Chapter 31: Holding her hair up


Time frame shift: Volume 7 - Team VIEW Year 1

Character Change: Ruby Rose - Viralious.

Location: Atlas Academy: Team VIEW Dorm: Common area


Viralious acted quickly knowing that the vomit would definitely stain the carpet… and couch, and… well, everything that would be in its path. Luckily for them, however, Winter had managed to get basically the whole bit into the plastic bag.

Saying a silent prayer to no god in particular, Viralious looks back to Winter. Her face showed only the signature sign of sickness and from the smell of the vomit Viralious knew she wouldn't really remember anything tomorrow.

"You going to stand there gawking or help her? I really don't want to clean this couch or carpet again." Eckhart says, piercing through Viralious' train of thought.

"Right." He responds before trying to get Winter to hold the bag… while that failed, they managed to not spill any on the carpet which was a plus. Still, Viralious tried again and managed to get Winter to hold the bag (in the proper position which assuaged Ifiral's worries.) Gently, he placed a guiding hand on her shoulder and started walking her towards the shared bathroom of their suite.

"Come on, let's get you to the bathroom, it's a lot easier to clean up in there." Viralious said softly, guiding mostly on autopilot. He almost laughed; it had been a while since he had to guide someone drunk to throw up. Last time had been when him and Qrow had-

Right. Qrow. That was a can of worms he didn't want to open. Shaking his head, he forced himself to focus on the present. Before he and Winter entered their suite, he turned back to Ifiral and Eckhart. "I hate to leave you two to clean all this up, but do you mind?" He asked solemnly.

"It's fine Viralious." Ifiral says shrugging him off, starting to place the empty bottles in another plastic bag. Viralious raised an eyebrow when he saw Ifiral chug the last of the vodka that remained in the bottle.

How is he not blackout? He's been consistently drinking the highest proof stuff.

"It's like Ifiral said, we'll take care of it." Eckhart said before a devious grin appeared on his face, "Just make sure your girlfriend is alright." he said almost mockingly.

Viralious rolled his eyes, "Eckhart, if you're going to make bad jokes, I can set you up with Celica." he responds half-jokingly, half-threateningly.

"I'll be fine, just teasing anyways. But yeah, take care of her." Eckhart waves the joke-threat off.

"Ughhh." Winter groans out recatching Viralious's attention. He looks at her before quickly remembering why he was helping her and resumed their quick forte to the suite bathroom. He couldn't tell what Eckhart had said but figured it was a good night.

They quickly shuffled through their shared room before crossing into the shared bathroom. Glancing over it was obvious she was about the puke again, so Viralious acted quickly. Gently guiding her in front of the toilet, slowly having her sit in front of it and making sure she was facing the bowl…something Zeliska had learned the hard way the first time they stole whiskey from Qrow's-

Don't think about the past, don't think about Qrow just focus on-

He's quickly pulled from his train of thought when he hears Winter vomit into the toilet, taking quick action he gently guides her ensuring that the vomit stays in the bowl, while brushing a small amount of hair to the back of her head to make sure it didn't even have the chance to get any of the sickness on it. He didn't know how long they sat there, him gently guiding her and ensuring that she was fine.

At some point Winter had stopped vomiting and just sat there.

"How are you feeling?" Viralious asks quietly.

"Hrmh? Oh, I'm f-fine" Winter responds not even nearly looking to where Viralious was.

Yeah, she's out of it.

"You know you didn't have to join in." Viralious starts.

"But I wanted to…. Being a huntress has been my goal forever, why wouldn't I join Atlas?" Winter says, not entirely sure of her surroundings.

Drunk definitely drunk.

"Not what I meant but alright, All I'm saying is not one of us would have thought less of you. After all, we're a team." Viralious sighs

"Team… honestly sometimes I feel like I get along with them better than my family." Winter says solemnly.

Without thinking Viralious asked "What do you mean?"

"The Schnee Manor… it's cold, utilitarian, and unwelcoming. Father is extremely strict whether it comes to how to dress for a banquet, to how late we eat breakfast… I've been groomed to be the heir to the company since long before I was born, it feels like." Winter sighs out depressingly.

