Chapter Text

If someone told Neptune that he should take a break he might have been tempted to do it. Once they got to the evacuation point, he expected to at least have a moment to catch his breath. He was tired and covered in grime and blood and he learned that while Grimm don’t bleed, they leave behind this prickling feeling on your skin if they dissolve too close and it lasts for ages. Just about every part of him ached and he suspected that there might be something up with his leg after he’d gotten knocked around by one of those combat robots . But instead of a rest, when their little group of battle worn students stumbled up they were greeted with crowds of shaken citizens, horrified students, and more seriously injured hunters than any scrapes he had. So instead of break-time, it was go go go for Team SSSN.



He and Sun were helping manage the people, comforting who they could through encouraging words or a poor joke. Sun sported some stitches and bruising of his own, and Scarlet and Sage were just getting bandaged up, but soon they’d be back working the crowd together. The other teams were taking care of their own, as they should have been. Weiss was tending to Nora and Ren, bopping Nora on the head whenever she tried to get up.



There were still some missing faces, most notably to him Pyrrha, the majority of Team RWBY, and Jaune. But he kept the positives in mind: the fight was over, most of the school had been evacuated already, and while they all didn’t get out unscathed, they were all doing well enough to say it was going to be alright.



Then Blake appeared, Yang slung haphazardly over her shoulder with the both of them covered in more blood that he had ever seen. His stomach dropped to his toes and he felt like he wanted to vomit, mostly from the sight but also from Sun’s cracked cry of, “Blake?” and Weiss’ distressed shout of “Yang!”.



There was no time to think before he was racing after Sun, ignoring the ache of his leg in order to keep pace. They made it just in time to grab the girls before Blake collapsed. Sun caught Blake and Neptune grabbed a hold of Yang. Her arm was the first thing he noticed, how could he not have, his throat twisting and an involuntary squeaky-voiced curse slipping from his mouth. Weiss was immediately at his shoulder, fingers dancing close to Yang’s face as if she wanted to wipe away the dirt and blood but didn’t know where to start. It took her a moment longer to notice.



“Weiss go get a medical team, now,” Sun was uncharacteristically stern. He had his hand pressed to Blake’s side, his fingers just as red as Neptune’s side. Weiss sprinted off and Neptune had no idea what to do. His chest was tight and his knees felt weaker than they had before and he wasn’t quite sure if he was breathing but he was still functioning so he must have been.Stop the bleeding, he knew, but how could he do that when there was just so much–



“Neptune, follow me,” Sun’s voice cut through, and he did. Holding down the panic and horror and what’s even happening, he pinned Yang’s– God, he didn’t even know what to call it– between his side and hers, holding her as tight as he could against him to at least try to help. Apply pressure to wounds to make the bleeding slow, he knew but it was just so hard. He could hardly hear the gasps and cries of the other hunters as they rushed through. He felt rather than heard Yang take a shuddering breath and stir.



“Y-Yang?”



She didn’t speak so much as let out a high pitched whine. Her eyes fluttered, and when she looked up he was pretty sure she wasn’t actually seeing him. It was foreign, so incredibly foreign, to see Yang with a look like that. This was the girl who tore it up on her motorcycle, who waltzed into a skeezy club like she owned the place, who cracked lame jokes and knew the best places to eat out and actually bench pressed him once to prove she could and didn’t make fun of him when he wanted to avoid going near the harbour and loved her family and her team so damn much and now she hardly knew where she was and she was just bleeding everywhere–



Yang was pulled from his grip. He relented her to the med team immediately and stepped back to let them have space to work. One of them was considerate enough to toss him a towel. He wasn’t sure if the tiny cloth would be enough to get it off there was just so much.



He roughly scrubbed it over his hands, watching the red transfer from his fingers to the fabric but it couldn’t quite get into all the grooves around his nails. He patted down his clothes a little too, anything to get so much red off of him but the coppery scent was still clinging to his skin and his side was too warm way to warm he just wasn’t going to get it off–



Neptune stopped, cloth slipping through his fingers.



He forced himself to stop moving, to close his eyes, to steady his hands, and to breathe.



He was fine. He would be fine. There were more important things to worry about than himself, more important things he could be doing. Like looking after Sun and Weiss. They were the ones he’d have to watch out for so that they could watch out for the others, so that they didn’t crumble from this mess. He couldn’t afford to be making a big deal about this. There’d be time for it later. So he pushed down the panic and the fear and the hesitance and the smell and the too much blood way too much until it was just a buzz in the back of his head and he was able to think more clearly.



Sun was still with Blake, helping her stay upright while the med team looked at her. Her nose was buried in his neck, and he could see her mumbling something to him as Sun nodded along. When Blake’s hand reached out, searching for something, he helped guide her hand to Yang’s, which was stretched out limp beside her. Sun was fine, for now. So he looked for Weiss.



Weiss seemed like the definition of cool and collected, except for the way her hands were clenched into trembling fists. He sidled up next to her, and had to pry her fingers apart so he could slip his mostly clean hand in hers. His thumb swirled rhythmic circles over the back of her hand while she hovered behind the med team looking after her teammates.



