Chapter 6: And I’m not that bad!

Yang wasn’t having the greatest days as of now.

After Blake had just gone and escaped from them following what had happened in the docks, the rest of the team had taken the material victory as a moral defeat at the fact that the Cat Faunus had decided to avoid them once more.

It didn’t help that the bitterness of failing to ‘calm her down’ was burdened by the harsh lecture the team got from Ms. Goodwitch. It was the first time the woman had looked so incredibly livid and ready to make use of her infamous whip, their grace being the ever-so diplomatic mediator that was the headmaster.

The headmaster had stressed well-enough that the situation had been mostly led by a simple ‘teen-related’ fallout and that the escalation had been out of their hands as a whole He pointed out how they wouldn’t have certainly gone to risk their lives for the sake of stopping a grand theft committed by a terrorist cell.

The Combat Training teacher was still furious even when the man shifted his attention at the three girls, her eyes narrowing at them and promising a multiple-months long detention for how much crap they had caused with their intervention.

But Yang hadn’t been quick to call for relief as the visibly-angriest woman had settled down, her lilac eyes noticing way too well the familiar expression, similar to the one her father would take when some of his students had gone and done something completely wrong and unforgivable, on the calmly, yet furious headmaster.

Ozpin’s lecture didn’t spare them, even the smallest of details and errors committed before and during the fight were brought up to be dissected and displayed in their hideous glory.

Ruby was terribly mortified at the pressure exercised on her as she was still the team-leader and she had been expected to be a little more mindful of the emotions and the attrition born out from her partner and Blake, her hood failing to hide the paleness now present on her face as she merely took the verbal punishment withou much but a nod.

The same was for Weiss as the heiress did seem to have reverted back to a little child as she merely nodded absently at Ozpin’s rant while also giving some ‘yes sir’ where it was necessary, gone was her snippy remarks and her classy tones.

Yang didn’t feel the need to express major worry about the situation, even though she had been afraid herself of what kind of punishment she would have ended up because of her inaction regarding her partner’s fit and… how she hadn’t given her some support.

Not just because the Xiao Long could see the logic in Blake’s words, but because she did know a little about the situation of Faunus after what Uncle Qrow had described both her and Ruby about what was going on in Atlas.

While the White Fang were terrorists, the violent reaction exerted by the most-advanced Kingdom was still worth of some frowning and displeasure. Miners were killed, a large majority of Mantle was dealing with something close to a famine because of the latest reforms and the protests weren’t being denied with the units deployed there.

It was close to war, close to something that Yang didn’t want to be part of and… to think that her partner came from that kind of situation? Sure, the blonde wasn’t sure that the Belladonna had come from the cold territory up north, but the overall situation for Faunus wasn’t different if not in Mistral and partly in Vale.

And seeing the vehemence displayed by the girl, the brawler was also certain that her partner wasn’t from neither of the two kingdoms. Either she was from Atlas, Vacuo (which was a hellhole for everyone) or Menagerie.

The day after the fight, Yang had found herself having some trouble finding rest. Maybe it was the guilt of the whole situation, or maybe the hits she had received the day before were still make her body bitch about the soreness.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the stinging sensation on her aura from numerous attacks she had suffered from a spar or a full-fledged battle had continued to annoy her brain until she found sleep in utter tiredness.

Yet the Xiao Long hadn’t found rest in that singular day, nor the following one and the one after that. Gone was her cheerful morning personality as she felt incredibly sluggish with her usual routine and her attention span suffered immensely because of it.

Not even sparring gave her that same bright fire as the gnawing emotion of having failed someone that she had a responsibility over was still here to spoil her chances of regaining some calm. She was unnerved, terribly so, and the fact that her search through Vale had been inconclusive at best was enough to worsen up her general mood.

It didn’t help that Sun had taken interest in making it a double patrol, following her as he mirthfully commented about everything around them and… it had been quite the irritating, if not infuriating, behavior to not react with a punch.

