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Raven isn’t ready to be awake, but her body is telling her that it’s time to wake and begin the day.
She never used to mind waking with the sun, even when snow blanketed the ground. It was part of her duty to the tribe, as the eldest of the youngsters to ease them into waking to start on whatever duties were to be done for the day.
A warm voice catches her off-guard, just as sleepy as she imagines her own voice. "What are you doing up?"
Raven wipes at her eyes, and walks over to join her by the window, looks out at the rising sun. The sky is painted in soft pinks and yellows and blues, and when she looks back at Summer, she finds that everything looks just as soft.
She yawns, "Dunno. Used to have to wake up this early for—" She stops herself, startled. Summer's expression tightens only a little, silver eyes scanning her. Raven shakes herself, "Sorry, it doesn't matter. I'm just used to it is all."
Summer nods, "Right. You know something?"
"Hm?"
“You and your brother are really bad at lying." Summer has a disapproving look in her eyes, but it contrasts the light smile on her face. She’s not sure which to believe more.
Raven lets out a laugh that doesn't sound all too amused. Only to you, she thinks.
Summer has this way about her, this dangerous thing that makes Raven's truth threaten to split her at the seams and puddle at her feet. Summer is dangerous, Summer is the only person she has ever felt safe around.
On the other hand, and he catches both of their attentions with a snore, Tai is this warm presence, someone Raven can be sure will be able to light the way when she finds herself in the dark. Summer is the same in that regard, but where Tai is warm, Summer is just safe. There's no other way to describe her.
Tai is bright, and warm, and unpredictable, and brings a spontaneity to her life Raven finds herself enjoying. Summer is soft and strong and kind, she's so kind.
It scares Raven.
She can understand Tai, he wears his light like a shield, with only him in its shadow. She gets that, she hides in her own shadow, too. Summer doesn't hide.
Summer had been staring out the window, Raven with her back to it. But Summer’s attention draws elsewhere, to Raven, and she feels the tension release from her shoulders with those silver eyes trained on her.
“Since you’re up,” Summer starts, “would you like me to do your hair?”
There’s another thing about Summer: despite the safety Raven feels, her tiny team leader also has an affinity for surprises. “Huh?”
“It can’t be fun to have all that hair everywhere when you spar.” As if to emphasize this, Summer shakes her head, short hair kept close to her head. She looks almost like a dog shaking water from its ears. “Lemme do it back for you.”
“If you’re sure,” Raven says hesitantly, thrown off by the offer. “Do you often offer your services for free? It’s not a sound business practice.”
Summer takes her hand and drags her to her bed, sitting on the edge while Summer flips onto the bed before climbing behind Raven to stand on her knees. “Free advertising,” Summer quips, and Raven has the briefest of flashes of tilting her head back and doing unspeakable things to her team leader. It’s easy enough to mentally shake, but focusing on her fingers carding through her unruly hair doesn’t shift her thoughts away.
Summer has dainty fingers, Raven realizes. Everything about Summer screams fragile but Raven knows firsthand that the girl behind her with her dainty fingers and thin frame is anything but. “Tournament’s coming up,” Raven says, if only to distract herself from the fingers in her hair. “Think we can convince the boys that we should go to the doubles?”
“Us?” Summer squeaks. “You want to fight with me?”
It’s so innocent and full of excitement, Raven can’t help but grin. “As if I’d want to fight with anyone else.”
Summer’s fingers find her scalp. Her nails drag gently against the skin and it takes every inch of self-control not to make an obscene noise. No one has touched her hair in years and Raven had forgotten how good it felt to have another human so intimately close to her.
“Not even Tai?” She asks, and it takes Raven a moment to process her words.
“He’s still a little sloppy for my tastes,” she answers, and Summer’s fingers get a little too close to the nape of her neck. She makes a noise, something like a moan but not quite. Summer giggles, and again brings her fingers to scratch at the base of her skull. “Mm, Summer,” she manages, leaning her head back against Summer’s stomach, “be careful what you wish for.”
“Who says I’m not?” She answers with a wink. Raven can all too easily envision herself with Summer’s thighs around her ears, her fingers plunged deep in her hair.
It’s too much. She sits straight up again and feels Summer’s fingers travel near her spine. “Done yet, sweet cheeks?”
“Just about.” Summer snaps an elastic against skin and mutters an ow. Raven is fairly certain Summer rests her face in her hair before tying off the end. She pats Raven’s shoulders. “All done!”
It feels nice to have her hair in one heavy pleat down her back. “Not too shabby. But maybe next time we can save it for the tournament.”
