Hey guys RoseSaiyan2 here again! Hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter, it took me awhile to write it. We are getting towards the end of volume 2 of the Rwby story, there are things left unresolved.. but they will get resolved soon.
Nova x Ruby has been getting alot of screen time and development with some snipits of the other pairings such as Turuk x Yang, Daikon x Weiss, and Scarlett x Yatsuhashi. One thing that did annoy me about the cannon Rwby series was the fact they seemed to be building towards a future relationship between Sun and Blake only to completely forget about it and go in a different direction in the later seasons (i.e. volume 7 and 8 for example). But I digress... for now.
I plan to rectify this as it wasn't clear what the relationship between Sun and Blake really was. If you're curious, I plan on at least leaving the chemistry between Blake and Sun there. There'll be a proper end to the story of Sun and Blake. And yes I am changing the cover to a certain chapter.. AFTER the timeskip.
Ruby will be confessing her feelings soon, don't worry. I will probably drag out Turuk x Yang abit longer, but they're close to becoming a couple. As for Daikon x Weiss, thanks to a suggestion from Spector45, I'll be deviating from my original direction with it and incoporating his suggestion for it instead.
Anyways, that's all for now. Enjoy this next chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Dbz, Kai, DBS or Rwby and their characters. Those belong to Akira Toriyama/Toei Animation and Rooster Teeth/Monty Oum respectively. The characters of Tarro and Daikon are property of ComparedDreadx, he's just given me permission to use them in my dragon ball crossover stories.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Field Trip and Origins, Part I
Part I — The Morning After
Location: Ozpin's Office, Beacon Academy | Early Morning
The elevator buttons had been pressed in sequence — all of them, each floor, ascending and descending in a comprehensive tour of the tower that had added approximately six minutes to the journey upward.
Ruby had very little to say in her own defense.
"It wasn't me," she said, as they stepped off on the correct floor.
Nova made a sound.
"I'm serious," she said.
"You make that exact face," he said, "when you're testing something to see what it does."
"I make many faces."
"This is a specific one."
She puffed her cheeks at him, which he accepted without further comment.
General Ironwood was already there when they arrived — standing at the edge of Ozpin's desk with the posture of a man who had been standing there for some time and whose posture had not improved during the interval. Glynda was beside the window. Ozpin was behind his desk with the composed patience of someone who had been listening to Ironwood for longer than was strictly comfortable.
"They were here," Ironwood said. He pressed his fist against the desk's surface. "Inside this school. Inside a secure facility. During a school event."
"We are very much aware of that," Glynda said, with the specific tone she used when she was managing her exasperation rather than expressing it. "Thank you, James."
"Fantastic! You're aware. Now are we going to do something about it, or are we going to continue standing here acknowledging what's right in front of us?"
The alert chimed.
Ozpin looked at the elevator. "Come in."
Ruby and Nova stepped off with the slightly ruffled appearance of people who have been in an elevator longer than strictly required.
"Sorry we took so long," Ruby said. "The buttons—"
"Were all pressed," Nova said, beside her. "By someone."
"It's a very long list of floors."
"It is."
"I was just confirming the layout."
"Ruby."
She relented.
The room rearranged its attention around the two of them with the specific quality of a room that contains several adults who have been waiting for information and are now prepared to receive it.
"How are you both feeling?" Ozpin asked.
Ruby looked at Nova. He gave the small nod that meant your call.
"Okay, I think," Ruby said. "I'd feel better if our—" She stopped. "If our record wasn't zero for three on catching anyone."
The room absorbed this tone and decided to accept it.
"Ruby," Ironwood said, with the careful deliberateness of a man who is about to say something genuinely, "what you did last night is precisely what being a huntress is about. You identified a threat, you acted, and you did everything in your power."
"I appreciate that, General," Nova said, "but I think the credit belongs primarily to Ruby. I was there in a supporting role."
Ruby turned on him with the expression of someone who objects to the framing on multiple grounds. "That is not true. I would not be standing here if you hadn't—"
"You would have found a solution."
"Nova—"
"You always do."
