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aurmgoldau · 5 years

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Partner

“Are you going to introduce your teammates to me sometime later?”

That request made Anya paused for a moment.

Anya could—somehow—understand the reason behind her mother’s request: she wanted to know her daughter’s friends. Anya’s mother was once a huntress too, a team leader to no less. It was almost a nature for a leader to know a person who was working with him or her or who was working with their family members.

On the other hand, Anya knew her mother had the strangest mood in a few occasion. When it stroke, she could suddenly woke up with intense fear and sadness in the morning, hugging Anya really close (if she was there) and wouldn’t let her go for another fifteen to thirty minutes. Another time, she was her usual self: a caring mother with a heavy tendency to tease her daughter and mildly sarcastic when it comes to a certain topic.

“My teammates or just my partner?” Anya replied.

“Hmm? Your partner? Why does it sound like you’re favoring her more than the rest of your team?”

“I’m not treating her any more special than the others.”

“Really?”

Perhaps, Anya did treat her partner more special. Anya spent more time with Mei than with Rhodo or Ulm, making them close. Despite of having a lot of disagreement, Mei understood how Anya led the team and would adjust herself. She was also okay with Anya treating her like a younger sister she would never have. That much could be considered as “more special”.

“Really.” Anya grinned. Her mother was in her delightful mood and it was good. “I’ll ask them about it, alright?”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The older woman outstretched her hand, trying to pat her daughter’s head. Her direction was right, but not the range. Anya stood up, walked toward her mother, and took her hand, placing it on her cheek instead.

“Oh.” Anya’s mother blinked and smiled awkwardly. “I didn’t concentrate. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

Anya stared at the blind woman sitting in front of her.

Sakura told me I have Mom’s eyes, Anya thought. Bitterness crept inside her throat. But her eyes are all grey and white now.

***

Someone tapped on Anya’s shoulder, waking her up.

“Huh?” Still groggy, Anya raised her head. The hardcover book she put on the table in order to cover her sleep from the teacher, fell down. Professor Oobleck—the tall man with green hair and a pair of glasses—looked to Anya’s direction. Other students shuffled from their seats and walked toward the class exit.

“Miss Lyre,” Professor Oobleck talked with his hi-speed speech, “I would like to see your essay on my table before Wednesday lunchtime or I would give you a detention during weekend. Five pages on the topic of ‘Early History of Vale’ and its relation with the current Vale now. And remember to work your assignment for the next class too!”

“Wait—” Now fully wired with her situation, Anya turned around to her teammates. “Did I sleep through the class???”

“Yes, you did.” Mei answered, totally unamused—maybe even irked—with Anya.

“Why you didn’t wake me up?!”

“Well, you looked pretty tired, so we let you sleep.” Rhodo said. The wide grin plastered on his face told Anya that he lied and didn’t bother to hide it.

“Miss Lyre.” Professor Oobleck repeated. “Five pages essay before Wednesday lunchtime.”

Anya groaned. “Yes, Professor.”

“Serves you well,” Mei mumbled. She stood up and left, not waiting for her own partner.

Rhodo walked behind Anya and patted her back. “It’s not that bad, yeah?”

Ulm, who was following Rhodo, looked at Anya with sympathy and whispered something about “will help”.

“Geez … you guys ….” Anya collected her book and notes and then left the class, catching up with her teammates.

Sleeping in class, especially the History class, was one of Anya’s bad habit. She found that class was the most boring of all and had hard times to stay awake during one. Now in their third year, her teammates sometime deliberately not waking her up or helping her when Professor Oobleck threw a piece of chalk to wake her and surprise her with a question. Mei thought Anya deserves to be punished once or twice in a semester. Rhodo just found it funny to let Anya had extra work. Ulm never agreed to the other two, but didn’t have enough courage nor reason to oppose them.

It was difficult to get angry at your teammates for “betraying” you, if they immediately decided to talk about what should be written in the essay and reviewed the last class they had. Anya used this opportunity to catch up with what she missed in the class and started a rough planning for her essay.

“‘Early History of Vale’ isn’t that difficult,” Mei started the conversation. She sat in front of Anya. “Vale’s land isn’t the most resourceful, but it wasn’t the harshest.”

“Being resourceful led into many conflicts between Faunus and humans,” Ulm added. “Humans wanted to secure the resource in Vale for themselves and tried to minimize the number of Faunus residents in Vale.”

