Out of Sight (Private)

Warren peaked cautiously over his shoulder as he made his way cautiously down the empty hallway, checking to make sure that there was no one around. Content with the fact that he seemed quite alone, he continued onward, and pushed open the door to the empty classroom. Syne Academy was a rather large school, a fact almost accentuated by Syne's relative newness, and thus lack of students. That wasn't to say that the academy was a ghost town, quite the opposite it in-fact, but there was plenty of open space around, and it was easy to find places where no one ever wandered to too often, if you knew where to look anyways. This particular classroom was one of those places, one of the furthest away from the dorms, and thus one of the last ones to be chosen to be used.

Creeping quietly in, Warren wrinkled his nose and stifled a sneeze as he disturbed the dusty interior of the room, waving his hand in front of him to clear the air. He closed the door behind him with a frown, rather unhappy with the condition of the abandoned classroom, as well as the fact that he had to sneak around as if he was doing something illegal. Hell, what he was doing here was far from it, what he was here for was for training.

Normally Warren would've been fine with using anyone of Syne's many easier to access training facilities, but he wanted privacy for what he was about to practice. He could always run or do any other number of exercises if he wanted to get stronger, he could spar against other students or learn from the combat instructors if he wanted become a better fighter, and he could always read and study books if he wanted to get smarter, but the one thing he couldn't ever seem to improve was his Aura... Sure, he'd gotten better at using it, he'd improved by leaps and bounds compared to when he first had his Aura unlocked, whereas before he was barely able to summon a single mote of light with all of his concentration, he was now able to summon one with a snap of his fingers, but that wasn't what he was working at. He had improved greatly with his skill at using it, but he could never seem to make it any stronger, no matter how much he pushed himself. The most impressive thing he could think of about his Semblance was his ability to turn invisible, and even then he could only do it in short bursts, unless he felt like knocking himself out from the exertion. As much as he loathed to admit it... He was embarrassed by this fact. He could improve on just about anything else, but he felt as if he was driving himself into a brick wall when it came to his Semblance.

Even still, he had to try. Warren strode down into the center of the room, stifling another sneeze as he pinched his nose with a groan. Turning around, he looked out at the rest of the classroom and took a deep breath, preparing himself. "Okay... You can do this..." he mumbled quietly as he slowly raised one arm out in-front of him, more out of it feeling like the right thing to do rather than out of any necessity. He closed his eyes and focused, controlling his breathing in an exercise he'd done countless times before. Soon a small ball of light, roughly the size of a baseball, shimmered into existence in front of Warren, slowly circling him. Then a second. Then a third. Then a fourth. Each one slower than the last. Warren was entirely lost in his concentration now, all of his focus directed at keeping the four lights up for as long as possible, his breathing slightly strained from the exertion. He'd have been worried if it weren't for the fact that he'd come here before. Perhaps he should've been a little more watchful though...

Warren furrows his brows, teeth grit, as he struggled to hold up the lights circling around him, straining even now to hold them up for so long. Maybe it was because Warren’s focus was elsewhere, or maybe it was because the soft footsteps of Liona approaching were so far away, but either way, Warren didn’t notice the girl’s approach. Her quiet, almost whispered words, however, he heard well enough.

The four lights around him disappeared without a sound, though considering Warren’s reaction; they as well have gone off with the sound of shattering glass. His eyes shot wide, and his entire body tensed up with a sudden and sharp intake of air. Warren’s head darted towards the door, and he saw blue eyes peering through a crack in the door, followed by a flutter of blonde hair and an orange dress as Warren’s discoverer turned to leave. This was all he needed to know as to the person’s identity, and a single thought flashed through Warren’s mind as he watched her leave. SHE KNOWS

Of all the people in the world it had to be to catch him there, it just had to be her. There was no way Warren was just going to let her go and tell everyone his embarrassing secret. What else would she do with the knowledge of Warren’s weakness? After all, she’d pretty much taken every other opportunity to make his life a miserable one.

