Chapter 102: 4
Chapter 4 – Jaunetergeist
Waking up was not one of Blake Belladonna's strongest virtues.
In fact, when it came to leaving the warm and comfortable embrace of her blankets she typically went through what she had termed "the five stages of waking up"- namely: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression – before finally; incredibly reluctant acceptance.
But as her golden eyes cracked open, and she came face-to-face with her unwelcome companion – who was floating approximately two inches above her form…
She quickly remembered that the morning was not a normal one.
"Hey."
The sound she made could have been loosely considered a combination between a frantic hiss, a startled scream – and a desperate gasp for air. But was a little more like what one might imagine a sentient balloon-animal being throttled to death would sound like. The garbled noise was quickly followed by a solid thunk – as she leapt from the bed (incidentally passing through the annoying figure) and collided with the solid bunk above her – collapsing back down onto the mattress with a pained moan.
"Zwei doesn't go in the washing machine!" Yang yelled blearily from above her, apparently waking up from the noise and rolling over to try and save whoever-the-Hell Zwei was. Blake winced as the blonde girl let out a short scream, falling past Blake's form as gravity took cruel hold of her. She hit the floor with all the grace of a drunken Ursa.
"Dad no!" Ruby woke, sitting ramrod straight as she looked left and right in horror.
"Rarghh! I'm trying to sleep!" Weiss screeched, throwing a pillow hard enough that Blake was bodily knocked from her bed, joining Yang in a tangle of limbs and sheets.
"Shut the fuck up!" A muffled voice said, as someone thumped aggressively on their adjoining wall.
Blake managed to extricate herself from her partner's breasts before she suffocated, climbing out of the tangle of limbs and back onto her bed. She spared a baleful glare for the apologetically grinning asshole en route, before otherwise collapsing atop her covers.
"Blake," Yang groaned, one hand appearing on the edge of Blake's covers as the blonde pulled herself up. "What the Hell? It's like… five-thirty."
"Bah!" Weiss Schnee said, kicking her covers back as she gave up on sleep and climbed out of bed. "Yes Blake, why not tell us what you were doing to wake us all up so early."
"Er…" Blake hesitated, not enjoying the attention on her so early.
"You had a nightmare."
"I had a nightmare." She said without thinking, before wincing. Thank you Jaune, that was just what she needed – a childish reputation along with the wonderful morning impression of waking everyone up.
"A nightmare…" Weiss said with a scowl, clearly unimpressed.
"Aww no," Ruby gushed sympathetically, "are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Blake said uncertainly – not used to having such attention focused on her, or really anyone caring about how her sleep was. Also, how forgiving was this girl to just let something like that go? If it were her, she'd have skipped straight to stage two of her waking-up scale. "Sorry for waking you all, it won't happen again."
Because if it did, she'd be going straight to the supernatural section of the Beacon library to find the first method of exorcism she could get her hands on.
"Hmm, no problem Blake…" Ruby yawned as she snuggled back into her covers, near-silent exhalations of breath coming forth as she immediately fell asleep.
"Yeah," Yang yawned as she stood up, "I wish I could get to sleep that easily. I suppose this is as good a time as any to be up."
"At least we won't be late to lessons," Weiss sighed as she turned around to arrange her bed neatly.
"See. I helped." The unrepentant ghost just had to comment. One of her brows twitched dangerously as she noticed him watching Weiss make her bed, his head tilting whenever the Heiress bent over to settle the covers.
Even though she hated the Schnee heiress – just a little, a tiny smidgen mind you. Really, little more than a nugget of hatred in what was otherwise a chicken basket of neutrality… Blake shook her head, cursing how slow she was in the morning. Where was she? Oh, yes - protecting her team's modesty – that was the important part.
"I'm having my shower," she said, quickly snatching her new school uniform and shuffling her way towards the bathroom, locking herself inside. With a quiet sigh she took a few steps further in, wincing as the see-through figure was visibly dragged in with her.
"Hey." He waved casually.
Blake hesitated, glancing to the shower – which was protected by little more than clear glass – and then back to the man… corpse, ghost – thing before her. This was not going to work.
