The training room was quiet as the two teens processed the information they'd been provided. After having spent the last fifteen-odd minutes listening to Rain more or less tell his life story, Rian found the silence in his head to be deafening. Even his own thoughts didn't quite fill the gap.
The quiet was soon ended as Citri spoke. "I remember hearin' about all dat," she said thoughtfully. "Nine years ago da news was showin' about da villages being attacked and dey showed a sketch of one of da men responsible. Dey never gave any names, though, of da man in da sketch or who dey got it from."
Rian mulled over the comment. "I get why they wouldn't mention you - to protect you and whatnot - but if they used your description of him, why not give Ric's name? Wouldn't that make finding him easier?"
-/I'm not sure. I mean, when I told him I wanted to look for him on my own, Ozpin gave me his full name, so it wasn't like nobody knew who he was,/- Rain mused. -/It is strange; Syl didn't even know what her father had done, so either her mother never told her…/-
"…or they never told anyone," Rian finished. The scroll hummed in affirmation. "I guess if they didn't need to, they wouldn't have released that to the public. If they knew who he was, they would have known he had a family, so maybe they wanted to protect them."
-/That does sound like something Ozpin would do./- Although he was physically incapable of doing so, the sniper was sure that Rain would have shaken his head.
"I don't understand," Citri interjected, her head cocked to one side. "What would dey need protectin' from?"
For a moment, Rian forgot who he was talking to. "Are you kidding? Humans can be pretty terrible to each other, especially children." As he spoke, he mentally reminded himself that humans weren't the only sentient species on Remnant, inadvertently giving himself the perfect example. "I mean, just look at how humans treat the Faunus, just because they happen to have closer similarities with animals."
The blonde shrugged. "Not all da time. I never really had any problems growin' up."
"No, you're right," Rian conceded, "not everyone is discriminatory. Just to play devil's advocate though, your teeth aren't that noticeable." His partner didn't offer any further response, providing an end to the discussion.
Silence returned to the room as the three teens retreated into their own thoughts. Rian found himself retracing the story that Rain had recounted to them. It provided context for a lot of things that had been sorely lacking it: the message from Ozpin, Syl's aggression toward him, the "manhunt," as Wayland had put it, Ozpin's comment on the part he played in it – Rian frowned. Okay, maybe not so much that one. I was kind of expecting something more drastic than just giving Rain Ric's full name.
The sniper scratched behind his ear as he continued in his thoughts. At least now I know I was right about the note for Syl. Not that that makes it any better. He shook his head. "Now I understand what Ozpin meant when he said you'd been through a lot."
-/Look, I don't want your pity,/- Rain voice buzzed through the scroll. -/I made my own choices; my life is what I made it./-
Rian was about to respond, but Citri beat him to the punch. "Ya didn't choose ta lose your family." The sniper suppressed a smirk. From anyone else, the words might have been seen as wise, but he supposed that to her it was just logical.
Rain sighed. -/No, I didn't… but I made the mistake of thinking I could somehow fix it. I've moved past it./- Without the benefit of body language, Rian couldn't tell if he meant it or not.
At that point, the sniper remembered one of the reasons for the discussion. "So why do you think Syl left the way she did?"
Rain was quiet for a moment. -/If I had to guess, I'd say she felt guilty. I mean, she may be a bitch sometimes, but that was supposed to be directed at me. I don't think she wanted to involve anyone else, especially after you told her not to./-
"Oh, right…" Rian trailed off. "You don't think she'd call me out on being hypocritical, do you?"
-/Hard to say at this point. I mean, you didn't have much of a choice, but I think we'll just have to wait and see./-
(-)
Syl's hands were curled into fists, her fingers digging into her palms. Any trace of the guilt and regret she had been feeling had been wiped away. Talking about Rain had done nothing to make her feel better, instead ushering the all too familiar anger back to the forefront.
