Acceptance

'Whack,' Mydnight heard as his ears twitched up, pulling him out of his dazed state as the piece of folded paper collided with the back of his leather jacket. He barely felt it of course but the sound it had made was loud enough for just about anyone in the room to hear it. He turned to look as he found Bronzine looking away from him and rubbing the back of his neck innocently, though Mydnight could see the rubber band on the table in front of him with which he had shot the paper wasp. The sound attracted the attention of both of their teammates, Ambur seated in the row with Bronzine and Rosa seated beside Mydnight on the lower row.

Ambur groaned before reaching over and taking the rubber band from him, before stretching it out across his arm while he still wasn't looking, and snapped it across the outside of his arm before shoving it in her pocket with a smirk. Bronzine's hand flew to his mouth as he kept himself from yelling in pain as he shot her a dirty look and Mydnight was barely able to contain his laughter. As the group settled back down and their attention focused back to the lecture, Ambur continued pretending to write notes about Professor Oobleck's lesson as she doodled in her notebook, occasionally looking down to where Mydnight sat in front of her.

As she sat and watched him Bronzine began to suspect that she wasn't paying attention to the lesson at all, following her eyes down to his friend, causing him to roll his eyes before grumbling and focusing back on the lesson himself. Olivier sat on Ambur's other side with Gretchen beside her and both girls seemed to actually be rather invested in what the professor had to say. Ambur had tried on several occasions to get Liv to relax a bit but she had turned out to be quite the no-nonsense student.

The girls had been studying together and Ambur was becoming more and more thankful each day that Liv took such good notes since Ambur could never follow what Oobleck was trying to say. He was just too much for her, far too in your face and quick for Ambur, they existed at very different speeds. Not to mention of course that over the past weeks it had become increasingly difficult to keep her eyes off of her new partner. Being so close to Mydnight all the time had put her into somewhat of a fog, where she knew not how to get his attention, but also could not get her own attention off of him.

Thankfully it hadn't affected her grades too much, as she had always been a decent enough student, but she often found herself concocting new ideas to impress Mydnight, rather than thinking up new ways to interact with her entire team.

She was snapped out of her trance and a wave of dread washed over her as it often had in this class as she watched Rosa rip a small piece of paper out from her notebook and slide it across the table over to Mydnight. She couldn't help herself, watching him smirk while reading her message, too small and far away for Ambur to peak before passing it back to her with his own message on it. It sickened her, watching this happen every time this class came up, watching Mydnight talk to another girl in private right in front of her, completely oblivious that she had these feelings for him.

All the while Ambur became more and more jealous of Rosaria as the weeks came and went. She was so much more ladylike than Ambur, a much smaller build, better at presenting herself and she wasn't the least bit shy. Rosa never hesitated to get changed in the morning with the two boys in the room while Ambur tried her best to never be seen by anyone, not even the other girls in the locker room down the hall. She seemed so confident on top of the fact that Ambur thought she was beautiful, and because of how shy Ambur was she was never up to the task of asking Mydnight what he thought of their other teammate, or what they talked about while passing notes in class. But every time one handed the other a note, the receiver would smile and it burned Ambur to the bone.

As the school bell rang however she was pulled out of her trance, watching all the other students get up, having already packed their belongings up in preparation for the bell. As she sighed and students filed out she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking up to find Olivier looking down at her with a sorrowful expression. "Come on Am," she said softly as she patted her friend on the back. They were the only two left in the room as she finally began packing her books up. "Why don't you just tell him?"

"What am I supposed to say to him Liv..." She groaned before standing up as the girls left the classroom side by side, headed for their dorm rooms. Ambur could see Rosa and Mydnight up ahead in the hallway but knew by now that the noise from all the other students would drown her voice out so he wouldn't be able to hear them. "It's too late anyway..."

"What do you mean it's too late?" Liv replied before speaking again, "It's never too late to tell someone how you feel. It's plain for all to see that you like that boy so why did you wait so long to tell him? Now you have to compete with Rosa."

"Not all of us get to be confident and hot okay..." Ambur sulks.

"Hah," Liv fake laughed, "Please, if you would stop trying to blend in with the crowd you would be the hottest girl in the school so don't give me that," Liv teased as she lightly elbowed her friend in the hip.

"But...what if they are already...dating or even," she trailed off as her stomach churned at her own thoughts.

