Nope don't worry no chat format. There you messed up my intro. Happy? Ladies and Gentlemen, Lads and Lasses, Beautiful people I am Kurt the Mortician, and this author's not will end here and not make sense until you reach the end of the chapter. Please read, enjoy, and review. And we missed you man. Good to have you back. Not you Reader. My amazing Partner. But it's good to see you reader. Technically this is later. Man our author's notes are clusterfucked. We're keeping the end note. JusRea!
We're not doing the chat thing again. I'm sorry, but no. This story needs to start. Even when it's not a chat, its a chat. Fucking cloud documents. Blah, blah blah, stuff happens, character development, drama, arguing, flirting, enjoy. I'm done with A/Ns. Wasn't even in the last on. Calling me amazing now, just wait. Shit gets bitchy later on. THIS TIMELINE IS A MESS. Just read! JU REA!
Arc 2: Who You Once Were
Chapter 2: Dividite
Still grasping at her throbbing hand, Phoenix sat slumped against the wall of one of Beacon's many endless corridors. Dried tears stained her cheeks, though whether they were out of anger or pain was long since forgotten. As she sat there, trying so desperately to forget the world around her, she was made aware of gentle footsteps near by. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"Piss off." She snapped preemptively, not caring for who the mystery person would be. Whoever it was could go fuck themselves, staff or not. Now was not the time.
"Phoenix?"
Oh. It was Celes. Great.
Sighing deeply to herself, Phoenix peeled one of her bangs off of her face in order to give the shorter girl a cautionary glance. Said look was promptly ignored as Celes sat down next to her partner.
"What happened to your hand?" Celes avoided the more obvious questions in favour of trying to find out about the defensive way in which a very swollen hand was being clutched to Phoenix's chest.
"Wall."
"Oh. I see." An awkward silence settled between the two, with Celes temporarily lost for words, and Phoenix reluctant to say anything.
"What have you been doing?" Phoenix asked, noticing the lack of any sign that Celes had been crying, or injuring herself in anger.
"Thinking." Celes said, trying to coax Phoenix into a bit more stable state.
"About?" Phoenix said shortly, her short temper clearly evident.
Finally, Celes decided that she could put it off no longer. The two were going to have to talk about Rain, and the things he had told them. An educated guess told her that Phoenix probably wasn't taking the news too well.
"Why he did it." Celes answered simply, before continuing, "Why he doesn't feel guilty, why he changed."
Phoenix scowled and replied, "Does it really matter? He lied to us for an entire year."
Man was Celes nuts? How could she side with that liar?
"I'm hardly saying I'm okay with it." Celes pointed out, noting the girls tone, "I'm just trying to...understand it."
"Right." Phoenix responded curtly, not really wanting to see what on earth Celes was going to be talking about.
"Well you know what he's like. He always has reasons." Celes tried, though honestly not sounding convinced herself.
"No. Thats the point. I don't know what he's like. He has spent a year lying in our faces. We have no idea who he is!" How could Celes not see this?
"Would he really want to immediately tell us that he used to kill people for a living? Would he really want to tell people he just met that he watched his sister get burned alive when he was eight?" Celes said in a surprising outburst.
Silence passed by once again, and this time neither knew what to say next. After almost ten minutes of just sitting and mulling it all over, Phoenix breathed out a resigned "Fuck!" which Celes did well not to comment on.
Slowly raising to her feet, Phoenix offered a hand to Celes to help the shorter girl off of the floor.
"Just because I understand...kind of...does not mean I am okay with anything he said." Phoenix warned.
"Doesn't matter, we still need to talk to him!" Celes' usual chipper attitude began to shine through once more as she grabbed Phoenix by the elbow and began to drag her back to their dorm.
Rain stood outside in the courtyard, the sun slowly setting as he stared up at the statue before him. He first looked at the beowolf, underneath a rock, he then looked up, at the hunters standing on the rock, weapons held high.
All of mankind has endlessly struggled against the creatures of grimm. Man V.S. Beast. But where do the Faunus fit into that? Where does he fit into that? Are they humans, or animals?
He's spent a year training to be a hunter, but does that really mean he's not a monster? The way his teammates looked at him. The way their eyes seemed to fill with fear, disgust, and confusion as he recounted his rather unhappy past. People had always looked at the faunus that way. They looked at the faunus as if they were animals, less than human, and it was that look that led him to kill. It was that look that led to his sister's death and led to him leaving behind his old life.
He shifted the bag he had slung over his shoulder. All of his essentials were in it. Some lien, a change of clothes, and his box of personal items. Benihime sat sheathed on his hip. He told himself if his team didn't return by sunset he'd have to go. He trusted them, but maybe they were better off without him. Rain spent a year lying to people who trusted him with his life.
