Chương 72: 72
Jaune had never had a birthday quite so messy.
Well, no, the right word was chaotic.
Usually because he preferred it that way, his birthdays were simple affairs, some gifts, some cake and food, sitting down to watch a movie with his family and friends. Simple things. He liked the simple things.
But now he'd had to endure the complicated situation where it seemed after learning of Yang and Blake's courage. And realized he had zero idea on what to do.
A few days ago he had approached his father Julius about it, who'd just been thrilled that his son was finally getting into girls and had even roped Ren into a slew of stories and other things that both brothers agreed to never repeat out loud.
But it had been more helpful to Ren than himself, who was still just as lost as before, only with more mental scarring.
Ren had realized that he liked Nora romantically and stepped up to the plate the day after their dad's bonding moment.
While it was clear she was happy, she was also now often really quiet and just not sure what to do. It would have been really cute if it wasn't clearly also beginning to worry Ren about how meek she was being as a result. Like she was suddenly walking on eggshells feeling like she might do something wrong and mess something up.
Jaune had secretly assured her that she was fine and didn't have to worry about messing up or changing, but that somehow seemed to put more pressure on his adopted sister. Ren also was trying to get Nora to act normal again, but despite being clearly happy, she somehow seemed lost.
It was really concerning, but Ren assured him that as a man he'd try to solve it on his own, but he'd approach Jaune if he needed his help. So he let his brother go and handle the situation with Nora on his own. He really hoped they'd find a solution.
Meanwhile, Yang, Blake, and Trivia were getting along like oil and water cranked under full boil.
He realized (more or less) that they all liked him now (though why wasn't something he could truly admit to being able to comprehend) and would be a point of contention.
Still, although Trivia didn't go out of her way to squabble with Yang and Blake, it was Yang whose competitive nature couldn't resist picking at the older girl.
He didn't expect his mom to step up to Trivia's defense at all though.
Though it had just been a casual request to not squabble during his birthday celebration, after having a moment of confusion and longing (as that sort of casual motherly kindness was something Trivia hadn't ever truly known) despite being older, Trivia couldn't help but to give Yang a smug look as if to say Jaune's mom is on MY side.
Of course that had resulted in Yang storming off, requiring him to look after her for a moment and assure her that obviously that didn't mean suddenly his mom didn't like her. Rather Yang and he both knew that she was being pretty impartial, all things considered.
And then Trivia and Neo looked a bit miffed that he'd gravitated towards Yang in that moment and he had to send her a look reminding her that Yang was his friend too and that he'd make it up to her later. They'd both seemed to grudgingly accept that, respecting his friendships, even if they wanted to monopolize his time.
He smiled at her, showing how proud he was of her for growing and putting in the effort to be a better person, watching with a giggle as Neo hid inside Trivia who blushed and turned away to chat with his mom.
Which then gave Blake pause at their shared look of wordless communication and he could feel her begin to feel inadequate for not being able to do the same. Blake always had issues about feeling she never measured up to her parents and now suddenly she was competing with a stranger she barely even knew.
Blake was also more competitive than she realized.
Sure he could read her well enough at any given moment, but that sort of empathic understanding (or 'being a people person' in Blake's words) was something Blake struggled with, despite desiring such ability like her own mother.
Which meant Jaune had to remind her that while she was her mother's daughter and had more of Kali's good nature than Blake gave herself credit for, she was her own person, with her own nature. Her own strengths and weaknesses, things that made her both a little bit of her mother Kali, and a bit of her father Ghira. That it was amazing and to be celebrated.
He'd gotten a heartfelt hug from that, wondering how during the midst of his own birthday he'd ended up having to put out a slew of little fires.
But the thing was, it made him happy, somehow.
For him, this strange, messy situation was something he enjoyed, even if he did wish things to be a bit more straightforward.
He didn't need these fires to feel he had value, of course. Well, technically it was more accurate to say that he didn't need such moments to feel as if he had value NOW.
Maybe he would have felt that way a few years ago, but he was trying to grow up past that. It was hard. Being needed felt nice, but it wasn't about being needed. There were no transactions to friendship. If he felt he needed to be needed, that was an uneven transaction of emotions in a way.
Probably not healthy either.
Even if personal and mental health was something Big Brother Juniper said everyone had to discover on their own, as different levels of things were good for different people with no catch all, it was still important for him to try to find healthy mindsets. Jaune was trying. Always trying.
