The First Night (Closed)

[Unsure when this takes place, will add when initiation takes place for myself and Cerise]

"It is up to you to take the first step"

The words of Professor Ozpin's speech resounded through his head as Kai walked the halls with the other first years, heading for the ballroom where they had been directed. So far his day had been pretty eventful. First there was the meeting of Mihail and Amaya, a pair of people whom Kai had had a rocky start with, but ended up smoothing out their relations with mutual weapon admiration. Then there was the exploration of well...everything, that had gone through. From the Library, to the central tower, to the grounds around the school. He had been all over, and yet he knew he had barely scratched the surface. It was just such a large school, far larger than his old school across the nation. And this place had all the technology one could hope for. Scroll tablets, rocket propelled lockers (which he didn't see much of a use for, except for maybe storing an extra uniform and then calling for it if you needed a quick change), and of course the school itself. There was just so much packed into the castle-like building, that it was slightly overwhelming at first. But, now that he had seen a bit of what it had to offer, he knew he was going to love it here.

So now that the headmaster had finished his speech, everyone had filed out of the great hall and was now heading for the Ballroom, just as Professor Goodwitch had instructed. They were to meet there and stay the night in the ballroom as they had yet to be assigned to teams, and with that dorm rooms. So for tonight they were all going to sleep in the large Ballroom, one of those few rooms that he had yet to explore. The entire group had filled the hallways for a good twenty minutes before the doors opened and they filed in, and Kai, like many others, went sprinting down the room to get a good spot. Among other things, Kai had a massive trunk, which he had tied to his back with some loose straps he had found while exploring the Airship that had brought them there, and while it slowed him down a bit, he was still first to the far edge of the room and grabbed a corner below the large window. Quickly dropping off his trunk, he made himself at home and claimed around a twenty foot space around him as his own through the sheer spread of his belongings. Marking one border he had his weapon, Dustbreaker, as well as his armor, which he had taken off and lined up along the edge of 'his' space. Two of the borders were just the wall that made up the corner, and the last wall had his trunk, as well as a good amount of his clothing.

Now that he felt at home, and because he had little modesty, Kai had taken the liberty of taking off all his clothing except for his boxer shorts, and was now sitting on his bedroll, playing with his tablet and testing out its different functions. So far he had figured out how to check his aura, send mass mails (which he took to mind as something useful), and look up other students, which he had taken to entertaining himself doing. So far he didn't see many people all that interesting, though he had taken the time to look up Mihail and Amaya, just to see a bit of background on them, and now he was looking for people he might like to be in a team with. Of course, he was looking up girls of the academy as was his way, but really he was just trying to find prospective teammates.

Boring. Boring, boring, boring. How could one person talk for so long about such useless information? A particular new Beacon Student was very fidgety and didn’t approve of the headmaster’s speech to them all only moments before. It had been a long enough day without that pointless speech, especially with the mass exploring of the huge school, and all she wanted to do was wind down and work on her own projects. She was far from tired, because of her natural night owl tendencies, and she despised the sheer amounts of people that constantly surrounded her. They were testing her patience much more than she felt comfortable with, that much was obvious on her face as they were finally permitted to go to the huge Ballroom in order to unpack and settle down for the night.

She barged her way through the crowds, and started setting to work on hastily finding a space for herself. Considering how she despised keeping close company with others, she was looking for somewhere that she wouldn’t be within so much as breathing distance as other people. And while there were plenty of spaces, none of them took her fancy because of how they were so close to others. Her eyebrow twitched irritably as she stood there with her belongings, her spare hand clenching and unclenching as her hazel eyes fell shut, addressing the nearest person to her. “Excuse me, but do you mind moving away? I need a large space which you are not accommodating for.” She stated coldly, not exactly making a question or request by her tone of voice either. She was being particularly harsh as she opened her eyes to glare at the young man beside her. He glared right back at her, shrugging his shoulders and barely moving his bed roll for her, sneering to his friends as he did so. “Well sorry, princess, but we’re all going to be squeezed up in here mighty tight. There are a lot of us and we have to make do.” He paused, leaning closer to her which caused her flinch in disgust and lean backwards. “Adjust your attitude and we’ll let you bunk down here.” He finished, snickering as he straightened up again.

Cerise had heard enough. Her eyebrow twitched irritably once more, and she gritted her teeth while making a very disgusted ‘tch’ sound, turning away from him and storming across the ballroom. Not only had her angry and cold tones managed to raise when she was speaking earlier, but the stranger had been particularly loud too. This led to nearly everybody’s attention being fixed on her as she stamped across the ballroom without a care for anybody else in her immediate vicinity. With that, she swept from the room, pausing to huff and glare in the direction of the imbeciles that her been responsible for causing that whole scene, in her eyes. Thus far she had not felt the need to socialise with anyone, because they would merely be a hindrance to her, and it seemed that from her only experience of socialising here only cemented that fact.

