For now, I've settled into a good college routine. We'll see how that holds up when exams come round. For now, we charge on.
/-/
Teams JNPR and RWBY sat together at lunch on their first Sunday at Beacon Academy- minus Ruby, who was running late. The only explanation she'd given Yang was that she was working on something. Jaune, Ren, and Nora were all lethargic and moving slowly, and Yang couldn't help but notice. "What's got you three so tired already? It's the weekend! You should be excited!"
"We were- this morning." Jaune said.
"Then we all agreed to a round of sparring practice. Nora may have challenged Pyrrha to a three on one, and it kind of escalated from there. There were one or two or ten rematches- long story short, Pyrrha's aura was still in the yellow at the end, and all of ours were in the red."
Yang beamed at Pyrrha, and reached out for a fist bump. Pyrrha obliged, blushing as she looked down at the table.
"You go girl!"
Pyrrha waved it off, and then changed the subject. "How have you all been liking your weekend?"
Yang thought for a second. "Pretty good." she settled on.
"We went down into Vale, did some shopping, had some nice conversations. We only had one argument, and it didn't end in a semblance attack or an absolute beatdown, so that's progress."
Pyrrha's mouth went wide with shock. "Do your arguments normally-" she was interrupted by wood slamming on concrete. Everyone turned to the door, where Ruby had just burst in, carrying a- whiteboard?
She sprinted over to the group and slammed the whiteboard down, shaking the entire table with the impact. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the first RWBY-JNPR activities plan!" She waved a hand dramatically towards the conspicuously empty whiteboard.
Weiss raised a hand. "Um, Ruby. There's nothing on the board."
"Well yeah, not right now silly Weiss! That's what I'm here for! To brainstorm ideas for activities to strengthen the bonds of our friendship!"
The table stared at Ruby blankly.
"Aw come on! You guys are no fun. You're telling me you don't want to like, play a board game, or watch a Marvelous movie? Anything?"
"No no, we do. It's just…" Jaune trailed off.
"Most of us are pretty tired. We don't really wanna use brainpower right now."
"Says you!" yelled Nora. "I've had long enough since the spar, my Aura's almost back to full. I still want another rematch!"
Ren looked to her, and spoke flatly and calmly. "Nora. You have already had fourteen consecutive matches against Pyrrha, landing approximately one hit for every six received. I sincerely doubt a rematch would satisfy you."
Blake, scowled and made a low growl.
Nora glared back with glee. "What's the problem Blake? You wanna try me?"
Blake snapped back, stunned, and shook her head. "What? No, not you. That fucking Cardin guy." She nodded towards a table across from theirs. The teams turned to spy Cardin repeatedly yanking on the ear of a faunus student- some girl in brown Yang didn't recognize. He and his teammates were laughing it up, and Yang could see an angry fire building in Blake's eyes. "He's been roughing that girl up for days, and no one's done anything." She was about to reach out to Blake when Nora whipped out Magnhild and walked up right behind Cardin.
"Scuse me Mr. Cardin sir. Are we gonna have a problem?" The sickly-sweet tone of mock niceties and a barely concealed threat wormed into Cardin's ears. He turned to face Nora Valkyrie, and let go of the faunus girl's ear. "Are we? The boys and I were just having a little fun. All in good sport. Am I right, Velvet?" Cardin turned to the girl, rubbing her bunny ear with her hands. She froze, and then nodded slightly.
Cardin turned back to Nora. "See? No harm, no foul." He flashed a faux showman's grin, a beaming smile without a lick of guilt in the eyes. Nora tightened her grip on Magnhild as a hand clapped onto her shoulder, but it was not Cardin who spoke next. "Let it go Nora. He's not worth the effort." Ren tugged on her shoulder, and she slowly, reluctantly stepped back. Velvet drifted off into the crowd, away from Cardin's ire.
Cardin held his glare and his grin on Nora until she had returned to her table. As she turned her back, he let out a low whisper. "Next time you wanna stick your nose where it doesn't belong, piss off someone you can actually beat in a fight." He turned back to his table and started to laugh. Nora looked livid, but a careful, warning glance from Ren disarmed her, and they headed back to their seats.
"I hate that guy." said Jaune.
Blake jumped at the opportunity. "He's a racist!"
