Mercury was livid as he continued to make haste through the city streets, forced into yet another public show because of this fucked up family (though the last one was admittedly their influence on him rather than their actual demanding) despite his blatantly apparent want for staying away from the spotlight.
Did they think a good looking guy like him couldn't go and pick up any girl in town and freeload off of them for affection until he landed something more solid?
He pursed his lips together at that thought.
He at least felt like he could; hardly could the first time with one barely working leg, looking and actually being nothing more than a bum on the streets.
He stopped at a crossing and tapped his metal feet against the curb through his sneakers, feeling the perfection of engineering just through that.
Alright so maybe he had a lot to owe them for. At least with his legs he'd put as much work in as Ruby had save for most of the materials coming from Tai's apparently stuffed wallet even if he did say that Mercury was paying him back with labour.
Mercury was no expert in how much one should get for cleaning and doing odd jobs here and there about town but he was damn sure it wasn't enough to cover some of the best parts on the market. And yet his legs had at least four separate mechanisms that exceeded triple digits each.
Maybe he was like a long-term investment?
In all likeliness Tai was hoping that scratching Mercury's back here (if 'scratch' could cover what the man had done for him) would lead to Mercury doing the same in the future for him once he had presumably become a Hunter or something like that.
At least, that's what Mercury told himself to believe. It didn't matter though. He couldn't even convince himself that this was even marginally true; Tai was just a kind soul with too much give to Mercury's overabundant take.
The traffic let up enough for Mercury to cross and he only barely noticed a kid run out behind him with a loud pattering of feet followed by a startlingly loud - and close beep from the vehicle darting towards them.
With reaction time born of a life of 'kill or be killed', Mercury already had the kid before the half-second had passed that would have wrote the kid off as dead. His arms tightly wound around their small frame and his leg against the hood of the car now an instant away from them was all he needed to bound off and up into the air, the peak of their rise met with startled wonder from the child where moments ago only fear had been.
He looked into their eyes and made no expression. He couldn't deny the feeling of happiness but he couldn't deign himself to show it, not for a life so insignificant...
His feet found the ground and his knees bent to take the impact, arms opening to release his cradle-hold and gently lean the kid back up onto their feet.
Now that he had a moment to care enough to check the details he found that it had been a young female toddler Faunas. One that looked as if it were feline in nature but to what species he could not confirm with so little to go on.
It was sharp eyes and ears that were both expressing such wonder towards him, like he was some hero.
He wasn't. He was for what he'd done but the idea of him doing anything noble left a sour taste in the mouth of anybody involved he was sure.
"Th-thank you!" she chirped, cheeks tinted red at the embarrassing break in her small voice. Mercury couldn't care less and he had a schedule to hit so he just waved her off.
"No problem, just be careful in future yeah?" he began to leave without another word, not even looking back as the girls friends surrounded her dotingly, all shouting words of amazement towards the superhuman display he had just presented before them.
Last time he had saved a kid he had smiled. Last time he had saved a kid amongst others was four days ago...
Maybe he was bashful about this new lifestyle because as good as he was at hiding his emotions, he couldn't prevent that smile that began to break across his face.
He jiggled the bag in his hand once he picked it back up from the sidewalk.
He supposed he could give the time to return this. Besides, he still had a bone to pick with Tai for letting this fight even happen later today.
Yang was not at all happy with how the day was progressing. Written assessment after written assessment being dropped on her like feathers from a Nevermore, and she was absolutely positive she'd take living the metaphor over this. She liked to punch stuff, was that so much to ask of them?
"-The assessment will be in by next Monday or we'll be having words" Tai's eyes filtered over the room to show that he meant nobody in particular but it didn't take a genius to see that his eyes went to his fiery blonde daughter more than a few times more than the others.
Wouldn't be the first time she tried to pull 'teacher's daughter' on him and just ignore it, and then it would subsequently become a situation where he had to make an explicit show of authority with her just to whack aside any remarks of 'favouritism'.
Honestly he wouldn't be hard-pressed to admit that she was the worst student he had...
Not to say he didn't love her but...
Cut him some slack, the girl could punch out Ursa's with a single blow but couldn't sit still for the life of her. And while yes a Hunter is trained to kill Grimm rather than write them letters explaining just why they should stop being mindless engines of destruction, he couldn't just let her go illiterate from here on out.
