Aches and Pains

The sun beat down pleasantly that day, a cool summer breeze blowing by giving relief to the heat, and a few puffy looking clouds floated by in the sky. All in all, it was extremely picturesque, and if there was a single way to describe it, today could probably have been called a pleasant day. Not for Warren though, as he limped his way across the courtyard, even as he did his best to hide it. There'd been a bombing only a few days ago, the perpetrator of which was still unknown, however Warren had had the misfortune of being within the classrooms when the explosions happened, injuring him much more than he'd care to admit. The last three days had been spent in the infirmary, and while the nurse would've preferred that Warren spend more than simply a handful of days recuperating, Warren insisted otherwise, protesting the bed rest and being treated as if he was infirm and unable to help himself. Eventually, the nurses had finally relented, deciding that Warren would be able to recover fine on his own, and having a few more serious patients to treat to, on the promise that Warren would take it easy for the next month or so. Of course, Warren didn't listen, and continued with his regular training, even despite his injuries and the fact that most summer classes had closed as the aftermath of the bombing was dealt with.

He let out a groan as he dragged himself over to a stone bench, sitting himself down on it with a relieved sigh, leaning back against the seat and closing his eyes for a moment. His breathing was surprisingly ragged, considering he'd only been walking, but then again he hadn't been giving his body the necessary time it needed to heal. Right now, his body was crossed with bandages, a few of which peaked out from under his sleeves or out of his shirt collar, and his body was entirely and utterly sore. "Come on... You can't be giving up after just walking..." he complained to himself as he attempted to push himself back up out of his seat, however a sudden stab of pain forced him to stop and relax back down. He gave an annoyed grunt as he resigned himself to a break. "Only for a few minutes..." he promised himself, as he tilted his head back to stare at the sky.

Liona had to hurry. She was so late and that just was not acceptable. Liona found pride in her general punctuality,only to have it sullied on a day like this. A beautiful day that should have meant wonderful things for everyone untill it was over. But no. She just HAD to oversleep. Of course, with everything that had happened recently, the campus bombing in particular, it could not be helped. She had been so sleep deprived in the past few days, some much needed sleep was welcome. However, too much of anything isn't a good thing. Not that most would consider Liona's destination "important". One of her absolute favorite authors was holding a morning book signing, and now it would take a miracle to get there in time to even have a glimpse. Still, that would not stop her from trying.

She darted around her room, wondering if she would even be able to make the next airship down to town. She had litterally no time. She slopply brushed her teeth and just grabbed something out of her closet to wear, a random orange sundress and some black leggings. She slipped on her headband and gave her hair a quick brushthrough over it before bolting out the door, stepping into her black flats as she ran.

As she ran toward the campus airport, She saw a familiar face sitting nearby. Warren, of all people. Liona didn't have time to deal with the likes of him, and she aimed to keep going. However, the fact that he was wearing more bandages than armor today threw her off. So much so, that she stopped paying attention to where she was going, causing her to trip and fall with a bit of a skid on a crack in the sidewalk as she dashed past her Nemesis. Worst of all, incomparable to ANY of the problems she had had in the past YEAR, maybe longer, She had done a poor rushed job of fixing up her hair, due to her tardiness. This resulted in her headband sliding off with her fall, the headband that held her black cat ears.

Normally, as in EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST SIX YEARS, Liona had done pretty well in securing her ears, hiding all evidence that they were fake, and doing her hair up in a way that they could never fall, especially not like this. the ONE day she was careless, the ONE time, it had to all go south. In front of the worst possible person, to boot. She gasped, Grabbing the clear headband with the fake ears and putting them back on in a hurry. She then looked up toward Warren, desperately praying that he didn't see the biggest secret in her arsenal.

Warren watched the clouds slowly drift by, his sore body dissuading him from moving from his spot. A little bit of shade from the building behind him kept the sun from getting into his eyes as well as keeping him comfortably cool in the warm summer sun. He was beginning to feel far too comfortable, and he felt the beginning of drowsiness begin to take him over and tug at the lids of his eyes. He shot awake though as he heard the 'click clack' of shoes against the floor as someone ran by near him.

