Leon Alexander Gates
-----
Leon got his ass kicked.
Blood dripped from his lip as he pushed himself off the sandy alley ground while the three bullies who beat him down laughed.
"Is this really it?" said the biggest bully of the bunch. "Considering who you are, I thought you'd be tougher than this. Guess you just don't live up to your family name."
Leon screamed and charged, knocking the big bully to the ground, but before he could get a hit in, the other two bullies dragged him off and held him in place.
"You really are an idiot," said the big bully. "Hold him tight!"
Suddenly, someone bulldozed one of the bullies holding his arms.
Leon kneed the other bully in the groin as hard as he could, putting him down for good, and the scrawny kid who saved him knocked out the guy he tackled with a single punch.
"Are you kidding me?" The big bully raised his fists. "I'm gonna end both of you."
Leon shared a look of understanding with the scrawny kid.
A few minutes later, they both laid bruised and breathless beside the bully, face down and unconscious in the sand.
"You're pretty good, pipsqueak," said the scrawny kid. He got up and dusted his ragged clothes. "Didn't think you had it in ya."
Leon sat up and glared. "Who are you calling pipsqueak, you bag of bones."
He laughed and adjusted the golden bandanna tied around his neck. "Shouldn't you be at home baking cookies with mommy?"
"I'll have you know I'm ten." He jumped up and crossed his arms. "And that means I'm old enough to wash the dishes and put them away all by myself."
The scrawny kid laughed harder. "I'm twelve, so that makes me better than you."
Leon puffed his cheeks.
"I'm just kidding," he said. "Tell me. You have a name?"
"It's Leon."
"Leon, huh. For a pipsqueak, that's a pretty neat name."
"Don't call me pipsqueak." Leon flexed his muscles. "I'll get really big when I'm grown up, bigger than my dad even. Just you see."
"We'll see about that, Leon." The scrawny kid jerked a thumb at himself. "By the way, I'm—"
-----
A series of beeps snapped Alexander out of his daydream.
It occurred to him that he's been staring at the Beacon Statue, a stone sculpture of a Huntsman and Huntress facing a Beowolf from on top of rocky outcrop, for what seemed like forever.
He leaned back on the bench, checked his scroll, and snorted at the message sent to him by the most wanted person in Beacon Academy.
After a quick stroll to the other end of campus, Alexander made it to the dining hall.
The doors were unlocked, wedged ajar with an empty glass bottle of milk. Moonlight soaked past the windows and glazed the opposite side of the room, leaving behind heavy shadows between the spots it didn't reach.
Nothing seemed out of place.
Something clattered in the kitchen, and since it definitely wasn't the chef whipping a late night meal, Alexander shined his scroll's flashlight inside.
Cooper was stuck ass first inside of a sink.
"Officer," he threw both hands to the air, "I can explain!"
Really?
"Ugh, ow. . ." Cooper shriveled under the brightness. "Wait, is that you, Xander?"
Alexander set his scroll on the counter next to him, reflecting the light off the ceiling to illuminate the whole room, and smacked his partner's hat off for a better view, much to his dismay.
The droopy eyes, green tinted cheeks, and the lactic stench in his breath told the whole story.
"Come on." Alexander scooped him out. "Let's go."
Cooper slouched against his arm. "Xander, I'm perfectly fine. . . in this. . . lovely, shelter."
The archer stumbled and slumped over the counter.
A low buzz from the heavy duty refrigerator filled the void.
'Looks like he's not going anywhere,' Alexander thought. He grabbed a couple sodas and a pre-made bologna sandwich from the refrigerator. 'The kitchen staff probably wouldn't mind if I helped myself.'
Alexander placed a can by the archer and sat up on the counter next to him.
"Saved you a drink, Oakwood. If you can't stand, then chug that and start talking. Tell me why I'm here."
For half a minute, they sat there in complete silence until his tail swung like a pendulum.
