Chapter 7 Vale Visit/Diner talks.
"How many times are you going to hit rock bottom?"
I stared blankly forward as the same question just played itself on repeat, the first time I heard it I was too fucked in the head to respond with a cool head.
All that came out was a bunch of slurs, malignant insults that lead to no real harm as it was less directed to the person who asked it but to myself.
God I didn't think I'd hit rock bottom once again after I heard that question, the same question that made me resolve myself to finally make a change to say 'Fuck you' to my first loop and say 'I will make waves or some shit'.
But that First loop hasn't exactly looped around now has it?
Previous game knowledge or general Lore knowledge went out the window when I wound up in this fucking place.
"Alright this is our stop please make your way out of the Bullhead in calm and orderly manner."
My head was quickly pulled away from myself as I blinked at the announcement and the side door of the 'Bullhead' opened up revealing a ramp.
Getting up I slowly walked out and winced before quickly slipping my sunglasses over my head as the brightness of the sun got me.
"So this is Vale… nice." I muttered disinterestedly before readjusting my hat and walked out of the transport.
My first official week of school had been completed and I found myself curious to an extent of Vale or the city that was nearby, having been given general funds from Beacon itself was kind to say the least especially when explained that this was given to all teams for the first and second semester until you are forced to take mission in order to get paid accordingly.
Generous came to mind as I remember the first ever real funds I had been given to start running my Mercenary business was lacking to say the least… AKA I was broke up until I completed my first contract, but even then that pay was severely abysmal to what I had been given to fund my own shopping spree.
A shopping spree that I insisted that I did alone.
"Welcome to Vale." Came the oh so Cherry toned voice of the last person I wanted to be around. "Hope you're ready cause today I'm going to show you the best places around."
Giving Yang a look my unpleased frown screamed volumes as I really really didn't appreciate her just barging her way into my time.
"Oh come on, you know you're worse than Blake, the match happened and you lost so just get over it ya sour puss." Yang exclaimed as I had to force myself not to growl at the mention of our… spar.
yeah spar that's what it was, a spar a simple not so deadly, trauma inducing, stress filled spar that I didn't absolutely take seriously and didn't straight up try and fucking kill y-
Letting out a shaky breath I pushed those thoughts away and just grunted before walking out of the airport/bay/thing.
Yang being the quick one quickly took the lead as I reluctantly followed.
Honestly the only reason why she came was because Ruby couldn't because she had an extra Leadership class that was tacked on team leaders on the saturday that way it didn't interfere with the usual classes that happened on the weekend, apparently they were only an hour or two classes but at the specific time I wanted to leave she unfortunately had to go to class.
Blake didn't want to come because she knew why coming with me was a good idea.
And then there was… her.
The girl that beat me, put me in the ground the person I had accepted to kill me and the one person I wanted to avoid like the plague because I didn't want to be reminded of the fucking spa-
"Hey you hungry?" Hearing Yang's voice my head turned and I saw her point her thumb to the side as it was directed to what looked to be an old diner or well not exactly old seeing it looked brand new but more old as in like it was old fashioned.
"I'm good." It was a lie, I hadn't eaten breakfast as I knew I'd be around Yang and everyone else.
"Yeah sure you are, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see you come to the cafeteria to eat with us, so I know you haven't eaten anything." Yang exclaimed, arms folded and her head tilted to the side as if she had proved a rather valid point.
"I'm good." I exclaimed, turning away to walk but froze as I felt my arm being grabbed, immediately my gloved fingers curled into fists as the hand grabbing me stopped me in my tracks.
"And I say you're not, now you're going to eat something and trust me if you don't eat then I'm going to force feed you." My breath hitched as my teeth gritted and I glared forwards. "And you know I can, or do I have to remind you of our Spar."
quickly as she mentioned the spar my body moved as I wretched my arm out of her hold and turned my hand already going to my pistol that now sat in my holster but immediately as I moved I saw Yang had already deployed her own gauntlets.
A clear challenge that screamed 'Try me bitch' was etched on her face and I could see how it would end if I did.
Dropping my arm I silently moved around Yang as she had a victorious smirk on her face as if she had just won and I decided to let her have it, fine have it your way.
