Li and Velvet woke up at the sound of beeping; Velvet had an alarm set.
They stared at each other for a moment, kissed and both got up. Velvet and Li went to the bathroom together, coming out after 20 minutes, showers and routines finished.
They dressed, Velvet in her school uniform, Li into his combat gear. "Why are you wearing your gear today?" Velvet asked quizzically.
"I'm not sure, I just feel comfortable in it." Li realised how it may look walking in 'full' combat gear, and so left his leather vest off and donned his orange scarf. He also donned his casual sheathe, slipping Love and War into their homes. He knew it looked odd, but he only felt safe with them at his back.
They both walked out the door; Velvet kissed Li and made her way to classes. Li was left with the key for the door, and opted to go and talk to Ozpin before returning the key to the nurse.
Li walked slowly to Ozpin's office, knowing that he had nowhere to be in a hurry. Once he made it there, he knocked slowly at the door. After a moment the door clicked, and he heard a muffled voice speak, "Come in."
Li walked up to the desk on the far end of the room, stopping yards away, he saluted, "Good afternoon, sir! Sorry to be such a bother but I have a few questions concerning my situation."
"What can I help you with?" Ozpin said dryly, Li could tell something was bothering him.
"I was just curious about my living situation, and how I should proceed with training?" li stated bluntly, realising it was not the time for chit-chat.
Ozpin took a sip of his ever present mug, "Where have you stayed last night? If it is an empty room, then you can stay there. As far as your training, I thought it would be obvious that you are to continue taking classes as if nothing had happened. I would have thought a smart boy would have figured that out." Ozpin seemed almost angry at Li, but Li understood that it was merely misdirected.
Li saluted again, "Thank you for your time, sir." Li did not probe any further about team PLYM, seeing that it was not the time or place.
Li walked quickly down the steps, and opened his scroll to find where his class was. It was professor Oobleck's history class.
"Joyous day" Li mused.
Oobleck had a run of pointing out the obvious and making situations awkward without realising; it seemed as though his mouth moved too fast to be stopped by forethoughts.
Li walked into the class, trying to silently sit at the back, and pulled out his pad and paper. Before he had time to write down the title from the board, Oobleck spoke up, "Ah, Mr. Kage. So glad of you to finally join my class. You have missed a lot. Care to offer an explanation?"
Eyes turned silently, all locking onto Li. He felt his ears burn more than ever in that moment. Li quickly thought of Velvet to calm his nerves. He stood slowly, "I'm sorry I am late, I have been indisposed sir, medical emergency. I will be attending every lecture from here on out sir, I promise." Li sat again slowly, not acknowledging the classmates stares.
"I'm sure. Please see me after class, Mr. Kage."
Li sighed, realising he would have to explain his situation to yet another person.
The class went on for another forty-five minutes, Li managed to get all the notes down from the board, and all the important parts that Oobleck mentioned. He stayed at the end, waiting for all the other students to pass him, before moving to the bottom and standing in front of Oobleck's desk.
"So why is it that you have been missing for almost six weeks?"
Li sighed visibly, and began explaining to Oobleck about the current situation he found himself in. At the end of his explanation he asked if Oobleck would be willing to send a message to all the teachers, so that he wouldn't need to go through this all again; Oobleck agreed, and sent Li off with a warning, clearly still not completely convinced.
Li looked to his scroll, weapon forging was next. He had some time to make it there, and during his walk he pondered why Ozpin and Goodwitch had neglected to mention his situation to anyone else. Li was starting to piece together the puzzle until he found himself face first on the floor.
He quickly rolled and stood, expecting to look back and find a crack, instead he found a large individual surrounded by three scrawnier, but by no means weak, boys. Li did not recognise the boys, leading him to believe the aggressors were freshmen.
"You should watch where you are going, freak!" Li only looked at him with a quizzical look; he had experienced bullies, jerks, and all manner of bad people, but this kid, having physically assaulted a clearly armed older student, seemed stupid. The insult 'freak' also hadn't quite hit Li, until Li realised he wasn't wearing his beanie.
"What's wrong, freak? Can't speak? Or are your ears broken?" questioned the largest one.
"Which ones?" one of the smaller ones chimed in. They all laughed.
Li still just couldn't understand what this kid was thinking; before Li could act, he realised that he was late, and turned to leave, "Sorry, I can't do this right now, I will be seeing you around."
Li noticed the smiles turn to grimaces as he turned and jogged off to his next class.
Li loved weapon forging, even after five weeks away and a summer break, the teacher still knew that Li didn't need teaching. Li had told the teacher over a year ago about his father who forged 'Love and War', and had taught Li everything he could.
For Li the lack of teaching also meant that the other students wouldn't bother him. He had his own corner of the room to work, and today, he knew exactly what he wanted to make.
Li had his scroll open on the workbench, on the screen he had a picture marked, 'Clint'. Next to the picture he had a set of blueprints opened, marked in the top corner by 'Deadwood' and 'Sundance'. Li had a lunch break after this class, but he chose to stay in the workshop working on his project. He checked the time and saw that he only had fifteen minutes before his next class; he quickly packed away his project in the workshop lockers.
He ran into the cafeteria, grabbing an apple and sandwich on his way in.
He stood eating the sandwich looking out over the long room; his eyes focussed when he saw some familiar ears. He jogged over to them, and upon coming close quickly swallowed his mouthful, and kissed the unsuspecting faunus girl on the cheek, "Well hello there!" he greeted.