She made her way to an empty low rooftop by leaping across the gap between the bridge and that particular flat surface, dumping her heavy trunk and the wheel-along suitcase that she possessed. It jutted out quite far, enough for somebody heading away from the ballroom to see her standing there. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, opening them quickly again and beginning go through very familiar movements. “Technique one…” She murmured, her dominant right hand flashing to her left thigh and drawing her weapon, Animus, from the holster situated there. With a swift flick of her wrist, the handle had formed around her hand and her blade her grown to its full buster blade size. “The draw.” She finished, holding her weapon majestically with perfect form and poise. Her hand flashed quickly, swinging the huge sword across her body in a graceful arc, “Technique two, the front slash.” She would continue like that, going through the motions of her very strict techniques to help calm herself down after the stresses of social interaction.

As Kai sat there reading up on the various other first years, he couldn't help but hear the ruckus that was taking place across the room. At first he tried ignoring it, he was content to just sit in his spot and read, that is, until he heard the high set tones of a girl's voice which caught his attention.

He looked up from his tablet to find that the source of the ruckus was a girl on the other side of the room, having a bit of a shouting match with a group of students on the far wall, presumably she was looking for a spot, though there were plenty all around the room. Kai looked back to his scroll, but wasn't really 'seeing' it, he was completely focused on listening to the girl and who she was talking to, as well as watching her in his peripheral vision. She continued to stand there, seeming to expect that the other students would move for her, and yet they didn't budge much.

From her reaction, Kai could sort of predict what was coming, after all, if someone couldn't find space in the hall, they would go where they could. Then again, there was plenty of space in Kai's area, which was why he was getting suck irritated looks from the people around him, who were bunched up together. But Kai had his own reasons for such a large space, he was planning on taking apart Dustbreaker this evening, and that took a lot of space. But now that he thought about it, there was enough there for two people, even with Dustbreaker fully dismantled.

With that in mind, and with the girl storming out, Kai stood up, putting his scroll away and grabbed a pair of night pants. With a quick look at those around him that said "Mess with my area and you'll regret it" he quickly walked out the door the girl had left through. It was easy to see where she went, having looked left and seen nothing, and then right, out the window to the rooftops, she was out there, her pink hair easily visible in the moonlight.

Kai adopted a bit of confident swagger, strolling out onto the bridge that linked the main building to another and looked out onto the roof where he had seen the girl. Of course, there she was, standing there with what appeared to be quite the weapon. A sword, nearly as large as the girl herself, was being wielded as easily as a rapier, and it was quite a sight to behold. Now that he was close, Kai could see that the girl was attractive and most definitely his type, so now it was time to put on the moves.

He leaned on the bridge's railing and looked out at her, giving a suave grin to try and catch her attention. "You know, you can't sleep out here, you'll get cold this time of year. Come back inside, I have a nice spot in the corner with plenty of space for two people. Then we can get to know each other, after all, a pretty girl like you must have an interesting story, as do I." He was using (what he thought) was his smoothest, most enticing voice to try and get the girl to come back inside with him. After all, she really couldn't just stay out here.

Such rhythmic, ordered movements soothed the anti-social girl’s mind as she continued to go through the motions, continuing to cite exactly what movements or techniques she was utilising at that point in time. She began to feel content in the night air, which was undoubtedly brisk, but she never did feel the cold. Her Faunus night vision worked well as she continued to train, switching stances slightly to begin the usage of more advanced techniques, things that were not so basic as a frontal slash or sashay dodge. Her left arm swept up and over, following her right blade arm as she span backwards, crouching down low and grabbing the handle of her weapon with both hands, rushing and driving the blade into her imaginary enemy. “Technique sixteen, relentless impale.” She muttered having finished.

Beneath her strategically styled pigtails, her ears twitched slightly, but not so that it would be noticeable, as she heard footsteps heading her way. It didn’t match any normal stride that she had come across, however, and instead followed… a swagger-like pattern. She frowned to herself as she straightened up, but didn’t turn to face the direction from whence the footsteps were coming from. Instead, her methodical exercises continued as if she hadn’t been approached whatsoever.

Next she heard the voice of a male, also not one she recognised, but that wasn’t hard considering that she refused to speak to anyone here unless she truly had to do so. She remained focused on her current activity, but it confused her suitably about the tone that this stranger was using. It wasn’t one that she had heard thus far, and exhibited an emotion that she was yet to encounter. The stranger had told her that there was space beside him in the ballroom for two people to sleep comfortably, and that it was too cold to remain outside. What puzzled her most was when he mentioned that they could ‘get to know one another’. What on earth did that mean?

