The Smuggler of Vale

Even When I'm Out

I sat in a chair in my room doing my homework on my lap as Jack used my desk to make more rounds. It was thankfully the end of the evening for us at Beacon so we were both relaxing, kind of.

"Remind me again, why do we have to do this in my room and not the Academies workshop?" I asked not looking up from my current task

"Because I don't want anyone learning my formula for these rounds and I like the ambiance in here,"

I grunted "Smart Ass," answering more questions on the assignment, my formal education is lacking and as I discovered so does Jack's. My physical skills and math are very good as well as my language skills and history is barely passing. Jack's technical skills and math are exceptional, but that's about it. So, we were both struggling academically.

"You know we need a tutor right?" I asked Jack not looking up from my paper

"What's this 'we' you're on about?" He asked equally not looking up from his work.

I looked up quizically "You and I?"

"I have a tutor,"

"Who?"

"Weiss,"

I felt my eyes widen "Since when?"

"I mentioned it last week to them and she offered to help me, don't know why,"

I looked back down at my homework and sighed heavily "That's great Jack, but just be careful,"

"I know Blake is very smart as we-"

"No,"

"Why do you squirm every time I say you guys should hang out?" He said turning to me

"I don't know Jack. Why do you squirm every time I ask you why your sister is here?" I shot back, we've been arguing on and off about this for a while. It always ends the same, Jack quickly folded his hands to his chest and looked like he might be about to cry. There was a long beat of silence before I looked away from him.

"Jack, I'm sorry," I said sincerely standing up quickly to walk towards him. He recoiled and I paused, am I the bully now? I quickly walked out of my room into the hall. We need some space.

I quickly walked towards Beacon's practice range to fire off some rounds and stay sharp, as I walked to the range I felt my scroll go off. I pulled it out to see Junior was calling me.

"Hello," I answered quietly

"Smuggler, we have a situation," I heard a small panic over my scroll

"Junior, I can't help you," I said peacefully

"I know you're at that school, and I wouldn't call if it wasn't important," He said quickly

"I can't I'm sorry," I said getting ready to hang up

"The twins have been kidnapped," I heard from the scroll and my eyes widened

"Don't say another word," I said "I need this call to be heard,"

I sprinted towards Ozpin's office, it was a short run for me. I didn't wait to knock and I rammed through the door to see him and Goodwitch casually chatting. Goodwitch jerked her gaze to me with a start, whereas Ozpin just looked lazily toward me.

"Mr. Black, can I help you with something?" Ozpin stated taking a sip from his cup of coffee.

"I have a situation," I said quickly putting my scroll on speaker "Junior, tell us everything from the start,"

"I was closing up shop this morning and the men I sold Roman Torchwick came in and trashed the joint, I guess Roman offered them more money to transfer employers. The twins went to fight them and took most of them out, but then your cousin and another chick with some revolver-type weapons came in and beat the hell out of them and me. They said I need to transfer loyalties and work for them or they'll kill the twins."  I heard the pain in his voice.