Last thing he wanted was a daughter who just failed to fit in because of her stubborn antics forcing her to remain ostracised from the rest of society through a lack of public decency!
Well...
He was almost sure Ruby would grow out of her 'weapon-sexual' phase...
...
Never even consider Ruby anything sexual again...
"Oi Tai" the room turned to the door as it slammed open, heads tilting and eyes sparkling at the silver-haired youth now stood there.
"Mercury?" he looked as confused as he sounded; very. Why was he here? Thoughts were pushed aside as he reflexively caught his wallet as it flew through the air.
"Qrow calls me kid and you forget your wallet in the living room right next to your Rom Com collection" he said with no shortage of aloofness, though there was something about his eyes that screamed 'mirth'. That little jab was intentional regardless of how true it may have been.
"Good joke" he recovered with a roll of his eyes, seeing that the class was back to his side. No way their 'awesome' (His words) teacher would ever be into sappy romance stuff made with young teen girls as their central focus as an audience!
"I thought you'd say that..." and like that a stack of four of his favourite films were strewn across his desk. He was livid and his flaming mane showed it. His eyes met Mercury's; full of satisfaction and he almost screamed but managed to keep it internal. "Your rentals will be overdue by tomorrow, thought you'd like to stay punctual and return them; God knows how you'd react if they cut you off. Again"
Students were leaning up and about to get a better view of the cases on the desk and gasps were beginning to sound from the surprise at finding that their 'masculine' teacher was actually a big woman's blouse in disguise (His words)!
He was ruined!
Laughter burst into the room, emanating from his 'beloved' daughter Yang.
She pointed at Tai as she threw her head back, taking in the whole scene with no sign of stopping. "You look like you're about to wet yourself..!" she gasped out between breaths, now slamming onto her desk and banging her fist against it as she tried and fail to recover from the laughter that incessantly escaped her lungs.
After a while of that, Mercury decided enough was enough "And that is why next time that-" he pressed his lips together over his curse at the look of murder Tai gave him at the idea of him swearing before his students. His coming-of-age students who no doubt already cursed like sailors just to be 'cool' "-tries to fight me, you stop Rapunzel over there!" Yang would never admit to the small blush on her cheeks at being referred to as a Fairy Tale princess but she would gladly admit to the seething rage moments later "More like the Barbarian the princesses usually run from she is..." their eyes met; steel glaring back down at red, something very, very few people could and would do.
Tai found himself between them a moment later, clearing his throat to break the tension. "Lesson learned Mercury" he said simply "Class, this is Mercury Black; somebody you should strive to be more like in terms of determination and combat ability" Mercury was taken aback by the compliment "But also an example of what not to be in that he's a bad-mannered freeloader with no sense of decency when it comes to the arts!" eyes were rolled all around at that.
"I take offence to that" Mercury said easily and with nil expression.
"Please, don't be so obvious about it next time" Tai retorted just as easily, apparently the two were more than used to one another to be quipping back and forth the way they were so expertly.
After a few more back and forth's between teacher and unwilling apprentice, the elder of the two finally decided to get back on track. "Mercury is here for a reason beyond attempting to humiliate me" he bit back a scathing insult to the kickboxer when he unintentionally reminded himself of that little scenario. "He is here to fight Miss Xiao Long" he informed, to which chatter began to erupt immediately.
It was no small thing to take on Yang; she was unanimously considered the strongest student currently at Signal after all, what with being in her final year and easily topping her class.
It took one punch to end so many fights and yet she had to choose to drag them on against most people just in order to try and learn something more than 'hit them really hard and they go down easy'.
Yang herself knew better than anybody that she could take down anybody in this classroom so what was some punk her own age (As far as she knew) without functioning legs going to do?
She laughed aloud at the thought of it.
"I can't wait to show you who's boss" she said as she stood up and cracked her knuckles fiercely; trademark smirk jilting up her round cheeks as she stared him down.
Mercury internally wanted to go back to his old ways and kick her skull in at the idea but it didn't take as much restraint as he'd have assumed to bury that thought in the back of his mind. The family had changed him and he couldn't deny that anymore.
He went to retort as hotly as he normally would, scathing words set on his tongue before he was beaten to it.
"You can try" Tai's eyes hardened and his voice became stern as it normally did when he was asserting authority "After class" and with that there was no argument left to make as all muttering stopped in its tracks with even Yang muttering under her breath as she dropped back into her seat, wholly disappointed in how this whole thing had turned out.
