Third Person POVThe morning in the next day.
On a bed, Aurum was sleeping peacefully. The sun shined on his face, making it scrunch up from the mild discomfort. He woke up from the contact, as his eyes blinked repeatedly to adjust to the lighting.
Aurum: "*Yawn*"
Aurum released a big and cute yawn as he slowly raised his upper body from the bed. Still dazed, he surveyed the surroundings and found himself in a decently sized room with wooden flooring, 4 beds, desks and bookshelves.
The 3 other beds were occupied by Ariene, Cyrus and Samson respectively, as he just realized he was at his own bed with by the side sleeping in a chair facing him. He had his arms crossed as he had bags under his eyes. A sign that he was looking after Aurum last night, as a precaution when he would have a nightmare.
Seeing Qrow like that, he felt like crying for some reason as tears threatened to fall out, which he held back. "Crying all the time would be bad", he thought. Hearing a whimper from Aurum, Qrow stood up alert as he blinked hastily and observed the young boy in front of him.
Thinking that he had a nightmare, Qrow hugged Aurum and stroked his back gently. Aurum just blinked at the sudden close contact, but just melted into his embrace and hugged back. The urge to cry he got suddenly disappeared, which Aurum didn"t bother to notice because,
*ROOOOOAAAARRRR*
A thundering noise came out of Aurum"s stomach, which woke up the kids and the team of huntsmen in training next door, as they heard cries of confusion from the said room. Proof?
"GRIMM ATTACK!"
A person from the other room screamed. To say that Qrow was surprised was an understatement. The sound of Aurum"s stomach roaring does indeed sound like a m.u.f.fled scream from a beowolf drowning in water.
While Samson was laughing his b.u.t.t off, Ariene had an annoyed look as she squinted in Samson"s direction, while Cyrus groaned.
Qrow: "Okay… wash up kids. We"re going to eat first before going back to Ozpin"s office."
The spirits nodded, as Ariene was first to shower. While the boys were waiting for their turn, Cyrus just came to a realization.
Cyrus: "Come to think of it, we didn"t buy any clothes for Aurum."
Qrow remembered he was supposed to buy the clothes before they went to Beacon. He berated himself for forgetting this ch.o.r.e, and then jogged for the door.
Qrow: "Sorry Aurum, I need to hit the clothing sto―"
Once he opened the door, he saw a black suit that looks like it was made for kids, a white shirt and gloves. There was also a note in the uniform"s chest pocket. Looking further down, there was a pair of black shoes and white socks.
Qrow: "―Scratch that then. Let"s see here."
Qrow took the clothes, closed the door and put it in the bed, near Aurum"s feet. He began to read the message.
Qrow: "To Qrow,
After hearing about the child for the first time, I took the liberty of ordering a suit
for him, Since I know you would forget the less important matters like this due to the panic
you have acc.u.mulated from his state. Have a bit of breakfast in Vale so he can explore a bit
and buy him some proper clothes before returning to my office in the after school.
-Ozpin"
Samson: " This is worse than I thought. You"ve become senile already!"
Qrow"s eye twitched at that before retorting,
Qrow: " It"s my bad that we didn"t get him some clothes, but isn"t it a shared responsibility by us four? So technically, you 3 also forgot."
Qrow nodded to himself with satisfaction at that excuse. "Right. I"m not the only one who goofed."
Cyrus was exasperated, while Samson let out a geh as if he was wronged. Aurum had an unknown urge to roll his eyes.Samson gave an excuse to save his "dignity", though it came with another death-seeker"s remark.
Samson: "Reasonable,reasonable. But remember, we weren"t the ones who had the lien and technically, you insisted on hurrying to Beacon because of the headmaster. As expected, old age does bring more cons than pros. Hooray for youth!"
The last remark broke Qrow"s will. So much that he let out an aura of depression.
Aurum being Aurum, asked a question that served as an ignition for Samson"s "youthful pa.s.sion".
Aurum: "What"s youth?"
"I forgot you were a tad bit lacking in general knowledge." Samson mumbled. Thus began Samson"s explanation of his weird yet logical(?) ideology of youth.
Samson: "Youth, my dear chap, is an amazing concept that is loved by all. Being young means you aren"t old and wrinkly, you smell fresher than flowers, you enjoy time with friends running around playing some games, you figure out your ident.i.ty, fall in love and go through the mystical yet disgusting process of p.u.b.erty, like a caterpillar metamorphosing into a b.u.t.terfly. It"s a nice word encompa.s.sing many things that can be summed up to 2 contradicting words. Refreshing and disgusting. Everyone goes through it, yet some lose the opportunity to experience the process, like you for instance―"
He paused for a bit, to let his idea sink in with Aurum, who looked more confused than ever which does not help the current situation. Samson being Samson, he ignored it and continued his somewhat of an abridged concept.
