Most Sundays Coco slept in, but this time she sat up right after waking. Velvet was still curled up on her side, her ears drooping over her face. Unsurprisingly, Fox was gone after last night's exchange—but Yatsuhashi was missing too, his scroll sitting on his freshly made bed. When he didn't return by the time Coco finished dressing, she set out to find him.
Her search of the grounds and the arena found both empty. The library would be closed until noon, and the classrooms themselves wouldn't open until the following day—but the dining hall would open in ten minutes. Coco arrived just after it opened and saw a familiar figure pass among a handful of early-risers and settle down in the far corner with a bowl and a mug.
"I should have just waited for you here," she said as she drew close. "But I thought it would be easy to find where you meditated."
He looked up at her as she sat across from him. "Anyplace easy to find me is a poor place to meditate. May I ask why you felt such an urgent need to meet? I would have seen you this evening." He gave Coco his usual unreadable look.
"I needed to say thank you after yesterday. I would have said it last night, but you were asleep when I got back and gone when I woke up. I didn't want to hear what you said. It wasn't enjoyable, but it was necessary. I thought about it for a bit and talked with Velvet and Fox—well, mostly talked with Fox. I haven't talked to you yet. I'm sorry for being arrogant and unfair, and I want to be better. How can I make amends with you?"
Yatsuhashi straightened up, a smile touching the corners of his mouth. "You already have."
Coco blinked. "That was…easy. Are you sure there's nothing you want to discuss?"
"No. You actually thought about what I said and acted on it. I'm sure you'll slip up and make mistakes, but that's how everyone improves. You do something right, you do it wrong a lot of times, and you learn to do it a little better thanks to all the times you've gotten it wrong. I think you'll do just fine in the long-term, just like the rest of us."
Coco gave him a wry look. "You're awful quick to trust."
"You've shown me your heart's in the right place. If it wasn't, you wouldn't have managed to put Velvet in such good spirits last night."
Coco smiled to herself. She leaned forward.
"So tell me: How many siblings do you have?"
…
Coco grimaced, unloading the rifle and putting it back in its case. She had hit some of the targets downrange but all of her shots had landed towards their outer rings. She looked down at a page in a notebook and struck through 'Sniper Rifle'.
Needs too much training for me to be field-ready. Machine pistols don't pack enough punch, a grenade launcher might cause friendly-fire incidents, laser rifles need high-end resources…She ran her hand through her hair, thinking as she returned the gun back to the Armory's stockpile of basic template weapons. Beacon provided a good-sized assortment of them as foundations for students who wanted to retool their fighting style, or for those who possessed no personal weapons upon admission.
Once she had stored the rifle, Coco sat at a workbench and went over the list of attributes she wanted once again, trying to find the perfect design. She took a long pull from a thermos of espresso, frowning at the paper.
"You seriously need to get a life, Adel."
Coco looked up to see Fox walking up to her workbench, looking slightly damp and smelling like a gym bag.
"I hear the guys on Kura's team aren't taken if you need distractions."
"I don't have the time," said Coco.
"I bet you always say that."
"I do, but I also don't typically need to reinvent my fighting style almost from scratch. It's not exactly something I want to half-ass."
"But you could."
Coco glared at Fox.
"Don't get me wrong," Fox said holding up his hands. "Your dedication is admirable, but I don't get why you care so much. With your family name, the kind of cash you have, you could do anything with your life. Why choose the most dangerous job in Remnant? The rich girl life too boring?"
"There is no rich girl life."
"I'm sure Weiss Schnee says the same thing when she's too busy training to party with high society."
Coco turned in her seat and opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and took out her scroll. She pulled up a new window and flicked through it, swiping her fingers over multiple pictures before stretching the screen out to its full size and turning it around towards Fox. A result from a CCT network image search displayed on the screen, showing a mansion atop an ocean cliff. The drive leading up to the front door was bordered by immaculate verdant lawns and rows of well-manicured topiaries.
"The mansion of Julien Adel, construction mogul and decades-long rival of Kristoff Schnee."
"I sort of remember that vendetta from world history class," said Fox. "Man, your dad really robbed the cradle when he met your mom didn't he?"
"Julien is my grandfather," Coco said, flicking through the scroll again. "My father—Rémi Adel—lives here:"
Coco turned her scroll around again. Fox raised an eyebrow.
The house in the new picture was much smaller, a cozy bungalow in a slightly larger clearing in a forest. There was no major damage to the house but the outside looked incredibly worn, giving the impression the owners had relied on skill instead of resources in maintaining it. An imposing man and a lithe woman stood in the foreground of the picture. A young girl with short brown hair sat on the man's shoulders and grinned while the woman cradled an infant in her arms.
"I lived there from when I was two until I went to Sanctum," Coco said.
"So is living in a run-down house the rich person version of wearing pre-torn jeans?"
