"Until we are able to make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our life and you will call it fate."

- C.G. Jung


Blake muffled a groan, letting her bag fall from her hand to slump against her bed and then fell back onto it herself, sluggishly lifting an arm to drape over her closed eyes. Classes were over for the day, and she was exhausted.

Elsewhere in the room her teammates chatted excitedly, though they'd just finished going through the exact same classes she had. The difference was that they would be spending the night drinking soda, eating junk food, and playing games with all their friends. Blake, on the other hand, would be nervously hiding in the library.

She couldn't complain. It was much better than she'd dared hope for less than a week ago, waking up to a team that knew the truth.

Or, well, not the entire truth…

And that was a problem, wasn't it? She really was grateful beyond what words could convey that her team was willing to lie to Perseus for her — that even Weiss had decided to trust her in the end. But she didn't deserve that trust, because she was still lying. She was still letting them believe she was just the daughter of the leaders of Menagerie, and that was why she had to run.

She wondered if Weiss would have trusted her if she knew how many uniforms bearing her family's snowflake she'd drenched in blood.

Perseus was just as guilty, of course, but it's not like there was proof of that — or that Blake was crazy enough to try and blackmail the man, or that it even changed anything about what Blake herself had done.

Groaning, Blake dragged herself out of bed. As much as she wanted to lay there forever, that would lead to all but certain death. Scooping up her bag, she moved to stand when there was a sudden rapping on the door.

She paused, but before she could so much as register the event Ruby was already at the door with a flutter.

"Percy!"

Blake froze.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she understood Ruby's greeting for what it was. She'd shouted out his name and tackled him into the hallway, buying Blake precious seconds of warning. Glancing to the window frantically, she knew that those seconds would do her no good. The angle from the hallway didn't let him see her on her bed, but that would change if she got up and went for the window.

Glancing at the clock, Blake felt like pulling out her hair.

15:12

It was only three! She'd been in the room for not even five minutes! There was still almost an hour before the party was supposed to start, and she knew Yang had told him the party was at 4:00.

So why the hell was he here an hour early?

Yang hopped down from her bunk and briefly rested a hand on Blake's arm, shooting her a confident smile. They couldn't speak with him so close, but the gesture conveyed more than words could in that moment.

Blake swallowed, but nodded. She'd be fine. Yang would make sure she'd be fine.

She really wished she believed it.

"Percy!" Yang moved to greet him with the expected amount of enthusiasm, and Weiss perked up from her own bed with a surprised smile — and a worried glance towards Blake. "You're early!"

Blake made her best attempt at sinking into her bed as Perseus entered the room. The others all thought there was a good chance he wouldn't recognize her if they just pretended nothing was wrong.

Blake knew that wasn't a possibility.

His eyes scanned the room as he indulged Ruby — who was doing her best to distract him but failing horribly — with a smile, reaching down to gently tousle her hair. It wasn't something she normally put up with, but she did this time on the off-chance it'd distract him enough that he'd fail to recognize Blake.

It didn't.

Blake was rooted to the spot for the moment their eyes met, her sitting on her bed and him at the entrance to their dorm room. His eyes bore into hers — no, into her — and Blake would later swear they were glowing an iridescent blue. A near imperceptible raise of the eyebrow was all the evidence that he'd noticed her at all, and then he'd moved on.

Blake remembered to exhale a moment later.

"I got out of a meeting I had with Ozpin early," he explained easily. "Not much else I have to do here, so decided I might as well pop by ahead of time."

A short meeting. A short meeting was the difference between Blake continuing her life at Beacon and being dragged back to her old life. She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry, so she settled with sitting as still as she could.

"Oh!" Ruby bounced on the balls of her feet. "Percy, this is our teammate, Blake! Blake, this is Percy!"

We've met, she dare not say.

He offered her an icy thin smile, and again their eyes met. Again, Blake froze.

"Pleasure to meet you."

What?

He was playing along? Why? What game was he playing? Why not just out her now?

"Likewise," Blake rushed to reply.

The predator's eyes were torn from her own when Ruby began poking around him, dashing around and intensely inspecting various parts of his body, even lifting his left arm to peer under it for a moment.

"Uh… Ruby?"

"Where are the sweets?" the birthday girl demanded, kneeling down to his pant leg and shaking it as if a deluge of candy was hiding inside.