Warren reacted almost instantly, dashing forwards, and leaping over the desks and chairs that lined the lecture room, moving faster than he’d ever moved before. With a snap of his fingers, he manifested a bright burst of light right outside the door, hoping to slow Liona down before she got away. Slamming through the door with his shoulder, Warren took only a second to find the faunus girl, before reaching out and trying to grab her, hoping to pull her back into the lecture room and block the door behind him with his body. “NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! You are not getting out of here and telling everyone about this, when I’ve kept it a secret for this long!” Warren cried out desperately.

Warren’s little… Well, honestly this could all probably be considered assault at this point, but he tried not to think too hard about that, was met by another angry tirade from the girl, something he’d grown rather used to with his interactions with her.

Her demands to never be touched again by him and to be let go fell on deaf ears as Warren shook his head at her, his face flushed red with embarrassment with his secret found. “Oh, no! I’m not just letting you out of here like that! Not when you know about all of this!” Warren gesticulates his hands widely around the room, as if it’d help him get the point across. “Don’t you play dumb with me, you saw me struggling, you how I could barely hold up those lights! It’s a goddamned embarrassment, and why the hell else would you come back here and find me if not to-“ Warren’s own angry rant dies down as he studies the incredulous look on Liona’s face, a slow dawning of his massive mistake creeping up on his face, his arms falling limply to his side. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand you actually have no idea what I’m talking about, do you…? Goddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…” Warren’s head falls as he now fully realizes what he’s said and done, sliding down against the door until he sits on the ground.

“Well… Can’t say I didn’t bring this on myself!” Warren cried out, trying his best to bury his shame and maybe even just die then and there. “I, just… I… I give up…” he stutters out, vainly trying to find some way to make this all just go away. If only he hadn’t noticed her. If only he’d just ignored her and let her walk away. He gives a half-hearted groan, pulling himself to one side of the door, allowing access for Liona to get by. “Just… You can go… Or rub it in if you want to… I give up…” he says, resigned.

Warren opened his mouth to say something, and then shuts it again with a ‘click’ of his teeth. Was Liona being… Nice? Okay maybe ‘nice’ was a bit of an over exaggeration, but… She didn’t seem quite so hostile. Sure, her words carried the same angry tone she seemed to always take when she spoke to him, but… She sounded almost like… She was consoling him? This was most definitely not the reaction he was expecting out of the girl.

He looked up at her suspiciously, studying her for any signs of smugness or some sign of enjoyment at his misery. She had to be playing at something. Warren turned his head away with a scoff, not really quite sure what to think, so he just tried to play off her words. “This isn’t just something stupid to me. You ever hear of the Novack family? You probably haven’t, but where I come from, they’re a well-known name. There’s been some great Hunter or Huntress in my family in just about every generation, and all I grew up hearing about was how they killed everything from Deathstalkers to Nevermore, coming back home almost as heroes. That’s what I was expected to be growing up, hell that’s what I wanted to be.”

Warren looked at Liona out of the corner of his eyes, turning his head slightly towards her. He hadn’t noticed it before in his panic, but he was feeling rather heavy, and his breathing was almost ragged. That exercise really had taken a lot out of him, and his mad dash towards the door hadn’t helped any either. “There are two things people think of when they think of a Hunter. Their weapon,” he said, lifting one finger, “and their Aura,” he finished, lifting a second before dropping his hand. “Those are the two signature things that every Hunter has. It’s how you tell one Hunter from another; you could even call it their trademark. You have Hunters out there who can fly, or jump over buildings, or shoot lasers out of their freakin’ eyes or something… And here I am a glorified flashlight.” Warren closed his eyes and sighed, letting his head fall once more. “You’ve taken pretty much every other chance to yell at me, or otherwise show that you pretty much hate my guts, so why wouldn’t I think that you’d decide to run off and tell everyone?” he finally finished. He had no idea why he was telling her all this. If anything he was giving her even more ammunition to use against him. Well, if he was going to dig his own grave, might as well make sure it was deep enough, he supposed. He gave a quiet chuckle at that thought. If nothing else, it was nice to give voice to his complaints for once.