Coco rolled her eyes. "There are several ways rich people are the same as anyone else. They waste time on pointless distractions, get drunk, and fight and disown each other over the pettiest things, just like normal people. My birth mother died when I was just a year old. Later, when my father found someone else he cared about, my grandfather wrote him out of his will and cut him off from almost everything he owned. Take another look at my stepmother and see if you can guess why."
Fox looked back at the woman in the picture. A pair of short antlers poked out of her hair like a sylvan tiara.
"Julien Adel is controlling and close-minded," Coco said, pocketing her scroll. "He destroyed my father. Taking his money was nothing compared to what he did to his reputation. He still works in construction but he can't get promoted past being a foreman. Once in a while they'll humor him and let him negotiate contracts with clients if all the other suits are busy, but except for those rare moments of elevated responsibility he's been trapped at that level for my entire life."
"You're telling me your obsession with fashion is because you miss having money?" Fox said, his voice dripping with boredom.
Coco shook her head. "I don't remember being rich, it was before I said my first words. What I do remember is that no client Papa worked for saw the same Rémi Adel my stepbrother and I did. They just saw a big man who knew how to use tools and assumed he was a lesser person, one step above a faunus in their eyes. The only times people almost treated him as an equal were the few days he wore his one good suit and worked in the office instead of on the job site."
Coco stood, stretching as she walked towards the template weapons. She picked out a shotgun and turned it over in her hands.
"There's nothing wrong with hard or unpleasant work. But hard work isn't enough if you want the world to recognize your value. You need to look the part and you need to force them to witness your greatness. That's why I care so much about my appearance. That's why I push myself so hard. That's why I want to be a huntress."
Coco set the gun down on her workbench and stared at it in silence. After a long pause, Fox leaned over her shoulder to look at it.
"A shotgun-based weapon isn't going to balance out our team's weapon dynamics."
Coco sighed, irritated. "Everything I've thought of lacks power or costs too much to maintain."
"Have you considered an assault rifle base? Those were always popular with Haven kids."
"The problem with that is I'll either be carrying a lot of weak rounds, or a handful of heavy ones."
"You could use a forge brick."
Coco turned around in her chair and gave Fox a wry look. "Not that I need to ask you, but pretend I'm an idiot."
Fox smirked. "New Atlas tech, made it into the other kingdoms a couple years back. It uses cheap dust, a base block of material, and SDC technobabble to power and feed a tiny ammunition factory that replenishes spare rounds in the field."
"If these things are so great, why haven't I seen them around Beacon? Expensive?"
"They're not cheap, but you could probably get a good deal on one. The problem is that even though their weight seems to violate the laws of physics, forge bricks are still super heavy. They're intended for mounted weapons and heavy artillery. But maybe an enterprising huntress with more strength than finesse could find a creative use for one."
Coco paused, then nodded. "Maybe she could."
Fox shrugged. As he turned to leave, Coco called to him.
"Why are you so helpful now?"
Fox stopped and turned back. "As fun as it would be to humiliate you, I don't want our rematch to be quick and easy. A curbstomp victory wouldn't demonstrate anything about my abilities. It might even make me look weak."
The two of them exchanged a wry look before Fox left. Coco turned back to the workbench, pulling up the specs on several models of forge bricks on the CCT network. She spent hours scribbling various ideas down, the design slowly taking shape, her pace increasing as she refined her design.
Well after dark, Coco stood, smiling down at what would become her new weapon.
"You and me are going to rule the world," she said to her crude blueprint, grinning.
…
The sun peeked over the spires of Beacon as Coco finished what seemed like her 1000th pull-up, dropping from the branch. She finished her morning exercises with a few laps around the courtyard, jogging back towards the dormitory after she finished. Back inside, she darted towards the elevator as it was closing, sticking her hand in the door just in time to make it stop. She parted the doors a foot apart and squeezed through.
"You know there's an 'open door' button, frie—"she stopped, seeing Fox slumped against the wall of the elevator like he was ready to slide down it at any second, his hair matted with sweat. He seemed so intent on remaining standing and gasping for air that he hadn't noticed her enter the elevator. The door closed and Coco leaned against the wall to Fox's right.
"You know you don't have to exercise as early as I do, right?" she asked.
Fox finally noticed her, turning his head. "Practice under the same conditions as your opponent," he said, his words broken up by his heavy breathing.
"So how much closer are you to beating me? This much?" Coco pinched her index finger and her thumb together and held them out to Fox.
Fox flipped her the bird but he was slowly shaking his head, softly chuckling. Coco chuckled back and they rode the car up.
…
Two Months Later
The sounds of dozens of scrolls chiming in unison rang throughout the bullhead. The faculty had evaluated each team after the morning's joint first-year mission, unofficially ranking them prior to the actual qualifying matches for the Vytal Tournament.
