The Last Lie

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart raced in my chest like it often would, as we walked through the busy city streets. After minutes of endless walking, without any breaks, my legs were beginning to strain beneath me. Sweat beaded down my forehead as the sun continued to beat down on our team, making it hard to breath.

Another lifetime seemed to pass by us before I finally came to a stop. It was more accurate to say that my body stopped moving though, and my mind drew a blank as I stared in the distance. It took a moment for the others to notice that I wasn't following, walking ahead a few metres before turning back to check on me. I only saw all that from the corner of my eye, as I was too caught up in the sight of what was ahead of me to bother checking.

It was a silly thing to stop by, it really was. I felt like a little child, especially with how I'd stopped right in the middle of a pathway for it, but I didn't care. I knew what my body wanted - and that was to approach the object in my sight.

"Yang? What are you doing? Come on, we have to keep going!" I heard Weiss call from beside me, but I dismissed it with a blink. Heat radiated from my body as I stared and stared in awe, concentrating on that one spot.

"What are you looking at?" Hearing footsteps, I knew my partner Blake had joined beside me, desperately looking in the direction I was staring at. I couldn't answer at first, too caught up in my thoughts to bother trying to explain out loud. "Seriously, what could be so interesting...? Hey, why aren't you talking?"

Shaking through my skull like an electric shock, the words caught my attention. It seemed even my teammates were just reminding me of...

Blinking repeatedly, my eyes darted all around me, shifting from the object in my vision to my teammates in an erratic cycle. "H-Huh? Huh? What? O-Oh, um, right." I stuttered, trying to get a hold of myself.

"Really, what are you doing...?" Ruby asked, approaching me also. I rubbed the back of my head, feeling more than nervous as my cheeks blazed with red. I was embarrassed and boiling in the heat, two things that influenced this change of colour.

"Ah..." I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to take any longer pondering either, and so, I resulted in being terribly blunt with my response. Pointing a finger towards the object of my interest, I spoke in an innocent tone. "...can we get ice-cream?"

The others paused. I knew they were judging me for acting in such a childish way, but with a round of laughter, they played it off. "Sure, sure! That was kinda sudden, but it seems like a good idea." Ruby agreed, with a large smile. I couldn't help feeling relieved at the words, finger falling from the ice-cream truck across the road.

Alongside the other three, I approached the white truck, walking with a light bounce in my gait. I felt almost overjoyed - but for once, I did know why.

Ice-cream reminded me of her, that's why.

And she made me happy.

Time seemed to pass in a great blur around me, and everything flew by us in an instant. Before I knew it, we were on our journey again, happily walking down the pathway with an ice-cream cone in each of our hands. We chatted as we walked, passing even more time.

"So, why did you want to suddenly get ice-cream, Yang?" Weiss asked, talking over her shoulder, since she was walking at a faster pace than I. Looking up from my cone, I blinked, caught by the sudden question.

"Hm? Is there something wrong with wanting ice-cream on a day like this...?" I responded. "I mean, I wasn't sure I could take any more walking without a break or anything, so... I thought, 'why not?'"

The other shrugged it off, sighing. "Well, if you say so."

"You know, if you ask me, it was a pretty good idea, Weiss." Ruby chimed in, turning to the girl next to her.

"And if you ask me, having ice-cream just reminds me of that... girl. Neo, or whatever." Blake's words instantly gained my attention once more, and I couldn't help widening my gaze. Sure, that's exactly what I had thought the entire time, but I didn't expect anyone else to think the same thing.

"Oh, yeah! Now that you mention it, it reminds me of her, too!" My sister continued, beaming happily. "Wasn't she that really short girl, with three colours in her hair...? The one that you tried to punch in the face, on multiple occasions?" I only realised her words were directed at me at that last statement, to which I puffed out my cheeks and chest.

"Yeah, I guess so." I stated, in a rather proud tone. "Hey, she would have deserved it, though. Always smirking, and being confident, and being annoying..." Before I realised it, I'd begun to rant on about Neo's annoying tendencies, recalling all the previous times we'd met and fought. In fact, there wasn't a time when we met and we hadn't fought, really.

Ruby just giggled, throwing an arm behind her head. "Aww, sis...! It sounds like you have some high school crush when you talk like that, you know?" she pointed out, making a comment that I was almost appalled to hear. Giving a playful roll of my cheeks, I averted my gaze to the bushes we passed as we walked.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? I just think she's annoying, nothing else...!" Though no matter how I tried to defend myself, the red-head laughed, growing more amused by the second. I didn't even want to know what was going through Weiss' or Blake's heads.

"Yeah, right, if you say so!" She laughed once more into the sunlight. "Are you suuuuure you don't like her at aaaaaall?"

With my patience running low, heart racing, and the heat from above making my anger twice as fragile as ever, I let out a sigh of defeat. Denial was such a hard act to put on sometimes - no, always.

Folding my empty hand over my chest, I kept my eyes averted and my cheeks puffed out. "...okay, so what if I do?" I spat, words running into each other.

