Alabast is walking next to Pyrrha across Beacons courtyard.
He's wearing regular slim fit blue jeans. He also has a very dark red shirt under a black zip-up jacket that is unzipped.
Pyrrha is wearing a black skirt that is about the same length as the school uniform skirt. And she's wearing a red cardigan that is slightly darker than her hair and goes down to just above her skirt. Under the long sleeved cardigan she has white shirt with floral patterns. The shirt shows off her collar bones but doesn't reveal her cleavage.
They just ate lunch with their team and twin team but split off after so they can go on their date. Everyone ate their breakfast and lazed about. Except for Ruby and Nora, they had so much syrup their sugar levels were high for 2 hours until they crashed.
The day is moderately cloudy. The sky is about 50 percent clouds and 50 percent blue sky.
"Remind me, where are we going?" Alabast asks as they walk past some trees along the sidewalk.
Pyrrha is walking with her hands behind her back. They're both walking slowly, just enjoying the fresh air and each other's company. "We are going to the art building"
Alabast gazes at the tree's leaves as the wind blows them to the side. "I still don't remember Beacon having one of those"
Pyrrha looks at her team leader and boyfriend with concern. "First it was Professor Peach and now it's this. How much attention do you pay to your classes?"
"Do you want the honest answer or the smart answer?" Alabast looks at Pyrrha from the corner of his vision.
"Let's hear both" She says in a slightly expectant tone.
"Most of my attention is either on my semblance or you, or Ruby, or Blake, or Weiss, or Yang. I still have you and Weiss to get me through the homework and it's not like I am failing any class" Alabast continues to walk at Pyrrha's pace and match her stride.
She narrows her eyes. "Was that the honest answer or the smart one?"
Alabast shrugs. "I'd like to think that it's both"
"So you're saying that we are distracting you from your studies" Pyrrha asks in a low tone.
Alabast flinches. "No" He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I just don't care about school all that much. I've literally only had one semester of schooling at this point"
That's not necessarily true. He remembers the boring classes in his previous life. They're hazy, but he remembers going to school for at least 17 years…. and it all seems so meaningless when compared to his years in Remnant. Especially compared to the creatures of Grimm that can tear people apart with a swipe of their claws unless they have aura.
Pyrrha sighs. "You know that's not really an excuse. You're smart. You just lack knowledge when it comes to the history of remnant, dust, geography,-"
"I get it" Alabast looks away from Pyrrha. "You don't have to list them all"
"Don't worry, you've got 5 beautiful girlfriends to help you out in your studies" Pyrrha gives him a beautiful smile.
"What are we going to be doing at the art building? And why do we even have that when we are training to become Huntsmen and Huntresses?" Alabast asks the 'all knowing' Pyrrha.
"The first question will be a surprise" Pyrrha brings her right hand in front of herself and holds her index finger up at the clouds. She waves her finger around while she explains. "Ozpin had the building constructed when he built Beacon. It's supposed to be a place for students to relax and express themselves. As you know we have a lot of stress on our shoulders to protect the people of Remnant as Huntsmen and Huntresses, so this is one way somebody can relieve that stress. There are a few other reasons I'm sure, but that's the major one I believe"
"Great, I'm learning even on a date. And it's not about my girlfriend" Alabast sarcastically remarks.
Pyrrha points at Alabast. "Learning is good for you. And what do you want to know about me? I was planning on doing some questions once we got started with the first activity. So we can start a bit early" She brings her hand behind her back again.
"No, we can wait until we start whatever you have planned. We can just enjoy the fresh air for now" Alabast looks around and sees a few students out and about. Some in groups, others alone.
Pyrrha and Alabast continue their walk in silence. They don't need to talk to enjoy their time together.
——————
"Is this the activity you had planned?" Alabast asks unsure how to feel about the room he is looking into.
"It is. I believe this will be a lovely couples activity" Pyrrha happily says.
In the art building there are many rooms. Some for painting, others for drawing. It's not a small building and allows for various forms of art. And the one that Pyrrha led Alabast to is a pottery room. There are lots of clay, pottery wheels, buckets of water to wet the clay, tables, and various other tools.
