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Velvet never talks to Coco, but she always watches her from afar.
Many people in Pharos Academy were impressive in their own right — even if it was just a combat school full of young and eager teenagers and not a real Huntsman Academy, it still takes a certain amount of skill and determination to be accepted here in the first place — but none of them could ever hold a candle to Coco Adel.
It became quickly obvious since the beginning of their school year that Coco was well above the ranks of everyone else in their year. Maybe even in the whole academy, if Velvet had to be honest.
She was tough, determined, born with a natural talent for fighting that was so strong it was rivaled only by her clear need to win every situation she got into. She never looked nervous, never broke a sweat about anything. Never let her guard down. And she never once lost a sparring match.
She has a way about her that drew everyone in. A sun shining bright with everything in the universe gladly spinning around her just to feel that warmth. Whenever she said something, people would stop what they’re doing and listen. Whatever she did, people would copy. Wherever she went, people would be right behind her. She has an effect on many that was just as powerful as her weapon. Maybe not with everyone, but enough to matter.
And she knows this. She seems to thrive on it.
Velvet couldn’t have been more opposite if she tried.
She’s not as good a fighter as she wishes she could be, especially compared to everyone else here. She hates being the center of attention. No one pays her any mind and her shyness tends to repel others more often than not. The only time she gets any kind of acknowledgement is when someone first takes in her large bunny ears, but they get used to it fast and quickly grow bored of her.
Where Coco has confidence and charisma and fire, Velvet has nothing. How does one compare a candle to a flame? She’s a robin staring at a phoenix.
It’s no wonder why she constantly finds her eyes wandering over to her.
Like now, for instance, as she eats her sandwich alone in the large mess hall full of voices. Coco’s table, as usual, is overcrowded while the girl herself is completely oblivious to the shy presence eyeing her from across the room.
Not only is it embarrassing to be constantly staring at someone who most likely doesn’t know she exists, but it’s even more so considering just how painfully aware Velvet is of what she’s doing — and how she can’t stop doing it.
For all her talents and attractions, there’s really nothing too distinctive about Coco. At least, not when it comes to Velvet personally. They had no classes together, they had no common friends or acquaintances, and from her experience it seemed as though they didn’t really have anything in common either. Two people in completely different orbits.
But, like with all the others, Velvet drifts towards her as naturally as breathing. Of course she would; Coco is everything Velvet wishes she could be. She had never seen someone more worthy of being a Huntress than her.
She looks down and angrily rips a piece of her sandwich off, annoyed with herself. This is stupid; she doesn’t know this girl at all. Stop being so weird.
When she glances back up, because she can’t help herself at this point, she sees Coco staring right back at her. Curiously.
Velvet looks away first.
As she falls through the air toward the Emerald Forest, multiple things race through her mind at once.
First, this is the worst initiation she has ever heard of — even more so being a part of. Even as a Huntress-in-training, this seems a little extreme for a class’ first day. She can’t tell if Headmaster Ozpin genuinely thought this was a good idea or if he was messing with everyone for fun. A part of her thought it was a mix of both, and another smaller part of her wonders how many people fell to their death during this. And an even smaller tinier part wonders how many people survived the fall only to end up getting killed by Grimm in the forest.
This is not helping.
Second, she’s falling faster than she expected. With each passing second her anxiousness and fear multiply, intensified by the fact that she’s speeding toward a bunch of very big and ancient trees. Absolutely none of them are going to break her fall — though they might break a few bones if she’s lucky enough. It’s a good thing the fast winds biting her cheeks are distracting her a little bit otherwise she’d have to start screaming.
Third, Coco is falling a mere few feet away from her.
This was a fact that’s both impossible to miss and also somehow the most important thing in her thoughts right now. Way more important than the immediate dangerous situation she’s currently in.
As always, Coco is nothing like her. Or, rather, Velvet is nothing like her.
She’s falling with more grace than most people could ever dream of having in a normal setting; straight rod, one hand holding her bag and the other holding her beret. Not only is her hat a new accessory that wasn’t seen in Pharos, but so is the sunglasses upon her face. The only new thing Velvet got was a couple of light brown hair ties that are sitting indefinitely on her wrist because she hates putting her hair up.
Coco also looks at confident as Velvet is nervous, like falling toward her inevitable death was something she did everyday. If anything, it looks like she’s enjoying herself — a concept completely bewildering and unimaginable to Velvet.
It makes sense when it comes to Coco, though. Nothing really seems to phase her at all.
