Team Bonding, Take #2:
It had been four months since Celica was knocked out by Arthur, she was checked thoroughly by the nurse on the day and after regaining consciousness her aura built back up healing her. Arthur got a yelling at by Sylvia and a talking to by Professor Goodwitch, as Celica arrived back in the dorm that day Arthur immediately apologized to her, Celica accepted his apology but didn't let her guard down around him, Sylvia could see more of a wedge divide the two and it would even be more work to get them trusting each other.
Over the four months, things returned to normal as they had been in the first week, Celica hid at the library studying, Arthur kept his distance and both didn't even look at each other let alone try to communicate with the other. Sylvia and Luca were the ones trying to encourage either of them to at least have a conversation but they both weren't biting, Celica had also hung out with Team CVFY and even trained with them by herself.
They knew Celica may have been afraid of training with her team after what happened and they were there for her, however they knew she couldn't train with them all the time and she had to face her team sooner or later. Celica had told Team CVFY about her social anxiety during the first week, something about the four of them had her feel safe and respected, when she looked at her team Sylvia was the only one she truly felt was 100% genuine.
All Arthur had done was glare at her, insult her and knocked her out. On the other hand, Luca was polite and had a few conversations with her even though they were short-lived, but the main thing was at least they were trying. Sylvia was getting sick of her team not getting along and felt like a bad leader, she kept this quiet trying to form another plan, eventually admitting she needed help she visited Coco whilst Celica was studying in the library.
After having a talk with Coco she was refreshed as Coco reminded her that trust and friendship can take a chunk of time to build as it can't happen overnight telling Sylvia a few minor problems that Team CVFY had when they first formed in the past year. Sylvia walked with new energy as she group texted her team stating and not asking that they will be going into Vale on the weekend for a team bonding exercise.
Luca responded first with just a thumbs up, she sat in the dorm waiting for a message from Celica and Arthur as she did some homework while waiting. It had been over a couple of hours when Celica just messaged back 'Ok', Sylvia stared at the message making a mental note to speak with Celica wanting her to tell Luca and Arthur that she had social anxiety but the biggest problem it had to come from her and she clearly wasn't a big fan of Arthur right now and vice versa.
Another couple of hours passed before Arthur just messaged 'fine' Sylvia had finished her homework and started planning the day before everyone returned to the dorm, Friday arrived and the team were together all day sitting in classes. At the end of class Sylvia told Luca and Arthur to head on further asking Celica to talk privately, Celica smiled nervously and nodded as Sylvia started to take her for a walk around Beacon.
Sylvia made some small talk with Celica, lightly building up to what she actually wanted to say, she was learning a lot about Celica and Celica was learning a lot about her, the two walked side by side and eventually Sylvia got to the point she wanted to make. Telling Celica that she should open up to the rest of the team and let them know she has social anxiety as it wasn't helping the situation and perhaps could help Luca and Arthur open up.
Celica held her left arm once again as the anxious emotions ran through her brain once again, her mind going into overdrive as she thought of what could possibly happen if she told them and was super fixated on his reaction thinking it could be more fuel for him to hurt her again. She felt a panic rise up as she stared at the ground but it suddenly stopped when she felt a hand grab her left hand.
Looking at her hand and then stared into Sylvia's reassuring smile as she told Celica it would all be ok and would be there when she told them and to keep an eye on Arthur. The pair stared into each other's eyes, Sylvia knew Celica needed a gentle nudge and it was working as Celica really felt comfortable with Sylvia and thought she would be able to do anything with Sylvia by her side. She nodded and agreed to tell them as long as she was there next to her. Sylvia promised and they started to return to their dorm.
The four sat in the dorm, all doing their own thing, Luca was bored as Sylvia had told him to quiet down as she was studying, Luca lay on his bead just staring up at the ceiling, Arthur was playing a game on his scroll and Celica was messaging her parents sitting on her bed curled into a ball talking to her parents. Her parents were concerned as she had told them what happened during the sparring match, Celica had told them it was ok but she just needed to get advice from her parents.
Luca suddenly sat up and shouted 'let's play a board game' to the dorm getting a reaction from everyone, Celica jumped in shock from the quiet of the room dropping her scroll at the sudden outburst, Arthur died in the game he was playing and Sylvia stared at Luca first a little annoyed but a smile spread across her face thinking this could actually get a head start with bonding.
She was the first one to agree as she looked at both Celica and Arthur, Arthur rolled his eyes and said he would join, Celica wanted to play but her anxiety was getting the best of her until Sylvia grabbed her hand pulling her up from her bed and telling her to join. Celica followed along as they all sat down and started playing the board game with her team.