Walking into the diner I was quick to find the closest booth away from everyone else, Yang quickly moving behind as she was quick to ask one of the waitresses for a menu before sitting across from me.
A proud visage clear on her face as she held out one of the menus, that I was quick to take.
Looking at it I had an already clear idea what I was going to be ordering while I saw Yang humming and tilting her head from side to side as she read the menu.
Not too long one of the waitresses finally came by, a Faunas woman who had a long spotted tail but I thought nothing of it as she gave me her best polite 'for the customers' smile.
"What can I get you two?" As soon as she asked Yang still stared at the menu, clearly undecided while I just let out a tired sigh.
"Can please get a cheeseburger combo fries with no pickles or tomatoes, a large glass of lemonade, one large strawberry milkshake, your buttermilk chicken sandwich again with no tomatoes but with extra garlic mayo and an ice cream sundae with extra chocolate sauce." Rapidly the waitress wrote the order before finally stopping and looking up.
"Is that all?" She asked, a smirk clear on her face as if she was clearly expecting a better challenge than that to write down.
"For me? Yes." I answered then quickly turned to a wide eyed Yang. "What do you want?"
"Uh well… can I also get a Cheeseburger combo but keep everything on it and a large glass of cola." Yang quietly ordered while the Waitress nodded and told us that she'll be back with our drinks.
Silently sitting here I saw Yang give me a stare and I knew that I was going to have to talk now.
"What?"
Yang just seemingly rolled her eyes before answering.
"Are you seriously going to eat all that?" The question was simple and I couldn't help but give her the only complicated answer that I could conceive.
"Yes."
"Argh, look I get that Aura helps and all but don't you know what that does to you?" Another question, lovely.
"Twenty questions was not something I was meaning to play so casually in the middle of a diner." The response got a clear frown out of Yang, clearly she didn't like that answer or the lack of one.
"Yeah well I wouldn't have to play twenty questions if you actually talked to us."
"Talking isn't exactly my speciality, Yang." I didn't stop the growl in my voice as I said her name but it seemed to make her blink for a second.
Silence quickly followed as I leaned back and turned my head to look outside the diner but then she broke it.
"What's your problem with me anyway?"
Snapping my head back I was ready to throw a flurry of insults but forced myself to stop and take a beat to breathe, she was just asking, it wasn't a clear snide remark.
"You… what did… What did you think about our fight?" I forced myself to ask the one question that bugged me for a week on end.
"Our fight? Oh that… well I gotta say you're the first person that could take me on and keep going that's for sure." The clear positiveness she shone made me wince as it was clear what she thought about it.
"Why? What did you think of our fight?" Hearing the question my eyes stared downwards as I took another beat to think of the answer and remembered the arena and the MAG once more.
"I… it was ok… not many… or a lot… you were great." Trying to find a definite answer was hard but I settled for a genuine opinion instead. "You're definitely… a whole lot actually, better than me."
"Aaaaawww really? That's gotta be the nicest thing you've said to me." Yang's tone almost screamed teasing/sarcasm, something that made me frown but I pushed away the need to voice my distaste.
"Yeah… sure." feeling myself finally relaxed I let my shoulders droop a little as I tried to not think about my begrudging annoyance that was Yang.
"Hey I'm being serious here." Yang seemingly just laughed while I huffed, not bothering to look once more. "You know you're pretty good with that sword of your's I mean you're good with your hands but the way you move with that sword sure was something almost thought you were going to kill me."
SLAM!
Yang immediately bounced back a bit in surprise as I slowly removed my sunglasses and stared at her.
"Don't… I'm-argh fuck." Feeling my anger come back in a tsunami I removed my hand from the table that had a brand new crack in it. "Don't… Don't ever joke about that."
Reluctantly I just threw a warning over and watched how Yang stared wide eyed in surprise.
"Joke about what? I wasn't making a joke about anything." The defense came in but I knew for a fact that this was just built up on ignorance.
"Killing you… don't joke about me killing you." I spoke in a hushed way while Yang seemingly froze.
…
…
…
"Here are your drinks, one lemonade, a large strawberry milkshake and one cola, your food will be with you shortly." THe waitress spoke, placing our respective beverages down. "Oh and word to the wise, don't break the furniture."
With that one final warning the Waitress walked away.
