When the girls saw the lights on the snowy forested mountainside, it was a no-brainer that it was Weiss practicing her Semblance. Her glyphs emitted a similar glow and had a distinct hue; if they weren't shimmering black, they were bright white with a tint of blue. Not to mention, the thickness of the forest allowed for that particular disturbance to physically resonate against the trees.
"Shit," Yang hissed, peeking through their shared binoculars. With how thickly wooded the area was, and the onset of dusk denying the revealing power of the sun, there was no way to tell exactly what was going on. "Damn it, I can't see shit. Is she all the way out there?"
"She actually ran off," mouthed the cat faunus.
Ironic how back on Remnant, it was Weiss who chewed Blake out for running off to face her problems on her own. The latter wondered what exactly the former's problem could be in this regard. Obviously, the heiress had been offended by Six's careless diatribe earlier today but was it enough to actually push her to seclusion in the wilds? Where she was prone to the wasteland's worst and Brothers know what else?
That did not seem like the Weiss that Blake personally knew. In fact, that sounded a lot like...
"That kinda sounds a lot like you," Yang remarked.
The cat faunus regarded her partner with an annoyed glare. "I get it, okay? I didn't infect her with going prodigal, if that's what you're getting at."
"Girls, focus," Ruby intoned sternly. "Weiss might be in serious trouble!"
"We're not allowed to leave Jacobstown, are we?" mused her sister.
Blake shook her head. "I don't think so."
Her team leader brightened up suddenly. "Technically, we can't...but you can."
"What do you mean?"
Ruby pointed to the fortified gantry constructed over the section of highway that led into the commune. "There's only one way in and out of this place and it's through the front gate. But we can't just walk out of here because we're technically confined on medical reasons. And fighting our way out is pretty dumb."
"So we climb over the palisade?" Yang raised. "No offense, sis, but it's not that easy."
"Not us. But Blake can."
Said girl blinked in disbelief. One, she was flattered that Ruby thought that highly of her. Two, she was not keen on scraping herself over the spiky, barbed-wire, timbre wall surrounding Jacobstown. "I don't know..."
"Come on, Blake," Ruby pleaded. "You're the only one who can pull this off. Please. Velvet's busy handling Syrup at the clinic and team JNPR's busy keeping Marcus busy."
"She's got a point," agreed her sister. "You don't seem to be hurting as much as we are. And the meds are making me feel all really jello, you know?"
Blake sighed into her palm. Screw it. Weiss was out there by herself caught up in Brothers know what. She just hoped that she got her teammate back safe and sound because goodness knows, Six wouldn't be very happy if he found out about this. Come to think of it, they hadn't seen him since this afternoon.
"Alright. But you two need to run interference on Six."
"Will do. He won't know what happened," Ruby assured.
The cat faunus doubted it. "Right. First off, we're going to need our walkie-talkies."
Yang fished out her scroll and clicked her tongue when at the near-empty energy bar. "Well, shit. Guess we really can't rely on our scrolls this time."
"Yeah. And I'll also need a flare gun. If things get too hairy, you'll know where to find us."
"Six?"
"Snowball? What the hell are you doing out here?"
Weiss glared at him, huffing and catching her breath. After spending hours pushing herself to the limit with the more advanced aspects of her Semblance, she barely had the energy to stand upright without so gracelessly leaning against Myrtenaster for support. "I'm being busy."
Six glowered back. "Busy my ass. What's going on? Are you out here by yourself?"
"Can't you tell?" she seethed. "I'm being productive with my time."
"Tearing this place apart? You're attracting predators!"
She paused to catch her breathe before biting back. "I'm mastering my skillset so I can properly deal with them! As I should be, don't you think?"
He narrowed his eyes at her, holstering his revolver. "I don't like your tone, woman."
"Oh, as if you ever cared for my tone, dear sir."
"Snowball—"
"I have a name!"
The Courier regarded her for a moment. "... Weiss. What are you doing out here by your lonesome?"
Lonesome. Weiss stared back at the snowy ground, not liking how hard that word hit her. "I told you. I was perfecting my abilities—"
"What are you really doing out here?"
The heiress grit her teeth. "What? You don't believe me? You have to constantly ask for confirmation?"
"Answer the question."
"I already did. After all, why should I waste my fucking time doing dumb shit that won't help anybody?"
