Beta read by: Crescent Sunrise
Recommended story: "A Rose Among Ashes" by .x
~MZ~
May watches carefully as the 'Invincible Girl' takes on an entire team solo. The first year trainee displaying superb skill and ability May's not certain anyone in her team would be able to match one on one. A three phase weapon and a shield she isn't shy about throwing around as a weapon as well. Combined with her natural agility and skill, handling those armaments makes for a very dangerous opponent indeed. The best they can hope for is to pin her down long enough for the rest of the team to handle her friends.
May gets the scary thought it might be her going toe to toe with the Amazon and she does not relish the thought at all. Her Semblance might give her a chance but still, it's not something she's eager to put to the test.
'Who thinks to make a spear, that's also a sword, and a rifle? Seriously with that shield it's really overkill. And the change is so seamless between them. Did she just use the rifle barrel to shoot off the spear?! How does she keep angling all of this to make her weapons come back to her?' May thinks while watching the fight continue. The lights are dimmed around the edges of the arena to help Pyrrha focus on the enemies around her.
No, May very much does not relish the thought of facing off against Pyrrha Nikos. If at all possible she would prefer to keep any match against her until the later rounds.
'Maybe Roy would be the better choice? Those buzz saws could be great up close, or thrown might give him an edge if we keep the fact he can toss them quiet.' May tugs on her hat in frustration setting the thoughts aside for the moment as she watches the boy with twin daggers charge her like a bull only to jump and double kick off her shield.
Brawnz is the leader of the team and in a fight they defer to him completely. But outside of it, he's more than willing to listen to his team gathering data and forming plans. It's a team effort and May likes feeling her input matters even if it's not used in the end.
May watches the match carefully, her hands fingering the switch for her axe blade. She can't help the smile that creeps onto her lips through watching the four time Mistral tournament champion tear apart the same jerk who grabbed Ruby the other day. He did a decent job getting the paint out of his hair too. She still winces seeing him drop into the ground.
'Thank Oum for Aura. That still looked painful, might have a few busted ribs even with it.' She thinks, clapping politely her eyes finding her girlfriend on the other side of the room practically vibrating in her seat with eagerness to jump down and join the fight. How anyone could sleep through the match with the short excitable girl so close is beyond May but Blake seems to be well on her way until her name is called. Then a boy with silver hair announces he would like to fight.
'Nice of him to volunteer in her place, she doesn't look so great right now.' May ponders before grimacing as the guy with silver hair points to the opponent he wants. 'Okay, maybe not such a nice guy. It's obvious Nikos is talented but who picks a fight with someone who's probably still a bit tired from fighting off an entire team solo?'
More surprising to the sniper is when Pyrrha accepts. 'Well that just seems cocky. She should have just let Professor Goodwitch select a new opponent.' May's eye narrows as she watches the fight begin the two going back and forth. 'Hmmm, his kicking weapons look a lot like how Yang described Ember Celica. Similar idea different limbs. Watching them fight would be entertaining at least.'
Nevertheless, May watches closely, her eye narrowing as she watches the fight happen. Then ending with the guy, now named Mercury according to the banner, throwing in the towel after a fairly short spar. 'What is it with people jump kicking her shield and flipping off it? They're lucky she doesn't put some dust rounds in them before they hit the ground again. Still, while he's not wrong he actually had a decent chance at beating her considering she barely had time to breathe between the matches. He must have noticed something and wanted to confirm it. Damn, what did he see?'
May spends the rest of the time pondering over this while the professor announces a reminder about the dance and the mission assignments after for the first years. Second and third years are encouraged to take missions any time there's an experienced Hunter willing to take a group along and fourth years to take missions on their own but still in groups. Solo missions are forbidden to trainees without special permission from a student's Headmaster on a case by case basis.
'The boys have been chomping at the bit lately; maybe I should suggest we have a look at what missions are available here?' May considers before shaking her head and looking around, spotting her girlfriend with her team heading to what is likely another class. She frowns as she watches the blonde Monkey Faunus approach and chat up Blake only to get shot down and from the looks of it. Rather roughly.
'Ouch, I feel for the guy but, not my place to get involved in that.' She winces as his shoulders slump and he turns away. May is about to do the same when there's a flurry of rose petals in front of her and she smiles. "Hello Little Red."
Ruby glances back over her at her team a minute before coming to a decision. "Hey May, I wanna talk some later but for now I've gotta go stop by the dorms, tonight though? I kinda want to do the whole official introduction to my team if that's alright." The excitable raven haired girl says getting a short hug from the taller sniper before shooting back off towards her team so they can pursue their surly team mate.
'Well, that happened. And now I'm going to be increasingly nervous the rest of the day. Fantastic. Well, how bad can it be? I already get along with her sister the rest of them will be fine.' May thinks before a thought occurs to her and she starts chuckling to herself.
'And I'm only just noticing that I'm two for two dating first year Huntress-in-training who just so happen to also be leaders of all female teams. Some might think there's a trend forming.'
~MZ~
That evening, May heads towards the dorms, wearing her usual jacket and scarf. The scarf was Nolan's demand, followed by an order from her team leader. Apparently in her efforts to look more appealing to her girlfriend she was putting herself too much at risk for their liking, and now that the competition is finished they're putting their foot down. When out at night, the jacket is on. The scarf just keeps her neck warm, and it matches her hat so it's a win-win.
She was just getting up to the floor Ruby's team resides in when she almost runs into Blake. The sniper grins and lifts her hand to give a small wave. "Hi, you must be Blake, I'm... May... huh?" She trails off as the Faunus girl just walks quickly around her. A frown crossing Mays face before she shrugs and turns back to her destination. She can only grin when she spots a blonde guy with a guitar outside the room. With a wry grin she leans against the wall to watch what promises to be heartwarming, hilarious, or both.
She was not disappointed… and may have used her Scroll to record the whole thing. Not to spread around, but purely for her own amusement. 'This is going right into the list alongside Roy trying to serenade that pretty deaf girl back home.'
She watched as he cleared his throat, used a mint spray and knocked before preparing himself. He wastes no time as the door is opened to start singing while strumming his guitar. He hardly gets the girls' name out before the door is closed again. 'Weiss, Ruby's partner huh?'
Next the boy whines and knocks piteously against the door until promising to stop singing. 'Is he seriously going to try again? Oh my Oum he is! This is perfect! I hope Yang is recording the other side of this.' She thinks as he sings out the fact that he lied. Owning up to it and then incorporating it into his song. Points for improvisation, those points are lost though when he pauses trying to remember the day of the dance. There's a pause this time and May wonders if the girl is considering it before giving a simple 'no' and closing the door.
May has a moment where she is severely tempted to borrow the guy's guitar and repeat his attempt for herself. However it might not be taken well by anyone but Yang. Yang would get that she's joking. The others might see it as cruel, and as dejected as the poor guy looks she doesn't want to rub salt in the wound.
Instead she walks over after he steps into his dorm room and pauses hearing Ruby speaking inside.
"I don't want to be distracted during the dance worrying about what Blake is up to. May deserves better than that."
'Well, I'll just pretend I didn't hear that.' May tells herself before giving the conversation a moment to lull into silence before she knocks herself. The fact that it lets her own blush fade has nothing to do with it. The response isn't very surprising given what she just witnessed.
"Go away Jaune, I said no! That doesn't mean continue trying with another song!" Comes the irate call of the girl May can only assume to be Weiss having not spoken to her yet. This is a bit of mischief May is more than happy to perform.
"Oh but Madame, it is not you that I wish to serenade this evening. My sights are set upon a beauty draped in red with eyes of dazzling silver." The sniper replies through the door in a sultry tone. There's a pause before she hears Yang start to laugh, a yelp, and the door flung open before being yanked inside with a much too smug smirk on her lips while her little girlfriend blushes heavily.
Now inside the room with the door shut firmly behind her she notes the improvised bunk beds, the assorted books, the blonde laying on her side clutching her stomach in laughter, the white haired girl she assumes to be Weiss picking herself off the floor, and her lovely girlfriend standing next to her, face hidden under her hood.
May decides to see what she can do to make Ruby blush harder, so with a wicked look in her eye, she drops to a knee snagging one of Ruby's hands and holding it to her chest. "Oh be still my heart, it feels as if a tempest stirs within my chest. I am lost at sea without your eyes to point me home. Your words are as sweet as water in the desert." The sniper proclaims blatantly embellishing with flowery words and cheesy lines.