Perseus laughed as if he hadn't had people killed for less, which then turned to a decent imitation of an abashed chuckle as he lifted a hand up to rub his hair with fake nerves. "I may or may not have forgotten to pick them up from the kitchens?"

Ruby gaped at him in soul crushing disappointment, and Yang laughed at the pain on his face. That, Blake could believe. Even the most dangerous man in the world — which Blake was firmly convinced Perseus was — could be distraught at the sight of a kicked puppy.

Belatedly, Blake took a moment to wonder when Beacon's kitchen staff had started taking custom orders. Traitorously, her hand ghosted over her pocket where his gift still rested. When his tips were larger than their salaries, she dully acknowledged. A lifechanging amount of lien tossed away casually — literally pocket change. It wasn't hard to see how some could get lost in that.

"I can go grab it, but I'll need some help carrying some of the stuff back," he told them, and Blake knew what his next words would be before he said them. "Would you mind coming with, Blake? I already know everyone else, and I'd like to get to know the whole team."

If the other three in the room hadn't been on edge, it might've passed for the innocent request it'd been phrased as. As it was they froze, suddenly aware that their hopes he wouldn't know who she was were out the window — as was any hope he'd leave her alone of his own volition.

She may as well get this over with, Blake decided. All this effort had been to avoid his attention in the first place. Now that she had it, making life difficult for him would only end poorly. Her only hope now was to play along and do whatever he wanted in the hopes she could convince him to keep her alive and not a prisoner of the White Fang. It was a pipe dream, but she might be able to convince him she was more useful elsewhere.

She opened her mouth to accept.

"Blake hasn't been feeling well," Yang beat her to the punch, stepping forwards. "She should rest. I can help, though."

"I'll help as well." Weiss stood from her bed. "Blake is feeling unwell and it's for Ruby's party, but I'm sure the two of us will suffice."

Blake smothered a whimper when his eyes narrowed, still focused on her. She shrank in on herself.

Not my idea, she wanted to scream.

If that didn't make it obvious the rest of her team knew, she didn't know what would. And now, worse, Yang and Weiss would be speaking with him for however long it took them to get to the kitchens and back. Alone.

Blake considered the odds of him not revealing her past in the White Fang, and then when that brief mental calculation was done considered her chances of escaping Beacon while they were gone.

Well look at that, same result for both. At least the situation wasn't complicated.

So she sat there and tuned out the rest of the world as Perseus apparently agreed, leaving with the other two. Ruby came and sat by her on her bed, but Blake remained staring at the wall. Maybe if she stayed really, really still, he'd leave her alone.

Yes, that was why she refused to move. Because it was the best chance of survival — not because she didn't think she could control herself if she did.

And however miniscule the odds of staying incredibly still was to endear her to him, when the alternative was breaking down into sobs…

Blake refused to move.


Just over an hour later the party was in full swing, and Blake was at the end of her rope. Not of patience, but of sanity.

She really, really couldn't take it anymore.

The three had returned fifteen minutes after they'd left with an assortment of junk food and cheerful smiles, and not a word about the beowolf in the room. None of them had so much as given her a nod to tell her they remembered she existed in the first place.

She'd been left to agonize over what would happen. Had Perseus revealed she was in the White Fang, or was he playing some other game? Was he going to snatch her up when the night was over, or had Yang convinced him not to? Or had they left the subject alone entirely, deciding to skirt around the subject at the price of Blake's freedom?

She didn't allow herself to hope, and she wished that whatever he was going to do, he'd just go ahead and do it instead of keeping her waiting.

And so, almost a half hour into the party, Blake hadn't moved from the same spot on her bed.

Perseus sat across the room with Weiss on her own bed, Blake's teammate talking animatedly about something or the other — so unlike Weiss except in those moments when she was so enamored with something that she truly let her guard down. Though they were speaking to each other, Perseus' eyes occasionally lingered on the main activity of Jaune, Ruby, Ren, and Yang all fighting each other on a scroll terminal set up in the middle of the room while Pyrrha and Nora cheered on their partners. They all had paper party hats on, at Ruby's insistence — Blake herself had one shoved over her bow, and even Perseus wore one haphazardly tilted on his head.

Suddenly their eyes met, and he shot her a quick wink before turning back to his conversation with Weiss.

Blake flushed and blanched at the same time in a process she was sure did interesting things to her skin tone, quickly diverting her eyes. He'd caught her staring, and not in a way that would have ordinarily had her blushing. Though, his wink certainly hadn't done anything to dispel that notion.