The Monkey Faunus seemed to really mean well, having been the one that had told the team that Blake had indeed mused over the chance of apologizing and that they had planned to ‘see’ if there would have been a theft to either confute or prove that her thesis was correct or not.

One thing led to another… and the Cat had jumped right on the trouble rather than make some smart decision. Something that led to a brawl in the docks and that ended up with everyone losing everything.

Not the brightest idea, but Yang couldn’t certainly fault the fellow blond over it as it had been her partner to cause this incredible mess.

And it was also Weiss’ fault for instigating the usually-introverted Faunus to this kind of action. She could have been a little less… abrasive while dispensing her ‘righteous’ preaching, maybe even get a lesser fallout out of that predicament.

Still, it was useless to cry on the spoiled milk and Yang couldn’t exactly linger too much over the past now that she had to find out where her elusive partner had gone. She had to be in the capital, the Scroll she had on herself still functioning from Beacon’s database even though her location had been blocked out by the Cat Faunus.

It was a minor relief over the multiple worries besieging the blonde and… she was glad that she found someplace where to rest during the searches. The ‘Morning Sip’ wasn’t a place where she could ever hope to find alcohol to buy, but Yang wouldn’t exactly make use of some Strawberry Sunrises to get her early-day going.

Alcohol was nice when it was used to spice her emotions up, just enough to warm her body and keep her heartbeat drumming as she concluded the last tasks of a difficult day. She never got drunk… too much. There had been some instances but- she was digressing.

The place was nice, it had a warmth system that delightfully keeps her from freezing up with the unholy cold coming to Vale during this part of the year, her clothes and aura offering just little protection from the surreal climate, and the coffee she would order would always aid her to recover from the drowsiness of the uneasy morning while also clearing her mind for further thinking.

The bar was nice, not the Junior’s kind of ‘nice’ as the place was clean and a fine establishment. One that she had found because of Sun’s insistence to expand their operations’ range, something that could easily be described as ‘annoying people until someone actually care and give us some clue’ kind of plan.

It was good plan, she has to admit, but with how overly-irritating Sun was at that early hour, Yang couldn’t help but deem it the worst idea with her ‘buddy’. That very buddy that wasn’t there at the moment as she happily took a sip from her warm mug.

The very mug offered by the usual waiter, Sid having been rather intrigued by the matter but keeping himself distant from getting too attached to the matter. Something that the Xiao Long appreciated as she knew that too many people to keep an eye on were going to create her more issues than help in the long run.

The young man was barely older than her, maybe a year or two, and his politely-quiet manners and tones were more than enough to bring her to relax in that good place. Patch didn’t have much of a daily bar, only a pub that offered ice creams and icicles to those that had enough money to afford it.

It was the first time she had gone to see something like this place and… she was glad that this occasion had come, ignoring the importance regarding what had led her in this part of town.

The very place where she found a perfect target for her teasing. Sid was a gentleman, but Yang was more endeared by how easy it was to get him flustered once or twice in a while. After the first time, the man had been guarded over falling with her ‘tricks’, but the blonde was hardly a rookie in the unfair game of teasing.

It had been easy to pick up hints from his posture and his clothes about what kind of person he was and the most curious topic about them all was… his colleague. The young woman was a little shorter than Sid, her hair and eyes hidden by a little Christmas-themed hat and a pair of sunglasses.

She was rather curt with her interactions around clients and she had been avoiding quite well ever coming close to the curious brawler. Why would she wear sunglasses with so little illumination and… why the hat?

The questions were there poking at her sanity, but she couldn’t exactly man-handle her way into discovering what was going on with the lady. It was the little common sense she had that drove her to not pull a ‘Junior’ on the bar, feeling like this little haven was far too much of a necessity to ditch without a proper reason.

Curiosity was still there, pressing for at least a hint or two that could satisfy her sudden case of interest and… that was done when the waiter came around to pick her empty mug.

“By the way, Sid,” Yang said as soon as the young man had his hand on the cup. “Can you tell me about your lady-friend over there?” She pointed subtly at the unaware waitress and… Sid blinked in minor surprise.

