Author's Note: Warning This chapter contains explicit sexual content.

Chapter 18

Velvet returned to the room a little later to pick up her clothes and toiletries. She was accompanied by Coco who entered with a troubled look on her face, and Neon who followed with an angry scowl. Ruby showed the pair the bruising and her eye. "Are you in pain?" Coco asked.

"A little, can't speak well." Ruby replied.

"What about the eye?" Coco asked.

"Just popped a blood vessel, it's fine." Ruby assured her. "Thank you Coco."

Coco sighed and sat on Velvet's bed, taking off her glasses to rub her eyes. "You should apply more ointment." Weiss suggested.

Ruby nodded and Blake dipped her hand into the container of cream sitting beside the bed. She started applying it as Ruby winced. "This just doesn't make sense." Coco sighed.

"How?" Weiss asked.

"Cinder is smart...she toys with people, pushes them, manipulates and cows them." Coco explained. "But this? This is new. She's hurt people in the past, but only in self defence."

"So what?" Blake scowled. "We've pissed her off and she's gotten violent."

"You don't piss off Cinder." Coco countered. "She gets mildly annoyed, then finds an easier target. This isn't good."

"What do we do?" Ruby asked.

"Go to the police?" Velvet suggested.

"That's one of our options, but Cinder is rich and her mother is powerful." Coco replied. "It would be messy."

"What about the headmaster?" Blake asked.

"Same thing." Weiss answered. "Salem would just pay him off, or threaten to stop donating to the college...or threaten us."

"You know her mother?" Coco asked.

"She's not someone to cross." Weiss warned.

"Lovely, that leaves option three." Coco groaned. "We go directly to Cinder, and try to sort out this shit before it hits the fan."

"As if it already hasn't." Blake grumbled.

"Ruby, what do you want to do?" Coco asked.

Ruby thought for a moment, then yawned and rubbed her hand through her hair, wincing as her fingers ran over the bruise from her fall. "I want to take a shower first." Ruby said. "But I don't want people staring at me on the way."

"Ah, hang on, here." Coco said. She dug into her purse, pulling out a slightly v-shaped piece of crimson leather, a collar. She handed it to Ruby, who stared at it with an amused expression.

"Coco…" Velvet sighed.

"What?" Coco asked. "It should cover everything."

"Or we could use a scarf." Velvet suggested. "You know, so people won't be staring at her collar."

"I don't know why I didn't think of that." Coco shrugged. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Ruby cut in. "I've always wanted one of these."

"Keep it." Coco smiled. "It came as part of a set, and I never wear red."

"Cool, tha…" Ruby started coughing again, leaving everyone in the room to wince. "Is my other eye okay?"

Coco took off her sunglasses and handed them to Ruby. "You should probably take these too."

The girls, plus Sun, walked down the hallway toward Cinder's dorm room. Shortly before reaching it, Coco stopped, laying a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Are you sure?" Coco asked.

"Yes." Ruby nodded.

"Alright, stay between Blake and I." Coco ordered. "Let me do the talking. Everyone else, act serious...Weiss, that's perfect."

"I'm not doing anything." Weiss protested.

"Perfect." Coco insisted. She stepped up to the door and knocked three times before waiting.

Cinder opened the door, looking bemused. Inside the room Mercury was reclining on one of the beds, Emerald standing beside it. Blake ignored Cinder, staring past her at Emerald. "Well, good morning, Ruby, Weiss, Coco...everyone else." Cinder greeted.

"Cinder, you know why we're here." Coco snapped.

"Because you just love our conversations?" Cinder chuckled.

"Cinder." Coco grumbled.

"No really, why are you here?" Cinder asked. "I don't recall inviting you."

"Don't play with us Cinder." Blake warned.

"But it's so much fun." Cinder smirked.

"Cinder, we've come to put an end to this before it escalates any further." Coco declared.

"Put an end to what?" Cinder frowned.

"Ruby?" Coco said. Ruby stepped forward, taking off her glasses and unwrapping the scarf from her neck, revealing the bruises and burst blood vessel.

Cinder looked disturbed. "Wha...what happened?" She gasped. She looked confused, gaping at Ruby.

"Cinder...do you really not know?" Coco asked.

"This wasn't me." Cinder protested. "This wouldn't ever be me."

"Then why did Emerald attack me?!" Ruby demanded.