"He's brazen and overly confident," came Ren's analysis.
"And he's just plain mean!" finished Ruby.
That grabbed Yang's attention. "Whoa, hold on. Ruby, did he do something to you?"
"No!" Ruby shied away from Yang's piercing stare. "Maybe… ok, maybe he laughed at me once or twice."
"You should break his legs." Nora offered.
"What!? No! That wouldn't solve anything." rebuked Weiss.
"I'm inclined to agree with Weiss on this one," came Pyrrha.
Yang ignored them. "Tell you what Nora. We see him acting up again, or if he comes after one of us? I'll take the right leg, you take the left."
"Gladly." Nora's reply was quick and low, indicating a desire to shatter shins that may have veered into sadism. For someone who fought with a hammer, she was appropriately blunt. Yang reminded herself not to get on Nora's bad side.
Yang suddenly remembered about Ruby. Or rather, Ruby tapped her on the shoulder and launched back into her brainstorming on the whiteboard. Yang smiled at her sister and rolled her eyes.
"Ooh, Ooh! I've got it!" yelled Ruby. "Tonight, after dinner, we have a spar. That'll give you all time to recover, and we can fight at full strength. Team RWBY versus team JNPR. It'll be awesome!"
Yang nodded her head. "I'm down. I wanna see what our invincible girl can do for myself."
Pyrrha hid her smirk well, but Yang could just barely make it out. "I suppose it would be good to get some more training."
"Oh you're ON Ruby! You're goin down!" shouted Nora.
Weiss shrugged. "I've got nothing else pressing."
Ren stared off at the ceiling beams, then spoke. "I'd like to get acquainted with your fighting styles, so I'll oblige."
Blake simply nodded. Jaune smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Yang made a note of that, but Jaune didn't object to the idea, so she didn't draw attention to it.
"It's settled then," declared Ruby. "Tonight, we shall determine which team is best team. JNPR, you're goin down."
"Hey, I already said that!" cried Nora.
"Well- then, you're going down even further than we are!"
"Nuh uh." Nora pouted.
"Uh huh!" Ruby shouted
Yang saw where this was going, and decided to put a stop to it. "Ok, ok, that's enough girls. Come on Ruby. We gotta get ready for a battle."
/-/
Ruby strode into the sparring arena with her team to find JNPR waiting for them. For this match, since it involved two full teams, they'd commandeered one of the larger combat arenas, a room not dissimilar to a small coliseum, with the combat ring made up entirely of light gray cobblestones. Port was the one officiating this match, and he watched from the announcer's box, holding a microphone and impatiently waiting for the fight to start. A few other teams sat in the stands above, mostly those waiting their turn to use the ring. This fight would have no ring out condition, so they'd fight until your aura went red. Ruby nodded to her team, and they fanned out wordlessly to face JNPR. Jaune's team spread out to face them. Weiss and Ruby took the left, facing Pyrrha. Yang took the center against Jaune and Nora, and Blake and Ren faced off on the right flank.
Yang should be tough enough to beat Jaune and Nora alone- she might be aggressive, but then so was Nora, and Yang had dominated all her spars thus far. Blake and Ren was a toss up, but she'd won against him once before, and JNPR didn't know about Blake's semblance, which should give her the edge. Then it was her and Weiss against Pyrrha. Not an easy proposition, even two on one. The plan was for Ruby to dash in quick to try and get her off balance. If that didn't work, Weiss would move in and take over the melee until Ruby gave the word for them to swap. Hopefully they'd be able to wear her down with ranged support while she was distracted with the melee. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it'd have to do.
Port hefted the microphone and took up an over-the-top announcer's tone. "Alright audience, it looks like our competitors are ready! I'll start the countdown. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1!"
Ruby darted forward to meet Pyrrha, hoping to get in an early strike, but she had no such luck. Pyrrha quickly moved her shield to meet the descending blade of Crescent Rose, and then Milo, in javelin form, speared under her guard and caught her in the stomach. Ruby's weapon was now out of position, so she stepped back to recoup, narrowly avoiding the rim of Akuou as it swept for her jaw.
