章節 125: 27
Chapter 27 – Ju-aune: The Date
"Here thee, here thee. The first grand meeting of the doomed begins now."
"Jaune, this is serious," Blake sighed as she rested her head on one hand, elbow propped on the edge of the bed. The two were alone in the RWBY dorm as the other three members of the team were out inspecting the hall the dance was to be held in. It was the first time in the last five hours or so that she'd had any time to herself.
"Hunting White Fang is serious. Grimm is serious. Your inability to get a date for the dance really isn't." Jaune had possessed Tiddles as he often did and was currently marching back and forth on Weiss' like some kind of drill instructor.
"It's not inability," she stressed, "but touché. Honestly I could just ask Sun to take me and he would at the drop of a hat, as likely would a few other guys in Beacon."
"Then why not? It would solve most of your problems."
"And open a host more," she scoffed. "I don't want to lead Sun on like that, I've been working on him in a very specific manner and can't confuse him."
"Working on him? You've been pretty much giving him the cold should-" he paused, "oh… right. Wow, that's kinda harsh."
"It's not harsh," Blake rebutted, feeling uncomfortable at the accusation. "If he'd taken any of the many hints I've given him then it wouldn't be necessary. This is as easy as I can let him down other than to stab him. Inviting him to the dance would just undo all that work; while also setting him up to be hurt later."
"What's wrong with him though?" The teddy flopped down on the desk, crossing its stubby legs as though meditating. Blake rolled onto her back on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. What was wrong with Sun Wukong?
"Nothing, really." He was physically attractive, friendly, enthusiastic and looked like a lot of fun. All the things she wasn't. "We don't have anything in common though, other than the fact we're both faunus. You'll forgive me if I don't consider that enough to base a relationship on. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to preach equality while also settling for the first guy to show interest in me – just because he's a faunus."
"So what do you look for in a guy?" She glared at him with one amber eye, but he waved his arms to ward off the look. "Just out of curiosity. I am trying to think of a solution to the dance problem, but we can at least talk, right?"
She supposed they might as well. At the end of the day, Jaune couldn't tell any of her secrets to anyone. In that regard he was the perfect sounding board… maybe even the perfect friend. Oh, she supposed he could possess someone when they were unconscious, then go speak her secrets to people – but even then, she didn't imagine he ever would. It surprised her… but she did trust him. Truly trust him. Not just in the way one would trust someone to help them if they were in trouble, or not ask any questions they knew would hurt you.
This was unconditional trust.
"I'm not picky," she said – smiling when she heard him snort. "Truly, I'm not. I don't ask for super good looks or an incredible body. I guess I'd like someone who has some similar hobbies to me… they don't have to be the same, but someone who is willing to just sit down and read or relax. Not someone like Sun or the male equivalent of Yang – who always have to be doing something."
And now she was imagining Yang as a guy, and into her… and it was terrifying.
"Ideally they'd be willing to support me in my dreams too. They wouldn't need to do anything, but if I'm going to try and bring equality between faunus and humans I'd like them to at least support me from a distance." Sun would, she knew that. But it always seemed as though he was doing it for her, instead of for any good reason.
A bunch of creeps. That was what he'd called the White Fang. And while there was nothing wrong with that, he hadn't seemed to care either way about them until she had shown that she did. Then he was all for stopping them or spying on them.
To please her.
"They should be determined in their own way. To their own ambitions and dreams." She recalled Adam… he fit so many of those bills. And for the longest of times it had been love. Good, mutual love.
But he'd changed. Or maybe he hadn't. Maybe she'd just never seen it… but she liked to think that wasn't the case. That he'd been the determined young teen he'd seemed when they met – when they would get together to plan how to reform the White Fang. How to get results. That time and bad experiences had changed him for the worse…
But didn't that mean she'd failed him? That she should have noticed him changing, and tried to help him?
"But never to the point that they forego their morals. Results matter, but so do the methods you use to get there. At least in my mind. I guess in that regard they should be mature too, kind – not prone to fits of anger or jealousy."
"Not picky at all," Jaune drawled from the desk. "You've basically described the most patient man alive."
"Maybe… I think it would depend on the guy. If someone had enough of those qualities, then I might be interested. What about you?"
"Me? Uh… I dunno… I mean, hmm… I'm feeling kinda… no wait, no -yeah. Definitely feeling a little dead right now. I'm not exactly in a position to be dating anyone." Blake rolled her eyes, wishing she could go over there and push his face into the desk a little.
"I meant when you were alive idiot. What kind of girl did you like?"
"I don't think you'll be impressed," the bear sighed, "but okay – here goes. My preferred girl…" he paused to find the right words while she listened on intently. "Is a girl."
"Very specific," she snarked. Jaune laughed.
"It's true though. I would have dated just about anyone so long as they were female and showed the slightest bit of interest. I guess hindsight is 20-20 and being dead certainly opens up your perspective a little – but I really didn't know much about women back then. Or dating."
"And now you're a professional?"
"I like to think I've picked up a few things from you, even if just by hanging around you. At the very least I now realise Weiss just didn't like me." The words were delivered casually, but Blake couldn't resist the groan that slipped out.
"Jaune…"
"I know, I know!" He sounded embarrassed. "But I was young and stupid, I thought she was just playing hard to get. I thought girls did that kind of thing." Good gods… she wasn't sure where he'd got his information on women from, but it must have been something on the television. There was no way someone who lived among seven sisters could be so dense. "Anyway, liv- well, un-living with you, I like to think my standards are a little higher now. Not that it matters."
