Amber Signals

Her fingers ran through Ambur's hair slowly, tracing along the amazon's jawline as her eyes drifted shut. As they shifted back and forth against each other Liv felt like she was in a dream. She hadn't had anything to drink since starting the year at Beacon and clearly, her tolerance for the drink she had grown up with wasn't as great as she remembered. The more the two danced on each other the more she began to slip down into the haze of the dance floor.

She felt Ambur's hands all over her too, beginning to think that perhaps Ambur had forgotten her own plan as well. Neither of the girls had ever gotten so intimate with another woman before and both of them were very clearly drawing attention from the crowd around them. Each was surprised to find that they weren't forcing any of their actions or even thinking them through. Each only acted on instinct and let the music begin to rule them, doing as it bade them as the minutes slipped past them.

At first, the girls hadn't been so on each other but as their minds fell into the fog and music their actions had become quite sensual. Every time Ambur's hands drifted up and down Liv's spine, she shuddered, each of them taking turns to control the flow of their actions. Each was gasping for air, as they had been dancing for nearly an hour straight with no breaks and they were very taken by the heat of the dance floor, each girl's skin hot to the touch.

"HhhAmbur," Liv would gasp out from time to time, trying her best to finish statements that never fully made it out of her mind. Liv's mind would soon begin to wander to her past experiences dancing with boys she had dated, even to sleeping with them and how they all couldn't compare to what she felt now on the dance floor with Ambur. It was actually starting to worry her if she was honest with herself.

Every action Ambur took Liv became more and more confused. How did she even get into this situation in the first place? She had no idea that this was how the night was going to go when she bought the tickets. Her own actions were a puzzle to her as well, unsure why her hands moved to the places they did, or why every time her and Ambur's skin touched her entire body felt as if it were on fire and her thoughts would turn to dust.

She couldn't even make out the faces of the people dancing near them, trapped between the crowd and the Amazon. Most of the time she didn't mind too much being so short, but sometimes it could end up being a real pain. This momentary hatred for her stature didn't last long however as she sank back into Ambur's possession and began to wonder what was racing through Ambur's mind. It couldn't be too different from her own thoughts, could it? It was true that Olivier had imagined on more than one occasion what it would be like if she was the object of Ambur's obsession, rather than Mydnight.

Wait. That name. "Mydnight," she breathed out, unable to hear herself among the music. She turned back to face Ambur as quickly as she could, only to find herself face to face with her counterpart, as if Ambur had been leaning down to look over Liv's shoulder while she was facing the other way. Liv was stunned to find her this way, and immediately forgot what she was going to say, her lips remaining parted as she stared back into Ambur's soft red eyes, losing herself in them.

Ambur's lips too were parted as if she had been about to say something to her, her gaze glossed over, her eyes darting between Liv's eyes and her body. "Ambur..." she breathed out again, this time just barely loud enough for the sound to hit Ambur's ears. "whhh...what were you...?" she asked again as the two girl's faces inched closer and closer together, Ambur's hands moving up Liv's body until her elbows came to rest on Liv's shoulders.

Instinctively, and without her own mind's permission Liv's hands moved up to Ambur's face, cupping her cheeks delicately as each girl's lips began to burn, their eyes slowly drifting shut as they grew ever closer together. Liv could feel Ambur's breath on her mouth and it sent shivers down her spine each time she exhaled. Liv was about to completely slip back down into the fog when she felt her bottom lips scrape against Ambur's, her eyes shooting open as she bit her own lip, trying to control herself as she saw Ambur looking back at her. "Mydnight," Liv breathed out before her eyes slowly moved over to where they had left him at the table, finding him coming back to their table with a drink in his hand. Liv was relieved that he had appeared to have missed the show they had put on over the last minute.

Ambur's eyes followed her as they opened wide, slowly beginning to realize how far they had fallen into the fog the night had created for them. "Oh?... Oh my-" Ambur began before cutting herself off, standing straight up and clearing her throat, letting go of Olivier as her small framed counterpart took a step back from her and looked toward the floor in embarrassment as each girl's face lit up bright red.

"Why don't I...go get a drink or something," Liv said, trying to clear the air as she timidly looked back up to Ambur, the taller girl unable to look her friend back in the eyes. "I'll uh...I'll tell Mydnight to come join you? Okay?" She said, desperately trying to get herself out of the awkward situation that she had helped to create.