His expression shifted from annoyance to something else beneath that deep frown. "... What the hell is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with you!?" she shrieked. "Why do you have to be so angry all the time!? Why do you always have to drink so much? What is it with you that everything we do is the worst thing that could happen to you?"
"Weiss, not everything—"
Weiss forced herself to stand even as her knees began to buckle. "It was just a game! We just wanted to spend time with you! Ruby wanted to spend time with you, Yang wanted to spend time with you. Nora, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Velvet... Me. I wanted to spend time with you."
Major Vickers rounded one of the pines that had been freshly uprooted. "You. Wanted to spend time. With me?"
The heiress almost scoffed with the way he said those words. It was like he was surprised that they even bothered to give him the light of day out of the goodness of their heart. It was like their time—her time that she was willing to expend, time that was meant to be spent on other...more selfish...things—was worthless to him. And that was infuriating.
"Don't you care that we care?" she growled. "Yang, Ruby, Blake. They were under the weather. They could have spent all day in bed but they decided to spend that time with you. The others too! They wanted to...they wanted to..."
Her turbulent emotions became difficult to contain. Her grasp on Myrtenaster tightened, pushing the blade deeper into the dirt as her legs once again gave way. She slumped onto the snow.
"They wanted to...get to know you more... Without spying on you, without stalking you, without walking in on sensitive conversations in the night. Why can't you see?"
She felt something warm trickle down her cheeks but she didn't care.
"I wanted to know the man who could be so kind to me yet so cruel to the world. I wanted to know one of the few adults in my life who actually really cared... I wanted to, I wanted to... I wanted to impress you...by being someone who could help the wasteland...instead of making it worse like you always say we do..."
Sniffle, sniffle, sob.
"I... I... I didn't want to be a burden..."
Creak, crunch, sigh. "... Weiss."
She looked up to see him sitting on the log, the angry frown gone. Instead, his eyes seemed to glaze over her, becoming unfocused. He seemed to be slipping back into the haze of his past again.
But then he spoke. Yet his voice was unlike what she usually heard, even when he was either heavily intoxicated or completely lost in distant thought. No condescension, no antagonism, no vitriolic language that characterized his disdain for the world around him. What she heard was a voice that she only heard when he was lost in the hazy memories of his past.
"Weiss... You sweet, stubborn, sad snowflake... Why do you care so much anyway?"
Weiss was flabbergasted that Six did not know why people cared for him. What in the world happened to this man that he believed the world hated him so much? She sputtered in response, wanting to scream out the many reasons why she and her friends valued him greatly. Even after all that had happened, after what he had done, after his history and his misdeeds, he was still valued highly. How could he not see this?
Eventually, she found her voice. "... Why can't I?"
He huffed. "What is it about me...that even after all the threats and all the bullshit...even after I almost killed you...even after all the things I've done and will continue to do...you haven't made for the hills yet?"
She wiped her face. "Because I know that you're doing all these things for the betterment of everyone. Yes, it's ugly. Yes, it's despicable. But underneath it all, you think it's the best option...or the least worse...to take to keep the peace. You didn't want to launch nuclear missiles at the world to destroy it again. You only needed them to pacify those you saw as a threat to the weak and the innocent."
A bitter snicker. "Weak, yes. Innocent? Hardly."
"Still, you try to protect them...even if they never asked for it."
"Now you're seeing things for how they really are."
"The same exists on Remnant," Weiss croaked forlornly. "It's not a perfect world. Indifference, bigotry, injustice...they still exist. Sometimes, Huntsmen aren't welcomed by those who need their help the most."
Snort. "Did they teach you that in class?"
"I saw it with my own eyes," she countered. "When my father needed Huntsmen to fulfill what our army could not, he'd hire them. Then he'd dispose of them like a rag. I've seen men and women devoted to their causes, to their advocacies, left to hang after they've served their purpose."
"If that's what you saw growing up, then why'd you even bother to become one?"
"For the same reasons I believe you had when you signed up to be a Desert Ranger." She saw his face change and his knuckles harden. "I wanted to be a Huntress so I could help people. To show the world that a Schnee is not some corporate monster that didn't care for its own workers. To prove to my father that I could be successful in a different way. I didn't want to be a hero, I just wanted to undo the wrongs my father did..."
"... Some wrongs can't be undone," Six echoed.
