Chapter Text
Ren sighs as he enters the elevator going up Shade academy. For a building called Shade, it was not much cooler in the building than it was outside. Pressing the button he wonders why Blake of all people asked him to be there. Usually it was Ruby or Oz, Blake assigning a mission was out of the ordinary, but they were fighting a war, so anything could happen. Anything given that Jaune had gone back to the Ever After and abandoned them again. Now it was just him and Nora. Nora barely even had time for him anymore, always off on missions. They communicated by their scrolls though. They had finally been able to get the CCT back up from the grimm. The elevator dings, snapping him back to reality from thinking about Beacon.
Stepping off the elevator he walks down the corridor looking for the correct room, room 22 of the conference rooms. He finds the room on his right and pushes his way through the door.
“Finally you're here” Blake says, standing on the other side of the room from the door, with a plain black long sleeve shirt and black sweat pants on.
“Your late” remarks Emerald leaning on a chair on the left, looking fully dressed and ready for combat with her weapons sheathed. Sitting in the chair next to Emerald was ilia dressed as normal.
“Don't be mean emerald, we just got here as well.” remarks Ilia as Ren slides into a chair on the right side.
Blake interrupts the two before they start bickering, “all right, all right, no Ren you're just on time, Emerald’s just being Emerald.”
“Rude” Emerald murmurs quickly stuffled by Ilia lightly slapping her on the arm.
“Anyway” Blake continues “I have an important mission for the three of you, you three are to go to the north east just outside of Grimm territory. We have found a camp of what's left of the Red Fang. They have been using our ignorance of the Grimm territory to stay under our radar, but now that they have been found it is your job to round up any that are still loyal to their cause and capture their leader.”
“I thought there wasn't any more Red Fang now that Adam is dead” Ilia interrupts, this time Emerald gently slaps her shoulder with a smirk on her face.
“Emerald,” Blake warns “Ilia as it turns out there are still small factions who are loyal to his cause, and there are big flags of the Red Fang on their walls, so it's kinda confirmed. We need you all to get inside and scope out the situation with your Semblances, while our main forces take a bit to get there. When we take their base we can expect Grimm to come, so we have to be prepared. You will also set up a base camp nearby out of sight. Got it?”
Ilia raises her hand and Emerald rolls her eyes
“Yes Ilia”
“Why are you assigning this mission , it's usually Ruby that does this?” Ilia asks, voicing Rens questions.
Blake hesitates for a moment before composing herself and Ren takes note of the pink petals cascading around her.
“I was originally going to do this mission, but I decided to go to Vale, for vacation, with Yang, we have decided to go and stay with her dad for a bit and visit her hometown and nearby places. We will also be there to provide any extra support to Vale if needed.”
Ilia sits back in her chair as Blake continues
“And the reason why Ruby isn't giving you the assignment is because she is off in Atlas providing support for Weiss with the Schnee dust company and other things probably” rolling her eyes at the end she says “but that doesn't really matter, what matters is your mission okay?”
They all nodded and started to get up to go, as Emerald and Ilia walked out Blake called to Ren
“Hey, one sec would you? Could you keep an eye on those too, I can't tell if they actually hate each other or if there is something else going on.”
“You got it,” Ren responded flatly, looking at the swirling petals of worry floating around Blake. Spinning around he walks quickly out trying to catch up with the other two, so he doesn't have to wait for the next one.
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Heading to the airship docs Emerald and Ilia continued bickering. When they get down to the docs they start to help loading the ship with all of the supplies needed for a few weeks worth of time. Ren stops for a bit while Emerald and Ilia finish the last two loads. Stopping to stare he notices the gentle floating pink petals swirling among the petals of nervousness and a few anger petals here and there. Looking further he sees how they bump against each other constantly and are somehow always by each other's sides. On the other hand though they pushed each other and their banter was one to rival Blake and Yangs. He wonders if there really is something more going on than playful rivals. Maybe a blooming romance?
“Hey, dude, Ren, it's time to go. You want first shift?” Emerald calls from the ship's door to Ren breaking his thought off. Ren nods as he gets up to Emerald before she closes the door. He then heads up to the driver's seat. Ilia was already sitting in the passenger's seat.
“Oh hey Ren, I guess since you're up here you're flying us first?” Ilia says as soon as she looks up at him from her scroll. With his nod she heads down to the seats with Emerald to the passenger section.
Sitting down in the driver seat Ren gets out his scroll and sends a quick text before starting the ship.
‘Hey Nora, is there anything going on with Emerald and Ilia?’
After getting the ship to a cruising altitude he checks his scroll again.
‘Hey, Ren, it's not like you to text first, but nah i don't think so i mean there are rumors going around that they hate each other, but there are also rumors that they spend all of their time together, so idk’, are you going on a mission with them why do you want to know??????’
Ren responded with a thumbs up. After being with Nora for so long he still didn't get where she got all of her energy from.
With the soft click of buttons he sets the Air ship to the coordinates Blake sent him and settles in for a long night.
After a few hours of absolute nothing he drowsily walks down the steps to the passengers area. There he spots Emerald and Ilia already asleep next to each other. Ilia had her arm wrapped around Emerald’s waist and Emerald was cosied up against Ilia’s chest. After a quick fight with his mind about waking them up he decided to wake up Emerald for the next shift.
Emerald murmurs slightly when Ren lightly shakes her awake and she rolls away from Ilia. Sitting up she rubs the sleep from her eyes. Calm petals float around her as Ren says
“It's your turn, you can wake up Ilia if you wanna do the shift together.”
Responding slowly Emerald states “Nah she needs the sleep, she has trouble sleeping after being with the white fang”
Ren spots the flurry of pink petals begin to mix with the other petals as Emerald then stands up and lays her blanket atop Ilia.
Ren then begins to set up his own blanket on the other corner as Emerald tip toes up to the Pilot space.
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With a jolt Ren is awoken by a hand shaking him awake. Turning he finds Ilia crouching next to him.
“Hey dude, it's time to wake up, we are just about to land” she then leaves to go back up to the pilot area, where Ren assumes Emerald is. Sitting up Ren looks around, picking up his scroll. They were about 5 minutes from the landing time assuming they kept on track. Hurriedly he cleans up the blankets and straps himself into a seat for landing. The seat was not very comfortable to begin with and it was not helped by the rocky landing. He would have to make sure he landed next time, he trusted himself to do that better than Emerald and Ilia.
“Letsss goooo! First try!” Yells Emerald from the pilot room. Ren slaps his forehead in despair about this mission going smoothly. Unbuckling, he heads for the door. As he opens it Emerald and Ilia run down the stairs, Ilia chasing Emerald trying to grab her. After a chaotic struggle both end up on the ground somehow.
“Guys” Ren reprimands
“Sorry” they chorus standing off and dusting eachother off. As they do that Ren again notices the pink petals of attraction and love flow down, with an added hint of pink on Ilia’s skin. The pink however went unnoticed by both of them.
‘Yup definitely something going on’ remarks Ren to himself. They all then started to unload everything off the airship. Emerald and Ilia kept up with their regular banter and yet they never completed a trip of supplies without the other. A little while later it was all unloaded.
Ren was grabbing the tents as a temporary solution until the rest of the forces got there. Looking at the three tents and after a second of pondering he decided that they only had 2 tents and they had forgotten 1. Promptly hiding the third one in a storage bin behind some food storage they won't unpack until way later. As the only guy, Emerald and Ilia would be forced to share a tent. Maybe this was an opportunity to make Emerald and Ilia actually maybe figure things out. Ren figured that they had either not realised it yet, or they were trying to hide it for some reason. Either way looking at their closeness during the trip, something was going on, something unexpected, but good. He was sure at least Ilia had a crush on Emerald.
Emerald getting his attention snapped him back from his scheming “Hey Ren, me and Ilia are heading out to do some scouting and to make sure the base didn't see us on our way in.”
Nodding in response Ren started to unpack the first tent as they headed off together into the brush.
After he set up the two tents he sits down on a very convenient log and pulls out his scroll.
‘Hey blake we have arrived on time’
He got an almost immediate response of
“Good was there any trouble on your way in? How are Emerald and Ilia anything of note?’
‘No trouble, but i can say that there is something going on between them’
‘Damn anything bad?’
‘No just pink petals’
It took blake a bit to respond after that
‘PINK PETALS???????? Are you sure not red, Damn thats unexpected’
‘(Imagen this is a thumbs up)’
‘Okay are they together then?’
‘No, i don't believe so’
‘Check for me please it would be nice to have all the feelings sorted out.’
‘(imagen this is another thumbs up)’
After a bit Ren looks up from this scroll to Emerald and Ilia walking back into the campsite. Hurriedly he puts his scroll away into his pocket.
Looking around Ilia notices “where's the third tent?”
“Forgot it” Ren says nonchalantly to a shocked Ilia. Emerald however seemed fine, but the petals of pink, gray of worry, and orange of anxiety gathering around her said otherwise. Ilia however was a mess of pink with some of her skin flickering to pink and orange. It was obvious she was trying to suppress it.
“Well I can just sleep outside” Ilia says quickly shut down by Emerald
“Nonsense, it's gonna get freezing cold, we may be in Vacuo, but it can get really cold at night and with your outfit on, you're gonna freeze.” She states genturing to Ilia’s outfit which Ilia responds to by looking away the petals of pink flowing faster throughout the air around her.
“Fine we can share” she quietly responds looking back at Emerald “but I get the left side.”
