Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ren sighs as he enters the elevator going up Shade academy. For a building called Shade, it was not much cooler in the building than it was outside. Pressing the button he wonders why Blake of all people asked him to be there. Usually it was Ruby or Oz, Blake assigning a mission was out of the ordinary, but they were fighting a war, so anything could happen. Anything given that Jaune had gone back to the Ever After and abandoned them again. Now it was just him and Nora. Nora barely even had time for him anymore, always off on missions. They communicated by their scrolls though. They had finally been able to get the CCT back up from the grimm. The elevator dings, snapping him back to reality from thinking about Beacon.
Stepping off the elevator he walks down the corridor looking for the correct room, room 22 of the conference rooms. He finds the room on his right and pushes his way through the door.
“Finally you're here” Blake says, standing on the other side of the room from the door, with a plain black long sleeve shirt and black sweat pants on.
“Your late” remarks Emerald leaning on a chair on the left, looking fully dressed and ready for combat with her weapons sheathed. Sitting in the chair next to Emerald was ilia dressed as normal.
“Don't be mean emerald, we just got here as well.” remarks Ilia as Ren slides into a chair on the right side.
Blake interrupts the two before they start bickering, “all right, all right, no Ren you're just on time, Emerald’s just being Emerald.”
“Rude” Emerald murmurs quickly stuffled by Ilia lightly slapping her on the arm.
“Anyway” Blake continues “I have an important mission for the three of you, you three are to go to the north east just outside of Grimm territory. We have found a camp of what's left of the Red Fang. They have been using our ignorance of the Grimm territory to stay under our radar, but now that they have been found it is your job to round up any that are still loyal to their cause and capture their leader.”
“I thought there wasn't any more Red Fang now that Adam is dead” Ilia interrupts, this time Emerald gently slaps her shoulder with a smirk on her face.
“Emerald,” Blake warns “Ilia as it turns out there are still small factions who are loyal to his cause, and there are big flags of the Red Fang on their walls, so it's kinda confirmed. We need you all to get inside and scope out the situation with your Semblances, while our main forces take a bit to get there. When we take their base we can expect Grimm to come, so we have to be prepared. You will also set up a base camp nearby out of sight. Got it?”
Ilia raises her hand and Emerald rolls her eyes
“Yes Ilia”
“Why are you assigning this mission , it's usually Ruby that does this?” Ilia asks, voicing Rens questions.
Blake hesitates for a moment before composing herself and Ren takes note of the pink petals cascading around her.
“I was originally going to do this mission, but I decided to go to Vale, for vacation, with Yang, we have decided to go and stay with her dad for a bit and visit her hometown and nearby places. We will also be there to provide any extra support to Vale if needed.”
Ilia sits back in her chair as Blake continues
“And the reason why Ruby isn't giving you the assignment is because she is off in Atlas providing support for Weiss with the Schnee dust company and other things probably” rolling her eyes at the end she says “but that doesn't really matter, what matters is your mission okay?”
They all nodded and started to get up to go, as Emerald and Ilia walked out Blake called to Ren
“Hey, one sec would you? Could you keep an eye on those too, I can't tell if they actually hate each other or if there is something else going on.”
“You got it,” Ren responded flatly, looking at the swirling petals of worry floating around Blake. Spinning around he walks quickly out trying to catch up with the other two, so he doesn't have to wait for the next one.
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Heading to the airship docs Emerald and Ilia continued bickering. When they get down to the docs they start to help loading the ship with all of the supplies needed for a few weeks worth of time. Ren stops for a bit while Emerald and Ilia finish the last two loads. Stopping to stare he notices the gentle floating pink petals swirling among the petals of nervousness and a few anger petals here and there. Looking further he sees how they bump against each other constantly and are somehow always by each other's sides. On the other hand though they pushed each other and their banter was one to rival Blake and Yangs. He wonders if there really is something more going on than playful rivals. Maybe a blooming romance?
“Hey, dude, Ren, it's time to go. You want first shift?” Emerald calls from the ship's door to Ren breaking his thought off. Ren nods as he gets up to Emerald before she closes the door. He then heads up to the driver's seat. Ilia was already sitting in the passenger's seat.
“Oh hey Ren, I guess since you're up here you're flying us first?” Ilia says as soon as she looks up at him from her scroll. With his nod she heads down to the seats with Emerald to the passenger section.
Sitting down in the driver seat Ren gets out his scroll and sends a quick text before starting the ship.

‘Hey Nora, is there anything going on with Emerald and Ilia?’

After getting the ship to a cruising altitude he checks his scroll again.

‘Hey, Ren, it's not like you to text first, but nah i don't think so i mean there are rumors going around that they hate each other, but there are also rumors that they spend all of their time together, so idk’, are you going on a mission with them why do you want to know??????’