But that wasn't why she'd been staring at him and they both knew it — except, did they? Horrifyingly, she considered the idea that he thought she was checking him out. Her blush darkened. No… surely? But that wink…

She dismissed it. Dangerous and unpredictable he may be, he was far from stupid and her fear was anything but subtle.

That said, if she were propositioning him, she had to admit that the look on Adam's face alone might make it worth it.

Traitorously, she snuck another glance.

Okay, so maybe Adam's reaction wasn't the only thing that'd make a roll in the hay with that worth it-

Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. She wasn't going down that train of thought. In fact, she never had. Never started, never even considered it — that was her story and she was sticking to it and nobody would ever know differently.

"See something you like?"

Blake didn't scream, but it was a near thing. Turning, she dug her fist into Yang's shoulder.

"Ow!" Yang laughed, leaning away and rubbing her arm. "Did I touch a sore spot? Or maybe a sweet spot?" she winked.

"Of course not!" she hissed, glancing to make sure he hadn't noticed and then realizing she was looking at him again and rapidly looking away.

Yang's grin told her her denial fell on deaf ears.

"Hey, no judgement here." Yang raised her hands in surrender. "Not like I don't get it, I've had a crush on him since I was twelve. Him showing up with my uncle and puberty hitting were basically the same event for me."

"You had a crush on him," Blake stressed, looking into her partner's eyes. "Had. Right?"

"Have, had, I don't get caught up in the details." Yang grinned teasingly, and Blake felt like it should've been the other way around. Would've, with any normal pair of teenagers. Yang shrugged. "Not like it matters that much. It's just a crush. Once upon a time if you asked me I might've thought there was a chance there, but I'm not naïve enough that I don't know that that's not happening now — it'd be too weird. So if by crush you mean I'm actively gunning for him then no, but I can't say I wouldn't jump at the opportunity to jump on his opportunity."

Blake buried her face in her hands and smothered a scream for the umpteenth time that day. The subject matter was bad enough without Yang's mind-numbingly aggravating sense of humor.

"Oh, don't be such a sourpuss."

Oh, yeah. The other reason she'd been keeping her faunus identity secret from her team. All the cat-based puns Yang wouldn't hesitate to make.

She'd almost forgotten about that one.

Yang's arm wrapped around her shoulder. "You don't need to worry, by the way. I asked Percy about you." Blake froze. "He said he just wanted to talk, but I told him you were uncomfortable and asked him not to approach you."

Blake pulled her face out of her hands and glared at Yang with all the emotion she could muster, hoping she could convey exactly what she was feeling in that moment because she knew words never could.

"I'm dead."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, he agreed. Said he'd leave you alone if you didn't wanna talk."

Blake nearly lost control of her jaw for a moment as she stared at her partner. She… shouldn't dare to hope. She highly doubted he'd just let her prance around the people he was so clearly fond of, and that was before she even considered the circumstances of her leaving the White Fang.

"You're welcome, by the way." Yang's smile was smug. "For being the best partner ever."

Blake's doubt must have been obvious.

"I promise." Yang's voice lowered, making it clear she was being serious. "He won't do anything to you — he won't even come near you until you want him to. I made him promise, and he won't break a promise to me. If he did, he'd have me and Pyrrha to answer to."

She couldn't decide whether to hug her partner or hit her. "You couldn't have told me this an hour ago?" she hissed. "I've been sitting here fearing for my life!"

And she still did. He didn't need to talk to her to ruin her — only talk to Weiss, casually mention she was ex-White Fang, and just like that her life at Beacon would be over.

"Gee." Yang snorted. "Really feeling the gratitude."

Blake wasn't out of the woodworks quite yet, but her relief was still overpowering. She really hated to hope, but now there was a chance she wouldn't have to leave — that she could stay here with her team. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless — one that wouldn't have existed without her partner.

Still stuck in indecision, Blake decided to indulge both of her urges. She hit Yang on the arm again, before wrapping both arms around her partner and burying her face in the crook of her neck.

Blake realized she must've looked like a mess because for once Yang didn't tease her. She just moved her hand from Blake's shoulder to support the back of her head, returning the hug.

But as much as she wished otherwise, they weren't alone and she had to pull back all too soon lest she cause a scene. And despite her partner's assurances and the beginnings of hope flickering within her, that was the last thing she wanted to do in present company.

"Hey," Yang met her eyes when she pulled out of the hug. "Percy didn't say anything, but… do you guys know each other?"

