Welcome to the tenth chapter of Troublesome Brats!

And I'm late. Dammit. The reason was because I was having trouble with piecing this story together, but now all is fine. For the most part, that is. I still need to polish some things here and there...

Anyway, reviews!

EpicLinkSam: Indeed! When Ragna's involved, things tend to go to shit real quick.

Lovnag: I have to agree with that. And what do you mean almost? I demand you to give him pity this instant!

SifTheGreat: Difficult question is difficult. It depends on where this story is heading, to be honest. I tend to explore the unknown like a complete idiot, which is why this chapter came late in the first place. Oh, and thanks for reviewing the previous specials! Appreciate it.

xDearestHeart2375x: Welcome aboard, my dear reader! I appreciate the reviews you've given me, and I also see that you've noticed some pretty interesting things during the early chapters regarding a certain Captain. Heh. Bravo. Be sure to look forward to the upcoming chapters, my friend.

So with reviews aside, let's start reading!

I own nothing.

-IIXII-

Terumi quickly brought a hand up to his face and caught the small speeding projectile with ease. Although catching the damn thing still caused pain in his palm, he still somehow managed to hide it by offering the one who threw it in the first place a cocky smirk.

"Yo, Raggy Boy," he greeted. "Did you seriously think that you could take me down with a spoon?"

Ragna widened his eyes, shocked. "Terumi? Y-You're…"

"Yep! There's no one else but me! Anyway, is that your uniform? Hehe…" The asshole who was known as Ragna's jackass of a neighbour started laughing uncontrollably, no doubt due to the sight of Ragna in his work uniform. "I honestly can't believe it! Guhaha! You look out of place! Like, for real! Hahahaha!"

This…asshole. Showing up from nowhere and the first thing he does is irritate me. Who does he think he is!? If it weren't for me working right now, I would have ripped his guts out and have his corpse paraded throughout the whole town!

Ragna did not take the comment too well apparently, judging by the violent thoughts which were currently swimming around inside his head. Though before he could think of anything else, an idea came barreling its way into his mind, and that idea alone made him smirk in a sinister manner. He then quickly turned to a confused Coco, quickly replacing his smirk with a fake panicked expression. "Coco, what are you waiting for!? That's a damn robber! Do something!" he yelled.

Terumi immediately stopped laughing. He then stared at Ragna with confusion evident in his serpentine eyes. "Eh?"

Coco, upon realising the dangerous situation they were in, started glaring at the newcomer. "You don't have to tell me, jackass!" And with that, she prepared the pair of knives in her hands and threw them directly at her intended target. "Velvet!" she called out.

"R-Right!" Velvet nodded. She followed Coco's example and threw each and every fork she had in her arsenal at the dangerous robber, much to Ragna's absolute delight. "Yah!"

"W-Wait! Hey!" Terumi yelled, but no one bothered to listen.

Ragna, now with a full-blown slasher smile almost completely taking over his face, took the chance and grabbed Blood-Scythe which was hidden somewhere behind the counter, as it was actually prepared for this exact reason. He charged his right arm, then with a strong swing of his large blade, a dark creature resembling a shark's head came charging its way towards Terumi. "Dead Spike!" he roared.

Terumi, busying himself with avoiding the knives and forks, was unfortunate enough to notice the dark creature when it was just a few inches away from him, specifically his face. "What-"

The last thing he saw before he was blown out of the café was the cruel slasher smile on Ragna's face.

-IIXII-

Kval started tapping his foot repeatedly as he glared at his wristwatch, before redirecting his attention towards the entrance leading towards the café. "What is taking him so-" His brother then came barreling out of the café before he was able to finish his sentence, right on schedule. He clicked his tongue, seemingly annoyed. "Somehow, I knew this would happen…" he muttered.

"I-Is your brother going to be okay?" Yang asked, feeling slightly worried.

Kval swiftly put up a smile, quickly hiding away his annoyance. "He'll be fine. Now come on, let's head on inside before anything else starts happening." He walked on ahead, which prompted the girls to follow him from behind. "Since it'll take a bit of time for my brother to recover, I'll be your guide for today," he announced.

R-Recover from what, exactly? was the question that popped up in each of the girls' head, minus Ruby of course. Speaking of her, she was too busy looking worriedly at a certain asshole whom had his head slammed into a streetlight to actually follow Kval and the others. It was obvious where she was planning on heading in the next few moments.

"W-Wow. Seeing you so casually like this, I'm starting to worry about the fact that I don't know what you go through everyday," Yang commented, quickly earning her an elbow strike from a certain faunus. "Guh!"

