15 Ch. 15 Tying Up Loose Ends

"… He died with a smile on his face as he remembered you and your mother. He just regretted not being able to tell you he loves you…"

Lavi grabs Junior and drags him down onto the bed as she begins crying again. Junior lays on his side and lets Lavi curl up in his arms.

——————

Junior expected her to cry herself to sleep. But he's surprised she managed to stay up. "You can have this room and everything in it Lavi. Everything in here was Derek's… so it's now yours. I'll also make sure his things outside this room are put under your name as well"

Lavi doesn't respond but just grabs his jacket's lapels. Her head rests on his bicep and her tail goes over her side and between her and Junior.

"I know this is a lot to take in Lavi. But I didn't want to keep this from you for long" He runs his hand over her hair. "I'm sorry I have to leave, but I've got some other business to take care of"

"No!" Lavi immediately shouts and grabs a hold on Junior.

"Lavi" Junior pats her back. "I've already spent too much time with you here"

"Don't leave me too!" Lavi shakes her head rapidly.

"Then come with me" Junior sits up, the alcohol wearing off a bit.

Lavi looks up through her barely opened eyes. "W-what do you… have to do?"

Junior takes his hand from her back and moves her bangs out of her eyes. "I've got some exterminating to do around Vale. There's been an infestation of spiders I've been neglecting"

Lavi sits up and looks down at Junior. "Don't… don't do anything stupid"

Junior rolls onto his back. "I'm afraid it's a little late for that one. But don't worry, I'm not gonna be stupid about this. I only wanna deal with one spider personally, the rest will simply be relocated"

He stands up and straightens his suit and waits for Lavi to get out of the bed. She puts her feet on the ground and tries to stand up but falls back onto the bed.

Junior looks down at the girl. "Do you need me to carry you or do you need a shoulder to lean on"

Lavi gives a weak smile. "You'd still be carrying me if I leaned on your shoulder"

Junior rolls his eyes. "Is that a yes?"

"No" Lavi stands up and puts her arm around Junior's back and grabs the front his suit jacket with her other hand. She leans on Junior and looks towards the door. "I'm sorry I rely on you so much… I wanted it to be the other way around…"

Junior puts his arm around her shoulders. "I'm the boss of the Xiong family, everyone in this family relies on me" He looks down and sees Lavi's sad face. "I only rely on a few people. And you Lavi, are one of those few"

Her face immediately snaps towards Junior's. "But it always… it always feels like I'm just a burden…"

Junior takes his free hand and lifts Lavi's chin. "You are anything but a burden. If you were, I wouldn't have let you into the family. You are now the only one I can be more like my true self around"

Lavi presses her body fully against his. "Am I useful to you?"

Junior puts his thumb on her chin. "You are very useful to me Lavi"

"How can I be more useful?" Lavi pleads.

Junior gives her a small smile. "Just keep being you, Lavi"

A tiny tear falls from Lavi's eye. "How are we going to move forward? Derek… he's gone… forever… What happens next?"

"The world keeps spinning. We must keep moving forward. We can take our time for now, but we can't stop" Junior takes his hand away from Lavi's chin and takes a small step forward as he helps Lavi along.

"What's the spider you have to deal with?" Lavi leans her head on Juniors side.

"I guess it's time I include you in some more important matters of the Xiong family" Junior says and opens the door once they get there.

Lavi clings to Junior's side. "R-really?"

"Yes" Junior nods and helps Lavi along. "Spider is one of, if not THE most powerful crime syndicates stationed in Mistral, under the leadership of Lil' Miss Malachite. They're like our Xiong family, but much crueler, although I guess it depends on how you view things… Anyway, Spider and the Xiong family has had a rough and bumpy history. My father managed to strike a nonaggression agreement with them, although I doubt either group at the time actually intended to stick to it. Basically Spider would have Mistral and the Xiong family would have Vale and they wouldn't go to the other's territory. And I can tell you that neither one of them actually stuck to that. Spider is responsible for the bombings around Vale, and Derek's death. And I intend on taking an eye for an eye" Junior shakes his head and snaps out of it. "That's the basic history and where we stand with Spider right now"

"How… how are you going to get even?" Lavi asks with her bangs covering her eyes.