She held his gaze for a moment. The argument she'd been preparing took a different shape in the face of him simply stating what he believed without making a thing of it.
"We helped each other," she said, which was the honest resolution.
He smiled. "That's more accurate."
The adults in the room exchanged the specific kind of look that adults exchange when they are observing something that does not require commentary.
"Now," Ozpin said, "the events of last night. Tell us what you remember."
Ruby described the figure — the mask, the dust-infused clothing, the glass. The way the outfit had lit up before each attack. The specific quality of the movement, efficient and precise and not wasting anything.
"That description matches the woman from the docks last semester," Glynda said.
"Embedding dust into clothing is an old technique," Ironwood said. "It narrows the field but doesn't identify anyone specifically."
Nova had been listening with the focused attention he gave to things he was building a picture from. "Whoever she was, she wasn't expecting two people," he said. "The first exchange was designed for one opponent. She adjusted when she realized there were two of us, but the initial approach was calibrated for one."
"Which suggests she had information about Ruby specifically," Glynda said.
"Or about the mission," Ozpin said, which was a slightly different implication.
"Her safety is important to me," Nova said, which was a plain statement delivered without emphasis, the way he delivered most things he genuinely meant.
Ruby's hands came together briefly at her chest before she made them stop.
"Do you think she's connected to Torchwick?" she asked.
"It's possible," Ozpin said. "But we lack direct evidence to link the two."
"About that," Nova said. "Ruby and I overheard something during the encounter. A reference to an operation, southeast of Vale, outside the kingdom's borders."
Glynda looked at Ozpin. He adopted the expression of a man organizing information.
"Very interesting," he said.
"But you said she never—" Glynda started.
"Thank you," Ozpin said, with the specific courtesy that closed a subject without confrontation. "Both of you. Why don't you go spend time with your teams? You have significant days ahead."
Ruby nodded and turned for the elevator.
Nova didn't follow immediately.
She turned back. "Nova?"
He was looking at Ozpin with the expression of someone who has correctly read a room. "You have something else."
"I do," Ozpin agreed. "Walk with Miss Rose. I'll need just a moment."
Ruby looked between them. Then she looked at Nova.
"Don't take too long," she said.
"I'll be right behind you," he said. "Promise."
She considered this for a moment — the specific consideration of someone who has learned that when Nova made a promise he meant it.
"Okay," she said, and left.
When the elevator doors had closed, Ozpin set down his cup and folded his hands.
"You catch on quickly, Mr. Belladonna," he said.
"It seemed like there was more," Nova said. "I wanted to be right before acting on it."
Glynda smiled, which was the small, private variety she reserved for things she found genuinely pleasing.
"We have a secondary mission for you," she said. "We'd like you and your brother to accompany team RWBY on their upcoming assignment. They'll be shadowing a huntsman in the southeast." A pause. "Coincidentally."
Nova looked at her steadily. "And my team?"
"Professors Rhubar and Sala have requested Daikon, Scarlett, and Aiko for a separate matter," Ozpin said. "Which does leave you and Turuk."
"Two of us," Nova said.
"Two of you," Ozpin confirmed.
"Why us specifically?"
Glynda adjusted her glasses — the gesture of someone about to make a practical argument. "Because you are with team RWBY more often than not. You know their strengths, their tendencies, their ways of responding to pressure. You're the logical choice."
"We'd feel better knowing someone capable was with them," Ozpin said. "Particularly given what happened last night."
Nova was quiet for a moment. He was doing the thing he did — assembling the reasons, finding the edge cases, arriving at the position that had the fewest problems.
"Understood," he said. "We'll do it."
"Thank you," Ozpin said.
"One question." He looked at the headmaster directly. "Ruby — she doesn't know yet. The secondary mission."
"We'd prefer to keep it a surprise," Ozpin said. "Within reason."
Nova considered what within reason meant when applied to Ruby Rose. "I'll tell her soon. She doesn't like surprises that involve her safety being the subject."
"That's her prerogative," Ozpin said. "When the time comes, use your judgment."
Nova nodded. He had been using his judgment for most of his life. It had not always been right, but it had always been his.
He took the elevator down.