She turned, smile planted across her face, eyes wide, and a blush creeping onto her soft cheeks, "Hey, yourself!" She replied, brandishing a kiss on his lips.
Velvet quickly collected herself and turned to the others at the table. "Everyone, this is Li! These are my teammates." Li turned to them, smiling, and saluted.
"It is a pleasure to meet you all!" They all responded in kind, positive tones. Li liked them, which made him glad Velvet will be surrounded by good people. He turned to Velvet, "Sorry I can't stay, I have to get to my next class, I can't be late after so long away."
Velvet pouted, causing Li to kiss her once again, this time lasting a bit long. The pair heard a cough, and quickly parted, turning to the sound, Velvets team all stared disapprovingly, "Sorry!" Velvet and Li blurted out.
"Sorry to leave so soon, but I must head off, goodbye!" Li explained to the team, Li then turned to Velvet, "See you tonight? Same room as last." Velvet nodded, and Li turned away and left the hall.
Li's last two lectures of the day, combat training and grimm studies, went by without much incident, Li kept to himself, and only garnered a few harsh looks and stares from classmates.
Once the days classes had ended, Li decided he needed to catch up with the work he had missed, and went to the library to pick up a few books and study for the evening.
Li pulled nine books from the shelves, varying from grimm studies, to history, and even politics books. Li resisted the urge to pick up the comics he saw, and instead sat himself on a table, with all the books laid out in front of him. He started on a book detailing the faunus war, trying to learn more about the divide that he ignored for so long.
It had been about half an hour before Li noticed a couple teams walking past him, he didn't pay any attention to them, but he recognised some whispers, but he couldn't place where he had heard them. Suddenly a pair of familiar silver eyes were peeking over the book he was reading, "Hey, Li! Long-time no see!"
Li dropped the book, gasping. He quickly collected himself, "Yeah, it's been too long, Ruby! How have you been?"
"Pfft, don't get me started! Being a leader of a team is so much effort. There is so much to do!" Li laughed at that, he thought about Ruby being a leader, but wasn't surprised; something about the young girl was inspiring.
"Congratulations on being team leader! I'm sure you will be wonderful, regardless of how much effort it is. Trying times bring out the best in most." Li still wasn't really use to this small talk stuff, but he tried his best.
Li leant forward, putting his hand on Ruby's arm, "I need to thank you, from the bottom of my heart!"
"What for?" Ruby looked puzzled.
"It turns out that the combat exercise I had that day we met, was actually more of a test."
"Did you pass?"
"I did, just about, but its thanks to you that I did." Ruby only became more confused, and Li continued, "When you showed me your fighting style, it gave me the chance I needed to win the fight." Li continued to go into detail about the fight, how it was against his team, the tactics he learnt from Ruby, and the outcome of the fight.
"Wow! So you are a one man team?" Ruby paused, "That is SO AWESOME!" A quick shush from the other side of a bookcase quietened Ruby.
A blush creeped onto her cheeks, but Ruby continued undeterred, "Sorry, but that is really cool! So where have you been for 5 weeks? Training in some cool secret bunker or something?" Li let out a giggle.
"Unfortunately not, I had an accident in the fight, I've been in a coma since then, and I only woke up on Monday."
Ruby's eyes widened. "Wow. You are so cool!"
Li was surprised with the lack of pity, but instead basked in the admiration he was receiving. Before Ruby could continue a cold voice came from around the corner, "Ruby! Stop gallivanting with strange boys and come and study. You need it."
Ruby and Li turned to see sky blue eyes staring at them. "I'm sorry Weiss; I was just catching up with a friend." Ruby explained.
"It's my fault; I did drag on a bit. I am Li by the way, pleasure to meet you Weiss." Li stood and saluted, only to be met with an eye roll and silence, Weiss quickly left and Ruby followed sullenly. "Until next time, Ruby." Li added.
Li had spent another two hours at the library, managing to finish notes on just four of the nine books he had gotten out. He brought the remaining five with him on his way back to the room.
Once he made it back, he flung the heavy books onto the desk in the corner. Li considered continuing his studies, but couldn't face it, and instead changed into his sleeping garb, and sat on the bed, doodling on some scrap paper.
It wasn't long before Li heard a knock on the door; he smiled widely, and went to open it up, knowing exactly who it was.
He opened the door, but his smile quickly fell off his face, replaced by grinding teeth and sad eyes. "What happened?" Velvet through herself into Li, sobbing loudly. Li picked her up bride style, closed the door with his foot and took her to the bed; he sat down, the sobbing faunus still in his arms.
He wiped a tear from her face, and asked softly, "What happened?" Velvet explained to Li all about Cardin and how since he stopped bullying some kid named Jaune-arc; he had started picking on her more.
Li knew the kid as soon as she described him. He sat, soothing her, for a few hours in silence.
"What dorm-room is he in?" he finally asked.
"No. Don't do anything to him. Just stay with me, don't ever leave me." Velvet pleaded, nuzzling more into Li's grasp.
"I would never leave you, never truly. I will always be connected to you. Just tell me which direction he is in, I won't leave you alone tonight, I swear." She pointed out the window, to the east, Li could see a pair of students sparring on the roof, and noted its location.
"Let's get to bed, we need the sleep. I will protect you. For as long as I breathe." Velvet nodded, as Li undressed her; he slipped his shirt onto her, kissed her forehead and lay down with her.
Li waited for Velvet to drift off to sleep before letting himself succumb to his exhaustion. Li wanted to dream tonight. The nightmare began. It wasn't his though.