A/N- AND WE ARE BACK! NOT DEAD! WHO'S READY TO TALK ABOUT OUR FEELINGS! NOT ME! COOL! LET'S GO!
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Chapter 22- Firsts
Twenty years ago...
Tukson's eyes glazed lazily up into the night sky above him. The pale shattered moon, along with the countless stars framing it, shone brightly in the clear, cloudless midnight that stretched from one horizon to the other. The air around him tasted as salty as the sea underneath the dock he was reclining on, it's waves gently lapping against the shore was almost soothing to the puma faunus. A beautiful night, damn near perfect actually, if it weren't for the fact that-
WAM! WAM! WAM!
The side-burned mans train of thought crashed off the rails as the two men standing over him resumed beating on his chest, legs, and arms with their steel bats.
Oh right, he was being tortured, how silly of Tukson to forget.
The latest in a long series of pummeling's went on for another few minutes, until the two well dressed men in black suits wielding the bats needed to stop to catch their breaths. Tukson coughed loudly, expelling a fresh puddle of blood onto the wooden pier.
Oh good, he was bleeding internally... again.
The puma man did his best to adjust his weak, wounded body into a less agonizing position, but the yards and yards of thick metal chains wrapped around him, pinning his arms behind his back, and his legs together, made it a futile effort. He was helpless, which was not a feeling the muscular faunus was used to, unable to defend himself, completely at the mercy of his human captors.
The two men steeped aside, revealing their handiwork to the third, much shorter, and less muscle bound man behind them, the leader of this little group. He took a long drag of the cigar in his hand as he smiled and leaned down to gawk at Tukson's broken form, letting out a big puff of smoke in the restrained faunus' face.
The man was especially well dressed -even compared to his company- with a heavy looking black coat, grey cap perched on top of his dark colored hair, and an orange tie around his neck.
"You know, all things considered, I guess I should be thanking you," the man started, "and I don't just mean for what you did to my brother."
Dagon Ivey, brother of Drake Ivey, and the human Tukson had assigned as his next target, and looking at the current scene, it was easy to guess things hadn't gone as planned.
Drake had been taken out by the puma faunus months ago, or at least that's what Tukson had told his superiors. He'd made sure to leave out the identity of Drake's actual killer -a certain pink and brown haired woman- in his official reports to the higher ups in the White Fang, who had put out the hit in the human. That was supposed to be the end of the Ivey families crimes against Tukson's people, but it turned out Drake had a younger brother, and upon the eldest's death, all his earnings and businesses -most of which were shady and exploited faunus workers, willing or otherwise- were passed on to Dagon, whose opinion of the animal-like race was just as callous.
Once Dagon's name was put on his hit list, Tukson was all too eager to take him down as well, especially after finding out that Drake's death had changed nothing. That had been the puma mans mistake, he got too emotional about the job, it made him stupid, he's rushed in so desperately at the chance to snip the final branch of the Ivey family tree.
He should have known it was too easy. Weeks and weeks of dead ends while trying to track the human down, then suddenly getting all that intel at once, if he'd been thinking clearly, Tukson would have seen the trap coming.
At the very least, the beast of a faunus hadn't gone down without a fight. He ripped and tore his way through a literal army of Dagon's men, painting the floor of the warehouse he'd been led to crimson with their blood, but he was the "unbreakable faunus" not an unbeatable one, and he'd seriously underestimated just how desperate Dagon was to stop him. The maniac had rigged the whole building with charges and brought the entire structure down on top of Tukson, as well his own men, in a fiery explosion. The puma man had survived, if barely, his body charred and blackened by the blast, unconscious, and that left him firmly in the clutches of the human criminal.
"I gotta say," Dagon went on, "having you around has been very therapeutic."
The human put his foul smelling cigar back in his mouth, before taking the bat out of one of his associates hands. Tukson barely lifted his head as the piece of steel sporting equipment slammed into the center of his face.
The puma faunus' head spun, the sound of Dagon's obnoxious laughter slightly muted under the ringing in Tukson's skull. Then, slowly, but right on cue, his body started doing what it did best. The battered and bloody faunus felt his smashed in nose pop back out with a sickening sound, the fractured bones and cartilage shifting and realigning under his skin. People would always tell Tukson how lucky he was to have such an amazing power, but just because his semblance healed him, doesn't mean it didn't still hurt like hell.
"See!" Dagon shouted jovially, a big smile on his face, "It's like you're one of those stress relief balls! I can just wail on you over and over, but you never lose your shape! Amazing!"
Tukson didn't dignify that comparison with a response, not that he really felt up to quipping at the moment anyway. He wasn't really sure how long he'd been in captivity now. Days? Weeks? Who knew, all he was aware of was how hellish it had been. At first, Dagon has just hurt him to try and get information, but once he found out about the puma faunus' semblance, it became less about business and more sinister. The human had devoted all his fine to finding different ways to hurt Tukson. Blades, bullets, fire, Dagon was nothing if not imaginative when it came to torture. All things considered, it wasn't the best way to spend a weekend... or however long Tukson had been here.
"But as fun as it's been," the human said as the smile fell from his face, "I'm not what you might call the sentimental type. Just because my brother was an embarrassment to the name, doesn't mean he wasn't still family." One of Dagon's men picked up a long looking suitcase off the deteriorating wooden dock and opened it, presenting its contents to his boss. "So I've decided to be the bigger man here and put business ahead of pleasure for a change," Dagon said, as he pulled from the case a modified shotgun with a big, hooked blade sticking out between the guns two barrels. "That semblance of yours is pretty impressive, but I wonder how well it works once I've blown your head clean off your shoulders."
Tukson lifted his face off the wood, staring up into the business end of the weapon now being pointed towards him, no expression on his face. "Then, I figure if you're still kicking we can see how well you heal from the bottom of the ocean with a nice new pair of cement slippers on your feet."
Again, Tukson gave the human nothing. No fear, no anger, he just stared at him wordlessly. The puma faunus wasn't afraid to die, that was just a risk of the job, the life he'd chose to live. He was a fighter, and he'd chosen to fight for the sake of his people, it was a cause he believed in with every inch of his being. If tonight was his night to join so many other faunus who'd fallen in this war, to join his parents, then so be it. Tukson had no regrets.
... Or at least, that's what he'd thought.
It was strange, but in that moment, as the side burned faunus found his own mortality coming into question for the first time since he'd unlocked his semblance, he actually did find one thing on his mind. Something that just felt... incomplete.
Maybe he was just a sap. They'd only known each other for a few months now, but things with Neo, they'd... well, he didn't feel it was an exaggeration to say it'd made Tukson the happiest he'd been in years.
What had all started with a botched assassination, then had been just fighting to blow off steam, had evolved into something actually bordering on normal, comforting even. Just getting to see the pink and brown haired woman once, maybe twice a week, just to spend time with her, getting to know each other, like the two of them weren't a couple of cold blooded killers, yeah, Tukson would miss that.
He found himself wondering then... if this really was the end of his tale, would Neo... miss him?
The worn out faunus couldn't resist a weak smile at how ridiculous the thought sounded. They were murderers, assassins, criminals, they didn't "miss" or "mourn" people. They did their jobs and then moved on, that was their way.
Still though, Tukson couldn't deny his curiosity. Had he actually made enough of an impact on someone's life that they'd care if he was gone? The puma faunus couldn't say for certain.
Neo had been... difficult for Tukson to get a read on during their tone together. She never seemed offended by the big faunus' presence, usually Neo just sat quietly with him while the puma man caught up in his reading -something he found himself doing more and more often these days. Sometimes Tukson would read aloud a certain section to the ice cream woman if he found a part of his story especially entertaining, and Neo would just sit there, the same unreadable expression on her face, quiet, but looking like she was absorbing everything he was saying without a word.