He fell to his knees before the statue, his head in his hands. Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to have to leave another life behind? Then he stood as he looked at the hunters again. The hunter brandishing the axe...it was a huntress.
Freya. Rain's thoughts drifted to what his older sister told him. 'All I know how to do is fight, and make tools for fighting. I might not like hurting other beings but, if it makes the world a better place I'll do it.' Rain shook his head as he stood and turned to face the dorm. He would not leave his chance to make the world better. He would not live a meaningless life. He would go to his teammates, and trust that they would understand him.
After all, they're all he has left to lose.
"Hey dude, sorry about walking-" Citri halted in the doorway as he looked upon the empty dorm room. Curiously leaning back to look at the number on the door, Citri checked that he was in the right place before raising an eyebrow and peering back into the dorm. It was definitely theirs, and it was definitely empty.
Taking a few hesitant steps, Citri wandered into the center, looking for any sign of where Rain might have gone to. As he glanced around he finally found what he was looking for. It had been a miracle that he'd spotted it, but as Citri's orange eyes had scanned the room they had briefly passed over the window, and thus he had just barely spotted his partner outside.
Confused, he made his way over to the window, partly to check that it was actually Rain and partly to find out what on earth the boy was doing. After taking a second to confirm the identity of the faunus, Citri noticed that he wasn't really doing much. Just sort of...sitting at the base of the statue that could be seen from the team's window.
Deciding that the sight of his partner sat there with a bag that anyone with deductive reasoning would assume contained personal belongings was enough to warrant concern, Citri decided that now was not a time for hesitation or sensibility, and so promptly threw himself out of the window.
Totally for Rain's sake. Not at all because he'd always wanted to do it. At all.
Firing off a blade in the vague direction of his partner, Citri began to grapple his way over to the statue. The temptation of hooking into the statue itself and landing before his partner with a show-offish spin was only just beaten out by the thought of the punishment that would come with damaging school property on such a level, and so instead the dreadlocked boy made his entrance with a humble dismount mid air, falling a few feet in front of Rain.
Citri looked mildly annoyed as his eyes shifted from Rain to his luggage and back a few times. The faunus caught on just as Citri opened his mouth to speak, and interjected before he had a chance.
"I was just heading back now." He cut in, raising his hands apologetically.
"Right," Citri's voice did nothing to betray whether or not he bought it, "Doesn't matter. Look, I...uh, I'm sorry about running off-"
"I get it." Rain replied simply, not wanting to go into this too much further.
"I needed to think, and...y'know. It was just kinda…" the boy couldn't help but trip over his words.
"I understand." Rain stayed concise.
"I just wanted to say that I'm okay...okay I'm not okay with it but I...I get it, okay?" Citri stumbled about.
"You've never had a way with words, have you?" Rain replied a smile creeping onto his face.
"I just…I understand. It's who you were, not who you are. Known you a year dude, I got your back." Citri put a reassuring hand on his partner's shoulder, and upon receiving a nod of acknowledgement, broke into a toothy grin.
"I'm no longer who I once was." Rain said as he stared into his partner's eyes. The eye contact between the two carried a silent message of complete trust.
Without any warning, Citri placed his other hand onto Rain's shoulder as well and grasped tightly.
"What are you...Oh for fu-" Rain's sentence was cut short by the sudden gush of wind as the two boy were dragged through the air by the cables of Citri's staff. Though his hair obstructed his view, he was pretty sure that Citri was as always wearing his manic smile as the two crashed through the window of their dorm. Through, because in the time that Citri had been talking to Rain, Celes and Phoenix had returned, and the boys' arrival had coincided with the exact moment that Phoenix had chosen to shut the window. The result was shattered glass and a three person tangle of limbs, hair, cables and a tail.
The three untangled themselves with minimal aid from Celes, as Phoenix was quick to remove and distance herself from Citri and Rain. The four stood staring at each other. A silence filled the air, and tension accompanied it. Finally Rain spoke.
"I thank you all for returning. I imagine you all still have questions though?" The mouse eared boy said calmly, although said ears were flattened against his head in fear.
"Why?" Celes replied, surprising everyone by taking the initiative.
"Why what?" Rain asked unsure of how to answer.
"Why did you stop?" Celes asked, before finishing her sentence for clarity's sake, "The killing I mean."