Maybe (arguably) a bit too hard.
Regardless of it all, Jaune enjoyed a bit of chaos. Though perhaps he could do with a bit less sulking all around. Gosh, he just wished there was an easy solution that resulted in everyone being able to smile.
Still, the girls figured out how to be civil enough during dinner, a bit of a joint effort between Kali (she insisted to him to not call her Mrs. Belladonna nowdays), his own mom Noelle, and surprisingly Xayah and Cinder of Team CRXN had helped to put together enough food for everyone.
It didn't need to be pseudo-magic world class cooking from another world for Jaune to enjoy it. Just enjoying the warmth of warm and loving hands putting their best effort into food for people to enjoy was almost enough to bring a tear to his eye.
And despite the fact that Cinder was keeping her past connection with him and his family under wraps from his mom, they seemed to be getting along decently well, which made him happy too.
The presents were also really nice.
Honestly, gifts he got from his friends over the years were the only things he tried to not put away in his Inventory. Just on the off chance it would get misplaced or mistaken for something else. If anything they were kind of the only room decorations he really had at this point.
A handmade bookmark from Blake with a pressed and dried purple flower native to Menagerie. A pair of wool mittens that Yang had learned to knit from Auntie Summer that was perfect to him, even if they were crooked. A set of silk ribbons to use to tie his hair back from Trivia and Neopolitan in various colors.
A cute handmade phone strap from Velvet and Sun. A black leather biker jacket with gold and green studs with hidden armor lining from Big Sisters Pepper and Noire. A survival knife in a leather sheath and strap to bind to his leg or boot from Cinder. A handful of thin silver chains for use as bracelets, necklaces, or jean chains from Xayah and Rakan.
Qrow and Ms. Goodwitch had gotten him some Beacon shirts and hoodies. The rest of Team STRQ had made a little photo album of all the photos they had of him and their family together they'd made copies of. The Belladonnas gave a glittery black piece of a meteorite that had crashed into the desert sands of Menagerie shaped like a curled up sleeping cat.
A new apron from his mom and dad.
He had to frown at his dad when he'd slipped Jaune some condoms in the apron pocket (maybe talking to his dad about Blake, Yang, and Trivia had been a bad idea) because he was nowhere near emotionally ready for that, regardless of what his hormones had to say about it.
It was a calm forest green with bright yellow lettering that stated I'm Not Stubborn; My Recipe Is Just Better. Black nail polish from his sister Aurora. Little faux-diamond stud earrings from his identical twin sisters Avaline and Rhona. He'd be getting his other presents from the rest of his sisters later, though Clarent had snuck him some Solitas Truffles as an additional early birthday gift when he'd met up with her last while visiting the Schnee siblings.
Ren, Nora, and Emerald would be holding off until he was back in Argus so as to have a small celebration with Pyrrha so she wasn't left out.
Jaune felt lucky to have so many important people in his life.
Adam sat on the windowsill, watching the moon, a glass in hand filled with amber liquid.
Ice clinked from inside the glass as he swirled it.
"...Hello Jaune." He didn't have to look away from the moon for his prosthetic eye to catch its creator in his enhanced peripheral vision. "Took you long enough."
"...You're not even going to deny it?"
"I've never needed to lie to you. Nor desired to." He admitted freely. He owed Jaune too much for that. Not enough to not take what was needed, though. "Honestly, I expected you to come sooner."
"...I didn't want it to be true. But I couldn't deny the facts shown to me." The younger boy admitted to him, also not feeding Adam any lies. It was good that they understood each other even now with all their time apart. "Why?"
There was no point in lying. Not only would Jaune know if he was and discern the truth anyways, what good was a moon that couldn't even clearly reflect the sun?
"Many reasons. Because I can not forsake the Faunus outside of Menagerie. Because that is my duty. The fact that there's a mind-controlling Semblance in the hands of a megalomaniac in Vacuo trying to manipulate me into using the White Fang as scapegoats for his own ends. Because change isn't coming fast enough and day after day it seems that the only true change that can happen seems to be through violence. Because despite the SDC having caused greater pain to Faunus as a whole, Mistral treats our people the worst. You take your pick."
And they were all true. Just because he couldn't be friends with Jaune due to his own friendship with the Schnees, didn't mean he wished to be enemies.
"...It wasn't a sin to be born a Faunus. Nor is it to be born a Schnee." Jaune lectured him with a scowl.