Part II — Promises Made
Location: Beacon Academy Corridors | Shortly After
Ruby was waiting in the corridor with her arms folded and the expression of someone who is not impatient but is tracking the time.
"You waited," he said.
"I said I would."
He fell into step beside her. They walked toward the dormitory wing with the comfortable pace of people who had done this enough that the route was automatic.
"So what did they want?" she asked.
He looked at her. At the specific expression she was wearing — the slightly too-casual curiosity that meant she was actually asking because she was genuinely concerned.
"I can't tell you the details yet," he said.
She frowned. "Why not?"
"Because I was asked not to. Not because they don't trust you — I think it's more that the timing matters."
"Can you tell me something?"
He thought about what was shareable. "It involves you. And your team. And it's not anything to worry about — it's actually—" He searched for a way to say it. "It's protective in nature."
She processed this. "You're not going to tell me, are you."
"Not yet," he said.
"Are you going to ruin a perfectly pleasant morning with your sudden commitment to keeping secrets?"
He thought about this seriously. "No," he said. "I'll tell you soon. I promise."
She looked at him. He had said I promise and he meant it, and she knew he meant it, and that was the specific problem with Nova Belladonna — his word had weight, which made it impossible to argue with.
"Fine," she said.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, I'm still deciding how annoyed to be."
"That's fair," he said.
She was quiet for a moment. Then: "There's something I've been wanting to tell you. For a while now."
He looked at her. The specific quality of the words for a while now landed differently than a more casual opener would have.
"Okay," he said.
"Not now," she said quickly. "Later. I just — I wanted you to know that I'm... working up to something. And I'd like you to know that in advance so you're not completely surprised."
He was very still for a moment, in the way he was still when something was specifically important.
"I have something I've been meaning to tell you as well," he said. "Also for a while."
She looked at him. "Okay."
"Also not now," he said.
She almost laughed. "So we're both—"
"Working up to it," he said.
"That's very—"
"Very us," he said.
She laughed, and it was the real one, and the warmth arrived in her chest with the unhurried certainty of something that had made itself at home.
"Yeah," she said. "Very us."
They walked the rest of the way to the dormitory, and neither of them said the thing yet, and both of them knew the other one was thinking about it, and that was, for the moment, enough.
Part III — The Valuation of Military Bravado
Location: Ozpin's Office | Simultaneously
Ironwood had not finished with his position.
"We know their location," he said. "We have a direction. We have evidence of ongoing criminal coordination with a terrorist organization operating inside our borders. I would respectfully submit that the appropriate response to these facts is not patience."
"And I would respectfully submit," Glynda said, "that you have been submitting this exact position for forty-five minutes and the facts of the situation have not changed in response."
"Glynda."
"He does do this every time," Glynda said. "I'm simply observing the pattern."
Ironwood turned from the window. He was a man who moved with the deliberate certainty of someone who had been trained never to be uncertain and had found that training both useful and occasionally limiting. "If we wait and something happens inside this city—"
"Something already happened inside this city," Ozpin said. "Last night. In a secure facility during a sanctioned school event." He stood — not dramatically, just with the purposefulness of someone who has decided standing is the appropriate posture for what they're about to say. "And two students who had no business being there stopped it. Without a military response."
Ironwood was quiet.
"I'm not suggesting we do nothing, James. I'm suggesting that visible force is not the only form of action available to us, and that in a situation where we cannot predict the final objective of our adversaries, broadcasting our hand is precisely the wrong call." He looked at the window, at the festival banners below. "We send scouts. We gather information. We build our understanding of the board before we move our pieces." A pause. "When you prepare to go to war — which is your area of expertise, not mine — do you send the flag bearers first, or the scouts?"
Ironwood looked at him.
Ozpin let the question stand.
Part IV — The Festival of Colors
Location: Beacon Academy Auditorium | The Following Day
The auditorium had the specific quality of a gathering that had been called for a purpose significant enough that even the students who were chronically allergic to ceremony were paying attention.
Ozpin stood at the podium with the unhurried authority of someone who does not need the room's silence to begin but waits for it anyway, because the waiting is part of what he's saying.