Ren responded with a thumbs up. After being with Nora for so long he still didn't get where she got all of her energy from.
With the soft click of buttons he sets the Air ship to the coordinates Blake sent him and settles in for a long night.
After a few hours of absolute nothing he drowsily walks down the steps to the passengers area. There he spots Emerald and Ilia already asleep next to each other. Ilia had her arm wrapped around Emerald’s waist and Emerald was cosied up against Ilia’s chest. After a quick fight with his mind about waking them up he decided to wake up Emerald for the next shift.
Emerald murmurs slightly when Ren lightly shakes her awake and she rolls away from Ilia. Sitting up she rubs the sleep from her eyes. Calm petals float around her as Ren says
“It's your turn, you can wake up Ilia if you wanna do the shift together.”
Responding slowly Emerald states “Nah she needs the sleep, she has trouble sleeping after being with the white fang”
Ren spots the flurry of pink petals begin to mix with the other petals as Emerald then stands up and lays her blanket atop Ilia.
Ren then begins to set up his own blanket on the other corner as Emerald tip toes up to the Pilot space.
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With a jolt Ren is awoken by a hand shaking him awake. Turning he finds Ilia crouching next to him.
“Hey dude, it's time to wake up, we are just about to land” she then leaves to go back up to the pilot area, where Ren assumes Emerald is. Sitting up Ren looks around, picking up his scroll. They were about 5 minutes from the landing time assuming they kept on track. Hurriedly he cleans up the blankets and straps himself into a seat for landing. The seat was not very comfortable to begin with and it was not helped by the rocky landing. He would have to make sure he landed next time, he trusted himself to do that better than Emerald and Ilia.
“Letsss goooo! First try!” Yells Emerald from the pilot room. Ren slaps his forehead in despair about this mission going smoothly. Unbuckling, he heads for the door. As he opens it Emerald and Ilia run down the stairs, Ilia chasing Emerald trying to grab her. After a chaotic struggle both end up on the ground somehow.
“Guys” Ren reprimands
“Sorry” they chorus standing off and dusting eachother off. As they do that Ren again notices the pink petals of attraction and love flow down, with an added hint of pink on Ilia’s skin. The pink however went unnoticed by both of them.
‘Yup definitely something going on’ remarks Ren to himself. They all then started to unload everything off the airship. Emerald and Ilia kept up with their regular banter and yet they never completed a trip of supplies without the other. A little while later it was all unloaded.
Ren was grabbing the tents as a temporary solution until the rest of the forces got there. Looking at the three tents and after a second of pondering he decided that they only had 2 tents and they had forgotten 1. Promptly hiding the third one in a storage bin behind some food storage they won't unpack until way later. As the only guy, Emerald and Ilia would be forced to share a tent. Maybe this was an opportunity to make Emerald and Ilia actually maybe figure things out. Ren figured that they had either not realised it yet, or they were trying to hide it for some reason. Either way looking at their closeness during the trip, something was going on, something unexpected, but good. He was sure at least Ilia had a crush on Emerald.
Emerald getting his attention snapped him back from his scheming “Hey Ren, me and Ilia are heading out to do some scouting and to make sure the base didn't see us on our way in.”
Nodding in response Ren started to unpack the first tent as they headed off together into the brush.
After he set up the two tents he sits down on a very convenient log and pulls out his scroll.
‘Hey blake we have arrived on time’
He got an almost immediate response of
“Good was there any trouble on your way in? How are Emerald and Ilia anything of note?’
‘No trouble, but i can say that there is something going on between them’
‘Damn anything bad?’
‘No just pink petals’
It took blake a bit to respond after that
‘PINK PETALS???????? Are you sure not red, Damn thats unexpected’
‘(Imagen this is a thumbs up)’
‘Okay are they together then?’
‘No, i don't believe so’
‘Check for me please it would be nice to have all the feelings sorted out.’
‘(imagen this is another thumbs up)’
After a bit Ren looks up from this scroll to Emerald and Ilia walking back into the campsite. Hurriedly he puts his scroll away into his pocket.
Looking around Ilia notices “where's the third tent?”
“Forgot it” Ren says nonchalantly to a shocked Ilia. Emerald however seemed fine, but the petals of pink, gray of worry, and orange of anxiety gathering around her said otherwise. Ilia however was a mess of pink with some of her skin flickering to pink and orange. It was obvious she was trying to suppress it.
“Well I can just sleep outside” Ilia says quickly shut down by Emerald
“Nonsense, it's gonna get freezing cold, we may be in Vacuo, but it can get really cold at night and with your outfit on, you're gonna freeze.” She states genturing to Ilia’s outfit which Ilia responds to by looking away the petals of pink flowing faster throughout the air around her.
“Fine we can share” she quietly responds looking back at Emerald “but I get the left side.”
“You got it boss” Emerald responds walking to the tent to put hers and Ilia’s stuff inside.
“I will go get some more firewood,” Ilia says, apparently wanting some time to think as she quickly walks into the forest, quickly disappearing with her skin turning the colors of the leaves, trees and shadows.
Eventually Emerald comes back out of the tent, back to the fire Ren had started from the meager pile of firewood they had been given to start their trip. Sitting down with a sign she asks Ren “Do you think somethings up with Ilia? She was acting weird. Do you know what emotion she was feeling?”
“I try to not reveal what people are feeling to other people, it's already an invasion of privacy, what I do.”
“Uuuugg you good people have such a conscience. No offence”
“None taken”
A small silence filled only by their own thoughts and Ren setting up a small kettle for hot water ensues until.
After putting the kettle down on the fire Ren asks “What's your and Ilias relationship?”
“Wow straight to the point dude, why do you ask?”
“Just curious”
He responds and after a short silence Emerald suddenly blurts out “She is my first friend you know. I mean I had Cinder, but she was more of a mentor than a friend and of course there was Mercury, but we all know he was a bitch. I don't wanna lose her or make her uncomfortable, you know. Me and Ilia met actually on a mission with Blake and Yang. We bonded over how insufferably in love those two are and now, well, when she is gone I just feel empty. By the Brothers, sorry for rambling being on the good side has made me more open and I talk a lot now, you know.”
Responding quietly Ren says “It was like that for me when Nora left, maybe you should tell her that tonight, I wish I had, but by the time I wanted to I was too late.”
“Thanks Ren, you know for a guy who sees emotions, you were very bad at them with Nora”
Suddenly the Kettles goes off
In response Emerald says “Well that's my que to go find Ilia, maybe I will talk to her.”
After Ren points her in the right direction Emerald walks away and Ren realises that whenever Emerald talked about Ilia there were pink petals and a soft smile. Turning back to the fire he wonders if maybe he should text Nora.
Walking off into the bushes Emerald wonders what is up with Ilia and what is up with herself, it really isn't like her, talking about emotions and maybe even apologizing. Well that is if she did anything wrong in the first place. Suddenly a finger pokes her in the side. She quickly stifles a scream and turns around to a figure of yellow and pink.
“Ilia” Emerald hissed
“Got you, you know for a stealth mission you weren't being very quiet, stomping around.”
“Hey I will have you know I am very good at it when i'm expecting something or stalking someone.”
“Guess i'm too good for you”
“Maybe, but come one lets head back to the fire, I snagged along some hot chocolate packets and Ren boiled some water for his tea, so we can steal some” Emerald then grabs Ilia’s hand and pulls her along, with the touch unintentionally keeping her quiet for the walk back. Thoughts race in both of their heads, although none is spoken aloud.

