Embrace of Light and Dark

by Knight of Crows

Chapter 48.5

Cassiel POV

The next day came, we still had no progress in recruitment for Haven's defense. Seeing we weren't getting anywhere, I had a small chat with Blake.

(This morning, Blake's room)

"So this is out of the blue, but how about we go fishing today?" I asked as she exited the bathroom to let me go take a shower.

"We have more important things to do right now, Cassiel." She declined as she used a towel to dry her hair.

"One day off isn't going to hurt our progress. Hell, we're basically already set, we could just let Sienna deal with preparations and just get there on time." I tried to convince her.

"Maybe when this is over, but right now, this takes priority." You're seriously going to make me pull that card, aren't you?

"We still have plenty of time is my point. Besides, we've been doing nothing but work since we got here. That, and I think a day to ourselves would probably be better in the long run, especially since I don't think we'll have a chance to do this again anytime soon. We don't want a repeat of the days leading up to the dance, do we?" I asked her.

"Please don't remind me of that." She responded, not wanting to remember that. Unfortunately for her, I will.

"You do see my point though, right? One day to ourselves, we can go back to dealing with the White Fang after." I offered. "Think of it as me trying to be the boyfriend and taking my girl out to do something I know you enjoy."

"*sigh*... I guess when you put it like that, it's a little harder to say no." Perfect! "Tomorrow, we're continuing where we left off."

"I'll be down shortly." I walked past her, grabbing a towel on the way.

"Don't keep a girl waiting."

"Hey! I only take about 10 minutes in my showers, you four would take so long that there was no hot water for me! Yang especially, but you and Weiss took your sweet time as well!" I laughed.

"Are you going to keep talking, or are you going to take your shower so we can go?"

"... This has never happened for anyone before, but you win." I walked out the door and towards the bathroom. True to my word, I only took about 10 minutes. Kali had just finished making breakfast again, it feels good to live like this, having something to look forward and wake up to, it's a shame this won't last. I am just now noticing Blake switched into a black swimsuit, I'm still stuck with my cloak, not that I have any reason to wear anything else.

The Belladonas kept a few boats behind the house, fishing nets too. Must have been a hobby of Ghira's too, or maybe he just knows how to prepare seafood. The boat was a lot lighter than I expected, not even 10 steps away from the home, Kali rushed out to make sure we had sunscreen and handed me a bag containing some swim trunks. When Blake turned back around, Kali looked at me with her biggest smirk yet before leaving, does she not know how flexible Blake is?... That came out wrong... Regardless, she already saw everything above the belt so there's no point in trying to hide it, so I flew back up to Blake's room and changed. The trip through the water started off slow, I used Aero to give us a small boost at the start. It would still be a while yet before we reached the island.

"Cassiel?" Blake snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Need something?" I sat down. "Blizzard." I started using Nightfall to cut the ice block in my hand.

"What really brought this on? I'm not against it, but you said it yourself, it was out of nowhere."

"I was serious when I said I wanted to take you out, to try and be boyfriend material. We won't have time to do something like this again for a while, and because your mother helped a little." I answered. "You've got a great family, reminds me a lot of my own."

"I'm sorry if this brings back memories you'd rather forget, but what was your family like?" I stopped cutting the ice and took a minute to compose myself.

"I can't remember as well as I'd like to. My father had a job that let him work from home, he was the one making most of the money in the house. He was a busy man, but he was always able to make time for various reasons. Something needed to be fixed, homework when mom wasn't around, play with me and my sister, even a bedtime story on the extremely busy nights." I continued what I was doing, trying to shape it to be flat and thin as a makeshift oar to put at the end of Nightfall.

"I think our fathers would've been fast friends."

"Probably... My mother's the one who took care of almost everything. She couldn't trust my father to cook, apparently he set fire to cereal once-hahahaha!" I laughed with Blake.

"Whahahahaaat??!!"

"I never asked how he managed to accomplish that when the nearest fire source was at the other end of the kitchen. She made sure he wasn't so caught up in his work that he'd skip 2 meals a day. So long as he remembered to look at the clock, she didn't need to go upstairs into his study for much. She was gentle, when me or my sister did something wrong, she made sure we knew why we were in trouble before she punished us, I don't think she ever raised her voice even once at us. She was the perfect example of what a mother should be." My voice started to crack.

"You don't have to force yourself to do this. We can continue this later if you want." She said, concerned.

"I'm fine." I told her. "My sister was by no means a troublemaker, but she was a little mischievous, especially for her age. Sometimes, her pranks would take days to notice. Moving my father's favorite books to another part of his study, flipping a painting upside down, switching all the tv remotes, if she could reach it, it wasn't safe, and she was surprisingly intelligent for her age. Great artist and singer too. She would've gone places if she were still here."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, the one who took it all away is a charred and dismembered corpse 6 feet under, I personally saw to that." I finished what I was doing with the ice. "Fire." I melted a thin hole through it, just thin enough for the wing near Nightfall's tip to slide in. "Blizzard." I froze it to Nightfall after sliding it through the hole to use it as an oar. I think I'll stop here, I don't want to continue this conversation.

"... Cassiel?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I ask a rather personal question, two actually?" I don't see why not.

"What do you want to know?" I asked.

"Those emblems on your chest and back, what are they?" I was hoping not to answer that one.

"... Let's just say I paid a price for power when we fought Adam." I answered her first question. She looked concerned for a moment, but let it go, knowing I wouldn't give more clarification.

"Do you still hate yourself?" I was expecting almost anything else.

"*sigh*... I'm not sure." I answered. "I guess I don't, not anymore. I'm still not proud of who, what I've become, but there's not much that can be done besides live and don't lose anything worth protecting. So long as I have that, I can try to live with myself."

"You probably need to hear this more than I did, but there's no past self more important than the present. Mom told me that when we went fishing on the island. You're getting better, you will get better."

"Maybe, nothing we can do right now though. So enough about me, what about you?" I asked. "I don't really know too much about you besides your history with the White Fang and birthplace."

"Well, you at least have an idea of my past 2 years before applying to Beacon. Before that–before I met Adam and ran off with him, I guess you could say I was living like a princess by Menagerie's standards." She started.

"Well I mean, you do have a giant house and guards all over." I commented.

"I didn't really have any problems growing up. I couldn't really make a lot of friends though for various reasons, but no one ever really gave me any trouble. I told you before I was basically born into the White Fang, I was active to say the least, but I mostly kept to myself. Our childhoods sound pretty similar up to a point in time, not counting race." She answered.

"Alright then." I looked past her, I expected the trip to take a lot more time, we're already close to a good spot to land. "Looks like we're here." She turned around and got ready to jump off. We probably could get off the boat now, the water here looks shallow enough that we could just walk through it, pulling the boat with us.

"There's a few good spots, there'll be plenty, I'm sure." She said.

"So how are we doing this?" I asked. "I can probably spear-fish using the twinblades, wingblades, or scythes if they're big enough and at a good angle, but you know better I'm sure."

"Whatever suits you." She answered. We closed in on the shores, she jumped out with me doing the same after. The water was at our waistes, I still used Nightfall to make sure the footing was good. Once we reached the shore, we left the boat there and Blake led the rest of the way. At the bottom near a small cliff, no more than 20 ft from the water below, we stopped for a moment so she could pull out a fishing net.

"The spot further in, or is it here?" I turned Nightfall into a twinblade.

"It's here, I decided the best place to try first would probably be where mom and I caught that tuna we ate shortly after coming home."

"Fair enough." I removed my mask, I forgot I was still wearing it and meant to take it off once it was just us. I left it near the bag and walked into the water with her, I dived in to see how deep it was before looking for any sizeable fish. Blake's a faster swimmer than me, cat must want her tuna. She doesn't look like she sees anything, I looked further down and thought I saw something shining, I resurfaced first before diving back down. It was a ring, silver or white gold, an amethyst, and it looked like something was written in it. I can't tell what it says, but a gift is a gift, though when is the question. I slid it on my finger since I had nowhere else to put it then resurfaced again, Blake following shortly after.

"Anything?" She asked.

"No, you?"

"Same."

