A/N: Hello everybody. I hope you're doing well! Its been a while since I last posted, sorry.
This was mainly a dialogue exercise for me, so it's mostly banter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ophelia, she is from Master & Apprentice V1. I saw a lot of potential in Ophelia so I feel pretty bitter about what happened to her. There's not a lot of fleshing out of her character, sorry, but maybe I'll take that as a challenge next time. Enjoy! Reviews are always welcome.
Rating: T for language
Hunched in the corner of the room, a red haired girl didn't even stir when Billy stepped though the doorway. A sweet smell was in the air, he noticed. Billy knocked on the doorframe.
"So you're Ophelia?"
"What the shit?" Ophelia jerked a paper bag behind her as she spun around. "Who are you?"
"I'm Billy," he said, offering a hand.
Ophelia broke into a wide grin and grasped his hand. "You're Billy? No way! Man, I've heard so much about you!" She leaned in close and lowered her voice to a whisper. "You're a cool guy. Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure?" Billy said, raising an eyebrow. He tapped his forefinger and thumb together. "Does it have anything to do with why my hand is sticky?"
She smiled deviously and opened the paper bag. "Donuts!" she whispered, voice breaking in hushed excitement, and shoved one in Billy's hands. "Not just any donut, but jelly-filled ones! This is the jackpot!"
"Donuts?" Ophelia nodded and was about to take a bite when Billy grabbed her wrist. "No way. You know the rules."
"Come one! Just one bite!"
Billy shook his head. "Snake Eyes will kill me if he knows I let you eat that. How did you even get these?"
Ophelia groaned and dropped the donut in the bag. "Scarlett snuck one in for me. You're such a downer, man. You said you could keep a secret."
"I'll keep your secret, if I can." He chuckled. "No one can keep a secret from a master like Snake Eyes, but I won't let you ruin yourself by eating that. No junk food for a ninja during a training like this."
"One bite doesn't do anything," Ophelia said with a roll of her eyes but tossed the bag in the nearest trash can. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I had no idea you were coming. Is this your stuff?" she asked. She pointed to the duffle bag on her bed. "Why's it in my room?"
"Technically it's my room," Billy replied. "Well it used to be when Snake Eyes let me stay here sometimes. Sorry, I didn't know it was taken. You really have nothing here."
She scanned the emptiness with him. Hardly a few personal belongings sat on the desk. Ophelia shrugged. "You gotta come empty-handed, right?"
"I started a little different, but yeah, you're right. We all have to sacrifice something to get here."
"All right, well let's get out of here," Ophelia said with a push toward the door. "I can't guarantee I won't eat that donut, trash or not. Wanna spar? It'd be cool to see if I can kick your ass."
"Still upset over the donut?"
"Yeah. Go to hell."
"You'll thank me later. Snake Eyes is already prepping for your training."
Ophelia froze. "Oh no. It sounds bad. Is it bad?"
"I can't say," he said. They were heading to the yard now and he opened the door for her. "But redefine your definition of bad."
Pulling at her eyelids, she moaned but otherwise said nothing. The great oak by the house was everyone's favorite place and the two headed that way without a word to each other. Billy nestled into the roots. Ophelia sprang on him and used his shoulder as a foothold and once she was in the tree, she hung upside down with her tongue out.
"Before you ask, yes, that was entirely necessary. For the donut."
"Why are you so hung up about the donut?"
"Just cause." Ophelia sat up on the branch and stared at the open space around them. Not an inch of it was unfamiliar to her. A few yards away from porch was where she first caught the end of a sword and cried her eyes out. She owed Scarlett all the donuts in the world for the wood damage to the house; Ophelia could have used it as a voodoo doll for the amount of pointy things she stuck in it-accidentally of course. She'd already been training for three years. Ass-kicking and getting kicked in the ass was a regular thing now and she wouldn't have it any other way. Ophelia had the honor to be the last Arashikage apprentice. But she wanted that damn donut.
"I get it," Billy said, breaking her thoughts. "It's about the final trial, right?"
Ophelia scrunched her mouth in thought. "Yeah," she said at last. "It is."
"Scared? It's okay to be," he added hastily, but Ophelia was already side-eying him.
"I'm not scared. I'm just, I don't know, uncomfortable? Don't get me wrong here, it's such an honor to have Sensei take me on for the final trial, whatever it is, but I'm getting anxious. And I'm not the only one." She swung down and sat next to Billy. "Sensei's wedding is so close but the final trial hasn't happened yet and I feel terrible. Scarlett's… wound up, I think, and I get it. I'm with her fiancé during the day more than she is." She rattled her head in an effort to shake up her thoughts. "No, no, no, this isn't what I want to talk about."
