Equal But Opposite: Sun

A few months ago, if Sun had been told he would prefer traveling in a ship's cargo hold over a state of the art Atlas airship, he would've accused his messenger of heavy bias to his Vacuon sensibilities. True, he wasn't exactly the most formal guy in the world, but not even he would pass up a taste of the high life every once in a while. Yet, here he was; lounging on a soft, reasonably spacious seat in a climate controlled passenger cabin and all he could think was how depressing the entire atmosphere had managed to be in just the first hour of flight. It's not like he could blame anyone, really. They'd all been through a lot. It would take a bit for everyone to bounce back from this.

But they would bounce back. Life goes on and all that.

Taking a second to stretch his arms over his head, Sun turned his head to survey his fellow passengers. This ship was headed for Mistral, so most of the occupants were his fellow Haven students. He could recognize a good number of them from classes, sparring, the cafeteria, etc. Team AERO was at the very rear of the cabin, looking healthy if not exactly happy. Good to see they had some luck.

Team KOBI was two rows behind him. Oran had bandages covering his left side, all the way up to the neck and down to maybe his ribs. Sun wasn't sure, he was wearing a shirt over most of it. Io, seated on Oran's right, was struggling to get comfortable in her two casts; one on her right arm and the other on her left leg. That was… less lucky, but no doubt something they'd both be able to heal from.

Team FLAX was seated three rows ahead of Sun. Fallo was staring forward like the back of his neighbor's seat had all the answers to the universe in its upholstery. Xanth was quietly sobbing as he found comfort in Azu's arms, she herself looking haggard from to many sleepless nights. It was then that Sun realized Laurel was missing from their number.

Sun decided it was time to check up on his own team. To his left, Neptune was filling the aisle seat. His partner had been gabbing to Sun for the last twenty minutes about the Atlas girl who'd interrogated the two of them about the night they'd fought the White Fang with Blake and her team. Apparently she'd made an impression on him, or something. Sun couldn't see how. The girl's personality was about as dry as the desert he'd grown up in. That was Neptune, though. Always a sucker for a pretty girl. He'd probably forget about her in a week.

To Sun's right, Sage occupied the other middle seat. He hadn't said a word to Sun since he and Scarlet had found out about that late night escapade with Team RWBY. Sun supposed that was fair. He was the leader and he probably should've been keeping all his subordinates in the loop a bit more. That said, he wouldn't have minded Sage being a little more mature about how he expressed his displeasure, but it's not like it mattered that much. He'd get over it eventually and get back to ignoring Sun's orders with more smiling than frowning.

To Sage's right, gazing out the cabin window to the open blue sky they were sailing through, was Scarlet. Scarlet, unlike Sage, didn't really seem to have any issues with Sun right now. Scarlet always was the sane one, after all. He knew how to keep Neptune on task even around a mass of girls, could convince Sun of when it was more practical to follow the rules than break them, and had Sage wrapped around his—

By no command of his own, Sun's vision shifted from Scarlet's face to his sword hand braced against the seam of the window. Like he'd found himself doing far more frequently than he would've like, he unconsciously counted the fingers. One thumb… one index… one middle… nothing else…

Sun tried to pry his eyes away as a myriad of unhealthy, unproductive thoughts began their march into the forefront of his mind. He had almost broken off when Scar made a twitch of discomfort he wished he didn't understand. Scar had a habit of drumming his fingers when he was sitting still for too long. It was never a big deal, not too loud or annoying, but after what happened Sun would've paid any price to halt that tic for the sake of his team.

Every time, Scarlet would start to fall back into the rhythm. Every time there would only be three taps. Every time that unnatural pace would unsettle, sadden, and remind them of what was happening. Neptune was pretty good at keeping upbeat, but he'd always be thrown off when it started up and he found himself with nothing to say. Sage had been hyper aware of everything Scarlet was doing for the past couple weeks and he'd taken too lacing his fingers into Scarlet's offhand (everything was still too fresh to hold the main hand) to try to reassure him. Sun was fine, off course. He knew it was going to be okay, that they'd all be all right eventually. Even if right now didn't seem like the best it could possibly be. They were alive, they were relatively healthy, it was fine.

So what if Sage was mad at him over the Team RWBY thing? Sage had been mad at him plenty of times before. So what if Neptune was obsessed with this Atlas girl? He was only ever interested in the chase; never knew what to do if he'd actually caught one. So what if Scarlet was… He'd be okay… He'd… He'd adapt and overcome because he was decent and reliable and that wouldn't change about him. So what if Sun couldn't look Blake in the eye, anymore? So what if he'd gotten mad during that fight? He was still the same person he'd always been. Anything he felt or thought was just a temporary shift away from the norm. Eventually the wounds and the friendships and the thoughts would all heal up. Life goes on and whatnot.

Again, through no thought of his own, Sun glanced over at Team F_AX, noting the empty seat and the uninterrupted sobbing.

Life goes on.

Unless it doesn't.