Note: For a tumblr request.

Request: Yang Xiao Long/Mercury Black (The Gauntlets And The Greaves); "High school AU". (Request by Anon).

As Good As A Chorus

Summary: Yang teases her sister a lot over her crush, but finds the new transfer student is on her mind a lot…

He was staring out the window when she came in.

Yang paused. She hadn't expected anybody to be in here—even for nerdy kids like her sister, the senior chemistry classroom wasn't exactly a popular hangout. For Yang's part, Chem was her favourite class, and Professor Peach her favourite teacher, so she had volunteered to help TA this year in lieu of a study hall.

(Less study hall unfortunately meant less naptime, but Doctor Oobleck rarely let her nod off, and she'd been assigned to his study hall for the first time since freshman year, so she didn't consider giving it up to be a great sacrifice.)

And yet, here she was, having arrived even before Professor Peach returned from lunch…and there was someone else in the room.

He was tall, and rather striking with his silver hair and combat boots even taller than Ruby's—real ones, Yang suspected, while Ruby's were Wal-Mart knockoffs. His jeans were tight, though not skinny; he simply had a lot of muscle to his legs, which a few artful rips in the denim showed off. If she had to guess, she'd say that the tears and scarfs were natural, too. His arms and shoulders, though probably a little narrower than her own, were nicely defined in his workout shirt. He looked about her age, and was in a classroom that only seniors used…and she had never seen him before.

She would remember legs like those.

All this went through her head as she entered, before he jerked around to face her.

"Hellooo~!" she sang, a very characteristic gesture.

He just blinked, apparently perplexed by her cheery manner. He didn't say anything.

"…Okay…" she put on her most sunny smile. "I'm Yang! I'm gonna be a TA for Professor Peach this year." she inclined her head toward the teacher's desk.

"Mercury," he offered finally. "And I just transferred. The principal asked me to wait in here. Didn't say what for or how long, though."

"Well, Professor Peach will be here in a little bit so I bet you'll find out then!" Yang said, joining him by the window. "This is a chem lab, obviously. Do you like chem?"

"It's all right," he drawled. He gave her a glance. "Frankly–"

"I don't look the type, right?" Yang finished for him. He looked away for a moment—possibly embarrassed—but turned back when she laughed. "I get that a lot, as you might imagine." She shrugged carelessly. "I like things that fizzle, or burn, or go boom!"

He chuckled incredulously, but nodded. "That's always fun," he admitted.

"So where did you transfer from?" Yang asked, tilting her head. He didn't have much of a regional accent—but then, neither did she, particularly given her Mandarin name.

"Haven High over in Mistral. Place bit." His tone was not encouraging, and Yang hurried to change the subject.

"My sister and I are sort of out-of-towners too, though not from as far away. We grew up on Patch Island." she pointed out the window toward the sea, out of sight past downtown Vale, beyond the running track in football field.

"Never heard of it."

"Oh. Well it's just off the coast," she said. "So…you're a senior?"

"Yeah, I'm giving it one more chance," Mercury grumbled.

Interesting… "More of a get-out-there-into-the-real-world type?" Yang grinned. "I get you. I want to go travelling, see the world, that kind of thing. Mountain climbing, scuba diving, spelunking…"

Mercury raised an eyebrow, but before he say anything, Professor Peach bustled in, and the two were quickly separated; Mercury to some kind of assessment, and Yang to grading Day One pretests.

The bell rang, and Yang left for her next class. "Nice meeting you!" she called back in her way out the door.

Mercury waived idly, still apparently absorbed in his test, and she didn't notice him look suddenly up as soon as she turned away, nor how his eyes followed her out of sight.

Later, as she was leaving Gym, Yang gave an involuntary jump at the mousetrap shout of the assistant principal, Glynda Goodwitch. Even when she knew she hasn't done anything wrong that voice made her automatically second guess her conscience.

But Goodwitch wasn't yelling at her, she was down by the corner of the building, glaring down the alleyway with the smokers congregated between classes.

Is someone underage smoking? Yang was always nervous of such stories—she had a younger sister to think of, after all. Ruby wasn't the type though, fortunately.

"Wait are you yelling at me?" Came an incredulous voice from around the corner.

Mercury?

"It is illegal to smoke on campus, young man, and illegal for a minor to purchase or possess–"

"I'm eighteen!" Mercury shouted back as Yang approached the corner, staying carefully out of Goodwitch's line of sight. "And I'm not smoking; it's not even lit! Come pat me down, I don't carry a lighter!"

Goodwitch scowled mightily at a student talking back, much less yelling. "You will accompany me to the office," she said coldly.

