A/N- Ha! Yup! More story plot points that I couldn't find any place to put in the actual story! Though this one takes place only a few days after the last chapter, so I guess this could be considered an "actual" chapter, if only there was a bit of action... But whatevs, we'll get back to teenagers beating the hell out of each other next chapter, I promise. ;P
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MOONshot 3- Burying the Hatchet
Oreonna stormed down the hallways of Shade Academy, not quite running, but walking very briskly, as her pink eyes quickly scanned the floor in front of her, searching desperately for something. The cat girl had a clearly distressed look on her face as her tail swung furiously behind her and her left hand was anxiously rubbing the suspiciously empty space below her neck.
Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?! Oreonna screamed internally as panic gripped her tightly.
How could she have lost her locket!? She'd worn it everyday for months now, ever since that first morning at Shade, but about halfway through her classes for today she'd absentmindedly went to brush some hair behind her ear when the cat faunus noticed the thin string that was usually around her neck was gone. Oreonna knew she'd put on the piece of golden jewelry when she'd woken up this morning, a habit that had become second nature to her, but everything after that was unaccounted for. That meant she had lost it sometime in the last four hours during her morning classes, somewhere on the massive school grounds Oreonna had been traveling across all day. The search area was huge and with every second passing the odds of her never finding her locket grew and grew.
To make matters worse, she'd promised to have a video chat with her dad tonight. The older faunus had been so happy the first time they'd chat through the CCT and he'd seen the golden trinket that used to be Neo's hanging around his daughters neck. He'd tried to play it off as no big deal, but Oreonna could see the pride in his eyes at the simple gesture. The puma man probably took it as a sign that the younger faunus' opinion of her so called "mother" had improved slightly. The cat girl didn't have the heart to tell him that couldn't be further from the truth.
She didn't wear the locket for Neo, that woman wasn't worth the effort in the teenagers mind, she'd abandoned and forgotten about Oreonna decades ago. No, the cat faunus wore the necklace for her father, to remind herself of everything he'd sacrificed and lost to get her here, to Shade, and as a promise that she'd never hurt him like Neo had.
... And now she'd lost it. With only a few hours before her video chat with her dad.
Oreonna could already imagine the disappointment on the old man's face. He'd probably try to hide his sadness, like he always did when his daughter was around, but she knew this would break his heart. No matter what excuse the cat faunus would come up with to explain the lockets absence she knew that just seeing her without it was going to hurt her poor father.
So she had to find it. No matter how long it took. The bell for Oreonna's next class had rung out about fifteen minutes ago. The cat girl had never missed a class in her entire life, hell, she'd never even been late to one before, so this only added to the anxiety she was feeling. But her perfect attendance record was the last thing on the cat girls mind right now. The only thing that mattered was the locket.
So she'd retrace her steps. She'd already tried calling up Maybelle and Oran, but the two of them were already in class so she just left messages on their scrolls asking for help. The cat girl hadn't even bothered trying to reach Nichol, already knowing how that brief conversation would go. Oreonna might have been desperate to find the locket, but she wasn't quite so desperate to ask for help from the crabby, easily antagonized girl. The two of them had been getting along just fine the last few weeks avoiding each other like the plague and the violinist saw no reason to break that trend. That meant the cat girl was on her own for now. She hurried down the hallway and with a quick swipe of her scroll the door in front of her unlocked. Retracing her steps meant starting from when she first woke up this morning. So that meant stop one was going to be her dorm room and at this point Oreonna was ready to tear it apart if she had to.
The cat faunus flung the door open, making it slam loudly when it hit the wall. This caused the rooms soul occupant to look up with a start from the book she'd been quietly enjoying a moment earlier. Oreonna stood in the doorway, her rosy pink colored irises immediately locking with a pair of burning orange ones as Nichol stared back from her bed which she was currently reclining on. The two of them stayed motionless out of surprise for a moment, before the silverette let out a scoff and returned to her reading. The cat faunus scolded herself inwardly for forgetting that this was Nichols free period. What were the odds the one person she was hoping to avoid would be here?