Stella sat silently next to her, likely trying how to respond. Syl wasn't sure what she expected her partner to say, but the words that came out of her mouth certainly were not it. "Don't you… don't you think you might have overreacted?"
What? "How the hell could I have possibly overreacted?!" the brunette exploded. She instantly regretted it as Stella flinched. Crap. Releasing a breath, Syl forced herself to calm down before rephrasing her question. "How exactly was I supposed to react to my best friend murdering my father in front of my eyes when he explicitly promised not to hurt him at all?" She felt fairly confident that she had presented a strong case in her favor.
Stella scratched timidly at the base of her jaw as she apparently struggled to find an answer. "I don't know," she admitted, keeping her gaze down. She wasn't done talking though. "It's just, you'd already heard from two people you trusted that your father was not a good person like you thought he was, but you wanted to hear it from him anyway." She raised her head, her amber eyes meeting Syl's hazel pair. There was no nervousness in them, just honest concern. "If he'd told you that none of it was true, would you have believed him? Would you have disregarded what Rain and your mother had told you?"
"I…" the leader found herself at a loss for words. She honestly didn't know. She had been hoping that her father could have told her something that would have justified it all, that he'd had a reason. Maybe there wasn't, though. Maybe she'd been holding out for something that never existed, and she'd asked Rain to hold out with her in the face of everything he'd lost. "I was selfish," she finally conceded, though she still wasn't willing to give in, "but that doesn't make what he did right."
The raven-haired teen shook her head. "No, it doesn't, but that doesn't mean you were right either." This time, it was Syl's turn to drop her head. "As far as I can tell, Rain felt the exact same way about your father as you do about him, and look what happened to him." She held up the note to make her point.
The brunette kept her eyes fixed on her knees. The anger had mostly ebbed away, leaving her feeling empty. "I never saw him after the crater, not until we were on the airship, and by that point he'd apparently been possessed by someone from another dimension." She scoffed lightly at the idea; in spite of all the evidence in its favor, it still seemed ridiculous. Assuming it was true though, she had words she needed to say to Rian. "You think he's still down in the training room?" she asked, leaning her head back.
Stella shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose we could always send him a message and –" She cut herself off, apparently remembering that she was supposed to be mad at him, for whatever reason that was. "No. We could probably ask Citri. I wouldn't be surprised if she was with him."
(- -)
"Dat's not going ta work."
"Yes, it will."
"It's going ta slide of as soon as ya put any weight on it!"
"No, there's enough friction between them that - Look, you may know a lot about... a lot, but you don't have a semblance that's specifically tailored for this sort of thing."
-/Technically, neither do you, since that's my semblance./-
"Whose side are you on?"
-/Listen, I don't have hands, so.../-
"Ahem." The owners of the three voices voice stopped their bickering and, those who could, turned to look at the one that had interrupted.
Syl stood near the entrance, Stella behind her, with arms crossed and eyebrow raised. In the time it had taken them to get back, she had slipped back into her hard-ass attitude she'd grown accustomed to in the last few months.
The raven-haired teen stood slowly, almost casually, from his crouching position next to the table, though he couldn't - or, perhaps, chose not to - hide the nervousness on his face. "Hey... I didn't expect to see you so soon." He glanced behind her to her partner. "Either of you."
Syl dismissed the awkward greeting. "What are you doing?" she asked bluntly.
"Fixin' da table," Citri answered.
The brunette's brow furrowed. The last time she'd seen the table, it was fine. Like the blonde had said, though, one of the legs had been broken off. "What happened to it?"
Citri didn't answer this time, but instead deferred to her partner. The tall sniper sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck before speaking. "Yeah, after Stella left... I kinda got frustrated and kicked the table. Leg snapped right off."
Syl shook her head; with how transparent he was at times, it was amazing he'd managed to keep his identity hidden from them for so long. "So you've been trying to fix a table this entire time?"
