XXXIII - Phloem

Successional has reached over 100 followers! I'm blown away by how many people like my lil fic.

~~~(XXXIII)~~~

The club was busier than he remembered. The festival and upcoming tournament really brought in the crowds it seemed. The other members of the club were fairly happy that Oxon was here to help for the next two weeks. All of a sudden, the radio inside his jacket pocket went off.

"Ox! There's another one near the VIP section. You're the closest person, so deal with them." At the notification from one of the other guys on shift, he made his way to the velvet rope near the stairs to the private booths. There, he saw the beginnings of a fight.

"You say that again you sack of shit!"

"I said it once and I'll say it again, I don't want you shedding in my drink!"

Great, not just two drunk idiots, one of them was a massive racist. Two other patrons were trying to restrain two. Before the insulted dog faunus could throw a punch, Oxon stepped between the two, placing a hand on both their chests.

"Enough! This club is for entertainment purposes only, if you want to duke it out, do so elsewhere, like a grungy alleyway or something."

"Yeah, tell that fucking animal to get out of here! I bet he's Fang anyways!"

"Come on! Let me just have one good hit!"

The two tried to wrestle out of his grip, but the combination of his muscles and their intoxication, it was easy to hold them back. Oxon let out a string of mental curses in his mind. If people like this were not massive pricks, his life would be so much more simple.

Well, I was given free reign on how I want to deal with this. Might as well blow off some stress.

He took a red sharpie out of his pants pocket and put a red triangle on the guy's forehead, warning the bar he was cut off. After stowing the sharpie, Oxon gave the faunus a light shove back. Though, the mix of differences in strength and intoxication caused the drunk to fall on his ass. Oops.

Turning back to the stupidly happy piece of trash, Oxon went with a very elegant method of solving the issue. An aura enhanced headbut. The worthless human slumped into the floor unconscious, finally silent.

Oxon threw the sleeping fool over his shoulder and handed him off to a pair of his coworkers. They would fetch a cab for him if there was one available, if not, there were always cozy bags of trash for the guy to sleep on. That had been the third that night, and he doubted that there won't be any more.

The night had a problematic start as well, his uniform that he wore previously no longer fit. He'd attempted to get away with the tighter clothes, but the first time he'd flexed in order to carry a crate of bottles, it tore in multiple places. That had gotten him more than a few strange looks and laughs as he power walked into the backroom. He had to get a whole size larger since his training at Beacon had increased his muscle mass. Sadly he wasn't able to go without the tie, much to his frustration.

Leaning against the outside of the bar, he watched over the folks trying to get drinks. He'd purposely came to the section where his old partner ran. There had already been two upset men, and women, who wanted to get back at the flirt. Thankfully they were not huntsman trained, he would have left him on his own otherwise.

"Ahhh, Oxy! You clean up another mess?"

"Yeah." Looking around at the nearby club goers, he didn't see anyone who looked angry. "Have you been behaving yourself while I've been gone?"

"Do you mean in the last three minutes, or in the last few months?"

"I don't like how you worded that…"

"I've been on my best behavior, though now that my guardian angel is back, I feel as though I should have a little fun."

No. No, no, no.

"I'd appreciate it if you… didn't. I don't need the extra stress."

Lisian disagreed if his flamboyant eye roll was anything to go off of. At least he was raking in the tips, and Oxon was owed a portion. If the gang has protection rackets for stores, then he can have his own with the booze flipping flirt. Though, for all the grief he gave the guy, Lisian was far easier to deal with than his more recent allies.

"That's no fun my friend. All work, no play? Do I need to get you drunk again?" Oxon shuddered at the memory of the night, though more so the day after. "You've been around people your age for the last few months, make any friends? Or even friends?"

Leave it to Lisian to snoop on his school life. And to make it creepy.

"There's a few I get along with. And no, I won't introduce you to any of them."

"Boooooo… Come on my friend, everyone knows huntresses are the pinnacle of beauty. Are you sure there's not any that have caught your angsty eye?" He was happy that the strobe lights helped hide his blush, there was no way he wanted to give him the satisfaction of nailing anything.

"What, your own love life is not enough for you?" The creepy smile on the man's face did not give Oxon any confidence at where this was going.

"I'm just wondering if my favorite little pack mule has found someone. Why the suspicion, can't a guy be curious?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but there ain't nobody like that for me. Besides, even if there were, why would I tell you?"

"Ox, I'm hurt, you won't tell me about your little Paramore?" His eyes narrowed at that.

"What're you yappin about?"

"Oh, just a few texts from someone in your contacts." Lisian brought a familiar scroll. "Someone who you put as "Ice Queen" in your contacts? It's cute, that some sort of pet name?"

Oxon quickly leaned over the bar to grab his scroll, but the slippery bastard just leaned out of range.

"How did you!? Give that back!"

"You forget what kinda people work here Ox, I wasn't always a bartender." He backed up a few steps and unlocked the scroll, his eyebrows went up after looking at it for a moment. "Whoever they are, they said they got back to Atlas, like an hour ago. do you not read your messages kid?"

"An hour ago?"

"Hmmm, looks like you set it to "do not disturb". Lemme fix that. This Ice Queen left a few messages after she got to that frozen shit hole they call a kingdom."

"Alright you little lust goblin, give me my scroll back!" Oxon was bodily leaning over the counter at this point, yet he still couldn't get a hold of his scroll or Lisian.

"I'm sorry, what did you call me? Maybe I should send this girl of yours a message, see how she responds?" The man began typing out a text, Oxon vaulted the bar in desperation in order to stop it. "Aaaand sent! Don't worry Oxy, this'll just help progress the plot-urk!"

One hand gripped his phone and freed it, the other held the asshole's throat. Looking at the screen, he cringed at the message that was sent.

Ice Queen: I'm back in Solitas, not much longer now.

Ice Queen: We just landed in Atlas, next stop the family estate.

Ice Queen: Oxon? Have you gotten these messages?

Ice Queen: It's just as cold as I remember here, I bet you would love it. You know, because you like the cold?

Me: I can survive no matter how cold the weather is, cause I get hot when I'm thinking about you.

Read at 11:11

The messages would have made him happy, but the current situation soured them. "Lisiaaaannn…" Oxon was in an apoplectic state as he saw what Lisian sent to the girl. He was a few seconds from choke slamming the man out onto the dance floor.

"That's a classic! If she's in that frozen continent, then it should work like a charm!" The gremlin was ineffectively trying to pry himself free of the iron grasp Oxon had him in.

Oxon tried to type out a text explaining what happened and how it wasn't his fault. He didn't have a chance to try and do damage control before a new text from Weiss appeared.

Ice Queen: Who was that? Because I highly doubt that Ox of all people would type that.

Me: I am SO sorry, it was a "coworker" of mine. He likes to mess with others. Please ignore the previous message…

Ice Queen: a coworker? Are you busy? I don't want to disturb you at work.

Me: Don't worry, it's fine. It's good to know you made it home safe.

The little animation showing the girl was typing went for a fair bit longer. Oxon wondered just how long a message she was about to send.

Ice Queen: Goodnight, Ox

He wondered why it took so long for such a short text, Oxon shrugged and sent a message wishing her well after that. He made sure to place his scroll in one of his jacket's inner pockets, hopefully out of reach for sticky fingered bartenders. He then released Lisian and pushed him in front of inpatient customers.

"I oughta break a growler on your skull…" the man chuckled as he mixed drinks for those around him.

"You gotta loosen up my man. Grab me a Vacuan agave will you?" Oxon snagged the large jug off the shelf and handed it over. "Like I said before, you're just going to burn yourself out if you don't have anything that makes you happy. Some drink, others do drugs, a bunch fuck. I'm not saying you need to go the wild route, just that training and work shouldn't be your life. I mean, you're on a school break, and your first thought was to pick up hours here? I'm not going to complain since you make life easier, but you gotta think about what you want."

Oxon groaned into his hand, he really couldn't catch a break…he'd already tried to listen to Sun, but it wasn't easy for him to switch gears like that. He was planning on taking it slow, damnit.

"Look, yeah she's a nice girl, and maybe I do like her in a more than platonic way. But I'm just not experienced in this sorta thing." He did not miss the muttered "no shit" from Lisian.

"Glad to hear you admit it. Gotta say, done no name vagabond from beyond the walls and a Schnee? Can't say I expected that." He gave Lisian a befuddled look at that.

"How did you know it's Weiss?"

"Welllll, you just confirmed it." Well shit, first the guy stoke Oxon scroll, and then he led him into that. Lisian was trickier than he thought . "And second, I'm subscribed to literally half of the best tabloids in each kingdom, their drama is nourishing. A good many had a fair number of pictures of you and the girl dancing."

"Of course you do, I don't know what I expected."

"Hey, I might be a flirt, a thief, a gang banger, and generously endowed." Not information Oxon needed. "But I've been where you are now, had an eye on a girl above my station, and I never acted on it because I was too scared to try. Every now and then I wonder, what could have been if I'd gotten a kick in the pants and told her how I felt. I don't want to see you make the mistakes I made, live your life to the fullest kid. There's no redos."

He observed the older man, who had given him a surprisingly good talk. Idly, Oxon thought about how most of the guys had dyed hair. "Hey, Li?"

"What?"

"You don't happen to be a blonde under that dye?"

"Strawberry blonde, but yeah. Why do you want to know that?"

"Fucking 'course you are…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Oxon noticed a scuffle forming on the dance floor and walked into the throng of partiers. "The curtains match the drapes, if that's what you're wondering!"

~~~(XXXIII)~~~

The next few nights were more of the same. More crowds that pushed the safe capacity limits. More massive bottles of booze emptied at staggering speed. And more angry people trying to get a piece of Lisian for flirting with their significant other.

Unfortunately, today was a meeting with some of his, less than favorite, coworkers. There was a member of their little team that he had yet to meet, and apparently he didn't like not knowing everyone he was working with. Said weirdo was someone high up in the White Fang, his favorite band of racial supremacists.

"Why can't I work with normal, non terroristic people? Hell, Roman was much more tolerable…"

The empty street gave him no answer. He was making his way through the industrial district fairly quickly, the amount of times he had to meet with other people in the area led to him getting familiar with the area.

He noticed the tell tale markings on the wall of an older building. He'd arrived at the meeting place and walked inside, the casual form of Mercury greeted him. Already off to an awful start.

"What's up wanker jack? Ready to meet your twin?" Oxon didn't have the fucks to give to snipe back, all he had was his middle finger. He walked up to the smarmy ass and asked where the boss was. "Cinder? She's in one of the offices, let's go, don't want to keep her waiting."

The two made their way in silence, Mercury's was a smug silence, his was a tired kind. He'd had a bad night's sleep, which ruined his day from the start. He hoped this new face was somewhat normal, but he wasn't holding his breath.

Walking into what must have been a corporate meeting room, he saw Cinder sitting at the head of a long table. Classic Cinder. Emerald was as close as she could get on the chair immediately to her right. Why the girl was so obsessively loyal, he'd never know.

He sat down two chairs away from Cinder on her left. Mercury took a seat next to Emerald, leaving the awkward seat open between Oxon and Cinder. Hopefully the fifth arrival would take it.

"Soooo…" Oxon awkwardly began. "Just who are we meeting today?"

"Patience, Oxon, our dear ally will be here soon. There's no need to ruin his entrance." Of course she would wait for some dramatic entrance, she'd be annoying if he wasn't terrified.

Thankfully he didn't have long to wait, the mystery person had finally arrived. Blood red hair, white mask, and bull horns are what immediately stood out.

Holy shit is that who I think it is!?

Even Oxon, with his short time in modern society knew of Adam gods-damn Taurus. The most accomplished and violent officer of the White Fang, Oxon had seen his masked face in the news on more than one occasion. The man was brutal in his missions, leaving behind many bodies.

If Adam saw his nervousness, he didn't acknowledge it, and moved towards the table. There was a slight pause before he took the empty seat between Oxon and Cinder. He placed his long sword on the table in front of him, and Oxon saw what looked like a trigger on the sheath.

"Fall." Clearly there was no friendship between the two.

"Adam, how nice to see you."

"So this is your latest little minion." He couldn't see the man's eyes, but he could feel the disapproving glare coming from behind the mask. "He hardly looks the sort to be here."

"That's what makes dear Ox valuable. Nobody suspects him, he's too simple, he's been invaluable in getting necessary intel on some of the more troublesome students."

Ok, fuck you too bitch.

"As long as he doesn't drag us down." The terrorist turned his attention to the big boss lady. "How are preparations going for the final plan?"

"On schedule, when the time comes, the White Fang will have their moment in the sun." The plan for the end of the tournament involved the Fang? So they were going to be part of the distraction for them, so cinder could steal this power or something.