While Emerald and Ilia were off in the brush, Ren pulls out his scroll and texts Nora.
‘Hey Nora, sorry for kinda leaving you hanging. I believe I should try to get better at that. I do believe that there is something going on with Emerald and Ilia, all I can see when they are together are pink petals. I also had the thought of making them share a tent, so we will see how it goes in the morning. Also maybe when I get back from this mission, we could talk as well’
Putting away his scroll he pulls out a cup and grabs the hot kettle, setting it down quickly, he then gets a tea bag and pours the hot water as fast as he can because the heat begins to hurt too much slight splashes dance on his hand holding the cup. Then settling down on the ground he begins to meditate, the light of the sun completely going into shade.
As Emerald and Ilia get back they grab their hot chocolate and try to be quiet so as to not disturb Ren, Emerald letting go of Ilias hand in doing so. With their hot chocolate in and they slip into the tent, both trying to hide into their respective sides, which is basically impossible based on the small size of the tent. Backs touching every so often as they try to set up their blankets. Finishing their hot chocolate, finally they both set up and lay down looking away from each other.
“Hey Ilia, sorry If this is making you uncomfortable.”
Turing to face her Ilia responds with “The sleeping arrangement? No it's fine really, I'm just not really used to being in the same space as other people, well besides Blake you're the only other person so far.”
Emerald then flips over to face Ilia and suddenly their faces are very close to one another.
“Is it really okay because if it's not I can just go sleep on the Airship?”
“Em stop worrying, besides it's way too cold for you to sleep on the airship, why are you worrying anyway? Are you uncomfortable with this?”
“No, no I was just making sure that I didn't pressure you into doing something you didn't want to do and I didnt want you to leave anyway, I also haven't shared a tent with anyone before, I was always alone, even with Cinder and Mercury we always had separate sleeping spaces. And honestly thank god for that.”
Ilia responds with a slight laugh “Ya lots of things have changed since we both decided to to switch sides, now I know what todo”
“And I'm free, and yet I'm somehow never alone anymore. You're always here like glue, its annoying” Emerald joked, them now both gigiling
Through chuckles Ilia asks “How did that even happen anyway? The always being there like glue part. We met on that mission with Blake and Yang and well I guess we never parted ways”
“It might be because we might have been the only two people not partnered up, you know the thing at the schools that they do to get teams, I guess we kinda did that without the throwing us through the air part.”
The chuckles eventually fade into sleepy drowsiness and eventually sleep.
Ilia wakes up to Ren waking her up.
“Ilia it's your turn to be on watch”
Shifting awake she rolls over and opens her eyes to Emeralds face and her arm wrapped around her waist. Somehow she had grabbed her while she was asleep and was sleeping silently. Quickly and quietly she moved Emeralds arm off of her and scrambled out of the tent and walked to the campfire. Just before Ren got into his own tent he couldn't help but chuckle at the flood of pink coming from Ilia while she just stared into the campfire. He went to bed wondering if this mission would in fact go on without a hitch.
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“Ilia, Ilia, Ilia” Emerald says, trying to get Ilia up, as apparently the light of dawn wasn't doing so. Exasperated, she gets some water from her water bottle nearby and drips it into Ilia ear. Quickly startling her awake with a yelp.
“What The Fuck, Man. Not cool” Ilia stumbles, mouth still kinda asleep apparently. She then tackles Emerald and in the small space, grabbing at the water bottle trying to get revenge. After a small struggle she manages to get the bottle, but then she realises what position she is in. looking down she sees Emerald, her waist straddled by Ilia legs, while she tries to look away. Ilia quickly jumps off not before splashing the tiny bit of water left on Emerald thus enacting her revenge. Ilia without a word pushes her way out of the tent flaps and walks to the airship leaving Emerald in the tent.
Ilia stalks to the Airship grabbing a box of dust for her weapon and a rations pack and just sits in the airship. Ren, already up and ready, sharpening his blades and checking his gun looks up in slight amusement as he could feel the emotions radiating from Ilia and heard everything. Looking at Ilia just confirms his suspicions. Pink and slight orange swarm in a flurry around Ilia with her skin almost mirroring the petals. After a slight chuckle he returns to his weapons.
Emerald on the other hand, was still laying on the tents floor, heart pounding. ‘What was that?’ she thought to herself. Never had she thought that simply waking Ilia up would lead to, well, that. Her face heating up she covers it with her hands rolling around on the ground. ‘How can anyone be so cute, but so annoying at the same time? It's infuriating, I don't like it, it's no way she would even like me, right’ sitting up she tries to compose herself, but fails, falling back into the ground just at the thought of Ilia's thighs pressing against her waist staring down at her like that. After a while through a battle of emotions she does compose herself enough to sit up and step outside.
“You two ready?” Ren says from the campfire putting his weapons into his sleeves.
“Yup” the two say in unison, but unable to look each other directly in the eyes. They then all head into the brush toward the camp. Emerald and ilia on either side of Ren. As they get closer to the camp Ilia shifts into the forest colors and Ren closes his eyes in concentration.
“There are 4 patrolling the border of the camp it should be pretty easy to get in and out”
A thought then went through Ilia’s head “Wait why aren't we doing this at night?”
The other two paused and then Emerald spoke “so we can be awake, It's not like you would have gotten awake any earlier anyway, also less chance of grim.”
“It's also early enough that not everyone will be awake” Ren adds
Ilia just nods, silent from the mention of Emerald waking her up.
After a thought Emerald says “Maybe we should separate to cover more ground before everyone wakes up then”
“Good idea” Ren responds “we should be back here in about an hour”
Both Emerald and Ilia nod, then go in separate directions. Ren goes his own way after taking note of the two going separate ways. ’Perhaps they want some time with their own thoughts’ Quietly he waits for an opening and he gets it when the guards turn their backs to continue going around the encampment. Quickly he squeezes through a hole in the wall and takes in his surroundings. He had come into the camp near a small farm where there was even a small stream. Ren then ducks behind a nearby crate for some cover and continues his searching.
Ilia on the other side of the camp sneaks in a similar way, climbing though the wall. She lands near a clump of tents, staying near the wall she takes a peek inside a few of them. Inside she seems just people sleeping, even a few children here or there. She continues looking for anything suspicious, and coming across some barrels she looks inside and finds some cloth. She then keeps searching the other barrels nearby.
Emerald, after taking a look at the front gate and seeing that there was only one person guarding it, she just walks in the open gate using her semblance to hide herself from the guard. The camp was nearly deserted from it being early morning and it appeared that everyone was still asleep. Spotting a big tent she walks over to it. Peering inside there is a desk with a bunch of papers on it and a few drawers. Walking in further she picks up a few pages, but it's in a language she can't read. ‘Must be old’ she thinks to herself. Turning around she spots a pan as it flies toward her head right before it knocks her out cold.
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Chapter Text