Myrtenaster lanced in from Ruby's right, tracing a thin, sparkling line on Pyrrha's aura. Pyrrha spun in place and batted the rapier away with her shield, then lanced out at Ruby again, scoring a light hit to her forehead. Ruby pulled back and let Weiss take her place, already retreating to a good angle to provide fire support. Pyrrha flicked a switch, and Milo shifted into sword form. Pyrrha immediately swept it down towards Weiss, getting in over Weiss' guard and slashing across her shoulder and breast. Weiss grabbed hold of Milo's hilt as Pyrrha came in for another swipe, and jabbed her blade into Pyrrha's stomach. At the same time, a round from Crescent Rose slammed into Pyrrha's torso and sent her aura flaring green. Pyrrha slammed her shield into Weiss' nose, sending her stumbling back, and spun to block Ruby's fire from across the arena. Looking down the scope as Pyrrha deflected the second round, Ruby could swear she saw Pyrrha smiling.
Yang rocketed forward with a shotgun blast as soon as Port finished counting, charging in to face Jaune and Nora alone. Two on one, just the way she liked it. Fiery sparks began to rise from deep inside her. Yang smirked as she flew towards Jaune, decking him with a flying haymaker before turning and leaning back from Nora's hammer blow. Yang kicked Nora in the stomach, sending her flying into the arena wall. Jaune stumbled to his feet and charged forward, swinging his blade wildly. Yang stepped back, ceding ground as she waited for an opening. She found one as Jaune pulled his blade back a little too far between swipes. She stepped into his guard and slammed a fist into his gut, sending him sprawling. Despite that, his sword managed to somewhat connect, grazing the side of her head and clanking off her shoulder. She felt something tickle her shoulder. She glanced over to see a few short yellow hairs on her arm, severed from the side of her head. She turned back to Jaune with a predatory grin as her eyes flashed red and embers roared to open flame in her heart. "Oh, you just sealed your fate buddy. Once pinky is down, I'm crushing you."
Yang was distracted enough that she wasn't prepared for Nora's counterattack.
She saw it at the last moment, leaning back from the underhanded swing, but she wasn't quite fast enough. The front face of Magnhild slammed into her chin with a crunch, launching her into the air. Yang bit down on her tongue, and her head throbbed, but she kept her focus. She backflipped in the air, and fired Ember Celica to launch herself up further. She looked down to face Nora and then blasted herself forward using both gauntlets, flying towards Nora like a rocket, hair shimmering gold. Nora, for her part, tried to block. Big mistake. Yang readied a punch, and her fist slammed into the haft of Magnhild as Nora raised it to guard her torso. It shunted Nora back a few feet and upset her footing, but she managed to stay upright- until Yang pulled out a spinning kick and slammed her heel into Nora's head. Nora went sprawling out to the right. Jaune raised his shield and circled around to Yang's left as Nora scrambled to her feet in front of her. Yang wasn't going to wait for her to recover. With a roar, she leapt forward in a low arc and slammed a fist into Nora's spine, sending her back into the stone floor.
Blake darted in towards Ren immediately. A quick glance into his eyes gave nothing away. They had sparred once before, in Goodwitch's class, and both of them remembered how close it had been. Blake won by a couple hits. She banked on Ren remembering that first fight and wanting to play it safe.
Hopefully, he'd be entirely unprepared for her to charge.
His first shots from Storm and Flower indeed went wide, but he adjusted his aim quickly and landed a few hits to Blake's chest before she could reach him. She pushed through the fire and lashed out with both blades, Gambol in her left hand, Shroud in the right. Ren was fast and skilled, but he'd been shocked enough that he hadn't quite moved out of the way. Even still, he was able to deflect Blake's katana with Storm, but the cleaver blade smacked Flower out of the way and bit into Ren's chest. He stepped back and crossed his arms around Shroud, trying to yank Blake's cleaver from her grip. He was successful, but as Blake released Shroud, Gambol shifted from katana to gun, and Blake fired three rounds into Ren's knee.
Ren staggered and tossed Shroud backwards. It clattered to the floor behind him, too far for Blake to safely recover. Darkness crept into her mind. She needed to get behind him. She quickly swapped Gambol back to katana form and blocked a forward thrust from Storm with the half-extended blade, but Ren reached his second weapon under her guard and plunged its blade into her gut. Blake grabbed that arm with her off hand and pulled hard, upsetting Ren's footing enough for her to step aside. Blake stabbed her katana into Ren's back once as he fell, and was readying a second strike when Ren's hands hit the ground. He quickly launched himself back to his feet, whipping Flower around for a slash to the throat.
