The events closely following the initiation were heated, to say the least. For a slim moment, Azure was sure his sister had been possessed by a demonic Grimm not of this plane of existence, as she was quite adamant about her earlier promise.
"Azure~, you remember what I said about your head on a platter, right? Back in the forest?"
"Oh, hell."
After a long and strenuous chase up the stairs at the cliffside, Azure finally managed to lose his enraged Schnee sister when the last initiates were picked up in Bullheads to be transported back to Beacon, jumping in the final open seat of one before takeoff. The ride back to Beacon was time spent uneasy as Azure talked with Jaune and Pyrrha, the teammates he'd unexpectedly jumped in with.
When the bullhead set down at Beacon, Azure made a point to move as quickly as possible, purposely getting lost in crowds and taking the shortest route he could find to the auditorium, where supposedly teams were being formed.
Finally reaching his destination, Azure took a seat towards the back and away from any entrances, silently prayed that Weiss would be rational by the time they found each other. Or rather, when she found him.
"Whoa dude, you look like you're gonna pass out."
Azure looked up from his silent prayers for safety to a familiar face.
"Oh, Kida," he greeted. "How'd your initiation go?"
The unnatural blond shrugged and took a seat next to Azure. "It was okay, I was able to make it through the forest, get a partner, grab a relic and skedaddled before things got heated. I saw you guys take on those huge Grimm, and damn, that was some show. Glad I split when I did."
Azure gave a blank look at his classmate. "Yeah, you don't look like you'd last in a fight." he said lightheartedly.
Despite the emotionless expression, Kida picked up on his playfulness and responded with mock hurt. "Oh, that pains me, Azure! I know Byakuya has no faith in the infallible Kida Ishimura, but I thought you, at least, believed in me just a little!"
The two chuckled at the nature of their exchange. "You know, you remind me a lot of one of my friends, when we were both kids." Azure said.
Kida took his usual, prideful tone. "Well, I doubt that your childhood friend is as suave, witty, and drop-dead gorgeous as I!"
"Eh, I'd say you're actually a few steps below him now."
"What do you mean?!"
Before their banter could continue, Azure and Kida glanced over to see that some familiar faces were coming to join them.
"Yo, Micah! Rachel!" Azure greeted. The two gave nods in greeting.
"What'd I tell you, Byakuya, not even a forest of Grimm could kill Kida-"
Before the five could strike up any more conversation, the headmaster took his place on stage and began the final ceremony, beginning to draw the curtains on initiation day. As the ceremony went on, Azure's theory was proven correct; the two sets of partners that got the same relic were put together into a four-man cell.
Well, he couldn't complain about the hand he'd been given, assuming Micah picked up the black rook like he had…
Wait, did he seriously settle for the rook without even thinking about it?
Oh well, no use fretting now. Azure turned his attention back to the ceremony.
"Cardin Winchester. Russel Thrush. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forth, you will work together as Team CRDL (Cardinal), led by Cardin Winchester."
'Huh, that armored dimwit from the locker rooms is a team leader? Well, at least I know who I'll be clashing with now.' Azure mused as he remembered his earlier encounter with Cardin.
"Jaune Arc. Nora Valkyrie. Pyrrha Nikos. Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth, you will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper), led by Jaune Arc."
Azure and the others, aside from Kida, became skeptical at this announcement. Jaune Arc, team leader? He didn't do anything overly impressive in the forest…
"That wimp's actually a quick thinker. He pretty much called the shots in that fight with the Deathstalker!" Kida explained. The four accepted this explanation, as they hadn't actually seen the Deathstalker's demise.
The newly formed Team JNPR left the stage. "Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Blake Belladonna. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forth, you will work together as Team RWBY (Ruby), led by Ruby Rose."
This was a team that Azure accepted. He'd heard from Jaune and Pyrrha on the ride back that the four girls had defeated the Nevermore by executing a plan that Ruby had quickly formulated from their surroundings. Although he knew Weiss would no doubt be upset, and that would make things difficult, seeing as Weiss and Ruby were both teammates and partners.
He brushed the thoughts off for the time being, as he and a choice few of his classmates were called to the stage.
