort to calm Yang down, who indeed did feel a bit of agitated weight lift from her shoulders after hearing Cardin speak in such a manner. "So then... let's go now." Yang quietly, and slowly, nodded her head in agreement, her violet eyes wandering a bit to the floor as Cardin started walking, prompting her to follow behind him.
The two trotted without speaking with each other, Yang still choosing to stay behind the young man as he lead her to the library. Cardin of course cared little about this for it did little to bother him, though he did look back occasionally to check if Yang was lagging behind, never meeting her gaze directly, somewhat stimulating his worry now, though not enough to stop him from waving it off.
Eventually the duo of Xiao Long and Winchester reached the library, and as usual, the majority of was being used for things other than studying, with almost all of the students being a tad louder than acceptable volume, but it easily ignored by Cardin and Yang. One thing that Cardin did not ignore though was the fact that the books he planned on using with tutoring Yang were now at a table that was occupied by a team- ABRN if he remembered correctly- who, just like almost everyone else, weren't using the library properly. At least that's how Cardin perceived it.
Now he could just let it go and retrieve the books back from the table and find a new one for himself and Yang, or he could comply to his irrational side and be confrontational about this. He could drive them away from the table and take it back for his own usage, but Cardin's ability to reason told him how easier it would be just to bring the books back to a different table, rather than start another fight.
So Cardin told Yang to, "Go and sit over there," pointing at an empty table, "I'll get us the books we'll need." Yang did as she was told, going over and sitting at the table he directed her to. She sat there and watched Cardin, who already mystified her as she witnessed him walk over to the table occupied by ABRN, who were visibly disturbed and irritated by his presence. The blonde kept on watching as he picked up a stack of books from their table, without saying a word or even acknowledging them, and would have walked away if hadn't been for Bolin saying something to him.
Yang did not hear what he said specifically, but she knew he said something that clearly offended Cardin because the crass giant turned heel and decked the Haven student out of his chair, knocking the young man out cold while the rest of ABRN got out of their chairs, Reese and Nadir rushing to aid Bolin. While Arslan got into Cardin's face, looking ready to tear him apart while he looked amused by her audacity to stop him.
But suddenly, while almost all of the students around him now had their eyes on him, Cardin's mood changed as he violently grabbed the blond girl by the neck, holding on tight enough to give her a severe sense of suffocation while he brought her up to his hooded face. What followed though was what Yang could only assume was Cardin verbally digging into Arslan, softly whispering into her ears while she took wheezing breaths and tears dripped from her cheeks.
This verbal lashing lasted only about thirty seconds until Cardin released the Haven student, letting her fall and crumple onto the floor, gratefully gasping with Cardin looming over her for a moment before heading back to the table, where Yang sat, looking unfazed from what she just watched. She had observed Cardin, and his teammates, act like this so commonly that she had gotten used to seeing it. But that didn't mean she was not disgusted by their barbaric behaviors though.
"Okay," Cardin let out in a breath, clumsily falling into a chair across from Yang and setting the books down in between them, "let's get started. Now, Port said we should first work on the grimm that were on the last test we took, so first we'll re-"
"- Seriously? You're going to start tutoring me as if nothing happened? You just attacked ABRN, Cardin, right in front of me."
"... And?" Yang sat there in silence for a few seconds before sighing, rubbing her brow while Cardin kept on waiting for a response, until he decided ask, "Do you want to know why I did it?"
"... I-I don't know- why? What reason do you have for feeling justified for cheap-shotting what's-his-face, then man-handling their leader?"
"Okay, well, first of all, their names are Bolin and Arslan. Secondly..."
"..."
"Bolin... asked me when is Dove gonna take his last breath. I... I don't why he would ask such a thing, what called for it, but it..." Cardin flashed a snarl in an instant, almost being missed by Yang but she managed to catch sight of his fury almost getting the best of him. "It... it... pissed me off. Dove... my whole team, I love them. We've all been friends ever since I was like... three. But..." Cardin went quiet, feeling wary about what he was going to say, but still went through with it, making sure to be careful about what words to leave out this time.
"I haven't told a lot of people here about this, Yang, but... Russel, Dove, Sky, they're my adopted brothers, its been that way since we were little kids. When their... parents died, my mom adopted them one-by-one so that we wouldn't be separated from each other." Yang was not anticipating to hear such news to come out of Cardin's mouth, now getting a better understanding of why Cardin would harm Bolin in the first place. "So when I heard Bolin... mockingly ask when Dove's gonna die, I lost it and struck him down." He leaned forwards, lifting his head up a bit higher to look Yang in her eyes with his own. "Tell me, tell me that you wouldn't do the same if Bolin did the same to you. Tell me you wouldn't knock that jackass out if he asked that same thing about Ruby."