Blake leaned back and stepped back at once, Ren's blade passing a hair's breadth from her neck. She leaned back further into a cartwheel, exiting into a three point landing, then scooping up Shroud with her free hand. She swept the blade up towards Ren as he charged to close the distance, guns blazing. Bullets pinged off the metal, and Ren dropped into a slide. Blake's eyes went wide as she stepped right, but Ren hooked Flower around her legs and sent her tumbling. A flurry of Ren's bullets slammed into her back. Shadows screamed and danced as rounds found purchase. Blake needed a plan, damnit.
Then it clicked. Blake activated her semblance, expelling her darkness to launch herself straight up into the air, leaving the last of Ren's magazines to slam into a shadowy copy of her figure. Ren's guns clicked empty as the doppelganger shattered. Ren froze for just a moment, then his vision snapped to Blake in the air. He raised his pistols and pulled both triggers, only to realize that he hadn't reloaded. This time, Ren's eyes went wide. Blake grinned. She'd disoriented him just enough. Ren quickly attempted to bring his weapons up to deflect, but was just too slow. Shroud slammed into his forehead as Gambol slashed across his right arm. His aura flared pink as he stepped back. He thumbed his magazine releases, and the spent magazines fell to the floor.
Blake didn't intend to let him reload. She flicked Gambol into pistol form and sprayed him down with dust rounds as Ren retreated, reaching for the ammo pouches on his hips. Blake launched herself forward with another clone. Ren brought up Storm to block with his right arm as he reloaded Flower. He blocked the sweeping edge of Shroud, but Gambol fired into his chest at point blank range. He hooked his right arm around Blake's left wrist, knocking her pistol off-center and then brought Flower under her guard with his left hand. She rammed an elbow into his neck as he sprayed bullets into her chest at point blank range. Then Blake's cleaver came down again, shunting his pistol aside and biting into his midsection. The blow sent him staggering, and Blake took the opportunity to finish emptying her magazine into his chest. Ren was already raising Flower again when Port's voice boomed over the microphone. "Lie Ren is done folks!"
Nora rolled over beneath Yang, swinging Magnhild with all her might. Yang caught the blow on her gauntlet, absorbing most of the damage into the resilient metal rather than her arm. She wound up a haymaker as a feint, and then stomped on Nora's chest before bringing the punch down. Nora caught the fist, and even stopped it dead in its' tracks, but the kick caused her aura to flare and Nora loosed a shaky gasp as Port shouted. "Nora Valkyrie, out!"
Yang beamed at the girl on the ground, and Nora returned the favor as she stood. Wait a minute. Nora isn't smiling at me. Yang heard footsteps clatter on stone close behind her just before Crocea Mors sliced across her back, biting deep into her aura. She hadn't paid attention to her rear, and as such her aura had barely stopped the blade. Fire burst into open inferno. She spun with a snarl and a punch, grazing the side of Jaune Arc's head. The boy nearly jumped, freezing on the spot. Yang clamped a fist around the blade of Crocea Mors, and that seemed to wake him up. She pulled hard, but to her surprise, Jaune released the sword from his grip, stumbling backwards and-intentionally or not- turning her follow-up punch into a light tap on the nose. Then, Jaune regained his footing and charged, shield raised to block his torso.
Yang was surprised, but not caught off guard. She let the blade clatter to the floor and grabbed Jaune's shield, ripping the thing down to open a path for her fist to meet Jaune's gut. Her fist connected, but Jaune pushed through, actually managing to topple them both to the ground even as his shield was torn from his grip and sent skittering away. Yang snarled, and her eyes went red as she pulled back, throwing the weight of her semblance behind her next punch. Her internal firestorm had collected power from every strike she'd taken in the fight, and she prepared to throw it all back at Jaune for a knockout blast.
Jaune looked terrified, but still, he managed to clasp his hands together and slam them down onto her forehead once before she punched him in the shoulder and sent him flying into the arena wall, hitting the stone with a clang before falling to the floor in a heap. Port's voice came over the speakers again. "Oh ho! Double elimination. Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao-Long are both out." "WHAT?!" Yang cried. A glance at the scoreboard confirmed it- she was out.
