30

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Neo's feet kicked against the bar with a thump-a-thump-a beat that was just a sliver off from the bass thrumming in the background. She knew, because the guy standing behind the bar's eyebrow was twitching wildly every time he finished serving a client and looked her way.

She smiled at him, the expression like a knife between the fourth and fifth ribs.

This was nice, spending some time on her own, enjoying a float that was more ice cream than soda and that came with a really long straw while waiting for some unsuspecting brat to come bother her so that she had the excuse to beat them to a pulp. The look on the frat-boy sort when she was done knocking their teeth out and the bouncers showed up was always so fun, especially that sudden confusion when they were the ones hoisted out of The Club.

"Um, excuse me," said a voice that was far too soft.

Neo took a long slurp from her drink and spun on her stool, nice and slowly, like a villain in a movie, so that she came face to chest with the woman behind her.

She blinked, then looked at the girl up and down to be sure.

It was Bunny Girl, and she was with blond bimbo and... three others that Neo didn't know.

"H-hi, Neo," Bunny Girl said. "It's me, um, Velvet."

Neo nodded.

"I was wondering if--maybe--you had seen..." Bunny Girl leaned forwards to no effect, her costume was too tight in all the wrong places for the gesture to provide a view. "I was wondering if Akelarre was here?" she whispered.

Neo tilted her head to one side and then wondered how to answer. Akelarre was, in fact, around. She was just upstairs talking to Roman and Junior about serious stuff. Stuff that didn't matter, like setting up a tax system for the underground and redistributing territory and manpower and all those other boring details.

She made a 'wait a minute' gesture, whipped out her Scroll and shot off a text to Akelarre.

Neo: o.o !

Akelarre: What's wrong?

Neo:

(\_/)

(o.o)

(___)0

Akelarre: Velvet?

Neo: :)

Akelarre: Oh, that's nice. Is she here?

Neo: :eek:

Akelarre: Okay, I'll be down in a moment.

Her duty completed, Neo slid her phone back into its place and gestured at the stools next to her. She was about to turn around and focus on her drink again when the short red one slid up to her. "Are you Akelarre's friend? I am too. My name is Ruby, and this is my team. That's Weiss, Blake, and that's my sister Yang."

The name rang a bell, and it wasn't until the girl gave Neo the must insufferably innocent smile that she put two and two together and got 'cheating little shit'. She narrowed her eyes at the girl.

"Are you really close with Akelarre?" Ruby asked while making huge expansive gestures. "That's so cool!" She squealed. Actually squealed, and for a moment the cold black pit that was Neo's heart quivered in her chest. "Oh, do you want to meet Crescent Rose? I built her, but Akelarre helped a little." From behind her back and above her frankly adorable poofy dress she pulled out a box that Neo recognized as some sort of Mechashit thing.

Then it unfolded into a scythe that was longer than Neo was tall. A lot longer. "Mistress!" the weapon said. "This building looks like a fire hazard. Loading Burn Dust rounds!"

Neo could see what Akelarre saw in the girl. She patted the stool next to her, inviting Ruby to the seat of honour before turning around to face the bartender and gestured at him.

The man looked at the young women next to her, then up at the sign above the bar saying that patrons had to be older than eighteen, then he looked back down at Neo and started pouring some drinks.

"Ruby," White said with the sort of exasperation Neo was used to hearing from Roman when she accidentally killed a target, burned down their house, and stole all their stuff, on accident. "You can't just bring out your... toy like that in broad daylight. Try to think of what others will think if they see you acting so immature!"

"Mistress, this heathen is mocking you. Set as priority target?"

White glared at the scythe while Blackbow just sighed and slid into the next seat over. Bunny Girl hesitated for a moment, then plopped herself down on Neo's other side. Ruby had the decency to shush her murder toy before folding it back up.

"Um," Bunny Girl began, and if she wasn't so cute Neo might have been annoyed by her little shy girl act. "Did you notice if Akelarre was, angry, recently?"

Neo thought back to the last few nights, nights spent dismantling entire groups using metric tons of angry, screaming bugs, lots of fire, and the occasional death threat. She shook her head, spoon waving from side to side where it was caught between her lips.

Bunny Girl sighed. "Oh, good."

"Hey, blondie."

The five girls and Neo turned towards the huge slab of man that was Junior as he strutted over to them, then stood above the blond girl and eyed her from above. "You're almost late, and why aren't you in your costume?"

