How Exactly Do I Put This?

Zombo Sand

Vancela Tepes-Blavick, first year student and sole survivor of the family of Blavick, was not having quite a great time at the moment as he laid in a hospital, machines making quiet beeps, his breath filling in the small intervals between each beep. His eyes were glued to the ceiling as he felt no will to move, nor did he even have the ability to get up due to the straps around his wrists and ankles. It was a bit irritating, as he could feel that he definitely grew some more facial hair that he desperately wanted to trim. He didn't want to look like a slob, now did he?

How long exactly has it been, Vancela muttered to himself in thought, his pale yellow eyes scanning the room as he looked for any signs. It was noon, from what he could tell by the clock hanging from the wall, but there wasn't anything about a date. Looking down at his muscles, or lack thereof, the long haired blond concluded he must have been in bed for potentially a few weeks. A month, maybe? It made some sense, as a heart injury was quite fatal. It must have taken a miracle to save him, as well as tons of time and money.

Vancela found it a bit humorous, knowing that he had completely screwed up his suicide attempt. How could he miss his own heart? Either he was getting worse with anatomy or he wasn't as devoted to keeping himself from harming Pyri Steele as he initially thought. Pyri… Oh god, she must have hated him for what he has done. For attacking her out of the blue like that, without any chance for her to explain herself.

No, no. It was Athena Sienna's fault. She was the demon who had manipulated him into fighting his fellow classmate. The one who needed to be blamed. If it weren't for her, Vancela was confident he could have defused the situation. 'I hope everyone's okay…' He thought to himself as he tried to get up once more, only to be restricted. The binds. Right.

Letting out a long needed sigh, Vancela turned his head to his right, hoping to observe his room more when something caught his eye. Well, a few things. First, a pile of cards were found on the table besides him, all with words in what he could only assume to say 'get well soon'. Arthur, Ali, Taupa, Terra, Ember, Amitola, Carmine. He could have sworn Pyri had also sent him one. However, his eyes stopped on Jasmine's card, his heart quite obviously beating a bit faster from how the heart monitor was picking it up.

Jasmine Montgomery. Fellow first year, rabbit faunus, and probably the only girl that Vancela has actually felt an attraction towards that wasn't familial. She must have been pissed when she heard what he had done. Not only did he attack someone, but he tried to commit suicide. He tried to end it there when there could have been another way. There could have been some solution, right?

The wood manipulator's train of thought was broken immediately as he heard a creak at the door. Looking over to see who it was, Vancela's eyes widened quite a bit upon recognizing that Jasmine has walked into his room, her face a bit bleak and hopeless. The following days of his severe injury must have affected the girl majorly, he concluded, gulping a bit as he attempted to sit up a bit.

"Jasmine?" Vancela would speak, his voice a bit froggy and horse due to how long it had been inactive.

Upon hearing the voice amongst all of the noises of machinery pumping and beeping, Jaz had almost jumped out of her skin, her eyes going wide. "Vancela…?" She spoke quietly, her own yellow eyes widening as she stared at now awakened teenager. There was a moment of silence before she immediately ran to his side, prepared to embrace him.

"W-Wait! Wait." A blushing Vancela called out, clearing his throat as he quickly got acclimated to using his vocal chords once more. He wanted to hug, but he knew he couldn't thanks to his restraints- nevermind, Jasmine just cut them right off. "Okay… Now we can hug."

The two blonds would have suddenly embraced each other, despite the male's rather weakly arms. It didn't matter to him though. All Vancela wanted was to hug Jasmine. "I'm so sorry…" He muttered to her, his voice trembling a bit as he felt guilt begin to build inside of him. "I was… I was going to leave you alone. I was going to leave you when I told you I would stay to help you… I'm so, so sorry."

"Just shut up… Don't apologize, please." Jaz quietly sobbed as she buried her head into Vancela's chest, tears of relief and sadness quickly building up and smearing onto the boy's white hospital shirt. "You just wanted to do the right thing… I understand that, but… I'm just glad you survived…" The crying intensified for Jasmine as she held onto Vancela for dear life, afraid to let go of him in fear that he would be there if she did.

Glad he survived, Vancela thought to himself with a silent gaze down at Jasmine as he cradled her in his arms… He was glad he survived too. The wood manipulator may not be fit to be a Huntsmen if he attacked other Huntsmen, but it didn't mean his life was over. As long as he was with Jaz, Vancela knew he could make a new life for himself. One where he could assure that he would stay and help Jasmine. One where he could keep his promise.

Yeah. He was glad he survived.

It didn't take too long for Vancela to be released from the hospital, as he had been making a pretty steady recovery after waking up. He did have to get one more surgery to make sure his new heart was working, but all in all, the tall blond was good to go. Sure, he wouldn't go back to Haven for a while, but he was released from the hospital.

Of course, it wasn't the hospital that was the main problem. Thanks to Athena's Semblance, Vancela still had an urge to attack Pyri, Carmine, Kiniro and Taupa, though he started working on suppressing this urge by calling over Taupa and just having conversations with him and not attacking. The wood manipulator doubted the urges will ever go away, now that Athena had been brutally ripped to pieces by an enraged Taupa, but he refused to give up hope. He assured himself he'll figure it out in the end.

