Morality Check

"Ow!" Mydnight nearly barked out, his eyes squinting in pain as his fist collided with Isenheart, the sharp edges of his friends metal spine stabbing his fingers lightly before he jumps back and shakes the pain out of his hand with a smirk. "That was low Liv."

Olivier lets out a little laugh. She had twisted herself around and ensured the blow from her opponent would land where she desired. "Hey I didn't use my weapon, I used my spine," she shrugs with a sly smile as she faces him again and re-sets her defensive stance.

The other huntsmen and huntresses laughed along with Olivier from the sidelines as the two began circling each other again. After several moments Liv lunges forward at him, her left fist connecting with his right wrist. Before she could pull away however he quickly snapped his right hand down and out, grabbing her fist and twisting her around, holding her arm behind her back and sliding his left foot between her legs, hooking it around her own left leg and pulling it back toward him, causing her to fall to one knee. "Ow ow ow okay Mydnight I give okay?" She winces out in pain as she taps the ground in front of her.

Mydnight smiles to himself and lets her go, "Ya that's what I thought," he laughs out as Ruby begins to clap and cheer for her brother's victory. He takes a step forward and reaches down, putting his arm around Liv's waist and lifting her up to her feet. Liv seems flustered for a moment, her cheeks beginning to grow red before she calms down and takes a deep breath.

She takes a step away from him before breathing out a short, "Thank you," and turning back to him.

He takes notice of her hesitation and watches as she seems to uncomfortably shift her weight on her feet as she folds her arms over her chest in a moment of thought, the pink tinge fading from her face. "Uh...Liv are you...okay?" He says as he leans down toward her and reaches out, taking hold of her arm lightly as his golden eyes dart down to meet her her own plum ones. As she looks back at him he could see her lips part slightly as her face once again began to light up before she shook her head and stepped away from him, his arm falling back to his side.

"I'm..I'm fine," she says softly before seeing everyone starring at her in confusion.

"I didn't hit you THAT hard Liv," Mydnight says in confusion before she closes her eyes and scowls before brushing past him and heading for he house.

"I said I'm fine!" She says sternly. "I'm...I'm just gonna go for a walk alright?"

"Uh...okayyyy?" Mydnight lets out softly as she disappears into the house and Ambur walks up behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "What did I do?"

"I don't think you did anything Mydnight," Ambur breaths out softly. "We are all pretty stressed about all this and she probably just needs a minute. Why don't you just follow her into town and make sure she's alright. Let her walk it off for a while huh?" She says with a soft smile, nudging him toward the door.

"If you insist," he says in confusion before slowly chasing after her.

Ruby then walks over to Ambur and speaks up in her little voice. "Uhmm, Ambur?"

The amazon looks down to find the small girl looking back up to her with her puppy dog eyes on display. "Are they gonna be okay?"

"Ahah," Ambur chuckles out as she rest her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ya...I think so...Liv's just..." Ambur sighs as she looks for the right words, "complicated."

Ruby looks up to her In confusion, clearly wanting more of an explanation. "Complicated how?"

"She's...just got a lot going on in that head of hers...she'll be okay," Ambur says as she turns away from Ruby and back to the other students. "Alright now, Oscar why don't you get up here and spar with Ruby huh?"

Oscar snaps out of what seems to be a day dream at the mention of his name and Ruby's attention turns to him. "Uh...sure," he lets out nervously before standing up and dusting his pants down.

/

"That..damn wolf," Liv sighed to herself a she headed down the pathway from the house toward the center of town. She had taken off in quite a hurry, only grabbing her flannel as she rushed out of the house and pulled it on over her tank top. Her thin heels sank slightly into the dirt with every step she took but she was too flustered to care. She just wanted to be as far from Mydnight as she possibly could be right now.

"Why does he have to be so...huhhhhh..." She growled out as she clutched at her shirt just above her heart. "So perfect..." Her mind began to wander and her cheeks once again grew more and more flushed. After a moment she shook her head back and forth, raising her hand from her chest to her face and lightly smacking herself on the cheek. "Stop it Olivier. Stop thinking about him you...stupid girl," she said aloud to herself, several people in the street taking notice and giving her funny looks.