"Xander," Cooper said in a voice so low and lifeless it was like he wasn't all there. "Do you ever think your life could've been different?"
Alexander bit his sandwich. "You feeling sad or something?"
"Dunno." He sighed. "Humour me."
"Whenever the moon's cracked. Now, get on with it."
"Funny how things turned out." Cooper slid against the wall and hung his feet off the edge. "You, Radek, Stephen, and the rest of blokes and gals. . . I'm a drunkard when I'm with you lot." He glared at his can and flicked the tab as if it would solve his problems. "That's why I'm tossing the rum."
"Rum, Oakwood?" Alexander tried to wrap his mind around the analogy. "Give it to me straight."
He chuckled, more pained than amused.
"Without any way to get by, stealing was the only thing I could do. It wasn't right, I knew. As I grew, I became more askew. Everything felt cold yet true. However, I was rescued by an old buckaroo." Cooper groaned and scratched the side of his head. "My issues became good virtue. I learned the thieving how-to. Mistral eschew, I turned anew, and made my Beacon debut. If not for the breakthrough, I don't think I'd be sitting right here next to you."
Alexander snorted. "What part of that is straight?"
"I'm leaving the academy."
He paused mid bite.
"I get it." Cooper's tone dropped shy of a whisper. "Who wants to be buds with a thieving Faunus, anyways? My parents didn't even want anything to do with me when I was born. Tossing me on an orphanage doorstep inside a basket," he touched his scarf, "wrapped in this, paints a pretty clear picture. At least they were nice enough to leave a note with my name."
Alexander hummed.
The soda can in his hand trembled as he cracked it open and took a swig. "That orphanage wasn't that great either. A broken bed made from a barrel was where I slept for a whole seven years in that dump." He ran a sleeve across his mouth. "Everyone started calling me 'Cooper' because of it. The name stuck even after I finally ran, figured I didn't quite belong thanks to the tail and all. The streets didn't fare any better."
Unlike the other kingdoms, anyone was welcomed in Vacuo as long as they could survive; the dry sands and baking sun made sure of that.
Cooper might've had a better chance there.
"That's how things usually end for me." His head craned low, strands of black locks curtained past his brow. "The fact that I used to work with a criminal bigger than myself probably won't do me any favours either, considering how much Team RWBY loves the guy."
Alexander reached the halfway mark of his sandwich.
"That prick was my mate once." Cooper scoffed and took a long sip. "We never really got along, but when it came to it, we got the job done. The two of us actually made quite the team in Mistral." He wiped his face. "To him it was about the money, reputation, and how much he could score in a single hit. For me, well, I didn't care much about the fancy stuff or a spotlight shining on my name. The trinkets I stole usually put a smile on my face, but it never lasted. I needed something better."
Alexander closed his eyes and tried to imagine how that felt.
"I couldn't keep living that way." Bitter humour left his lips. "But it was foolish to think I couldn't hang my hat without helping Roman pull one last job, and that bloody oaf used it to his full advantage."
The can crinkled in Cooper's grip.
"He broke my one sacred rule and stabbed me in the back, leaving me behind so he could escape." He drew a shaky breath. "Fortunately, I got away, and unfortunately for Roman, I led those boys in blue to him. I'm sure you could figure it out from there."
Nice.
Cooper fiddled with the can tab and snapped it off. "I want a place to belong—to be accepted and not have to check over my shoulder all the time. Almost everyone I've known in my thievius life has either left me behind or betrayed me." He tossed the tab in the trash bin across the room. "Would it be a bad thing to say I'm sorta used to it?"
Alexander bit the last of his sandwich and glanced at his partner.
Curled up and hunched over as if he were trying to hide and disappear from sight, Cooper was more fragile than a glass sculpture teetering on the edge of a pedestal.
Alexander saw himself for a second, lost and alone with nothing other than sand to hold to his name. If it weren't for the hands that reached down and pulled him out of his lowest point, then who knows what road he'd end up on.
