Sun closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling of the whipping wind on his face as the plane took off. The faunus kept a death grip on the side of the cargo hatch, allowing his tail to thrash in the breeze as he and his crew began to leave the city of Mistral. Upon opening his eyes, he found the buildings below rapidly getting smaller and smaller, and within seconds, it became difficult to pick out Qrow's summer home amongst all of the others. The dwelling had been more or less picked clean, with the supplies and other items that had been pilfered all neatly stacked and secured in the back of the hold. Sun opened his eyes and gave one last little wave to the building before slamming the hatch shut, taking care not to snag his tail as he did so. The boy already missed the crisp mountain air that had quickly been replaced by the stagnant, heady smell of machinery and fuel. That being said, he was at least with some of his favorite people.
Neopolitan snapped into a crisp salute as Sun turned to face her, the formal gesture clashing horrible with her ice cream themed beachwear. The faunus merely rolled his eyes and let out a little chuckle as he looked her over.
"…at ease. You know, the swimsuit, short-shorts, and baggy button-down don't really go with an umbrella," the faunus pointed out.
Neopolitan blinked behind her sunglasses as if surprised, and then began frantically patting herself down, clearly looking for something.
"Don't tell me you left something behind," Sun started. "We'll go back if we have to, b-… oh. I can't believe you got one of us with that again…"
Sun watched as Neopolitan 'found' what she was looking for, pulling it out of her chest pocket with great enthusiasm.
It was a middle finger.
"Can we please focus?" Blake asked, sitting down upon one of the metal benches up against the wall and crossing her legs as she took out her scroll. "We have no idea what we're flying into right now."
"Professor Gumo will take care of us," Sun reassured as he walked past Neopolitan to sit next to Blake. "He seemed ready and willing to help us… you know, once we got on a call with the real one."
"Have you ever met the man?" Blake asked, putting a hand on Sun's thigh.
"…from a distance," Sun admitted. "You know, start-of-the-year speech, saw him in the hall here and there, exchanged a few pleasantries. You know how it is with Academies- tons of people, and you don't get to really meet everyone. Never did anything egregious enough to have a sit-down meeting with him."
"I'm almost surprised," Blake replied as she leaned her head sideways onto Sun's shoulder. She watched as Neopolitan sat on the opposite bench and took out her own scroll, near to the hatch that Sun had closed. "You are a troublemaker."
"And you love it," Sun reminded. "Falling for that bad boy charm."
Blake felt a buzz at her hip and drew her scroll, only to find a text from the other girl in the hold.
This coming from the guy who did the most horrifying dance I've ever seen in my life at the Vytal Festival after his team won and almost cried after dropping a funnel cake up in the stands. Real thug you've got there.
Blake snorted and put the scroll away, giving Neopolitan a knowing look.
"…what?" Sun asked, raising a brow.
"Nothing," Blake said quickly, avoiding eye contact. "Not a thing. Love you."
"Uh-huh…" Sun agreed, seeming confused as Jaune walked out of the bathroom at the far end of the hold. "Love you too…"
"Really wish Harriet had given a warning that we were about to take off," Jaune grumbled as he moved to sit next to Sun. "Things almost got… complicated."
"Should've peed before we left the house," Sun admonished with a grin.
"I didn't have to go then!" Jaune whined.
"Don't make me turn this plane around!" Harriet yelled from the cockpit. "Fight nicely back there!"
"Harriet, Jaune touched me!" Sun called back, making sure to put some extra whine in his tone. "He's not giving me enough room on the bench!"
What Harriet said in reply was something muffled, but Sun was pretty sure he heard the words 'crash' and 'this fucking thing' somewhere in there. Yang was quick to emerge from the cockpit, leaving only Corsac with the Winter Maiden up front.
"Shame. Maybe I'll just sit on top of him to make everyone miserable." Jaune opened his mouth to protest, only for Yang to do exactly as she had threatened, eliciting a pained noise from the boy. "You calling me fat?"
"No!" Jaune said, his voice strained as Yang leaned backward, burying his face in her ponytail and pressing him up against the wall. "Just… really muscular… Sun, help…"
"So, once we get a lay of the land and make sure Shade isn't under immediate threat," Sun began, totally ignoring Jaune as Yang continued to adjust her posture to torture him, "there's a lot to do in Vacuo, especially at night. I can't wait to show you guys around and maybe just hang out a bit, assuming we have time."
"I'm sure we will," Blake considered. "I've always wanted to see Shade, honestly. It looks beautiful in photos… and I've heard the outdoor markets can be a lot of fun, as long as you keep your wits about you."
"Oh, for sure," Sun agreed as he shifted, his tail dusting the floor beneath the bench excitedly. One of Jaune's flailing arms smacked into him as the boy desperately tried to get out from under Yang to no avail, and Sun continued to ignore him. "City's set up in two rings around Shade Academy. The market and other attractions make up the inner ring, while everything residential, hotels, restaurants, and Oasis Primary Academy making up the outer ring. There are a bunch of hidden defenses around there as well, and tunnels connecting a lot of stuff. Accessing those tunnels isn't something typically allowed, but they apparently all connect to Shade… somehow."
"Let me guess," Blake said, her voice full of accusation. "Team SSSN has explored some of those tunnels."