Weiss wanted to cry again. Because it was true.
"... But that don't mean you can't make up for 'em," he remarked softly. "Your old man...knew what he wanted from the beginning, huh."
She shook her head bitterly. "... I thought he cared. As a child, I didn't know better. All those birthday parties, those recitals, the events and the galas...all the attention that people gave me...just to hide the fact that everything was just lip service."
"What did he do to you?"
It took her a long, painful moment to reply. "... On my tenth birthday, my father finally admitted to my mom why he really involved himself with my family. He missed the big dinner, she got mad, he finally snapped. It was the first time I saw him for who he really was...how much value he really saw in us as a family... How petty things like my birthdays and my recitals were...nothing but a 'damn fucking charade.'"
"... What about your mother?"
She responded with an almost defeated shrug. "She...did her best to cope. First, it was separate lunches and dinners, opposite balconies at my recitals, a glass of wine here, a glass of wine there. Then it was no dinners, no recitals, a bottle of wine here...and... She wasn't the same after..."
He exhaled loudly. "Your siblings?"
She bit her lip and shook her head. "Winter had had enough. She was willing to be disowned... Instead, her birthright was passed to me and she went and joined the Atlas military. Whitley, on the other hand..."
"You talk a lot about your older sister. But I don't hear the same for your little brother."
"I'm sorry, I... Whitley and I aren't...very close. He's been...He's just been..."
"He's not like you, in't he? Actin' more like his old man, treatin' you the same, seein' the world the way your old geezer does, huh."
Weiss's tears poured anew.
Six exhaled. "Look, I ain't gon' tell you how much you hurt a lot o' people by runnin' off an' dealin' with how hurt you are."
She snapped her head at him in shock. "I didn't—"
"Yes, you did," he deadpanned. "The way you're actin', the way you see the world, the way you think that your way of dealin' with things is the best way o' dealin' with things. You, your sister, your mother...y'all busy mopin' over your own issues that you forget there's a bunch more folks who needed you the most."
"I didn't realize..."
"Course you didn't. But I don't blame you. At your age, you sometimes get so caught up that you don't realize what's goin' on around you...and that what you're doin's actually causin' more harm than good."
"We just wanted to help."
"I know," he sighed. "I know. Your hearts're in the right place. But sometimes, you gotta let people like us do the work...even if it costs lives... You know that, right? You ain't stupid, kid. I know you know that. Hyper, too. Blondie, even. Hell, y'all pro'lly don't want to admit it but sometimes people gotta die for others to live. All you can do is hope that you saved the right people...and live with the consequences if they don't turn out the way you thought they would."
Weiss was startled when she felt his finger wipe her cheeks dry.
"There's some really long lonesome roads I've walked, sweetie," he said with a slight trembling hoarseness. "You'd think there's an end to it but a million miles on, twenty years down the line, and you find that you're still walking it."
She took his hand. "Then maybe you don't have to walk those roads alone."
He chuckled quietly. "You could barely manage half a mile on the interstate without bitchin' and moanin'."
The heiress began to crack a smile up to her tear-streaked cheeks. "True, I bitch and moan. But I don't give up. And neither do the rest of the, ahem, New Vegas Wonder Kids."
Former Major Theodore Vickers laughed softly. "Well, you little shits never do let up, after all. And, you know, that really ain't a bad thing."
The sun set an hour ago, bathing the entire region in darkness with Jacobstown being the only source of light around. Blake used both the commune's lights and the stars overhead to move around out here. Crunching through piling snow was proving more difficult than bearable; her combat boots kept the moisture out of her feet but she could feel the damn cold seeping through the leather.
"Damn it, Weiss," she groused. "Why'd you have to scamper off?"
The blue lights had since stopped, making her worry. Blake did her best not to lose sight of her destination. Whatever hiking trail existed on this side of Mount Charleston had since been eroded by years of neglect and the only traversable paths were way too precarious. But then again, Weiss somehow managed to get this far without falling off the edge or sliding down the steep snow-covered slopes.
Low rumbling.
Blake gripped onto the low-hanging branch she leapt onto, focusing her hearing to better pick up the noises that were sounding a lot like Weiss's glyphs.
Cracks.
Timbre breaking.
Wind whistling.