Blake hesitated.

"'Know' is a strong word. We've… we've met, but it's mostly been me just being in the same room as him. We've spoken maybe once or twice."

Yang frowned, and her eyebrows contorted in confusuon. "I don't get it, why were you so afraid he'd turn you in to your parents if he didn't the last time you spoke? You don't have to answer if you don't want to!" she rushed to add, the last time she'd pushed her partner for answers fresh in both their memories.

Blake pursed her lips. She couldn't tell her — couldn't explain the White Fang. She'd lose everything she had. She started to frantically think of an explanation, but stopped herself.

"I… I'd like to take that offer."

Blake could see her partner's disappointment for a split second before it was dozed over by a confident grin. She nudged Blake with her elbow. "Well hey, that's progress."

Blake must have been an open book to Yang today, because the blonde had no trouble spotting her confusion.

"If I'd pressured you into telling me, you'd have lied," she explained. "I'd rather know it's private than be lied to. I am sorry for pushing last time," she added, resting an arm on the other side of Blake's hip. It was a hug, but not one that would draw attention if they kept it up for too long. Blake accepted it.

"I'm sorry too." Blake bit her lip. "It was my fault for letting it affect the team."

Yang rolled her eyes and jostled her lightly. "Hey now, I thought we were past that whole lying thing." she smiled to make it clear she was joking. "Neither of us believes that, so let's not pretend like we do. I'd take an apology for putting me on my ass and hitting Ruby, but I can't blame you for wanting to avoid Pyr or Weiss, or how dodgy you acted in Vale — I should've trusted that you had a good reason for that. I didn't, and I'm sorry. I'll be better next time."

Blake looked at her partner with wide eyes. "You… you understand? You don't think I was being paranoid?"

Yang sighed, absently combing some curls out of her hair with her other hand. "I was telling the truth when I said I really like Percy, but that doesn't mean I can't see his flaws," she muttered. "He has his reasons for why he is the way he is, but… did you... did Pyrrha or I ever tell you about the time she was attacked?"

Blake shook her head curiously, suppressing an involuntary shiver. She hadn't heard about this, but she'd pray for whoever was stupid enough to try. She'd seen firsthand what happened when someone Perseus cared about was threatened.

No commander had ever dared to suggest assassinating a member of the Schnee family again.

"It was on Patch," she explained. "A couple months ago. Some guy came into Signal with a gun and a picture of her. He was stopped, but when Percy heard about it…" her arm tightened around Blake. "Half of Patch up and surrounded our house to protect her until Percy got there. There were hundreds of people in the woods around our cabin. People I knew — people that had lived there for years. Cops, firemen, store clerks, businessmen, old women, even some people I recognized from Signal — kids." Blake wrapped her own arm around her partner as she paused to take a deep breath.

"He was convinced someone was behind it. He never told us who, but it was clear he knew." Yang paused again, and Blake hung onto her every breath.

"That was the night Chairman Wolke had a heart attack," she said slowly. Blake's breath caught in her throat. "The night that half the council was removed on charges of corruption. It was the night before Atlas and Mistral went to war. He was still at our house when it happened — we were in our backyard sparring when they called him to declare war."

Blake stayed silent. She wished she had something comforting to say, but the only thing that came to mind was how foolish Wolke had been to target him personally. Perseus was someone who had carved out a reputation as an international crime lord as a teenager. That was not the kind of person you made an enemy of lightly, and that was before taking into account the vast resources at his disposal.

"I haven't told Pyrrha." Yang was whispering now, her voice fragile. "But… I think the entire war started over someone trying to kill her. He flipped Remnant on its head — got rid of the council of Vale and defeated the largest military on the planet — because of what they tried to do to Pyrrha." she took another deep breath. "So yeah, I don't think you're paranoid. I get it. I understand completely. Percy — he has his reasons for being the way he is, and if you're someone he cares about then he'll go to the ends of Remnant for you, but… sometimes even I wonder how many people I walk by on the street would jump if he told them to. I try not to think about it too much. I don't think you were being paranoid if you thought he had a reason to target you. But he won't. Not anymore."

Yang tugged her tighter, and Blake echoed the motion so they were side to side. She couldn't let Yang see how unsurprised she was — it was nothing she hadn't known. Not that story specifically, but how far he'd go. She'd been in the raid to kidnap a Mistrali noble family on his orders when he'd been no older than she was now. She'd seen him kill Sienna and usurp the White Fang — something she now realized Adam had likely gone along with far more willingly than he'd let on, or even planned himself — and she'd seen him plunge a kingdom into a years-long civil war for his own ends. Yang's story was nothing new.