That’s who Velvet wants as her teammate. Not only just on a team together, but her actual close partner for the next four years. Someone bold and self-assured, someone Velvet can depend on and to learn and grow from so she can be the best Huntress she can be.
She can’t be the person she wants to be without help. She’s always depended on the influence of others. Her semblance is a constant reminder of that flaw.
But the main reason why she wants Coco as a partner is because she’s familiar. She’s a safe option. She struggles with strangers as she never knows who is explicitly anti-faunus until it’s too late, and she also prefers to be alone most of the time. Most people end up disappointing her sooner or later anyway, so it works out. It’s just easier this way.
But she doesn’t feel any of that apprehension around Coco. Not during their time at Pharos and not now. There’s something about her that brings Velvet in more than anything else, but she doesn’t know what it is. She doesn’t know why she feels this way. It’s weird. She doesn’t know her.
. . . So who better to have a partner and teammate than someone she already (vaguely) knows? It skips some of the awkwardness of first introductions and halfhearted handshakes. This is the best option for her from a simple and logistical point of view.
Velvet tells herself this she watches Coco disappear behind the tree line, and when she looks down she gasps in horror as the first red tree is now within kicking distance.
. . .
Well, Velvet got half of her wish. She never thought they’d end up on a team together.
Of course they would.
Wherever Coco goes, Velvet can’t help but follow.
For years Velvet had thought about what being a Huntress meant to her.
She didn’t join a combat school for any of the reasons her peers had. She didn’t fight for future fame or fortune, Huntsmen didn’t run in her family, she didn’t care about combat that much — if at all. It got easier and she’s gotten pretty decent at it, but it wouldn’t be her first choice of hobby if she could help it.
In all honesty, she just wanted to get away from her parents and she had a good fighting semblance. People have become Huntsmen for less honorable reasons.
And it was going good for her. She got stronger, faster, better in every way that mattered. She didn’t rise above her classmates, but she didn’t fall behind either — she kept up with them, which was all that mattered to her. She hasn’t quite caught her stride yet, but at least she’s running without tripping all over herself anymore. By the time she hit second year at Beacon Academy, she felt as though everything was gradually falling into place for her. She belonged here.
They were doing great in their first semester. They were doing what they usually did, but this time they had no teachers helping them. They had to work together as a team alone — but it was fine! Coco’s natural born leadership combined with Yatsuhashi and Fox’s strengths and skills meant that they rarely ran into trouble during their outings. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun, in Velvet’s opinion. Her dad was proud of her at least.
But then Lower Cairn happened, and all of her progress was starting to slip through her fingers.
This was Team CFVY’s first major solo mission. All of their other assignments consisted of them clearing out Grimm, always being shadowed by a teacher to make sure nothing went wrong — though they were still being supervised for this mission — and wasn’t very extensive. Very par for the course for first year students, and now this was their real chance to prove themselves as second years. They couldn’t mess this up.
But despite all their training, despite their reputation as an A-list Beacon team, they were completely unprepared for this mission. It was supposed to be simple — a distress single received from a nearby village of a massive Grimm attack. They were supposed to go help the victims and kill a bunch of beasts.
They didn’t find a group of wounded survivors or a herd of Grimm. They found one scared family and a herd of Grimm.
It was tragic, horrifying; a hit of reality that brought Velvet to her knees in shock. By the time they got that help signal and flew their way over here, every single person had been killed. There were bodies and blood scattered everywhere, and Lower Cairn had been completely flattened. There was nothing left here anymore.
This “simple” mission got a lot simpler for them — as morbid as it was to think about. All they had to do now was rescue this single lone family. They could do that. They should’ve been able to do that.
They didn’t.
In hindsight, this mission was probably doomed from the start. She didn’t know if it was because they didn’t have a teacher to hold their hands for once, but Coco had been relentless and highly critical of their team — and had gotten hard pushback in return. They had been taught over and over again about the importance of teamwork, and there had been absolutely none of that here. Every decision had been the wrong one, every choice wasn’t correct, they weren’t doing their jobs.
If Velvet had known just how unprepared they really were, she would have never let them go on this assignment.
It all culminated in something that would haunt her for years to come: The father dying from an Ursa they failed to kill, and the rest of the family getting crushed to death by the lone Goliath right in front of them. It all happened so impossibly fast and they didn’t react fast enough.
They had failed. There was no sugarcoating it. They had failed completely and utterly in every single way. They didn’t do a single thing right.
Velvets stews on that as she sits quietly in the airship taking them back to the academy. She glances at her teammates, all just as silent and looking away from each other, clearly absorbed in their own thoughts on what happened, and she nervously taps her fingers.
