Chapter 17

Colin

On their way back to the dorm, Colin was bombarded with questions, very angry questions. But it was rightfully so, he had made some very convincing illusions. As they walked the nanites repaired the fake skin on his cybernetics, when they walked in the door yang was pacing. She saw ruby and gave her one of her famous bear hugs. "Are you ok?" she asked frantically, pulling away with her hands on ruby's shoulders looking her over. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She responded looking at the ground. "You have some explaining to do." Yang said walking her over to the bed. "You to." She said looking at Colin, he had been trying to sneak out. He stopped, turned around and walked back towards the bunk beds.

He sat down on the floor at the ends of the bunk beds. Ruby sat down next to Weiss and Yang sat down opposite with Blake. Ruby took a deep breath and explained the entire thing. Weiss holding her hand during the very….intense part. At the end of the story she explained how it was all an illusion and that none of it was real. By the end of it Colin was laying on the ground. There was a few minutes of silence. "I am going to the gym." Yang said, it was her way to blow off some steam. "I will join you." Colin said getting up to follow her.

They must have been in the gym for 2-3 hours punching the bag. He was taking a break and watching Yang destroy the bag. She stopped and walked over to get a drink. "You look frustrated, sparring?" Colin asked. She took a big drink and nodded. They put on gloves and got into the ring. Colin took his lose gym shirt off and put a mouth guard in. She put hers in as well and they walked to opposite ends of the ring. Some passersby stopped lifting and training to watch, knowing just what Yang could do when she was angry. Someone rang the bell and they started, circling each other. They started exchanging light punches, slowly ramping up. He could tell Yang wasn't just frustrated, something else was on her mind. They were really boxing now, Yang was throwing punches meant to do damage. But Colin was still holding back, not wanting to cause another incident.

Yang

She was taking her frustration out on Colin, he was apparently able to take it. But she could tell he was holding back. Which only made her angry. The 2 minute timer rang and she walked to the edge of the ring and took out of her mouth guard and took a drink. "You are holding back. Stop." She said in a very serious tone. "I don't want to cause any permanent injury." He responded taking a drink. "You won't, let's go." She said putting her mouth guard back in. He shrugged and got ready for round two. This time there was no Light punches only actual punches. He had stopped holding back and was throwing some heavy punches, but she could take it.

2 More minutes of punches that were thrown with serious intent and the bell rang. They walked back to their corners and took a drink. "You want to ramp this up? You obliviously need to take some stress out." he asked. She didn't ask how and nodded. The bell rang again and she felt her semblance activate, he must be using some power of his to do this. She went all out with her hits, he was doing the same only he was feeding her semblance. The hits got harder and faster and her semblance was growing in power, only amping the fight up. She was hitting him as hard as she could and he wasn't even flinching, something that everyone else noticed.

The bell rang and they went back to their corners, taking drinks and spilling most of it. He looked like he was good as new, aside from a few scratches. "You ready to end this?" he yelled. "Let's go!" she yelled back putting her mouth guard back in. The bell rang and the fight started again, they were throwing punches that you could have heard from outside. Her semblance growing in power way past any point she had been before. And she kept going, he must have been doing something or she would not have been where she was at. She finally felt her semblance hit its peak and she threw her best punch. It hit him right in the chest, creating a loud boom and shockwave. He scooted back about 1 inch, and smiled. He threw a retaliatory punch that hit her right in the chest throwing her into the corner.

The large crowd that had gathered gasped as she slumped into the corner throwing in the towel. She had used all of her power and stamina into that one punch, and she was exhausted. He walked over, extending his hand, she took it and he pulled her back on her feet and gave her a hug. He pulled back and smiled. "You good?" he asked "Yeah." She said exhausted. "Let's get going." He said pulling her arm over his shoulder. They walked through the crowd toward the dorm. After a very long walk they finally got to the dorm and he dropped her in the shower, turned it on and closed the door.

She still had her clothes on but the cold shower was amazing, helping her cool down and getting rid of all of the sweat. She lay there for about 10 minutes, the heat from her body turning the ice cold water to steam. Eventually she cooled down enough to get up and yell for Colin to get her some clothes and a towel. About a minute later he knocked on the door, "you still clothed?" he asked from the other side of the door. "Yeah, give me some clothes." She responded. He opened the door and was bombarded by steam. He put the clothes on the ground and the towel on the shower railing. "Geez, you are actually hot. Shit. That sounds like something Blake would say." He said jokingly.

This hit hard, she wanted to talk about Blake with someone, but she didn't know who. But he knew, how? However he had she had to know. But he had closed the door already, so the conversation would have to wait. She shut the shower off, toweled herself off and put the clothes that Colin had gotten for her, and walked out of the bathroom. Colin was leaning against the bathroom door frame, towel around his waist. He slipped in as soon as she walked out. She put her stuff away and walked back to the shower door. She knocked and she got a "yeah?" back. "Can I talk to you about something?" she asked. "What do you want to talk about?" he yelled back. She took this as an invitation to come in and opened the door. He was showering, but he had wings. He turned around, and quickly hid his wings. He was wearing a swimsuit and definitely had wings. " You have wings?" she asked. He sighed and put his wings back out to clean them. "Yes, I do. Yes they are soft, and no you cannot touch them. What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

She leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. "How did you know I like Blake?" she asked He turned around letting the water wash over his wings "It was very, very oblivious. You take occasional glances at her, that ended up being longer than a minute." He responded extending his right wing to brush it down. Yang blushed, "Was I that noticeable?" she asked. He nodded and made the uhh huh noise. There was a bit of lull in the conversation, as he continued cleaning his wings. "I won't tell anyone you like Blake, if you say nothing about my wings." He said. She thought about it "only if you let me touch them." She said mischievously. He sighed, "Sure." He said dejectedly turning the shower off. He toweled himself off and his wings. He extended them to their full length and rustled them to dry. "Come on." He said pointing to them. She walked over and ran her hands through the feathers.

"They are so soft." She said softly caressing the feathers farther up to the branch of his wing. He shuddered as she softly stroked the point where the wings met some cybernetics. He looked like he was trying to hold it together. "Can you please stop, it's very….sensitive." he said slowly, leaning against the wall for support. "Ooh, so it's sensitive?" she said mischievously rubbing the wings up and down. Colin nearly collapsed, "please. Stop." He said stuttering. She still had a sly grin on her face.