"What Yang meant was that she's worried about you," Blake quickly added in, all the while ignoring the sour look sent her way by a certain blonde.

Wow. Kval wanted to laugh at how the girls viewed him, but he resisted. Why should they be worried? Him and his brother had gone through way more dangerous events before in the past, and something as small as this was considered nothing to him. So in the end he just brushed it off with a shrug and entered the café like it was nobody's business.

Yang, Blake, and Weiss exchanged looks of worry with one another, but nevertheless the three girls still decided to follow him into the café in hopes of dropping the subject.

And once they entered…

"Kazuma!? What are you doing here?"

The three girls humorously jumped at the same time at the loud voice. They then turned their heads to Kval, just in time to see him wave at a tall white-haired man whom they were not familiar with.

"Why hello there, Ragna. How are you doing?" Kval asked, smiling that polite little smile of his. "I see that you have gotten yourself a new job. Congratulations."

And apparently the man's name was Ragna. Each of them took note of that.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. And I don't know about you, but I don't like having that asshole of a brother of yours to come barging his way in here again like earlier. If he wants in, then make sure you tell him that he should enter like how a regular customer would," Ragna said, sounding annoyed, but at the same time he looked satisfied with something for some odd reason. The look in his eyes gave it away.

Kval merely laughed in response. "I will."

Yang and the others blinked at the sight. "Is he…literally chatting with the same person whom just attacked his brother a few seconds ago?"

"I-I guess so," Weiss said.

Blake sighed. "Let's just go and find ourselves a nice table, shall we? I feel uncomfortable with all the stares we're getting from the other patrons. Now, come on."

-IIXII-

She knew she was being stared at. It was obvious, apparently. Though being herself, she simply didn't care. The people around her weren't important, and if things could stay that way, then that was fine by her.

Ruby continued to waddle her way towards her groaning caretaker, as she felt genuinely worried for his well-being and whatnot. One glance at the man and you could tell that he was currently experiencing all kinds of hell, if the look on his face was anything to go by.

"That shitty asshole…" she heard him mutter over and over, and as curious as she was to know what those words actually meant, Ruby knelt down and took his hand.

"I-Is it painful?" Ruby asked, undoubtedly catching her caretaker off-guard. "Because it looked like it did." She noted him narrowing his eyes at her, and that alone made her confused as to why he was doing that. Was there something on her face?

"Aren't you supposed to be with the others?" Terumi, her lovely caretaker, asked in a somewhat annoyed manner. He pulled his hand away and began to grumble all sorts of nonsense to himself, and he made sure to be extra quiet for some odd reason.

Ruby tilted her head to one side, blinking confusedly as she eyed the man. Being her innocent and curious self, she felt the sudden urge to ask what he was grumbling about, but later decided that his health was top priority.

Little did Ruby know that he was actually cursing up a storm, particularly about a certain white-haired asshole he knew all too well.

So without knowing that, not that she needed to anyway, Ruby held out her hands towards her caretaker's forehead and did what her loving mother had taught her a few years back.

"What the…?" Terumi eyed the sweet child with furrowed brows, genuinely confused as to what she was attempting on doing. "Hey, just what are you-" He actually jumped a bit when the sight of her tiny frame emitting some sort of silver aura greeted his serpentine eyes. It resembled a lot like his own, but the only difference was that it wasn't dark and intimidating, as well as filled with murderous intent. And to be frank, whatever she was doing, it sure as hell ate up all of his pain away.

Hell, he felt a whole lot better already in fact!

Figuring that his pain was already fully gone, Ruby lowered her hands and let out a small breath of air, appearing to be somewhat tired. If anything, her body was still not quite used to using that ability, judging by the looks of things and all.

"Done," Ruby announced with a cheerful grin. "How do you feel, Mister Terumi?"

"I feel…" Terumi paused, as he still had trouble registering the fact that this child had just used some sort of healing magic on him. Nonetheless, he somehow managed to finish his short sentence some seconds later. "…good, I guess. Thanks."

"You're welcome!" Ruby exclaimed. "Now come on, let's join the others!" She grabbed her caretaker by the hand and attempted to pull him back up to his feet, but as determined as she was, she probably wouldn't be able to carry around a large rock with that small body of hers. So in the end, it was useless. "Guh! Come on!" she said.

Terumi remained where he was on the ground, but after a while of watching the determined child making a huge fool of herself, he finally decided to cut her some slack by lifting himself off the ground. "Fine. I'm up. You happy now?" he said, sounding annoyed but not.

Ruby nodded. "Yes. Now come on!" She then started dragging her caretaker over to the entrance of the café while under the assumption that he wouldn't mind being dragged around, in which he actually didn't, surprisingly.

