Chapter 49: Ch. 49 The Morning After
Alabast wakes up with red hair over his eyes.
He takes his right hand from around Pyrrha and moves the hair off his face. They were spooning in their sleep and Pyrrha's hair somehow got over his face.
Alabast can feel Pyrrha's breath on his forearm as she uses his bicep as a pillow. He looks down at her peaceful sleeping face. Her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open as she breathes. Her chest slowly rising and falling beneath her thin layer of pajamas as she doesn't wear anything beneath the brown pj shirt and pants. Her pajama shirt is slightly unbuttoned to reveal some of her cleavage.
As he wakes up Alabast looks around the dark dorm room and sees Ren sleeping next to Nora.
Both couples have moved the beds together and joined them to make larger sized beds.
As Alabast looks at Pyrrha he remembers how last night ended.
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Weiss pouts as everyone begins walking away after her joke 'fell apart'.
Yang goes and grabs her bike while they each inform each other about what they had found out.
Alabast isn't surprised to hear that the White Fang is picking up traction with more and more Faunus joining the cause of the White Fang. What does surprise him is that Sienna is willing to work with humans at all. And how anyone convinced Adam to work with humans is beyond Alabast's current imagination.
They do know that the White Fang have an operation to the Southeast of Vale. But what are they able to do with that information? Not much. It just confirms their theory that something else, something bigger, is going on.
Alabast decides not to try and overstretch his brain around the White Fang problem. So he looks at Ruby. "So what happened with Penny? I notice she isn't here with us"
"Who? Oh, Penny!" Ruby scratch's the back of her head. "She uh, had to go. Her father loves her a bit too much and didn't want her to wander too far. That's also why she left us at the docks"
"Alright, did you find anything out?" Alabast asks.
"No. Just that Atlas has made a new drone and made that Paladin mech back there. But Ironwood said the Paladins weren't here and that they would be protecting the Kingdoms within the year" Ruby says and looks back at the metal scrap and ice chunks.
"Well Roman got it from his 'employer'. That's what he said at least" Blake doesn't turn around but doesn't continue walking either.
"That means there is someone within Atlas that is working with Roman and the other criminals" Alabast says and rubs his chin.
"I haven't been able to read through the company's records yet" Weiss says. "But who… and why would someone from Atlas give such an advanced piece of tech to Roman Torchwick when that tech hasn't even been publicly released yet? Wouldn't that bring up a huge red flag?"
"I don't know. But they probably wanted to cause mass panic or something" Alabast can't think of another reason a person would give the Paladin to Roman. If not to just cause panic that criminals have the giant mech before the military even releases it. "What about your group Pyrrha?"
"All Neptune, Yang, and I were able to find out was that Junior lent his men to Roman one time. And that those men didn't return. That's all we got from him" Pyrrha informs the others.
"Those were probably the men Ruby beat up and got arrested" Alabast stops rubbing his chin and scratches behind his ear. "It seems Roman has a few more friends than I expected. I guess we know why he has the White Fang doing the grunt work now. They're cheaper and more replaceable"
"How can you say that?!" Blake turns around, furious at what Alabast said.
"I'm not saying it to be rude. I'm just throwing my reasoning out there. It doesn't mean it's true. Roman has shown that this is how he views the White Fang working for him. Like at the docks. Nobody except for himself matters to him" Alabst explains to the others.
Blake glares at Alabast and then turns around as Yang pulls up with her motorcycle. The side cart disappeared to who knows where.
"Did I miss something?" Yang asks in her usual chipper tone.
Blake gets on behind her. "No. Let's just go"
Yang looks at the others and gets a mixture of shrugs and confused looks.
"Okayyyyy" Yang turns around. "See you guys back at the dorms" And she drives away, leaving the others alone under the highways.
Alabast watches as Yang and Blake leave. He doesn't believe what he said is wrong. He doesn't like seeing the Faunus used and then tossed to the side either. But it just doesn't matter much more than that. Something he doesn't like seeing. But he knows that this is a really big deal to Blake. He just doesn't know how to talk this out with her.
Weiss, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Alabast start heading back to Beacon on foot.
