Based on a true story.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

I was only 14 at the time. When I had my first almost-love.

Our first meeting wasn't like any generic romance movie or anything you'd find in theatres. We met in an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Play Game), Remnant Online to be exact. Both of us were rather long-term players, she had been playing for 2 years and I was approaching my third, it was a bigger surprise that we hadn't met earlier than we did. We had lots of mutual friends and had both started playing while the game wasn't as popular.

Our first meeting, we had formed a 7-man raiding party. Her, along with 5 of her friends and I. I was only invited because I had known one of her friends and they needed an extra player. She and I happened to work together especially well playing aggressive vanguard. After that, we'd added each other to our list of friends and went our separate ways.

We came into contact again about a week later, she had stumbled upon a rare item and triggered a quest, the quest had been extremely difficult and she had already attempted it twice and failed. Seeing as I was online, she invited me into her party and promised me half of the profit she would make from completing this quest.

Once again, our skills were incredibly compatible and we completed the quest with flying colors, neither of us had realized how much time had passed as we played together. Starting then, we became go-to partners to each other for any assistance that each of us might've needed in-game.

Soon enough, I found myself in a chat room with her late at night. Half a year had passed and it was obvious we had grown rather close in that period of time. At that point, she had just turned 14 while I was turning 15 in a matter of 4 months. It was almost too convenient that we were about the same age and had perfect compatibility. I even had suspicions that I was being cat-fished by an online predator, but she dismissed that possibility before I could even go into further thought about it. She did so using this wonderful piece of technological advancement called a video call (I did some digging just to make sure it wasn't a simulated camera).

Somehow, another half of a year passed, and our relationship didn't change, we had become each others best friends. we had practically figured each other out inside and out.

Until one day...

My character jumped forward and swung his dual sickles in an X-cross to finish off the final boss of the dungeon.

"I'm a bit drained after that! Now that that's done, how about we take a break and come back in about 10 minutes?" I suggested.

"Sure, Ren. I'm going to check the community market and see if there's anything we can purchase with all this gold we got from clearing that dungeon." She responded.

"Ok. I'll be back soon." I told her, getting up to get a small snack and a drink. After about six or seven minutes, I had come back to my room and readjusted my headset. "Blake, I'm back. Are you there?"

"..."

"Blake?"

There was no response from her side, she hadn't gone offline because her character was still on the screen. I had concluded that she must've gotten up to go to the bathroom or something, or maybe her parents needed her to do something. Whilst browsing the community market, a notification came up in my sidebar.

"Gambol Shroud is now Offline."

She must've had to do something. I guess I'll get off too, no point just sitting here for any longer than I already have.

Two weeks passed.

No sign of Blake getting online at any time. The words next to her offline status changed as the days passed.

"Last Online Yesterday."

"Last Online 2 days Ago."

"Last Online 1 Week Ago."

"Last Online 2 Weeks Ago."

Still no sign of Blake. She doesn't respond to my calls, and I had only been calling maybe once a week to check on her. Going into her third week of absence, I had picked up my phone and dialed in her voice chat account. The ringing had become a rather familiar noise as it droned on and on. Until a small, yet satisfying click sounded.

She had picked up.

"Hey, Blake. Where have you been?"

"Um, who are you?" A different voice rang in my ear, female.

"Oh sorry. I'm Ren, I'm Blake's friend. We play an MMO together a lot. She hasn't been online lately, I wanted to know how she's been."

"Blake isn't here. My name's Yang. I'm...sorry Ren. But Blake passed away 2 weeks ago."

"..."

"..."

Silence held the world in place for who knows how long. For me it seemed to last eternity, I couldn't grasp onto the concept of someone just disappearing from my life. I had never even thought about myself or others close to me dying, and I hadn't planned to until later in my life. I was still a teenager, and so was she, if she died just as young, could the same be in store for me?

"What...what happened to her?" I asked softly.

"She had a heart attack, she was pronounced deceased the day after in the hospital."

"Ok."

"Ren, for all it's worth. I'm sorry."

"No. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your loss. Goodbye."

I was lost.

I hadn't known what to do for the next few months.

By habit, I had opened Remnant Online and had my cursor hover over Blake's username, only to close the game and turn off my computer.

The people at school had noticed my state and began to question me and ask what was wrong. I brushed them off and feigned happiness. I don't want help, I want Blake back.

One day, I had received a message from one of Blake and I's mutual friend. He had received the same news as me and noticed my state. After chatting with him for a while, he asked me a very strange question. One I hadn't considered at any time ever before, it seemed ridiculous to me at the time, but I almost answered "Yes" immediately to the question now.

It was a simple but meaningful question, "Did you love her?"

I had the answer on the tip of my tongue, I wanted to say that I did love her, that I wanted to be with her for all of my life. But that wasn't my answer. If I had known her for maybe a week longer, yes, I could've developed feelings for her. My friendship with her was much stronger than any regular friendship, it was only a matter of time before that friendship shifted to romance like electricity through a phone charger.

So the simple answer was, "No, I didn't love her. But I wish I did."

A simple story based off of a real experience from a while back. I switched around a few things not to raise too many questions or reveal too much info, but I whipped this up after one of my old friends brought something up that reminded me of it.

I hoped you enjoyed the story, and yes. I'm still alive.

-Dimension Blade 1.2