Arc II - Barons Rising
Chapter 14: Not So Normal Birthday
December 27th...I...is it 2019? I think it is? Probably if we're to go by my world's time over this one. But as I watch this snow drift down softly from beyond the window, the particular date had me in a state of...intorrerance, as in my expression was bland and devoid of emotion, given how this day would go for me, sure, spending it with family was grand, it was the memories of days like it that bothered me to no end of endless torment, leading to an episode or two of panic attacks - Like the one I am currently having.
Okay, breathing...breathing. I felt my shaken hand latch around the table where I stood to stare out at Beacon, the cold sweat quickly sending shivers down my back at the thoughts - no, stop thinking about it, they can't...they aren't here, you're far away from them. Huh, would have expected Iota or Eric to respond by now? Guess they aren't here.
What a great start to my Birthday.
The only thing I ever said to any of them of my birthday was that it was this month, did I want to tell them? No. Simply because what would be the point? The thoughts that came with something like this weren't pleasant, and I had no idea when I'd find my way home again, so the reasons would be pointless. Recent thoughts of my team also didn't help that case, especially Ruby.
Sighing, my hand slowly slid off the table, my body on autopilot towards the door, but upon my hand reaching the doorknob, I couldn't help but wonder how Erika was doing. I hope she's ok, especially today of all times...Gah, I need to clear my head of this. Upon opening the door, I was greeted by the sight of Yang, her smile constant on her face.
"Heya, Sky!" She waved, passing me as I gave her a nod, but I did notice her giving me a look. "You alright?"
"Aye, just thinking." I was trying not to, but since when have I ever been graced with that? But my auto response seemed to be enough for her
"Okie Dokie, seeya later." Yang fell atop her bed with a jump, leaving me to walk out into the hall, my hand still holding the door open
What a bland, cold day, no family to celebrate it with, or sister to happily surprise me with one of her thousands of ideas, I guess Weiss counted as my sister now, but...nope, needed to clear these thoughts now. Once I heard Yang humming a song to herself, I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. I could celebrate my special day somehow, well, I won't throw a party for myself or buy myself a cake. I'm sad, but not in that sort of way.
So what should I do...? I glanced down at Cognitum, sighing for the twentieth time today.
"Some Birthday this is..."
[Downtown Vale]
"-There's a place that we can go..." My soft, nearly silent singing offered me some comfort in the mild-cold of Vale, as I carefully stepped past spots of snow along the way. Problem. I have no idea where exactly the hell I was even going. "...Where it's always shining like the snow..."
"Sky!" Oh, didn't expect to see her here
Turning around, I saw Ruby jog up to me, a red scarf added to her equipment, the cuffs of her boots and arms had a fur lining, along with the collar, her 'winter upgrade' as she called it, or lack of clothing choice. But...did she get her hair done? It looked a lot more fresh than usual.
"Sup." Guess she was out shopping or something, or Weiss forced her to do so, probably the latter. "What can I help you with?"
"O-oh, nothing special, I..." Ruby was being weird, more than usual, she looked like her thoughts were all jumbled in her head, and she studdered frequently. "I...wanted to see if you can hang out with me today."
That statement was baffling enough. "You couldn't have sent me a message or something before?" Never mind the fact she must be crazy to want my company or all things
"I wasn't sure if you were awake or not, when we left you were still asleep, yeah, and you say I sleep in late." Oh... well, fair enough, and hate to say Rubes, but my timing is far better than yours. With a shrug, I motioned for Ruby to lead the way, a triumphant smile on her face
"Lead the way, Rubes."
[Golden Oak Cafe, Vale]
"-I nearly had her too, but Weiss distracted me and I lost after coming so close to beating Yang!" Ruby looked positively furious, drinking a mouthful of hot chocolate with an angry expression, my own hand lifting my own mug to sip from it
"Ok-Ok, let me get this straighten in my head." I sat the mug down, tapping the table thoughtfully. "You lost five matches against Yang, in a game you have more experience in, and when you finally came close to defeat...Weiss laughing was what distracted you?"
Ruby then looked towards the wall, scratching her red cheek. "When does Weiss ever 'smile' or laugh!?"
"Fair point." I raised my hand in defense, but Ruby was certainly unorthodox, even by my standards. Ruby had lead me to a small cafe near the location the Vital Festival was set-up, it was nice inside, all wooden, with an open fire, had a nice rustic, medieval touch to it that I liked. Still...
"So anyway, I managed to get the upper hand when-"
"Ruby." She blinked at the unexpected shift of tone. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering something."
