Neopolitan Stars

Chapter 9- Neo

I woke up in a large, grey room with beds bordering all the walls. I knew it was the infirmary because Blake, Orion, and I had passed it multiple times during the tour. I sat up in my bed and made two quick realizations. Firstly, my aura had regained its strength and fixed my broken bones and bruises. Secondly, I wasn't alone. Yang was sitting on the bed next to me, twiddling her thumbs. She looked up as I started to move. Despite feeling much better, I was having some trouble focusing. Yang seemed to notice my excessive blinking and squinting and handed me a glass of water from my nightstand.

"Here, drink some water. You used so much aura you must be incredibly thirsty." I drained the glass as zoo a as it was in my hand, then I put it back on my nightstand and nodded thanks to her. "That was pretty stupid of you," Yang stated plainly. "I almost did it, you know. I was sitting on your chest and I knew it would only take one more punch. I sat there a full minute before I decided not to." She looked back down at her hands and a tear dripped down her cheek. "I've never killed anyone before, and to tell you the truth I don't know how close you came to killing me on the train. You were gone when I woke up."

Tears were now falling like small rivers down her face. It felt wrong to let her think that maybe I was the same way, and maybe I'd spared her of my own accord, when I knew I was so much worse a person than her. I would've killed her without a second thought if Raven hadn't stopped me. I felt terrible letting Yang believe she was as bad as I was, but the whole point of this ordeal had been to put us on the same level. That way we could work together effectively and maybe even be friends.

With this purpose in mind, I chose not to correct her or tell her how bad of a person I was. I instead got up, ignoring the dizziness which claimed me, sat next to Yang, and put my arms around her. She was much taller than me, so my face was in a rather awkward place as she hugged me back, but I ignored it. 'Right now, my focus is to let Yang know I forgive her.'

After a minute or so Yang pulled away, allowing me to breath again. She caught me up as I caught my breath. "You've only been out for a couple hours. It's 12:40 right now, so there are still five hours until Ozpin gives his speech introducing you and Orion. Speaking of Orion, the nurses thought you'd be asleep a lot longer so he and Blake went out to lunch. Can you believe they still have stuff to talk about? I guess they had lots more to catch up on than I realized. Are you feeling alright? Because you're breathing pretty heavily." I let one of my voiceless laughs, nodded, and smiled at her. Even if I chose to speak, I probably wouldn't tell my new friend that she'd just smothered me in her cleavage.

"Well if you're feeling better, want me to get a nurse over here to clear you so we can get some lunch? I'm starving!" I returned to my bed with a nod, and she ran off to find a nurse. Somehow a fresh set of my clothes was on the nightstand, where my parasol was leaning. 'Orion probably got them for me,' I thought as I picked them up and walked into the bathroom to shower and change.

Once I had showered and changed out of my tattered, bloody clothing, the nurse had no problem letting me go. So I grabbed my parasol and followed Yang toward the giant school garage. She didn't stop talking the whole way.

Orion

I had finally run out of things to talk to Blake about when I heard the sound of a motorcycle outside. I was going to ignore it, but Blake's eyes widened as she looked behind me, so I turned toward the source of the noise. My eyes widened as well and my jaw hung open. The driver of the motorcycle was none other than Yang, but even more surprising was the short girl with multicolored hair riding behind her.

Not only was I shocked that the two of them seemed to be getting along, but also Neo looked great. She had showered and changed into the clothes I'd grabbed for her, her cuts and bruises were gone, and her aura was entirely recovered. What's more, she seemed to actually be smiling. And I don't mean her usual grin of confidence. As she climbed off Yangs bike and removed her spare helmet, she shook her hair out and beamed at her old nemesis. She was very obviously thrilled.

After initial greetings and numerous mentions of how much better Neo was looking, the two girls sat down in Blake's and my booths. Yang started looking at the menu, but Neo just pointed to my plate and raised an eyebrow.

"Steak sandwich," I stated. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I can get pretty obsessive over steak," I laughed out. I'd had a steak dinner with Neo the previous night, on the train car, and steak and eggs for breakfast with her that morning. She shrugged and pointed back at my plate just as the waiter got back. I nodded in understanding and looked at Yang to order first. Then I ordered for Neo. This was becoming the usual course of action for us. She'd point either to me or a menu and I'd order for her. It was a little strange, but I was more than happy to accommodate her. Yang, Blake, and I talked through the rest of lunch while Neo sat quietly and observed.

Meanwhile, I was tracing the auras of countless faunus gathering outside the door.

There are the next two chapters; I hope everybody's enjoying so far!

SPOILER ALERT: Some of you may remember the possibility of Orion discovering a second part to his semblance, as was mentioned in chapter 3. I've been considering implementing that, but I don't have much of a plan of what to use. If anybody has and idea for a semblance that they think would fit Orion and would like to see integrated into the story, feel free to post it below or PM me! I'll see what I can do