"Okay...thanks," Ambur sighed in relief, glad that she wouldn't need to discuss what had just happened. As Liv pushed her way through the crowd and back toward their table she folded her arms over her stomach and began to rub her hands up and down the outside of her arms as her face grew more and more red. As she approached the table she found Mydnight giving her a concerned look.

"Everything okay?" he asked nonchalantly, clearly not having seen the girls nearly make out with each other in a drunken stupor in public.

"Uhh yeah, I just uhm...I need a drink and Ambur...wants to know if you would go dance with her? You've been watching us all night and she would really...like to dance with you."

"I mean...I don't know how to dance," he shrugged.

"Don't worry about that just..." she said as she grew impatient, wanting to get away from him. "She's probably going to do all the dancing you just have to stand there and enjoy it," she said quickly. "Have you seen Gretchen?"

"I just left her at the bar ya," he said as he pointed behind him with his thumb and Olivier walked away toward her partner. Mydnight looked back to the dance floor to find Ambur looking at him seductively, her eyes only half-open, leaned over toward him to accentuate her bust. Her hand too was out with her pointer finger motioning for him to come to her. Mydnight could feel his frustration building back up. He had gone over to the bar to get his eyes off of the sensual display the girls had put on in front of him for the past hour so he could walk around and try to settle down but now Ambur was poised to make it even more enticing than before.

He couldn't resist the opportunity, however, finding himself standing from his chair, chugging his new double shot of rum and heading out onto the dance floor to meet her. As they met, he let her take hold of his arms and leaned over to whisper up into his ear. He felt her hot breath on the inside of his Faunus appendage and jumped from the sensation. He had had far less to drink than either Liv or Ambur but he could still feel it.

She took a very long breath before finally speaking and he could feel the warmth from her hands on his wrists. "If I make you uncomfortable just...say so okay?" she finally whispered to him playfully. As she pulled away she saw him nod, biting her lip as she nodded her head as well and turned away from him. As she backed down on him he truly began to notice just how tall she really was. The pair were, in fact, nearly the same height, their hips slowly coming together perfectly without either party having to lower themselves.

Ambur's hands rose up behind her head, finding the back of Mydnight's head and she pulled his face over her right shoulder and into the crook of her neck. She ran her hands through his hair several times before grabbing onto it lightly as she rocked her butt against his pelvis, immediately feeling him exhale heavily on her neck as he gasped in surprise. He had never been touched in this way before, even Rosa hadn't tempted him so aggressively. After several moments of Mydnight not seeming to know what to do with himself Ambur used her free hand to reach down and back, taking hold of his hand and she placed it on her hip.

She turned her head to face him as she saw his eyes, burning with lust, staring back at her, "I assume you'll let me know if you can't handle it huh?" she smirked as she pressed her butt back into him harder and felt him grip her waist tightly. She began to rock her hips up and down, grinding against his jeans slowly as she watched him bury his face into her neck as he grit his teeth. She couldn't help but laugh at his expense, never having imagined that this act would be shared between them. She had, of course, wanted to be with him but she had never thought that she could be this bold, especially in public.

She could feel his breath again on her neck and it sent a shiver down her spine every time he exhaled. A blush spread across her face as she again bit down on her lower lip and looked up to the ceiling. Her free hand latched onto his thigh behind her. "Jeans getting a little tight wolf-boy?" She teased, of course already well aware of the answer.

"You're really pushing your luck aren't you?" He snorted out a quick exhale from his nose. Even in this situation, he couldn't deny that Ambur knew how to get him to laugh. "You're one to talk about tight pants. How did you even get these on?"

It was Ambur's turn to laugh, knowing all too well that he had seen on at least one occasion how hard she had to work to get waistbands over her hips on a daily basis. "Spandex," she smirked as she looked back to him, finding his golden eyes shining back at her in the dark, half-open the same as hers. "Wonderful invention," she smiled.

She was lucky he kept answering right in her ear or else she'd never been able to hear him. He, of course, could hear whatever he wanted to hear with those wolf ears of his, no matter how softly she spoke this close to him. "You gonna be able to control yourself?" She smirked.

"Well, I guess that depends how badly you want me to, doesn't it?"