“But you’ll wear it today, right?” Summer asks, her arms looping around Raven’s neck. “It looks pretty.”
“Just for you,” Raven tells her. “You did work hard on it. I can’t promise it won’t be a mess later, though.”
“That’s okay. Your hair seems like it’s tough to keep in one place.” Summer pats the top of her head. “I think I might lay back down for a bit.”
“Get some more rest, shortie. I’m partner-sparring with Tai tonight, so you’re responsible for Qrow. Might need to rest up for that.”
“Ah, right!” Summer flops to the side and lands on her pillow with a thud. “Okay. Be careful, whatever you might be doing.” That’s another thing Raven loves about her: she doesn’t pry. She might needle, but she knows where to stop.
She changes into her outfit once she knows Summer is back asleep, and she gets a fresh wave of affection for her leader as she sleeps.
She has an uncommon pep in her step as she heads to Forever Fall, where she’s having a brawl with another boy. He talks big; she wants to see if he can prove it.
**
Summer is blabbering next to him about their exam. On and on about anatomy of Grimm, how she’s concerned about how fast they moved through this chapter, “some people aren’t as good with memorization— “
“You can just say me. I’m aware of my shortcomings as a human.” He knows she isn’t talking specifically about him, but her reaction is priceless.
Summer flails her hands, her face reddening. “No! You’re doing your best and honestly you’re a lot better than you were at the beginning of the semester.” She looks up at him with those doe eyes of hers and instantly he feels guilty.
“It’s almost as if you’re an effective tutor,” he jabs, and she scowls at him. There’s mirth in her eyes, and he chooses to believe that. “Kidding, kidding. You aren’t half bad, half-pint.”
“When will you stop with the short jokes?” She whines, hitting his arm with her textbook. “Not all of us are lucky enough to reach the top shelf of the bookcase.”
“You can barely reach the second highest shelf.” He grins, and this time she wails on him much harder with the textbook.
No one is there to save him. He’s dug his own grave. He lets her beat him with a textbook until she’s removed all her pent-up irritation. “Feel better?”
“Much, thank you.” She offers him a hand and she yanks him to his feet with minimal effort on his part. Points to her for the strength, although he has started to notice the definition building in her biceps when she exposes her arm like the harlot she is.
He never thought he’d say he was attracted to arms, but he is, and it’s not the worst thing. “Quiz time.”
“Haven’t you abused me enough for one day?”
“Nope! We still have to get you in tip-top shape for the anatomy test.” She takes his hand and drags him the rest of the way to their room, where they settle on Summer’s bed to pore over her textbook. “Okay. What were we talking about today? Boarbatusks?”
She doesn’t wait for an answer; she simply settles into the textbook and flips to the page. “No wonder Blumenthal drew it on the board.”
“What?” Qrow has been doodling pictures of him kicking Raven or pulling her hair while half-listening to Blumenthal in class. He’d also been doodling Summer in all her focused glory. He’s no artist but he’d hang her portrait in a museum if he could.
“The textbook doesn’t have a diagram of a boarbatusk’s mouth.”
“And that’s important because?” He knows he should be paying attention but why bother, when he knows Summer will teach him later?
“Well, if you end up in the mouth of a boarbatusk, and you break a tusk, you’ll be exposed to the poison. And if the teeth break skin? You’ll be dead in thirty seconds.”
“So, don’t break tusks?”
“Maybe just learn the anatomy of a boarbatusk’s mouth, bird-brain, so you know not to end up in one.”
And she starts drawing. It’s crude, but detailed enough that Qrow understands what parts are where. She might not have any sense of artistry in her being, but she doesn’t have to do this for him.
She doesn’t have to do any of this for him. She could leave him to suffer from his own choice, she could only give him her notes, but instead she actively teaches him about what he’s not getting in class.
She says he’s smart, “just needs a little bit more time on the uptake of some things.” She has faith in him, something that he’s rarely received.
So, he watches her hands as they splay in her notebook and draw out round little teeth in an open jaw, with tusks on both sides, a tongue in the middle. And she starts explaining what each part does, and he listens with an attention he didn’t know he had. Maybe not so much to the content of the words, but her voice, and how she snorts when he makes dumb jokes or when she ruffles his hair to affirm a good job.
Summer is dangerous, in that she has too much love to give. He sees the way she looks at all of them, presuming it to be simple friend love. She cares for all of them, in ways that he doesn’t think anyone has before.
It’s hard to not fall in love with that.
So he doesn’t bother stopping it.
When they walk to their exam the next day, he’s confident that if he’s learned nothing, he’s at least learned of his love for his partner.
Now if only he could get a chance.