6 Chapter 6

What do I do?! What the hell do I do?! Putting my shaky hands on the table, I briefly considered trying to run, before immediately discarding that idea. 'There are two of them to run from!' Even if I could escape, Emerald had already seen my face so I'd have to watch my back 24/7! 'I don't have my weapon right now, so fighting them isn't an option either!'

The footsteps from behind became louder as the two of them started towards me. Each step forming a dark pit in my chest. 'If I can't run, hide, or even fight, then that only leaves one option...I just hope I can pull it off...'

With my back still to the two of them, I stealthily reached forward, pulling the fresh flowers out of the vase on my table and placing them in front of me. No sooner had I finished this when the footsteps behind me stopped.

"Well now." Mercury said, casually slinging an arm around my shoulder. "I couldn't help but notice you'd taken a particular interest in me and my friend here. Mind telling me why that is?"

'Shit...stay calm!' My throat was dry as a desert, a cold sweat covered my forehead, my heart beat so fast I was worried the two of them could hear it. 'Just go with the plan...'

Grabbing the bouquet, I removed Mercury's hand from my shoulder and whirled around. Emerald had already reacted, getting into a battle stance with her hands on her hips ready to draw her weapon when I thrust the bouquet towards her.

"Please go out with me!"

"W...what?"

The both of them froze dead in their tracks after hearing that. Mercury had a quizzical expression while Emerald looked utterly stupefied. My shouting had drawn some attention from around us as well. Many people were looking in our direction, I could hear a few giggles and murmurs at my public confession.

"Yes, I have taken a particular interest...in you!" I took a step forward, ignoring my heart pounding in my ears. "I saw you from a distance and couldn't help myself!"

The silence lasted for a bit longer before... "Ha ha...HA HA HA HA HA!" Mercury broke from his stupor and laughed uproariously. He doubled over holding his side, unable to catch his breath.

"W-wait timeout!" Emerald took a step back from the bouquet of flowers, holding her hands forward helplessly. "You were HITTING on me?!"

I could feel myself starting to become bolder as she I saw her reaction. My fear starting to disappear. "Of course!" I took a big step forward, holding the flowers at my side, my face only a foot away from hers. Emerald immediately staggered back with a frightened look on her face "How could I not with a beauty like yours? Would you like to get a drink with me?"

"L-look, that's very...nice...of you to ask but-"

"WHOOO!"

"You go man!"

"Say yes!"

There were a few shouts and whistles of encouragement from the onlookers around us. Emerald's expression sank, and she desperately looked to the side at her partner for him to say something. Mercury for his part just shrugged with a smug look on his face, evidently enjoying the show.

"Yeah Emerald." Mercury chuckled, chiming in. "Would you?"

She scowled at him for a brief moment before turning back to me with a forced smile. "Thank you for...being interested, but right now my friend and I are very busy, aren't we Mercury?"

"C'mon, we're not THAT bus-"

Without waiting for Mercury to finish, Emerald yanked him along by his hand, making her way towards one of the alleyways. In the distance, she could be seen yelling at him over some unknown topic. A few of the people around me gave a few mutters of disappointment as the two of them left.

"Better luck next time kid." said an elderly looking gentleman giving me a consoling pat and following the dispersing crowd.

"That...that was close..." My legs shook, giving out as I fell back in my chair, the tension in my body disappearing all at once. "Holy shit...I almost died."

If Mercury or Emerald were suspicious as to why I was following them, they probably would've waited until I was alone, and murdered me.

"Here you are sir." Taupe returned shortly after that incident, holding two trays with hashbrowns and quiche on it. Immediately leaving after having dropped off my food and check, but right now I was too busy to care and started digging into my food.

"I'll need to be far more cautious from here onwards." If that little experience with Mercury and Emerald is any indicator, I can't exclusively rely just on what I've seen in the episodes. Those two might've appeared later on in the show, but that didn't mean they weren't already in the kingdom. They're probably here setting up for Salem's plan to-

"SALEM'S PLAN!"

That's right! The attack on Beacon shouldn't be for some time now, and I KNOW about it! This is it! This could be my chance for something big and great! I can DO something about it!

"What time is it?" Pulling out a scroll from my pocket, I fiddled around with the buttons for a minute or so before the screen turned on revealing 8:02 am. "Ah, I gotta hurry back home or I'll miss the shuttle." Finishing the rest of my food, I grabbed the check and headed inside to the cashier at the counter to the familiar dog-eared faunus girl.

"Alright, I'm ready to pay the bill, what do I owe you?"

Taupe gave a nervous smile tapping away at the register. "Let's see, with the early bird special, your total comes to ninety-eight lien."

Fishing around in my pocket, I pulled out a lien of each color holding it out to the faunus and watching her reaction. She raised an eyebrow at me, before only taking the pink colored lien and handing me two green ones. Huh, so pink is like, what, one hundred?

"So sir, has everything so far been to your liking?"

"Well...I guess."

Taupe froze up, the ears on her head laying flat. "Was there something wrong with my service?"

"Your service was fine no problems with that, it's your behavior that's weird. You're all fidgety and twitchy around me. As if you're worried I'll suddenly attack you or something. Are you alright? I didn't do something to offend you did I?"

"What?! No no no!" she waved her hands back and forth. "Not at all, I was just worried that...well..."

"What?"

Taupe bit her lip, looking around to see if anyone was listening. Fortunately, the restaurant was mostly empty at the moment. Save for a few old-timers who had come for the early bird specials. After confirming this, she leaned in, speaking in a hushed voice.

