[ReaperJoe]

It was a bright and sunny day in Vale, bright enough that Lucas had to shield his eyes as he stepped down the Bullhead's loading ramp, setting out into the city of Vale. It was an off-day for Beacon, so he wasn't wearing his uniform, and he wasn't on a mission, so he wasn't wearing his combat attire either. Instead, he was wearing a more casual outfit, tennis shoes with jeans and a black t-shirt underneath a red, zipped-up jacket.

That was all he should have needed for an errand run, after all. His team consumed a massive amount of dust on their missions and training, so restocking on supplies has become a commonplace activity on weekends and holidays. Of course, Lucas could have done all the necessary shopping online and had it delivered to Beacon, but even he needed to get away every once in a while, and this errand run was the perfect excuse to stretch his legs. Besides, his family owned a dust shop, so he knew the little tricks that shops liked to pull to make more money. That combined with his own experience judging dust purity made him the perfect person to handle this.

That was why when the person behind him stepped off the loading ramp, Lucas sighed and said, "I can handle this by myself, ya know? You don't have to stick around if you don't want to..."

[Metroidhunter]

"Don't be lame," Cloe said plainly, cracking a smile at Lucas as she stepped out into the sunlight. "We're on a team. We're supposed to hang out!"

Dust was cool, but it wasn't exactly Cloe's top priority today. Her shoes were dirty, so she needed to buy new ones. She was also kind of craving a snack. Heck, it was never a bad time to hunt for a new fit. As for today's look, she wore a simple crop top and gym shorts, perfect for fun on a sunny day. Tragically, she was going to have to wait until they were done running this dust errand before they could do anything good. Lucas didn't strike Cloe as the kind of guy to enjoy all of the same activities as her, but she knew she'd find a way to make him have fun anyway.

"And besides, after we get our ammo and rocks and stuff, I wanna go to the mall. You should come with!" After all, she couldn't be caught going there by herself. That would be incredibly lame.

[ReaperJoe]

"I'm not lame!" Lucas retorted. He figured Cloe wouldn't take the hint. His team's leader was many things--sociable, outgoing, charismatic--but "subtle" was not one of them. It wasn't that Lucas disliked Cloe, of course. As a team member, she ran the very-much-appreciated role of running interference for the team's backline, no doubt preventing some foul Grimm from taking a bite out of his blind spot on more than one occasion. As leader...well, she has a ways to go when it comes to strategy and tactics, but she does have a knack for keeping the team from bickering, which is more than anyone else in his team can say.

All that said, though, Lucas could only handle so much bubbly sunshine before he had to run to some rooftop gargoyle to brood over. Spending his day off galivanting around town with Cloe was pretty low on his list of things he'd like to do, but when Cloe invited herself along on this trip, he couldn't find a good enough reason to tell her no. After all, if he said he wanted to go by himself, she'd just call him lame. And he was not lame.

"Fine, I'll go with you," Lucas said, resigned to his assignment for the day, "But don't call dust 'rocks', unless you want a lecture from the proprietor. He's, uh, pretty passionate."

[Metroidhunter]

"Yay," Cloe cheered at his response. Lucas may not have been her first, second or third choice for a person to hang out with, but at the end of the day, his company would be better than none. This outing also happened to be a great opportunity to get to know him better. As of right now, she hardly knew a single detail about Lucas' life outside of Beacon. He seemed like an okay guy at least, but maybe there was an interesting and cool side to him that she simply hadn't seen yet. Maybe.

Despite not knowing which direction she was actually supposed to be going, Cloe started to move forwards, already bored of standing still. As she began to walk, she casually dismissed his advice with a quick wave of her cybernetic hand. "Yeah, yeah. Gems, minerals, whatevuh. I'll try not to call him a nerd while I'm at it. Where is this guy, anyway?"

[ReaperJoe]

Lucas sighed as Cloe used literally every name for dust but its proper one, but made no further effort to correct her. Instead, he started leaving the landing deck, with a quiet "this way" to his teammate to indicate she should follow him.