"Ah, no. Actually..." He hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Rain told us about the two of you, about what happened."
Every muscle in Syl's body tensed. So now they all know.
The boy continued, carefully choosing his words. "I know you're pissed about what he did, and I'd say that's justified. I'm also assuming that you felt guilty about trying to kill me?" She remained silent, and he apparently took that as a yes. "Don't take this the wrong way, but don't." His delivery would have been damn near perfect if he hadn't felt the need to clarify. "Feel guilty, that is."
Syl was honestly surprised by the teen's earnestness. It would have been one thing for him to have brushed it off, but he was dead serious. In either case, she hadn't expected him to treat her like that.
"I knew exactly what I was getting into by pretending to be Rain," he said. Once again, though, he shot himself in the foot by correcting himself. "Well, maybe not 'exactly,' and certainly not at first, but keeping it up after I found out? That was my choice. Like I told you in the first week, I could take it, so please," he stressed the word heavily, "don't feel guilty."
Unlike before, when she simply chose not to, Syl found herself unable to respond, though not for lack of words. Why? Why shouldn't I feel guilty? Why are you so willing to take all of the weight yourself?
The sniper continued. "That being said, I would like to offer you something." There was a slight tremor in his voice, so whatever it was, he was reluctant to give it. He took a breath to steel himself. "I'm giving you a free shot to kill Rain."
...What?
Stella verbalized Syl's thought with far more eloquence. "Are you crazy? That would mean killing you!" She had apparently once again forgotten her ire, sounding almost desperate. Even Citri seemed shocked.
The teen shook his head. "As much as I would like to go home, there's no way of knowing if I can even get back."
Stella was not accepting that as an answer. "What about here? Isn't there anything…?" She was pleading with him. Perhaps there was something there that Syl had missed.
He didn't respond, shifting his eyes to the floor with guilt. "Wot about Rain?" Citri asked. It was a good question, though Syl felt she knew the answer.
Rain's scroll buzzed. -/I think I made my opinion on the matter pretty clear two months ago./-
There were no further arguments from their partners, though it was clear that they wanted to. "If you're worried about being kicked out, don't worry; I've already talked to Ozpin about this. Meira and Devero won't ever hear about it."
Syl was momentarily taken aback. It was clearly a bluff - Ozpin would never go for that, - but he'd mentioned her mother and brother by name. How would he know their names? I never even told Rain. The only other way he'd know was if he'd met them, and the only chance he had was... Her face hardened. ...at the hospital. Fire landed up her arm as her fist formed of its own volition. If he was trying to piss me off, it worked.
Reaching behind her back, she slowly removed Umber from its place. The click seemed deafening in the relatively empty room. Keeping her eyes locked on the blue orbs to her front, she held the weapon out to her partner behind her. When Stella didn't take it immediately, she growled, "Take it." The girl quickly obliged.
The other black-haired teen took her cue and carefully removed his satchel, including Midnight Song. He eased it down onto the floor before shifting into a defensive stance.
As Syl took her own stance, she sized up her opponent. She was familiar with his hand to hand skills, and now having the extra armor and a second aura, he could take more hits. At the same time, however, the extra weight would slow him down. She could exploit that.
Closing the distance between them, Syl made her first move, bringing her right fist toward his head. The strike was quickly countered, however, as the male swung his left arm around to deflect it. The block was followed immediately by a counter from the other fist, one which Syl narrowly avoided. Apparently, his definition of' free shot' is different than mine. She smirked. Good. I wouldn't want this to be too easy.
While Syl stepped back, her opponent held his position, giving her the opportunity to regroup. The block had been slower than normal, as she expected, but it carried more force. It had actually been enough to trigger her aura.
Charging back forward, the brunette repeated her previous attack. As she expected, his arm came up to block it, but it was a little slower this time. Using the extra moment, she changed the direction of her hand and caught his arm while it was still moving. Unfortunately, he had apparently seen that coming and responded by quickly spinning his arm to break her grip, lifting his foot and delivering a powerful stomp kick to her chest.
