Rook did not believe in coincidence.
He found a certain invigoration in the belief that all that occurred was meant to occur; if ever events transpired in a way that fell out of his control, he trusted that destiny was taking hold, working on a grander scale than what was within the reach of his own individual agency. Even when those events often brought great pain and loss into his life—especially in those cases—he tried to have faith that they were meant to serve a greater purpose in the long term.
This somewhat deterministic philosophy was the reason why he was willing to tolerate his traveling companion's… less becoming habits, at least somewhat. The same would no doubt indulge them once they both set foot in Vale.
In a way, it was all going full circle from the day they'd first met; he could appreciate the poetic irony of that.
When they'd first met only a few months ago, he'd found the Vacuan had born an uncanny resemblance to two people from his past: fair eyes, golden blond hair, a name deriving from the Eastern Travelers' language… even his manners and personality matched what he'd put together from what he'd seen of them only a few years ago.
Suffice to say, he'd not expected to have inadvertently chased down someone like that, certainly not when he'd had no prior knowledge of that someone's existence. Or for such a person to have ended up on his home city's shores by stowing away on a freighter, of all things—let alone for them to have done so with the intent of getting to a place as prestigious as Haven Academy.
It had felt like a strange message from above of some sort; if it were, then he owed it to himself to decipher it.
As he reflected on that first encounter with the casual stowaway—and skilled shoplifter, because of course he was—he supposed it was not the strangest way he'd made someone's acquaintance.
While the pair sat in silence under the cover of some crates, his thoughts shifted from the Faunus beside him to the people he resembled—and the day he'd first seen them for himself.
He'd had a lot of very bad days in his early life that had since been seared into his memory, but they had all played out before he'd gained his freedom. Back when he was still a weak, desperate child.
Back when he was still innocent.
What set that day apart, aside from its recency, was the fact that it was something he'd actively brought on himself: he'd chosen to go and peer at the life he'd lost the chance to live. And as much as it hurt to see how much happiness and love he'd missed out on, it paled in comparison to the pain of letting go of the same people he would have shared in it with.
Especially when she'd seen him at the last moment. It would have been hard enough to have to leave her behind without her ever knowing he'd ever existed; it hurt even more that she did know, and that she'd inadvertently activated their innate soul-bond and thus felt his pain. There was no way she could have forgotten something like that.
Knowing he was going back to where it all started, where those he'd left behind still were, disquieted him greatly. He knew there was a good chance that someday he'd have to face them again—to face her again—but he wasn't yet ready for it. He didn't know what he ought to do or say; he dreaded what she'd say to him, think of him, for doing what their—
A loud blaring broke him out of his brooding. His eyes darted behind him in the direction of the noise, his glowing cyan irises piercing through the darkness in which he'd concealed himself and his fellow young-adult. The latter raised himself up by his own coiled tail like a snake, uncrossed his legs, and set his feet down on the floor as he shifted his weight onto them.
"Looks like we're finally here, big guy," Faunus grinned. "You ready to go?"
He uncrossed his own legs, setting his feet onto the crate upon which he'd sat into a perching position, and hopped off, landing silently onto the floor as his thick cape billowed out behind him like a pair of great wings catching the wind. As he rose to his full height—a full head taller than his compatriot before him—his outline remained veiled in shadow. The only other discernible details of him were his broad, muscular shoulders, and his signature bycocket that concealed most of his face beneath its tilted brim.
He nodded.
The monkey Faunus' cocky grin widened as he turned around and gestured subtly with his head to the stairway. "Right this way, Mister B—"
"HEY!" A crew member shouted as he shone a flashlight on the blonde. "WE GOT A STOWAWAY DOWN HERE!"
… Rook's concept of fate was especially comforting to him in times like these.
Yang was, altogether, having a very weird Saturday morning.
First off, Weiss had been in a good mood, which turned out to be because—with preparations for the Vytal Festival starting—she now had a prime opportunity to scout out the competition from the other Academies for the Vytal Tournament, which in turn had eventually led them to the docks (and inevitably, the smell of fish, which had make Yang understandably sick and Blake inexplicably hungry).
Next, the black-haired girl had for some reason started arguing with the blanchette about the White Fang group after the latter's mood was dashed by the site of a dust shop robbery because one of the cops at the scene mentioned them offhandedly—never mind that Ruby, trying to be the responsible team leader Yang knew she could be, had tried to speak up and deescalate the situation.
Then, just as soon as the topics had shifted seemingly out of nowhere, they came to a sudden pause when they'd spotted a stowaway jump off some ship coming in to harbor.
All that had led to the current moment where said stowaway had just rushed past them, with Weiss chasing after him—both Ruby and Blake following suit—and Yang finding herself frozen in place.
Because just as she'd started to move behind her team, she'd felt something in her soul—something so strikingly familiar that it sent a chill down her spine.
A very specific feeling of being watched.
…It can't be—!
She spun around so quickly her hair flung against her face and into her eyes, and in the brief moment she'd taken to move them aside she narrowly missed the silhouette of a figure silently, swiftly and subtly slipping across the street ahead of her. All that remained within sight beside said street was the moored ship where the stowaway had come from. She stared dumbly at the scene, the sensation gone with the wind.
Before her mind could process what had just happened, she was yanked by the arm towards the direction she'd faced only moments prior, snapping her out of her stupor and distracting her from the thought.
He would almost have laughed to himself but for his pulsing heart. The very encounter he'd been dreading only minutes before had just, just almost come to pass. He'd escaped her line of sight by a split second.
He'd only just slipped off the ship unnoticed when he'd caught sight of none other than them—just as Sun had rushed ahead and passed them by into the city. He'd barely been fast enough to slip into the alleyway just across the street before she could see him.
He already knew she'd sensed him: the soul-bond they shared allowed for a certain "connection" between their Auras that established whenever they came close to one another; tapping into it had allowed him to sense her feelings, to experience them, that day—but it had also made her instinctually aware of his presence.
Now, that had happened again.
As narrow as the chance thereof was, he hoped she might chalk it up to a fluke, if for no other reason that he was not ready to face her; his mission almost didn't cross his mind in that moment.
But he did just barely remember it; and so, as soon as he noticed the thought, he set his focus onto it and steadied himself.
This was not the time to brood. This was the time to hunt.
Now that Sun had kept all the attention focused on himself, Rook could sneak into the city and start looking into the matters he intended to.
Although, he paused, this is no doubt a sign as well—she'll eventually get involved in all of this anyway, if she hasn't already.
For her sake, I pray she hasn't.
… But, I might as well check on them both while I'm here. Just need to stay out of range.
Just to make sure they're okay.