"Today we stand together, united."
Ruby had her pack at her feet. She was listening — actually listening, not just processing, the way she did with things that mattered to her.
"Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to its end."
Blake was still. Not absent-still — present-still, the way she was when something was speaking to a part of her she usually kept separate from public occasions.
"It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war about much more than borders or trade routes, but about the very idea of individualism itself."
Weiss had her hands folded. Her expression was doing several things simultaneously, which was not unusual, but the thread connecting them was something close to—
The color naming. The tradition. The way her father spoke about it in one register and what it had actually meant in another.
"We encourage individuality. Expressionism. Unity through diversity."
Nova was standing with Turuk at the edge of the student formation. He had been watching Ozpin with the specific attention he gave people who were saying things worth understanding rather than simply hearing.
"Today, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, Huntsmen and Huntresses will work to uphold it."
The room began to move.
Team RWBY assembled by the departure airships with the efficient choreography of people who have had enough missions together that preparation has become second nature. Packs were checked. Weapons were confirmed. Ruby's optimism, as usual, was outpacing everyone else's by a comfortable margin.
"This is perfect," she said, for the third time since they'd left the auditorium. "We shadow the huntsman in the southeast, we gather intel on the operation, we do it properly this time."
"With actual professional oversight," Weiss said.
"And an actual plan," Blake said.
"And my sunny personality to keep morale up," Yang added.
"That's your contribution to the plan?" Weiss asked.
"Morale is underrated," Yang said.
The mission posting had required some creative engagement with the available options — and Ozpin's specific bending of regulations had produced the outcome it was designed to produce, which was team RWBY assigned to the southeastern quadrant with the freedom to actually do the thing they were going to do anyway.
Ruby had saluted him when he confirmed it.
He had, in return, given her the specific look of a man who has decided to trust someone and is at peace with the decision.
Team CFVY came back.
The crowd that gathered around them had the quality of crowds that gather when people return from something difficult and want to verify they've returned intact. Velvet was pale in the way that people are pale when they've been doing too much for too long and the body has started quietly itemizing the cost.
Blake went to her immediately. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Velvet said. "Yatsuhashi was there when we needed him. It helped." She looked at the four of them with the transparent effort of someone trying to reassure people while also being reassured. "You're shadowing a huntsman, so you'll be fine. You won't be going out alone."
"What happened out there?" Weiss asked.
Velvet was quiet for a moment. "There were just... so many." She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Really. You'll be fine."
She went to her team.
The four girls stood in the specific silence of people who have just received information that is technically reassuring and somehow isn't.
"We can do this," Ruby said.
The others looked at her.
"We have never backed down," she said, with the specific conviction that was not performed — just felt, clearly, and expressed because it was true. "Not once. And we're not going to start because things are harder than we expected." She looked at each of them. "We will go out there, we will do our job, and we will come back with what we need."
Yang's expression moved from something complicated into something simpler and warmer. "Yeah," she said. "Okay."
"And we'll be fighting alongside a professional huntsman," Ruby added. "So whatever's out there, we're not facing it alone."
"Speaking of which," Weiss said. "Who exactly are we shadowing?"
Professor Bartholomew Oobleck greeted them with the specific energy of a man who has been caffeinated since before the sun rose and sees no reason to modulate this.
"Who's ready to fight for their lives?" he said, arriving out of nowhere in the green blur that was his particular mode of spatial transit.
Team RWBY stared at him.
Oobleck looked at them. Then past them. Then at the empty space behind them.
"I was told to expect six," he said.
"Six?" Blake asked.
"The four of you and two others. I received a memo."
Team RWBY exchanged looks.
The sound arrived before the explanation did — the specific sound of two people descending from altitude with the casual authority of people for whom this is simply how you get somewhere.
Two figures came down in lines of blazing white, landing with the coordinated ease of long practice, auras extinguishing as their feet found the ground.
Ruby's eyes went to a size that corresponded to significant surprise.
"That," Nova said, "would be us."
"What—" She stared. "Turuk—and—Nova—"
"Hello, Ruby," Turuk said.
"How did you—when did you—why are you—"
"We volunteered," Nova said simply.