Instead of making her confusion noticeable, however, she turned and dealt with the situation in the best way she could. Her hazel eyes spotted the figure leaning on the bridge’s railing, and she gave him one of her famous bored and indifferent expressions. Well, not that it ever changed much, unless one were to really irritate her. “I will not be sleeping in there.” She commented in return with a very clipped, matter-of-fact tone, her nose even wrinkling slightly when she emphasised the word ‘there’. “It is perfectly temperate to stay outdoors, where I will not be disturbed.” Her voice had a very definite, crisp and perfectly well-spoken accent to it (the closest likeness being that of practically the Queen’s English). Having made her point very clear, she returned to her earlier activities, lifting her sword where she had rested it on the ground while she had been speaking. Why couldn’t people take a hint?

Of course, it had to be a difficult one, didn't it? One of the girls who set themselves on an idea, in this case refusing to sleep with the others, and ignoring any attempts to sway them from the idea. And while that might be off-putting to some guys or gals, in Kai's case it simply raised the challenge of persuading her to come back inside. Though...perhaps he didn't need her to come inside. If she didn't want to come back inside with him...well he would simply come outside with her. If what she said really was true, and that is would be an alright temperature outside, then that meant it would be fine for him out there. But he wouldn't go and retrieve his stuff just yet, no, he would take a bit of time out here first.

Sighing, he pulled himself up over the rail, and with a quick jump, threw himself over onto the roof where the girl stood with her blade in hand. Of course, Dustbreaker was still back in the ballroom, but Kai didn't have any intentions of using it up here, even if he might impress the girl with it. In any case, there really wasn't a lot of room left up there, what with both of them standing, and with that large sword. However, the thought of falling didn't bother Kai in the slightest, not with his semblance at least.

Now, despite the fact that the girl had spoken to him in a manner that demonstrated that she was irritated, he wasn't about to let her off the hook that easily. Especially since he had spotted something in what she had said that he could use. "You know, you said that its perfectly temperate out here, and that you're not being disturbed. So, by that logic, you're saying that my company isn't unwelcome." He adopted a mock-though-like expression, rubbing his chin and raising his eyebrow, "So, what I would guess is that in that statement, you are actually asking me to come out here as well, since my presence doesn't disturb you. And if I'm to be out here with you...I'm going to need a few things." With that, he leaned backward and gracefully fell off the edge of the rooftop, and as soon as he was below the edge, he disappeared in a puff of snow, reappearing in the ballroom to the surprise of those around him. It took only a few minutes to repack his things and sling Dustbreaker over his shoulder before he walked back out to the roof to see if the girl was still there.

The pink-haired young woman continued her very methodical drills with her weaponry skills, continuing to swing her blade to exercise her arms and also to further cement her techniques within her mind. She wasn’t one to make up techniques, of course not, she would practise such fundamental skills rigorously one after the other and utilise the correct ones for the correct situation. If she was met with a different scenario… goodness knows how she would cope. That aside, Cerise was really becoming tired of the consistent presence that this stranger decided to uphold. Her hazel eyes remained focused straight ahead as she practised, always returning to her central position after performing a technique. Her lips moved soundlessly as she worked through the names of her different techniques, one after another.

She couldn’t help it when she felt her eyes roll slightly in a very obvious irritated fashion when the stranger started speaking again. He was nothing if persistent, wasn’t he? He reasoned that since it was temperate outside, and she had not explicitly said that he was irritating her, his company was thus welcome alongside her. She said nothing, instead scowling very noticeably as her eyebrows knitted together. As was common when she was annoyed about something, one of her eyebrows started to twitch every so often, just like it had back in the ballroom when she had encountered those idiotic and immature young men. The stranger went on to say that Cerise had actually been asking him to stay out here with her, when she assumed that she had been very clear that she did NOT want that to happen. Regardless, the young man had made up his mind. She huffed and her shoulders slumped a little, but her otherwise perfect posture remained as she slashed furiously across her body and held the blade out horizontally in front of her.

That pose was held and her eyes were narrowed slightly as she stared out straight ahead, refusing to meet the eyes of the very persistent stranger. Before he stated that he needed a few things, she slammed her blade down onto the roof and held it in front of her, shaking her head slowly to herself. “While I would much rather be alone… since you seem so adamant on staying here I cannot otherwise dissuade you.” She stated blankly, turning towards him and raising an eyebrow at him with her face still a mask of an utter lack of emotion. “But in case it is not already obvious, I do not hold social interaction in high regard.” She rolled her eyes again, this time accompanied with a deep and irritated sigh, fixing her gaze back on the magenta handle of her prized weapon. “Just a fair warning.”

