Well, it's officially been a year since I began this whole fanfiction thing. I wish I could say that the journey has been fun, but to be honest there are plenty of days where I question why I even bother doing this.
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth...yay.
Anniversary
It had been a long time since he had faced himself in a mirror, but looking at his reflection now brought back a very unpleasant memory for one Bálor Moonlight as sounds of a shattering mirror echoed throughout his mind before popping a little yellow pill in his mouth and taking a sip from a nearby glass of water. It had become something of a necessary evil in his life, especially since Ruby Rose had decided to confront him over the matter some time afterwards.
"So you finally decided to fix that wrecked mirror." Ruby would be standing in the doorway of his dorm, a cheery smile on her face as she had finished packing a box of things she had left behind during her move out of his dorm. "I was kind of worried that you were getting used to stepping around broken glass or something." The crimsonette would look around the dorm room with a twinge of nostalgia, they had spent many a night sitting on his bed debating weapon ideas, the meaning of life, the silliness of abridged series on DustTube, and one unfortunate incident in which a debate on which kind of cookie was superior above all others.
"Honestly, the very idea of ranking cookies is preposterous. Cookies in general are awesome!" Ruby would groan as she remembered the fallout of said argument, neither one of them had spoken to the other for a week and eventually Goodwitch had been called in to mediate.
"Honestly I've been meaning to deal with this for a while but then all that bullshit with the assassin happened, I ended up in the infirmary again, and then Goodwitch decided to give me a tongue bath-" The wolf Faunus would step back and wipe his brow before packing up his tool kit and carrying it out of the bathroom with him, giving the cookie-loving reaper a two-fingered salute with his free hand
Ruby would gag as she heard that last statement and shook her head in disgust. "Please, please tell me you're kidding about that. That's just a horrible mental image right there."
The silver-haired Huntsman-in-training would sigh as he set the toolbox down and turned to face his friend, at one time the two of them had been practically dating one another without much hesitance and were on the way to the beginnings of a happy and healthy relationship.
That was until Yang decided to save him from what would have been certain death, and after a small (for lack of a better term) pep talk from his cookie loving friend that he had ended up going steady with the brawler.
"Of course I'm kidding little Rose, unlike your sister who's recently taken to banning me from watching anything wrestling related while we're in the same room." He would go to his closet and pull off his sweat soaked Bullet Club shirt and quickly grabbing clothes to wear after he got out of the shower, unashamed of being topless around the younger woman after having spent a solid month living in the same dorm together.
"Thank God Port doesn't pay a lick of attention during his classes or I'd be screwed every time I wanted to watch a Jay Briscoe match on my scroll!" The wolf Faunus would quickly grab a towel and make for his shower, stopping when Ruby suddenly appeared in front of him with a cheeky smile with arms held out wide. "Really, you really wanna hug me when I'm all sweaty and gross?"
Ruby would think about this for a few seconds before frowning and lowering her arms dejectedly. "You've got a point there, but I'm not gonna wait here until you come out of the shower and hug you with just a towel on!" She would look down at her feet and sigh quietly. "You are dating my older sister after all, it wouldn't be right."
Bálor would smirk as he walked past her and into the washroom, looking back at her with a saucy wink as he moved to shut the door behind him. "Sounds to me like you were expecting more than a hug there my dear." With that final jest he would kick the door shut as the cookie-loving Huntress felt her face go red before letting out an exasperated wail of embarrassment.
"I didn't mean it like that!"
Back in the present, the wolf Faunus would be staring at his reflection with a pair of scissors in hand as he found himself reminiscing upon better days in his life.
"On the one hand, it was probably for the best that I just left it at a really sad and stupid joke." He would growl and begin cutting at random locks of his silver-hair, imagining how different things would be if he hadn't caved into his feelings and chosen one sister over the other. "I know that I made my decision to go with Yang, and I've gotta live with that choice even though she dumped me!" The wolf wouldn't stop hacking away until his silver-hair was now shorter and no longer touching his shoulders, having long luxurious locks was his ex-girlfriend's shtick after all.
"Although it could be worse, I could still be pining after Blake and chalking up lousy poems."
"Hey Bálor, it's Blake..I wanted to say thank you for sending me that poem, it was sweet but, I'm with Sun so..please try not to make it a habit."
As he listened back to the feline's message for the third time that night, the wolf would feel further dejected as he sat in the middle of his demolished dorm room. His collection of wrestling paraphernalia lying either burned, in tatters, or some sick combination of the two.
"I suppose I gave it a shot, but I suppose that my stupid infatuation with this less-hostile version of Blake was a little weird for me to act on." He would stare at his scroll with a heavy sigh before setting down his scroll and beginning to shift around the debris with his telekinetic Semblance, he wasn't looking to fix anything that was broken and instead was moving things just enough that he could operate normally without having to go to Ozpin for a favor.