The four students walked to the stage, falling in line in the order their names were called.
"Azure Schnee. Micah Brezhnev. Byakuya Iki. Rachel Brezhnev. The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forth, you will work together as Team AMBR (Amber), led by Azure Schnee."
...
As the audience applauded, Azure only stood in shock at the headmaster's words.
...
He was the team leader?
"I...wha-"
Micah threw an arm around the neck of the stunned blond. "Duh, I mean, you called some pretty crazy shots with that Beowolf. If we owe that win to anyone, we owe it to you, Azure."
Azure glanced at the other two in line. Byakuya gave a short hum of approval, and Rachel beamed at him from the opposite end.
These were his teammates, and he was their leader.
With his confidence boosted, Azure put on a grin and faced the headmaster, giving him a respectful nod.
Now, he was ready for anything.
Azure questioned if he was really ready for...this.
Now stepping into AMBR's new dorm room, the four stopped in skepticism of whether or not this room could even fit all of them.
At the back wall under the window, the four beds had been pushed together to make one huge four-person bed, the only thing revealing that it wasn't just one big bed being the four frames. The beds were seemingly the only things that had been bothered to be placed neatly, as the desks, chairs and such all looked to be thrown in without much regard to space.
"Do...they actually give a damn about making the rooms look, I dunno, neat?" Byakuya questioned.
"Someone was working fast." Micah responded.
"Well, no use complaining about it. Our room, so let's clean it up." Azure suggested.
"Let's get to it, then." Rachel said with a sigh.
About an hour of renovations later, and something was still amiss with the room.
"Oh!" Azure shouted in a moment of realization. "It's because there are four beds, but the room is barely big enough to hold three people."
"Are you freakin' kidding me? Didn't they plan crap like this out?" Byakuya said, getting quite upset that such an asinine issue was so glaring.
"If I heard right, I think one of the professors was saying that the number of first-year students is higher than they accommodated for." Rachel explained.
"Ugh, what the hell? So they gave us a spare room?"
"Sure looks that way."
The entire time this conversation happened, Micah stayed silent. Only now did he make a sound, giving a sort of 'aha'.
"Bunk beds?" he questioned the team.
The other three stared at their magenta-haired teammate for a few moments.
"Fine." Byakuya, 1
"That's a great idea, Micah!" Rachel, 2
"Well, I guess we have to make room somehow. Not much choice." Azure, 3.
"Alright, let's get to work!" And by unanimous decision, AMBR's dorm got bunk beds.
Or, because of the lack of supplies, they did their best to make them. Using only various supplies that the four had packed, they managed to stack the beds on top of one another, the right one standing on some books that Rachel and Micah brought and the left held in place by some metal bars, possibly extra barrels for Byakuya's gauntlet.
"So, is that one on the bars...safe?" Azure asked.
"What, you think they're gonna break or something?" Byakuya questioned.
"No, it just looks like the slightest shift in motion could cause the bars to tilt, and that would bring the bed down…"
"So? You got fire, weld them."
"You can't weld metal to wood, dumbass!"
"You got any better ideas?!"
"Calm down, both of you! You don't wanna wake up the others!" Rachel pleaded.
After a moment of silence, Azure calmly came to a realization and pulled out Take-Mikazuchi, beginning to cut neat holes around the bars on the bottom frame.
"I'll just cut some holes in the frame, so the bars can fit in there and they won't give out when I move."
"And just when the hell did I say you could take that bunk?" Byakuya challenged unexpectedly.
Azure turned back to his teammate and gave a deadpan look. "Did you think I'd let you sleep on the bunk above me, ya big lug?"
While Azure went back to his work, Byakuya gave a look of mortification and turned to his other teammates for explanation.
"Well, you're the biggest one here...and the bunk on the top would pose a bigger risk if it collapsed, I think…" Micah theorized.
"Plus, if you're so tall, climbing into the top would be difficult." Rachel added.
Byakuya admitted his silent defeat before an argument could even begin. "Fine, I'll take the bottom bunk."
"Great!" Azure declared, having finished cutting the holes and now turning back to his teammates. "And, now that we're sorta unpacked and the room's clean, how about cleaning up and heading to bed?"
The team let out an audible sigh of agreement.
"Cool. So, Byakuya, I got some catching up to do with Rachel and Micah, so you wouldn't mind going first, would you?"
Before Byakuya had a chance to protest, he was thrown into the dorm's bathroom with only his towel and some spare clothes.
Now in a moment of privacy, Azure turned to his long lost friends, who were sitting on the bottom bunk of the right bed.
"Start from the top. What happened?"
Micah and Rachel exchanged a glance before turning back to Azure.
Micah began. "The collapse? Well, long story short, we took a page from your book and jumped the window."
"From the third floor?"
"It wasn't from the front. One of the buildings next to that one had a service staircase, so I made the first jump to break the window and helped the others across."
"Huh...so you didn't see-"
Micah then stood up and came very close to Azure's face.
"We saw, Azure. The flames. The same ones you were using today."
What followed was a pregnant silence between the two friends. Although, friends was a debatable term, with how heated Micah stared at the blond.
'He knows~! What will you do now?'
Azure took a moment to regain himself and responded. "Look, Micah-"
"I know about you, Azure. We do, both Rachel and I. Now, if it were up to me, I would take you somewhere to be either incarcerated or...disposed of altogether. But, the two of us are on orders to observe only, and judge whether or not you're a real threat. Count yourself lucky, for now."
So many questions were whirling around in Azure's head at the moment. Orders? Judge whether or not he's a threat?
Disposed of?
The last thought sent Azure's anger to the forefront. "Listen, moron. I don't know what the hell you're going on about, what with all this talk of 'orders' or 'judgement', but from what I can tell, you don't have the slightest clue about me. Not like I'd expect anything less from someone I haven't seen in nine years."
"Is that so?" Micah questioned. "You say I don't understand you, but let me explain some things. The ferocity of your flames when you used them in the Emerald Forest proves that you have exceptional control over them, something that normal humans, not even faunus, are supposed to be able to do."
"That's-"
"And then there's your eyes. Why is one a different color? Is that the mark of your possession? How do I not know you're the King of Agony using Azure Schnee's body, hm?"
That last accusation earned Micah a fist to the face. The magenta-haired teen stumbled back into the window and met the gaze of the heated blond.
"Micah...you goddamn idiot! You really think that I'm a monster because I can use some shitty flames?!" Azure shouted.
Micah returned full-force. "What other way to prove you're a monster than the fact you have something anyone else would pay for in blood if they used, and you pass it off as your own semblance-as your own aura?!"
"Maybe it's because I'm the only one who can control it!"
"Humans can't control Grimm powers!"
"Well I can, dammit!"
Another silence, where only Azure and Micah stared at one another venomously. All the while, Rachel sat shrunken on the bottom bunk of the right bed, slightly upset that her friends were fighting like this.
Eventually, Azure spoke, calmer than before. "Remember the day we first met?"
At first there was no response, but after a moment, Micah finally did. "Yeah. You were the grumpiest looking kid I'd ever seen, you know that?"
"Hah, I believe it. I got into a fight not even a couple hours after I met you all. Jonah said something about my mom and it pissed me off, so I took him down."
"Yeah. At least he shut up after that."
"Yeah. After the director lectured me about fighting and everything…"
"I walked over to you, sitting on the ground, trying not to cry…"
…
"You held out your hand, almost expectantly."
…
"You didn't take it at first, going on like 'why are you helping me' and stuff like that."
…
"You remember what you told me, Micah?"
…
"I said, 'because we're brothers now.'"
All throughout the reminiscent exchange, the two never broke their gaze, despite the softening of both of their expressions.
"So, even if you remember that so well, you still think I'm a monster?"
Micah's gaze hardened. "I'm not taking any chances, Azure. I hope you're telling the truth, believe me, I hope you're not the Grimm inside you. But, in the moment of truth, I won't hesitate to end you."
As if on cue, Byakuya exited the bathroom in his sleepwear, a plain white t-shirt and some black athletic shorts. "Quit fighting, assholes. Next."
"Hunters! Huntresse-"
The door opening interrupted the professor's lecture.