“Which ended by sending Faunus to Menagerie?” Anya asked.

“Not directly, but ….” Ulm hesitated. “Yes …. We can even say the discrimination against Faunus was actually started here, in Vale. The idea spread to other regions too: Mantle and Mistral. Vacuo wasn’t really affected because they could use as many help as they can get with their harsh environment.”

“But ain’t Mantle in the same situation?” Rhodo—unexpectedly—butted in the conversation. “They have ice and snow everywhere. They’ll need more manpower to overcome that.”

“True.” Mei frowned. “Humans and Faunus worked hand by hand to build Mantle Kingdom, but then the situation changed and we started using Faunus as 'assets’ because of their higher endurance in extreme condition.”

“Can I just stick to Vale early civilization?” Anya interrupted, still munching on her noodle. “Faunus conflict is good and all, but Professor might be more interested in ancient civilization in Vale.”

Mei squinted her eyes in disapproval. “No talking with food in your mouth. Where’s your manner?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry,” Rhodo remarked. “Schnee is way younger than you. No need to listen to her everytime.”

“I see now that for such a blockhead like you, manner has no importance at all.”

“What do you call yourself if you talk like that to the older ones, then?”

Mei and Rhodo started glaring at each other. Ulm whimpered something inaudible, shifting his worried gaze to the conflicting parties.

“Being childish doesn’t need any manner, you know?” Anya shrugged, smirking at both Mei and Rhodo. “Anyway. Do you guys have anything to do this weekend? Or next weekend?”

“Nope.” Rhodo answered first. “I’m free.”

“I have no plan for weekend.“

“I don’t have either.” Ulm tugged the bandana covering his right eye. “Is something the matter?”

“My mother wants to meet you.”

There was a sudden uneasy silence among them, making Anya questioned herself whether she said the right things or not.

“May I ask you … why?” Mei looked nervous. “Why does she want to meet us?”

Anya slurped her noodle, deliberately making noise just to annoy her partner. She snickered when seeing Mei frowned.

“She’s curious.” Anya shrugged again. “That’s all I can say for now. I don’t always understand what she’s thinking, but most likely she’s curious and wanna know you better. I spend my days with you, anyway, it’s normal for her to wanna know all of you.”

“Rrightt~?” Rhodo scratched his head. “You never send her any picture of us?”

There was another silence again. Mei glared at Rhodo who didn’t realize that he made a little mistake. Ulm fidgeted on his seat.

“Rho,” Anya drink her noodle soup, “my mom’s blind, remember? It’s useless to send her pictures.”

Rhodo’s eyes widened in pure shock. “I—I’m sorry!” He quickly added. “I’m sorry! I forgot! I totally forgot about it!”

“Nah, don’t sweat it,” Anya said. “That’s another reason she wants to meet you. If you don’t mind, though.”

“Well, yeah ….” Rhodo nodded. “Sure. I can go this weekend.”

“Me too.”

“I can go.”

Despite of their answer, Anya still caught a slight hesitation from them.

***

The hardest thing in writing an essay limited to ancient civilization of Vale wasn’t the limited resource, but how to separate myths and real histories.

Anya took another deep breath. It was late and the common room in the dorm had started to feel cold, but she still has one page left out of five. Would Professor let her off if she just put a paragraph for the last page? Probably not—

“Why don’t you work in the room?” Mei approached her and put a mug on the table.

“Oh, thanks.” Anya could smell chocolate scent from the mug. “Just wanna have some changes. Besides, seeing me working until late is kinda bugging Rhodo, right? I wonder if he’s appointed as a security or such in the orphanage.”

“Well, honestly, I guess I couldn’t sleep too, thinking that working until late might make you sleeping in class again.” Mei pulled a chair and sat. “How’s it going?”

“Almost done.” Anya started to think about putting some unnecessary and a bit misleading sentence before she got into the conclusion. “Just a little bit longer …”

“Want me to help?”

“No, thank you. Really.”

Allowing Mei to help meant she would take a look at what had Anya written and there was high chance she would do a lot of revision and omitted a paragraph or two or three, making Anya’s essay shorter rather than longer.

“You guys don’t seem too eager to see my mom, huh?” Before Mei insisted on helping again, Anya quickly pulled a conversation. She had been wanting to talk about this too, so it was the right time. “I know it’s an odd request. You don’t need to force yourself to.”