Could I live the rest of my life without a shower? She asked herself petulantly, knowing such a thing would never happen. Jaune watched her calmly, one ghostly eyebrow raised as her mind whirled.
"Don't mind me."
"Funnily enough I can't help but mind you." She said evenly, crossing her arms beneath her breasts and shuffling her feet. She couldn't help but already feel a little exposed, given her sleeping attire and his propensity for being able to ignore walls and other terrain features. What if he floated under her and looked up?
"I'm getting the feeling you don't trust me." He placed one hand on- no, through – his chest. Before looking down at it in mild surprise and letting out a nervous laugh.
"Fancy that," she snarked, taking as much time as she could to place her clothes and shower apparatus around the room. She adjusted her shampoo three or four times, before meticulously making sure her towel was neatly arranged beside the shower. All the while trying to think up some kind of supernatural solution to the problem ahead.
She couldn't send him out of the room. For one he couldn't actually reach their room – and even if he could, the others were probably getting changed out there. She didn't want him to see her naked, but the thought of her being responsible for the loss of privacy to her teammates was even worse. At least she had a choice in the matter…
Sure she could tell him to wait on the other side of the wall behind her – but that could just as easily be someone else's shower. And even if it wasn't, what was to stop him waiting for her to start and then slipping back in?
She turned back to him, about to ask him to respect her privacy before she saw the quickly hidden lecherous expression on his face. He began to whistle… badly.
"You… want to watch me shower, don't you?" She rubbed her forehead with her fingers, wondering where the stupid question had come from. Of course he did… what self-respecting hormonal male wouldn't want to watch a young woman like her in the shower?
"Not saying I do," he said as he rubbed his chin, "but not saying I don't either – if you know what I mean."
"What can I do to convince you not to?"
"Have lesbian sex with Yang?" Her golden eyes hardened dangerously. "Okay… guess not. I don't know… I mean, I'm not – I wouldn't normally ever look. But I feel different now... more… free."
"More perverted, you mean."
"Among other things." He accepted with a shrug. Okay… that didn't sound particularly promising. So becoming like this really had done something to change him – more than just the realisation of his death, anyway. She didn't doubt that he hadn't always been like he was now – because frankly if he was, then he'd likely have been killed by some other woman long before now.
How had death changed him so much?
"How are you so hormonal? I mean… shouldn't you be kind of beyond hormones now?" Sexual arousal really ought to be a thing he couldn't feel anymore given his lack of… well anything, really. But then again wouldn't that apply to all emotions? From a physical point of view you needed certain bodily parts to feel everything from pain, to sadness and pleasure.
But then again… if aura was a person's soul – then was that what had left his body? Was he a ghost, or a construct of Aura?
"I'm not sure," he shrugged, "I don't feel … well, hormones in the same way. I don't even feel arousal at all, but I still think it… I'm still into women. I mean, I'm fairly sure I am sti-"
"Yes, I can tell you're still into women." She sighed as she shook her head. Once again he lacked the answers she needed – shouldn't being dead come with a manual or something? "And while it's very flattering that not even death can withhold your appreciation of my body..." She paused, fixing him with a fierce glare. "If you peek on me I swear to any God out there I will find a way to bring you back, then kill you with my bare hands."
"Threats on my safety feel a little empty nowadays." She grit her teeth, looking up towards the ceiling as she pled for patience. Or divine answers.
"There has to be something you want more than perving on me. Something you can't do now that you're… indisposed."
He paused, eyes closing as though in thought.
"There's plenty of things I want – that I doubt you could provide. And I don't think you'll want to help me pop my cherry, or even know how I can anymore." He laughed, though it died as she continued glaring at him. "There are… one or two things… that I would like your help with however. Help me with those, and I promise I won't ever look at you while you're in the shower, not without your permission anyway."
"Define things." If those things included erotically dancing in front of him or something then he would be in for quite the rude awakening.
"Nothing you'd consider wrong," he said while looking away from her, "just little things. Like my family for one."
"Your family?"
"Well… they don't know I'm dead. It's not something I want to face immediately, but well… they deserve to know. I – I ran away to join here, so no one will have told them."
