edited by - Crescent Sunrise
'You're on Longshot'
May gets her breath and looks around the room the girls of NDGO giving her their full attention, even Gwen, as they wait to hear if May was successful. Dew is visibly shaking with anticipation, but the longer it takes Zedong to respond and the looks of disbelief she keeps shooting her Scroll are not encouraging. Nebula eventually walks over and brings the shy sniper to her feet leading her deeper into the room so they can give her some manner of comfort. "That's okay May, you tried at le—"
"She said yes"
"—ast. Sorry, what was that May?" The violet haired leader asks a bit surprised May spoke at all.
The sniper in question lifts her head, a little smile slowly tugging her lips as she looks again at her Scroll, that same measure of disbelief marking her face. "She actually said yes. She agreed to compete with me. I've got a shot and—" May is cut off as her Scroll beeps again and she looks down at it apprehensively the warmth in her chest hot enough to make her feel like she's about to start sweating drops again, forming a ball of hoarfrost in her gut as anxiety takes hold. 'What? Did she change her mind? But the challenge didn't even start yet! Did her teammate say something about me?'
May's mind goes to increasingly dark places until Gwen rolls her eyes walking over and taking the scroll herself and looking at the message before showing it to May. "Look idiot, stop being so paranoid." The brown eyed girl admonishes though in a softer tone than usual.
May looks up at the scroll and blinks rapidly at the image shown with the message. It's a picture of Ruby grinning with chocolate on her lips. A few of the dipped strawberries arranged in front of her in the shape of a heart the message underneath reading. 'And thanks for the berries!'
Her heart seems to start again and the heat redoubles causing her to blush furiously while loosening her scarf letting the cooler air of the room slip across her neck. Her hand taking the scroll again before it's snatched away by an excited Dew. Her eyes wide and sparkling. "Oh look, look! She made a heart out of them! She's definitely flirting back now. And with the chocolate on her lips she's adorable! May, I'm so happy for you!" She finishes handing the Scroll off to a smiling Octavia who moves next to Nebula letting them look at it together.
"Th-thanks Dew I just—" She doesn't get the chance to finish that thought as the spear user envelops her in a hug swinging the light weight sniper around before letting her go sending May spinning until she gets her balance and sways drunkenly as she tries to get the dizziness under control.
"Oh this is perfect! Any idea where you're going to start? Oh! Can we help?" Dew launches a look in her eye that makes the shy sniper nervous as she carefully moves to put Octavia between herself and Dew reaching out to take her Scroll back before replying.
"U-um the competition is one-on-one... B-but um... Maybe keep eyes on her and her team so th-they don't catch me setting up? D-don't cheat and tell me where she is b-but a heads up if she's getting close to me would be nice... I don't want her to know it's me unless she catches me on one of her targets... Y-you know legitimate..."
A blue steel eye glances at the picture on her Scroll again, her shy smile growing a bit broader before she pockets it. "I'll spend my time between classes in a tree or something so I don't spot her placements." She adds with a nod intent on keeping the competition fair. "O-oh and you don't have to watch the black haired girl. Her name is Blake. She knows about me... She approached me earlier when we came to meet up. S-she said she wouldn't say anything so I want to trust her not to." The nervous girl adds before sitting roughly on a bed.
"Sure thing May, We'll try to keep an eye on them, just let us know when you're setting up and where so we can be sure to watch." Octavia supplies helpfully with a soft smile on her lips. A non-committal sound coming from Gwen to the surprise of no one.
"O-okay. Well I should get to my teams room to get some sleep for tomorrow. I don't want to be tired on the first day." May speaks up standing and pausing before moving first to Gwen who stares at her questioningly until May bends down to hug her. "Th-thank you for helping me so much. I-I know it was a bother." She says before letting go and smiling wider when Gwen turns her head away with a 'Hmph'. Still the sniper then turns to the rest of her new friends and hugs them each in turn thanking them all profusely on her way out the door.
She smiles at the door to her friends room after it's closed and makes her way towards her team room, pausing halfway when a familiar feeling causes the hair on her neck to stand up. Her hands stopping halfway to her rifle as she turns around facing the empty hall. Her hands continuing their motion only to keep going and shift her beanie. As if that were her intention all along.
A soft melodic laugh rings through the hall as a familiar clapping can be heard as the Cat Faunus steps from the shadows as if formed from it. "Smooooth. That fooled absolutely no one." Blake comments with a teasing smirk amusement sparking in her amber eyes as May's cheeks inflame in a bright blush.
