Birds of a Color
"Olivier Antoinette, Gretchen Reinhardt, Caroline Turner, and Hunter Allagash," they all heard as Liv and Gretchen stood, walking up to the stage and finding their two new teammates along the way. As they stood together on the stage their mug shots and the first letter of their first names appeared above their pictures. "You four retrieved the white bishop pieces and from now on, will be known as Team OCHR," he announced before looking down to Olivier. "Led by, Olivier Antoinette," he smiled to her, taking notice that she didn't seem surprised at all, but also did not look happy about the announcement. She simply nodded her head and looked to her team who were congratulating her, putting on a fake smile for them as she studied her two new teammates whom she had somehow avoided all contact with in the forest.
Caroline and Hunter seemed to already know each other quite well and were already holding hands. Liv had to assume that they already knew each other but would have to investigate later. She had dirty blonde hair and his was a much darker brown, almost black with a fohawk hair-cut whereas Caroline's hair was in one long thick braid.
He wore a plain black t-shirt with blue jeans and his eyes were very dark, matching his hair, while hers were a very light green and she wore a light green dress with brown tights and green flats for shoes. As they walked off the stage they joined the students already on teams and looked back to their friends across the room before they were called up.
"Bronzine Rustwing, Rosaria Avalon, Ambur Magnaria and Mydnight..." Ozpin stopped for only a moment realizing that he had not prepared an adequate lie for this particular moment and was forced to make one up on the spot. He only paused for a moment but it was enough to make it seem like he had made a mistake in front of the students, and Mydnight knew exactly why. "Branwen," he finished as the four students made it up to the stage and their pictures showed up with their first initials listed.
"The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces, and from now on you will be known as Team AMBR," he said. Ambur's face especially looked surprised and shocked, predicting his next words. "Led by, Ambur Magnaria," he said with a smile as her jaw dropped and Rosa's fists clenched.
"W-what?" Her stutter was back as she began to sweat under the spotlight, up in front of all the students in her class. "M...me?"
Rosa had no choice but to bite her tongue. Over the past few hours, it had become very clear to her at least that Ambur was far too shy to be leading anybody anywhere. It burned her so badly that out of everyone Ambur had been chosen to lead a team. If she was being honest with herself she would have rather had Bronzine be their team leader even with how much his jokes annoyed her.
"Congratulations young lady," he said to her confidently before shooing them off the stage so he could give his final speech of the night. The new team found their way through the crowd to Olivier, the smaller girl immediately giving Ambur a hug as she congratulated her friend, trying to hide her own feelings about being a leader deep down within her mind. As the speech came and went the students were filed out of the auditorium and each was sent a message on their scrolls with their new room numbers. Having expected to be split up the group was surprised to find that OCHR and AMBR's rooms were right across the hall from one another.
As they stuffed their bags inside their rooms they left their doors open and each team began to mingle with one another, helping each other re-arrange the rooms and decorate as they all saw fit, well, all except Rosaria who had elected to simply unpack her suitcases in silence with a pair of headphones on for the duration. Mydnight could feel her watching him though and every time he turned to face her he caught a glimpse of her eyes darting away from him and back to what she was doing.
Eventually, Bronzine spoke up and caught all of their attention as he got further and further down in his packed items, producing a set of small wireless speakers which he sat atop their bookshelf. "Well, Ambur would you like to do the honors?" He asked with a smirk on his face, his shy leader happily nodding her head as she took her scroll out and began to stream music from her collection for both rooms to enjoy.
She could tell that Mydnight, in particular, enjoyed her selections, still overwhelmed by the fact they both had the same exact favorite song by the same artist. They both caught each other singing along several times to whatever song happened to come on over Ambur's scroll, even when the song wasn't by Williams. She couldn't believe how much they seemed to have in common and she began to kick herself for how long it had taken her to muster up the courage to finally talk to him. 'And now we are sharing a room together,' she thought to herself as it finally sank in that she would suddenly be sleeping in the same room as him every single night from now on for the next four years. Her face turned bright pink and she began to space out, staring into her suitcase as her mind wandered.
She had never considered that something like this could ever happen. It was all happening so fast and she began to worry that she would somehow screw it all up, chewing on her fingernails in fear of her own clumsiness. Not to mention that she had been named the leader of her team! How was she supposed to deal with both of those things at the same time, it was just going to be too overwhelming.
As the afternoon flew by the students eventually finished decorating and personalizing their corners of their rooms and doors became closed as their leaders decided it would be a good time to learn about their respective teams. Ambur, of course, was nervous but she took a deep breath and tried to start up the conversation.
"So..." She began softly, "I know that I'm not the most...extroverted person around but I...uhm..." she let out as she looked around the room to her teammates, "I'm gonna really try to be approachable for you guys you know?" The boys nodded their head in agreement but Ambur could tell Rosaria was still fuming about Ambur being picked as their leader. "So I guess we should start by getting to know each other a little better...the guys and I spent last night talking so I guess we can start if that's...okay?"
Rosa rested her chin in her hands as she rolled her eyes and slouched on her bed, "Yeah fine go ahead," she let out.
As the three friends explained everything to Rosa that they had chatted about over the last day she seemed to come in and out of a trance, as if not listening to everything they were saying. It didn't surprise Bronzine of course because he had already spent time with her alone and he knew how badly she tended to act.
However, as Mydnight began to speak she actually looked toward him and seemed to not only listen to him but listen intently. She seemed to linger on every word he said, Ambur watching her as she sat and slowly her mood lifted as he continued on. Ambur was glad though, thinking that somehow the group had finally gotten through to their unknown teammate over the course of all telling her about themselves and hadn't considered that it was only Mydnight that she was actually interested in.
"Well I uh...grew up with Qrow raising me," he began, seeming almost uncomfortable as he spoke, "Qrow's my...Uncle," he said softly.
"Well does that mean..."Ambur began as she digested his statement with worry in her voice, her hand raised over her mouth.
"Ya, I uh..." he began with a forced smile, "I didn't really ever know my parents so that makes it a bit easier I suppose."
The girls looked to him with sadness filling their faces as they saw Bronzine not reacting in any way at all, figuring he had already known. "I'm s-sorry," Ambur breathed out in disbelief. She couldn't believe she had been watching him for so long without knowing this information.
"It's okay, really don't," he shook his head with a smirk, "Don't worry about it like I said It's not like I lost them I just...never knew them. Ya know?"
Ambur could tell that her partner was holding something back in the way he moved but she decided to not press the matter, not wishing to make him uncomfortable.
"Qrow eventually got me into Signal and I started staying on campus. Usually, students can't do that at Signal but an exception was made. School sucked at first cus well," he trails off before pointing down to his tail which was slowly shifting back and forth beside him on the bed. "Not really so easy to blend in around here."
Bronzine and Ambur knew all too well what he meant, however, Rosa didn't seem to fully understand the extent of what he was talking about. "Well...what do you mean?" She asked genuinely. "Are Faunus still treated that bad around here?" She asked with surprise in her voice.
"Ya they are," Bronzine confirmed before smiling and resting his hands behind his head and laying back on his mattress, "but bullies tend to back off when you show them you could cut them in half at a moment's notice don't they?" He chuckled out, remembering the first time Mydnight had stood up for himself. It hadn't taken long, of course, the wolf boy was no pushover and had very quickly put his mockers in their place no more than two days into his first week at the school.
"And when your uncle is known for being one of the strongest huntsmen around," it was Mydnight's turn to smirk before turning his attention back to Rosa. "Is it not that bad in Vacuo?"
"No," she reacted again with surprise in her voice, "Not at all. People say Mistral is the safest place for Faunus to mingle with humans and maybe they are right but...Vacuo is a much closer second place than people think. Sure everyone is getting paid to take less than reputable jobs but people are treated equally for the most part. Whether that means everyone is treated like crap or like family depends on the day really."