"The girl I had you move here this morning was a member of Spider, her name with the organization was Aragog. I just needed some info from her and that's why she is still alive, but my grudge with her is separate than the one I have with Spider. I plan on getting even with Lil' Miss Malachite on a later date" Junior's brows furrowed as he thinks about Spider.

"That little girl? Why would she do something so cruel?" Lavi questions in an exhausted voice.

Junior takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. "My father had ordered her family to be taken out. She managed to get away, but only after she watched her family die. Don't let her small body fool you, she is 21 years old. And she spent the last 13 or so years thinking of various ways to get back at my father. When she realized my old man was already dead she substituted myself in his place for her plans of revenge. She's the one that ordered Derek to be killed while I watched. And I was also nearly killed, but I came out victorious. I struggled with what to do with her, but after these last few hours I've found an answer"

Lavi stays silent. She wants to know what Junior is planning, but knows better than to ask. Or she subconsciously wants to stay ignorant. The little girl seemed broken and lost last time she saw her. Lavi doesn't know how to feel about the girl now. She feels so emotionally exhausted she can barely get mad at the girl, but that doesn't mean she isn't mad.

All the way through the halls Junior takes slow and short steps as he helps Lavi along. The Faunus girl wraps her tail around Juniors leg as she leans on him, without him she would fall. And she feels that it is poetic, because without him as an emotional pillar she would fall into her own abyss.

Lavi doesn't pay attention to where Junior is leading her. She's only focused on staying beside him. And when she notices Junior stop walking she looks around the hall. In front of her is the room she put the yellow tape on.

"You are staying out here" Junior walks to the opposite wall across from the door.

"What? Why? I want to go in with you" Lavi tries to cling onto Junior.

"No. Her semblance allows her to make people do things against their own will. I'm not going to risk having you in there, even if she is obedient. I'll be in and out, just wait 2 minutes" Junior forcefully pries Lavi's small hands off his suit Jacket.

Lavi leans her back against the wall and slides down it slowly until she sits down. She brings her knees up to her chest and rests her chin on her knees. She also pulls her hood over her head.

Junior crouches down and puts a hand on Lavi's head between the two fox ears on the hood. "Don't do anything stupid" He mocks before turning around and walking to the door. He takes the tape off the door again and tosses it to the side before entering the room.

Lavi watches Junior disappear into the dark room. "Idiot…" She puts her hands on her hood's fox ears and puts her forehead on her knees.

——————

Junior enters the dark room. He doesn't turn the light on or talk. He just goes straight to the desk. There are papers neatly stacked with various amounts of information on it. There's also information about Rue's family and that green jewel thing Junior forgot was in his other pants.

After scanning the information he looks around the room. He sees Rue peacefully sleeping on the bed… with her clothes on this time.

As he walks to the bed he calms himself. He has decided that he would do the necessary things, take actions others would find hard to do. Push the emotions down but NOT forget about them like he's been trying to do. He's tried going past Derek's death, but the emotions won't go away as he hoped they would.

Junior puts a glove on his left hand. He opens and closes it as black ripples of aura move across his arm from his finger tips to his elbow.

——————

Lavi nearly falls asleep when she hears the door open. She quickly picks her head up and sees Junior wincing while holding his left hand.

Before Lavi can say or do anything Junior holds his right hand up to stop her. He puts his left hand in his pocket, the glove no longer on. "I'm fine, I'm just not used to my semblance yet"

"You… have your semblance?" She would be more excited at this news, but her energy levels are bottoming out.

Junior offers his right hand to help Lavi up. "Yes, and it's a complicated one"

Lavi grabs Juniors hand with both of hers. "What is it?"

"I'll tell you, but can you walk on your own?" Junior pulls her up to her feet.

Lavi let's his hand go and stands on her own. "I think so, but I won't be able to keep up with you"

Junior takes some papers from inside his suit jacket. "I didn't plan on walking fast"

"Okay" Lavi smiles a little.