“You got it boss” Emerald responds walking to the tent to put hers and Ilia’s stuff inside.
“I will go get some more firewood,” Ilia says, apparently wanting some time to think as she quickly walks into the forest, quickly disappearing with her skin turning the colors of the leaves, trees and shadows.
Eventually Emerald comes back out of the tent, back to the fire Ren had started from the meager pile of firewood they had been given to start their trip. Sitting down with a sign she asks Ren “Do you think somethings up with Ilia? She was acting weird. Do you know what emotion she was feeling?”
“I try to not reveal what people are feeling to other people, it's already an invasion of privacy, what I do.”
“Uuuugg you good people have such a conscience. No offence”
“None taken”
A small silence filled only by their own thoughts and Ren setting up a small kettle for hot water ensues until.
After putting the kettle down on the fire Ren asks “What's your and Ilias relationship?”
“Wow straight to the point dude, why do you ask?”
“Just curious”
He responds and after a short silence Emerald suddenly blurts out “She is my first friend you know. I mean I had Cinder, but she was more of a mentor than a friend and of course there was Mercury, but we all know he was a bitch. I don't wanna lose her or make her uncomfortable, you know. Me and Ilia met actually on a mission with Blake and Yang. We bonded over how insufferably in love those two are and now, well, when she is gone I just feel empty. By the Brothers, sorry for rambling being on the good side has made me more open and I talk a lot now, you know.”
Responding quietly Ren says “It was like that for me when Nora left, maybe you should tell her that tonight, I wish I had, but by the time I wanted to I was too late.”
“Thanks Ren, you know for a guy who sees emotions, you were very bad at them with Nora”
Suddenly the Kettles goes off
In response Emerald says “Well that's my que to go find Ilia, maybe I will talk to her.”
After Ren points her in the right direction Emerald walks away and Ren realises that whenever Emerald talked about Ilia there were pink petals and a soft smile. Turning back to the fire he wonders if maybe he should text Nora.
Walking off into the bushes Emerald wonders what is up with Ilia and what is up with herself, it really isn't like her, talking about emotions and maybe even apologizing. Well that is if she did anything wrong in the first place. Suddenly a finger pokes her in the side. She quickly stifles a scream and turns around to a figure of yellow and pink.
“Ilia” Emerald hissed
“Got you, you know for a stealth mission you weren't being very quiet, stomping around.”
“Hey I will have you know I am very good at it when i'm expecting something or stalking someone.”
“Guess i'm too good for you”
“Maybe, but come one lets head back to the fire, I snagged along some hot chocolate packets and Ren boiled some water for his tea, so we can steal some” Emerald then grabs Ilia’s hand and pulls her along, with the touch unintentionally keeping her quiet for the walk back. Thoughts race in both of their heads, although none is spoken aloud.
While Emerald and Ilia were off in the brush, Ren pulls out his scroll and texts Nora.
‘Hey Nora, sorry for kinda leaving you hanging. I believe I should try to get better at that. I do believe that there is something going on with Emerald and Ilia, all I can see when they are together are pink petals. I also had the thought of making them share a tent, so we will see how it goes in the morning. Also maybe when I get back from this mission, we could talk as well’
Putting away his scroll he pulls out a cup and grabs the hot kettle, setting it down quickly, he then gets a tea bag and pours the hot water as fast as he can because the heat begins to hurt too much slight splashes dance on his hand holding the cup. Then settling down on the ground he begins to meditate, the light of the sun completely going into shade.
As Emerald and Ilia get back they grab their hot chocolate and try to be quiet so as to not disturb Ren, Emerald letting go of Ilias hand in doing so. With their hot chocolate in and they slip into the tent, both trying to hide into their respective sides, which is basically impossible based on the small size of the tent. Backs touching every so often as they try to set up their blankets. Finishing their hot chocolate, finally they both set up and lay down looking away from each other.
“Hey Ilia, sorry If this is making you uncomfortable.”
Turing to face her Ilia responds with “The sleeping arrangement? No it's fine really, I'm just not really used to being in the same space as other people, well besides Blake you're the only other person so far.”
Emerald then flips over to face Ilia and suddenly their faces are very close to one another.
“Is it really okay because if it's not I can just go sleep on the Airship?”
“Em stop worrying, besides it's way too cold for you to sleep on the airship, why are you worrying anyway? Are you uncomfortable with this?”
“No, no I was just making sure that I didn't pressure you into doing something you didn't want to do and I didnt want you to leave anyway, I also haven't shared a tent with anyone before, I was always alone, even with Cinder and Mercury we always had separate sleeping spaces. And honestly thank god for that.”