"Well...you seem alright I suppose. Some people aren't exactly...thrilled to for their waiters to be faunus. Accusing me about contaminating their food by handling it, or other nonsense like that. I saw you staring at my ears and was worried you were one of those people."

Ohhhh...so that's what this was about. In all the excitement, I'd kinda forgotten faunus got the short end of the stick... "Does this king of thing tend to happen to you often?"

"No, this doesn't happen very often. If it were just jerks then that'd be fine but..." Taupe paused looking to the left at a door marked 'Employees Only'. "A few of these people leave complaints and I can't afford to lose this job. It was hard enough to find it."

"Oh...that sucks. I'm sorry about that..." I'm actually kinda surprised, I thought things would be better for faunus in Vale. I remember hearing about faunus protests here, but never actually SEEN them mistreated. Kinda just assumed this was about them using the dust shops to get back at Atlas.

"Don't be sorry." Taupe handed me back my receipt. "Thanks for talking with me about this. I feel a bit better at being able to vent a little." she smiled, this time it was a genuine one. "Will that be all for you sir?"

"Yeah, but please don't call me sir, it makes me feel old. My name's Nath-er, I mean Aero."

"Alright, you have a nice day Nath-er, I mean Aero."

"...Did you really just say that..."

Taupe laughed, waving goodbye before returning to her work.

Having explored, and gotten something to eat, I made my way back to Aero's house in order to meet back up with his mom. The woman in question had already dressed in herself in professional-looking attire, wearing a pair of reading glasses, and had her purse looking ready to go. With one final swig of her coffee, she fished around in her purse and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Here." she said slapping it on the table. "I gotta run, the dropship's location can be found at this spot." She briskly walked past me and then paused. Turning back around, she suddenly came back and embraced me in a hug.

"Huh?!" She caught me off guard, so my hands remained at my side until I remembered her 'son' should probably hug her back. Gingerly lifting my arms, and wrapping them around the woman.

This is strange...I know she's Aero's mom but...she's not MY mom.

"I'm so proud of you sweetie."

"Uh, me too."

'Me too?! What, that's the best response you can think of Nate?'

"I'm sorry Aero." She said pulling me in tighter. "I know you're not the huggy type, but I just can't help but think of you as my itty bitty baby."

'Please stop...'

Although I thought that, this experience wasn't...ENTIRELY unpleasant. After a time, she let go and looked at me.

"Be sure not to forget anything, maybe try and visit me when you can? You know on second thought, maybe I could convince your dad to let you wait another year if you think you're not ready..."

I put my hand to my mouth trying and failing to suppress a chuckle. The woman sighed and gave a sad smile.

"You're right. I know you'll do great Aero, good luck son."

With one final look back at me, she gave a wave and left, shutting the door. Leaving me alone in the house unsure of what to do. Now I feel kinda bad, I'm not the Aero she knows. Part of me just wanted to ignore what just happened and enjoy myself but, is that really the right answer? I returned to Aero's room heading towards the closet. Just as before, the silver and purple spear still waited, leaning against the wall. Only this time...I knew it was mine.

"So this is Aero's choice weapon huh?"

Reaching out, I picked it out of the closet. The weapon felt cool to the touch, the grip in the center, seeming to fit Aero's hands pretty well. Which makes sense considering this was probably made just for him. I thought it'd be heavier though, guess Aero's stronger than I thought. As my fingers slid over the smooth surface I noticed a small oval shape sticking out.

'What's this button do?'

"WHOA!"

The pointed bottom of the spear split into a three-pronged claw and shot out with a chain attached to it.

*CRYYSSS!*

The claw dug into the wall and held fast.

"Shit...it's a good thing Aero's mom already left. Now how do I get that claw out without ripping a chunk out of the wall?"

Fiddling around with the weapon for a bit, I pressed the same button I had before, and the claw's grip released. Okay good, maybe I'll experiment later when I'm not indoors. After hiding the claw marks in the wall by pushing a dresser in front of it, I hurried off to follow the map I was given earlier.

**********************

Getting aboard the dropship was a completely new experience for me. If I thought the view from the ground was impressive, then the one from the sky was spectacular. I have NEVER flown before, the closest I'd ever come to flying was jumping off of the roof as a kid, which didn't end well by the way. The people on the ground looked like tiny black ants moving around. The sky had other fascinating ships moving about, some of them really big and others were only average-sized. Most of the buildings didn't look TOO different from the ones back on Earth. I wonder...in about 50-80 years would my world be like Vale is now?

I cast a glance around the room.

"If only the view INSIDE the ship was as interesting as the outside..."

Seriously, I'd thought that being picked up was going to be an amazing experience where I'd meet a bunch of new characters that I'd never seen on the show before. I mean, I'd already met that faunus waitress, but nope. A surprising amount of people I passed by were one of those shadow people. It was fun before encountering a few of them in the street, but seeing several is ridiculous. Worst of all I couldn't even communicate with them either. Standing right by a small group of three shadow people, I could only hear them muttering most of the time with only a few small sentences occasionally appearing like:

"Did you hear about..."

"So anyway I..."

"That's so like him..."

I let out a sigh, deciding to just walk back to the window and enjoy the view when...

"OH I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY SISTER'S GOING TO BEACON WITH ME! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"

My body stopped. My heart stopped. Hell, TIME might've stopped as far as I was aware. "That voice..."

Beads of sweat appeared on my forehead as I slowly turned still in shock. And there she was, the golden-haired goddess of puns herself...Yang Xiao Long.