Warren let out a sigh as he heard Liona’s footsteps, click against the ground, his eyes still closed, simply tired of everything. He waited to hear the door open, and the sound of Liona walking away, perhaps with an insult or two thrown his way as she left. Instead, however, Warren heard the scraping of a chair being pushed back, the soft ‘thump’ of a body hitting sitting down, and the groan of someone just as fed up with it all as he was. His eyes blinked open at this, his head turning up to see Liona sitting there, head in her hands. This was completely unlike her. Where was all the fire, the fury? Was everything she said earlier… actually not an act? No… It couldn’t be.

His mind flashed back to his numerous encounters with the faunus girl in front of him. Every time he’d confronted her, he’d been met by harsh words and harsher treatment. Hell, he was kind of surprised they’d never come to blows. There was no way she could be showing something like sympathy towards him. This wasn’t the Liona Warren knew.

He let out another sigh, too tired to care anymore, let alone think about it. So he simply voiced his thoughts with an eloquent, “What the hell are you doing?” Okay, maybe not so eloquent, but it got the point across.

The confusion on Warren’s face was rather evident, and it seemed to grow as he leaned forwards to listened to Liona’s excuse. It then twisted into one of anger, as he was about to bark back an angry retort of his own in response to Liona’s remark about ‘crying’, but he held it back as she continued on with her rant. As much as he loathed to admit it… She was at least, maybe, kind of, partially right… Just a little bit…

Always chasing a shadow, living up to what was expected of him… His parents never really spoke about it after the day that his Aura was unlocked. Sure, they’d done their best to be supportive; continuing on with his training and the like, but the entire subject of his Aura seemed to be something they avoided. He could tell that they were disappointed, even though they tried to hide it, admittedly rather badly.

Warren gave a bit of a snort as Liona finished, pounding her fist on the table. He leaned back against the wall. “So now it’s about who has the bigger problem, huh?” he joked cautiously, studying Liona closely, a slight smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. He still wasn’t quite sure if she was up to something here, but... he felt as if she was being at least somewhat genuine here. Warren bit down on his cheek as he wondered what to say, before continuing, a little more serious now. “Judging by how you seem to feel like you understand me so well, you’ve done your own fair share of crying, then?” Whose shadow was it that she was living under, he wondered. What was it exactly that she was chasing here? There was a part of him that doubted if he’d ever find out.

Warren quirked a brow as Liona stood up with a declaration, pushing the desk back in a rather dramatic manner. He stayed silent throughout the reveal of her own secret, rather confused by this strange turn of events, but he was nothing if not respectful about it. And with that, she stalked off, Warren simply watching her go.

So she was the Headmistresses’ daughter. It was strange how similar they really were, now that he knew about Liona’s ‘shadow’ as she liked to call it. A Shadow brought on by familial expectations, constantly struggling to reach what they accomplished, but possibly never being able to. And yet, here they were constantly butting heads with each other, not that Warren even knew the reason as to why. Her final, parting, remark gave him a rather big hint to it though. Did she really hate him for simply being human? He took a moment to think about that. He supposed if it worked one way, it could surely work the other way around. He took another moment to wonder if he really deserved any of it. Sure, he was surprised when he came here that there was a faunus for a Headmistress, and he was also shocked to learn that Liona was a Hunter herself, but there really weren’t all that many faunus running around in the business of being Hunters, at least not that Warren had seen. Could he really be blamed for that?

Ugh… His entire image of Liona had to be reevaluated now. That was going to be annoying, not knowing what to think of her anymore. At the very least, she wasn’t going to be revealing his secret anytime soon and there was no way Warren was going to reveal hers, not after what just happened anyways.

His mind churned as he tried to figure out everything that just happened, and his mind kept going back to her parting remark. He gave a quiet chuckle. “Heh… Never going to be great, huh? Guess I really have something to prove now.”