Bab 1821: 52
Chapter 52 Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"-uck me you're loud sometimes, Der-Der," Mercury complained, rubbing his ears still even now after several hours as the two of them walked back to their dorm, the door to Team RWBY's closing behind them as they exited.
"The situation called for an appropriate level of dramatics," Cinder sniffed haughtily, punching Mercury in the shoulder lightly before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "Either way- what do you think? How are they?"
"As a team? Could be worse. They're first years, they'll figure out how to work together and stuff. I mean, we did. Besides, they got Rubes and Yangles, whatever happens the squirts'll at least have their own coordination and the monochrome pair'll follow," Mercury answered, resting his hands around the belt attached to his jacket (because, like an idiot, he forgot to put POCKETS on his combat outfit) as he sauntered along, whistling lightly as the two of them went through the halls of the dorm building, faintly hearing the sounds of other teams through the other heavy doors. "As for how the baby's doing… she's actually figured out how to talk to people that aren't family, so I think she's doing great, personally."
"Mmm… I got that impression too. When did you even find time to shower, by the way? I could have sworn that outfit was dirty as hell by the time we got back…" Cinder hummed under her breath, giving her partner (not her Partner but… well. They'd made eye contact in the forest. Such was life) a onceover before returning her gaze to his face.
"Packed a spare, showered in their dorm n' Ruby cleaned off Talaria and my knives so… y'know." Mercury shrugged, patting the backpack he was wearing with a wry grin. "That's why I smell like strawberries right now, duh. Also, the showerhead in their bathroom is weirdly low for all that Yang's like… almost my height."
"The rest of her team is much shorter, she probably just moves it up when she has to- either way, it doesn't matter. What about that Penny girl- the one who literally snuck away from her Team and General to stay in Team RWBY's dorm?" Cinder asked, thinking back to the utterly adorable redhead that had parked herself in her little sisters' dorm for the time being- apparently at Professor Ozpin's discretion given that he'd allowed Penny to use the doors and walk around campus freely without being accosted at any point. Really, without the grimm clothes that Ruby had given her, Penny was… honestly?
Penny was the cutest fucking person Cinder had ever seen bar Ruby - and it was a close call there considering the fact that Ruby could turn into gods' perfect creature on a whim. A corgi. Not the horrific nightmare Beowolf monster that haunted her dreams every now and then. Not her nightmares, just… dreams of being crushed under a giant mutant Beowolf as it licked her face and ruined her hair. Because Ruby did that sometimes. Because Ruby was an awful, awful little gremlin and somehow knew doing that helped Cinder's mood sometimes.
Ahem. Anyway.
"What, Pennster? She's great. Definitely neurodivergent, super sheltered, not really up to date with slang or swear words or a lot of pop culture within the last… ten years, I think? Eh… at least she's not sheltered to the point of not knowing what sex is or what raunchy jokes are, just doesn't seem to like most of 'em," Mercury bobbed his head back and forth a little bit, confirming what Cinder already knew- though, then again… it was entirely likely that Cinder didn't know that because she'd spent the entire three and a half hours that they'd been in Ruby's dorm room cuddling with her baby sister, who spent the entire visit as a corgi.
It was a miracle that Cinder's face wasn't completely covered in dog saliva now, but Ruby was usually pretty good about the puppy kisses so whatever. It was also a miracle that Cinder had managed to survive Weiss trying to wrestle her for the right to cuddle Ruby, because gods the heiress had sharp nails, fucking hells…
"Right right… I think she's good for Ruby. They seem to be very good at rambling excitedly at each other in a way that most can't keep up with… bonding over weapons is probably a good thing for Ruby, come to think of it…" Cinder tapped her chin, stopping as they came to the elevator down and waiting patiently for the doors to open, cocking her hip as she did so whilst staring at her reflection in the shiny steel surface. "Polendina, she said her name was- right? Didn't we have to interact with a doctor named Polendina while we were in Mantle last school year?"
"Yeah, cool guy. Really nice chair. Total pushover, kinda a little sickly for a guy that runs a clinic and a repair shop," Mercury nodded while crossing his arms, tapping his heel impatiently at the ground as the two of them waited for the elevator. Fucking dorm elevators- what the fuck was the point of an elevator in a four story building where most of the occupants could jump high enough to reach the second floor balconies and hit the third floor from the nearby trees, or in the case of Team RWBY, literally run up the fucking walls to get to the fourth floor. Hell- it was even more egregious because it was so slow- going up the stairs was faster than taking the elevator, and jumping out of the window and taking the hit to one's Aura was faster than either option going down.
