Thanks again for setting this up. I'll keep it civil.
Kali tapped the 'send' button with a finger, and watched curiously as three bubbles appeared on her scroll to indicate an incoming response.
No problem. Good luck.
With a conflicted smirk, Kali swiped out of the conversation and back to her contacts, hiding the message chain behind a portrait of Ilia. She powered down the scroll and put it away, before taking a deep inhale through her nose and out her mouth as she rested her arms atop the table. Kali leaned her head back into the headrest of the booth, and mumbled to herself.
"Come on, where are you?"
With an annoyed grunt, Kali leaned out to survey the restaurant floor once again. The place was packed with customers at booths and tables alike, and the noise they made was accentuated by servers shuffling through the aisles and gaps while carrying trays of food and drinks. Kali leaned back into her booth after failing to spot her quarry once again, and began to rhythmically tap her nails against the polished wood.
"She's doing this to piss me off, I swear," Kali mused to herself.
"I'm sorry!"
Kali looked up in surprise, only to find a red-haired waitress carrying an empty glass and pitcher of water while looking incredibly guilty. "I'll try to be faster, next time!"
"Oh, not you!" Kali reassured as she flattened her ears. "I was just… never mind," she said with a sigh as the waitress put the glass down and filled it. "Sorry."
"It's okay," the woman replied. Quite suddenly, she looked up with a horrified expression and backed away slightly as another woman slipped into the booth, opposite of Kali. Cinnamon propped her elbows up on the table immediately and looked up at the waitress with narrowed eyes, before her mouth twisted into a sneer.
"What? Never seen spines before?"
"N-no, I wasn't… I mean, I haven't… but it isn't a problem, really!" the freckled waitress stammered.
"Ugh, whatever," Cinnamon said with a wave of her hand. "Water's fine. Leave us."
The waitress scurried away with a nervous look, as Kali glared daggers at Cinnamon.
"You really need to work on your people skills."
"And you should pay more attention. Did you see the way she looked at me?" Cinnamon asked in a huff. "Everywhere I go, people keep their distance as though I'm about to start randomly stabbing pedestrians with these things. It gets old."
Kali leaned back once again, and folded her arms across her chest. "Maybe it has less to do with your spines, and more to do with your attitude. You entered like a hurricane."
"And I'll exit like one, too," Cinnamon threatened as she leaned back and folded her hands in her lap. "But none of that matters. She doesn't matter. You wanted to talk business, so let's talk."
One of Kali's ears flicked in annoyance as she leaned forward slightly to take her straw between her lips. She took a long pull of water, before resting back against the cushioned headrest.
"You know… that's kinda my point, Cinnamon. How exactly are you planning to broker peace between human and faunus when every human you meet doesn't matter?"
Cinnamon flashed her teeth at the question, and leaned forward toward Kali as she hissed. "They will matter to me once we start mattering to them. You have no idea what I've been through, or how many interactions I've had with humans that ended in violence initiated by them."
"Then tell me," Kali replied simply as the waitress approached once again. The girl's hand shook as she set down Cinnamon's glass and filled it, before offering the woman a straw. Cinnamon slowly took it with a heavy sigh, and dropped her glare for all of a second.
"…thanks," Cinnamon hissed.
"Sure," the woman offered with a nervous smile. "Will you be having anything else?"
"…I'll think about it," Cinnamon said as she looked back to Kali, her glare back in full effect. The waitress nodded again, and made a hasty retreat as Cinnamon looked off to the side. "I'm not telling you anything. We're not friends, Kali, and we're barely allies. My personal business and dealings with humans in the past are exactly that- personal. I've seen their true nature, and it's not something I'd expect you to understand."
Kali shifted awkwardly in her seat and took another sip. "Did they do something to your family, or…?"
Cinnamon's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits as she removed the paper from her straw, and quite nearly threw the plastic tube down into her drink. "No, and if all you're going to do tonight is attempt to psychoanalyze me, I'm leaving. You're not getting a sob story out of me, regardless of your intentions. I know who I am, what I've done, and what I'm going to do. Whether or not you can say the same is going to determine which of us is successful."
Kali breathed a heavy sigh, and shook her head. "Fine. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for whatever happened to you."
"Good for you. I hope that helps you sleep tonight," Cinnamon replied as she took a quick drink. "What exactly are you planning to do with this Black Claw nonsense?"
"Straight to the punch, then?" Kali asked with a grimace. "Not what I'd hoped, to be honest. Every single day, I'm getting more heat from the local law enforcement. I have a bad feeling that if my group doesn't skip town by tomorrow, I may be behind bars. Fortunately, the counterfeit relic should be good to go by morning, and we can get out of here. I'm heading back to Menagerie to rebuild, and start taking steps to turn it into the fifth kingdom."