Cinder looked shocked for a moment, then a scowl overtook her face and she closed her eyes. "Emerald…" She growled.

"Yes ma'am?" Emerald responded.

"Come here." Cinder ordered. The cocky look that had dominated Emerald's face gave way, replaced by sudden worry. She slowly made her way to Cinder's side. Cinder laid a hand on the base of Emerald's neck. Emerald bowed her head, clasping her hands submissively. Blake's glare was unfaltering, joined by all the others except Ruby, her gaze oddly blank. "Emerald, did you do this?"

"Yes ma'am." Emerald confirmed.

"Why?" Cinder asked.

"S-she insulted you." Emerald answered.

"Oh, did she now?" Cinder pressed.

"Yes, she portrayed you as...a-as a slave, a whore." Emerald explained. "She disrespected and insulted you."

"Is that what you saw in that picture?" Cinder inquired. The steady, menacing tone in Cinder's voice terrified Emerald. That terror was only reinforced as Cinder squeezed, digging her nails into Emerald's skin. "Answer me!"

"Y-yes ma'am." Emerald gasped.

"If I were to confess to you that my deepest, darkest fantasy was to be bound in leather and gagged, you would view me as a whore?" Cinder hissed. Emerald whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. "And you thought, that were I insulted, I would allow the strangulation of a defenseless girl?!"

"I'm sor…" Emerald started.

"Don't apologize to me!" Cinder cut her off. Emerald hunched over, tears welling in her eyes. Mercury moved toward the door, leaning against the wall, a concerned expression on his face. "This is not my doing, but it is ultimately my responsibility. Ruby, I apologize for Emerald's actions. As for her, she will submit to any punishment you deem fit."

"Cinder, please!" Emerald pleaded.

"Cin, this is a bit much…" Mercury suggested.

"No, this is just enough." Cinder declared.

Ruby looked to Emerald. The girl who had seemed so terrifying the night before was now just pathetic, shaking in fear with tears streaming down her face. "Velvet...suggestions?" Ruby asked.

"I have a cat o' nine tails." Velvet answered. Emerald whimpered.

"Hmm...Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"Candle wax." Weiss replied. Emerald looked up, confused and scared.

"Ah...Blake?" Ruby asked.

"An eye for an eye." Blake growled.

"Makes everyone blind...but that gives me an idea." Ruby said. She reached into her pocket, retrieving the collar Coco had given her. Emerald's eyes bulged. "Make her kneel." Cinder applied pressure to the back of Emerald's neck, forcing her down. She fell to her knees, and opened her eyes to find herself looking up at Ruby. "I want you to wear this for one week. Do you accept?" Emerald scowled at first as she stared at the collar, but she sighed and nodded. Ruby slipped it around her neck, looping leather through the buckle and pulling it. "Is that too tight?"

"No." Emerald sighed.

"Good." Ruby said. She buckled the collar and stepped away.

Cinder allowed Emerald to stand. "Is this it?" Emerald asked.

"You're not worth anything more." Ruby declared.

"If there's nothing more, we need to have a conversation, in private." Cinder grumbled.

"I expect this won't happen again." Coco warned.

"It won't." Cinder declared. "I promise you that." She yanked Emerald backwards and slammed the door shut. As the group started to walk away they could hear Cinder's furious admonitions.

Ruby donned her scarf and glasses as the group headed back to their own rooms. "Well, that went smoother than I expected." Coco breathed a sigh of relief.

"I didn't expect Cinder to be so reasonable." Blake admitted.

"She did seem rather accepting." Weiss noted.

"I think I made an impression on her." Ruby suggested.

"Yeah...an impression…" Blake mumbled.

"Maybe she's a closet masochist?" Ruby theorized.

"I wouldn't mind bending her over my knee." Coco laughed.

"Dibs." Velvet declared.

"You can't call dibs on hypothetical domination." Coco protested.

"Yes I can." Velvet countered. "Dibs. See? I just did it again."

"You girls are so fucking weird." Sun sighed.

"Says the dude who let a chick fart on him for ten lien." Velvet giggled.

Sun rolled his eyes. "Point taken."

Pyrrha pushed through the break room door with a sigh. To her surprise, Ren was there, changing into his street clothes. "Oh, hello Ren." Pyrrha said.

"Hello Pyrrha." Ren responded.

"Are you done already?" Pyrrha asked.

