Chapter 7: But your team certainly is!

~Sid POV~

I was glad that my quick-thinking was rewarded just as I had planned it to be.

While Yang has been a little suspicious about the motivation behind my fainting, the fact that both Bianca and the owner were there to vouch for my situation was more than enough to get her to not ask more than just a question or two.

With Blake now showing her new look with a sprinkle of shyness here and there during her job, the blonde was effectively provided some ‘answers’ about the waitress, soothing the nagging need to pester me during my service.

It was a quick change that diverted the whole routine back to normality as the Xiao Long decided to be more subdued and less blunt with her inquiries, restricting herself to get too much teasing and cocky around me.

I didn’t need to hear it from her because I was totally aware of her little pride about having a ‘trustworthy and strong’ personality, but I was now sure that the precise moment when I had fallen unconscious that day, I had completely frightened the student at Beacon to be less annoying than usual.

The girl was now less distracting and more pleasant to talk around. Something that I found, just like Blake was, ideal for our current predicament.

I knew that Marcus did give her a talk when she first returned to the ‘Morning Sip’, getting a little promise to be less-unruly during her time spent there for the sake of not getting banned from the establishment.

After this whole debacle had concluded and two days of relative peace had passed, I began feeling rather confused about the overall ‘terrible’ situation the Cat Faunus had with the entire team, mostly because I knew little about their leader.

And while I could confirm without hesitation that the brawler could turn quite unbearable most of the times, I also knew that she seemed to know how to back down when someone asked her to.

Since they were partners and Blake hadn’t said anything atrocious about the girl’s personality that I could see with my own eyes, I could only assume that the reserved girl would have been able to easily ask for a tone down from the blonde but she decided to not be the one to interact first.

The Faunus could be rather difficult to understand since she preferred silence over saying if there is a problem with her, about her or around her, rather she was more inclined to let a fire expand before genuinely thinking of asking for help over the topic.

Still, from what I could see from the Xiao Long, the situation couldn’t have gotten so bad for Blake to call them terrible and to not even consider possible sharing a civil talk with her whole team.

I could remember perfectly the racist episode I had seen back in the alley where Weiss Schnee was sprouting some bad stuff about the Belladonna with a younger girl, but maybe it was only one of the members that had been this prickish personality rather than the entire squad being unwilling to consider diplomacy.

And Yang was actively trying to search for her partner, her tone seeming a little angry but also quite guilty herself over what had happened back to the docks.

This little perplexity of mine keep floating within my mind but I found myself unwilling to truly ask more about the past circumstances that had led the Belladonna to crash onto my poor roof, damage it again and steal couch privileges.

Our relationship was still tense at best because of the unknowns we had over each other, the little escalation that could have been with the girl back in the costume shop was proof that she didn’t know much about me and I didn’t know much about her too.

We were making steps forwards and some common ground was shared mostly thanks to the fact we were taking uneasy steps into compromising the sudden twist to our lives and the fact she had to depend on me for her current dilemma, but we weren’t certainly going to be knowing of each other overnight.

Plus the girl still had some erratic scheduling regarding showers and baths that had been a problem to face when I finally decided to confront her over the matter, ending up dealing with quite the shout-contest with the Belladonna.

It had taken some effort but the Faunus had finally conceded the fact that a regular routine of showering would be the best now that she wasn’t on the run or sharing a bathroom with three more girls.

Progress was made from that heated discussion, one which saw me as a smug victor and Blake as the blushing moron while she was sent going to the bathroom to wash her untreated hair.

It was after just two days of normality that a new issue arrived to the bar and I was certainly in for some unflattering situations.

It was early in the morning, Marcus had gone out of the bar to check on the current supplies of coffee and had left us to keep watch over the building.

And while Blake was concluding some dust-sweeping with a simple broom, humming and enjoying the quiet moments before the opening hour, I was busying myself by checking on some of the important dates that the ‘Morning Sip’ would have to deal with.

The Vytal Festival was around the corner and knowing how much important the international event was, we were all planning to prepare for a large assault of new clients from beyond Vale.

The stockpile had to be checked on a daily basis just to see if there would have be enough resources to keep up with the approaching increase over the clients’ presence in those intense days.