With that, she was aware of the stranger leaning off the roof in her peripheral vision. She turned her head sharply in his direction, confusion covering her usually blank face. ‘I didn’t think that I’d been too harsh.’ She thought, and shrugged her shoulders to herself. Underneath, however, she was very curious about why the stranger had just suddenly… fallen. It didn’t look accidental, and there had been no exclamation of fear as he did so. He had just vanished. Who on earth was this utterly unfathomable specimen? Of course she remained on the roof, hand still clasping tight around her weapon’s handle as she noticed movement in her very sharp night vision. Cerise kept her focus ahead of her as she lifted the blade again and flicked it slightly towards her, allowing it to fold all the way down to its storage size using its special mechanisms. After it had finished clicking into place, she lifted her skirt slightly and strapped the weapon back to her left thigh, while she was turning to face the stranger. Upon doing so, and finishing re-attaching her weapon, she straightened up and folded her arms over her ample chest to look at him questioningly over the gap between the rooftop and the bridge that he was now standing on.

If there was one thing that Kai was slightly disappointed about by sleeping out here, it would be that there wasn't enough space on that particular roof for him to safely disassemble Dustbreaker and polish the parts. What with two of them up there, and the much more limited space than the ballroom, he would have a hard time keeping track of all the parts to its weapon-hybrid mechanism. And despite the fact that he desperately wanted to work on the weapon, he wanted to get to know this strange girl even more. She seemed a bit...odd, and he couldn't place it, but there was something about her, something that made her seem...different. Not in the normal 'everyone's different' sort of way, but that made her stand out, even from the other human girls that Kai had been familiarizing himself with.

The fact that Kai could carry so much stuff was in and of itself quite a feat. His trunk, having been hastily repacked, nearly had clothing and books spilling out of it, and then there was his weapon, which of course was slung over his shoulder, but it was done so in a bit of a precarious way. Having spotted the girl once again, Kai quickly approached her, and in doing so, he caught a glance of something that caused a quick jump in his heartbeat. As the girl stowed her weapon, she had pulled up her skirt slightly, but just as it seemed it would go just high enough to reveal something, it dropped back down as she turned to face him. He quickly averted his attention back to look at her face, willing that she hadn't seen where he had been looking. However, he thought he had looked away quickly enough to not get caught.

Kai stopped on the bridge, across the from the girl and simply stood there, contemplating. It was odd...the girl didn't seem to have any reaction to him showing up again after jumping off the roof. Most people would be shocked, horrified, at the thought that he had died and come back to life. But it seems that sort of scare didn't work on the girl. Indeed, he would need to ask her about it. However, there was another problem, getting his stuff out there, which he could just use his semblance for it, he did want to keep it a bit of a secret...but then again, he wasn't likely to get help from the girl... Shrugging and deciding there was no avoiding it, Kai concentrated and walked forward, once again disappearing into thin air and reappearing on the rooftop. Here he placed his trunk down and set his compressed weapon beside it before rifling through the trunk and pulling out a blue shirt and tossing it on his bare chest.

Only now did he look at the girl again, a quizzical expression in his gaze. "You know, you don't seem all that shocked considering I just jumped off the roof this high up. And while you don't "hold social interaction in high regard" you did at least talk to me, and that's kinda what I was hoping for. I mean, that's what this first night is for isn't it? To get to know people before initiation tomorrow." Kai pulled his sleeping supplies from his trunk and set them below him, plopping down comfortable on his bed roll. "So. What's your story? Though I suppose I should know your name first." he asked, looking up at her.

She continued to watch him, arms folded tight across her chest as she did so. It irritated her that she was so fascinated by him, and how he reacted around her. Why was he staring at her while she fastened her weapon back in place in its holster? It wasn’t like there was anything interesting there, except her underwear beneath the skirt she was wearing. The stranger did something very strange, where he simply walked out into thin air and then… reappeared on the rooftop practically beside her carrying all of his stuff. So he hadn’t been lying about staying out here with her. She drew the conclusion that he had done something similar before, when he fell back off the roof, but she couldn’t be sure. He confirmed it by asking why she didn’t seem phased by his special ability.

He spoke of how he wished for her to talk to him, even if she didn’t like social interaction, and mentioned how this night was supposedly about getting to know people ready for their Initiation tomorrow. Of course, she had nearly forgotten about that little complication. Teams… she could have vomited at the mere thought. She shrugged slightly in response, her arms remaining folded over her chest as she turned and looked out across the silent moonlight landscape before them from the rooftop, frowning a little. “To marvel over such abilities is to become distracted, and therefore lose concentration, which in turn, could kill.” She stated bluntly in regard to the stranger’s special ability. Her body remained facing away from him, but she glanced back briefly, her hazel orbs briefly meeting his oceanic blue before they flickered away again. “Although it does intrigue me. But it is obviously part of your Semblance.” She stated matter-of-factedly, managing to lessen a special and amazing ability to a specific entity, and therefore taking away from its magnificence. That was she always managed to do in some way or another. One might as well consider it a special trait of hers.

