Antoinette Acres Part Two
The rest of that morning had gone by in a blur. Cleaning up the blood, sweeping up the broken mirror, apologizing profusely, brunch and just the barest introductions to Olivier parents across the dining table.
Liv wasn't exactly sure what she expected, but her parents had left them alone quite easily and weren't even at the house this afternoon. She'd looked for them briefly before finding Pewter instead. "They've gone out for a business event tonight and Lilly won't be back until morning," he'd told her.
"That does sound like them," Liv huffed. "Could we get some space this afternoon? We've got a lot to talk about."
"Of course miss," Pewter bowed his head a bit and left to attend to the house.
Liv let herself back into Mydnight and Ambur's bedroom and found them sitting on the floor across from each other, Mydnight slumped against the bed and Ambur resting on her palms leaned back. She sucked down a hard breath and crossed the room, sitting down with them. "We have to talk about this."
"Which this," Ambur mumbled.
Liv swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before she began to stare at her twiddling fingers in her lap. "All of them I guess."
Mydnight could almost take the hint in her voice and body language but thought it best to not assume and kept his mouth shut.
"About you seeing Cinder and being the Fall Maiden," Liv looked up to where the large ocular mirror had been taken down and stood up facing the wall so Ambur couldn't look into it. "About where we are going and what we are doing and about," she hesitated and watched the others stare at her. "This," she gestured to herself and then to both of her friends, and a silent look of understanding passed between them.
"The way you say that makes it sound like we should start there maybe," Ambur suggested softly as she sat up. "What's wrong?"
Liv took another breath and tried to steel herself. "I…I need to tell you both something. Some of it you already know but…there are things that I've done that I'm not proud of and…if I hold it in any longer I'm going to lose it so…please just let me tell you."
The wolf and the Amazon nodded slowly.
"I think…I have feelings for both of you."
Ambur and Mydnight shared a quick glance of confusion before returning their attention to their friend.
"I know we've talked about what I tried to do. About how I tried to kiss Mydnight while you were laid up in bed and I used my semblance to make him forget. I know that all three of us know that some piece of me has a crush on his…and I hate to air it out right now of all times," she gestured to Ambur and shook her head. "But there's more."
Ambur's expression soured quickly and Mydnight's confusion only grew. "No there isn't?" He said skeptically as his vision passed between them. "I would've known if you tried more than tha-" he started to defend himself but Olivier held up her hands.
"Not with you Mydnight," she said, her hands up nervously as she looked back at Ambur. "I swear that's not what I mean."
Ambur nodded and tried to stop flexing her fingers. Liv could see that her friend was now very uncomfortable and noticeably trying to keep the anger down like a bad meal. Gods, how she wished she could do this in private with Ambur but the truth was too painful to ignore. Mydnight deserved to be in this room and hear what she had to say just as much as Ambur.
"I've…made Ambur forget something too," she said quietly and the air in the room quickly changed.
"You what," Ambur half gasped, half bit.
"It was an accident," Liv started quietly. "Nothing happened between us, even if it had you were single at the time."
"When did this happen?" Mydnight asked, genuinely curious.
"The night we went out to the concert freshman year. Ambur and I were dancing trying to get you jealous enough to take my place and dance with her. Things got a little more heated than I expected and we nearly kissed each other."
"Nearly?" Ambur asked, surprised that that was all.
"Back at the dorms you came to thank me and to apologize for letting things get that heated and I accidentally ordered you to forget about it because I was flustered because I," she began to ramble faster and faster until the awful words spilled off her tongue. "Actually started to like you," she stopped, her mouth hanging open at how easily it had come out. "Like…like you more than…this."
The trio sat in silence for a while before Liv spoke up. "Look I'm not…just saying this to get pity. I know you love each other and neither of you see me that way, I'm not a fool. I know having those kinds of feelings for both of you is wrong, especially at the same time. That's not the point I'm trying to make."
"Then…what is the point you're trying to make Liv?" Mydnight asked.
Liv was silent for a long time, her nerves overflowing with feelings as she forced her vision down to her lap. After a few moments though she was surprised to find Mydnight and Ambur's hands meet hers and she looked up into their kind faces. "You can tell us. Keep going," Ambur said softly:
"The point is…I think I may have charmed myself into having romantic feelings for both of you."