Whatever. Oreonna didn't have time to get into it with her seemingly constantly annoyed teammate. So, ignoring the girl on the other end of the room, the black and white haired teen hastily made her way over to her own bed, quickly whipping off the covers to check underneath. Nothing. She threw her pillow to the side. Nothing. She tore the sheets clean off the mattress. Still nothing. She checked her nightstand -where she usually kept her locket when she wasn't wearing it- then its drawers, and finally going as far as to push the furniture to the side with a loud 'SKRRRRRRCH' across the floor. This earned the cat eared girl an annoyed sound from Nichol, but Oreonna continued to ignore her. Unfortunately, the space behind her nightstand was empty as well.
The cat faunus sighed loudly, earning another grunt from her teammate behind her. Oreonna's head spun around to face Nichol, but the aggravated girl just side eyed the violinist with her head still in her book. It was so tempting for Oreonna to take all the frustration she was feeling and direct it at Nichol right now, maybe even accuse the stoic girl of having something to do with her lockets disappearance, but the cat girl thought better of it. Nichol was a lot of things to Oreonna, but not a thief.
Instead the cat faunus eyed her bed curiously, could her misplaced jewelry have fallen underneath? It wasn't an impossibility she supposed. Getting down on all fours, Oreonna tried her best to stick her head into the space beneath her mattress, despite the angle being awkward and her cat ears getting a little in the way, but with some finagling she managed to get her head underneath her-
"What are you doing?"
Startled by the sudden voice, Oreonna jumped and bumped her head on the bottom of her bed, her cat ears went flat as she growled lowly from the dull pain. The cat girl pulled her herself out from under her mattress to scowl at Nichol who was giving her a strange look now.
However, the silverette seemed immune to the glare she was receiving, probably because it paled in comparison to one of her own. "I'm trying to enjoy what little quiet time I'm allowed," Nichol said with exasperation, "I don't know what you're up to, but perhaps you could do it quieter, or ideally, elsewhere?"
Oreonna tightened her fists in anger. It was the wrong day for Nichol to take that kind of tone with her. Gods did she want to set her straight right now, but that was just the frustration at not being able to find her belonging talking, and it wouldn't help her find it any faster. So the cat faunus exhaled slowly out of her nose to soothe her temper before speaking. "I'm just trying to find my locket, Nichol," Oreonna said as calmly as she could manage, "It was my mom's, so I'm just checking every place I can think of. I'll be out of your hair in a second." The violinist wasn't sure why she'd even brought up the fact that it was her mom's, it had just kinda came out. It wasn't like that was a fact the faunus was proud of, it's just that Neo was the first person she associated with the piece of jewelry, for better or worse.
It didn't matter, as long as Nichol's curiosity was satisfied for a moment so Oreonna could continue her search. After taking a second to shake the dust and cobwebs that had collected in her hair from sticking it under her bed, the cat faunus decided against trying her current approach a second time. She looked back at her bed. It would be easier if she just moved the whole thing to see what was underneath. The small cat girl doubted she was strong enough to push the frame herself, but it was worth a try at least. So the faunus grabbed her bed by the metal holding the mattress and began to push. Predictably, the violinist was unable to move it alone, and after a few moments of trying was about to give up when suddenly the bed started to slide across the floor. The black and white haired girl was shocked by her own sudden display of strength, but then she noticed a figure next to her helping her push. To her own disbelief, it was Nichol.
"What?" Nichol said, not even looking at Oreonna as she gripped the frame tightly, "If it'll get you out of here faster then... just push on three, okay?"
The cat faunus was too shocked to reply, but when the silverette began counting, she snapped back to reality and began shoving her bed with all her might. The two girls were able to move the heavy wood and metal frame with relative ease. Unfortunately, once it was moved, all that was revealed was an empty floor and a few dust bunnies.
