Oblivious

"Hm?" Ambur hummed in confusion as a small piece of folded up paper flopped down on her section of the long classroom table from the row above her. She quickly grabbed the piece before unfolding it and quickly scanning it, only to find that it was filled with contact info. She looked up to the row above her only to find a male student looking down at her confidently. Ambur couldn't help but laugh as she turned back around, tore the paper in two and chucked it back over her shoulder in his vague direction, Liv too laughing along with her as she had witnessed the entire event.

Such had slowly become the norm for Ambur over the past few weeks and while at first, it had bothered her greatly to know that other men, and indeed women, had had their eyes glued to her ever since she had gone through her very sudden change in style, it no longer got to her. She hadn't expected her own peace of mind to return so soon after her transformation but indeed it had. With Liv's company, she had found much more security in her new look than she had ever envisioned possible. On more than one occasion the girls and a few others in their friend group had even gone out to clubs in Vale and every time a guy or girl began to hit on Ambur or Liv, the other would quickly step in and pretend to be romantically involved with the other to escape the situation as easily as possible.

Of course in class, Ambur still wore her uniform in all the classes which demanded it, just as every other student, but if anyone caught Ambur outside of class she was an eye-catcher, to say the least. Liv had been jealous of her body before, but now that it was actually on display she had, even more, to be jealous of. The constant attention that Ambur received from passersbys, which used to solely be staring at Olivier was now split between the two girls. Liv, of course, knew this was for the best but she had needed a little time to get used to it. Ambur had expected her changes to be met with some bullying or teasing somewhere along the way but to her surprise no such thing ever took place.

The issue, however, had remained the same, much to Ambur's dismay, as it had since the beginning. The one guy that Ambur was trying to get the attention of seemed completely oblivious to the changes she had made. Mydnight had made it abundantly clear that at the present time he only had eyes for one girl at the school, Rosa. The one person at the school that Ambur couldn't seem to please just so happened to be the girl that the boy she dreamed of craved. At first, Ambur had been readily helping Mydnight with his new abilities but more and more she had found Rosaria and Mydnight running off to do who knows what alone and she was becoming more and more sure that she knew about the wolf.

Mydnight had steadily been asking Ambur less and less often to help him with his abilities, and while she attributed some of that to the fact that he was getting more and more stable, she also felt that Rosa had something to do with it. The two were gone, off doing who knows what, nearly every day of the week after class, and even on the weekends most times they were nowhere to be found.

Ambur's worst fears had even been realized weeks ago when she walked in on the two of them in the act on Rosa's bed. She, of course, had quickly shut the door and left, though she hadn't had such a visceral reaction as she did the first time Rosa had warned her not to come into their room for a while. She had gotten used to the fact that the two were dating, and while it did hurt to see them tangled together like that she had been able to bury it deep down and not react in such an emotional way.

At this point, she knew she was playing the long game with Mydnight, and Olivier had been a big part of convincing Ambur that the two were nothing more than a fling that Ambur simply had to wait out. Ambur maybe knew a little better deep down, but on the surface, their relationship seemed very superficial and even guided by Mydnight's transformation. Oz had said that the spell would heighten Mydnight's senses and emotions, and as soon as it had he had immediately caved into the girl who had been most obvious with her feelings for the wolf. Rosa had made it perfectly clear to Mydnight very early in knowing him that she was sexually interested in him, and as soon as the moment of weakness presented itself she had pounced on it.

As Mydnight found himself craving sexual interaction, among other things, it seemed all too natural to Ambur that he would choose Rosa to take it out on, and she hoped that in time these cravings would slow, that he would see her for who she really was. Everyone else at the school could see, easily, that Rosa was a genuinely horrible teammate and partner. She never showed up for partner exercises, never participated in class, openly criticized Ozpin's decision to make Ambur their team leader, and generally caused chaos and hell for the team. It had become clear to Oz especially that this didn't seem like it was ever going to change, so shortly after Mydnight had become romantically involved with her, Oz had forbidden Mydnight and Ambur from telling her about their group until further notice.

Apparently, according to Mydnight, this order did not include keeping her from learning of his new 'Semblance' as they were calling it, at least Ambur suspected as much. But while she felt she was suffering a little, she pitied her other teammate much more. Bronzine had become very distant from the group, keeping quiet in all their team meetings. When they had first met he seemed so outgoing and happy and energetic, but the farther they had gotten in the school year the more that had changed. She had still been able to convince him to come out with her and Olivier from time to time, and when he did she could see glimpses of how happy he used to be, but it was clear that he was extremely disappointed with his friend's choices as of late.