Some might find that annoying, but the petite assassin was a great listener, and that was exactly what Tukson needed in his life. He even went so far as to talk about his past with Neo; Chip, his parents, the purge, it wasn't something he liked to get into normally, but it was just nice to be able to get it off his chest. Truthfully, the puma man had hoped that by opening up he might be able to convince Neo to do the same, but he was met with only silence, and maybe the occasional eye color change, which he was still getting used to if he was honest.
At the end of the day, how Neo thought of Tukson was a mystery, but ever since her playful kiss after their first meeting, the big faunus had always wondered if maybe there was something more to their... well, he'd hesitate to call it a relationship, but no other words really suited what they had.
That was his only regret; that he'd never know if Neo felt the same way he did about her.
"Well, that's enough monologuing from me I think," Dagon started flapping his gums again, "let's do this thing boys."
With that the group of humans grabbed Tukson by his neck and wrestled his head into position. The exhausted faunus put up a token struggle, but was too tightly restrained to really stop the men and soon found the hook of the shotgun tucked under his chin so that it was held tightly in place with both barrels of the gun pressed against the side of his temple.
"I don't suppose you got any last words, mutt?" Dagon asked with a sadistic smile.
Once more, the puma man stayed silent. He could feel the sharp edge of the metal hook he'd been stuck on cutting through his incredibly weak aura and into the sides of his jaw. The thick chains binding his body hadn't gotten any less restricting. At full strength he might have been able to burst out of them, but the overuse of his semblance keeping him alive during the almost constant torture had left him weak, and Tukson just couldn't find the resolve within to break himself free. So he did about the only thing he could do, he narrowed his eyes at the humans staring down at him, sending them the most spiteful glare he could manage. I'd these were truly his final moments, then he'd die showing his spirit remained unbroken.
Then Tukson saw something in the sky behind his assailants heads, it fluttered through the air like a leaf on the wind, it's silhouette standing out against the pale light radiating off the broken moon. He couldn't make out it's exact features, but it appeared to be getting closer. As it did, it took on a human shape, with four limbs sticking out from a central mass, with waves of what the puma faunus assumed was hair billowing in the air behind them. Then the figure began its rapid decent, right towards the dock Tukson was on. As it approached Tukson could tell they were female, though by then it hardly mattered, as by that point the shocked faunus saw the pink parasol the figure was using to soar down to earth.
As silent as the night itself, Neo landed in a roll on the wooden pier behind the trio of humans who were too focused on Tukson's imminent execution to hear her. Without losing an ounce of speed from her landing, Neo rushed up to Dagon's two goons, twisting her body as she leapt into the air, split her legs, and delivered sharp kicks with her sturdy, heeled boots to the side of both the humans heads at once. The grunts of pain from his men made their boss turn around just in time for Dagon to catch the curved end of Neo's parasol right in his face.
As soon as his tormentors eyes were off him, Tukson quickly wrenched his head out of the contraption just as the human criminal pulled the trigger.
The puma faunus felt a searing heat wash over the left side of his face as the weapon fired. His vision went white and all he heard was the deafening blast of the shotgun and then nothing. For a moment Tukson was worried he hadn't been quick enough, that he was dead, but a few quick, deep breaths confirmed he was in fact alive, just momentarily blind and deaf from the gun going off so close to his head.
But while his sense of sight and sound had been hindered, one sense was still functioning; smell, and as Tukson laid there oblivious to all other stimuli, it wasn't long before the stench of fresh blood entered his nostrils. Whose blood was it? The faunus had no clue, and that was enough for him to panic.
Tukson began vigorously shaking his head, about the only part of himself he could move, trying to will away the ringing in his ears. Slowly, muffled sounds began to emanate around him. Guns firing, grunts of exertion, aura's breaking, and the slick slicing of flesh all cut through the once peaceful night.
Then the puma man began to be able to make out blurry shadows moving quickly at the other end of the pier as his eyesight slowly returned as well. The smaller of the shadows leapt nimbly across the dock, almost dancing with the two bigger ones who swiped futilely at it. Soon the vague shapes of darkness became more focused, as the nimbler shadow -Neo, as Tukson had correctly assumed- hopped up onto one of the thick, wooden supports jutting up out of the ocean that lined each side of the dock. Then, like a bullet, she propelled herself off her perch towards one of Dagon's thugs. The petite assassins body zipped past the man, the blade sticking out of the tip of her parasol striking like lighting, so fast that Tukson wasn't even sure Neo hit her target. It became obvious however when the mans head lolled to the side, then right off his shoulders, hitting the dock an instant before the rest of his body did as well.
The other goon yelled out in anger as he charged at the tiny ice cream woman, lashing out with the blade in the butt of his pistol. His blow made contact, only for Neo's body to shatter like glass into a thousand pieces. The human stared dumbly at the shards for a moment before letting out a sharp gasp as the tip of Neo's sword shot out the front of his chest. Neo ripped her weapon free and allowed the last of Dagon's goons to fall to the wood below.
All Tukson could do in his current state was gawk as he watched Neo work. It was beautiful in a way, terrifying in others, but one killer to another he couldn't deny the grace and majesty of what he was witnessing.
Neo turned her head and the two of them made eye contact, Tukson's golden orbs immediately locking onto the mismatched pair staring back. There was a look of relief in the short woman's eyes for only a second before another deafening "bang" rang out.
Neo stumbled back a few steps, her pink aura flashing in response to the hit. Then another shot was fired, this one hitting the pink and brown haired woman in the shoulder, her aura shattering with the hit, making the parasol fall from her grip as the petite assassin let out a uncommon yelp of pain.
Tukson's eyes went wide, he rolled over to see Dagon smirking insufferably, with bloody teeth and a clearly broken nose as he reloaded his shotgun, advancing towards Neo.
The pink and brown haired human clutched at her injured shoulder with her hand. There was no blood, but the force of the blast had nearly dislocated the joint. She scowled at Dagon as he raised his weapon and pointed it right at Neo's head. She'd been sloppy, taken her eye off the ball for only one second to check if Tukson was okay, and now she was disarmed and staring down the barrels of a shotgun with her aura gone.
Dagon spat out a mouthful of red into the sea. "Who the hell do you think you are!?" he shouted in a nasally voice due to his crooked nose.
Unsurprisingly, Neo said nothing, but the contempt in her glare was palpable. Then, a coy smile started to spread across the pink and brown haired assassins lips.
"What are you smiling at you b-"
Dagon was cut off when he heard the sound of chains rattling, then shattering, behind him. Before he could even turn around to look, a massive hand wrapped around the back of his neck. The terrified human tried to point his weapon behind him to fire on whatever had grabbed him, but as soon as he raised his shotgun a clawed hand slashed at it, sending the shotgun -as well as a few of Dagon's fingers- to the ground.
The human criminal tried to scream out in pain, but the grip around his neck tightened, crushing his windpipe and stifling his cries. From behind Dagon, Tukson breathed heavily, seething through his sharp, clenched teeth as his yellow eyes cut a metaphorical hole into the back of the human in his clutches.
As soon as Neo had been hit, as soon as Tukson had heard her in pain, something had snapped inside him. Suddenly the days and days of pain he'd experienced meant nothing, and the tight sturdy chains -which had probably been originally meant to secure massive boats here at the docks- were torn apart like they'd been made of cheap plastic to the berserk faunus.
Cut into him as many times as you wanted, beat him like an animal, break him down to a quivering pile of meat, but the second you laid a hand on anyone Tukson cared about, you got to see the side of him humanity was right to fear.
The giant faunus lifted Dagon into the air, letting the much smaller man struggle uselessly as he clawed at the massive hand crushing his neck, his face beginning to turn blue. Then, with barely even a twist of his wrist, and a grotesque crack, Tukson made Dagon Ivey's body go limp, and then still.