I wasn’t sure that Blake was ready to deal with something that much difficult as she had yet to truly master her new personality while accommodating with the orders she had to take and serve.

All in all, that day had seemed to begin in rather the normal pace just as usual and I was quite relaxed while checking on the agenda for the ‘Morning Sip’.

The door opened just a minute before the official start of the shift and I nodded at the entrance at the familiar blonde spearheading the ‘true’ beginning of the work day.

It had been something that the Xiao Long had taken upon herself, to be there punctually to ‘open’ the bar for the others to enter and to get some ‘fresh’ service before things would start to get slow for anyone to get anything.

The brawler was smiling as she continued to chat to the two girls behind her, following her inside as the lilac-eyed girl took them to one of the tables inside, I blinked in surprise as I noticed a familiar silver-haired girl with a combat dress and a young brunette being the members of the little entourage led in by the blonde.

They took a seat and I didn’t hesitate to glance at Blake as the Faunus in disguise had noticed their presence too and looked fairly paler than before.

I took the duty to be serving the trio and moved to greet Yang.

“Good morning and,” I said before nodding at the blonde. “Hello Yang.”

She smiled. “Morning, Sid, and I hope the coffee machine is revved for my usual.”

“As always,” I chuckled briefly before turning my attention to the other girls. “By the way, welcome to the Morning Sip, how may I help you two?”

Weiss had her eyes fixed on the menu when I asked this and she took just a moment to pick her own order. “I will take an Atlesian Black with two spoonfuls of sugar,” The Schnee replied curtly and I frowned briefly at that decision.

The Atlesian Black was considered the worst blend for good reasons. I remember having given it a try when I first heard of its horrible reputation, despite Marcus warning me of the atrocious beverage that it was.

I foolishly ignored the signs that it would have been a terrible idea and… I realized why Hell was now a thing for Coffee-Afterlife.

Without mentioning anything to the seemingly-fine (but surely insane) girl, I turned to the last of the trio. “What about you, miss?”

The brunette blinked in surprise at the query, sporting a little blush at being called ‘miss’. I guess she just wasn’t called like that by anyone, she looked very young and I would be surprised if someone had considered her a ‘child’ among the other students at Beacon.

Gulping nervously, the short-haired teen picked the menu and scanned for any interesting snack to pick and… she settled on one in particular, her silver eyes shining brightly just for a moment and I… was that drool?

“I-I will pick a chocolate-milk with vanilla sprinkles.” There was no hesitation, rather I felt her voice skipping a beat at the deliciously-named beverage.

I nodded and turned to walk back to the counter as I started to prepare the three orders, starting from the easiest (being Yang’s simple coffee) and concluding with the slightly more difficult of those (Atlesian Black, ugh).

With the three steamy mugs set on a small metallic tray, I traveled back to their table and settled down the order for the girls to pick up their respective cups.

The brunette, I recalled her name being… Ruby or something like that, picked hers quickly and started to gulp down the content, only to stop, eyes widening and sporting some sudden tears as the scorching sensation of the still-hot liquid going down her throat.

Stopping, the youngest of the trio started to cough a little while Yang went to pat her back to help her recover from the fit, smiling eye-to-eye at the pained expression of the silly girl.

Weiss sighed tiredly, looking at the scene with a frown, and she went to pick up her cup and steal a quick sip. I had expected her to tank the horrible taste of the beverage without any major problem since she had been ordered it with utter certainty.

A few moments passed and then she started to cough uncontrollably while dropping her mug and the rest of the content upon the table and the tray, eyes watering just like it had been with Ruby but this time it was the bitterness instead of the unholy warmth.

“W-What was that?!” The Schnee exclaimed mid-coughing, eyes turned accusingly at me as if I had been the one to commit the ‘heinous act’ of giving her the suicidal brew.

“That was Atlas Black,” I replied with a small frown. “Just like you have requested, mi-”

“T-That wasn’t ‘Atlas Black’!” She shot back with a snarl, ignoring the flinches coming from the other girls. It was quite interesting to see Yang being irritated by someone like that but…

I admit that Weiss does have the shrillest of voices.

