#legendscatter

she’s stayed silent ever since she came to, rocking with the motion of hazel’s shoulder as he ran until even he was tired – not something she’s ever thought he could be. but he set her down and then walked off on his own, saying something about a follower they’d picked up. she was too numb to even acknowledge it, to do anything but look at the ground. now they are here, wherever here is...alone. after everything cinder had done for her, she’s now back where she never wanted to be again. oh, the thoughts of denial had already gone through her head, the desperation of hoping that the woman might have somehow survived and crawled her way out of the vault. but by now, she knows it’s impossible. that it’s pointless to hope. (part of her has to wonder, though, if she really thinks that, or if it’s all she can dwell on because the cold, sick feeling that had suddenly invaded her before that nightmarish vision appeared still lingers.)

DEATHLESS.

“anywhere?” one hand cups her cheek so gently it may as well be a breeze.  ( he would never make her feel caged / closed in. if she knows only how to run he'll make sure she has no need to )  the other is in her hair and it doesn’t tangle --- instead he remembers his mother weaving beneath the desert sun. his smile is a confidence that masks his pounding heart and the tremble to his fingertips.

this close he counts her eyelashes and thinks of some stupid line about how if her eyes are gold like treasure then maybe he’s a scoundrel. a pirate hoping for just a glimpse of a glory brighter than any before.  ( but then it sounds like he wants to steal her eyes and that? that doesn’t fit too well in his narrative )  so maybe her eyes are just eyes and maybe he’s thanking every god in the sky for the chance to see them. and maybe his hands are shaking against her skin but maybe she’s distracted by the press of his mouth against hers.

fifty ways to kiss someone. send me a 💏 and i will randomise a number in order for my muse to kiss yours…

49. …out of necessity.

Today has been agonizingly long.

Sun got stuck with extra training because of a “disciplinary issue”, (Psh, whatever that means. Anyone that thinks a few spitballs stuck to the back of a professor’s coat isn’t funny needs to take some time to learn what real humor is.) and so has been in the training yards sparring since daybreak. Sparring, drills, hand to hand and obstacle courses. It’s grueling work, and gets less and less enjoyable the longer he’s out in the summer heat. Aside from a nasty sunburn (thanks, universe) he’s pretty sure there’s gonna be a bruise up his back from where he fell off a platform. 

It’s late afternoon by the time he’s free. His whole body aches, and nothing sounds better than a long soak in the tub before falling into a coma for the next few days. Sun drags himself through the door to the team’s dorm, sweaty and aching and letting out a long groan just to let anybody inside know how awful he feels. He throws his shirt off before he’s even closed the door. Next come his shoes, falling in a heap with the rest of his laundry.

Just as Sun starts to grab a towel, he spots Neptune sprawled casually on his bunk. Looking all comfy, pillows piled up under his head with a warm blanket… stupid blue hair falling in his face just right, stupid-er arms and chest looking so, so inviting. Even the way he’s holding his scroll out in front of him is cute…

The idea of a bath suddenly and completely forgotten, Sun takes a few purposeful strides towards Neptune’s bed, towel slipping out of his hand to the middle of the floor, and flops unceremoniously on top of his best friend.

He shoves a hand up against his mouth and shushes him loudly before he can protest. “I,” Sun mutters into Neptune’s neck, “am not gonna let go of you–” arms and legs move to wrap around him in a snug embrace, “–for the rest of the night.” With a little squirm Sun scoots up just enough to kiss him, because a kiss is what he needs, right now, dammit, and already the feel of Neptune’s lips moving against his own is making him forget his sore body.

A long (admittedly sweaty) moment passes while they kiss, before Sun nuzzles his face into Neptune’s collarbone. He can feel the rise of his chest when he lets out a half amused, half exasperated sigh. “Fine.” Neptune says in defeat, dropping the arm holding his scroll to the bed. His wrist is immediately captured with a curl of Sun’s tail. “Can I at least get some pajamas?”

Sun thinks for a moment, but with the way he’s snuggling into him, sleep already pulling at his eyes, he has his answer long before he says it. “…No.”

Neptune clicks his tongue with a muttered, “Asshole,” and kisses the top of Sun’s head.

soft angst starters

“Well that’s your own damn fault, isn’t it?” Roman lets the words spill from his mouth without pause, and regret presses down on him the instant they do. He’s angry, yes, but angry enough to spit right in the face of a woman he couldn’t help but love? A steadying breath, a drag on his cigar, and a hand through his hair reels the emotion back.

She wants to admit he’s right. She wants to say she knows he isn’t. She wants to throw herself into his embrace once more and hide the smile she gets when his stubble scratches at her cheek. She wants to continue on as if nothing has changed. But everything has changed – including him. Or maybe he’s the same, and she’s changed because there is no way she could remain unmoved and indifferent to all she’s learned. So then how can he?

Despite all she’s seen, those definitions and dualities are as crystal clear as ever. They’re maybe the only things she still sees clearly. Friend/enemy. The bandits/the huntsmen. Family/outsiders. The tribe/the academy. Brother/…stranger. There’s no doubt in her mind as to what he’s become. And she curses him; she curses Ozpin; she curses herself. The injustice of it all makes her hand curl tighter around the hilt of her sword, knuckles going white. So much was thrust upon her, upon the four of them, and they had to grow up too fast in a war that should never have been theirs to begin with. And after everything they thought they knew had been turned on its head (with no apology from the one who chose them, who thought children would be an appropriate first line of defence), after the waters had become so muddied…she wishes, she prays that those meanings and clear divides could have become unclear as well, even just a little. Because then she might have been able to tell herself that she is wrong, that she can’t say for certain if she’s doing the right thing, that she can stay with him for as long as it takes to sort this mess out. But she knows better. For that, she hates Becaon’s headmaster most. As well as herself.