"..."
"..."
"... I'd want to, Cardin, but..."
"But what?"
"... You can't just go around hurting people because they-"
"-You'd do it if it was me asking it." The tension between the two was palpable after that statement, Yang breathing deeply as she felt the sense of impending doom, expecting Cardin to lunge at her, wrapping his teeth around her neck like he did to Coco and not letting ago until she begged him to stop. Fortunately, he managed to dissipate the atmosphere between them by apologizing. "Sorry, sorry, I don't mean to make you feel anxious or anything. I'm just... just mad. Forget I said that and... let's start tutoring, okay?"
"... Okay." Yang replied, gently nodding as something horrifying rose up behind her, a sight Cardin hadn't seen in a long time. It looked like a human male, naked, just as large as him, but with its skin being made of gums and covered in yellow, deformed teeth, from head to toe, growing out of its skin, that had clumps of red-orange hair squeezed between the molars and canines, while his eyes were golden with pure black pupils.
But like with all hallucinations caused by his sleep deprivation, Cardin blinked once and it disappeared, leaving him to be in peace with tutoring Yang.
"Oookay, let's start with the creeps..."
"So, that's him?"
"Yeah, that's Cardin."
"What is he wearing?"
"That's a poncho, Emerald. You never seen one before?"
"No, yeah, I have seen them- I meant to ask why he's wearing it?"
"I dunno, he probably likes it. Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, no, I don't give a crap about what he wears. It's just... you smell it too, right?"
"Oh no, yeah I can smell it. It might be him though."
"There's no fucking way its him, it has to be the poncho. No one can just walk around smelling like that themselves and not notice it."
"Well then don't you think he knows its his poncho instead?"
"I- Okay, you know what? Forget it. Let's just talk about what to do with him."
"Oh, yeah, Cinder told us to avoid him."
"... What?"
"Avoid him. Or just don't go and irritate him to the point that he starts a fight with us."
"What the hell? Why doesn't she want us to go near him? Does she think we can't handle him?"
"... Yeah... yeah, I actually asked Cinder why she doesn't want us to go near him until she, and Neo, come to Beacon. And she said it's because we won't be able to take him down in a fight."
"Are you fucking- I could totally destroy that oath in a fight!"
"And I'm sure... you'll get destroyed yourself. BUT, but, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. We won't even be going near him until we start the attack. Hell, I asked Cinder what we're going to do with him, and she said not a damn thing."
"... But... so what? Salem doesn't want him?"
"Apparently, she has other plans of what to do with him and his mom. But until then, we'll have to follow her orders as told.
"..."
"..."
"... What if..."
"What?"
"Well, I have a couple of idea of how to deal with him."
"Emerald-"
"-No, look, what if we..."
"..."
"... No, no- never mind. It wouldn't work..."
"Ugh, look at all of this. The damn woman should be dead from alcohol poisoning by now."
"Do you want me to clean this up, Richard?"
"No, no Sure-Shank, I can... gah, my loafers are gonna be all sticky now- Sure-Shank, just go find Ziz, and tell her the news. This is going to take me a fucking hour "
"Okay..."
"..."
"..."
"... Ziz? Ziz, Ziz wake up."
"Mmmmph, geeehh... who... heh-heh, heeeyy Sure Shank. Whats... whats you want?"
"Oh, you're still drunk."
"Yeeaahh, stiiilll... drunk..."
"I had important news to tell you. But we better wait until your sober."
"Well, if that's the case, then I have some important news to tell you too."
"What is it?
"I, want, to, fuck."
"Oh..."
"..."
"... Okay. Is there... a-anything you want me to- GAH! ZIZ!"
"I want to fuck, Sure-Shank!"
"Yes, I know! Just get off me!"
"But I want to fuck you damnit!"
"N-No! This is wrong! This is just you being drunk, I-I-"
"-You stupid, fucking, cock-mongrel! I was faking it! God- why are you so fucking dense?"
"What? But-"
"-Shut up! Okay? Listen closely, fuckface. It has been three, three, years ever since I boned anyone, Sure-Shank. And you... heh-heh-ha- you, YOU owe me."
"What the hell do you me-"
"-If it wasn't for me, you'd still be mining against your will. If it wasn't for me, you'd still have to sleep every night on some filthy, puss-ridden cot, probably crying your pathetic life to sleep. If it wasn't for me, you'd probably be dead right now, hanging by a fucking noose out in the gardens, or riddled with bullets from a firing squad!"