As the stranger seated himself on his sleeping mat, she remained standing briefly and looking away, before deciding to go to her own trunk full of belongings. From it, she brought out her typical night dress and a sleeping bag which she had packed for these kinds of situations. Following stretching the roll out onto the ground a fair distance away from his, she started to unlace her complicated shirt at the back, and then slipped it up and over her head, casually standing in her skirt and underwear in the somewhat chilly night air, and in front of somebody she barely knew. Calmly and obviously finding no issue with what she was doing, she pulled the night dress over her head before pulling her skirt down once the item of sleepwear was in place. “Cerise.” She stated crisply, seating herself on the sleeping bag and pulling off her boots, followed by her stockings. “I guess the polite thing to do would be to ask what your name is in return.” She looked at him with an eyebrow raised, obviously expecting an answer.

This girl, in all of her strange…indifference to people, seemed to be fine with Kai, and usually it was the other way around with girls he came on to. Usually he was off-putting to a point that girls made an effort to avoid him, at least that was how it was back home. So far he had managed to get to know the people he had met at Beacon without too much of a fuss, and while he often had a hard time opening up to people, there was something about Cerise that was interesting enough for him to feel comfortable around. It was the same with Amaya earlier that day, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Yet, compared to Amaya, he found this girl, Cerise, much more interesting to be around. Perhaps it was the way that Cerise seemed to react to the world, it was a completely logical manner in which she addressed everything. From his appearance to his ability, she seemed to just think from point A to point B, and ignore that which was off that path.

Kai tapped the tip of his nose, indicating that Cerise had hit the nail on the head, ”Yep, my semblance is spacial distortion, comes in handy in nearly every situation, be it battle or otherwise. Though, I suppose you don’t care much about that.” He winked cheekily at her as she turned away from him, and at that point he could only wonder what she planned to do. Of course, being a guy, what happened next was quite unexpected, as he didn’t have quite the read on Cerise yet.
Without batting an eye, Cerise began undressing in front of him, pulling off her shirt and showing just her underclothing. Kai could feel the heat rising in his face as she stood there, seemingly unabashed about the whole thing, and with a soft ‘splurt’ a warm liquid began to run from his nose. His hand immediately flew up to stop the bleeding before Cerise turned back around, pinching the bridge as he bled. Even when she had put on her sleepwear, his nose continued to bleed, but was showing signs of slowing. Finally it stopped as Cerise turned back around and seated herself on her sleeping bag next to him.

Fortunately, the blood had fallen off the side of the roof, as Kai had leaned over to try and avoid getting it on anything, though that did leave a red streak a little ways down the side of the building. But now he was turned back to her, and his flirty grin was back and directed at her. ”Cerise eh? I like that name, it has a nice ring to it. As for me…” he paused for a moment, yawning, ”I’m Kai.”

While they sat there, Kai laid back on his pad, looking up at the stars above, which were now emerging in the early night light. Back home one couldn’t see the stars this clearly, but here…they really did look nice. And that brought a new question to the forefront of Kai’s mind. ”I wonder, where is a pretty girl like you from?” He glanced sideways at her for a moment before resuming his star gazing.

She wasn’t surprised when it appeared that she had been right. Of course she had. She was especially well-learned in every technical aspect of becoming a Huntress or a Hunter, so it was more than predictable that she would indeed have gotten such a thing correct. The stranger went on to explain that his Semblance was spacial distortion; quite a feat in itself, she found. How somebody would be gifted with such a unique and powerful ability was beyond her, but she soon managed to pass over it as unimportant. Now she had learnt a specific thing from him about what he could do, all she could think about was setting up a profile in her head about him so that she wouldn’t be caught unaware if she had to fight him in the near future. She had noticed that he did something strange before she turned away… did his eye have a problem or something? He blinked using only one eyelid. How strange…

As she had seated herself down on her sleeping back, she realised that the stranger was leaning over the side of the building for something or other. Her eyebrow raised questioningly as she watched him, but soon shrugged her shoulders after he had turned back around to face her. Cerise looked at him, spotting something which further confused her. The way he was smiling at her… what did that mean? She probably stared a little too long, but couldn’t help herself. Why was this stranger exhibiting so many strange emotions and quirks? It just wasn’t natural. He complimented her name, saying that it had a nice ring to it, and she merely pulled her legs up to her chest loosely, resting her arms atop her knees as she briefly stared out across the campus. “It’s just a name. Its purpose is to identify a human being, or even an object or a thing.” She stated blankly, obviously not seeing the fascination with her name like he seemed to.