"I thought that if I Killed the foremen, and the board members who carried out and allowed the subjugation of the Faunus, then I could change things. When I first became a hitman, I thought I was making the world a kinder place, by removing those who mistreated others."Rain said explaining his motivations before continuing to answer the question, "Later on though, I realized that what I was doing wasn't changing anything, the world was no kinder than when I began my dark work. So I stopped. I decided to become a hunter."
"Why a hunter?" Phoenix asked, her voice slightly less bitter than earlier that day.
"My sister wanted to be a huntress. She said it was a way to kill, without hurting anyone. All I know how to do is kill, and make tools to kill with. Being a hunter or a hitman are really my only choices." Rain answered sounding a bit sad. He quickly followed up this comment, "If I can kill with meaning, and make the world a better place, then I will become a hunter to do so."
"Why did you lie to us?" Phoenix asked, her voice fragile, trying to maintain the facade of strength to mask her pain at being betrayed.
"I didn't trust you when I first met you. You hardly trusted me when we first met. It was only towards the end of the year when you and I began to discuss our burdens." Rain answered reaching out to Phoenix.
Surprisingly Phoenix stepped forward and pulled Rain into a tight hug. "Of course you could trust us idiot! We were a team!"
"Look, I know you trusted me with your past, that's why I trusted you with mine." Rain whispered to Phoenix.
It was in that sentence that any feelings of betrayal Phoenix harbored seemed to dissolve as she reminded herself of how she trusted Rain. No how she trusts Rain.
The two separated and Rain smiled as he asked, "Look, I'm sorry I hid who i was from all of you, but do you think you can all accept who I was, and how I'm not that person anymore."
Celes nodded in reply as did Phoenix. Citri grinned and said, "No problem man, we got your back."
Rain smiled and exhaled,his shoulders dropped as if relieved of a great weight.
"If we're done being all touchy-feely, can your stupid partner explain why he thought it was a good idea to go through the dorm through the window?" Phoenix asked a touch of venom in her voice.
Okay, with that Citri was a little taken aback. The last time he had spoken to Phoenix had been on their way to see the first years, and things had been good between them then. Better than ever actually, so this was kind of out of nowhere.
"Um...what?" He asked, scratching at his forehead slightly.
"What do you mean 'what'? Look at this place!" Phoenix swung her arms around and gestured to the broken window.
"Hey it was open when I left!" Citri responded, backing away slightly with his hands in the air.
"The point is you shouldn't have leapt out the window in the first place!"
"I had to get to him quickly!" Citri countered, voice taking on a tone of indignity
"What are you talking about?" Phoenix almost sneered her reply
He glanced at Rain briefly, silently asking if it was okay to tell the others of Rain's original intention of leaving. The mouse eared boy nodded, and Citri took the opening he was given,
"Rain was sitting in front of the statue with his bag about to leave." Citri said. "I didn't have time to bother with stairs!"
"Not exactly, you assumed that I was going to leave." Rain countered.
"You had your bag with you!" Citri yelled defensively.
"I changed my mind." Rain continued with a shrug.
"I couldn't know that!" Citri's arms began joining him in his exclamations, a habit whenever the boy happened to raise his voice.
"You could have, for once, tried to think ahead!" Phoenix cut in.
"...Yeah, I guess that's fair." Citri admitted after a moments thought.
"Fucking right it is! All you ever do is act without thinking!" Phoenix yelled.
"Where is this coming from? Earlier you were-"
"Earlier!" Phoenix practically screeched, "You mean the one time that I didn't have to put up with you handling something so infuriatingly badly! The one time that there wasn't anything there for you to not take seriously!"
"What about in the forest!?" Citri roared back, in a rare display of anger, "I pulled our asses out of the fire!"
"WHOOP DEE FUCKING DOO! All it takes is a chance that you might DIE to make you shape up!" Phoenix screamed in Citri's face the two seemed to be on the verge of clashing in the dorm room.
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Rain yelled, drawing his blade and cleaving a desk over by the couch in two.
"Look Phoenix, you shouldn't blame Citri for-" Rain said, momentarily forgetting about the touchy subject he almost touched upon when Phoenix finished his sentence for him.
"My dad! Why not? They're both the same, they need to be serious and to step up to their responsibilities, but they never do!" Phoenix screeched, her voice breaking as she unleashed a torrent of emotions held within herself all year.
"Phoenix, Citri isn't your dad, Citri's been here for all of us since day one! Has he ever turned his back on you, no matter how much shit you've given him!" Rain began to raise his voice, as if scolding a small child.
"I-I-I know but, he..." Phoenix trailed off as she shook her head and fell to her knees, her eyes wet with tears.
Rain then did the unexpected, he turned and spoke to his partner in the same tone.