Glancing up he blinked as he saw Liona sprinting down the path, and their eyes seemed to meet for a moment as they looked at each other before Liona went tumbling down onto the floor on a crack in the sidewalk, while all Warren could do was stare. "Uh... Are you okay?" Warren ventured as he sat up straight with a bit of a groan, watching Liona quickly pick herself up, and- Wait... Where were her-

There, on the ground, was a simple headband with a pair of black, and rather lifelike, looking cat ears, which Liona scrambled quickly to pick up and return to her head. The faunus(?) girl spun her head towards him, causing Warren to flinch back even as all he could do was stare and feel like he'd stumbled upon something that he shouldn't have. All while doing nothing. Of course. "Ummm.... I didn't see anything?" he said rather lamely and entirely unconvincingly.

Warren's feigned ignorance had Liona's face glowing red with fury, all the while tears started to form in her eyes with the painful realization that she had been exposed. She stood up abruptly, clenching her fists tightly and trying to keep herself from crying. "Don't give me that, Human!" As if she had a right to call him that anymore. "I'm not an idiot!" She looked around. This place was too public. Even though there were not a lot of people, and no one else seemed to be paying attention enough to see Liona's mishap, She could not be talking about this here. Of course, she wanted to just run away, bu not when Warren knew. Who knows what he would do with such information? The only reason he had kept quiet about Liona's other secret was because he didn't want Liona to reveal his own. He was not to be trusted.

She suddenly grabbed his wrist, Yanking him out of his seat and running off, dragging him to the nearest alleyway between buildings with no consideration for his obvious injuries. as far as she was currently concerned, Her problems were at this point more important than a few boo-boos. "You can't tell ANYONE. Got it? Erase this from your memory even." The desperation was weaved into her voice, the fear visible in her eyes though her face was angry. How could this have happened?

Warren leans back against the backrest, raising his hands in surrender as Liona yelled angrily at him. "Okay, I think we should just calm down here," he said, trying to placate her. He was in no mood to get into a shouting match today being as battered as he was already, and he hoped he could head this off before the usual tempers flared. "Can't we just- Woah, hey! Watch it- Agh!"

He let out a cry of pain as he was pulled from his seat, stumbling to his feet as he struggled to move his feet quickly enough to avoid simply being dragged. His entire body protested in pain, his shoulder flared as it was yanked on by the young girl, his legs and body burned as they were suddenly put into motion. Warren was simply forced to stagger along at Liona's rather unreasonable pace, stumbling into the wall of the alleyway when he was finally let go at their destination. He spun around, annoyance now flaring in his eyes at his rather rough treatment. "Gah! Would you calm down for one minute!? Ugh..." He rubbed his already bruised arms. "I'm afraid you're asking for the impossible there, it's a little hard to forget seeing someone lose their head, or ears for that matter, like that." Warren cracked a wry smirk at his admittedly bad joke.

"You could've just asked if you wanted to get me alone, no need for any rough treatment, jeeze..." A small part of Warren was enjoying seeing Liona like this, as much as he was ashamed to admit it. After all the grief she caused him, things were finally on the other foot. He felt for Liona, particularly after their most recent... episode, though he was completely and utterly confused as to the reason why Liona wore fake ears, or if she was even a faunus, among a number of other things, but... He'd let things play out as is for a little bit. Hell, maybe he'd finally get something out of Liona other than just anger out of all this. He was probably just asking for trouble at this point though.