Ambur could tell that out of them all, Bronzine's relationship with Mydnight was the one hurting the most. She had often wondered what she could do to help but lately, she had been fighting a losing battle on that front. She couldn't even get Mydnight and Rosa to stay at team meetings until everything she wanted to talk about had been said, never mind getting Mydnight alone to talk. She had tried several times to get him alone but Rosa was too paranoid, knowing full well about how Ambur really felt about Mydnight.

She wanted so badly to, at the very least break the two of them up, if only to get Bronzine his best friend back, even if she didn't also get what she wanted out of it. She knew however that it wasn't that simple, and that if Midnight really did care for Rosa it wouldn't be her place to bad mouth her in front of him.

"Miss Magnaria?" She heard finally as she felt Liv elbow her in the side gently to bring her attention back to class.

"What?" She reacted quietly as she looked back down to where professor Goodwitch stood staring at her. "Sorry," she sighed out.

"Yes well seeing as we are looking for a volunteer and you have managed to not participate in my class a single time you may make it up to me by sparring with someone," the older woman scolded as Ambur took in a sharp nervous breath.

As Glynda had so keenly pointed out, Ambur had not been selected to participate in her class so far in the entire semester and she was beginning to think that their teacher hadn't picked her on purpose. But now that she had clearly changed so much maybe Miss Goodwitch thought that she would be ready to actually fight in front of the small crowd.

"Uhmm...I...okay," she replied nervously as she stood and looked down to the small arena in the middle of the room, finding no one there. "Who...am I fighting?" She asked as she stepped down the bleachers and onto the stage.

"Well, do we have any volunteers?" She asked as she looked out over the crowd before the boy that had been sitting behind Ambur stood up.

"I'll do it," he smirked as he began walking down the bleachers to meet Ambur on the stage.

"Ah, Mr. Alroy, thank you," she smiled as Ambur saw their readouts begin to display on the screens above the stage. Ambur had seen him fight before during the class and began to try and remember how he normally fought. He was shorter than her by a few inches with a crew cut, red hair, and brown eyes. As the two retrieved their weapons from the rack at the back of the stage Ambur realized that he as well wielded a sword, though his was much more common looking than her own.

It was quite long and the entire blade was red, curved only at the end and as he walked back to the center of the stage he seemed very confident. Ambur, of course, knew that it would take a miracle for him to beat her but she sure didn't look confident on the outside. It was, of course, her first fight that her classmates would actually be seeing her in and most of them were unaware of her semblance and she silently ordered herself to keep it tame.

She would use it but not nearly to its full extent, and as she met him at center stage and readied herself she looked to Liv one last time, finding her friend smiling back at her and nodding her head. Ambur couldn't help but smile as her vision fell back to her opponent.

"Alright ready?" Glynda asked as both of the combatants nodded their heads in response. "Alright then, begin!" She ordered as Ambur quickly found her opponent slashing at her, moving her immense blade in front of the attack as quickly as she could, not expecting him to come out of the gate so quickly.

As his blade hit hers however she found that while his strike had been fast, it hadn't carried nearly enough weight to make Ambur concerned. Then, as their blades clanged he too began to realize that not only was she capable of maneuvering her giant sword quick enough to block him, but she wasn't recoiling from any of his strikes whatsoever. Her blade wouldn't budge an inch after contact every time they met. After the ninth blocked slash in a row, Ambur locked their cross-guards together for a moment and summoned a bit of her strength, pushing in his direction and up, pushing him backward and up into the air for a moment as he landed back on the stage and slid backward a few feet.

The entire crowd was silent as they watched this, other than Olivier of course who couldn't help but cheer Ambur on. Her opponent too was shocked to find that she was even stronger than he could have imagined she was, seeing that her shove had taken barely any effort. Ambur quickly decided that while he was too stunned to attack her that now would be a good time for her to transform her weapon, which she did by pressing her thumb and pointer finger together at the top of the hilt as the blade split right in half down the middle.

