I'm not gonna bother with a disclaimer this time, because you know it's fan work if it's on FanFiction
Cirocco completed a backflip over his opponent just as she lunged her sword forward.
His mother had been surprised when the summons came. Why they hadn't chosen someone else to does this, he had no idea. Others were more accomplished than he—he only ranked third place out of five in the hand-to-hand competition at his school. Why had they summoned him?
He landed perfectly, and shot one of his blades after her. He hit her right in the back, and her aura blocked it mostly. She was actually knocked off balance, but managed to turn around instead of fall flat on her scarred face.
She lunged again. He batted the rapier away with his gauntlet, and kicked her legs out from under her. She quickly righted herself, and slashed at Cirocco. He managed to deflect the blade just in the nick of time.
Adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He had never fought anyone so fierce—not even his sister. All things considered, it made sense why.
He leapt backwards to try and work out a plan. She was too fast, though, and pursued.
With one attack, she managed to knock him down. His entire backside hurt after that. He got up, not at all happy with the results.
"Congratulations, your daughter has thoroughly bashed my son," Cirocco's mother said from the safety of the observer's box. He could only here her faintly, but she sounded sarcastic and unhappy.
"My apologies, Mrs. Zaphyr, but you should have known that your son you lose against a Schnee," Mr. Snchee said.
Cirocco looked to his opponent, Weiss Schnee, and could feel contempt. This match was over before it had even begun. They brought him here to lose—to test their daughter's skills. He was done here.
He turned to the exit, and stormed out.
He eventually found himself outside, in the parking lot of the Schnee facility where their match had been, waiting to go home.
Here in Atlas, the winters got cold and the summers were only cool. It was pretty cool now. After living all his life in Atlas, he couldn't even feel the cold—could've been frostbite, though.
He hated getting beaten. He hated it even more when they only started the match to beat him senseless and prove they were better—nothing sportsmanlike about it.
He had no doubt that better fighters than he would accept an invitation to test the Schnee heiress's skills. Why had he even been called? Then he realized: the wanted someone that she could beat so that wouldn't get hurt—the selfish…
"You know, the sign says 'no loitering'." The high pitched voiced shocked him out of the trance he was in.
He searched for the source of the voice. He found it right in front of him. It was a girl dressed in white, who bared a resemblance to the Schnee daughter.
"Sorry. I'm waiting for my mom," Cirocco said.
"Hm, you look old enough to drive," she said.
"It's my mom's car."
"Fair enough." Who was this girl? "You should still stop before security gets ya."
"Right."
Behind him, he heard a door open. He was flooded with relief as he turned around to see his mom coming out of the building.
He turned around to say goodbye to the girl, when he saw that she had just vanished. Not even a name. That was weird.
On the way home, he just sat in the passenger seat and looked out the window. His face was pressed up against the cold window—or at least, he assumed it was cold—as he looked at the snowy streets.
Along the way, there were storefronts for stores and restaurants.
"Do you wanna go out for lunch?" his mom asked.
"Sure," was what he replied with.
"How about Pizza King?"
"Sure."
"Is that your favorite word today?"
"No."
"Turkey." She poked him playfully.
"Sure," he said giggling.
He got back to thinking. Who was that girl in the parking lot?
"Something's bothering you," she said.
He grunted. He wasn't prone to keeping secrets, but this one he was hesitant to give up. Finally, he spilled. "I met a girl in the parking lot."
"Who was she?"
"I don't know. She looked kinda like the Schnee heiress."
"Maybe she's her sister?"
"Maybe, but I'll probably never see her again, so it doesn't really matter."
He waited a little while, and decided to bring up something else. "So I decided on something."
"What is it?"
"I'm-" and then he was cut off. A man just flew through the window of a storefront, and crashed into the car in front of them.
Their car came to a grinding halt, sending Cirocco forward. He might of hit his face on the dashboard had it not been for his seatbelt. It took him a moment to recover, but when he did, he saw the cause of this: Clove.
She came through the storefront window, her green ensemble contrasting the gray and white of the street dramatically. She picked up the guy where he laid by the collar, and held him up over her head.
She was yelling something to the man that Cirocco couldn't make out in the car. He unbuckled, and got out of the car. Then he was reminded that Clove wasn't exactly the most PC of people.
"And if you think that's gonna hurt, then I'll tell you what I'm gonna do to your- Cirocco!"
"You know, it's probably really cold in that," Cirocco said. "Now look at this." He gestured to his own white and yellow-gold armor. "It's nice and cool for me."
"Cirocco, what are you doing here?" She didn't stop holding the man up.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Stop it!" They turned to their mother. She rarely raised her voice, but she was now. "I don't want to see the two of you fighting again! So put the man down, Clove, and let's go to Pizza King."
"But I'm in the middle of a case-"
"DO IT!"
She almost dropped him, and got into her mother's car. "Hey, that's my seat," Cirocco said.
"Too bad; it's mine now."
"Get in the back, Clove," their mother said.
"Okay," Clove said disgruntledly.
He sat shotgun the rest of the way to Pizza King.
When there, they had a new argument: what to put on the pizza. Cirocco was a vegetarian, and Clove wanted all meat. They decided on just a cheese pizza, after their mom put her foot down about it.
It was then Cirocco decided to tell his mom about it. "I'm not going to the academy here mom; I'm going to Haven."
His mom looked at him, shocked. "What do you mean you're going to Haven?"
"I want to go to an academy that's not so militaristic as the one here."
It looked like she was about to say something else, when she decided to say this: "Well, that's your decision then, isn't it."
Well. You lose some you win some.
Do you sympathize with Cirocco yet? I thought not. But if you do, let me know.