With a disdain filled scoff, the White Fang member tossed the human's body off the dock and into the cold ocean below. The job was done, in the most round about way of doing it, but the target had been dealt with, and the Ivey legacy would finally come to a close.
Tukson slouched over, breathing heavily as the adrenaline rush that'd fueled his sudden escape began to wear off. He did manage to raise his head enough to check on Neo, the ice cream woman still standing in the same spot she had been, staring back at the faunus, her expression unreadable.
"I had that under control," Tukson lied blatantly, "but still... thanks."
Neo continued her silence, which wasn't really out of the ordinary, but the way she was watching the burly faunus left him feeling unnerved. She began to approach him, the heels of her shoes clacking against the salt soaked wood below. Tukson stood up straight as Neo stopped in front of him. He gazed deeply into her pink and brown eyes, searching for any sign as to what the short assassin was thinking.
However, Neo's emotions became much easier to read as her fist slammed into the side of Tukson's jaw.
The giant faunus stumbled back from the blow. Neo might be small, but damn if she didn't pack a hell of a punch when she wanted to. Tukson brought a hand to his throbbing cheek, just as another blow struck him in the shoulder, then another to his chest, then again, and again the pink and brown haired woman punched the faunus she'd just helped save.
The burly man didn't know what to make of this. At first he thought Neo had come all this way and rescued him just so the two of them could fight like they used to, but aside from the first attack -which had nearly knocked him flat- Tukson could tell each following hit was getting sloppier and less well targeted than the last, not like the skilled fighter the faunus knew at all.
After a few more halfhearted hits, Neo resorted to slamming her fists against the giant faunus' chest as she leaned close, starting to look exhausted.
"You stupid, good for nothing, side-burned asshole..." she mumbled as the pink and brown haired assassin finally stopped hitting Tukson, grabbing onto the front of his shirt as she buried her head in his torso.
The White Fang member didn't know how to process any of this behavior. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off immediately. "What the hell were you thinking going after Ivey alone!?" Neo yelled up to him, punctuating her question with one more pound against the puma faunus' chest. "You killed his brother! Did you really think he wouldn't be ready for you!? Do you not have even the slightest bit of survival instincts!?"
Again, Tukson was too shocked to answer. This was probably the most Neo had spoken to him ever, certainly the loudest at least.
"You think just because you heal fast that makes you invincible?" Neo went on, her tone going quieter. "You think... when you run off to do something stupid like this I don't..."
The puma faunus was flabbergasted. Had Neo actually been worried about him? That was... well, it was sweet, but ultimately unnecessary, or at least that's what Tukson had thought. He looked around the two of them at the bodies littering the pier, the blood soaking into the rotting wood, he realized it could have just as easily have been him the sea gulls would be picking at come morning. He would be dead, that is, if it weren't for the woman clinging so desperately to him right now.
"I've... I've been trying to call you for days... and it's not like I could just ask your buddies in the Fang where they sent you," Neo went on, no longer able to look Tukson in the eyes. "I ended up having to call in like a billion favors to Roman, Junior, and every other scumbag in this rat hole of a town just to try and find you, all the while trying to convince myself you weren't already..."
Tukson had never seen Neo so... emotional before. He thought back to that last playful little fight the two of them had, in that old construction site, when the tall faunus had nearly accidentally split Neo in two. He remembered how scared he'd been for weeks, not knowing if the ice cream woman was alive or not. Feeling so helpless and guilty for days and days, barely able to sleep or take care of himself, right up until Neo had finally contacted him. It had been a fresh kind of hell, and he'd just put Neo through the same thing. It didn't matter if it had been for a day, or a week, or longer, Tukson believed that making the petite assassin feel that way for even a second had been incredibly cruel of him.
Plus, she had a point. The usually quite rational faunus had rushed into this job without even thinking, which wasn't like him at all. After taking down Drake, the puma man had just felt like the Ivey's were his responsibility, and the fact that something so simple as his target having a brother had slipped past him just made him more agitated and careless. So Tukson had run in with barely a plan, assuming his semblance would be enough to keep him safe on what he felt would be an easy kill. He'd been stupid, and ultimately he hadn't cared about what happened to him, never even once considering someone else might, or the effect his death could truly have on them.
The muscular faunus looked down at the short woman before him, her hands still clutching big handfuls of his shirt, as Neo stared vacantly into his torso. Cautiously, and oh so slowly, Tukson reached out and wrapped an arm around her almost experimentally, to gauge the humans reaction. Neo flinched the second his arm made contact, her head raising upwards, looking into the puma mans yellow eyes in confusion.
"It's okay," Tukson said gently with a sad smile, "I'm okay, you saved me."
The petite assassin continued to stare into the faunus' eyes, confusion melting into a softer look as Tukson felt her body relax in his arms and he fully embraced her. The burly White Fang member didn't exactly consider himself the hugging type, no, his hands were meant for... dirtier work, but regardless he did his best, pulling Neo close. He half expected the ice cream woman to start squirming, trying to break free like a stray cat that wasn't used to being held. When the two of them had fought in the past it had been near impossible for Tukson to pin Neo down, she was just too quick and... twirly. This time however, much to the faunus' surprise, the assassin not only allowed herself to be held, she seemed to be almost trying to press herself closer, and then after a moment, sighed contently.
It would almost be a nice moment, if it weren't taking place on a dock littered with corpses.
"I'm sorry I worried you," Tukson said quietly, still feeling guilty for the obvious stress he'd put Neo through.
The pink and brown haired assassin scoffed into the faunus' chest. "You're an idiot," she said in a muffled voice, still sounding vaguely agitated.
The tall puma man let out small laugh. "Yeah, kinda."
"And you're really bad at your job sometimes."
The White Fang member opened his mouth to refute, but again was reminded of the rather dire situation he'd been in earlier. "Okay, that's fair."
"Also you smell really, really bad right now."
Tukson sighed. "I know... but that ones not my fault. I haven't exactly had access to running water."
Neo huffed again into the faunus' chest, before finally lifting her head to look at the face of the man who's arms she was nestled in. Tukson was actually a little taken aback by the look on the pink and brown haired haired woman's face. She was... pouting at him? But more striking than that was the often mismatched pairs of eyes on Neo's face were both pink.
The short assassin just kept staring up at Tukson as if contemplating something. The burly faunus gave a tired smirk which made Neo narrow her eyes at him, but at the same time, and it might have just been the puma mans imagination, but it looked like she might be blushing a little.
Neo gave an exasperated, loud sigh. "Screw it," she said.
Before Tukson could wonder what that even meant, Neo reached up, grabbing both sides of the tall mans face, getting big handfuls of his illustrious sideburns, before pulling his face towards her own, their lips crashing into one another.
The shock of the sudden kiss caused Tukson's brain to immediately short circuit, it literally could not process this turn of events. Then the shock turned to confusion as Neo tilted her head to press harder into Tukson's lips. The bewildered faunus still tried so desperately to rationalize or even to understand what was going on. Eventually though, such thoughts as to how and why became irrelevant to him as a new emotion began spreading throughout the puma mans body; A yearning for more, a need to be even closer.
Tukson reached down, wrapped both hands around the back of Neo's upper thighs, and lifted her up. As soon as the faunus' fingertips dig into the ice cream woman's legs, Neo let out a quiet moan, accelerating the puma mans already racing heartbeat, and then the assassin wrapped both her legs tightly around Tukson's midsection, holding herself in place. The new position had multiple benefits; Tukson no longer had to bend down to engage in the kiss, and since Neo no longer needed to hold him by the head, her hands were free to roam. She gripped one hand into the faunus' meaty shoulder, while the other went around the back of his neck.
