Alabast was standing next to the others as they wait to be called. They heard all the other teams get called up. Each team had a leader designated by Ozpin himself. They were given a team name that used their initials as an acronym.
Ozpin then called the next team. "Alabast Noir. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team ANVL. (anvil)"
The crowd of other students clap. Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug.
"Led by…"
Alabast has his arms crossed across his chest standing tall. He looks down at Pyrrha fully expecting her to be called the leader. His tail is moving faster than normal, which the others glance at and smile.
"....Alabast Noir!"
Clapping gets louder and Alabast quickly moves his gaze from Pyrrha to Ozpin. His eyes widen slightly. "Huh? Led by….me?" He points his finger up at his head.
"Congratulations young man"
Pyrrha smiles up at Alabast and gives him a friendly elbow bump that slightly moves him. He looks back at his teammates to see them smiling at him.
He scratches the back of his head and relaxes his posture and closes his eyes. "Whatever"
They then make their way off the stage to allow the next group to be called.
Ozpin clears his throat then continues. " And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long". he motions over the four as they stand before him. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister.
Yang pick Ruby up a little. "I'm so proud of you!"
The crowd cheers loudly and Ozpin mutters something to himself.
Alabast is just looking up at the stage. He looks at Blake and gets lost on thought. He also sees Ruby and Yang next to Blake. He chided just to ignore Weiss.
"Maybe romance is just not for me" Alabast whispers to himself as he looks up at the ceiling and feels the void continue to expand. The fire inside has calmed but is still burning away, flickering ready to burst out at the slightest inner turmoil.
Pyrrha, Nora and Ren heard Alabast even while the thunderous cheering continues. They give him a sad look, they planned to ask team RWBY about this since they knew him better so far.
As everybody left the auditorium team ANVL and RWBY were the last to leave. Ruby ran up to Alabast and started jumping around. "Ashy! We're team leaders now! Isn't that so cool?! I totally wasn't expecting that! A-"
Alabast grabs Ruby's hood and brings it over her head. "Listen Little Red. I get it. I'm glad you are happy to be leader. I've never had to lead. I was always following orders or I worked solo alright?"
The others looked at him and wondered what he meant by followed orders and worked solo. Yang gets an idea. "So you were like a lone 'wolf' then?"
He glared down at Yang clearly not amused. "Ha…Ha…. Very clever Blondie"
Pyrrha tries to encourage Alabast. "I'm sure you will make a fine leader...Ashy"
He looks over to Pyrrha and realizes that he is now going to be called Ashy by these people. And he just sighs in resignation.
Nora jumps into the conversation. "Are we giving each other nicknames?! Are we?!"
Now Nora and Ruby are jumping around trying to think of nicknames for everyone. Then they look at Alabast since he has the best names.
"Fine, give me a minute to think. In the meantime why don't we go to our dorms. It seems we are right across the hall from each other". And with that being said they all walk towards their dorm rooms and make small talk as Alabast and Ren are at the back of the group.
Ren decides to try and get to know Alabast a bit. "So Ashy, huh?"
"It's better than Wolfy or whatever else Ruby was going to go with"
"We didn't get to officially meet yet. Lie Ren" He held out his hand and Alabast shook it. "Alabast Noir. So how long have you known Nora Valkyrie for?"
"Since we were kids actually. She just kinda stuck to me like-"
Alabast cuts him off. "Like syrup to pancakes?"
"….Yeah. How did you know?"
He looks down to Ren who was trying to figure him out. "Saw you both this morning. Nora seems to really like pancakes…..and talking"
"Yeah….."
They both look over to see Ruby and Nora practically bouncing off the ground and anything near them as they become great friends.
"At least they get along and can handle each other's energy"
"Yeah. Nora is good at making friends. But not keeping them. It's hard for people to handle her super positiveness with her over talkativeness. But it seems that this group will be nice to her"
"I feel like Ruby also has sort of the same problem. I only met her yesterday but she hardly ever shuts up. I don't think I've ever had to talk this much in my life"
"You alright man?" Ren gets concerned when he hears that. Mostly because Alabast hardly ever talks just like himself. But they both answer when directly asked a question. Well, for Alabast it depends on the question.
"Yeah, just getting ready for a long four years"
They eventually make it to the dorms and everyone looks at Alabast.
