Chapter 11: Times Passed

I walked into the hospital room, flowers in my hand, before being stopped in my tracks. I looked around the room as Judy looked out of the window but there was no-one in the room with her, no classmates, no family, no-one. I don't know if she was ignoring me or hadn't noticed me yet, I've never asked, but either way she didn't say anything to me at all, even when I tried to talk to her. I ended up leaving the flowers in a pot I had brought with me and said. "See you tomorrow." Before walking home.

The next few days were the same, but after a week had passed she finally said something to me. "Don't second years still have classes." She asked, still not looking my way.

I was surprised but answered anyway. "Do you think they would let me handle weapons after that?" I replied, as unsarcastically as possible. She didn't reply with words but just gave a quick nod, I think to agree with the outcome. When we finally started talking, it was in a different tone than when we fought. She wasn't scared of me, the opposite in fact, she was distant, almost like she wasn't involved in the conversation at all. When I asked if she had forgiven me, she went silent and looked out of the window, when I spoke about myself, I could tell she didn't care, for the rest of that month, I was more annoyed than I was upset.

At the end of that month, I was about ready to leave and not come back, but on that last day, she turned to me properly and asked a question I didn't expect. "Would you put up with this if I wasn't a faunus?" She asked. I didn't really understand the question, if I had caused a human to lose their leg then I would probably still visit them, although they would probably be more angry considering they wouldn't grow it back. I turned back to her but couldn't get any words out in my confusion, but I guess I got the question across. "No-one really spoke to me at Signal but the few who did were always really nice to me, no matter what I did. I think that people are too afraid of talking to me, or any of the faunus at Signal. So, are you visiting me because you feel sorry for me, or because you feel bad about our history." I saw a seriousness in her eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time, but I couldn't help but laugh. She seemed surprised as I burst into laughter right in front of her, trying to get my point across.

"I've been through enough to know that anyone can face hardship." I said as my laughter died down. "There will always be humans against faunus and there will always be faunus against humans, your problems are your own, just like mine are mine." I explained. "I think you got the wrong idea about me so let's start again. Hi, I'm Damien Glas, what's your name gills?" I said, sticking out my hand and trying to make my widest smile.

She tried to correct me but understood what I was trying to do and took my hand. "Judy Apelsin, and I thought you were Luci." I was still annoyed that she knew my name but I ignored it and we began to talk.

When the new school year rolled around, Qrow came to visit her with me. He told us about how since he was supposed to be supervising the... incident, he was given leave, but he told us he was quitting teaching for a while. "I was never really that good at it." He said. "Some more bad news is, you won't be ready in time for Beacon this year." He said, pointing to Judy, still with his flask in his hand.

I tried to argue but Judy interrupted me, just saying that she saw it coming and was expecting it. "I don't think I'm cut out to be a huntress." She said, rolling back into bed. "I'm too frail, plus my semblance isn't exactly made for fighting."

"Why? What's your semblance?" I asked. "I have my luck, that could be considered not useful in combat if I have a string of bad luck in the middle of a fight."

"I can analyze." She says plainly. "Things and people. It isn't always accurate but it still helps me tell what's happening. For example, I could tell your semblance before because I analyzed you while you were using it, so now I can tell quite a lot about it. It isn't passive but instead you activate your own luck, but it's a game of chance, you will either get lucky or unlucky, it isn't perfect but it's better in a fight than mine."

"You can tell that?" I asked. "What about Qrow? I've never seen him use his aura."

"Let's not get hasty, kids." He says, leaning against the door.

"I've tried analyzing him, but as I said it isn't perfect. It goes off what I already know and adds what I can infer from them. I can tell when someone's semblance is active and I can observe what happens. Watching you, my gun jammed when you activated your semblance, but also in our first fight you activated it and ended up stumbling, which is why I won so easily." She explained. "Qrow... every time I analyze him, it seems that his semblance is active, so I assume it is passive, but I can't tell what it is exactly, although I feel it is similar to yours in some way." She says, looking confused. "Passive semblances are much harder for me to figure out, since they are always active it is hard to tell what is being effected by them."

"See? That can help in a fight!" Luci says. "There are times when I've fought and wanted to know my opponent's semblance, that would be a huge advantage in a fight."

