Fate's Wild Card Ch.45 (Released) (Patreon)

Ruby and Pyrrha were very disappointed in him, which is fair enough. Missing an exam isn’t exactly something you can charm your way out of, and he couldn’t just say that he was so exhausted from the sex marathon as the reason why he missed it. Especially when exam scores average with your team’s.

But Weiss? Weiss is livid.

Apparently she waited for him for one hour and tried to call him multiple times, which he didn’t notice, probably because Neo hid his scroll so he could be more focused on fucking Blake. But Weiss had wrongly assumed his attendance, built her entire Saturday study plan around it, and when he didn’t show, that somehow became his fault. Which sounds more like a HER problem because he didn’t really promise to attend.

So obviously that wasn’t the end of his problems.

Glynda Goodwitch caught him, and unlike Weiss, she didn’t throw a fuss or storm off. She simply handed him his punishment.

Detention. 

Every day after classes for a full week, confined to an isolated classroom with no way out and no point in trying to find one. He entertained the idea for about thirty seconds before remembering that Glynda Goodwitch isn’t some bored secretary. She’s a combat instructor, and a terrifying one. Glynda had already proven that stereotype wrong the one time he’d seen her actually fight.

So no. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Her semblance is also complete bullshit. One flick of her wrist and she could hang you by the balls with zero effort.

And as a finishing touch, Weiss had somehow, in the span of whatever conversation she’d had with Glynda, convinced the woman to load him with every piece of study material she’d originally prepared for Saturday. The stack of notes sitting on the desk in front of him is almost offensive in its thickness. Colour coded tabs and everything. She even wrote his name on the front.

Not even Blake got this much flak, she got some community service or something.

Speaking of Blake…

Things have been a little awkward since the full non-stop fucking weekend. Pryce couldn’t really blame her because he also feels a little awkward around her too, especially that according to Neo he can just bend her over and take her whenever he feels horny, it was a tempting idea but…

It didn’t help that Blake wasn’t against the idea either…

His girlfriend really caused a mess, and now she had set her sights on Penny… Well, she is a human, so there won’t be a sudden heat cycle or something thrown at his face; it was amazing sex but still…

Also, that Blake MIGHT be pregnant…. Yeah, that definitely must be gnawing inside that girl too.

It was going to be a very stressful month.

He shifts in his chair and stares at the ceiling, because he has been staring at it for the better part of an hour to try to clear his head, and it was better than Weiss’s notes. His scroll is gone too, confiscated. So he has nothing to do but exist in this room but to contemplate his life choices.

That’s when his ears twitch, catching heavy footsteps in the corridor. Definitely not heels, so not Glynda coming to check on him. He sits up slightly out of pure habit and watches the door swing open.

“Cardin?”

Cardin Winchester fills the doorway, school bag slung over one shoulder, looking mildly surprised. “Oh, hey Pryce. Fancy seeing you here.”

“Asking the same. What happened?”

Cardin drops into the desk beside him with an easy attitude. “Some second year decided to start shit with me in the corridor. Talked too big for being short and though could get money from me” He shrugs, like it’s barely worth explaining. “Broke his nose against the wall and knocked a tooth when didn’t give up.”

Pryce nods slowly. “Yeah, that tracks. Though, why didn’t you just challenge him to a duel? You could’ve broken his nose with a clean conscience.”

Cardin blinks. “Wait. I can do that?”

“Yeah, it’s in the rules. Code of conduct or something.”

“Nobody told me that.”

“Nobody told me either. Found out after being dragged to the headmaster’s office.”

Cardin stares at him for a moment, then lets out a short breath of a laugh. “So I’ve just been doing this the hard way the whole time.”

“Seems like it.”

“Huh.” He leans back in his chair, scratching the back of his head. “That’s actually really good to know. Could’ve saved me like four detentions.”

“Probably more.”

Cardin points at him. “Yeah, probably more.”

Pryce feels a small satisfaction at not being the only one who skipped the orientation pamphlet.

Things go quiet after that, a comfortable enough silence, until Cardin reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small worn box of cards, setting it on the desk between them with a flat thud.

“You play?”

Pryce looks at the box. “No.”

“I brought these thinking I’d be playing solitaire all week.” Cardin starts shuffling them with surprising ease. “Guess this works out better.”

Pryce eyes the cards. He has never played a single card game in his life. Cards cost money in Mistral, and money was always going toward things more important than entertainment. Here in Vale he’d just fooled around with Neo a lot, and sex is always fun with her.

But he also has nothing else to do for the next hour, and Weiss’s chapter notes can go straight to hell.

“We have all the time in the world here. Teach me something cool.”

Cardin grins and splits the deck with one hand. “Ever heard of Blackjack?”

“Nope.”

“Simple game.” He deals two cards face down. “You’re trying to get to twenty one without going over. Go over, and you lose automatically.”

“And if we tie?”

“Dealer wins. Which is me, by the way, since you don’t know what you’re doing yet.”

“Convenient rule.”