The trip passed a look around before letting her continue. "I hope that's not offensive or anything."
"Well, it isn't but, I thought you told me your semblance doesn't work on you?" Ambur asked.
"I always thought it didn't but," she shrugged, "here we are."
"Here we are? What's that mean?" Mydnight raised an eyebrow.
"Last night I hardly slept. I woke up early and, walking around this big empty house, being home and thinking about the past I…I convinced myself to try again. I thought about everything I'd done and how strange it felt each time it happened. I've never been really in love before. I think there was a time when I…thought I could actually want to date Bronzine of all people but I…" she breathed softly, "never got the chance to ask him."
"After the dance?" Mydnight asked.
"Yeah," she smiled before shaking her head. "That's not the point. I meant that the times I tried to kiss you didn't feel…real?" Her tone was skeptical. "It's hard to explain. It felt like a fever dream. It's something Amur said the other day. "Like she's not the one in the driver's seat." Her plum eyes met and for the first time in a while Ambur's red orbs seemed to show an understanding look. "This morning I tried to use my semblance again and…it worked."
"Did you try convincing yourself to not feel that way about us?" Ambur asked.
Liv shook her head though, "no. I ordered myself to tell you about all this today," she smiled. "I think it worked. Even though I hated the idea of it I felt like I couldn't hold it in for one more day. Up until now it never felt like that. I just wanted you two to know the full truth before I tried to order myself to do anything more drastic."
"Well Liv that's," Mydnight scratched the back of his head, "really big of you but…what if that's just the way you feel, and ordering yourself not to betrays how you actually feel?"
"I appreciate the concern, it's very sweet Mydnight," she smiled softly. "But whether the feelings are real or not, I don't want to feel them anymore," her smile left just as quickly as it came. "I don't want to keep making this awkward or keep feeling this way. It feels wrong, and I don't think we could ever do anything to make it feel right. Not for all three of us anyway. I'd like to try it."
"Well they are your feelings Liv," she felt the Amazon squeeze her hand slightly and their eyes met again. "We can't stop you, but just know that even if it's not romantically, we both love you very much."
"I know," a tear dropped from Liv's eye onto her cheek, before she wiped her eyes into her arm. "I love you guys too, and I'm gonna hold onto that friendship as best as I can."
Mydnight and Ambur smiled and scooted across the floor to sit beside Liv and both of them put their arms around her as she took a deep breath.
"You are the best friends a girl could have," she said before she exhaled long and hard, trying to stop her tears. Her breath was shaky, but the next time she spoke, Mydnight and Ambur could feel the magic suggestion laced into her words. "Stop enchanting yourself to desire romance with Mydnight and Ambur."
The room was quiet for a long time, and the partners felt Olivier go slightly slack in their embrace. After a few minutes they started to think that Liv may have actually fallen asleep in their arms before her eyes finally flitted open and she began to look around at them. She met each of their gazes and cocked her head to one side each time, squinting her eyes over and over and looking them all up and down.
"So?" Ambur asked. "Did it work?"
Liv smiled at that and nodded, "yeah," she almost laughed. "Sorry about that it's just…you both look so different now."
"Hah-what?" Mydnight asked as he pulled away and watched his girlfriend follow suit. "What do you mean we look different?"
"It's not a bad thing," Olivier smiled. "I just see more of you. I'm not blind anymore. I don't see you the way my brain wanted to see you."
"Ah," Ambur realized. "Gotcha. People look different when you love them."
"I do love you guys," she laughed again and pulled them back in for one more hug. "Just not like that anymore," she smiled constantly and for the first time in ages Mydnight thought that Liv actually looked stress free.
As the trio let go of each other they watched Liv look around the room and study every corner and every decoration. "Man the entire world looks different like this. I feel so bad that I've made people forget things," she worried and locked eyes with Ambur.
"Remember everything I've made you forget," she said quickly, and Ambur nearly fell forward into her hands from the sudden unexpected dizziness of the memories flooding back to her.
"Oooohhhh," Ambur groaned as she caught herself and sat back up. "Oh," she said as she put her head in her hands and peeled through her quickly reddening cheeks. "Holy shit Liv we got close," she nearly laughed and Liv sucked a breath through her teeth.
"Yeah sorry about that."
