Apodyopis - The act of mentally undressing someone.
“What ye sketchin’ love?”
Eve nearly jumped out of her skin, slamming her notebook shut on instinct. The reaction was exactly what Odelle seemed to be hoping for; her laughter was loud and long as she doubled over, grasping at her desk. “Well,” she managed, “I can guess.”
“S-Shut up.” Thank God her partner hadn’t seen what Eve had been drawing. Needless to say, she had spent far more time watching Odelle during class than she’d spent listening to ProfessorPort’s lecture.
“Somethin’ naughty, then.” Odelle grinned, all fangs, and leaned in closer to whisper by Eve’s ear. “Donna worry, sweet. Yer secret’s safe wit’ me.”
“Oh, really?” Eve murmured, absently keeping one hand on her notebook and smacking away Odelle’s creeping fingers. “Somehow I doubt that.”
“Love. Love. You canna expect me to keep yer secret when I donna know wha’ i’ is.”
She knew she was fighting a losing battle, and with a sigh Eve nudged the sketchbook towards Odelle and lifted her hand away, ignoring the feline faunus’s smirk of triumph as she flipped the book open to the page Eve had been sketching on.
Eve at least got the satisfaction of seeing her lover’s triumphant smirk fade into stunned silence as she saw what had been drawn on the page. It was when the silence lasted that the white-haired girl started to worry.
While ProfessorPort’s stories had hardly been entertaining, the many, many, many memories of Odelle naked that Eve had stored in her brain had been; it had been almost laughably easy to sketch her lover from memory, to recreate an image of Odelle on paper with nothing but a pencil and an eraser.
Sure, Odelle was naked, but that was about it.
So why was Odelle just—staring like she couldn’t believe what she saw on the page?
“Is—is something wrong? If you don’t like it, I can just tear it out. Rong can burn it—“
“No! No, donna burn it. I just—“ Odelle swallowed. “You drew me so—I look beautiful.”
Eve frowned, baffled. “Well… of course you do,” she said. “You’re beautiful, Odelle.”
Odelle quietly set down the notebook, taking the time to make sure that it was completely closed. A moment later Eve squeaked as her girlfriend pulled her chair back and curled into her lap, clinging to her and nuzzling into her neck, purring deeply. Unable to help the smile, Eve’s arms came tight around the other girl. “Hey,” she murmured.
Odelle’s tail flicked, and she smiled against Eve’s skin. “Hey. Lyin’ doesna suit ye, my girl.”
“I’m not lying.” Eve turned her head, pressed a kiss to wild strands of black hair as she rubbed Odelle’s back. “You’re a beautiful girl, Odelle. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
Odelle shuddered before she pulled back, tilting Eve’s head up and kissing her, soft and gentle and warm. She was smiling, and that made the other girl happy.
Odelle may not have believed she was beautiful—not yet.
But Eve was determined to one day make her believe it.
So Odelle/Eve wasn't on my writing list but I wrote it anyway.
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This is the happiest day of your life, supposedly. And you aren’t happy at all.
It’s not that the wedding is a shock to you, because it isn’t. You’ve known you would marry Kalt Schnee ever since you were a teenager. Daddy told you all about it when you were sixteen; the Schnee patriarch had been pushing him to cement the agreement before you were of age, but he dug in his heels and refused to do anything until he was certain you understood and agreed to it.
Of course you agreed to it. Daddy was the owner of a small, independent Dust shop in a small town in the north of Vale that no one cared about; if he had tried to stand up against Schnee, he would have been crushed. You love your father with all your heart, but he thoroughly believes he gave you a choice in the matter when the end, you never had a choice at all.
You loved him too much to let him go to ruin.
On the plus side, the agreement convinced the Schnee family to fund your education at Beacon, where you spent the last four years of your life. Back then, you thought it was the greatest thing in the world.
Now you aren’t so sure anymore.
The dress you wear was purchased by Kalt’s mother; the ornament in your hair is a family heirloom. You suppose you’re touched that his parents have accepted you so thoroughly, if only because of the fact that you channel Dust through your body so well. It doesn’t really make this any easier, but it’s something.
There are people who can go on for hours about their wedding, who can tell you every little detail because they remember it down to the microsecond.
You are not one of those people. The walk down the aisle is a blur; the only thing you recall clearly that Daddy is there with you, and his eyes are teary because you’re his little girl and now you’re all grown up and beautiful like your mother. Kalt is at the end, waiting, but there’s no real warmth in him. You two never did bond deeply in Beacon like everyone had hoped.