"..."
"... And just in case, you little, UNGRATEFUL, shit, don't think you owe me after hearing what I just said, then let me remind you of this: I am your leader. I am the Baroness of Disown. If you do not comply with what I desire from you, Sure-Shank, then I will personally feed sodomize you every night, until the day you f-u-c-k-i-n-g die. Understand?"
"... Okay..."
"Okay? Does that mean you're gonna be a good boy and serve your Baroness just this once, with this fear-boner I'm feeling right now?"
"... Y-Yes."
"Good, good. Don't worry, Sure-Shank, this won't be as bad as you might think..."
"Alright, I thiiink... we are done here."
"Are we?"
"Well... we just spent an... jeez- - like an hour-and-a-half tutoring. I think we covered enough for today." Cardin exclaimed, closing the book he was currently using in front of him and getting out of his chair. "You got everything written down, right?"
"Yeah, yeah." Yang replied, just finishing up with a few last notes in her notebook while Cardin gathered up rest of the books on Creeps.
"Cool, then I guess I'll see you Monday then, right here again." Cardin.
"Okay."
"A'ight, then... bye." Spoke Cardin before he left Yang alone to finish her notes, walking off among the halls of bookcases as she closed her notebook and left for the door.
She had to admit it: despite Cardin getting into a scuffle with ABRN and staring at something that she couldn't see, the rest of the tutoring session went pretty well. The young ruffian was able to keep her attention- unlike Port who loses half of his students whenever he starts talking about one of his many adventures- and describe the behavior and anatomy of Creeps in a simplistic way that helped Yang understand everything there was to know. Overall, Yang was starting to feel as if this will work out after all, even if Cardin occasionally acts like a bastard.
As Cardin walked among the aisles of biographies, autobiographies, recorded history, stories and encyclopedias, putting away each one of the books he used away, he couldn't help but think of that false creature he saw today. It was again, an event he had gotten used to seeing every six months or so, thanks to his accursed sleep deprivation, but that does not mean it didn't leave an imprint in his mind every time he had one. Seeing what he decided was suppose to be him but with teeth for skin definitely burned his thoughts, making sure it'd stay there forever along with every sinister hallucination he had.
But it still did not bother him much. the only way it could do that is if Yang looked back and was able to see it too. In a way then, Cardin guessed he did have a fear for them, it being that one day, one of these illusions created before him will be real.
All this pondering of his hallucinations, along with not knowing what was behind him while he put the last book away, made Cardin's heart drop to his stomach when he felt a pair of arms drape over and wrap themselves around his chest.
"Hey there, Cardin." But he thanked God that it was just Coco greeting him with a sultry voice warming his leather hood. But then that gratitude turned into befuddlement, wondering why the hell Coco was doing this.
"Why are you doing this?" He even asked her with the same words, now confusing her a bit too while he brushed her arms off and turned around, looking down into her aviator-covered eyes.
"Excuse me? Why am I... I was just saying hi, Cardin."
"Hi? That's a real sensual way to say hi, Coco. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind you touching me like that, it's just that... don't you hate me?"
"What?" Coco felt only more confusion by his next question, starting to think Cardin just forgot what they did together just yesterday. "Why would you ask that?"
"Because all we did was have sex, that's it. It's not like that changed me or anything."
"..."
"I'm still Cardin, okay? I'm still the most hated student at this school, and there's a reason for that. Hell, just today I knocked out a student for offending me."
"Well... why did you do that? What did he say?"
"... He asked me when Dove was gonna die, mockingly."
"Then it sounds like you were doing the right thing... kind of. If someone asked the same thing to me about any of my teammates, I would definitely knock them out too."
"Yeah- but that still doesn't mean I didn't change. I'm still... still a bastard. Even if I've been holding myself back from harassing other students, that doesn't mean I changing."
"... Well, you wanna know something?"
"... What?"
"I don't care what you are." With that, Coco stood on her toes to go us and peck Cardin on his lips, getting no visible reaction out of him, while his insides were going warm. "In fact, I disagree with what you're saying. Don't you think trying not to bully or hurt people who don't deserve it is a clear sign of you trying to make yourself a different person."
"..."
"..."
"... I don't like being corrected." His statement got a small giggle out of Coco, the corners of her lips lifting up a bit as she gave him another smooch, now getting him to smile in her manner too. "this doesn't mean you're doing all of this just for the sex though, right?"
