Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If there’s one thing that Scarlet can’t make clearer, it’s that he fucking hates Sun and Neptune. And has pretty much since he first met them.

Not because they’re bad people or anything—though Sun is a bit of a kleptomaniac even at the best of times, and Neptune can’t keep a secret to save his life—but because they’re insufferable. And Scarlet can’t stand insufferable.

He has never met two people so obviously hot for each other that do nothing about it. And the strain it puts on Scarlet absolutely fucking drives him insane.

He is the mother of their team. Any time Sun scrapes his knee, he literally comes crying to Scarlet to fix it. Sage doesn’t do shit without getting Scarlet’s permission, and Neptune tells him everything. Scarlet manages grades, deals with Sun being a dumbass, and makes sure everyone does what they’re supposed to, that they’re training, that they’re working hard.

Dealing with Sun and Neptune’s friend zone issue is one straw too many.

Sage gets it, thank Dust, and agrees when Scarlet tells him they’re going to fix it. Which is really good for Scarlet, because his plans suck. Neptune’s their strategist for good reason.

So at three in the morning, he rolls out of bed and shakes Sage awake. There is no need for that—Sage is already up, and scrambles to his feet as soon as he sees Scarlet. Sage sways unsteadily, and Scarlet prays he won’t fall—Sage is tall, much more muscular than the rest of their teammates. If he falls, Scarlet will not be able to catch him.

As usual, Sun and Neptune are sleeping in the same bed. Sun’s clingy as fuck—when he saw Neptune dancing with the Schnee girl at the dance and realized Neptune was enjoying himself, Scarlet honestly thought their problem would be solved by the morning. Too optimistically as it turned out, because Sun had just latched onto the Faunus Neptune was constantly whining about with a fervor that made his attachment to Neptune look like nothing. But any other day, as soon as Neptune’s eyes are closed, Sun’s crashing next to him regardless of where they are. And if Sun passes out first, Neptune will fuck around the dorm until he thinks they are all asleep, and then curl up next to Sun. Which would be adorable if they weren’t a bunch of assholes.

Scarlet grabs the desk chairs and sets them in the middle of the room—and woah, Beacon dorms are weird. In Mistral they have apartments, and furnish them themselves. The generic look—same furniture, same layout—of every dorm he’d seen bothers him. And the furniture is uncomfortable as fuck. Even Sun’s stupid bean bags are more comfortable.

It wasn’t, he’d told Sage when the larger boy had brought it up, homesickness.

Sage grabs Sun first, and by some miracle Sun stays drooling until Scarlet prods him with the end of a pen. Neptune wakes the moment Sage picks him up, but he just blinks at them as his eyes seek out a clock.

“N—Nep…? Oh, what the fuck Scarlet!”

“Couldn’t we just do this from the bed?” Neptune yawns, scowling up at Sage as he slumps into the chair.

“You two could, but I’ve got shit to say and you’re gonna listen.”

“Couldn’t this wait?”

“No! As soon as you’re both sentient you start saying stupid shit and doing stupider shit and I swear to Dust if you assholes lie to me again I’m going to cut your tongues out and beat you to death with your own weapons!” They know the issue is bad when Scarlet is yelling at them at three in the morning after just having woken. Scarlet is not a morning person in any sense of the word.

“How the fuck are you so awake right now?” Sage grumbles, dropping down onto Scarlet’s bed with a huff.

“You can go back to bed if you want.” Scarlet says, calmer, studying his partner critically. Since they’d arrived at Beacon, they’d stayed to themselves—which is entirely Scarlet’s fault, but whatever—and just relaxed, so Sage wasn’t physically exhausted. And he hadn’t stayed up all that late either.

“Oh, like hell I’m gonna miss this.” Sage snorts, and he flashes Scarlet one of his rare, wide grins as he lifts his head. The movement is so sudden, so sharp, that Sage nearly loses his balance and crashes to the floor.

He is being very clumsy today, Scarlet notes. Sage is usually very graceful, more so than even Sun with his extra appendage.

“Miss what?” Neptune demands, as irritable as Scarlet had thought he’d be, and Scarlet turns his attention to the issue at hand.

“You two. I’m gonna make this as clear as I can. I’ve got a helluva lot more to do than listen to you two whine about each other, so we’re finishing this now.”