Damn it… she thought to herself sadly. That wasn't something she wanted to do either – she'd seen Adam deliver news of fallen children to their parents before, and it never went well. But there was no denying it was a more than fair trade… and she couldn't imagine them never knowing the fate of their son. Forever wondering if he would one day return home.
"Shit…" She cursed uncharacteristically. She felt the situation called for it.
"Or, if you don't want to that's fine. I bet you look awesome naked."
"I'll do it!" She quickly assured him, holding one hand and spinning her finger around. "Now face to the wall, and don't you dare break your promise."
"I won't break it!" He promised. Her eyes narrowed as she heard the faint amusement in his tone. Still, he did turn around – and even after she tested him by rustling her pyjama's suggestively, he didn't move. With a tense sigh she turned the shower on, before her golden eyes shot back to him.
Still not looking… and he was stood up against the wall too… no mirror nearby. Could he see backwards through his own head…?
With a quick curse Blake bit her lip and pulled the sleeping yukata over her head, stripping off her bow at the same time. Stood there in nothing but her white panties, hands crossed over her breasts she waited for his reaction.
Nothing.
And considering his reaction to Yang just taking her top off she was sure he would have had some outwards sign if he could see her.
Showering with another person in the room wasn't an easy affair, she soon realised. Naked and under a faint covering of steam and water she hastily lathered soap across her body, scrubbing it off viciously as she rushed her way through the whole process. Her eyes remained focused on him, even as she winced at shampoo that ran down her face. He didn't once make a motion to peek on her, but the sheer knowledge that he was in the room had goose bumps running up and down her body.
Worse still that she found herself constantly shielding parts of her body from him – hiding her breasts or privates from him with her arm, or twisting her legs so one thigh covered her lower body. All of which made the actual task of getting washed about a thousand times harder than it needed to be.
Ultimately she was able to finish in a little under ten minutes, rushing out of the shower stall and wrapping up in a fluffy white towel before he could look.
"You finished?" He asked as the sound of water stopped.
"No, don't look." She hissed, towelling herself dry before hurriedly pulling on her new uniform. The skirt was a little short – something she had not considered before, but now that she had a perverted spirit following her around… "Alright, you can look now."
"Nice legs." She sighed, fighting the urge to fidget as he looked her up and down. "I definitely approve of that uniform."
"Please stop talking…"
"You want to watch me shower, don't you?"
"How are you so hormonal?"
"Yes, I can tell you're still into women."
Yang's cheeks began to heat up, even as she pressed her ear closer to the door. Below her Ruby had adopted much the same position, while Weiss was beside her. None of them dared to speak, though her mind was whirling.
Holy shit Blake, that was bold! In their shared bathroom no less… that was… she and her boyfriend… holy shit!
And she'd looked so much like a bookworm too! It just went to show that you couldn't judge a book by its cover. Idly she reached down to place her hands over her innocent sister's ears – only to have the smaller girl squirm free and continue listening.
Welp. She'd tried.
"There has to be something you want more than perving on me."
Yang strained her ears, desperate to hear what the person on the other end of the scroll was saying – but be it her own breathing, or the sound of her heart beating loudly in her chest - she heard nothing. Missed whatever proposition Blake's mysterious beau had suggested.
"I'll do it!"
"You'll do what!?" Weiss hissed desperately, even as the small heiress attempted to press her face even closer to the door, cheek squashing up against the wood. Yang couldn't help but agree with the girl's curiosity… what had Blake agreed to do for her man… Hell, if she didn't want him watching her in the shower why start a video call at all?
Unless she did want him to look at her…
Holy shit!
And here she'd worried it would be herself who'd end up corrupting Ruby. She'd need to keep an eye on this girl… though not as dedicated a one as the guy she was chatting with.
"She's coming out!" Ruby hissed suddenly, as the three of them attempted to extricate themselves from against the door at the same time. Knees met stomachs; elbows ploughed into faces yet through it all they kept silent. By the time the door opened they were sat calmly, if a little stiffly – as their dark-haired teammate entered the room, bow in place.
"What?" Blake placed her hands on her hips, looking at the three girls in the room – who were steadfastly refusing to meet her eyes. Ruby was even going so far as to frantically blow between her lips, attempting an innocent whistle. "What?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone