Beacon Dorms,
RWBY
The nights began to shift by slower and slower every night for the members of team RWBY, lying in wait every morning for updates on the young mans situation. His coma had hit slightly over a week ago, and the doctors still couldn't find the reasoning behind it. They presumed that it might have been due to shock, but they quickly ruled it out as impossible. Despite the wound that he took, it shouldn't have given him sufficient shock to throw him into a coma for over a week. His chances of waking up each morning were getting slimmer and slimmer, before deciding that he was not going to make it. But still every morning, they would walk over to the medical ward before period one and observe him, the hair still merely patches of fuzz against his chin, a smug still plastered on his face. And every morning they'd be forced to see the young girl sitting beside him, sometimes asleep, sometimes sobbing, sometimes just sitting there, but always wearing the same look of desperation, her features begging for him to wake up, to say her name just one last time. She had revealed to them that the last words she had told him was that he was a terrible leader, and that he was a mistake that never should have made it into Beacon. Now those same words rattled her mind every waking moment, the look of grief forever printed in her mind.
But out of their group, their faunus was taking it the hardest. She would scream in her sleep, begging for her inner demons to leave for a minute, to leave her mind for just a minute to allow her to sleep. Every night she returned to the dorm late, her dark eye shadow did little to hide the dark bags beneath her eyes and the traumatized look that lay behind them. Every day she came back later, and every morning she woke up earlier and earlier, vanishing to unknown locations before returning hours later to awaken her squad and get them up for classes. And despite the desperate pleas from her optimistic brawler of a lover, she refused to rest, sinking deeper and deeper into the pits of sorrow, imprisoning herself in a shroud of guilt. If she had just behaved differently, if she had just made better choices, that man wouldn't be lying there, his innocence taken away by her mistakes. His partner wouldn't be letting heart piercing screams through the ward, breaking even the most strong willed into sobs and sorrow.
Everyone else did their best to earn back the Blake they had all once loved, the quiet and witty counterpart to her obnoxious but loving and personable partner. The young girl who studied for every class, had read through every book she owned several times over, and could rehearse her favorite books for you word for word if you asked kindly enough. The one who always sat slightly facing left and every table she sat at, claiming that her ears twitched less if she did so. But with her gone, the squad fell apart, drifting further and further apart like the driftwood of a sunken ship. The classes they had all once loved together became places of anxiety and waste, the passion they had all once held passing by like a cool autumn breeze. Visages that had once held volleys of happiness now held anger and selfishness, as though their team had never once existed.
With the autumn dance coming up, everyone had made plans, teams, partners and couples planned to head together, but none of their own plans existed, rather they had plans to stay in their dorms and wait it out. Occurrences like this were rare for a combat school such as Beacon, but with the constant workloads and duties placed onto the duties of children whom may not have even clocked over eighteen, special circumstances were created to give them temporary escape from the constant danger that surrounded them.
Team RWBY had all decided to miss the dance, instead they all had made their own individual plans to keep themselves occupied. Yang and Blake were going to simply wait it out in their rooms and library, Blake running around, stressing herself out over a situation that she had nothing to do with and had no way to stop and her blonde brawler trying to convince her to relax and take it easy. Ruby had made arrangements with the firing range and several hundred rounds of standard issue ammunition, and Weiss had pulled all her notes from that semester and placed them in an organized semicircle around her.
As the days began to shrink between them and the day of the dance, Yang had finally managed to convince her faunus partner to at least go there and stop worrying about something she had no control over, and Ruby and Weiss had made plans to go, albeit alone. Weiss had played around with phrases that she might use at the dance in front of the mirror before anyone could awake, everything sounding robotic and inhuman.
Her young, Crimson partner had made plans to go alone, potentially conducting a secret mission in the middle of the dance and escaping away from behind the punch bowl. The idea crossed through her mind repeatedly as she considered exactly how unpopular she was at Beacon. She was friends with Jaune, but him and Pyrrha had found some bond during a combat drill at the end of last year, Blake and Yang were headed together, and Weiss would most likely end up swooning over Neptune like she had last year. There was always Penny, but she was beginning to see less and less of her robotic friend, and doubted that she'd see her this year.
Slowly but surely, the plan of escaping from behind the fruit bowl had become more and more enticing, and eventually she settled on it, using the alias that she was getting light headed from the fog machines they were bound to have. And that was somewhat true. She had never really got along with fog machines, as she had learned during a terrible experiment with a fog machine back at signal. It had nearly knocked her out, and above all it had only been given a B+. So she had abandoned those things, and Yang had always known that. There was also the pain that she was beginning to feel in her thigh, most likely the stress that she was beginning to feel about the rising tension in their once tightly knit group.
One particular Tuesday evening, caught in a lull of Grimm biology and kinetic physics she dismissed herself from the rest of her team, dressed in her running attire, body set on the track. With winter mere breaths away, she needed to make the best of the weather, observing the fallen leaves as she did so.
The jog to the track was littered with students of all ages, their faces blurred to the background of walls that were lined behind them. Once the doors were splayed open, she was met with the cooling autumn air, a stark contrast to the set temperature of Beacon academy. Bright shades of oranges, reds and yellows grazed over the tall trees that not even a month ago had proudly displayed arrays of green. The solid asphalt met each of her steps with satisfying resistance, shoes snapping against the dark substance.
Beacon's track was nothing to brag about. A simple arena boasting nothing spectacular for the school it was hosted at. However, Beacon staff decided that it was more than sufficient as their track could do it's job as well as one that they invested legions of money into. It was well maintained regardless, displaying that it wasn't forgotten, but was instead a display of pride. The colors maintained their beautiful displays and shades of every color of the spectrum, appealing to a wide variety of students.
Her small figure eventually managed to arrive at the track, her eyes scanning around the moment she arrived. While the crowd was limited in number, the track was still somewhat occupied, several groups of people crowded in a light jog around the track, while small groups and singular runners made their ways around the track, hummed on by their unheard music. When her scan yielded no familiar faces, she set her eyes to the track, her body instinctively beginning the laps that she had found herself to be so easy to slip into. She bobbed around runners, her legs replying with a satisfying level of reaction. She felt the contractions in her thighs, the way that her feet connected with the gravel. Right now, there was no world around her, simply her and the track. Her speed began to increase as she eased herself deeper into her average routine, her mind seemingly entering autopilot as she continued to travel around, emptying her head. Her mother had always urged her into running, as she always had a knack for it. Even from a young age, running was the only thing she could always use to calm herself down, something to escape from the world around her. It was the one thing in her life that never changed. And even though her step sister was always doing her best to be there for her, she was not always the same. Her mood would change, her friends would come and go, something would always change between their meetings.
But running never did, it was always the same. The weather could change, her friends could change, the seasons could pass, but running was always the same. Running was always her form of escapism, something that she could always do. It was what made her Ruby Rose and not a faceless body at a training academy. Running was more than just a passion, it was a way of living for her. Something she'd never give up for anything.
Minutes later, her bodies need for water began to alert her, and that's when she realized that she had left her bottle at home, right next to her assignment for Grimm biology. But as she began to transfer herself out of the track, she saw an arm extend holding a cylinder of said liquid, accompanied by the smiling face of the young pilot. She took a quick swig from the bottle, before screwing the lid back on and handing it back over.
"You know, for someone who credits themselves to running so much, I never took you as the kind of person to make the beginners mistake of forgetting your water bottle on the shelf next to your shoes rack." Chimed the young pilot, her eyes locked forward as she kept pace, their legs moving in perfect synchronization. Beads of sweat streamed down their faces, arms swaying in step. The crimson girl simply gave a small huff before she turned her attention back to the path, weaving in and out of groups of other students.