"Your father isn't everything though… Your mother must have done something." Viralious muses.

"She's too oblivious to it… she refuses to come to terms with the fact that the two married for Money and nothing else… he didn't even want daughters… he just wanted a son… Well now he's got one." Winter finishes with an annoyed groan.

"I see…" Viralious sighed he was glad she was opening up to him about this but he would have preferred if she was sober. But he started to understand her a bit more… her family was perhaps more fucked then his. "But I don't see how this connects to us?"

"My team treats me as Winter first and Schnee second… something no one else does." Winter responds.

"Ifiral, he never cared for my title… even though he definitely could have tried to gain favor with my father through it." She sighed.

Viralious raised an eyebrow. Gain favor with Jacques? Ifiral? The only two things Ifiral seemed to care about were revenge and well annoying the shit out of either them or Team RMJT… something he did more often than Viralious wanted to admit.

"Eckhart never cared for my title but I met him at banquets only which meant he tried to get close to me so my father would support his attempts to become General later on… he only started being my friend after we became a team… I know I can count on him now." Winter sighs out.

Honestly, that tracks for Eckhart. Socializing and not furthering a goal seem to be a sour spot for him.

"Then Viralious." Winter starts causing said member's blood to run cold… Did he really want to know what she thought of him?

"At first, I didn't know what to think about him… his whole business about no last name was paradoxical." Winter spoke with a slight slur, and not noticing Viralious give a slight wince. "It didn't feel much better when we teamed up at first."

Twist the knife harder, why don't ya.

"But slowly I saw his reasoning and he opened up… I started to relate to him…then he opened up more and more… eventually we just became close…" Winter sighs.

OKAY a bit better but I still feel like she doesn't realize she's telling me this.

"Celica said I was in love with him." Winter blurts out causing Viralious to do a double take.

DEFINITELY DOESN'T REALIZE SHE'S TELLING ME THIS!

" I… I don't really know. But I don't know what to do." She says dejectedly before closing her eyes. After a minute of awkward silence, her breathing changes to a steady rhythm and she's asleep.

Viralious sits there for a few moments watching her peacefully sleep trying to process what she had said. Eventually, he sighed and started to pick her up. Placing her in a bridal carry Viralious is extremely careful to not smack her head on the doorway (Something his mother had done to Raven last time she got blackout… he still remembers the drunken expletives his mother cursed out.)

Shaking his head to focus on the present more than the past, he carefully walked her over to her bed and slowly placed her in it. Placing the covers over her Viralious went to make sure she'd be set for the night and morning. First, he returned to the bathroom and flushed the vomit bag down the drain. (He was sure he wasn't supposed to do this but he's not paying for plumbing. Besides, the plastic was biodegradable.) Next, he went back into the common area, seeing that the couch and area around it was cleaned. He smirked knowing that Eckhart used his gates to throw the bag into the trash room. Moving towards the bag full of plastic bags near the trash can he grabs another out before walking towards the minifridge and pulling out a cold bottle of water. Bag and bottle in hand he walks back to his and Winter's suite before placing the bottle on her nightstand and setting the bag hanging off her bed near where he hoped she would vomit if necessary… though he had a feeling even then he would have had to step in to prevent her from choking in her sleep on it… something Zeliska nearly did-

Stop thinking of the past, this is nothing similar to it.

Shaking his head, he moved over to his nightstand and grabbed a bottle of acetaminophen placing it next to the water bottle. Rubbing his eyes to try and clear some of the tiredness from them, he decides to grab a sheet of paper and write a quick note.

Hopefully your headache isn't too bad, but I'd recommend taking this and drinking a lot of water.

If you need anything just holler.

Hope you feel better.

-Viralious

Sighing Viralious places the note under the acetaminophen. Standing up, Viralious walks over towards his bed before looking back at Winter… glancing back between the embrace of sleep in his bed and Winter he eventually sighs.

Grabbing a pillow and blanket from his bed he walks out of the suite and into the common area, taking one last glance at Winter to make sure she's still okay. Upon seeing her snuggle closer with the blankets he figures she's fine and turns the light off.

