Faye's POV
Excitement courses through me at the thought of the ball that is taking place tonight, but I don't know what to wear. I scan my wardrobe with my hand resting on my chin thoughtfully. All I had were combat clothes since I usually travel around. Fancy clothes were just unnecessary.
"Don't think much about it, princess," a familiar voice says as two arms wrap around my waist. "What are we, newlyweds?" I ask with a frown, refusing to face him just in case he's getting ideas. "If you want us to be," he grins.
"Axel, let go and let me think properly," I grumble, rolling my eyes and trying to pry his hands off me. He sighs before finally complying with my request. "There's no reason to think," he says as a matter of fact. He disappears around a corner only to return with the bag from a week ago.
I look at him in confusion when he hands it to me for the second time, the first time being from last week when he wanted me to hold it for him. "Go ahead, try it out," he says with a smile before backing away.
I peek inside the bag to spot a pretty and decorated box. Lifting the cover, I see the gorgeous dress I had liked from that one store last week—the one that Axel went into when we were taking a stroll in the area. My heart swells in fondness, "You didn't have to..."
"Oh but I wanted to," he grins. I can't help but set the box on the bed and wrap my arms around him in gratitude. Who knew he was this thoughtful about others. Flirt or not, Axel is one of the good guys.
~~~
"Hey," I shyly greet the gaping Axel as soft music starts playing in the large, fancy hall. "You look beautiful," he whispers in amazement and adjusts his tie out of nervousness. "And you look quite handsome," I compliment with am honest smile.
Axel smirks at me, gaining a bit of his confidence back, "Then I assume that you won't refuse to have a dance with me?" he positively asks, lending me a hand. My smile stretches wider as I place my hand in his after doing a curtsy, "Why not?"
"Heh. Love birds," Nico appears with a smile on her face. I playfully push her with my elbow before Axel leads me towards an empty spot in the midst of dancing couples. I faintly see Ward taking Nico's hand and smile inwardly.
However, all thoughts of the sweet couple disappear when my partner and I start dancing. My head drops to look down at my feet, trying to keep up with the music. I'd be lying if I said I was good at ballroom dancing so it would do us both good to pay attention to what my feet are doing. I would rather die than embarrass myself at this moment.
I look up at Axel when I get the hang of it, to see a warm smile instead of his usual smirk. A small blush colours my face and I immediately look back down. Oh god, what is wrong with me?
"Hey, don't you go all shy on me now. I want to see your face if we're going to be dancing," he says with a little pout. "You are in no position to make demands," I playfully stick my tongue out at him, no doubt looking weird while dancing, "but I'll make due just this one time. You'll have the honour of dancing with me while looking into my eyes." I'm half-joking, but that's exactly what he does. The blush returns, but true to my words, I don't look away. What could possibly ruin this moment right now?
*BOOM*
Oh right, an explosion.
"EVERYONE EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY! I REPEAT, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"
"What's happening?" I ask no one in particular and grip Axel's hand. "Do you think this has something to do with our mission?" Axel questions. I give it a thought before pulling Axel with me and going against the crowd. Ever tried to go against a river current? Yea, not fun.
"Oof!" I say when I unfortunately bump into someone. Just my luck. "I'm so sorry!" I apologize and raise my eyes to meet a red and black haired girl with silver orbs. My eyes widen noticeably and I let out a gasp. "Ruby..." I whisper in recognition. "Huh? How do you know me? Hey, aren't you the captain of the new team?" the girl tilts her head in confusion.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts. This is not the time to have a lovely chat with my sister. "Nevermind about that. Please evacuate immediately. Axel, " I glance over to my partner, "I'll go check it out first. You call the others."
He nods and quickly takes out his device. I sidestep Ruby, but she tugs on my sleeve. "Shouldn't you be evacuating too?" she asks in confusion. "No, I should go," I reply, pulling on my arm for her to let go. "Then I'll come with you. I can fight," she says with determination.
My eyebrows raise at that. Uncle Qrow wasn't lying when he said that Ruby had turned into one brave woman. However, I shake my head in disapproval at her idea. This is not something that concerns her. It's my team's mission and I have no intention of dragging her into it.
"I'm sure you can, but no, this is something I have to do. I hope we can meet again. I'd love to be your friend," I smile at the thought of spending quality time with my cute little sister, "But I need to do this right now, and only my team. You, have the duty of making sure your team is safe. Now go," I finish before running off, hoping she'll listen. The last thing I want is to find a dead sister who doesn't even remember me after this is all over.
I strain my eyes to see through all the dust that rose up due to the explosion. I clutch my sword.. that is also a gun, Luna Rose, and inch forward blindly. Now that I think about it, that's pretty stupid of me. I swing the sword so that it would clear the dust away, to see a huge crater with a small black object in the middle.
A/N: In place of the goldish colour is dark blue(navy), so it's silver and navy blue. It's also a bit wider and longer.
Standing at the edge with a pocket knife taken out, I throw it in the crater. At once, everything in the crater and around the black object falls apart and buries my poor pocket knife ten feet underground.
At least that wasn't me...
"Faye?" Nico's voice breaks through my thoughts. I look behind me to see my three teammates but frown when I hear other footsteps approaching. "Let's do this quick," I whisper to my teammates
I jump on the clumps of rocks and make my way to the mysterious object as silently as possible. I take a swift observation and mentally take notes. The box isn't fully black—it's bordered with red and there is a lightning bolt inside a star. On the side of the container is a strange inscription.
I slowly pick it up and throw it to Nico, who is the only one who has a bag at the moment. She stuffs it in her bag right before some unknown guests arrive. Atlas... "What happened here?" a man who is full of authority asks me. I try not to glare at him, mostly failing. "I don't know. We just came to check it out."
"Aren't you from Beacon Academy? Return to your dormitory immediately. You're not supposed to be here."
"Right away, sir!" I chirp in fake cheer before leading team FAWN to our room.
~~~
"What was that box?" Nico asks in curiosity. "To be honest, I don't know," I answer, taking the said object out of Nico's bag and placing it on the table. I notice Ward staring at me like he wants to ask something, but he remains silent. "Is there something wrong, Ward?" I question with an eyebrow raised. "Why did you lie to Atlas?" he asks softly, as if to not cause any unwanted anger to rise in me.
"What I said wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth. If what you want to ask is why I didn't tell Atlas that I found an object there, it's because I don't trust them and I think this incident is related to the assignment we were given. That means it's our problem. Not theirs," I finish, trying to be as calm as possible. They know I've been to many places so they can probably infer on their own about why I don't like Atlas. Which is, seen too many things to still believe their lies of protection.
They nod in slight understanding before all our attention is brought to the mysterious black box. "How will this help us fix the situation?" Axel asks. "I'm working on that," I say before realizing my mistake, "We're working on that." They give appreciating side glances at me before looking at the object with heightened curiosity.
"This box can open," Ward observes as he lifts the rectangular prism to eye level. Without properly thinking about it, I take my dagger out and try to force open the container. "Ugh!" I groan as a bright light emits from the box. My eyes widen in the realization of what is happening and I fling myself away from it. "Oh no... everyone get back!!!"
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FUN FACT: The inscription on the black object is written in Hebrew and means, "The Curse of Defici", because I'm childish like that.
I had something completely different planned out but it turned out this way so I'll just leave it. I hope you liked it!
~ Lyragirl11