"The donut."
"Right. The donut. I just needed some comfort food, man, but you wouldn't let me have it. Thanks a lot." She shoved him playfully and he snickered.
"Just looking out for you. One apprentice to another."
She perked up and her eyebrows furrowed. "You're still an apprentice? I thought you went through all this final trial stuff!"
"Sorry, didn't mean to fool you, but I haven't." He folded his hands behind his head and leaned on the tree. "Maybe I have gone through it, though. A lot of shit has happened to make me think so." There was pain in his eyes that Ophelia recognized. Snake Eyes, T'jbang, Nunchuck, Scarlett—they all had it. She let him continue without asking for details.
"But I never really stopped being an apprentice. You've probably heard about Storm Shadow and how he was my sensei. Your sensei never stops being your sensei even if you're not an apprentice anymore, but I like to think my apprentice status is still ongoing." He shrugged, and from what Ophelia could tell, it was the kind of shrug to let go of the worries gnawing in the back of your mind. "When he comes back, it'd be good for both of us to get back into it, I think. Master and apprentice."
Ophelia hadn't actually heard much about Storm Shadow. Everyone seemed to fall quiet when his name was mentioned and what little they did end up saying was spoken is too pained voices for her to ask for more. It wasn't any different with Billy. She let her curiosity die on her tongue.
They were in comfortable silence. Camaraderie came easy; apprentice or master, all were simply Arashikage and nothing more had to be said. Ophelia didn't know Billy and he didn't know her, but they were familiar with each other. She smiled and leaned on the tree also.
Billy spoke up. "Don't worry about Scarlett. She may not be Arashikage, but she understands like any of us." Ophelia sighed in relief but Billy clicked his tongue and had her on alert again. "That said, you are stepping on her toes a bit, with the wedding so soon and all. But like I said, don't worry. It's not for you to worry about. It's ultimately between them, you know?"
"I'm somewhere in the middle and it sucks."
"Just follow Snake Eyes."
"I will. I just wish he'd say something about it."
"That's a little hard, being a mute and all."
"Wow, what a terrible joke. I'm going to tell him you said that. Maybe take the heat off of me for a while."
"Please don't. I didn't come here to get my ass grilled."
"By the way, why are you here? I didn't hear anything about you coming."
"You know, I don't really know. It was me though. I've been out for too long and I started to get twitchy. Called Snake Eyes up, see if I could stop by to just… be around."
"Makes sense. I'm surprised you managed this long out of the Arashikage. This is the good stuff!"
Billy chuckled. "Barely managing more like. I mean, that's not entirely true. I tried to get back into civvie life and it was good for a while. Go to college, spend time with mom, etcetera. But you're right, this is the good stuff."
"Touch as shit."
"And we wouldn't have it any other way."
Ophelia nudged him. "So will you really let me kick your ass sometime?"
"You just might," he said with a sigh. "I've been out of it for so long, like I said. But probably not too soon. This is all about you right now. The last Arashikage apprentice."
"More like the dead apprentice." Ophelia muttered. Snake Eyes stepped onto the porch, holding a crumpled brown bag and took a bite out of the jelly donut in his hand. "I'm so dead."
"Can I have your stuff?" Billy laughed and she swatted at his head. When they neared Snake Eyes and his half-eaten donut, Ophelia clasped her hands above her head.
"It's Billy's donut, I swear!"
"Wha-?" Billy recoiled and shot a glare at the redhead, who looked back with pleading eyes. He sighed. "Er, yeah, sorry, Snake Eyes. Technically I don't have to follow the rules, right?" He laughed weakly while Snake eyes raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, no. Sorry Ophelia, you're dead. Can't fool an Arashikage master."
"Be merciful, Sensei," Ophelia whined and trudged after him into the dojo.
"Does this mean I can have your stuff?" Billy called after her.
She waved profanity but froze midway when Snake Eyes spotted her and crossed his arms, unpleased. His lips were pressed into a tight line but just a hint of humor pricked the corner of his mouth and Ophelia knew she wouldn't die just yet. She'd suffer long and terribly, but this was the Arashikage, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
Note: There are some AU elements that I would like to point out. Billy doesn't appear in the Master and Apprentice volume and would probably not be considered an apprentice by most. There is also no canon rule for 'ninjas-don't-eat-junk-food'. It made sense to me for Ophelia's training to be much stricter in the time before her final trial. The 'rule' present here has been inspired by the lovely Karama9 who uses this rule in their fics. Thank you for reading!