"I'm only teasing. No I came to congratulate you actually. I'm impressed. And you've certainly gotten her attention. However, you've also gotten the attention of her sister and partner. I'll keep quiet like I said, it's not really my business but I also won't run interference for them. I'll tell you this for free though. Weiss seems more curious than anything, a touch concerned but that's natural with you pursuing her partner. Yang though has been... Strangely quiet since Ruby came back with the berry rose. Nice touch there by the way, definitely earned bonus points with that." Blake adds with a soft wink.
"Yang is a bit of a toss-up right now, I think she's still trying to figure out how to react. But I can promise when she figures it out it will be loud and potentially destructive. If you see her eyes turn red get out of her way. But if she's looking at you don't run away. It will be a waste of energy." She adds with a low chuckle. "You really did pick potentially the most dangerous person in the academy as the target of your affections."
"I-I didn't e-exactly pick h-her... I j-just... Saw her looking my way through m-my scope and... Yeah." May replies weakly before groaning tugging at her head wear again as her body instinctively tries to shrink smaller.
Blake starts to laugh again shaking her head ruefully. "That was it huh? One look and you got it bad? I thought she inadvertently helped you with something. Still though, you seem nice. She could do a lot worse. I'll see you around." She says before starting to turn around in order to walk off, pausing at the hand suddenly hovering in front of her.
"I never introduced m-myself to you... Breakfast with the cookies didn't count. I-it was just a way to get her to notice me a little bit... I'm May Zedong."
Blake stares at the hand for a long moment before a warm smile grows on her lips. "Blake Belladonna. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She replies taking the hand and squeezing softly before letting it go and actually managing to get a few steps away her head turning back to speak over her shoulder. "I'll see you around May."
The shy sniper smiles softly watching the elegant Cat Faunus walk away quietly, proud of herself for perhaps making another friend. Wondering to herself if it's too early to see Blake as such. 'It would be nice to know if I had a friend close to my crush. If for nothing else she can let me know if I mess up somewhere.' May ponders before turning back to her team room and heading towards it again. Swiping her Scroll to unlock the door before stepping inside unannounced.
Her three teammates are inside playing cards as they sit spaced evenly facing each other in the center of the room. When she enters though they pause and place their cards down to look up at her. Roy and Nolan opening up with a simple "Heya May." Brawnz however coughed awkwardly as he stood up.
"May, listen. I didn't mean anything by pushing you out the door. We all know you're not the most socially adept person. I also knew one day you'd take an interest in someone, and me pushing you out wasn't me not caring about your trouble, I was just trying to get you to people who could maybe understand and help better. I mean you know us best May, do any of us strike you as the kind of people you want advising you on your love life?" He asks sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"Hey! My love life is awesome!" Roy fires back only to glare at Nolan who immediately breaks down into laughter.
"... Point." May comments quietly earning her a betrayed look from Roy as Brawnz joins Nolan. The latter now holding his gut helplessly. It's a contagious sounding laughter. The right kind can have anyone nearby feeling brightened or even joining in even if they never heard the joke that started it. Slowly as Nolan and Brawnz lean on each other for support with Roy giving up his false irritation to chuckle lightly May gives her team a small smile the sound of her quiet chuckling joining in as a hand lifts to cover her lips.
"Aha! She laughs! Always a win for the team when we get a smile." Her team leader comments smiling at her warmly as he wraps an arm around the smaller snipers waist.
"So, mind telling us who the crush is on? You said it isn't us already, who's the lucky guy trying to steal our marksman?" Nolan asks relaxing back into his previous position moving his hand up to his eyes as the others settle back down.
"Not a guy..." May comments softly her cheeks growing darker as a blush creeps up them. Her team pausing their play to stare for a moment before shrugging and going back to the game. Nolan and Brawnz silently handing over some lien to a grinning Roy who looks entirely too smug.
"I'm not going to ask, because if that was about what I think it was about I'm not going to be happy." The shy sniper says her visible eye narrowing. Her comfort around the three males she shares sleeping quarters with exponentially higher than anyone outside of her parents.
"Just tell us who she is already. The suspense is killing us." Roy comments looking at the other two carefully over his cards as he throws a slip of paper onto a growing pile.
That's how team BRNZ gets away with gambling. By betting not with money but with chores. The week's tasks matching up with a chart that gets re-written after the game each week. The chores are written out and divided evenly, with one slip per chore for each day of the week. And at the end if you have the slip you don't have to help with that chore on the corresponding day.
May watches the game play out curiously. She always ends up trading her laundry slips if she gets them for other chores because she refuses to share her laundry duty with her team. It's not that she doesn't trust them enough for it. But better to simply avoid the situation altogether. They understood from the offset and it's yet to be a problem.