He constantly had to pulled her other hand away from her mouth before she chewed her nails to oblivion, despite how she would snap her hand away from his grip. It would retreat, though, to play with the hem of her skirt until she tried to chew them again. She was coiling tighter and tighter, and started to clack her heels on the ground by bouncing on her toes.



It was when she started to breathe a little too heavily that he finally pulled her away from everyone, much to her frustration, and told her that she needed to relax before she exploded. As he knew would happen, she balked at his phrasing and just tore into him. She paced and flung her arms around and told him that he had no right to tell her to relax because these were her teammates that were injured like this and Ruby was still missing and his boys were perfectly safe and she thought he was supposed to be smart because he apparently failed to notice that her school was in tatters and–



She kept going, most of it just shouting of problem after problem with some additional choice personal insults. He let her do it. He was too tired to take any of it personally. He could handle a verbal beat down easy peasy. Water off his back, or however that saying went. She was mad now, but she’d feel better once she’d finally gotten all of it out. So he let her scream and scold him and just let that spring completely unwind.



“– and I let her go alone, Neptune!” She finally yelled, spinning on her heel to fully face him, her bottom lip trembling. She paused, taking a shaky breath in. “I let them both go. I knew about Blake and the White Fang and I just let her go. Yang came looking for Blake, and I let her go. Alone. Both of them. I didn’t go looking for Blake, I didn’t help Yang, I just stayed with the group. I just–”



She broke off, a hand flying up to hide her sob. She faltered backwards, so Neptune took his cue to duck in and place his hands on her shoulders. He wanted to pull her into a hug, hold her and support her while she frayed, but he also knew he was currently a mess of red. Weiss solved it for him, not caring one bit, and buried her face to his chest. She cried, loud and gross in a very un-Weiss like fashion. He didn’t say anything. He just let her snot into his jacket and continue to rant and worry, and he traced circles onto her back until she burnt herself out to just residual hiccups.



“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, toying with the zipper on his jacket for a moment before pressing both of her hands to his chest. “I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve any of that and I didn’t mean it I just–”



“Feel better now?” He interrupted her. Her breath shuddered as she exhaled, and she nodded.



“Good. Now,” Neptune leaned back a bit, gently tilting up Weiss’ face so she was looking at him. “You’re not gonna believe me, but you didn’t do anything wrong.”



Weiss shook her head and opened her mouth to protest, but Neptune barreled through. “Both of them are capable ladies. You weren’t wrong to trust them to look after themselves. Plus you did a lot to help us. You saved Velvet and you probably pushed yourself the hardest out there. You couldn’t have known and,” he cut her off as she once again was about to interrupt him, “there’s no reason you should have. No one could have seen this coming. Just, don’t beat yourself up, okay?”



“It’s just… it’s too hard,” she breathed. Neptune shrugged and shot her a half smile.



“Hey, you’re no pushover either, Angel. You’ll pull through, and you’ll drag them with you. I believe in you, Weiss.”



Weiss inhaled sharply and held it. She leaned back in, her head thumping against his chest and her arms squeezing around his waist.



“Thank you, Neptune,” Weiss murmured.



He wanted to stay like that, just holding Weiss for a little while longer. It was easier like this. The buzzing in his head was quieter. He was about to close his eyes and let his forehead drop to the top of her head, but he caught sight of Sun walking towards him, much too fast and much too rigid. Weiss excused herself then, also having spotted Ruby finally joining the group who was, thank everything to high heaven, completely unharmed.



Sun all but collided with Neptune, flaring up the ache in his leg as he basically had to catch them both before they fell over. Sun’s grip on his shoulders was too tight, his tail curled around his own waist. He could still feel the tremors in his hands through the vice grip.



“Nep I need you to talk me down right now because I want to do something really stupid and find that guy.”



So he did. He tapped his forehead against Sun’s, gently putting one hand on Sun’s elbow and the other on the back of his neck, and he talked.



He pointed out that in about ten minutes everyone’s adrenaline was going to run out and they’d barely be able to stand.



He pointed out that Sun’s shoulder was more purple than his actual skin tone, and just because those claw marks on his side were stitched up and promised to heal scar-free it didn’t mean he was good to fight. He added that the guy was probably too strong for them to take on right now anyway, even if they were full strength.



He said if he went off and got hurt then that would probably be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Blake. He said that he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if Sun left and never came back.



He put on the guilt a little thicker, and reminded him that as a team leader there were innocent people here depending on him to lead, just for a little bit longer.



Sun’s eyes were closed the whole time, and as Neptune talked he slowly deflated, his crushing grip on Neptune’s shoulders loosening until his arms just fell back to his sides. He leaned forward, resting his head on Neptune’s shoulder. Neptune smiled the smallest of smiles, and gently wrapped his arms around his old friend. He’d be fine now, too. Hopefully for long enough to get them through this. We just need to last until we can get home, he told himself. It’ll all work itself out eventually.



“I think,” Sun mumbled. “If you weren’t around I would have exploded ages ago.”