"Knowing my luck he'll just be itching to send me out on a mission if I decide to go into his office, and if I let slip that any of it was Yang's doing then Goodwitch will just try and mediate and have us talk through things." Bálor would sigh as he heard the clatter and crash of a photo hitting the ground, burying his head in his hands as he tried to collect his thoughts. Obviously this night would bring him no peace, instead he decided to curl up and let his body drift off to sleep in the hope that tomorrow would give him a fresher outlook on life.
But upon waking up the next day, the wolf Faunus would still be surrounded by the same debris of broken wood, shattered glass, and tattered clothes.
"Different day, same old shit."
Finally deciding to get up off his feet and journey to his closet, he would find nothing wearable except the Academy uniform that had been given to him by Ozpin when he was first brought to the school. Back then the man had looked upon him in a fatherly way, not as a pawn in a chess game known only to the Headmaster himself. "Back then I would've given anything to please Ozpin, no matter how dangerous the mission or how crazy the outcome might be. He's probably the closest thing I've ever had to a father after all."
The amber-eyed Huntsman in training would sigh sadly as he pulled the uniform out of his closet and pulled off the protective covering, he really had no other choice but to finally wear the obnoxiously formal getup that he had leaped through hoops just to avoid doing so.
But like every son doing his best to forge his own path in life, the day eventually came where even he had to honor his father's wishes.
Blake couldn't believe what she was seeing as the door to Professor Oobleck's class opened: there he was standing in the middle of the classroom wearing the Academy uniform for what seemed to be the first time ever in his tenure, the normally rebellious fire in his eyes was muted as he made his way up to the highest seat there was and just plunking down without saying so much of a peep for the remainder of their class.
Even when Oobleck decided to change the subject to Faunus treatment while incarcerated, a hot button issue for the wolf for obvious reasons.
"Mister Moonlight, I'm quite surprised at your lack of engagement towards today's lectures." The caffeine-fueled professor would be darting around in his trademark characteristic bluster, the members of Team RWBY making their way downstairs as the older Huntsman began reading the normally pompous young man the riot act before leaving him with a fifteen-hundred word assignment on the pros and cons of Faunus imprisonment as punishment. Although as the feline watched the silver-haired student nod blankly before making his way toward the door, she suspected that all their Professor would be given was a hastily worded opinion piece penned by someone who had lived the experience in question.
The two of them would end up walking beside one another as they exited the class in relative silence, even as the other students around them voiced their elation at finally getting out of their last class for the day.
"Are you really okay with giving Oobleck a half-assed paper on something so personal, I know how you refuse to take anything seriously when it comes to the Faunus."
But the wolf would simply continue to walk alongside her for a little bit longer, knowing that he just needed to keep going before she eventually got fed up with trying to fight him. Only to stop as he noticed his now ex-girlfriend talking animatedly with one of the transfer students from Haven, Mercury Black who seemed genuine interested in how she was wearing the uniform than what she actually had to say.
"I could stand here and give you some sappy "You don't know a goddamn thing about me" speech Belladonna, but we both know that I showed my hand way back in the beginning of my time here so that would just be a waste of both our times." Bálor would lean against the wall of the highway tiredly, keeping his gaze upon the ceiling before he continued to talk. "I've told you about terrible times in my past, we've battled each other like feral dogs hungry for scraps, and after freeing you from a blasted parasite that had no business making its way into Vale I foolishly grew infatuated with the true Blake Belladonna who shook my hand before asking for my forgiveness."
He could feel the faint hint of a blush settling upon his cheeks before smashing his fist against the wall angrily, causing those students passing between the two Faunus to jump nervously before picking up their walking pace. "There's not much left for me to say to you Blakey: no more great revelations, no more messy poems. I've given you everything I possibly could without getting physically intimate with you, so let's just agree to play nice for the sake of both your team and the school because we both know that it's only a matter of time before I end up washing out of this place and ending up behind bars."
The wolf Faunus would hold out in his hand, silently offering the truce that Yang Xiao Long had at one time wished for.
Bálor would sigh as he stared down at the sink where a tube of hair dye and a case containing color-changing contacts rested, his hands trembling in defiance at what he had planned to do. On some level he knew that these cosmetic changes would do little to ease the dull ache in his heart, the people of Remnant would still hate him no matter how much he changed his outer appearance for his actions had branded him a menace and a terror to the status quo.
"Even if it's only for a day, please let me be someone different. Let me be someone brave enough to make the tough choices that lay ahead of me, and grant me the strength to move on from the heartbreak that torments me."
He hated having to watch the woman who once loved him now giving her attention to another man, he wanted nothing more then to tear out his knotted stomach and present it to her as a worthwhile sacrifice before finally collapsing into a lifeless heap at the brawler's feet. It was enough to make the wolf gently push away his food and excuse himself from the table he was now currently sharing with Weiss Schnee, accidentally causing it to bump into her own plate and send the apple she was currently eating tumbling to the ground.