The cat faunus shivered upon being pelted by conifer needles, pine cones, dead leaves, and bits of snow thrown around by the sudden gale sweeping across the mountainside. Now the lights were back but with greater intensity. If that was really Weiss, then she was most probably exhausting her Semblance. Which was not a good thing out here. Especially in the physical condition they were in.
Blake grit her teeth as she pushed through the woods, leaping between the trees, baiting her breathe at how fickle some of these low-hanging branches were. Several painstaking minutes later, she made it to her destination: an open glen that looked like it had just been carved up. And in the middle of it was Six and Weiss...and a giant glistening metallic construct bending its knee as a knight would to his liege.
"What the...?"
The golem—as best she could describe it—stood to its full height as Weiss, breathing heavily with her legs actually shaking, turning to face Six.
He whistled. "Sweet Lord, Snowball."
"You...you like it?"
"As long as it ain't gon' chop my damn head off, I'm buyin' it."
Weiss chortled weakly. "For you, I'll adjust the price. I'm going to need...a payment of one good, replenishing meal...and a whole day in a warm bed..."
The Courier moved to quickly catch her before she tumbled into the snow, her massive frost giant dissipating into thousands of tiny snowflakes that vanished with the wind. "Easy there, now."
Blake sat in the underbrush, biting her lip to fight the cold biting into her skin.
"What the fuck are you starin' at, Kit?" he barked. "Help me out here!"
Okay, one: how the fuck did Six find out she was here? In fact, how does he do that? How does he figure out where someone is, how he can spot an ambush before it could happen, how he could expose targets that were seemingly unseeable? Two: what the hell is that giant shimmering thing standing in the middle of the glen? Did Weiss actually summon that? Three: what was that loud hissing she was hearing? It sounded a lot like a bunch of barking rattlesnakes galloping down the mountain.
Six snapped his head in her direction. "Blake! Eyes up! We got night-stalkers!"
And now things were definitely much worse.
It had to be the modifications.
It definitely had to be whatever cybernetic surgeries or augmentations that enabled Six to single her out from the darkness.
Blake couldn't help but wonder, thirty-seconds into the fight with the large pack of half-coyote, half-rattlesnake mutant hybrids. The notion of the Courier being a 'synthetic human' with enhanced reflexes and deadly precision was becoming more believable the more she saw him in action. The brutish strength to crush a whole skull with his bare hands, the steadfastness to stonewall solid blows that would have easily knocked down a giant, and the way he would rapidly pick out the most well-concealed targets.
It had to be this supposed 'assisted targeting system.' And maybe more...
Then the cat faunus remembered that she was currently fending off a pack of hungry predators. She was pushed to her limit trying to counter these nightmares that were about as deadly as Grimm. Not to mention they were as agile as she was and their venom could kill anything in minutes. She had to bounce between her shadow clones to dodge their bites while relying on her bulky Californian carbine to pick away at the damn things because Gambol Shroud was about as useful as a back-up bladed chain at this point.
"Get Weiss out of here!" the Courier barked, reloading his revolver in bare seconds as he trudged over the cadavers of three large night-stalkers. "I'll handle the rest!"
"Be careful!" the cat faunus hollered, emptying her second clip and switching to Gambol Shroud as she hurried over to where the heiress was laying. "Damn it, Weiss! Why're you out cold!?"
Six snorted. "'Cause she tuckered herself out, that's why."
POW! PKOW!
Blake glanced up to see another dead mutant tumble into the snow, sliding to a stop at the tip of her boot. It unnerved her still how such creatures could exist. A mix between two predators to create one hybrid monstrosity that was about as lethal as cazadores.
"Where are they coming from?" she wondered aloud.
"Caves at the peak."
Kick. Yelp. Crunch.
Another one bit the dust with its head brutally crushed under the heel of Six's boot. "What are you lookin' at!? Get Snowball outta here!"
The cat faunus flinched when he opened fire again. Maybe it was her body poorly adapting to the cold or her unbalanced hearing or the fact that Six chambered his rather loud guns with heavy, hard-hitting, specially hand-crafted magnum rounds; either way, the discharge of Six's revolver so close to her stung her ears and made it difficult to concentrate. It was as bad as when he shot the Marked Men back at the Divide...
"Focus, Blake, focus," she whispered to herself as she hefted Weiss's arm over her shoulder and wrapped her arm around her waist, dragging her away from the glen as fast as she could.