Adam grit his teeth, his fingers pressing hard against the glass of his cup, threatening to shatter it in his grip. He breathed deep.
"I know that in my mind." He spoke after a moment of silence. "But I cannot know that in my heart."
"So what. We keep agreeing to disagree? That I have to sit here and watch you perpetuate a cycle of hatred?" Jaune spat, his Aura surging dangerously. "Try the fuck again, Adam. If you harm innocents for your justice I will not sit back."
"I wouldn't cross that line unless it became absolutely necessary." Adam vowed, hating himself for the compromise. It wasn't in his nature to compromise. Only Jaune he owed enough to turn against his own self. "I've wronged you, and I will bear that sin. In return I won't touch your friend, even if every gram of my blood screams for her and her family's."
"What, that's supposed to excuse you?! That I'm supposed to sit here and watch as you use what I gave to help Menagerie for…" Jaune sighed angrily, clenching his fists, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "I know we have our differences, but even so I trusted you, Adam!"
He'd grown up a little. If they'd been in this situation last they'd met, Jaune would have confronted and exposed him publicly. Torn him down, perhaps, forcibly if he had to. Fought him not with words, but with steel. They would have been the actions of a mere warrior, not a hero.
"I wouldn't say that I've grown, Adam." Jaune's face twisted in emotional anguish. "I just understand there's more gray. But the people fighting for you… some of them are only really there because they want blood. How are you going to guarantee they won't be a problem?"
"I can't." Adam stated plainly, pointing out the obvious to them both. "Especially with-"
"That Vacuo person. I… I didn't realize he'd been sending feelers into Menagerie, but Raven's warned me to not step in Vacuo ever since she's found out about him. Leads some group called The Crown."
"Good on Branwen. I broke free because I won't let myself be owned again, but I almost didn't. If we lose you, we lose everything." Adam felt his arm tremble, forcing it to calm with his mind.
Fear was the enemy. It was the mind killer. He could not let it consume him.
"Do not forget my warning: his name is Jax Asturias and he's searching for ways to get to you. His brainwashed organization began expanding not long after we began trade with Vacuo. With his ability he began to rule all of Almurawij almost overnight, expanding the City of Vice fourfold over the past few years. All with the trade we did and the money they earned."
Jaune frowned, biting his lip.
"...We were just trying to get legitimacy. We're still fucking fighting for that. It's just words on paper but… I don't understand why it's so hard…"
"...that's not your fault." Adam's voice was soft, feeling nostalgic as he chatted with Jaune in a civil manner. He supposed he was allowed to feel that much, even now. "I've done what I can to keep him off your back, but he's growing impatient. He'll try to side step around me. He's too sure in his own power to suspect I've broken free, but I'll have to meet him again soon so that he can refresh his influence. I… might not be able to break away in time."
While he was (mostly) confident he would break free again, in actuality, he wouldn't be able to break off the initial corruption. The question was if he would spill the truth of his ability to regain his sanity.
It had been hard to reach the point where he'd regained control in the first place.
For days when he'd arrived back in Menagerie after personally assisting in a trade deal at the insistence of their 'trade partners', all he could think of was how to best form a splinter cell to serve The Crown while pretending there was nothing wrong with him. He'd begun to make plans with Sienna, whispering insidious temptations into her ears, though she too did not disagree with his plans entirely. The tigress had always wondered if it was necessary to be more forceful for the Fang's goals of legitimacy and true equality.
Under that madness, Adam had even used his body to secure the deal, manipulating the woman's physical needs and the trust he'd earned by working alongside her for these many years.
He'd reported back his successes, this time getting the order to betray Jaune a in full, to create a method for The Crown to obtain Jaune Arc. Only after he'd begun formulating such a plan as he returned to Menagerie, had begun the act of betrayal that he'd finally snapped out of it, by that point he'd already arranged the theft of his technology, bait to be had to draw him in.
He had broken free, horrified by what he'd performed to this point in his madness.
"Then it wasn't completely your fault. We can still-"
"Even so, by that point it was too late to truly stop."
And that was true. The allure of Jaune's technology and what could be accomplished using that and his newfound command over his Knights had been too terrible. He'd not resisted, and he'd chosen to pursue the dark path that he'd found himself on.
"And even worse..." Adam interrupted. "We have results. Results we never did as the White Fang alone."