These overpowering emotions, Tukson had never felt anything like this before. An almost animalistic sensation taking over his brain. Then, he became aware of Neo's tongue probing against his lips, begging to enter, which the puma man was all too happy to oblige.
The kiss went on and on, only momentarily breaking as the two took in quick gasps of air, then went right back into their heated embrace.
Suddenly all the questions and doubts Tukson had about the state of the relationship between this human and himself disappeared into nothingness. None of that stuff mattered to him now, all he wanted- all he needed was this moment in time. This thing the two of them had, it didn't need defining or analysis. At the end of the day, it didn't matter that they were a human and a faunus, or an assassin and a grunt.
No, they were a man and a woman, and that was all it took for the flames of something greater to start growing within each of them.
Tukson groggily opened his eyes, a strange buzzing in the background having stirred him from his slumber. He slowly sat up in his bed, his half awake mind still making the transition from dream to reality. For not the first time in recent weeks, the faunus noticed his heart racing when he awoken, and for a moment he tried to cling desperately to whatever thought or memory had been on his mind to create such emotion.
Tukson absentmindedly ran a finger over the scar on his chest, above his heart, and smiled fondly.
The older puma man groggily rubber the sleep from his eyes as he took in the familiar sight of his room. The old wooden dresser on one end, and his huge bed, that was also somehow still too small for him, but it was the soft green light and repeated vibrations from his nightstand that stood out to him. He reached over and grabbed his flashing, persistently shaking, scroll from it's charging pad, and felt his heart stop as he read the caller ID.
CCT call- Mirage, Vacuo
Immediately Tukson's thoughts went to Oreonna, his parental instincts assuming the worst. Something had happened to his daughter. She was injured, or worse, dying, and this was Shade Academy calling to tell him. Why else would they be calling at such an ungodly hour.
With a shaky hand, the book store owner opened his scroll, a degree of relief washing over him as the call connected, revealing Oreonna's face on his screen, alive and well. However, Tukson's anxiety wasn't done with him yet. The worst case scenario seemingly avoided, his mind went right on to possible second worst case case scenarios. Something had happened in Vacuo, the school must have burned down, or the White Fang might have-
The older faunus forced himself to stop, take a breath, and just ask his daughter what was going on, before he decided to jump to anymore conclusions.
"Oreo?" he said, a lingering bit of sleepiness in his voice.
"... Hey, dad..." the cat girl replied, with a halfhearted wave and a nervous smile on her face.
"Are you okay? Did something happen?" Tukson asked, doing his best to hide the panic still swelling inside himself as to why his daughter was calling at this time of night. Don't get him wrong, Tukson was always ecstatic to hear from his little girl, it was just in his nature to worry. Oreonna had chosen a dangerous lifestyle after all, and her being almost an entire continent away didn't help put the puma man at ease.
The black and white haired teenager seemed to shift in her seat uncomfortably. "No, no, everything's okay dad, I'm fine. I just..." the cat girl trailed off, before letting out a big sigh, "... No, never mind, this is stupid, I'm sorry I woke-"
"Oreonna," Tukson said firmly as he saw the younger faunus reaching for her terminals disconnect button. "I can sleep later, but right now I'm worried about my daughter. So please, tell me what's wrong. If it was important enough for you to call, then it's important to me too, I promise."
Oreonna slumped back into her seat, looking defeated. She began wringing her hands together in front of her. "It's just... something... happened..." she said struggling with her words.
Tukson waited patiently for his daughter to elaborate on what this "something" was, though he was practically sitting on the edge of his seat as he prepared for the worst.
"... Something with Maybelle," the cat girl finally said, finishing her sentence.
The puma faunus was surprised to hear that. He'd never actually met his daughters partner, but Oreonna had nothing but good things to say about Maybelle in the messages she sent home. The idea that the cow girl might be giving his daughter a hard time seemed far fetched at best.
"... We... we kissed," the violinist blurted out, immediately going beet red in the face and hiding her head in her hands.
Tukson remained silent, the only change in his expression being a slight raising of his eyebrows. "Is... is that all?" he asked skeptically.
"What do you mean, 'is that all!?'" Oreonna said in a sharp whisper, her eyes wide and desperate. Right away the puma man could tell he'd made a poor choice in words. "This is a big deal, dad! Maybe you haven't noticed because of my clearly calm and collected look right now, but I am FREAKING the hell out!"
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean it like that," the backpedaling puma faunus said quickly. "I guess I was just expecting something worse is all." Tukson took a moment to choose his words more carefully this time, "Wait, she didn't force it on you, did she?" he asked in a concerned tone. If that were the case it was a different matter entirely.
"I mean... no? At least I don't think she did..." Oreonna replied, sinking a little deeper into her chair, her shoulders hunching up around her neck.
"You don't think so?"
"I don't know! We were just kind of sitting next to each other, there were lanterns, it was dark, we were really, really close to one another, and then... it happened."
Tukson let out a deep breath in relief. It seemed like the reason his daughter had called wasn't as life threatening as he'd feared, at least to him. However, at the same time he prepared himself for what he knew would probably be an increasingly awkward conversation with his daughter. "Did you... not WANT to kiss her?"
As soon as the question left her fathers lips, the flushed cat girl let her head fall forward onto the desk she was sitting at as she groaned miserably. "I don't know..." she muttered into the wood, her cat ears going flat on top of her head.
"Well, do you... like her? In the way she likes you, clearly?"
This time there was no answer from the flustered teen, she just stayed face down on the table. Tukson could practically see the steam coming off her red face.
"Sweetheart, you do know it's okay for you to feel that way, right?"
Oreonna lolled her head to the side, so only one if her rosy pink eyes was visible. "... But what if it's not okay?" she asked miserably. The puma faunus gave his daughter a quizzical look. The black and white haired cat girl sat back up, resting her elbows on the table as she slouched over it. "Do you remember when I was in third grade? That day I come home from school in a terrible mood and wouldn't talk about it?"
Tukson furrowed his brow as he tried to remember that far back.
"... You let me stay home the next day, because I was so upset?" Oreonna tried to clarify, but her father was still at a loss.
In his defense, when you work six days a week in customer service, the day's start to blur together a bit.
"It was Valentines Day," the cat girl offered her final clue and that was the last puzzle piece the elder faunus needed as the memories fell into place.
Tukson remembered that day, his daughter had come home from school and stormed straight to her room without a word, slamming her door behind her. Oreonna has stayed locked in there all night, not even coming out for dinner, though she did take a small plate of leftovers before bed, but only opened her door to receive the food, before quickly closing it again.
The puma man remembered feeling so lost as to what to do that day. Something had clearly upset Oreonna, but whenever he tried to talk to her through her door, she wouldn't answer. Never before had she shut herself off from him like that. Raising a kid all on his own had never been easy for the puma faunus, but that was the first time since his daughter had arrived on his doorstep that Tukson truly felt like he was failing as a parent. The cat girl hadn't gone to school the next day, Tukson calling and telling them she was sick. That was all he could think to do in that situation. Thankfully, before he had to resort to trying to break down her bedroom door, Tai stopped by with Yang, who said she wanted to speak to Oreonna. The two girls sequestered themselves away in the caT girls room for a while. Tukson took the time to catch up with Yang's father, hoping to gain some insight on afar was going on, but Tai Yang appeared just as lost as he was. Regardless, eventually the two girls re-emerged from Oreonna's bedroom and things seemed better, for the most part. Yang ended up spending the night at the Delsole's apartment, and come morning the cat girl seemed back to her usual self.
Tukson had tried a few times to ask her just what all that was about, but just mentioning the incident seemed to upset his daughter, and as things returned to normal the puma faunus decided to just accept that he may never know what happened at school that day. However, after years of not knowing it looked like today he was actually going to get some answers. He had to admit, he was more than a little curious what all that had to do with Oreonna's current situation.