Syndra was a smaller woman, her head barely scraping 5'6. Long black hair splayed its way down her back, settling just underneath her shoulder blades. Slim lines of blonde also traced alongside the almost onyx black hair, albeit very few in number. Her eyes were a very light shade of blue, getting darker around the outside. A small frame accompanied the stereotypical pilot figure alongside toned, slender arms and thin legs. You couldn't find an ounce of fat on her body if you spent a weak searching, her toned chest barely visible beneath her standard issue pilot uniform. Her dog tags were strung around her neck, dangling loosely around as she kept her pace. Each step placement was precise, her muscles functioning together like a well oiled machine.
"Anyways, do you have someone to go to the dance with? I hear that your sister managed to convince Blake to go. Maybe you should to." She asked as they swung around a small group of students, faceless expressions passed by. Ruby passed lies through her mind, convincing herself that she didn't want to go. And really there was no reason. Her project on Grimm biology next week wasn't going to complete itself anyways.
"I'm a bit busy this weekend anyways" came her first lie " Finding out what Grimm are made out of isn't going to complete itself anyways. Did you come all the way out here just to ask me if I'd go to a dance?" She asked, trying to break the discussion away from the dance. She really didn't want to go, especially not alone in a time like this.
"If I told you I came out here to be by myself and I just so happened to bump into you, would you believe me?" Came the sarcastic reply of the young pilot, her gaze still fixated on the track in front of them, her question being split apart by her heavy breathing. The small leader gave a small shrug and a wave of her hands before returning them to her sides.
"What are you missing out on if you don't go anyways? A couple hours in front of some writing you've read over ten times? I've been there before, the words don't just rearrange themselves after you've read it through enough times to recite it by heart. You should have some fun sometimes you know." The sarcasm and joking was gone from her voice as they slowed down from a jog to a walk, heavy panting accompanying it.
"You're stressing yourself out too much Ruby. Even the strongest of people still take breaks. Don't burn yourself out just because you're too afraid too get out and try something new." A quick buzzing from her pocket brought her attention away, and when her eyes rose back up, annoyance had settled in, deep behind her blue eyes.
"Routine checkups start in twenty. Gotta make sure that nothings gone wrong after the last twelve times they've checked and I've yet to go up." She joked as she began to split off, popping on the back of her foot, keeping herself faced to the other young girl. "At least consider it for me alright? I don't want you to see you burning yourself out. You did a great job that day. You deserve some fun." She flashed a smile as she kicked herself around, splitting off from the young girl and towards the hangers, hair kicking behind her in the wind, legs kicking up behind her, leaving Ruby alone at the now nearly empty track.
Hey guys, sorry about this chapter being a little rushed. I just wanted to get it up and posted to let you guys know I'm not taking two months off of writing. I'm... I'm only taking one. (Not much better is it?) Anyways, I'll try to get better, but life gets busy and I just forget. Trying to fix it though, I really am.
NotUrAverage: I'm trying to make it a little bit more mature of a story than what I see here. I don't want it to be an all happy go lucky story. I really want this to carry some meaning, not just blinding following my OTP. It's only going to get worse before it gets better, so expect some hardships ahead. Also, I can't let you know why her aura dropped, because it's a secret ;)
Annoying Anon: Firstly, you're not annoying. I love all reviews, yours included, so thank you for your time :). I plan on staying kinda trueish to what my final pairings are, and they kinda become announced early on in the story. Besides, pairings aren't really what I'm going for with this story RIGHT NOW. They will be there later, but right now, I feel like my plot and character development are failing, and after just adding a new character, I feel like character development are more important than pairings right now. But I get what you're saying, and I love the idea. I might try it for a future fic that I might write. Anyways, thank you very very much.
Anyways, that's all we have for reviews for this time, and hopefully I have some more to reply to next time. Seeing one makes me remember that I still have a responsibility to write this thing, and I plan on keeping on with it. I also take PM's if you have comments, questions, or concerns about my story. I like knowing what you guys are thinking.
Anyways, have a great morning, day, evening, night and take it easy.