"Are you guys serious? Fine, we will start with Weiss I guess. Weiss shall hence forth be nicknamed Princess" They whisper and a few nod. Weiss isn't too happy but it could have been worse, it could have been an ice pun.
"Pyrrha is Amber. She has a fire in her"
"Nora can be called Umbra, like the Ursa she rode on. And her giant personality"
"Ren is Nero"
"Ruby is Little Red"
"Yang is Blondie, I know. Very original"
"And lastly Blake....Kitten"
This causes Blake to narrow her eyes and she almost hissed at Alabast. Ruby pops in. "Her bow does look like cat ears. Plus she likes to sit and read books, so I guess you can….. It's cool" Ruby was trying to come up with a reason why to call her kitten and to calm Blake down. But she was stretching for an answer.
"Alright, it's late. I'm getting to bed" Alabast takes out his scroll and is about to open the electronic lock when Nora and Yang grab his shoulders. "Where do you think you are going furball?" Yang jokes
"Excuse me?!"
"Let's go brush some of that hair out before you start shedding in your room, yeah?" As Yang says this the others agree. Ruby takes out four brushes and it takes Yang, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha to drag Alabast to a common room balcony shared by the dorm.
They start brushing his tail and back of his hair. Ruby is about to brush the hair over the left side of his face but her hand is grabbed by Alabast. "I can handle this part". And he takes the brush and turns his back to everyone and they take this opportunity to brush and pet his fluffy tail.
His tail flicks and moves so they try and pet it when it goes by them. They end up with a ball of fur.
"Look Ashy, you have a fur baby" Nora holds out a ball of fur out to him.
"Hilarious" He is sitting down and doesn't turn around. He brings his tail to his front and feels it. It used to be fluffy before, but now it's ultra soft and ultra fluffy.
He then lets his tail go back behind him and stands. "Thank you". And then he turns and leaves the girls there and heads to his room.
When he enters the building he catches a glimpse of black hair turn a corner. "It seems Blake was a curious kitten. Somebody should tell her that curiosity killed the cat before it's too late" he whispers quietly. Nobody was able to hear him, they were busy playing with the hair and shaping it into a wolf.
Alabast makes it back to his room and sees Ren laying down on the bed.
"Meant to ask you earlier Nero, how did that wall feel?"
"Enlightening" Ren grumbles out. It was muffled by the pillow his face was in.
There were four beds in the room in each corner. Next to each bed was a desk and a nightstand. There was one bathroom fir the entire team to share and a door that led to a small common room for the team with a small balcony connected to the common room.
"The girls will eventually lose interest in my...…..'fur baby', as they called it, and return later. It's already getting pretty dark out"
"Fur….what?" Ren turned his head from the pillow to see Alabast. His hair seemed smoother and less crazy.
"They brushed my hair and made a ball with the hair they collected. Nora specifically called it my fur baby. They then started playing with it and made it into the shape of a wolf" Alabast sighs and wants to collapse on his bed but knows he should change first.
"Ok….. should have figured it was Nora" Ren then puts his head back into the pillow.
Alabast goes into the bathroom and changes into his sweatpants and compression long sleeve shirt. Right as he's about to fall to bed the door opens.
"Do you wanna push yours and Rena beds together Nora?"
This causes his teammates faces to blush, Ren's face gets a little pink but not much.
"N..no…. That's alright. W..we aren't together-together…"
"Not yet huh? My bad, I just thought with all the hugging and physical contact ya know…"
"Nope, not ye-…." Nora stops herself.
"Not yet eh? Be sure to let me and Pyrrha know when it's set in stone. Better sooner than later for you two honestly. Whatever, goodnight" and then he collapses to the bed.
Ren is on the bed to the far left of the room while Alabast is to the far right when you enter the room. Nora takes the close left and Pyrrha takes the close right.
Nora goes to change first, and then Pyrrha changes. Alabast has trouble falling asleep so he puts his headphones on and tries to be quiet. He is laying on his side and facing the wall, his tail is slightly off the bed.
He eventually falls asleep but has to deal with the nightmares. And for some reason they are worse tonight.
He is forced to watch as kid Blake has to go through the torture he went through.
In reality he is making a lot of noise. He is shifting in his bed a lot he is also grunting and muttering in his sleep. He even starts to sweat.
Not only is Blake being tortured but he is watching as Nevermore pick at the flesh of Ruby and Yang. Nora has an Ursa chewing on her limbs while Ren is slowly crushed beneath an Ursa forced to watch Nora.