Liona angrily kicked Warren's leg in response to his untasteful joke. Was he serious? What a scumbag, to crack jokes at a time like this. "Well, You're asking for the impossible too! How do you expect me to CALM DOWN? You saw! I know you did!" Warren's reatcions up to this point had been disgustingly underwhelming. She was expecting more. Much more. He had to have been messing with her. He had to have been doing that thing her mother did whenever Liona knew that she knew that Liona had done somthing wrongwhere she didnt say anything, allowing paranoia to set in. This was the same type of thing. She was sure of it. It was frustrating. "Don't just sit there with some lame jokes! The least you could do is react properly!" She had given up on holding them back, and now tears were streaming down her face. She hated people seeing her cry like this. Especially humans, and ESPECIALLY Warren. The one that always caused her problems.

"Argh!" Warren cried out as he hit the ground, his one leg giving out from Liona's kick to his shin, catching himself on his forearms against the concrete floor. He picked himself back up with a groan, using the wall as support. "Okay... I suppose I kind of deserved that..." he admitted reluctantly, mostly to try and appease Liona and prevent himself from being kicked again. He didn't need anymore injuries after all.

Warren let out a sigh as he figured the time for fun was over, and his voice picked up a more serious tone as he looked Liona in the eyes. "Look... If you really want me to start 'reacting properly', I could start screaming about how you were a liar and a hypocrite, or maybe start calling for a doctor after you lost your ears, but I honestly doubt you'd want me doing that." He gave a glance down the alley to make sure no one had noticed them or was spying on them. "And, if I remember correctly, you had me in the exact same position not too long ago... I owe you for that. I mean, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious as to why you'd lie about... this, but... That's your secret to share, not mine to press. Now, I know what you said then, a secret for a secret or whatever," Warren said, rolling his eyes and waving his hand in the air as if to brush aside the notion. "So I'll tell you what, I'll tell you another one of mine." He hunches down conspiratorially, moving his finger in a 'come closer' motion before he whispered to her, "I used to keep a stuffed bear and blankey on me until I was almost thirteen." He stood up to his full height, and crossed his arms, giving Liona a wide smile. "There, even!" he cried out, as if it it'd bring them anywhere near even. Maybe the fun didn't have to be over quite yet.

"A hypocri--" Liona wanted so badly to respond, but she instead allowed Warren to continue. Of course, such a continuation of his speech was only filled with yet another return secret, mirroring the situation the two had found themselves in. However, this time the secret was nowhere near an even payment. "What's wrong with you?? You expect that to make this better I gave you my secret about what is expected of me, for your secret about what is expected of you. This one is on a TOTALLY different league. Why don't you give me a secret that results in a complete identity crisis, huh?" She slumped down against the wall opposite Warren, her head buried in her arms. She sobbed, speaking in a muffled voice. "This is the absolute worst thing that could have happened." A sniffle. "You probably think I'm one of your filthy kind. I bet you do." A couple of coughs. "Why else would you want to call me a hypocrite?"

Warren flinched back, wincing as he expected Liona to lash out at him again. A moment passed and- Wait, was that crying? He waited a second more, and when he found that he hadn't been sent tumbling down into the ground again, he cracked open one eye to see Liona slumped up against the wall on the floor, and yep she was crying. He actually started feeling pretty bad at this point, forcing her to the point of tears. Liona had always seemed like a strong willed girl, and he never expected something like this to be causing her to much turmoil. It was strange seeing her so... Vulnerable? He wasn't sure if that was the right word.

He sighed, slumping down against the wall opposite of her, partially happy to just be getting off of his feet again. He was probably going to be developing another from from Liona's kick earlier anyways. Warren had considered sitting down next to Liona, but he figured that they weren't friendly enough for that to have as much as a positive effect as he'd hope for it to have.

"Sorry, but... Most people usually don't have more than one big secret to accidentally let loose..." Warren said with a bit of a helpless shrug, honestly not too sure what to say to try and comfort her at this point. "I could tell you a million little embarrassing ones to add up to one big one; I stole my sister's shirt and blamed it on the dog once, my uncle once tricked me into eating vanilla extract and I vomited all over the carpet, I considered changing my name and moving to the other side of the world when you found me in that empty classroom, I cried for a week straight when I first had my Aura unlocked, I nearly gave up that month afterwards and considered leaving everything behind... But I don't think any of that would add up enough to what just happened."