Junior pinches a corner of the papers and holds them up in front of Lavi. He activates his semblance and takes their kinetic energy and only touches them with his index finger and thumb. The papers don't bend down towards the ground, instead they look like they would float upwards at any moment. But they just tat still midair.

Lavi's eyes widen, they look slightly puffy but wonder fills them as she stares at the papers. "Your semblance is magic?"

Junior slumps his shoulders. "No Lavi. My Semblance is not magic. It's Kinetic Energy Manipulation. I'm able to manipulate the kinetic energy of the papers so they don't fall towards the ground. That's why they look like this"

Lavi moves close to the papers and touches them. She tilts her head when she moves the paper but they don't fall. "Kin-eh-tic what?"

Junior only takes the paper's kinetic energy, he doesn't take Lavi's. And he also doesn't stop the papers from moving, which he could have done. "Kinetic energy. Basically I'm able to take the movement out of people and objects by touching them. I can show you better in the training room later, but first I need to go to my office above the club"

Lavi tilts her head to the other side. "Why are we going there?"

Junior puts the papers away. "Because I need to inform the exterminators"

"Ohhhhh~" Lavi raises her eyebrows.

"If you get it let's continue on our way" Junior closes his left eye as pain shoots through his left arm. He also needs to either see a doctor or wait for his aura to fix his arm.

Lavi walks slightly behind Junior and to his left. "What did you do to your hand?"

"I'm still not used to my semblance. My body may be strong but it's not invincible. Apply too much force to something and it'll eventually break, it just might take a long time and a lot of effort but it'll break. If I use too much kinetic energy I won't be able to come out unharmed" Junior scratches his chin with his right hand.

Lavi follows Junior in silence. She's trying to wrap her brain around Junior's semblance but it just sounds confusing. Or it's very simple and he just stops things from falling.

Along their slow walk they can hear some music playing in the club. It's closed but Deadb3ar continuously plays sample musics and plays around with various songs. And it turns out the guy has a twin brother who also is a DJ, so they both decided to take turns so that they can take turns and be able to play music more often. Mainly because a man can only stay awake and play music for so long. But with 2 people they can play nearly all day and night.

The men in the club stop what they are doing and stand up to acknowledge Junior's presence.

"Enough" Junior lazily waves away their attention. "Get back to whatever you were doing"

With that said the Xiong family members get back to their business. Some are playing cards, some drink, others talk, and there are a few others doing whatever.

Junior makes his way up to the office that overlooks the club. And rubs his forehead. Drinking was not the brightest idea. After releasing a long sigh he opens the door.

Inside it's his normal office. But on the couch there are two people he wasn't expecting.

Junior's face stays neutral, but Lavi's face goes tomato red and her already burnt out brain fizzles out.

On the couch Junior recognizes the two on the couch. One is pinning the other down and making out with the one laying on the couch.

The one on top stops kissing the one pinned down and looks up at Junior. Her long black hair barely letting her see the two in the doorway. "Oh, hi boss"

"Am I interrupting you two?" Junior asks while narrowing his eyes.

"N-no!" The short blue haired girl shouts, still pinned down.

Junior closes the door after dragging Lavi in, she is a bit out of it. He then walks in and goes over to his desk and picks Lavi up and sits her down on the edge of his desk. He sits in his chair and looks at the two girls.

The black haired girl lets the blue haired girl go and sits at the edge of the couch. The blue haired girl blushes worse than Lavi and quickly stands up.

The blue haired girl clasps her hands together behind her back and bows to Junior. "I-I'm sorry Boss Xiong!"

Junior looks at the short girl with short blue hair. Her bangs would cover her eyes completely but she uses 2 hairpins in a X to separate them so her right eye isn't covered. She's 4'10" tall. And her blue eyes almost match her light blue hair color but they are a slightly darker shade of blue. She's currently wearing a white long sleeved shirt and skinny blue jeans that are ripped. Her name is Anza Ize and she's a member of the upper family. She's the youngest, just having turned 17 not long ago.