“Your mother would be disappointed if we don’t fulfill her request.” Mei frowned. “I don’t mind meeting her, really.”

“But?”

“There’s no ‘but’ ….” Mei paused. She twirled her odd-colored hair. “Well, there is ….”

“I’m listening.” Anya started putting more words in her essay. Having someone to talk seemed to make her thoughts flowed again.

“I always think you have a … complicated family,” Mei said. “I’m not sure what to say and what not to say when I meet your mother.”

“Oh … so that’s what bothered you.”

Mei nodded. “I’m used to have a conversation with people. Important people. I’ve met a lot of them in those parties I attended to. I know how to speak with them and what topic should I bring, but … when I think about talking with your mother … It’s different.”

“Yep. She isn’t an important people.”

“She is important.” Mei sounded irritated. “In a different way, she is important. Don’t take me wrong for this. I just don’t know how to fit myself if I were to have a conversation with her.”

Anya put down her pen, quite pleased with her work. She managed to get five pages—four and half a quarter to be exact. Her blabbering near the end of the essay was convincing enough (at least when Anya re-read them).

“You’re good as it is,” Anya said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Just be yourself when you meet Mom.” Anya read her work for the last time, looking for typo or other minor mistakes. “She can’t see you, but her hearing is really good. She can sense it if someone’s lying or nervous. Most of the time. She might mistake you for being a fake or something if you get too nervous.”

“That’s not helping at all. I’m getting more nervous.”

Anya chuckled. “Yeah, sorry. But, seriously, if you don’t want to meet her, that’s totally okay.”

“I understand.” Mei frowned. “I’m still going. But I don’t know about Rhodo and Ulm.”

“It’s up to them. I won't urge them,” Anya said, taking a sip from the mug. Mei’s chocolate was a bit too bland for Anya’s taste, but overall it was warm and okay.

“May I ask you something?” Mei said in a low voice, almost whispering.

“Go ahead.”

“Why doesn’t your mom wear prosthetic eyes?” From her voice, Mei was fully realized that her question touched a sensitive topic. “It would allow her to see again.”

“That’s …” Anya tried not to look bitter in front of her partner. “Her injury was really bad back then. I don’t know the detail, but prosthetic could only help as long as there are several nerves or muscle still functioning, right? She was beyond that. Even if we insist on wearing one, all she could see is blurry images. A really blurry one until you can only see blotch of colors here and there. It’s that bad. It’s … useless. Her eyesight is beyond repair.”

For a moment, Mei looked regretting her question. “I’m sorry to hear that …”

“No problem.” Anya paused, biting her lower lip, but then she nudged Mei, smiling at her. “I’m done, by the way. Let’s go back to the room?”

“Sure.” Mei shivered. “It’s getting cold here.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t some sort of ghost passed by just now?”

“ANYA!” Mei slapped her partner’s back. Her silver eyes widened in a funny mix of fear and annoyance. Anya laughed. “That’s not funny!”

***

Anya’s mother, Iris, was staying in the second floor of their house. It wasn’t the best choice, especially with Iris’ condition, to let her spend most of her time in a place that was only accessible using the stairs. But she kept telling Anya she liked it since there were less noise compared to the first floor where most of the resident of the house spent their time.

“Mom, you’re not bringing your cane again.”

“I’ve been living in this house forever. I know—” The blind woman stopped and carefully trailed her hand on the stairs railing. “I know how to navigate myself inside my own place.”

“I know.” Anya held her mother’s hand firmly. “Since I’m here, just let me help you, okay?”

“You don’t need to.”

Of course, Anya still helped her reaching the living room downstairs.

Mei was the first one to see them coming. She raised from her seat, intending to help, but Anya shook her head and let her mother found her own way. She did it like she had no problem with her eyesight, getting into the chair reserved for her.

“I’m sorry for making you nervous with my request,” Iris Lyre opened the conversation. “And thank you for taking care of Anya all this time.”

“It’s more like she’s the one who’s always taking care of us.” Rhodo grinned.

Rhodo was the first one who looked relaxed. Anya’s best guess was Rhodo recognized Iris’ Mistralian accent. Despite of growing up in Vacuo, Rhodo had no Vacuan accent and had a Mistralian one. Hearing Iris’ accent probably set him at ease, knowing both of them had something in common.