"Well that's good I guess," Mydnight breathed out, "maybe someday Vale will get there but I doubt it'll be in my lifetime."
As the room began to experience an awkwardly long silence Ambur scrambled to pull her scroll out of her pocket, trying to change the subject. "So u-uhm," she begins as she pulled up her schedule, "Did everyone look at what classes we have?"
"Ya, I guess we should probably go over that considering classes start in the morning," Rosa groaned.
"Well I've actually already been texting Liv about it and we actually have a few classes together," she smiled before Rosa spoke again, her voice filled with sarcasm.
"Woo...yay," she rolled her eyes.
The two boys just laughed off her comment before they refocused on their leader and began to listen to their scheduled classes. After a while more of talking Mydnight finally stood up and pulled his scroll out. He checked the time on the screen before looking around the room. "Getting kinda hungry, anyone else want anything?" As he looked around the room he noticed that only one person seemed interested in his endeavor, his partner, looking back at him with a shy nod.
"Not really hungry yet," Rosa sighed before pulling out her own scroll and getting lost in its glow before Bronzine replied.
"Nah go ahead," Bronzine answered before Ambur stood up and gave him a nervous smile.
"Uhm, I'll go," she raised her hand up slightly before Mydnight smiled back to her and nodded toward the door as he began to walk toward it, opening it and motioning for her to come with him. As they left he closed the door behind them before they began walking down the long hallways of the bunkhouse. They could hear all the other teams in their rooms chatting and bickering amongst themselves. He didn't expect anyone else would be eating yet but Mydnight had a hefty appetite. After all, they had only eaten lunch a few hours earlier and with the nature of the seemingly unlimited food during meals, most students often left the dining hall completely stuffed.
This did in fact usually include Ambur, however, she was keen to spend as much time with Mydnight as she possibly could, if that meant forcing down a meal just to spend some time away from the group with him then it was a sacrifice she was willing to make. As they walked she heard Mydnight strike up a conversation again as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat.
"So how does it feel huh? You seem nervous," he smirked as he looked over to his partner.
"Wh..well it is...very nerve racking actually...I really can't imagine why he picked me," she sighed as she wrapped her arms around her front shyly. "You would make a much better leader than I would," she tried to suggest.
"Hah," he laughed, "Well I doubt that."
She gave him a confused look, "Why do you say that?"
"I'm not...really the leader type," he shrugged as he gave her a thoughtful smile, "You may be shy but you still handle people better than I do."
"Well...I don't know about that," she mimicked him with a small smirk. "I mean I did...notice you never seemed to talk with anybody at Signal...except Bronzine of course. You seemed to distance yourself from people a lot."
"Keeping an eye on me huh?" He laughed before she stopped in her tracks and her cheeks flushed bright red.
"NO!" She blurted out, much too loud, forcing him into a full on laughing fit, "I mean...Ye-...I just meant that-" she trailed off, unsure of what to say before he came back and retrieved her by taking her hand in his and continuing down the path. Her cheeks were on fire as she looked down to their hands, wide-eyed and never so nervous in her life.
"I was only joking," he chuckled out as she worked as hard as she could to not trip over her own feet, walking beside him through the large open courtyard of the school. Her legs felt like jelly and her heart was pounding in her ears as she tried as hard as she could to keep any semblance of her cool, following him before she finally was able to keep up and walk beside her partner. As she began to walk alongside him however she felt his grip on her loosen before his hand left hers and went back down into his pocket.
Part of her was relieved and another part of her was sad as she clenched her now free hand over and over again, her skin burning for the touch of his, knowing all too well that she wouldn't be able to feel it again any time soon unless she got lucky. Her head was swimming with emotion after this crazy set of days had flown right by. Getting put on a team with the boy she had been crushing on for as long as she had first seen him quickly rose to the top of her emotional list of events, her thoughts roaming as she couldn't seem to take his eyes off of him. "Wha...Why wouldn't you...wanna be a leader?" She finally is able to get out, trying to work on her ever-present stutter.