"Um, what's up?"
"Why am I here?"
"I-um, well...to talk with me of course."
Hardly the point. "I love a good chat, but not without a reason, why did you bring me here? More to the point, what is it that you're trying to hide?" Now she looked like a deer in headlights
"What, I can't just hang out with a friend of mine?" Ruby noticed my bemused expression, her own breath of defeat reaching her. "Sorry, I just...why don't you like hanging out?"
Hmm. "It only ever leads to problems on my end." Her expression changed again
"'Problems'?"
"Aye, all my conversations always lead to one common theme, I hate wasting time talking about nothing." My answer was blunt, but the truth, while I did like having conversations, ones about bland, tasteless topics never interested me, sure, I found the incident with her and Yang to be funny, but only by a little margin
"Okay...how about this, tell me about how you feel about our friends?" Huh? What did...well, I guess it isn't devoid of a reason, curiosity is something I'm used to. Ruby did look interested, so I took another sip of my hot chocolate
"Well...Blake is by far the strangest, with her silent attitude, I find it hard to read her, but then our love for reading and topics we enjoy come into play, not to mention our endless conversations of ideals of the world, stuff like that. She's nice, even if she doesn't show it often." I replied, with Ruby drinking with a keen eye of interest
"Yang and Weiss are pretty cool too, Yang's got a very tomboyish personality, something I like a lot, helps me when I'm not as...confident in myself, hell, I doubt I'd be this talkative if not for her. Weiss is...a lot like me, we both had family issues and had people treat us like we're not even human, and I felt I could confide in her, even if just a bit."
"Like me?" Ruby offered, and I clicked my fingers, pointing at her
"Aye. Coco and Velvet are...certainly a pair too; If Velvet's not with me, Coco can drive me up the wall - like, for instance, she tried to get me to talk about girls and started trying to pair me with some, ugh...I hate her sooo much~!" I felt emotionally in pain just thinking about it. "I think I've lost brain cells because of her."
Meanwhile, Ruby was laughing. "You're so easy to embarrass, that's why." Ruby argued with me
"Like you would do better?" I challenged, Ruby merely put a hand on her chest, looking like Weiss when her ego got in the way of her logic
"You mean a groan of disbelief? Indeed." Hehehe, not likely
"Huh. Not what I would've done." Grabbing my mug, I gave Ruby a toothy grin
"Tch. You would've just rolled your eyes and give a sarcastic reply." I retracted my hand from my mug
"...No comment." I chuckled along with her, but something in her eyes caught my stare, as her own gaze looked down into her half-drunken mug
"Still, I guess out of everyone I know, girl wise, Weiss or Pyyrha come to mind when I think who's prettier, while I'm more towards coolest," Ruby added proudly, but I once more gave no reply, making her look up at me again. "What, nothing?"
"...The same reason I gave Coco, I don't typically care for the looks of girls." Please don't make say anymore, I'd rather die alone than suffer this game of dating, please Ruby
But she looked at me with an inquisitive stare. "You...care more for a girl's personality then?" I only nodded, feeling the heat rise to my face, thankfully she sat back straight against her seat. "Okay then, shall we go now?"
Oh, thank the Gods. "Really? Where to next?"
"You'll just have to wait and see~!" Was she - She was luring me into a trap? Again with her sweet smile
"...Tch, cute for a gun-nut." I muttered under my breath, and it was at that point I realized what I let slip, son of a -
"W-What was that?" Dammit all to Hell for this!
"Nothing." I couldn't salvage this, I suck at social interactions like this, and her red cheeks weren't helping my case. "You heard nothing, alright, not a word!"
"I...s-sure..." I screwed myself with this, but Ruby slowly composed herself, but her red cheeks didn't fade in the slightest, almost mocking me at that, but she waved a hand before her. "My fault for bringing the whole 'romance' thing up anyways, come on, we have to hurry!"
"Sure thing, Rubes..." Loving my Birthday, sooo much
[Beacon, Team RWBYS' Dorm]
"SURPRISE!"
W-What?
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKY!"
What!? How-
I could practically feel my jaw hitting the ground with such force it gave my body a jolt, while I stood there with a justified shocked expression at the crowd and decorations before me. Behind me I heard Ruby enter next. But my attention was focused on the fact of this party presented to me.
I...all of them. Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyyrha, Nora, Ren, Coco, Velvet, Sun, Neptune. All of them were staring at me happily after announcing those words to celebrate something they shouldn't even be aware of. My eyes kept glued mostly to the banner above as my brain waged war against itself for answers.