"Calm the hell down, kid. It's not the end of the world or anything," Terumi said, rolling his eyes later on. "We can take our time. The others can wait."

"B-But we should-" Ruby suddenly paused.

Terumi raised an eyebrow when the child went silent. Curious, he briefly examined her face to see what was up, and just by doing that was enough to get him to understand what's happening. Something seemed to have caught her attention judging by how wide her eyes were, and with a quick look at where she was actually looking-

"Eh? A toy store?" Terumi sounded.

It wasn't anything special. Just a simple and small store with toys on display, and funnily enough it was just located right next to the café where the others were at. How he did not notice that when he first arrived kind of bothered him a bit…

"C-Can we-"

"No," Terumi quickly interrupted.

Ruby frowned and stared sadly at her feet. If she were a balloon, then she would most probably deflate by now. Poor thing.

"But," Terumi suddenly added in. "since you've just helped me with my pain earlier, a few minutes wouldn't hurt."

Ruby gasped and quickly turned her head up to face Terumi, grinning widely with a bit of excitement dancing around in her eyes. She couldn't believe it. "Really!?" she exclaimed.

Terumi briefly glanced at Ruby with his usual expressionless face, and then later shrugged in a casual manner as he said, "Sure. Go right ahead." Though right after he said that, he immediately took note of the strangers around them eyeing him as if he was some kind of suspicious individual, and he didn't hesitate to give them the finger as the expressionless look on his face quickly turned hostile. "And what the hell are you people looking at!? Scram!"

While Terumi was at it in public, Ruby, being her child-like self, wasn't patient enough when it came to exciting things such as entering a toy store, so before her loving caretaker could flip his bird at more pedestrians and bystanders, she tightened her hold on his hand and dragged him along with her.

"Let's go!" she exclaimed.

Though funny thing was, even though he was being dragged, Terumi still somehow found a way to keep showing his bird for all the people around him to see.

-IIXII-

"Aren't we missing someone?"

"Ruby? H-Hey, where's Ruby!?"

Velvet stared weirdly at Ragna when the voices belonging to a couple of kids began to grow louder and louder from one of the tables inside the café. "Friends of yours?" she asked. "I didn't see much since I had to move to the back in order to clean some stuff up after dealing with that robber, but I pretty much heard you chatting with one of them."

"Friends? Well…I guess you could call him that. I'm unfamiliar with the girls though," Ragna replied with a genuinely confused look. "I never knew he had so many friends, but that aside, have you gone to that particular table and taken their orders yet? I ain't because they're girls there. You know what happened last time…"

Velvet actually shuddered at the memory. "R-Right. Well, seeing that Coco just went out there in order to collect back all the items we've used against that robber-"

For some reason, Ragna mysteriously turned away from Velvet, and his shoulders appeared to be somewhat shaking uncontrollably oddly enough. "Pfft…"

"Ragna?" Velvet tilted her head, somewhat confused. "You feeling okay?"

"H-Huh? O-Oh, right. Yeah. Just…just got a little something in my eye is all," Ragna answered with what appeared to be a strange little smirk on his face. "Ahem. Anyway, go and take their orders, now would you? Those kids are probably starving by now."

Velvet eyed the older man suspiciously. "Sure…"

So after making sure that she had her notepad with her, Velvet nodded to herself and walked off to the table with the intention of taking their orders. And like always, she made sure to smile.

But it was a pity that her smile wouldn't last long.

-IIXII-

"Okay, why don't we all just calm down for a second and-"

Kval was unable to finish his sentence when an angry Yang Xiao Long came slamming her fist down onto the table, thus rendering him silent for a brief while as she started panicking like she did for the past few seconds.

"Calm down? Calm down!? Are you kidding me!? This is Ruby we're talking about!" Yang shouted. "She could have wandered off somewhere on her own and gotten herself kidnapped for all we know!"

Kval turned to Blake and Weiss, and noted that, unlike Yang who was panicking and shouting hysterically nonstop, were calm and collected, but it was evident in their eyes that they themselves were also worried about Ruby's well-being. As for himself, he was pretty much the calmest one out of all of them.

Because he knew where the little Rose went. Though it's just a hunch, and nothing else.

"Girls, please. Calm down for a second," Kval said in order to gain their undivided attention, in which he barely did. Just when Yang seemed as if she was about to interrupt him again, he took the initiative and interrupted her instead by flicking her on the forehead. "Listen, will you? Screaming and gaining the attention of the other patrons in this café will do us no good, and I have a small feeling that my brother has got Ruby taken care of. She was probably just worried about his well-being after seeing him hitting his head so hard and then decided to make sure that he wasn't badly injured. It's the only possible reason as to why she didn't follow us to begin with."