"I don't think you're the one who should be apologizing for that," Ambur's cheeks reddened even further. "I think that was my fault."
"Jesus guys get a room," Mydnight joked and Liv shook her head and her spine tingled.
"Nope, nope no thank you, I am truly all set," she laughed harder than she had in months and Ambur laughed along with her.
"Harmless college fun that got blown wayyyyyy out of proportion," Ambur laughed.
"I guess you could put it that way in your case yeah," Mydnight smirked and sat back against the bed.
"I really am sorry for all the moping though," Liv said, trying to bring the mood back down and show how sorry she really was. "It wasn't fair."
"It's okay," Ambur smiled. "So…we should probably talk about how I'm going crazy next…right?"
This time neither of her friends missed a beat, and spoke at the same time, "you're not going crazy Ambur," the said in unison but Ambur held up her hands.
"I punched a mirror this morning because I saw a dead chick in it, I'm crazy," she admitted.
"Well let's operate under the assumption that you're not first," Liv insisted and Ambur huffed. "None of us know a single thing about the Maiden powers' work and we can't call Oscar from this far away. Leo is gone, we couldn't find Raven even if we tried, and we don't know anyone else who could give us the info."
"I doubt Qrow even knows anything about the Maiden's that would be useful to us either…" Ambur grumbled.
After a few moments Mydnight's ears perked up. "Glynda might know how it works?" He wondered aloud.
"She's even farther away than Oz, and we agreed to meet them in Argus when we were done here," Liv insisted.
"I guess the info is a train ride away, yeah," Mydnight nodded. "So you're seeing Cinder, anyone else?"
"Not so far?" Ambur raised an eyebrow. "Should I be?"
"Well," Mydnight shrugged. "She was the last Fall Maiden. Maybe you can communicate with your past hosts or something. Or maybe it's only the most recent one, just thinking out loud."
"Yeah somehow I don't think I want to talk to the craziest bitch we've ever met," Ambur rolled her eyes.
"Second, please," Liv smirked. "Rosa's worse."
"Fair," Ambur mumbled again.
"You said you heard her," Mydnight said, his eyes snagging on the cuts and bruises on his girlfriend's neck. "What did she say?"
"Nothing important, just to come look in the mirror so she could jump me."
"Do you really think it's that simple?" Liv asked the wolf boy. "That she just can't see her unless she's in the mirror?"
"I doubt it, I don't see why she'd be able to hear her from the bed but not see her until it was in the mirror. It was probably just a scare tactic. She can probably communicate with you whenever she wants but she wants it to be a surprise so it freaks you out more," he pondered. "That way she can get you to hurt yourself."
"You're talking like she's actually here," Ambur murmured, knowing he would hear it.
"We have no real reason to believe that she's not," Mydnight shrugged. "This is magic, actual magic that we know nothing about. Why shouldn't it be real?"
Ambur pressed her lips together and sighed, trying to calm down. "I know you're just trying to help…I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"But what if it is my fault Myd?" Ambur insisted. "What if I'm the problem? What if I'm just ruining my own life for no reason," she pressed her face into her hands.
"You're not, I don't believe that," Mydnight replied sternly.
"Nobody believes that Ambur," Olivier affirmed. "We know you better than that. Still, we do need to find out what's going on with this Cinder business."
"And here I thought we came here to relax," Ambur groaned and lay backward on the floor.
"We did," Liv smiled and stood up from the floor. "Do you think you'll be able to sleep if we stay with you?"
"I sure don't want to be left alone," Ambur sighed and nodded, a small smile spreading over her lips. "I can try."
"Then come on," Liv said and helped her friend up from the floor. Let's lay down and watch a movie or something. Mydnight why don't you go find Pewter and ask for some hot chocolate?"
"I can do that?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, you're a guest, get on it," Liv chuckled and helped Ambur into bed before she pointed her scroll at a television set across the room from the bed and it blinked into life.
Mydnight smiled and stood from the floor and headed for the door. "Coming right up then ladies."
"So like…what should I be doing exactly?" Ambur asked, her voice full of skepticism and she looked around herself. The snow drifts were only up to their ankles, and the sun was reflecting off of it white surface obnoxiously. She had slept, not much but at least enough to where the dark circles were gone from her eyes. Ambur wasn't exactly sure what movie Liv had even put on, but she did know that sat there safe and warm with her best friends arms draped around her she had felt safe for the first time in several days.