“It was ‘Atlas Black, the renowned bitter flavor originating from Atlas,” I repeated back, giving her a serious tone. “Lady, what where you expecting?”

“A decent coffee! But it seems that is too much to ask from someone like you!” Her yell was now starting to get annoying to bear through. Seriously, was this her semblance or what?!

“So you just wanted a normal Remnant coffee and not the Atlas Black you have asked for?” I asked with an irked tone. “I will see to bring you a ‘kind replacement’ once I’m done dealing with this mess-”

“You bring me the coffee,” The girl interjected again. “We will fix your mess by ourselves.”

Think of happy things. Think that I will get a warm bath once I get back home and… that I will nap until tomorrow.

I nodded blankly at that little jab, hiding a scowl from them as I walked back to the counter and prepared a cup with the normal brew of coffee, ready to bring this to the table and then get out of their sight for a while.

Just as I turned around with the new mug, I was provided with quite the spectacle right by their table and… I paused just a moment to watch it all unfold.

“That doesn’t mean you have the right to call him that,” Blake, or Bianca, said with an irritated frown. “Just like he said, the Atlesian Black is infamously known for the bitterness, miss.”

The Schnee huffed with a tired look. “And what kind of waiter wouldn’t give a proper warning about this? No one should be offered this beverage without proper notice.” Weiss shot back, drawing a deeper frown from the Faunus in disguise.

“It’s not one of the policies and that was a rude attitude-”

“You are the one speaking?” The silver-haired girl interjected, her eyes narrowed on the waitress. “You are here, molesting and intimidating me with the fact that ‘I shouldn’t have done that’, yet I think it’s my right as a client of this establishment to critic some lazy job-”

At that little accusation, Blake looked ready to explode on the Schnee but I was already by her side and poking her arm with my free hand while holding the mug with the other one.

The Cat Faunus turned with a hint of surprise and a little anger at what was going on but I give her a tired smile. “Please help the new clients, Bianca,” I gestured her the couple by the entrance. “I will take care of the table.”

The girl opened her lips to protest but… she stopped as she noticed the malicious glint in my eyes, merely nodding as she rushed to help the new arrivals while I turned to deal with this annoying predicament.

While I would have been fine to enjoy some pettiness from the heiress directed at me and only me, the fact that she had even indirectly and deliberately mentioned how what Blake was doing was intimidation, which wasn’t the case since the Faunus was just pointing her shitty attitude, was more than enough to get me interested on seeing this situation dealt with a brutal response.

Something that would be as effective as ‘possible’ within my competences as mere waitress of the bar as I had my own limitations as of what I could and couldn’t do with bad clients… but I just knew what could have worked with the girl.

“So, you have my coffee?” The ‘princess’ asked pompously and I blinked with a tiny smirk on my face.

“I sure do… but I was also thinking,” I mused loudly. “That maybe you are also a good friends to your teammates and… that is why I think this one will be for Yang.”

I pushed the mug right in front of the blonde, the trio’s eyes widening all at once at my little move. “I understand that it’s stressing to keep up with the studies and the fact she is actively searching for your missing teammate, so I guess it would be right to give her something to help up.”

Lilac eyes flashed amusement at the trick I was pulling, knowing myself that it was rather childish from a good perspective but I wasn’t allowed to certainly pull any major stunts against her.

“Excuse me?!”

“Miss, I will be honest with you,” I addressed the girl. “You have ordered a particular beverage that is known to be barely-acceptable for people and yet you pinned this issue on me, then you tried to badmouth me to a colleague while also threatening her with some hefty accusations, and finally you have the presumption to think that, after what you just did, I would just let you have a free coffee?”

I waited for a moment after proclaiming the fairly long question, my eyes steeling onto her face as the girl looked like a tomato with how much angry she was about the verbal beating she just received.

But her anger was also mixed with some embarrassment and logical thoughts over the topic, knowing that everything I just said was just what has happened in the last twenty minutes of so of interaction.

After two minutes of utter silence, I sighed and aimed my index at the entrance. “I would invite you to leave.”

The request was met with silence at first, then Yang tried to salvage the situation by apologizing on her teammate’s behalf but… I wasn’t having any of it and continued to ask them to leave for the day.