"As wrong as it is for her to blame her dad's shortcomings on you, she's right. You need to take things more seriously. Think. Don't just act and hope that everything works out."
Ouch. Okay, that hurt a little. Rain had always had Citri's back, and vice versa. Even the events of earlier today conveyed that in volumes. In honesty, Citri couldn't help but feel a tad betrayed at Rain's words, however true they may be. Something about having his best friend chide him on his shortcomings on the day that said best friend had almost ran away out of fear of rejection from the news of his past...it felt bad. Clearly, Citri wasn't the only one thinking so.
"Isn't that a little harsh, Rain?" Celes spoke up for the first time, "Citri's willingness to act is useful. Think about that time with the Ursa in Forever Fall, about halfway into the year."
Rain looked at Celes curiously, prompting her to continue.
"You know, when he without thinking, put himself between me and the Ursa since I was left open?"
"Alright, but what about tests in class? Ya know the ones we have to pass, and the leader's academic rank is based on...And Citri is ranked 34th out of the 50 leaders."
Celes was about to argue further, however the sound of Phoenix's angered sobs grabbed her attention instead. Abandoning the defence of her leader, Celes instead knelt besides Phoenix and wrapped the girl into her arms in an attempt to calm her down.
As she held the girl close, Celes could make out a faint muttering from Phoenix. "What was that?" she prompted, trying to get the girl to speak up. The muttering repeated, but was still barely audible. "Phoenix?"
"YOU DON'T DESERVE IT!" She finally yelled, glaring Citri straight in the eyes and panting slightly in sheer fury. "He shouldn't be leader." She grumbled to herself before returning to her previous position of hugging her knees and curling into Celes as the rest of the team stood there, shocked at the sudden outburst.
After almost a whole minute of awkward silence and unbearable tension, Citri gave a quick nod and headed for the door. Rain looked as if he wanted to say something as the boy walked past, but no words came. Celes gave an apologetic look and reached out an arm, but quickly returned to the half seething, half weeping Phoenix.
As soon as the door shut behind him, Citri let out a heavy breath and slumped in exasperation. That did...not go well. The team had met up after learning Rain's past, and unsurprisingly chewed up and spat out a team member. Only for reasons that he couldn't quite fathom, it hadn't been the ex-murderer that they'd turned on. It'd been him.
True, he was glad that the thing with Rain was sorted now. It was great that the whole ordeal was out of the way. But never had he expected it to go like that. Like, ever. Something must be seriously wrong with Phoenix for her to snap like that. They'd always had ups and downs, but that just then had been something else entirely.
Hoping that his team could handle it and maybe even talk sense into her, Citri resolved himself to clear his head and take some time out to think. Maybe he could practice some meditation with the Zhus, if they were free? Or there was that tree? He was getting pretty good at using his staff as a hammock. Oh, his staff! There were a few spires around Beacon that he'd been dying to rappel up. Or maybe he could-
Ho-ly shit!
Mid stride, Citri found his entire body turning around to allow him to keep his gaze glued to the outright stunning girl that had been walking past.
Annette Lecters.
Tall, redhaired and leggy.
Plus that whole formal attire totally gave her that hot secretary look and...she was looking right at him. This fucking day!
Okay, looking wasn't entirely accurate. It was more like a glare. Green eyes narrowed in an anger that a certain teammate had made very familiar to him. That said, it was the cute kind of angry, and even though the girls eyes scanned over him with focus that could only come from critique Citri couldn't help but notice that he honestly didn't care. Fuck, he was even smiling.
"Your shoes don't match, your hair is like clumps of moss, and you dress in the same manner as a ruffian and hoodlum." Annette rattled off as if second nature.
"Your shoes go with your whole attire, your hair is adorably weird," Citri bravely pinged one of the antenna like stands as he said this, "and I'm loving the 'hot secretary' vibe. Especially that skirt" he chanced another quick glance at those legs. Oh god those legs.
Frowning further at the overly flirtatious response, Annette steeled herself before continuing. "You slouch, you slack off and frankly there are more than enough of your kind in this school."
"You stand up oh so straight, get flawless grades, and few come even close to being half as hot as you." Citri replied without missing a beat
Annette took a second to wrap her head around the fact that this boy was not relenting in turning every criticism she made of him into some form of compliment or other. None the less, she was not yet done.
"Your accent does nothing to help that linguistic butchering you call slang." Annette said, hoping to provoke some kind of negative reaction.
"I could listen to you talk all day." Citri said as he gave her a blatant wink.
Annette stood still for a moment and then proceeded to say, "Pardon me, but what is your name?"