They sat there quietly for some time, Blake struggling to think of a way to distract her partner and Yang cursing herself for sinking the mood even more — hadn't she been trying to convince Blake that Percy was a good person?

"Hey Ruby," their attention was grabbed by the subject of their conversation suddenly raising his voice to be heard over the noise of the room. "you and your team feeling up for a spar?"


Percy sat next to Weiss on her bed, leaning back on his hands with a relaxed smile while the girl told him about her time at Beacon. They'd only been here a month but he'd have thought it had been a year by how many stories she had.

His gaze wandered around the room as he listened with one ear, humming and nodding along to show he was paying attention. The rest of them were playing a fighting game on a console laid out in the middle of the room, sitting on the floor eating, drinking, and joking. Yang cried out angrily at Ruby, who did her best to imitate an evil laugh that was quickly cut off by something on-screen. Whatever had happened he didn't need to guess at the culprit, because Ruby was wailing on Jaune's shoulder a moment later.

Reminded of the food he'd brought along, he carefully picked up his own paper plate from where it lay on Weiss' bed and forked a piece of ice cream coated blue cake into his mouth. Blue cake, blue cookies, and blue ice cream. He'd been pleasantly surprised the cooking staff at Beacon had agreed to make it for him, but sometimes all it took was asking politely. He'd have to make sure to get them something nice before he left.

Ruby was certainly enjoying her fair share of it, if the blue smudges around her mouth were any indication. Half the cookies were already gone.

Swallowing, he took a moment to reply to a question Weiss asked before looking back at the room at large. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Blake staring and shot her a quick conspiratorial wink. Her nerves were probably frayed, the poor girl. Yang had told him how scared she was that he'd do something to her.

He had to admit he'd been a bit upset to hear that. He didn't think he'd ever been anything but kind to her, and plans aside it was a bit disheartening to hear she clearly had such a low opinion of him.

Alas, it was a reputation he deserved. He probably wouldn't have cared if he were here on business, but he wasn't, he was here to relax and hang out. It reminded him of why he'd spent so long keeping his identities separate — to avoid situations like this.

If Yang wanted him to leave her alone, he would. He still highly doubted he'd be able to convince her to come willingly anyway considering he'd agreed not to threaten her and her opinion of him was apparently that low, so Beacon was the ideal place for her to be. He still wanted to talk to her and ask her why she'd left the White Fang, but that was more for his own curiosity than any real reason and so it was something he could put aside if it meant doing Yang a favor. He'd just have to warn Ren — and Nora — to keep an extra eye on her.

He probably should've been more worried about her hurting Pyrrha or Weiss, but he really wasn't. He'd paid more attention to her than any other member of the White Fang bar Adam, and on the rare occasions she spoke she was always the voice of restraint and non-violence. Whatever her intentions, he knew they weren't mindless violence. That was more Adam's schtick.

The half of his mind that wasn't chatting with Weiss considered how weird it was that Blake had ended up on a team with Yang, Ruby, and Weiss. Though, not that weird, he granted. At least, not enough that it had to be intentional. He didn't know how many students entered Beacon each year, but if Haven was anything to go off it'd be a few dozen — somewhere from 48 to 64. An astronomically low number to defend the kingdoms, and that was before taking into account that most students didn't graduate, or that a large chunk of those who did graduate would die in their first few years. Such was why most of the defenses were left to the military and local militias, he supposed.

Either way, the odds were low but it was far from impossible she end up on a team of students he knew, considering Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were also attending.

"Tell me about your team," he prompted Weiss after she was finished with her latest story. He really was curious to know how such a unique team was working out — both because he cared about the people on the team, and because a group of such strong personalities would be… interesting to see play out.

Weiss smiled proudly. "Ruby is our leader, and while I was upset at first I learned to accept it. There have been hiccups, but…" she lowered her voice, quickly glancing around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them. "I wouldn't trade team 'Ruby' for anything." her cheeks flushed a light red.

Adorable.

"Are teams normally named after their team leaders?" he asked to make conversation, hiding his smile behind a fork-full of cake. He recalled something about Pyrrha's team being named Juniper — the name being the same as Grover's girlfriend's, it was easy to remember — and wondered for a moment if the team leader got to name the team and Ruby had just been that goofily egotistical. He might have to ring her on the side of the head as a favor to Tai, in that case.