Junior then turns his gaze to the other girl. Her long black hair going down to the back of her knees. She has dark yellow eyes that are rather unnatural in humans. And she stands at 5'11" which is on the rather tall side for the girls in the Xiong family. She is wearing a white crop top that barely covers her breasts. Very short blue jean shorts. And lastly a slightly oversized black zip-up jacket that she chooses to have on but let fall down her left shoulder. Her name is Veronica Vio, also a member of the upper family. She's 22, a year older than Junior, and her personality is rather… unique and difficult.

Veronica stands up and rests her left hand on her hip that she sticks out to the side. "Relax Ane. He probably wouldn't care even if we continued, in fact…" She smirks as her eyes narrow. "I think he might even have preferred it if we did"

Junior keeps his expression neutral and places his left hand on the desk. It looks terribly bruised, all black and blue. "I don't care what you two do on your free time. Anza, too formal. And Veronica, too informal and while you correct yourself, heal my arm while your at it"

Anza's eyes widen when she sees Junior's hand.

Veronica winces and walks up to the desk. "How did you manage this one Boss?"

Lavi looks back over her shoulder and sees Junior's injured hand. "W-How?! It wasn't like that before!" She gets off the desk and quickly stands next to Veronica as she gets a closer inspection at the hand. Her heart begins to ache as she sees the discoloration of the hand. How can Junior be hurt so bad and she not know it? Will he leave too?

"Don't worry Lavi~!" Veronica wraps her arms around the redhead. Veronica pressing her boobs agains Lavi's neck. "I'll make sure Boss Xiong feels all better!"

Junior rests his right elbow on his chair and rubs his temples.

Anza stands next to Lavi and also worryingly looks at the hand. "I've never seen an injury like this before…"

Veronica gets serious but doesn't let Lavi go. "Same. It's like it's been crushed from the inside out or something. Seriously, how did this happen?"

Junior looks through his fingers while his hand covers his face. His head hurts more than his arm at this point. "You ask too many questions"

Anza slumps her shoulders. "Sorry…"

"I wasn't talking about you Anza" Junior sits up and lets his right arm rest on the chair. "I awakened my semblance recently. I overdid it about maybe 10 minutes ago or so. I'm able to manipulate Kinetic Energy of anything I touch. And my body hasn't exactly been conditioned for it yet so when it went past a certain point this happened. My aura has been healing it but it'll take a while. So I guess it's good you are early for once Veronica" Junior knows his bones are fine, but it's practically everything else that hurts. He didn't know it was this bad until just now when he looked at the hand himself.

Veronica lets Lavi go and gets as close to the desk as she can stand and places her hands on Junior's hand. "I'll see what I can do"

Junior winces as he feels her hands touch him. He watches as Veronica closes her eyes and her vibrant purple aura begins emitting from her body. It's much brighter around her hands and it then covers his hand and entire arm.

Junior's own black aura suddenly bursts to life. Junior pushes Veronica's violet aura down his arm to his elbow where the injuries start. "It's not the entire thing. And just give me the pain, don't try to shoulder it" He consciously has to let Veronica's aura enter his arm. Her semblance is "Heal" and it does exactly that. But Veronica has to physically touch the person and inject her aura into that person. Whatever she heals she feels the pain of. But she can transfer that pain to someone else instead of herself.

Veronica opens her left eye a little and looks at Junior. "Are you sure? 2 times the pain isn't a joke" She rarely lets anyone do that. She prefers to take the pain than pass it off, but if Junior tells her to she will do it.

"I'm sure. I need to make sure I don't make the same mistake twice" Junior prepares for the pain and rests his right hand on the desk. He knows that pain isn't meant to be felt twice by a person, it's actually rather dangerous. But he won't let anyone else suffer because he was stupid and couldn't control his semblance when taking care of a spider.

"Wait!" Lavi shouts, her voice still a bit hoarse. "Veronica, I'll take the pain!"

Junior closes his eyes. "Stop Lavi. Don't make Anza have to restrain you" He would order Anza to keep Lavi back, even if Lavi can teleport Anza is an upper family member for a reason.

Veronica sighs. "I wouldn't let Lavi do it anyway Boss"

Lavi clenches her fists and tears threaten to fall. Anza walks around Veronica and hugs Lavi. Anza is shorter than Lavi but she can still see over her shoulders when she hugs the redhead from behind. Anza presses her lower face against Lavi's left shoulder as she looks at Junior's hand and Veronica prepare to heal it.