The train ride there hasn't been awful but it had certainly been uncomfortable at a minimum. Airing out all the dirty laundry and getting Liv's spell removed from her memory had definitely helped clear up some of the irritation she'd been living with but she still felt foolish.
Mydnight was stood a few feet away from her in the snow and she almost resented how comfortable and relaxed he looked in his preferred element. Liv was much closer to her and noticeably shivering even with a newly retrieved winter coat on. The girls had gone hunting through the clothes that Liv never brought to school but Ambur hadn't gotten very lucky trying to squeeze into her much shorter friend's clothes. She'd found another tank top to go under her hoodie that had quickly turned out to fit more like a crop top on Ambur and that was it. The tips of her fingers were freezing and for the first time she regretted wearing fingerless gloves with her combat outfit.
Through chattering teeth Liv replied, "I'm not really sure what fall flavored magic would look like honestly."
"Flavored," Mydnight almost snorted and looked around them. "When Qrow and I found Amber she was mostly using wind to make herself fly and float around and stuff," he shrugged. "Try influencing the wind to blow harder."
"Yeah cus that's not gonna make me even colder," she breathed heavily into the palms of her hands, Steam leaving her lips as her fingers warmed slightly.
"Alright well then do the opposite," he suggested, rolling his eyes as a small gust of wind blew through the hood of her sweater and she shut her eyes against the cold. "Try to stop all the wind around you."
Ambur opened her eyes and squeezed her fists tightly before she threw a punch at the air in front of her. Nothing happened and she watched Mydnight stifle a laugh.
"Don't laugh," she grumbled.
"Sorry," he smirked and shook the held in laugh from his face. "I don't think punching is the way to go just yet. Be gentle. It's air, not a brick wall."
Ambur groaned and tried to calm herself. She drew in a long breath and spread her arms out slightly, trying to ignore the cold in her fingers as she felt the wind pass through them.
"How am I supposed to move the wind?" She asked aloud as she tried to relax her eyes and let the tension in her head fade.
"Just feel it," Olivier shrugged.
"Trust me I feel it plenty," she breathed through chattering teeth.
"Try and like…ask it without speaking?" Liv suggested. "Just think the words to yourself and try to get the wind to stop blowing at you."
Ambur let out a long sigh and relaxed her shoulders, trying her best to play ball. All was quiet for several moments, minutes even before Liv spoke up again.
"Are yooouuuu doing it?" She asked, only to get shushed by Ambur immediately.
"Trying to concentrate," she grumbled and drew in another long breath and exhaled. "It's hard to be calm right now okay?"
"Okay," Liv held her hands up and spoke softly. "I'm sorry."
Again silence passed over the group, and after another several moments Mydnight and Olivier felt the wind start to shift in a strange way.
It didn't necessarily change directions but Liv almost thought the air felt…tight? She thought to herself as she shifted uncomfortably.
Mydnight was a bit more than uncomfortable. His hands flew up to his wolf ears and pressed them down into his head trying to stifle a pained groan, his teeth grinding together. To Mydnight it felt like the air was popping and clicking as it closed in around him. Liv took quick notice and tried to yell to Ambur but felt the words choke up and die as soon as they left her mouth.
"I think I feel something," Ambur murmured, though the other two didn't hear her. Liv trudged through the snow, held back by what she could only describe as a wall of wind until she had reached Ambur. When she tugged on Ambur's arm the amazons eyes flew open and she looked all around, finding Mydnight with a pained expression on his face, eyes closed and holding his head. Liv was there beside her clearly worried and Ambur was out of breath.
"Wha," Ambur blinked and ran over to her boyfriend. "What happened?" She asked as Mydnight began to breathe easier and shook his head.
"I think you changed the air pressure," he said, clearly shaken, sat in the snow and rubbing his temples. "I could hear it popping and tearing in my head."
"Oh great," Ambur said sarcastically, "we've discovered another way for me to hurt you by accident," she threw her arms around him and held him close, trying not to cry.
Liv was there in a moment and put her arms around her friends shoulders too. "Don't say that Ambur," she said softly and rubbed her back. "Now we know, we learned something and that's what we set out to do. Practicing is all we can do and it will get better. You know that," she smiled.