“Nah,” Neptune drawled. “You’re better than that. Besides, if Scarlet and Sage weren’t getting patched up right now then they’d be doing the same thing.”



“You rang?” Scarlet, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared with Sage just behind him. Scarlet had his arm in a sling, and Sage a lightly bloodstained bandage wrapped around his head. Like everyone else, they were both covered in scrapes and bruises, but Sage still managed to have a bounce to his step and Scarlet had his other hand on his jut out hip. “I’m offended that we weren’t invited to the group hug.”



Sun laughed, and they both opened up a space for the other two to slide in. This was the moment Neptune needed. Just him and his team with their arms over each other’s shoulders in a huddle, heads pressed together, not saying a word. Just taking the moment to remember that they were alive and mostly unharmed.



They’d fought and defended Beacon to the best of their abilities, they’d done what they could to protect their friends and, while things might not have come out well, they could have come out much worse.



It could have been much worse, Neptune reminded himself. With his head ducked down he could see the red on his clothing and on Sun, shades darker than his favoured jacket. Bile threatened to climb up his throat, bringing with it everything he’d been trying to ignore. He pushed it down further, increasing the buzzing in his head but quelling the nausea. Just gotta suck it up and get through it. You can deal with it later.



They stayed like that in silence for a while until Sage said, “You know, we’re the ones who’re going to have to try and lighten the mood, yeah?”



Neptune’s shoulders sagged, “We’ve already been working on it. There’s a lot of people here, you know.”



“Aw, buck up a little, Nep,” Scarlet said, sounding equally tired. “We can’t let everyone get too down, else it’s gonna be too hard to bounce back.”



“Is that why I saw you two riding an Ursa in the middle of the fight?” Sun said, half teasing, half scolding, full worry as he glanced at Scarlet’s shoulder.



Sage barked a laugh. “You can get mad at us later. We needed to keep moral up back there some how. It got Nora and Reese going again.”



“Besides,” Scarlet added. “It was only a little one. We had it under control. ‘Reckless, not stupid,’ right gents?”



“No no, it’s ‘So long as you get a laugh,’ isn’t it?” Sage said with a grin.



“Those ‘ole Team SSSN mottos,” Sun shook his head. “Next time I say something witty to justify what I do, slap me.”



They laughed, taking one last moment of relative ease before Sage straightened up, rolled his shoulders and scanned the area. Sun followed suit, looking back at the nervously chattering crowd.



“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said, mostly to himself.



“I’m going to look for CFVY and see how they’re doing,” Sage told them. “They were pretty shaken up about Velvet. I’ll find ABRN after too. Nadir took a pretty nasty hit near the end and I want to make sure they’re all okay.”



“I’ve got the civvies,” Scarlet said. “I’ll go kidnap the dog and take him around. Kids love dogs, right?”



Sun started, “I’m going to check on–,”



“You,” Sage cut him off, “Are going to watch Blake and Yang.”



“We heard about what happened,” Scarlet added quietly. “Whole place is talking about it. You should be with them.”



“You can decide what you’re going to do when they leave, whether you’ll go with them or stay here,” Sage continued. “We’ll handle the others no problem.”



Sun sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair to get out some residual dust. "Thanks guys," he said. "Med Team said their injuries should have them on the next shuttle out. After that… yeah, I dunno, I’ll go from there.”



They looked expectantly at Neptune. He scrubbed his face with his hands, the buzzing in his head thumping a little louder.



“I’ll get an update from the evac teams,” he said, casting a quick glance down to his horridly stained clothing. It hadn’t completely dried yet, but it had long gone cold. “I’ll pass along info about how long they think it’ll take.”



“You don’t look so hot, Nep," Sage noticed, his brow heavily creased paired with a familiar concerned frown. "You sure you don’t want to just sit this one out? Meet us down in Vale?”



Neptune was taken aback, blinking owlishly at him.Sit this one out? Of course he wasn’t going to sit this out. He might have been exhausted in ways he didn’t know he could be tired, and he could still smell the tangy copper of Yang mixed with the vague sulphuric scent of Grimm dust, and the buzzing in his head was getting horrible, but people needed him to be here. At the end of the day, this wasn’t about him. It was about making sure everyone else was okay. Help his team share the weight. Keep people entertained, don’t let them panic, don’t let them spiral. Let them know that it’s not as bad as it looks, and everything will turn out fine. That’s what Team SSSN did, for better or for worse.



The buzzing in his head got louder. Too much thinking, not enough doing. He pulled a tired, but charming smile.



“Nah man,” he assured him, waving off the concern. “‘Course I’ll hang around. After all, even if I look like I’ve been through a meat grinder, I’m sure the ladies would be disappointed if I left.”



“Nice to see that confidence of yours, Nep,” Sun said. Sage pursed his lips, but didn’t contradict him. Scarlet just rolled his eyes. Man, was he in for an earful from all of them later. Still, they didn’t try to stop him. They all parted ways, Scarlet calling over his shoulder,



“Cheers, boys. See you on the other side.”