Coco pulled out her scroll to view the results along with the rest of her classmates. She frowned. Team COAL had taken the top slot, unsurprisingly. Somehow Team JETT had managed second place, passing Teams KNGT and AQUA respectively. SLTE had secured fifth place, leaving CFVY in sixth. Coco frowned. They weren't last, and their ranking at this stage didn't automatically bar them from the tournament, but they would have to fashion a very convincing argument to persuade the faculty to let them try.
Coco looked up, gauging the other teams. It hadn't been anyone's best day. Every huntsman and huntress on board sported torn, dirty clothes and bruises and scrapes from the mission, save for Cormag of Team COAL, but again that was expected. COAL were quietly pleased with themselves, while JETT looked like they were struggling to contain their excitement regarding their own dumb luck. Everyone else looked exhausted, sullen, or disappointed.
Coco even felt tension in her own team. They hadn't lived up to their performance in training the past few months. Fox was irritable, shifting in his seat and inspecting his wrist blades for the thirtieth time. Velvet was her wringing her hands, staring across the bullhead at Azul dressing down one of her teammates. Even Yatsuhashi was grimacing. Coco clenched her fists and screwed her eyes shut, breathing deeply. She wanted nothing more than to explode on the first person to tell her what she should have done, how she should have led.
But, she asked herself, would that accomplish anything useful? She exhaled, letting the tension flow away from her body. She was still running hot, but her agitation was manageable now. She replayed the events in her head, evaluating the entire mission, deciding exactly what she would say, then opened her eyes.
She looked over and saw Velvet giving her a cautious look. This had been CFVY's worst performance since the obstacle course. Coco flashed her a little smile, then stood up, steadying herself with a ceiling handle and facing her team.
"Okay guys, debrief time, just like after sparring."
Fox grumbled. "Today sucked, end of story."
"And tomorrow will suck too if we don't recap, we've been over this. Two minutes of your time and you can go back to sulking."
Fox scowled but didn't say anything.
Coco looked to Yatsuhashi. "You did good today big guy. No serious mistakes on your part, just bad luck when the grimm got through the south flank. You made a judgement call and it didn't work out, you'll get 'em next time."
They exchanged a nod, then Coco looked to Fox.
"Fox, your stamina still needs a lot of work—" Fox started to say something, but Coco held up her free hand—"but compared to our last field mission, you lasted forever. And you actually swapped out with another front-line fighter when you got winded instead of trying to tough it out like an idiot." Coco smirked. "Good hustle." Fox returned the look Coco gave him and lounged back in his seat.
Coco turned to Velvet, pausing to hang her sunglasses from the neck of her shirt. "That was a hell of a way to pop your cherry. Not just your first kill, but your first three from that pack of beowolves that showed up towards the end. And that was after you spent eight minutes kiting that deathstalker for us and Team KNGT. Velvet, you get most-improved-huntsman today; you're excused from team conditioning tomorrow."
Velvet's face lit up and Coco mussed her hair.
"Hey!" Fox said "How's that fair?"
"Velvet earned it, and like I said: your stamina still needs work. Which reminds me, the Team Sandbag runs double laps tomorrow."
Fox groaned.
"And today's Sandbag Award goes to…" Coco paused, then rubbed the back of her neck, uncharacteristically sheepish. "Actually, I think this one goes to me."
The rest of CFVY looked at their leader in surprise. Fox leaned forward in his seat, raising an eyebrow.
"Surely I misheard that," he said.
"I meant what I said earlier. You and Velvet showed solid improvement, and I can't find any significant fault with Yatsuhashi's performance." Coco's cheeks flushed a little. "On the other hand, my temper was running high today and I let myself get drawn out of position a few times. I can't be hard on you guys for screwing up if I don't hold myself to the same standards, can I?"
Fox opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the pilot's voice came over the loudspeaker, instructing the huntsmen to sit down prior to the bullhead making its final approach. Coco looked up, then shrugged.
"That's it guys, as you were," she said before sitting back down next to Yatsuhashi. The tall boy gave her a nudge, flashing her a thumbs-up when she glanced over. Two seats over, she watched Fox giving Velvet additional praise. He lowered his voice and murmured something that made her giggle and playfully hit his shoulder.
And across the aircraft Coco picked out a familiar voice murmuring to another huntress, so low Coco barely heard it.
"I never thought I'd say this Azul," Kura said. "But you may want to observe how Coco leads her team."
It took all of Coco's will not to break into a grin.
…
Velvet stirred in her bed, pulling the covers closer around her and giving a little satisfied sigh. After the mission, all of CFVY had collapsed into bed immediately after washing off. Early the next morning she had half-woken when the others had left for conditioning, then promptly drifted back to sleep. Despite all the aches and scrapes from the mission, Velvet couldn't remember the last time she had slept so long or sound, and she wanted to make the most of it, spending the rest of the day half-sleeping or totally out.