"We just need to try something smaller to start off with I'm sure," Mydnight tried to smile up at his girlfriend as the three separated. "You got this."
That made his sunflower smile just enough to make him think she actually believed him, and he stood and pulled her in tight for a hug. He pressed his lips to her forehead and spoke again. "We will get through this, I promise."
Later that night the trio were around the dining table snacking on all the ridiculous foods which were once again laid out for far too small an audience. "I hope Weiss is okay," Liv mumbled, her cheek resting in her palm as she watched the other two eat. She wasn't particularly hungry right now but she knew it was only because she was worried.
"I'm sure someone would've gone out of their way to tell us if she wasn't," Ambur shrugged. "With Jaune there healing her she's gotta be up and moving by now."
"Wonder how Ruby's taking it," Mydnight said to himself. "You should've seen her crying, I don't think she knew how much she still cared."
"I would imagine that most people rarely do understand how much they care until it's too late," Olivier mused.
The trio shared a moment of silence before Ambur spoke up. "Do you think you were crushing on Bronzine?"
Liv pondered the question for a moment as she pushed an olive around on her plate with her silverware. "The night of the dance, he went so far out of his way to try and cheer me up. He didn't have to do that, to risk getting you all in trouble and disqualified just to make me smile but…he did…and it was really nice. I don't know. Dancing with him that night under the sprinklers made me realize that maybe someone who makes you laugh is all it takes. He wasn't unattractive mind you," she waved her hand absently. "But I had never seen him in that way before. I think I could've grown to see him that way given some more time, yeah."
The group fell silent again as they all stopped eating, even Mydnight put his fork down and Ambur had to breathe silence.
"Are we really sure that that was Bronzine?"
Silence fell and Ambur watched Mydnight tap his fingers against the table as he stared down into his plate.
"Well it was certainly Rosa…do we have a real reason to believe that it wasn't him?"
"What was left of him anyway," Mydnight mumbled. "It was him."
"How can you be sure though?" Ambur set her hand on Mydnight's shoulder. "What if it's a trick?"
"He knew us," Mydnight nodded his head and met his girlfriend's gaze. "He may have sounded confused but I could see it in his eyes. Smelled like him too. It all adds up. All the things they would have to do to his body to keep him alive."
Ambur hung her head in shame but looked back up when she felt Mydnight squeeze her hand in his. "It's not your fault, don't dwell on it."
"…okay," Ambur breathed nervously.
"So what do we do about it?" Liv butted in. "I don't think any of us have a problem killing Rosa, hell she might already be dead," Liv shrugged. "But what do we do if Z doesn't surrender?"
Mydnight ground his teeth together for a moment and sighed. "We do our job."
"Mydnight you can't be serious-" Ambur started but he cut her off.
"I am," he demanded and looked between the girls. "If we confirm that he has all his memories and he knows us but he still refuses to stop working for Salem then there's only one choice. His semblance is too powerful to have him locked away in prison, he'd escape far too easily. If he won't back down then we put him down."
Liv and Ambur's lips hung open, both girls clearly shocked at Mydnight's resolve.
"I don't want to do this," Mydnight said softly. "I don't want to be the one to say it out loud but we have to stop Salem at any cost. It's not up to us."
(End of chapter)
message from author: hey guys, just typing this in afterward. the chapters been up for a day at this point and i just wanna know if some of you could do me a favor please. im not sure if you know this, but fanfiction's view counter and alert notification system have both been broken for about two weeks now. ive uploaded 2 chapters of AMBR in that time and of course because the counter is broken i have absolutely NO idea if yall are reading these new chapters or if the story followers are getting notified that new chapters are even being uploaded.
If you are seeing this and reading it please please PLEASE leave a review for me, this fanfic usually pulls in hundreds of views when a new chapter goes up but the story hasn't received a single review since 2020, over 3 YEARS AGO. If you like it, I'd you hate-read it, if you just wanna say who your favorite character is or what character you hate the most, doesn't matter, please consider leaving a review on the story. It would do a lot to keep me motivated and engaged now that I'm getting zero feedback from my fanfiction stats page since the website is so broken right now.
Thank you all for reading and I'll see you in the next one 3