edited by - Crescent Sunrise
A hand shoots out from under covers to tightly grip the beeping scroll A bleary eye opening to look at it before it's turned off and a certain red headed sniper shifts herself up into a sitting position. Her teammates grumbling as they shift in their beds. She glares at the time on her scroll and wonders what ungodly force decided she should be awake so early only to then recall the messages the night before. A wide grin breaking over her face as she hops from under her covers and grabs her clothes. 'I kind of feel like we're the odd ones out at shade considering we're the only school without uniforms but at the same time it's nice being able to wear what we want.'
With a shrug she moves into the bathroom and takes a quick shower before hopping into her clothes. A pale red skirt over white stockings with a white tank top under a zipped up black hoodie. The zipper she lowers to expose the top of the tank top. Her familiar warm jacket needs to be washed so if she has to be uncomfortable she'll at least look good doing it. 'I wonder if Ruby will like it?'
The thought innocently pops into her head and lingers until she focuses on it a blush spreading across her face before she groans squeezing her eyes closed. Her hands reaching up to rapidly dry her hair off with the towel before pulling her beanie down covering her left eye once more before she starts lightly tapping her head against the sink. 'Stupid Zedong, she doesn't even know you're Longshot why would she pay your outfit any attention? Why would she even look at you?'
A myriad of self depreciation follows as May grumbles to herself, pulling the hood of her outfit up and stepping out of the bathroom. Her lighter combat shoes are put on last before she grabs her school bag and her rifle heading out the door. Her first target already in her pocket as she heads to the front of the school.
This early no one is going anywhere but the cafeteria leaving her completely alone as she glances around and eyes the top of a pillar. 'While easy to spot it won't be as simple to find a clean shot without me being able to spot her and snap a picture.' May ponders taking one last look around before pulling out the first target and climbing the hunter statue with it placed in her teeth. She braces and leaps off her hands grabbing a light pole and swinging up onto it before she spreads her feet on the horizontal surface. She turns the flat of the target towards the school building before securing it and dropping down.
'It will be easy to figure out right where it is but it's only the first target.' She thinks to herself, pulling out her scroll and backing up and taking a picture of the target angling it so the statue is included as the landmark. Next she pockets the scroll and heads for the cafeteria intent to give Ruby a chance to wake up before starting the competition. Getting a few pieces of toast she spreads jelly across them and stacks the pieces carefully before getting a milk carton and pausing before smiling at the tray of cookies for people to take. Grabbing one she moves to sit in a corner near the entrance of the cafeteria where she can watch people coming in.
Her rifle leaning against the bench next to her she eats slowly relishing the silence in her little corner even as the volume in the cafeteria itself slowly grows. The past two days of near constant human contact having worn May down in a way she didn't expect. A feeling of being tired and drained settling over her that slowly ebbs while she takes some time to just be by herself with her thoughts.
She remains like that until one of her new friends takes a spot across from her. Even then it still takes the sniper a moment to realize she has company her eye moving to take in the form of Gwen Darcy sitting with her in silence seeming content to eat her own breakfast, a sandwich made of egg ham and cheese, without comment. A fact May is grateful for letting her slip back into her pleasant silence after giving Gwen a warm smile in greeting.
It was not to last however as the Silence was almost immediately shattered by the ever enigmatic Dew. The walking sandstorm plopping herself down next to Gwen and grinning widely. "Hey May, ready to get the girl? Did you get enough sleep last night? When does your little competition start anyway?" She asks rapid fire leaving May a little lost as she's shaken from her reverie.
"U-um. W-well in order I suppose that w-would be no, yes I was just up a little later than I meant to be, and t-technically it's already started. I'm just giving her some time before giving her the first target. S-so she can get some breakfast." The sniper replies struggling to catch up to a semblance of normality as she tries to adjust going from peaceful serenity to quick and friendly interrogation. "O-oh and good morning Dew, Nebula, Octavia." She adds including the last two teammates as they sit down.
May falls back into silence enjoying the company of her new friends as she listens to them bantering back and forth. Her attention shifting with the conversation to her food and finally inwards to her plans for the competition. She can already spot some issues with it that might come up later but she'll address them after classes. She blinks as she realizes Octavia is looking at her waiting for an answer she clearly missed. With a blush she asks her to repeat it.
"I asked if you're cold May. You're wearing less than usual and your hoodie isn't even zipped all the way up." She mentions drawing the rest of her teams attention to May's outfit an insufferable knowing smirk crossing Dew's lips as she waggles her brows at the shy girl.
"Wow May, dressed to impress today aren't you? Why the sudden change? I thought the goal of your competition was to hit the targets and avoid being seen not to draw her eye and hold it." Dew teases lightly enjoying the dark blush taking over the poor girls face and neck as she draws her hood up to hide under it.