I didn’t have the power to ban people out and Marcus had yet to return from the storage warehouse, so he wouldn’t be there to help me with the standard procedure.

Weiss tried to comment furiously at his, she looked ready to explode very soon but a very apologetic blonde and the embarrassed girl with them managed to get her out of the building before anything weird could have happened.

Moments of quiet passed at the building, then Marcus returned ten minutes after with a tired look. He had gone for a quick run to reach the establishment and he wasn’t certainly built to make that kind of stuff anymore.

Just as things settled down back to some peace, I managed to catch Blake’s attention during a moment where there were just a few clients around to thank her for… trying to defend me.

I wasn’t going to hug her and call her lovable nicknames for doing that, but I wasn’t ungrateful enough to not give merits where it was due.

The genuine tone was met with a tiny smirk and a nod. “You are welcome.”

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~Blake POV~

Hours have gone by and it was now night at the flat as Blake went to her lovely couch and tried to catch some sleep on it.

At first, her sleep started particularly refreshing as she hoped for it to be a dreamless one which would deprive her of any vivid imagery about what happened until now.

A feeble hope that soon proved to be as unattainable as backfiring, the girl having to deal with another round of nightmares that took her away from the proper and genuine rest she needed to go with the current routine.

It was all a mix of her experience at the White Fang, now mixed with what had happened just before and during the battle at the docks, the words shared by Weiss were there to remind her how another bridge was burned in her attempt to find peace.

But differently from the usual fun ride, her mind was more than glad to provide a new arsenal of horrible visions that were truly bothering her out of her slumber.

In fact, the Belladonna ended up opening her eyes around three in the morning, tired and panicking over what she had just seen, her body shaking and sweating over the sight bestowed by her infuriatingly-creative brain.

Her golden eyes were directed at the ceiling as she tried to recollect herself from what she had just seen and she couldn’t feel the need to sleep much to her dismay. Her body was just too tense to merely accept what has just happened.

She could remember Sid standing upon her aching body, blood was on his shirt and there was a furious scowl on his face while he handled what looked to be a crowbar.

Was he intentionally hurting her? Did she do something that-

He would never do something like that. Her logical self tried to defend but her brain was susceptible to the minuscule doubts over that idea as Sid was very brutal when provided with a more than rightful reason to react that badly.

He... still cares for me. Until she managed to mess things up again, maybe by running away as a mean to avoid her problems from the past and that was just- irritating and difficult to deal with.

The Faunus waited silently as her labored breathing was the only noise in the entire apartment, her mind trying to lull her consciousness back to the much-needed rest and… her concentration was broken at the sudden noise of the fridge being closed.

Her sight moved away from the ceiling and she noticed that the kitchen’s light was turned on, soon a figure emerged and… she blinked at Sid.

The young man stopped, he was wearing a half-sleeved white shirt and a pair of baggy pants, to look at her with a surprised and interested look. In his hands was a cup of… milk.

“Sorry,” He said with a tired and quiet tone. “Did I wake you up?”

There was silence at first, her mind putting an immense effort to make her realize that this was the real one and not a vision.

The Faunus blinked. “N-No, I-” Blake paused mid-explanation, her stare moving away. “I was just… having a bad dream. Nothing to worry about.”

Once again there was silence and the human was frowning at her much to her dismay. Instead of getting him to not ask more about this, she ended up getting him interested over the matter.

“A bad dream?” He parroted briefly and then blinked. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

The offer was interesting. While part of her was still unwilling to give too much out to Sid, she felt like… talking with someone as level-headed like him would give her some reassurance.

Ultimately, she nodded and made way in the couch so that the young man could sit near her, waiting for him to be accommodated before starting to explain what had happened.

The Belladonna pointed out numerous times that her tale was a corroboration of what she saw in her dream and that she didn’t thought of him as a violent individual, but Sid was quick enough to interrupt her as the whole story was given, his eyes tired but sporting a calm glint as he gave his own thoughts over the topic.

“You are afraid of being put on square one once again,” He started with a hum. “Legitimately-speaking, your fear is partly-honest because after running twice from life-related problems you ended up digging a hole, a psychological one that you feel like is close to be closed upon you.”