"If you were still alive," she wondered out loud, poking her chin in thought. "Do you think we'd have been friends?" It was something she'd wondered at for the longest time. Ever since being stuck with him she couldn't imagine being alone – he'd just become an important part of her every day routine.
"No," he said without pause, making her wince. "I don't think we would have. Not because of you though," he added as an after-thought. She wasn't sure if he could sense her emotions, because from his position down on the desk there was no way he could see her. "You have to keep in mind I was a shy little turd back then. Take awkward male teen Ruby and multiply it by at least twenty then add hormones." What a terrifying image. "Sad thing is… I think I would have admired you from a distance. Maybe even nursed a crush on you. But I wouldn't have ever had the balls to go and talk to you. You're just out of my league."
Out of his league.
She hated those kind of things. Who else could decide what she might and might not like, other than her? Why refuse to try, why refuse to at least have the opportunity to fail?
Better to try and fail, than to be afraid of even trying. Paralysed by indecision.
She couldn't say what might have been… her first impression of him had been a bad one too. Maybe if they were stuck together again; if he was made her partner or teammate? Maybe then something could have happened between them.
Hell… she might have entertained the thought of it. She trusted him after all. He had his goals, he liked to read – even the same books as her, as embarrassing as that was. He was also somewhat good look- Not worth thinking on girl. Don't muddle things up more than they already are.
Besides… it wasn't like she could take him to the dance, was it?
"I have an idea," she bolted upright, turning on the bed to grip the edges so that she was looking down on him. "They want to see my secret boyfriend, right? The one think I'm talking to when I'm talking to you."
"I'd just like to say: I don't know what this idea is… but I'm already nervous." He pushed one paw against his head, as though to simulate rubbing his forehead. "You've not got the best record on awesome ideas right now."
"You can take me to the dance."
"Two for two, your record remains complete. I'll repeat again – I've come down with a little case of death, rain check?" She shook her head against his sarcasm, wishing he would put it down for just a few minutes.
"Hear me out, I'm not suggesting I take a ghost to the dance, but you can possess things." Small things so far, the bear, Sun… he hadn't been able to possess the Paladin, but that made sense. The Paladin wasn't composed of any parts that moved autonomously. It was made of a central CPU which then sent encoded commands to things like pistons, hydraulics and dust generators. Things Jaune had no way of understanding. "We just need to find out what the limit of your ability is and make a plan to fit around it."
"Yeah, great – let's go get a bigger version of this. You can say you're dating a bear faunus. A really furry bear faunus."
She could imagine that… her walking into the hall in a dress, what was clearly a six-foot teddy bear on her arm. It was a little painful to think of… but no way near as painful as the ribbing Yang would give her.
"Not a big teddy bear, but we should try and find out what you can and can't do anyway. There might be a solution. How about a realistic mannequin?"
"I suppose… this bear is… well I don't possess the bear – it's just fabric and stuffing after all. I'm actually possessing the shell of it, the fabric that's sewn together to keep all the insides… well, inside. You could actually skin the bear, and I'd still be in the skin."
In the skin? "How does that help you move around then?"
"Well for one none of my insides do anything against me. Not like with the big robot. The Paladin for instance was made up of thousands of metal plates and things, so I couldn't just possess any one of them and expect to move it. Plus, the computer at the core works as an override, with the pilot as the one to give commands. Even if I'd known how to use code he could still pull the lever and I move – unless I knew how to hack everything and change how it all worked. What I mean is; if you want me to be able to move something, it needs to either want to move itself – or be utterly incapable of resisting me. Unconscious people work because they have muscle memory, I tell the brain to move and it knows how to do that – the same way they keep breathing even when I don't need to. With the bear... I can move the skin and the insides just accept that, they move with it. If i tried to move the fluff inside though, then it wouldn't have the strength necessary to move the bear. Plus I wouldn't be able to see."
"I'd like to avoid the possibility of abducting someone for the express purpose of knocking them out to be my possessed boyfriend," Blake deadpanned. The idea had been somewhat obvious but there had to be a line drawn somewhere.
"Yeah and they might wake up – at which point it's bye-bye Jaune." And one very confused man dancing with a faunus girl, went unsaid.
"Tomorrow," she decided with a nod. "Tomorrow we'll go into Vale and experiment on what you can do. That should give us some time to make a decision."
"I can't believe I'm even entertaining this idea… nor that I'll be taking someone like you to the dance." Nor could she, to be honest. But there were worse options available. Far worse. "That said… there is one thing I'd prefer in a woman I'd take to the dance. Something you apparently lack."
"Oh?" She wasn't curious… not really. Just slightly interested. In the lowest sense of the term.
"Yeah. Someone who isn't so afraid of a damned dog that they can't come and rescue me!"
Ah, that. Blake looked down to the floor – and the reason that she was currently in the top bunk of Ruby's bed once more. Two canine eyes looked up at her, tail wagging furiously as the corgi balanced with both forelegs on Weiss' mattress. Seeing her looking at him, it barked, before – with a quick flop – it rushed off to the table Jaune was on, mimicking the action to bark at the bear.
Jaune held the same position as her. Perched at the edge of the table with his head looking over the edge. The floor was lava… furry, slobbering stupid mutt-filled lava.
"Help me, Blake! For the love of everything!"
"Bark!"
"Don't worry," she said – wincing as he glared up towards her, "the rest of the team can't be too long, right?"
"Damn it Blake, you coward!"
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票