Sage laughs aloud, and a smirk plays around Scarlet’s mouth, when Sun and Neptune both shoot each other identical betrayed looks.

“No—not like that, dumbasses. Sun, the Faunus girl you’re going after isn’t into you. Neptune, drop the bitch.”

“Okay, I know you haven’t met them yet, but please don’t call—“

“Neptune, I will gag you.”

“Kinky.” Scarlet kicks Sun’s knee in response, not hard enough to do any serious damage. Sun promptly starts carrying on like he’d broken something, until he sees the look Sage is leveling at him.

“Do you actually do that?” Sun asks, sounding as if he isn’t quite sure he wanted to know the answer. Or who it was he is asking.

No, they don’t, but Sun doesn’t know that. Scarlet opens his mouth to respond, but Sun’s expression suddenly changes and he jerks to his feet, eyes narrow.

“How the fuck do you know Blake’s a Faun—Neptune!”

“I will sit on you, Sun.” He warns. As it always does, Sun’s gaze drops to his chest, then the floor. As awkward as a twelve-year-old, he is. Scarlet kicks him again for good measure, but Sun sits down and refuses to look at either of them, choosing not to speak.

“I know everything. I’m fucking god, you dumbasses. I also know that the bitch was part of the White Fang. I also know she’s got the hots for the blonde bitch.” His language is offending Sun, he realizes. A pang of guilt runs through him—Sage has been telling him for a while he needs to work on his hostility problems—but nothing serious enough to make him apologize. Now, anyway. If this works, he’ll apologize later.

“Okay, what? You haven’t met them!” Sun looks wounded.

Which was sort of true. They have never been introduced, but only because Sun and Neptune run off as soon as they see them and refuse to bring he and Sage with them. So the two of them end up standing five feet away and staring at the spectacle—and it was always a spectacle—Sun caused.

It is offensive. But that is part of the problem—until they had a nice hard fuck, Scarlet knew full well their behavior would continue. They were too scared of letting the other get close to anyone other than themselves, for fear of losing them. Not only with each other, but with their teammates. If Scarlet was talking to anyone other than Sage—which never happened, but whatever—one of the two would crash the party and drag Scarlet off before he could get a word out.

And holy fuck is he sick of it.

“I see them all the fucking time. I have classes with them, dumbass. But that’s besides the point. Stop distracting me.” Sage giggles at that. Honest to Dust giggles.

All three of them look at him, and Scarlet steps forward, running his fingers though Sage’s hair before pressing his hand against the green-haired boy’s forehead. Is he running a temperature?

No…nothing—he is fine. Just acting…drunk.

Like he has been all night.

Shit.

Scarlet’s hand falls and he turns to face his other teammates. He is going to have to hurry this up. Drunk Sage is stupid Sage, and he doesn’t want him to do anything extremely bad.

“Alright assholes, get over yourselves. I’m sick of listening and hearing you two go after each other and the other not realize it ‘cuz you’re stupid as a pair of doorknobs. You’re affecting the team and your friends and holy fuck I’m sick of it. Go fuck already for Dust’s sake!” He could probably be wording this more elegantly. Or less offensively. Less swearing would help, too, but…he can’t bring himself to care. With the Festival just around the corner, his nerves are already shot. Stress has never affected him well.

Neptune’s face flushes a deep red, but he doesn’t protest. Sun is the one to fight it, jumping back to his feet and trying to stammer some shit about Scarlet lying—

So he does the only sensible thing left to do, the only thing he knows will seriously kick the two of them into action.

He grabs Neptune’s shirt, hauls him to his feet, and kisses him hard on the lips.

Sun flips his fucking shit in exactly point two seconds, but Sage intervenes before Sun gets close enough to punch Scarlet.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, you son of a bitch—“ Sage slams Sun up against the wall, one arm to his throat and the other holding him up so he doesn’t fall. Sage is nice, whether he was probably-drunk and half-asleep or not. Scarlet scowls at Neptune, spits into a nearby trashcan. His eyes are wide as saucers, as if he’d just been slapped.

“That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever done with you.” Scarlet growls, and shudders. He has done many things with his team, but kissing Neptune easily tops his list of grossest things ever done. Not because Neptune is a bad kisser, but because it’s Neptune. Not really like a brother, in the sense most would think of, but still stuck in that region of ‘never wanting to touch sexually ever’.