Syl staggered backward, thrown off balance by the surprising move. Once again, the sniper didn't come after her and simply returned to his stance. His face was emotionless, which only served to make her angrier. He's screwing with me, challenging me to kill him and then making me look like a fool when I try. He's confident he can win this fight. Her face set as she forced some of her anger back to let herself think clearer. Time to prove him wrong.
Launching forward for a third time, she propelled herself into the air, somersaulting over her opponent. As she landed, she swung a leg back toward him. The kick met only air, however. Apparently having anticipated the move, he'd rolled forward beneath her, reestablishing the distance between them and making any attempt to attack from behind pointless. He knew what I was going to do, she thought, trying to determine the cause of the apparent precognition. Rain. She hadn't even noticed him closing his scroll.
Adding the point to the list of her opponent's advantages, the brunette began to devise a strategy to counter it. Moving back at the sniper, she made as if to punch at his head again. As soon as his arm came up high enough, she spun herself and ducked, using the momentum to deliver a solid blow to his ribs with her elbow. Using her position to her advantage she stood and jerked her head back, catching the black-haired teen in his mouth. This time, it was him who staggered backward.
Spinning back to face him, the girl noticed quickly that she had caused his upper lip to split open. There was no glow of aura around the wound, however, neither blue nor cyan. He's not healing or protecting himself. Either he's arrogant, or he actually wants to die.
Not giving it another thought, she rushed in, intending to make the most of her advantage. The sniper must still have been dazed because he was unable to stop her from grabbing him by the arm and flipping him. He landed on the floor hard on his back. Syl went to stomp on his chest, but he was able to roll away, sweeping her legs and knocking her back in the process.
The table collapsed beneath her weight, the broken leg coming back off. Grabbing it, the brunette threw it at her former friend as she rose back up. By the time he deflected the projectile, she was on him. She quickly threw a punch toward his right side on order to bring up his arm. Grabbing the appendage, she channeled her semblance to stun him with a jolt of electricity before ducking under his arm and striking it just beneath his shoulder.
Letting out a pained grunt, the axe-wielder managed to spin back to face her. With his free hand, he was able to break the hold she had on his arm, which now hung limply at his side. Despite his weakened state, he stood his ground, doing his best to maintain his defensive stance. Syl had to give it to the bastard; he never gave up.
She got up close to him, throwing out several punches at his chest and head. For the most part, he was able to block them with his good arm, though it was clear it was taking its toll. Feinting a punch, the brunette brought her leg up to kick, but as she extended, her enemy deflected it with his own leg. Thinking quickly, the brunette shifted her weight onto that foot as soon as it touched the ground and used its momentum to spin herself around with her other foot heading for his head. Even if he had been able to get his arm up in time, it wouldn't have stopped her.
The heel of her boot struck his temple, and there was a small flash of cyan. If it hasn't been for that, he probably would have knocked unconscious. As it was, he stumbled to the side, giving the lancer a perfect opportunity to cripple him further. He let out a cry of pain as she slammed her foot into the side of his knee. Syl heard a gasp from her partner, but ignored it.
Recognizing her opportunity, she moved to retrieve the broken table leg. As she stalked towards him, the killer struggled to stand in spite of his crippled limbs. Swinging from his defenseless side, Syl struck him on the side of his head with her makeshift weapon. There was another flash of cyan, but he went down anyway.
Stepping over him, she pinned his good arm beneath her boot. She knelt down over him, the table leg clutched in her right hand, jagged end pressing into his throat. This was it; her moment of revenge. She looked down into his eyes. They were clouded with pain, but they were undeniably his.
Rain.
The person who betrayed her.
The person who called her friend.
The person who left her to die.
The person who she once loved.
The person who killed her father.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The person who forgave her.
.
.
The person who had tried to make amends for things he hadn't done.
The person who never got angry with the way she treated him.
The person who was willing to die so she could have what she wanted.
.
.
Rian.
With a frustrated yell, she threw the table leg across the room. She removed her leg from his arm and stood, backing up off of him. Tears began to leave her eyes, trailing down her face.
Rian struggled to his feet, having to use his left arm in place of his leg to accomplish the task. He wiped blood away from his mouth before slowly limping his way over to her. She didn't move or say anything, simply letting the tears fall.
Them he hugged her.
It was an awkward hug, with only his one arm, but Syl would be lying if she said she didn't appreciate it. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face into his neck as she began to shake. Somehow, he was able to support both of them on just his one leg. "How?" she asked, her voice choked by her sobbing. "How can you just forgive me after what I did to you?"
Rian rubbed her back gently with his hand. "Because I know you're not a bad person." Syl could feel his voice vibrating against her shoulder. Despite the physical pain he must have been in, it was clear and honest. "You didn't have to agree to leave Stella out of it when I asked you, but you did. Plus, you've had plenty of times to kill me before. If that's what you really wanted, you would have done it."
His voice grew quiet. "I'm sorry for what happened to your father, and I'm sorry for happened to you. No one can blame you for how you handled it, but I think it's holding you back." Syl pulled herself away from him. She had stopped shaking, and her tears had slowed their descent. He cocked his head to his right while looking at the other half of the team, beckoning them to join them. As they came over, he looked back at her and asked, "How bad were your burns?"
She blinked, tears blurring her vision as she struggled to recall the information he'd requested. "I, uh... Second-degree?" She couldn't understand why he'd asked her.
Rian shifted his gaze down to his partner, who had come up next to them while Stella stood back, cradling her arms. "How long do those usually take to heal?"
After a few moments of thinking, the blonde answered. "A few weeks, usually. A month or two if it's bad, but dat's without aura."
He nodded and looked back at the brunette. Slowly, he reached out and touched her bandaged arm. She flinched slightly at the contact. "May I?" he asked. She nodded. Finding purchase on the wrapping, he began to unravel it as best he could with his one hand. Every turn exposed more and more of her arm. Closing her eyes, she turned her head away. She knew what was waiting; while once they fueled her anger, now they would only serve to remind her of her pain. The last of the bandaging came off of her hand.
"Wow. That's… not nearly as bad as I expected."
Syl's eyes opened at her partner's words. She looked at her arm. Red and white blotches scarred her skin, marring the inside of her arm and down onto her hand. What does she mean it's not as bad? Citri brushed her fingers inquisitively across the lancer's skin. She quickly pulled her arm toward her chest protectively, inadvertently causing another jolt of pain.
The blonde looked at her, eyes wide with curiosity. "Did dat hurt?"
Syl nodded, looking at her as if she were crazy. "Of course it hurt! Why wouldn't it?"
"Because it's almost completely healed."
She took a half step back, looking down at her arm. Nothing had changed. "No, no. It's burned, there's scars," she mumbled, unable to believe them.
Rian matched her backward movement with a short limp forward. "Yes, there are scars, but they're not as bad as you think they are." He gently pressed his hand onto her arm, forcing her to endure the burning that came with it. "I'm guessing the pain isn't as bad, either."
"Ar ndóigh!" Citri exclaimed in her normal subdued manner. "It's psychosomatic!" The sniper nodded, though Stella had a confused look on her face. Syl suspected she had a similar look on her own face.
Rian explained delicately as he removed his hand. "It's all psychological. I'm not a medical expert, but I'd guess that you spent so long expecting the pain that that's how your brain began to interpret any form of contact with your arm."
Syl could feel herself shaking as she looked down at her arm. Tears began to loose themselves once again, but she didn't know why. "What about the scars? How can I be seeing those wrong?"