"Want to stay here and see if that'll change, or try another s- OH SHIT!" I turned Nightfall into wingblades and started to repeatedly stab into the water around me.

"What happened!" She yelled.

"Something brushed up against my leg." I looked at Nightfall to see if it got anything, there was a tuna bigger than my arm impaled on it. "I guess we caught something."

"Ppppfffhahahahaaahhhaa!" She laughed.

"Okay, laugh it up! I can't imagine your reaction being any different!"

"Ahaha... I'm sorry. Let's stick around for a little longer, then we'll move on. In the mean time, stick it into one of the small, air tight bags." She said before diving back down.

"Alright." I did as she said, took me a bit to find what I was looking for. I turned back around and saw she caught another about the same size as what I got. She walked out of the water and dropped her catch into the... When... Where was that bucket? Screw it, not questioning it.

"I don't think we'll need to change locations after all, a bunch of them just started swimming in." Good to know.

"I guess we're having a feast tonight!" I summoned Exile as wingblades. We kept at this for a while longer, once the bags and bucket were full, we started going back to the boat. I carried both on the way, this is a lot lighter than I expected. I looked at Blake as she led the way back, never thought I'd think this about anyone, but she's got an amazing figure that her swimsuit hugs nicely, I'm changing more than I thought I would. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard her scream, she probably lost her footing because she was falling to her side. I dropped everything and casted Stop on her before rushing up to her and preparing to catch her. A few seconds passed and she continued her fall, but I caught her.

"Thanks." She took a moment to compose herself. "What the..." Her hand slid down my arm, the one with the ring. "Where did you get this?" She stood back up as she examined it.

"I found it when we were fishing." I answered.

"... Do you know the legend of this island?"

"No." She let me go so I could pick everything back up.

"There was once a Faunus princess and a human noble in love with one another, of course, they had to keep their love secret. One day, before he went off to war, she gave him a sacred sea shell ring. He fell in battle and the ring found it's way back to her. In her despair... Well... You can see how that goes." She told as she continued leading the way back.

"Suicide. I've always hated the idea, but understood it anyway. People don't do exactly do it because they want to die, but because it hurts too much to keep living. What many seem to not understand though is how it affects those around them, they don't consider the consequences they might have to face either. I do know what it's like, but I saw it as the cowards way out, only reason I'm still alive." I commented as we arrived at the boat.

"Consequences? Besides death?" I expected you to latch onto anything else.

"Different religions. Some condemn the act with an eternity of torment, others say the Void awaits them while others say their souls are to wander the earth for eternity. Enough about that though." I set everything down and started pushing the boat into the water with her. Once it was in, I took everything onto the boat and used Aero to get it going.

A few minutes out, I had an idea. I used Aero to turn the boat so my back was facing Menagerie, startling Blake.

"What was that about??!!" She tightly gripped the sides of the boat.

"So I could do this." I switched over to her side, sitting right next to her. I pulled off the ring and held it out to her, one of my arms wrapping around her shoulder and pulling her closer. "I was planning to give this to you later, but I guess now's as good a time as any. You know I'll be leaving eventually to continue with my 'Mark of Mastery'. This is my promise to return. When I leave, will you wait for me?" I asked. She looked between me and the ring for what felt like minutes before raising a hand to my cheek. She looked like she wanted to take it a step further, but she didn't want to do something that might not be well received. She took the ring instead and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Make sure you come back, alright? I won't forgive you if you break that promise."

"I'll be back, I have plenty of reasons to keep that promise."

Maybe this will be my home once everything is done and over with.

Author's Note:

Bonding!!! Next up, the girl competing with The Meta/ Agent Maine for best mute!!!

That sounded less messed up in my head...

That talk of suicide near the end, get some help if you have those thoughts.

Comments

[Mitril]

pa1.narvii.com/6581/e441cf43096b543bd0c1eed295ad5b1d4909f126_hq.gif

[zachary12]

nice work

[EVILSxKG]

While this has/is turning out to no exactly a 'fim' fiction i'm very much enjoying the story and the character development along with the way you've been adapting the other shows to fit the story. I'm looking forward to the rest of the story.

[Knight of Crows]

10236460
Thank you.