Celica was quiet as they played while the group talked but she did answer a few questions and tell a couple of stories from her time at Signal Academy, they talked about what music they liked and everyone was having a good time which put a big smile on Sylvia's face as this was progress just getting everyone learning small stuff with each other at first.
That was until Arthur asked Celica if she had any other friends she could annoy. Arthur meant it as a joke trying to use humour to try to get along with Celica, the joke backfired as Celica looked down and away having all eyes on her retreating into her shell, Arthur just kept staring at her getting annoyed about his joke being ignored and turning to Sylvia telling her he's trying while Celica thought she should've gone out with Team CVFY.
Sylvia had turned to him and tried to diffuse the situation as Celica kept her eyes on the ground, Arthur got more annoyed at Sylvia as she was always defending Celica but that's when Luca seemed to put two and two together as he listened to Sylvia and Arthur whilst looking at Celica. Without a second thought he just locked eyes with Celica and asked 'You have trouble communicating don't you?'
Celica popped her head up and stared at Luca wondering how he knew, Sylvia and Arthur stopped arguing looking between Celica and Luca before all eyes fell on Celica when she nodded and mumbled out a quiet 'yes' as she looked at the ground. Arthur apologized and Celica smiled thanking him and apologized to him as well as she never wanted to come off as rude but found it hard to communicate with people no matter if they were Humans or Faunus.
Arthur could actually relate to part of Celica's problem as he finally told his story about being mistreated by Humans and that he had become afraid from talking to them and lashed out in anger. There was a dangerous look in his eye as he told his story of his parents protecting him as they ran from Humans hunting them down. Celica had tears in her eyes hearing the sad tale and took his hand which caused Arthur to flinch but ended up accepting it as Celica comforted him.
While the two talked Luca looked at Sylvia and winked as Sylvia had pulled Luca aside earlier that day and told him all about Celica's social anxiety and instructed him to seem like he figured it out on his own if Arthur and Celica were about to have an argument. After the high emotions Sylvia suggested that they should go to bed and rest up for their team bonding session tomorrow but did hug her friends congratulating them on making some progress.
Everyone enjoyed Sylvia's hugs, they were warm and comforting and for the first time the whole team was getting along. Both Celica and Arthur knew something deep about one another which frightened and comforted them at the same time and now could build trust from that, the team fell asleep and in the morning everyone was in good spirits as they headed to Beacon, the three kept trying to ask the plan from Sylvia but she kept it hush until they arrived at an escape room yelling 'Surprise!'
The three looked at her and knew there was no getting out of it as they headed in and were locked in the room together knowing they had to work together to escape. With positive energy they started working on the puzzles to work out how to get out, Celica even joined in. Used to her own company puzzles helped her when she felt lonely whilst growing up so she figured most of them out first which got her high fives from the rest of the team as she started opening up.
When Celica started opening up Arthur and Luca did so too, Sylvia looked at the group thinking how simple it was to finally get everyone working together but of course, there were issues to address later such as Arthur's anger, Celica's confidence in talking to people and Luca just wanting to joke around all the time not taking everything seriously all the time.
Those were issues for another day as Sylvia broke off with Celica to focus on one puzzle as Luca and Arthur went to the other side of the room, they talked quietly while Celica and Sylvia were working away. Eventually, Sylvia got the answer telling Luca or Arthur near the door to punch in the code that she read out, Luca punched in the numbers and the door opened as the team cheered, Celica was smiling brightly loving how she was able to have a team and friends as well.
As the team left the premises Luca and Arthur said they needed to have some bro time and headed off after they all congratulated each other on working together, Celica and Sylvia waved goodbye and figured they could have some girl time. They were in the middle of discussing what they could do when Sylvia couldn't take it anymore as she stepped forward closing the distance between them and kissing Celica.
Celica was stunned at first but she started kissing back, around the corner Arthur was asking Luca one last time if he was coming, Luca shook his head and turned around to go catch up to the girls, he rounded the corner and saw Sylvia kissing Celica, he stopped and turned around catching up to Arthur telling him to wait up as he changed his mind and telling Arthur of what he saw.
Arthur slammed his closed fist into a street sign knowing this was going to become much harder as both the guys were head over heels for Sylvia but they pressed on walking quite a few blocks heading further into the streets of Vale ending up in the industrial area following the markers and joining a White Fang meeting with their fellow brothers and sisters where they helped rally for new recruits.
Back to the first kiss after the duo pulled away they both smiled, they had grown closer over the 4 months and had both had a crush on each other including multiple moments where they should've kissed but chickened out until now as they both headed back to the airship to take them back to Beacon as the two walked hand in hand talking to each other unknown that Luca and Arthur were at a White Fang rally...