They weren’t ready. All their assignments, all their training, all their boasting on being one of Beacon Academy’s top teams, none of that mattered. They were overconfident, overzealous, and just straight up silly. They were nowhere close to being skilled Huntsmen yet, they weren’t even a competent team yet, and it took them failing to save a family for that fact to finally sink in.
A sad thought flashes across her mind. What if she’ll never be ready to be a Huntress?
What if this was just a bitter taste of reality for her on what being a Huntress is truly like? How many more people are going to die because she couldn’t do anything to help them? The blame can’t be solely placed on Coco for what happened — she’s just one person. Any one of them could’ve done something more.
She sneaks another peek at her leader sitting next to her. Coco had barely spoken since they came back from that mission. If anything, she was probably the one taking all of this the hardest; Velvet didn’t know how’d she cope if she lead her friends into devastating failure.
A part of her still wants to be mad at her friend for what happened. She had been unfair and mean, scolding them harshly for the slightest imperfection they did. She’s supposed to guide them, not force them into whatever mold she saw fit. She wasn’t a good leader today.
But Velvet sees her fist curled harshly on her thigh, her skin turning pink from the nails digging into it. She knows that no matter how angry she could be with her, Coco would be worse to herself ten fold.
She wonders if this is the first time Coco had failed at something. She built herself on reputation, she cared so much about others perceive her when it comes to her skill and fighting prowess. She had put herself on an impossibly high pedestal and couldn’t stand it when it takes a hit, when the stone starts crumbling just a little.
Something shifts in Velvet’s head and she feels a little guilty. She had been just like all the others who helped build that pedestal. She saw her as someone flying close to the sun when the truth was that she had always been running on the same ground as her and everyone else. She’s her peer — still special and talented, but not hard to reach. She never was. She can’t believe she didn’t realize it until now.
Velvet slowly reaches over and cups Coco’s fist with her hand. The other girl slightly turns her head, looking at her from behind her sunglasses, and doesn’t smile back when Velvet gives a comforting one of her own.
But she doesn’t pull away. She relaxes her hand instead.
Maybe Velvet can help Coco be kinder to herself.
Maybe she can do the same.
When Beacon falls, Velvet feels as though she fell along with it.
Her and the rest of team CFVY were among the very few students still here at Beacon Academy. Everyone else, other than the teachers, had either left to go home or transferred out to different kingdoms as soon as they were able to.
Velvet tried to understand it, but she couldn’t. Why did everyone give up so fast? Here she was, fighting hard for her school — her home — and everyone up and left without a single care at all. As though it hadn’t mattered whatsoever. Like it was nothing.
She’s even heard Coco talking with Fox about possibly leaving too when they thought she wasn’t around. It’s taking a lot out of her to try and not feel betrayed.
Instead, she focuses on her new routine. Wake up, fight Grimm, eat food, fight Grimm, go to sleep.
Wake up, fight Grimm, eat food, fight Grimm, go to sleep.
Wake up, fight Grimm, eat food, fight Grimm, go to sleep.
Wake up. . .
Coco is alone in their temporary room, standing next to her bed and staring out their window.
Velvet sits up in a hurry, instantly awake. “Did I sleep in? Are we late? Are Yatsu and Fox waiting for us?” She asks, her voice creaky and groggy from sleep.
Coco turns to her and smiles, relief palpable as she doesn’t seem annoyed or even in a rush. “Nah, I asked them to leave a little earlier than usual. You and I are taking a break today.”
Velvet stares at her, disbelief etched across her tired face. “What do you mean? We can’t take a break, there’s still so much left to do!”
“And it will get done. But you need to rest. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.”
"Coco — !"
“Velvet, please,” Coco interrupts her indignation. “It’s just for today, and I wanted to talk to you. Come with me.”
With that, Coco reaches a slender hand out toward her in invitation. Velvet looks at it, a part of her thinking about dismissing it and going to join Yatsuhashi and Fox in their morning fights against Grimm like normal. She doesn’t need a break.
But she knows her decision had already been made for her. It’s been made the minute she woke up to Coco standing next to her, waiting for her. Calling for her.
Velvet grabs her hand. She wanted no other choice.
. . .
They sit upon some broken rooftops of downtown Vale, overlooking the ruined buildings and swarms of voided creatures prowling its streets. The place isn’t burning anymore — the chaos having long since settled — but there’s still rises of smoke along with new damage sustained from trying to deal with the rest of the Grimm. They haven’t made a dent in them, but they’ve made plenty of dents in the already crumbling city.