Once in the common area he examines the couch for any lingering vomit smell… there's none, but the smell of cleaning solution and booze hangs there.

Just like half the place's I've slept… or whenever Qrow visited.

Shaking his head Viralious places the pillow onto the couch and curls up with the blanket… it was going to be uncomfortable but it's the least he could do to ensure his partner felt safe in the morning. Closing his eyes, he lets the cold embrace of sleep claim him.


Viralious awoke to the soft sounds of a mixing bowl and small chatter coming from downstairs, smirking glances around the room… his room. It was decorated sparsely but he was happy with every bit of it. Getting out of bed, he's not surprised to notice he's already in his normal huntsmen gear instead he grabs his dual blades and places them on his belt before exiting the room and walking down the wooden marble stairs to the Atlas Academy student lounge. Inside he could see his whole team and his sister sitting at the couch talking about nothing while his mother and little Ruby were making cookies in the kitchenette. Smiling, he makes his way over to his team and joins them on the couch.

"Morning, so what stories is Zeliska embellishing to make me look bad?" He asks in a jovial tone.

"Just how you abandoned her to go to Shade alone." Winter replies smiling.

"What?" Viralious responds, taken aback.

"You had promised to go to Shade with her… then you fled and abandoned her for Atlas the first chance you got." Eckhart responds.

"That's not-"

"What's more is you take the time to rub in how good of a time you're having, not realizing she's suffering." Ifiral says.

"I- I didn't mea-"

His sister then moves in front of him and stares at him directly, anger burning in her eyes, "I could have forgiven all of it… but you went ahead and replaced me as soon as you found another partner." Zeliska's voice is calm, but her actions show differently as her scythe blade pierces Winter's heart.

There is no blood but slowly everything around him fades away into a grassy clearing, blinking once everything changes. On the ground around him lies his team and sister motionless with a bullet through their heart… their dead eyes piercing into his soul.

"You lead them to their deaths Viralious." A familiar voice calls out behind him… slowly turning around he comes face to face with the dead face of his mother… her eyes are glazed over, and blood covers her face. Her white cloak is stained red and brown, over her heart is a gaping wound which he can see the trees behind.

"You were always a burden, never strong enough. You attach yourself to someone and poison them until they are no longer able to keep going." His mother's words cut deep.

"If it wasn't for you Viralious, I would have been happy… I would have had a stable family… I would have been alive… Why did you do this to me? I thought you loved me." His mother says solemnly before collapsing to the ground.

Viralious' world starts spinning and his vision only clears to see a familiar cliff face, a small grave on the cliff and a little red hooded girl crying into it.

Sighing, he takes one step forward before the girl turns to him.

"Why? Why did you kill her?" Ruby asks through tears.

"Ruby… I- I didn-" He starts

"If it wasn't for you, she'd still be alive!" Ruby screams out before crying again. "Bring her back! I want my mother back!" her crying pierces his ears.

He stands there frozen, unable to move, only looking at the small crying girl in front of him… until the familiar blade of Harbinger pierces his chest.


Viralious violently wakes up and nearly falls off the couch. Breathing rapidly, he's barely able to start the breathing technique he taught Winter to calm down… after a few minutes of that he's finally calm…

Glancing to his Scroll he sees the time's 4:04 am meaning he's gotten a little over three hours of sleep and possibly four more to go… scratch that six more it's a weekend and he had been drinking… not that he could really tell that nightmare seemed to sober him up.

What was that? Must have been the booze talking.

Sighing, Viralious lays back down before closing his eyes…sleep evades him for the moment as his mind keeps drifting back to his mother's words… he led her and his team to their death… something he knew wasn't true… wasn't it?

The longer the thought about it the worse it felt… but he found a new resolve through it.

I'm not going to let anyone else die, so long as I can help if everyone, I work with is going to make it out. No more needless deaths… no one dying for me.

Eventually exhaustion and a mix of alcohol claimed him back to the land of black sleep.


Character Change: Viralious- Zeliska Rustivia

Location: Shade Academy: Training yard


Harbinger's blade came down barely blocked by the grip of her scythe, gritting her teeth she slashes forward throwing her uncle's blade back towards him while trying to leverage her reversed scythe into him.

