Scorned (Rainbow Six Siege Fanfiction)

*under revision* Engravings

"Yes?" Beau chuckles nervously.

"I'll go a little easy on you." Ritual reassures. Beau backs away and takes his stance, to which she curiously cocks her head.

"Shields are a little close for comfort, no?" He chimes.

"You can't be all passive or they'll pin you." Ritual stretches and cracks her knuckles. "Keep pushing me away every time I'm too close for your liking, okay?" She encourages with a gesture for him to come at her. Beau nods firmly, eyeing her down through the viewport and watching her slowly circle him. He bends to her movements, shrinking away from her shyly, unlike the rest. She takes a bigger step forward to close the gap with her pistols trained on him. Beau holds his breath and suddenly stands up, thrashing and sending her back. She lands on her side and quickly recovers. They go through this a few more times, each sending her into the snow. She doesn't fight back. "Good work." Ritual compliments.

"Thank you." Beau chuckles slightly, stretching his arms before resuming his position with her. They train for a few hours, until Ritual's forearms are sore from bracing his shield. She gets up one last time, panting softly as he rushes to her. "Are you-"

"Don't worry, Beau." She chuckles, waving her hand. She stands up and shakes her whole body, letting the snow fall off of her and create its own miniature storm. With a small sigh she pats his back. "I'm alright. You did really good today, so let's just relax."

"Okay." Beau smiles and timidly follows her back through the garage and he slips into the locker room. Plopping down onto the bench, he removes his helmet and boots when Ritual sits next to him. She grabs her usual stack of papers and books she always carried, plucking her sketch book from the stack and flipping through.

"You made these?" He shifts a bit to look at the book in her lap, subconsciously brushing his cheek against the pocket on her sleeve. He feels something inside and moves away, making Ritual scoff to herself as she flips the pages and watches him examine it curiously.

"Yes, but...I don't know what to give you." She closes the book after a moment, turning away to hide her sligt guilt. Her eyes land on her own shield leaning against the wall. Something compels her to take it. "You should take this one for now."

"Yours?" He chimes, cocking his head and carefully leaning it against his knee. "You sure?"

"Da, da, just..." Her words fall off as she watches him, staring into the weapon's surface with a certain touched expression. "Beau?"

"You are..." He slowly meets her eye. "Thank you for trusting me."

"Of course." Ritual pats his back. "You're sheepish, sure, but I know you've got a fighter under all that body armor. I'm here to bring that out of you."

"Well, if you can't, no one else can." He chuckles, making Ritual laugh. "I look forward to training tomorrow." The man gets up, getting ready to walk out.

"Wait wait, I'm not done yet." She stops him, making him slowly turn back to face her. "I want to ask you something."

"Oh, sure," He smiles, reclaiming his seat. "What is it?"

"I noticed when we met that you have spots." She starts, looking at the markings across his face as his expression shifts. "What are they?"

"You did?" He nervously brushes the back of his neck. "Ah, it's Vitiligo..." He answers in a near mumble. She could see his emotions toward it like reading a stop sign.

"It's more like a scar to you, huh?" Ritual asks softly. "What happened?"

"My appearance was... Always a point of contention. I started getting my spots when I was just a boy... I missed out on a lot of my childhood because I was cast out. Different. My red hair got me assaulted once, so I learned to keep my head down. I used to have a hood that became like second skin. Even now, it feels like it never left me..."

"I promise you, I know the feeling." She sympathizes, staring through the very thing she was speaking of. "But there are things we don't change because we can't, and there are things that we don't change because we shouldn't have to."

"I wish I could change my skin..." He trails off with a nervous laugh.

"I'm glad you can't..." Ritual suddenly takes his face in her hands, holding him like an expensive vase. His eyes were wide in surprise, but he holds perfectly still. There's a deep silence as she turns his head slightly, looking over the large patch that engulfed his left eye. "Because you shouldn't have to. You have beautiful engravings."

"Engravings?" He whispers softly. He smiles sweetly after a moment, enjoying the warmth of her hands.

"I like to think of them like that; all the details that are carved by fate to shape us into who we are." She lets go of him, sitting back a little. "Would you like to see my engravings, too?"

"Oh, you don't have to do that for me-" He starts to say, but she has already clicked her mouth piece out of place. Lifting her top over her head, she reveals the scar that rose from her belly and up to her forehead, the last bit hidden by her visor. "Wow..." His eyes trace the entire length of it before he reaches out, mesmerized. He gently traces the large slice running up her front, making her wince. As he moves past her chest, he can feel her heart nervously thumping, drawing his hand away shyly. "What happened here?"

"I once asked someone why their bayonet was upside-down." Ritual shakes her head. She takes his hand, placing his finger at the bottom of the scar and following its pink trail up her stomach, across her ribcage, past her sternum and all the way to the top, which laps at her chin, pausing for an inch and resuming at her lip and up to her brow. "He showed me."

"What about this?" He brushes his thumb over a circular mark on her collarbone.

"My partner..." She draws in a sharp breath, remembering the bittersweet moment. "Branded me with a bullet."

"And this?" Beau cautiously takes her face in his hands and looks over her tan skin. He examines the scar on her nose first.

"A shell went straight past my face. That was the day I decided to get a full-face helmet." Ritual chuckles softly. "And these two," she gestures to the two marks on her cheek, nearly obscured by the helmet padding. "These were from long ago, when I had a different name."

"You have more scars than I've ever seen." He says softly, looking over them all. Her body, her arms, her face, down to her fingers, before they all disappear behind her clothing once more.  

She doesn't flinch as his thumb suddenly brushes her bottom lip, the only thing still exposed, then slides over to the small gash and lifts it. She parts her lips partially to let him see all he wants. He admires her sharp canine teeth, letting her lip fall away from his thumb and just holding her face for a moment in his hand. She instinctively licks her lip, making him blush slightly, to which he quickly pulls his hand away.

"It's a deep, ugly scar, but it's who I am... And I kind of like that." She smiles slightly before hiding it behind her helmet again.

"I...Thank you. F-For showing that to me--Your 'engravings'." He smiles back, clasping his hands together. "I appreciate it."

"Be more confident, Beau." She encourages, patting his shoulder. "Now go relax."

"Yes ma'am," He nods and stands up. Ritual follows him out. The man gives her a wave before climbing up to his loft. "Goodnight, Kámá." He chimes, watching her stop to look at him.

"Goodnight..." She gives a gentle wave back, smiling to herself as his new call sign pops into her mind. "Graves."