"Well, if you remember, the night before I had to make valentines for everyone in my class," Oreonna explained. "I'd finished most of them, and still had a whole bunch of materials left over, so I figured I'd use them to make one super big, special valentine for someone. And I decided that special someone would be..." the cat girl sighed sadly and hung her head, "...Yang."
"Oh..." was all Tukson could think to say as he felt like he was beginning to get a clearer understanding of the blonde humans role in all of this.
The cat eared teenager brushed some of her white hair behind her left ear anxiously. "Yeah... I mean, it wasn't like I had a secret crush on her or anything back then. I just sorta always... admired her. I guess eight year old me just reasoned it out as; You make valentines for people you like, so if you really liked someone you should make a really big one. Yang had done so much for me, all I wanted to do was repay her. It all seemed innocent enough to me, but..."
The black and white haired faunus began fiddling with her hands in her lap, then took a deep breath before continuing. "My backpack was full that morning, with all the cards I'd made on top of my usual school stuff, and I guess Yang's valentine must have slipped out at some point. I didn't even notice until I got to school, when I walked in the classroom and saw some ginger boy waving it around and showing it to the rest of the kids." Oreonna closed her eyes tightly, looking still stuck in the moment she was describing. "They all pointed and laughed as soon as they noticed me. Saying how weird it was that I made such a big valentine for a girl. That I must be in love with Yang, and that I wanted to be girlfriends with her."
Tukson felt a lot of things in that moment, anger being pretty high on the list. He wasn't mad at his daughter, of course, but at how cruel children could be to each other sometimes.
"They all made kissey faces and called me a lesbian, even though I bet ninety percent of them had no idea what that even meant," Oreonna went on, wrapping her arms around herself for comfort. "Hell, I didn't even know, but the way the kept saying it still hurt."
The cat girl let out a bitter snort of laughter, "And then when Yang walked in behind me... gods," Oreonna stopped again, taking another deep breath, "they started saying those things to her too, and she just looked at me, lost, hurt, and just so... confused. Anyway, I just broke down crying at that point. I was so scared that Yang would hate me because of that stupid card, because apparently girls weren't supposed to feel that way about other girls."
Tukson, his heart breaking with every word his daughter spoke at the point, finally interjected. "Oreonna, you that's not-"
"It's bull crap, I know that now, but at the time I..." the younger faunus reached up to wipe at her left eye. With the terrible resolution on Tukson's almost hilariously outdated scroll he hadn't even noticed his daughter was starting to cry a little. "Luckily, the teacher finally showed up and quieted everyone down. The gave us all a long lecture about 'respecting other people's privacy, ' which honestly just made me feel even more humiliated."
Oreonna rested her elbows on the terminals desk, seeming to calm down now that she'd passed the more traumatic parts of her story. "I'm not really sure how I made it through the rest of that day. Unsurprisingly, we didn't end up exchanging any valentines. I couldn't even look at Yang and avoided her like the plague for the rest of the day."
The cat girl buried her head in her hands and dragged them down her face in exasperation. "I guess you know the rest. I made it home, and was just content to be miserable in my room, until Yang showed up and we talked it out. She promised we'd always be friends no matter what anyone said, and that if any of the other kids ever called me names again she'd deck them in the face." The black and white haired faunus managed a small grin, "And she actually did do that when we got back to school on Monday. The same ginger kid started to hassle me and Yang ended up getting suspended for a week for knocking him flat, but no one brought up the incident again."
Tukson wanted to smile at that, but he knew it wasn't the time. Not after what he'd just heard. "Why didn't you ever tell me about all of this?"
Oreonna sighed. "I don't know..." she answered, "I guess I was still pretty shaken up over things. After seeing how the other kids reacted to the valentine I made for Yang, I was scared how you'd feel about it too. Then enough time passed and I was too embarrassed to bring it up."
That sounded familiar to Tukson, it was the same way he'd dealt with things back then. He felt guilt wash over him at his own bad habits passing on to his daughter. Ignoring the problem hadn't made it go away, no, Oreonna had been suffering with this in the back of her mind for years now and the insecurities created by something that probably could have been solved with a quick -if painful- conversation were starting to rear their ugly head.
"I wish you'd told me," the older faunus said, wishing even more so that he was there in person to hug his little girl right now, "but I suppose I'm just as guilty of trying to sweep all this under the rug."
"Maybe I should have," Oreonna said, looking a little relieved to have gotten this off her chest. "I mean, eventually I realized there's nothing wrong with people loving whoever they want... but I suppose I just decided I wasn't allowed to. That's why all this stuff with May has me all messed up now."
"Oreonna," Tukson said softly. "Of course you're allowed to feel however you want about this, and anyone who would treat you any differently because of that was never worth your time in the first place." The cat girl nodded silently, still looking conflicted. "And you never answered me earlier," the puma faunus said, "this Maybelle girl, do you like her? Before you answer, I want you to think hard about everything the two of you have been through these last months."
Oreonna remained quiet, taking her fathers advice and looking like she was deep in thought. She lifted a hand from her lap to her face and ran her thumb over her lower lip as a soft smile sneaking onto the edges of her mouth.
"I... I do... I really, really do..." she answered. The smile faded quickly though, and was replaced by a look of doubt. "What am I going to do?" she asked desperately. "What do I say to May now? What if I'm not ready for- What if she wants me to-"
"Oreonna," Tukson said firmly to snap his daughter out of the downward spiral he saw her slipping into. Once he had the cat girls attention, he smiled. "When I was younger I traveled all over Remnant. I've seen a lot of bad things-"
And done my own fair share, he added mentally.
"Bigotry and hate make up far too much of our world even today, but that's not ALL there is. I've see a lot of good too, a lot of love. And if I've learned anything over my many years, it's that as complicated as it might be sometimes, love is worth fighting for, no matter who it's between. Now, I won't say that little bit of joy necessarily makes up for all the bad out there, but there is enough of it that it can make all that negativity seem small and insignificant, no matter how dark it gets out there, it's a powerful thing, Oreo."
Oreonna hung tightly to her fathers every word, watching him on her screen with wide, pink eyes that filled him a nostalgic feeling for a similar pair of eyes that still made his heart soar to think about.
"But like I said, relationships are... complicated, and yeah, jumping into one for the first time can seem a little intimidating, but what's important is to make sure you move into one at a speed you're both comfortable with. Trust me, if you manage to find someone who really understands you, that you feel like you can trust, and that accepts you for all your little quirks, then it's worth it to at least try, right? Better that, than living the rest of your life wondering what could have been."
The cat faunus nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. Tukson waited patiently for his daughter to process his words, but he never would have expected what she'd say next, not in a million years.
"Was it like that with mom when you were with her?"
The puma faunus almost fell off his mattress. He couldn't remember the last time Oreonna had brought up her mom on her own, much less the last time she'd actually referred to Neo as such.
Tukson managed to recover quickly though, as a sad smile spread across his lips. "Yeah... it was," he explained, "and even though things didn't exactly work out between us doesn't say anything about you or Maybelle. Besides, I wouldn't trade a single moment I had with Neo for anything in the world. Because even though she's gone, she still gave me you, a beautiful, smart, caring daughter who I love with every inch of my being, and I airways will Oreonna."
The black and white haired faunus gave the first genuine smile since the call had begun, though seeing it on his tiny scroll was no substitute for the real thing in Tukson's eyes. "I love you too, dad," the cat girl said, taking a moment to wipe away another tear.
The puma faunus felt a twinge of sadness as he found himself wishing again, for maybe the millionth time, that he could be there in person to comfort his daughter, but for now, all he had was words, so he did his best. "No one can force this on you if you don't feel ready, but if this girl means as much to you as I think she does, then you ought to at least sit down and talk about what's going on between you two, don't you think, Oreo?"