"Alpha on your six!" the Courier hollered. "Hit the dirt!"
She dropped to the snow before she could register his command. And a large shadow—almost reminding her of an alpha beowolf—passed over them, landing with an aggravated noise into the snow. It then rounded towards her with its serpentine eyes and massive King Taijitu-like fangs. Then it lunged at them faster than she anticipated.
Blake acted quickly, dropping a free hand to her hip until she felt the grip of a sidearm. Without thinking much of it, she whipped out her flare gun and squeezed.
Burning phosphorous burst forth, twisting wildly and missing her target completely. But it was enough to startle the alpha night-stalker and throw it off-balance, its fangs missing her and Weiss by inches. And though she couldn't see much because of how bright it was, she did hear the noise of what followed.
Yelp. Crunch. Hiss. BANG!
"Gah! Son of a bitch!"
Blake slowly turned her head to see Six pull the eviscerated head of the mutated half-coyote, half-rattlesnake off his arm. Then she saw the fangs that had gone through the leather of his coat, sunken deep into his skin...
"Oh gods, Six!"
"I'm fine, Kit," he grunted.
"No, you're not! The venom—"
"I said, I'm fine. Calm your tits." He then knelt down and withdrew a plastic tube from one of the satchels on his harness along with some large gourd seeds that he quickly crushed before rubbing onto the bleeding bite mark on his arm. "This is how you do it."
And Blake saw that he did. Then again, it was difficult to doubt Six when it came to sticky situations like this...unless he was drunk. But that did not mean he couldn't suck the venom out of a wound.
"You're bleeding," she remarked.
"I know," he grunted, spitting out the night-stalker's poison. "I should really teach you kids how to do this properly."
Six returned with Weiss and Blake just as a super-mutant patrol was going to head out to investigate the apparent anomaly.
The Courier continued to shoulder the unconscious heiress over his back all the way to the medical ward in the lodge where Doctor Henry had been waiting with a reasonably anxious Ruby and Yang. Interestingly, Syrup was very docile, even without Velvet running her hand over the back of the infant deathclaw's head. Though, it was probably because someone had injected the damn thing with a sedative strong enough to put knock out a horse or twelve.
Blake staggered in after him and promptly dropped onto one of the folding chairs.
"We got hit by night-stalkers," she reported dryly.
"Oh gods, have you been bitten!?" the reaper gasped.
"I wasn't. But Six was."
"How long ago was it?" the physician asked.
"Dealt with it," the Courier grunted, showing the strips of stained cloth wrapped around his forearm. "Classic snakebite tourniquet."
Yang hurried over to the heiress lying on the gurney. "What about Weiss?"
"She'll be fine, Blondie. I think. She's just tired."
"Anything we should know?" asked Doctor Henry.
Six waved. "Exhaustion. She tuckered herself out so you don't have to stick her with anything. How's JNPR doing?"
"They're upstairs," Velvet said.
"Everything's fine over here," Ruby quipped, her cheeks slightly going a little red. "Honest. Nothing wrong whatsoever."
He didn't believe that one bit. "... Right."
Six returned to his room more exhausted than he thought he would be. He withdrew the moonshine kit from behind the dresser and was pleased to find his concoction ready for consumption. The alcohol smelled strong and he was already close to salivating at the taste.
Cass sure as hell makes some damn good shit. He emptied the canister into a metal cup and took a whiff of his drink. She sure as hell makes some damn good stuff... Cass... Hope you finally got that heart surgery you needed... Maybe a liver transplant too, with all the whiskey in California you're downing.
He caught his reflection in the window.
Lookin' like shit there, Theo. Mind if I have a drink?
Why, don't mind if I do.
The Courier toasted to himself. "Bottoms up."
He brought the cup to his lips...
...taking in a strong whiff...
...anticipating the taste...
...some good booze to cap off the day...
"... Nothing but a 'damn fucking charade.'"
Six breathed deep and stared at the dark liquid sloshing in his cup.
"First, it was separate lunches and dinners, opposite balconies at my recitals, a glass of wine here, a glass of wine there."
Okay, so maybe he wasn't that thirsty. But he still could use a drink, right?
"Then it was no dinners, no recitals..."
He was never an alcoholic to begin with, only picking up the habit during the Desert Rangers' war with the Legion.
"...a bottle of wine here...and..."
