Messy Reuinions

AUTHORS NOTE:

So, uh, yeah. I know, I'm wayyyyy overdue with this chapter and I have no excuse whatsoever to cover up my hide. . . . . Sorry. . . .

"Wow, I never thought we would ever see each other again. . . . . Its been so long" Val said stopping one moment as if he was lost in thought. "B-But I'm really glad I we got to see each other again! Really I am!" He reassured.

Jeanne smiled, 'Still timid as ever I see'

She was glad to see her old friend again, both her old friends to be honest. Cailin was still the same, always so confident, blunt and boastful. While Val was timid and shy. Seeing both of them on the same day was a huge surprise to her. When Cailin went off to Signal Academy she barely heard anything from her all those years except from occasional letters she would send to Jeanne whenever, Val left them over a year and a half after they met and neither her or Cailin had contact ever since then. And her brothers were all sent off to each of their respective Academy's to begin their training as hunters.

And she was left behind, she went to a normal school, had normal friends, lead a mediocre life. Until she went here to Beacon.

'Its amazing how so much can change as time goes on' She wondered.

"So, How are you these days?" Jeanne asked.

"I'm doing alright, I've been at Beacon for 2 years now and I've gotten used to a lot of things here. It was hard at first but my teammates helped me along the way, I'm really grateful to them" He explained with a smile.

"I'm glad then, me and Cailin were worried about you all this time, you left for so long and we never heard from you again, then again Cailin was the same" Jeanne said. She saw Val's almost immediate reaction and smirked knowingly.

"C-Cailin?!" He exclaimed in surprise and his bunny ears shot up. All those years that was the one name that he had kept on remembering to this day. His reasons were unclear. But Jeanne knew. And she took pride in that.

"Achooo!" Cailin sneezed.

"Hey watch it!" One of her teammates Dovelyn exclaimed lifting her tray of food in the air.

"Damn, is someone talking about me?" She asked herself completely ignoring Dovelyn, she placed her tray full of food on the table and sat down with a pondering expression.

After a few moments of silence she stood up and left the cafeteria, leaving her teammates confused. Cailin was not one to miss out of food.

It was rare for Beacon to be quiet. Often, students could be found almost anywhere in the school. Even when there were classes sometimes students and teams who had just returned from missions would linger around.

But there were some places in Beacon which were hardly visited by anyone.

Calin leaned against the stone pillar in one of the dark and unused hallways. She didn't bother looking around to see if anyone was there, she knew this place would have already been forgotten.

She grabbed her scroll out of her skirts pocket and turned it on. The faint glow of the scroll illuminated the dark hallway a bit.

3 messages, 1 missed called.

She looked at the alerts on the scroll with a solemn expression, she entered her password quickly and opened her inbox. She read the first message she deemed to be the most important.

Dearest Daughter.

I know this may be sudden but with a heavy heart I am sad to say that I won't be coming home for awhile nor do I know when I will be coming back. At the moment I cannot reach your mother, please give her all my love if you would. I know what your thinking and I apologize. But my job demands me of it.

Remember to visit your brother as soon as you can.

All my love.

Hughes Winchester.

Cailin stayed silent for a moment with an unemotional gaze. It wasn't like she wasn't already used to this by now. Even when she was a child, this would happen all to frequently. People pitied her, asked her if she even had a father. Eventually the days of her longing for her father's presence and she had soon learned to live without the need of her father. Of course the rare visits would always remind her she had one. It didn't make a difference though.

But every single time she faced him a certain feeling in her chest would arise and tighten inside. It would always make her question 'why?'

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she received a call from someone she hadn't expect to see in a long time.

She hesitated before answering the call, but eventually answered it only to hear an annoyingly bright and cheerful voice.

"Oh, CAILINNNNNNNN!" Jeanne's voice bellowed loudly. Cailin could feel her eye twitch in annoyance. 'This girl has the worst timing' she thought. She opened her mouth to retort but she stopped for a second when her mind finally processed.

Why was Jeanne calling on. . . .

"Jeanne! P-Please stop this!" A timid voice with a clear British accent pleaded.

"Val" She uttered and the bunny faunus eeped. Suddenly her bad mood vanished and she felt rage bubbling in her stomach. Without a single thought she pressed video call and she could clearly see Jeanne and the snow-bunny in his fighting gear frozen in fear. They were standing near a fountain in a nearby city. She had to admit though, he had grown well all these years. Back then he wasn't even taller than her, his chubby and cute face framed with his short and silky brown hair with his matching large doe eyes and small stature had often given the people the idea he was a girl.

But now, he wasn't even the least bit of any of that, well, except cute. That she saw.

He stood at a proud 6 from what she could tell. All that training he must have undergone had done him well, he wasn't petite like he used to be, he was of average build, he wasn't skinny or lanky, he was just right. His chocolate brown hair was neatly combed and it looked good on him. But the one thing she noticed the most was his floppy bunny ears.

Back then in their childhood she found herself making it her favorite past time of the day often tugging on it or rubbing her hands on them just to feel the softness. Of course Val would get hurt and start bawling his eyes out and she would get reprimanded by Jeanne's mother. She just couldn't resist the sudden twitch every time she poked them or how warm they got when she tugged on them repeatedly. . . . . .

'Maybe I could-'

"Earth to Cailin!" Jeanne hollered zooming in close to her face. "Are you feeling okay? Its rare to see you this quiet, actually its a miracle your actually quiet for once. Man, if only this day had come sooner then childhood would have been bliss" She smiled.

Cailin's eye twitch in annoyance again, she forced a smile and pushed away the thoughts of giving Jeanne the beating of a life time for even saying those words in front of her face without any shame. "And if you wouldn't have been such a ditzy airhead like you were back then, then we wouldn't have had to flee the forest every day just because you 'accidentally' did something to irritate the Grimm almost always" Cailin countered.