Wearing a white knitted sweater and and a red scarf around his neck, with black jeans and black casual shoes, Vancela sat outside of Haven Academy for a bit, his eyes on the blue sky as the sun set. He wanted to see the change in color of the sky, as he felt that it was something he really didn't see too often. He was always distracted by schoolwork to really appreciate what was around him, Vancela realized not too soon out of getting out of the hospital. Friend-wise and environmentally-wise, he wasn't very conscious of what was going on. He was pretty sure that no one would really care if he disappeared or died, but to his surprise, he was wrong. There was a sizable amount of people that did miss him, from what he could tell by the letters he received. People he didn't even know he affected had sent him letters on how they were glad he was safe, and that they were thankful to everything he's done. It was baffling, really.

What confused Vancela the most though was that Jasmine hadn't yelled at him once for what he had tried to do. He had assumed that the rabbit faunus would yell at him for trying to kill himself, but instead she was acted rather lovingly towards him. It was peculiar, yet also relaxing at the same time. Vancela was glad his friendship wasn't ruined with Jasmine.

Hopefully it won't ruin his chance to-

"Something on your mind?" Speak of the devil. The voice of Jasmine Montgomery suddenly broke the silence as Vancela looked up, a reassured smile on his face as he saw the fellow first year.

"Hey Jasmine." He greeted, his tone friendly and polite as usually. "I'm good. I'm… Just thinking about a few things." She looked rather nice today, Vancela noted, the beauty of her face only emphasized more by the changing sky, which had now started become a pinkish color. Her clothes looked good on her, as she wore a pair dark blue jeans, black boots and a slim black peacoat. Now would the right time to tell her, Vancela knew. "Thinking about… Well, us."

A confused look was written all over Jaz's face when she heard the boy speak. "Us? What do you mean by that?" She asked with a small smile, though it was clear that she was intently listening to Vancela. It was clear that the subject was something Jasmine wanted to address by the way she was staring at Vancela, expecting him to say something.

Clearing his throat, the spearmans felt the heat on his cheeks rise. "Well… Before I stabbed the stake into my heart, I had a dream. A beautiful dream. In this dream, at the end of it, you and I danced together and I kissed you. In that moment, I was so unbelievably in love with you… But it was dream, I rationalized. Just a thought in my head, right?"

"Well… It wasn't. Upon seeing you again, and everyone else, I started to reevaluate everything and…" Vancela continued, his face becoming a deeper shade of red as he began to build his courage. "How exactly do I put this… Jasmine, I…" He began, though Vancela choked up. He… He couldn't speak. He couldn't express his feelings correctly. He…

He kissed her. In the heat of the moment, his lips suddenly locked with Jasmine's for a quick peck, though it almost felt like time had stopped for the two. Jaz's yellow eyes widened at the sudden contact, a blush forming as Vancela pulled away. "I like you. A lot." He finished, a small smile growing on his face as their yellow eyes met. The wood manipulator wanted to speak more, but he was cut off as Jasmine immediately grabbed his sweater and leaned in, kissing him rather passionately.

This time Vancela was the one wide eyed, his face heating up even more, though he just thought fuck it, and closed his eyes as he embraced the kiss, his hand touching the rabbit faunus' face. They both continued to kiss, trembling at moments at the fact they were expressing their true feelings to each other, though both were obvious to the bench's morphing, thanks to Vancela's Semblance.

When Jaz finally broke away from the kiss, the bench had began to sprout wooden vines, with beautiful wooden flower sculptures erupting from them. "Uh, Vancela? Did you do this?" Jasmine asked with a chuckled, her smile transforming into a bright grin as she felt the wooden vines.

"I'm… Actually not too sure. I wasn't paying any attention." Vancela admitted in embarrassment, extending his hands to the bench. "I can retract them if you want."

"I like them… They're pretty." The former White Fang member admitted, putting her in between the bench and Vancela before gentle squeezing it. The moment sat in silence for a moment, trying to find what else they should say exactly. "So… D-Do you wanna start dating then?" The female of the two blondes spoke up, their yellow eyes locking together. "Even if I'm a faunus? People won't approve of our relationship, you know. You're a human- you should be able to not be discriminated against because of me."

"Jasmine, no amount of judgement will tear me from you. I like you too much to care if people don't like me or not." Vancela admitted, putting his other hand over his love. Love. That was a strong word… Accurate though. "So yes. I think we should go on a date."

Flustered, Jasmine felt heat return to her cheeks. He really did mean that, didn't he? Vancela didn't care if he was human or not- he just wanted to be with her. It was a flattering thought really, her chest becoming warm and fuzzy as she thought about. "O-Okay… You wanna go now?"

With a smirk on his face, the son of the Blavick family nodded his head. "Yeah. Let's go now." With that, the newly-coupled teens got up to leave towards the exit of Haven, their stomach full of butterflies as they left for their first date together. It was a start to a beautiful relationship, with the two eventually starting a family once they had graduated and grown into fine adults, and upon looking back at it, Vancela concluded that he had no regrets.

He was glad to be alive.