Chapter 14

Robin gave Vance a weird look. "What's wrong with you? Did you catch whatever has Petunia down?"

"I'm fine. Just take the bug and let's go." He said with a weak voice.

Robin shrugged and didn't ask anything else. He went past the stiff boy and carefully grabbed the Bee Beetle. This one tried to run, but Robin moved faster and caught it. He was even lucky enough not to get bit this time, that was an achievement in his book.

He held the still living beetle in his hand as he turned around just in time to see Vance take a few steps back. His eyes were fixed on the Bee Beetle in Robin's hand.

Robin was confused by the older boy's strange behavior. He raised an eyebrow and took a step forward.

Vance took a step back.

"..."

"..."

Robin moved his eyes from the pale-faced kid to the struggling creature in his hand.

He took another step forward.

Vance took another one backward.

"..."

"..."

A small breeze flew between them before it settled down as quickly as it came.

Both Robin and Vance had award-winning poker faces. Another moment passed and the red-eyed

Faunus's tail began swinging left and right.

He smiled.

And rushed towards Vance with the Bee Beetle in hand.

"Aaah bastard! Stay away!" Vance screamed as his feet moved rapidly, desperately trying to distance himself from the black and yellow, writhing monstrosity.

The sun's rays fell harshly, but the two boys seemed unimpeded by the heat. They were kicking up sand all over the place. After a while, the commotion attracted Hilda's attention.

The scene that met her was Vance with his back against a large rock, screaming juvenile profanities, and Robin threatening the older boy with a Bee Beetle while laughing like a maniac.

She let out a soft giggle as she approached the two troublemakers.

"Robin please stop scaring Vance. We still have work to do."

Robin graciously listened to her plea. He put the poor beetle out of its misery and stored it in his bag. Maybe tomorrow he will take another trip around the dunes to get a few for himself.

Unfortunately, Rick intentionally omitted a few crucial steps in preparing the Yiaya poison so Robin did not know the whole process.

Vance kept glaring at the Faunus for another hour before he realized Robin would not exploit his fear of insects anymore. Still, as the job was pretty dull, Robin eventually opened up the subject.

"If you're so scared of these things why offer to help in the first place?" he casually asked, already knowing the answer.

The indignant yelling came as expected.

"Scared!? Who's scared? You're the one who's scared!"

"Yeah, I'm terrified of these things"

Vance choked on his next words. "What, really?"

"Yeah, I'm so scared I didn't even grab one in the half a day we've been here. The blood drained from my face just because I stood less than a few meters away from a little bug... Oh wait, that's not me."

"Y-you!" Vance was fuming, ready to explode by this point.

"Tee-hee~?"

Vance couldn't stand it anymore. He dropped his empty sack and charged at him. Robin stood in place, his tail lazily swinging. This kind of thing has happened so many times that by this point it became a kind of ritual.

When the enraged boy arrived close enough he jumped, intending to use his weight and bring Robin to the ground.

Naturally, same as all the other times, he failed and Robin dodged. He let go of his sack and, as Vance passed him, he grabbed his ankle and pulled. As a result, the airborne blond changed his angle of flight and his head went right inside Robin's sack before continuing his descent.

With a thud and a cloud of sand, Vance fell on his front and Robin took his usual place, casually sitting on the older boy's back.

A few moments passed. Vance was as still as stone while Robin took the time to get some sand out of his eyes.

Another breeze blew.

"Three guesses about what's on your face right now."

"..."

"Well, I mean besides regret."

"...ah"

Robin tilted his head on the side. "Ah?"

A tremor passed through the older boy as his hands had begun to visibly shake. Vance's muscles started contracting similarly to a spring being pushed. Robin made the wise decision to get up and move away.

"AAAHHHH!"

Vance jumped on his feet with a wretched scream as his head left the sack, at the same time pulling out a few dead Bee Beetles.

Robin could actually see the goosebumps on the boy's skin even from a distance away.

Vance, in a panic, drew his hands over his face and hair, jumped in place a few times then fell down on his behind.

Robin looked at the hyperventilating kid and wondered if he had gone too far. Then he remembered Vance was a known bully in the tribe and even his body's previous host suffered at his hands.

He was bullying the bully.

"I am an agent of karma." He said to himself with a righteous nod, pretending it was totally alright for someone mentally mature to act like this towards an eight-year-old child.

"What silly things are you saying, Robin?" Hilda's voice came from behind him.

She took a look at Vance who was in the process of taking off his clothes, probably to check if anything got inside. Lucky for him, nothing did, or else he might froth at the mouth and pass out.

"Really, children will do the naughtiest things when they're bored. Come you two, we're almost done, just a few more and we can go back to the tribe." She said while placing the beetles that Vance brought out back into Robin's sack.

Robin casually took it back and blatantly ignored the 'I'll get you. I swear I'll get you.' coming from Vance.

He made to leave, looking around for some more Bee Beatles to catch when Hilda's hand grabbed his shoulder. Her grip was tight and almost painful. Robin glanced at her and saw she was stiff as a board.

He curiously followed her eyes. There, in the distance, two large white and black figures were silently looming.

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