"Oh! Hey Alabast!" Ruby shouts when she is right next to him.
"What is it?" He looks down at Ruby.
The small girl looks around. "Where is Ren and Nora?"
Alabast pulls out his scroll and calls Ren.
The call gets picked up. "We are on the highway. Where are you guys? There's a lot of destruction and we're helping clean some of it up now. There's a lot of injured and a few casualties. Is everyone alright?" Ren says in a monotone voice with a hint of worry mixed in.
"It's all done. We stopped Roman but he got away. How much cleaning is left? And did you and Nora find anything?" Alabast looks up at the highways above.
"Not much is left. There are Vale police officers and Atlas soldiers helping out. And we didn't find anything. Just saw some students around town. Nothing criminal related" Ren says.
"We are done for today. I'll catch you and Nora up to speed when you guys come back. No rush. Have a good night" Alabast is about to put his scroll away.
"You too. But Nora and I will probably be out for a while longer" Rens tone drops even more. "Nora wants to go around Vale at nighttime"
"Good luck" Alabast says and hangs up.
After that nothing really happened. Everyone went back to the dorms. Alabast and Pyrrha stayed up talking for a bit in their pajamas. Told Ren and Nora what they found out about the happenings in Vale. And then they all went to sleep.
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Alabast puts his arm back around Pyrrha and moves his face into her hair and closes his eyes. Pyrrha's pleasant smelling hair always calmed him down. It's something he enjoys waking up to in the morning. Admittedly not as good as waking up with a woman like Pyrrha in his arms, but it's a very close second.
It smells like the fall air, just before the leaves fall. It's hard for Alabast to put in words.
He remembers that Pyrrha said she had a date planned out already for the afternoon. And he remembered that his team and team RWBY planned on meeting up to hang out for the first half of the day.
"Mmmm. Good morning, Bast" Pyrrha softly says as she wakes up.
Alabast pulls her body closer to his now that he knows shes waking up. "Morning, my little champion"
Pyrrha rubs her cheek on Alabast's arm. "Why are you up so early?"
"Just thinking of last night. I didn't like leaving things the way they are with Blake" Alabast takes his face out of Pyrrha's hair and brings it back to the pillow.
"I just think she needed the night to cool off. She has a few things she has to come to terms with and it probably just adds to her stress levels. You can only be there for her" Pyrrha gives her opinion on the situation.
"Haaaaah…." Alabast sighs and it tickles Pyrrha's ear and the back of her neck. "I just hope she doesn't let this consume her"
——————
"Pajama day!" Ruby shouts.
"Pajamas!" Nora shouts back with as much, or even more, energy as Ruby.
Team ANVL goes across the hall and enters team RWBY's room.
Ren has his shoulders slouched and dark rings under his eyes. "Why must every morning start off so loud?"
"Oh Renny, you just aren't a morning person" Nora says with her arm around Ruby's shoulders as the two girls nod.
"I am a morning person" Ren rubs the bridge of his nose. "If I can get some decent sleep the night before"
"But Vale at night time was just so amazing!" Nora says as she imagines the night before.
"You guys don't need to stand out there, come in" Ruby says and moves inside with Nora.
Alabast, Pyrrha, and Ren enter the dorm room.
Yang is sitting on her top bunk with her legs dangling over the edge of her bed. Weiss is sitting with her feet on the ground. And Blake is reading a book with rings under her eyes.
Pyrrha taps Alabast's back and he walks over to Blake. He looks up at Yang, but she just shrugs her shoulders.
Alabast sits down next to Blake and sees that this book is more like a journal. It has the drawing of the White Fang emblem, the three scratch marks with the side view of a wolfs head.
Blake slowly closes the book and looks up at Alabast.
Before Blake can say anything Alabast brings his hand over to Blake's ears.
She flinches but doesn't back away. Like she expected Alabast to hurt her.
"I'm just taking your bow off, did you have it on all night? When did you put it back on?" Alabast removes the bow.
"Sorry" Blake lowers her head. "I put it on while I was riding back with Yang"
——————
Ren and Nora were sitting by the desks on the other side of the room with Ruby explaining the previous night.
