Chapter 219: Tale of the Stalkers [1]

Throughout that night, Summer was realizing how terrible of a role model she was for her daughters—and subsequently their two friends.

Really, she should have stopped them following behind Parc and Glynda as they went on their date. Just to keep them as far away from Parc and his… tendencies, as she could. Instead she joined them with intrigue and a slight shaving of concern, she bolted into the airship the two had taken into Vale and squirmed like a mother duck guiding her ducklings through the halls to spy on the two.

Blake with her more sensitive hearing had been able to translate any chatting they may have done, though throughout the twenty minute flight there hadn't been a peep from either bar an odd humming coming from Parc.

"Are you sure this is okay mom?" Ruby had asked.

"What do you mean?" Summer darted behind the wall as Parc's gaze wandered her way and turned to her daughter, besides her Yang, Weiss, and even Blake taking perked up positions like meerkats interested in something.

"I mean, he's your, y'know, boyfriend?" Poking her fingers together.

Summer paused, her mind drawing blanks as she stared at Ruby's confused silvers.

"You also said he was a polygamist." Yang grumbled arms crossed, seemingly displeased at the concept.

"W-well-" Summer attempted to speak but was stopped as Weiss stepped in.

"Polygamy isn't illegal Yang. Frowned upon, though not illegal. Not here in Vale at least."

"Doesn't mean I'm going to just bend over and accept my mothers dating a triple timer."

Summer jolted even more, an action that drew silence and piercing eyes her way.

"Mom." Yang spoke, tone threatening, "how many."

There was no real answer Summer could give that would calm the seething bubbles rising inside Yang.

"W-well, there's, uh, Kurome and-and Esdeath…" she zipped her lips and diverted her eyes, completely failing to hide anything.

"Mom. Tell me before I make him a eunuch."

In but a second, panic filled Summer's very being. Parc becoming… that, was going to ruin her nights, she was not going to let that happen.

"Well… I… Uhm, I haven't really met the others…" Summer mumbled.

"What was that?" like a demon, Yang's voice even whispered sent shivers across the girls spines, those not Summer glad that those words weren't being sent their way.

"About… fif… fifteen including me."

Just like that three minds shortcircuited while one only seemed confused and was counting upwards with her fingers.

"Fifteen, you are joking right? That's like, how many the old kings of Mistral would have." Blake exclaimed, her bow flicking as she heard a thump of metal from where Parc and Ms. Goodwitch were. She shrunk down, voice lowering a shade softer.

"No. I'm not really. Fifteen girlfriends, not well, fourteen, Kurome's his wife, first wife."

Yang wobbled and leaned against the wall, one hand covering her face to let out a cold groan. "And you're just okay with that? Don't you feel lonely when he's with those. others."

"No not really." Summer shrugged, an awkward smile taking her, "he's actually been with me most nights though sometimes Kurome joi-" her breath halted as three sets of eyes shot wide, "sometimes he sleeps with Kurome?" a feeble attempt to correct herself foiled only by a crack in her voice.

"My mom has threesomes… that… I don't even know what to say now." Yang ground her fingers harder against her eyes and whined even louder.

"I-I don't have threesomes!" Summer tried to argue, "not willingly… normally…" scarlet would have been an apt name for the shade Summer had taken as she hid behind her hands practically steaming in humiliation.

"Fifteen… that's a lot." After minutes of mind breaking math, Ruby blurted with eyes like those of a confused puppy. "I mean, that's like a lot a lot. How does he even have time for them all? Can he clone himself? That'd be cool."

Gaping at her daughter, Summer found herself lost for words.

"I mean, Blake can do it. Can he? Is that his semblance? I haven't seen it before, so I don't really know—well, there were those chains... Ohhh, wait, mom, you know don't you? Can you tell me? Please-please-please." Ruby's brows rose as sparkles stole her orbs and turned them into the embodiment of a starry night sky.

"That's…" Summer trailed to silence, "wait, now that I think about it… what is Parc's semblance?"

"You don't know?" exclaimed four.

"Dangit…" whimpered one.