Samson: "―Which is why we are here. We will help you experience this together, not just as friends, but as your new family."
Aurum was delighted at those words. Though they weren"t blood-related, he could feel that they are going to be an important part of his life, a declaration that can be taken both literally and figuratively.
*the infamous time skip brought to you by a chibi Aurum scared silly running away from an out of control shower hose*
Ariene: "Flying inside a bullhead beats riding pegasi~"
Cyrus: "How can you top riding horses with wings with a metal box?"
Samson answered first, before Ariene.
Samson: "A flying tiger with wings! The even better part is when the one holding the reins is LiveSea." (AN: I tried. But I don"t want no copyright...)
Ariene: "First of all, my b.u.t.t won"t be sore because I can move around in the bullhead. Second, there is no wind, so it won"t be cold,and my hair wouldn"t be a mess, and finally, it"s scary whenever they try to do aerial maneuvers. I"ve had enough experience riding a lunatic horse that loves to barrel roll, thank you very much."
The 3 were "bickering" near the bullhead"s window. From a distance, were Qrow and Aurum, with the latter sitting on Qrow"s lap trying to remember the song Qrow sung. When he heard them talk about the description of pegasi, he immediately recalled Yellow, the toy Tai broke on his first beat up.
Aurum: "Yellow...."
He mumbled.
Qrow overheard him.
Qrow: "Yellow?"
Aurum: "My yellow horsey with wings...Tai broke them..."
Qrow furrowed his brows when Tai was mentioned."That b.a.s.t.a.r.d." he thought. "Wait till I get my hands on him. I"m tempted to do the first 3 execution methods Cyrus thought up. Kids these days sure are scary.". But of course, none would be scared of Aurum, only pity and the instinct to protect the child would swarm a regular person"s heart.
Qrow: "Don"t worry,we"ll buy you a new one."
Aurum shook his head.
Aurum: "I want a ball. Samson said we can play ball when I"m well."
At that, Aurum smiled. Such an adorable boy would surely have an infectious smile, which Qrow and the trio of spirits who were eavesdropping got infected with.
A few moments later, the bullhead landed. All of them walked out of the flying box, with Aurum a bit uncomfortable with the thing called "shoes". Earlier, the gang almost forgot that Aurum has magical healing powers whenever he ate, so they were shocked that he could walk properly already, albeit weakly.
With Qrow on the lead, he led the kids to a family restaurant, a bit slower than the normal walking speed of a person, since Aurum wobbled unsteadily from not walking for a few days. It"s surprising how his legs were weakened like this recently, when 6 years" worth of malnourishment didn"t do its job properly.
Once they arrived, they could see that despite the early morning, some people were already inside, with waitresses walking about taking and delivering orders. A waitress in the middle of distributing the food welcomed Qrow and the kids.
Waitress A: "Welcome~ there"s a free table right over there by the window."
She pointed to their left, where a table with enough s.p.a.ce for the 5 of them to take a seat. Aurum was surrounded with Qrow on his right, and Ariene to his left, with the brothers seated adjacent to him. Once they sat, the waitress done with serving food, walked to them and gave Qrow a menu.
Waitress: "What can I get you?"
She waited with her pen and notepad, looking at Qrow with a bit of a blush.
.
Qrow gave a light smirk before handing the menu to the kids so they can pick their orders.
Samson: "Bacon and eggs please, and some orange juice too."
Cyrus: "Hash browns for me and iced water."
Ariene: "I want waffles with syrup and b.u.t.ter! ooh~ there"s chocolate milk, that too."
Then, they pa.s.sed the menu to Aurum. He took it a little fl.u.s.tered and since he didn"t go to daycare and the family didn"t bother to homeschool him, he can"t read. Despite the inability, he marveled at the pictures of food in the menu. Qrow looked at him both with worry and happiness and decided for Aurum.
Qrow: "Make those 2 orders each except for the drinks and some salad. Aurum, pick between orange juice, iced water and chocolate milk."
Aurum pondered with a hum and a finger to his chin. He looked so cute that the waitress looked like she melted out of his adorable prowess. (AN: Forgot to mention that his face and neck is clean from bruises now, from the past few instances where his semblance was used.)
Aurum: ".... I want to try chocolate milk."
Qrow: "Chocolate milk it is."
Waitress: "Got it."
After scribbling in her notepad, she went to the kitchen to give the orders, but not before giving Qrow a suggestive glance to which he responded with a seductive grin. She didn"t bother doing any upselling in the presence of a good-looking man and a cute boy in a suit. More of the latter than the former but at least Qrow doesn"t know about it. Or else he would be sulking.
