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Moving was easy. I didn't have many possessions. None of us really did. All the furniture and whatnots for the new house could be ordered and delivered there. I wouldn't want to move out of this house but I probably never would. That was a grim thought I didn't share with my engagements. It would probably just bring them down. There were several couches. A full kitchen and all its utensils. A desk and chairs for the office annex were delivered. It really didn't take me very much time to settle in and use my own closet. I hardly occupied any space. I had my dress clothes, suit, tie, shoes, slacks, and dress shirt. Then I had my huntsman outfit with the black half-cape. I had several colors of tunic ranging from dark purple, to black, to dark blue, and the lightest being this dark turquoise color. But that was really all the clothes I had to my name.

Besides that there was my weapon. I had a switchblade and a lighter but I threw out my dab rig and torch for concentrates. I was getting psychiatric help for real and I hadn't been locked up despite the fact I'd been totally honest with my psychiatrist, Amanda, and my therapist, Amy. I'd given them the rundown on what was wrong with me and what I could expect.

All I got was:

"Psychiatric hospitals are really more for emergencies and getting you stable fast. You don't really need that and they often drug you up severely. But if I'm going to keep you out of the hospital you have to take your meds and be honest with me. Can you do that?"

And I could.

So I didn't have many possessions. At all. I mean there was my collection in my office but that wasn't something to furnish this place with. Ruby was startled by my total lack. She had a whole toolkit to keep Crescent Rose optimal on top of spare huntsman outfits and other casual clothes. I didn't really have that. My casual clothes were my hunting tunic and baggy pants without the armor. I still looked like a huntsman in that high collared tunic even without my weapon and armor. The heavy boots I wore were a clear give away.

"We need to get you something casual to wear," Weiss insisted. "Even I don't just have dresses. I have sweats, yoga pants, jeans, sweaters, and t-shirts."

"What's wrong with this shirt? It's cotton. It's comfortable."

"You don't even own tennis shoes or slippers. Just those heavy boots."

"What's wrong with my boots?" I asked from the new leather couch on which I lazed in the family room. "I'm comfortable in these things and I know that if I have to, I can crush someone's skull with them."

"Besides the fact that they're on my new coffee table?" I took my feet off the coffee table in the middle of the room. "You can't be comfortable in those all the time. Get some slippers, or sandals, or tennis shoes and I'll let the shirts and pants go."

"I have jeans…" I trailed.

"One pair? I saw that in your closet. Face it. You've gone full hunter with no relaxation. You don't even have pajamas."

"I sleep shirtless in some gym shorts. Are you complaining about that? It's not usually something a loving wife says to their husband. 'Put on more clothes.'"

"You also only have one pair of those gym shorts. You're so military it would make a spartan cringe. It's not like you don't have the money for clothes."

"I've been busy."

"But now you're not."

"Ooh. We should dress him up!" Ruby exclaimed.

"What am I? A doll?"

"It's settled, then," Weiss decided.

"Settled how? Since when are we putting things to votes? That's not allowed. Everyone has to be onboard."

"Get democratized," Ruby informed me with a childish gesture.

"Whatever happened to your onesie?" Weiss wondered. "At least that existed. At least you had it even if it was awful and I hated it and I'm glad you sleep in just a pair of gym shorts."

"Your chest is nice to sleep on," Ruby agreed. "How is it soft and hard at the same time? But you do need more clothes. We aren't hoofing it around Anima anymore and you're not clawing your way back to Vale. You can afford to own things and be okay with that. Let us dress you up."

"Again, like a doll?"

"Yeah but you're our doll," Ruby reached out and poked my nose with her lips. "Please? For me?"

She dropped the big guns on me. I made the mistake of looking her in the eyes and I never stood a fucking chance. I was blown onto my feet with a sigh.

"We don't mean right this minute. Gods above," Weiss intoned.

I plopped back down onto the couch. "You know where to find me."

"You have to teach me that, Ruby," Weiss requested.

"You both do that to me. You looked at me and folded your arms and told me to get a psychiatrist and I did."

"True. But there's something special about the way Ruby says 'please? For me?' Isn't there? She does it to me too. She's like 'I know you like this color of paint for the bedroom but I like this one. Won't you agree to it? For me?'"

Ruby had this look of 'who? Me? I'm not familiar.'

The little devil. She knew. Now she knew that we knew and were on to her.