To Cooper, trust was sacred, yet no matter how much he wanted to believe in the sweetness of that rum, it always went sour, and his heart would shatter.
Luckily for Cooper, Alexander was selling the best rum in the house.
Alexander picked up Cooper's hat and dusted it off before fitting it to his partner's head.
"Thanks, mate." He shrunk beneath the brim. "So, now that you know my life story, what do you have to say about it?"
That was easy.
"Yeah, you're a real pain in the ass sometimes, and I may be stuck with it for a while longer," Alexander said and popped open his can of soda. "But just know, if you leave, there won't be one person out there you can count on better than me to always have your back."
Cooper paused mid-drink, glancing up awestruck.
"I. . . I . . ." The archer found a sudden interest in his boots and rubbed them together. "So, you're alright being partners with a criminal like me?"
"I don't see any criminals here," Alexander said.
Cooper flinched. "What do you see?"
"Some guy I knew in Vacuo once."
"How so?"
"You talk too much."
There was a pause until Cooper snorted and shook his head.
"That's enough for me." He held his can high and gave a shy smile. "How about a toast before we get out of here, yeah? I really miss my own bed."
Alexander copied him. "To my dumbass partner."
"I think you mean 'to the best partner I've ever had.' But we can work on that later, I guess. Cheers, mate."
They banged drinks and gulped it down.
Cooper lurched, slapping his mouth shut.
Alexander backed up.
"I knew I shouldn't have drank all that milk," he said through his fingers.
The empty bottle at the door suddenly made sense.
"Ruby told me that drinking milk always made her feel better, so I went with that." Cooper clutched his stomach. "But I think I went overboard."
"Dumbass."
"Shut up—" He gagged and managed to keep it from coming out. "Ugh. . ."
As Cooper spent the last five minutes trying to regroup, Alexander cleaned the kitchen, getting rid of whatever evidence proved they were there, and mentioned an important thing they had to do, no matter how much the archer protested.
-----
Alexander returned to their room with Cooper in tow.
"You ready?" said Alexander.
Cooper fixed his scarf and cleared his throat. "The pessimist inside me says we should wait. You wanna go in there and soften them up for me first?"
"Get in there," he shoved him inside, "and do it yourself."
Cooper almost tripped at the threshold, and Alexander shut the door behind them.
Stiofan snapped up from an array of papers and books neatly piled on the desk.
"My word," his eyes widened, "you've returned."
Roderick rolled over in bed. "Is Alex back?"
"Uh, hiya, mates." Cooper gave a small wave. "This is an awkward pickle, huh?"
The leader scrambled. "Coop—Ah!"
He tripped on his bed sheets.
If this were any other moment, Alexander would've found that funny.
Roderick acted like nothing ever happened. "Glad you're here, man!"
Cooper's tail perked. "You are?"
"These days haven't been quite the same without you," Stiofan said. "Your cheer alone certainly has the effect of lifting the dull mood."
"Then," Cooper lowered his hat and stared at the ground, "it's not too late to apologize, I hope."
Roderick shared a funny look with his partner. "Why would we want an apology?"
"Indeed." Stiofan frowned. "Don't think you're free, though. I do believe an explanation is in order. We certainly deserve at least that much."
Cooper bit his lip and gave them dubious looks. "The way I treated you lot. . . None of you are angry?"
"It was kinda mean," Roderick said.
Stiofan frowned. "Rather rude, actually."
Cooper gulped. "Are you really okay with having me in the team?"
"Duh." Roderick shrugged. "If you stop playing cops and robbers you'll realize if we're friends with an ex-terrorist, then a thief is no big deal."
Alexander snorted at Stiofan. "And no one got shot this time."
Cooper spluttered in laughter while the others grinned.