Mistral's Traditionalists were in a frenzy looking to gain power and fighting amongst themselves, not noticing how the Idealists were eating away at their roots. Policies were being adjusted and changed, and while not benefitting specifically the Faunus, it applied to all of Mistral's impoverished, helping plenty of their people as a result.
All while The Crown were in talks with the MTC about buying them out under Almurawij's banner.
He stood up from the window sill, slamming back the local White Wheat Whiskey. He was certain in his actions, had no desire to stray from this path, but he knew in his mind that he was in the wrong. Even if his heart boiled for this solution, he needed something to give him courage too.
"Jaune. I am not stopping. If you and the White Fang are Menagerie's light, we Knights will cast its shade. The greater the light, the greater the shadow that can be cast. If we can't bring all the Faunus in the world to Menagerie, I will reach my arms out to them."
"...Adam. This is war you'll bring. Please-"
"The war never truly ended! If it had, we would be treated as equals! But we were uneducated. Unknowing that the end result they offered was a LIE! We'd never been learned enough to have seen the fact that the human's idea of peace was just a lighter collar upon our necks! No. No I- I won't say it's all humans."
Adam took a deep breath, steading himself.
"Your family, extended with Branwen's lot, have proven that to me. I will apologize for that and that alone. I will never forget what humans have done for Menagerie as well. The Glacial Incident was an eye opener for me. So while I may not be able to forgive the Schnee, I… I can forgive humanity. But there still is a need for change."
Jaune was short. Adam was tall. If he knelt he was slightly too short to match Jaune's height anymore but he did so anyway in an effort to close the gap to what he could. He just wanted to look Jaune in the eye without looking down at him.
"I will not beg forgiveness. Nor your support… or even your understanding. If you determine that what you must do is to cut me down now, I will simply close my eyes and accept it."
"...Adam… this still isn't right. And no secret remains buried forever. Someone else will figure it out. You'll become a demon."
"Then I shall become a demon lord. To one day be despised by all. Shadow become darkness itself. And if it be necessary, you will one day be the hero that slays me."
"...Jaune?"
Ruby sleepily rubbed her eyes, having come to the kitchen for a glass of water, but seeing light outside the window. She'd followed it out to see Jaune standing over a strange circle drawn on the ground, various strange glass lenses being focused on something in front of him held by metal arms, crates filled with Dust around him as light shone from what he was working on.
It was the leather jacket he'd received for his birthday today (yesterday?). "What're you doing up? It's three in the morning."
"...Go back to bed, Rubes." Jaune gave her a small, tired smile as if he still hadn't slept for some reason, turning away from his coat. "It's just an idea I had. It's not a big deal."
She could see his right leg shake as it softly tapped at the ground.
"You don't have to lie to me." Ruby pouted, getting her surrogate brother to flinch. "You look worried."
"I… yeah. Something… close to a nightmare." Jaune sighed, his gaze turning back to his jacket.
He didn't turn back towards her. His back looked so lonely.
He reached out to pull a long black coat meant for someone taller than himself, replacing his new jacket with it. His hands reached out for the crate of Dust beside him.
"...Do you wanna talk about it?" Ruby offered, walking over to him, only for Jaune to turn back towards her.
His face twisted into a frown, pulling out a pair of slippers from his Semblance so that she didn't have to walk barefoot.
She giggled, she had Aura, so it wasn't a big deal, but it made her feel a bit special that Jaune was looking out for her anyways. His hands slipping those slippers onto her feet sort of made her feel like a princess.
"Nah. I got it handled. Sort of. Just making stuff to prevent anything from being an issue. Making stuff for everyone so it won't be an issue." His voice was quiet and tired. Almost defeated.
"Oooooh." Ruby could feel herself become a bit more awake, forcing herself to perk up. Jaune seemed to like seeing her all happy and excited, and she just wanted to cheer him up a little. "What kind of stuff?"
"Ah, a bit of Dust infusion on armor, kinda. It's… a bit more complicated than that. I'm just more surprised Dust counts as a material component enough for my needs here, even seems to speed up the… well I was just sort of worried I'd need… I mean, if it came to it, I could just manufacture gemstones for it in bulk if I had to, so that's not a big deal but-"
Ruby snorted as Jaune casually talked about how he could completely crash the jewelry market like it was no big deal. Well she supposed it really wasn't for him, was it?
"-either way the Mind Buttressing should work fine with Dust as the crafting component, it seems."
"Mind Butt?"
