Illuminating dance flowers arc

Chapter 9- The Sorrows of one's past

Out in the courtyard, Claus and Wave were sat on a bench with their soft drinks, in front of one of the gardens in the academy, they sat in a pause as Wave came to Claus to ask for a favour.

Wave stared down at his drink, letting out a big sigh, his hands unsteady about what he was going to say.

"Well out with it, what did you want?" Claus pressed on the question, taking another sip from his can.

"Will you… come to the hospital with me, there's something I want to do for someone." Wave said, looking troubled.

"I don't understand but I will as soon as I get there, won't I?" Claus had a bad feeling about this as he threw his can into the bin on the other side of the path.

"Yeah…" Wave let out a sad sigh as he stood up and started walking back to the dorm.

When they got back, they only saw Ray in the room reading some huntress magazine.

"Oh, if you're here to explain yourselves to Sky, she's out right now to get some stuff." Ray told them, not even lifting an eye to look at the two.

"I'm off to the hospital with Claus, plus I have something to ask of you Ray." Wave said, taking off his jacket and replacing it with a brown leather jacket and putting on a yellow and green striped scarf along with a brown wig that reached just past his shoulders and some circular glasses.

"What the hells with that outfit Wave? You look like a librarian." Ray snickered at him, putting the magazine aside to look, Claus didn't give any reaction because he couldn't care less really.

"I guess I might as well get explaining." Wave sat down on his bed and looked at the two.

"I have, a sister-"

"Wait you have a sister?!" Ray cut him off with surprise, Wave flinched, and Ray understood what that meant and kept quiet.

"And don't think you noticed but I'm a Faunus, my traits are a little hard to see." Wave showed that he had wolf fangs and a tongue to represent a wolf's.

This took the two by surprise as they would've never guessed until they took a closer look at him, but his hair makes sense since it's silver like a white wolf.

"In the past it was me, my sister, mother and papa, papa was a Faunus while mother was human, we were a happy family till my father lost his job and began committing crimes to get money, it first started with simple robberies, but mother never liked that and often yelled at him for that." Wave took a pause as he sighed. Claus sitting next to him to pat him on the back for support.

"Thanks… Then it just got worse, the arguments got louder and me and my sister Anabelle were scared till one day, when papa robbed a certain house, the home owner was still in… they had a fight and well the home owner was killed which was… my mother's father… When news spread around, turned out he already fled for Menagerie with apparently a new wife…" Another sigh and Wave's voice was trembling as his past memories came back.

"You can stop if you want." Ray suggested to him, it was hard for her to see Wave like this.

"Things only got worse from then on, mother became mentally ill from stress and started taking it out on me, she beat me, cursed me and hated me, Anabelle tried to stop it, but she was also a victim of the abuse… It was so scary… I couldn't take it." Tears streamed down Wave's face as he tried to continue but Ray stopped him by putting her finger on his lips.

"That's enough, an Idol like me can't have her fans suffer, I should always be there to make them smile." She said in her own… motivational way.

"It's fine, I must say the rest." Wave attempted to smile to show he was fine as he continued.

"Finally, I walked down stairs to find mother beating on Anabelle, but she had a wolf tail for she was a Faunus too, it was awful, and I couldn't take it anymore, the built-up stress was too much and that's when my semblance activated as I shouted for the first time, it hurt mother a lot but from then on my mind went blank." Wave finished his explanation and looked up at Ray.

"And now Anabelle is in hospital for traumatic reasons and mother is in a separate one and I want to help them, Sky has done enough for me already and I don't want to burden her with more of my issues, so I must ask of you Ray, can you keep Sky busy while I go out and try help my situation?" Wave almost pleaded to Ray, determination showing in his eyes as he finally built up the courage to do something.

"And you want me to help you?" Claus stated.

"Yes."

"Leave it to me, I'll help, we are a team after all." Claus accepted.

"Plus, if a whole team goes to the hospital, it could spook your sister, right?" Ray said.

"That's right and I feel like Sky would take it too far too." Wave said, worried for the things Sky would attempt.

"Leave it to me then." Ray said, giving him a thumbs up.

"We should leave while we can, bring your weapon Claus." Wave said as he stood up to leave.

Now outside the large hospital building with the red cross in the centre of the building, Wave and Claus stood outside, waiting to go in.

"What are you waiting for Wave? Let's go." Claus pushed him.

"Ahh yeah, let's go." He stuttered as the two approached the reception desk.

"Hello, I've come for Anabelle Tinder-field." Wave told the nurse as she worked on her computer and told him without even looking up.

"Room 40 on floor 4."

"Thank you."

The two boarded the elevator as they went up to the floor.