Oreonna sighed. "I don't know... I kind of made a bit of a scene earlier, after we... you know...what if I screwed things up already?"
"Well... if that's the case... I've always found apologies make good icebreakers?" Tukson tried his best, but clearly he was starting to scrape the bottom of his barrel of fatherly advice at this point. The early hour of the day was finally starting to catch up with him.
The violinist scoffed, an amused grin on her face, "I guess I better hope that's the case." The black and white haired cat girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, settling her nerves for what she had to do. "Well... I need to go and find May now," she said with a hint of dread in her voice.
"You'll be okay, kiddo," Tukson replied, trying to be as supportive as one could be from almost an entire continent away. "And always remember you can call me anytime you want. Whenever you need me, you know where to find me, and I'm not going anywhere."
The younger faunus gave her father one last smile. "Thanks, dad. Good talk?"
Tukson let out a short, tired laugh. "Yeah, good talk."
The puma man watched as his daughters hand reached towards the edge of the screen and then her image went dark as the call was disconnected. Tukson sat there for a few more moments, staring at his scroll, its light having been extinguished, returning his room to darkness. Then the side burned faunus flopped backwards onto his mattress, spreading his arms wide as he let out a big, long sigh.
Parenthood had thrown a lot at the big faunus over the years, but it never once stopped finding new ways to catch him off guard. As Tukson laid there, knowing full well sleep was going to a challenge at this point, he couldn't help but worry. That conversation had been a LOT, but it was nothing compared to the one Oreonna was walking into.
He had faith though, his daughter might be shy, and maybe a little awkward around people, but when she really had her heart set on something she went for it with everything she had. The girl had so much more strength in her than she gave herself credit for. Whether or not that would be enough here, well, Tukson would just have to wait to hear back from her. No matter what happened though, he just hoped Oreonna found all the happiness she deserved.
Oreonna fiddled with her hands for the entirety of the elevator ride down from the communication hub in the CCT. The tallk with her dad had done a lot to calm her down so she could face what lay ahead, but she still felt anxiety clawing around in her chest and stomach. The whirlwind of still pretty new and confusing feelings had become manageable, but was just as present as it had been.
The cat girl knew what she needed to do now, talk to May, find out what they both wanted, all without ruining one of the best friendships the black and white haired violinist had ever had, or destroying team MOON's growing sense of teamwork. No sweat.
The young faunus' tail was swishing back and forth quickly, an obvious sign of her nervousness as the elevator finished its decent far too quickly for her liking. With a 'ding' the doors opened revealing the CCT's lobby. Oreonna passed it on the way in, but had been too emotionally distraught to really noitce as she hurried to call her father. There were a few displays standing in the corner full of travel brochures advertising Vacuo and Vale, a public restroom, an automated help desk, and rows of seats in the waiting area by the entrance.
The lobby appeared to be just as empty as it had when Oreonna had rushed through it earlier, which the cat girl was thankful for, so no one had seen the state she'd been in upon arriving at the CCT about fifteen minutes ago. A few security guards on the property was all the communication hub seemed to need at night. The state of the art Atlas automated alarms and monitors did most of the work during the graveyard shift.
The cat girl stepped off the elevator and pulled her scroll out of her pocket. Her finger hovered over Maybelle's name on her contacts list for what felt like minutes. Come on, you can do this, the black and white haired teen repeated to herself over and over. She still didn't know what she was going to say to her partner exactly, but putting this off wasn't an option.
So, the cat girl thought, the plan:
Call Maybelle.
Pray she doesn't hate you yet and actually answers.
Ask to have her meet you here.
Spend however long you have until she shows up in an utter panic as you decide what to say.
Then, once she gets here, calmly and clearly articulate whatever the hell it is that you're feeling.
Those last couple steps were the ones Oreonna found herself hung up on, but she could cross those bridges as she got to them. After all, nothing like crushing pressure to help you think.
With a quiet sigh, the cat faunus pressed down, sending the call out to Maybelle. Oreonna raised the scroll to her ear, her foot began tapping in time with her tail's swinging as she waited in anticipation for her leaders voice. Suddenly, a sound made Oreonna go still. It was a quiet buzzing, just barely being picked up by the extra set of ears on top of the teenagers head. She took a few steps forward, trying to judge where the noise was coming from, ending up in the lobbies entrance. The sound was familiar to Oreonna, it was a scroll set on vibrate, and when she stepped around the short wall separating the waiting area from the rest of the lobby, she saw, laying across four of the seats, the last person she expected to find.
"May?"
Sure enough, the blonde faunus was there, stretched out on her back, one arm dangling into the floor, the other on her slowly rising and falling chest, her mouth hanging open, and fast asleep. The cow girl mumbled something upon hearing Oreonna say her name, then her brown eyes shot open as Maybelle sat up straight, her panicked gaze locked into the cat girl standing before her. Maybelle opened her mouth, but then seemed to notice the scroll aggressively shaking in her pocket. She pulled out the device, checked the caller ID, then looked back at Oreonna, who was frozen in place. Then, for some bizarre reason, May pressed the 'accept' button on her scroll and held it to her own ear.
"Uh... hello?" the cow girl said hesitantly.
"Hi," Oreonna replied, mainly out of reflex. The fact that she'd lost the small window of time to think she thought she'd have caused her mind to go into emergency shut down mode.
"I um... followed you here," May explained, still speaking into her scroll, "b-but not like in a stalkery kind of way! I just hopped along the rooftops so you wouldn't see me... which actually sounds super stalkery when I say it out loud..."
The cow girl stood from her seat, but didn't approach the other faunus just yet. "A-anyway, I saw you run in and came after, but you went upstairs so I figured I'd just wait down here. But then I decided to sit down and get comfortable and then I... well, it is pretty late at night and-" May stopped babbling, perhaps suddenly realizing how ridiculous it looked talking to someone on your scroll when they were in the room with you. "Okay, I'm... going to hang up now."
Oreonna managed to nod and the two of them finally put away their devices. "I just wanted a chance to talk to you," the cow girl continued, " ...to apologize." The cat faunus tilted her head ever so slightly in confusion. Apologize? Oreonna was the one who ran off into the night like a crazy person, what did Maybelle have to apologize for? "I don't know how what happened... happened, but I'm so sorry. One second we were just sitting there and the next we-" The cat girl did her best to fight the heat rising to her cheeks, but as she saw her partners cheeks go red as well, she realized how poor a job she'd done.
"I can tell that it really freaked you out, and that's okay," Maybelle explained, the sad look on her face making Oreonna's stomach hurt. "Gods, I'm so stupid," the cow girl went on, bringing one of her balled up fists to her forehead and giving herself a few light bops. "I told myself I was going to... I made a promise to be better than this." This sentence only served to confuse Oreonna more.
It didn't make sense, why was Maybelle acting like she'd done something wrong? And the blonde faunus hadn't even brought up her partner running away yet, wasn't she mad at her about that?
"You see, I..." Maybelle broke eye contact, she took a breath, and then said it, "I... really like you, Oreonna..."
The cat girls eyes went wide, her mouth letting out a near silent gasp.
"I... think I've liked you for a long time now."
It felt like a damn burst inside the black and white haired teen as a familiar warmth spread throughout her. May... liked her? Well, even someone as naive on the subject as Oreonna had to have expected such at this point. The last twelve hours had basically been a bright neon sign flashing in her face saying as much, but hearing it said out loud was an entirely new experience.
"But I think it was during dinner when it really hit me, just how... absolutely crazy I am about you," Maybelle continued, "and those feelings... scared me." Her leaders sudden change in tone broke Oreonna out of her thoughts. "I mean, I think about you and it makes me feel amazing, like I can do anything, take on anyone, but at the same time those feelings are all very... familiar."