He introduced himself as Kai, and at least now she wouldn’t have to refer to him as ‘the stranger’. She noticed how he yawned, and was puzzled yet again. Did that not mean that the brain was waking itself up, otherwise a sign of tiredness? Sometimes she forgot that other people became tired at night, unlike herself. “Well met, Kai.” She stated, her same eternal tone of indifference ringing in her voice. It was obvious that she was merely acting on specific acts of kindness and politeness, as if she had taken them straight from a book, even. Hence her obvious stiffness with the whole ‘friendly’ demeanour… which she didn’t truly have. Cerise remained sat on her sleeping bag, arms folded on top of her knees as she looked out across the landscape, her Faunus ears instinctively twitching ever-so-slightly underneath her pigtails as she heard him address her again out of the blue. She was confused yet again as he called her a ‘pretty girl’, obviously comprehending his way of identifying her by gender, but not understanding the ‘pretty’ part. She decided to skim over that, and instead think about how to answer his question.

“A small town on the boundaries of Vale, to the east.” She stated, again settling for the cold hard facts as she always did. “It is most known for the forest on the outskirts where a tribe of especially viscous Ursa thrive.” In her subconscious, all she could see was flashes of grim black fur, the ghostly and rabid white masks covering the creatures’ faces as her own sobs could be heard echoing deep in the recesses of her mind. Visibly unaffected by her trip down memory lane, she briefly turned to face him again. “And you?”

Once again Cerise had answered in a way that seemed almost autonomous. There wasn't much feeling behind her voice, nor was there mock or jest in her response to his compliment on her name. Yes...she was an odd one. She didn't even smile at any of his compliments, nor did she dissuade or chastise him for them, did she feel nothing for his words be it negative or otherwise? And if such things were true then what did this girl feel? Was it nothing? Or was it that she hid her feelings from the world, hiding the paper heart not upon her sleeve but in her pocket? What was her game? That was what Kai needed to find out.

"Well, that's where our opinions must differ, fair Cerise. While a name does have purpose to identify, do some names not fall upon the tongue more sweetly, just as sugar is more pleasant than salt? It was such with your name in my mouth, it rolls off pleasantly and thus I find it nice." Kai crossed his legs, still watching the stars for any that might fall and hold up old superstition with a wish.

"Indeed it is well met...if not tiredly." he stifled another yawn as his words trailed off and listened to where had born Cherise. And still, the question once again shifted to him, the inevitability of being asked his origin had been realized by him early on, and he answered thusly. "It is a far off town that I call home, much less than this city among the cliffsides. It is strange, that all these cities, while belonging to the same kingdom each have their woes far greater than those of Vale itself. True, the city is large, and true the people are rich, and yet there still seems that something is wrong with the disparity."

Finishing his thought, he rolled over, pulling up the light blanket that was a part of the bedroll. "What do you suppose the initiation shall be? I do suspect that teams will be formed there, but what might we be pitted against? Does that not puzzle you, Cerise?"

Once again, it seemed that the strange white-haired youth had a comeback for her otherwise indifferent reaction to the whole process of things being named. He likened it to sugar and salt, how one tasted sweeter than the other understandably. He had a point, but she didn’t like to admit it. She’d rather eat sugar over salt any day, but she couldn’t see how her name was so pleasant that he likened it to sugar. She remained silent, allowing it to sink in and confuse her further, turning and looking at him as he yawned and stated that he was indeed very tired. Cerise was feeling rather wide awake at this point, but understood that not all were like her in this sense.

In response to her question, he replied that he was born in a town far away, and then started to reflect on cities/ dwellings as a whole. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, her eyes averted back to the stars overhead. “Back home, everyone worried about themselves. That’s why it took so long for me to be adopted, I guess.” She stated in her self-same tone of voice, so even and indifferent. She heard the rustling of blankets as she imagined that Kai settled down, undoubtedly ready to sleep. He pondered aloud about what their initiation would be, while stating that their teams would be formed during that time, as well as posing the question of what they would be put up against. She had a hunch that it would be the Grimm, creatures of darkness like the Ursa she had encountered as a young girl. “I’m not sure. Ozpin is keeping very tight-lipped about everything.” She slowly lowered herself down onto her sleeping back, crossing her arms behind her head and keeping her eyes fixed up at the skies.

Her hazel orbs fell shut casually, simply resting instead of planning to sleep. “Whatever it is will prove to be a challenge. So we should be suitably prepared, including getting a good night’s sleep.” While she wasn’t tired, she realised the importance of a good night of sleep when it came to functioning at full capacity.

As Kai held his eyelids shut and rolled over, one particular pieces of what Cerise had said stuck with him, she was adopted. "Well...we have that in common, you and I, in one way or another." he muttered under his breath, though who could really tell what he said from a prolonged yawn? It was quick in coming, the tiredness he felt. It had been a long day, and he needed to sleep, that much he agreed on with Cerise. And this was plenty comfortable, there was even a nice crossbreeze blowing over him.