"Fair point," she paused for a moment before looking back into his eyes. "Look I uh...I don't want to sour the mood but let's just...let this night be fun okay? We both could just use a fun night and I don't wanna...get in the way of your summer trip or...whatever you've got going on with Rosa so when we get back to the dorms let's just...cool it okay?"

Mydnight smiled softly as he nodded his head, "That's probably for the best ya...even if you are gonna leave me hangin'," he teased as she laughed.

"Ya sorry," she stuck her tongue out and winked at him. "Don't bang on the first date."

"So it IS a date?" he gasped sarcastically sending her into another laughing fit.

"Shut up," she laughed out as she looked away from him. "Stop being perfect for like five minutes okay?"

"Yes mam," he smirked.

/

"Ugh," Liv let out as she sat down at the bar beside Gretchen. "There you are," she said solemnly as she propped her head in hands and waved to the bartender, signaling for another drink. She was far happier now about her decision to put the man under her spell than she was before.

"Uh ya? Why what's wrong?" Gretchen asked as she skeptically raised an eyebrow at her leader. "Seemed like you were having a good time last I saw you."

Liv sighed audibly before covering her face with her hands, "Don't remind me."

"Ooookay?" Gretchen let out as she took another sip of her drink.

"Huhhhhhh...Ambur and I almost kissed," she let out as she ran her hands back through her hair and grabbed onto it tightly, pulling on it in frustration.

Gretchen nearly spat out her sip as Liv said this, slapping her hand over her mouth before swallowing. "What?!" Gretchen had it written all over her face. Liv's statement had wildly amused her partner and Gretchen was very clearly trying her very hardest not to laugh. "How did that happen?! I looked away for like ten minutes and you go and turn lesbian on me?"

"No!" She half shouted back, trying to keep her voice down and motioning for Gretchen to do the same as the bartender came over and handed her her drink as she chugged half of the glass. "I'm...I'm not a-" she began, unable to finish her statement as her thoughts assault her mind, remembering how willing she had been in the moment.

"Well shit Liv it's nothing to be ashamed of come on," Gretchen elbowed her lightly before taking another sip of her drink. "What's so wrong with it?"

"No, there's...there's nothing wrong with it I just...I like men!" She again half-shouted. "I've never had any kind of sexual urge to be with a woman before."

"Well maybe you finally met the right woman," Gretchen retorted in a smart-ass tone.

Liv fell silent as she grumbled within her mind, mocking her partner before trying to settle down. "It doesn't matter anyway, she's out there dancing with Mydnight now and it seems like our little plan to get his attention worked," she sulked.

"Well...did she want to kiss you too?"

"I mean I...I thought she did...our lips touched and...I remembered that we were just trying to get Mydnight's attention and we got...carried away I guess...both of us did..." She sighed before shaking her head violently, trying to shoo the thoughts out of her mind, nearly falling forward onto the bar as she made herself dizzy by accident.

"I mean...don't come crying to me ten years from now when you realize you're madly in love with your best friend," Gretchen laughed before taking another sip. "Unless for some reason she's single but I think you missed that train."

Liv was silent again for a few moments as she watched her reflection in her wine. "No I...it was just an accident. We're drunk and the music was just making us feel good and I...It won't happen again. Ambur is my friend...my BEST friend, and her being happy with Mydnight makes me happy..."

Gretchen had been watching her partner say all of this out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help but smirk again. "You trying to convince me or yourself?"

"...Bit of both I suppose..."

/

As the group walked out into the cool night air the mood had lightened significantly. Gretchen led the way as she had only had a single drink the entire night and held Liv's hand, trying her best to take care of her leader. Ambur and Mydnight followed behind them. Liv and Amber were, frankly, astonished that the wolf had been able to contain himself the entire night with all of Ambur's teasing. Ambur had fully intended to ask for Liv's help in subduing him if necessary but he had actually held everything together rather well.

As they finally made it back to the school for the night and made their way up to their dorms the two pairs quietly waited outside their doors to say goodnight. However, before they could all go inside their rooms Ambur spoke up. "Liv can I talk to you for a second though? Just uh...real quick?" She asked with a nervous smile.

'Oh fuck here it comes,' Liv thought to herself as she felt Gretchen lightly tap her hip against her own, shoving her slightly toward Ambur as she opened their door and walked inside, shutting it behind her. "Uhhhyeah yeah sure," she sighed nervously. Mydnight too opened their door and gave a light wave to the two before heading inside and shutting the door behind him. "What's up?"