The cat girl immediately knew May was talking about Chleo, and everything that had happened between them. "And I know you're not her, she has nothing to do with any of this. It's not you I'm even worried about, it's me." The cow girl began messing around with one of the strands of her short, yellow hair in front of her left ear. "I'm afraid I'll start making the exact same mistakes as I did back then, falling into the same old patterns, because even though it's been years I-" Maybelle shut her eyes tightly at the pain those memories caused her internally. "... what if I haven't actually changed? What if... I just end up hurting you like I did all this other girls." Oreonna could only continue to stare in silence in response to the cow faunus' big, sad brown eyes. "So, I guess what I'm saying is... what if we just pretended that kiss never happened?"
The cat girl felt as stabbing pain in her chest at her partners suggestion.
"We could just go back to how things were before all of this, back to being just friends. That's... what you want, right?"
That's what you want.
It wasn't hard for Oreonna to pick up on the subtext of the way her leader had phrased her proposal. Maybelle was offering the cat girl a way out, a chance to keep the status quo they'd established these last months together, but at the cost of May's own happiness. The cow girl was afraid of ruining this friendship by taking things further, the same fear that Oreonna had been struggling under. However, this was an opportunity to escape that fear, to shrug off this whole unbearably awkward situation and just go back to the lives they were already comfortable with, just being partners, friends, and students, because that's what Maybelle honestly believed Oreonna wanted.
But was it?
Did she really want to go back to that? The awkward smiles? The childish blushing at a simple touch? Hiding deeper feelings by shoving them down inside themselves where they'd fester in silence until the day finally came that Maybelle moved on? Was that really the life the cat faunus wanted?
"... Oreo?" May called out quietly to her friend, bringing the violinist girl back to Remnant. The black and white haired teen hadn't realized until then that her leader had expected an answer from her. Oreonna's throat felt dry, she wanted to say something, anything, but her head was still swimming from the revelation that Maybelle felt the same way as her.
Her silence seemed to be enough though, and the cat girl was forced to watch as that last little bit of hope in May's eyes went dark. "It's okay," the blonde said, a sad smile on her face, "you don't have to say anything. I'll take you back to my house and in the morning you can take the airship back to Shade if you want."
Another knife jabbed into Oreonna's heart as her partner began to turn away, ready to abandon any possible future between the two of them for the sake of fear. It was only for a moment, but just before her leader looked away, the violinist could tell she was doing her best to hold back tears. And yet still the cat girl felt powerless as words continued to elude her, so instead, she decided to go with actions. As Maybelle turned away, her hand swung out around her side, and Oreonna quickly lashed out and grabbed it, halting her partners escape.
The cat faunus froze there, still bent forward after lunging to take May's hand. She still didn't know what to say, but now the blonde was staring at her in shock and Oreonna felt her face light up brighter than the sun itself. The violinist tore her sight away from her leaders gaze, instead directing it towards the ground beneath the two of them. She screwed her eyes shut tightly as she held Maybelle's hand tighter than ever before and grasped wildly at the first words that came to mind.
"I like... this!" she blurted out, giving the cow girls warm hand another quick squeeze with her own. She'd been trying to refer to the time the two of them had spent together walking hand in hand through Mirage earlier, but this was the best her brain could articulate the thought while it was currently on fire.
"I-I don't exactly know what this is. I've n-never really felt anything like it before, and that scares me too." The overwhelmed feeling cat girl took a step closer to her leader, mainly so she wouldn't have to stay bent over at such an awkward angle, but she still refused to open her eyes or even lift her head. "I guess what I mean is... I don't know if I'm good enough or deserve to feel this way."
That was probably the thing that had always held Oreonna back most in life, a feeling of inadequacy, most likely stemming from the mother who'd chosen to abandon her. A little voice that always told her that she wasn't good enough or worthy of the blessings she'd received, and it made her feel like she had to work even harder to make sure she earned them, crushing herself under overwhelming, self inflicted pressure. But... that was one of the reasons she liked Maybelle so much.
The cow faunus was always going out if her way to lift others up. She made Oreonna feel like she was so much more than the cat girl thought she was, and that was the one thing Oreonna still couldn't wrap her head around; why someone like May would ever settle for a girl like her. However, despite what that voice in the cat girls head told her, her blonde leader had actually said the words, she liked Oreonna, cared for her even more than just a friend, and that was all the motivation the shy, awkward cat eared girl needed to not let go and give up just yet.
"But, even though I'm scared, I also know that just now when you told me how you really felt, I... i-it made me happier than I've ever been. And that's because I... I..." Oreonna was shaking like a leaf now, wrestling so desperately with the words she'd wanted to say for a long time now. She won the hard fought battle against her insecurities though, finally shouting out what had been bubbling under the surface all along,
"BECAUSE I LIKE YOU TOO!"
There it was. The sentence, as small and short as it had been, hung heavily in the air as Oreonna's face reached a new level of red. The poor faunus' heartbeat rocked her small body, it felt like she was about to collapse, but at the same time she couldn't deny the small feeling of relief at getting the words out.
She managed to summon the courage to crack open an eye, the sight of Maybelle's boots awaiting her as the violinists head was still facing downward. The cat girl slowly raised her head, passing by her hands, still holding onto her leader's tightly, until finally -albeit reluctantly- her gaze arrived at the cow girls face. Maybelle's free hand was close to her mouth, like she'd been frozen mid gasp, but it wasn't close enough to obscure the timid grin sneaking onto the edges of her lips, or her chocolate colored eyes glistening under the fluorescent lights hanging above.
The two faunus stared at each other for a long moment in silence, Oreonna eventually managing her own bashful smile. However, it quickly faded as the cat girl remembered things weren't so simple. "... But..." she started and instantly Maybelle's face fell, "I-I don't know if I'm ready for... this," Again, Oreonna gave the other girls hand a squeeze to show what she was referring to.
The cat faunus wasn't like May, she had no experience when it came to... relationships or whatever she wanted here. Hell, less than an hour ago Oreonna had been convinced she was straight! Now the confused faunus didn't know what she was exactly. She knew she cared about Maybelle in a way she'd never cared about anyone before, that was obvious, but at the same time she was worried about living up to her friends... expectations. Then, Oreonna remembered her fathers advice, 'If you managed to find someone who really understands you, that you feel like you can trust, and accepts you for all your quirks, then it's worth it to at least try.' The only question left was; Would Maybelle be the one who accepted her? There was only one way to find out.
"B-but... I also don't want things to go back to how they were," Oreonna explained, earning an odd look from the cow girl which made the violinist gaze fall back to the floor between them. "So, m-maybe we could just... I don't know... take things slow? I mean, want to give 'this' a try... if... if you still do..." The overly flustered faunus trailed off, shoulders hunching up around her neck as she waited for Maybelle's reply.
Brothers, that sounded so stupid. She's gonna say no. There's no way anyone in there right mind would ever put up with-
"I think that sounds great."
Oreonna's head shot back up, her eyes wide with disbelief. Surely... surely she'd just misheard Maybelle. There was no way the cow girl had just agreed with what Oreonna had just suggested, but the smile the cat faunus saw on the blondes face when their eyes met said otherwise.
May let out a weak laugh. "I mean, I'm... still nervous too, and obviously still pretty messed up from my last relationship, so I think taking things slow might be just what I need right now."
The violinist was left dumbstruck. "R-really?" she said, refusing to believe her ears at this point, all four of them.
The cow girl nodded, her usual confidence and smile seeming to begin to return. "Yeah, I think that would make me happy," Maybelle took her free hand and put it in top of Oreonna's, which had never let go of their leaders throughout their conversation. "But more than that, I want you to be happy, Oreo. And if this is how you want things to be between us from now on, well, then I can't think of a single reason not to give this a shot. Even if we're both scared, we'll take this leap and see where we end up, together."