“Why the fuck—“ And Neptune stammers, splutters as his gaze flickers between his teammates.

“Look at how Sun’s reacting right now, Nep. If he was just your friend, he wouldn’t be trying to claw my face off. He’s just pissed ‘cuz he’s not the one sticking his tongue down your throat. Now solve your shit. I’m going to go sober Sage up.” Sage whines at that, tries to protest.

It takes a little bit to pull Sage off of Sun, and get him out of the dorm, because he is too focused on whining at Scarlet. But when they leave, Sun and Neptune are staring at each other, both of them red as tomatoes, and Scarlet is happy because he knows when they get back things will have changed.

Unfortunately, it is three in the morning. And while there is an academy-run coffee shop open this early, Scarlet is in his pajamas—shorts and a tanktop, chest entirely unbound—and Sage is wearing what could possibly pass as swim trunks if one didn’t look too closely.

Fortunately, a white-haired man in green lets them in without so much as a second glance, and Scarlet gets to work.

Sage isn’t one to get drunk easily, and sobering him up takes longer. Especially when he wants to pass out every three minutes, only to wake up mumbling about the fuckery going on in their dorm room and how weird Scarlet looks and how he wants to go into town tomorrow and can he have a donut please?

“Where did you even get the alcohol? Beacon’s really fucking child-safe.” Scarlet finally asks, nudging Sage awake with his shoulder.

Sage sits up, only to slump against Scarlet.

“Love you.”

“That doesn’t answer my question, you oaf.”

“Love you.” Sage repeats, nuzzling against him.

Scarlet scowls at him, but doesn’t press it.

Across the coffee shop, Scarlet sees the white-haired man shoot them an amused look, and then return his attention to his scroll and mug of coffee.

His team may be a pain in his ass, he thinks, running his fingers through Sage’s hair, but he loves them. He wouldn’t put up with them otherwise.

When they get back in the morning, Sun and Neptune are gone. But the atmosphere is so much more relaxed, Scarlet damn near weeps in relief. But he blames that on his exhaustion.

It’s eight in the morning and he has been up for the past five hours. Sage is snoring on his bed with his arms wrapped firmly around Scarlet’s waist. It has been a good night.

If only every problem could be solved so easily.

Chapter Text

               “You got launched into the forest? Please. That’s baby shit.”

“Scarlet, watch your language!”

“It is! I mean, look at what we did! Just ‘cuz that shit went wrong and they had to deal with some nasty ass Grimm doesn’t mean—.”

“We didn’t even see any Grimm at ours, man. Will you chill out?”

“Wait! No! I wanna know what happened! How’d your initiation go?!”

“See? She wants to know!”

“Ruby’s fucking ten, you asshole. She doesn’t know how to—“

“I’m fifteen you—“

“C’mon, Sun. Neptune’s the one who made a fool out of himself. What are you freaking out about?”

“Oooh! What’d he do?!”

“Says the man who didn’t even use his own fucking weapon?”

“Didn’t have too, sweetheart. Sage had all the firepower we needed. And if that asshole didn’t want me using his weapon, he shouldn’t have given it to me!”

“You kicked him in the face. That’s different from giving.”

“Well, he let go of it. Stop nitpicking, Neptune.”

“Okay, now you have to tell me what happened!”

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Scarlet has always had a flair for the dramatic. Telling stories is a great talent of his, and a tool he has used to keep Sun and Neptune in line for ages. And though Scarlet would rather die than admit it, Sage can see the sparkle in his eyes as he obliges Ruby’s request.

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“So, you gotta understand. I didn’t apply until last minute and I had no background in combat.”

“Tons of medical though. That’s why they stuck him with us.”

“Stop interrupting, asshole. Anyway, I had a weapon, ‘cuz my cousin was really into that stuff, and I knew how to use it—I swear to Dust, if you don’t close your mouth, I will beat you with your own weapon Sun—but not professionally. Like, I was at the level where I could handle my own in a bar fight, but not much better than that. So I was nervous as shit when I got my acceptance letter—literally the day before initiation, which was just great, but that didn’t matter. They transport everybody individually from their houses, so you don’t see any other students or teachers—I don’t think I saw a teacher until we actually got to our dorms, honestly. But they brought us to the Arena, which kinda sorta resembles the Vytal Festival’s one, but it’s not as fancy and we mostly use it for practice. And they stuck me in some tiny ass room and told me to wait. They took my scroll and went over the rules, which was basically just ‘don’t seriously hurt anyone’ and said to win.”