And so with that long explanation out of the way, Kval somehow successfully managed to calm each of the girls down to some extent. Calming others was one of the things that he was good at, after all, so it was no surprise to be perfectly honest.

"W-Well, now that you've said all that, Ruby is the type to worry a lot when it comes to the well-being of others," Yang said, but she still sounded unsure of herself.

"I fully agree. Should we go and see if they're doing okay?" Weiss asked. "It wouldn't hurt."

Kval shook his head in response. "No. Just let my brother handle this. As you all may know, I want him to get used to working as a caretaker when I'm not around to monitor his every move as soon as possible. But if anything happens, I'll give him a good scolding and take responsibility," he clarified.

Blake stared at him, amazed no doubt. "Wow. You're…something. I will admit that."

"Oh am I now?" Kval simply chuckled. "Well, I'll take that as a compliment."

"I will admit, even I myself am not on the same level as you are in terms of being responsible and whatnot," Weiss admitted with a bit of shame evident in her voice, but still she was being genuine about it. "And yet you are basically the same age as us! I…I could learn a lot more from you."

Kval was flattered, truly he was, but even so there was one thing he needed to make clear. It's been bothering him for a while now, and now is probably the best time to end it once and for all.

"I'm actually a year older than all of you," Kval pointed out, which immediately earned him a surprised gasp from a surprised Weiss. "Thought I'd let you know."

"Really!? I-I…" Weiss stuttered. "P-Pardon me for my rudeness, Kazuma. I only assumed that-"

"He practically told us his age the first time we've met," Blake pointed out for no reason, intentionally causing the Schnee girl to feel all the more embarrassed. "Apparently you were too busy glaring at his brother to actually listen. I'm disappointed in you, Weiss."

"N-Not my fault!" Weiss retorted. "H-How should I have known that?"

"Weiss, I have to admit that Blake's kinda right," Yang added in, momentarily forgetting about Ruby and the possible dangers that she could have gotten herself in. "And here I thought you were the smart one, other than Blake of course."

"S-Shut up!"

"No, you shut up!" Yang retorted.

"What? You're the loud one!" Weiss shot back.

Kval opted to simply stare as the girls began to yell at one another, and he couldn't help but feel a tad bit guilty because of this. He was the sole reason as to why this all started to begin with, though instead of saying anything in order to stop the girls from yelling and disturbing the other patrons any further, he simply chose to remain silent in his seat and took his time examining his surroundings.

The place was nice, he'll admit, though if the stares could stop then that would be great. But putting that aside, the whole place was finely decorated from what he could tell, and the humorous sight of Ragna struggling with the cash register somehow made it all the more better. Was he seriously always like that?

Kval nearly laughed. He should definitely tell Saya about this later. She would surely be delighted to hear silly tales about her brother during his time at work.

Then there was also this familiar-looking rabbit girl who was currently staring at him in utter shock and-

Wait.

-IIXII-

Velvet dropped her notepad to the floor upon making direct eye contact with the green-haired child. Her mind went completely blank for a brief while, as it had a slight problem with registering the fact that he was there staring back at her with probably the same expression she herself was displaying.

Fortunately the staring between the two didn't last too long as the child, whom had quickly recovered from his shock, nodded towards the exit.

Receiving the silent message, Velvet nodded in return and clumsily made her way over to Ragna, whom was stationed behind the counter and still struggling with the register.

"Hey Ragna, would you mind taking over for a minute? I uh…have things to take care of," she said.

Ragna directed his full attention on Velvet, momentarily forgetting about the darn register, and later proceeded to cock an eyebrow in response. "Eh? I'm honestly not sure that's the best idea Vel-" He immediately took note of the look in her eyes, which stopped him from utterly completing his previous sentence. "Is everything okay?"

Velvet nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine. Now do me a small favor and take over for a bit, okay?" She put up a smile. "I won't take too long. I promise."

Ragna took his time staring at her with an unsure expression, but in the end he sighed and decided to just give in. There was no way in hell he could say no to that face she was making.

"Fine," he muttered. "Assuming that you have not taken the orders of those kids yet, I'll be sure to do that instead as well as entertain them until you get back. Just don't blame me if anything bad happens, Velvet."

Velvet giggled. "I won't. And thank you, Ragna."

"Heh." Ragna grinned. "Don't mention it, you idiot. Now hurry up or else I'll start regretting my decision."

-IIXII-

Kval watched as the rabbit girl turned to him and sent a nod his way, which meant that all that's left to do now is find a way to excuse himself from the three girls whom he was supposed to watch over.