"Some of my men have been getting antsy, the disaster with the train has made things worse." Romans bombing and resulting Grimm incursion. He'd seen many of the Fang members get eaten by Grimm.

"And their sacrifice and patience will be well rewarded. Once the fall begins, the whole world will see just how mighty the white fang is."

With that ominous declaration, the meeting continued to logistics and other boring things. Oxon tuned out the very frightening new coworker and his boss as they talked. His mind wandered to the absurdity of his situation, crime lords, terrorists, and mass murdering psychos. Letting out a depressed sigh, he thought back to simpler times.

~~~(XXXIII)~~~

The meeting had been more worrisome than he could have imagined. They were planning a "demonstration" on the floating coliseum. He didn't know how they were going to deal with the many huntsmen and Atlesian military personnel, but their confidence was unnerving. He had hope that the many forces that would be around had to be enough to stop them from causing too much harm.

With the meeting over with, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald split soon after. Oxon attempted to leave as well, but he was cornered by the bull faunus. There weren't many people taller than Oxon, Adam was unnervingly one of them, and had a presence that felt suffocating.

"You, human."

"Uh, yeah? Do you need something?" Oxon tried to school his face, but he couldn't help but be nervous. Being alone with Taurus felt like a fatally bad idea.

"There are many Faunus' in this city, primarily living in second class conditions." Ok … And? Oxon knew it was bad, but he didn't understand why the sect leader was bringing it up. "The cruelty of the humans causes many to flock to our cause. Though there have been a few who have spoken about a helpful human."

"Uh, great?"

"They said it was a gang member that had extorted a shop owner into giving away items that would usually be thrown out. That has helped feed a small yet once angry community, one that was getting close to throwing their support behind us."

That was him. Deeeeeefinitely him. Was Adam mad he'd cost the fang support?

"Uh, I didn't know that would hurt the plan, hell, I wasn't even a part of this whole murder plot yet."

"It's true you cost us a bit of progress, we had to scrap that area completely as a potential base." Wait, really? "We had planned to trade supplies for support in moving further into the city. But suddenly, they had their issues with food solved. All by a human who could have easily let them continue their suffering."

Oxon hadn't realized he had been backing up until he hit a solid wall behind him. All of a sudden, the extra height of the masked redhead felt even worse. This was it, he was about to get stabbed, or shot, whatever it was that his weapon did.

"Uh, yeah, I know what it's like to starve. There was something I could do to help, so I did it." Nobody deserves to starve, especially not those literal children that resorted to mugging. "I won't apologize for helping them, even if it hurt our plans."

"Ordinarily, I would be cross with having to scrap good plans, but in this case, I can't."

"Wait, you're not mad?" Was he saved from an untimely death?

"No, in the end, fellow faunus we're helped. It's rare to see humans go out of their way to help the unfortunate, even less so to those that are not human." Oxon was aware of the discrimination the faunus faced was grossly unfair. The orphans from the alley, the homeless men and women who littered the less populated areas, and that community that has been nearly abandoned by the kingdom.

Oxon knew the White Fang was formed for a reason, a few good ones in fact, but he always separated the causes and the organization in his mind. Helping the faunus was a noble goal, Oxon just disagreed with the lengths that Adam and his group took to get equality. Bombing the city and attacking a tournament was only going to cause more issues for them all.

"I'm glad to know they are doing well, I haven't really thought about them since I last saw them. They looked happier with their situation last I saw."

"The Fang could use a human like you, ones who help out of their own volition." Adam placed a hand on Oxon's shoulder for a brief moment and gave a nod. "Once this is over, and you find yourself out of the witch's employ, you could be a good addition to our cause."

After giving his offer, the deadly bull turned and left. Once he was out of sight and hopefully out of hearing, Oxon slid down the wall onto his rear. Gripping his chest, he tried to get his racing heart under control. Did Adam "Bane of Humanity" Taurus just offer him a job? Yeah, like that was going to happen.

"What the actual fuck was that?"

~~~(XXXIII)~~~

I feel that the white fang would welcome anyone who was for the cause, regardless of race. It would probably convince some moderate or unsure recruits that they were noble. Plus, a human would be useful for infiltrating places that faunus would be attacked.

After about fifteen hours of driving, I made it to central Arkansas. Six of that was Virginia alone, I forgot how big my state was lol.