#clockwork---heart

"You wanna color with me?" Asked as Oscar just. Walks into James's office. Pushes aside some of the paperwork on the desk and sets a box of crayons and a coloring book down. "Studies show... when you take a 5 minute break to color.. Um.... your mind is rested!"

The general wanted to politely decline, but before he did, his documents got pushed to side of the desk.

His shoulders dropped a little. He already lost that one. Can't say no now.

From Yang!

gentleness action prompts

Qrow has to hunch down to really set his chin on Yangs shoulder, peering at her screen and trying to figure out what's on it.

He's got his own mug sitting on the corner of the general's desk, while a plate sits front and center for James. A steaming steak sandwich and a side of roasted potato salad on the plate. He's even being so nice as to let James have coffee if that other mug is for him... As long as he also drinks a glass of water with it, based on the large glass sitting next to it. Poor James isn't escaping drinking water that easily.

"Hi James. All of Atlas is clowning on you, you know? Can you eat a full meal so they shut up?"

And stop texting me? He's still not over Roman somehow having his number.

It is Ozpin's posture. It seems like a "you're in trouble with the immortal higher being" posture.

But the meal seems... tasty. Maybe even nice.

"Not all." It surely did not reach the Mantle. Yet. Nor the villages further north. Probably.

He is going to carefully sit in his chair. Give him a moment. Then he will slowly eat his sandwich, not spilling anything, because his desk must remain clean.

📱 You haven't remodeled the kitchen attached to your living space right? 🕊️

[Several minutes pass]

📱 Good, you haven't. 🕊️

Now that sounds threatening. Oddly terrifying even.

📱What are you doing in my kitchen?

Oscar puts a single cookie on James's desk. We don't care that you don't like sweets today James. You get a cookie.

Well, he doesn't have a choice, does he.

"If you think you did something wrong, just ask them."

Rude though it may have been, tasting their emotions was probably the only way Ren would know what Weiss was feeling; even now — perhaps especially now — expressing what they felt was most definitely not the white-haired teen’s strong suit. Beginning to slightly rock from side to side (when had they become comfortable enough with Team JNPR’s resident empath to openly stim in front of him?), Weiss frowned softly.

Their shaking hands were shoved as deep into the pockets of their borrowed jeans as they could go. “I know — I know they — when Yang and I got here — ” They invited me into the hug like I was family. For a perhaps too long moment, the fox couldn’t find words, and when they finally did… the swordsman sounded more brittle — more fragile — than Ren had probably ever heard them before.

“Neither said anything, and I don’t know how to ask.”

Oscar says gently, knowing full well how stressed James had been lately. Just because he acted like a kid-he felt safe enough near James to act his metaphysical age- didn't mean he was unable to tell James wasn't doing his best. Wizard could point out his nervous tics with ease, actually.

James froze in his steps, and only then he realised that he was pacing around his office again. Horror clutched at his chest, making it hard to breathe for a moment, but quickly he sucked in a sharp breath, making his body functional again.

Was he that obvious?

Was he slipping so badly?

"I don't-..." need anyone? What a blatant lie. He would give up his entire current life and walk barefoot into the southern wilds, if he got to meet someone there. Anyone. Someone he could trust, just spend his time with and be himself. Just himself, nothing more.

But then he would be leaving all of this on people he cared for. People that trusted him. He couldn't betray them like that. Couldn't turn his back and leave, couldn't put all that burden on them.