In disbelief, Ruby paused, making the silence that followed awkward. However, what followed was definitely worse than a thick silence. She began to squeal, resembling some excited fangirl meeting their favourite celebrity on stage, as she flailed her empty arm around. She nearly hit Weiss on multiple occasions, but she didn't stop until she began ranting back at me.

"Ooh, sis...! That's so cool...! So sweet! It's like a forbidden relationship - forbidden love! Kinda like those two people from that play, Romeo and Juliet, or whatever...! Ah, I knew it, I knew it, I just knew it!" My sister drew quite the amount of attention her way as we continued down the streets, my face flaming like I'd never felt it before.

What was I supposed to do, though? I'd just admitted my secret out loud, to myself, to my teammates and closest friends. There was no going back.

...but, I still felt happy about it.

Something about getting that off my chest was enlightening. Refreshing. It was almost like I was brand new.

With a playful roll of my eyes, I drowned out Ruby's words, continuing to eat my melting ice-cream. "Whatever."

. . .

...and just like that, my dream faded away, and was replaced with reality.

When I awoke from one of the worst, unrealistic dreams I've ever had, I was annoyed, to say the least. What made me have such a dream? I had no idea. Why did I remember it so vividly? I had no idea. And most importantly, why did I have feelings for Neo in that dream? Again, I had absolutely no idea.

Memories of the day prior came after the sequence of that dream, gradually coming to me slowly as I groaned in my bed. Yesterday was the day I'd had that talk with the rest of my team, and had finally got most of my issues off my chest. Most of them. I'd told them about how frustrating Torchwick and Neo were, but that was it.

Even as I remembered that though, I didn't ponder on it for longer than a few minutes. That dream, that dream, that god damn dream was still on my mind, lingering, setting off my anger early in the morning. I wasn't even sure what time it was, but I knew that it was definitely too early to be in such a horrid mood.

'What the hell...?' I though to myself, eyes slowly blinking open. 'What kind of messed up scenario was that...? I've never had a dream like that before... no, I've never even mentioned Neo in my dreams before. Which is a good thing, but anyway...'

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I shifted in my bed, patting the back of my hair down. '...what am I getting so worked up about, anyway? It's just one of those dreams that reflect something impossible... like, a dream where you have feelings for one of your friends, even if you don't in real life. Ah, well, Neo isn't even my friend in this case, but that's the same kinda thing, right...? It's the same case, just with someone I despise...?'

That theory seemed to make sense in my mind.

...not really.

Just like the day before, something about it seemed... off. I didn't have any evidence, it was just a feeling - it felt wrong, and I didn't know why. An itchiness clawed at my brain, making it seem ridiculous. It was like someone else was planting that hunch in my head, because I had no real reason to believe that.

But I did. I doubted that dream was entirely made up of fiction, without a single reason why.

'Where does that leave me, though...?' I let out a sigh. My mind was still foggy from waking up, and though I didn't want to push myself, I had questions - and only I could reach the answers. 'What the hell... this doesn't make any sense...'

Thump, thump, thump. My heart continued to beat.

I had to lay out the basics to finally start to understand.

Okay, so in the dream, I apparently had feelings for - ugh, Neo. That was the only part of the dream that struck me as odd, and yet, something itched in my head. Something told me that wasn't as false as I believed it to be. It wasn't farfetched, it wasn't just another ridiculous dream.

Thump, thump, thump.

So... what did that mean?

Thump...

When the answers finally came to me, I stopped.

I was frozen in shock, from my own stupidity.

...did I... really love Neo?

That particular itchiness and discomfort faded. I knew the answer to that question already. Although on the outside I was surprised, and I'd convinced myself that I'd only realised it then...

...I'd known of the truth since the start, hadn't I? I'd just hidden it with so many lies, and tried to deny it for so long, that it didn't seem to matter to me. Now that the lies had vanished, and I could finally see it myself, I had no choice but to accept the truth.

I loved Neo.

And that wasn't a lie.

. . .

It was on that same day, that night, to be specific, when something out of the ordinary happened.

My mind had already been cleared out from the realisation that morning, but it was sent into a wave of confusion when I entered my dorm room. I'd stayed back at class for a few hours to catch up on a few more things, so when I slipped into the darkness-filled room, my other teammates were already in bed. I wasn't sure if they were asleep, but I was sure they wouldn't appreciate disturbance, either way.

I weaved my way through the room without a single noise, closing doors with the most careful motion I could, and tiptoe-ing with each step. I was ready to shut down and get some rest by the time I'd climbed onto my bed, yawns already taking over my body.

Instead of climbing onto a bare, made bed though, what I faced was something different.

The covers and blankets were crumpled, in more of a mess than I'd remembered leaving it in. My pillow was askew, barely sitting straight across the back wall, and looked almost as flat as the bed's mattress. What really caught my eyes though was the piece of paper sitting in the middle of my bed, its writing almost invisible in the darkness.

With a raised eyebrow, I slowly picked up the paper, trying to keep the crumples it made to a minimal. I had to squint my eyes and bring the paper up close to see the words scribbled in blank ink - I was extremely grateful that whoever wrote this had neat handwriting.

It only took me that brief moment to identify exactly who'd written the note, though.

The words, the writing, even the kind of paper - it all pointed to one particular person.