Each blade was now single-edged and she held one in each hand with ease, each only retaining half of the cross-guard of the large blade. She then began to jog lightly at him as he reflexively took a defensive stance, panicking as her strength overwhelmed him. She slashed one blade at his intentionally, forcing him to block as she slipped the other between his legs and used the flat edge to pull his left leg forward toward her, forcing him to fall over backward. She stood above him with a foot on his chest and her other blade above his throat.

"Gods...how strong are you?" She heard him ask, his voice shaky and nervous.

"Apparently too strong for you," she smirked as she stepped off of him and took a step back, letting him up to his feet as she combined her blades back into one. "And I didn't ask so keep your number to yourself," she chuckled before heading back to the weapon rack, intending to put her blade back.

Though before she could do so she heard Liv yell her name. Ambur turned back to find the boy charging at her with his blade behind him, ready to strike. She couldn't believe she hadn't heard him charging her and as she re-flexed to stop him she didn't have time to control the force of her parry. She would find herself lucky that she hadn't actually damaged the boy's aura at all, for as she brought her blade through its arc around her body, she held it sideways, the blades facing straight up and down as the blunt side of the blade collided with his sword, and then him as she followed through with her swing.

The force was far more than enough to parry the blow, however, and instead hit the young man so hard that it redirected him entirely, sending him flying into an empty section of the bleachers head first. There was quite a noise as his blade clanged against the metal seats and eventually clattered to the floor as his red aura flashed before disappearing completely. Ambur heard the monitor above her announce that he had run out of Aura from just the collision.

"Ooooo," Ambur winced out as she squinted and looked away from him, beginning to feel bad for how hard she had hit him. Though as he began to stir and right himself, albeit slowly and with much labor, she began to feel better and thankful that she hadn't permanently hurt him.

"Well, I think we can all learn a lesson here can't we?" Glynda said with mild whimsey in her voice, forcing Ambur to look back toward her. "Never underestimate your opponent," she began as she looked out over the rest of the students and then back to Ambur, "And never turn your back on an opponent, even if it's to grant them mercy," she smiled as she nodded to Ambur.

"...Yes mam," Ambur said softly as she walked back to the weapon rack, placed her sword down and walked back to the bleachers, finding students moving out of her way the entire time as she walked back up to where she had been sitting, some even moving when they didn't have to.

Liv, however, was ecstatic, bouncing up and down in her seat until Ambur sat back down beside her. As soon as she had, Liv was patting her hand on Ambur's thigh in excitement before she wrapped her arms around Ambur's arm. "That was awesome!" She half yelled half-whispered as Glynda picked another pair for the class to watch. Eventually, they watched as the boy finally made it back to their side of the room, but this time he sat well far away from them in embarrassment, causing the two girls to laugh.

"Well...it did feel pretty good to let loose...even if it was by accident and only for a second."

"Does it like...feel weird to keep all that strength pent up?"

"Ya, it...kinda does sometimes...I don't know. Maybe not weird...like always touching things really softly makes it all the more strange when I do get the chance to really hit something."

"Well then you should volunteer more often haha," she laughed, "Though I don't think anyone is gonna be challenging you any time soon after that."

"Well, why don't you then," Ambur smirked back to her friend as Liv again laughed.

"Because I'm not insane like everyone else. I know what you can do. Maybe if she ever asks for doubles I'll fight with you but not against you."

"Fair enough."

/

As the girls walked toward the dining hall that afternoon they found familiar faces sitting where the group had more or less made their spot. All of their teammates were there in fact, other than of course the two that had been ditching them lately. It wasn't often that Ambur actually got to converse with Caroline and Hunter, though she did enjoy their presence. Everyone needs those fringe friends that aren't around much but are easy to get along with. Bronzine and Gretchen too sat with the couple and Ambur could tell that Gretchen was trying her very best to hold a conversation with the young man.

It had become increasingly difficult lately to keep Bronzine talking, as he would seem to space out even more often than Ambur ever did during class. As the pair grabbed their food of choice and met back at the table Bronzine did seem to cheer up a little bit upon seeing his leader with them.

"Hey," he smiled softly as Ambur smiled back and pat him on the back.

"Hey yourself," she replied as he went back to playing with his food. "Nice to see you eating with us for once."

"Ya well I figure..." he began quietly before looking back at her. "I shouldn't just be sulking alone when you're dealing with the same shit I am right?" He sighed as he went back to staring down into his hardly touched meal. However, he felt her hand on his shoulder and glanced back over to her.