Ilia responds with a slight laugh “Ya lots of things have changed since we both decided to to switch sides, now I know what todo”
“And I'm free, and yet I'm somehow never alone anymore. You're always here like glue, its annoying” Emerald joked, them now both gigiling
Through chuckles Ilia asks “How did that even happen anyway? The always being there like glue part. We met on that mission with Blake and Yang and well I guess we never parted ways”
“It might be because we might have been the only two people not partnered up, you know the thing at the schools that they do to get teams, I guess we kinda did that without the throwing us through the air part.”
The chuckles eventually fade into sleepy drowsiness and eventually sleep.
Ilia wakes up to Ren waking her up.
“Ilia it's your turn to be on watch”
Shifting awake she rolls over and opens her eyes to Emeralds face and her arm wrapped around her waist. Somehow she had grabbed her while she was asleep and was sleeping silently. Quickly and quietly she moved Emeralds arm off of her and scrambled out of the tent and walked to the campfire. Just before Ren got into his own tent he couldn't help but chuckle at the flood of pink coming from Ilia while she just stared into the campfire. He went to bed wondering if this mission would in fact go on without a hitch.
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“Ilia, Ilia, Ilia” Emerald says, trying to get Ilia up, as apparently the light of dawn wasn't doing so. Exasperated, she gets some water from her water bottle nearby and drips it into Ilia ear. Quickly startling her awake with a yelp.
“What The Fuck, Man. Not cool” Ilia stumbles, mouth still kinda asleep apparently. She then tackles Emerald and in the small space, grabbing at the water bottle trying to get revenge. After a small struggle she manages to get the bottle, but then she realises what position she is in. looking down she sees Emerald, her waist straddled by Ilia legs, while she tries to look away. Ilia quickly jumps off not before splashing the tiny bit of water left on Emerald thus enacting her revenge. Ilia without a word pushes her way out of the tent flaps and walks to the airship leaving Emerald in the tent.
Ilia stalks to the Airship grabbing a box of dust for her weapon and a rations pack and just sits in the airship. Ren, already up and ready, sharpening his blades and checking his gun looks up in slight amusement as he could feel the emotions radiating from Ilia and heard everything. Looking at Ilia just confirms his suspicions. Pink and slight orange swarm in a flurry around Ilia with her skin almost mirroring the petals. After a slight chuckle he returns to his weapons.
Emerald on the other hand, was still laying on the tents floor, heart pounding. ‘What was that?’ she thought to herself. Never had she thought that simply waking Ilia up would lead to, well, that. Her face heating up she covers it with her hands rolling around on the ground. ‘How can anyone be so cute, but so annoying at the same time? It's infuriating, I don't like it, it's no way she would even like me, right’ sitting up she tries to compose herself, but fails, falling back into the ground just at the thought of Ilia's thighs pressing against her waist staring down at her like that. After a while through a battle of emotions she does compose herself enough to sit up and step outside.
“You two ready?” Ren says from the campfire putting his weapons into his sleeves.
“Yup” the two say in unison, but unable to look each other directly in the eyes. They then all head into the brush toward the camp. Emerald and ilia on either side of Ren. As they get closer to the camp Ilia shifts into the forest colors and Ren closes his eyes in concentration.
“There are 4 patrolling the border of the camp it should be pretty easy to get in and out”
A thought then went through Ilia’s head “Wait why aren't we doing this at night?”
The other two paused and then Emerald spoke “so we can be awake, It's not like you would have gotten awake any earlier anyway, also less chance of grim.”
“It's also early enough that not everyone will be awake” Ren adds
Ilia just nods, silent from the mention of Emerald waking her up.
After a thought Emerald says “Maybe we should separate to cover more ground before everyone wakes up then”
“Good idea” Ren responds “we should be back here in about an hour”
Both Emerald and Ilia nod, then go in separate directions. Ren goes his own way after taking note of the two going separate ways. ’Perhaps they want some time with their own thoughts’ Quietly he waits for an opening and he gets it when the guards turn their backs to continue going around the encampment. Quickly he squeezes through a hole in the wall and takes in his surroundings. He had come into the camp near a small farm where there was even a small stream. Ren then ducks behind a nearby crate for some cover and continues his searching.
Ilia on the other side of the camp sneaks in a similar way, climbing though the wall. She lands near a clump of tents, staying near the wall she takes a peek inside a few of them. Inside she seems just people sleeping, even a few children here or there. She continues looking for anything suspicious, and coming across some barrels she looks inside and finds some cloth. She then keeps searching the other barrels nearby.
Emerald, after taking a look at the front gate and seeing that there was only one person guarding it, she just walks in the open gate using her semblance to hide herself from the guard. The camp was nearly deserted from it being early morning and it appeared that everyone was still asleep. Spotting a big tent she walks over to it. Peering inside there is a desk with a bunch of papers on it and a few drawers. Walking in further she picks up a few pages, but it's in a language she can't read. ‘Must be old’ she thinks to herself. Turning around she spots a pan as it flies toward her head right before it knocks her out cold.
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