The violinist sighed again, sitting down on the floor with her back against the side of her mattress. This wasn't looking good, the analogy about needles and haystacks rang in her head almost mockingly. Was it even worth trying? All for a cheap looking piece of jewelry that honestly brought her more pain than joy? Something that served as a constant reminder of the abandonment issues that still haunted her to this day? Her dad would be disappointed, sure, but was Oreonna really going to wear that albatross around her neck for the rest of her life just to please him?
... Of course she would. She'd do anything for him. It wouldn't be the first time she'd suffered in silence for someone else, and with the career path she'd chosen it definitely wouldn't be the last. If wearing the damn locket made him happy, then she had to find it.
Nichol was silent in the face of the tempest of emotions the cat girl in front of her was experiencing. Eventually, the spear wielder took a seat on the floor with her teammate, crossing her legs beneath her. After another beat of silence, the silver haired girl asked, "So... that locket you wear, it was your mothers?"
Oreonna looked up at her teammate, surprised Nichol had asked such a personal question, it was almost as if she was trying to learn more about the cat girl. The faunus gave a skeptical look and a noncommittal, "Yeah..." Oreonna was a little suspicious of the sudden interest the silverette was showing in her, this was a weird time for her to suddenly start caring.
Nichol's look softened, much to the cat girls continued surprise. It was a look she'd never seen on the grumpy teens face, Oreonna had grown so accustomed to the constant mask of anger Nichol wore that anything to the contrary seemed almost unnatural. "Um... When did..." the silverette seemed uncharacteristically uncomfortable as she tried to find the words, "When did she... pass..."
The faunus girl was confused for a moment until she realized the way she'd said 'it was my moms' may have given the wrong implication. "Oh no, no, no, no, no," Oreonna said waving her hands in front of Nichol, "she's not dead... er... that I know of, I mean." The violinist was suddenly reminded in that moment of how little Neo had been involved in the last sixteen years her life, "Though to me, she might as well be," Oreonna muttered bitterly, glaring off to the side.
"Don't ever say that," the look on Nichol's face when she spoke could have sent an army of Grimm running in the opposite direction. The way she'd said the words made Oreonna sit up straight, startling the cat girl with the amount of venom behind them. It was different from the silverette's usual darker tone, this was pitch black. The faunus had clearly hit a nerve with that comment she'd made. "Don't ever even think something like that. Not about your mother."
The cat girl was certainly taken aback by her teammates words, but definitely wasn't about to take back her own. "I'm sorry, but you don't get it," Oreonna said angrily, but also quietly, attempting to defuse some of the tension in the air around Nichol with a little more clarification. "Me and her, we just... I never knew her. She left a long time ago. I was barely a year old and she just... left me on my dad's doorstep, like I was nothing." the cat girl said softly, familiar feelings developing in her chest. She actually hadn't gotten around to telling any of her teammates this story yet and could hardly believe it was Nichol of all people that had dragged it out of her first. "I only said what I did because she obviously didn't care about me, so I don't see why I shouldn't offer her that same kindness."
The silverette frowned slightly at hearing this. "No, I'm the one who should apologize," Nichol said, resting her elbows on her knees as she slouched forward. "I shouldn't have assumed anything in the first place." Oreonna was caught completely off guard by her teammates sudden back down. She'd expected another fight between the two of them, not an apology. The two students sat in a long, slightly uncomfortable, quiet moment before the stoic spear wielder spoke again, "Can I ask you a question?" Oreonna nodded reluctantly. "What would you do if tomorrow you found out your mom actually had died? How would you feel?"
Oreonna stared back in confusion at her teammate's sudden line of questioning, but didn't provide an immediate answer, so Nichol continued. "Surely you have questions only she could answer, correct? How would you feel having not only never truly known anything about her, but also knowing you'd never get the chance to ask those questions?"
The cat faunus pondered this for a moment. What would she do if she found out Neo had died? The immediate answer was that she'd feel nothing for the woman, but then Oreonna thought a little deeper on the subject. She did have questions, things only Neo could tell her. Hell, she didn't even know exactly when her own birthday was. Thinking about never getting any of those answers made her feel... unfulfilled. Like her mother held some part of her hostage, and with her death, Oreonna would lose it forever. It was an uncomfortable thought to say the least, that she felt like she needed her mom for anything at all.