Jaune snickered, ruffling her head with an amused grin, making her giggle back.
"Yup. Mind butt."
They shared a warm laugh in the darkness.
"Jaune." Yang found herself scolding. "You don't give return gifts to birthday presents, you nerd."
The idiot laughed at that, forcing a new version of her usual Parabellum coat around her shoulders, and hugging her from behind. The cheat.
His Aura was flush with the scent of juniper berries, a bit needier than usual, but that made Yang happy. It made her happy knowing he wanted more of her company. That she was someone he came to for comfort.
"It's not a return gift. Just a gift." He insisted, his arms warm around her, eyes closed as his cheek rested against hers. "Or rather I'm going to replace all of your spare armored jackets too, so be ready for that. For myself. You told me to be selfish, Yang."
She blushed, feeling her core tighten. Her fingers reached up to grip at Jaune's forearms, his skin was soft, but the muscles of the arm were firm.
"Not like this, you nerd." She growled, but there was no heat in it. She leaned her head against his. Gosh she'd kiss him if they weren't out in the open right now. "It's about being actually selfish, dummy."
"I'm being selfish enough. This is just for my own peace of mind." Jaune assured again. "Honestly, you… well there's a good chance you'd be fine simply because of your Ribbon, but I don't want to take any chances."
Yang blinked.
"...is it magic?" She whispered softly, quietly so only Jaune could hear.
"Yeap."
He hummed it out casually, like if he hadn't just informed her that her favorite Ribbon wasn't a magic fucking item. She'd worn it all casually the whole time and hadn't treated it super specially at all outside of the way she kept it on her at all times. What if she'd ever lost it?! Or had it stolen?
"Jaune!" Yang hissed quietly, her hand lightly slapping his thigh. "You have to tell me if you give me magic stuff!"
"Oh." Jaune blinked, his lashes brushing against her cheeks, longer than a guy normally had. Rather, Jaune was kinda girly if she squinted. "Uh, the coat's magic too?"
Yang sighed, her eyes closed but rolling under the eyelid.
"Alright, alright. If you haven't realized, the medicine I gave you ages ago was magic as well."
"Pft, duh. I figured that out." Yang bumped her head against his again. "...what does the Ribbon do?"
"Oh, it's called a Ribbon of Midgard. It's supposed to make you immune to… well it said status conditions. Such as blindness, deafness, being bound, petrified, frozen, mind altering, etc."
Yang blinked.
"Huh. I always thought it was weird how people stopped trying to grapple me in hand to hand spars. I thought it was them going through puberty too, but they can't just 'bind' me? That's actually pretty sick."
"Uhhhh… it's possible? I didn't really test it to the limit before I gave it to you. We… we didn't really get that much time to say goodbye back then."
That was true. It was sort of embarrassing how much she'd cried when he left only for him to show up in her room the Friday after she'd gotten back to Patch. Rather she'd been mad because even though they'd both made such a big deal of it he didn't just tell her that he'd be seeing her soon. If anything he'd begun crying because she had. The idiot.
"We were kids!" Jaune whined immediately, "I wasn't thinking about that in the moment!"
Yang rolled her eyes looking around to see nobody watching, sneaking in a quick kiss against his temple.
"Crybaby." She grinned.
"You cried way more than me!" Jaune angrily left a counter kiss on her temple.
"Did not!" She attacked his nose.
"Did too!" He attacked hers.
Ruby snuck by the bushes inside the Belladonna Estate's main courtyard.
Neo had come by (she treated Ruby nicely because Jaune treated her like a little sister, even if she and Yang, Blake too, weirdly enough, didn't get along) and was causing a bit of a situation as she'd agreed to spar with her sister.
Yang was strong, but despite being shorter than Yang, Neo kicked all kinds of butt. And they were getting rough enough that Jaune was called to step away and intervene.
There was a mountain of stuff, crates full of medicine, piles of shiny weapons (she wasn't drooling!), a bunch of weird bones and animal parts, and smaller piles of other miscellaneous stuff scattered all over the place.
There were a few of Jaune's Shadow mice keeping watch, but when she looked at them (her eyes itched sometimes when she stared at them) she'd scare them off for a bit as they ran in fear away from her.
Ruby knew for some reason it scared them enough that they'd stay completely frozen for a good bit of time, only moving to run if she got too close. Even to the point where Jaune had offhandedly mentioned they didn't listen to his orders right when Ruby got involved sometimes.