She has to stop herself from thinking of Ms. Goodwitch trying to put Vale back together. It’s too depressing.
“Why’d you bring me here, Coco?” Velvet asks finally, breaking the silence between them. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Coco doesn’t answer her right away. Her focus isn’t on the town below them but rather on the looming tower in the distance ahead of them, guarded by a giant frozen wyvern.
Velvet looks at it too. It’s really quite an eyesore, and it has completely covered the academy in perpetual shadow due to how many Grimm are circling around it. She’s never seen anything like this before — she’s never even heard of something like this happening anywhere. No matter what they do, it seems as though that monster was a beacon for Grimm to swarm around. They can’t stop it.
Velvet glances back at Coco and knows what she’s about to say before she says it.
We have to — “We have to leave.”
Even if she called it, it doesn’t stop the hurt and anger rushing through her at once. She was wondering when they’d finally let her in on their not-so-secret conversations.
“We can’t,” she insists. “I won’t. I’m staying.”
Coco frowns, though still not looking away from the tower. There’s a tense beat before she sighs and responds. “There’s nothing left to stay for, Velvet.”
She’s aghast. “Don’t say that!”
“It’s true, though. We’ve stayed here for over a month and we’ve made almost no progress. We can’t push back the Grimm ‘cause they spawn faster than we can kill them, we can’t even go to the courtyard of Beacon anymore because of how many there are now — everyone is fighting for hours and hours every single day and honestly we’re all just exhausted. We’re fighting for a goal that isn’t realistic anymore. Maybe it never was.”
“I —“ Velvet hesitates then goes quiet, feeling her ears droop down.
She’s not wrong. Velvet knows, deep down, that what they’re doing isn’t going to be settled soon. Even if they were to beat back all the Grimm — which in and of itself is going to at least take a year or so at this rate — there’s also the fact that the academy will need to be rebuilt before they can return. Depending on the damage, and there’s a lot of it, that could also take a few years.
A tiny voice tells her that it doesn’t matter, that it will go faster if she stayed and help. Who cares if she’s unable to truly study at this time?
A bigger voice reminds her that she cares. She wants to be a Huntress because she actually studied and trained for it — not because she spent the next two years just fighting Grimm and nothing else. That may be the main goal and actual job of a Huntress, so technically it would still count, but there’s also more than that. There’s history to learn, strategies she wanted to know, more people to befriend and make connections with should she need them for help in the future. She wants the normal school experience. She doesn’t want a participation trophy.
But this is her home. The thought of abandoning it was inconceivable.
As if knowing exactly what she was thinking, Coco admits quietly “I don’t want to leave either.”
Velvet looks back up at her while she continues.
“This is my home too. Beacon was everything I wanted and I’d do anything to fix it, but it just isn’t an academy anymore. The reason I came here was to be a Huntress and I can’t do that if we stay here. Fox feels the same way, and Yatsuhashi wants us all to stay together. I think it’s time we moved on.”
Velvet takes a moment to answer. Or tries to, as her throat is now struggling against a rock forming in it. She still doesn’t want to leave, but she knows a losing battle when she sees one. One of the things Beacon taught her.
She will never consider staying here by herself. It’s all or nothing at this point.
Her thoughts get distracted when Coco takes off her sunglasses and sets them down next to her. She then jumps in surprise when Coco moves closer and wraps her arms around her.
Very stiffly and awkwardly. It was clear she wasn’t used to giving hugs.
“I’m sorry,” Coco whispers. “This is for the best. But we’ll always have Beacon, and we will come back.” She pats her back as she adds, “Besides, you’re my secret weapon. I wouldn’t leave you behind for anything. I promise.”
Velvet hugs her back tightly, letting her tears finally fall.
She nods. Coco always keeps her word.
When Velvet enters their tent, she does so with anger in her mind but not in her heart.
She hasn’t been feeling like herself lately. She’s been getting into a lot of bad moods with no clear reason and it’s starting to become a problem for her.
At first she chalked it up to the headache-inducing heat and constant wind stinging her eyes, nose, and mouth with sand while they traveled through Vacuo’s harsh desert that was bringing her down. As much as she hated it and wanted desperately to be back in Vale, she figured that she just had to give it time before she got used to it — her previous home had been all but obliterated, after all. Anyone would be mad and easily irritable in this situation.