She had expected Yang to laugh harder if quieter. It seems Yang has moved past the loud guffaws and into desperate oxygen deprived wheezing. She had expected Ruby to blush harder, her hand being held between May's breasts as the older girl proclaims her affections as over the top as possible. What she hadn't expected was the reaction from Weiss.
"Well, at least she seems to be a person with some class." The heiress says brushing imaginary dust from her skirt before dropping into a little curtsy. Before introducing herself in full, even including the 'Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company' at the end. "I was afraid after Ruby told us you were a friend of Yang's and her work out partner in the mornings that you would be just as brutish."
Yang is turning blue and kicking her feet. Weiss fails to see the humor. Then again she doesn't know just how out of character it is for May to speak as she is. Nor how blatantly salacious May can be when it comes to winding up her team leader.
Her fun for the moment finished, May stands and gently pushes Ruby's hood back giving the shorter girl a kiss on the cheek. Turning to Weiss she grins and gives a wave. "Heya Weiss, I'm May as you've already figured out. Little Red asked me to stop by tonight so she could introduce me." She replies putting Weiss on the back step with her abrupt change in speech. Turning to Yang, May waits until she has her giggling somewhat under control before shooting her an amused look. "You done yet or do you still need a minute?"
Yang holds up a finger and takes several deep breaths letting out little laughs a bit in between. "Okay. Whooo, okay I've got it." Yang declares grinning at the room.
"I don't understand what's so funny." Weiss says looking severely put out.
"That. That right there is what's funny. The fact that you don't realize May here is just messing around." Yang explains as May looks affronted.
"Hey! I can, as I've shown, be very classy when I wish to be. And I was not 'messing around' Xiao Long. I happen to find Ruby just as wonderful as I said. I would just not typically use such flowery turn of phrase to state it." May replies once more adopting a haughty air. Turning to Weiss she bows before speaking up. "It has been wonderful to meet you Miss Schnee. I hope it is not a terrible time for me to steal away my girlfriend for a moment?"
Weiss grins triumphantly at Yang before nodding her head to May. "Of course you can."
"D-don't I get a say in this?!" Ruby asks before her sister and partner tell her 'no'. May however gives her an almost sad look ruined by the amusement in her eyes.
"I'm sorry Ruby. I thought you would want to spend some time with me." She says. With her back turned to the heiress, only Ruby and Yang can see those mischievous eyes as Weiss pushes the two out of the dorm room before closing the door again.
It's here May starts to snicker before Ruby leads the way with a huff. "Man she's pretty easy to work around. The very picture of haughty noble, if a bit inexperienced dealing with the disingenuous. Does she always act like that?" May asks as Ruby starts to calm down.
"Yeeeah. That's Weiss, she was raised sheltered and in the high life. So haughty and rich is kind of her thing. She tries to be nice though, it just takes an effort on her part because she's not used to dealing with people as equals, just her family and family friends, everyone else was a servant growing up. She doesn't know how to deal with people with lower social status as equals, she's getting better though." Ruby explains as they reach the stair way heading for the roof.
"Really? I saw her shoot down that Jaune guy. I'd hate to see what she was like at the start." May mentions opening the door for Ruby to pass through before following her out under the stars.
"Oh that? That's just Jaune, he's been like that from day one. I don't think how she handles him helps with her 'Ice Queen' image though... That and her skill with Ice Dust." Ruby replies seating herself next to May and leaning into the taller sniper.
"I'm sure the snowflake motif all over her outfit does little to dissuade the notion as well." May mentions shrugging it off. Weiss was nice enough to May, and her team seems to like the heiress. Altogether, it's good enough for the second year.
Ruby falls silent then, and twitches she looks like she's about to speak a few times and with the troubled expression, May can guess what the topic is about considering the mood her final team mate looked to be in and what she overheard before making herself known. So with all of her usual grace she gently bumps her shoulder into Ruby and smiles warmly down at her. "Come on then, out with it. What's got ya down Little Red?"
Ruby looks sheepish as she responds, her body moving with the bump to sway away from May and then back into her. "I'm that obvious huh?"
"Yes, absolutely. You're usually bubbly and happy. Even when I get you all worked up and indignant or huffy you bounce back pretty quick. That you're not now is a good sign something's weighing on you. Let me guess, it has to do with Blake?" May asks recalling what she has seen of the moody girl today along with what she overheard.
