Two weeks passed and Serene was getting very comfortable in her dorm room. She liked having a clean, spacious area with four walls all to herself with working utilities. It may have just been a small dorm room with minimal furnishing, but to her it was the height of luxury.
The message from Nyla that her team would be joining her at Beacon on the first day of term burst her bubble slightly, but she pushed it aside and enjoyed her last few days of solitude. As much as she could.
Raven had been checking in on her every few days, either by scroll or turning up in the middle of the night, only seeming to be placated when Serene assured her she was content to sit alone in her room and read.
The day her teammates were due to arrive, Serene woke up late. It was the first day of term and she was supposed to have breakfast with Sun.
With her school uniform on, as well as the black fingerless gloves she wore to absorb the ache from her gauntlets, her heavy boots replacing the black shoes she'd been provided.
Halving her staff, she strapped it to her back and grabbed her bag and book, hoping to get something small from the cafeteria for breakfast. Her hoped were dashed however, when she saw several students, splattered in colourful food and drink trying to brush themselves off at the door, and a very angry looking Professor Goodwitch speaking to Headmaster Ozpin.
She changed her path, heading straight to her first class and enduring another one of Port's audio autobiography.
Hours later she was on her way to sparring when she was almost slammed into the wall.
"Hello!" Serene spun around, reaching for her staff to deal with the threat, but was instead met with Nyla pulling Maizie back, reprimanding her. She'd almost forgotten they were coming today. "Can you be civilised for two minutes?" She asked her partner. "Wejustgot you out of trouble with that city guard." "That guy was racist," Maizie rolled her eyes. "That wasn't my fault." "Nice to see you'," Jazz said pointedly, mostly at her teammates as she nudged them.
"Oh, hi Sera," Nyla waved sheepishly.
"Hi," Serene waved back. "We've been looking all over for you," Maizie said. Her outfit was different, Serene noted. She'd traded in her shorts for longer pants and longer boots with a leather pauldron on her right shoulder and arm.
"Cool." "Are you going to class?" Maizie took the schedule out of her hand and read it. "I've got sparring." "You should ditch and show us around." "I've missed enough class as it is," Serene said, taking her timetable back. "Do you guys know where the dorm is?" "Yep," Maizie held up her own piece of paper. "We just got registered and all that jazz."
Maizie snorted and Nyla and Jazz rolled their eyes.
"You go to class," Nyla said, dragging Maizie away, "We'll see you later!" Serene walked off, her stomach sinking as her little bubble had been well and truly burst.
After weight lighting and push ups, she was wrapping her bandages around her hands, getting ready to move onto the punching bag when she was once again accosted.
"There you are!" Sun cried, taking a seat on the bench beside her. "I haven't seen you since we made a break for it at the docks. I was starting to think you'd dropped out or something." "I've been in my room. Or the library," She shrugged.
"Nerd. Anyway, are you going to the dance next week?" "What?" "The school dance? Are you going?" "Uh," Serene didn't know what dance he was talking about, but she shook her head. "No. Dances aren't really my thing." "But we had such a good time at Neptune's party." He whined slightly.
"Only because I was drinking." "Come on, be realistic; someone will spike the punch." She almost laughed at that. "Thanks, but I don't think so." "Okay, well, if you change your mind Neptune and Sage don't have dates yet." "What about you?" Serene asked, fiddling with her bandages.
"I'm asking this girl out today. You should meet her! She's so great, and beautiful, and cool. She's got that 'mysterious and cool' thing you've got going on too." Serene snorted. She doubted it.
"Yeah, maybe. I gotta get to it," She gestured to her punching bag.
"Yeah, okay, I'll see you around." He waved cheerily as he walked off and Serene stuck in to punching all her strength into the heavy bag.
After a quarter of an hour or so the bag started to char slightly, and she backed off, breathing heavily. She might have gone too hard too fast.
The shower was barely lukewarm, but the steam was billowing out like a sauna. Serene tried to calm down but could feel the burn of her semblance beneath her skin. Her semblance had come easy, but power without discipline was a dangerous combination, and she'd been very limited in what she was allowed to use it for until she got a grip on it. And her semblance wasstrong. The red and yellow and black was visible as it pulsed through her veins as she tried to calm it.
It was more than just a part of her, it was like… shewasthe fire, the energy, the smoke and the ash, living in a girl's body.
And Wildfire couldn't be contained.
"I'm only doing this so you'll leave me alone,"
"Sure Sera." It wasn't entirely true. The true reason Serene let her teammates drag her into the city for dress shopping was because they promised to buy her coffee. But she didn't want to tell them that, because it worked, and she didn't need them bribing her with her sweet cup of diabetes every time they wanted something.
The shop they were in now was a more expensive boutique and Serene was only allowed to keep her coffee after assuring the shop assistant of her complete lack of interest at trying on the items.
"This is nice," Nyla said softly, looking at her reflection in the mirror. It was a dark blue dress with a thin cerise sash around the waist.
"It looks really good on you," Jazz walked over, bunching Nyla's red hair up into a ponytail. "Especially with this hair colour."
"But what if I feel… more boyish on the day?"
