//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 
// Story: Compass Rose 
// by enigmaMystere 
//------------------------------//

The boys are milling about when they exit the locker room, entertaining themselves in various ways. Some are actually just watching the girls come out, Argent being one of them.

The wolf boy's body hair is a bit darker than others his age, and while his muscles aren't the largest, they do seem defined.

Of course, the filly rushes straight up to him, grinning brightly. "You look great!"

Rubbing the back of his head, the boy grins and laughs. "Well, thanks. Same to you! I'm glad they found a uniform that worked for you."

"Are you kidding?" She turns around to show him her shorts, pouting a bit. "I have to wear these... and no underwear underneath, which really doesn't feel good."

He clears his throat, cheeks pink. "Well, umm... didn't you bring any underwear?" His eyes lock onto her tail.

"No." She turns back to him, pouting rather adorably. "I didn't think I'd need them."

"Well... you can just bring them tomorrow, right? So it'll be better." He still smiles at her. "We can still have fun today."

She scrunches up her muzzle a bit. "...I don't actually have any..."

Argent blinks at this. "How... how do... wow, you really do never wear pants, huh?"

She nods. "And now you know why I'm upset."

"Well, sorry..." He bends down so his head is on her level. "Anything I can do to help?"

She just rears up and hugs him, nuzzling his neck for comfort. His hands gingerly come around her before he switches to hugging her warmly.

Yang watches on, looking thoughtful with her own smile.

Meanwhile, next to her, Sky giggles excitedly.

As he hears Miss Song clap to get their attention once more, Argent reflexively stands up, forgetting to stop hugging Daring and ending up holding her up.

"Alright, students, time for you to get a little exercise."

The filly looks to her as she embraces the boy a little tighter, visibly straining not to look down.

He changes his hold to supporting under her, more comfortable and more stable. As the teachers start to say what they'll be doing, he whispers to her. "I won't drop you."

She blushes softly at this, turning and gently nuzzling his cheek. "T-thank you..."

"And now, Qrow, if you would?" River looks to her co-teacher.

He blinks, looking at her as he pulls his bottle away from his lips. "Sorry, what? I wasn't paying attention. Was this tag or keep away?"

She rolls her eyes before facing the students. "You'll be playing tag, but there will be three people at a time who are it, and no getting too rough with each other."

"Right." Qrow points at Daring and Argent. "The cuddling couple of kids are two of them. Who wants to be the third?"

Jade raises her hand while the other two get a bit pinker. "I'm up for it."

"Good." He nods, then looks at River once more, taking another swig. "Your turn."

She nods before looking at all the assembled children. "You have ten seconds before they start tagging."

They all quickly scatter, leaving the three kids alone with the adults in record time.

River laughs. "That gets them going... don't worry you three, we have team games some days, too."

Daring nods in thanks, still not wanting to let go of Argent.

"So... I guess we should go get them?" He asks her.

Jade just smiles at the two, eyes scanning for her first target.

Daring nods, but still doesn't let go.

Miss Song looks at each of the chasers. "Aaaaaaand... go."

Jade takes off towards the nearest group of students, a grin on her face as she chases them down.

Before he can rush off, the filly taps his arm with a hoof. "Hey... do you think we should play smart? Plan this out?"

He looks down at her and nods. "Surround them so they can't escape?"

"And cut them off when they're fleeing from Jade." She grins excitedly.

"Should we split up for that?" He asks, still not having let her go.

"Not for making sure she catches them." She grins, then leans up and whispers into his ear.

Nodding, Argent smiles as he starts to head towards the others, Jade already among them like a hawk among pigeons. They can even see a panicking Sky somewhere in the mix, trying hard to avoid her friend's touch.

Darting around the side Jade isn't on Argent heads for the thickest crowd of students.

Daring tenses, looking up at the boy with eyes full of trust.

He braces his arms under her before tossing her a ways in front of him, giving her a bit of air time, but not getting her too high.

Her wings spread as soon as she's tossed, a golden glow surrounding her as she somehow glides through the air. She jumps from person to person, tagging each with a feather light touch before suddenly crashing to the ground at the wolf-boy's feet.

