The Romanian infantryman held his position, guarding the hallways of Beacon. His PKM sat, slung over his right shoulder, his pistol in its holster. He donned his full uniform, balaclava and sunglasses included, as he watched the kids passing through the place for their work. Every fifteen minutes, he'd switch out positions in a sort of rotational patrol pattern. Easy enough a program for himself.
Humming to himself an old song from a familiar game, he sat at his current position, letting the teens pass him by, each smiling, talking and laughing. Some were couples, others were friend groups. It didn't matter to him. He had no place to interact with them beyond his role as a guardian. Still, as he stared, he could only remember the few good days he had had in his past, including his old team in KFOR.
Humming, he plucked up a cigarette from a pack he had in his pocket, then lifted up his balaclava and slid it between his lips. Afterward, he retrieved a match from his pocket, moving somewhat sluggishly as he was more focused on making sure the place remained safe. Lighting the match and, with it, the cigarette, he took a deep drag from the cancer-inducing little thing. Smoke puffed out through his nostrils.
Humming a tune from his childhood days, from a game that eerily fit the reality of Post-Collapse Russia, the man watched as the place cleared out multiple times over, the students of Beacon now in their classes. After an hour, they filtered out and headed in various directions again, something which repeated 'till midday. By midday, classes were over, so the students started leaving for their dorms, or for lunch. He had also finished his patrols for the day and would only have to report in during the evening shift, seeing as he had told Ozpin he couldn't particularly sleep.
Better to die of sleep deprivation than continue to have those horrible goddamn nightmares, that was for sure. Every time he'd close his eyes, images of the Collapse, old wounds, would play back as vivid phantasms in his mind. He smoked the fifth cig for the day as he strode down the path toward his house, still humming various songs. This one was far more upbeat than the previous, however, enough so to gain the attention of a certain team of four Huntresses.
The R, W and B of team RWBY, however, chose to stay behind while Yang calmly approached their newfound guard and pal. She walked up in front of him, a grin on her face, before stating, "Well, someone's in a decent mood today," as she held that smirk. The man put out his cigarette and threw the butt into the designated bit of the trash bin, before humming and pulling his mask down. Yang said, "It's alright, Vic. Ya got some time to talk, man?"
"Considering I just finished the morning shift, I should have plenty of time..." He replied, turning to her.
"Nice! Well, uh..." She hummed, then sighed, her smile turning sad, which clued Victor into what he needed to know. They'd watched it. Yang spoke softly, "Thanks for showing us that whole... Thing... I suppose..." and extended to him the memory drive. "I'm also really sorry you went through that, man. It must've been awful. Heck, you made our world seem semi-peaceful in contrast..."
He took the drive and slid it into his breast pocket, then nodded, "Yeah. I'd guess it has to do with not having a real common enemy to duke it out with, honestly. We'll always find ways to fuck each-other over when it's just us on a big, but small-enough rock floating through the void. You folks are lucky enough not to have faced issues like that before. Well, I assume, but I've been dead fucking wrong before."
"We did have one war where we shot at each-other, plus the whole Faunus Rights Revolution," The girl replied as she walked with Vic. The rest of the team had slowly decided to join them when they saw Vic was being calm, which was a sight for sore eyes. Still, Yang couldn't exactly tell his expressions apart with the balaclava on. She could faintly make out a smile, though.
"Yikes... Oughta get some books to read on Remnant's history, since I'm stuck here..." He whispered to himself.
"We can provide some of them if you wish," Weiss offered as they finally caught up with them. He looked back and nodded, seemingly thankful, before they continued walking. The group walked silently for a few more minutes, before Weiss inquired, "... Corporal, how long have you been serving? If it isn't too personal to ask, you resemble more the average combat veteran than most."
He nodded, "... Been at it since 2018. I joined the moment I turned eighteen, to get out of the orphanage system of my country."
"Oh," All four girls took a moment to register that. The man was an orphan.
"That makes it about four years," He explained, "Three of which were the best of my life. Honestly."
"Were the orphanages that bad?" Yang inquired, stunned. Vic sighed deeply.
"Yes. And that, combined with the thought my own folks didn't want me? Well, it made life a living hell, there..." He then replied with as straight a face as Yang could manage to discern from behind the balaclava. She felt a slight sting in her heart. They shared something more, too. The fact that a parent didn't want their child hurt that kid a little, but she had her father, at least. And she'd had Summer for a while, too.
Ruby patted Yang on the shoulder and smiled reassuringly at her, to which the blonde smiled back and gave a nod, before turning to Vic and stating, "I get that feeling, man... Biological mom didn't particularly care for me."