Another sigh. "I'll be honest, I'm not too sure what you are now, I mean... It's the ears and the tail that makes a difference between humans and faunus, right? You say you hate me and humans in general, but you've kept my secret and I have no idea what the hell is what anymore, so... Why don't you try explaining it a little? Maybe help me understand? Or, I mean, you don't have to, but it'd be nice to not be left guessing about all this."

She quickly lifted her head, offended by Warren's shallow viewpoint. "I-is that really what you think? That ears and a tail is what makes a faunus? It's heart. I- it's blood. Faunus don't even all have tails or ears. They all just have some kind of animal trait. Wings, claws, fangs, they all have any number of things." She sniffed,and new tears formed. "Except me." She cried a bit more and took a deep breath. "Dont you dare lump me together with your race. I'm Faunus.... kind of. I just. I tried so hard to keep this to myself, I dont, I... UGH!" She battled with herself, not wanting to accept her situation. However, her internal struggle was frustrating, and she was quickly fed up. "I quit! If you aren't willing to forget this happened, I give up, okay? I'm Human. Half human. You happy?" Her voice was still distorted with her tears. "I was born to both a faunus and a human, and Life decided that I had to look like this, With nothing but my mother's blood to tell me I'm faunus. Are you satisfied? I really am a hypocrite."

Warren shrinks as he realizes that he may have just stuck his foot in his mouth, hunching over a little more. Fuck, he was not good at this. Spending all of your time studying, training, and generally things that someone could consider bettering yourself had left Warren with very little time to actually socialize, a flaw that he felt was showing itself rather badly right this instant. He cursed silently under his breath. And honestly, was it really his fault that he'd never imagined what would happen if a faunus and a human had a kid? That kind of thing was probably the the most distant thing on his mind when it came to day-to-day life. Why couldn't someone write a book about this kind of stuff? Something that he could study and learn? Honestly, how was he supposed to do anything that simply didn't make things worse at this point. He felt like he was standing at the edge of a minefield. No, scratch that, he was right in the middle of a minefield, with his foot hovering right over one as he struggled to keep his balance and not trip into about fifty other half-buried explosives waiting to blow him sky high.

He took a shaky breath as he contemplated his thoughts. How the hell did he get himself into this, he just wanted to go back to his room, lay down, and let all his aches and pains drag him off to sleep at this point. "Ye-... I..." He lets out a sigh. "No, I'm not satisfied..." Warren swallows nervously as he hopes that his next choice of words doesn't end up screwing him over. A part of him wondered if being part human was really all that bad, afterall, Warren 100% human, and he thought he did alright, but he figured voicing this wasn't going to be doing him any good. "You're obviously proud of who you are, I saw that from pretty much the first time you said anything to me... And not having something doesn't mean you aren't it... I just... Misspoke... Afterall, I barely have an Aura, and I'm still considered a Huntsman afterall..." He stopped. Warren wasn't too sure how to continue. He wanted to try and console Liona about being half-human, but he doubted his words would do any good considering her rather vocal hatred of them. He chewed on his lower lip in thought before continuing. "What I saw doesn't change what I think of you, at least not the important parts... You're a talented Huntress... You're not afraid to speak your mind... You have a surprisingly strong kick..." Warren rubs his shin at that, the pain from it still lingering. "And you're a proud faunus... Even if you have a little bit of human mixed in there... It wouldn't be fair to the rest of us if you didn't have any negative traits, right?"