"Okay first of all if they were banging you'd be pretty aware of it, they live in the same room as you," Liv chuckled as Ambur pouted.

"This isn't funny!" She huffed out as she crossed her arms under her bust.

"Secondly, if you just ask him then he will tell you. Why would he lie about it? Knowing is better than not knowing Am."

"Not always..." She whispered out sadly as she closed her eyes and shook her thoughts away before looking back down to her friend. "Anyway," she began again, "What about you," she thought aloud as she saw Liv give her a questioning look. "Weren't you supposed to go on a date like a few days ago or something? What happened with that?"

"Oh," she rolled her eyes and faked a laugh, "Ya that didn't go well at all forget about it," she waved her hand in Ambur's direction as if telling Ambur to pick a different subject.

"Welllll..." she sighed as she racked her brain for ideas. "What are you doing tonight anyway? Busy?"

"No, not really, why?" Liv looked up with a smile, "you wanna hang?"

"Yes...I don't wanna be in that room with those two."

"Oh what now you can't even look at them?" Liv laughed as she gestured toward the pair they were following. As the students funneled out of the building and out into the courtyard Olivier lost sight of the two, but Ambur, able to see over the large crowd had no trouble watching Mydnight and Rosa walk all the way to the dorm building together as they finally disappeared.

"Look you know what I mean I just...need a distraction okay. Can we go do something? Invite Gretch too I don't care, the more things to take my mind off of them the better.."

"Ya I guess, come on," she replied as she led her through the dorm building and up to team OCHR's room, finding Gretchen there, having just arrived before them as she was unpacking her backpack onto her bed. "Hey," Liv greeted her partner with a smile as Gretchen did the same to the two girls.

"Hey Gretchen," Ambur replied shyly, still not having spent too much time around the girl since the year started.

"Ambur and I were wondering if you wanted to do something tonight? Go out? Little Friday night fun?" Liv asked with enthusiasm.

"Oh ya?" Gretch smiled, "I could go for that, what did you have in mind though?"

"We haven't talked about it," Ambur said quietly with a smile, "So if you have any ideas go for it."

"Wellll," she thought aloud as she put down what she was doing and began to look through the groups closet for a more appropriate outfit, it was getting cold after all as Fall would soon be upon them. "Do you wanna hang on campus or off?"

"Off," Liv answered as she moved to the floor length mirror they had hung on the back of their door and checked her makeup, touching up any areas she deemed imperfect.

"Well, we could go see a movie or something?" Gretchen suggested as she pulled out a heavy, light green hoodie and a pair of forest green skinny jeans to change into, which she began to do near her bed.

"Works for me," Ambur agreed, just wanting to get away from the campus and away from her problems as fast as she could. "I'll go change too," she said before leaving their room and crossing the hall to her own, pausing at the door and taking a deep breath. As she turned the doorknob she prepared for the worst, only to find Mydnight alone in the room, thankfully with his jeans on as he too was in the middle of changing out of his school uniform. However, Ambur found herself awestruck as she always did, unable to look away from the wolf boy's exposed, toned upper body.

"Hey," he smiled as he grabbed his selected shirt from his bed and pulled it on before sitting down to pull his socks on. "What took you so long?"

"I...Uh," she shook her head before moving to their closet and looking through her clothes, "Was talking to Liv and Gretchen, we decided to go see a movie," she said aloud before realizing she had left her statement too open-ended. "Girls night kind of thing you know?"

"Oh?" Mydnight questions, "Sounds fun. Just the three of you?"

"Ya I mean, Caroline and Hunter aren't in their room yet so we haven't asked and well," she struggled to finish he sentence, "I doubt...Rosa would wanna hang out with us you know?" she said quietly as she grabed oer outfit and headed back toward the door, intending to change in Liv's dorm. "She probably...wants to hang out with you."

Mydnight was silent for a moment as he looked at her with confusion on his face. "Why do you say it like that?"

Ambur's hand was on the doorknob but she hesitated, looking away from him as she bit her tongue. She looked back to him before speaking again, "Well I mean I just...you guys look like you've been...getting to know each other more...recently..." she struggled to say, not sure how to explain herself.

"Oh.." Mydnight wondered aloud before shrugging his shoulders, "I mean I...guess we have ya. That...," he thought aloud before looking up into her eyes and talking much more quickly, "Wait does that bother you?" He asked with seemingly genuine concern.