Reaching awkwardly across her body, he pulled her other arm up next to the scarred one. Once he had it in place, he pushed her sleeve up. "You tell me." With a blank slate to compare it to, the reds and whites suddenly didn't seem so vivid. In fact, the scars were hardly visible. She choked back a sob as it began to dawn on her. Rian cupped the side of her head with his hand and drew her gaze up toward his face. His eyes were firm, but not unkind. "I know I look and sound exactly like him, so I'm probably one of the last people you want to hear this from, but you need to let go."
The brunette closed her eyes and turned away from him. "I can't!" she wept, her shoulders heaving. "I'm not you; I can't just forgive him, not after what he did!"
She felt the teen's hand rest on her shoulder. "I never said you have to forgive him, -" Her hazel eyes turned to look at him. "- but you need to move past it. If you keep letting your vendetta control your life, it's going to destroy you, just like Rain's did."
The words echoed those Stella had spoken to her less than half an hour ago. 'Look what happened to him…' It's just like before; two people telling me the same thing and I just can't accept it. The worst part is, I know they're right…
Syl took a shaky breath. "Okay," she whispered to herself. "I'm letting go." Turning slowly toward her team, she repeated the phrase more assertively. "I'm letting go." The words brought little change with them. There was no feeling of a weight being lifted from her shoulders, and no feeling of emptiness or disappointment. There was only the feeling that had been slowly building since the fight had ended, that her chest was about to tear open at a moment's notice.
She looked down hesitantly before looking back at her team. "Did... When Rain was telling you… did he tell you my name?" Both the swordswoman and sniper shook their heads. She closed her eyes for a second. "It's Brie. Brie Sien."
The sniper gave her a tired smile as he held out his hand for her to shake. "Well Brie, I'm Rian. It's nice to meet-" Suddenly, his eyes seemed to lose focus. "Hate to spring this on you guys," he mumbled, starting to lose his balance, "but I'm going to pass out now." With that, his eyes rolled up and he collapsed.
Despite being the shortest of the three girls, Stella was the one to catch the unconscious teen. She had a terrified look on her face as she eased his weight down to the floor. "Rian!" She looked up at her partner with panic. "What do we do?!"
She had to take a moment to collect herself from the sudden change of events. "Infirmary." Stella nodded and began shifting his form so she could move him. "Be careful with his arm," the brunette reminded her partner before turning to Citri. It was a little surprising that the blonde actually had a look of worry on her face. "Grab Midnight Song and his satchel; no reason to leave them here. I'm going to help Stella."
The taller girl nodded and complied with the order. As she moved to help Stella with her burden, Brie thought to herself, Screw what he said; if I did something serious to him, I'm going to feel as guilty as I want.
(-)
Rian's eyes fluttered open before immediately closing again. Wherever he was, there were bright lights that only made his head hurt more. Keeping his eyes shut for the time being, he performed a mental check of his body. As far as he could tell, everything that had been hurting before he blacked out still hurt, though not quite as much. The only sounds he heard were footsteps crossing the floor somewhere in the room. He was laid out on a bed of some sort – not quite as soft as the dorm beds, - and his armor and turtleneck had been removed.
Forcing his eyes open, he let out a groan. If there was anybody nearby, they would know he was conscious. There was movement to his right, so he tried to pivot his head to look. That was a mistake. Instantly, pain flashed through his skull as his vision began to swim. Clamping his eyes shut, he slowly turned his head back. A hand rested gently on his arm and he heard Stella's voice. "Hey, hey, hey. Try not to move."
Yeah, I figured that out, Rian thought dryly. He kept his eyes closed while the pain dissipated. "How long was I out?"
There was a pause as she checked the time. "About an hour and a half."
He reopened his eyes slowly, thankful that the lights didn't seem quite as bright as before. Stella sat to his right with a look of concern on her face. He gave her a small smile, which she returned, before allowing it to fall back. "How bad is it?" he asked.