"Yeah. We're worried about her. She's working herself too hard; she's not eating much and sleeping even less. What do I do May? I'm supposed to be the leader and I'm trying so hard but I don't know how to reach her. At first I was able to at least get her to eat something but even that's becoming more difficult." Ruby admits and the older sniper bites her lip seeing those wonderful silver eyes brimming with tears.
May sighs softly in response. "I don't know Ruby, I'm not part of your team for one, and on my own Brawnz is the leader. What I can do is listen if you want to tell me what's going on? Maybe you'll figure out something talking about it." She offers.
'It's really the best I can do. I don't know Blake or how their team works. But I can be a sympathetic ear even if it's not my place to get involved in it.'
"Well, alright. I don't really know where to start though." Ruby replies and May gives the shorter girl a little grin.
"Well, we have all night. How about the beginning?"
Ruby sighs. "That's the problem where does the beginning start? With me getting accepted into Beacon after stopping Torchwick at the Dust shop? Or is it when we found out the White Fang were involved when we stopped him from stealing a shipment of Dust at the docks? Or maybe none of that is important and it's just what happened after we took down that Paladin." the shorter girl goes on, starting to ramble as May blinks to catch up.
"Wait, wait. Hold on did you say Torchwick? As in criminal mastermind Torchwick with wanted posters all over the city? And what's this about the docks and a Paladin? That was your team?" May asks. Those two events had hit major news all through the city. The 'brave individuals' weren't identified but there was nothing to say they were the same group in both cases.
'I'm actually impressed. White Fang may be mostly thugs and unhappy citizens but they are still militant and the higher ups are usually rather skilled. And the way Torchwick has avoided capture so far speaks of being skilled himself.' She admits to herself while Ruby shuffles her feet a bit.
"Okay well, I guess that's a decent place to start..." Ruby begins by explaining how her team found themselves wrapped up in this big mystery chasing down Roman in hopes of stopping him and whatever his plans are involving the White fang. There are moments where Ruby pauses to carefully word what she's saying. When May points it out with a wry grin that the pauses make it clear Ruby's hiding something the shorter girl mutters an apology, but doesn't elaborate just saying it's 'not her secret to tell'.
In the end, May gets the picture. Ruby and team are trying to take down a seedy underground group and Blake is, for undisclosed reasons, heavily invested in seeing it happen. Going so far as to focus herself utterly in finding out everything she can.
'This would be the point where Brawnz would grab whichever one of us is messing up and remind us that little problems we can figure out for ourselves. But big problems are team problems and need to be handled together. But that might not work for her team.' May ponders. At some point, Ruby moves into her lap again and she smiles down at the younger girl.
"Thanks May. I know this is something for us to work out, but talking about it did help me a little." Ruby admits and May can only smile wider in response.
"Anytime Ruby. Hey, I have a training room booked for tomorrow, want to come by and train a bit with me?" May offers grinning as Ruby's face lights up only to blink as she frowns and looks at the ground.
"I can't. CFVY is late coming back from their last mission and they were supposed to arrange the dance. So Yang and Weiss were asked and they'll want me to help out." Ruby replies. She doesn't look happy at all.
"Oh well, we can squeeze one in the morning after then if you're up to it. I know new missions are being posted up on Monday so maybe we can sneak in a quick training bout before." She offers, and this time gets rewarded by a rapid nod and a hug.
'This is nice. And she seems to be feeling a little better so mission success. Way to go me.'
AN:
And the ball starts picking up speed. You'll notice that this chapter heavily sets the story during volume two at this point. this story was meant to be about more than just the sniping competiion. A nice pleaseant start. As you've noticed this chapter was entirely from the perspective of May and in the short term expect to see more of that. It's not a preferance for her over Ruby though. it's just easier to show the relevant changes and how things happen differently when in May's point of view. You can already see a few places where her influence on events is evident. this only gets more prominent as the story progresses.
Now as everyone who has read my work so far knows. This is my favorite part of posting a new chapter. giving my thanks to my reviewers for taking the time to say something. so special thank you to: imoshen88, CaptinGrievous, Yaksher, doomzoom, kevindynamite, Inkboy, and CinderBurn.
sidenote: I've almost finished the first chapter of Jewels in the Rough. This story is my primary focus but that will be seeing updates now and then as I write it on my tablet when away from my desk. I'll announce it in a note when I've posted it.
That's all for now. I hope you enjoy the read, I love you, and I'll see you next time.