It seemed to take only a few moments after muttering, "G'night Cerise" that he lost consciousness, and from there, the night surrounded the pair. His mind was filled with dreams as he slept. Dreams of shadowy beings without form, but had one thing about them that he could see to be solid. The white bone masks over their faces. The beasts themselves without shape, had no definite size either. First their were small enough to be crushed underfoot, then larger than even all of Beacon. Yet, Kai had no trouble in these dreams. In them he had his weapon, and when those beasts came for him he drove them back with fire and light and force. However, his dreams did leave him restless, and he moved on his sleeping pad, inching closer and closer the the other person who slept beside him.

The pink-haired girl continued to stare out across the night sky, drinking in the stunning scenery that it offered. It wasn’t very often that she appreciated a night in particular, but she realised how lovely this particular one was. After staying up through most nights, she had almost lost the appreciation of their beauty. She could have sworn that her companion said something in amongst his yawn, but what that was, she didn’t know. The next thing she knew, Kai had muttered a goodnight to her, and he was away.

She turned to look at him sleeping, noticing how he appeared to be rather restless, and wondered curiously what he was dreaming about for him to be so unsettled. Cerise merely shrugged it off, however, as she took one last look at the night sky before slipping inside her sleeping bag and closing her hazel orbs, ready for sleep to take her, earlier than usual. She could feel the confusion that her body expressed at her early sleep, but it didn’t protest too much before she too had slipped away into the land of dreams and the subconscious. She realised then how much of a busy day it had been, and how she had waited until this moment for a peaceful sleep. It was far from that, however, as she started to dream… it seemed that speaking of her hometown had brought back horrific memories, more specifically encountering the Grimm for the first and only time in her life.

She rolled from her place, further along the rooftop to where she had already forgotten another person was sleeping. In her dream, when she was a mere eleven years of age with tears streaming down her face and knelt on the ground in despair, she reached across her body to the leg of her adoptive father, holding tightly onto it for some kind of comfort. This translated into reality, where instead of a leg, she literally wrapped her arms around the solid form of Kai. Anchoring her body to his seemed to calm her restless nightmares, and she slept entirely undisturbed until early the next morning…

Upon slowly waking as the sunlight peaked over the horizon, Cerise felt a little disorientated. At first she noticed how she seemed to have changed sleeping positions rather drastically, which never normally happened unless she suffered from nightmares. Then, as her bleary eyes adjusted, they immediately grew large at what she saw directly in front of her. “H-Hey!” She shrieked, shooting bolt up-right in her sleeping bag and staring at Kai in utter shock. Her cheeks, for the most part, had turned almost the same shade as her hair in sheer embarrassment and confusion. How on earth had that happened?

The night passed uneventfully, except for the closeness that eventually befell the pair that laid there. Kai continually rolled over in his sleep, closing the distance between him and Cerise, and when she pulled him close into her arms, his heavy sleeping habit stopped him from waking up. So, for most of the night he slept comfortably in her arms, only waking the next morning to a loud shriek right next to his ear.

Immediately he bolted upright, looking around and reaching for his hammer, which was of course several feet away, where he had laid it before rolling across the roof in his sleep. "What?! What? What's wrong?" he responded, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before realizing they were in no danger. "Cerise?" he began, looking at how close she was, "Why are you on my side of the roof?" Though...now that he looked at it, he could see that his sleeping pad was left where he had begun to sleep, and that now he was right where Cerise had been sleeping, which had to mean..."I uh...rolled over in my sleep, didn't I." he said, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head. "I kinda tend to do that on occasion. But usually I fall out of bed and wake myself up. Though..." He could see Cerise was blushing and grinned. "Something happened with you, didn't it?"

Examining his own body, he found something that hinted at what had transpired overnight. A thread that matched the girl's nightdress. "You were holding me, weren't you?" His grin grew wider still, and he moved back across the roof to his spot to get dressed in his armor for the day. "You know, for being a girl that doesn't show emotion much, you sure are blushing a lot. Did the fact that you were hugging me embarrass you?"

Her hazel orbs remained wide in utter shock, staring at her companion incredulously while waiting for an answer from him. At first he reacted as if they were in danger, before asking what she was doing on his side of the roof. She frowned and shook her head, jabbing a finger across in the direction of his unoccupied sleeping mat. “Your side of the roof?” She cried, obviously having a mixture of emotions between angry, irritated and just plain… confused. He apologised and said that he usually moved a lot in his sleep, but usually he would roll out of bed to wake himself up. Obviously with no bed to fall out of, he had remained soundly asleep.