“You mean B-” He immediately stopped, his eyes widening a little more before he corrected himself, faking a cough. “B-Bianca? My colleague?”

Lilac eyes narrowed. “So her name is Bianca?” She pressed on with an intrigued tone, her glance briefly returning to the young woman and… yep, there was something off about that very name.

He nodded and she felt like something was off with that reply. Something about the way he had just stopped and almost panicking about it, as if the Xiao Long had asked him if he still had his V-Card or not.

Very suspicious, she admitted to herself and she decided to continue with her inquiry.

“That’s a peculiar name. Isn’t it… Mistralian?” The guess was met with a quick nod, this time the strange panic subsiding. Maybe it was time to poke a little harder and see if she can fish out another reaction out of him.

“I bet that she is… newer than you,” The brawler commented as her eyes caught just in time another clumsy tripping from the waitress, dignifying her current lack of experience. “I bet she relies a lot on you.”

He sighed. “You could say that.”

The admission was actually a strong clue about a little suggestion about the case, one that seemed the most appropriate by the way he appeared so flustered when the blonde mentioned about his colleague.

There was no doubt that, while the young man was trying to make it appear that they were in a professional relationship… he might have been thinking of the clumsy girl more than he said.

“Oh really?” Yang felt a smile widening on her face at the unsuspecting frown coming from the waiter, the cheeky girl truly feeling at the peak of that glorious teasing session as her prey was soon going to fall for her little discovery.

How could she not see this as the real truth!?

His shyness when talking of the girl, his adorable panicking when Yang would ask more about his ‘interest’ and how he was so conscious of the girl’s flaws and still loved them.

Her smile twitched and… she went for the bite. A big one for sure!

“Then I can only guess that she is rather handful when you are crushing on her.”

Hook, liner and-

Thud

…

Lilac eyes turned to stare at the now-unconscious waiter as he now lied on the floor in a twitchy, the entire bar fell silent as everyone heard the man falling on the ground and were now exchanging glances between him and the nervous blonde.

Yang blinked again, this time it was her turn to panic as the situation had devolved to an uneasy murmuring from the other clients, with the waitress cautiously approaching her colleague and checking on him while the owner proceeded to walk towards Yang.

He looked annoyed, but not angry. Hopefully, she could get just five seconds of her explanation in before being kicked out. Yet, while she had expected to be banned for ‘killing’ one of the workers there, she felt surprise as the older man’s appearance eased with a soft sigh as he momentarily glanced at the unconscious worker.

“To think that Sid would have been taken down by you, missy,” The mustached man said, returning his calm stare at her. “I will let it pass the fact you went overboard with your teasing and… please don’t do that again, I need this one in particular.”

She felt confused, uneasy and terribly embarrassed at what had just happened and, feeling guilty over the matter, the blonde rose from her seat and tried to help the ‘camouflaged’ lady to pull the sleeping young man away from the room-

Only to be hissed at by the fellow woman. She froze, her eyes widening for a moment as she tried and failed to compute the strange reaction she had just witnessed and before she could even proclaim her dumbfoundness, the two workers left her sight to their locker room.

What the heck was that!?

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Blake felt uneasy at the strange demeanor she was being prime witnesses of.

It’s been just twenty minutes since their shift had concluded, the close encounter with Yang gone and partly-forgotten as the blonde left the bar after paying for her coffee, giving to the Cat Faunus some relief over the fact that her stupid reaction hadn’t gotten the blonde suspicious of her identity.

The current camouflage was indeed useless in keeping the usually-extroverted girl from noticing the awfully weird look the secretive Faunus had to cover her unique features. Something that Sid had been quite prominent to point out once he woke up.

Their interaction in the locker room was brief as they both resumed their shift after sparing a few words following his awakening, his curt sentence still fresh on her mind as it was manifesting in their current shopping spree.

“Hat and glasses need to go.”