But started getting worse. There would be stretches where she felt completely fine, but once her mood turned bad it seemed as though it kept getting more and more sour with each change. She wasn’t just angry with the desert — she was getting more and more angry with everything. Angry with their mission, angry with the villagers they were helping, angry with her teammates…
She can feel her mood slowly going back to normal as her anger gets clouded with guilt when she thinks about what happened a few minutes ago.
”We need to check out what’s going on with those four,” Coco says. “Fox and I will talk with Carmine and Bertilak, while Yatsu and Velvet stay behind to talk with Gus and Edward.”
Velvet sighs and mutters under breath. “Sure. Whatever.”
She didn’t mutter low enough apparently, because Coco suddenly lashed out at her.
”What’s your problem, Velvet?”
She feels the familiar heat of anger rushing through her, and reacts accordingly before she could stop herself.
”You’re my problem!” She snaps back, much to the shock of Yatsu sitting next to her. “You’re always leaving me behind! You think it’s because I can’t keep up with you, isn’t it? I’m just holding you back.”
”Guys,” Fox thinks to them, trying to stop it but not succeeding very well when Coco leans closer, clearly agitated.
”You don’t know anything about what I think. You keep making stupid assumptions based on nothing.”
Velvet hits her hand on the table, surprising everyone around her. She would’ve been shocked as well if she wasn’t so mad. She ignores Yatsuhashi’s concerned glance and continues.
”Stupid!? Are you serious? That’s rich, coming from you.”
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and wills herself to calm down a little before swiftly getting up from her seat.
”I’m going back to the tent. See you.”
She doesn't look back when she walks out of there.
The anger fully passes and she drags her hand down her face.
Why did she do all that? Why was she so angry? It was annoying being forced to stay behind again, sure, but nothing to yell about. She massively overreacted.
And that means she needs to go back and fix it — but she doesn’t know if she should wait or not. She might not be feeling angry anymore, but what if Coco was? She didn’t want to make things worse.
Before she could decide on what she wanted to do, she hears footsteps coming up to the tent and turns around just as Coco steps into it.
They stare at each other for a moment. Velvet didn’t expect her to follow her back so quickly, but it makes sense. Coco isn’t one to leave things on a bad note — not when it comes to her team.
She wants to run over and hug her and apologize, but Coco’s the one who speaks up first this time.
“I don’t think you’re stupid, by the way.” She shoots Velvet a cheeky grin. “My bad.”
Velvet sheepishly smiles a little bit back. It’s so easy to relax around her. “I’m sorry, too. I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean to get so mad. I think I just wanted to upset you.”
“You’re fine,” Coco assures her. “I wasn’t cool either. But I don’t want you to stay and talk to the kid and his grandpa because I don’t think you’re good enough for the hard stuff. I just think you and Yatsu are way better at handling people — Fox and I would either accidentally provoke them or upset them honestly. I don’t want to do that unless we need to.”
Now that she’s calmed down, she’s starting to understand Coco’s decision a lot more. She’s still not completely happy about it, but she does feel like she’d be able to get more information from Gus and Edward than the other two.
“Yeah. . . yeah, okay, I agree,” Velvet nods. Still feeling the awkward tension, she then decides to tease her a little bit to lighten things up more. “Here I thought you just wanted an excuse to flirt with Carmine some more.”
Coco gladly takes the bait and laughs. “I’m not flirting. I think she’s cute and all, but she’s not exactly my type.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Really? Who’s your type, then?”
Despite how lighthearted she said it, a strange lurch hits her stomach hard when she asks that. She ignores it.
Coco’s smile turns sly and unreadable, and she lowers her sunglasses to wink. “I can’t say right now, but maybe I’ll let you know sometime. Now let’s head back to the other two before they get too worried and think we’re duking it out or something.”
As they both exit the tent to go back to their friends, Velvet can’t help but feel as though she missed something.
Her feet hits the gravel hard as she runs across the pavement of Shade Academy’s courtyard.
They barely had any time to prepare when the Crown had begun launching their attack on Shade. She looks on with her nerves rising as they had already broken through the outer wall and were siphoning through it like water from a dam.
“Shit,” she hears Coco mutter despite the sound of heavy footsteps and many voices beginning to rapidly get louder and more chaotic around them. They have only a few seconds before gunfire begins ringing in the air as well. Coco unfurls her handbag into her gun. “They’re already in here.”
”There’s Jax Asturias,” Fox tells them telepathically. “With Yatsu carrying him.”
Velvet’s head whips back around so fast that she can feel a harsh rush of blood on the back of her neck for a few seconds.
