Stardust

Chapter 9

Familial Bonds

It was with no small amusement that Cerise watched as Citrine's parents swooped down upon him. Before him was a man and woman with skin complexion similar to Citrine's but slightly more tan. His father was slightly taller than him and had brown hair with blue eyes. His mother was slightly shorter than her husband with red hair and had Citrine's eyes.

Both seemed to be pleasant people if the way they treated to Citrine was an indication. Citrine for his part seemed to be soaking up the attention yet remained embarrassed.

Truth be told Cerise was a little jealous and a quick glance showed Titania looking at the scene with some emotions too.

Titania noticed Cerise looking at her and said "I'm a little jealous…"

Cerise just looked at her as the two talked completely ignoring Citrine's parents as they asked him the most embarrassing questions possible.

Cerise said "what do you mean?"

As Citrine's parents pinched his cheeks (his mom) and examined his body (his dad) Titania said "I was, am a foster kid I never really got to experience this."

Cerise slightly frowned at her and said "I know what that's like…"

"Not really." Cerise just looked at her while Citrine tried to subtly signal his teammates for help which didn't come as the two talked on.

"She might have vanished on you but at least you get some years of attention, I've never gotten that much. The only thing my family ever gave me was my name and what traits I have beyond that…" She trailed off.

Cerise looked down thoughtfully at the ground, what could he say to that? But at that moment Citrine decided to save himself and said "oh Mom, Dad! Look it's two of my teammates!"

Cerise and Titania blinked and came back to themselves just as Mr. and Mrs. Seeress swopped down upon them.

While Citrine's father examined Cerise, his mother gave Titania an even more appraising look as she asked if she was his girlfriend.

Citrine sputtered as his plan to throw his team under the bus backfired magnificently, and Titania reconsidered her thoughts just seconds ago.

A welcome diversion came when Citrine's father asked Cerise who he was.

"I'm Cerise Nebula, Citrine's partner."

Silence reigned as Mr. Seeress stared at him and Mrs. Seeress did too.

Cerise flushed and looked down self-consciously.

After a moment though Mr. Seeress had moved over and put a hand on his shoulder. Cerise looked at him and Citrine's mom smiled and nodded as he said "it's nice to meet you Cerise."

Cerise gave a shy smile and then asked "so what bring you to Harbor, Mr. and Mrs. Seeress?"

The two then spoke in unison "for our performance of course!"

Cerise and Titania traded looks confused before the girl asked "performance?"

The two laughed and Citrine blushed.

"Oh come now! You just saw a promo of us on the monitor!"

Titania blinked and then her eyes widened in recognition.

"Oh God, you're Blaze and Glitter!"

The two laughed and Cerise just blinked, while Citrine got even redder.

Cerise just blinked and stared at the two recalling what the monitor had shown. It was a performance of some kind called "The Wondrous Gems" and this "Blaze" and "Glitter" a man and a woman in what seemed to be garish costumes and hair but Cerise didn't understand what…

Cerise suddenly narrowed his eyes slightly as he focused on Citrine's parents and overlapped them with the necessary features and sure enough…

"You're Blaze and Glitter." Cerise said as a statement.

The two of them nodded.

The group of five walked down the street and Cerise asked what was on his mind.

"So you guys perform?"

Mr. Seeress nodded "yes we run a sort of circus."

Cerise then asked "what's a circus?"

The two adults looked at Cerise with surprise though Titania and Citrine though had actually expected this. By now they knew Cerise had little to no experience to things that were commonplace in the kingdoms.

Titania explained to Cerise what a circus was while Citrine muttered to his parents about Cerise growing up outside the kingdoms.

After a moment they continued on their way and Cerise asked "if a circus provokes such reactions out of people… isn't that a risk to security? With the Grimm and all I mean?"

"It can be but we make sure we can defend ourselves and our guests. Our animals are well trained and more than ready to fight if need be to."

Cerise and Titania gave a look to Citrine as now they knew why he could fight so well.

But then Cerise thought to ask "if you have such a career ready why become a huntsman?"

Titania had to stifle her laughter already knowing the answer but Cerise clearly had not noticed his partner's problem but it was about to be made clear.

"He has stage fright the poor dear" as Mrs. Seeress hugged a blushing Citrine while understanding now filled Cerise's eyes.