While they waited for the food, Aurum was listening on his first lesson of the day taught by Cyrus, table manners.
Cyrus: "The first step in the right table manners is to sit straight. Don"t slouch your back. Use the utensils properly, the fork, the one with 3 spikes, is used by your left hand, and the knife on the other. Blahblahblah...."
Aurum listened eagerly at the new information, and immediately got to work. Seeing him practice it efficiently and on his first try, the other onlookers, even the busybodies, looked at the scene warmly.
They ignored the fact that a 10 year old is being taught table mannerism, when it should be imposed early on in his life.
All hail for the power cuteness.
The food arrived just when the lesson ended. The waitress distributed the food on the table, and after that she gave Qrow a paper napkin containing her scroll number before walking away while swaying her hips seductively.
Qrow being Qrow, watched the fleeing booty with a lecherous grin. He was enjoying it graciously, when he felt a sudden pain in his shin. Looking back to the table, he discovered Ariene glaring at him.
Qrow rolled his eyes and coughed, before redirecting his attention at the now drooling Aurum. He keeps eyeing the food, and is also curiously looking at the drinks especially the chocolate milk. Something told Qrow that the reason he was eyeing the drink isn"t because of what he thought of....
Qrow: "Table manners, remember?"
Aurum responded with an embarra.s.sed yelp, before following Cyrus" directions as he waited for Qrow to spoon feed him with an antic.i.p.ating smile. But before that though, he attempted to satisfy his growing curiosity.
Aurum: "Is chocolate milk what they call brown water? I don"t want to drink brown water anymore..."
Qrow unconsciously tightened his grip on the fork he was holding, before addressing his question vaguely and redirecting his attention to the food.
Qrow: "Don"t worry, it will taste different and very good. Here, eat this piece of egg. We"ll share the food for now okay? I still need to get my reimburs.e.m.e.nt from Ozpin. Then we can eat a lot."
The spirits were also down from that comment, but continued to eat and relied on Qrow to answer that. Once the last part of his statement was heard by Aurum, his eyes shot metaphorical laser beams. You can tell that he"s pumped up to fatten himself by those sparkling eyes and the drool he kept controlling via gulping.
The heavy mood was dissipated immediately thanks to that. Qrow then cut up a piece of bacon and then offered it to Aurum.
Aurum: "Yummy!"
Qrow: "Food is more enjoyable when you savor the taste so slow down and taste it properly."
Aurum nodded and did what as told.
After eating most of the food, the next "trial" was the chocolate milk. He was hesitant to drink the "brown water" since it looked similar to what he was forced to drink all that time in the household.
In order to encourage him, Ariene had to sacrifice some of her share by allowing the boys to drink, then make exaggerated comments.
Finally "talked into" it, Aurum decides to reluctantly drink at least a sip from it. Meanwhile, Samson kept chanting "chug!chug!chug!", to which Cyrus and Ariene joined in for the fun.
Once a sip of the brown liquid was consumed by Aurum, all he thought was.
Aurum: "YUM!"
He shouted out unconsciously, earning the melted gazes of those eavesdropping peeps, especially when Aurum did so with such adorableness, that it is at the level of yawning and rolling panda videos.
Samson: "I"m seriously doubting my s.e.xuality here..."
Cyrus: "As much as I hate to admit it, I too...."
Meanwhile, Ariene was blushing so hard that her nose bled and she drooled profusely.
SC: ""Ah... your bleeding and drooling...""
Ariene only noticed when they pointed it out. She silently stuffed the paper napkins up her nose, before giving a silencing glare at the pair who gulped at the hate.
While they were having their skit, Aurum had trouble keeping himself from drinking it all in one gulp.
Qrow: "Ah... another beverage addict...does this make us the 4 heavenly drunkards of Beacon? No, I"m the only one who"s addicted to alcohol, but I can"t help to think that the other 3 are too in their own path. "
He suddenly had a wild imagination of him, Ozpin, Oobleck and Aurum wearing fake horns and standing imposingly before students to welcome them. It would have been imposing if it were not Aurum being so d.a.m.n adorable!
Qrow: "Okay... the bill please!"
*Timeskip brought to you by a Qrow getting comically dragged by the spirits as he smiled and waved suggestively at the waitress winking back at him*
After walking around the city with Aurum being both excited and scared at seeing so many people at once, and a lot of them were blonde too. "They aren"t those people", he thought. "But I"ll stay away from them."
They entered a clothing store named "Clothes from Us". Such a silly name.
*Another Timeskip, brought to you by the Samson, Cyrus and Qrow playing charades, with Cyrus mysteriously winning at every turn while Ariene drags around a pitiful Aurum for clothes*
Samson: "Oh my Oum...even a gran crossing the street would be faster. How long would she torture Aurum."