"It isn't far," he continued, turning down an alley instead of heading down the main road, "Most people wouldn't know about it unless they did some digging first, though. It's a real hole-in-the-wall. The sign on the door's practically scratched out, but I promise he's got the best deals."

"See, most of the more popular stores cater to a wider audience," Lucas continued explaining, noticeably without prompting, "which is why you can get pre-made dust ammo in most places. Their 'premium' items are just expensive toys for 'trophy hunters' with too much money. Trust me, anyone tries to sell you on their 'highest quality dust', it's because they think you're a mark."

Lucas turns down another corner, either unaware or unconcerned with how grimy his path is becoming, and continues talking, whether Cloe is listening or not. "Not to mention, most places don't offer custom jobs for storage, and if they do, they want to keep it in-house. Normally, the service is pretty good, so it's not really a rip-off, but if you go through a lot of dust like I do, it's better to find a guy that lets you do it yourself. Cheaper in the long run.

Suddenly, Lucas stops, seemingly staring at a wall. Upon closer inspection, however, he's staring at a red door that practically blends in with the brick surrounding it. A faded placard reads "Particular Particulates: For the Discerning Connoisseur".

"This is the place," Lucas says, turning to Cloe, "It'll only take about five minutes to wrap everything up, if you want to wait outside." Not that he expected Cloe to take the offer, of course.

[Metroidhunter]

Cloe took each step with high energy, happy to finally get a move on. For what had to be a record amount of time, Cloe was actually tuned in to what her partner was saying. Despite trying her best to listen however, she did not find the subject of his rambling to be all that interesting. By the time they reached the shop's entrance, she was starting to wonder if she should have just spent the day studying instead.

"Oh wow, that's crazy," Cloe replied in the most monotone voice imaginable as Lucas came to a stop. Looking up and down the suspicious door, she raised an eyebrow. Hearing his offer to stay outside, she was very tempted to take that so she could make a run for it. Another five minutes of him talking about dust may just have been enough to kill her, assuming someone in this creepy place didn't get her first. Cloe had to remind herself that she was the one that said teammates were supposed to hang out... 'God dammit Cloe, this is on you.'

"No yeah, totally. I'm in," the faunus answered with slightly more enthusiasm, giving him a metal thumbs-up and a cheery smile. "... But only if you let me pay for it!"

[ReaperJoe]

"Bwa?" came the familiar response as Cloe made her offer. "A-are you sure? It's a lot of dust, ya know? I mean, I know I said it was cheaper, but--" she did realize that he wasn't just picking up his own dust right? This was supposed to be a restock for the entire team! And it was supposed to last them for quite a while (it won't, obviously, because Juno--and, yeah, probably Lucas, too--will go through it like an addict on a snow day).

His mind distracted by Cloe's apparent boundless ability to short circuit Lucas's thoughts, his hand pushed the door open, causing the bell to ring and shaking Lucas from trying to talk Cloe down from spending all of her money. Inside, as expected, is a dust shop. But rather than glass display cases and dispensary tubes, there are crates of crystals and barrels of powder, with sacks and scoops tacked to the side for easy packaging. At the back of the store, there was a door with a sign that said "Employees Only", but the windows revealed a warehouse full of even more crates and barrels. Perhaps dust shop was a bit too generous; this place looks more like the retail side of a distribution center.

Off to the side, there was a raised wooden counter and behind it was a man sitting on a stool, black hair covering every inch of his face except his big red nose and his bald white head. Turning towards the sound of the bell, the shop keeper let's out a grunt of acknowledgement, though his eyebrows were so thick it was hard to tell if he was looking at the pair of students or just the door in general. Taking one last look at Cloe, Lucas stepped inside, announcing, "Excuse me, I had an order under 'Meridiem'?"

The question earned another grunt from the shop keeper, who then hopped off his stool to waddle to edge of the counter and retrieve a large sack filled to the brim with dust products (all of it safely packaged, which he confirmed by hand by retrieving each item from the sack and displaying for both Lucas and Cloe to see). The purchase was clearly not just for Lucas, who turned to Cloe as the man rang up the total price. "You sure you still want to pay for all this?"