"He hasn't had his aura unlocked for long, for all I know he might not even have awakened it."

Feeling a rumble on her hip, Summer pulled out her scroll and paled when she saw a message from Parc had come in.

'If you five are any louder Glynda's going to hear you.' He wrote.

Immediately her lips were sucked in to lines as her body jerked still.

"How can you not know that? You're sleeping with him!" was Yang's argument.

Tilting a look past the corner, Summer saw Glynda with her arms crossed seated not far from Parc with her foot tapping furiously.

"Yang, volume please." Summer whined, "it's not like we talk all that much about semblances and all that."

"Cause you're too busy having sex."

All heads spun and landed firmly on Weiss, her arms crossed, head down and shaking, and stood back straight. Not an ounce of shame to her expression.

"Did you just say the S-word?" Yang tried to say but her mind seemingly unwilling to comprehend drew to silence.

"It's sex. Not a profanity. Simply a biological necessity of the human body." She huffed one hand peeling away to check she'd filled her nail well.

"I mean, I don't disagree. Sex is very fun and all, but since when have you been so… not prudish."

"I have never been prude!" Weiss stomped lightly.

"Blake, is she a prude?"

"Keep me out of this." Nestled against the wall Blake scanned through a page of a digital book she'd started some days prior.

The airship groaned as the engines whirring began to slow and descend towards the Vale docks. While the airships didn't run throughout the night they went till late in the evening to allow for older students out on missions to return back to the academy at any given time of the day.

"Girls, we should get going. Parc's getting up and I'd really rather not get seen." Summer whispered spinning away from the doorway to the hall and faced the four wannabe stalkers. Lips were swiftly zipped and soon they were sliding around a corner just as Parc and his date arrived by the soon opened exit of the airship, both departing into the bowels of Vale.

***

"This is…" Stepping around the corner, Weiss frowned, her gaze dashing between the various buildings. All of which were all too familiar to her.

"Looks like they're going into that restaurant." With hand over her brows, Yang squinted towards the building billowing in light and read its name aloud, "Gloam… never heard of it."

Meeting where she'd been looking, Weiss' frown hardened. The shape of the building was exact but everything else, it was different. The bricks, the glass, the logo. Each and every facet had shifted into something else. As they grew closer another incongruity quickly made itself apparent.

Looking in through the glass she saw a floor. Normally that would not be much of a shock but considering just days prior she had experienced first hand this very buildings floor being blown up from below sending her and her father dropping into what was horribly known as Vale's sewers, it made little sense. For as fast as Vale's builders were, they weren't so quick to fix damage to such an extent.

Flicking through her scroll she checked her gps location and compared it to that of the Charlatan, it was exact. Perfect to each and every facet of elevation, longitude, and latitude. For all intents and purposes, this building was supposed to be relegated to a heavily worked upon construction site, and yet, her eyes found nothing to show construction of any sort. It was like this building had never been damaged in the first place.

"Looks fancy." Summer said.

"Oh, Ms. Goodwitch and Mr. Evans are going downstairs." Stood on her tip toes, Ruby spotted the fading forms of her two teachers descending into untold abysses.

"So… should we go in?"

A grumble as loud as an eruption rose from Ruby's stomach at that malignantly taunting question.

Shaking her head at her daughters poor control over her stomach, Summer sniffed the air and took in a thick inhalation of herbs and sweetness that struck every chord of her own hunger like a guitarist playing the hardest riff he could.

Yang threw her head back in laughter, while Blake rolled her eyes and Weiss shook her head muttering, "like mother like daughter."

"I, ahem, I don't see why not." Attempting to reclaim the self-worth she lost, Summer coughed into her fist and straightened her back as far ash she could yet still coming up short compared to her blonde haired adoptive daughter. "We've, well, I've, got some money so I'll pay."

Saying that, Summer pushed past her daughter and their teammates and made a swift approach to the doorway of the restaurant and pushed through its glassen doors and into the warm and welcoming interior.

Heads on a swivel they marvelled in tandem at the rich aesthetics. Summer's expression fell, "on second thought, I don't think I can afford a place like this."