Weiss was dueling Pyrrha alone, and holding up as well as could be expected. She wasn't a slouch, but Pyrrha was a tournament champion, probably one of the strongest fighters their age on the entirety of Remnant. Weiss was landing a few hits, but taking more than twice as many. Ruby had only managed to land one more clean shot, when Pyrrha had been trapped for a moment by one of Weiss' glyphs. Of the rest, there were a couple grazes, and Pyrrha had blocked or dodged everything else. Ruby could see that Weiss' aura was getting low thanks to the screens above. She raised a hand to give Weiss the signal to swap out, but then Weiss went flying as she was slammed in the forehead by Akuou and took a fire Dust round center mass from Milo. Port gasped. "Ooh! In a one-two knockout punch, Weiss Schnee is down!" Weiss landed prone, and slammed a fist into the ground. Ruby was left facing Pyrrha. Ruby leveled her scope and fired off three rounds, both to launch herself away from the girl with recoil and hamper her advance. Pyrrha blocked the volley expertly as she raised Milo, still in rifle form, in her other hand. Two rifle rounds sparked off of Ruby's aura. Dangit.
She's got options at every range, and I can't get far enough away to really snipe. She doubted Pyrrha could outsnipe her, but they were inside a building, not a mile apart in the woods, so Pyrrha didn't need to. Still, Pyrrha loved to trip people up, and Ruby liked her odds with a gun better than her odds in melee.
Then her rifle clicked empty. Ruby swore internally and, out of options, launched into her semblance, racing towards Pyrrha, petals spinning off behind her as her confidence disintegrated. Pyrrha's rifle rounds punched holes in the rushing ball of red, but they filled in almost immediately, seemingly doing little. Then, the red ball split around Pyrrha, reforming behind her. Pyrrha spun to face Ruby, but wasn't fast enough to stop Crescent Rose from hooking around her. Ruby sliced across Pyrrha's backside just before Pyrrha's shield came down on her elbow. Milo, back to sword form, then slashed at her throat. Ruby kicked out at Pyrrha's shin as she pulled back her scythe, but the invincible girl didn't budge.
Ruby whipped the bottom of Crescent Rose up to Pyrrha's cheek, but Pyrrha held it back with her forearm as she jabbed Ruby's face with the lip of Akuou. Pyrrha shoved Ruby away with her sword arm as Milo shifted to a javelin, then stabbed at Ruby's hip with the blade. Ruby's next swing was deflected easily off the shield, and Pyrrha used the opening to stab at Ruby's knee. It buckled, and Ruby stumbled to the floor. She grabbed at the haft of Pyrrha's javelin and pulled, but Pyrrha released the weapon, took Akuou in both hands, and slammed it down on the top of Ruby's skull twice. Ruby's hand came up to catch the rim, stopping the third strike, but then Pyrrha rammed her foot into Ruby's throat. She gasped and fell to the ground as Port spoke again. "And miss Rose is out. Now it's a one on one!"
Pyrrha spun to find Blake already leaping towards her with both blades drawn. Pyrrha's shield was out of place, and she'd just dropped Milo. Pyrrha raised her metal greaves to try and blunt the impact, but wasn't fast enough. Both of Blake's blades came down on Pyrrha's head, causing a metallic ting as they impacted her tiara. The blades were closely followed by a kick to the stomach, which Pyrrha managed to block with her shield, but at the cost of upsetting her footing. Pyrrha toppled under Blake, who rolled free of the girl to prevent getting tangled up with her. Blake immediately leapt back in, as Pyrrha was already getting to her feet. Blake's strike was somewhat weak, her katana scraping along Pyrrha's waist instead of truly biting home, but then a deafening horn blast sounded throughout the coliseum.
"Pyrrha Nikos is out. Victors: team RWBY! My my my folks, I haven't seen a spar that close in ages…" Blake let Port's voice drift into the background as she breathed heavily and took in the audience. The few other teams in the room were clapping politely, and there were a few appreciative whoops. She smiled. Blake reached out a hand to Pyrrha, still on the ground. The girl looked to be in shock, but took the hand without hesitation, and Blake saw a manic smile break out on Pyrrha's face as the surprise melted away. The two walked towards their teams, waiting in the doorway to the arena.