Pyrrha, Nora and Ren get up and see that it's like 4am. They gather around Alabast and whisper to each other.
"Should we wake him up?" Nora asks
"I heard that you are only supposed to wake them up if it's severe" Pyrrha comments.
"Is this not severe?" Ren points out that his face isn't a mild nightmare face. It's definitely an extremely pained face.
Then Alabast's black aura forms around him and then flicks away.
"Alright, this is not good for him" Pyrrha says and looks around for something to wake him up with. But Nora just goes to shake him awake before Ren could stop her. Pyrrha turns around in time to see.
Nora shakes Alabast a little bit. But that's enough for him to make his Bestia Fang extend its claws and go towards ther throat as Alabast rolls over. Pyrrha activates her semblance and makes the claws only scrape her cheek a little.
Alabast pauses with the claws beside Noras frozen face that has a horrified look on it. Ren grabs Nora and pulls her backwards. Alabast retracts the claws. He moves his back to the corner and sees his teammates around him he rips off the wrist bands that hold Bestia Fang to his wrists and throw them onto the bed and jumps into the air. He then jumps off the wall and lands next to the door leading to the hall and throws it open. He takes off down the hall at his top speed and runs out the building.
"Nora! Are you ok?!" Ren asks and checks her neck and face. Nora is still frozen for a few more seconds.
Pyrrha crouches down. "Are you alright?" She grabs Noras hand.
After a three seconds Nora snaps out of it. She nods but tears are forming in her eyes and then she hugs Ren and cries into his shoulder.
Ren nods to Pyrrha and motions to the door with his head. He wants Pyrrha to know that he has Nora and that she should go after Alabast.
Nora stays in Rens arms and shakily says. "I-It's not….his fault. I-I should have….I should have been more careful"
Ren just shushes Nora and rubs her back as they sit on the ground.
Pyrrha quickly puts on a pair of shoes and then runs after Alabast. He's really fast but Pyrrha is able to catch glimpses of him moving around corners under the moonlight. She realizes that he is running to the cliff side where they got launched for initiation.
As she gets close to the cliff side she is able to see Alabast on the ground facing the forest near the ledge. He is on his knees and barefoot.
He is scratching at his skin frantically under his shirt. Pyrrha wants to get close to him but knows that he probably needs to calm down on his own a little bit.
Alabast was awoken and moved on reflex like how he had since he woke up in the body of the six year old. Whenever anything got that close it was too late if he hesitated. If he hadn't been forced to miss by some force he would have….he would have killed or seriously hurt Nora even if she had aura.
Alabast didn't know what to do and he was still feeling the effects of his nightmare heavily and couldn't take it. So after taking his weapons off he needed to get out of there. His brain wasn't working and was pure instincts.
He ran and ran and his feet took him to the cliffside. He then felt his scars that he had received start burning. Not only the ones from his torture but also the ones he got from various missions as well.
His torso felt the worse but his arms and legs also started to burn.
He knelt down near the ledge when he didn't feel like walking anymore. His feet hurt and wasn't getting better. He soon started using his claws and shredded his shirt off to try and see if having contact with the air would help….which it didn't. He then shouts in pain and it almost sounds like a howl.
He then uses his semblance and tries to calm himself down but it doesn't work. Then he tries to envelop his body in darkness to make it go away. But it also doesn't work. Then he brings his forehead to the ground.
Just then he hears something approach him from the side. He looks over and up to see two vivid green orbs looking down on him. He tries to move away but isn't able to.
Pyrrha slowly approaches Alabast and kneels next to him. She puts a hand on his shoulder and doesn't say anything, just trying to let him know that she is there for him.
A minute later he sits back on his calves and then hugs Pyrrha quickly. Pyrrha is surprised by the sudden hug but carefully puts her hands on his back. She then notices all the scars on him. She can see and feel that they must have been painful. Most seem to be old while there seem to be others that are newer.
"I…I didn't mean to" Alabast was able to say.
"We know. She just didn't want you to suffer through that nightmare anymore" Pyrrha gently said
When Pyrrha brought up his nightmare his body froze. Then he wrapped his arms around her tighter, he enjoyed the warmth of their hug. He felt the void recede a bit. He moved his head more into her neck. She could feel his cut left wolf ear.