Which was a shame, because they were kinda cute and pettable, but right now she needed to look around a bit. And whatever hangups his Shadows had with her were to her advantage at the moment.
Her new cropped armored coat, white with red lining (and fancy patterns) and black trimmings, hugged her arms comfortably. Putting how Jaune somehow knew her exact size (that was kind of embarrassing to think about, so she chose to not think about it) and that it was weird he gave gifts to everyone right after his birthday (and they were all armored jackets or coats of some kind with whatever Mind Butt thing he was doing) it was comfortable.
Much lighter than it looked, too. She just wished that he hadn't stayed up all night doing it. She knew he didn't sleep. She'd backpack on to him later and make him lie down after she found what she was looking for.
…once she even figured out what that was anyways.
"Size changing or something similar~" Ruby sang as she looked at the piles of objects, grouped up roughly with little note cards that Jaune had scribbled on with his neat handwriting. "Stat Boost, nope but oooooooh~ Flight, cool but noooope. Flight C, where's B? Or A? Speed, neato but noooo~"
Her silver eyes glimmered with curiosity. Everything looked so cool.
"Shapeshifter C! Oooh!"
Quickly she snuck over to a small pile of objects, some strange metal cards, rings, bottles of weird liquids and the like.
A lot of it looked weird or creepy looking but the metal cards looked fine. Jaune wouldn't notice one of those going missing, right? There were four of them! And there was so much more other stuff for him to deal with.
"He he~" Ruby grinned as she slipped the metal card into her new jacket's sleeve. "Now to figure out how it works! Ow!"
The card cut her wrist through her blouse's sleeve and Aura.
"Oh no. What do you mean you were scared stiff?! It's Ruby! She's less scary than an actual pile of puppi- well, you're mice. Hmm. Ok bad analogy." Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose as the Shadow trembled in his hand. "You should have still called me earlier! It doesn't matter that I was handling something else, that's why I left you here!"
Shit, if his Big Brother Juniper hadn't needed to hibernate then!
The Shadow saluted again.
"Ok, I do trust Ruby, that's fair. Even so, stop deflecting! Ugh, I just hope she didn't grab anything dangerous. She's always been so curious about everything. And you Shadows need to grow up! There's nothing dangerous about Ruby! Aside from her Crescent Rose, but that's literally a weapon! Ruby's a sweetheart and wouldn't hurt you! She thinks you guys are cute!"
The Shadow trembled in his hand as if that was terrifying. Weird.
They were ONLY weird about Ruby.
Jaune quickly gathered up all of his Gacha Items into his Inventory, resolving to scold his Shadows later. They were weird about Ruby all the time. Even the ones he left in her own shadow asked to be swapped out with other Shadows on the regular, like they were uncomfortable around her. It didn't make any sense.
Either way he had to track her down and take back the object that had caught her curiosity.
This was the last thing he needed.
"Is she in her-" Jaune walked by the room Ruby was using, one of the larger 'guest rooms' that was actually a storage room repurposed into a bedroom (not unlike Jaune himself) so that Ruby had room to mess around with her weapon and have a little workshop. "-room, maybe?"
The door wasn't locked. Ruby usually kept it unlocked, as she didn't usually care too much about privacy, and rather sometimes needed someone to barge in and make sure she ate when she got caught up in her comics, manga, or tinkering on Crescent Rose or Ember Celicas.
Still, after checking if the door was locked (it wasn't, actually he was realizing she might not even realize she could lock her door), he knocked.
"Ruby? Are you in there?"
There was a scuttling sound inside, but Ruby didn't respond.
He felt a wild sense of fear from the other side of the door. Weird. It wasn't super accurate because it was just based off of the voiceless sound of movement, but there was a sense of intense hunger as well. Thirst?
Did she accidentally grab a magical prank snack? There were a couple of them, but he could have sworn most of them were still in his Inventory. Maybe something fell through the cracks. Some of them were in little boxes, so he might have misplaced something.
This was why he tried to keep things organized, despite how hard that was.
"Ruby. I'm not mad, ok? I'm coming i-"
"NO!"
He frowned.
Ok, it was thirst, not hunger. Weird. Pretty intense, too.
"That's not up for debate, Rubes. I'm coming in."
"No! I'm sorry! Don't-"
He opened the door, seeing a flash of silver eyes as ivory fangs leapt at his throat.
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