Not satisfied?? What more could he possibly want? She basically had her entire identity competely deconstructed before his very eyes, She had just revealed that she was of his race... sort of, and he wasn't happy with that? Liona lifted her head again, about to retort, but she did not quite make it before Warren continued. He proceeded to take back his words, seeming to understand their falsehood. Well, she guessed it was fine as long as he got it. Liona closed her mouth, no longer needing to speak. He kept going, Clearly trying to make the girl feel better. She huffed, but not in an angry or proud way. "I don't need your flattery, I'm only proud of half of myself. I didn't want anything to do with humans. Not after the cowardice of my father, not after the way I was treated by them in Vale." She moved "her" ears back and forth, moving them using her semblance to shift the polarity of the metal hidden inside. She had gotten so used to it that she could do it undetected and without even thinking. "I'm forced to hide behind these just to avoid people associating me with the Human Race. But even then I can't avoid who I am, can I?" She sighed, starting to accept the fact that the mistake was made, and she could not take it back. "Just, Don't tell anyone okay?"

Warren let out a sigh of relief as the situation seemed to diffuse itself. Honest to god, he had now idea what he was talking about for at least half of that conversation, but whatever he said seemed to have worked somewhat, and Liona seemed to be willing to let it all go. A sudden sense of weariness washes over him as he realizes just how tense he was trying to talk his way out of that. He resolved to never again put himself into a situation like that if he could help it. "Cowardice, huh?" Warren mumbled quietly to himself, wondering what she meant by that. It wasn't too hard to imagine just what her father had done for her to call him something like that.

Looking up at Liona, he noticed her ears moving, and he tilted his head in curiosity as he watched them swivel back and forth, surprisingly life like. He reached out a single hand, feeling one 'ear' between two fingers simply to see what it felt like, his hand brushing against her hair as he did so. "You'll have no problems from me when it comes to your secrets, after all you do hold some of mine, but I'm curious. How do you move these? Did you design them yourself?" Warren seems to forget himself as the inquisitive portion of his mind takes over, his tired mind seeming to focus in on this small mystery for one reason or another.

Liona felt Warren's hand brush past her hair in his sudden curiousity, asking about the mechanics of her faux ears. Normally, Liona would never let anyone near her head for... obvious reasons, she had the secret to keep after all, but given the situation, she was caught off guard. As such, she immediately jumped up, attempting to cover her head with her arms as if to shield it. "D-don't touch me!" She frowned down at Warren, though her face was bright red in her surprise. "It's just my semblance... the ears are metal tipped inside." The human boy had seen her semblance before, of that she was one hundred percent certain. So she did not feel the need to explain much further. "I've been trying to be convincing, but it's just a natural thing that happens now." She shifted her gaze to her left, looking down at the ground as she lowered her arms. She still could not believe she had gotten herself into a situation in which she would be talking about this, and with a Human at that. "A-and don't get the wrong idea," She said, with the ruins of her broken confidence, "Just because you know I'm half human doesn't mean I understand your race any more than I did before. As far as I'm concerned, you are all a bunch or traitorous cheats." She paused for a fraction of a moment before muttering, "Nothing will change that." She turned to leave, but did not move until she made herself clear. "I will end you if you spill this." She walked off, heading back to her dorm. Her initial plans for the day were ruined and her secret identity was revealed. Easily one of the worst days of her life, yet she felt wierd. It was an odd feeling of relief. Like a huge burden was gone. Or at least, the weight distributed. Perhaps this catastrophe had set her into a new chapter.

-exit-

(Thank you~~~)

Warren gave an almost dismissive wave towards Liona as she turned to leave, giving an, "Yea, yea... I got it, you'll kill me if I tell anyone..." He gives a heavy sigh, turning on his side and simply laying down with a groan as his movements caused his body to ache, though as he stopped, everything just seemed to relax, and even the ever constant pain just started to flow away. The ground seemed awfully comfortable right now, it was really strange. That little encounter couldn't have taken more than fifteen or twenty minutes, and yet he felt utterly drained. He swore that this little talk he had with Liona had been more stressful than any fight he'd ever been in, perhaps even all of them combined.

"I think I might just take a nap here..." he mumbled to no one in particular, glad that he was both out of the way and out of sight. At least he wouldn't be disturbed that way. His eyes slowly drifted closed, and then he was out like a light.

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End