"I've never even touched this stuff before" Alabast says as the couple walk into the room. There are a few other people inside and a holographic instructor.
"Neither have I. But I think this should be simple enough. And we can learn together for a change" Pyrrha walks over to the wall in the entrance where one can hang their coats or grab an apron to keep their clothes clean.
Alabast takes his jacket off and hangs it up. "This will be interesting at least" Alabast says as he grabs a large apron and puts it on.
Pyrrha ties her apron around herself. "Once we get started we can ask each other questions" She beautifully smiles.
Alabast tries to tie his apron behind him, but it's a bit small and he can't properly tie it.
"Let me help you" Pyrrha takes the waist straps and toes it behind Alabast. "There you go"
Alabast smooths the apron out down his front. "Thanks"
Pyrrha pulls her scroll out. "So I've done some research about what the steps are"
"I thought you said we would learn together" Alabast says as he looks at her scroll over her shoulder.
"We will. I haven't touched a piece of clay. I just looked up the steps" Pyrrha looks through her notes.
"Whatever" Alabast looks at her detailed notes.
"Ok" Pyrrha turns around. "First step is deciding what we want to make. We will be using the pottery wheel to make our art since it will be faster and easier"
Alabast tilts his head. "Pottery wheel?"
Pyrrha tousles Alabast's hair between his wolf ears. "It's the thing that….. don't worry. You'll see when we get that far"
Alabast moves his head away from Pyrrha's hand. But Pyrrha continues to mess with his hair, knowing that Alabast is just being a bit shy. If he wanted to he could move her hand, but he's just putting on a front.
"Alrighty~" Pyrrha stops messing with his hair and grabs his left hand and pulls him into the room. "Let's get started"
Alabast can smell the strong scent of the clay. It's not unpleasant, but it's definitely not something he would willingly smell all day.
Pyrrha brings Alabast to the bins and bags of various types of clay. "The best clay for beginners is…." She points towards a gray clay. "…that one. It's clay that comes from the coastline of Argus"
"Isn't that where you're from?" Alabast asks as he leans over the clay and inspects it closely.
"Yes. I'm surprised you remember, I believe the only time it was mentioned was the beginning of our first semester" Pyrrha grabs a metal wire.
Alabast stands up and folds his arms across his chest. "Of course I remember that. You also attended Sanctum academy and won some tournament 4 times"
Pyrrha smiles and pats his arm. "You've got the right idea"
Alabast rolls his eyes. "I still don't know the tournaments name. But I also remember that you were on the front of a cereal. Pumpkin Pees or something"
Pyrrha covers her mouth with her fist to stifle her laughter. "It's Pumpkin Pete. Not Pumpkin Pees"
Alabast looks to the upper right corner of his vision. "Huh. I guess that does make more sense"
"Anyway" Pyrrha grabs the wire in both hands. "We have to slice off a chunk of clay. We will need a decent amount. We can put some back or take more when we begin wedging the clay"
"Wedging?" Alabast watches Pyrrha use the wire to get a chunk of clay.
"Don't worry about that yet" Pyrrha hands the wire to Alabast. "First get your chunk of clay"
Alabast looks at the thin metal wire. It reminds him of what he used to kill this racist pig in the past. The way it wrapped around his throat and cut into the fat of his neck. The way he squealed and flaked his limbs around as he was choked to death-
"Alabast?"
"Huh?" Alabast looks at Pyrrha.
She waves her hand in front of his eyes. "Are you feeling ok?"
Alabast shakes his head. "Yeah, I'm good. Just remembered something. Do I just drag this through the clay?"
"Mhm" Pyrrha nods her head.
He puts the wire on the far side of the clay and drags the wire towards him as it slices through the clay much smoother than he expected.
"Good job!" Pyrrha praises him. "Just put the wire there and we can go to a table to start"
Alabast puts the wire where Pyrrha grabbed it before and is pointing to and grabs his chunk of clay. He follows her to a sturdy looking wooden table. He stands across from Pyrrha and looks at her.