Chaos erupts among the children as newly made 'it' people turn on their friends. This is made even more hectic as none of them even know who the real one who is 'it', forgetting the rules they'd heard only minutes before.

Meanwhile, Argent scoops Daring back up, brushing her off as he moves to stay away from the crowd, having already tagged his successor to the 'it' title. "Are you okay?"

"...I'm fine, I think." She rubs her head, confused. "...what happened, anyways?"

"You glided and tagged some people." He explains, doing a small leap away to dodge a charge. "It looked like you were glowing, it was so well done."

The filly blushes brightly, hugging him a bit tighter. "...not what I meant, but thank you..."

He smiles, looking back to see they've separated the the main groups and no one has seemed to notice. "Looks like we outran them."

"More like you outran them." She giggles, tapping him on the nose.

His ears wiggle as he laughs. "Yeah, I guess I haven't really let you run yet... did you want to be put down?"

She hugs him a little tighter at this. "...did you want to put me down?"

He nuzzles the top of her head. "Not really. I want to stay like this for a bit."

"...we could probably hide somewhere so we won't be bothered." She smiles up at him hopefully.

He thinks for a moment before grinning. "Yeah, let's do it!" He looks around the fairly open gym, wondering where they could go.

She points at the bleachers beside them. "How about there?"

Nodding, the boy casts one more glance at the other students before prowling over to the quieter and less hectic area behind the seating. He looks around, smiling as they go a little further in. "It's kind of like a little den."

She looks up at him curiously. "A den? Like a living room?"

"Umm, sort of, sorry, it's just a term my family uses to describe a homey place." He blushes a bit as he sits down, her now in his lap.

"Oh, that's neat." She smiles up at him, turning to better cuddle up against him. "So... how long do you think we can get away with this?"

He turns his ears towards the edge of the bleachers, listening. "I think we can stay here until the teachers call us."

"Good." She smiles, then leans into his embrace, closing her eyes and sighing happily.

Argent looks a bit off-put at first, unsure what to do with a girl all but sleeping on him. In the end, he tuned out the sounds of the class that he can still hear and just starts stroking her mane.

Her soft breaths are surprisingly soothing, and she flicks a ear towards his hand as he continues. It's actually pretty mesmerizing.

So much so, in fact, it takes the sound of shattering glass to make him notice the smaller of their teachers nearby.

River peeks at them. "Hey, you two. Just letting you know, a light fell and there's a bit of glass right now. We're dealing with it, but just be careful when you come out, okay?"

Daring slowly nods, hugging the boy tighter for security, hoping they won't get in trouble. Who knows if they're supposed to be under there, after all. "O-okay."

"And for the record: don't think you can get out of every gym class by hiding under here and getting cozy with each other." She grins at them knowingly. "However, today is one of the days you can."

She blushes brightly, shakily nodding in the face of this new information.

"Alright, you two have fun, then." She smiles and disappears from view.

Argent speaks softly after a moment. "She's very understanding."

The pony can only nod, unsure what to make of that. "Should we, you know... do something?" She looks up at him, nervous. "There's glass, after all..."

"Well, she said they were keeping everyone away from it, so I don't think they would let us help clean it up," he reasons. "We could do something here, though, and it would be listening to them."

"True..." She smiles at him, leaning up and nuzzling his cheek. "What do you want to do while we wait for the end of class?"

The boy looks thoughtful as his cheeks stay pink. "Well, we've been talking, so we could keep doing that, or maybe we could play a game or something?" Looking around, he confirms that the bars they're among under the bleachers would make running hazardous.

Daring clearly realizes this as well. "Hmm... what game can we play that doesn't involve too much moving?"

Argent takes one hand off her to rub his head. "I don't really know, my family's games usually involve moving around, and when they don't, it's usually board games or something."

"I wouldn't know, either." She shrugs, then edges closer to him, nuzzling into his chest. "Your family sounds pretty interesting, though. Are they all puppies like you?"

He shakes his head. "No, my dad and I are wolf Faunus, but my mom and my sister are fox Faunus."

Her eyes widen at this. "Does that mean they have bushy tails?"

He nods with a grin. "Mom has a red fox tail, my sister has a snow fox one."