 “Um, wait, they had you fight against your fellow hunters?!”

“Yeah. Your school probably tries to promote teamwork, but ours hits hard on respect. Can’t respect somebody’s fighting skills or their determination until you actually face it, right?”

“That’s so—what if somebody got hurt?! Like if Sun shot you in the face or something!?”

“You’d get kicked out. But you’ve gotta learn to work under pressure like that too, if you really want to be a hunter or huntress. And Sun has shot me in the face before.”

“What?…Oh! Sorry, Scarlet! I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“No, you’re fine. It’s the dumbasses who should be worried about interrupting me.”

“Scary.”

“No shit, Sun. But Neptune was right. Pisses a lot of adults off, but it works, in my opinion. Like letting team mates sort out their own drama, kind of. Anyway, so the rooms they stuck everybody in opened right up into the Arena. It was all dirt, except for this huge pile in the middle of it, steep as hell and flat on top—like a giant box of dirt—and there was a moat around it filled with really muddy water.”

 “We were playing King of the Hill, if you haven’t already guessed.”

“How does that prove anything to the teachers?”

“You get your teammates in Initiation, Ruby. You got Weiss, then Yang and Blake. It isn’t about proving you can fight.”

“Sage is right. It’s the only reason Scarlet got in.”

“Asshole. Now shut up!”

“Fine, fine. But you’re buying us lunch when we get out of here.”

“Yeah! Cookies!”

“Hot chocolate!”

“Pie!”

“Deep fried anything.”

“Bananas!”

“Holy shit, people, no. Ruby can eat whatever the fuck she wants but you assholes are on a diet! We’ve got the Festival coming up!”

“But bananas are healthy!”

“Not if they’re all you eat! Some fucking spinach—“

“Oh, ew, fuck no. Alright, I’m sorry, keep going.”

“Thank you. Where was I?”

“Giant block of dirt.”

“Oh, yeah. So this alarm went off, and people came tearing out of their little cubbyholes at this thing like they were on fire, and I just sorta stuck to the back. They were beating the shit out of each other and fighting to climb this thing—and the sides were smooth as fuck, ‘cuz they just kept sliding off. I figured it wasn’t a good idea to just stand in one spot so I started circling as far away from the thing as I could get, ‘cuz my room was pretty close, and then I ran smack-fucking-dab into this big ass mountain. I mean, it was Sage, but like, he’s tall now, but holy shit, first impressions—damn. And he didn’t talk to me, just kinda stared at me. So I’m scared out of my fucking mind thinking, this guy is going to fucking kill me, and then he just reaches over my shoulder and punches somebody in the face, this guy who’d been trying to sneak up on me. So, y’know, that scared the shit out of me—“

“Not literally. Neptune’s the one who—“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP SAGE!”

“Okay, look, I can’t keep hearing all these stories, can you pick one and stick with it please?”

“Nep was in the elevator and—“

“NOT THAT ONE! SCARLET, IF YOU DON’T START TALKING I SWEAR TO DUST I WILL—“

“Since you asked so nicely…anyway, Sage broke the guy’s nose, got blood all over the back of my head—the guy’s aura was gone, he’d been getting into it with everyone before he’d tried to go after me. Which was great. And like I said, I was scared shitless, but before I could even think about going for my weapon Sage asked if I was alright and got this creepy ass smile on his face—which is why we don’t let him be social anymore. Last thing we need is Yang coming over here because you’re having nightmares or something.”

“I’m sure Sage has a beautiful smile!”

“Not when he just broke somebody’s face he doesn’t.”

“You are all assholes. Except for Ruby. She’s the only person with a heart around here.”

“Please. I’ll have to show you the footage—after initiation they made this compilation video, and the smile we’re talking about is in it. You’ll change your mind.”

“Maybe he’s just socially awkward!”

“Please stop trying to help.”

“Sorry, Sage.”

“How about we just let Ruby talk? Because this is getting more—“

“As I was saying, Nep was in the elevator and—“

“Scarlet! Scarlet, start talking! Now! NOW!”