"Yo. Sorry I'm late." Azure said lightly, walking in wearing the standard Beacon uniform for male students.
The portly professor only looked at him with what Azure could only assume to be disappointment, as the professor's eyes were covered in his thick eyebrows. "Well, Mr. Schnee, is it? How gracious of you to join us, thirty minutes late! Take your seat, please."
"Sure thing."
With that, Azure climbed to the top of the stairs and placed himself behind the top-right desk, alongside his team and next to Rachel, all of which were wearing their uniforms.
"You know, Azure, since you're team leader…" Rachel started.
"Responsibility, blah blah blah. School's not my thing, Rach, it'll work out."
His fox-eared teammate only gave him a disappointed look. "What kind of leadership is that, Azure?"
"Hey, team leader's more of an honorific for me, really. I'm not really gonna bark around orders or stuff like that."
"Then what are you gonna do as a leader?"
"Coordinate battle strategies. That's really the only thing the team leader needs to do, right?"
The redheaded faunus let out an exasperated sigh.
"Go Team AMBR, and their fearless leader…"
"S-shut it!"
"Ahem."
The professor's prompt caused the two to straighten up in surprise, only to see that the verbalisation was directed at Team RWBY, down in the front. The interruption dealt with, the portly professor continued his lecture on Azure didn't know what.
"Listen, Rach, you don't have to look at me like some figure of authority or whatever. Just, in team battles, I'll ask that you just follow my lead, okay?" Azure asked in a hushed voice.
Rachel just looked at him with an unreadable expression. "At least be more responsible as a student, too. If the leader looks bad, what does that say about the team?"
Azure understood what she was getting at, but that didn't mean he liked it. "Ugh, fine, fine, I'll at least try a little harder in school."
Rachel gave her friend a smile.
"I do!" a certain white-haired girl shouted from the front of the class. The declaration caught Azure's attention in that moment.
"Huh, what's with Weiss?" Azure asked aloud.
"You've been living with her, aren't her habits normal to you?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, but she actually likes school, and learning and all that. Just now, she sounded mad, like, pissed. Something's up."
Azure watched uneasily as Weiss left and re-entered the classroom in her combat gear. As the professor stood beside a large metal cage, Weiss stood opposite the cage and took a combat stance with her rapier, Myrtenaster drawn. Azure took notice of her reaction to her team's cheers, silencing only Ruby as she tried to cheer her on, despite Yang and Blake having done the same.
Oh, hell, something was wrong with Weiss and Ruby. Again.
The professor eventually cut open the cage with his eccentric blunder-axe, and a Boarbatusk came charging out at the Schnee heiress. As the battle between the Grimm and his sister went on, Azure noticed something was still amiss about the battle. It was like she was distracted by Ruby's cheers, as she was making more missteps than Azure was used to seeing, all occurring when Ruby shouted something out.
"Weiss! Go for it's belly! There's no armor underneath-"
"Stop telling me what to do!"
Oh, hell, what did he expect? Of course Weiss was mad about not being appointed leader, he just didn't think she was irresponsibly mad.
While she was having trouble initially, the white-haired teen had apparently received the final push she needed to send her anger into a special state, where she could be raging mad and still effectively end the beast's life with use of her semblance. With the battle concluded, the professor dismissed the class and Weiss left in a brisk pace, Ruby following.
"Jeez, what's with her?" Jaune asked from his desk as Azure walked by.
Azure turned to his fellow blond. "She's just upset that Ruby was chosen as RWBY's leader instead of her. It's just like her, she totally came in expecting to be top-notch."
"Huh. She gonna be okay?" Jaune questioned his fellow leader.
Azure glanced at the doorway. "I'll have to make sure it can sort itself out before I decide to butt in."
With that, Azure headed out to the hall and, upon hearing the voices of Ruby and Weiss, headed in their direction. Coming up on the two girls, Azure leaned back against the corner of the hallway, out of sight of the RWBY teammates.
"Ozpin made a mistake."
The footsteps of Weiss were all that followed. Azure was disappointed in her behavior, to say the least.
"Your sister's quite the piece of work, isn't she?"