"You… you were trying to… kill-"
"Don't… do not finish that sentence." I said through gritted teeth as I saw Yang's face had shifted from one of confusion, realization, hurt and now anger as her eyes now shifted from their lilac hue to red.
"Oh I'm sorry, it's not like the first real fight I had turned out to be someone trying to KILL ME." She exclaimed under hushed but clear tones. "Was that why you've been like this? Cause you failed to kill me?"
"NO!" I loudly exclaimed before quickly pulling myself back and just groaned while rubbing my eyes. "Yes… I've been angry because I didn't kill you… no I do not want to go into it, but I will say that I am sorry that I took our SPAR that far."
"So this is why you've been avoiding me… wow that is impressive." Yang exclaimed as I could hear the condescending tone followed by the obvious attitude that she was going to be having with me at any second. "You know I thought you were just shy, reluctant to talk because you weren't used to being around girls but no, you were just mad that you failed to kill me."
"You know if I wanted someone to condescend me I'd be back in Beacon getting Lectured by Goodwitch back in detention." I finally spoke up as I heard Yang immediately gwaf at the comment.
"Oh I'm sorry, condescending? I'll give you condescending." Yang growled out and I just glared at her. "Your grade A lunatic who on their first day ever tried to kill me, why? I don't know but the only thing I do know is that he failed, failed so hard that he got his ass handed to a girl who didn't even take him seriously enough."
"God you know Ruby was right, you don't even take proper care of your weapons, she should've just dumped that gun she spent hours cleaning in the trash because like it's owner it's garbage." Yang's tirade continued as I found myself glaring at her as she continued. "Hey how about this, round 2 take another shot maybe you'll get that chance to kill me seeing as you are so hellbent on doing so!"
SLAM!
The sound immediately pulled me to the side as I saw the waitress that now put their fist into the table stopping Yang from continuing onwards, the way she glared at us was like that of a disappointed, disgruntled mother who looked ready to open up a can of whoop ass on her loud abrasively stupid children.
"Now I do not know what you two are here arguing about but I best believe that you can take it somewhere else." Their tone was cold and demanded our undivided attention. "Pay for your food and get out."
She then placed two bags on the table and then stormed away leaving Yang and I to stare at our two paper bags that more than likely contained our food.
Silently the two of us moved and each of us grabbed our own bags and quickly moved to pay for it, not wanting to be here any longer, I opted to pay for both meals and before we left we got our respective drinks in their takeaway paper cups and left.
The two of us just continued to walk, neither of us speaking as we just decided to reluctantly not speak for a given time, until we both found ourselves in a random park bench in the middle of a rather serene area.
Digging into our own bags we immediately switched bags as we had grabbed the others own order,
While Yang started devouring her burger I finally decided to speak.
"I didn't actually want to kill you… my body just… I don't know, I've been through some rough shit that would put a lot of people in my position in a rough way." Trying to find the words was hard but I continued with great reluctance. "I just need you to know that I didn't want to kill you and I'm sorry if I made you think that I did."
with that I just dug into my own burger as I didn't want to say anything more that may or may not offend.
"I'm sorry… for saying all that, I didn't know you were going through something that made you… like that."
Nodding, I just continued to eat in silence.
"You know you were my first."
COUGH!
"Fuckin-what!?" I quickly coughed out as I nearly spat out my food and snapped my head to look at Yang as she blinked before letting out an amused laugh.
"Ahahaha I'm sorry that came out wrong," Yang said in between her chuckles. "Ahem what I mean to say is… You were the first one to get me so pumped up."
"Christ girl phrasing, you gonna get me into some shit when you say shit like that" I said with a shake of the head.
"Well I'm sorry you were just the right type of rough you know? You just really got up in there-"
"I'm eating here, can you fucking not?" I asked as I couldn't stop the amused grin that grew on my face.
"Fine fine I'll stop." Yang's tone seemingly brightened as the two of us continued to eat in our own comfortable silence.
finished with my food and drink I finally decided to take a look around, the park was bright, the sky an obvious contrast as it wasn't blood red like that in Nevada this place didn't look like it was one gun fight away from becoming death central, I could hear some kids yell out in joy at the nearby jungle gym.