Together.
At that word, the old familiar feelings started bubbling up inside Oreonna. They were the same ones she'd always felt around Maybelle, when she smiled, when she encouraged her, made her feel like she could conquer any challenge. For the first time ever, the cat girl was able to understand what these feelings were. This was what it felt like to meet someone who understood you, who knew you as well as you did yourself. Guilt and self deprecation had forced Oreonna to repress this feelings for months, making her brush them off as wrong or indecent, but in that moment the cat faunus saw no reason to try and smother out the warmth growing in her chest, and instead, for the first time in her life, she chose to embrace it.
The violinist suddenly leapt forward, wrapping her arms around Maybelle's muscular form. Oreonna wasn't a heavyweight by any stretch of the imagination, but the force of the hug almost knocked the cow girl off her feet. The black and white haired teen buried her face into the space between the blondes neck and shoulder as she felt May's big arms wrap around her as well, holding her tightly.
"Woah now!" Maybelle said with a chuckle, "Is this your definition of slow? Because if so, I like it."
"Shut up," Oreonna mumbled into her friends shoulder, smiling so hard she was worried she might pull something.
Above her, the cat faunus heard her leader take a slow, deep breath as she rested a cheek on Oreonna's head. "I... I was pretty freaked out when you ran off like that," May said in a voice that was neither angry nor judgmental, but full of concern.
"Sorry," the violinist replied, stepping out of the embrace to look her partner in the eye, but still standing close. "I guess I just needed time to process," she explained, "but it did give me the chance to talk to my dad about all this. To figures some stuff out"
Maybelle let out a short, quiet laugh. "Yeah? I actually talked to mine too, earlier, after dinner, when I had you wait in my room."
"What did he say?" Oreonna asked.
The blonde smiled, the look sending tingles down the cat eared girls spine all the way to the tip of her tail. "Follow my heart, which, yeah, I kinda rolled my eyes at him when he said it, but I guess it worked out, so..."
The cat girl giggled softly. "Yeah, my dad pretty much said the same thing, but he was a little more flowery with the message I think."
To the naked eye, it seemed like nothing had changed between the two faunus as they shared a laugh, but they both felt a new kind of energy between them. The way they stood close to each other, the steady rhythm of their heartbeats thumping in unison, nothing was the same anymore. A step had been taken towards building something new, for both girls. A bond had been forged, one as strong as steel.
Maybelle rubbed the back of her neck bashfully. "So... just to be clear then, you didn't run off because the kiss was... bad, right?"
Oreonna gave the blonde a playful glare, which was completely offset by the pink rising to her cheeks.
"What?" May asked with a nervous grin, holding her hands up in defense. "It's just... it's been a while and... I'm just wondering is all, you don't have to answer," she added quickly.
The cat faunus rolled her eyes. "Listen to you," she replied with a scoff, "you're sounding pretty cocky for someone who stole my first kiss."
The cow girl raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you mean?"
Now it was Oreonna's turn to look confused.
"You mean... you don't remember?" Maybelle said, putting a hand on her hip, "You totally kissed me first back there."
The violinist felt all the blood in her body rush to her face for around the millionth time that day. She opened her mouth to deny this, but then realized she honestly didn't remember who kissed who first. It had all happened so fast, had she really-
"Yeah, you were staring at me for a while once they turned the lanterns on, and then- BAM! Damn near gave me a heart attack," the cow girl explained.
Oreonna's brain immediately went into overheat. Did- did she actually- She'd been the one to- But she'd never- There was no way she'd- It was completely-
The constantly overthinking faunus sighed loudly, giving up before she gave herself an aneurysm. She leaned forward into Maybelle, resting her exhausted head on the cow girls chest. She was just too tired to freak out anymore tonight.
"Well... if you really don't remember..." May started, making the violinist raise her head. "I mean... we could always... try again?..."
Okay, Oreonna had been wrong. Apparently she still had plenty of energy left to freak out. Her tail went rigid as her pink eyes were as big as saucers. The cat girls partner looked at her friend with a nervous smile, her cheeks red. The two faunus were standing very close, so close they could feel the heat from each other's body.
"Oh crap, was that too much?" Maybelle said, looking guilty. "I'm sorry, I don't even know why I said that, we don't have to-"
Oreonna wasn't sure why she did what she did next. Maybe it was because of how exhausting this entire day had been.
Maybe her mind had finally completely unraveled under the weight of all the overwhelming emotions.
Or maybe... just maybe, there was more of her mother in her than the cat girl would ever know or admit.
"Screw it," Oreonna said to herself, before stepping up on her tip toes, putting her hands in Maybelle's shoulders, and pressing her lips to the blondes.
Maybelle let out a muffled squeak in surprise, before closing her eyes and wrapping her big arms around the small of Oreonna's back.
The cat faunus had only intended the kiss to be a quick peck, but all that went out the window as soon as she made contact with May's soft, sweet lips. Everything around the two of them seemed to melt away. The violinists old fears and doubts tried to rear their ugly heads again, thoughts like; 'This isn't who you are,' or 'you don't deserve this.' This time though, the thoughts were blown away, never even standing a chance against the rush of happiness Oreonna felt in that solitary moment.
To her surprise, the young cat eared girl felt a single tear roll down her cheek. It wasn't out of fear or despair though, but relief. Relief in finally being able to accept a part of herself she'd been denying for months, even since she'd first met Maybelle while playing the violin on Shade's cafeteria floor, hell, maybe even longer than that if she was truly being honest with herself.
Eventually the two faunus' lips separated, but they still held each other close. The black and white haired cat girl looked up into her partners warm, chocolate colored eyes as they stared back in adoration. Oreonna's smile stretched from ear to ear, then, for some reason, she found herself laughing. Then Maybelle started laughing too, and the pair of faunus pressed their foreheads together, giggling quietly there in the empty CCT station, as if they'd just shared a personal inside joke between each other.
"So," May said, lifting her head exposing a coy smile, "think you'll remember that one?"
Oreonna didn't answer, she just sighed contently, resting her head on the cow girls chest again. Then, a low rumble began emanating from the cat faunus. The violinist felt a wave of embarrassment as she purred involuntarily, although the amount of said embarrassment seemed inconsequential in comparison to everything she'd already been through today.
Still, it was a bit... unnatural sounding, and the cat eared girl hoped her partner wasn't too bothered by it. "S-sorry," she muttered out, "I... do that sometimes..."
"Please," May said as Oreonna felt one of the blondes fingers curl under her chin and raise the cat girls head from its resting spot, so the two girls were looking eye to eye, "feel free to do that ALL the time." The blonde punctuated her answer with a quick kiss to her teammates forehead, making Oreonna's face light up with a smile.
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A/N- AWWWWWW! Finally these crazy kids hook up, and it only took almost 30 chapters of unbearable almost flirting and blushy moments to get here! I bet no one is upset! And that's the story of how Cookies and Cream (OreonnaxMaybelle) became canon! Now unless I'm forgetting anything...
(Looks at Oran and Nichol)
No, no you kids still need a little... work.
(Holds up box labeled "AAAAAAAANSGT!")
So yeah! Look forward to THAT next time as we begin the final arc of this story!
Sorry this took forever! Between "Show Me How You Smile" (my other fan fic giving Ilia some much deserved happiness which you should all definitely check out and leave reviews for) and the crushing depression brought on by quarantine, I guess I've had plenty of excuses to put this off. But we're almost done! Like I said, this next part is the beginning of the end. Of course, I say that, but watch it turn out to be another five chapters worth. Ugh. My mind is hell sometimes.
Anyway, Follow, Fav, Review, all that stuff nobody does.
Later!