Junior snaps his eyes open and glares at Veronica. "Don't. You. Dare"

The black haired woman flinches when she hears Junior's tone. She had just tried to take a small portion of the pain when transferring it back to Junior, but it seems she was caught. And she was also surprised how badly it hurt, it wasn't the worse but it made the top 3 easily.

The violet aura on Junior's arm begins glowing. Veronica has begun using her semblance and has started healing the injury. The damage is pretty extensive so it'll take a few seconds longer than normal, unfortunately for Junior.

Hei Xiong clenches his jaw and firmly presses his feet against the floor. His right hand immediately clenches and presses against the desk. "Fucking hell…" He mutters through his teeth.

"I warned you…" Veronica says below her breath quietly enough not to be heard by Junior.

Lavi places her hands on Anza's arms around her shoulders. The tears now silently falling.

Anza wonders what happened to Lavi. The normally energetic girl has been acting weird even before Junior revealed his injury… she then blushes shin as she remembers what she was caught doing and why Lavi may have been acting weird.

Junior raises his right hand into the air and brings it crashing down onto the desk.

*Thwack!*

Instead on Junior shattering the desk into little splinters m, the desk just doesn't explode. Junior had taken the kinetic energy as soon as his fist made contact. So it still made the sound, but quieter and there was no damage to the desk. Sound waves are also a form of kinetic energy as well.

Veronica snaps her eyes open when she heard the impact, she didn't stop healing Junior even though she was surprised.

Anza, Lavi, and Veronica see the faint black ripples on Juniors right hand as he absorbed the kinetic energy. That's also something he needs to train, to discreetly use his semblance.

What feels like 5 minutes go by, but it's only less than 30 seconds.

Veronica's aura slowly dissipates along with the slight glow effect on Junior's arm. She seems relatively ok after healing Junior, only a single bead of sweat on her brow that she wipes away. "And just like new~" She sighs out.

Junior breathes through his nose as he calms down from the adrenaline. The pain was the worst he had ever felt before. He managed to not scream and shout but he probably won't talk for a little longer. He uses the back of his right hand to wipe his sweat off his forehead and then loosens his tie.

Veronica smiles. "Sorry, I don't have an suckers" She tries to lighten the mood.

Junior shakes his head and releases a sigh and finally opens his mouth as his jaw relaxes. He rubs his left arm with his right hand and slowly opens and closes his left hand. "Thank you, Veronica"

Veronica loses her smile. "Don't thank me, you're the one that took the pain"

Junior sits up in his chair. "My arm is healed. And you are the one that did it. Don't act like that, didn't I tell you to work on that?"

Veronica moves behind Lavi and Anza and hugs them as she pouts playfully. "You've told me to work on a lot of things"

Junior knows that Veronica has a reason for acting the way she does. She was recruited when she wasn't in a healthy mental space. The Xiong family brought her in and helped her recover. Junior also was the one to expose the pain aspect of her semblance. She used to take all the pain and not tell anyone. Junior has struggled to help her, but he's done what he can. She may act a bit rebellious, but she views Junior extremely highly.

Junior puts his left hand on the table palm up and moves it towards Lavi and Anza. "I'm all better now, so you two can stop freaking out"

Lavi and Anza lean over the desk and Junior's hand and look it over.

Veronica puts her head between the two girls heads and rubs her cheeks against theirs. "I made sure his hand is back to normal, no need to worry. Now let's leave him alone for a little, he's likely very tired after that"

She picks up the two girls and brings them over to the couch. Veronica sits down in between the two small girls. She looks at Lavi's face. "What happened?"

Before Lavi can respond Junior stands up and walks over to the big glass window. "Since you two showed up earlier than expected I'll have you help with an extermination"

Veronica's gaze lingers on Lavi's face for a few extra seconds before looking at Junior's back. "Extermination? Of what kind?"

Junior looks down at his left hand. "The kind that involves spiders. And since you are here early I'll tell you that Derek was killed by Spider, the crime syndicate"