"My last appointment canceled, and Glynda said I can head home early." Ren replied. "She seems worried whenever I'm not with Nora. I tried to explain that Jaune can handle her, but she doesn't seem to believe me."

"I can sympathize with Glynda." Pyrrha chuckled. "Nora's quite a handful."

"Yes, yes she is." Ren smiled. "Speaking of which, how is Yang?

"Yang is...difficult." Pyrrha sighed.

"Jaune told me about what happened." Ren said. "That cannot have been easy for you to watch."

"Beyond that, it just seems like she isn't getting better." Pyrrha sighed. "No matter what Summer and I do, no matter what anyone does, she just seems to be getting worse. That crisis was only part of it."

"Oh?" Ren asked.

"I managed to convince her to go shopping with me." Pyrrha explained. "I figured it would be good to get her out of her room for a few hours. We ran into May, remember her?"

"They dated." Ren nodded.

"Well, Yang wanted to pick up where they left off." Pyrrha continued. "May wasn't interested, and any improvement Yang might have had went right out the window."

"If I remember correctly, their relationship ended rather poorly the first time." Ren said. "Yang did not take it well then either."

"It's more than just this situation." Pyrrha groaned. "It's more than her lack of progress. She's looking for love in all the wrong places and it's destroying her. The solutions are right in front of her but she can't seem to see them. It's so damn frustrating."

"Solutions?" Ren asked. Pyrrha froze, looking surprised, then sighed wearily and sat down. She stroked her ponytail and curled in on herself. "Pyrrha."

"It's not...fair." Pyrrha sighed.

Ren pulled a chair over to sit in front of Pyrrha. He held out his hands and, after hesitating, Pyrrha took them. "You know you can tell me anything." Ren encouraged.

"I know." Pyrrha nodded.

"You shouldn't keep things like this bottled up." Ren advised.

"Mhm." Pyrrha mumbled.

"How long?" Ren asked.

"Since I heard about the accident." Pyrrha replied.

"God…" Ren groaned.

"I was terrified Ren, and not just of losing her." Pyrrha explained. "Ruby texts me, and all I can think about is that the last words I said to her were 'the break room is occupied' and not 'I love you, please come back to me.'"

Ren began rubbing Pyrrha's hand soothingly. She squeezed his other hand in response. "Why haven't you confessed?" Ren asked.

"Yang isn't in a good place, Ren." Pyrrha sighed. "She's in pain, she's grieving, she's reaching out for distractions, trying to numb herself. It's not healthy."

"Perhaps what she needs is a stable relationship, a dependable lover." Ren suggested.

"What she wants is to be loved, not pitied." Pyrrha said.

"But you do love her." Ren declared.

"Yes, too much to take advantage of her." Pyrrha confirmed.

"You could never take advantage of her." Ren assured her.

"If I were to confess to her while she's in this state, yes I would." Pyrrha countered. "I have no doubt in my mind Yang would accept. But would it be because she loves me back? Or because she's afraid of rejection and losing me? She already hides her suffering to avoid being a burden. If we were in a relationship she would try even harder." Pyrrha had Ren's hands in a vice-grip. "No, I can't do that to her. She deserves better...we both do."

"So what will you do?" Ren asked.

"Take care of her, to the best of my ability." Pyrrha replied.

"And if she attempts to seduce you?" Ren asked.

"She won't." Pyrrha answered.

"Try me." Ren pressed.

"I...I…don't know." Pyrrha admitted.

It started a little after midnight. Pyrrha was in bed, but awake. The frame was pressed against the wall of Yang's room, a very thin wall. At first the sounds emanating from the adjacent room resembled sobbing. Pyrrha debated whether or not to get up to console Yang, but decided against it. After all, she did not want to mother Yang, preferring her to retain some semblance of independence. Then the sounds stopped and Pyrrha breathed a sigh of belief. But it was just beginning. A humming began, a deep, constant humming. Oh God please no. Pyrrha thought. The sounds came back, not sobs but whimpers, barely suppressed moans. The walls were paper thin and Pyrrha could hear everything as Yang enjoyed one of her new toys. And Pyrrha's body was reacting too.