"I don't know..." the cat girl relented, "There are things I want to know, but..."
"Mothers are special," Nichol interrupted, "A lot of people only ever get one in there lives," the silverette's frown deepened, "and sometimes they are taken far too soon."
Oreonna never could have predicted her day going like this, with Nichol opening up to her in such a way. "Did... did something happen to your mom?" the cat girl asked. She was just taking a shot in the dark here, but it seemed like Nichol was speaking from experience. The faunus watched as the spear wielders head hung low and her hands clenched tightly in her lap. Yup. Definitely hit another nerve here. "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Oreonna said. Then, without realizing what she was doing, the cat girl instinctively reached out and put a hand on Nichols upper arm in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. The silverette stared at the hand on her with a bit of surprise, and so did Oreonna if she was honest. The faunus remembered back to when Oran had invaded Nichols personal space and half expected to get an earful like the hyena boy had. Instead though, the usually stoic girl's posture seemed to relax slightly as she closed her eyes and sat back up straight, regaining her composure. Not wanting to push her luck, the cat faunus removed her hand quickly, placing it back in her lap.
"It's none of my business, I know," Nichol went on, distancing herself from the cat girls question while also trying to brush off what both students would agree was an awkward moment, "and I'm not trying to change how you feel. That is the right of all sentient beings, to feel anger, sadness, joy, longing, remorse or any emotion they see fit. However, and this may sound hypocritical coming from someone like me but, I've learned recently that when given a choice, hate is rarely the correct one, or at the very least, you shouldn't choose blind hate. You can lose who you are in those kinds of emotions, and find yourself... acting rashly."
The look of regret on Nichol's face was certainly a new one to Oreonna. It had always been aggression, annoyance, and contempt for all things whenever they'd interacted. Her teammate was like a raging beast whom it was best to stay out of the way of. Imagine the black and white haired girls surprise when, instead of a monster, the cat faunus saw a person sitting before her, someone fallible, who'd suffered loss, a loss that Oreonna felt was fairly familiar to her. Who would of guessed bonding over absentee mothers would be a common occurrence in the cat girls life. First Yang and now this. Granted, she didn't know exactly what had happened to Nichol's mother, but it was clear that the two of them would not be having this kind of conversation if there wasn't some kind of baggage there for the stoic girl. They both felt like something was missing, like it had been taken from them, they'd just chosen to deal with things in different ways; Oreonna kept the hurt locked up inside, not wanting to burden others with her own issues, while Nichol seemed to wear her pain on her sleeve, lashing out in anger at anyone around her. One could argue that neither approach was particularly healthy for either of them.
This whole situation still seemed so surreal to the faunus girl. Oran was always telling Oreonna their was more to Nichol than met the eye. He'd spent the most time with the silverette out of all of team MOON, so if anyone would know, the orange haired jokester would. Still though, the cat girl was always quick to dismiss Oran's claims, but based on the evidence presented here, maybe there was something to what he'd been saying...
Suddenly the door to team MOON's dorm burst open, and as if summoned simply by Oreonna's thoughts, a certain hyena boy stormed in. "Yo, Oreo! You'll never guess what I-" Oran started then suddenly stopped at seeing the cat faunus was not alone in the room, covering his mouth with one hand to cut off his voice at the sight of Nichol.
The spear wielder groaned audibly before standing and walking back over to her bed. "It's okay, Oran," Nichol said as she picked her book back up, "you can still talk to Oreonna, just not me personally." The silverette sat back down on her mattress and continued her reading. The cat faunus gave her teammates a look before remembering hearing about the deal the two had made involving Oran giving her partner a 'week of the sweet gift of silence' in return for helping the hyena boy with a 'personal problem'. The black and white haired girl hadn't bothered asking questions regarding this deal -or just what the hyena boy had meant by a 'personal problem'- but apparently Oran was taking his vow very seriously.