"Ooh yeah, you look hot in a suit," Maizie commented, lounging in the chair beside Serene. "Do you have a suit?" Jazz asked. "It's just a school dance; it doesn't have to be too fancy."
"You could just get like some nice jeans and a tie." Maizie suggested. "Or just a dress shirt and you roll up the sleeves and leave the top few buttons undone. That's a hot look, hey?" She nudged Serene. Serene thought it over.
"Would be hotter if you were a girl with that look," She mused.
"Ugh, you useless lesbian." "Aren't you gay?" Serene frowned. "Pan." "Ah." "Hey!" Jazz snapped her fingers, getting their attention. "We're finding an outfit for Nyla here." "Yeah, yeah. That dress does look really nice though." Maizie assured her.
"You're not just saying that because this is the seventh dress I've tried on?" Nyla asked. "Nope. It looks good. And it's nice so you can keep your body that size and wear it to other things."
"You're gonna be skinny your whole life with no effort and I hate you for that." Jazz said, taking a picture of Nyla in the dress and showing it to her.
Nyla bought the dress, and Jazz chose the second dress she tried on; a pale but bright pink dress with a tutu skirt.
"What kind of dress do you want?" Jazz asked Maizie as they stepped out onto the street.
"Dunno." Maizie shrugged.
"I need more coffee," Serene said, dumping her empty cup in the bin. "You're going to run us broke," Jazz rolled her eyes.
"You could always let me go back to Beacon." She pointed out.
They got her coffee and found another dress shop and set Maizie loose to find an outfit.
Serene wandered off from the group, walking around the overly plush carpet.
She noticed a familiar face in the men's section and wondered over in hopes of avoiding sharing her opinion on more colourful clothes and hoping to scare someone.
"What are you doing?" Sun jumped slightly, spinning around and stumbling over his own feet.
"Oh, hey!" He said, playing cool like he didn't have a dozen various ties on his shoulders and tied around his arms.
"What are you doing?" She asked, although she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"Uh, just… looking for a tie for the dance." "Do you know how to wear a tie Sun?" She asked, gesturing to the ones wrapped around his forearms.
"Yes." He said defensively. "So you going open shirt or think you'll manage to do up the buttons for a few hours?" "I think I can get a nicer shirt; I get the vibe Vale's a bit more formal than Vacuo." "I'm sure that'll impress; not that the manscaping isn't impressive." "Thanks," He said, rolling his eyes good naturedly. "But I'm not trying to impress anyone." "What happened to your super-duper mega awesome girl?" Serene asked, taking another mouthful of her liquid sugar.
"She... Uh, she's not going." Sun rubbed the back of his neck. He suddenly perked up. "Oh! We could go!" "What?" "Just as friends," He added quickly. "It'll be fun." "I'm still not going. Sorry man." Sun deflated. "Oh." Now, Serene had tried hard not to get close to her team or any of the other kids at Beacon, but after two weeks in a confined space with the guy, relying on each other to survive and stay out of trouble, forcing herself not to care wasn't as easy as she would have liked. Besides, it could be fun.
"Ugh, fine, whatever!" She turned around, storming over to her group who was throwing various gold items of clothing on Maizie. "I need to get something for the dance." She announced. All three members of her team turned to her, surprised. Maizie was the first to speak.
"I bought you coffee for nothing?" Jazz smacked her arm. "Let's go look around," Jazz came with her to look at some dresses, and Serene quickly lost interest.
"What about th-"
"Uuuuggghhthis is boring!" She whined. Jazz looked at her in confusion. "This is the first dress." She pointed out.
"Can't I just wear jeans?" "You can wear a suit if you want; but you'll need something nicer than the Men in Black ensembles you've hoarded. There's a dress code." "I don't like dresses." "Let's see if they have jumpsuits or something."
They did, but the selection wasn't very big. Serene immediately moved to the black at the end of the rack.
"This shit's expensive," She muttered, pulling out an outfit that revealed way more than she was sure the Beacon dress code allowed. "So much for so little." "How much do you want to spend?" "I don't know, but three hundred for something I'm probably going to wear once is stupid." "What colour do you like?" Jazz asked, pulling out a loose orangish yellow jumpsuit that matched Serene's eyes.
"Black." Jazz rolled her eyes. "Anything else?" "I don't know. Green. Gold."
They searched for a few more minutes, each outfit being a worse fit than the last, before Jazz grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the back.
"How about this?" She held up her discovery. It was too long on her, which meant it would probably fit Serene just fine.
It was black with brilliant gold detailing and a dark, sheer cloak that fell to her feet.
"It's nice," She said, running her hand over the fabric. It was soft and light and the details along the torso were pretty. She loved it, but she told herself it was mostly just because she didn't have to shop anymore.
She gave Jazz her money to pay and walked back over to where Sun was trying to undo the mess of ties on his forearm. "Here," Serene undid the knots with practised ease from years of setting up traps and tents and put them back on the rack before picking out a white and gold tie.
"This one. Wear a black shirt." "Uh, okay," He nodded, taking the tie. "I guess I'll see you there?" "Yeah whatever," She walked back to her team, grabbing the bag containing her jumpsuit and storming out into the street.