Though as difficult as it sounded, for Kval it was actually quite simple really.

"Hey girls, I need to go outside and catch some air for a bit. You wouldn't mind if I leave, now would you?"

"Huh? Oh, sure. Go ahead," Yang answered, grinning. "We'll be here if you need us! Just don't take too long or else we'll get super bored in here."

"I see no problem with that as well. Like Yang said, go on ahead," Weiss added in.

See? Simple.

"Okay then. Thanks."

And so with that all said and done, Kval rose up from his seat and calmly made his way over to the exit.

All the while not noticing the suspicious stare that was directed his way by a suspicious Blake.

Something is definitely up, judging by how cautious he's being. Just what is he up to? was the question flying around inside her head right now. Though as curious as she was to know the truth, Blake was unable to do anything about it when a certain white-haired man came over to their table with a notepad and a pencil carried in each hand.

"Why hello there. Welcome to our little café. What can I get you girls?"

"Oh! Um, I'd like…" Yang started, but ended up gasping in shock after finally realising who this man was. "Wait a minute, it's you! The guy from that time! No wonder why Kazuma's brother was kicked out!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Eh?"

"Yeah, Yang's right!" Weiss supported. "He was the man who interrupted Kazuma's brother when he tried to force Miss Rose into giving him money!"

Blake narrowed her eyes. "Well now that you've all mentioned it…"

The white-haired man, Ragna of course, was no doubt beginning to regret his decision of helping Velvet at this point. Just what in the world did he got himself into this time?

He just hoped that Velvet wouldn't take too long with whatever she's doing.

-IIXII-

The two had chosen to sit by a bench situated not far from the café, and what a coincidence it was that the area had less people wandering around, just how the two actually wanted it to be.

And so there they sat, silent, staring ahead as they felt the gentle breeze blow against their faces, which then later caused them to momentarily close their eyes due to natural instinct. The silence wasn't an awkward one, that much was true. In fact, if anything, the two seemed to be comfortable around one another, judging by the small smiles currently being displayed on each of their faces.

The two just sat there, doing nothing as they listened to all the noises nature had in store for them. Birds chirping, wind brushing against leaves, and occasionally the sound of dogs barking in the far distance.

It was peaceful, simply put.

Then after a while of enjoying their comfortable silence together, the two finally decided to strike up a conversation.

"So," Velvet began. "how has life been treating you, Kazuma?"

"Okay, I guess," Kval replied. "It's…not as bad as I thought it would be. You?"

"Ups and downs, here and there, but things have gotten significantly better for me. Thanks to you, of course." Velvet giggled. "I never thought that I would ever meet you again, especially not like this. I was surprised."

"Well," Kval set his chin on the palm of his hand as he kept his eyes forward, his smile somewhat growing a bit. "I was pretty much shocked myself. And I should be thanking you as well. I honestly didn't know what I was thinking back then, but I consider myself lucky that you were there. I'm so grateful that I didn't just throw my second chance away without giving it some thought. And of course, you were the one who helped." He paused. "It's just hard to believe that it's been four years since then, when we've first and last met…"

This time, Velvet said nothing in return, but even then she knew quite well what Kval was talking about.

Even without words, the two knew that they were on the same page. Nothing was needed to be said for them to understand one another. The silence was more than enough.

It was a miracle that these two people, who had been on the verge of drowning themselves a few years back, somehow managed to barely keep each other afloat. Some would call it fate, but they just simply considered themselves lucky to have actually met that day.

That very day in which neither of them could forget, not that they planned to anyway.

"I see that you've made friends," Velvet noted, changing the subject.

Kval noticed this, but allowed it anyway. He didn't mind.

"I made a few," he said. "Which is something that I didn't expect to happen, mind you. I'm a loner, as you may no doubt know already."

Velvet smiled. "A loner, huh? Well, I can relate. As for me, I made a few friends myself and…"

And so, the two ended up chatting with one another without a care in the world. And they were so busy enjoying themselves that they didn't bother to check how much time had passed, despite Velvet promising Ragna that she'd be back in a few minutes, but frankly that didn't matter. Not anymore.

She was having too much fun to actually care.

-IIXII-

Some things about this story aren't nice. Velvet and Kazuma's relationship is quite complicated, and not really something you'd expect to be, but we'll get to that when the time comes, along with some other things. And unfortunately this chapter didn't feature as much as I'd like, which is a real punch to the gut if you know what I'm saying. I planned to continue, but Internet is being a gigantic turd and won't let me. So with that said, I apologise.

This is CPL, over and out.