His freedom of speech seemingly magically restored, Oran turned to Oreonna excitedly. "Oreo! I just got your message, and you'll never guess what I found after Dew fired another burst of sand into my face down in the Coliseum just now!" he said before taking a moment to build dramatic timing before pulling from behind his back-
"My locket!" Oreonna said happily as she reached out to take the small golden trinket from her friends hands. She studied the item quickly, checking for damage, but aside from a little sand it appeared fine. The string that held it however, had snapped right next to where Oreonna had tied a knot to keep the locket in place, that must be how she'd lost it. "Thank you so much, Oran," the cat faunus said genuinely as she wrapped her arms around the hyena boys torso in a tight embrace.
"No prob," Oran said, returning the hug, "I've never been happier to get a mouthful of hot dirt."
Oreonna released her teammate and looked down at her locket and suddenly felt a strange cocktail of emotions in regards to it. She'd felt so relieved to see it again, but those feelings of resentment and loss were still prevalent in her mind, now combined with the new feelings that had been brought up from her conversation with Nichol. It was all just so... complicated now, even more so than usual. At the end of the day, despite what her dad would hope for, this thing would still always be a heavy burden around his daughters neck.
The hyena faunus seemed to notice to change in mood and rubbed her neck sheepishly. He opened his mouth to say something, probably a inadvertently tasteless joke to break the tension, but seemed to think better of it at the last moment. "Sooooooo... I should get going... back to class, I mean. Glad I could help. Catch you later, Oreonna," Oran said, turning to leave, but stopping suddenly, looking back to the cat girl and adding, "Oh, and tell Nichol I said goodbye too."
From her bed, the silverette scoffed and shook her head at her partner bending the rules of their agreement, but didn't say anything more on the subject. So with a laugh Oran exited the room, leaving the two girls alone again. Oreonna felt a mischievous smile sneak onto her face, she couldn't resist turning to Nichol and saying, "Oran say's-"
"I heard," the spear wielder said with exasperation, but the cat faunus swore she could make out just a hint of amusement in her tone. That made Oreonna smile a little, but then she looked back at the locket still resting in her palms and the depressing feelings returned. Was the pain this object brought her worth it? The sound of a book closing, and the creaking of mattress springs as Nichol stood, tore the cat girl out of her moral quandary. The spear wielder walked over to the cat faunus and held a hand out. "May I?" she asked, gesturing towards the locket.
Despite her misgivings about the trinket, Oreonna was still hesitant about handing it over to anyone, but Nichol had shown a new side of herself to the cat girl today, and she reasoned that deserved a bit of trust. So, the violinist gently handed over her locket to Nichols open hand.
The spear wielder studied the admittedly unremarkable piece of tarnished jewelry with an unimpressed expression, before popping the latch and revealing the picture inside. Nichols orange eyes seemed to change as she stared at the weathered photograph, there was flicker of sadness in them that struck a cord with the violinist. Almost aggressively, the silverette closed Oreonna's locket tightly between her fingers before handing it back to it's owner.
"That's your mother?" Nichol asked.
Oreonna had to repress an eye roll at what she saw as a pretty obvious question, yet she answered it regardless, "Yeah. I mean, she's really just 'Neo' to me at this point, but yeah, that's her."
Nichol hummed in response, her eyes still focused on the piece of jewelry. "That needs a new string," she said, before turning back to her bed. Oreonna figured that was the end of the conversation, that the silverette would go back to her book now, but to her surprise, the spear wielder pulled her trunk out from under her bed and after unlocking it, began rummaging around inside. The faunus couldn't resist trying to peak over the silverette's shoulder, curious about what she kept in that mysterious piece of luggage, but Nichol's body blocked her view. After apparently finding what she was looking for, Nichol re-locked her case and stood, returning to the cat girls side with what looked like a spool of string and a small pocketknife. "Try this," Nichol said, unwinding a strand of the material and tearing the piece off with the knife, "I guarantee it'll last longer than that scrawny piece of rope anyway." Then she handed the string to Oreonna.