"Guess we have something in common, then, Xiao-Long," The man replied. The blonde smirked and nodded, before looking to her teammates as if she was asking for approval. Ruby shrugged and smiled, aware of what Yang was about to ask, while Blake simply gave a thumbs up and Weiss sighed, shaking her head. He, meanwhile, sighed, wondering just what the hell the four were talking about through nods and sudden movements like that.
"So, Vic, we were thinkin'..." Yang started, "Care to hang around with us for a while? Feels like you could use the company."
He paused for a moment, looking at her, before stating rather bluntly, "You're insane, you know that, right, girls?"
The four girls let out short chuckles. Even Weiss, who seemed to be the voice of reason, took that jab in stride. Yang noted, "Well, you did just show us the world ya come from, my man. I think we lost a few of our collective screws because of it..." And she got an elbow in the gut from Ruby. She grunted, "Ow," then grinned and added, "Of course, we do wanna be friends with the badass new guy. Y'know, standard preservation instinct and all."
"Uh-huh," Vic nodded, then clicked his tongue as he took a moment to think. It made sense in a way, so he replied, "Okay. Why the fuck not?"
The four girls all beamed at him as they walked together. The man hummed, then said, "You know, this is not how I expected the afterlife to be. Talking to girls younger than me, in the middle of a school for hunting monsters, carrying my full kit. It's almost as if God decided to play a prank on me or something..." as the four looked at him. He then looked to them and finished off with, "It's not the worst way to go, I guess."
Yang smirked, "A bit too..."
"Yang..." Ruby whined, aware of what came next.
"Deadly serious, ain't'cha?" She grinned dumbly. While the rest of her team let out exasperated groans, the man seemed to be pondering the joke for a second... Before he let out a short, almost unnoticeable snort of amusement. The blonde brightly smiled at that reaction, feeling her heart skip a beat. The test had worked. The man had, in fact, laughed at one of her puns.
He shook his head, "Horrible..." despite his voice sounding slightly more upbeat.
"Hehehe..." The Blonde chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck, a slight bit prideful. The Red, White and Black of the team all chuckled at the sight, with Blake somewhat surprised at Yang. As it seemed, Ruby was aware of just how easy her sister would fall for someone who understood her sense of humor, considering she seemed to be taking it in stride.
Weiss, meanwhile, processed the idea that that was all it took for Yang to go for a man. She sighed, pinching her brow, then muttered something about 'Dolts running in the family' to herself as they walked. Ruby, though, decided to ask, "So... Vic...?" She raised a brow and the Romanian turned toward her, a brow quirked up. She beamed and asked, "I never got to ask ya about your weapons!"
Yang chuckled. Never change, dear Ruby Rose.
Vic hummed, then patted his LMG and said, "This is a PKM. Acronym is Russian, but it should technically be called M Md. 1966. PKM comes from..." He took a second to think about it, then hummed and said, "I think, Pulemyot Kalashnikova Modernizirovanyy. Kalashnikov's Machine Gun, Modernized, in translation. You'll have to forgive me, because Russian ain't particularly my forte with foreign languages..." Which was kind of a bold-faced lie, considering he'd decided to learn a little bit of Russian for Vesna. That and to demand enemy surrenders. Fat lot of good it was doing to him now, though.
"Huh... So, it's a mass-produced gun?" Ruby inquired, brow raised.
"Mm. Average production LMG across the East of Europe, including in my country. The name M. Md. 1966 in full is, Mitralieră, model 1966. Machine Gun, Model 1966. A license version of the gun... Though we upped ours to NATO standard, even if they still fire a fairly prevalent cartridge. 7,62 by 54mm Rimmed." And he retrieved a bullet from his pocket, handing it to Ruby.
"Hefty," Ruby smiled as she felt the weight of the round. She handed it back to him and he slotted it back into one of his pockets, before nodding.
"... So, what's your native language?" Blake inquired as she wanted to somewhat get in on the convo, too, help the Romanian feel a little bit better.
"Romanian, of course. Native language. You must've heard me speaking to some of my mates in the UNRUS force in Romanian, right?" He inquired. The four nodded, suddenly remembering the footage of Ștefan getting shot. He noted the reactions and said, "Yeah, odd language, I know..." as he still followed them, trying to avoid bringing up the footage for their sakes.
He knew he'd traumatized these girls, but it was for a good cause. A cause which seems to have failed as is, seeing as they were still hanging around with him. He wished he could get it through their thick heads in one fell swoop that he was not a good person to be around, honestly. That he'd probably do them a hell of a lot more harm than good just by existing around them.
He sighed, while Ruby asked, "So, is Kalashnikov the designer of the gun?"
"Yup," He nodded, "Mikhail Kalashnikov, maker of the finest weapons the Bad Guys in any movie or video game in my world ever used. The Kalashnikov firearms are known far and wide for being reliable, easy to maintain and easy to train on..." He then explained as they stopped in front of the dorms, then opened the door, "So easy, even kids could learn to use them..."