"Aww, boss," Blondie said. "Can't we, you know, get a raincheck on tonight's, um, activities?"

White snorted. "Typical. Your first day and you're already shirking your responsibilities."

Junior's grin was feral. "You should listen to your friend, Blondie. Show's starting in ten. Get to it." He jerked his thumb towards the door leading into the backroom, then walked past her onto to pause by Neo's side. "Is everything to your liking, Miss Neo?" he asked.

Neo nodded, gesturing at her drink which was mostly gone, then gave him a thumbs up.

"Good, glad you like it. I had to install a soft serve machine just for you. Oh, and the boss lady is coming down in a minute," he said before moving on. "Enjoy your evening girls."

Neo looked at blondie, one eyebrow perked. The girl crossed her arms, huffed, then with a quick glance at her friends she seemed to decide that she had better things to do and stomped off towards the back.

"She's not going to last very long with that sort of attitude," White said.

"Yang's probably just a little worried," Ruby said. "It's her first job." She reached for the cup the bartender had placed before her and took a sip before her entire face scrunched up. "Ew, ew, this is gross," she said. "It tastes like Uncle Qrow's juice."

White and Blackbow both took their cups and sniffed them, Blackbow going so far as to take a sip. "It's beer," Blackbow told Ruby. She took another sip and spun on her stool to watch the crowds.

White made a disgusted little sound and replaced her cup on the counter. "I'd prefer some nice fruit wine," she said, sounding just as prissy as she looked. Neo wondered if she would fit in White's dress and if she could steal it before the night was over. "Don't drink that Ruby, I wouldn't want to explain to Yang or, gods forbid, Goodwitch, why you came back to the dormitory drunk."

"I think we would all prefer it if Ruby stayed sober," a smooth voice said from off to one side. Neo had to lean back and look up to catch Akelarre's eye as she walked over to them, cloak billowing out behind her like the sexy cape of a sexy supervillain. She licked her lips to the taste of vanilla ice cream.

"Akelarre," Velvet and Ruby said at the same time, though with two entirely different tones.

Ruby hopped out of her seat and tackled the taller girl in a quick hug before letting go to reveal red cheeks and a sweet grin. "I got into Beacon!" she said.

Akelarre placed a hand on Ruby's head, then gently rearranged the girl's red locks. "Really? Congratulations. I thought you had to be a bit older to enter?"

"Yup, but I'm so awesome they let me in early."

Akelarre's smile was soft as she continued to pat Ruby on the head he way Neo might pat a dog. "Well done. And who are your friends? Velvet I already know, of course."

"Uh, hello, Akelarre," the bunny girl said before her ears drooped down and she sunk in on herself. "I, I wanted to talk, if you had the time."

"Sure, we can talk whenever you want. I have a room upstairs if you want some privacy," Akelarre said. Velvet nodded so fast her ears flopped around. Akelarre let out a chuckle before turning to the other girls. "Hello, I'm Princess Akelarre, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yes!" Ruby said before zipping back to her friends. "This is Blake Belladonna, my friend, and this is Weiss Schnee. She's my friend and my partner."

"It's a pleasure to meet you... Princess," Weiss said.

Next to her, the black-haired girl, Blake, was going so pale she would soon look like someone had left her outside in mid-winter, her eyes were bugging out with the kind of expression Neo had started to label as the 'I've met Akelarre' face.

Akelarre noticed almost immediately, eyes narrowing before she smiled at Blake. "Are you the Blake that was at that camp a while or so ago?" she asked.

Blake made a noise that could have meant anything.

Akelarre took pity on the girl and reached out to pat her head. Blake sunk under the patting. "Don't worry. Any friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine. And anyway, aren't we cousins?"

Ruby blinked slowly and so did Neo. She eyed the Blake girl up and down but couldn't see any noticeable Grimm-like traits to her. Maybe the bow was hiding horns?

"You're related to Blake?" Ruby asked.

"Not by blood," Akelarre clarified. "It's common courtesy that any princess call another princess cousin, even if none are actually related. It's a very old tradition."

"Blake is a princess?!" Ruby said. She spun towards the black-haired girl, eyes shining with awe. "Why didn't you tell us? Were you hiding it?"

"Um," Blake said.

"Ah, forgive me," Akelarre said before bowing towards Blake. "I didn't know you were undercover. You weren't masking your appearance, so I jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"What." Weiss' voice was flat.

"It's... okay?" Blake said.