"Well," he thought aloud, "I honestly don't think I would be any good at it because I have never been responsible for anything in my entire life," he admitted, taking Ambur by surprise. "I've never had to look out for someone else, never had chores, never had a job or played a team sport, nothing. So I think if I was thrown into your position I really wouldn't know what to do, ya know?"
"Y-ya I...guess that makes sense," she said back quietly. "You really never had to do anything like that at all?"
"Nah not really. Like I guess I had to keep my room clean enough but no one ever came around and said 'Hey Mydnight clean up your room,' so really it was only ever clean enough for me to make it around the room and for me to find things that I needed."
"Huh," she sighed before smiling over to her partner and bumping her fist lightly into his shoulder, "Well I guess I'll have to keep you from making a huge mess of the dorm room then huh?" She teased.
"Hah," he began to laugh before settling back down, "Ya I guess you'll have to." He ran his hand through his messy black hair before looking over to her, his fangs peeping out of his lips as he smiled, "I shouldn't be THAT bad though."
Her heart skipped a beat as she looked into his wicked looking smile. The fangs really made the young man seem crazy combined with his smirk but it made Ambur swoon. Everything about him called out to her and now that she was closer than she ever had been it was hard for her to keep focus, losing herself in him over and over again as they finally made it to the dining hall. He held the door for her as she stepped inside, forcing her to walk in front of him as she looked to the floor, watching her own feet glide over the tile floor as she thought to herself.
Liv's words flashed through her mind as she began to realize that she was, in fact, tiptoeing around as softly as she could. She glanced back to him over her shoulder finding his attention elsewhere, looking around the room at the different cafeteria lines for the kind of food he was in the mood for.
She silently cursed her semblance for what it had done to her over the past several years, molding her into the shy quiet girl she had become. It hadn't always been this way, and now that she wanted to keep her crush's attention on her she would need to find ways to start breaking out of the shell she had spent so much time building around herself. 'You're tiptoeing,' she heard in her mind again, the words playing on repeat in her new friend's voice. 'Strrrrut,' she heard Liv's voice in her head again as Ambur began to imagine the way that she had briefly shown her how to walk, Olivier's hips swinging back and forth in her mind.
'Olivier doesn't have much to work with but the way she walked sure made it look like she did...' Ambur thought to herself before a small wave of guilt washed over her. 'Wow okay rude Ambur don't say things like that,' she thought again before shaking her head and getting back on task. However, before she could get back to her train of thought she heard Mydnight speak up.
"So what do you feel like snacking on?" He thought aloud as they stopped and looked around the room. Her vision flew back up to his face, again looking away from her, reading different menu's. Her eyes moved to those menu's as well, trying to think of something to suggest.
"W-well," she began quietly, "How hungry are you? Meal or snack?"
"Hmmm asking the real questions here," he chuckled before thinking, "Kind of in between."
"Well then how about like a...sandwich or a burger? With no sides?" She thought out loud, accidentally making herself more hungry at the thought. "Those are over in that line," she pointed as his eyes followed the direction of her finger and she saw him lick his elongated k-nines.
"Mmm ya let's do that good idea," he held his hand out to her for a high five. It took Ambur more than a moment to finally smack her own hand against his, trying to make sure that she didn't hit it too hard or too soft. It was a constant battle every time she touched anything at this point in her life.
After ordering and receiving their food the two sat down across from each other at the long dining hall tables and got to eating, both of them having ordered remarkably similar burgers. "You hate tomatoes?" She barely got out as she chuckled and struggled to keep her bite of food in her mouth as he did the same.
"Ya man they're gross," he retorted before sticking his nose up, "Smell like shit too," he laughed after swallowing. "So," he began more quietly as he changed the subject from food and back to getting to know her. "What about you huh?"
