Planning Black

He kissed me.

This thought repeated in Winter's mind like a broken record after Silva kissed her before he left. The ice queen had difficulty paying attention to the instructor on military tactics as she replayed the kiss she was given over and over again. She blushed and was at a loss for what to do; while she did feel comfortable in the snow leopard faunus's presence, Winter wasn't sure how to approach the subject. The ice queen briefly wandered about entering a more... romantic relationship with Silva, like in the few romance books she read.

Winter imagined enjoying a candlelit dinner with Silva and felt it wasn't a bad situation. A quiet dinner with no excess talking and enjoying one another's company. After dinner, they walked through the streets and went to an apartment in the ice queen's mind. They entered the apartment, and Silva started to strip down and... Winter slammed her head into the desk to stop her mind from going to the gutter as she quietly cursed.

" Da*n it, Silva!"

The ice queen felt a bit annoyed with the snow leopard faunus for putting these thoughts in her head and leaving almost without a word. Winter's emotional turmoil continued for a while longer before she made her decision about what she wanted to do with Silva.

***

I, Silva Branwen, was going over my checklist for the road trip to the Menagerie while stopping through various settlements across Anima. As I made sure I got everything, my thoughts briefly turned to the Malachite twins, in particular, their employment to Junior. They worked for him during the canon, so I felt slightly concerned that something like fate or plot was in play to ensure some things come to pass regardless of my influence. I met the Vale crime boss because he wanted to meet me as the twins talked about me at their workplace as bodyguards-slash-bouncers.

Interestingly enough, Junior remembered me from when I asked him for some information to try and find Emerald and the current Fall Maiden, Amber. Part of the reason he wanted to meet was to see if I was interested in working for him. Aside from Miltia and Melanie, he didn't really have anyone reliable as his usual goons were dime-a-dozen weaklings that only had numbers going for them. I put his offer on hold as I needed this vacation to clear my head after being cooped up in Atlas for almost six months. Aside from Winter, the rest of the Schnee family, and the Happy Huntresses, I did not get close to anyone there.

Although, maybe trying to befriend Pietro after he builds Penny might be nice. On that note, I am entertaining thoughts of making my own android girl and providing a soul for her in a different way than Pietro's self-harming method. Even if I could get it to work as intended, it would probably be too late, as the scientist would have already given away a piece of his soul to animate Penny. However, I can at least prevent the Android girl's destruction in the future, as I am going to deal with Salem and, to an extent, Cinder as well in a matter of time.

Penny is one of my favorite characters, and I do plan on arranging to have her meet Ruby, as I like their friendship dynamics between them. After I shook my head to refocus on my checklist and saw that I had everything, I decided to check on the girls. I went to Neopolitan first.

" Neo, are you packed?"

She turned to face me and smiled as she pointed at a large cooler and three-colored travel on top of it. I didn't even need to look within the cooler to know it was full of ice cream, which made me smile in wry amusement. I then told the ice cream addict.

" Neo, I packed vanilla-flavored marshmallows, milk chocolate, and some strawberry drizzle so you could have your three-flavor fix in the form of a s'more. So you don't have to pack all that ice cream because even with a cooler, it will melt as we head down south towards, Menagerie."

Neopolitan leaped onto me and hugged me around my neck as her feet dangled down from our height difference. I guess she likes the s'more idea like I hoped she would. She got down and popped open the cooler to take a tub of three-flavor ice cream and started wolfing it down. I looked at her incredulously as I asked.

" You aren't seriously going to try and eat all that ice cream before we leave tomorrow, are you?"

The tri-colored girl's reply was a conjured sign that said.

" I eat there, for I am."

I wasn't even going even to try to retort to that as I left Neopolitan and her future ice cream headache and upset stomach alone. I went to check on Emerald next and saw her have to separate travel bags, one with what I am assuming is her necessities and the other she is trying to cram books into; my mind briefly wandered if she met Blake that the two of them would start a book club together. I wouldn't be surprised if they did just that if they became friends. I called out to her.

" Hey, Em, are you trying to stuff a whole bookcase in there?"

The minty bookworm replied without looking back at me.

" Just half of one."

I shook my head in wry amusement at her reply, then asked.

" Do you got everything else packed?"

" Yeah, got a change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, and everything else."

" K, see you tomorrow morning."

Emerald waved back in acknowledgment before trying to stuff more books in her other travel bag. Now for the twins. I am honestly surprised they want to come along as they strike me as strictly city girls with little to no interest and possibly disgust for camping, as I warned everybody I wasn't going to run back and forth between locations. I saw Melanie and Miltia sitting on their beds, packed and ready to go, and they called out to me in perfect harmony.

" Hello, Silva."

" Hey, Melanie, Miltia, just checking on the two of you to see if your packed."

Miltia said to me with a slight smile.

" As you can see, we are ready for tomorrow Silva."

" Okay, but I just want to double-check. The both of you are fine with camping outside?"

Melanie answered after she snorted.

" We can manage Silva; it can't be more dangerous than lower Mistral after dark."

I shrugged at her answer, as the two situations are completely different animals, but I plan on letting them return here if they can't stand camping. I think out of all of us, Neopolitan is the most excited about this trip as she has never experienced anything like it before. While we are gone, I have the construction bots work on building our home near Forever Fall forest while we are away. The Grimm won't likely bother the bots, but I did set up some turrets just in case because the creatures of Grimm are attracted to the sap in the trees for some reason. I then bid the twins good night as I got ready to go to sleep.

I wonder how this whole trip is going to turn out.