"She was rude, wasn't she?" Claus said.

"The staff are always busy in this hospital, you can't blame them." Wave told him, Hospitals were always busy with the recent Grimm attacks.

They reached the 4th floor and came up to a light coloured wooden door with the tag "Anabelle Tinder-field" written next to the number 40 on her door.

"You ready?" Wave asked Claus, letting out a sigh his hesitation showing by his hands shaking as he held onto the door, Claus just simply nodded.

"Let's go."

The door creaked open as the two walked in to see a small room with the usual hospital bed with a desk and wardrobe in front of the bed but enough space between the two to allow people to walk past and go to the large window facing out to Vale.

The desk had some flowers, a bowl of fruit and an empty picture frame, there was also a empty vase plus a combing brush and last detail was there was a cushioned chair in the corner of the room next to the bed.

Finally sat on the bed, looking out of the window was Anabelle, white as snow and looked dazzling to Claus, she had long, silky white hair with her bangs curving around her face just below her chin along with having a cow lick and her wolf Faunus trait being an Ice wolf tail that laid across the bed as she sat there in the usual hospital gown.

She slowly turned to face the two to reveal her illuminating yellow eyes with curiosity.

Claus stared in awe although luckily for him, the sunglasses make it, so his reaction isn't too obvious as he never expected Anabelle to look like this.

"Uncle Nev… Welcome… you brought a friend?" She asked him with her soft voice.

Claus was taken back by surprise in which she called Wave who was still in disguise as he snapped his neck to look at Wave and then back to Anabelle.

"Hello Anabelle, how have you been doing?" Wave walked up to her and asked.

"I am doing well, the doctor told me I'm recovering" She smiled gently to him before speaking again.

"But… my brother is not here, right?"

"…. No, he isn't."

"Thank goodness."

That little exchange stirred something up in Claus' heart, it was like a sharp stab to him as this was the last thing he had expected to hear, he had no clue Wave had something like this going on with his life all this time.

"I'm sure he's doing well." Wave continued.

"Yeah… I just can't have him see me like this…" Anabelle started welling up and grabbing her hair as the past came to her again, but Wave hugged her to calm her down.

"Listen, I think I can help you and your brother doesn't blame you for any of this, he wishes that he could see you and talk with you again." Wave told her.

"But there's no need… he tried to save me, but he hurt me and mother, I don't think he'd try to help us since the last time he tried to visit… he went berserk again…" She looked down and clutched onto Wave's coat.

"Well I'll be back, I've got some errands to run, take care of yourself." Wave told her, withdrawing from her and smiled at her before taking his leave.

Claus and Anabelle eyes met again, and she smiled at him.

"A pleasure to meet you."

"T-the pleasure's all mine."

"My name is Anabelle."

"Claus."

Claus took his leave after giving introductions and left the room with Wave closing the door behind him, with the realisation that Wave has had to be suffering like this for however long now and it only took him till now to get the courage to do something about it.

"So…" Claus tried to think of something to say after all that but couldn't.

"Don't be sorry, this is just the truth, and did you notice anything?" Wave spoke up, removing the wig as the two walked out of the hospital.

"Notice what?" Claus asked.

"The vase is empty, right?"

"Oh yes, what about it?"

"Basically, Anabelle won't accept any flowers given to her and always throws them out, I've tried but I think I may be able to help her with a certain type of flower." Wave explained, getting out a map to show a location outside of Vale.

"When we were young, and things were good, we lived near a flower patch where at night they would illuminate under the stars and we often played there, they are the Illuminating Dance flowers, the name given after a dancer put on a performance at night to please the gods and in return the flowers bloomed and gave off a light like a sea of beautiful light."

"And… you want to go get a bunch for her?" Claus figured it out from hearing it.

"Exactly but the only problem is that the area has had more Grimm activity now so it's not safe to go alone anymore." Wave said, closing the map and storing it away.

"And you're sure this will help?"

"For both me and her… definitely."

Claus sighed from that answer and had no clue what he was getting dragged into when really, he just wanted to stay at Beacon but now he can't pull out of this.

"Shall we get going then?" Claus asked.

"Alright, let's go." Wave said, the two bumping fists and sharing a chuckle as they begin an adventure for recovery.

Wave: Oh... it's my turn to do this huh? Well alright be sure to stay tuned for next week and well I hoped you enjoyed the chapter

Claus: Is that it?

Wave: I'm not used to speaking like this what am I supposed to do?

Claus: Well that's a bore, anyway you better be ready for the last few chapters cause they will blow you away! and I will get a bit more screen time.

Wave: That sounds like something Ray would say.

Claus: If it works, then it works, anyway see ya.