"…maybe," Sun boasted with a smirk. "Supposedly, though, the major bandit clans also use them to move supplies, so going down there is super risky. We've run into an Eyeless down there, and it was… well. We had to fight, and barely managed to get away."
"Eyeless?" Jaune asked, still straining. "That's one of those mercenary clans you mentioned a while back, right?"
"Right," Sun agreed. "The drug smugglers. Never seen an Opaline in the tunnels, thank the gods. Dunno if we would've come away from that if we had. We accessed the tunnels underneath a restaurant on the outer ring. It's a nice place, maybe we can go there at some point."
As Sun continued to talk, describing various attractions and fixtures of Vacuo City, Yang eventually began to tune him out as her attention was drawn to something else. Across the hold, Neopolitan didn't appear to be listening, instead staring down at her scroll with a frustrated look as she sat alone. There was no life in her eyes behind the soft pink sunglasses, and Yang couldn't help but feel like she was seeing the girl without a manufactured persona in place for the first time. Without a word, she got up off of Jaune and walked the short distance to the other bench, sitting down next to the other girl.
"…hey," Yang offered, keeping her voice low enough to not draw the attention of Blake and Jaune as they hung on Sun's every word. "You good?"
At first, Neopolitan didn't seem to register that Yang had been talking to her. Despite what the blonde had assumed, she was just playing a mindless mobile game, blocking out the others as they lost themselves in their typical banter. Neopolitan quickly turned it off as she caught sight of Yang watching and tried to put her scroll away, only to realize that she couldn't communicate well without it. The girl brought the device back out and opened a notepad, quickly typing out a response to try to salvage the situation.
I'm fine. What do you need?
Before Neopolitan understood what was going on, Yang managed to snatch the scroll from her while Sun said something that made his audience laugh. Yang busied herself with composing a reply before handing the scroll back over to Neopolitan.
You don't look fine. I know I've been a fucking bitch lately, but we're a team, now. I'm sorry for taking my shit out on you, and if you need someone to talk to, you can come to me. I mean it.
Neopolitan glanced up from the scroll with a look of disgust. She had expected Yang to immediately take it back or say something aloud that went against the text, but instead nothing of the sort occurred. Instead, the mute girl keyed in only one word before handing the scroll back.
Why?
Yang's reply was immediate and to the point.
Because I should. This is what this group does. We give a shit about other people.
Neopolitan merely offered a sigh, already feeling a headache coming on.
I tried to kill you on that train, back at Beacon.
That was forever ago and it seems like you woke up to all the bullshit associated with Salem and Cinder, Yang replied.
Neopolitan hesitated as the scroll made it back to her. She knew that there was no arguing with such blunt, immediate forgiveness… so she instead opted for the simple truth.
I don't TALK to people, and I don't mean that as a pun. My problems are my own, and I'm not interested in discussing them with any of you. You guys are fun to be around, but I can handle myself. I want to keep some distance between us. We can banter, we can fuck around, but I don't want to go any further than that. Just let me do my own thing when you people start getting all serious or touchy.
"…in case we die, too," Yang said in a near whisper. "You don't want to go through losing someone you actually care about again, so it's easier to just not care about any of us at all beyond a surface level."
Neopolitan suddenly just felt cold. She immediately failed to fight back the shift in expression that signaled that Yang was absolutely right, and her options were truly limited. Getting up and walking away, even to the bathroom, would draw the attention of the others and give Yang an opportunity to talk to them, likely inciting the whole group to give her a big, metaphorical hug. That was about the last thing she wanted… and keeping Yang as the only one who had it all figured out was the better alternative between two methods of torture.
Can we please just talk about something else?
Yang took the scroll as it was shoved back into her hands, though she didn't type anything. Instead, she gently gave it back to Neopolitan and opted to talk, keeping her voice low.
"How are the new fingers treating you? You seem pretty used to them already."
Neopolitan let out a sigh of relief, shaking her head.
They're really nice. Miss the old ones, but these have some advantages.
"Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way," Yang agreed as she held up her golden arm and flexed it. "You get attached to prosthetics, after a while. It's weird, but… I think of this thing as a part of me, now. They do good work up in Atlas."
Yeah, they do, came the next text. I'm surprised they even bothered with mine. You getting a new arm at least makes sense, given how much you've done to fight Salem.
"Makes you think, doesn't it?" Yang asked rhetorically. "Almost like there are advantages to giving a shit. I'll leave you alone, alright? Jaune looks like he needs to be made uncomfortable again."
Yang stood up, only to feel Neopolitan's cold, silver fingers grip around her wrist in a move that neither of the huntresses expected. Slowly, the smaller girl typed one last message and offered Yang the scroll.
Thank you for trying. Maybe we can talk later, but not right now. No promises.
Yang merely gave Neopolitan a nod as the other girl let her go and handed the scroll back.
"I'll take a 'maybe.' Better than nothing. Rest up and come see me when you're ready."
Neopolitan returned the nod and watched Yang walk back over, making a loud show of herself as she sat firmly back on Jaune's lap. With a sigh, she leaned her head back against the cool steel of the cargo hold, closing her eyes as she started thinking about how she did feel about the group.
The answer wasn't at all what she had expected… or wanted.
Author's Note:
Hopefully the flight goes smoothly and there are absolutely no issues getting into Vacuo. Given how things usually go, I'm sure it'll be fine.
-RD