"You think so?"

"Of course! You shouldn't let them keep you from being a huntress!" I stopped when I saw Judy tearing up.

"But... what will I do? Unless I'm scouted, I'll have to sign up a few months in advance, and I can barely even get out of bed still."

I consider not dragging this out longer, but I've never been one for holding back. "I'll go sign us both up for next year! I doubt they'll let me in after all that's happened but they have to let you in at least."

"Before you kids do any crazy..." Qrow interjects, pulling something out of his pocket. "I was going to wait to give these to you but I guess you should have them now." He says, showing them two envelopes and handing them to me before turning to walk out of the door. "I haven't read them so I don't know the results, part of my code of conduct." He said with a snicker. "Can't be in the room when you open them either, for personal reasons, just call me back in when you're done." He finished, shutting the door behind him. I looked at them and saw that one had my name and the other had Judy's, so handed hers over. We both knew what they were so we didn't feel the need to talk about them and just went to open them.

"No using your luck." She said just before I opened it.

"That wouldn't do much now anyway, the results are already there." I replied sarcastically. I looked down at the paper and the first thing I saw was 'We are glad to inform you...' and immediately after I saw the word 'accepted...' And showed it to Judy. I noticed she was already crying so I turned my paper back around, ready to tell her I hadn't made it in when she turned hers to me at show the exact same letter with her name instead. We didn't have a massive celebration, partly because of Judy's leg and partly because Judy can't really handle people anyway, but we did get Qrow to take this picture of us when Judy tried to get up to thank him.


"What about her family?" Artemis asks.

"What do you mean?" Luci responds, taking back the picture he gave to her.

"You said that you were the only one she saw most of the time, but what about her family? Didn't they ever visit?" She continues to ask. Luci stays silent for a second but turns to her with a much less serious expression.

"She won't tell me."

"What? I got the impression you two told each other everything."

"Nobody tells anyone everything." He says bluntly. "Like that story. I didn't tell you everything, just what I thought you needed to hear to understand, me and Judy think alike in that sense." He looks down at Judy, still not waking up. "You don't have to stay here with me, I'm going to be here all night."

"You're not allowed to be here all night." Artemis replies, leaning back in her chair.

"I didn't take you for someone who follows the rules." He replies sarcastically.

"I didn't say I was. It's just a warning that you aren't going to get me to take blame if we get caught." She continues. He looks over to her with a look of confusion mixed with cheer. "Don't look at me like that. I don't like you, and she is a terrible leader, that's why I need to make sure you don't get all of us in trouble." As soon as she finished, Vak walks in carrying two drinks with two more being carried by Nixi.

"I think I got all of the right drinks." Vak says as he enters. "Two 'Grapes' sodas for the ladies..."

"It's 'People Like Grapes' soda." Artemis corrects.

"I'm not calling it that." He says, ignoring her complaint. "One 'Ol' King Cold' for me."

"You say the full name of that one!" She interrupts again.

"What would you shorten it to?"

"'Cold' soda, Obviously! Or even 'King Cold' soda! The 'Ol'' doesn't add anything." Artemis complains.

"Whatever." He replies, shrugging her off. "And one TorchQuick for Luci."

"That's not what I asked for." Luci says, taking the drink anyway as Vak sits down on the floor, hanging Nixi on the foot of the bed.

"I asked and they said they couldn't serve alcohol to minors." Vak says with a long sigh. "I didn't even expect they would have alcohol in storage but apparently they do, and you can't have any. Nixi said this is your favorite soda so that's what I got, drink up." Luci sighs, opening the can and chugging most of it down at once.

"How can you even drink that stuff?" Artemis says. "It tastes horrible."

"Exactly, it's also a challenge." Luci says. "Something that tastes this bad had to have been done on purpose, so all I need to do is overcome the taste and I'll become stronger."

"I'm not sure if you're taking this too seriously or not seriously enough." She replies. Vak snickers at her remark and she gets confused. "What's funny?"

"I don't think I've seen you smile since we became a team." He explains. "I guess... you know... it's kind of funny that this situation got you to lighten up a bit." Artemis only now realizes that she had been smiling for a while and tries to go back to doing her usual scowl and the other two laugh at her as the crescent moon begins to set.

her.