I... I never told a single soul about today, so how...?
"Sky...?" The hesitant voice of Ruby caused me to blink, retaining some composure from my shock, but her actions today made all the more sense the longer I let the day sink into my mind, and then I looked to Yang, who grinned back at me
"How... How did you...?"
"I overheard you in your room earlier today." The confident reply of Yang answered her sister and I finally tore my eyes away from the banner. Now I was staring at my best friend in complete bafflement. Upon putting her hands on her hips she smiled. "You muttered that today was your Birthday, I assumed anyway. So I got Ruby to distract you after getting a few things sorted, and walla! A quick party before the day is over and everyone one of us you considered a close friend awaited your return."
My...everything in my head hurt, my heart was caught in this crossfire of conflictions and contradictions that waged on in my mind painfully. I still didn't respond, only my eyes lingered on the fact they even managed to acquire gifts for me, I could just about handle the situation before I let alone the physical appreciation before me in wrapped boxes. I...
"We...I don't..." Iota muttered through my mouth with a massive wave of clouded logic
"You did this for us...for him?" Eric wasn't laughing with joy, in,stead he sounded far more dumbfounded than before
"Of course we did! We didn't get the ins and outs of everything, but you deserve to be happy on your birthday, right?" Sun answered as if this was an easy thing to grasp, that the concept wasn't so otherworldly
These people...my...friends...my sister...I...
They all saw what I could feel slip down my cheek, a single, clear tear, that steady drop was soon followed by my flurry of hardships and concerns rising out from the horrid pit I threw them away into, it was rising like a shallow grave in my soul. I stood there, only to have someone wrap their arms around me, but I could recognize the black and red anywhere if not for my crying, she held me once again, allowing everything inside my mind to slip out.
Then three more embraced me at all angles as I continued to bury my face into Ruby, but I never once felt the smile on my face drop, accumulated with my pain and sorrow was pure, genuine happiness, and I never wanted to let that go tonight. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked up at them all with the brightest smile I've ever dawned.
"Okay...then let's get this party started!"
I'll call it right now. Best Birthday Ever.
Despite my breakdown, which everyone agreed was completely understandable, the party went off without a hitch or complaint, I enjoyed every second beside them all. Yang messing with me at blackjack, Ruby not understand the game entirely, Blake, Ren and I discussing things from our past, songs with Weiss and Nora, yeah, Nora could sing I know. Me and Coco battling it out on games and in arm wrestling contests.
I loved it, I had no complaints, not even as I stared up at the ceiling where me and Ruby stuck a poster to look down on us as we slept. But it was what rested on my hands for the remainder of the night, while I received a gift from everyone, all of which I'd treasure until I was dead, it was Ruby's that gave me the most shell-shock.
Resting on my hands were a pair of royal red gloves, with black lines up the fingers and coming together to form the outline of a wolf's head on the front, they were my symbols, like everyone, they all had a trademark symbol they bare, and to Ruby, this was my own. It was perfect in every way, I had no disagreements or complaints on the work she put into them.
"I made them for when next September came around, you know, you celebrate us meeting for the first time, but when I found out it was your Birthday...I thought you'd like them sooner." I felt Ruby jump onto the bed beside me, my eyes still lingering on the gloves I wore, my hands raised
"Ruby, there is nothing on this Earth that could come close to how much this means to me, and how little I can think of trying to repay you for it." I answered softly, resting my hands down as my eyes turned to her. "Thank you, so very much."
That made her elated. "Of course!"
I was about to say something else, but to my ill-prepared state, Ruby wrapped her arms around me again, her head resting beneath my jaw, so she didn't see my face turn a shade of red from her close contact with me, but I didn't move, instead I let her embrace me while my right arm held itself around her back, holding her tightly.
"Happy Birthday, Sky."
"...That's something I loved about today...you made me happy, happier than I've ever felt before."
Maybe one day...I might be myself again, somewhere, I know the real me is waiting to come back.
To Be Continued...
Gods I love writing this story, sure, I've been making filler until we hit the margin to continue with the rest of Vol 2, but I just love these moments between Sky and his friends, and I hope you have too, cause now we move on with the Baron's Rising. Seeya in the next chapter!
Next Chapter: Overcoming The Grief
Training for the Vital Festival has started after a few short weeks, and the dawn of training missions has also begun, but Sky must face someone in the ring, a person who knows more than he lets on.