Ilia walking up the small slope spots Ren, sitting, basked in small rays of the new sun light. She then leans next to a tree nearby and stares out over the camp, skin subtly shifting slight gold and yellow.
After a few minutes the camp starts to stir, people are finally waking up.
Ilia pushes off the tree and walks over to Ren, sitting next to him.
“Any sign of Emerald?”
“No” he responds quietly, eyes closed focusing in an attempt to locate Emerald.
After a minute he looks up, sun now bright fully above the trees.
“Is she still in the camp?” Ilia askes worriedly
“Yes, I believe so, she also, not alone and her aura is quiet, too quiet.”
“WHAT” Ilia almost shouts, stopping herself in time as to not give away their location. Mind swirling she stands up and turns back toward the tree and starts pacing.
“We have to go get her, I'm going back in.” she eventually concludes turning back towards the camp.
Ren stands up grabbing her arm before she can leap down the hill.
“No” he states
“Why? She’s down there, probably captured, being interrogated, and who knows what” Ilia tells, petals and skin orange and slight red.
“All the more reason for us to wait, you don't want to risk her being killed or used as leverage because of us.” Ren responded
“But she could be killed the more we wait!” Ilia said snatching her hand back
“Valid, but right now you are not in the right headspace for a Stealth rescue mission, in addition everyone in the camp is already awake.” Ren gestures to the now bustling encampment.
“Fine, but as soon as night falls we are going back, also i'm not telling Blake we lost Emerald, that's your funeral.” Ilia resigns, walking back into the trees, Ren following behind her with a nod.
___________________________________

