An Aura of Hope: A RWBY Fan Fiction

Chapter Seven

"James! Look! There it is!"

Valerie's voice woke me up from my sleep. "There's what, Valerie?" We'd grown pretty close these past few days at sea. She was really handy with mechanical things, I learned. She was the one they called when things on the boat started breaking, and she'd fix them up within the hour. I didn't understand any of it, and her trying to explain it only made it worse.

"Vale, you moron!"

"Oh! We're there?!"

"No, I'm just joking. We still have three months to go. Of course we're there! Get up here!"

I got up off of my mattress on the floor and made my way across the cabin to the door. We came to find that the sailors could sleep through any noise and trained themselves to wake up on time on their own. Valerie always woke me up. I took the stairs two at a time up to the upper deck.

"Hey there, sleepy head," said Valerie when I got outside. It was still dark out, but the lights from the city gave the sky the illusion of sunrise.

"Hi," I said back. I "It's really pretty."

"Yeah. I've seen it before, but it never gets old." I watched her hair as it bounced up and down playfully around her chin, the black making a stark contrast to her soft pink lips.

Whoa. Why am I noticing these things? This is Valerie, for crying out loud.

"James?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah?"

She giggled. "You were staring at me all funny-like. I was wondering what the matter was."

"Oh, uh, I was just, erm, admiring the way the water is the same color as your hair this time of night."

"Oh, really? Well I'd like to say that your face was the same color as a Beowolf's eyes when you said that." She walked closer to me and grinned. Then the grin faded and she looked down at my chest.

"Do you think I'm pretty, James?" she asked. The question caught me off guard a little.

"Well, I, uh, yeah, I think you are."

"You stumbled."

"Because I wasn't expecting it."

She paused. Her head slowly came up and met my eyes. Her hazel eyes sparkled from the city lights. She put her hands on my shoulders and came even closer. Now her chest was against mine. "Well I think you're cute, James."

Whoa. "R-really?"

"Mhm." She looked down again.

Before I even knew what I was doing, I was brushing her hair behind her ear.

She started rising up to my face. I met her halfway and kissed her. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Valerie's lips were both gentle and wanting pressing against mine. Then, she opened her mouth and pressed her tongue against my lips. Getting the message, I did the same. I was not prepared for the wave of pleasure that came over me next. She tasted like honey and cinnamon. After what seemed like an eternity but still not nearly long enough, we parted.

I looked into her eyes, which seemed a bit glazed over, and smiled. Or tried to, anyways. I think it came out funny because she giggled at me when I did it. My stomach was doing front flips all over the place.

We didn't speak, but the looks we gave each other were enough. That was amazing, we told each other.

As the shore approached, the other sailors started waking up and going about their morning business.

"Well... I guess we should get our chores done," said Valerie.

"Yeah," I said. So we left the edge of the boat, and went to mop the mess hall.