"What about me?" She asked as she blushed, thankful that he was taking interest in her, even if it was just because he was getting to know his new team leader and partner.
"Well, what do you...do for fun I guess, what's Ambur like when she's not hiding from her classmates?" He smiled as he rested his cheek in his hand.
"We-well I..." She began as she thought how to respond. "I...like to watch sports which I guess is a little unique for a girl...uhmm," she thought again as she saw him nod his head.
"Ya? Like which ones? Play any?"
"Ya I..." she trailed off as she looked down to her plate and began to fidget, "Used t-to play volleyball actually," she admitted but didn't seem at all happy about it and Mydnight could tell she was shying away from the subject but his curiosity just couldn't be quelled.
"Well that sounds cool, I bet you were pretty good at it huh? You're really built for that," he thought aloud before continuing, "Why'd you stop?"
Ambur was silent for a long time before resting her hands on the table out in front of her, taking a deep breath before speaking again, "I uh...I wasn't allowed...to play anymore," she looked up to him briefly and gave him a brief fake smile and shrugged her shoulders.
Mydnight squinted his eyes before looking down to her hands, watching her fidget as the gears in his mind began to turn, before he realized the sad truth. His jaw dropped slightly before he looked back up into her eyes, "I'm sorry..." he apologized, "that must have been hard to deal with..."
Ambur exhaled deeply, thankful that her partner had taken her meaning and figured it out for himself so that she didn't have to say it out loud. "I'm really just getting a handle on it now..." she sighed, "It's always there I don't...really turn it on and off you know?" She looked up to his eyes again shyly, watching him nod his head. "They felt that it was sort of...cheating...and I guess it kind of was..."
"That...really sucks," he replied slowly, not sure of what to tell her. "So...did you always want to be a huntress or did your semblance kind of...nudge you toward it?"
"Well I played on Signal's team for a little less than a season before it kicked in and I lost control of it so, I was already going to combat school. I just had a knack for it, I never intended to be anybody's hero but...now I...I feel sort of...obligated to be here."
"I guess that's fair...I know you said before that you try not to use your semblance very often but...maybe if you did you would learn to control it better and maybe you could play again?"
"You may be right but...I would still feel like I was cheating if I could suddenly spike the ball so hard it would go through some other girl's arm...What if I was so desperate to win that I hurt someone by accident? It's not worth it..." She let out softly before taking another bite.
"Hmmm," he hummed to himself, thinking over her statement. "Ya, that's true."
"You are right though," she let out, re-grabbing his attention, "If I'm gonna become a huntress then I do need to train my semblance and get used to it but...the fact is that there isn't anyone that I can train it against."
"You're THAT strong?" He questioned as he lifted his eyebrow.
"Huuuuh," she sighed as she stood from her seat and he gave her a confused look before she looked around, seeing that there were no other students around and making sure that the staff behind the counters were too busy to look her way. She placed her right hand on the edge of their heavy wooden table, grabbing onto it tightly before effortlessly lifting it several inches off the ground to his surprise.
"Wow," he reacted, his ears and tail twitching as he marveled at her strength. "You don't even look like you're trying."
"I'm not," she sighed before putting the table back down as gently as she could and sitting back in her seat.
"Well...shit then if you're looking for some way to train your semblance and push your limits why don't you pick up weight lifting?" He thought out loud before shoving the last bite of his burger into his mouth.
"Well, then I..." she started before trying to pick her words carefully, "Then I'd be really muscular and guys don't like that..."
"Hah," he began to laugh before swallowing, struggling not to choke on his food. "Says who? Besides you shouldn't lead your entire life according to 'what guys like,'" he adds as he motions air quotes with his fingers. "Do what's best for YOU, then the right guy will find you," he smiled as she looked at him, captivated by his genuine advice. Her cheeks flushed red as a smile crept over her face.
"Do...do you really think so?"