"And I was led to believe you had no sense of humour, Alexander," said the First Guard. His amusement melted and the corners of his eyes sank. "Also about earlier. . . I must apologize. I'd acted rather rashly at that moment. Forgive me if it affects our relationship in any way."
"Forget it. You were just protecting your girlfriend."
Jaws hit the floor.
"I-I, uh, pardon me, Alexander." Stiofan tugged on the collar of his uniform. "That isn't how we are."
Alexander scoffed and opened the door. "Hill, tell the girls he's back."
Roderick sent the message, and Alexander pushed everyone other than Cooper out the way.
"Xander," Cooper said and awkwardly stayed where he was in the middle of the room. "What's going on?"
"COOPER!!!!"
A flash of red zipped inside, literally slamming the answer into Cooper.
Roderick made an effort not to stare, and Stiofan coughed into a fist.
Weiss and Yang stumbled in after their leader and went bright red, one from embarrassment and the other anger, at the sight of Ruby mounting Cooper against the bookshelf.
"I was worried sick about you!" said Ruby.
"Ruby, love," Cooper flushed and hid under his hat, "I think you should back up."
"Not until I know you're not gonna be avoiding us like that again!"
"You do realize how this looks, right?"
Fresh steam puffed out of her ears. "S-so what?!"
Cooper lifted her off and slid free. "Believe me when I say that I'll never go anywhere ever again."
Ruby sniffled and embraced him, but the protective Yang wasted no time to pry them apart.
"I'm glad you're back," Yang said and guarded her sister, "but that doesn't mean I'm letting you get comfy with Ruby, Ringtail."
Worry filled Ruby's eyes. "I told you that it's okay."
The blonde didn't relent and stood her ground.
"Hold it just a minute." Weiss aimed a finger dagger at Cooper's throat. "Just know that even if everyone may be fine with this, I still have my eyes on you."
"Why don't we cool down, yeah?" Roderick said to Weiss. "You made an exception for Blake, so why not Cooper?"
"Because Blake has proven herself trustworthy," she side-eyed Cooper, "and that has yet to be seen with a thief like him."
Annoyance tweaked the leader's face. "Look, Frosty. You may not know Cooper as well as us, but he's a good guy."
The heiress glowered. "Frosty?"
Their bickering heated up until Cooper stepped in and broke it up.
"Radek, mate, it's quite alright." A mischievous twinkle painted Cooper's teeth. "I'm actually quite flattered to know Snow White has eyes on me."
Weiss winced. "Why does everyone keep giving me terrible nicknames?!"
"It's completely understandable if you've fallen for me." He struck several elaborate poses. "Is it because I'm a devilishly handsome rapscallion, a loveable neerdowell, or a criminally insane raccoon with a not so degenerate tail?"
Weiss opened and closed her mouth like a gaping fish, causing a round of laughter to erupt, and soon after, friendly banter filled the room.
"It seems like everything's back to normal, Alexander," Blake said from the doorway, unbeknownst to the others. "Good job getting Cooper back."
He grunted.
"Then, in that case, I'd like to speak about our. . . argument." She came closer, arms wrapped around her thinning waist. "I-I had time to think, and now I understand I went too far. Of all people, I should know what it feels like when a big secret gets out."
"Forget about it." Alexander waved it off. "Besides, I shoved you into Hill's nightstand, so we're both idiots."
He stepped on something hard under his boot; it was the chess piece of a king.
"Alexander, you. . ." Blake settled for a smile. "No, you're right."
"And if you're not going to take a break," Alexander picked up the chess piece and tossed it on Roderick's bed, "at least try the bologna sandwiches in the dining hall. They're not that bad."
Her nose crinkled. "I'll give it a taste, but I prefer tuna."
Shocker.
"Try to get some shut eye, Belladonna." Alexander rolled into bed. "You look like crap."
It seemed like she wanted to say more but stopped herself there, and it didn't take long for the idle chatter to lull him asleep.
Peace and quiet. Finally.