Ulm was the second one who got to engage in the conversation. Iris picked a topic about the outskirt of Vale, which Ulm was familiar with. She later told Ulm about it was good for him to take the free-running course in the academy, because it would add a huge advantage to his already good skill in hunting and tracking.

Anya had a hunch that her mother purposely left Mei for the last.

“Miss Schnee,” when she finally spoke to Mei, her voice was full of respect, “it was an honor to have you as my daughter’s partner.”

“I—” Mei was startled. “The honor is mine, Ma’am!”

Their conversation started more awkward than with Rhodo and Ulm. It was later when they talked about Anya that their conversation turned smooth.

“You remember I’m still here, right?” Anya teased her mother.

“I do. And isn’t it better if we talk about someone when the people is around to hear it?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“You can immediately correct things that way.”

Anya sighed, but grinned. “Mom, you know that’s not how things work.”

“Since you don’t want to hear me embarrassing you in front of your teammates, go ask Vi if she has something we can get for our guests.”

“Aye, Ma’am.”

“And get my cane upstairs.”

“Okay.”

The cane raised Anya’s suspicion. Her mother—as she claimed many times—didn’t need her cane that much to move around the house. It helped her avoiding obstacles lied closer on the floor, but nothing more.

She wants me to stay away from the room? Anya thought. I wonder what she wanted to talk about with the others.

Vi didn’t cook anything, but, instead, she told Anya that Iris had asked her to buy some cake.

“Glad your friends could make it,” Vi said. “Your mom is expecting them, even though she doesn’t say so.”

“Now I feel like I’m actually being evaluated.” Anya took out the cake from the fridge.

Vi chuckled. “I don’t think you need to worry about anything. You’re a good girl.”

“Am I?” Anya smirked. “It depends, y’know? Depends on who you asked about it.”

When Anya returned to the living room with, the four of them were still talking.

“If there’s one thing I regret in my life, it’s that I have to depend on other people to truly know how’s my own daughter doing.”

Anya stopped right before she reached the living room doorway.

“If you would tell me, what do you think of her?”

Rhodo was the first one to speak up. “I don’t think I’m gonna pick someone else as my team leader. I won’t say she’s wise and all—sometimes she gets herself in danger—but she always come up with a way out.”

“Even though the so called ‘way out’ is often questionable and a bit … destructive,” Mei added.

“Speak to yourself, Schnee. You’re way more destructive when it comes to that.”

“Well, I—no, I am not! It’s because of the circumstances!”

“Don’t listen to her, Ma’am. Schnee wasn’t getting along with Anya since the beginning.”

“That is not true! We did have a few disagreements, but it’s already settled and we’re getting along just fine now!” There was short pause before Mei continued. Her voice was a little too low. “She is the best partner after all ….”

“That’s kind of unexpected,” Rhodo commented.

Yes, it’s totally unexpected, Anya thought, surprised. I always think we both try to keep up with one another, never fully understand each other’s approach and I keep pissing her off.

“At least,” Mei spoke again, “she is way more better than a certain blockhead.”

Rhodo groaned, “Whatever.”

“If I may say … it’s because Miss Schnee and Anya adapting themselves to each other.” This time it was Ulm who spoke up.

“Ah, does she?” Iris sounded curious.

“Yes. And since Anya wields two weapons a short-ranged one and a long-ranged one, she can adjust accordingly with the situation.”

“Two weapons?”

Uh-oh.

Now that they came into this, Anya realized she never told her mother about her main weapon, the cane. What Iris knew was Anya already had her weapon and that was it. She never asked her about it further, trusting Anya with her own choice for that matter.

“She never told you?” Rhodo asked.

“Maybe she told me and it slipped from my mind.” Iris chuckled. “My memory isn’t as good as in the past.”

Because of all those medications. Anya clenched her fist. Mom shouldn’t have said it like it was a joke ….

Anya stepped in the room. Nobody seemed to notice she had been standing for a while and listening to them.

“You seem to get along really well.” Anya set down the cakes on the table before returned to the side of her mother’s chair. “They were nervous like they were going to meet in-laws-to-be or such.”

“Marriage between teammates isn’t something that uncommon.”

“Mom … please …” Anya sighed.

“I bet you forget about my cane, hm?” Iris whispered.

“I’ll go get it. Or, do you change your mind?”

“I change my mind. I don’t need it.”

“Okay.”

“You already overheard a thing or two, right? Telling you to get the cane has lost its purpose.”