"You volunteered."
"Someone has to keep you from pressing all the elevator buttons."
Ruby made a sound that contained multiple sentences in compressed form.
Yang, beside her, had the expression she got when something had confirmed a theory she'd already formed and she was declining to say I told you so because she was being generous about it.
Oobleck looked at the assembled group — four girls, two additional students, the combined energy of people who were already, before they had left the campus, something considerably more than the sum of their parts.
"Well," he said, with the energy of a man who finds this morning excellent. "This is going to be interesting."
He produced his thermos, took a long sip, and began to move before anyone had confirmed they were following.
"Keep up!" he called, already ten feet ahead.
They kept up.
Part V — The Journey
Location: Airship, Outbound from Vale | That Afternoon
The airship had the comfortable noise of transit — engines, wind, the ambient sound of people settling into the specific patience of a long journey.
Team RWBY had arranged itself around the cabin in the way teams arrange themselves when they've been together long enough to have spatial habits. Nova and Turuk had taken seats near the forward window with the natural positioning of people who prefer to see where they're going.
Oobleck occupied no fixed position. He moved through the cabin with the contained energy of a thermos that was also a person, occasionally gesturing at things through the window and providing historical context that nobody had asked for and everyone was absorbing despite themselves.
"The southeast corridor was among the most contested territories during the Faunus War," he said, appearing beside Yang and then immediately not being beside Yang. "The terrain advantages were significant — the grimm concentration allowed the Faunus forces to use the local wildlife as an additional deterrent against Lagune's forces, a fact that Lagune consistently underestimated because he was, as Miss Belladonna accurately characterized him, inexperienced."
Blake tracked him from across the cabin. "You remember that."
"I remember everything," he said, which was delivered as a statement of fact rather than a boast. "It's the nature of my discipline. History doesn't disappear — it simply becomes the ground we stand on without knowing it."
He was already at the other end of the cabin.
Ruby, who had been watching the clouds through the window with the specific contemplative look she wore when she was thinking about something she hadn't decided to say yet, turned from the glass.
Nova was beside her.
This was not an accident. He had chosen the seat, and she had chosen the same bench, and neither of them had commented on this arrangement because commenting on it would have been a different kind of conversation from the one they were currently not-having.
"You really volunteered," she said, quietly enough that it was between them.
"Yes," he said.
"Why?"
He looked at the clouds for a moment. Then at her. "Because whatever's out there is going to be more than a routine mission. You know that. I know that. And I—" He paused. "I wasn't going to let you walk into it without being there."
She held his gaze.
"That's not—" She stopped. Started again. "You don't have to do that, Nova. I'm capable of—"
"I know you're capable," he said. "This isn't about capability. It's about—" He searched for the right word. "Preference. I prefer to be there."
She looked at him for a long moment.
I prefer to be there.
Filed under later, she thought.
The file is almost full, she thought.
"Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it," he said.
She went back to the clouds. He went back to watching the route.
Their shoulders were very nearly touching.
Neither of them moved.
Turuk, two seats back, was watching Yang watch the sky.
She had the specific quality she had when she was thinking about something she hadn't decided to share yet — the brightness of her usual expression dialed back to something more interior, the golden hair catching the cabin light without its usual performative quality.
"You're thinking," he said.
"That's a little rude," she said. "Commenting on people thinking."
"I didn't say what you were thinking about."
"Still." But she was smiling. "How do you always know when I'm—"
"You do this." He demonstrated, briefly, the slight downward angle of her chin when she was inward rather than outward.
She looked at him. "I've been doing that the whole time?"
"It's not a criticism," he said. "I just notice."
She studied him with the evaluating attention she brought to things she was deciding the value of. "When did you start noticing?"
He thought about it honestly. "Around the second month," he said. "You started noticing things about me around the same time, I think."
"Did I."
"The way you can tell when I'm tired before I say anything. The way you know whether I'm actually fine or just saying I'm fine."
She tilted her head. "You're observant for someone who presents as straightforward."
"I present as straightforward because it's more efficient," he said. "Observation is separate."
She was quiet for a moment. "Yang."