Well.
Then again.
There was always cargo hauling and delicate stuff that didn't handle stairs or wall running well.
Sigh.
"Interesting…" Cinder murmured quietly, breathing out a little huff of annoyance as the elevator doors finally opened and the two stepped inside, the warmly lit interior of the car not providing much, if any, good cheer despite the myriad of posters for campus activities happening in the next few months- oh, Team GDRD (Goldenrod) in third year was hosting another Castles & Creeps group this year. Emerald would like that. Aaaaand… Team DFTD (Driftwood) in fourth year was going to be doing a painting contest for school decorations. Neat.
"Think there's a connection?" Mercury asked, idly letting his eyes roam over the interior of the elevator car the same as Cinder, the two of them standing there in slightly awkward silence that came from the fact that Cinder absolutely knew how he'd broken his bed the previous school year and still couldn't look him in the eye half the time without remembering the fact that she'd seen him. Naked. With Yatsuhashi from Team CFVY.
While walking in with the rest of Team CFVY.
Sigh.
She envied Fox sometimes. Blindness would have been preferable to seeing that clusterfuck.
"Probably. Anyway- why've you been hanging out with us all day anyway? Don't you have a boyfriend to be getting back to?" Cinder quirked an eyebrow as she turned her attention back to Mercury, the two of them leaving the dorm building behind and walking out into the mid-afternoon sun- having arrived in the later morning and having had a light lunch at the RWBY dorm… with Yang conspicuously absent, but Cinder had sent one of the little food bots wandering around campus over to her with a sandwich and a drink so she didn't starve. And a few donuts, and spicy wings and- well. There were a lot of small stores on campus staffed by regular civilian workers and Yang was a growing girl still. Unlike Cinder, who'd topped out at pretty much just the perfect height for Neo to slam her face into her boob window.
"Nah, Yatsu's still out on a mission- went on an expedition… two weeks after we left, I think? Yeah, he'll be back like… next week. No worries tho, he's still got CCT connection so it's all good," Mercury grinned easily, running his hand through his hair and sauntering along casually, lost in the memories of something that Cinder really didn't want to know about.
"Uh huh. Well, don't stay up all night sending dick pics at each other or whatever guys do to flirt," Cinder snorted, punching her cousin in the shoulder again with a shake of her head. "And wear protection. And don't break his bed when he gets back."
"Hey, we're not that bad- we just… forgot my bed wasn't reinforced like all of CFVY's beds are," Mercury answered lamely, rubbing his shoulder in mock hurt and laughing a little at Cinder's unamused expression.
"Uh huh."
Ugh. How a smug little bastard like Mercury fucking Black managed to get a guy as nice as Yatsuhashi was a fucking mystery to her still, but Mercury still attested that it was because both of them had trauma revolving around family members and their own Semblances- Mercury because his own Semblance, Aura Suppression, was stolen by his father and never returned, Yatsuhashi because he'd accidentally erased his mother's memory of his little sister as a kid. Also, because apparently Yatsuhashi was also fond of the chaos Mercury got up to in his endless prank wars with Neo and Emerald- somehow, he managed to hold his own despite going up against an illusionist and a hallucinogenist … which… wasn't a word but it summed up what Emerald did pretty well.
Hm.
Actually, that was probably something Cinder would have to deal with again in the dorms. Emerald, Mercury, and Neo starting to rampantly cause chaos around the school again because they couldn't leave well enough alone when it came to needling each other. Family is as family does and all… and… well.
If they got too uppity Cinder might do a repeat of the exploding pants incident that got Emerald and Mercury to stop their last prank war the previous year. She never did punish Neo for anything, but giving her fiancee in all but name (look, rings were hard to make okay, and Huntress quality rings were really hard to make) her patented disappointed older sister look did the trick pretty well.
Hm…
Wait. Shit.
"Merc?" Cinder started, coming to a halt as a slow, terrible realization washed over her all of a sudden.
"Yeah, what's up Cin?"
"... We're behind Ruby and Yang on the chaos charts this year."
"... Fuck."
"A whole month behind."
"Fuck!"
"We gotta blow something up now."
"Already on it boss!"
And with that, the older half of the Rose/Xiao Long/Branwen extended family (better name pending) ran off to go cause some well deserved chaos.
In the distance, Professor Goodwitch shuddered .
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone