“Kill them.”

Ventus furrowed his brows, lips pressed to a thin line. The voice echoed and resonated within him. It built up a rage he could never begin to explain where it originated. He couldn’t pinpoint it either, but it felt so familiar yet so far away.

Still, the sensation brought his march to class to a halt. It was alright though, the only one who knew he was on his way was Yen Sid, and he was probably preoccupied with work. Besides, what was a small pitstop to the bathroom. Better than the alternative, leading his feet to move him that way instead.

Knowing the layout left it easy to locate. On top of that, he knew about the lock on the door too. Of course Ventus only utilized that after checking each stall for an occupant. None of that checking for feet shit though. Actual opening and checking. One never knew if there was another shy and overwhelmed person around after all.

The coast seemed to be clear, allowing Ven to huddle in the corner, furthest from the door and under one of the sinks.

“What are you waiting for? They’re renaigse. They’re better off dead.”

Convincing. Why was it so convincing? The only justification was renaigse, and that just meant foreigner or outsider. What was wrong with that? Not only that, what did it mean by foreigner? None of it made sense, never did really, but the anger still stirred and swirled within him. So suffocating and intoxicating like sinking and melting in a pit of hot tar..

His head fell back against the cool white wall as he took in a deep breath, holding it in for a moment before letting it free. Not much help when the previous encounter was just about obsessed over in his mind.

There was a fix to that. Oracle. She’d help. And she should be up still too, not that she really slept at the right time of day in the first place.

Resolved, the blond pulled out his phone and pulled up her contact to call. He held the phone up to his ear while his other hand clenched and unclenched, breathing hitching and flowing with manipulated anger.

The phone rang while he tried to quell himself, but the voice wouldn’t let up. He wished it would. Pleaded with it to, but it wouldn’t. Only when Oracle, or Futaba’s voice appeared did he manage to calm a bit. Familiarity.

“Futaba! Tell me, were those guys actually rude to me, or am I wrong again?!”

“The ones you were just with?” She questioned over the phone. Her voice was so hard to hear, leaving him to strain. “No, they were actually pretty civil and nice about who to stay away from and everything. What’d you hear?”

He stalled a moment as he tried to register just what she’d said. “Umm threats to turn the school against me before they shoved me and left.” Before she could continue, Ven excused himself a moment. He took his hearing out, pocketing it loosely in his hoodie and donned his headphones instead, connecting them to his phone rather than ipod. “Okay, I’m back.”

“Well there was none of that.” She confirmed again, easily continuing on. It wasn’t uncommon for him to switch methods. Especially when the idiot kept breaking his aids during episodes and fits. “I’m actually surprised you left so suddenly. I figured you wanted to be friends with them like you always do. I guess you were getting a little spazzy though.”

“I left? But they ditched me.” There was panic, if only because the voice in his mind grew louder and louder, begging and pestering him to return to them and make them pay. Pay for what though? If Futaba was right, when she always was given her ability to listen through his bugged phone, then all was fine.

“No, you suddenly said you had to leave.”

“What?! I never said that!”

“Calm down, Ven.” She assured, tranquil herself. She knew to be though. If he was panicking, the last thing anyone should do was be strenuous. “I have all your stuff recorded, remember. Do you want me to play it back for you?”

Ventus gulped down what anxieties he held and nodded needlessly. It wasn’t the best idea as his head hit the bottom of the sink, leaving him to hiss and bring his free hand up to press at the shallow wound.

“Sure.”

“Where do you want me to start?”

When did it start going badly? He had to think. Thank god he’d been replaying it in his mind over and over.

“How about when Roxas came. I think that’s when it started going downhill.”

“Maybe for you, but easy peasy.” She really was full of her own work, even the simplest of tasks. But he loved that about her. It made her strong in his opinion. Now he just wished he could be strong willed like her.

The recording started up, first at the wrong place, it started with him making the LED comment but Futaba fast forwarded it a bit until it said in Fuu’s amazing voice

“Keep moving.” Right, she was telling that to Roxas. She sounded the same to say the least. Intimidating yet entrancing.

“I’m going, I’m going. You don’t need to harass me.” That part he remembered too. It was rude to him wasn’t it? What came next definitely was if he remembered correctly.

“Roxas,” Seifer’s voice. Here he goes with calling him trash though. “What troublemakers he and his friends are.”

What? That’s not what he heard before. Ven kept listening though.

“You don’t like Roxas? But he’s really fun! I wanted to meet his friends and now I finally get to! Can you help me look for them if you know them?”

“I’m not going to help you find troublemakers.” Troublemakers again, a lot more innocent than trash, but why were they considered that? Did Roxas and his friends do something?

“But I said Roxas and his friends, not trash.”

“What? I called them troublemakers, not trash. What are you talking about?”

“But they’re my friends.”

“Ven, we’ll be your friends. Just stay away from them. They’re bad for you.”

“We’re friends?”

“Yup, just stick with us and we’ll take care of ya, y’know.”

“Just stick with us and we’ll keep you and your cat safe. We won’t let anyone tease you for being schizophrenic even if someone did leak that.”

“You’re kidding right? How do you even know about all that?”

“Your cat was moving in your bag and popped out for one thing. And a teacher ratted you out so the whole school body knows about you already.”

There was a bit of silence before Seifer spoke once again.

“Stick with us and we’ll keep you safe. Alright?”

Futaba ended the tape there, speaking up to say “After that, they looked over your schedule to tell you about your teachers and who was good or not, and you said you had to go to which they agreed and let you get to class. They were a bit confused by it though.” She paused a moment before chiming in again. “You okay?”

Again, he nodded to no avail aside from injuring himself once more. Another hiss and a bit of aggravation. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t get any of that the first time around is all so I’m a little wary of actually going to class and meeting others.” He sighed. “Maybe coming to school was a mistake. God knows it’s hard enough being a streamer. I can only manage that because we stream together as a team and you yell at those that are being harsh.” He dimmed with a pause before bringing his head up again.. “How do you do it?”

“I didn’t used to be confident in myself at all, Ven. I used to be as scared as you. So scared and guilty that I felt like the room I refused to leave would be my tomb.” Futaba sounded pretty emotional about that, it must’ve hit home pretty hard. “But then I met Akira and the rest and they helped me come out of my shell. They freed me, and I want to free you, Ven, so we have to meet. In person.”

“What? You’re coming all the way from Tokyo just to give me a boost?” That was wild to say the least. He’d love to meet Futaba in person though! And Joker! And all their friends. Wait, was she bringing her friends? Would he get to befriend them all? God he hoped so. It made him so giddy that he couldn’t help but want to meet others in return.

“Futaba, you set that up and I’ll see if I can get dad to be accomodating for guests. I have to be on my best behaviour to not get grounded though so I should probably get to class before I get in trouble for ditching too long.” He moved to stand only to hesitate and beam “Thanks for helping me get rid of that voice again though! I dunno what I would have done if it stuck around!”

“Wha?! You were hearing voices? Which one?”

“The one without a name. Sounds like me and Corvus though, but it definitely doesn’t act like either of us. It won’t tell me it’s name. It just says I have to remember and that renaigse are bad like always. Him and Corvus mess with me the most for some reason.”

“They both tell you to harm people right, no name others, and Corvus yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“Well if they ever come up again, just excuse yourself and call me. I’m going to work on getting to you so we can try something that might help.”

“I don’t know what you’ll try that meds can’t fix but you can I guess. At this point I think I might need shock therapy since that’s for extreme cases and it just seems to be getting worse everyday.” Sighing, Ven drooped once more. “I just don’t wanna lose my mind y’know.”

“When we’re done with you, you’ll be good as new!”

“Uh...I’ll take your word for it, anyway, I gotta get to class already.” This time, he actually crawled out from under the sink and stood, putting pressure on an aching back from being hunched over for more than two seconds. “I’ll talk and game with you later if you’re still up.”

“We’ll see if I clock out, just send me a message in the group or solo, either one.” She assured. “Later, Ven. And remember, call me if anything goes wrong. My phone’ll wake me if I’m asleep.”

“Got it, thanks and bye, Futaba!” With that, he finally hung up. For once he wasn’t dreading leaving her side. She was a bit of a clutch, but he was excited. Excited to spread his wings and meet new people! Oh but wait, he kinda needed to hear for that so he pulled his headphones to rest around his neck and replaced everything to be back in their natural order. Now he was ready to face the world.

Back to the task at hand, but what was next. It was mid second period already and that meant art with Dilan apparently. Art! What a great way to start the day! He loved art. Especially drawing Ava because god he wished she was real. She was so kind to him and nurturing. He just wished he could hug her, so drawings were the way to show his appreciation apparently. Most people actually applauded his creative nature even though he was just drawing what he saw on a daily basis. He wasn’t really that creative. Maybe with pranks against Terra he was. He could live with that.

That left him in even higher spirits and with the sudden resolve to prank Terra. Later though. Maybe at lunch. Could he at lunch though? Maybe. But what to do?

“Mr. Sylla.” A calming yet foreboding voice called out, effectively stopping Ventus’ train of thought. Huh, when did he enter the classroom. He sure hoped it was the right one. But damn, he sure traveled far into the room without even realizing. And right up to the teacher too. No wonder he could hear him so well. “You’re late.”

“Oh.” He said initially. It’s okay, he had an alibi. “I was being shown around the school by the student council. Uhh the disciplinary committee I think they are too?”

Rather than speak, Dilan pointed to a quadrat in the front of the class. “You mean to say they’re you’re alibi when they’ve been here since class started?”

“Uh….” Shit, what are the chances? “can I say I thought I saw them? Y-Y’know, being a schizoid and all.” That could be an excuse right? Since everyone apparently knew anyway? Which teacher gave it away anyway? Was it him?

Dilan narrowed his eyes at Ventus as if searching him for deceit. All he found was a timid boy that couldn’t keep his eyes locked on his own. That could mean more than just a lie though, especially given the boy’s apparent mental illnesses. Perhaps adhd or even just the schizoaffective. Or even anxiety. The possibilities were endless, and he couldn’t quite waste his precious class time grilling someone he couldn’t get a grasp on just yet.

“Just find a seat.”

Ven moved to do just that only to hesitate. “But I can’t hear unless I’m right next to someone, how will I know what you’re saying?” The teacher gave him both a look of sympathy and disapproval. “My hearing aids are kinda broken so they only pick up what’s right next to me.”

Dilan went to open his mouth but was cut off by Seifer speaking up with a raised hand. “He can sit by us and we’ll relay everything.”

He was elated. They truly were friends of his after all. But wait, their table was almost full, would this be alright? What if someone else wanted that spot? Along with those four, there was one other girl with them. One with pitch black hair and stunning blue eyes. She was cute to say the least and left his cheeks heating up at the mere sight. She looked so shy and kept her head down. Did she not like being with them?

Nevertheless, Dilan agreed to it, allowing Ven to take the empty seat across the black haired wonder and besides Fuu. Score. But wait, they were both cute. What was he supposed to do about that. Terra said never to lead girls on because it was rude, and he couldn’t date them both could he? But there were polyamarus ships right? Could he have one? Oh wait, he should show Futaba!

Dilan’s back was turned in favour of a different table, perfect. Wait, what was the assignment? The rest were painting something, should he do that? Maybe after showing Futaba so he brought his phone out and up and snapped a picture of Fuu followed by the mystery girl.

Both of them. No, not just them, the whole table looked up upon hearing the artificial shutter. And Ven was just smiling away and happily kicking his legs as he sent the two photos to his dear friend with the caption

[Text]: They’re like angels!

“Did you just take a picture of Xion?” That was Fuu. The other girl seemed to look up from her painting as well along with the rest.

“Yeah! I took one of you too because I wanted to show my friend how cute you two were!” Both of them turned a bright red at that, looking to one another while the boys of the table burst into laughter.

“Looks like you two have a secret admirer!” Seifer beamed as the other two boys snickered.

“I-” Fuu began, she couldn’t seem to get the words out though. Xion, as she’d been called didn’t fare much better. She actually looked panicked and like she might cry.

Oh no!

Ven reached a hand out for hers and gripped it tightly to reassure and ground her. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” With his free hand, he brought it back to scratch awkwardly at the back of his head. “I guess I’m not the best at talking to people yet, but I’d love to get to know you. You seem sweet and I wanna make you happy. Both of you so please, even if I can’t date you, please let me make you happy. All I wanna see is you smiling. Both of you.” He turned to look at a near petrified Fuu for just a moment and give her a warm smile.

“B-But you don’t even know us!” Xion suddenly spoke but it didn’t deter him.

“I know this is my first time out of the house and meeting people for real, but you seem genuine to me, and genuine needs to be protected at all costs and lead to live flourishing lives. So I’ll be your guardian. Your nadaig.”

“Our nadaig?”

“Yeah! It means guardian in Yecht Fradi. My cat taught it to me!”

“Not so loud.” Seifer hushed, finger held up to his mouth.

“Sorry.” Ven chuckled, shrinking a bit self consciously. It didn't last long however as Rai spoke up.

“Your cat taught you a language?”

“Yeah!” He was shushed again leaving an apologetic smile on his face. Ventus carried on however to pull Matir from the bag and placed her on the table. None of the table approved of the sudden cat.

“What are you doing?!” They all hissed in lowered tones.

“Relax.” He insisted, changing tongues then. “Matir, cloak yourself.”

“What’d you just say?” Seifer asked but Ven held up a finger to tell him to wait. Their panic worsened as Dilan came by the table. A bit late to hide a sudden cat now. And his eyes fell right on the cat while Ven looked triumphant. He merely sighed, fingers pinching at the bridge of his nose.

“Please don’t bring your pets to school, Mr. Sylla.”

“Aww man. Why didn’t you hide yourself? You said you had cloaking magic.”

“I’m not a parlour trick, Ventus. And you shouldn’t get away with breaking rules just because of that.” The voice said. “Besides, they’re renaigse, they don’t deserve a spectacle.”

“But you’re the one that slept in my bag without my knowledge.”

“Ventus, I’m not your cat. I’m your mother”

“But you’re also my cat.”

“No, I made that cat for you.”

“You made yourself?”

“Mr. Sylla, can you please stop talking to your cat and look at what the rest of the class is doing? You’re supposed to be painting.” God he sounded exhausted.

“But we were having a conversation.” And the rest of the class seemed so amused with how they couldn’t stop snickering and laughing. All of them save for Xion who just kept her head down. It was a bit humiliating to say the least.

Ventus bowed his own head. “Sorry…”

The rest of the class was rather uneventful. The blond wasted his time taking a piece of paper and painting a black void with eyes while the rest kept to themselves. There were glances at him and further remarks and snickers, but he couldn’t hear them unless they were bolstered again. That kinda helped, but he couldn’t help but fear the worst so when the bell rang, he was relieved.

Leaving their art on the table, Ven scooped Matir up from the table she slept on, hugged her tight to his chest, and placed her back in his bag.

“Mr. Sylla, please bring that cat to the office.”

“No.” He said simply before shuffling off from the room, glad to be deaf from those trying to reach out to him. Ventus hurried out, clutching his bagged cat close to his chest as he practically ran to his next class. To say the least, the next two were so boring that he couldn’t help but fall asleep during them. Maybe that was because of his pills and lack of sleep, along with the loss of adrenaline though. The only reason he stopped sleeping was because it was homeroom. Or rather, he did sleep there too, until Luxord hit him on the head with a rolled up book.

Dazed, Ven lifted his head from the pool of drool sticking to his face. The teacher grimaced before having to move away a moment and come back with a roll of paper towels. “Do us all a favour and sanitize yourself.”

He still didn’t quite know what was going on, but he took what was offered to him and stalled.

“The desk and your face, Mr. Sylla.”

It kinda clicked but barely. That just seemed to...well actually he wasn’t sure what Luxord felt. He didn’t look angry, but he didn’t look particularly pleased either.

“It’s okay, sir, I’ve got it.” A rather high pitched voice assured. She took the paper towels and with a bit of a grimace, started soaking up the mess the blond created in his sleep. Ventus sat up in the meantime, rubbing fisted hands at tired eyes. While he did, the stranger even went the extra mile to clean his face. By then he was finally awake enough to understand.

The girl before him had black hair and silver eyes. She wore a red cape with a matching hood. A black blouse with red trim and a black and red skirt of the same. To top it off, she had black stockings on and black combat boots, tied with red laces. He supposed red and black was her colour scheme like black and white was his.

During his observance, she’d tossed the soiled napkins into the wastebin Luxord had brought to her. Of course she gave her thanks to him. Another genuine person? No, would she make fun of him too?

“You look pretty dead.” She remarked. “Did you get enough sleep last night?”

“I…” His eyes trailed. “I kinda played a game all weekend with my friend so I forgot to sleep.”

Leaning in close to him, she stated “I. Must. Know. What this game is if it’s so fun.”

“Uh...Splatoon 2?”

That left her...uhh actually what was she doing? She looked about ready to explode with how she took air in and held it.

“I love that game! Me and my team play it all the time!”

Ven was left to perk up this time, actually waking up a bit more. “You have a team? I have a partner, but not an actual team.”

“Yup, team Rwby!” She beamed, balled hand held high in the air. “Except Weiss and Blake don’t really like to play so it’s mainly just me and my sister Yang facing off against our friends, the treacherous team Jnpr.”

Ventus was stunned with absolute joy. More gamers, and two whole teams of them even. He had to meet them!

Holding a proud thumb up to point at herself, she proclaimed. “My name’s Ruby Rose by the way.”

“And you’re both late to lunch so please get out of my classroom so I can go too.” Luxord butt in.

“Oops sorry, professor.” Ruby chuckled awkwardly before turning back to Ven. “Let’s go to lunch together and I’ll introduce you to my friends!”

Plenty motivation to stop moping and sleeping. He stood, grabbing his bag alongside Ruby. God, her bag looked so heavy around her back. Did she carry all her books at once? That must hurt. He knew he sure didn’t. He used his agility and small frame to brave the crowd and reach his locker to swap between each class. Only cats and small things were allowed in his bag apparently.

Though speaking of pets, on their way to lunch, a head popped out of Ruby’s bag. A dog head. One that was black and white like Matir but with a grey muzzle. The dog looked at the stunned boy and really he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t hallucinating.

“Do you have a dog in your bag by chance?”

“Shhh don’t out Zwei like that.” She turned back, hissing passed a hushing finger.

“Zwei kinda outed themself.”

She turned to look then, narrowing her eyes at the disobedient dog. The disapproving look lasted about a second before her features melted to those of pure joy and elation. Ruby grabbed the small dog and pulled them out of her bag to give them a big hug as they carried on to walk.

“Aren’t you afraid they’ll take Zwei away if you flaunt them around like that?”

“They’re not going to take him away. Everyone already knows I have him. He doesn’t hurt anyone so no one cares. Besides, the headmaster is more concerned with our mental health than our studies so having a support animal is a-okay to him.”

“They’re actually alright with animals then?”

“Yep, as long as they don’t cause trouble and not everyone brings them. We can’t have a zoo after all, even if that would be amazing!” They were nearing the cafeteria so she put Zwei back in her bag and patted him down. Still, it was enough to put Ven’s mind at ease. It was an odd school, but maybe one he could get behind after all. He knew Lea for sure wouldn’t mind Matir, but he kinda slept through that class. Whoops. Actually, what happened during the two classes he slept through? Did Matir escape? A quick check showed that she too was sleeping. Thank god. Definitely a relief and it allowed him to continue his task at hand, following Ruby.

She led him straight to a table full of rather colourful characters. Two black haired students were reading novels while snacking on shared celery, another with red hair was both shoveling down her mashed potatoes while simultaneously crushing peas into them with her spoon. One with beautiful white hair had a magazine she was glossing over while she ate with utensils. Actually two had magazines, the white haired girl’s was about fashion while the blonde’s was about motorcycles. And that left the remaining two. A blond boy and a red haired girl that seemed to chit chat casually and happily. It was to say the least a beautiful sight for Ven. One that left tears in his eyes, he was so happy.

“Whoa, why’re you crying?” The white haired girl asked with disgust. Rude, but she didn’t seem too bad. Not if these were her friends.

“I’m sorry.” Ven rubbed the tears from his eyes. “I just had a rough first day is all. I kinda got made fun of for talking to my cat.”

“What’s wrong with that, we all talk to Zwei all the time.” The redhead pulverizing her food shrugged, hand holding the spoon brought up to aid in the action. That left potatoes to fall to the ground though. “Oops.”

Odd, but uplifting to see them so uncaring about things. Well save for the white haired girl, she looked disgusted and appalled. He carried on nonetheless. “Well I hear things so I hear her talk to me, so I can actually converse with her, and that’s laughable apparently.”

The other red haired girl spoke up this time. Her voice was so calm and nurturing. He couldn’t help but crave it. “Well I wouldn’t let it get you down, umm-”

“Oh uh, my name’s Ventus, but you can call me Ven!”

“Well Ventus, it’s very nice to meet you.” She bowed her head before bringing a hand up to place against her chest. “My name is Pyrrha, and this here is Jaune.” She states for the boy sitting beside her.

“I’m Nora!” The one with the potatoes beamed feverishly as she slammed a fisted hand against the table.

“Lie Ren.” The black haired boy reading stated followed by his companion.

“Blake.”

“Weiss Schnee.” The white haired girl replied with the same about of disgust as before. Or was that arrogance? He couldn’t quite tell. Reading people was hard. Schnee though, that sounded so familiar. Not just familiar, he knew it, but before he could say anything on the matter, the last one spoke with an absurd but jealous inducing amount of confidence.

“And my name’s Yang!”

Pyrrha took back over again then while Ruby took a seat besides Weiss. “Don’t fret about what others do, Ventus, it will lead to nothing but ruin.” Motioning out to the group, she carried on “Just enjoy the things you have and move on from what pains you. I know it’s hard, but we’ll help you through everything and we won’t make fun of you, I assure you that.”

It was a little hard to believe as the first people he heard say that kinda laughed at him for both finding people cute and talking to himself. Pyrrha felt safe though so he wanted to believe her.

“I got kinda made fun of last time, but can I take a picture of you guys. To show to my friend in Tokyo I mean. She’s been helping me through today and I wanna show her I made actual friends.”

“By all means.” Jaune this time.

They all scooted their chairs together, Yang, Ruby, and Nora giving others bunny ears while Ven stepped back and held up his phone to snap a shot. Even if he just saw it in person, it was even better seeing it captured on his phone. It felt real that way so none of this was fake. Immediately, he sent the picture to Futaba with the caption

[Text]: I made friends!