“I don’t make the rules bunny boy.” Cardin flips one of his own cards face up. “Stop complaining and look at your hand.”

Pryce picks up his cards. A seven and a four.

“Eleven…” he says immediately. “So what do I do with eleven?”

“You hit. Ask for another card. Always hit on eleven, that’s basically free chance.”

“Hit.”

Cardin deals him a nine. “Twenty. You want another, or you staying?”

Pryce looks at his cards. Twenty is nearly twenty one, which is nearly perfect. “Stay.”

Cardin flips his second card. Fourteen total. He deals himself another and lands on eighteen, then stares at it for a moment, chin in hand, before dealing one more.

A five.

“Damn.” Cardin clicks his tongue. “Busted.”

“So I win?”

“Yeah, you win.” He starts collecting the cards back. “Luck of the rabbit, right?”

Pryce rolls his eyes. “Go again.”

He busts the next round by three points, chasing a better hand when he should have stayed put. Cardin doesn’t rub it in, just deals the next hand.

It could be worse, he supposes.

But Blackjack is pretty fun.

-------------------------------------------------------

“Oh, come on, Weiss!”

“No.” Weiss crosses her arms, her ponytail swishing sharply behind her. “Your irresponsibility ruined our team score. I’m not letting you go until you get a perfect score on this mock exam.”

“Guys! A little help over here?!”

Pyrrha and Ruby exchange a look before shaking their heads in unison.

“I’m still disappointed in you, Pryce.” Pyrrha’s disappointment actually makes him feel a little bad. “You should have known better.”

“Yeah, Pryce, skipping class is bad!” Ruby adds, crossing her arms in a mimicry of Weiss’ pose. “Especially on exam day! As team leader I’m letting Weiss do her thing on this one!”

“Traitors. Both of you.” He grumbles.

“We prefer accountability partners.” Pyrrha says pleasantly.

Weiss snaps her fingers in front of his face. “Pay attention. You will get a perfect score on the next exams, including midterms, to make it up to us. All of us. I have prepared a structured revision schedule that, if followed correctly, will more than compensate for your current academic standing.”

He groans and drags the material toward him, slumping over the desk like a man meeting his execution. Weiss was truly an Atlesian bitch, and Neo was right to not trust these girls once again.

After a while, Ruby and Pyrrha slip out to grab something from the cafeteria, leaving the two of them alone in a silence broken only by the occasional turning of pages and the distant sounds of the campus outside.

Students who were clearly having fun unlike him.

Pryce tries to study. 

Like really tries. 

He reads the same paragraph four times and retains roughly nothing. After twenty minutes he gives up entirely, slumping back against his chair and staring at the ceiling. Even detention hadn’t been this suffocating. At least detention had Cardin and blackjack. Everything after classes has been swallowed up by Weiss’s study plan, leaving him no room to breathe, relax, or do anything remotely fun. Even getting thrown across a training room by Pyrrha would be better than this.

Hell, even that dunce of Jeanne, would be more entertaining.

“Pryce! You still haven’t finished the second section!”

“Weiss, knock it off. You’re not my mom.” He snaps.

Not that he’d know what that feels like, to have a mom. But details.

Weiss’s expression flickers for just half a second, something shifting behind her eyes before settling back into her frown. “You are correct. I’m not. I’m your teammate, and it is my responsibility to ensure your bad performance doesn’t drag the rest of us down. So pick up the page and finish the section.”

He opens his mouth to argue, then closes it again.

Damn. That’s actually a fair point. What is he supposed to say to that?

He stares at the ceiling for another moment anyway, purely on principle, ears flat because they were also tired from listening to the spoiled princess.

“Can’t I just say I’m sorry for not showing up?”

“You can say it. It won’t change the exam score.”

A big fat zero.

“Can I at least get a reward?” He asks as a joke, a joke mostly to himself. He’s already bracing for the lecture, or maybe some shouting because he just wants to make her angry to get some entertainment out of her pissy attitude.

But Weiss goes very still.

Then her blue eyes widen, and a deep red blush crawls up her neck and floods her face all the way to the tips of her ears.

That reaction confuses Pryce to the point he tilts his head, and she looks away in response. 

Why is she acting like that?

“Okay…. Okay, you will.” She murmurs.

Pryce sits up properly for the first time in an hour as he looks at her. And Weiss is suddenly very focused on organizing the stack of papers again.

“...Come again?”

“Y-You heard me. Finish the material. All of it. Score perfectly on the mock exam. And you will get your reward.” She says quickly, her knuckles white as she grips a stack of notes so hard they crinkle.

He just stares at her.

“Let me guess a kiss again?” He asks with a smirk. That would be a somewhat okay reason to get some motivation, especially for her reactions more than anything.

Weiss’s face somehow manages to get even redder. She straightens up, lifting her chin in a way that is almost convincing if not for the tremor in her hands. “D-Do not be absurd! I won’t commit that mistake again with a brute liek you!” she stammers, then seems to realize her words and backpedals, “I mean... I am not offering that. The reward will be... different.”