"Okay, time out," Weiss said. She pointed a finger at Akelarre's chest. "Who are you." Her hand moved over to Blake. "Princess of what?"

Blake swallowed under her teammate's looks, then looked off to the side. "I'm not a princess. My dad's just the high chieftain."

"The high chieftain of an entire county," Akelarre pointed out. "Which is a crown short of being king."

"You're... you're one of those Belladonna?" Weiss said. Then she started staring at Blake's bow and she paled.

"I... yes." Blake said, her back straightening as she glared down at the smaller white-haired girl. "I'm one of those Belladonna." She turned narrowed eyes onto Akelarre. "And you're a Grimm," she spat the last word.

Akelarre shrugged one shoulder. "I am."

Weiss, who was already pale, went even whiter. "That's not possible. There aren't any intelligent Grimm."

"Of course there are. I'm one of them. Besides, if there weren't intelligent Grimm like me, then there wouldn't be any humans left, now would there."

Blake, whose hands were balled into fists by her sides, looked ready to jump Akelarre. Neo sat back a little. She didn't want to get hit by a stray blow while watching the girl get trampled.

Neo gestured at the bartender to bring her another float. If there was going to be a catfight, literal or otherwise, she wanted to have a drink before it started. It was hard to order a drink when the bartenders were all running away from angry huntresses in her experience. "You're... you're Grimm. We should be fighting you."

"Because of what I am?" Akelarre asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Well that's rather racist. And anyway, no fighting in the Club. You don't want to end up like Yang."

"Huh?" Ruby asked.

The music in the room changed, the current technobeat dying down, but the bass thrum continuing the background. In the DJ booth, the bear-headed maestro brought a microphone to his costume's mouth and shouted into it towards the crowd of dancers. "Everyone say hello to... Blooondiiiee!"

Blondie stepped out onto the stage wearing nearly a whole quarter of an outfit. Her movements were lithe and graceful, then the blonde saw her sister and friends and her next steps onto the stage turned janky and robotic.

Neo saw Ruby's jaw drop and stay there for several seconds as she stared at her sister... dancing. When she turned around Ruby's face was set in the most serious expression Neo had ever seen, she regarded Blake and Wiess for a long moment, then spoke, her voice flat and even. "Guys? You can't tell our Dad about this. Ever. That's an order."

Akelarre placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder in a show of solidarity while on stage the blonde shook what her mother gave her.

Neo sipper her drink, enjoying the show while Weiss picked up her beer and downed it in one swallow. Then she did the same to Ruby's.

"Well, it was fun meeting all of you again," Akelarre said. "But Velvet wanted to talk, so I hope you don't mind if I'm gone for a few minutes? Bye cousin, bye Weiss, bye Ruby."

The three reactions were as different as they could be, from red-faced apoplectic anger, to pale, bloodless fear mingled with confusion, to cheerfulness that was only tempered by curiosity of what was happening on-stage.

With a few distracted good-byes, Akelarre moved towards the side and nodded her head towards the back. Velvet, who was busy being a quiet little bunny girl, nodded and followed after her.

***

Velvet looked around the VIP room, but didn't catch anything that might serve as a distraction, just two couches and a chair and some tables.

Akelarre sat herself down on one of the couches, then gestured at the other. "Did you want to sit? You look a little nervous."

"I, I am," she admitted. Instead of sitting though she paced. She had a lot of energy to work off. "I wanted to say sorry," she began.

"Because of what happened the other night?" Akelarre asked.

"Yes. Coco... Coco is nice, she really is, but things are just so complicated now and it doesn't feel the same anymore. I still love her. She's still my best friend, but..."

"But you don't approve of what she did?" Akelarre's voice was soft, far softer than Velvet had ever heard.

She nodded. "Yeah. It wasn't fair that she attack you like that the first time, then she called the Professors and, and that was just mean."

"And what about you?" Akelarre asked. At her blank look she continued. "What do you want to do about it?"

Velvet's hands wrung together. "I don't know. I really don't know."

Akelarre hummed for a moment, eyes looking off into the distance before they refocused on her. "Hey, Velvet, do you know how to pilot a Bullhead?"

"Um. Yes?" she said. She wasn't terribly good at it, and she didn't have much more than the courses at Beacon under her belt, but she knew how.

"Then how would you like to go on a little vacation. Just two days. It'll be fun."

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven's Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 for doing word things! You're all completely insane, but I like you anyway.