Walking back to their camp, Ren and Ilia walk in silence, Ilia with her arms crossed still a wash of orange. Ren sighed but kept on walking. When they got to the campfire Ilia sat down as Ren started getting the fire going again.
“So, why are you so worried, don't you trust Emerald to help herself?” Ren finally asks as the fire starts.
A pause then Ilia replies “I don't know, I guess, I don't really know what to do without her anymore. It's been a few years since we met, and we haven't really been separated since then. I mean she helped me get over Blake for crying out loud.” Ilia leaned back slighting, falling off the log onto the ground putting her hand on her face, now flitting with pink and orange.
“Is that why you're pink all the time?” Ren asks getting the kettle on the flames, causing Ilia to shoot up back to a sitting position.
“What, no I'm not always pink, i'm just not used to the Vacuan heat that's all!” She squeaks, all but failing to get her now pink scales under control. Ren just gives her a look.
Ilia just puts her face in her hands again and sighs “oh right your semblance, guess there is no hiding anything from you, right”
“Nope,” Ren replies.
“It's so awkward, I mean we both don't have a lot of friend experience, and direction in general, but i'm glad we met. Since Atlas fell, it's been basically nothing, but small missions, nothing big has happened, except taking back what was lost. I was just following Blake, doing whatever she needed, but she didn't really need me, she had Yang, but when me and Emerald met, she helped me realise, I can't just cling onto Blake anymore. As the saying goes, I needed another true north. So I have been following her since, keeping her in line, I really want to be her best friend.”
Ren handed her a cup of ramen settling back onto his log with his own cup. “You should tell her.”
“Tell her what?” Ilia replies looking up from her cup of ramen.
“That you like her”
“WHHAAATTTT, nooooooooo I dont, I mean I would do anything for her, and oh god, wait no even if I did, I wouldn't tell her, she doesn't like me like that, I'm sure of it.” Ilia in her descending into gay panic starts choking on her ramen meanwhile Ren just looks on in amusement.
After Ilia stops coughing she sits up still all pink, but slowly returning to her natural color. “Does she like me back?” she asks
“I don't tell people what emotions are on other people, I believe it's an invasion of privacy.” Ren replies
“Classic Ren,” Ilia says finishing up her ramen.
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“Hey, Hey wake up!” someone shakes Emeralds shoulder, slowly groaning awake
“Ilia?, 5 more minutes” Emerald grumbles blinking. Another shake of her shoulder brings the world back into reality. Now blinking Emerald looks around at the tent she was apparently in, the large space filled only by a smoldering fire in the center. ‘Wait this isn't how big our tents are’ she thought, now wide awake the ropes around her wrists and ankles becoming sharply into pain. They wrap around her, attaching her to a chair. Now struggling Emerald spins her head around looking for whoever woke her up, only for a splitting headache to make her slam her eyes back closed, making sure she activates her aura.
“Hey, hey easy now.” comes an immediate response to the thrashing, Emerald doesn't recognise the slightly high pitched voice, the footsteps as the person walks in front of her and hand on her shoulder. She peaks her eyes open, opening her eyes to a short floppy eared faunes with glasses.
“Hey, umm what’s your name?” the little man squeaks
“Perry, she snuck into our camp, the first thing you ask is what's her name?” said a deep voice from behind her. She slowly turned her head toward the voice, careful as to not make her head hurt again. The voice belonged to this large hulking man with scars all across his arms and a large brand spelling SDC across in face. He also had tattoos on his left arm and short black hair.
Banesaw. Emerald recognised him from her time in Vale back when she was still working with Cinder. He was Adams right hand man, buff and wielded a large chainsaw that he fought with ease with. He had gone missing after the prison he had been held in was destroyed by grimm when beacon fell.
Perry standing up made her flip her head towards him again.
“Well how would you do it if you know so much?” Perry says. Banesaw pushes himself off the beam he had been leaning on and walks to be in front of Emerald to stand next to Perry.
“You ask: why are you here?” Banesaw asks, directed at Emerald.
“Why the fuck should I tell you? You're the one that hit me over the head and has me tied to a chair.” Emerald spats back.
“You're sitting in that chair tied up because you woke us up with your intrusion into our tent and camp, so tell me why you were there in the first place.” Perry suddenly says, then turning to Banesaw and asking “did I do a good job?”
Responding in a quiet voice he says “yes, you did great babe.”
Emerald, taking a moment to be confused at this exchange, responds with “and you are?” directed at Perry.
“Perry and this is Banesaw, leaders of this camp.” Perry responds immediately, Banesaw lightly wacks his arm, which gets a yelp out of Perry “what was that for? Maybe if we are nice she will tell us?”
“Oh so you two are doing the good cop, bad cop thing” Emerald says trying to stall for time, so her aura could heal her head which still was a dull ache.
“What's that?” Perry asks
“Its an interrogation tactic which is-” Emerald gets cut off by Banesaw
“totally irrelevant to you telling us why you were in our camp.”
“Why don't you tell me what you're doing out here in the first place? I mean this isn't exactly the best place to be safe from Grim, especially for a terrorist group.” Emerald shot back.
“Woah woah woah, terrorist group? We split from the white fang long ago!” Banesaw says offended
“Why would you think that?”(Perry)
“Oh I have no idea, maybe due to the Red fang flags up on your walls!” Emerald retorts
“We, forgot to take those down. Didn't we.” Perry says, slapping his forehead.
“Yes, yes we did.” Banesaw says exasperated.
“So that's why you are here?” Perry states incredulously.
“Oh no I have been found out.” Emerald’s words dripping with sarcasm.
“I told you we should have gotten those down weeks ago! Now we have a person who snuck into our camp trying to kill us! And only the brothers know what else!” Perry speaks frantically and starts passing. “Wait, so you aren't part of the white fang? Bull shit!” Emerald exclaims.
“No, if we were still I would have killed you already” Banesaw says then turns his back to Emerald.
Emerald just sighs “So, can you let me out of these ropes if you are oh so reformed.”
Perry takes a second to consider then walks forward and starts untying the ropes.
Banesaw turns to ask “Why are you doing that?”
In reply Perry shoots back “Because we have done no harm to her, so she should not do anything to us.”
“That doesn't stop the fact that she broke in.”(Banesaw)
“In my defence you have Red Fang Flags on your walls.”(Emerald)
Perry looks up from my attempting to untie the knots. “But you're not going to hurt us right?”
“As long as you don’t do anything bad, then no, I'm still trying out this whole being nice thing.”(Emerald)
“Fine.” Bane saw crouches down to help Perry with the knotts.
Within seconds she was freed and she stood up, her aura finishing off the headache.

Chapter Text

Back at the camp Ren sits around the fire as the sun starts to fall. Ilia on the other hand is pacing getting increasingly faster as the light trickled down.  

“Oh I should text Blake” Ren says, apparently forgetting to in his hunger. 

‘Hey Blake, mission took a turn, we were scouting the base and we split up and Emerald hasn't come back yet and we believe she was taken. Don't worry the camp isn't as fortified as we had believed, so we will be going back in and rescuing her. Hope your vacation is going well’

Blake shoots back another almost immediate reply:

‘Oh brothers, that's not good, glad you have it under control, although I might wonder how is Ilia responding to Emerald being taken?’

‘Ilia is no longer in denial about her feelings for Emerald due to me calling her out for how she reacted when we realised Emerald was taken’

‘Let me guess, lots of pink petals?’

‘Yes’

“What are you smirking at?” Ilia asks, walking in front of Ren.

“Just telling Blake how much of a useless lesbian you are.” Ren responds blank faced as Ilia, having no reason to hold back, turns fully pink and goes back to pacing.  Pink petals float down all around her in a flurry. Ren lets out a little chuckle before putting his scroll away and looking at the dying sun. 

“We can get going now,” Ren states. Ilia immediately turns and tries not to sprint into the bushes towards the fort. 

Going back first to their ledge to see how many people were around the camp. Ren sat down into a meditative pose, which was just criss cross applesauce with his hands on his knees. Ilia stayed standing and observed the lanterns being lit all around the camp. After a few minutes Ren opens his eyes and stands. “She seems to be awake, but she is not alone”

Ilia pulls out her weapons and starts walking down the slope in response and Ren follows. They sneak in through a crack in the wall, behind some crates. They creep around the tents and containers, Ren guiding them and making sure they weren't spotted. Once they reach the center of the camp Ren stops and puts a hand up for Ilia to stop as well.