Ruby was talking loudly about the mech and how they chased it down and how they attacked and eventually defeated it. She made gestures when she described the attack. And she even described Alabast's great landing, and his not so great one which caused Nora to laugh uncontrollably.
——————
"You don't need to have it on when you're in this room. It's a safe place" Alabast sets the bow to the side and brings Blake's head to his chest.
She closes her heavy eyes. "It is…. now…."
Alabast feels Blake lean into him and fall asleep. He runs his hand over her hair and holds her up with his other hand.
He moves back on the bed and rests Blake's head on his lap. She curls up on the bed next to him and her right hand rests on his thigh near his knee. Blake unconsciously leans her head into Alabast's hand as he gently massages her ears.
Yang peeks her head over the edge of her top bunk. "I was able to calm her down last night. But she just wouldn't go to sleep"
"Thank you, Saph" Alabast pats the bed next to him. "Do you want to come down here?"
"Sure" Yang gently lands on the ground next to Alabast. Her tank top and shorts barely hiding her body.
She sits down next to Alabast and starts messing with Blake's Faunus ears. "They're…. different than yours"
"Yeah" Alabast moves on so they can see inside it. "Cats have more than 30 muscles to move their ears. And they can hear better than dogs. You can tell a cats mood from the way they move their ears. And of course the same is true for cat Faunus"
"Wow, why are you so knowledgeable about this?" Yang asks as she pets Blake's hair.
"Believe it or not, I'm more of a cat person. I also knew a cat Faunus while I was training in the early days of the White Fang that taught me some facts" Alabast reminisces.
"That's cool. But I've gotta say me and Ruby are more dog people than cat people. But I can 'definitely' see the appeal of cats. I might be converted to a cat person before I know it" Yang jokes.
Alabast raises his right brow. "Guess only time can tell"
Pyrrha goes and sits down next to Weiss. The heiress vents about the sheer number of records she has to go through in order to find any discrepancies. And that's only looking for the easy to spot ones. If she wanted to find any hidden ones she would need to actually go through and calculate the numbers.
After Ruby finishes retelling their adventure last night she looks at Ren and Nora with sparkles in her eyes.
Ren leans back in the chair. "We-"
"We saw people in Vale!" Nora cuts in.
"Yes Nora. We saw people in Vale" Ren drops his head into his palm.
"Jaune was walking around with Ayaka and two other guys! There was this one spot in the pavement that just crumbled and this trucks hood was destroyed!…." Nora begins describing the things they saw. They also saw the Vytal festival festivities begin to kick into the next gear. Lots of deals and discounts. Various dishes from the other Kingdoms. And the other cultures from around Remnant. There is also concern about the dust in Vale. Supplies keep getting stolen or lost and it's causing a fair bit of problems.
"I can confirm that. The dust from the SDC gets stolen or destroyed when it gets sent to Vale. I can't give specific numbers because I don't know, but it's a lot" Weiss states while she looks at the information on the scroll.
Ruby gets to her top bunk that is suspended to the ceiling and hangs over the edge to talk with Pyrrha.
Ren and Nora leave to go make breakfast for everyone. It was mostly Nora wanting pancakes.
"So" Yang lays down on the bed and pets Alabast's tail. "The dance is coming up in a few weeks"
The room goes silent aside from Blake's quiet breathing.
"We have a dance coming up?" Alabast asks. "Since when?"
Yang plays with some of Alabast's fur on his tail. "Since Beacon decided to host a Dance for the Vytal festival. Second year team Coffee, CFVY, is in charge of planning the dance. Remember that bunny Faunus you saved last semester?"
"Yeah. And I remember stopping the CRDL idiots from pulling on her ears. But what about her?" Alabast says as he caresses Blake's ears.
"She's a second year and the V in CFVY" Yang states. "Crazy how small the world is"
"I think you mean our world. The actual world is really large and a pain in the ass to traverse and it's easy to get lost and never see the same person again" Alabast grimly says. "Anyway, wasn't Velvet in some of our classes? In fact, isn't she still in Peach's class with us?"