Mydnight as well had seen her outburst, following behind her as far back as he could to keep her in sight. He let out a sigh of his own as his shoulders sank, "Oh Liv...huhhh...I'm actually going to have to tell her," he said in sadness as he scratched the back of his head and continued slowly after her.

Olivier continued down the road until she found herself at a dead end, starring off into the waterfall that split the town down the middle. She found a bench overlooking the falls and sat down, legs crossed with her elbows rested on them and chin rested upon her hands. "Why can't I just follow my own orders...this would be so much easier if I could make myself ignore it instead of him," she says quietly, spacing out looking at the rushing water. Guilt began to over take her however with the admission of what she had once done to her closest friend. Her annoyance with herself grew more and more until she was so frustrated that she began to silently cry. Her head slid down in, moving her hands from her chin to her eyes as she began to let the tears flow.

"Liv..." She hears her friend say quietly, having snuck up behind her. She jumps from her seat and reflexively stumbles backward into a small wooden fence, keeping her from falling over the cliff into the water.

"No! No no Mydnight you cannot be here right now!" She whines out with more tears welling in her eyes. "Please just leave me alone!"

Mydnight looks at her for a moment before he shakes his head in response. "No." He then begins to slowly walk toward her.

"Stop Myd I just wanna be alone!" She say more nervously as she shys away from him. However he keeps coming toward her and as he reaches her he puts his arms around his friend and pulls her into an embrace. One she had been longing for for over a year now.

As he held her he felt her begin to shake in frustration, only causing him to hold her tighter and rub her back. "Just cry Liv, you need to."

After a few moments he feels his t-shirt begin to soak through on his shoulder where her head rests. She begins to audibly whine as well, having pent her emotions up for so long that she can no longer contain herself. She felt lucky that there was no one else around where she had mindlessly ended up.

"Liv I...I know okay?"

Olivier's breath caught in her throat and her eyes shot wide open, tears now silently streaming down her face. She stayed that way for several moments, unsure of what to do. She felt like she was going to vomit, like her entire world had been turned upside down. "How...How long did you know!" She yells out in anger before pushing him off of her. He stumbles backward and nearly falls over onto the bench.

"Stop pushing me away I'm trying to help you!" He yells back at her, his fangs bared with bite in his voice.

"I said," Olivier says, her anger growing before she clears her mind and looks into his eyes, saying more calmly, "How...long...Mydnight."

Mydnight's head began to feel fuzzy for a moment before he shook it off and looked back at her, his own levels of anger beginning to grow. "Really Liv? Is that how this goes? Every time I try to help you you just use your semblance to try and screw with my brain?"

Her jaw dropped, air catching in her throat again as she realized what she had just tried to do. Her emotions had gotten the better of her and once again she was trying to take it out on the person she cared about more than anyone else. She couldn't believe herself for what she had done, but more so couldn't believe how he had shaken off the effect of her semblance so easily.

"I'm," she whined out before dropping to her knees and holding her face in her hands again, "I'm sorry Mydnight," she breathed out between hyperventilating.

"Sorry for which time..." he said smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Both you jerk!" She yelled out as she cried and looked back to him.

He once again approached her and crouched down, taking her into another embrace. "I know...so stop doing it," he whispered in her ear as he ran his hand through her hair.

"...How long have you known..."

"Since I woke up at Ruby's house. I think my semblance overwrote yours."

"...Are you...are you mad at me?" She wept out.

"A little but...not too much," he chuckled out. "Look Liv you can't keep running from your feelings. Between your issues with your parents, your accident, Reba, Caroline and Hunter AND this? You keep way too much in and eventually your are going to explode. Way worse than you just did."

Again she pushed away from him, but not so hard as to send him away, just enough to look up at him. "And how exactly do you propose I do that? How am I supposed to accept the fact that I love my best friend?!"

"Okay look I didn't say it was going to be easy," he rolls his eyes before sitting down in the grass beside her. "Besides to be perfectly honest I think Ambur has known how you feel about me the entire time anyway."

"Huhhh..." She sighs out as she too sits down in the grass, picking at it with a nervous fidget. "I always suspected she might know but...I hoped that she didn't."

"If she doesn't know then you should be the one to tell her."

His words grabbed her attention back, looking to him wildly, "No way! I'm not trying to get myself killed you know!"