She glanced down at his knee before shifting her gaze back up to his chest. "There's some minor bruising on your ribs and arms, and your knee's sprained. On top of that, your shoulder was dislocated and they think you might have a concussion." Though he'd never been concussed before, Rian was inclined to agree with the diagnosis.
"You know," Stella continued, laughing lightly, "the infirmary staff were really confused when they saw that your aura had barely been touched. Brie explained it to them, but that didn't really make things any better." Her gaze dropped. "She's up talking to Ozpin now."
"Shit," he muttered. He knew what that meant, but there was nothing he could do. "What about Citri?"
"She's in class."
"Right... so why are you here?"
Under normal circumstances, Rian wouldn't have bothered asking the question since he could easily figure it out on his own. With his brain jarred, however, he was finding some critical thinking difficult. The question seemed simple, though, so he was surprised when it seemed to trip her up. "I... Well... Somebody had to be here when you woke up, right?" Her face grew a shade darker as she averted her eyes, quickly removing her hand from his arm.
Disregarding her change in behavior, Rian shut his eyes again and let himself sink back into the bed. "Well, thanks," he said quietly. She hummed in acknowledgement.
A minute of silence passed between them before Stella spoke again. "You're an idiot, you know that?"
Rian opened one eye to look at her. She had a frown on her face and her brow was furrowed. It was a rather unbecoming look on her. He closed his eye and smirked. "I like to think I'm pretty clever, actually."
It was unfortunate for him that his mind was still capable of sarcasm, because his comment earned him a punch in his shoulder. His face twisted in a silent cry of agony as fire burned outward from the point of contact. Clutching his shoulder, he began to write about in a fruitless attempt to stop the pain. It actually had the opposite effect, causing the ache in his head to grow worse.
Realizing what she had done, Stella stood, trying to figure out something she could do. Realizing something, she pulled the glove off her right hand and touched two of her fingers to her palm. Light blue lines appeared on her hand and as she placed it on his shoulder, Rian felt the heat quickly dissipate. "I am so sorry! I wasn't thinking," she apologized, returning to her seat as the ice Dust did its work.
-/Don't apologize; he deserved that,/- Rian's scroll buzzed on the side table as Rain offered his opinion.
The sniper grunted as the voice filled his head. "Not to sound like a jerk, but could you not talk?" he requested, pulling gently on his hair to distract from the ache in his head.
-/What? Am I interrupting or something?/- Rian almost missed the nervous twitch that passed over Stella's face.
"Actually, no; it's just that when you talk, it makes my head hurt more," he said truthfully. Rain grumbled quietly. "The sooner the concussion heals, the sooner you can talk freely again, so maybe you could work on that, huh?"
-/Yeah, alright,/- he muttered resignedly. He apparently wasn't content to let Rian get the last word though. -/Boring conversation anyway./- The scroll fell silent.
The bed-ridden teen closed his eyes and relaxed back into the mattress. His head didn't feel immediately better, but he assumed that it would probably take some time anyway. Stella's hand on his shoulder felt incredible though, cooling the damaged tissue far better than any ice pack.
"I mean it though; you are an idiot." Rian didn't open his eyes as she spoke, and, after what happened last time, decided it would be wise to keep his mouth shut as well. The black-haired girl took his silence as an invitation to continue. "You could have died, and you would have let it happen." Her voice wasn't scolding, but concerned. Scared. "And don't say you knew she wouldn't kill you because you didn't!" Her hand pressed down a little harder.
The boy opened his eyes to look at her. She was close to tears. Bringing his hand up, he rested it on top of hers on his shoulder. His eyes met hers for a moment before he looked away. "I'm sorry," he admitted. "I didn't mean to freak you guys out like that." He met her gaze again and gave a small smile. "Don't worry though, I'm not going anywhere." His mood shifted quickly as he realized the truth behind the statement. "At least, not as far as I can see."
Stella looked down, playing with her glove in her other hand. "I… also want to apologize for yelling at you before."