"Watch what you're doing you oaf!" The heiress would sigh while cursing her partner's lateness, looking out at the sun drenched grounds outside the dining hall she would find Blake and Sun sitting under a tree with the feline resting her head comfortably in Sun's lap. "Must be nice, having someone you can just sit under a tree with and not saying a word. Enjoying each other's company and just letting all your worries melt away like wax from a burning candle."
Bálor would nod quietly, keeping his eyes on the tray for a little longer before holding out his hand just in time to intercept a fresh apple and beginning to polish it slowly and methodically. "I'm surprised you and that Neptune guy haven't had more quiet moments to yourself, especially since he seems to like bring up that you two are getting along so famously now." He would gently place the polished apple upon her plate and begin to stand up in preparation to empty his tray. He knew that she would make no attempt to thank him given the current circumstances surrounding their own relationship: In her jealousy over Ruby giving the newcomer, she had hired someone to have him taken out and would've succeeded were it not for the intervention of her teammates. Since that day, Bálor had been holding back one favor that the heiress must grant him regardless of no matter how demeaning or stupid it would turn out to be. But the more time that the wolf had passed with him keeping his metaphorical guillotine hanging over her head left him with more opportunities to see past her haughty veneer, to a young woman who seemed as deadset as he was to ignore a parent's wishes and blaze her own trail without the artificial prop up that came with the Schnee family name and he had come to admire it.
"I know you may not want to hear this right now princess, but in all honesty I really wouldn't mind sitting under a tree with you someday." The wolf Faunus would ignore the dumbfounded look upon the heiress's face, her fork and knife lodged in the apple she had been preparing to eat. "What, I'm just speaking honestly here. I feel like I really have some kind of a connection with you-"
Weiss would slam her hands down on the table while baring her teeth like an irritated lioness, her blue eyes glaring deep into his amber ones and threatening to freeze him solid right where he stood. "Don't you DARE begin to even hint at the two of us having any kind of connection, you're nothing but some rabid dog who was lucky enough to receive the table scraps Ozpin gave to you upon coming here!" She would continue to step toward him while baring the same furious glare, even as the once-pompous wolf Faunus began taking a step back in hesitation at her anger. "Everyone here has spent years busting their asses just to make it to Beacon, even Ruby who was skipped ahead by two years has put all her heart into proving that she belongs here with the rest of us! What the LIVING FUCK have you done to show that you deserve to even call yourself a human being, much less a student at our school?!"
The wolf Faunus would suddenly feel himself trip and fall as he looked up to see the laughing, gleeful face of one Cardin Winchester staring down back at him as Weiss stood over him with a cold, unfeeling look in her eyes. "You've done NOTHING! You are NOTHING! It's as if your parents procreated in order to produce something that would GUARANTEE that your only purpose in life is to be annoying little hemorrhoid on the perfect ass that is Remnant, and like any good ailment on the ass we'll do whatever it takes just to excise you and sit down properly!" Weiss would be seething visibly by the time she finished her rant, sweat dripping from her pale hair as she tried to compose herself and get back to eating her meal in peace.
"And before you decide to go running to Ruby for some undeserved comfort, just know that even a kind soul like hers only has so much patience for your bitching."
Bálor would try and swallow the humiliation that she had now given him, only to find that his mouth had gone dry in the face of her fury and stumbling his way out of the dining hall with the laughter of other students trailing behind him.
"She was absolutely right, I really don't belong here at this school." The wolf Faunus would feel his hand quake as he desperately tried to insert his eye color changing contacts, gritting his teeth and forcing them inside with his Semblance before crumbling to his knees from exhaustion and nearly smashing his chin against the sink. "But I can't leave, not until I see Team RWBY finally obtain victory in this stupid tournament." Bálor would carefully make his way outside to find the letter he had written to Weiss some time ago waiting by his monitor, trying his best to keep his hands calm despite the anxiety he was now feeling due to that final flashback.
"I think it's about time that I finally cashed in on her side of the bargain, she'll get what she wants when I leave Beacon. But I'll be damned if I don't get something out of it!"
Honestly this fic was supposed to mirror the journey of Bálor going from wrestling goofball towards the type of individual who you would hire if you wanted someone taken down and didn't care what the hell it took to do so.
But the more I continued to write this mad little ficlet, the more it tended to read like my year in fanfiction.
Ruby: Fun, happy, I can do anything so let's plan something saucy down the road
Blake: Umm okay, so I stepped on a few toes. Better play it a little safer. Truce?
Weiss: I get it! You don't like what I do to your precious series! But dammit if I'm getting kicked out, I might as well give you a very good reason to earn Das Boot
I didn't give Yang her own segment because let's face it, 90% of my fics reflect the dynamic between her and Balor. It's literally a guide on how to create and then promptly sink your own ship!
I'm not a dummy, it's just a fact of life.