The man of the Xiao Long/Rose household sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose and took a second to gather himself before turning back onto Mercury "Class is over in 40 minutes, do you mind waiting until then?" Mercury shrugged but it was enough for Tai to understand that he was cool with whatever "Alright, just go find Qrow. Three doors down to the left on this corridor. He should be free right now or..." he made a motion with his hand to emulate drinking and Mercury chuckled at the thought.
"You make it sound like he wouldn't be drinking at any point ever" he brought his hand up and waved the whole thing off "But don't worry, I should be able to find him from smell alone" he quipped, expecting the laugh on the way out and a muffled 'Don't be late!' from the younger dragon through the door once he'd escaped.
He also pretended not to hear Tai getting pissed over her talking out in class again.
Guy was stricter than he'd assume for how nice a guy he was. He was a tough badass from their own training but he never seemed to punish any inattentiveness, rather he corrected it.
Mercury thought about that and sighed at his conclusion. Stress must be getting to the guy, what with his circumstances and looking after two kids of his own, a class full of more and apparently having to babysit a freeloader on top of that.
The silverette brought his hand to his chest at the pain that went through it at that thought but shook it off.
It was natural, he was a burden even now. No longer a murderer for shits and giggles but he was still ruining lives with every step.
But he cared about these people didn't he?
He stopped and looked to his own two feet. Or rather, were they even his anymore?
He lifted up the leg of his pants and chuckled at the sigil he knew was sat there against the inside of what would have been his calf. A rose sat engraved neatly into the fibre of 'his' specially created legs.
Of course his legs weren't even his. What was his anymore outside of a wanted poster and a long list of murders and thefts to say the least of it all.
He clenched his fist and grit his teeth at the thought but-
"You know she made those legs for you" Of course he knew who that was. He can smell his words better than he can hear them.
The dusty old Branwen stepped closer to him with slow, measured steps.
Even in his supposedly drunken state he remained more aware of the world around him than anybody else and it showed why he was both feared and/or respected universally. He said the 'mind-reading' rubbed off on him from association with Ozpin but Mercury knew the bastard was just that good at what he did best; and that was reading other people better than they could read themselves.
His leather shoes clicked against tiled floor until he stopped before the boy and crouched down to look at the etching on his calf, baring the Rose sigil to all.
Mercury grimaced at that but his thoughts were brought to the unexpected wisdom of Qrow, something else that apparently rubbed off on him. "I asked why she put this here once" he started, eyes not leaving the mark. "I said to her, 'you put your mark on somebody else. And you know that isn't right regardless of how much of that work was your doing.'" his eyes now went up to Mercury's and he stood to put himself just over the boy in height, looking down at him with what to most would seem like aloofness or disinterest but Mercury knew to be a front for the constant flitting focus of his eyes, measuring every corner of the room alongside every occupant inside of it.
Nothing escaped the Crow's eyes.
But now they were focused on him with a piercing precision.
"She looked at me in all seriousness after that." his words were slow and placed with purpose, intended to bait his interest to full effect. Again, Mercury knew that but he was still being played along by them, enraptured by his curiosity. "She told me that she didn't put it there to brand you." The kickboxer's eyes widened marginally but he was still confused. He had assumed she had put it there to mark her creation, brand her own brilliance.
It made sense, it just hurt him to see the kindness he was stealing from these people.
But Qrow wasn't done yet. "She put it there so that you knew you weren't alone, that a part of her was with you even when she wasn't there in person" his eyes lit up with mirth at that, the proud uncle shining through at yet another action oh-so Ruby. "Naturally i made fun of her for it but she stood strong. She made it for you but she only put her Rose there so that you knew that she cared about you."
Mercury didn't know what to say to that. Out of his seemingly endless wit and without a word to spit out for the first time in forever.
He was feeling something in his chest, something foreign and so unusual and he couldn't put a word to it but if he had to guess...
"Love" Qrow voiced for him "That's what you're feeling" he slurred slightly with a lazy gesture towards his chest "You've been through a lot Mercury. But now you have a family that cares for you; as naive as they may be to do so" and there it was, another hint at Qrow's unknown measure of knowledge on who he was.
What he'd done.
The feeling burst and he grit his teeth fiercely, almost hissing at that as he quickly barged past the man, finding himself thrown off more by the force than Qrow was, hardly budged in the slightest even with his uneven footing.