"Citri Andesine, king of the surf and sky, and leader of Team ANCY." Citri said extending a hand to the girl.
She accepted uneasily and answered, "Annette Lecters, top academically ranked student , Team JACK."
JACK? Shit, not those guys.
But she's so hot. Its not fair, its not fair, its not fair. Maybe she's not like them?
"Citri Andesine?" She said questioningly opening her scroll and searching for something.
"Ah, Academically ranked 34th out of all the team leaders. Well this conversation is over. Good day." Annette said as she briskly turned and walked down the hallway.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Citri exclaimed chasing after her, continuing, "Wait, why are you leaving?"
"I do not associate with those who do not take their scholarly duties seriously." Annette said as she walked further and further away.
Citri merely stopped and watched as she walked further and further, until she disappeared from sight. Hate to see her go, love to watch her leave.
She won't talk to him because of his academic score. So does she only date geeks? Does she even date? She did seem very...proper. Is it really worth having to study to be with that. Then Citri mentally pictured the girl and only one thought came to mind.
Those legs are worth anything.
Oh god those legs!
There now it might be more confusing but this should work! Oh we're totally leaving this it away man! Come on. Don't be a busta!
Leave what in, its deleted?
No this bit Genius, we'll add back in the other bit. This is just to confuse the audience.
Oh we're doing a bit. Gottit.
Now, Where was I?
#FORTHELEGS
Yes. Citri's character motivation for self improvement. Is a set of legs. Godspeed Mr. Andesine.
Its probably more what lies atop the legs...if you know what i mean...
How dare you insinuate it's for her heart, mind ,and soul! The answer is always the legs.
Why arrn't you bold. You're usually bold. Its confusing.
I'll add it in after this. Ya know make the typing easier for right now.
This chat thing is just going to piss people off you know, we've covered NOTHING and just dicked about.
Not true I was just about to mention that, this might be our shortest chapter yet. But it's also been completed almost a week in advance. Not to mention we finally are starting to see why Phoenix is so tough on Citri.
It's efficient! There's a lot in it, even if it's a measly 3.8k
Well We learned so much about Rain too…SO anything I forgot to say?
Its been the most fun by far. Like by FAR…"for the legs"...geddit, cause its "for the kids" but...yeah.
Yeah this chapter might have been my favorite in terms of endings. Oh almost forgot. Thanks to all of our loyal followers. It makes my day to see a new one added every chapter. Seriously every chapter has at least one follower added. How badass is that?Ya gonna go man. Or are you waiting for an invitation.
Sorry, yeah. Uhh...I got to stroke my ego by giving my OC a girl to fawn over, and other shit probably happened as well.
Um how about the fact that we got to see yet another latin title! This one means Divided, chapter before this meant, "Murderer".
Oh there was also all that Bro stuff with Rain and Citri that kinda got shot down because everyone's being meanie heads to him at the moment.
Not mean, Only Phoenix is mean. Celes supports him, and Rain only speaks the truth.
Yeah but...shush...
Oh don't be a sore loser. I gave Annette to you was my oc. Oh and One of the reader's commented she didn't know what sleepy hollow was. It's the story of the headless horseman. Ichabod Crane is the protagonist, who Katherine is loosely based on. An old Jewish guy with a huge nose. No I'm not joking that's how most people describe him.
We really shouldn't do Chat A/Ns ever again. Just saying. LET THE AUDIENCE DECIDE!
Alright. It was fun to do something different. May be we could do one in Haikus?
Fuuuuck that.
Geeze Just kill all the fun. Put the fun in camps why don't you. Fun nazi.
...well that was uncalled for.
okay too soon. well this is awkward. How the hell do I not know how to spell awkward by now. damnit did it again. thank god for spell check. Hiding all my fuckups from the audience. You just gonna sit there and sulk!Oh wait apology right. Sorry man. Got carried away
I CAN'T TALK WITHOUT FUCKING UP THE LINE CONTINUITY
that was...aggressive. Calm down Doctor Lilome. Don't want you to turn into the Hulk.
See I can't respond. This isn't fair. I ain't even mad. Im a victim of circumstance
Look, if we ever by some horrible mistake do this again. You get to go first. Sound good?
I like the old way, where you'd just copy me but be first so it wouldn't make sense.
Not COPY! paraphrase. There's just no word for say everything you said but better.
Oh go and be ill already
See now you're the asshole for picking on the sick guy.
This A/N is TWO PAGES. stahp
K. Fine. Outro time. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed, I am Kurt the Mortician, and I hope this laid your worries, fears, and troubles to rest.
Lilome out…#forthelegs
