Bowling for the Winter Sun

Between November 30 and December 5 of 2015, someone challenged artists around the interwebs to "Black Sun Week," a week of fanart and fanfiction depicting the relationship between Sun Wukong and Blake Belladonna. Each day would be marked by a different prompt for people to enter.

1. First Date

2. Games

3. Protection

4. Catnip

5. Monkey Business

6. Kisses

7. Future

This is my entry for the seventh and final prompt: Future.

Another day, another boring round of patrol.

Sun Wukong entered the house and hung up his police jacket on a nearby coat hook. Every day, he dreaded wearing the accursed thing, but duty was duty, and he had to maintain a certain level of decorum in Vacuo's police force. Sadly for him, that meant not being able to wear his jacket unbuttoned, as he was accustomed to do - in Vacuo, of all places, where the public didn't care for formal attire anyway. Still, with crime at such record lows, he thought, the police could use a break once in a while.

Speaking of breaks, he realized, he could use something to eat. But once he had made it to the kitchen, he stopped and let his mouth hang agape.

Sitting cross-legged on a small chair in front of him was a pale tan-skinned boy, roughly 10 years old, quietly munching on the contents of a box of Nilla Wafers. The small, black cat ears sprouting from his scalp twitched amidst his scraggly black hair with each bite, pausing only to brush the blond highlights of his bangs away from his dark gray eyes. He wore a red collared T-shirt with thin golden stripes around the torso and sleeves and beige cargo shorts with more pockets than some would consider humanly feasible.

"My...my..." gagged Sun. "My Nilla Wafers... What are you doing...?!"

The boy stopped and glimpsed first the cookie pinched in his right hand, then the box clamped in his left, and then the stupefied Sun.

"Eating them, obviously," he said, hopping to his feet and setting down the box. "Sorry, Dad. I didn't realize they were yours."

Sun shook his head clear, snapped his jaw shut, and righted himself. "Kin," he said, "there are three people in this house, and your mother never even touches Nilla Wafers. You do the math."

"In my defense, this is the first time I saw these in the house. Besides, I only ate three of them."

"...Yeah, you're right."

"What? How did - ?"

"No, not the number of cookies you ate; I mean it's the first time we've had them in the house."

Kin looked down and to the side, still feeling somewhat guilty about eating his father's cookies. "Then again, I still have to make it up to you somehow."

"No, you don't," smiled Sun. "It's not like I was going to eat them all, anyway."

He petted Kin between his cat ears, urging his face to brighten up. Their tender moment was interrupted by another click at the front door, calling them away from the kitchen.

"I'm home!" purred a familiar voice.

"Welcome back, Blake," chattered Sun, greeting his wife, Blake Belladonna, with a quick kiss. "How was your day today?"

"The human/faunus interrelations panel was a madhouse, but we survived. How about you?"

"Oh, just wandering around, doing a whole lot of nothing. The usual. If you do your job any better, I'll be out of mine," Sun joked.

"You could always work at the community center," said Blake, half playing along, half being serious. "I need some grassroots workers."

"What about your buddy, Adam?"

"Sun, we've been over that - which is irrelevant, by the way. I just think you'd be a good fit."

"Uh, Mom?" said Kin, snapping Blake to a blank space where he should've been standing.

"Oh, Kin. I can't believe I didn't notice you there."

"Huh?" Kin raised his hands in front of him, horrified to find nothing. "Mom? Dad? What happened to me?!"

Blake couldn't help but giggle. "You, my little golden boy, have just manifested your semblance."

"I...what...?" His horror eased off and morphed into awe as he reappeared. "Cool!"

A few hours later, as the three of them relaxed in the living room, there was a knock at the door.

"I got it," said Sun, swinging down from the ceiling.

"I'm coming with you," said Blake, closing her book and rising to her feet.

Kin quietly hopped to his feet to join his parents. Together, they walked to the front door and opened it to reveal their visitor: Sun's old friend and partner in crime patrol, Neptune Vasilias.

"Hey, Neptune!" said Sun.

"'Sup, Sun? Kin? Blake?" said Neptune.

"Nice of you to drop by," said Blake.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, I'm off," said Sun, bolting out the door and stopping beside Neptune.

"Wait. Where are you going?" asked Blake.

"It's Thursday," replied Neptune.

"Oh. Bowling night."

"Yeah. You really should come with me this time," said Sun.

"No thanks. I prefer moments like this, where I can just get away from crowds of people and relax alone. Say hello to Weiss for me, you two."

"Will do, Blake. Good night." Sun pulled the door closed, but paused to wave goodbye. "Good night, Kin!"

The door shut, Blake noticed that Kin had disappeared. She eked an amused smile, as she didn't have to think twice about where he had gone.