Unfortunately for her, he saw this coming and blocked low with the crux of his blade firmly locking the two scythes in an interlocked standstill. After a moment he spun it around and kicked her out of the small circle drawn in the sand.

"You're getting better." Qrow says with a smirk, "But you still over rely on your semblance when someone gets past your guard."

She huffs out a sigh, "Well that's why I have it isn't it? What's the point of having a semblance if I'm not able to use it while training?"

Qrow shakes his head, "Relying on Skeith is why Viralious was able to keep up with you even though he hadn't unlocked his semblance yet." his tone is nostalgic before he winces just realizing what he said. "Look Zel, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring him up."

Zeliska rolls her eyes at him while her semblance Skeith begins to form behind her. Its head is strange, bearing a circular face with three dots arranged in a triangle in the middle of a broken ring-shaped head. Its body was weirdly smooth and complete before having segmented arms with five claw-like fingers on each hand. Its legs had dark purple spikes coming out of its knees before the rest came to a neat, pointed tip at the edge of the feet. Around its waist was a clear purple cloak seemingly attached to nothing.

"Have I ever told you how terrifying your semblance looks?" Qrow says, taking a generous gulp from his flask.

"Only you and everyone else." Zeliska jokes. Truth was Skeith did look terrifying to the normal person, but it felt perfect for her. She was the Queen of the Sands, an up-and-coming Huntress who fought with a scythe, behind her the very avatar of death seemed to float… She always thought that was quite fitting.

"Again, sorry about mentioning him, you can send the Avatar of overreliance away." Qrow says placing the cap back on his flask. His words earn a dirty look from Zeliska and a middle finger from Skeith.

"It's fine, I'm just glad he's found a team… he seemed to rely on mom and me for a lot." Zeliska says smiling.

"You can say you're not fine with it." Qrow reaffirms.

"I mean yeah, I wish he came here but it's his life not mine. If he decides to transfer, I'll welcome him with open arms. Until then I'm training to kick his ass in the Vytal tournament." She shoots back.

"Then you better train to not rely on your semblance or he'll smoke you." Qrow says, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Zeliska rolls her eyes, "Well then, looks like it's time for round two." She the hand's her scythe off to Skeith and smirks. She might rely on her semblance but she's a damn good fighter when she can use it.

A/N

Hey guys I'm back and finally graduated. But that's not important. I wanted to apologize for not being able to get these chapters out as often as I would have liked. The last semester really kicked my ass and left me with basically no time to do anything. Currently, I'm writing this chapter at 4:41 AM the day I was hoping to get it posted but we'll see if it even goes up then.

AmoebaHewdraw's Note: Spoiler alert: It didn't. Though that might be my fault.

I cannot promise that the upload schedule will go back to weekly but I can say that barring no major unforeseen events should return to a more CONSISTENT schedule rather than it has been. But with that simple logistics out of the way let's break down what happened in the actual chapter.

Viralious taking care of Winter is meant to set up a bit of the future in this arc and was planned from the start. Most of the things said are just reviews of previous chapters and I took it as a way to get back into the flow of writing. I can say that this chapter's quality certainly got better as it went on in my opinion. That's simply because I found my groove in writing again. Hell, we broke 3k words before the author's note, that hasn't happened for a minute.

The scenes in the bathroom mirror an experience I had, but thankfully were not as awkward as hearing that said person might be in love with you. (If that was the case I would have probably ended up a LOT more drunk than I was that night.) Overall take this as a lesson to not drink to excess, stick to your limits.

The dream sequence and Zeliska's portion are meant to give a look into both Viralious' and Zeliska's current state of mind and situation. Both will play out as the Arc continues and will become vital at the climax. So then, thank you for sticking with it even though the update schedule became shit.

You also get to see Zeliska's semblance in this chapter. It is similar to her mother's and summons something called Skeith, now if you've ever played a .hack(dot hack) game starring Haseo you should have recognized the description. It will come into play later but setting it up now is important.

This is where I would like to thank my editor AmoebaHewdraw who snores like a motherfucking turbine.

Until Next Time Xcom Out.