"Well, I hope you keep it up because I would love to be here for you to talk to more often."

"You know...you've changed a lot," he smirked.

"Ya well I had a lot of help," she smiled back before they both looked to Liv who gave them a thumbs-up as she chewed on her food.

"Ya well," he sighed as he looked back to his food, "It looks good on you."

"Awh thanks," she blushed genuinely as she rested her hand on her heart.

"See I told you," Liv snickered after swallowing her food.

"Told me what?"

"That other guys can appreciate the way you look without immediately wanting to get into your pants," she smiled as the group heard Bronzine exhale through his nose hard as he held back laughter.

"Absolutely right," Hunter agreed. "Not to mention that you do look a lot happier all the time."

"Well I...honestly feel happier," Ambur smiled before taking a bite of her sandwich. "Even if that dumb partner of mine doesn't appreciate it."

"You know I don't think I've ever actually asked you outright but..." Bronzine began before pausing. "What exactly do you even like about him? If you don't mind me asking that is," he said quietly.

As the group's attention all turned to Ambur however she fell silent and began to think, trying to find the words to describe her feelings. "Well," she said after swallowing her food, "to be honest I...I still don't even really know him that well. I never got to know him at all at Signal and almost as soon as we got here Rosa grabbed his attention."

"So..." Liv sighs, "Is it really just a physical attraction?"

"I mean...it was at first for sure," Ambur admitted. "I've had a blind crush on him for years but...I don't know there's something more than that...Something about him really gets to me. Before he started dating her we were getting to know each other really well and we do actually have stuff in common. And while he may not think so he is actually really nice or...he was before she was around."

"Well it's not even that he isn't nice anymore it's just...her," Bronzine grumbles. "He's a very impressionable guy he...he really feeds off of the people around him. Before I started talking to him he was basically a clone of Qrow because that's the only person he ever conversed with on a regular basis. He didn't grow up around people who could shape him into what we would consider a normal person ya know? So he doesn't really understand how to be his own person or make important decisions for himself. He never learned what it was like to deal with the consequences of doing something wrong."

As the group fell silent Ambur searched for a way to change the subject, trying to shift the focus away from her personal life. Though before she could Caroline spoke up. "Has he...actually even noticed that you've changed?" She asked as she nodded toward the large arched door of the dining hall, the group turning to look all at once to find Rosa and Mydnight entering the large room.

"Huhhhhh," she sighed heavily before they all returned their attention to each other, "Not even a little bit...at least not that he has said anyway."

"Honestly that boy is oblivious I have no idea how he does it," Liv laughed out halfheartedly.

"It really is quite impressive how blind he can be," Bronzine adds.

"Ya well...even if he never actually takes notice and I never get to be with him then...it's fine," Ambur smiled as she looked down to her food before looking back to Olivier. "I still needed to change and I'm way better off as I am now than how I was." Liv couldn't stop the smile from creeping over her lips and she even began to blush, failing to get any words out of her lips. All she could do was reflexively lean into Ambur's shoulder again, silently thanking her again for the opportunity. "I really needed a best friend you know," Ambur added as she leaned back into her friend gently. "I'm really glad it's you," she sighed out happily before returning to her food.

Liv looked over and watched as her friend took another bite of her sandwich and the group continued to talk. Liv could barely hear any of them. All their words were tuned out. She couldn't believe how much she had changed, even though she was the one who had helped her all along the way. Watching her smile as she voluntarily spoke to their other friends made Liv's heart feel warm. Liv raised her hand and pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear, her smile widening.

She had, of course, wanted to feel this way for a long time now. She'd wanted nothing more than to see Ambur get what she wanted and to be happy, and was ever thankful that she had decided to talk to that giant awkward girl in the bathroom on the first day of school. As she watched Ambur laugh and even smile with her lips parted ear to ear Liv couldn't help but blush again, basking in her friend's beauty. Her skin seemed to glow now and as she looked on she slowly realized that not only was Ambur smiling, but Bronzine was too.

Ambur becoming happier had had a really positive effect on the group. Her smile seemed to bring all their spirits up with hers, and as Olivier continued to watch her she eventually found Ambur smiling back down at her as the rest of the group continued to hold their conversation. After a moment Ambur's cheeks became rose-colored as well. She felt Liv's hand rest upon her own under the table before Liv spoke up.

"He doesn't know what he's missing."