Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!
I'm so sorry about the lateness of the chapter. My phone didn't bother to remind me to post one on Monday. It didn't remind me to practice piano or go to work either so I forgot about a lot of things this week. That's what you get for using an iPhone I guess.
Anyways, this chapter is pretty laid back. Hopefully it'll be the last Crimson chapter for a bit too.
Outside we started walking down the sidewalk. A short car passed by us as we walked.
"So what's going on with work?" She asked.
"I just recruited some new teams," I replied, "I thought I already said this"
"No, I mean more personally." She said, "How are you enjoying it?"
"Well I'm definitely not enjoying it" I replied.
"But you're doing it because of the cost if you don't" she finished for me. I'd said it before, so she already knew my reason and decided to save me the trouble of repeating myself.
"Right." I replied, "Once I know nothing is wrong then I'll move on with my life, if Thunder lets me"
"Thunder?" She asked, "I've heard you mention the name, but who is that?"
"Lleu Thunder," I replied, "he's the commander of the Atlas military"
"Oh," she replied, "have you seen him fight?"
"I don't even know if he can." I replied, "I haven't seen any weapon or anything. Other than his pistol of course, which I know is just a standard one"
"Huh," she said, "I'm surprised. How do you get to that rank without knowing how to fight?"
I shrugged, "I'm sure that he can, but he just hasn't needed to yet"
"Right"
There was a brief silence.
"So what about you?" I asked, "What's your story?"
"I'm sorry?" She asked, "Could you clarify?"
"I mean what happened after Beacon when we all split." I said, "You know my sob story, so what's yours?"
She smiled, "Well, I actually stuck with my team" She replied.
"Really?" I asked, "So I was the odd one out?"
"Sort of." She replied, "After you left we stuck together for a bit, participated in the tournament that year, but afterwards Steam left too. I heard he became a grave digger or something. Hail and I stuck together though, and every year for the tournament we brought Steam along. We never got you back though; you never answer your scroll"
I smiled, "Right," I replied, "I actually blocked all of you on my scroll"
"Why?" She asked, faking a shocked gasp.
"You guys kept calling and messaging me, and eventually I just got annoyed." I replied, "I forgot about it for a while, until Thunder brought it up at least"
"Well there's something good about your work" she said.
"What?" I asked.
"That you reconnected with your team." She replied, "That's one perk of work, isn't it?"
"I guess" I replied.
Petunia punched me playfully in the arm. "Oh shut up. You were overjoyed when you saw us again. Remember? You got totally wasted"
I snickered, "Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?"
"You fell asleep on top of me." She said, "Yeah, you did"
"Really?" I asked, "I thought you fell asleep on me"
"I don't know," she replied, "I prefer not to think of that morning. Gives me headaches" She groaned, and I laughed.
"Shut up" she said, slapping my arm with the top of her hand.
"So then what did you and Hail do after Steam and I left?" I asked.
She shrugged, "We just did jobs. We lived in the local guild for a few years, but eventually bought that whole house. Steam joined just a year before you did. He had to make the payments too"
"Good." I said, "But what kind of stuff did you guys do specifically? Any big adventures like this one?"
She paused to think, "Nothing as big as Beacon." She replied, "That's the greatest adventure anyone could ever have"
"Right" I replied, not sure if I particularly agreed with her. The issue with Plan H was pretty big, but Petunia wasn't as full of details as I was, nor was she nearly as involved.
"You say that as if you don't agree" She said, as if she had read my mind.
"I'm not sure." I replied, "Plan H has been pretty big so far, same with the whole Harrison and me as mercenaries thing"
"But did you enjoy that?" She asked.
"Not always" I replied honestly.
She gave me a worried look, but moved on instead of questioning me. "But did you enjoy Beacon?" She asked.
"For the most part"
"Then what are you unsure about?" She asked, "An adventure is measured by how much you enjoyed it-"
"I'm not so sure-" I started, unknowingly cutting her off.
"-and by how much you did." She finished, "Was Beacon not what determined what you did for the rest of your life?"
"I guess so" I replied.
She smiled, "I guess so," She imitated, deepening her voice as she tried to mimic mine. "Of course it was, there's no question about it"
"Okay Petunia," I said, finally just agreeing with her for the sake of quieting the topic, "by the way that sounded nothing like me"
"Of course it did," She replied, "My impersonation was spot-on"
"Whatever you want to think"
"See? This is why you don't have a girlfriend." She said, "You're so grouchy"
"How did you get that out of my statement?" I asked.
She ignored me, "You got to perk up a little. Live a bit more. Enjoy the little things. That's what a girl wants in a man"
"How would you know that?" I asked.
"Because I'm a girl" She replied simply.
"Fair enough"
I sighed, but when I turned to her I saw that she was smiling. I laughed a little too.
"Well your super positive all the time." I said, "And men don't like that"
"Should I be glum and gloomy all the time like you then?" She asked jokingly.
"No," I replied, "a man doesn't want a woman to change for him, nor does he want to have to change to fit her expectations"
"Okay," she said, "how many girls have you dated since Beacon?"
I paused to think, "Two, I think. Right before I switched occupations" I replied.
"Wow," she said, "I wonder why"
"That was back when I was young and beautiful." I said, "You remember those days? When you first laid eyes on me in Emerald Forest you couldn't move"
"That's because you burned down half the forest fighting a King Taijitu." She replied, "I was having trouble processing the fact that someone so uncoordinated and stupid could have gotten into Beacon. Besides, remember when you first saw me? You couldn't move either"
"That's because you were in the dark ages of your life, and you wore a Grimm mask and black clothing. I thought you were some distorted Beowolf or something" I pointed out.
"Hey, it wasn't a Grimm mask." She retorted, "I made it myself, and it wasn't made to symbolize anything"
"It wasn't a normal face," I replied, "so I naturally assumed that it was a Grimm"
"Well your natural instincts are lacking." She said, "Besides, couldn't you just look into the future and see that I was human?"
"No," I replied, "Remember, I could only see a few minutes into the future at that time"
"I took off the mask about a minute after you showed up"
"And then put it back on." I replied, "Besides, I was too distracted trying to kill you, remember?"
"Yeah, of course I do" She started laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked, smiling a little.
"It's just so fun to remember all that. How can you question whether that was your greatest adventure or not? Just that moment should be the selling point"
"At the moment I was terrified" I pointed out.
"I think everyone was," She said, "you burned the forest to the ground"
"It was only a handful of trees" I corrected her.
"Have you seen the size of those trees?" She asked, "You can still see the part of the forest that you burned down from the cliff! All the trees are much shorter there!"
"Well looks like I've made my mark in the world." I said, stretching my arms over my head, "Mission accomplished"
She started laughing, and I followed suite.
So there you have it. A bit more back story on Petunia and the team, as well as some character development. Like I said, a laid back chapter.
I'm actually planning on writing a side story about Petunia and Hail. 'The Candidates' has inspired to do so, so there'll probably be a bunch of side stories in the future (only this time there won't be an restraints on when I can post them).
Anyways, not a whole lot to say about this chapter. As usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to and I'll see you all in the next chapter!