"Whooooo! Yeah Blake!" Yang shouted. "Way to bring it home!"
"That was a good match," Pyrrha complimented. "I haven't had such a challenging fight in a long time."
Blake smiled, and tried not to get excited. "Thanks guys. It was pretty close though. I was three percent from being knocked out."
"Whatever, girl." Yang shouted, patting her on the back. "You still killed it."
Yang turned to Jaune. "You're lucky, punk. I'm in a good mood, you impressed me, and it's my own fault for not realizing how low my aura was. You're the first person to cut my hair and live."
Jaune chuckled, but he was tense as can be. "Uh, that's a joke right?" Yang stared him in the eyes and smirked. Jaune replied weakly, "Right?"
"That. Was. AWESOME!" yelled Ruby.
"I know right? And Jaune didn't think this would be any fun." Nora stuck out her tongue at Jaune and raised her hand for a high five, which Ruby obliged.
"That was certainly educational." Ren said. "We should do it again sometime. Next time, Blake's semblance won't be a surprise."
"Ooh, smack talk from Ren?" Yang quipped. "Well, next time I won't underestimate blondie here. Turns out he can actually swing a sword." Jaune blushed and turned away. "We won't underestimate you either, blondie." challenged Nora, still holding Magnhild with her right hand, bouncing it up and down on her left palm. "And next time I'm gonna get Port to let me bring grenades."
Blake smiled as the teams talked, laughed, and teased. They were already talking about a rematch next weekend, or maybe even during the school week if they could find time. Blake didn't mind. This was challenging, it was fun, and she didn't mind the training. And maybe, just maybe, she could see herself calling JNPR friends too.
Pyrrha felt alive. Her blood was still cooling after that fight. When she'd lost herself in the melee, her heart had pumped liquid fire through her veins. It had been so long since she could let loose like that. So long since the odds weren't stacked in her favor. And for once, she'd lost- not a blowout, but a battle of wit and blade, evenly balanced down to the last moment. She wasn't even mad- she was exhilarated. Already she was considering how best to counter Ruby's versatility, or Yang's raw power. She might even actually pull out her semblance next time.
Pyrrha had been a prize fighter for the last seven years, and for the last few, it had been boring and routine. As soon as her father was convinced she was serious, she'd had access to the best training in Mistral- former champions, private huntsmen, and veteran coaches. Not long after, an entire team of analysts dedicated to learning everything about her opponents- weapons, fighting style, semblances, aura reserves- it had long since stopped being a fair fight. But the Nikos family would accept nothing less than victory, so she'd given in and fought anyways.
Beacon had been her escape from that, but ever since she'd longed for the high of a real fight. Today, she had tasted it again, and it brought her right back to her earliest spars, where every match was down to the wire and victory was won through sweat and blood, not handed to her on a silver platter. And even better, her team seemed to agree.
Nora was, obviously, eager for a rematch. Ren was quiet, but Pyrrha'd bet good lien that he was analyzing Blake's style and thinking of how to counter her semblance. Maybe they could trade notes. And Jaune? Jaune was on cloud nine. He had, technically, knocked out Yang. Nora did most of the damage, but he got the finishing blow, and he was ecstatic. Pyrrha wasn't going to rain on that parade- he could use some confidence, and his excitement was honestly a little endearing.
He was so happy. Much happier than he'd ever been after one of their spars. It hit her like a brick then; that's why he'd been hesitant to spar with team RWBY this morning. His only other experience sparring had been against her, minus getting trounced in Goodwitch's class by Cardin. He was probably tired of getting crushed in every fight, and today he'd managed a draw. Pyrrha smiled, but it hid internal worry. Jaune needed to have some confidence in himself if he hoped to get better. But how could she help with that? Throwing spars would be obvious- Jaune had started to learn her style by now, and she didn't make many mistakes. Hmmmm. I wonder if-
"WHOOOOO! Did you guys see that?! I beat Yang!"
Pyrrha smirked and shook her head. Somehow, she didn't think she had to worry.
/-/
Nora halted in a hallway facing the front courtyard of Beacon, and tugged on Ren's sleeve. He stopped, and, seeing the uncharacteristic frown on her face, understanding flashed in his eyes. Nora threw on a fake smile for a second as she called to Pyrrha and Jaune. "We'll be back in a minute. Have fun!"