"Well I uh...uhmmm," she began slowly. "I wanted to...say...thank you for...everything. Just...really thank you for being the best friend...ever," she smiled softly.

"Oh," Liv let out in surprise.

"Ya," Ambur began again. "For the tickets and for always being there for me and...well ya know..." She said as she shuffled her feet and looked down to the floor. "For stopping me from...ya know-" she said before Liv held up her hand.

"Don't uh...don't mention it," Liv let out, without realizing what she had said.

"Okay," Ambur said flatly, "I won't."

Liv looked back up to Ambur's face, finding her blankly staring back at her, emotionless. "Oh shit no I didn't mean..." she stopped herself from speaking as she realized that in her drunken state she had accidentally used her semblance on Ambur. "Fuck!" She half-whispered half yelled to herself as she slapped her hand into her face. "God I'm sorry Ambur I didn't mean to do that," she sighed as she put her arms around her friend, pulling her into a hug.

As Ambur seemed to regain herself she shook her head and pulled back from Olivier, giving her a questioning look. "Sorry for doing what?"

"Ambur I..." She began, wanting to explain what had happened but she knew her victims never remembered that they had been ordered to comply with her. "I'm sorry about...what happened on the dance floor tonight," she let out.

"Oh," Ambur smiled nervously again as she waved a hand in front of her own face. "Please, you're the one who stopped me from...kissing you," she whispered out lowly, trying to make sure that her partner wouldn't hear through the door. She could hear him rustling around near the closet though so she figured he hadn't heard.

However, upon hearing the words come out of Ambur's mouth Liv's ears began to burn as her pale cheeks flushed bright red. "Just forget about it," she let out quickly, "It was a mistake and it won't happen again..." She let out, flustered.

Ambur was quiet for a moment again before speaking up in a quizzical tone. "What won't happen again?"

"Huh?" Liv asked as she looked back up to her friend, seeing her staring back down at her with a concerned look on her face.

"What was a mistake? Are you okay?"

'Oh my god,' she thought to herself as her jaw dropped in horror. 'Oh my god oh my god what did I just do?!' she screamed inside her own head as she tried to keep her composure. "N-nothing," she stammered as she tried to escape. "I meant uh...staying out too late that's all I gotta...go to bed," she said as she fought back tears, plastering a fake smile onto her face.

"Oookkayy then?" Ambur said as she shrugged her shoulders and turned toward her door. "Goodnight, thanks again for everything," the Amazon smiled down to her as she walked inside her room and closed the door. As soon as the door was shut the flood gates broke wide open and Liv began to cry like she hadn't cried in years.

She began to run down the hall, completely aimless, needing to get as far away from Ambur's room as fast as possible, only making it to the stairway before grabbing onto the railing and falling to her knees, collapsing on the stairs as her tears washed down her face and she began to hyperventilate in panic. "How could you!" She let out loud at herself. "God you horrible...HORRIBLE girl what did you just do?!" her voice raspy and cutting in and out as she cried.

"You used your semblance on your best friend twice!" She whined as she struggled to wipe the tears from her face. "And after all that shit! After you went and nearly kissed her you made her forget it ever happened! What is wrong with me?!" She yelled to herself, the sound echoing in the empty dark Foyer. "God...why do I fuck everything up!?"

/

His fingers slowly tapped on the touch screen of his device as the light from it illuminated his face in the dark room. Mydnight had tried to slip out of his clothes and into his bed as quietly as he could, finding Rosa and Bronzine already asleep, as they should be this early in the morning. He was trying to pick his words as carefully as possible and kept looking over to where Rosa lay. He really didn't want to hurt her or anything but it had become quite clear to him over the course of the night that it was time to change.

He knew what he had to do, especially before not seeing her at all over the summer, not wanting to wait until the start of next year to get the thoughts off of his mind. He didn't want to carry the baggage and guilt with him while off with Qrow, going who knows where. Finally, he felt that his text was sufficient and he hoped that he wouldn't have to face the consequences of his words in the morning. After all, students were going to be leaving the school in the morning for the start of summer break so he was crossing his fingers and hoping that Rosa would be gone already by the time he woke up.

She had already packed her bags and had expressed to everyone that her trip home was going to start quite early in the morning. Finally, he pressed the send button and locked the screen of his phone.