"Oh come on now." Pyrrha whispered. She rarely found herself aroused, having a very low sex drive. Or maybe she had a normal sex drive and her friends were the weird ones. Especially Nora, that damned nymphomaniac. Pyrrha was paranoid of every semi-private surface in the gym because of Nora. During her time with Ren her drive had increased. Ren was many things, a caring boyfriend, a wonderful cook, and a voracious lover. On the odd occasion Pyrrha found herself in need, she had plenty of memories to sate herself. But this night, those were not the images that came to mind. As Yang's moans grew in frequency and volume, her mind wandered to certain times in their shared history. High school locker rooms, the gym showers, trips to the beach, all of them involving Yang in states of semi or complete undress.

"God damnit why?" Pyrrha sighed. This was wrong, but damnit this was a rare occasion and she had been suffering in silence for too long. She lifted her hips from the bed and slid her hand downward. As her fingers brushed her lips she searched for her favorite memories. Ren taking her from behind in the shower, firm hands massaging her breasts. Pyrrha on her knees in the bedroom, trailing kisses along Ren's thigh. Yang laughing at Nora's ribbing as water dripped from her still wet hair onto her bare chest. Ren's fingers massaging her nethers, finding the perfect spot and sending tremors through her body. Yang lying nude on the beach, a blissful smile on her face, the sun reflecting off her silvery, lilac aviators. Pyrrha riding Ren in the front seat of her beloved car. Yang pushing her against a wall, trailing kisses down her throat as strong fingers slipped into her jeans, cupping her wetness and slipping pa…

"Ooaamph!" Pyrrha moaned as she came hard, hastily muffling her vocalization with a pillow as shockwaves of pleasure pulsed up and down her spine, each coaxing another muffled whimper from her throat. Slowly she came down from her bliss, groaning as she slipped her fingers from her still spasming core, and collapsed fully. She willed her breath to steady, her heartbeat to calm, and the last image of Yang's alluring, hungry grin to fade from her mind.

Pyrrha woke up a little after dawn. She got up, made a quick stop in the bathroom, then wandered into the lounge. Summer was sitting on one of the couches, a magazine in her hands and a steaming cup of coffee on the table before her. "Morning Pyrrha." She said.

"Good morning Summer." Pyrrha yawned. She took a seat on the couch opposite Summer and stretched out.

"Pyrrha, is everything alright?" Summer asked.

"Yes, why?" Pyrrha asked.

"Did you have a bad dream last night?" Summer asked. "I heard some whimpering…"

"Oh...uh...I don't know." Pyrrha lied. "I usually don't remember my dreams." Summer shrugged and went back to her magazine.

After a few minutes Pyrrha got up and made her way to the kitchen. She put some bread in the toaster and started making some coffee. As the freshly made toast popped up Yang walked in with a yawn and a stretch. "Hey Pyr." Yang said. "Smells good."

"Good morning Yang." Pyrrha said. "Sleep well?"

"Did you?" Yang smirked. "I swear I heard you having some fun."

"No...I was…" Pyrrha gasped.

"Do you have a vibe?" Yang asked. "I know a good brand."

"Yang, I wasn't…" Pyrrha protested.

"Sorry I put on that show for you." Yang laughed. "I thought you'd be asleep."

"Yang, I wasn't masturbating!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Oh, that's what those noises were!" Summer called from the living room. "No need to be so bashful Pyrrha!"

"Yang…" Pyrrha sighed. "I hate you."

Yang laughed and hugged Pyrrha, who hid her flustered face. "Hate you too."

"Ruby, it's almost noon." Weiss admonished. "You should be up already."

"I just want to sleep." Ruby groaned, rolling over and drawing the covers over her head. "No more exams, no more studying."

"Come on, exams weren't that bad." Weiss said.

"Speak for yourself." Ruby sighed. "They were brutal. And now my reward is a week all alone in an empty school."

"Well...you don't have to spend the week here." Weiss suggested. "Why not spend it with Blake and I?"

"Really?!" Ruby gasped, snapping upright and throwing off the covers.

"Really." Weiss smiled. "You're family now. You should spend the holiday with us."

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered. "Of course! Wait...are you sure it's okay? I wouldn't be imposing or anything?"

"I'm pretty sure Winter already worked you into our plans." Weiss laughed. "It's another chance to spoil you, how could she pass it up? And I know Blake wouldn't have it any other way."

Ruby scrambled out of bed and started pulling things from underneath. "I need to start packing!" She exclaimed.

"Remember, it's a whole week." Weiss advised. "Make sure you pack enough."

"Thanks so much!" Ruby giggled. She jumped up and wrapped Weiss in a tight embrace. Weiss gently returned the hug as a blush spread across her face.