“She’s in there, you go in first and I will follow right behind you. Make sure you don't do anything rash,” Ren whispers. They both tiptoe to the side of the big tent. Ilia looking inside lets out a small gasp when she sees what's inside. Emerald is sitting down at a table with some tea in her hand across from 2 men. The two men were facing away from her, but one of the men was short and had glasses and the other was very large and had many scars lacing his arms. Emerald glances up to where Ilia is and spots her. Smiling her takes a sip of her tea before asking. “Did I ever tell you two I didn't come to investigate alone?”

“No?” The short one squeaks out, both of the men getting a little bit tense.

“Would you like to meet them?” Emerald asks as Ilia slips into the tent, camouflaged against the tent walls. 

“Are they here?” The large one asks looking around

“Ilia it's perfectly fine, im not hurt,” Emerald looks right at Ilia with a smirk, carefully taking another sip of her tea. 

“What the fuck is happening here?” Ilia bursts out, turning a sudden dark red, startling both men. Ren slips in behind her. They both walk over to Emerald's side. Ilia sits right next to her checking her over for any injuries, weapon not put away. Ren stands beside them looking at the two men before asking. “Who are you?”

“They are Perry and Banesaw, Ilia let go,-" Emerald explains as Ilia finishes her inspection and wraps her arms around Emerald tightly. “-They caught me while I was searching through their desk.”

“I hit her with a pan,” Banesaw interrupts.

“You did what?” Ilia points her weapons at him, finally letting Emerald go. 

“Hey hey calm down, we didn't hurt her, we just saw a person we didn't know pilfering our stuff and we panicked.” Banesaw lifts his hands up in surrender. 

“Calm down? You attacked her!” Ilia yells. Ren puts his hand on her shoulder and the color drains from her, as she calms down, the emotions seeping away with the color. 

“Thank you Ren,” Emerald says, pulling Ilia back into a hug. She whispers into her ear, “hey its okay im fine, just breathe,” Ilia holds in her tightens as Ren pulls back his hand, the color returning to her. 

Louder Emerald says “it was fine, we had a quick chat when I woke up, turns out they separated from the white fang and went up here for the quiet. They did not trust any of the kingdoms to house them, especially with all of the grimm fights going on and the distrust for any of the white fang. Especially since they are technically on the run, but they say they didn't know any better, and I have been catching them up on the ongoings since they started this camp. All of the people here are former Red Fang members who split up from Adam,” A moment of silence follows as Ren and Ilia take in the information they were just given. 

After taking a deep breath Ren takes out his scroll and says “I'm calling Blake,”

As no protest followed Ren called Blake, the phone only ringing a few times before Blake picked up the facetime.

“Hey Ren, is everything okay? Why are you calling?” Blake asked, while she closed the door behind her to the log cabin behind her. She appeared nervous and a little bit angry as Ren observed from the petals. Taking the lead again Emerald snatched the phone out of Ren’s hand, taking it down to her level. “Everything is fine, better then fine, it was a false alarm, apparently. I have been having a nice chat over some tea with the good Perry and Banesaw,” 

Blake stiffened at the name. “Banesaw? Are you okay, did you get hit over the head or something?”

“Only with a pan,” It was Ilia’s turn to respond as she loosened her grip on Emerald. Ilia realising that she had been holding onto Emerald for so long her skin turns slightly pink. 

“A Pan? That's somehow more random than it is concerning-”  Blake lets out a slight laugh “-so, I assume you don’t need backup and that I should call off everyone else that was scheduled to go? And completely leave this mess to you guys? Or should I stop my vacation early?” 

Unfazed by the exasperated tone from Blake, Ren Replies, “We are probably going to stay the night, then head out in the morning and take this case to Oz, so you don’t have to give up your vacation time,”

“Thank you! You have no idea what I had to do to get Yang to go on this vacation!” Blake says, bringing a hand up to rub at her eye. 

The light caught something on one of her fingers.  Ilia takes notice and asks, “Wait, what is on your finger?”

Blake freezes then turns her hand to look at the gold ring with a yellow gem set into it. “Oh this, ya I might have asked Yang to marry me,” Another small moment of stunned silence rang before Ren exclaims “Finally!” and a chorus of congratulations follows from all the people in the tent. 

“We should prob leave you to your night then, we will see you when you get back to Shade,” Emerald says, putting an arm around a blank-faced Ilia. 

“Yup bye, see you in a few weeks,” Blake promptly hangs up to enjoy her night with her soon to be wife. 

Handing the phone back to Ren, Emerald sighs, looking back to the two men sitting down. 

“So, do you have any more tea for these two?” she gestures to Ren and Ilia. 

The rest of the night is a bunch of talking and explaining the goings ons of the camp, which was named Scar, and the world that was ever changing. 

__________________________________________

A few hours later, catching sight of both Emerald and Ilia yawning, Ren stands up. “We should probably get going back to our camp, it's getting late,”

Also standing Perry responds, “Of course, are you going to come back in the morning and join us for breakfast?”

After taking a moment to think Ren says “we should probably head out first thing in the morning, so we can tell Oz what has happened and what we can do for you all,”

“Okay, we await your call when you arrive, I would like to talk to Oz personally,” Banesaw remarks. Both Ilia and Emerald get to their feet, sleepy eyes apparent. Both of them were likely to crash right when they got to the tent Ren thinks. 

They make their slow way towards their camp through the bush and grass. Once there they all say good night. Ren going back to his tent and Emerald and Ilia going back to theres. 

After settling down in their tent Ilia asks Emerald, “Hey, you are okay right?”