"Liv come on you know it wouldn't be like that. Ambur is well aware of the fact that my heart belongs to her. She's not that insecure."

"Hmm...Guess it's just me then," Olivier jokes out with a fake smile, starting to wipe her eyes into her sleeve. She then feels his hand take hers and her cheeks get hot once again, pink spreading across her pale skin.

"She will understand. And I do too. And while I can't give you what you want I can still be here for you and we can get through this."

"Okay..." she lets out, nearly out of breath. He then stands up and lifts her to her feet before releasing her.

"Come on let's get back to the house okay?" He says gently as he wipes a streak of black eye liner from her cheek. Olivier leaned into his hand softly, enjoying the warmth of hiss touch as much as she could for only a moment before it was gone.

"Ya...okay," she says softly as she follows her friend back toward the house.

/

Ambur had run into the house to get water for everyone out back who was still training together. As she was filling a large pitcher and collecting glasses, Olivier and Mydnight came through the front door.

"Hey guys, you alright now?" She called from the kitchen, knowing it was her friend immediately from the sound of Olivier's heels on the wood floor.

"Ya we're good," she heard her boyfriend answer as their foot steps kept getting closer until they rounded the corner into the kitchen. Ambur turned to find Mydnight walking toward her but Olivier paused in the doorway, looking down to the floor attempting to hide her ruined make up. "This for the kids?" He asks as he reaches her, grabbing her attention.

"Ya it is," she says softly, cooking up an idea in her head. "Hey can you actually take it down there for me."

"I think that's probably A good idea ya," he says with a smile before quickly pecking her on the cheek and taking the pitcher and stack of cups out of the room and down the back stairs out to the training area.

The two girls stand in silence for a moment before both speaking up at the same time, reciting each others names. Olivier then speaks up again, "Me...first," she whispers as she looks into her friends eyes nervously.

"Okay," Ambur breaths out.

"I'm sorry...I don't. I don't have excuses to give you or any explanations but...somewhere along the way...without realizing it until you were in the hospital I..." Olivier goes silent again for a moment, trying to find the words but before she can Ambur speaks up.

"I know Liv," Ambur smiles out softly. "I think I've known longer than you have to be honest."

"You...you're not mad at me?" Olivier questions, looking back at her friend in confusion.

"How am I gonna blame you for falling for Mydnight? How am I supposed to get mad at you for that? I did the same thing," she says with a small laugh. "I fell in love with him too. So did Rosaria. So did tons of other girls at school. That boy knows better than to cheat on me and that's all I care about."

"Oh gosh no!" Olivier cries out in a small panic, "we never did anything I...I mean..." she says quickly, tripping over her words before looking back to the floor. "I wanted to but...he stopped me...and I ordered him to repress the memory of it..."

Ambur can't help but let out a smile and a small laugh before she crosses the room to her friend and takes her hand. "Let's go get you cleaned up before dinner huh?"

Olivier sniffles once before smiling along with her friend and squeezing her hand. "Ya, okay."

The pair walks to the bathroom and Ambur starts running the warm water in the sink as she sits Olivier down on the edge of the tub across from it. She grabs a cloth from the drawer under the sink and wets it before kneeling down beside Olivier and beginning to gently scrub her makeup off of her cheeks. "You know I can do this myself," she struggles to get out as her face keeps getting squished and and pushed around.

"I know," Ambur winks out, "this is more fun though," she giggles out as she finishes the job. The girls laugh together for a moment before Liv speaks up.

"Thank you...Ambur," she breaths out before pulling the far larger and more muscled girl into a hug. "You really are an amazing person."

"Eh," she says rolling her eyes before tightly hugging her back, "I try."

The pair walks through the house and out toward the back yard to find Mydnight in his massive wolf form with Ruby on his back, prancing around the backyard for her enjoyment. "This is so cool!" Ruby swoons in happiness as Ambur and Liv look over to find the other kids laughing along with her from the sidelines.

Ambur lightly elbows Liv in the side to grab her attention, "see what I mean. He's even good with kids," she jokes.

Liv looks back to her friend, watching his fur blow in the light spring breeze as a smiles creeps across her lips. "I know...He's perfect."

_End of Chapter_