'I need to take a break from this...' it read. 'Whatever it is we have going on right now I just need time to...think. You already know I'm not gonna be around this summer and I don't want to keep your hopes up if you've been thinking that we are going to go right back to the way things were. I'm sorry.'

/

Liv was exhausted. She had a pounding headache, she felt gross and on top of everything she was dealing with it was pouring out. The sky was gray and cloudy and rain fell from it consistently all morning as she had finished packing up all of her belongings. "What a perfect day to be fucking miserable," she mumbled, her chin rested in her palm, hunched over on the bench at the bus stop on the side of the road.

She had been the last of her friends to leave the school. Her entire team had left early in the morning and Mydnight and Ambur were the last to go. Liv had put on a smile and said her goodbyes but as soon as they were facing the other way and walking away her expression flipped. She found that she couldn't look away from Ambur until she was finally completely out of sight, watching the partner's board the shuttle down to Vale together.

Her words from the night before still stung in her mind, digging her nails into her own palms every time her thoughts repeated themselves. However, every time her mind would wander back to that one perfect moment, the moment before she had stopped herself, her fingers would trace her own lips as she stared off into the rain-soaked tarmac. "Congrats Liv...you've officially third wheeled yourself," she thought out loud. "Why did it take so long for me to realize that I...that we were so..." She began before breaking off and getting flashes of Ambur and Mydnight in her mind.

"...It's for the best...she loves him and I...we would have ended up like all my other relationships..." she said softly as she looked up through the glass ceiling of the small bus stop, looking up into the clouds. "She's too good for me..."

She ran her hands through her damp, long, white locks, trying again, as she had before to squeeze some more of the water out of them. The truth is she was wet from the rain, head to toe. When she had gotten off of the shuttle she walked in a haze down to the bus stop. She was in such a foul, out of body, mood that she had forgotten to use her umbrella and all of her clothing was soaked. She had barely felt the rain as it had hit her though, her mind so far down in the fog of her self loathing that nothing could bother her on the outside.

Finally, though she heard the loud sound of air brakes squeaking, looking up to find her bus in front of her, a few passengers getting off and passing her by. As she stood she finally felt it, the wetness of her clothing, clinging to her skin and making her shiver. It wasn't nearly cold enough out for her to shiver, quite the contrary, but that nasty feeling of wet fabric did the job. As she flashed her student ID to the driver and took her seat she fished her scroll out of her wet pocket. Finding the device working fine she pulled up her contacts and hovered over Ambur's name for a few seconds as she took in a deep breath.

She looked to the window as they began to move again, losing herself in the grayness of the day, watching buildings slowly slip past her before reaching into her carry-on bag and pulling out a pair of white and gold headphones, attaching them to her device and tabbing away from Ambur's contact information. As she scrolled through her music she finally settled upon a playlist that would fit her mood, a lo-fi hip hop list of lyric-less music that seemed to only drone on infinitely. Perfect for a crappy rainy day on which she felt completely worthless.

She would eventually forget that she was soaked again, the feeling of the wet fabric slowly moving out of the forefront her mind as she sat still, her eyes glazed over as the world moved around her. Finally, however, her mind would come back around as she felt the device vibrate in her hand, forcing her to look down and read it. "Ambur," she breathed out as she read the message to herself.

'I made it home, are you at the airport yet?' It read.

'On the bus now,' she typed before hesitating to send it to her. After a few moments however her thumb pressed into the send button and as it did her whole body slammed forward into the seat in front of her. Having no time to react, her aura was not up and she was lucky the seats were made of soft cushiony material, allowing her to recoil and look up to the bus driver.

"What the he-" she got out as she ripped her headphones off before she began to register the incredible noise of a horn blaring. As the words from her mouth trailed off and her vision snapped across to her window. She only saw the train for a moment before it collided with the bus. It hit only a few seats ahead of her. The bus jerked to the side, flinging her from her seat before the vehicle was torn in half by the giant iron battering ram. Her half was thrown from the railroad crossing that the bus had collided with another car in the middle of and came to rest several yards from where it once stood. Her world would have been filled with deafening noise, twisted metal trapping her inside the wreckage and shattered glass sticking into her back as she lay on the ceiling of the overturned bus.

That is if she were conscious to experience it.