“Different how?” He presses, leaning forward now.

Her eyes dart around the room, landing everywhere but on him. The she runs up to the door and locks it before she returns to his side.

“I-I w-will show you...” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. “But you have to promise. Perfect score, Pryce.”

“Fine.” he says, waving a dismissive hand. “Perfect score. Whatever.”

She takes a deep, shaky breath, her fingers fumbling with the zipper. The sound of it coming down is abnormally loud in the quiet room and soon enough she was in her underwear....

‘Wait, what?’

“Last time I... I... I promised to do a little more than kissing.” She covers her chest with one arm and the other between her legs. “A-And now you-you-you cantouchitifscoreperfectinthismockexam!”

She ends ups shouting it as she closes her eyes, expecting some kind of mocking or laughing, but none comes.

Pryce just stares with his mouth open, but at least his boredom is completely gone.

A smirk slowly forms on his lips as he decides to tease her a little. “That’s your master plan? To bribe me with your body?”

She flinches as if struck. “It is not bribery! It is... it is positive reinforcement! A-A method to motivate a delinquent brute like you into academic excellence!”

“Right. Positive reinforcement.” He leans back, crossing his arms. “So if I get a perfect score... I can do what? Touch your tits?”

The word hangs in the air.

Weiss looks like she might actually faint from sheer embarrassment. “Th-That is a c-c-c-cruel and vulgar way of p-putting it! But... yes, you get to touch on-once!”

His smirk widens. “Once? That’s it? I’m supposed to study all this for a single grope?”

“A-A single grope that you will n-never get if you keep asking questions!” she stammers out. “So s-shut up and study! The sooner you pass, the sooner you get your vulgar reward!”

He watches her for a long moment, standing there shivering in her underwear, trying and failing to look authoritative. This is far more entertaining than Blackjack.

“Alright, Schnee.” he says, finally picking up the notes. “You’ve got a deal.”

He flips open the book to the first chapter, not even reading it yet, just letting the pages rest on the desk. Then he glances up at her.

“But while I study, I want you to stay like that.”

Weiss’s jaw drops. “What?! You cannot be serious!”

“I am.” He says simply. “Call it... a preview. A little extra motivation. You want my focus? I want a view. It’s only fair.”

He expects a flat refusal. A shout of protest. Maybe even her grabbing her clothes and storming out, leaving him to deal with the fallout.

Instead, after a long, agonizing moment of internal struggle, she gives a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

“F-Fine.” she whispers, hugging herself tighter. “But no touching! Not until you have proven yourself!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, princess.”

---------------------------------------

-Weiss Schnee-

“O-One hundred percent?!” She shouted in surprise as she stared at the mock exam. This brute even got the trick questions right!

“You said perfect score.” Pryce shrugs. “I got a perfect score.”

Weiss’s heart was pounding against her ribs like a trapped bird as she looked back at his black eyes.

This wasn’t supposed to happen... at least not so soon, like she was expecting him to get perfect score in a week of studying not just within an hour!

It really pissed her off that he could actually be like a model student but simply didn’t want to!

She tries to swallow, but her throat is suddenly dry as sandpaper.

‘It’s just a touch.’ She tells herself, a mantra repeating in her head. ‘It’s a transaction. It’s… it’s happening right now because he’s standing up and walking towards her.’

She instinctively takes a step back, her heel hitting the wall with a soft thud. Trapped.

“Y-You’re... you’re actually going to...” she stammers, the words sticking in her throat.

He stops directly in front of her and slams his hand next to her head before leaning close, so close she can feel the heat radiating from his body.

“I believe a deal’s a deal.”

He lifts his free hand, and Weiss flinches, squeezing her eyes shut as if that could make it less real. But she can’t help but peek through her lashes.

And... And...

“Tag, you are it.”

He touched her nose?!

Her eyes snapped open to see a smug looking Pryce with a stupid smirk on his face. Her anger momentarily overridden the fear. “Wha—” she began, but before she could finish, he continued.

“Oh, and I’ll have my real reward next week.” he says, turning to leave.

“N-Next week?” Weiss asks, blinking in confusion, her mind still trying to process the anticlimactic touch to her nose.

No, wait why was she feeling disappointed or more like offended that he didn’t grope her body?!

He leaves, closing the door with a soft click that echoes in the sudden, deafening silence.

Weiss stands there for a long moment, staring at the closed door, her mind a complete and utter mess.

And then anger.

“HOW DARE HE?!”

-------------------------------------------

-Pryce Locke-

He totally cheated, Weiss was too distracted with their deal to notice he was peeking at the questions she was writing, or that she was mumbling the answers.

Pryce chuckled when she heard the atlesian girl scream her frustration. He is definitely cupping her petite pale body and her cute ass next week, he just really but really needs a lot of rest. Because after the long weekend sex marathon with Blake, he was so dry that he cannot even get hard anymore.

Next stop, the cafeteria!