"As far as I'm concerned you both cheat hard and ruthlessly. How often do you walk around singing in the kitchen while you're making coffee? You cheat. You both do. You both do it as much as you can get away with and that's quite a lot. And what am I supposed to do? I've got nothing. I have neither defense nor offense."

"How is doing things you love cheating? I happen to sing while I'm doing chores. That's for me. If you happen to like it, then that is on you. I am talking about how Ruby actively uses her charms to get us both to do what she wants."

"And I'm just saying you're not innocent. As soon as you found out it turns me on when you sing you started singing at me all the time."

"Okay. I did do that."

"Bangarang. And everyone in this house knows that Ruby just looks up at you with those big silver eyes and asks nicely and gets her wishes granted. Everyone knows that. Especially Ruby. She knows we can't help ourselves and she knows that we know that she knows. But there's nothing to be done. What am I going to do to get what I want?"

"You don't want anything though. You don't really care what color the annex office gets painted. You hardly care what you eat for dinner. You could probably eat the same thing every day without complaint."

"That's exactly what I used to do at Beacon until you moved in with me. I ate the same thing every single day. And you know what? I liked it."

"You're schizophrenic," Weiss indicated. "You have to stop with these mentally unwell behaviors. That's a part of fighting back against your illness. It's not enough to just take the meds."

"Yeah, that's a sign of mental unwellness…" Ruby agreed. "You should eat different things…"

"I'm only schizoaffective if there really isn't an alien, monster, goddess invading my mind. And I do eat different things."

"Yeah. Now that we make you. Not exactly a ringing endorsement that you're going to take care of yourself," Weiss folded her arms.

"How long term am I supposed to be looking to take care of myself?"

Weiss hit me in that darling fashion. Ruby much more aggressively slapped the side of my thigh.

"And you both abuse me," I pointed out.

"Oh shut up."

"Big baby."

"What do you want from me? I get plenty of sleep even though sleep scares the fuck out of me."

"Sometimes you stop breathing…" Ruby trailed. "It scares me. And I wait and I wait for you to breath and I wait way too long too often."

"Sleep apnea. Nothing I can do about that. Mother sends me nightmares."

"Build the wall," Weiss ordered.

"You know what, Weiss?"

"What?"

"You're going to actually piss me off. This isn't as easy as I make it look. My Mommy issues run fucking deep and she is taking this time where I'm not terrified to try and get some leverage. She smells weakness like a fucking shark. Except she swims through the rivers of time."

"You don't make it look easy," Ruby glanced between us. "It looks hard. How are the new meds treating you? I know they've been causing some… problems in the bedroom." Thank you for that emasculation, Ruby. Gods, I know she did her best not to step on my feelings but it was like she slapped me all the harder for how careful she tried to be about it. It was like she ripped my testicles off and stepped on them.

"I feel like I need to cry all the time but I can't. I'm not sure that these are the right batch for me but we still have at least another four weeks to even find that out."

Weiss looked away from me and down at the floor. Ruby reached out and patted my arm.

"You can cry. We won't judge you for crying," Ruby tried.

"You don't get it. I'd love to. But I physically cannot."

"How can we help?" Ruby asked. "You're hurting. It sucks. How can we help you?"

"There's nothing you can do." I threw up one arm in frustration. "There's nothing you can do. It's Atlas all over again."

"Don't leave…" Ruby begged.

"I'm not leaving. But I hate making you feel helpless. All there is for you to do is watch me suffer. I hate that. I hate putting you in that position. It's unfair to you. Either of you."

"And, not to sound like a therapist, but how does that make you feel?" Weiss asked.

"Like I want to kill somebody," I sighed. "I need to find the Engelberts soon and murder them. It'll be satisfying. Like popping a zit. Only they're people."

"Holy shit, Cloud!" Ruby exclaimed. "How can you think that about ending a life?"

"I blame my upbringing and family." I looked over at Ruby's shocked face. "Oh come on. I've been fairly upfront about how homicidal I am."

"At least you're still directing it towards people who deserve it. The Engelberts did try to blow you up," Weiss pointed out.

"True. But that's not why I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill them because I like the art of killing a man. Quit trying to do me that justice. That's not fair on anybody either. It was the same thing with Cinder. Yeah I had a bunch of reasons to do it but at the end of the day I wanted to kill her because I wanted her dead."