She lets the hand play out watching Roy pull in his winning before answering his question. "Ruby Rose. She's a student here at Beacon. Short, black hair with red tips, silver eyes, red cloak, uses a combination sniper-scythe. She leads the coincidently named team RWBY." She says in a quiet tone content in the soft silence purveying the room. The boys keeping quiet for a time as they rearrange their cards.
Curious as to why she wasn't dealt she looks at the chart for the coming week and blinks as they wrote in a pass for everything but laundry already. Spotting her look it's her team leader who answers the unasked question. "Felt bad pushing you out last night. Besides I'm sure you have other things to spend your free time doing this week?" The question in his tone begs for details as he turns back to his cards slipping them around.
"Actually... I challenged her to a marksman competition. One-on-one, two targets each per day for the next five days while I work up the nerve to ask her out and hopefully get her attention." At her teams incredulous looks of disbelief she blushes darkly. "I challenged her anonymously and used my guns name instead of my own. The whole thing is Dew's fault." She explained getting nods from the group. May doing something so brazen on her own would have light worrying flags with how out of character it seemed. But her being pushed into it and doing so anonymously fit her shy character far better.
Brawnz wins the next and last hands with a wide grin on his face as he looks over his winnings. "Well that's a nice little pile of things I don't have to do." He comments and stands handing Nolan the cards as May moves upwards as well turning to the guys. "I'm going to grab the shower first. My competition starts tomorrow and I want to make the first move." The sniper comments setting her rifle on her bed before grabbing her pajamas and a towel.
She steps back out pleasantly clean and dressed her towel wrapped around her hair and covering her left eye. She moves to her bed next setting her beanie on one of her bed posts before getting under her blankets as one of the guys moves into the bathroom. A blinking light from her Scroll draws her attention as she pulls it closer from her nightstand and flips it open to read a number of messages scrolling down.
'RR - Heya Longshot, I was wondering you know. Since you're kinda doing this whole competition thing with me if you would mind if we messaged back and forth? Get to know each other a bit?'
'RR - I mean of course we don't have to if you don't want to but I don't see why you wouldn't.'
'RR - I mean you did set all this up for me and the rose and the strawberries and the letter and stuff.'
'RR - But you know, no pressure or anything whatever you're comfortable with.'
'RR - So I'mmsdsaonfdujak'
'RR - So why all the secrecy? You got somthin to hide Longshot?'
'RR - Ignore that! Yang stole my scroll. You don't have to answer anything you don't want to.'
'RR - You know, if you respond at all.'
May blinks at the string of messages a rare smile spreading wide on her lips as her body starts to shake. When she can't hold it in anymore she starts to laugh loudly letting her amusement show in the quiet of her teams' room. Once she calms down she wipes a tear from her eye and responds.
'LS - I would love to get to know you better Ruby.'
She doesn't even manage to close her scroll before it pings again. 'Well, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.' The sniper ponders as she opens it once more to see the new message.
'RR - Oh that's great! Well like you know I'm Ruby Rose and I...'
May got a lot less sleep than she intended but couldn't bring herself to regret the decision in the slightest.
AN:
Okay so the every other day thing is still going strong. this one is getting out a little later than intended but that's because I have a job and can't always leave at 5 so I stay late then i got home and took time doing other stuff and putting finishing touches on the story. the entire portion following May's shower wouldn't be there if I hadn't taken the little extra time.
That said, I put out the one shot I mentioned at the end of last chapter as some have noticed. as I said already it's got an entirely different tone from this story but I'm proud of it anyway.
so I plan on spending this weekend writing to get ahead of this story a bit maybe build myself a bit of a buffer. So I can keep to the little 'not a schedule' schedule I've got going on. anyway. thats all i wanted to say this time! onwards to reviewer responses!
Knight: oh she'll see the power behind rubys rifle. to bad marksman competitions are more about speed and accuracy.
Kevindynamite: I'm glad i've gotten you into it. or into my story at least hehe. It's a huge compliment to hear that and yea. May's a girl. and even if you can't think of anything I still like hearing feedback so I know i'm putting out something people are enjoying.
SandyLS: Yes, expect more fluffiness. this entire story is practically built on it and adorable social awkwardness.
Maxxvictor: I'm glad your enjoying and yes. Yang's reaction will be... interesting. I'm still a bit fluid on how I want her to react and any ideas I have could change between my mind and my fingers as I'm typing it. but I do have a few ideas. Expect it to at least be funny.
RatedRSuperstar and SanDemonMax: I know what ends up happening. but the actual winner... that's still up in the air hehe.
see you all next time!