She squirms a little, nervous. "...would they be mad if I tried to cuddle their tails? They sound really soft..."

He looks thoughtful at this. "They are. I hug mom's and my sister snuggles hers when she sleeps. I bet they'd like you and let you hug them if you asked." By the time he's done talking, he's absentmindedly touching Daring's tail softly.

Daring notices this, but doesn't say anything, either because she doesn't want to embarrass him, or because she genuinely enjoys it. 

"That'll be two lien."

The filly jumps in surprise, turning and staring in surprise at her sisters, who had somehow snuck up on them.

Yang leans against the wall. "I was starting to wonder where he'd carried you off to."

She can only blush at this. "...y-you saw us, then?"

"Well, I mean you two were just standing there with him holding you before the game started." She points out. "You've been looking pretty comfortable like that, sis."

She gives a sheepish smile. "He's... really comfortable..."

Ruby just looks at her older sister, very confused. "But I thought she said you were comfortable, earlier, Yang."

"She did..." She narrows her eyes at her pony sister. "Do I have to share with him now on being comfortable to you?"

"...maybe?"

While the other two are distracted, Ruby sneaks over to Argent, poking his shoulder. "You still owe us two lien."

He looks down to the filly still in his arms, looking back up at Ruby with a pleading face. "But... she likes it and we're friends, do I still have to pay?"

She thinks for a moment. "Friends get half off, so..." She holds out a hand to him, smiling warmly. "One lien."

He does a small snort, having to take one arm off Daring so he can fish into his pocket and pull out the one lien chit. "Here, at least it's definitely worth it."

She smiles and takes it from him. "Pleasure doing business. And hey, maybe you'll join the family and it'll be free."

He puts his arm back around the filly, hugging her. "I'd like that. I'll end up spending way too much money if I don't."

"Then find a way to join our family." Daring looks up at him, hopeful. "I certainly wouldn't mind."

He smiles at this. "Maybe we could hang out after school sometimes?"

The filly eagerly nods, nuzzling under his chin. "I'd like that..."

Yang cuts in. "We'd need to ask Dad first, he'd probably want to meet him."

She blinks, turning to look at the blonde girl. "We do? He would?"

Yang nods. "If we want to play with anyone after school, yeah. Otherwise, Dad will worry. You know how he gets."

She nods, then taps her chin, frowning a bit. "...what class does he teach, again?"

"History." Yang answers, smiling.

She blinks, grins, and then frowns cutely. "How come he didn't tell me he taught my favorite subject?"

"Maybe he wanted to surprise you?" The oldest sister offers while Argent has started to stroke the filly's mane once more.

"Maybe." She smiles lazily, leaning into his touch and humming happily.

Yang continues, remembering her schedule from earlier. "I think you have his class after this."

The wolf boy speaks up. "I have history after this, too."

"Great!" She jumps up and hugs him around the neck. "Carry me to class?"

Ruby frowns a bit, pointing a finger at her. "Shouldn't you get changed first, though?"

"Yeah, weren't you all like 'pants are dumb!' when we were in the locker room?" Yang adds, making her voice higher as she imitates the pony.

Daring curls up a bit more against Argent, pouting quietly. "...I don't sound like that..."

He nuzzles the top of her head as Yang continues. "Plus, the rest of us and the boys have to change, too."

"But I'd be willing to carry you after that." The boy quickly adds.

She squeals in delight, bouncing in his lap in glee.

Ruby frowns, looking over her shoulder and between the seats at the clock on the wall. "Don't we have twenty minutes, though? And that's if they clean up all the glass."

"So that just means we still have time to do stuff, right?" Argent smiles, looking down at Daring.

"It sure seems like it." She smiles back at him, an ear twitching.

"...what can you even do, here?" Ruby looks around, frowning a bit. "It's so crowded."

"It's less crowded than out there." Yang points a thumb over her shoulder.

"Yeah, but what games can you play when there's bars every five feet?" Ruby retorts.

"That's what we were trying to figure out." Argent answers, looking around. "I think we pretty much have word games, ones that keep us sitting, or maybe some kind of obstacle course."

"There's also truth or dare." A voice says from the other side of the bleachers.