"They're not," Weiss answered. "Team names are made of the team member's initials. It's just a coincidence that our team name can be arranged to spell out something that could sound like Ruby."

"Oh?" He hummed, watching Pyrrha have a controller shoved into her hands and nervously take a place in front of the terminal to replace her partner while Ren swapped with his own. "How's that?"

It was simple. Pure. Carefree — innocent.

He craved it.

He was glad Pyrrha and Ren had it — he was glad all of them were able to experience it. Everyone but Blake, that was. He might not have cared for her like he did the rest of her team, but he was still upset she was sitting on her bed with Yang instead of enjoying the party because of him. Percy knew what war did to someone. She, more than any of the others, could use a good dose of carefree fun.

"Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang," Weiss explained, pointing to each of them in turn.

He gently sat down his half-eaten slice of cake on Weiss' bed. He should go. He was an outsider here, and while he'd love to stick around that wasn't fair to Blake. This was hers to enjoy. Ruby might be a bit sad for a few minutes but he could make his excuses and retire to his apartment, content with the knowledge they were having fun. Blake couldn't do the same.

"R.W.B.Y., or 'Ruby'."

He froze.

"What?"

Weiss blinked. "They're made of our initials. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang." she repeated, slightly confused.

"After that," he hissed. If he'd been in his right mind he could've worked out the acronym rather easily.

He was not in his right mind.

"R.W.B.Y." she repeated. "Pronounced as 'Ruby'. That's our team name. I know it's a bit weird and not the correct spelling at all, but-" Weiss' voice faded into the background.

Percy swallowed heavily, his hand falling to clench the paper in his left pocket.

He… knew what RWBY was. He didn't even pretend to consider the odds it was a coincidence — too much lined up, it made too much sense and he knew it was what he'd been looking for. He finally knew what RWBY was, and it was a team of students at Beacon — a team of students he knew.

He forcefully slowed his breathing. He couldn't afford to panic. Not here, and not now. Not with this.

He wanted to leave the room as calmly as possible and come back once he'd been able to spend some time processing the revelation, but right now he knew he had to stay here. Leaving team RWBY was the last thing he'd be doing.

He had to find a way to stay. How could he stay?

Immediately he jumped to a gift for Ruby that would make it so he'd be expected to stay around their team. The dust rounds he'd gotten her after his spar with Qrow wouldn't do it.

He muttered something to Weiss to reassure her he was fine, but internally he was thinking over every gift under the sun.

Training? Yeah, right. That wasn't something he gave as a gift, that was work. He was fine with her thinking he was lame or something, but they'd know something was up if he offered training as a gift — it's not like he'd ever said no to sparring before. More importantly, it wouldn't avoid suspicion from anyone outside of her team.

A settlement, like Pyrrha? That might work, but Ruby wasn't cut out for it. Not that he cared if she did well — he'd burn a settlement if it gave him a reason to attach himself to her team — but she was so clearly not cut out for it that not only would she probably refuse it outright and he'd look like an ass if he pressed, but the gift itself would draw a lot of suspicion. Not only from her and her team, but from everyone else as well. The last thing he wanted to do was draw eyes to her.

A pet? Maybe a horse, or a fish, or some other aquatic animal? Or maybe a ship, or airship or bullhead. He ran through the possibilities rapidly, dismissing them as quickly.

Frantically, he realized he couldn't think of anything. Not a single gift that would give him an excuse to hover in their proximity.

Deflecting another question from Weiss, Percy buried his hands in his pockets. He couldn't think like this. He needed to move — to do something to dispel the injection of energy that sent jitters running through him at 250 miles an hour.

Noticing a round of their game had just come to a close, he said the first thing that came to mind

"Hey Ruby, you and your team feeling up for a spar?"


Hope you all enjoyed! Have to admit this chapter was a personal favorite of mine, along with next chapter. Curious to see how you guys enjoyed it with your perspective.

In other news, my writing has definitely slowed to molasses because everything in my life freeing at once has made it so i can touch grass which makes it much harder to get into the groove with the time i do spend writing. Still got a good few chapters in the tank though, so I should have time to catch up. If not i will go brrrrrr and catch up anyway.

Thanks for all the reviews and feedback :)

Next chapter May 20

(fair warning, it's right in the middle of the weekend before my birthday, so it might come a bit later in the day or early the day after)