"M-my striped jacket needs to be w-washed so I had to go with a l-lighter one. If I have to wear this and b-be cold anyway I should l-look good doing so at least right? She questions while using the same logic she had on herself while picking the outfit out. Suddenly feeling like she should head back to her room and change into something else all together.
"Calm down May you look nice. I was just worried you would be uncomfortable." Octavia adds in before reaching out to pat the snipers hand gently. Breakfast devolves into gossip on team NDGO's once more as she soaks herself in the comfortable feeling of being surrounded by accepting friends. Once finished with her toast she wraps her cookie in a napkin and takes her carton of milk setting them aside as she turns over her empty tray to the staff. Once she get's back it's not long before team RWBY makes their appearance May grabs her things and passes them on the way out spotting Yang making a detour towards her friends.
She doesn't think anything of it though and keeps her cookie in her mouth letting the chocolate melt as the cookie softens against her tongue. A happy sound getting away from her. The cookies here are good, no small wonder Ruby likes them. She makes a detour towards the sparring area and extends her climbing axe to get up a ways above the door before securing her second target to the wall.
She drops down and takes a picture catching the team rotations for one of the rooms in the shot to use for a clue. A happy smile on her lips as she swallows some of her cookie and opens her milk to wash it down before starting on the rest taking her time getting back to the first target a strange confidence settling over her. She finishes both food and drink before reaching her destination throwing away the empty carton and picking out one of the small decorative trees to camp in as she finally sends off the image of the first target and starts a timer settling herself in to wait with her scroll's camera function open and ready.
It's six minutes later that she spots a brief flash of red and her eye focuses on it. Spotting Ruby creeping up on a corner her rifle already deployed as she takes aim. The look of concentration on her face nearly causes May to forget the picture but thankfully she get's a hold of herself just before Ruby can get the shot off and slips away.
May takes a moment to pause looking over the image smiling at the tip of Ruby's tongue poking out as she lines up the shot. It's an adorable image truthfully but nothing on May's new background image. The one of a chocolate lipped Ruby smiling back at her with an arrangement of strawberries in a heart shape. An image she took just to send to her secret admirer. A picture she took just for May. The thought turns the now familiar heat in her chest to an almost scalding temperature.
'LS - You're really cute when you're concentrating Ruby. Lucky me I got to see it, unlucky you I caught a picture of it. Continue the day's targets after classes?'
'RR - I can't believe you got that! I didn't see you at all. Don't worry though I'll get you back for it. Also think we should trade off who's shooting so we don't try to send it to each other at the same time?'
'LS - I look forward to seeing you try Ruby. And that sounds like a good plan. Ball is in your court.'
May is decidedly chipper as she bunches her legs up on her branch to get ready to leap down only to freeze as a mane of blonde hair shows up looking around the area with narrowed eyes. She slowly walks around her eyes scanning as May carefully edges around her small bit of cover, the trees really not big enough to hold up to scrutiny as she keeps an eye on the blonde carefully. Her breath being held tightly as Yang draws nearer.
Just when May is sure she's going to get caught she hears Yang click her tongue in irritation before stalking off her hands clenched at her sides. May's breath is held for several more moments after before being releases in an audible 'whoosh' followed by rapid breathing after. This is not something she can keep doing. The constant worry of having Yang catch her out does horrible things to her stress levels.
It's not even that she's afraid of the brawler beating her up. Oh, she carries no illusions that if the golden haired fist fighter gets violent May can do little more than potentially annoy the girl further before being pummeled, the sniper just isn't built for that kind of combat. No, May just can't deal with the confrontation. The intimidating glares and shouting and threats. The shy sniper can put a dust round through a grim before most could even see the thing. But make her come face to face and confront another person in a social situation and her options become mumbling, looking for ways to run away, and trying not to devolve into tears.
So, with a confrontation like that hanging over her head like Damocles sword. It's eventual occurrence inevitable if she wants to continue trying to pursue her short, adorable crush. May made a hard decision. She decided to make the confrontation happen on her terms, in a place of her choosing, where she can run away at any time. She resolves not to run, but having the option is calming on it's own. With that decided she grabs her things and heads for her class sharing a battle class with team RWBY just before lunch.
'Ms. Belladonna
I understand your teammate Yang wishes to speak with me regarding my interest in her sister. Should the three of you, I of course mean Ruby's partner Weiss as the third, wish to speak with me please meet with me tonight on the roof of your dormitory. This isn't meant for secrecy but more for personal comfort. I understand Miss Xiao Long's concerns and hope to put them at ease. I am after all a faceless voiceless person with an interest in her sister that for all she knows could be unhealthy. I assure you I'll explain why I'm doing it this way when we meet but ask for patience from her until then. Also, please don't bring Ruby with you when you meet me. I'll let her know myself that I'm meeting with you three as I wouldn't ask her to lie to you I won't ask you to lie to her either. Once more, I promise to explain myself if given the chance.
