176

Wynterfest Eve was a celebration to behold. After the lazy, food coma filled morning and the lazier, relaxation filled afternoon, the evening heralded a bevy of dishes and foods, friends and family and coworkers alike all making it over to the Xiao Long/Rose/Branwen household for a whole surprising amount of merrymaking and festivities.

Ruby and Penny had truly cooked up a horrifically impressive feast the likes of which boggled the mind and made it very, very confusing as to how she managed to find space for everything- especially when the food covered the little used dining table, the living room coffee table, the kitchen table, the kitchen counters, the hallway decorative table, and several folding tables strewn about the living room and kitchen as well.

There was a reason why the invitations to their guests had explicitly stated that it was not a potluck and that they really should not try to bring more food because Penny and Ruby had made more than enough.

There was oven baked turkey and roast duck and honey glazed ham and salad with grilled chicken and baked potatoes and stroganoff and wellington and bread rolls and mozzarella sticks and chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies and brownies and cake and ramen and sushi and hearty stew and chicken soup and fried chicken and fruit salad and smoothies and eggnog and fresh squeezed juice and so on and so forth to the point that it was frankly a miracle that there was any walking room at all.

There was good food, good drink, good company, good cheer, good fun, and just… everything was good.

And it made Cinder feel… melancholic, in a way.

The scars of her past never really left her, in some sense. She often thought about how much better her life was now that she wasn't under the clutches of that awful, neglectful, understaffed, over-filled orphanage in Mistral that sold its wards off to the highest bidder and then spent all that money lining the pockets of the owners. She often thought about how the first thing she'd ever learned about Ruby was that, for as much as her youngest sister hated the idea of killing innocent people, she would immediately fly into a murderous rage at the mere sight of someone she deemed truly evil. How she could sense that kind of thing was a mystery- she hadn't sensed it in her stepsisters or their teams thanks to some kind of grimm based cloaking, but for everyone else she'd ever met face to face… 

Whatever. 

Cinder sighed, taking a few minutes to herself on the back porch of the Xiao Long/Rose/Branwen household and lighting up a cigarette she'd snuck out of Professor Port's jacket. She took a long, deep drag as she stared up at the shattered moon, the brilliant silver light gleaming down on the snow coating the entire backyard and dusting the woods beyond. It was beautiful, out here in the cold. Chilly, but silent. The house was alive with the sound of people behind her, a joyful rush of holiday cheer that she couldn't help but smile at even as she blew out a puff of smoke and flame- the smoke itself flaring into a roiling mass of fire for a brief second as she snapped her teeth shut. 

Nicotine did nothing to her anyway- superheated and burnt out by her internal Aura use and rendered into nothing but smoke and ash in the wind.

In her other hand was a box. Soft, dark, lined with velvet. Too wide for any normal ring box, but… it wasn't for just one person. 

She'd put a lot of thought into this moment. This whole event. Not about where it would take place, not about how she would arrange everything. Not even about how or what she would say.

Cinder spent a lot of time thinking about Emerald and Neo as a whole- their trio. Their relationship. They'd all known each other for a long time, after all. They'd almost grown up together, in a way. Childhood friends that called each other cousins sometimes. 

Maybe Emerald hadn't been the most natural fit between her and Neo, but as time had gone on, she'd become a part of them just as they'd become a part of her. Shared secrets at night, outings together. Laughing in the afternoon together as they played around, smearing ice cream against each other's faces and then licking it off. Having fun the way they only could as carefree students- loving freely and kindly and with plenty of desire and want in any way they could imagine. All three of them knew what it was like to grow up neglected, to grow up harshly, to grow up in a place that they hated more than anything, and as a result they were almost inseparable when they had time together- hand in hand, arm in arm, body against body and soul against soul.

The three of them meshed together in hot, spiky, rough, beautiful ways- a power play of three strong personalities having the time to push and pull and play with each other. It wasn't perfect- the only relationship that seemed absolutely perfect was Penny and Ruby's, but they loved each other all the same, and they made sure to communicate, to feel vulnerable, to feel open and strong as they lifted each other up and voiced their concerns and issues, worked through any little arguments and problems and…

They just lived. Day by day. They didn't let themselves get conquered by their sorrows. With each other's help, the past no longer held them down and the broke free of the shackles of trauma and hurt. Once upon a time, they'd been torn apart inside, but time and each other had mended their hearts and…

"Cinder? Hey- you've been out here for a while. You okay?" Emerald asked, silently coming outside with Neo beside her, both of them taking up position next to Cinder and basking in the bubble of warmth that seemed to constantly surround the Maiden these days- a bubble of warmth only counteracted by Neo's glasslike chill, but Emerald didn't mind either. 

Neo simply smiled, placing one hand on Cinder's arm as the fiery Maiden allowed the rest of the cigarette in her hand to burn up and vanish into smoke, the box in her other hand clutched tight as she continued to stare out into the distance.

"I'm alright- just… thinking. We've all been together a while, haven't we? As a group, I mean. Maybe a year and some change of a relationship isn't much to decide, but…" Cinder shook her head and breathed out another little flare of flames as she turned the box over in her hands, pulling away from Neo just this once as her normally silent girlfriend simply made an inquisitive head tilt and poked at her with her Aura. "I dunno. Just… thinking about the past. How we are now. The future. The decisions we'll have to make down the line. What we're gonna do after graduation. I… did you know that a vast majority of teams in most schools don't even stay together after graduation? Seventy percent break off into singles, trios, or pairs. Thirty percent sticks together as a whole team. Team STRQ… almost managed to stay together, but… well. Team RWBYP's probably gonna stay together forever… Mercury's probably gonna leave and join Team CFVY after graduation with the way that he and Yatsuhashi act these days…"

"... I don't want to leave you, though," Emerald cut in. "Neither does Neo."

"I know. That's… I don't know. I was just… thinking. And… I wanted to ask you both," Cinder sighed, then chuckled lightly as she turned around and walked a few steps, stopping as Neo and Emerald moved to follow before facing them again- both of them now before her as she held that little box in her hand. "I had this whole speech prepared for both of you, last year. About how I felt about Neo. About how I was going to wait a little longer for you… but I realized it was kind of shitty to say, and that… it wasn't fair to either of you. I love both of you, and I have for a long time- and I don't want you to leave. I want us to stick together and… I want us to… Fuck it."

Cinder kneeled, opening the ring box and turning it to face Neo and Emerald, a pair of twin rings held inside- one with a central gem of pink diamond set into artfully twirled obsidian, a small ruby and a small emerald set on either side. The other had a central gem of emerald set into a differently styled ring of obsidian, another ruby and a pink diamond set on either side of the larger emerald. They gleamed in the low moonlight, and in the sudden glow of Cinder's Aura as orange-gold light spilled out against pink and green in turn. 

She turned, facing Emerald first and taking in both girls' shocked expressions, smiling with a wavering little burst of hope as she asked, "Emerald… my beautiful gemstone, my precious mirage… will you marry me, us?"

"Yes!"

Cinder's smile grew brighter, and the haze of her Aura in the air flickered with love love love love love for the women she'd chosen to be in her life. "Neo-"

And for the first time in what felt like years, for the first time in what was years- Neopolitan, opened her mouth and made a sound. Not just a sound, but a word. Not just a word, but a shout. Not just a shout, but a declaration of love that had her interrupting Cinder entirely in order to throw her arms around her girlfriend- no, her fiancée.

"Yes!"

There in the snow outside the log house that Cinder called home, the girls collapsed playfully into the snow, giggling and rolling about as they wore their rings proudly and professed their love again and again and again with the light of their souls.