There had been a lot of things Oreonna had been expecting seeing Nichol when she'd first entered the room moments ago. She'd expected either a heated argument, or the two of them completely ignoring each other as they had for the last several weeks. Never in a thousand years would she have thought her grouchy teammate would not only try and help her find her missing belonging, but also offer to fix it.
Dumbfounded, the violinist reached out and took the piece of string. As she touched the material, she realized it was in fact a thin piece of sturdy feeling leather, certainly much better than the old, brittle string Oreonna had used before. Not only that, but upon closer inspection, the cat faunus recognized it to be the same type of leather Nichol used to tie the braids on each side of her face. From anyone else, such a small gesture would be easily dismissed by the cat girl, but this was Nichol she was dealing with here. The fact the silverette was willing to share anything at all was completely unheard of to Oreonna. In just one meeting the stoic girl had undone almost everything the faunus thought she knew about her.
The spear wielder seemed to notice her partners reluctance and offered a shrug. "It's fine," she said with a neutral expression, "I have plenty." Nichol held up the still mostly full spool in her hand for Oreonna to see.
Now baffled beyond words, the faunus girl began stringing the tough piece of leather through the small loop on top of her necklace, adding a strong knot to keep it in place. Yet despite the task being finished, the cat girl still found herself unable to put the necklace back on, the weight of it seemed like too much to bear now. However, she still wanted to make it known to Nichol that she appreciated the, honestly quite shocking, help she'd given. "Thanks," Oreonna mumbled, still uncertain why her teammate was suddenly acting so generously.
"Yeah..." Nichol muttered back. Oreonna was certain that now the conversation was officially over, but the silverette just kind of hovered in front of her looking like she had more to say. After some deliberation, the spear wielder finally asked, "Why do you think she left you that necklace?"
The cat faunus opened her mouth to answer, but no words came. She'd... never asked herself that question before. Why had Neo left the locket with Oreonna? It seemed like such an obvious thing to ask, and yet it had honestly never crossed her mind until now. Despite being caught off guard however, an obvious answer soon formed in the violinists mind, and it wasn't exactly an uplifting one.
The faunus scoffed, looking off to the side. "Probably because she couldn't stand to have any reminder of me," Oreonna said bitterly. The pain the cat girl had always associated with her absent mother seemed to burn hotter than ever before at the realization as it clenched tightly around her heart. Neo had hated her. Oreonna had always suspected that, but this seemed to finally set that idea in stone in her head. Her mom had left her in the pouring rain to live with someone else that she'd abandoned, so why would she ever want to keep a photo of her unwanted child? Might as well abandon that too while she was at it. An invisible darkness seemed to settle in the room around Oreonna as she hung her head and the cat girl felt the familiar feeling of tears starting to build behind her eyes. Hot, bitter, angry tears were the only thing besides the locket that Neo had left her daughter with.
"Then why leave it with you?" Nichol asked, bringing the cat girl out of her own dark thoughts for a moment. "She could have left that locket in a million other places. Places where it would never see the light of day or another soul ever again, but I think she wanted you to have it. I think she wanted you to remember her." Oreonna raised her head at her teammates words, "To remember that look on her face as she held you in her arms."
The cat faunus was at a loss for words. Neo wanted Oreonna to remember her? Why? The black and white haired girl had always been content to assume the worst when it came to her mother, but she'd never considered things from that angle before. It was like a new dimension of question had opened up to her. After all these years, could there have been more to her apparent abandonment than the violinist had wanted to realize?
In front of Oreonna, Nichol sighed. "I can see I've upset you with all these rhetorical thoughts and questions, that was not my intention. As I said earlier, it's not my place to dictate how you feel," she said guiltily. "But as you may have guessed, I do have a bit of a... stigma on the subject of mothers." Yeah, the cat faunus had noticed. Oreonna opened her mouth to inquire about this, but was cut off by her teammate. "But that's not a topic open to discussion right now," the silverette was quick to add sternly.
Now that sounded like the old Nichol. The cat faunus thought to herself.
"All I'm trying to say-" Nichol continued, "is that something about this situation leads me to believe there might be a reason why she left you beyond simple neglect. So... please just consider that before wishing death upon someone."