Cerise kept her sleeping bag pulled up tight around her, looking at him and wondering what had prompted such a thing. He turned the question on her, grinning and fixing his gaze on her, something which made her huff and shake her head, averting her gaze and folding both arms over her chest. “Absolutely not.” She stated crisply. Her eyes grew wide again as he looked down at himself and found something which only made him grin wider, and claim that she had been holding him. “What nonsense!” She cried in outrage, standing up out of her sleeping bag to accentuate what she was saying. She folded it up, shaking her head firmly to herself and frowning slightly. “You were the one had grabbed hold of me, quite obviously.” She retorted, throwing a scathing glance back over her shoulder as she moved to her own side of the roof to put away the belongings into her trunk.

By this point, her cheeks had cooled down massively, leaving her with no trace of a blush. She huffed slightly and rolled her eyes, obviously not impressed with his assumption, and slammed the lid of her trunk shut with a loud ‘bang’ after retrieving her clothes. She turned her back to him and changed, discretely pulling on her shirt, skirt and a pair of new underwear. Due to the early hour, no-one was yet awake or even stirring. “You should focus more on today than such trivialities. Now if you’ll excuse me…” She hefted her trunk over her shoulder and carried her hold-all, striding past Kai and standing on the edge of the roof, taking only a brief pause to look back at him and narrow her eyes slightly. “I believe that it’s time to prepare for the initiation.” With that, she leapt and cleared the gap between that rooftop and the bridge, landing softly and almost cat-like in her poise, beginning to walk away if she was not stopped.

Kai had to fight somewhat hard to not laugh at Cerise's outrage. He could feel his ribs nearly cracking with the effort, as she raged on at him about how incorrect he was about his assumption. Really, it was her accent that made it the most entertaining. To hear such a prim and proper voice shouting at him, it really was causing him to crack up. Yes...he could definitely go for this girl, if only she would have him, and yet, he couldn't help but see that was somewhat unlikely given current circumstances. Well that, and her disposition to being emotionless up until now. However, no matter how much mirth her little outburst had brought him, she was right about one thing, they did need to get ready for the initiation. After all, it would determine who they were to live with, study with, and work with for the next four years, and Kai wasn't going to start that off with being late.

He quickly got up, and as soon as Cerise's back was turned, gave a roll of his eyes at her back. Really, she couldn't hide the fact that she had been holding him. He knew himself well enough that he didn't grab things in his sleep, it was just the rolling that he had to deal with. But then there was the question, why had she held him? Was it some sort of subconscious attraction? Or was it something else entirely? His brain tumbled over these questions, as well as others as he packed up his things, much more neatly than last night. Once he had put away everything and changed into his battle armor, he grabbed his weapon's strap and his trunk, hefting them up and jumping back to the bridge, just behind Cerise's retreating backside.

A sudden, cheeky, mad idea popped into Kai's mind as he watched the girl, and he quickly freed up his hand by putting the strap of his weapon over his shoulder. He was going to make an attempt to break Cerise's shell. If she lost control of her emotions with a little thing such as him suggesting that she had held him, this was bound to get to her. Stepping forward with his semblance, he appeared just behind and to the side of her. He grinned mischievously and gave his arm a little windup before giving Cerise a flirty, gentle smack on her butt. If he knew her as he thought he did, the reaction would be great and immediate, just as he had been hoping for.

The pink-haired female was so far focused on her goal and flouncing away as quickly as she could that she didn’t even stop to think that Kai might perhaps follow after her. She kept a scowl on her face the entire time, with her hazel orbs narrowed and facing forwards with an unwavering determination to head to the designated point for initiations. The sooner she forgot about that… that… idiot, the better. Before she could effectively leave and vanish from his sight, however, she was aware of a slight brush of air down her side as he suddenly appeared using that strange Semblance of his.

He had obviously seen a different side to her blushing and denial about holding him, one that she didn’t comprehend nor understand due to having her emotions shut out for a total of seven years and counting. Hence her reaction and utter bewilderment at his next action. She stopped and turned to look at him, eyes owlishly wide with utter confusion. If he was going to hit her, why not anywhere else and only on her backside? And why was he… grinning at her?

“What was that for?” She asked bluntly, trying to shrug off the fact that she was struggling to comprehend the action and its connotations.

Kai nearly burst out laughing at the confusion on Cerise's face at his actions. "Really? Can't you guess?" he said, mimicking her accent fairly well and continuing his pace and taking the lead. "It's because I like you." The initiation would be starting soon, and Kai wanted to get there early enough to get a good position for whatever it was, and if that meant he had to leave Cerise behind, well...he hoped it didn't come to that. But she was lagging about in her confusion, still standing there all bewildered about his little stunt.

"Come on Cerise, maybe you'll figure it out on the way to initiation. If not, maybe I'll explain it better afterwards." He motioned with his hand jovially and turned to corner back to the corridor that lead to the ballroom, where everyone was meeting.

(Let's end it on your post and then we can talk about when we want the next one to be.)