She sets her clay down on a board atop the table. Alabast puts his clay on the board in front of him.
"Next we must remove the air by wedging the clay" Pyrrha says while looking at her scroll.
"And wedging is?" Alabast looks at her transparent scroll.
"It…. removes air and makes the clay easier to work with?" Pyrrha asks herself mostly.
"So we just what? Fold it hundreds of times?" Alabast looks at the video playing on Pyrrha's scroll where a man is man handling the clay.
"Uhm… oh!" Pyrrha puts her scroll down and looks at the table and presses a hidden button. The table then adjusts to their heights accordingly. "Wedging the clay requires the surface your wedging on to be at certain heights. Like how my table is lower than yours Bast. It could end up hurting your back or your arm muscles"
"But don't we have aura? And it's not like we will be doing this long enough to hurt ourselves, right? Wouldn't that take hours and days to deal any permanent damage?" Alabast asks.
"Oh…er. Maybe?" Pyrrha shrugs her shoulders. "We are going to be doing the….." Pyrrha looks intently at the scroll. "…. the rams head method of wedging"
"Rams head?" Alabast pictures the animal and how it gets absolutely man handled into various shapes. Kinda morbid but who is he to judge.
"Yes. We make the clay into a square or rectangle shape and place our palms on the sides of the clay without squeezing our fingers and force the clay away from our body with our palms. We keep our backs straight and use our body weight to make this easier and not use our muscles to force this. After we push it, then we bring the rams head up towards us and roll it again. No, wait" Pyrrha looks at the instructions. "We don't want to fold it in on its self because that will cause air pockets to form. And we don't want to push too hard or else the rams head will look like it was hit by a car"
"Right. And we don't want the rams head to be hit by a car" Alabast flips his clay over and pokes at it.
"Correct. And we don't want the rams horns to get too far apart or too long. Hmmm, this is a bit more complicated than it initially seemed like" Pyrrha looks through the notes and instructions some more.
Alabast crouches down to the level of the table and pokes at the clay some more. Just like a child will poke play-dough but he doesn't dig his fingers in.
"Oh!" Pyrrha loudly reacts to something she found. "This will be much easier" She looks around and sees doors that lead to separate rooms where individuals or groups can go to separate from the main room to not be disturbed or get disturbed by others. "Change of plans, follow me" She resets the table and goes towards a private room.
Alabast and Pyrrha enter a room for two people. Inside it has two tables facing eachother the size of large desks and two pottery wheels facing each other.
Pyrrha sets the tables to the way they were before and she puts her clay down. "Ok. Now we don't have to worry about disturbing the others"
"Why would we disturb the others?" Alabst asks as he placed his clay down.
"Because we will be a bit loud" Pyrrha says with a smile on her face as she scrolls down on her scroll.
Alabast squints and moves his head back. "What are we going to be doing that will be loud enough to disturb the others?"
"Because the tables will make a lot of noise". Pyrrha sets her phone down and grabs her clay with both hands and picks it up.
"Why would the tables be marking a lot of noise?" Alabast has a few ideas on how to do it, but he doubts his ideas are what Pyrrha is talking about.
"Because of this-" Pyrrha uses her semblance to bring a metal wire from a tool box and cut her clay in half. Then she places the two pieces on top of each other.
Alabast grabs a wire and cuts his clay in half and mimics Pyrrha. "Ok, but how is this loud-?"
*SLAM!*
Pyrrha suddenly slams her clay down onto the board and it forces the two pieces of clay to become one again. And she picks it up and inspects it.
"Is that it?" Alabast ask as he places the two pieces of his clay on top of each other.
"It seems so. After each slam you would slam the top down next and repeat. You will periodically slam its sides to try and keep it in a rectangle or square shape" Pyrrha says as she slams the clay down again.
*SLAM!*
Alabast throws the clay at the table and the clay heavily impacts the sturdy and shakes it. Alabast slightly grins and looks up at Pyrrha expectantly.