With that, the silverette finally seemed to be finished speaking and began walking back to her bed, but she had one final thing to say over her shoulder, "By the way, don't you have Grimm studies right now?"
Oreonna's eye went wide as her head shot towards the clock on the wall. Her class. She might still be able to get there before it was over. A tardy was better than an absence in any case she presumed. The cat girl looked at the locket still in her hands, Nichols words buzzing in her mind as a swirl of new emotions regarding her belonging and her mother danced in her head. The violinist still wasn't ready to forgive Neo for anything, but the yearning to understand the woman who'd caused her so much grief was stronger than ever before.
Oreonna found herself remembering what her dad had said when he'd first given her the locket.
I'm not asking you to forgive her, you don't even have to like her, but if you could just find it in your heart not to hate her, that would be enough for me.
The cat girl took a deep breath before slipping the locket back around her neck. The new material holding it on was actually a lot more comfortable on the back of the young faunus' neck than the rough string she'd used before was. More importantly however, the violinist noticed the weight she had come to associate with the object seemed a little lighter, like the locket no longer felt like a burden to her. Now it was more like a promise not only to her dad, but to herself. Oreonna promised she'd find her mom one day, and when she did she'd get her answers. Until then, the cat girl decided to at least try and reserve judgement on Neo. Make no mistake, she didn't feel she owed her mom anything, least of all the benefit of the doubt, but no longer would she let the blind, hateful, and dark thoughts about the woman plague her mind and embitter her own soul, not until she knew the truth at least.
A new resolve found, the cat girl went to leave the room but suddenly stopped when she looked back at Nichol who'd returned to her mattress and to her book. The fact that Oreonna had come to these new revelations because of the silverette was still a shock to the faunus. The two students had spent most of their time since coming to Shade at each others throats. In fact one might say that the relationship between the two of them -or lack thereof- was the final piece of team MOON that had remained fractured after those troubling first few weeks. Yet at that moment, Oreonna felt like she was looking at Nichol for the first time.
Unfortunately, said looking didn't go unnoticed by the spear wielder. "Did you need something else?" Nichol asked as she lowered her book again, clearly anxious to get back to her reading.
Oreonna let out a quiet laugh. "No, I'm good," she said contently. "I just never expected us to have a conversation like we just did. You know, civilly."
Nichol looked away dejectedly. "I suppose that's fair," the silverette said, "We didn't exactly start out on the best of terms upon meeting, did we?" The orange eyed teen closed her book again and sighed. "My... upbringing has left me with a lot of issues that I'm trying to work through, but that doesn't excuse my behavior back then. I'm also not fantastic when it comes to apologies, but... as I said, recent events have opened my eyes to some truths I've ignored, so to speak, and I'm going to try and be more... tolerable in the future. I want to succeed at this academy, but my attitude was becoming an obstacle, and I refuse to let my former way of thinking drag myself, or anyone else, down with me."
The cat faunus smiled at Nichol. She thought back to the promise she'd made to Maybelle; that Oreonna would try and get along with Nichol as long as the spear wielder tried as well. The cat girl hadn't exactly kept that promise, but here was Nichol, actually trying, maybe it was time Oreonna did to. Her mind made up, the faunus walked over to the edge of her teammates bed and extending a hand to Nichol. The silverette just stared at the outstretched arm in confusion. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Back during initiation, May and I kinda had a 'reintroduction' down in the Catacombs to make up for the awful first meeting we had the day before, which... was almost as bad as our first meeting now that I think about it," Oreonna said with an eye roll as she recalled what Nichol had called her that day, as well as how the cat faunus had gone out of her way to call the silverette out about it in front of all the students in attendance back then, no doubt putting a target on the Nichol's back. It would have been difficult for any two people to have started out on a less right foot, but now she was offering the spear wielder the same olive branch she'd offered their leader that day. "So what if we just started over? A fresh start, for both of us."