"I heard something about that" Weiss be nearly falls off her bunk but manages to stabilize herself after Ruby moves in her face. Weiss puts her hand on Ruby's face and pushes her away as she continues. "Velvet had to retake some classes due to her performing underwhelmingly, or something. Apparently she was constantly picked on for having her large, fluffy, and adorable bunny ears"
Yang lifts her head up. "And why would the 'Ice Queen' know this?"
"Hmph!" Weiss lifts her chin into the air and turns her head to the side. "Unlike some people…" Weiss looks at Ruby. "… I've been trying to change. I admit I was harsh on the Faunus, but I've begun to try and learn more about them. And not just Blake and Alabast. I've looked at the Faunus at Beacon and how they are treated. I've also tried to find out how they are and we're treated in the past. Nobody will be shocked when I say they face prejudice. But I will also say that a few select Faunus decide to do the same to humans. And I am not talking about the White Fang-"
"Thank you, Weiss" Alabast stops the girl from continuing. He liked that she was trying to find the errors of her ways. He just didn't like talking about race issues so early in the morning.
"I didn't do it for you" Weiss looks back in a random direction. "If I want to help bring the Schnee name back to what it once was, I need to be able to at least be capable of this much"
"Still" Alabast looks down at Blake's face the dark rings under her eyes. "Thank you. No strings attached to it"
Weiss smiles gently and blushes a little. But she doesn't turn back around.
"I heard that a no-strings-attached relationship can be quite exciting" Yang suggestively says and drops her head down to the bed.
Alabast covers Yangs face with his tail, which Yang wraps in a bear hug. "And where exactly did you hear that?"
Ruby uses her semblance and moves over to Yangs bunk and hangs her head down to face Alabast upside down. "We learned it from our uncle!"
Alabast grabs some petals from his hair and holds them in his palm at Ruby's eye level.
*Fwooo*
Alabast blows the petals into Ruby's face and she shakes her head in response to having the petals hit her face. "He sounds like an excellent role model"
Ruby's let's her arms dangle. "I wouldn't say excellent, but he's the best. He's the one that taught me how to use the scythe like a bada-"
Alabast flicks Ruby's forehead. "Profanity"
"Ow ow ow ow~" Ruby rubs her forehead with both hands. "Owie~" She glares at Alabast but it just comes across as adorable and cute. "You swore earlier. Why do I get flicked?"
"Because I'm older than you. And you can swear when you grow up" Alabast pats her head. But it's a bit weird since she's upside down.
"I'm never gonna be old enough" She pouts.
"Exactly" Alabast leans forward and puts his forehead on hers.
Ruby let's her arms dangle again but doesn't move away. "Boo~" She tries to protest but doesn't mind it. "But then you have to limit your swearing too"
Alabast has his eyes closed and rubs his forehead on Ruby's. "If that's all then I can try"
"Is Ruby taming the beast?" Yang sarcastically asks in mock shock.
Alabast moves his tail back over Yangs face. "That one has poor taste. It's like you aren't even trying"
"I'll show you trying" Yang whispers to herself as she enjoys being smothered by the giant fluffy tail. She's enjoying the work she's done on it since she's the one that brushes Alabast's hair the most.
They talk for a while longer about random things.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
Weiss gets up and opens the door.
Nora steps in with a plate in each hand and a comically large number of pancakes. "I've got my pancakes! Ren has yours!" She jokes since there is almost no way she could eat all the pancakes she is holding. Almost.
Ren walks in with another large stack of pancakes and his other hand has syrup, peanut butter, jelly, and butter. As well as some small fish for Blake. "Nora, you've already eaten the first 3 batches"
Nora sets the pancakes on somebody's desk. "I can eat the food you make any time Renny!"
Ren shakes his head. "You'll get fat if all you do is eat large amounts of food"
"Hey!" Nora points at Ren as he sets his plates down. "That's why I work out! And the food goes straight to my muscles!" She flexes her right biceps and smacks it.
"And I think you've also turned your brain to muscle as well" Ren quietly says before turning towards the others. "We should eat before they get cold"
Alabast looks down at Blake. He sees her eyes snap open and her pupils become vertical slits like a cats. And her ears twitch slightly.
"I smell fish"
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Quade_The_Unknown
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