Golden Thorns: Chapter Fifteen

Still not right. He played it again. It was still very flat. Coran whispered a curse, he would probably need to find a replacement string. He made a note of it on the piece of scrap paper that he had found in his pocket. Listening again, he heard footsteps approaching. Attempting to extricate himself from shoulders deep in the guts of a piano before they arrived, Coran stood and hit his head on it.

Rubbing the sore spot on his cranium, he turned round to see a girl wearing dark clothes and a bow glance into his room as she hurried past. For a moment their eyes locked, but she looked down and hurried on.

Curiosity got the better of Coran, leading him to the doorway and looking out down the dark corridor. There was no-one. He thought he recognised her. One of the members of team RWBY if he was correct. But which one? Blake. That was it, wasn't it? He remembered seeing her for the first time, in the emerald forest. He remembered the distinct feeling that she carried with her great secrets. Possibly a shadowy past. Worth noting.

Quietly, he went back to his work.

The next morning, he and Jo were walking to their first lesson of the day, discussing the new intake of students that had arrived. Potential competition, ones to watch out for, the usual. Apparently there was a new guy, Jo was telling him, who had arrived that morning and had excessive abdominal muscles. This seemed to be a sticking point with her and she rambled all the way to class. From what he could pick up he was a monkey Faunus and a bit of a bad boy. The kind that would get on his nerves if they had an extended conversation. Jo continued to chatter, even after they left the lecture hall, until finally Coran gave in and said "Jo, please do us all a favour and shut up."

"Sorry." She huffed

"Do you even know the guy's name?"

"No but I intend to find out." She said, leering devilishly. Clearly she was plotting some way to lure him into her dark clutches. He almost felt sorry for him, and his abs.

"Hey, Jo." Coran began slowly. "D'you know Blake at all." She gasped theatrically and turned to stare at him, giggling quietly.

"Why would you want to know?" she wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"Oh, ha ha. It's nothing like that. It's just that she was wondering around the corridors last night"

"So? You do that all the time"

"Yeah but isn't team RWBY's dorm in the west wing?"

"Is that not where she was?"

"No I was in the east wing when I saw her."

"Really? What were you doing over there?"

"Private project."

"Oh I see," she smirked and wiggled her eyebrows once more.

"Again, no." he said exasperatedly

"Then what is it?" she responded impatiently.

"It's not ready yet. When it is you can see it. If you're good." He thought a little patronisation would stave off further questions. As she herself said, even teammates need to keep some secrets from each other and the piano was supposed to be his and his alone.

"Is it a present?" she squealed, now in the voice of a little girl," oh, please let it be a pony, please."

"No it's not a pony." He chuckled.

"Aww." She said, pouting comically. "Hey, c'mon. Let's get some lunch."

"I agree. But let's pick up the others first."

"Yeah, Dev would never forgive us if we ate without him again. C'mon, race you back to the dorm."

They broke into a run and charged off into the corridors.