"No, Cardin, I'm not saying all of this just for the sex."
"But you're doing this after we had sex though, after I basically made you have sex with me though. And even then, you still did everything you can to make sure no one knew we had sex in the fi-"
"-Hey... shut the fuck up, okay?"
"... Okay." Cardin muttered softly with a saddened tone.
"I mean, here I am, willingly putting everything I EVER thought about you aside, practically admitting that I like you now, and you're still acting skeptical. So listen closely: I don't care if this is all happening after what we did yesterday, I don't care what you are, and I don't care about what you've done. All that matters to me is that you're making an effort to change, and I'm giving you a chance to do so. Okay?"
"..."
"Cardin?"
"... No... no- Coco. I... I don't want a chance with you, okay? It's not because I think you're not pretty, or because I think you aren't a great... person. It's just that I can't... I can't get caught-up with relationships like this, not now in my life..."
"..."
"May be one day I'll be able to give you a chance, Coco, but not now. There's too much stopping me from just having a girlfriend."
"... What is it?" Coco asked, her teeth somewhat grinding against each other when she inquired Cardin. "What is it that's holding you back?"
And Cardin replied, with little to no emotion in his tone, saying,"... I can't tell you... Not now at least. But until then, we can still be friends if you like. Or aq... ac? Ac... acquaintances. Okay?" She felt deflated emotionally, but still respected Cardin's wishes, quietly nodding her head with a minute frown that went unnoticed by Cardin. "Good. Well... see you later."
He walked away on that, leaving Coco to stand there and accept what happened. He did look back to see her, and that hallucination standing behind her, forcing Cardin to shake his head and wince before looking back to where he was walking...
"Hey guys." Was the simple greet that Yang gave to her teammates, and JNPR, both having been in the dining hall eating dinner.
"Hi Yang, how did it go?" Ruby asked her sister as she sat herself down next to her little sister, placing her notebook to the side and her tray in front of her.
"It was... it was fine. Cardin's better than I thought he'd be."
"... What?" Jaune asked, which he might as well had been doing for the rest of his team.
"I got Cardin as a tutor for Grimm Studies, Jaune. I just got done with our first session, which like I said, went fine." Jaune gave a silent "oh" in response to her answer. Yang purposefully left out what happened between him and ABRN though, feeling like it had no reason to be brought up with her friends. "He even shared with me some personal stories about his childhood."
"...Like what?"
Yang answered her little sister, responding with, "Well... it wasn't a story actually. He just told that his whole team are his adopted brothers. It turns out... well, their parents dies when they just little kids, so Cardin's mom decided to adopt them so that they could still stay together..." Yang trailed off, with her out-of-nowhere statement letting a heavy drape of shock fall on everyone at the table, except for Ruby, who waited, listening if Yang mentioned anything about them being from Disown.
"Huh, that's rough, but... also nice at the same time." Pyrrha looked over at Jaune, clearly shocked by what he had just said, which prompted him to reiterate. "I-I-I didn't mean like that! I meant it's nice that his mom adopted them so that they wouldn't be separated."
"Oh, sorry." His redheaded teammate replied, bringing her gaze back at Yang before asking. "Was that... all he shared with you?"
"Yeah, that was pretty much it..." Yang's reply was a confirmation to Ruby, presuming that he purposefully left out anything about being from Disown, unless her older sister was leaving that out, or had just forgotten about it. Whatever the situation was, it made Ruby feel comfortable with sharing what she found out about Cardin yesterday, since it had nothing to do with Disown either.
"... Yesterday, I learned something about Cardin too."
"Oh, what?" Xiao Long inquired, bringing her attention towards her little sister.
"I asked Cardin's... brothers about why he's sleeping so much during the day, and it turns out he has insomnia. He got it from restless leg syndrome, and his body temperature being high for an average person. Dove told me Cardin's insomnia usually prevents him from sleeping around midnight, and even then, he'll wake up early in the morning and can't go to sleep after that..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... I... I kind of feel bad for Cardin now. His whole team really." Jaune's statement actually got Nora and Ren to silently nod their heads in agreement, both of them easily sympathizing with the unfortunates past of Russel, Dove and Sky, while also feeling pity for Cardin's condition.
Everyone at the table felt varying levels of condolences for them in actuality, even if they act unruly from time to time.
"But... don't tell Cardin that we know anything though. I think us telling Cardin things we know about him when he hasn't even told us about it would... probably put him on edge..." Ruby's warning also received silent agreement from everyone at the table...
