Reader x Cinder Fall x Summer Rose / The One You Feed: A RWBY Fanfiction

Chapter II: New School

8 Years Ago:

Reader's POV:

"Hey man, you feelin' okay?"

You look up from the floor to see a muscular young man with sandy blonde hair approaching you. "Oh, hey Tai." You say. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The man in front of you is your best friend, Taiyang Xiao Long. The two of you have a long history together, starting from the fresh young age of eleven. As a young child, your father's work had moved your family from the kingdom of Atlas to Vale. Being the new kid at school wasn't easy, especially since you transferred halfway through the year. Your unfamiliarity and nervous energy made you an easy target for bullies. This was nothing new to you however, even back at Atlas you were one of the less popular kids, so you were extremely surprised when the coolest kid in class invited you to sit with him at lunch one day. Sharing a common dream of becoming a Huntsman, you and Tai became friends, and no one messed with Tai's friends.

Moving into your teenage years the two of you attended Signal Academy together. Even in a school four times the size, Tai had no issue solidifying his position as the coolest kid at Signal, helped along by his natural good looks and laidback attitude. He had a list of girlfriends the length of your arm, but none of them lasted for more than a month. You were never sure whether that was because your friend couldn't sit still enough to form a meaningful relationship or if was something else entirely; he was torn up about it sometimes though.

Your status at Signal was also solidified, thanks in large to being best friends with Taiyang Xiao Long. Still, you came with your own set of perks. Since primary school you had become much more fit, again though, that was thanks to Tai. Your semblance also earned you a degree of respect, as most agreed it was the most powerful in the school. Taijitu, as you liked to call it, allowed you to harness the power of both light and darkness. You could manipulate light to create explosions at the snap of a finger, create forcefields, release a huge blast of energy from your hands, fly, and even heal others. The darkness allowed you to release shadow tendrils from your body and to create essentially any construct you could imagine. So powerful is your semblance that you don't use a weapon. The only down side is that your semblance is heavily influenced by your emotions. The happier you are the more the light shines through, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But the darkness was far more difficult to control, and when things started to get rough, you sometimes had difficulty controlling its destructive power.

Thankfully the good days tended to outweigh the bad ones, such as when you and Tai received your acceptance letters into Beacon Academy, Vale's premiere school for training Huntsmen and Huntresses. You remember that day well; you were third wheeling with Tai and his current girlfriend when you both received a call from your parents alerting you of the good news. The happy revelation was soon overshadowed however, when Tai broke up with his girlfriend, as she was not to be attending, but that is a story for another day. And now, here you were, riding a massive bullhead en route to Beacon Academy.

"You sure you're good man?" Tai asks again.

"I'm fine Tai. Why do you keep asking?"

"Well," he laughs, "it's just... you're standing in a corner staring at the floor."

"Yeah, I uh, I don't do good with people. You know that."

"Oh, come on!" He says. "I thought we went over this! You've got nothin' to be worried about. You're strong, handsome, muscular, not to mention your semblance is out of this world. You just wait, I bet the chicks will be runnin' over each other just to get your name."

You chuckle at his words. "Yeah, sure." You says skeptically. "Maybe you don't remember, but between the two of us, you're the one whose got the luck with the girls. Allow me to refresh your memory, ladies-guy-Tai."