She understood perfectly what he was referring too and she agreed to this wholeheartedly, but the fact that they were browsing in the wigs section of a costume shop was enough to get the Faunus to some uneasiness regarding what the young man was trying to find.

“We need something… short,” He whispered to himself. “Something that could motivate the hat while also dissuade any connection to the long-haired one.”

There was a pause as he stopped by a pair of dark-red short version of her style, his eyes narrowing at it before he took them and flashed those at her. “What do you think of those?”

The Cat Faunus had been silent until now, the intrigue born from seeing the human going through what seemed to be a panic-induced Plan B had been both an entertaining and disturbing sight. It was just plain odd to see the usually-collected Sid being this much frantic with his actions, showing that the close call had been far worse than the one she had when Sun was around too.

Yang was good at flirting, but it was her teasing that made her a worrisome individual to face alone and without precaution. Something that the young man had paid dearly as he had been aware of what he had been going against… and earned a quick unconsciousness out of it.

And while the sudden fainting had given Blake the worst scare possible, she was mostly confused as of what could have exactly gotten this strong of a reaction out of the human. There was hardly anything that Yang could have said about him to get him to that state and… it didn’t help that the young man was tight-lipped over the matter.

Very suspicious but also concerning, hoping that whatever had gotten him this worked up wouldn’t end up becoming her next problem any time soon. Yet, knowing her partner’s propensity to tease everyone on her reach, it was a sure thing that was going to happen to the Faunus too, whatever she liked it or not.

Blake hummed and nodded at the curious wig, picking it in her hands as she tested the texture and… it was just as soft at hair. She checked around to see if there was space for her longer black locks and… it seemed there was enough to fit her head well.

Seeing her positive answer, Sid moved out of that section of the shop and, instead of leading her to the counter so they could have gone to pay for this product, he decided to wander right to the part of the building that displayed numerous boxes containing… eye-contacts.

She frowned as the young man started to browse onto that section too, her worry about his sanity growing with her need to ask what had gotten him to that particular frenzy. It was now far too pronounced to be ignored and, if she had to be honest, the girl wasn’t a fan of eye-contacts.

The Belladonna had tried them once a few years ago during a Fang operation and the atrocious itchy soreness she had to deal with after she was gone with the blue-colored ones for a full hour of wearing the pair had left her in a particular discomfort when around those.

“Sid,” The girl finally spoke, a twitch in the human’s posture giving her clue that he was at least listening to what she was saying. “I know that this might be weird coming from me but… isn’t this a little overboard?”

The moment the last word from her query left her lips, the young man’s search came to a sudden halt. He stiffened his body and then he glanced back with a serious look, almost making her flinch in response.

“Blake,” He started with a tense voice. “What I’m going to tell you is going to sound disrespectful to a fair degree and I wish you to understand that there is context behind this nervousness about some details that… aren’t good to think about right now.”

She blinked at the way he explained it. She had expected him to pull an angry tirade and… yet he was awfully calm and collected in that frenzy of his. Seriously, what did Yang told him?

Sid opened his mouth once again and… he started to tell her what had truly happened in that brief encounter he had with the blonde and why he had gone unconscious the moment her last sentence had reached his ears.

Blake stood still as she listened to it all, not even displaying any telling emotion about the fact that the main reason that had gotten Sid to faint at work was… the possibility that he was crushing on the ‘mysterious’ waitress.

The temptation to merely bash his skull at the silly and outrageous reason to actually ‘faint’ was terribly growing within her chest but she held back from putting thoughts into practice. Maybe there was indeed something that she was missing from this view, she thought absently, there has to be a better reason for him to faint other than the idea of her being

Sid had yet to pull a ‘Sun’ on her and, hopefully, that wasn’t going to be the case this time.

“But what is what got you scared?” She pressed on impatiently, huffing as he blinked tiredly. “Seriously, you said that there was a context to-”

“If she truly believes that, what do you think she will do the next time she comes at the bar?”

“Apologize?” The Faunus guessed, getting a sigh from the man.