It was better, calmer, near serene if I ignored the nearby traffic of honking horns and the roars of differing engines but there laid in the underlying charm of the city.
"Well guess it's time to actually get this shopping trip underway." Yang finally spoke up as she stood up. She gave me a large grin as I stared at her rather blankly.
"Lead the way." I finally said, getting up I rolled my shoulders and felt the bones in my back minus my spine, crack right into place.
"First let's get you into something that actually fits." Yang exclaimed as I tilted my head in confusion.
"Put this and this on!" Yang loudly exclaimed on the other side of the door as she threw a differing assortment of clothing over.
As it landed on my head I found myself rather unimpressed as I felt less like I was clothes shopping and more like I was Yang's own personal life sized Ken doll.
"Are you done in there or do I have to get there and change you myself?" Hearing Yang I just let out a tired sigh and quickly started changing.
"I'm changing but the gloves, bandana, sunglasses and hat stay on." I called out not bothering to give as I had a limit here.
Five minutes later I opened the door and saw Yang standing there, arms folded and looking rather impressed of sorts of what she was seeing.
"Nice, now you actually look your age." Yang said with an amused grin.
Looking back at the changing rooms mirror I saw myself as I was now wearing a brand new dark blue shirt under a new high collar black jacket with blue accents, the jacket itself also had armoured shoulder pads, they weren't metal but the material made movement a little stiff but that would probably fixed with the jacket itself needing to be stretched a little. Speaking of the sleeves were easily moveable as they more or less probably designed to allow whoever wears them to roll them up or not.
The new pants I wore were dark gray cargo pants held up by my previous pants, they held plenty of pockets but were a lot easier to move around in in comparison to my other pants, actually they felt more like jeans in a way as I raised my knees to test the range of movement that I had.
My Black combat boots didn't change so that was fine.
"The fabric will need stretching out but so far, not bad." I finally exclaimed, looking back to Yang I saw her smirk was ever present before she had quickly dropped a bag in front of me.
"Put your old clothes in there." Taking the bag I quickly did so and made sure to put my thigh holster on as well as my old back pouch.
"Think I'm going to be alright for the next while or so." I exclaimed, throwing the bags straps over my shoulders, the two of us moved around the rest of the store Yang had taken me too as I was quick to pick up what other essentials I needed from additional regular and workout clothes to some basic toiletries I needed seeing as I didn't exactly want to go around stealing everyone else's soap and shampoo.
When it came to pay I had a staggering bill that I was just barely able to pay and now had about a hundred or so lien left to my name, something that I frowned at but instead of voicing my displeasure I just sucked it up as Yang apparently had one more stop for us to go to.
Stress relieving was the only thing she really said that was meant to explain it all.
Stress Relieving, shit the closest thing I got to that was probably test shooting whatever new gun I had purchased at the quartermaster in the shooting range or just hanging around my loft and watching whatever mind numbing show that was playing at the time.
Minutes passed until we finally made it Yang's stress reliever… and it's a bar.
"Really? A bar?" I asked Yang, she seemed to just smirk at me while I stared at the obviously old dive bar.
It looked like it was in between old, run down and always in the middle of being rebuilt because of a late night tussle or bar brawl.
…
…
…
It was almost like I had a tiny slice of Nevada right in front of me.
"C'mon the owner doesn't really care about age, not since my uncle did him a favour last year." Yang excitedly exclaimed, obviously happy enough to go walking in without a second thought.
I would've thought of her being brave if not for the fact I knew she can damn well take care of herself and then some.
"I don't think I'm walking out of this place even close to being sober." I mumbled under my breath as I had a rather uncharacteristic grin on my face before walking right inside.
Let's get drinking!
Chapter 7 end
Amvmaster: Hello all happy new year people, welcome to the first chapter of the year!
It would've taken longer but I wanted to wait for this commission to get through but the guy I've paid is in a little bit of a situation IRL so that's taking some time to get here.
Jericho say your piece!
Jericho: Baggage, drama, and shopping what else could you ask for after getting your ass handed to after trying to kill the person. Find out next time on…okay no dragon ball references, but seriously we get this man growing from annoyed sarcasm to learning how to emotion. Yay character growth
Amvmaster: yeah pretty much anyways hope you all had a good new year and ready for this one cause I'm not.