She smiled to herself. Her team had gotten off to a rough start, but after the last two months she wouldn't have picked anyone else. Personalities still clashed, but conflict had subsided to a level considered acceptable—even expected—for a team of huntsmen. Best of all they weren't party animals outside of missions like Team COAL, or hyperactive clowns like Team JETT. Between Yatsuhashi's stoic demeanor, and Coco and Fox's competition to be tougher and cooler than each other, no one could ever accuse Team CFVY of being loud or obnoxious.
The door flew open, slamming into the wall.
"IT'S HE-ERE!" Coco shouted, almost squealing with excitement.
Velvet screamed and tumbled onto the floor in a heap of sheets and comforter. She struggled for a moment before she managed to poke her head and an arm out of the tangle of bedclothes.
"Bloody hell!" Velvet said. "What was that for?" Coco squatted down to place a mailing crate big enough to comfortably ship two of her in the middle of the floor before looking up at Velvet.
"Oh good!" Coco said. "You're finally awake!"
"Only because you woke me up."
"I said you didn't have to exercise, not that you could lie in bed all day. It's three o'clock sleepyhead." She gave Velvet a wink.
Velvet opened her mouth to say something, but settled for just palming her forehead. Coco was rummaging through a drawer for something when Fox and Yatsuhashi entered the room.
"What's that?" Fox asked.
"I believe it's a large parcel," said Yatsuhashi.
Fox narrowed his eyes at him. "I liked you better before you tried to be funny." Yatsuhashi just smiled in reply.
Coco thrust her hand in the air in triumph, clutching a claw hammer, and started to pry open the lid of the crate. Velvet finally managed to extricate herself from the covers and walked over to get a closer look.
"This," Coco said, "is where all my savings and the cash from selling four of my favorite outfits went. It's mostly extra odds and ends, but the main purchase"—she paused, pushing off the lid, and reaching inside—"is right here."
Coco emerged holding a black leather bag with brass studs on the bottom and what looked like rifle rounds lining the shoulder strap.
"A handbag." Fox said, his voice flat.
Coco nodded eagerly, grinning like a child who just received permission to eat candy for dinner.
"You shelled out God knows how much lien for a handbag that comes with its own house? I think you've finally cracked."
"Nope, couldn't be saner."
Fox reached over, snatching the shoulder strap. "I'll be the judge of—AUUGGHHH!" The second the strap left Coco's hand, the bag yanked Fox down and it slammed him to the floor with a loud crash. He rose to his knees, giving the bag and Coco a puzzled look. She was trying and failing to hold back laughter.
"It's not just a handbag."
Coco helped Fox up, then hefted the bag with both hands. "Come on, let's go outside."
…
A few minutes later they were standing in a grassy section of the grounds just off the courtyard, arranged around Coco in a loose semicircle.
"Fox gave me a couple suggestions for designing a new weapon a few months back," Coco said, addressing her teammates. "I drafted a rough design, contacted a weaponsmith in Mistral, and met with him to make some final adjustments before he built it. Guys—"
Coco planted one foot forward and clicked a switch in the handle. Panels slid away and folded back, a large drum dropped out of the bottom of the bag, and a long cylinder of rotary barrels extended from the front of the bag. Coco seized a new handle that had appeared towards the massive gun's front and swung it to one side.
"—I'd like you to meet Belle Mort."
The rest of CFVY stared at Coco's new weapon, the afternoon sun reflecting off the metal.
"Gold-plating," Fox said, examining the minigun. "Did you get earrings and a choker to match?"
"Are you not impressed?" Coco asked.
"No, it's very nice. I just think you overpaid for a decorative weapon."
Coco pushed her sunglasses to her forehead to lock eyes with Fox. "If you want a rematch, you could just ask."
"But this way is more fun."
They exchanged grins, then looked towards their teammates.
"You want to play judge Yatsu?" Fox asked. The tall boy shrugged, then indicated two spots opposite each other on the grass. Coco chose a spot twenty paces to Yatsuhashi's left, while Fox chose a place twenty to his right. Fox clanged his blades together once and assumed a fighter's stance. Coco swung Belle Mort to point at Fox and revved the barrels. Velvet just shook her head slowly, a smile creeping across her face. Yatsuhashi raised one hand to the sky and counted.
"Three, two, one!"
Author's notes:
And that's a wrap! What started as a writing prompt turned into a personal challenge that I had a lot of fun with, hopefully y'all did too. I'm not 100% happy with the final product, but this is the first thing I've published, let alone written, in a long time, so I'll just be heedful of my missteps when I write the next story. I don't have plans to write anything else about CFVY as a team, but if the right idea strikes me, maybe I'll return. Thanks for reading!
-Sungrass