Sometimes, Anya wondered how in Remnant her mother knew without seeing? What about the saying “seeing is believing”?

***

Mei was relieved this meeting with Anya’s mother went without any trouble. None of them touched any sensitive topic—even though Mei and the others were surprised when they first saw her. Anya was vague about the cause of her mother blindness, but judging from the scar on her face and neck, it was probably from a close range explosion. Mei knew it was impolite to show that she was uneasy with the looks of the person she was talking to, but it was difficult to maintain her gaze with all those scars. There had been a few times when Mei almost failed to contain her curiosity. Fortunately, the conversation went without Mei slipped her tongue and asked any question regarding the scars.

“I’m going to make sure Mom return to her room,” Anya said to her teammates. They were already in the front door. “Do you mind waiting?”

“We don’t mind. Go ahead.”

“I can go back to my room by myself,” Anya’s mother replied from inside the house. “Don’t make your friends waiting.”

“Be right back,” Anya said, ignoring her mother’s insistence.

When it seemed both Anya and her mother were out of range, Rhodo spoke softly, “Well, glad that went well. Now I know why Anya is really concerned about her mom ….”

“Did you see the photo in the living room?” Mei asked. “The one with her teammates?”

“Yeah.” Rhodo rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t help not feeling sad when seeing it.”

“She used to be so beautiful.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not just the blindness that makes Anya concerned so much about her mother,” Ulm suddenly interrupted. He looked both worried and afraid. “I went to the bathroom, remember? I saw … medicines. So many of them … They’re for depression treatment.”

“Depression?” Rhodo repeated. “Who—oh—! No way ….”

“But she looks really normal when talking to us,” Mei said.

“It isn’t working like that, Miss Schnee.” Ulm fiddled with his fingers. “One of my relatives was diagnosed with depression. I’ve known him as one of my funniest uncle. He never appeared sad or such. It isn’t like that …. His family cut his medication, thinking he was fine, but then ….” Ulm shook his head.

“Then …?” Rhodo asked.

“We lost him.” Ulm bit his lips. “What I know is one day he went somewhere and the only thing his family could find was his shoes, on top of a cliff next to the sea.”

“Oh my God ….” Mei clasped her hand on her mouth. “You don’t mean ….”

“Possibly a suicide, yes.”

“You mean—” Rhodo paused, assembling the correct words in his head “—Anya’s mother could ….” He couldn’t finish his sentence, but Mei understood what he was about to say.

“Yes,” Ulm squeaked. “It makes me both worried and afraid ….”

“Anyway,” Mei tried to change the topic, “I’m not satisfied that I didn’t get to tell her that she doesn’t need to worry about Anya. That Anya is one of the finest person I’ve ever met. And that she doesn’t fall too behind in terms of physical appearance standard.”

“Aww, really? I should’ve recorded that.”

One mistake Mei made was she stood with the front door behind her back, so she didn’t see who was coming from there.

Mei could feel her face went warm of embarrassment. She couldn’t turn around and face her partner at this rate. Her face must be all red now.

“You really planned to tell them to my mom?” Anya asked.

“Shut up!” Mei turned around, stomping the floor. Seeing Anya grinning made her even more embarrassed. “Now I don’t want to say it anymore! Wipe that silly grin from your face!”

“I’m glad I’m not the one partnered with Schnee,” Rhodo snorted. “I feel you, Anya.”

“Nah,” Anya closed the front door and wrapped her arm around Mei’s shoulder, “I’m good. I’ve got myself the best partner after all.”

It wasn’t less embarrassing. Mei pouted and glared at her leader. Anya smirked and winked an eye to Mei.

Mei gave up.

She looked away while her face got redder and redder.

Author’s Note: Because there are a few request for Anya x Mei, I decided to release this fic.

This is old writing, actually, done 1-2 years ago. I showed it to Ookaminoki and she drew this after reading it.

IMHO, Anya’s mother, Iris Lyre, is an interesting character to be explored. As you might remember, I wrote a bit about Anya’s family in this Christmas side-story. One of my writer friend suggested me to flesh her family further, especially Anya’s mother and their relationship. From then on, I built a more detailed story about them and Iris’ former teammates.

Team AURM and Team GOLD Main Index

#side story #sfw #team aurm #anya lyre #ulm thornman #rhodo manthus #mei schnee #maybe anymei #rwby oc #rwby fan team #rwby au

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