Blake blinked slowly, her eyes wide open as her ears caught everything she just heard. Not only the words felt correct to a fair degree, but it was impressive how close he had been to… understand her little plight.

The reason behind her true stay here, instead of returning back to Beacon Academy.

“W-What?”

“You think that doing this for the third time, to run away or to do something that is worth running away from, will be the last time as you think I could go that berserk on you,” Sid pointed out. “You think that you will do something so terrible and horrifying that would end up with me turning murderous on you… which isn’t technically possible for good reasons.”

She didn’t gesture him to continue, but rather he continued himself without prompt.

“The only way you can get me to attack you like that would be if you ever try to hurt or kill someone from my family and… that isn’t actually a viable option for you since they are all in Mistral...” He paused a moment to blink and then frown about it. “Actually, my older sister isn’t there, kind of going around doing… stuff from her unknown boss. She never told us much about her work anyway and I don’t think she will be in Vale anytime soon.”

And while the young man thought about this curious detail he had himself forgotten, Blake began evaluating what she has just listened to. The dream was possible… for impossible conditions for her to accomplish even if she tried to do something like that.

There wasn’t just a proper chance and it would require efforts that she couldn’t muster for proper reasons. So that meant that the nightmare was a stupid one, but a stupidly strong one that had her awake for a while now.

“So… I don’t have to worry about-”

“Do you plan to kill anyone from my family?” Sid suddenly asked, the Faunus’ eyes widening in shock as she shook her head quickly at it.

“N-No-”

“Then there is nothing you can do to get me to that point,” He said and then… offered the untouched glass of milk to her. “By the way, drink this before going to sleep.”

…

“I-I don’t need to-”

“Look, either you drink it or I will have to go to the kitchen, prepare another glassful of milk and come back,” He interrupted dryly. “The second option would make me pissed as I don’t want to make that trip again just because you feel shy all so suddenly.”

Without protesting the little jab at her personality, Blake took the glass in her hands and took a sip out of it. She blinked as she noticed it was quite warm, the milk having been heated before having been put in the glass.

“Thanks,” Her voice was soft and barely reached the young man. Sid nodded and stood up from the couch, ready to walk back to his bedroom and back to his slumber.

But before he could reach the doorstep, Blake decided to inquire about something that had been pressing on her mind for a while. “Sid?”

The human stopped and glanced back while sighing tiredly as he waited for her to speak once more.

“Why were you… awake?” The inquiry reached him and he seemed to tense up a little.

“Just a bad dream,” He said quietly. “Nothing worrisome or-”

“You can… stay here with me?” Blake offered, feeling like she should at least give something back after the positive talk he got from him but… he frowned.

“Blake, how old are you?” He shot back with a sigh. “You can sleep alone and-”

“You can stay on one side while I stay in the other?” She continued quickly. “I understand it sounds weird but-”

“It is weird.”

His final comment got her to finally pause and sigh. “Can’t I just try to help you too?”

“There are other ways,” He pointed out tiredly. “Ways that wouldn’t end up to create some strange predicament for the morning.”

“But I will stay by my side!” She shot back with a huff. “And I don’t think you would move too much to cause that.”

There was a pause after those words, then a sigh from Sid and… the human fully turned around as he walked back to the couch.

A small smile to complete her little victory, ready to try and make up with how many issues she had caused with her how problems.

Giving him one of the covers and one of the pillows, the two remained by the edges of the sofa as they spent just a little while awake before going back to their respective slumber and, much to the Faunus’ surprise, her sleep proceeded to be the smoothest possible since her fallout with the White Fang.

It was odd at first, but then she realized it had to be the fact that she had been aware for the rest of the night and early morning that someone was nearby to ask for… help, thus her mind didn’t feel the need to deprive her of her needed rest.

It would prove to be a single occurrence as the human wouldn’t end up anymore wandering by the kitchen during her troublesome nights, but that day… Blake felt grateful that someone was still around for her to trust even in those trying times.

The faunus fell asleep with a small smile, waking up only when it was time to prepare for work and… she could have sworn that Sid was sporting a small smirk himself as the two woke up together.

How curious.