“Yeah, fine. So Sage gives me the creepy smile and then asks if I can use my weapon. I’m like, ‘sorta?’ and he says that that’s good enough, and before he could ask anything weird—don’t give me that look—I ask him if he’s okay teaming up. ‘Cuz if they wanted one winner, I sure as fuck wasn’t going to be it, but I figured Sage could and if I just backed out, even with his crazy smile, I figured he’d let me without hitting me.”

“I’m not violent.”

“If you don’t fuck with Scarlet.”

“I will hurt you.”

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And Sun is right. Sage knows he is protective. Knows he gets too hotheaded over Scarlet to really focus on what he’s doing until he’s started a fight and hurt someone. Between his temper and Sun’s kleptomania, it had been a problem getting their headmaster to agree to let them come to the Festival.

But Ruby had accepted Scarlet right off the bat, not even looking at him strangely. And she’d treated them—treated his entire team, her entire team, in the same manner. A way that he’s encountered in precious few.

Also, he’d been drunk as fuck and said some shit he should not have said to a virtual stranger the first time they’d met, and she’d taken it very well. Or, not judged him, anyway.

So even as Scarlet rubs his face with his hands, face flushed red, he trades a wink with the girl.

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“Hypocrite.”

“Stuff it, Sun.”

“So, anyway, you basically just asked him not to punch you?”

“No. I very specifically avoided that. I asked if he wanted to team up with me, and then went into very great detail about what a ‘team’ meant in regards to violence between teammates. And, I mean, I was still scared shitless. So he basically humored me and said sure, but still, that made me so much more comfortable. We hung back at the edge of the arena while the fight was going on—like, I’ve seen some brawls before, but this was insane. People were going all out, loosing aura like their fucking virginity, and—“

“Scarlet!”

“Oh, come on! She’s fifteen, you—“

“That doesn’t mean she need to hear about—“

“ANYWAY, getting back to the story…”

“Yeah, why’d you interrupt me? You dumb shits were finally about to come in and—“

“I tackled Scarlet.”

“Just start talking over them. That’s what Yang used to do to Dad when he wouldn’t shut up and she was telling stories.”

“Hey, what are you trying to—“

“Smart girl. Alright. So we’re just sort of watching what’s going on, right? Well, Sage is, and I’m still kinda hyped up on adrenaline so I keep turning in circles to make sure nobody’s creeping up behind us, when I hear this shout, and this blue blur comes flying out of Dust-knows-where and slams into the dirt at our feet. Yes, it was Neptune. His weapon was nowhere to be seen, and he’s like, fucking out of it, and Sage goes to poke him with his sword when I hear this whistling noise, look up, and see this chick with a huge-ass lance aiming right for Sage and the blue-haired dumbass still groaning in front of us. So I just dove at her.”

“He almost got impaled.”

“She must have thought that’s what I was going to do ‘cuz she panicked and tried to whip her lance up so I would just slam into the side of it, but I was aiming lower, and I hit her legs like a fucking boulder—she was moving too fast to dodge. So I knocked her right off her feet and we hit the dirt hard—and I mean, she fell on her fucking face, so that was awesome. It only took me a couple of seconds to get untangled and then I just tossed her weapon way out of the way and sat on her ‘cuz she was starting to squirm—and holy shit, was this thing heavy—when something slams into me and knocks me off of her.”

 “That’d be me.”

“Yup. Sun’s flailing at me screaming all sorts of shit about this Neptune, get the fuck away from Neptune, stay away from Neptune, don’t you fucking dare touch Neptune, and I’m yelling back ‘get your fat ass off of me, I don’t know who the fuck you’re shouting about, get your tail out of my fucking face’. And all of a sudden Sage grabs this asshole by his fucking tail and just lifts him up like a sack of potatoes. I’ve never heard anyone scream that loudly before.”

“It fucking hurts! I thought he was gonna dislocate it or break it or something! Or tear it off!”

“Is that even possible?”

“I don’t want to find out! And stop laughing, it’s not funny!”

“Sun was flailing around so badly he ended up kicking the chick in the head, knocked her out cold. By the time I got up, though, Sage had him in a headlock—not touching his tail—and Neptune was on his feet pointing his gun at Sage.”