"I said your name," she said. "You said mine earlier. In the same... tone."
He understood what she was getting at. "The tone where it means something specific."
"Yeah."
He looked at the seat in front of him — at the top of his brother's head, and the red-and-black of Ruby's hair beside it.
"I think we're both becoming something," he said. "And I think we're both aware of that. And I—" He paused, finding the precision. "I'd like to continue becoming it. If that's what you want."
Yang was very quiet.
Then: "That is possibly the most careful and also most honest thing anyone has ever said to me about anything like this."
"I thought you'd prefer directness over elaboration."
"I do," she said. "I really do." A beat. "Yes. That's what I want."
He looked at her.
She looked back.
Neither of them said anything else, because nothing else was required, and the cabin's ambient noise continued around them, and somewhere near the front window Ruby and Nova were not-quite-touching in the specific way of people who were becoming something too.
Part VI — Oobleck's Method
Location: Southeast of Vale | That Evening
Forever Fall was behind them. The terrain had changed — less theatrical, more purposeful, the kind of landscape that exists without concern for how it appears. Trees that were older and less colorful. Ground that had opinions about being walked on.
Oobleck had opinions about all of it, delivered at speed.
"The grimm concentration in this region has increased forty-two percent over the past eighteen months," he said, moving at a pace that required the students behind him to sustain more effort than they were accustomed to calling keeping up. "Which correlates with several documented incidents of elevated emotional distress in the civilian population — factory closures, the redistribution of dust contracts, labor disputes that have not been adequately addressed by the relevant governing bodies." He produced his thermos without breaking stride. "Grimm don't appear from nothing. They are attracted to despair. Understanding what creates despair is as important as understanding how to fight what it draws."
Blake was listening with the focused quality of someone for whom this is not academic.
"You've thought about this a lot," she said.
"I've dedicated my professional life to it," Oobleck said. "History is, at its core, a study of the conditions that allow terrible things to happen. If you understand those conditions, you have some hope of interrupting them. If you don't—" He gestured at the trees. "You simply clean up afterward. Forever."
"And the dust robberies?" Weiss asked. "The White Fang involvement?"
"Create conditions of instability," he said. "Economic disruption. Breakdown of supply chains. Communities that feel abandoned by their kingdoms become communities where despair concentrates. Which becomes—"
"Grimm," Ruby said.
"Exactly." He glanced at her. "You're faster than most people give you credit for, Miss Rose."
"People keep telling me that," she said.
"Perhaps you should start believing it."
He moved ahead.
Nova fell into step beside Ruby, who had been processing this with the particular expression she wore when something was reorganizing her understanding of a larger thing.
"He's saying the dust robberies aren't just about the dust," she said.
"No," he agreed.
"They're about destabilizing everything that depends on dust. Which is—"
"Most of the kingdoms' infrastructure," he said. "Lights, heating, weapons, transport. Remove the supply and you don't just inconvenience people — you frighten them. And frightened people—"
"Make more grimm," Ruby said, quietly.
"Which creates a feedback loop," he said.
She looked ahead at the treeline. "That's a really horrible plan."
"It's a very effective one," he said. "Which makes it more concerning, not less."
She was quiet for a moment.
"We're going to stop it," she said.
He looked at her. At the expression she wore when she said things like that — not bravado, not performance, just the flat statement of something she had decided.
"Yes," he said. "We are."
Part VII — Camp
Location: Southeast of Vale | That Night
The camp was small — a clearing that Oobleck had identified with the unhesitating confidence of someone who had been navigating this terrain in various capacities for many years. A fire that was large enough to be useful and small enough not to be conspicuous.
Oobleck was not sleeping. This appeared to be a chronic condition rather than a response to the specific circumstances. He had produced a notebook and was writing in it while simultaneously conducting a conversation with Blake about the historical relationship between the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company's labor practices, which Blake was engaging with more openly than she had engaged with most conversations on the subject.
Turuk had taken the first watch, which suited him. He moved through the perimeter of the camp with the quiet thoroughness of someone for whom this kind of task came from a background that predisposed him to taking it seriously.
Yang watched him go with the specific expression she'd been wearing since the airship.