"The worst night is coming."

Neo.

But, what startled me more than the person who'd written the note was what was scribbled on the other side. Hastily this time, almost as if she was hesitant to write it in the first place, were the words...

Like a switch had been flicked on in my brain and sent waves of energy through me, all signs of fatigue wore away from my body. My eyes lit up through the night, and I became determined - I didn't care what time it was, or who I woke up in the process.

I needed to see Neo.

There was no time to waste.

If she had been in my dorm room, close enough to leave a note on my bed, that meant she could have been nearby. She could have been anywhere. But I didn't care. I was going to find her, and that was that. There were no other options, but's, or endings.

Dropping from my bed onto the ground, note scrunched tightly in my hand, I bolted from the room. I was going to see Neo.

. . .

I'd realised after about ten minutes of searching that running around the school, with no set destination in mind, and while wearing socks wasn't the best idea. Rocks had already pierced through the fabric and into my foot on multiple occasions, stinging the skin that supported the rest of my body weight. I had to hold my winces though, as I could wake up anyone during the night. I wasn't supposed to be up, let alone, making noise.

By the time I'd passed the majority of rooms and hallways in the entire school, and covered the majority of school ground, I was contemplating giving up. Even the rooftop, where we re-encountered each other those months ago were empty, and no trace of the ice-cream girl were seen. The night breeze was freezing, sending chills up my spine.

'I can never have my way, can I...?' was what I began thinking, as my body pushed on through the hallways of Beacon. 'I can't say one little word, without it turning into some big lie... some part of my act, some form of deceit, or whatever... it really is terrible luck I've got, huh?'

Most of the rooms were locked tight at this time of night, which wasn't surprising. It just narrowed down my list of possibilities. However, that list was quickly running out. I was running out of hope, too. 'Hah. Being fuelled by this stupid 'love' to find her, how pathetic can I get? This is useless.' I'd already started to doubt myself.

'Maybe... if I disappear somewhere... If I go back and start my journey alone, then... things would be easier.' I wondered.

I walked through the open entrance of Beacon Academy, sighing into the night. That left me standing just outside the school, the sight of the dark sky covering the scenery above me. But, as I stared ahead of me, my heart pounded.

And for a moment there, I wore a smirk.

'Hah. As if. There's no going back for me, now.'

Fate or coincidence, I'd always wondered, but at that moment, I didn't care. Up ahead of me was a silhouette of someone who seemed familiar; of someone who set my heart off like no other person did. I could feel my courage and desperation spark in my chest, mixing together to create a whole new feeling of energy that I'd never experienced. I didn't have time to sit around and admire this, though - that person up ahead was walking away.

Without letting another second pass by, I kicked off the ground, rushing straight towards the figure up ahead. The shadow that engulfed their body gradually came to clear with each step I took, their identity revealing with each moment that passed by. With the wind blowing right past my face, I forced myself on forward, ignoring the pain, ignoring the lies in my head, ignoring everything I'd have done in the past.

That person - Neo was getting closer with each step, though at the same time, she was still the distance away from me. Whats worse, was that with her umbrella unfolded and her stance parallel to the ground, she looked like she was just about to leave the scene. She looked ready to teleport away in any second.

After all I'd come to realise, I wasn't about to let this chance slip away.

The note from earlier slipping from my hands, I outstretched an arm, screaming through the silence of night. "Wait!" Though my words seemed to fall on deaf ears, I noticed something else, something that told me she'd listened. Just like that night before, she dropped her umbrella to the ground, placing her hands over her ears.

Grinding my teeth up against each other, I didn't stop running, feet powering me from beneath. No, no, no, no, I wasn't going to allow her to get away, not now. No way, no way was I going to let her run. I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to...!

I didn't care if this was some stupid forbidden love, or if I wasn't supposed to feel this way. I didn't care if she hated me, or despised me, or even if those poisonous lies would taunt me once again. I knew that no matter what, I was going to reveal the truth, right then and there.

That was going to be the end of my lies.

Coming close in my vision was the other girl, and, taking this as my cue, I skidding to a halt. It wasn't a smooth stop; I stumbled a few steps before finally standing behind the other, drawing in deep, constant breaths. My hands were instantly reaching out towards her, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around before my heart could get in another beat.

Meeting her surprised gaze with my own fire-lit eyes, my arms trembled. Just as our eyes met, her hands slipped from her ears, uncovering them - and I took that as my chance. Immediately, I grasped her hands in my own, leaving the note from earlier to slip and be swept away by the wind. Neo just stared straight at me, wide-eyed in awe.

I swear I felt her squeeze my hands back, as I intertwined our fingers. With my breath still erratic, and my heart throbbing in every part of my body, I came to accept my real feelings.

I finally revealed the truth.

And with all of my breath, I screamed the same words that were written on the other side of Neo's note.

"I love you!"

A/N: Well, looks like that's all for this one~ (wow this is my first completed story O.o)

I may, may write an epilogue if things really call for it, but... eh. It's a maybe at the moment, so don't get too excited. XD

Don't forget to leave your feedback with reviews, any comments are appreciated! You can check out my other stories too, but with whatever you choose to do...

Have a good day! :)