"And, let me guess..." Weiss sighed, morbidly curious, "They did?"
Vic nodded, "Middle Easterners have a thing about that, yeah."
All four girls winced once again, while Vic hummed as they walked inside. Leading the girls to their dorm room, he said to them, "I'm gonna put it bluntly, since me directly handing you that footage didn't seem to get the message across..." before stopping and turning to them. He took off his Balaclava, helmet and glasses, revealing the tired, sunken eyes, the small scars and the faint traces of unshaven facial hair, before stating, "Stop trying to befriend me, girls. You'll find nothing of worth here... I couldn't protect someone I deeply cared about..."
"That was in the past, Vic," Yang said.
"You'll gain nothing of value," He shot back, looking at them, dead serious, "This little talk, this whole shtick? I appreciate the attempt, but..."
"Don't," Ruby said, staring Vic straight in the eye, "I know what you're about to say, Vic. Please, don't..."
"Ruby's right," Yang started, "C'mon, man, you can't just show us that video and not think we'd wanna help you."
"I thought I'd get the idea through a few kids' skulls that I'm nothing to write home about, girls," He replied calmly, looking at them with some degree of pity, "And, while I appreciate the thought, I'd rather you four didn't bend yourselves over backwards to try and make me feel welcome. I've got a job, steady income and a place to stay here, 'till I'm done with life or... I don't know, whatever."
"Don't talk like that, man," Yang replied, then smiled at him, "Least give us a chance to show you Remnant ain't so bad."
"Ignoring the monsters trying to kill us on a daily," Blake quipped, which garnered a short huff and a snort from Victor and a couple laughs from her teammates. The man sighed, looking at all four of them, before taking his moment to think. He was definitely not shaking them off now, as much as he wanted to. No way in hell they'd let him be, considering what all of them were saying.
He simply nodded to them, which garnered a few whoops and cheers from Yang and Ruby, with Weiss and Blake simply smiling at the tired man. He wasn't sure if he'd made a mistake in agreeing to let them help, but he'd find that out later. They'd sure as shit made a mistake, though, considering they were about to deal with a depressive semi-sociopath who's seen everything he held dear torn to pieces or shot.
Yang grinned and threw an arm over his shoulder, then said, "Don't worry, Vicky. We'll be gentle~!" in a joking tune.
Vic rolled his eyes, then stared Yang right in her lilac eyes and replied without skipping a beat and a grin on his face, "I won't..." which caused the blonde to gain a healthy red tint on her cheeks. Weiss and Blake both covered their mouths, with Blake giggling, while Ruby seemed about as dumbfound as could be. Yang silently thanked her lucky stars her sister was about as aware of the matters of the human body as Blake was about not leaving her books where they could easily be found.
"Hey, maybe you can teach us to speak Russian and Romanian," Ruby suggested with a smile, which somewhat stunned the Romanian.
He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded, "Maybe... I'm a little rusty at Russian, though, like I said," before hefting his LMG onto his shoulder properly. He checked his wristwatch, then hummed and stated, "Well, I oughta get back to the Night Shift... Been nice talking to you, gals..." before stepping off toward the exit. Blake paused as she saw the scars on his neck again.
"Wait, ya ain't going to bed?" Yang asked
"Nope. Ozpin needs me to run the Night Shift, too," He stated, "Plus... Can't sleep. Bye." He then waved and walked off, left with his own thoughts. Team RWBY regarded the man as he walked out and down the stairs, before all four of them sighed. The amount of a headache Vic was probably going to be to the lot of them was staggering, honestly. Yang had half-a-mind to wonder why she even thought up the idea of helping the poor guy...
She sighed as she remembered that her team was also fairly determined to aid him. She waved the girls into their dorm room, then entered with them, still unsure of what they could exactly do for the poor guy. It'd take a bit more than sweet words and reassurance that they'd help. It'd take action and Yang intended to see it through, because may she be damned if the first guy to laugh at her puns in a while would die.
Ruby, Weiss and Blake seemed to have noticed Yang's look of determination, with Blake giggling as she hid her face behind a book, Ruby grinning and Weiss simply shaking her head as she prepared her bunk to sleep. Yang sighed, rolled her eyes and sat herself down on her bunk, before letting herself fall onto it, head on her pillow. She stared up at the ceiling, wondering for a moment just what'd gotten into them in the first place? Was there anything she was hoping to gain by this? By helping some soldier fix his broken life? Maybe...?
Sure, Vic was nice. And he was cute, Yang had to give him that, but-
She blushed, then blinked, face burning red at those stupid thoughts.
Oh, for fuck's sake, this was not good at all...