Weiss was reviewing the data she'd brought from the Schnee records, doing the kind of work she did when she needed to feel useful — systematic, precise, looking for the pattern that connected the dots she'd already placed.
Ruby was sitting near the fire with her knees pulled up, not reviewing anything, not preparing anything. Just sitting, which was unusual enough for her that Nova noticed it immediately.
He sat beside her.
She didn't look surprised that he was there.
"You're quiet," he said.
"I'm thinking," she said.
"About?"
She looked at the fire. "How big this is. How we started with a dust robbery in a shop in Vale and now we're in a camp in the southeast with a history professor who moves faster than most people sprint, and somewhere out there there's a plan big enough to bring down the kingdoms, and we're—" She stopped. "We're first and second-year students."
"Yes," he said.
"That's a big gap between what we are and what the situation is."
"It is," he agreed.
"You're not going to tell me not to worry about the gap?"
He thought about this honestly. "No. The gap is real. Pretending it isn't real is a different kind of problem." He looked at the fire. "But the gap isn't fixed. It closes every time you do something you haven't done before. You've been closing it since the night in the bookshop."
She looked at him.
"That's—" She stopped. "That's a very specific way to think about it."
"It's how I think about my own training," he said. "The distance between where I am and where I need to be. Every day, it's smaller. Not because the challenge gets easier — because I get closer."
She was quiet for a moment.
"Can I ask you something?" she said.
"Yes."
"The thing you were going to tell me. The thing you said you've been working up to." She looked at the fire rather than at him, which was the angle she used when she was asking something she couldn't quite look at directly. "Is it—" She stopped. "Never mind."
"Ruby."
She shook her head. "Later. I said later. We're in a camp in the middle of a mission and this is not the time and I know that."
He was quiet for a moment. "You're right," he said. "Later."
"Later," she agreed.
They sat by the fire, and Turuk's footsteps moved quietly around the camp's perimeter, and Oobleck's voice continued in the background about something historical and specific, and the grimm were silent out in the trees for now, and the specific future that both of them had been not-quite-ready for sat between them with the patience of something that was willing to wait until the moment was right.
The fire was warm.
The night was clear.
It was not the moment yet.
But it was very nearly the moment.
★ END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN ★
Next: Chapter Sixteen — "Field Trip & Origins II; Search and Destroy: Ruby Confronts Her Feelings!"
Hey guys RoseSaiyan2 here, hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it took so long to update this story! I was brainstorming about which direction I ultimately want the story to go in. Again sorry for the wait, guys!
We're getting very close to Ruby's confession to Nova, I see that happening either in the next chapter or the one following next chapter. Turuk and Yang will steadily grow closer as the story gets closer to volume 3. I'm thinking somewhere in volume 3 is when their pairing will come to fruition but.. not quite sure on the timing yet. Maybe you guys can decide, I'm open to suggestions!
When should Turuk x Yang come to fruition?
A. Beginning of volume 3
B. Mid volume 3
C. Volume 4 (during Yang's recovery)
D. Volume 5 (Haven Academy Arc)
What should Scarlett do during the timeskip after The Fall of Beacon?
A. Stay with Jaune to look after him for a while
B. Go off on her own before reconvening with the others following Ruby's recovery
C. Suggested Scenario (comment one)
D. Stick with Aiko, but have Jaune around to train them both.
Should Daikon stick with his teammates after the timeskip following the fall of Beacon?
A. Yes
B. No, have him go off on his own to train before he rejoins the others mid volume 4.
What should Rhubar and Sala do during the timeskip following the fall of Beacon?
A. Stay with Nova and Turuk
B. Go to Menagerie to find the ones who took care of their 2 children for nearly 20 years.
C. Accompany Blake to Menagerie
D. Other suggested scenario (comment one)
Anyways that's all for now. Please vote on the polls, I'm curious to see your feedback on them. As for Aiko's pairing.. I'm thinking either Oscar or Shallot, though I am leaning towards Oscar abit. What do you think? Comment and tell me who I should go with for Aiko's pairing between Oscar or Shallot.
See ya in the next chapter!