Cinnamon snorted, though the sound was quite different from her usual irritated grunts and sighs. The snort was chased by a light bout of laughter, before she brought a hand to her face and earned an unimpressed look from Kali.
"The fifth kingdom? Are you serious? It's never going to happen. They'll only let you get to a certain size before you're seen as a threat, and they come up with an excuse to get rid of you and yours. Asking for a gradual buildup to acceptance is asking for a war, and the longer it takes, the more they'll come to resent you for looming in the corner, cloying and begging for attention from their peripherals."
The waitress returned once again and deposited a basket of seasoned fries upon the table before Kali, who was fuming. The human girl cast a quick glance over to Cinnamon, who waved a dismissive hand, and then she left the table once again as Kali rubbed at her chin.
"Then what are you planning to do? Start slaughtering them until they respect you?"
"Not quite, no. I'm going to get us immediate and significant attention. Enough to make it known that the White Fang can't just be looked at as an annoyance or fringe group anymore. The world will respect us because I will demand it, and I see few better opportunities than rallying against Salem," Cinnamon stated plainly.
Kali's eyes widened as she lowered her tone to a whisper. "You… but then, why not join in with the others at the safe house? Why separate yourself, and just keep it among the Fang? Cinnamon, Salem is a problem that goes beyond racial pride, and trying to make a dent in her armor alone isn't something to take lightly at all, from what I understand."
"Maybe not," Cinnamon agreed. "And maybe I should ally with all of you… but I don't take orders. I don't do the whole 'follower' thing. I can't trust people, and especially not humans, to have control over me in any significant capacity. I have my reasons."
"Those reasons apparently didn't stop you from letting Adam lead you around," Kali pointed out as she took a few fries and began to nibble upon them.
"Is that how you saw it?" Cinnamon asked as she picked up her glass of water and looked down to the ice cubes, before taking a long drink. "I've been leading him for longer than you know. All it took was honeyed words and sex, and he became clay in my hands, just like any other man. I've been the reason and roadblock behind his every major failure, and the puppeteer waiting to cut the strings and let him crumple as soon as the moment was right. This is that moment."
Kali paused, and pointed an accusatory fry in Cinnamon's direction. "If that's completely true, then you let Sienna Khan die, and you allowed the fall of Beacon Academy."
"Sacrifices had to be made," Cinnamon sneered. "I couldn't manipulate everything without raising suspicion, and Adam is still a person in his own right. He made decisions I wasn't aware of, and I was too late to stop them, in both of those cases. I never said I was perfect, b-"
"And both of those cases alone should be proof enough that you can't do this alone!" Kali insisted as she slammed a hand down upon the table. "You may be good, and you may be helpful, but you're not a messiah for the faunus! Neither am I, Cinnamon! If you were willing to work together with me, we could get so much more done than either of us could do on our own! I'm not even asking you to follow me- I'm asking for your help, as an equal. Is that unreasonable?"
"It is to me," Cinnamon said with a sense of finality as she set down her empty glass. "You have no idea what I've done, given up, and suffered through to get this far. You don't know how far I'm willing to go, and how far you'll need to go to make any sort of real impact. I can say right now that when the opportunity arrives to break out onto the world stage, you won't have what it takes to make the call to take action. All of those factors mean that you're not fit for this, and I won't hear any more of it."
Cinnamon slipped out of the booth and rose to stand as Kali looked up at her.
"And what the hell does that mean? What exactly are you going to do that I wouldn't be 'ready' for?"
"…keep a line of communication open, if you want, but that's as far as I'm willing to go," Cinnamon retorted. "I'll send someone to Menagerie so we can keep each other aware and avoid stepping on toes, but I'm doing this my way. Expect warnings. Not compromise."
Kali opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again as Cinnamon walked off without sparing her so much as a wave. With one last, heavy sigh, Kali took out her scroll and powered it on, before tapping on Ilia's icon once again and letting her thumbs dance across the screen.
It didn't go well, but it could have gone worse. Do you know anything about Cinnamon's past?
Kali watched her screen carefully as she picked up a few more fries and stuffed them into her mouth. A reply showed up as being in progress, only for the three dots to disappear. The pattern repeated two more times, before finally, a new message popped into the conversation.
She won't open up to anyone. I can't help you.
Kali narrowed her eyes into a suspicious glare, before turning off her scroll and returning to her fries in silence.
