The Grimm with a soul

Opening old wounds

He tells himself it's for her followers, those long lost souls who got wrapped up in something way over their heads, and now they can't back out without consequences. But as he tucks the box into the farthest corner of the airship, so that it'll be unpacked last, and waves to signal the other boxes of supplies to be loaded on, he knows it's a lie. For in that box, there is a package of her favorite foods. Cinnamon, because she always loved it, and other spices, because she didn't get a lot of spiced foods in the tower.

Her father's tyranny limited trade with other kingdoms, and when he showed her the world, she marveled at the new foods and the spices that she had never even known existed.

She always smelled of cinnamon and lilies, and sometimes grass, because she would lay in it for hours, watching the clouds and soaking in the simplicity of nature.

Ozpin can lie to himself, but he can never make himself believe the lies. He can never make himself believe that he means that box for anyone but Salem.

He wonders if she even gets it, if this small, simple act means anything to her. Does she stare at it with malice and hatred, thinking it's all to rub the past in her face? Does she even know it's from him? Or does she smile softly at it and open the box in the back, always smaller than the other ones, and pull out the red bag of cinnamon candies, pop one into her mouth, and think of the good memories? Of him? He knows she doesn't love him anymore, but does she ever think about him?

Ozpin sighs and walks to his office, cane clacking on the pavement with each step, leaning much too heavily on it, as if it could hold him up with the weight of the world that he holds. The weight of the memories he carries, unseen, but surely felt, if only by him and the voices deep inside his mind.

****

She tells herself it's to practice her skills, lest they grow rusty over the centuries. For those innocent, naive children who know nothing of her and probably never will. The ones he's tricked into fighting a war, fighting her, all under the facade of fighting Grimm. Most of them will never know anything more, and she's grateful. For as long as they're not a direct threat to her or her goals, she never wishes to kill children. He must know that, that must be why he recruits them.

For in every young face, she sees her daughters, herself, the young Ozma that she once knew. But as she waves her hands from the window of her chambers, directing the majority of the Grimm away from the Emerald Forest and from Vale-- Beacon-- she knows it's a lie. Because it is not the nameless, faceless children that she thinks of to ground herself whilst directing an army of creatures that will jump on any display of weakness when she does this.

No, it is Ozma, the past faces that she's known, the original, and the current one, the lonely professor in his tower.

Ironic, she thinks, that he should choose to isolate himself in the very thing that once kept her prisoner. Perhaps another way to rub their past in her face. No, she thinks, he doesn't love her, not anymore. He probably doesn't even notice that she does this. But even still, she does it.

And then, as a last, finishing touch, as always, she uses her magic to fill the trees in the Forever Fall Forest with their unnatural, sticky and sweet sap. They don't generally produce this much sap, and what little they do isn't this sweet. But Ozma always did love sweet things. And just as she's finishing, she hears the hum of a distant airship.

Ah, the supplies. She sighs and walks slowly through the castle, waiting for her followers to finish emptying the airship. Then, she arrives, impeccable timing. The last box, always smaller than the rest, sitting in the farthest corner.

She uses her magic to lift it up, teleporting to her chambers to pry open the box, smiling softly at the cinnamon candy on top. Salem dismisses the thought that it could be from her Ozma, because he surely doesn't love her like that, not after all he's done. But whichever of her followers that realized she liked these, she is grateful to them. Popping a single candy into her mouth, she smiles, a real smile, and settles into a chair to reminisce about the past.