He never anticipated it to take over much of his life. And while it led to some poor decisions, it did keep him in control of himself. At least, that's what he had been constantly telling himself for the past twenty years.
"She wasn't the same after..."
The thought of having a drink right now was starting to leave a bad taste in his mouth.
"We just wanted to help."
The cup had inched farther from his chin, now pressed against his chest as he began to remember things he did not want to remember.
"Then maybe you don't have to walk those roads alone."
Former Major Theodore 'Courier Six' Vickers put his moonshine down on the table and sat on his bed deep in thought, his craving for alcohol gone and his hands wrapped tightly around each other to stop the shaking.
Weiss woke up uncharacteristically late today. But it was okay; she needed the rest after the absolute stupidity she forced herself through the previous night. What in the world was she thinking going out there in the cold by herself? To train? To exercise her Semblance? To master her hereditary gift at the expense of her already weakened body, further strained by the uncomfortable mountain chill and the stresses of trekking across the Mojave Wasteland?
She was an idiot! If she could slap herself, she would gladly do so. In fact, she would do that right now! But then again, that was a stupid thing to do in itself so instead pulled on her hair in frustration.
"Bestie!"
"Ice Queen!"
"Finally, you're up."
Weiss regarded her teammates. Oh, how much she chastised herself for worrying them so much. Just look at them arrayed tiredly over the folding chairs here in the medical ward. The heiress ought to have been ashamed of herself for making her friends put themselves through such uncertainty and inner turmoil because of her stunt.
Here was Ruby hugging her and expressing how much she was relieved that her partner was fine. And Yang sat there with her arms sluggish, smiling weakly and trying to come up with an unused pun to alleviate the mood. Blake appeared to have spent the entire night reading the countless medical texts on the bookshelves, if only to stay awake.
"Good morning, Miss Schnee," greeted Doctor Henry from the doorway. "I see your condition has improved."
"It has. Thank you."
"Oh, no need to thank me. I wasn't the one who dragged you down from the mountains."
The heiress winced. Right. It was Six. Everything she said to him, everything he said to her... The memories of their time spent sharing so much about themselves to each other returned to her in full and she almost shot out of the gurney in worry.
"Is he alright? How is he feeling?"
"The same as he often is. Though, a bit more winded but nonetheless as healthy as you are."
But Weiss was not too healthy at the moment. Did she push him too hard? Did she cause him to exhaust himself to dangerous levels? Did she endanger his safety? "Is he feeling ill or...?"
The physician chuckled. "Ah, I seem to have misspoken. Major Vickers is tired and prefers not to be disturbed for the next few hours or so."
"But—"
"Now, now, Miss Schnee. It'd be best if you let your legal guardian rest. He needs it."
"I see. If I may, can I see him as soon as he's able? I need to...I need to apologize."
The blonde snickered. "Why don't you rehearse your apology right here? Not that we're a little peeved you went and pulled a Blakey on us."
Her partner rolled her eyes as she flipped through the pages of a medical journal on vasectomy. "Very funny, Yang. And don't worry, Weiss. I'm not going to ream for you going out on your own out there."
"Yeah, bestie," her sister quipped, pouting first before suddenly beaming. "I forgive you, by the way."
Weiss soured her look. Then softened it. And finally cracked a small smile. "Right. Um, as a rehearsal then, I would say... I'm... I'm..."
Yang clapped her on the shoulder while Ruby cupped both her hands, both sisters grinning. Blake glanced over mimicking the same face the heiress had.
"I'm sorry."
"We forgive you," the other three chorused.
One warm group hug later, Doctor Henry cleared his throat and asked, "By the way, which one of you is nearing her birthday?"
Team RWBY raised their brows.
"If you must know," the physician continued. "Someone made a birthday cake last night. It's still in the kitchen, assuming no one else either ate it or threw it away."
"I don't know if the calendar here's the same as ours back home," Yang carefully worded. "But I don't think we're celebrating. At least not yet. Maybe team JNPR?"
Ruby shook her head. "I don't think so. Jaune showed me their team calendar and their birthdays were months ago. Velvet?"
"No," Blake said. "Hers was at the start of the year. Perhaps one of yours, doctor?"
Doctor Henry shook his head. "Super-mutants rarely commemorate milestones in their lives, present or past, much less remember them."