Mr. Seeress then added on "so since he couldn't handle crowd he wanted to do something though so he entered in a combat school."

Cerise looked at Citrine and asked his partner "so you really thought becoming a huntsman was a better alternative?"

Titania looked on with amusement as Citrine muttered "well I wanted to do something worthwhile and when my Semblance awakened…"

Cerise and Titania traded a look. They still doubted Citrine really did have clairvoyance given his name it both sounded plausible and doubtful.

Eventually a curious Titania asked "so where'd you get that deck of cards from anyway."

Citrine now somewhat back to a state of normalcy said "I found them at a trinket tradesman stall at fair."

"Ah." Cerise said.

From where she walked along Titania asked "you know what that is Cerise?"

She was half teasing, half serious.

Cerise just frowned. "I'm not that inept at knowledge inside the kingdoms Titania we did stop at villages from time to time when were younger."

Citrine then asked "when you were younger?"

Cerise sighed "we started avoiding villages when Uncle Silver took over the group only going near them when necessary. He called them a type of corruption to his congregation."

Cerise shook his head as Citrine and Titania traded looks.

From up ahead Mr. and Mrs. Seeress asked "so would you like to come to our show tonight?"

The trio looked at the adults, traded looks between each other exchanging shrugs and nods as one said "sure."

From there Citrine's parents learned of Smoke and extended an invitation to him as well. Thankfully they didn't question the trio's reactions with Cerise's face going dark while Titania and Citrine looked worried.

Still they reached out to Lighthouse academy for permission to be out late and to get ahold of Smoke.

Despite the faculties general stance on team CCTS (apparently blowing up that lab day one left a bad impression who knew?) they did get the green light.

Smoke wasn't reachable.

Titania strangely didn't seem surprised.

So the three went on and had a good time. They particularly got a kick out of Cerise's face trying cotton candy for the first time of all things.

And yet there was a certain prickle between the trio caused by Smoke's absence of all things.

If he was there things would have been tense between him and Cerise and yet his absence caused discomfort anyway.

Still they went on and had a nice night. When the show ended they went and saw Citrine's parents and met the rest of the troupe before heading back.

Getting to their dorm they saw Smoke was still absent.

Cerise didn't really say much just went out the door to get ready for bed.

Citrine and Titania traded a look before the boy asked "so what did you want to talk to me about Titania?"

She looked at Citrine and said "it's Smoke…"

One explanation later and the boy sat down on his bed looking aghast as he said "you're joking."

Titania shook her head and said "no, those Blanc twins are nothing but bad news, and it sound like they've got their claws deep into Smoke."

Citrine said "what should we do?"

Titania said "I don't know; it sounds like they're holding something over his head but I figured I should talk to you about this."

Citrine raised an eyebrow at her as he said "what about Cerise?"

Titania sighed "I don't know if Cerise would do anything about this team leader or no. Their reactions to each other have not been good as you well know. I was hoping you Semblance may help."

Citrine just shook his head and said "I'm not sure it can help…"

Titania just looked at him and said "then what do we do?"

Citrine said "I don't know."

The two of them just went silent neither of them aware that Cerise stood just out of sight by the door. He leaned against the hallway wall arms crossed orange eyes thoughtfully staring at the floor…

Author's Note: Alright so at long last that was chapter nine. It was a measly four pages and very much filler, though it does give Citrine backstory which is the point so it works and after so long I'm just grateful to have gotten this do. Even if it does feel slightly off. I feel like such a doofus after all this time considering I call myself a RWBY fan and only just some time ago noticed the similarity between my team and the abbreviation for the cross-continental system. Volume 4's premiere also threw a slight monkey wrench in the works too as a Geist is more less my Anim albeit with dust energy and more modern items being used alog with some other details. I actually considered re-doing it but the Anim thing makes up he bulk of what Stardust is and I've gone too far to turn back now. So it's just as well I made this AU so I'll decide what to do about Geist's at a later date. For now I hope you like this chapter. The next update for this or any of my projects probably won't be till next month due to a break I'm kinda taking you can check my DA page for the journal on Nov 1st or my Tumblr post for details but I'm probably going to be distracted this month while I plot, scheme, deal with school and other facets of my life. I do not own RWBY in any, way, shape,or form my OC's are my own design. Reviews welcome.