With thanks,
Longshot'
Looking over the note she nods and folds it up. Bitterly wondering for a moment why she's so capable of eloquence when writing a letter or messaging on her scroll but when it comes to speaking everything comes out as garbled as her nerves. Standing at the end of her shared class she takes a long breath before hurrying up to the team and leaning on their shared desk in front of Blake, her fingers pushing the folded note under a book as she gives them a brief greeting before pushing off again and heading out the door.
Making it outside she leans against Nolan roughly looking drained. "Jeez partner, you look like you're walking to your death you just gave them a note and are meeting them later nothing to get worked up about." He replies and she gives him a glare before lightly punching his arm and mumbling.
"O-oh yea? W-well wearing sunglasses indoors makes you l-look like a tool." She says giving a small smile and tugging down on her beanie when her partner starts to laugh at her attempted insult.
After classes finished up May decided to hang around a more central location in the school instead the woods on the edge. The library, not actually inside the library mind you. It has rules about weapons and while they don't pat down students walking in or even use a metal detector a semi-automatic, sniper rifle/axe is a bit hard to overlook. So an alcove in one of the small gardens near it is quiet and secluded enough to let May relax while she waits for Ruby to send her the target. It helps that she spots a few other locations to use while she sits waiting.
Her Scroll goes off after a short time and she blinks recognizing the roof of the library in the image. Cautiously she glances upwards and quickly hides her scroll as she spots Ruby hopping down from the roof to land in front of her. "Oh hey May! How are you doing?" She asks politely but her eyes keep flickering upwards oblivious to May's nervousness as the older girl edges away.
"I'm j-just f-fine R-ruby. I-I'll s-see you l-later." She barely manages to say before sliding around a corner and away from the beautiful silver pools. She does however watch Ruby head inside a building nearby in order to watch the area from a window.
May gives herself a small smile as she follows Ruby inside and carefully keeping a distance between them. Watching the floor Ruby stops at before heading up another floor and opening a window while twirling a silencer around the end of the rifle and looking down the scope. Before Ruby can realize the mistake she made in watching the target and not the potential angles on the target May puts a weak dust round into the target and darts off to the sound of Ruby shouting "WHAT?!" from below her waiting for Ruby to pass her in a closet before heading downstairs and getting ready at the next spot. Still dreading the meeting later tonight but at least feeling a touch better.
AN:
So bit of news, I put a poll on my profile to let you my wonderful readers help me to decide what I'll be focusing on after this is finished. to be fair, Its not a garuntee that the winner will be chosen but it will give me an idea what you guys want to see and seeing you all happy with my work makes me want to put more into it.
that said, this chapter... had a few pretty big stumbling blocks when I was writing. one of which being that I was drawing a massive blank on how I wanted Yang to react. her reaction is a big role because actions of others hinge on it and I ended up finding a stop gap to buy myself more time to think on it. the other stumbling block was losing all but the first three hundred words when my power flickered because i decided I wanted to write from my desktop. Silly me.
Last thing I wanted to mention about this story is that while the competition itself is important I won't be going over every round. For two reasons. One I find writing them to be boring when the important bits can be mentioned and gone over without the exhaustive effort of trying to make every round interesting. and Two I only have so many ideas for targets and placing them. I bit off a bit more than I could chew with four targets a day. You will still see rounds. Just relevant ones where something happens that I want to go over.
now onto my favorite part of the Author Notes! Reviewer replies!
RatedRSuperstar: Don't worry I pace myself a plenty. usually I do a bit and then save and laze about until I feel like continuing. the every other day thing isn't set in stone it's just a loose schedule that ive managed to keep to. it was entirely unintentional. And I was rather proud I managed to catch a Ruby Ramble in text message form.
Brainwasher: Ah yes... Yang... I've mentioned my issues with her. I love love love her character though. I'll think of something.
Cinderburn: Glad to have you here with us. and yes. while this was originally meant to be just a one or two shot it's grown since and with it the gap between infatuation and relationship. the price of details and character development. Still I try to make it worth it.
tehUnoman:Yes, it is. It is fluffier than cotton candy and I do not regret it in the slightest.
imoshen: Always glad to hear my work is well recieved. I was actually a bit worried about how NDGO would be taken considering I gave very little thought to including them. just the knowledge that May would have to talk to SOMEONE about her crush and a deep desperate desire to write a "nope" scene. But like a lot of my ideas once I start writing the thought takes hold and blossoms from there. I ike how far they've come. finally, I'm surprised more people don't question the eye. but then again I'm sure many can guess. I'm not exactly going somewhere original with it.
: happy you're enjoying it. and your wish has been granted.
see you next time averyone!