"I didn't mean it like that..." the old Crow called after him, regret clear in his words though he made no effort to chase him, knowing that if he did so then Mercury would just go faster.
He heard Qrow calling even now as he turned another corner and opened another door, searching for the exit. He wanted out, he needed out.
What the fuck was he even thinking here? What was he doing for fucks sake.
"Oh there you are!"
What?
Tai pinched the bridge of his nose again, feeling like it would take only a little more pressure that he could easily supply to put himself in a state where he would need to be sent to an emergency room.
And more importantly, away from his screeching daughter as she wailed on and on about how Mercury was late to a fight he was forced into to begin with.
"God damn it Raven..." and like that, Yang whirled on him with a look that dared him to confirm that she had even potentially heard him right, to which he gave her a practiced look of pure confusion, having her write it off again as her mummy issues whilst he thanks Oum that he dodged another familial bullet to the head.
He needed to stop dancing with death on that front.
"But no, where the fu-" and like that the feeling of impending doom around saying certain words/names before other family members became more obviously hereditary than not.
Tai gave off his fierce father's look and the younger Xiao Long was sufficiently cowed into losing any intention towards cursing before her father.
Kids these days...
Silence permeated for a while after that as Yang toed the floor with her boot ends.
"He'll be here soon" Tai eventually supplied "He won't exactly want to be I'm sure but he made his bed when he went along with it and I trust him enough to lay in it" his words may have had wisdom and faith in them but it lost all value when he realised Yang was giving him the unimpressed look that told him all he needed to know about how this whole situation was pushed on him between the two of them.
With her saying it, Mercury could simply decline. But, he had no chance of saying no to the man who fed and housed him all this time.
Tai suddenly felt more and more like an asshole.
"Shit..." he muttered to the wind, Yang acting oblivious to it beyond a small knowing glance his way.
"Ruby i don't-!"
"Nah we're nearly there slowpoke, I can't believe you got lost looking for uncle Qrow though!" The redhead puffed her cheeks out as she held back her laugh at his loss of composure, completely misunderstanding the reason behind it "Dad told me he was only two doors down from you too! How did you mess that up?" she peered up at him with her huge, silver doe eyes, reminding him once again that the precious metal had nothing on them.
He shook his head free of the train of thought "Ruby you need to..." he tried to tug his hand away lightly to which she threw him a playfully unimpressed look.
"Come on, don't be a wuss! You got this" she teased, clearly new to the giving end of the stick rather than receiving. It seemed forced and unnatural to Mercury but she was trying to lighten whatever mood he was in it seemed.
But he'd had enough now.
"Ruby, stop!" he pulled his hand back to his side with force enough to veer her around entirely, free hand going up to nurse her roughly tugged appendage, eyes wide and mouth ever so slightly agape at the aggression in his tone and actions.
And it made him feel awful all over again.
"Ruby... I-"
She held her hand up in a motion to stop him, the other hand balling her skirt up something fierce "No it's fine..." she looked lethargic, doing the typical Ruby thing and rationalising the whole thing as her fault to begin with "I... shouldn't have teased you. I know you don't want this..." she looked to him and those eyes, like full moons, unshattered and unbroken.
But diluted with her tears he couldn't help but notice.
Ruby sent him a small smile and wiped her tears away before they could fall, looking up and blinking away the tears and praying that he wouldn't comment on them.
He wouldn't, because he didn't know how to breach the situation as somebody who cared would.
She went to grab his hand again but stopped halfway, recoiling as she recalled his prior aggression, putting on a mask as if it hadn't hurt her far more emotionally than he ever could physically.
"Lets just tell her to stop this Mercury. Lets just go home okay?" her eyes held onto his for a few moments before they fell to his feet with the passing silence.
'Her feet' he corrected himself, wriggling his automated toes about thoughtlessly before heaving a breath and stepping forward, a hand reaching up to ruffle her hair fondly.
Pretending he didn't shatter a little inside when she withdrew back into herself at his approaching hand.
"I'll do it, and win. As long as you cheer us both on" he promised her, passing by in his best interpretation of a 'cool guy', somebody she could admire and look up to.
"What a farce..." he chuckled to the wind once he was out of her hearing range, daring not to look back as he felt her gaze follow him all the way to the double doors that spelt his introduction in to the world of hunters as more than just the deadbeat living at a Hunter teachers place.