She turned to Ren, and the boy felt his nerves fraying.
Nora sighed, and tilted her head downwards a fraction, eyes looking up at him. "I've got a question I really should've asked a long time ago."
"Why don't you ever share anything with me?"
Ren's eyebrow shot up. "What do you mean? We do practically everything together."
"Not what I meant, Renny."
His confusion must have been plain on his face, as she sighed again.
"I'm screwing this up. What I'm trying to ask is... why don't you ever share your thoughts with me?"
Ren felt frayed nerves split further. "I wasn't aware you wanted to hear them."
"Wasn't aware- why would I not want to hear your input?! It's not like you're the person I care most about in the whole world or-" Nora trailed off as her eyes sank to the floor.
"No. No, I can't get angry at you. How could you have known when I never worked up the nerve to tell you?"
His mind was only becoming more and more ragged. "Is... that why you've been so out of sorts lately?"
Nora fixed him with a glare. "You knew?"
Ren opened his mouth, but Nora cut him off with a poke to the breast. "You knew I was slowly losing my shit and you didn't say anything?!"
Ren clutched at his thoughts, decaying threads threatening to unravel entirely. "I-I thought you just didn't want to tell me. I thought you'd come to me when you were ready!"
"Did it ever cross your mind to ask? To maybe, just maybe ask me if I was ok any one of the times I pulled a stupid stunt and put myself in harm's way?"
Ren leaned back against the wall as he unraveled and crumpled to the floor. Nora's anger vanished in a moment, replaced with terror. "Ren?!"
Sometimes, Ren found it hard to tell if his semblance was active or not. It had become a crutch of a kind in the oppressive lonely blur he called the past. Everything already felt muted to him when it wasn't active anyways. In this moment, however, he was deathly certain that mask was gone, the insulation worn down into useless debris as waves of pain, of sorrow, and regret shredded the remains.
"REN?!"
He slowly looked into her eyes as tears stained his cheeks. His voice came out a faint whisper, like the distant rustling of reeds in the wind. "I'm sorry Nora. I'm so sorry. I didn't- no. No, I knew. I was just too afraid. I was so afraid of prying into your emotions that I just let you suffer alone. I was so afraid of hurting you that I let you hurt yourself. I'm so sorry."
Nora squeezed him close and laughed manically. "Heh. Heh heh heh heh! You scared me Renny. You mean to tell me you didn't ask me what was wrong because you were afraid to hurt my feelings?" Ren nodded slowly. Nora leaned her head back and guffawed, shaking her entire body with the laugh like she was letting loose a charge she hadn't realized she was holding.
As the laugh fizzled out, she looked back to him, a smile under the tears on her face. "That's the exact same reason I didn't tell you sooner."
Already unraveled, and with the danger seemingly passed, Ren dared to chuckle. Nora joined him, and it seemed to build a feedback loop until a crescendo of raucous laughter finally halted and began to peter out. He was unraveled, but the tension, the constant mental guard, were both, for the moment, absent. He felt like a kid again. Alive again, in a way that made him realize just how dead he'd felt before. As they wiped their tears away, the two regarded one another again. Nora spoke first. "Hey. Real talk? We needed that. But..." She planted a hand on the wall next to his head. "We need to promise each other something before we head back to little miss perfect and mister idiot. No more of these stupid games. No more dancing around our problems until they punch us in the face. If you notice me acting off and I'm not forking over the details, you gotta knock some sense into me. And you bet your ass I'm gonna do the same thing to you."
Ren nodded. "I promise."
"Good. I'm holding you to it. Now-" she stood in a flash and pulled him up by the arm. "We've got a rematch to plan for. Come on!" Nora bounded down the hallways towards their dorm. Ren considered just walking, and decided against it. Rolling his eyes, he went into a low stance and then started sprinting down the hallways. He passed Nora with a smirk, and not long after the girl had caught up to right beside him, fixing him with a determined, wide smile. He just shook his head with a grin and upped his pace.
A bit of a long while between new releases again, but college doesn't go easy and I've once more done major reworking on the first chapter. Writing is hard work, but at least for me, nothing else compares to the payoff. What are we thinking?