PGOKLGHLKGHLGHKGHKK

Bowling balls thundered as they struck down the hapless pins at the end of in every lane of the crowded bowling alley, and Sun and Neptune were no strangers to the game. As Sun lined up to bowl over a set, Neptune sat in a nearby chair and watched. Their scores, shining on the nearby holographic display, were even but for a spare scored by Neptune in the third frame.

GHOKLGHLGKHLGHKGHKL

Sun's orange, 9-pound ball smote six pins, leaving a cluster to his left. But as he reached to retrieve his ball, he stopped himself short.

"Hey, Neptune," he said, to which Neptune snapped his attention. "How are things going with you and Weiss?"

"Oh, you know," said Neptune as he stood up. "She's busy restoring the Schnee Dust Company's name, as always. To this day, I'm surprised she manages to find time for me and the girls."

"Aqua and Azura, right?"

"Who else?"

Suddenly, Sun burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," he sputtered as he recovered. "It's just that...a lot of people doubted that you two would ever be together, much less get married. What, with your hitting on half the girls you saw and the universe picking on you for the other half."

"We doubted it too, but after a while, we found out that we had something in common."

"Let me guess. You both had trouble accepting yourselves for who you were rather than how people wanted you to see you. I mean come on. Weiss wanted people to see her as the perfect heiress to the company, you wanted to be seen as the coolest guy around, and you both eventually learned to just drop the acts." Neptune's smile confirmed Sun's guess. "I thought so. It was kind of the same thing for Blake at first."

"What do you mean?"

"For a long time, she wanted to hide the fact that she was a faunus from the public. Something about everything about her being about just...running away. That is, until she started spending time with me. And me...well, thanks to her, I learned to take responsibility for my actions."

"That's how it tends to work."

"Speaking of work, I think a certain somebody doesn't have any tonight..."

Sun pointed to the next lane over, where Neptune spotted, with a baby blue, 9-pound bowling ball cradled in front of her nose, the publicly dubbed Queen of Mantle herself.

"Weiss?!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, Neptune! What a coincidence!" cheered Weiss, setting the bowling ball aside. "And before you ask, work ended early today, and the girls convinced me to come and join you in bowling."

"You wanted to go bowling that badly?"

"Sort of. I've never done it before, and I figured that since you and Sun have so much fun doing it, I might as well try it out."

"Oh, that's great."

"Yeah, like the time I taught you how to swim."

Neptune cringed at the memory of those days. To Weiss, it was helping him overcome his longtime fear of water. To him, it was torture. "Uh...yeah...like that..."

Weiss leaked a short burst of laughter as she reached back for her ball.

"Wait. Where are the girls, anyway?" asked Neptune.

As if on cue, two fair-skinned identical twin girls, each roughly 10 years old, raced up to Weiss' sides. One of the girls wore a pale blue bolero jacket with a red interior over her similarly colored thigh-length dress. The other wore an unzipped midnight blue vest with a gold interior over her white tank top and long, black pants. Both had their sky blue hair in stubby, off-center ponytails and shone their dark gray eyes brightly.

"Here they are," said Weiss.

"Hey, Dad," the twins chimed in unison.

"So, which one is which this time?" joked Sun.

"Hey! We've only switched places a couple of times!" snapped the girl in the dress.

"That's Aqua," said Neptune.

"And that makes me Azura," continued the girl in the vest.

They broke away from Weiss and stood between their parents, roving their eyes as if scanning between them and Sun.

"Well...this is awkward," said Aqua.

"What do you mean?" asked Azura.

"I mean that there's five of us in two lanes. Don't you think we should all be together?"

"How would that work? We already reserved this lane. Well, Mom did, actually, but still."

"I believe I can remedy that," said Weiss. "Sun will have to come with me, of course."

"You're allowed to do that?" asked Neptune.

"Unlike some people," smiled Weiss, "I make it a point to read the fine print."

"...Why are you looking at me when you say that?"

"Say, how's Kin doing?" interjected Azura.

Only Sun seemed to notice the red tray laden with nachos, fish sticks, fruit salads, and assorted drinks floating behind the twins until its holder materialized, seemingly out of thin air.

It was Kin.

"Just fine. Thanks for asking," he said.

"AH!" yelped the twins, spinning around and swatting at his face.

"Whoa!" he yelped at the same time, hopping back and holding the tray over his head to keep it from spilling.

"Don't do that!" exclaimed Aqua.

"Sorry," said Kin, setting down the tray. "It's just that I manifested my semblance today. Get this: I can make people not be able to see me."

"Invisibility, huh?" said Azura. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. That's what I said. How about yours?"

The twins glimpsed each other out the corners of their eyes and shared a dismayed frown.

"We still haven't manifested ours," sighed Azura. "Mom tells us that we're probably late bloomers."