“Okay, I know you said this was supposed to promote respect, but it sounds like a bloodbath.”

“There was a rumor going around that said only the last person standing would be admitted.”

“I don’t social, so I didn’t hear about it. Neither did Sage. So we were just dinking around, mostly, and Neptune was dead-set on winning, and Sun was tailing after him.”

“….Did…?”

“….Did you just—? How dare you! That was racist!”

“Aw, Scarlet! Yang would be so proud!”

“…What?”

“You didn’t even—?”

“It’ll come to him later.”

“...What? No, seriously. What’d I do?”

“Nothing, Yang does it to Blake all the time. Sometimes Weiss does, but she’s still at that point where it’s racist and not funny, so she isn’t allowed to joke about it.”

“Joke about what?!”

“Never mind! Just keep going with the story!”

“I’m not—“

“Sage’ll tell you later, just come on.”

“Yeah, I’ve got class in twenty minutes, Scarlet. And I’m not leaving until I hear the end of the story. And Weiss will kill you all if I’m late.”

“I can’t handle her.”

“I know.”

“…Fine. Where was I?”

“Trying to shoot Sage.”

“Nep. Yeah. So Neptune starts yelling at us to drop Sun or he’ll shoot and Sun’s crying because Sage had hurt his tail, and I started yelling at everyone to chill their fucking tits. Eventually I got Neptune to put the gun down, though that took for fucking ever, and Sage put Sun down as soon as the gun was off of him. So we all introduced ourselves and I brought up fighting together. Neptune was helping Sun up, and obviously thought I was nuts—started trying to lecture me or whatnot—when somebody started yelling. We all looked up and saw like, five people charging us. Most everyone else was on the dirt block or splashing around in the moat thing, but a lot of people were already being escorted out—leaving through the little entrance things because their aura was gone.”

“…So in the heat of the moment you teamed up and stopped your fighting! We did that. Well, not Yang and Blake, but me and Weiss. You know how she is now, but then she was really bad.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up. We fought our way up to the stupid cube and Sage threw me and Sun up onto the top of it.”

“No, that’s not what happened. We fought our asses off. Scarlet didn’t do anything until we were up there and this guy grabbed my ankle—he was climbing the backside of the cube—and Scarlet kicked him in the face so hard he let go of his weapon and fell back. Then Scarlet picked the thing up and started helping.”

“Shut your face, Sun.”

“Wha—Ruby!”

“If you keep interrupting then he won’t finish the story!”

“She is not wrong.”

“Thank you, Ruby. Anyway, so I’d grabbed this guy’s weapon and I had no idea how to use it, but it was a gun so I just pulled the trigger and shot everyone besides Sun on the block while he was whacking at them with his glorified stick. And then Neptune launched himself up with us and just took everyone out. They went down like bowling pins.”

“…Are you sure we’re talking about Neptune? Because I’ve seen him fight before and it was nothing like you’re describing.”

“Well, duh. He can’t do shit without his team.”

“Take that back.”

“No.”

“I hate you.”

“So then Sage came up and we were so fucking badass, we held that thing until the buzzers went off and they cleared us all out of the arena. They stuck the four of us in a room—our dorms are like apartments, okay, not like yours—and the next morning, went we went for roll call, they assigned us as a team.”

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And then they go their separate ways, Ruby running off to class and Sun and Neptune running off to find food, and Scarlet leans into his side, sighing.

Sage studies the top of Scarlet’s head for a moment before staring after Ruby.

Scarlet had not told the full story. He’d enjoyed recounting the tale, but he had left out the real ending. About how one girl had gotten a lucky hit and her axe had slashed across Scarlet’s side, about how his bindings had unraveled and how terrified he had been, about how Sage had pulled him into a hug and stayed like that with him until the school had decided to end the trial and how Neptune and Sun had stared at him, confused and nervous and surprised.

Scarlet had refused to participate in anything, after they’d been assigned as a team, for a very long time. Not until Sage had sat him down and shared his own secrets and Sun and Neptune had stopped walking on eggshells. That had…taken a lot of work. They’d almost lost their spot at the academy, before they’d pulled their shit together.

But that was fine, that he hadn’t told her. That was their business, their personal business. And until the time came when he felt he could trust others outside of team SSSN….Sage was willing to wait.

He didn’t think that time would be long in coming.