Nichol continued to stare at the hand offered to her and after a moment the silverette exhaled loudly through her nose before looking away. "I don't believe in clean slates, Oreonna," she said darkly, "I'm sorry, but I can't ask you to forgive me when I don't think I deserve to be."
"You're not asking me to do anything, this is my choice," Oreonna's words made Nichol's eyes snap back to her teammate. "I don't hate you, Nichol, I don't think I ever really did. Our personalities just clashed so violently in the beginning that I guess we both just never took the chance to even try to understand one another. But maybe now, after everything we just talked about, maybe we understand a little more? Enough to try again? That's what I'd like anyway."
Nichol gave her teammate a bewildered look, alternating between Oreonna's face and her still outstretched limb as she seemed to be pondering this request. The cat girl shifted her weight beneath her as she felt her arm starting to go numb from leaving it hanging there between the two of them. Then, almost shakily, and oh so slowly, the silverette extended her own hand before wrapping it around Oreonna's and offering a quick two shakes before quickly recoiling away like a nervous animal and returning to her book, her puzzled expression never fading.
The agreement seemingly finalized, the black and white haired cat girl spun on her heel and went to leave the room, only to stop again. She looked back over her shoulder and smiled at Nichol who briefly made eye contact before looking away. "Thank you, Nichol," Oreonna said before leaving leaving the room.
Finally alone again, Nichol settled back into her bed, and as she resumed her story her lips curved upwards and she said quietly, "You're welcome..."
As she walked down the hallways of Shade Academy, Oreonna moved with newfound spirit in her step as she clutched at the locket hanging around her neck.
Meanwhile, on almost the other side of the planet, off in the outskirts of Mistral, in an abandoned factory, a short woman was sitting on a stack of metal storage containers, her crossed legs dangling off the side. The moonlight outside shined in through the buildings tattered roof and gleamed off the locket the woman was holding. This locket wasn't just similar to the one Oreonna had, it was an exact replica, down to the picture inside it, which the multi-colored haired woman was observing with a complex expression. More accurately, her pink colored irises were focused on the baby faunus in the picture.
The woman ran her thumb across the photograph tenderly, before her scroll began vibrating in her pocket. The woman pulled out the device with her free hand and rolled her now mismatched colored eyes in amused irritation at the message her boss/best friend had just sent her.
Need help in Vale. Local teenagers are giving me an ulcer.
The woman wrinkled her nose in aggravation before quickly typing back a one handed message to the orange haired nuisance.
I hate Vale.
Within seconds, she got a response.
Didn't ask how you felt about it. New boss is lighting a literal fire underneath me to get things moving over here. Be on the next flight over, or it's both our asses.
The woman groaned inwardly, before responding with a ;) knowing her old friend would understand it as confirmation that she'd be there to save his butt... again.
Pocketing her scroll, the woman stood on top of the crate she'd been sitting on, holding the locket between her fingertips by the string it was tied to. The still open piece of jewelry spun in her grip and the moons rays made sure that the pink and brown haired woman was looking directly at her daughter's young face when she let go of the locket, sending it falling to the floor.
The entirety of the golden trinket shattered like glass when it hit the ground, but it had just been an illusion the woman had materialized that had been shaped like her old locket. The hundreds of shards quickly fell away into dust as the now empty warehouse sat in silence. Like no one had ever been there at all.
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A/N- Eyyyyy! We finally got to see Neo again after like infinity chapters. Also this sets the time frame this takes place in the actual RWBY canon. As her text conversation with Roman reveals this part of the story takes place somewhere during volume one of the actual series. So anyone whose wondering; Yes, we will eventually be going through the actual events of RWBY here. Reeeeeally excited to get to volume two, for obvious reasons. We just got to finish up all these goings on in Vacuo before team MOON makes their way to Vale for the Vytal festival tournament. From there, things should spiral out of control like in the show(possibly more so). So yeah, look forward to that then.
Anyway, next chapter we have the much anticipated (by me at least), totally on time, holiday special of this series. Sounds like a good chance to talk about our emotions and maybe set sail a few ships... (cough cough Cookies and Cream cough)