"I believe her, at least. I'm not sure if Azura does," said Aqua. "But either way, the wait is killing us both."

"I didn't even know what a semblance was until today," said Kin. "I'm sure you'll manifest yours soon."

The twins' faces brightened up slightly.

"Wait a minute," said Aqua, pointing to the food tray. "How did you pay for all that food?"

"Forget the food," added Azura. "How did you pay the entrance fee?"

"Four years' worth of selling lemonade at Mom's community center," shrugged Kin. "She didn't mind."

"No way," said the twins.

"Way."

"So, now that there's six of us, how's this reservation thing going to work?" asked Sun.

"I suggest that we split into teams," said Weiss, clenching Neptune's hand. "Three teams of two people each."

"Well, it looks like we're already a team, then," said Neptune.

Aqua and Azura took one look at each other, nodded, and then turned to their parents.

"We're going to make you proud, Mom," declared Aqua.

"Yeah, by beating you and Dad!" chortled Azura.

"So, that just leaves us two, huh?" said Kin to his father.

"I guess so," said Sun.

Once the reservation merger was complete, the party of six began their game. Neptune and Weiss were up first, scoring a spare and 8 points respectively in the first frame.

"Not bad for your first try," said Neptune.

"Oh, shut up," smiled Weiss.

Next were the twins, who tried to determine who went first with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but they soon decided on a coin flip instead.

"Heads," called Aqua, cuing Azura to flip it. Sure enough, she was right, and she scored 9 points.

"Not bad, sis," said Azura. "Now, watch me top that." But she too scored 9 points.

They stared at each other for a moment and then shrugged.

"So..." started Aqua.

"I don't want to talk about it," grumbled Azura.

"All right! My turn!" said Sun, racing to the lane line and striking down six pins with his first roll. Unfortunately, his second roll landed in the gutter. "AAAGH!" he screamed "Son of a b - !"

"Sun, please," interrupted Neptune. "Not in front of the kids."

"Oh, sorry. Force of habit."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

At last, it was Kin's turn. He said nothing, instead immediately grabbing the silver ball with the number 16 etched in its face and hoisting it beside his head in both hands.

"Uh, Kin," said Sun, "that's not how you..."

But it was too late. With a loud yell, Kin charged to the lane line, planted his foot there, and heaved the silver ball like a shot put. It sailed through the air in a low, hanging arc...

PGOKLGHLKGHLGHKGHKK

...and smote all ten of the pins on impact at the end of the lane.

Everyone gawked as Kin dusted off his hands and rolled his shoulder.

"Uh...yeah!" said Sun, snapping out of his stupor. "That's my boy!"

"He's Blake's boy too," said Aqua, eking a slight blush from Kin.

The front door clicked open, and Sun entered the darkened house with the sleeping Kin slung on his back. Before he could reach for the nearest light switch in the living room, a lamp clicked on, illuminating a space near the couch. There was Blake, seated with a small book by her side.

"You're home sooner than I expected," she said.

"Yeah," said Sun, setting Kin down on the couch. "It was over sooner than expected."

Blake leaned in to poke Kin's cheek with her outstretched finger and smile as he curled into a fetal ball. Sun's eyes fell upon Blake's book: "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

"You read that book again?"

"It's a good book. I know that you're not into Gothic horror, but...still." She paused. "Every time I read it, it makes me think of the time I rejoined the White Fang. Adam threatened to kill you if I didn't, and...and then, rallying the police to their hideout...and the duel... It all made me realize that everyone deserved a second chance...even the White Fang."

"So, you gave them one, and look how that turned out," congratulated Sun. "I would've just had them locked up forever."

"Then, in a way, it's a good thing you were hurt..."

"Yeah. Maybe."

"...By the way, how'd it go?" asked Blake, standing up and scooping Kin in her arms.

"How'd what go?" said Sun, escorting Blake and Kin upstairs.

"The game."

"Oh, yeah. That. Well, we ran into Weiss and the twins. Kin sneaked in and bought a bunch of food for us all. We split into teams of two."

"And the scores?"

"Neptune, 122. Weiss, 93. Aqua, 88. Azura, also 88. Me, 52 - "

Blake tried in vain to stifle a snicker.

"Yeah, laugh, will you? Where was I? Oh, yeah. Kin, 149."

"In other words, 215 to 176 to 201. Neptune and Weiss won."

"Yeah."

"I'll bet you screamed a lot."

"...Uh..."

As the couple opened the door to Kin's dark bedroom, Blake slinked in and laid their son in his bed.

"Good night, my little golden boy," she whispered as she tucked Kin in and kissed him on the forehead. Then, she walked to the doorway, where Sun propped himself up by his arm. "Did you say hello to Weiss for me?" she asked as she shut the door.

"Yeah, I did," said Sun.