Jeanne blushed in embaressment and averted her gaze from the screen. "Geez, I already apologized for the Wasp incident you didn't have to bring it up" She muttered. "Anyways! Your probably already saw him, its been a long time right? I mean years. . . Anyways! Me and Val had a little talk and thought it would be nice for you two to start communicating with each other. Its been awhile since the three of us talked, we should catch up! Get to know whats been going on in each others lives! Come on it'll be fun~" She insisted.

Cailin decided it would be best for the two of them to have a little chat. "Sure" She replied in her usual tone.

Jeanne grinned brightly "Great! I'll leave you two alone for now" She said handing her scroll to Val who looked a tad bit nervous.

"B-But Jeanne!" He stuttered. He felt uneasy talking to Cailin for the first time in years. Especially with that look on her face she only gets when she's planning something.

"Relax, I'm just going to the comic book store. The new issue of X-ray and Vav is coming out today and I wanna get my copy as soon as I can don't worry it won't take long" She reassured before quickly dashing to said store. 'Long enough so that you two will have a proper chat without any disturbance' she thought.

Val watched helplessly as Jeanne left, he walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. He took a deep breath, looked back to the screen and gulped.

"Sup snow-bunny!" Cailin greeted with her trademark grin. "Now tell me, how have you been? What have you been up to these past few years? What kind of team are you on?" She started cheerfully. Val was glad she was taking this much better than he would have thought.

"Oh!, Or maybe why you chose to ignore me for the last 12 years?!" Her words were like sharp blades that cut through him. It was too good to be true in the end. True, Cailin had a reason to be mad, Who wouldn't be after your best friend for almost you entire childhood suddenly broke all contact with you without a proper explanation?

He decided, it was time to tell her why.

He sighed looking into Cailin's navy blue eyes from across the screen with guilt hoping he would resolve this without him getting sent flying. "Listen, Cai, I-"

"Oh! so now you decided to talk to me. A little too late for that now" She scoffed.

'I knew this wasn't going to be easy' he thought.

"Cai, please-"

Cailin ignored his please and let her pent-up emotions get the best of her"You leave me and Jeanne alone without even saying anything! Do you know how long we waited in our usual hiding place in the forest just for you?" Cailin began to rant. Val couldn't do anything but stay quiet, for it was the truth.

"We waited until night and still you didn't show your ugly mug! You didn't even bother telling your best friends anything! Tell me! Were we even best friends?, huh? You little-" He lowered his head in shame and continued to withstand Cailin's onslaught of anger.

If only. . . . .

From across the screen Cailin was in extreme emotional turmoil. She didn't understand why she just let loose like that, she could have controlled her anger when Jeanne was there. But when it was just the two of them she felt something inside her click, and without any hesitation she said the words she wanted to say for years but never got the chance too. She felt betrayed, hurt, and unimportant.

'How could he have just left like that without even saying anything. Was our friendship 'only' that important to him?' She screamed inside her head. 'The promise. . . . You broke it'

She didn't even know what she was saying anymore nor could she control it. She was practically shouting at him, she felt glad no one was around to witness it. She saw the pained and guilty look in his eyes, inside her mind she was screaming YES, she felt triumphant, she thought he finally got what he deserved. He finally got to feel what she did.

'How does it feel to be on the receiving end for once?!' She cheered inside her mind.

But as she spoke her mind, all the anger started to fade away and her words started to come to a halt. She gasped for air repeatedly, she used up all her energy to yell at him. As she started to calm down she noticed a tear fall down across the screen, she stopped for a moment. She suspected it was raining, but she was wrong.

Her heart almost stopped when she saw that Val was crying. 'Maybe I went too far she thought?'

Val's eyes widened when he realized she saw him starting to cry. He uttered a single word which Cailin would have never thought to affect her in all her life "Goodbye" He said farewell. The video call ended. Cailin was left dumbfounded by what she had just done, it took her a solid 6 and a half minutes before she had completely realized she slumped down on the floor letting her scroll fall down with a harsh thud, she ran her fingers through her hair over and over again in attempts to calm herself. But it failed.

"Why?" She asked. "I never wanted this to happen, I didn't mean to Val. . . . . . I'm sorry" But her words were of no use, he wasn't here to hear her words of apology but even if he was here. Cailin wasn't sure he would have even thought to forgive her for saying all those things.

She buried her head in her arms and sat quietly while weep. She didn't care about missing class, she didn't care if her teammates were worried about her. She barely cared about anything other than what she did to Val.

Soon the battery in her scroll began to fade and the glow of light disappeared. Soon she was sitting in the darkness alone. . . . .

With just a single word, her emotions were thrown out of balance.

Jeanne happily hummed as she held her new edition of her favorite comic X-ray and Vav. With a smile on her face she thought back to how things were going with Cailin and Val. 'Its been awhile since they've talk with its other, I kinda feel bad for Val though, knowing Cailin she would chew him up and spit him out before accepting his apology. It was a wonder how those two even met each other and became best friends' Jeanne thought.

"Nah! I'm sure everything is going totally fine!" She reassured herself.

She spotted Val in the spot where she left him, he was sitting on the bench, his back hunched over to face the scroll he was holding. Jeanne felt a little cheeky and decided to sneak up behind him. "Wah!" She yelled. She was expecting him to be startled and a little frightened but he didn't even react. She felt an odd wetness on his face, mainly the eyes, she let go of his face and said.

"Val, what happened?" She asked.

Val turned to face her, his eyes were swollen red with tears, his hair was messy and a little bit wet, his bunny ears were lowered indicating his sadness. His voice was hoarse and filled with sadness.

"I messed up" He replied.

TO BE CONTINUED