She frowns deeply when she sees him. She never would have imagined that Yatsuhashi would be under Jax’s mind control — if anything, he should be the one person able to resist it. But apparently not.
She doesn’t miss the fact that he’s in this position because of her. He had to save her, again. And now he’s paying for it.
She can hear Coco and Fox talking, but she doesn’t pay attention. Her jaw tightens with her resolve hardening, and she puts a hand on her camera.
“I’m going after him,” she says resolutely. She has to save her partner.
Before she could move, she feels Coco’s hand gently grab her arm.
“Velvet, wait. Do either of you see Gillian here? I don’t.”
Velvet looks around at that and sees that Coco’s right. Gill isn’t here. Fox shakes his head as well.
Coco turns to her and slides her hand a little further up on her arm. Velvet tries not to blush.
“I need you to go after Gill. We can’t risk her coming back here and getting her cronies all souped up again.”
She shakes her head incredulously. This is a fully fledged battle and she can take down a group of people just by herself — she’s literally built for this. She’s not the awkward shy girl Coco first met all those years ago at Pharos. Why can’t she see that?
“No! You need me here, Coco. I’m your secret weapon, remember?”
Coco grins and Velvet feels like she’s falling more and more into a black hole. “Don’t worry, I remember what I said. And I do need you, but not here right now. If anyone else were to go after Gill and Carmine, we’d have to send a whole group with them for protection — me included. But you and your semblance are strong enough to do this alone, and you can handle yourself. You’re one of the most powerful people I know.” She pauses, and then adds sincerely, “You always have been.”
Velvet stares at her in astonishment. She had spent so long hiding in her fog of anxiety and insecurity, and even though she had started getting out of it on her own, here Coco was just casually reaching a hand in to help.
Velvet still holds the same feelings she had when staring at her all throughout their combat school days, and she never thought that Coco apparently felt similarly. Maybe she should have — they’ve been orbiting around each other all this time.
“I…” Velvet reaches up and covers Coco’s hand with her own. She smiles back. “Okay, I can do that,” she breathes out.
Coco stares at her seriously then, almost like she’s debating on saying something. A rush of excitement goes through Velvet when she realizes what exactly she wanted Coco to say, and she almost falters immediately. Now isn’t the time for something like this.
Coco seemed to think the same when she settles for saying, “Just… Make sure you come back to me, okay? I can’t lose you.”
Everything halts in her head. Now isn’t the time for something like this — but Velvet doesn’t care anymore. She doesn’t want to settle.
She knows exactly what she wants. She’s known for years. She wants to be a Huntress, and she wants. . .
Moving faster than she ever has she closes her eyes, pulls Coco’s arm towards her, and moves forward, slamming her lips against her friend’s in a desperate, and almost painful, kiss.
Maybe she could’ve been more graceful, but she ignores it when Coco un-stiffens and wraps her free arm securely across Velvet’s back.
The footsteps are everywhere, the screams chaotic, and the gunfire has long since started. This is incredibly unsafe. This is so beautiful.
It’s Coco who pulls away first, and they both look at each other with a mix of surprise and elation.
“Okay,” Coco laughs out. “Now you definitely have to come back. I need more of that.”
Velvet rests her forehead against the other’s. “I will. I promise.”
Dawn is breaking, and Velvet is resting her eyes.
She had woken up a few minutes prior to the light shining blue in their room. Behind her, she can feel Coco shifting in their shared bed.
This is the most peaceful she’s ever felt — so much so that it doesn’t feel real. They won against the Crown, they saved Shade, she’s gotten back into the normal monotonous routine of school work, and life has been as great as it could possibly be for her — save for the occasional reminders of all the friends she’s lost along the way. She still has a couple years of training, but she feels like she’s already a Huntress. It’s so freeing.
But the best part of this life is —
Her eyes open when she feels Coco slide closer to her and her exposed back, touching her side gently.
She must think that she’s still asleep, but she doesn’t correct her yet. Coco had started tracing her fingers around her body, mapping out her skin completely. Her scars, her hair, her sun spots and even her birthmark. She runs a feather-like touch that borders on being ticklish.
Velvet doesn’t move. It feels really nice, safe, even.
She doesn’t just stare at Coco in admiration anymore. Now she holds her, kisses her, loves her for as long as she wants. She’s drifted close enough to touch, and now they’re never letting go of one another. She couldn’t think of a more perfect outcome — she just wishes she had realized her feelings earlier.
When Coco leans over to tenderly kiss the soft spot between her bunny ears, Velvet sighs with content.
Everything she has ever worked for has led up to this.