The blond Schnee turned around to see a gray-haired man with a coffee cup.
"Headmaster...uh…"
The man chuckled. "Ozpin. While I am aware that you learn names better when they're given to you directly, you would do best to learn the names of your professors."
Azure shrugged, and the headmaster continued on. "I'll talk to miss Rose. You should see to your sister."
Giving one last look at Ozpin before the gray-haired man turned the corner to speak to Ruby, Azure set out to find Weiss.
It didn't take long, fortunately, as the Schnee heiress was standing on one of the balconies overlooking Vale at the moment. Azure took a deep breath, and headed over to his Schnee sister.
"...it's not fair." Weiss began, still looking out over the balcony.
"It doesn't matter, Weiss. What happened, happened, and there's nothing you can do now but suck it up."
"Easy for you to say," Weiss said whilst turning to face her brother. "You got the position of team leader. What's for you to complain about?"
"Well, I can't skip class, and I actually have to get decent grades-"
"Exactly. Ozpin apparently made several mistakes, giving titles of the utmost responsibility to a child, a weakling, a brute and a slacker."
Azure's gaze hardened on Weiss. "With the way you're acting, it looks like he'd be making a team leader out of a child either way."
Weiss gave a look of astonishment. "Excuse me? You know how hard I've worked to get here, and you were there when that work went down the drain, the moment Ruby became a leader!"
"Weiss, if all your work was for nothing, you might as well leave Beacon and give up on becoming a huntress."
…
Weiss only stared back as she contemplated what Azure had just told her, her facial expression slowly turned from anger to defeated contempt as she understood his point. She silently looked down at the ground, and the blond took her gesture as a queue that she was ready to listen.
"It's only been one day since teams were formed. If everyone had to prove themselves within a twenty-four hour time period, they'd be in a world of hurt. Like I said, all we can do now is bear whatever burden that comes with our positions and keep moving forward. And if it's a matter of proving ourselves, you need to prove to Ruby that you can be a good teammate, just like I, Jaune, and even Cardin have to prove that we can be good leaders."
Azure walked closer to his sister and placed his hands on her shoulders. Weiss brought her gaze to his at the contact.
"As much as you expect to depend on Ruby, don't forget that she'll have to depend on you, too. Don't let her down, Weiss."
In conclusion, Azure gave her a squeeze on her shoulders and departed, leaving Weiss to contemplate her brother's words.
Micah looked down on the Schnee siblings from a balcony above and to the right of theirs, and watched as Azure left. He'd heard everything they'd said to each other, and found some intrigue in Azure's level-headedness.
The magenta-haired teen gave a small smirk. "King of Agony or no, you're definitely not some hot-headed thug anymore, Azure Brezhnev. No...Schnee."
…
"As unfortunate as it is, I'm not sure I can call you my brother anymore."
…
"Not because you went to degrade yourself by writhing in Schnee filth, but because of the collapse. From the moment you took that monster in, you weren't really my brother anymore."
A/N: The, as of now, enigmatic Micah Brezhnev, baby.
On a serious note, let me have a heart-to-heart with you guys:
I've had one review in eight chapters (A Devil's Offspring, thanks again), and despite putting it at the end of every A/N I write, the only time I get a review is when I make a joke about passive-aggressiveness in regards to the thing. While I realize that the story only has 12 followers, reviews. Are. Appreciated. As I said before, this is my first time writing a fanfic, but it's also my first time writing a story that other people are reading. I'm making a lot of decisions in the writing process that, to me, are a little sketchy and might be a little of a stretch.
But since nobody leaves reviews ever, I don't know what you guys think about these things, and that's beyond excruciating.
So, I'm leaving this here for anyone who reads it, please, please review. They don't even have to be that long, just leave your thoughts on the chapters or the story as a whole, that's all I'm asking. I want to know what you guys think so maybe I can take it into account, and hopefully improve the writing of this story along the way.
With that, thank you again to everyone who's followed and favorited so far. It really does make writing these chapters worthwhile to know that people are wanting to read more.
And, that's it for me. Next chapter will most likely break canon for a moment before heading into Jaune's little story arc with Cardin.
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Later~!