Kalt looks handsome, you suppose. He’s always been a very handsome man. The problem is, in the end, he isn’t the one you want to see standing at the altar waiting for you.
But Odelle wanted nothing to do with you at graduation; she wouldn’t even look at you, and she never spoke to you. She wasn’t around at all the night before.
The message is clear.
You can only hope that she’s happy. You pray she is. If anyone in the world deserves to be happy, it’s Odelle Belladonna.
The old man is speaking, and you tune him out because this is all something you know already. You’ve seen it in countless shows, you’ve read it in countless books. You didn’t even get a say in the vows. Those were practiced to perfection during the rehearsal.
So for a moment, you allow your eyes to wander over the crowd. Quietly, subtly of course; it won’t do if the media sees your mind wandering during your wedding, the supposed happiest day of your life.
And then, out of the corner of your eye, you see her.
You see Odelle.
It’s only for a moment, but—you’d know her anywhere. And you know it’s her even from this distance, even when she’s all the way in the back so that not even the cameras can see her. You know that wild black hair, that familiar orange streak that she dyed into it to make her orange ear look more natural.
You know her eyes.
And she’s looking right at you.
The old man says something and with a jolt you realize it’s your turn to speak; to say the vows you’ve recited so many times that they echo in your ears. You don’t want to look away because she’s here, Odelle is right here and she’s so far away and so close, but you can’t—look distracted, so you shift your eyes away and look into Kalt’s face, into emerald green eyes, and say what you need to.
To your credit, even if you rush through it no one seems to know.
There’s only a window of limited time, barely anything at all, and you glance back again—desperately hoping, aching, praying, maybe, maybe…
But Odelle is gone.
The pain in your chest is hot and stabbing, and even as you think that you only imagined her—because of course you did, graduation day and the night before made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with you—you still hoped.
Weiss's ears flicked forward, and then back as she registered the voice as that of Glynda Goodwitch, the Headmistress of Beacon. The wolf slowly shut her book, considered if it would even be worth it to try and lie.
It wouldn't be worth it. This was Glynda Goodwitch. If she knew that Weiss was pregnant--and the big question now was how did she know that, and did she know Blake was the 'father'--then there was no point in lying. If anything, lying might just get her into even more trouble.
Alex had never thought she would literally catch Blake Belladonna with her ass hanging out in the air. It was either a stroke of luck, or a terrible coincidence that brought her to the faunus’ room late one Friday night, intent on setting a trap for her obnoxious mark. What she hadn’t planned for, however, was for Blake to still be in the room. Not just in the room; in the room naked with her equally naked girlfriend and tangled around her in a way that really showed off her cat heritage.
Luck or chance? Alex could never decide.
Still, even when two pairs of startled eyes turned on her, Alex couldn’t find it in herself to flee. Instead she had noticed something else, a tiny little detail that most wouldn’t have even seen, had their suspicions not already been raised.
In this case, it was the tiny bump that had overtaken Weiss’ once smooth stomach.
It had started out small, so small that at first Weiss hadn't even noticed it. It had all begun with that choker: a small thing, custom made, silvery-white with the black logo of Blake's symbol. It had been a spur of the moment gift when Felicie had been a year old, given to her partner in a "Thank God we survived the first year" celebration that Weiss only faintly remembered.
It had been a good gift; Blake had loved it, and wore it often ever since it had been given to her. She had never reacted oddly whenever Felicie had taken an interest in it, wrapping tiny fingers around it and occasionally gumming at it.
But then once Weiss had grabbed it, given a gentle tug; nothing meant to hurt or scare, just some teasing when they had been going back and forth. Blake had reacted to that--had frozen, ears swiveling forward with interest and her face going red, golden eyes gleaming until Weiss had let her go.
That had been.... strange. Weiss had always been careful about touching the choker; it wasn't a collar, but it was close enough, and faunus history with collars had always been a shaky thing. Collars were viewed as a symbol of enslavement, which was why the wolf faunus had chosen to go with a choker instead.
But Blake hadn't seemed upset by it.
Still, Weiss had never grabbed onto it again since then, and the weeks since then had passed without incident.
Until tonight, when Bake had walked into their bedroom after putting Felicie down to the night and had said... that.
Weiss was quiet for a moment, ears swiveling with interest despite herself. To her credit, she didn't close her book, but it was a close thing.