Samson grumbled. The murmuring didn"t go unnoticed, because a flat shoe suddenly landed right in between his eyes with remarkable precision.
Tracing its trajectory, they found Ariene glaring at Samson, with Aurum behind her covering his eyes with his newly gloved hands.
The pair neared the waiting boys, as Samson rubbed where it hit, while the others inspected Aurum"s new look.
Instead of the mafia suit he wore, he was now wearing a brown vest over a green dress shirt, with a red tie, brown gloves and pants with a belt, and black shoes.
Cyrus: "....It seems to be missin―ah."
Cyrus jogged to a nearby section displaying hats, and takes a black fedora with red stripes, before jogging back to Aurum.
Cyrus: "Here put this on. It"s a perfect fit if I do say so myself."
Samson and Qrow nodded, while Ariene gave Cyrus a thumbs up.
Samson: "You look absolutely stunning brother dear. I bet the ladies would swoon over you even more now."
Aurum gave a shy nod, before they all went to the counter and payed for the clothes, courtesy of Qrow"s dying wallet.
With his new clothes on, they put away the borrowed suit in a separate bag. Walking outside, they were greeted by the sun"s glaring light, before proceeding to go to the bullhead hangar and riding one back to Beacon.
With a spring in his step, Samson led the group back to the elevators, all the while singing "we"re off to see the wizard" yet again, but now with Aurum joining in. Once he sung though, they realized that he had the talent for singing, which something he seems to enjoy basing on his current expression.
They rode the elevator to Ozpin"s office, where Aurum visibly shrunk at the sight of Glynda.
The kids only sighed, before they led him to take their seats.
Before Ozpin could say anything, Ariene took the lead in the conversation.
Ariene: "First off, Asgard is the continent where mostly Spirits live. At the center of Asgard is Yggdrasil, the world tree and the kingdom of Asgard"s ruler. The spirit king in the legend"s full name is Odin Yggdrasil, the first king of Asgard. Second, the disappearance of the kingdom was due to a conspiracy by the supposedly extinct demons. Third, the Aurelius family replaced Odin in being the royalty of Asgard.Fourth, we had knowledge about this world through the numerous "explorers" going in and out of the continent to here in the mortal world. Finally, all beings of the spiritual world are weakened here. And so, the magic we have is barely usable, unless we train in this world"s atmosphere, which we would do since this shall also strengthen our souls greatly and increase our combat strength in the spiritual world."
Ozpin merely gave a curt smile, before taking a sip out of his seemingly bottomless mug and responding,
Ozpin: "That certainly proves my lack of knowledge about the "other world". It seems that the first question I was going to raise had been rendered invalid. So, here is my second one. What information do you have about Aurum?"
On this one, Cyrus was the one who spoke.
Cyrus: "If my suspicions are correct, Aurum might well be the missing child of the presumably dead king Julius Aurelius. You see, there was a coup that happened a decade or two ago, the king went missing when he was partic.i.p.ating in the front lines of the war against demons. He might have made a child during those missing years. That would explain how Aurum has brown hair and has an even more abnormal soul than a regular Aurelius semblance. The healing IS faster than the normal path of the body type rejuvenation."
At those words, both Ariene and Samson was surprised as they just realized their blunder. The adults were confused by this new headache inducing lore.
Glynda: "Then why did he leave Aurum somewhere?"
Cyrus: "That might be because he has devil"s blood running in his body, and it seems it came from a high tier at that."
Samson and Ariene were much more gobsmacked than the adults, since they knew what that entailed. Cyrus was then barraged by Ozpin for more details about devils, but instead of answering, he only told Aurum to turn around and show his back to them.
Reluctantly, Aurum removed his top and revealed his scarred back. Ignoring this, Cyrus puts his hands on his back, and concentrated.
Suspense filled the air for a few seconds, before suddenly.
Wings sprouted from Aurum"s back. It looked like bat wings, but more lengthier, with it being as long as a meter.
Samson: "How did you know?"
Cyrus: "I use light magic remember? I just used it to observe his body thoroughly when we were bathing earlier. And to my shock, it seems that his blood seems to have come from a high tier archdevil. Aurum, imagine your wings gone, they should be "put away" when you do so."
Aurum nodded, as he felt discomfort from the new wings that magically sp.a.w.ned from his back. As he focused on the thought of it being gone, the wings slowly retracted, and seemingly got absorbed into his body.
Samson: "....Well then, this shocking discover just led to more questions. Though it is a good reason for Aurum to be given away for protection, it"s just that the family he landed upon was the wrong choice."
To that, everyone else nodded gravely.