We have no one else, a voice in her mind tells her; the lingering traces of a memory, a lesson from their father. Outside of this tribe, we’re on our own. We might not all be blood, but we’re all family. But the bond between the two of you runs deeper than that. And when you’re out there, you must honour that. You must protect each other. And you must each make sure the other does not forget that.

But he hasn’t forgotten, father. He still remembers. Yet he’s chosen this other path. What am I to do then? You never told me. You and I never thought this could happen. Tell me what to do. Or tell me I still tried my best to keep him with us. That it’s not my fault. She might have pleaded that of him if he were still alive, or to herself if she were still that wide-eyed little girl trekking through forests. But she’s grown a toughness that’s so much more than survival skills honed and sharpened to the most lethal point. And it’s only grown over the years, to where nothing can move her (or so she thinks. so she likes to think. so she tells herself during the waking hours of the night, when she cannot stand to lie by Tai’s side or watch the small, sleeping form of her daughter from the doorway). But nothing will move him, either. And so there is only one course left for her to take.

“For now,” she finally says to him, her voice soft yet cutting through the perfect still silence of the night. “I hope that’s still true if we meet again. But he is. And if you’re still going to side with him, even after everything he’s done to us…” She sighs. “There is no hope.” No hope for you, no hope for me, no hope that either of us will change. No hope for humanity’s surviving the growing threat that foolish old man things can be held at bay by those pure, innocent souls he decides to corrupt and ruin on a whim.

She dons her mask, slices her sword through the air, and stands in the blood-coloured glow of the forming portal. But before she steps through it, a thought crosses her mind; and it sickens her, how true it is, that if it had been she who’d tried to stop her now, there would have been no hesitation in her remaining. And I’m not even going to say goodbye to her. I wasn’t going to say it to him, the stubborn drunk, if I’d just been quieter –

But maybe she owes at least that to them. To all of them. Except she knows it would break her to face them and say it. Well, he can pass on the message. “Goodbye, brother. Tell Summer –” Her throat closes, her self-disgust grows. Not ‘tell Taiyang’, not ‘tell Yang’, not ‘tell my family something that will somehow justify this to them’, not ‘tell yourself this last piece of wisdom I will impart when you doubt if I still love you’. All I want is to tell the dying rose I wish she’d bloom forever.

“I’m sure you know,” she mutters.

soft angst starters

He’s known for some time that this conversation would be coming. He’s known that it would be bittersweet. That it would feel like a betrayal to… to his closest friend. All those nights spent in bed together, not because they were looking to fool around but just to hold one another; and then all those other nights (and even days) when all either of them wanted was to kiss, and touch, and feel.

Neptune is more than a teammate. Sun trusts his team, but Neptune? He’s trusted him with more than just protecting his back in a fight.

When Sun started rigging up a prank for Scarlet (who doesn’t love a good ole fashion bucket of water to the face?), Neptune was right there beside him. Sometimes, when things got hard enough that he could barely stand to speak, it was Neptune that sat with him in comfortable silence. It was Neptune that helped him study, even though he didn’t understand the classwork any better than he did. He was Sun’s first real kiss, his first time, his near constant companion while both of them stumbled through adolescence like a couple of blind cats.

It’s always been Neptune.

So what was he supposed to do when this incredible girl came into his life? Say, “Well, it’s been nice bro, but I’ve got a date with a gorgeous girl tonight”? No. Sun wouldn’t do that to him. Neptune deserved better. And Blake… she deserved better, too. But that didn’t make this any easier.

Sun stood back, hands shoved in his pockets, afraid of invading Neptune’s personal space. “I have to go after her, Neptune. I… She shouldn’t have to go through this alone.” The fall of Beacon had left it’s mark on everyone. And Blake had hurt more than most. “I’m worried about her, and I–”

He’s cut short by a surge of emotion in his throat. Eyes shut tight, Sun sighed. “I care about Blake. After everything that’s happened, I know that I can’t keep that down anymore. I know we never really made it official, but I cared about you just as much.” Brows knit together in solemn defeat. This is happening. This is happening, and I can’t run away from it. “I’ll never stop caring about you. But I need to be with her now.”

When he finally looks at Neptune just to see him smiling, he almost feels himself crumble. “I know.” Neptune says, false positivity masking the melancholy underneath. “You think I don’t know you well enough to see when you’re in love? I kinda guessed you were gonna fess up to it sooner or later.”

“Neptune–”

“Stop.” He held up a hand before running it back through his hair. “I understand. And you’re right. Blake shouldn’t have to be on her own right now. So go, Sun. Chase after her and make sure she’s alright. Nobody’s gonna blame you for that. Besides…” Careful eyes look back up to search his best friend’s face. “No matter what, you’ll always be a friend.”

There’s a slow, astonished silence between them as Sun tried to process everything he was feeling. It still hangs over them a moment longer when he steps forward, taking one of Neptune’s hands into his own.