“She will want to know more about the matter and… try to ‘help us out’,” He pointed out without hesitation. “You said that she was the one that usually headbutt onto the problem and what better way to solve a problem about ‘crushes’ than directly investigating the crush itself?”

…Oh Gods.

Her eyes widened and her face paled a little. “Y-You mean that she-”

“Officially speaking, I fainted for a lack of sugar, not because of me pulling an act worth of some Award. Something that I’m solving with more snacks rather than weak medicines,” Sid interrupted firmly as he continued to explain his new plan.

“And you decided to hide yourself a little less than usual as you almost tripped on me when I fainted. That is why you decided that for the sake of work, you ditched the glasses and the hat to avoid meddling with any worrisome situations.”

She blinked, her golden eyes staring in shock at the newly-fabricated excuses and the absurd save proposed by the young man. He looked determined about it and she would be lying if she said she didn’t felt it good enough to be used for their predicament.

It was odd to say, but now the faint felt legitimately the best action to pull in that awkward case. If he had continued to talk or even move away from the situation, the blonde would have taken them as positive things.

While the faint still counted as a possible sign for that, if the legitimate cause was given to a medical issue, the ‘clue’ itself would fall away from the whole ‘crushing debacle’ and so would Yang’s attempt to investigate on her.

The perfect alibi and… Sid had given this to her for her sake. Blake couldn’t certainly deny that something this big would require some effort from the human himself and she felt rather amazed by the show of trust and friendliness coming from that seemingly well-elaborated plan.

The Faunus didn’t expect this much from him, feeling that he was going out of his way to cover up for that glaring issue she would have gotten to deal with alone if it wasn’t for him.

The girl blinked once again and the quick hug that followed that genuine interaction that dripped of intriguing trust towards her was perceived as unexpected by the young man as it was for her. The first time she had ‘consciously’ gone for the embrace, beyond the mere moments of giddiness caused by having her favorite series to watch on TV rather than in the caged dimension of books.

It was the first time in a long time since she had hugged someone as a mean to thank them. Blake couldn’t even remember who was the last individual she had hugged for that.

Was it her parents? Adam? Or even Illia?

It’s been so long and-

“That was quite… interesting,” Sid mused quietly, but loud enough to snap the girl’s out of her depressing thoughts. “And ignoring what did just happen, do you prefer brown or blue ones?” He asked while bringing two small boxes.

She glanced in surprise as her eyes looked at both with a minor grimace replacing her smile. “Do… Do I have to?”

The human frowned at her comment. “What’s wrong with contacts?” He pressed on, seemingly perplexed by her reaction.

A sigh left the girl’s lips. “Last time I used them, my eyes almost got an infection and-”

“That can’t be true.” He huffed with a frown. “Like, I know there are some bad reaction but chances of infection are only when-” The young man stopped as he turned his attention to another set of boxes, leading Blake towards them.

“Where the ones you used contained in boxes like these ones?” Sid questioned with a curious tone, gaining a surprise look from Blake as… those were the ones she had used back then.

“Yes, but why-”

“The ‘Human-only’ ones?” He interrupted with a strong query, catching her off-guard. “The one that can actually damage a Faunus’ eyesight if used by one?”

There was a nervous pause from the Belladonna, her mind trying to squeeze out the details of that specific situation and… then she remembered exactly the possible individual she had to blame for what had been three days of atrocious problems about her eyesight.

The ‘humble and kind’ girl that had given her support on those trying times, the very shy Faunus that had ‘opened up’ for the sake of helping.

Ilia had been the one assigned to buy the contacts, Blake remembered perfectly, her eyes throwing a deadly glare at the boxes as she now had the name of the one guilty part that had caused her so much trouble!

Meanwhile, a certain Chameleon Faunus sneezed without an apparent reason as she continued to stand perched by her usual tree in Kuo Kuana, eyes directed at the mansion owned by the Belladonna family and… where Blake could ‘hopefully’ come back to. The right place to continue with her loving Sta- ‘humble guarding’.