"NO I," she began loudly as she started to panic, breathing heavily and yelling at herself in her own head before lowering her voice, "I...it's good," she forced out as a fake smile made its way across her lips, "Ya don't worry about it, that's great," she said as she turned the doorknob and quickly made her escape from the situation, "Anyway I gotta get going I'll see you later okay?" The words tore out of her mouth quickly before she steped outside and closed the door as fast as she could without slamming it.

As she hesitated out in the hallway she sighed heavily and began to beat herself up for the words that had shot out of her mouth moments before. 'Why did I say that,' she thought to herself, 'Why the hell did I say ANY OF THAT,' she yelled inside her own head again and she walked across the hall and touched her hand to Liv's doorknob. She hesitated though as she heard someone coming down the hallway. She turned to find Rosa coming toward her, seemingly coming back from the locker room as she was wrapped up in no more than a towel, her long pink hair dripping wet.

Ambur forced a smile toward her teammate, the two had not been able to really get along over the past few weeks, despite Ambur's best efforts of course. She knew what the issue was, right from the first day of school Rosa had thought that Ambur had no business being their team leader. She thought it should have been herself or Mydnight. Rosa made the smallest effort possible to wave to her team leader but Ambur could tell Rosa wasn't really happy to see her.

Ambur too wasn't happy to see what state she was in, having nothing but a towel draped around herself, knowing all too well that she was likely about to flash her partner and get dressed right in front of him...or worse. Ambur began to think of the worst possible scenario as she shook her head and quickly went into Liv's room, trying to chase the thoughts of her teammates out of her head.

"You alright?" Liv asked her, breaking her out of her concentrated state, "What happened in there?"

"N...nothing I just," she began as she moved to stand next to Liv's bed and started to strip her uniform off. "Just talking to Mydnight for a second, letting him know I'll be back late."

As Ambur stripped down she could feel the other girls eyes upon her, trying not to be caught. She changed as quickly as she could, wishing to cover herself back up and shoo their eyes from her body. "You know," Liv said as she watched, "I don't think anyone on Remnant has had such a good body and hated it so much as you do," she giggled.

"Don't start..." Ambur whispered as she pulled her jeans up past her hips and shoved her scroll into her pocket. "You know I don't like being stared at."

"Ya ya I know," she rolled her eyes, "Just wishing you and I could trade bodies," she smiled.

"Trust me...I would love to," she struggled to say as she pulled her hoodie down over her bust, and straightened it out. "Ready?" She asked the other two girls as they nodded their heads and agreed before standing and heading out into the hallway toward the shuttle area to catch a quick flight to the city below them.

/

Thump. Right on target, again. He wondered why he bothered to do this anymore but somewhere deep down he knew he had to to keep his eyes keen. Thump. Almost hit his previous shot that time, wouldn't want to break an arrow, these weren't easy to make after all. The few he had lost or broken over the years had been a serious struggle to replace. Just as creating the entire stock had been, to begin with. Not to mention the supplies to make them cost so much.

But that wasn't why he was out here today, oh no, not to practice, just to get away from his partner, his new eternal nuisance. Bronzine had been losing his mind trying to keep a positive attitude around the woman and it really wasn't working. Every time they had to talk, every time they had a team exercise, every time he simply sat in his bed and tried to mind his own business. If Mydnight wasn't around that girl was horrible to deal with.

On the one hand, Bronzine was thankful that Mydnight had found a way to keep her civil when he was around, of course, he knew all too well that it was only because she had the hots for the wolf boy.

On the other hand, he saw how it had affected his friend. Mydnight was slowly becoming more and more distant with Ambur and himself as he grew closer and closer to Rosaria. The two of them had been spending a lot of time alone together over the past week or two and it left a bad taste in Bronzine's mouth. But more than that he felt sorry for his leader.

Ambur must be dealing with this so much worse than he was, he thought at least. It was plain for all to see, save for the wolf himself, that Ambur liked him as much more than a friend or a partner. Mydnight was the best friend he had ever had but he couldn't deny that the boy was incredibly dense, and not very perceptive of people's feelings at times. He couldn't blame him of course, having grown up with no siblings or parents, Mydnight was pretty devoid of love.

