Lurking Darkness

New Look, New You

You are getting adjusted to your new addition, it's cold. It feels unnatural. You and James are outside of the house Professor Theodore provided all of you.

"James, I don't know how I feel about this thing."

"What's wrong with it?"

"There's nothing wrong per se, but it doesn't feel like me. It doesn't feel good..." You move the arm around and it feels clunky.

"Y/n... it's been three weeks. If you don't want the arm, I can commission a new one, I have sources."

"No James, thank you for the offer, but I think I feel better without it."

"You mean with only a single arm? Y/n you need another arm."

"James, for now, I'd feel better with just the one, maybe later. I'll keep this if I need it."

"Okay Y/n. Let's get back to the house, I'll escort you."

"Thank you, but I can walk, I have both of my legs." You joke.

"I can tell, well alright. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"I won't." You walk to the house, but before you do, you decide to get some food.

"Eh, it can't hurt, I still have the card James gave me." You walk in and you order some chicken tenders.

"Sir?" A little girl behind you asks.

"Hello." You greet her.

"Can I ask you a question?" Her young naïveté reminds you of the first time you met Ruby in a way.

"You sure can."

"Why do you have one arm?" You weren't expecting that.

"Well, I lost my arm protecting people, it's my job. I lost my arm to protect people like you. So you can have a good life in the future." You smile at her, hiding your pain inside.

"Oh, thank you so much sir! I hope it didn't hurt too bad."

"If I helped even one person survive another day, it was worth it."

"Also what's that?" The child points to Blake's symbol on your remaining arm's jacket spot.

"That's another big reason I fight. A similar reason to why I fight for you and everyone else.

"That's so cool! And thank you for everything sir!" The little girl runs back to her mother, she smiles at you and you return the gesture.

"Maybe this won't be so bad." You say aloud.
You walk home with your chicken tenders when you're suddenly stopped by three thugs.

"Hand over your cash and no one gets hurt."

"I don't have cash on me, but I do have a card." You say cheekily.

"Well hand it ov'r"

"Nope." Taking a page from Ruby's book.

"Nope? Okay then, we'll take it, what can you do wit' one arm anyway?"

"Just try to come take it and find out."
One of the thugs approach you and you simply freeze the air around you. You freeze him in place.

"Oops. My bad."
The other two thugs try it and you simply kick one, the other tries to shoot you, but your too quick for him, you hit him in the chin with a headbutt. Knocking him on his ass.

"What can I do with one arm? That. And this."
You heat up, scaring the idiot away.

"Losers." You turn around and see the same little girl looking at you, she looks scared.

"Hey don't worry child, I'm not going to hurt you, these were bad guys." The girl seemed old enough to figure out how much damage you did to the frozen one.

"Is he dead?" She is shaking a little.

"No don't worry. I'm a Huntsman not a murderer." You lightly tap the ice and the man stands up looking at you.

"Get the hell out of here." You whisper to him. He runs off mortified.

"You're safe child, go back to your mother for me okay?" She nods and runs back. You sigh and continue home.

You finally make it home and tell your friends your adventure today.

"The little girl sounded sweet." Weiss says.

"She was, kinda reminded me of Ruby a bit."

"Dohhh, stop it." Ruby blushes.

"Those thugs got what was comin' to them."

"I agree, and you told Ironwood, you want to keep it this way for a while?" Weiss points to your missing appendage.

"I do, to remind me what I can lose and what I will lose if I'm not careful, I have to stop putting myself in such dangerous situations."

"If you say so." Yang says.

"I mean, I literally got impaled by a spear and you don't see me not wanting to fight for the people I love."

"It's not that, I will fight for everyone I love, all of you included, I just can't be so brash about everything, I can't go charging headfirst into stuff."

"That's understandable I guess." She says.

"Well anyway, I didn't just bring stories and boring conversations with me, I brought some chicken tenders if you guys want some, the people there recognized me from the Tournament and gave me a bucket of them for a low price."

"Cool." Ruby says reaching before Weiss slaps her wrist.

"Speaking of which... Weiss. Here, it's for the wedding. Ironwood gave me it the night of the engagement, it's got a little less than 100,000 Lien on it, use as much as you'd like to plan the wedding." You hand her the Lien card.

"100,000 Lien?!"

"Yea, he said don't worry about it, it's a gift he said."

"You're going to have quite the wedding. We already know what we're going to do."

"We?"

"Yang is helping too, Ruby doesn't want to help but she's going to be there."

"Okay!" You say with a smile.

"Y/n?" You look at Blake.

"It's about my arm isn't it?"
"It's about the arm."

"Y/n... I'm pregnant."

Preggo my eggo! Life is good in Vacuo! Again, thanks for reading! -P