"We're going to work on this. Have you told your therapist this at all?" Ruby asked.

"A little. I've been careful to only express homicidal intent in the vicinity of other criminal hunters. But-"

"You're not a criminal hunter!" Weiss threw out in frustration. "You have committed no crimes and the ones you did commit you were pardoned for!"

"But," I pressed on. There she went, trying to do me justice again. "I've mentioned that I like it to her. I like my job. My job is killing people."

"Your job is training other hunters," Weiss corrected.

"Sure. For now. But I keep an eye out for serial killers in Vale and I stop them. And the Councilors or militaries are going to give me another ring. They're going to run into somebody with some power that lets them take over people's minds and spreads like a virus or somebody with hydrokinesis who has no qualms about using it on blood inside people's bodies. They're going to call me up. They're going to order me to take them down. And I'll probably kill whoever they point me at without many questions. And I'll like it. That's the kicker."

"You don't have to like it," Ruby informed me. "You can choose not to like it."

"Oh is it that easy now? Here I've been all worried and all I've got to do is not like it. What an idea? Why didn't I think of that?"

"You posit that you don't choose to like things?" Weiss wondered.

"I didn't choose to love either of you. I just sort of did. And it just sort of worked."

"We worked hard for this trio," Weiss disagreed. "Don't you think?"

"I'm not discounting that. But my feelings were ex nihilo. They only came from me. Do you know what I mean? There has to be a bottom line and my love for you two comes from that place where I can't really question it or choose it. It just comes forward like water from a spring. And it's sort of like asking what is behind all the water coming out. It's just more water, you understand me? My love for you both comes from that place but so does my love of killing people. And yeah, maybe I can blame it on my Mother or father. But I probably shouldn't. It's probably just me."

"How do we stop it?" Ruby asked.

"Stop me from liking my job? Most people don't have that problem. Most people hate their jobs."

"To me, being a huntress isn't about killing people. It's about saving lives. And you've probably saved more than anybody else on the planet. Don't you think that that matters?"

"Weiss? Do you think that I think that that matters?"

"This is going to be horrifically depressing, isn't it?"

"I don't get the spreadsheet on the lives I've saved. Just the one on the lives I've taken. I never see the babies born because of the good I've done in the world. I just know I've taken people out of it, I will continue to take people out of it. And I know that I like taking people out of it. Therefore-"

"Therefore what? Therefore you're a bad person? Therefore you're a criminal?" Weiss wondered.

"Maybe I'm not a criminal or a bad person. But I definitely flirt with it. Don't I? I slide right up and put my arm around her and give her cheek a quick kiss."

"Don't… don't do that," Ruby requested meekly.

"Don't do what?" I demanded like an asshole knowing full well what.

"Don't talk out how you would make love to 'being a bad person,'" Weiss interpreted. "Ruby doesn't like it."

"And you're totally neutral on the subject."

"It makes me uncomfortable as well. If you must know."

"Part of why I did it. I wanted to make you uncomfortable. Get you out of your comfort zone."

"We're not the ones who need to be taken out of their comfort zone. You do. That's part of your battle with your mental illness."

"You know what would make me really uncomfortable and solve this whole dilemma?"

"Oh boy," Ruby muttered.

"Flying at mach one in the direction of my motherfucking Mother. That sounds unpleasant. A face to face encounter with her would rip me right out of my comfort zone."

"You promised you would wait," Weiss reminded me.

"I am waiting. But you want me out of my comfort zone. And I'm telling you what would do that fastest."

"Okay, okay. We've gotten a little sidetracked," Ruby mediated. "What can we do right now to get you out of your mentally unwell funk?"

"I'm really not much in a funk. Sure I'd like to be able to achieve orgasm during sex and breath when I'm sleeping but honestly things are pretty good."

"You said the same thing when you were terrified all the time." Weiss observed.

"But Weiss, I'm just so glass half full. Don't you know that about me?"

"You're going to make me pull my hair out," Weiss informed me.

"Things could be worse is the point," I admitted. "Yeah I'll probably be sent on some brutal missions but it won't be anything I can't really handle. And I'll enjoy it all the while. So why rock the boat? I'll get my chance to kill somebody who deserves it if I just wait."

"Scary…" Ruby seemed bothered. But there wasn't much I could do.

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-WG