Even when it came to Qrow

he didn't really seem to be THAT close with him when all said and done. They would train together and they would talk but nothing on the level of a parent to a child, and they never really talked about their feelings as far as he had witnessed.

But what was he supposed to do about any of it? He didn't know. He couldn't just tell Mydnight not to date Rosa, it's not like her treating him like crap had any real substance to it, and he figured that if they actually did start dating she might try to be a little nicer around them to keep Mydnight happy.

/

"So what are we seeing?" Olivier finally asked as they took their seats on the shuttle and waited for it to take off.

"Nothing mushy..." Ambur mumbled out as she rolled her eyes. She was at least more relaxed now that she was alone with her two friends. No one around to impress and far away from Mydnight she could actually let herself relax and focus on the moment instead of the next time she would see him. "Not in the mood to watch a girl fall in love..." She sighed as she looked out the window toward the darkening horizon. The sun had started to go down very early now that they were getting into autumn, and with how late class got out some days it could be dark by the time you reached your dorm room.

"Okay well that does narrow it down I guess," Gretchen giggled before pulling out her scroll and pulling up the website which would show them the showtimes at the theater in Vale. "So like an action movie or something? Superheroes? Always new ones of those coming out."

"Works for me," Liv shrugged, not actually caring what they went to see as long as it got Ambur's mind off of Mydnight.

"Sure just pick one and we'll do that," Ambur agreed softly as she watched the small buildings on the ground get bigger and bigger as they closed in on the city, the street lights just beginning to come on as they flew overhead.

/

"What do you mean you gotta go?" Rosa huffed, her plans for the night having been foiled by the wolf boy insisting he had somewhere to be.

"I'm supposed to meet Qrow in a little while," he told her again as he headed for the door, leaving his teammate completely exposed on her bed. She had come back to the room from her shower and 'accidentally' dropped her towel as she had reached her bed, clearly trying to grab his attention by doing so. He had, of course, looked on as he usually did when she showed no shame in changing in front of her team. He did find her attractive but on this one night where they seemed to be alone in their room, he did actually have places to be. "Sorry," he laughed as he looked back to her, "I'll make it up to you okay?" He smiled, his fangs creeping out of his lips as she smiled and raised her eyebrows back at him.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" She asked as she ran her pointer finger up her outer thigh.

"I'll think of something don't worry," he smirked before turning and leaving the room, heading down the hallway and out into the open air of the campus. He was headed for the headmaster's office, having taken much more time to think about Ozpin's offer than he had anticipated. At first, he thought it all far too crazy to go along with but as the weeks flew by his mind had changed. As he arrived in his office he found the usual suspects, Qrow, Glynda and Ozpin waiting for him.

"I take it you've made your decision then Mr. Rose?" Ozpin asked him with curiosity filling his voice.

Mydnight looked around to find Qrow looking back at him, seeing his older counterpart nod to him with a smile before he spoke, "Ya...I'll do it," Mydnight said confidently as he looked back to the headmaster. "When can you do it?"

"Well, that depends," Oz replied as he leaned back in his chair looking to Glynda. "How have you been getting along with your partner?"

"Ambur?" Mydnight questioned. "I mean...pretty good I guess. She's nice and is easy enough for me to talk to but..."

"But what?" Glynda asked after he paused for just a little too long.

"I don't really know if she would be into this kind of life you know? Knowing all the stuff that we do and all the stuff I'm sure you haven't told me yet. Would she really have to be brought into the group?"

"She would need to, yes," Ozpin answered. "The process of changing may be easy but adjusting to your new powers will not be. You could change by accident or lose control of your emotions and hurt someone. You will need her to be aware of the situation so she can help you."

"Well if you think it's that serious then shouldn't my entire team know?"

"Mydnight I am going to leave that entirely up to you my boy. You can either tell Ambur or your entire team but you must at least tell her. And I won't give you these powers a moment before you do. There's too much risk, if you need convincing look no further," Oz nods to Qrow, Mydnight following his gaze up to the older Huntsman.

"...You think this is a good idea?" Mydnight asks Qrow.

Qrow smirks in response, "Probably not," he laughs. "But I think you can handle it. And your partner seems pretty smart. Not to mention how strong she is. You should be fine."

"Alright I'll...I'll tell Ambur when I get a chance then...And I'll think about the others too," he said as he turned to leave as Qrow reassured him one last time.

"You'll do fine kid."