"You did what?!" Tai was absolutely livid as he finished hearing out his brother-in-law's tale on what had happened, the only explanation as to why Mercury still wasn't here. His eyes flew over to Yang who stood at the centre of the Signal Academy arena as antsy as ever, doing her fifth set of stretches before what must've easily been at least three quarters of the entire academy's students. He pitied the look of disappointment on her face at the no-show she must've been used to now as the powerhouse she was but at least she couldn't hear just what he and her uncle were currently discussing.
"Qrow this is too much. Just how?!" Qrow was usually so tactful as well. He pushed a lot of buttons and came off a slurring drunk at all times but he was anything but tactless. Any buttons he poked and prodded were to draw out answers he needed, usually to benefit others when they needed to vent, marking himself as their target. And whilst often drunk, he still remained amongst the most intelligent men you could find in the entirety of Vale.
The man knew what he was doing. So to mess up like this was something indeed...
"I'm telling ya Tai, it wasn't a slip of the tongue like you might think, just a misunderstanding; I had no other way to correctly phrase it and he wasn't in the best of minds when I found him." he shook his head and steamrolled on before Tai could counter him "We'll never get anywhere with him unless he opens up" he looked serious "I've pushed his thoughts around a little, I think in the long run that it'll help"
Tai took a long while to mull that over in his head "Truly?" and with the nod sent his way alongside the firm solution in his eyes, Tai could at least put his faith in the man once more. He drew out a long exhalation "Fine, but you need to play a part in this too"
He smiled and nodded back to him, twisting the cap off of his flask "I can drink to that-"
"Xiao Long!" and yet he couldn't as all eyes went to the double doors into the arena, finding Mercury Black himself stepping into the arena with combat gear assembled.
He crossed arms concealed in jet black mesh with smoky grey light-metal plating snaking down all the way to the ends of the fingerless gloves at his hands, matching with the style of his form fitting sleeveless top over the layer of mesh no doubt covering the rest of his torso, also plated with small plates forming the shape of his abdominals and pectorals, ending at a high collar snaking most of the way up his neck.
But most impressive of all seemed to be his legs, his prime weapons of choice being coiled in tiny links of some shining material with thicker pieces at the shins, outer thighs and calves, saying nothing of the boots he seemed to wear, almost entirely formed of intricate looking mechanisms and chambers.
Yang grinned at that since it meant she could use her Ember Celica. But when did Ruby make this one? She'd kept quiet it seemed, something she filed into the back of her mind for later.
"So you came t-"
"To win, yes" he finished for her, eyes far more resolute than she'd have at first assumed. She was impressed but this was her show, and she would knock him into the dirt to give these people watching on what they came for.
"You can try..." she chirped with a wide smirk, cocking her gauntlets and readying her stance, watching him copy her stance almost perfectly, something that only riled her up further "What are you-?!"
His eyes remained calm and practiced on her despite her initial outburst "Fighting at your level of combat" he returned easily.
She could only growl at that.
And as she watched her father step forward to announce the match rules, she swore to herself that she would get him to fight her seriously no matter what.
Mercury kept his head even as he watched the blonde's eyes flare red, eyes flickering over to find Ruby sitting on the sidelines, finding her red cape contrasting amongst the crowds quite easily. Good, at least she was here.
He offered her a small smile as the best he could give right now and set his eyes on victory.
He would play her game and win.
He was Mercury Black for Oum's sake.
Okay so this is finally done. Again. Again...
So truth be told, had this written by last Wednesday. Computer screwed up and refreshed the page instead of saving and erased 4000 words of work. I didn't take kindly to that so I had to take a couple days to calm down again. Of course the same thing happens over the weekend and I'm too excited about releasing it to remember to bloody save the post elsewhere in case of emergency...
Either way, sorry for the wait but here it finally is.
I'll be trying for these bi-weekly for now and stick to a schedule just to give myself something to work towards. This will work for now because I wrote the chapter after this one just fine, meaning I have one lying in wait two weeks from now.
I will be working on A Human's Monstrous Shadow too, perhaps in the off-week but who knows exactly just yet?
Thank you everybody for the amazing support, truly I don't deserve you nor your kindness.
Please continue to read and review my stories, preferably in detail so as to perhaps help me out in some way or another. Hell, even send me your thoughts, I am always open to ideas because God only knows whether they might actually come to light if I appreciate them enough.
Anyway, that's all for now. Again, thanks a bunch for your patronage and...
Au Revoir for now readers! ^^