"Who baked the cake?" Weiss inquired.
"Can't say yet," he answered. "But what I can say is that the best chefs we have can only cook meat and vegetables. The best baker we have has just come back from patrol and the most he could do are muffins...or I assume they're supposed to be muffins. A noble effort, to put it kindly. Then again, the one in the kitchen right now seems like a noble effort."
The blonde turned to her teammates. "Want to check it out?"
"Let's," the heiress intoned, sliding off the bed. "I'm done laying down, anyway."
Sure enough, a very unkempt, uncomfortably disheveled, and rather awkward team JNPR-S was also at the kitchen with Velvet. And they were huddled over the mystery cake. Said mystery cake was indeed a noble effort albeit a mediocre, if not terrible, creation. Unusual shape of the bread, uneven layers of icing, and a message written on top that looked like it had been scribbled by either a toddler or someone with really big, uncontrollable fingers.
"Doesn't look too bad," Nora remarked with Syrup sniffing at the dessert.
"I swear we didn't make it," Jaune insisted. "It was here when we got here."
"Okay, what happened to you guys?" Yang chirped. "You look like you had a massive workout or something."
"Long story," Ren muttered with an almost haunted look.
Pyrrha opted to hide her face behind her hair.
Meanwhile, Velvet cut a slice off the cake for Ruby to taste test. It wasn't too bad, she said. In fact, it was actually pretty good. Decent, at best. Of course, being the one with a sweet tooth, the reaper did mention that there was a lot of sugar in it.
Weiss, however, hovered over the cake, reading and re-reading the greeting sloppily written on the top. And her mouth slowly curled into a smile. A wide smile. Even as her lips began to quiver and her eyes began to water, she still kept that smile.
"Whoa, um, Weiss?"
"You okay there, Weiss?"
"Yoo-hoo, Ice Queen?"
The heiress sniffled and wiped her tears. "I'm fine. Just something in my eye."
Glances went around with the others confused as to why she was beaming so much while crying at the same time. But Weiss didn't care, even with Ruby giving her a slice of cake, Blake giving her a knowing look, and everyone else wondering why the heiress was acting a little weirdly.
Omake 1
What the hell is that racket?
Even though his suite was across the lodge, he thought to take a peek and see if the other half of the Vegas Wonder Kids weren't tearing things apart. So he detoured on the second floor towards team JNPR-S's room. And even before he rounded the corner leading into the corridor, he could hear the muffled screams, hoots, and pained grunts that made the neighboring super-mutants move a few rooms away.
Goddamn it, what are those little shits doing now?
By the time he reached their door, the ruckus had died down.
How convenient. "Kids?"
Rumble, thud, muffled giggles and a bunch of other noises.
Okay, screw knocking. I'm coming in hard. You kids aren't going to be hiding any more bullshit from me. Six anticipated the door to be locked so he unlocked it with the spare key Marcus provided him because even the super-mutant leader understood that team JNPR-S tended to go off the rails without proper supervision. And that was what he expected when he got a glimpse into the room...
"Alright, what the hell are y'all..."
...and was greeted by an unnecessary carnal display.
Oh for fuck's sake.
"Six!" Nora shakily greeted, her grin stretching way too much. "Y-you should've knocked, y'know!"
"Oh my!" Pyrrha stammered, redder than she had ever been.
The Courier dropped his face into his palm. "Jesus Christ, Lord Almighty..." Don't tell me. Please, God, don't tell me what I don't want to hear.
"Um, we can explain!" Pancake stammered, trying to hide evidence of their bullshittery with her petite form...which was unfortunately stripped down to a thin undershirt and shorts.
Six turned to an equally underdressed Sparta only to find her too catatonic to speak. Most probably because the other two boys in the room were busy trying to regain whatever modesty they had lost in whatever the hell they were doing. Which the Courier hoped was not what he thought they were doing.
Clothes everywhere? Beddings tossed around? Pillows over their crotches? Smell of sweat and shame?
"Kids. Were you all...fucking each other?"
Team JNPR, as a whole, drowned in a sea of embarrassment as they stuttered mortified denials. It was a mess of four voices scrambling to explain why two of them were butt-naked and the other two were close to being butt-naked.
Then Nora loudly screeched, "We're playing Strip Caravan!"
Six saw the other three vehemently agree. Not that he didn't believe them but so far, the room didn't smell like bodily fluids...yet.