"Don't worry about it, it's alright."
She shook her head. "It's not though. It's really not. I overreacted. I was so focused on what you'd lied about losing that I didn't even think about what you had lost and what you're trying to get back to." She sighed and looked back at his face. "I can't even imagine how hard it was for you to adjust."
Rian's mouth twisted into a wry smile. "I did have a panic attack when we first met," he joked, and Stella let out a small laugh. Looking at his shoulder, he made a decision. "Well, as… awesome as this feels," he said, tapping her hand, "I don't want to keep you from anything."
The girl seemed hesitant. "A-are you sure?" she asked, slowly removing her hand.
With a reassuring smile, he nodded carefully. "Yeah. Besides, I'd like to get some sleep."
"Alright," Stella relented, standing reluctantly. Putting her glove back on, she gave him one last smile before turning and walking away. Closing his eyes, Rian considered how fortunate he was to have met such great people before falling into a light slumber.
Ah, I finally get to post this chapter. This one one of those that I really enjoyed writing largely because of how it let me use the limited perspective as a storytelling device rather than a decision. If you're not entirely sure what I mean by that, I would recommend going back, reading the fight and looking at how some of the language changes as it goes on.
Anyway, the fight was another one of the scenes that I've had in my head for a very long time, back around when I posted the first chapter. Admittedly, the only real parts I knew I wanted were the shoulder-dislocating arm punch and the knee kick, but I think I managed to build a solid scene around those moments. The bit with the table leg being used as a weapon was something I didn't come up with until after I'd had it broken off in chapter twelve, so hopefully that didn't come off as being obvious. Actually, I had toyed with the idea of having Syl use Midnight Song to try and kill Rain, but that felt too on the nose. Speaking of Syl, her real name is Brie! The transition between the names is going to be a lot harder for me than for the characters, I think. Fun fact: her entire family is named after cheeses.
Before I get to something that you might possibly find boring and cause you to close out of my story, I want to reiterate something I said last week. This chapter in particular essentially marks (at least to me) the halfway point for Wayward Son. Actually, it might be more appropriate to call it a mid-season finale. Several arcs have been pushed to their climaxes and, while they'll still have influences on the rest of the story, they're not going to be a focus anymore. Still, the day that started at the end of chapter 10 isn't over yet.
That being said, there's a reason I called this chapter a mid-season finale. As much as it's going to kill me to not be updating like I have been, doing so will likely kill me quicker. I've somehow been able to post a chapter every week for the last five weeks and as much as I've enjoyed being able to do so, it's been hard sometimes, especially with the length of chapters I write (more on that in a bit). Instead, I'll be going back to the bi-weekly schedule I had when I was still at college. This should give me a little more spare time outside of writing, as well as a bigger backlog to draw from if school gets busy when I go back.
On to the potentially boring part. Like I said, I've been able to post weekly for five weeks now. Personally, I was a little curious at how much I had written in the last month and how it compared to what I'd done before, even if there was no real purpose to it (I'm kind of a math geek). Here's what I came up with (based on numbers from July 18). Not including my personal notes, the total word count for the story was 67,741 words. Of that, 47,365 words were in chapters 1-10, while chapters 11-14 had 20,376 words. Chapters 11-14, which I wrote between approximately June 11 and July 11, make up about 30% of the word count, which is about what you'd expect. While I posted the first chapter at the end of February, I actually started writing at the end of December. So, approximating five and a half months for chapters 1-10, that's about 8,612 words per month, which is a little more than chapter eight. Chapters 11-14, however, those were all in one month, so that's 20,376 words per month. To put those two numbers in perspective with each other, I wrote 137% more words per month between June and July 11 than I did in the five and a half months prior. That's a lot.
Okay, that was probably really boring (if you even read it at all), but I want to say that I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I would love to hear your reviews and feedback. Adieu, and I will see you again in two weeks!