[Metroidhunter]

"Meh," Cloe replied casually to his voice of concern, giving only a slight shrug. Truthfully, she was more worried about stepping into this spooky establishment than she was about the price. Cautiously taking a glance inside, Cloe wasn't exactly impressed. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite as scary as it looked on the outside, but it wasn't gorgeous either. Was it worth the discount? That could be argued. To her, the price made absolutely no difference. After all, she wouldn't even be spending her money. Her parents would be covering this one... She would just have to remember to tell them that later.

Approaching the counter slowly, Cloe did her best to wait patiently for their order to be brought out. All the while, she couldn't help but stare at the peculiar looking shopkeeper. Why wasn't he saying anything? When the hell was the last time he shaved? Did he even have eyeballs? Cloe had lots of questions, not one of them relevant to today's purchase. Thankfully, Lucas was there to steer her brain back on course before she had the chance to say something stupid.

Cloe took only the briefest of glances at the price before whipping out a card, her trademark grin finally returning to her expression as she handed over the lien to pay. "Hush hush! My treat! You totally did help me not die that one time, so let's just say I owe you this one." She gave Lucas a playful nudge with her metal elbow as she spotted yet another opportunity to tease him. "You're buying lunch though!"

[ReaperJoe]

Lucas could say nothing (except "Ow!" after Cloe nudged him) as Cloe casually handed her card to the shopkeeper, who arched a bushy eyebrow in Lucas's direction. At least, it looked like it was in Lucas's direction. It was hard to tell with all of the hair. Nevertheless, Lucas was only able to massage his arm after Cloe elbowed it with her prosthetic, the metal proving very unforgiving against flesh. That earned a grunt from the shopkeeper, who proceeded to process the exchange. It seemed he didn't care where the payment came from, as long as it ended up in his pocket.

After making a few more arrangements to have the dust sent to the dock for them to pick up on their way back (what, you expected Lucas to carry it around all day?), Lucas turned to Cloe as they walked out of the establishment. "Uh, thanks, I guess," he started, scratching his temple. He was a little conflicted about her reasoning for paying. It was true that he bailed her out of a bad situation during initiation, but she was only there in the first place because he inadvertently lured her in. She didn't need to know that part, but he still felt a little bit guilty.

"You said something about lunch, right? I suppose that's the least I could do to make it up to you. Did you have any place in mind?"

[Metroidhunter]

"No problem my dude," she responded nonchalantly to his expression of gratitude as the two of them left the building. It may have been a big deal in Lucas' eyes, but as far as Cloe was concerned, money was hardly anything to fuss over. While she certainly couldn't afford to cover the bill every time, today's purchase wouldn't be putting a dent in the family savings.

"... Yes! Lunch!" the faunus agreed excitedly with a thumbs-up. "I was just thinking we hit up the food court at the mall," she said while using her thumb to point in the direction she believed the place would be. "They have a nice salad bar. Or sushi, if you're feeling daring. Unless of course, you know any other secret back-alley establishments that got stuff cheaper than mall food. Heheh." Cloe didn't actually mean that last part, but she also didn't really have her mind set on anything just yet, so she did turn and look to him for some input. In the meantime, she began to slowly walk backwards in the direction she had pointed towards, unable to hold still even while they were still deciding on a destination.

[ReaperJoe]

"Uh, sorry, don't know any other back-alley dives other than this place," Lucas responded, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the door they just left. Most of the time, if he needed extra time away from the team, he'd just hit up the closest fast food joint and eat there before heading back, so he didn't really know what kind of food the mall had. In fact, if he thought about it, he didn't even know where the mall was. He had assumed that Vale had one, considering it was the center of one of the four kingdoms, but he never had any real reason to go there.

"I've never actually been to the mall here before," Lucas said, uttering his thoughts out loud. "Why not? Let's hit it up; see if there's anything good there.