“Of course, the only thing they did was the pan to the head, and my aura healed it pretty well, I told you this before, I'm fine, stop worrying,” Emerald replied, plopping down onto her pillow. Looking up Emerald takes notice of Ilia’s slightly blue skin as she looks at Emerald. Biting her lip as if to keep herself from crying, Ilia asks again “Are you sure?-”

“Yes, I'm sure El, why are you so worked up about this? I'm fine, what about you? You rarely initiate hugs, much less in front of people, but it's all you did when you found me, what's up with you?”

Rolling over with a huff, Ilia mumbles “Nothing, everything is fine, okay?”

“Ilia,-” 

“Emerald, we can talk about this tomorrow, please, i'm tired,”

“Okay, good night,” Emerald turns back to the wall of the tent.

“Good night” came the quiet response from Ilia.

_________________________________________

Ilia wakes up slowly, eyes fluttering as she snuggles into the warmth beneath her. The warmth grumbles as the movement, but wraps her arms around Ilia’s back. Ilia then jots up, kneeing the sleeping form of Emerald beneath her in the stomach in her attempt to get off of her as soon as she could. Emerald is now awake because of the sudden pain and she curls into herself with a wince.

“Well good morning to you too,” Emerald huffs. Ilia just gets up and leaves with a grumbled “morning,”. The tent flaps shut behind her Emerald stays laying there wondering wtf that was about. 

Ren looks up from his seat on a log by the fire, heating up some sausages on the fire, at the sound of Ilia exiting her tent. Swirls of pink whizz around her and her scales can't stop from being pink. She stomps over to the fire and just stands with her face in her hands.

With a chuckle Ren asks, “Good morning,”

“Good morning,” Ilia manages through her hands, sitting with her back to a log, face still in her hand and still pink. 

“We should get going soon, is Emerald awake?” Ren asks. 

The pink somehow gets deeper before Ilia takes a breath and takes her hands away from her face, although she is still very pink. “She is awake, assuming she didn't fall back asleep,”

“Once breakfast is ready in a few minutes you should go check, you have a few minutes to calm your gay,”

Going back to putting her face in her hands Ilia just sits there in response. 

After a few minutes Ren says “Okay food is ready,” as he slides the sausages along with a mug of coffee for each of them onto the plastic camping plates.  Taking a deep breath Ilia gets up from her seat and turns toward her tent, only the slightest bit still pink on her skin. Although the petals haven't changed at all.

Sighing, Ilia reaches for the tent flaps and pulls them open. There, just sitting there, was Emerald, in just her bra and pants. Shirt around her hands as she was putting it on. Emerald looking up at the pink form of Ilia asks “What did Ren say to you? By the brothers I don't think I have ever seen you this pink before,” putting her shirt all the way on Emerald just stares at Ilia who was still frozen in the tent door way. “Ilia?” she prompts.

Blinking fast, shaking her head, Ilia tried to calm herself and act normal before blurting out, “Foods ready,” dashing back out of the tent, the flaps smacking eachother in Ilia’s haist to get out. 

Emerald mutteres to herself “what the fuck was that about?” before following Ilia back to the campfire.

Eating their breakfast in silence they then pack everything up into the airship before heading out. 

Ren makes Emerald go first, not wanting a repeat of the landing they had before. Ilia decides to stay down in the passenger area with Ren claiming she needed more sleep, when in actuality she just needed some space. 

________________________________________

Hours later after Ilia took the second shift and Ren decided to take the third, because he could trust himself to actually land properly. Emerald was watching a stupid movie on her scroll and Ilia was reading something on her scroll. 

Both startling from there scrolls when Ren calls down “We are going to be landing in 10 minutes, buckle up,”

Emerald and Ilia both buckle up, Ilia settling in 1 seat away from Emerald, returning to her scroll.  

Emerald looks up and asks, “What are you reading?”

“Nothing,” Ilia squeaked, quickly closing the app she had open. 

Emerald put her hands up in defence, “Hey, no need to be defensive, I was just wondering. Are you okay? You have been tense since this morning,”

“Yes I'm fine,” Ilia replies, curling her legs up onto the seat, a swirl of color speckling her skin.

“Okay since you clearly don't want to talk about why you have been constantly pink this morning, what about last night? I know you thought I was taken hostage, but I saw you at beacon when people died and you weren't that emotional,” 

“Im, Fine, Please drop it,” Ilia pleads,

“Ilia,” Emerald pleads right back,

“Emerald please, I don't want to talk about it, not right now please,” Ilia says, curling into herself more, a wash of mostly blue and pink, but just about every color mixed in. 

“Okay then how about when we land we go get boba and talk?” Emerald asks, reaching out a hand to Ilia's shoulder.

“I don't want to talk about it today, I need time to think,” Ilia responds, pushing away the hand.

“Last time you gave yourself a day to think you missed out on all the missions you wanted and got stuck on data duty for a week, Ilia if you mull in your thoughts, you are going to get stuck, like you did with Blake,” Emerald rebuttals, taking her hand back. Ilia’s skin slightly flairs with red before putting on her headphones, turning the music up so loud even Emerald could hear it. Turning back to her own scroll Emerald sighs, having only a slight clue about why Ilia is acting the way she is. It only took a few minutes before they landed and Ren came down from the cockpit right as Ilia opened the door and all but ran away, Emerald still sitting down in her seat, mind off in the everafter.  Sighing, Ren walks over, feeling the tension between them even as Ilia walks away and the confusion and hurt from Emerald. 

Standing in front of Emerald, Ren says “I will go to Oz and tell him what happened, you go chase after your girl,”

Emerald blushed slightly, but didn’t correct Ren as she followed after Ilia, slowly enough that she would probably have to find her.

___________________________________________

Ilia sat on the roof of Shade Academy, legs in between the bars of the railing, looking over everything yet seeing nothing but her own thoughts.  A sudden cold pressed against her cheek, startling her away. Looking up at Emerald’s small smile as she held two cups of boba. 