She is shocked and can't imagine what Alabast had to go through to get these scars. She's also surprised that somebody so strong can be so vulnerable and hide it so well. She had a feeling that something wasn't right but didn't think that something like this was the case. He only had a few scars visible on his face and forearms.
"Every night for the past 11 years. Every night I see things that I just want to forget" Alabast is lost and is clinging onto anything to stop him from drowning in his void. After Blake doesn't even acknowledge him as a person he doesn't know what to do. He thought he had prepared himself for this since he was 12, but it's so much worse than he expected.
He doesn't cry. No matter how much he wants to he's just unable to.
Pyrrha thinks for a moment of what to say. "Ever since I was little, my parents expected me to be perfect. I couldn't play with friends because I had to train or study for the future. They told me that I had to be strong, and then be even stronger because I was a woman. They loved me, they cared for me and did their best. But it was terrible for me. Especially after I won the first tournament. People would say that the guys took it easy on me or I did something to rig it. I was 12 at that time. And it just got worse after the second win. But after my fourth they finally stopped, but at that point people only wanted to get to know me because of my connection or my title. I had lots of fake friends. They were barely acquaintances. They either wanted to use me or they tried to stay away from me. I was scared coming to Beacon, not because of the pressure. No, it was the other students that wouldn't see me. I feared that they would see my title and not look further. Weiss was like that. Especially when she pulled her stunt with you trying to walk away. But now I know she is alright after seeing her interact with the rest of her team. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. What I'm trying to say is that you were the first person to see me. You said you didn't care about my achievements and although you are rude and blunt. You are honest, we can all see that. We will accept you, you just have to give us time and talk with us. Me, Ren, Nora and you are a team now for the next four years and beyond. We won't betray you because we know you won't betray us. You may not think you'll be a good leader but Nora and I think you will. And Ren probably does as well. I really have no idea what I'm saying anymore...are you calmed down now?"
Pyrrha can see that Alabast's tail is moving slowly compared to when it wasn't moving and only flicking in pain. She feels him breathing on her in a much steadier pace.
"Are you asleep?"
She doesn't get a response and doesn't know what to do. Because of her aura she won't feel cold and she doesn't mind the hug, she actually really doesn't mind it. She feels his dense arms around her firmly holding her close to him. She feels his back muscles and she starts to trace them.
"That tickles" this causes Pyrrha to jump a little. And she holds her hands in the air like she has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"I didn't say you had to stop" Alabast said in exceptionally quiet tone that Pyrrha almost couldn't hear.
Pyrrha was blushing, but now she was blushing even more. "If you say it like that…" Pyrrha wasn't naive. She had been on several dates but the guys all sucked. They were either snobby or entitled. They all just wanted her as a trophy. She can tell that Alabast is not like the boys she had met before. Her heartbeat quickened and a small pink flame started inside her heart.
She put her hands on his back and started to trace the muscles and scars. There were plenty of both.
Then she felt Alabast move a finger from her neck down her spine slowly and it sent shivers everywhere. "I'd be careful if I were you 'Invincible Girl', because I'm hurt right now. I don't know what I might grab to try and fill the void inside me" Alabast gently spoke and blew into her ear.
Pyrrha didn't know how to respond to him. Then she felt his left hand hold the back of her head and press her face into his shoulder as he held her tighter afraid that she would leave. She hugged him back and started scratching his head through his hair. She also saw that his tail sped up when she did this.
Neither knew how much time has passed. It could have been minutes, or a few hours. But now the sun started to rise.
"Alright Ashy, time to get back. We have classes today" Pyrrha patted his back to try and get him to let go but he didn't.
Pyrrha watched as he activated his semblance and controlled the darkness around them. Her vision was cut off and she saw a void. When she blinked she realized they were in the middle of their dorm room now.
Then there was a flash of light and a 'click' sound. She turned her head and saw Nora laying on Rens lap while he was asleep and had a hand on her head. She also saw Nora holding her scroll towards her and Alabast. Then Nora gave her a thumbs up and a smug expression.
Pyrrha just turned her head away from Nora in embarrassment. Then she felt Alabast slowly lessen his hold on her. He stood up and went over to his bed and just rolled over to face the wall.
Pyrrha tried to stand but her legs are asleep. Alabast moved his arm and used darkness to move Pyrrha over to her bed.
Nothing else was said that night/morning.