Mercury flung his hands up, then buried them in his pockets and slouched sullenly after Goodwitch, grumbling nonstop. Yang wanted to say something, but Goodwitch was already eyeing her—probably for witnessing Mercury's back talk—so she just offered a commiserating look and slipped away. Surprisingly Mercury glanced back and caught her eye. He didn't visibly react, but something about it buoyed her, somehow; as good as a chorus of her favorite song.

When he was gone, Yang glanced back down the alleyway beside the gym. Mercury's discarded cigarette lay there, thin, light, and unburnt. Perhaps he's trying to quit, she mused. That could only be a good thing. Maybe Uncle Qrow still had some of that gum, or some advice. She'd have to call when she got home.

The bell rang, and Yang jumped again, sprinting toward her next class. Hopefully Oobleck would be out refilling his coffee, and she could slip in unnoticed.

"How was your day, Little Sister?" Yang asked Ruby, as they waited for their mom to pick them up. She asked every day, and the answer was invariably the same:

"Urgh, just as boring as always!" Ruby groaned. "You have to help me talk Dad into letting me graduate early. I cannot deal with two more years of this place without you around."

"Aww, are you going to miss me that much?" Yang teased, throwing an arm around Ruby's neck.

Ruby flailed, extricating herself with difficulty. "As if!" She stuck out her tongue at Yang. "But all my friends are in your year; I'm going to be here all alone!"

"That's not true," Yang reminded her. "You'll have Penny the whole time." Penny was a freshman, of whom the other first-year students were in awe for all her upperclassmen friends.

"Penny's dads are putting her in for the SATs this weekend, so she can graduate this year! I'm going to have no one, when I could be heading to college with all of you!" Ruby whined. "You know I'm smart enough to pass…"

"All right, all right, I get it," Yang conceded, because Ruby was looking frantic. "Look, we'll talk to Mom on the way home. You know convincing her means the battle with Dad is already half-won."

Ruby bounced on the balls of her feet, happy to have gotten her away for now.

"And I promise not to mention to Dad that the other half of your reasoning is because of your crush on our Ice Queen," Yang added slyly.

Ruby spluttered, blushing, but didn't bother to deny it. She was the one who had told Yang in the first place, after all, hoping for some advice. Yang's suggestion—"Just push the Ice Queen up against the wall and kiss her until she melts"—was shot down immediately, and Ruby had stomped off to ask someone else instead.

Yang cackled, and Ruby shoved her, though the petite girl was only able to make her stumble a step or two.

"You don't hear me teasing you about that new boy," Ruby grumbled.

Yang stopped laughing. "Who, Mercury? Meeting the new kid isn't the same as having a crush, Rubes," Yang said, using the nickname that Ruby hated.

Ruby scoffed. "Yeah, and that's why you wouldn't shut up about him all day, Yang-a-lang," she fired back, making Yang blink. Not at her own hated, teasing nickname, but at the accusation.

"I don't–"

"Oh, you are such a smitten kitten!" Ruby crowed. "It's as bad as when you met Pyrrha, before you found out she wasn't into girls." She paused, apparently struck by a random thought. "Yang, what if Weiss doesn't like girls?" she asked, suddenly frantic again.

Yang was torn from a sudden introspection as she burst out laughing. "Ruby, there are many obstacles standing between you and our Ice Queen, but that is not one of them," she assured her sister, touseling her short, dyed hair.

As Summer's sedan pulled up, though, Yang's mind drifted back to Ruby's words. Was she smitten with Mercury? Surely not. She felt her cheeks warm slightly, the more she considered it. Well, maybe just a little…

Yang saw Mercury several more times that week. They had Psychology and English together, and it was in the latter that Ruby—herself a TA for Professor Port—got new ammunition to tease her sister.

Yang volunteered to read aloud in class fairly regularly, enjoying being the center of attention. When nobody volunteered to read opposite her as Ophelia, Mercury was nominated by a smirking Ruby to read for Hamlet. Honestly, from an outside perspective, Yang might have been impressed by her deviousness. At the moment though, she was busy trying not to blush, having read ahead to the point when Ophelia entered the scene.

"Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me," recited Yang's best friend Blake, playing Hamlet's mother Gertrude. She too seemed to know where the scene was headed, because she looked terribly amused.

"Nay, good mother," Mercury replied, raising his eyes from the book to look directly at Yang. "Here's metal more attractive."

She missed the next line, still meeting Mercury's eye as he said, as if to her directly, "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?" His voice was just slightly mocking—it was appropriate for Hamlet's not quite stable mind, but hearing the words from Mercury sent Yang's thoughts into overdrive.