Sitting down beside Ilia and passing the boba drink to her, Emerald says “I got you your favorite: kiwi and mango for you and rainbow everything for me,”

Ilia took the offered drink whipping the condensation left on her cheek. Both turned to the view, thoughts buzzing both unsure about what to say. 

“I'm sorry,” they both said at the same time.(How cliche)

“I’ll go first,” Emerald says, looking at Ilia who was still avoiding eye contact, “I'm sorry for pushing your boundaries and asking you to talk about something you didn't want to, and I'm sorry for whatever happened this morning, though I don't even know what happened and if it was even my fault, I would like to know what happened, please if you feel like talking now,”

Taking a moment to breathe, Ilia looks at Emerald before beginning. “Don't apologize for the last part please, you didn't do anything I promise.  I'm sorry for running off and avoiding you, I just needed to get my thoughts together, alone and I just needed to think and calm down a bit, and I'm sorry for pushing you away and crossing your boundary when I hugged you,-”

“Hey, take a breath, you're rambling, the world will wait for your answer, believe me I changed sides so much later than you, yet I was still welcomed to the good guys,” Emerald took Ilia’s hand before continuing.  “You didn't cross my boundary when you hugged me, you just surprised me, I promise” 

Looking down into her drink Ilia says“I was just worried about you, I was afraid that you had been taken and that they might start seriously hurting you, or manipulating you,-” She tightens her grip around Emeralds hand, squeezing, before continuing “- I know you can handle yourself, but as soon as Ren told me you were taken, I just kind of lost it, Ren of course helped me calm down, but I guess the feeling never really left, I just got some sense knocked into me,”

Both taking a sip of their Boba, hand still in hand. Emerald asks “So what happened this morning?”

Ilia pulls her hand away, tucking herself into herself again,

Emerald asks again, “Ilia honestly, you have been off this whole mission, what changed? Did I do something wrong?”

Ilia slaps Emerald’s shoulder before saying forcefully, “You did nothing wrong, please stop blaming yourself, this is all me, Okay! I'm just sorting through stuff, okay! Even I'm not really sure why this is bothering me so much, while you're just fine, I was losing myself to my thoughts and you were drinking tea with the people we thought were enemies! I don't get it, I thought you were awake this morning! And honestly I don't even want to tell you why I couldn’t control my scales this morning!”  Ilia’s skin ‘a burst of reds and pink. She still definitely looking away from Emerald.

“Ilia, please don't leave me in the dark, I don't know what I did that upsetting you so much,”

“I should have just slept on the airship,” Ilia mutters, getting up from her seat.

Emerald catches her wrist before she can walk away, saying “Ilia, please don't run away, I know you of all people should have learned from Blake that running away doesn't solve anything,”

Ilia turns back to Emerald with an indescribable expression, skin fading from red to blue. High on adrenaline, Ilia tackles Emerald to the ground, shoving her shoulders down onto the cold stone. “How about I just show you! How did you not realise how this made me feel? How! I was so sure you knew why I was pink! Why I couldn't look you in the eye! Emerald, Why?”

Stunned from the sudden change in altitude, Emerald just lies there as Ilia’s questions slowly dissolve into small sobs. Slowly she wraps her arms around Ilia, who stiffens in her hold.

Emerald holds her tighter before saying “So thats what happened, you ended on top on me again, like what happened the day before when I was waking you up, and after you left I layed there on the hard ground frozen for 10 minutes before I could compose myself,” Blushing at her own declaration Emerald blushes as Ilia pushes up a little bit, looking into Emeralds eyes. Both of them were pink as Emerald slowly pulled Ilia back down onto her fully and Ilia put her face back into Emeralds neck. Holding each other close they took a moment to just be there in each other arms, boundaries willingly broken on both sides.

Emerald starts rubbing Ilia’s back as she tenses and says “You know next time we wake up together you can just hold me, we can stay like this every morning you want, okay, also I know you snuggle me in your sleep,  on the airship on our way there when we were sleeping, when Ren woke me up for my shift you had your arm around my waist, don't tell Ren this, but I used my semblance to tone down my blushing, although I can't stop his semblance, so I believe he caught on and I got questioned by him,”

Ilia shifted on top of Emerald slightly, moving so she could better speak. “So you also got the Ren talk? And why? Why do you invite me to snuggle you every day?  Why me?”

Emerald responds bluntly with “Because I think I like you,” 

Ilia pushes up again, but Emerald holds strong, so she just ends up hovering right above her face. “Emerald,-” she says, breath so close to Emerald. “-I, I, dont think im good at holding back turning pink,” and Ilia was right as she was fully pink except for the white of her eyes. Emerald blushing herself, pulls her right hand from Ilia’s back and cupped it around her cheek. 

Emerald asks softly “Can I kiss you?”

“Please,” came Ilias breathy response, barely audible. Emerald slips her hand from Ilia’s cheek to the back of her neck, bringing her in. 

A sudden whoosh sound makes them both look up. (Get kiss-blocked)A click on heels sound on the stone across the roof, nearer toward the door lands Winter. Winter with her back facing them, gently helps down the person she was carrying. The person she was carrying laughs, then turns to them with a slightly startled expression. Recognising Robyn, Ilia quickly sits up, trying to return her skin to a normal color. Before she could say anything Robyn says “Oh sorry to interrupt, whatever was going on, we will leave you to it, bye,” she ushers Winter into the building leaving the two pink lesbians.

Ilia and Emerald look at each other before bursting into laughter, tension gone. Emerald sits up and pulls Ilia into a hug before asking. “Hey we should go to bed, do you want to come over to my apartment? I think my bed is bigger than yours, so we can snuggle,”

“Yes please, I would love nothing less, also I have to shower, we didn't shower at all on that mission,”