The Legend of Team NDGO

Episode 6: Bonds

Grau was sitting at his desk working on a Grimm Studies assignment, with Olive attempting to look over his shoulder to get the answers. Dez was changing into his workout gear. The room was almost completely silent before Scarlett threw the door open, Olive jumped out of her chair and fell on her back. Scarlett tries to hide her mascara tear marks from her teammates and sets the pieces of the weapon on her desk. Grau turns to look at Scarlett, seeing the broken Naginata. His orange eyes narrow slightly before he stands up. Olive sits up and rubs the back of her head, looking at Grau slowly walking toward her teammate. Scarlett dramatically falls to her knees and buries her face into her sheets, silently sobbing to herself. Grau stands over her, getting a better look at the broken naginata. He looks down at Scarlett, knowing the spear is important to her, and he reaches his hand down to rest it on her shoulder. Scarlett’s ear twitches and smacks his hand away,

“DON’T TOUCH ME, HUMAN!” She screams in Grau’s masked face, gritting her teeth and growling. She shoves past Grau and walks to her closet grabbing some clothes and walking into the bathroom. Olive turns her gaze to Grau,
“What’s wrong with her?” Grau opens his mouth to respond before Scarlett opens the door, wearing her combat clothing.

“Follow me and it’ll be the last mistake you ever make.” she says, jamming her finger in Grau’s face.

“I wasn’t going to anyway,” he responds,
Scarlett pauses for a second before she strangles the air in front of Grau and walks out the door, slamming it behind her. Dez blinks twice at what happened.

“I’m… gonna go to the gym… Call me if ya need me.” He says, opening the door and leaving Olive and Grau alone.

Olive frowns worriedly; she pushes herself off the floor and dusts herself off before coming to a realization.

“Wait- what does she mean ‘human’? Is she not a human?” Grau is just about to call Olive an idiot but he stops himself.

“Wait, you're right…” he turns to look at her before looking back at the door. He furrows his brow before he walks over to Scarlett’s desk. He grabs one of the pieces of the naginata. Olive walks over to him and looks at the desk.

“Yeah… it’s pretty beat up…” Grau shakes his head.
“Not really. Only one point of contact with a blunt weapon. The shaft of the spear shattered under constant stress and a lack of maintenance. It’s a simple fix, you can just replace the shaft with a metal of a stronger tensile strength, but considering Scarlett holds the weapon so dearly she probably hasn’t replaced the shaft due to sentimental value. Whatever that value is…” Olive turns to look at Grau.

“You figured all that just from looking at it once?” Grau nods.

“I made all of my equipment by hand. I know a thing or two about weapons.” He sets the piece back on the table. The words of Dr. Oobleck echoed through his mind…

It is your responsibility to do your utmost to help her and your team with whatever challenge you meet.

Grau closes his eyes and thinks to himself for a second.

He hums to himself before walking toward his bed, he grabs a duffel bag and toolbox and walks toward the weapon.

“Where’re you going?” Olive asks, approaching Grau.

“I’m going to go to the workshop to repair Scarlett’s naginata, and you’re going to come with me so I can teach you the basics of the workshop.” Olive’s eyes practically glow. “Wha-” Grau then cuts her off.

“You clearly don’t know what you’re doing, so I will teach you the utter basics. And possibly improve your weapon in the process.” Grau pushes pieces of the weapon into the duffel bag and pulls the straps over his shoulder.

“Let’s go.” He says once he starts walking out through the door. Olive grabs her bag of equipment and jogs after Grau.

“Hey, wait up!” she shouts as she catches up to Grau.

Dez pushes himself from a squat and racks the weight bar, which was almost bending due to the sheer weight it was holding; he grunts and pushes some of his blonde hair out of his face.

He removes the weight from the bar to not be a monster, and once he is done, his eye catches the red-haired woman from class earlier. He silently rubs his hand over the pockets of his shorts, feeling the pencil she gave him. He barely flashes a smile before walking toward her. The woman bent down to adjust the weight of the lateral pulley she was at, entering it so it was roughly halfway down. Dez occupies the pulley next to her, he pushes the chain so it is down to as much weight as it can carry, on this machine the limit was 500 lbs of weight. The woman with red hair glances toward Dez’s machine, she smiles warmly, thinking he was trying to impress her, only to embarrass himself. Much to her surprise, Dez immediately raises his arms, lifting the 500 lbs of weight with little effort. The red-haired woman’s green eyes almost pop out of her skull upon seeing Dez slowly let his arms fall to his sides and immediately push them back up, as if there weren’t 500 lbs on his arms. The woman shakes her head to focus and continues her workout.

After about 15 minutes, the two finish that section of their workout. The red-haired woman turns to look at Dez, who is using a towel to wipe some sweat off his brow.

“You’re a rather pleasant workout partner.” She says, showing Dez her warm smile.

“Pyrrha Nikos, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She says, offering her hand to Dez. The bull faunus looks down at her hand before his silver eyes meet her beautiful green eyes. He extends his hand and shakes hers.

“Desmond Onyx… Most people call me Dez.” Pyrrha smiles and nods.

“Desmond. That is a lovely name.” Desmond’s eyes widen and he looks away briefly.

“Thanks...” he grunts. He isn’t used to the emotions he is feeling right now… He shakes his head and stands up, walking away to continue his workout routine. Pyrrha, after looking rather confused, smiles and follows him. The two spend the next hour and a half doing all varieties of workouts. When they’re done, Dez sits on a bench press, chugging from his water bottle, Pyrrha sits across from him, rubbing some sweat from her brow and breathing heavily.

“You’re a very good workout partner. I have not met anyone who has been able to keep up with me so well.” Dez flashes a smirk and nods to what she said.

“Ditto…” he mutters before setting his bottle on the bench press.

“That’s the most fun I’ve had whilst exercising in a very long time.” Pyrrha says, resting her elbows on her knees. Dez nods silently, looking back up at Pyrrha. The two keep eye contact for what feels like an eternity before Pyrrha’s scroll vibrates.

She reaches into her pocket and looks at the screen. Her eyes widen and she grabs her towel.

“I’m sorry, I am supposed to meet with my team. It was lovely meeting you Desmond,” she says, before resting her towel over her shoulder.

“Ditto…” Dez mutters as she walks away. He takes a deep breath, before shaking his head.

“The hell’d she do to me…” He mutters, putting his hand over his heart. He thinks about her smile and for the first time in what feels like his entire life, he finally feels one growing on his face. Embarrassed, he looks around at where he is and snaps himself out of it.

“I’m… Imma go back to my room…” he mutters, grabbing his water bottle and his towel and walking toward the exit. Despite how much he tries, he can’t get that smile out of his head, so he keeps his silver eyes on the floor, his head running at a million miles a minute.