Sun fought back the urge to focus on anything particular as he continued to breathe in and out slowly. The sensation of the weight of his arms upon his crossed legs seemed to slip away into nothingness as he kept up the steady breathing, and after a while, he could no longer feel his tail touching the blades of grass behind him. The endless fields of red and black provided by his eyelids seemed to swirl and dance within his vision, and for an unmeasurable amount of time, he felt at peace.
"Sun? Hey, Sun!"
Sun squinted his eyes momentarily, before allowing them to flutter open. Disoriented, he blinked several times before he realized that the sensation of a hand on his shoulder was coming from the right, and he moved his eyes to follow it. Yang stood next to him with a wry smirk, and offered a small nod.
"That was much better. It's been two hours."
Quite suddenly, all feelings of peace and contentment left Sun's body in a wave of panic.
"Two hours!? But… we didn't…"
"What can I say? You needed it bad," Yang replied before offering him a metal hand. Sun accepted it, and pulled himself up. "What were you thinking about?"
"I don't… nothing, I guess?" Sun admitted with a sheepish grin. Yang punched him lightly in the arm in response, and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Perfect. Now, you're starting to get it. How are you feeling?"
Sun shrugged, and found that his tail had started to swish gently behind him. "I dunno. It's… weird. 'Light', I guess, is the only way I can really describe it?"
"I'd call that progress. Same time tomorrow night?" Yang asked as she stretched out.
"Absolutely. I really owe you one, Yang," Sun offered with a small wave as he made his way back to the house.
"Don't mention it," she replied as she began to head off into town.
Sun breathed in deeply as he walked into the hall and made a beeline for the bedroom. He grabbed the door handle gently and walked inside, only to find Blake waiting for him in her black nightie upon the bed.
"Hey," he greeted with a genuine smile as he hung around near the door, simply taking in Blake in all of her beauty.
"Hey, yourself. How'd it go?" Blake asked, her tone a deep and curious one.
"Pretty good, actually," Sun said as he took a step toward the bed. "I eve-"
"Stop," Blake commanded as she sat up slightly. "Lock the door."
The tip of Sun's tail twitched in anticipation as he turned and locked the door behind himself. "Um… sure. Everything okay?"
"More than okay," Blake answered as Sun turned back to her and flung his shirt back over the usual chair. "I just don't want any interruptions, tonight. I'm leaving tomorrow, you know."
"…I know," Sun said with a sigh as he made his way to the bed while undoing his belt and letting his shorts drop. The tingly comfort that had flooded his chest from the meditation session dissipated immediately, to be replaced by a heavy pit in his stomach. "Trust me, I cleared my schedule entirely for kisses and cuddles. I'm all yours."
"I'll hold you to that," Blake warned as she accepted Sun into a close hug. The two kissed passionately as they worked themselves into a tangled embrace, and Blake put her leg up and over Sun's hip as she rolled him over and took position atop his chest.
"I bet you will," Sun chuckled through a light blush. "I'm going to miss you so much… but this is going to work. Ozpin and Ruby are going to pull through, and we'll be together again before you know it."
"I know. I have faith in them, and even more in you," Blake reassured as she began to trail kisses down Sun's neck. "I've made peace with it… and I know we're going to make it. All of us, and us."
Sun considered the words, and let his hands linger around Blake's hips. "I love you, Blake."
"And I love you," Blake replied automatically as she sealed the words with another kiss. Sun melted into the sensation of her lips, before his eyes shot open at a familiar freezing sensation in a very unfamiliar place.
"B-blake!?" he questioned as he looked down, only to find his suspicions confirmed. Blake's right hand was beneath the waistband of his boxers, and out of sight. She slowly raised the other to reveal a small square green wrapper, and waved it slowly back and forth. Sun's heart began to pound as he put the actions together in his mind, and Blake gave him a sultry smile.
"…given that we're about to spend a lot of time apart… how about we make tonight one to remember?"
Sun's breathing quickened and he squirmed slightly, before giving a hesitant nod. "Just… help me out, a little bit? I'm… I don't know…"
"I've got you," Blake said in a comforting tone. "I'll guide you the entire way."
Sun closed his eyes as Blake got to work on preparing him, and shivered in anticipation as he felt her bite his bottom lip.
Author's Note:
SEX! Komm zu mir!
Err, I mean, and then Blake unwrapped the chocolate-covered mint, they shared it, and went to sleep without doing anything else. Yup.
That's as far as details will go to keep this at a T rating, but I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. The period of rest is drawing to a close, and it's time to enter the whirlwind. See you all tomorrow.
-RD