"Maybe let gravity do the work a little" Pyrrha says. "You don't need to try and force the clay through the table" She jokes.
Alabast's ears lower slightly. "Fair enough"
"But, you've got the right idea" Pyrrha slams her clay onto the table.
They spend the next 15 minutes wedging the clay.
"What was the name of the tournaments you won, Invincible Girl?" Alabast asks.
Pyrrha cuts through her clay. "They were the Mistral Regional Tournaments. I won 4 consecutive years in a row"
"Mistral Regional?" Alabast pauses while he holds his clay. "As in you beat all the other kids in Mistral?"
"Well" Pyrrha slams her clay down. "It wasn't restricted to just Mistral. Some other kids came from other places of Remnant to fight in the tournament"
"Hmmm" Alabast slams his clay. "And that's how you became popular and eventually got to become the mascot for Pumpkin Pete's cereal?"
Pyrrha wryly smiles. "Yes. But it was also the fact that none of my opponents were able to even hit me. That's why they started calling me 'invincible' and it's how I became so popular. Sure, getting 4 consecutive wins is impressive. But getting 4 consecutive wins and never getting hit is unheard of. And that's how my game grew so fast. People said I was lucky the first year. Second year was coincidence. But the third and fourth we're much harder to try and down play my achievements"
"And that's when you were set on the pedestal?" Alabast asks as he continues wedging.
"Yes. My parents expected the best from me. Both in the arena and in the school. And I wanted to prove them that I was worthy. So I did my best. Won the tournaments and graduated top of my class at Sanctum academy. But when I reached that point I didn't have anything to make it feel worth it. And I had everyone telling me I should go to Haven academy. But I decided to go to Beacon, but once people realized I was 'THE' Pyrrha Nikos they all treated me like I was better than them. Except for a 'few' people" Pyrrha glances at Alabast.
Alabast doesn't immediately respond. "Do you regret going against the wishes of the people around you?"
Pyrrha shakes her head. "No. I have friends here that aren't after the fame of my name. True friends. I wouldn't trade them for the world. And I've got a boyfriend who, while a bit shy and moody, is caring and loving"
Alabast narrows his eyes and slams the clay down. "ShY aNd MooDy" He mocks to himself.
Pyrrha affectionately looks at Alabast. His apron slightly dirty. His hair moves around when he slams and picks up the clay. He definitely doesn't look like the Black Wolf of the White Fang. Or if he does, he looks like he is under new management. Like a retired mafia boss turned house husband.
Pyrrha sets her clay on the table. "I couldn't think of a more perfect boyfriend"
"And I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend" Alabast says between throws.
Pyrrha sarcastically smirks. "Which one? Me? Or is it Yang? Ruby? Blake or Weiss?"
Alabast slouches his shoulders, his ears droop forward, and he stops throwing the clay. He looks up slightly at Pyrrha. "Everyone. I can't picture my life without any of them, without you. I know it's selfish and that we said we would just try it out and see how things go. But having tried it out for a few months, I think it's worked very well and will continue to work well for all of us. I already see a future with all of us together"
Pyrrha walks around the tables and puts her hands on the apron over Alabast's chest. "I agree, and I was just messing with you. As long as we're happy together I don't mind you having others. The more the merrier, right?"
"I have clay on my hands, and I don't want to ruin your clothes" Alabast says and shows his hands.
"That's fine" Pyrrha grabs his apron and goes on her tippy toes and kisses him. "Just don't touch me" She whispers.
Alabast leans down and seals Pyrrha's lips and places his hands behind her on the table.
After 3 minutes of making out they separate.
Pyrrha leans her right cheek on his chest just above his apron. Her hands still holding onto his apron.
Alabast looks at Pyrrha's ponytail and wonders how his girls get their hair to comply with them. Even Yang is able to tame his hair when he himself can't.
"I love you, Alabast" Pyrrha breathlessly says. "Don't leave me"
Alabast wraps his arms around Pyrrha but keeps his hands away from her body. "If you say something like that, you couldn't make me leave you"