"No, my Lord," she managed. Though, the thought of Mercury as a Lord seemed rather appropriate. Or perhaps as the god he was named for…

"I mean, my head upon your lap?" he clarified for Hamlet, still looking at Yang with a slight smile.

"Ay, my Lord," Yang replied, imagination running wild again. Mercury's head in her lap…Mmm…

Perhaps fortunately, at exactly that moment the fire alarm went off, and they all exited the building in a crushing mob as teachers ineffectually shouted words like "orderly!" and "calm!"

Yang's eyes lingered on Mercury's back as she followed him down the stairs. As he rounded the turn, his gaze rose to meet hers. She winked, and he gave a smirk in reply. They got separated in the crowd after that, but Yang's grin remained firmly in place.

Several more weeks of subtle flirtation passed before the routine was interrupted by huge banners going up all over the school. It was Homecoming week, and the student council—or more particularly, Weiss—was going all out this year.

For the first time in four years, Yang found herself in a dilemma. She and her friends had decided early in Freshman year that they would simply go as a group, but it looked like that pattern would finally be breaking.

For one thing, there were several couples within the group now: Jaune and Pyrrha, and Blake and one of last year's transfer students, Sun. Ren and Nora didn't count, she decided, since they weren't dating, even if they were inseparable.

Yang had a sneaking feeling that Ruby was scheming to ask Weiss, too, and though she didn't say it to either of them, she had an inkling it was going to work. But this would leave Yang as the only person in the group going stag, besides the disinterested Penny. In itself, this didn't bother her…but she kept finding herself wondering if Mercury would look as good in a suit as she imagined he would.

Though she dismissed the idea of using that particular line on him, when Yang saw Ruby leaving the house wearing makeup and without her hoodie, she made up her mind to at least see if Mercury had a date yet. The dance was tomorrow night—Ruby had procrastinated and Yang had dithered too long—so she couldn't very well get upset if he did. But if not…

The ride to school seemed to take no time at all, given both girls' states of anticipation, and when they climbed out of the car, Summer wished them both luck, despite neither having confided their plans to her.

Ruby dash off immediately, no doubt to try to find Weiss before classes started. Yang hesitated. She knew exactly where Mercury was likely to be, she just wasn't sure she had the nerve to ask him right away.

But now she had decided to ask him, running away wasn't in her nature.

Yang made her way to the courtyard, and around the gym, headed for the same alleyway where Goodwitch had yelled at him all those weeks ago. Sure enough, there he stood, staring down at an unlit cigarette in his hands. He didn't look up, and seemed to be lost in thought. She hesitated to interrupt him, and was second-guessing her decision to ask right away, when he suddenly spoke.

"See something you like?" Came his usual drawl.

Mustering her courage, Yang kept her voice as light and steady as usual. "I think I've made that pretty clear by now."

Finally, he rolled his head around to look at her, idly spinning the cigarette in his fingers. "And how should I take that?" he asked after a moment, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmmm," Yang hummed as though thinking hard. "Well, maybe that I'm wondering the same thing?" she suggested innocently.

He snorted. "I think the answer to that is pretty obvious."

"I don't suppose you'd care to spell it out for me?" she asked, conscious of how much she sounded like Ruby when she was nervous.

He just smirked.

"Well then, let me put it this way," she plowed on. "Do you have a date to the dance yet?" She was determined to lay it out plainly. "I understand if you do, since I kinda waited until the last second…" She scratched her cheek awkwardly, eyes closed, and only realized Mercury had moved when she opened them again to find him inches away.

He was only a little taller than her, and his steel-grey eyes seemed to glitter as he looked down at her. Her breath caught, but his voice was as steady as ever. "I wasn't planning to go at all…" he drawled, and her heart sank a little. She opened her mouth to apologize, but he continued, "So I guess it's a good thing I have a suit that fits."

Yang scowled playfully at him for teasing her, and his lips worked in a genuine smile this time. A smile she was determined to wipe off his face.

"Very funny," she said. "But you should know, I always get the last laugh." She grinned competitively.

His trademark smirk returned. "Oh really–?" he started to shoot back, but was cut off when she suddenly leaned forward and kissed him.

It was brief, light, and teasing, and she started to leave as soon as she pulled away, leaving him standing there, a little stunned.

"I'll pick you up at seven," she called back over her shoulder with a Cheshire grin. "Might be a double date, might be more, but we'll have plenty of alone-time at the dance." With a final wink, she rounded the corner and headed for her locker, very pleased with herself.

A/N: Had a bit of trouble stringing this together, because I just started a new job on the night shift, and I was struggling somewhat to find an appropriate conclusion. Dropped everything else I was working on and did my best to grind it out for Monty's birthday, though. (Even if it's posting a day later.)
Keep moving forward.