"Really! We were just playing Caravan with extra rules," Pancake continued. "Pyrrha and I teamed up, boys versus girls 'cause girls rule! We've been on a winning streak lately so..."
The Courier did not feel any more relieved by that explanation. "Strip...Caravan? As in Strip Poker?"
"No, silly," drawled the ginger. "Strip Caravan. Where if you lost the round, you strip! I mean, it was so~o boring with just poker chips and whatever stuff we had so we made it more exciting."
"And they all agreed to your idea?"
"Oh, no. It was Pyrrha's."
Six turned to the aforementioned redhead very unsubtly admiring the sweaty, meager abs of her partner.
Nora started timidly poking his arm. "So, um, Six? If you don't mind...?"
Perhaps it was the humidity in the room or the smell of sweat. Or maybe it was the stress that he was getting from having to deal with this shit because right now, he was getting a new headache.
Omake 2
Easy now, easy now...
'Happy'
Good, good. So far, so good.
'10'
Nice, big numbers...
'Birtd'
"Shit. I fucked up." Damn it! You can't get your hands to stop shaking, you dumb fuck!
Six hissed and growled and almost tossed the icing spatula against the wall.
Get a grip, man! You're smart, you can figure something out. Remedy this shit.
"Yeah, I can remedy this..."
The Courier ran his hand over his oily, unkempt hair as he read through what he had written so far. It was...not bad by his standards. It looked pretty average, almost the same as most any cake baked by any capable wastelander. Or so he thought.
Looks like absolute shit. I'm not a baker, damn it. "Just fix this, Theo. Come on. Think o' somethin', for the love o' God."
'Happy 10 Birtd'
"I got it." I think I got it. Fuck it, ten plus eight is eighteen. Good enough.
He picked up the spatula and began squeezing again, this time forcing a cross right next to the big large zero he painted. Then as he was finishing adding in the small number eight, he realized that he could have just easily transformed the zero into an eight.
"Oh, goddamn it." And somehow, I convinced that crazy brain-in-a-piss-jar to rename himself Zero instead of O.
Vickers seethed at himself. He was almost done here; just persevere for a bit more. Like, for crying out loud, it was almost dawn, he was even more tired, and the withdrawal from the alcohol abstinence was kicking in harder than brahmin hooves to the gonads.
"Okay. That's it. That should do it."
He read the greeting: 'Happy 10+8 Birtdhay!'
Good enough. "Great. I just need a candle."
As he dug through the cupboards for a candle, he noticed something. His hands were covered in icing. No wonder they were sticky.
Hang on.
He ran his hand through his hair again and realized to his dismay that he just rubbed icing over his scalp. Not to mention the stuff painted all over his hairy arms, his rolled up sleeves, and even on his pants. He was sticky and sugary all over.
Ah, hell! Ants are going to have a field day with me.
Six eventually did find a candle and plopped it on top of the zero he wrote on the cake top. Seemed like there wasn't much anything else to add to that. Except clean up the mess he made in here in the kitchen.
A rather big mess considering this was his fourth and only considerably successful attempt at baking.
Fuck it. Fuck it! I'm done. This is good enough. I'm fucking out o' here, holy shit. I've had a long day; I had to deal with a kid with daddy issues and kids who were playing a game they weren't supposed to be playing. Lily can clean all this shit up. I'm done here.
As he stormed back upstairs to his suite, he passed by the medical ward where he could see Ruby and Yang snoozing on folding chairs next to the bed that Weiss was on. Blake was awake though, apparently reading up on the male anatomy; she caught him staring. The Courier gestured at her to zip her mouth to which she slowly nodded.
If I ever meet Schnee Senior, I'm sure as hell going to chop his nut-sack off and feed it to him 'fore I blow his brains out with a super-wadcutter.
ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: August 6, 2020
LAST EDITED: October 24, 2020
INITIALLY UPLOADED: October 24, 2020
NOTE: Ah, hell. This chapter went on for a bit longer than I wanted to. But at least, I got some things out of the way.
I have friends who have had some serious issues with not just their fathers, but both parents. I was even present more than once to see how these issues pan out. I can say that it's not a household I'd want to stay in for long. And to be honest, it's a really sad affair to witness. Even more sad when you know that the most you can do is to be there for the person.