Okay, this is actually a fanfic for the rwbyquest story that's going on in tumblr. (if you haven't heard of it by now, I suggest you go check it out at .com) If you don't know or care for that, then you could read this as a typical Ozglyn fic, so long as you skip the last paragraph. Anyways, hope you enjoy.
If there was one thing Ozpin could always count on when he lost something, it was that it would only take Glynda a handful of minutes to find whatever it was, wherever they were.
"Now just where has that cane gone?" The headmaster of Beacon muttered out loud as he searched around his desk in the vain hope that it had rolled underneath it sometime after his third time checking that area. It was the start of the school year, and the assembly for the first year students was about to start. And he needed his cane if he wanted to pull off his 'wise and weathered, but mysterious, veteran headmaster' look. He had worked so hard on pulling it off over the years, he wasn't ready to let that track record of leaving the students thoroughly confused by the time the assembly was over go to waste.
Glynda, who had walked in with reports for him to look over, lifted her head from the papers to see a silver head of hair pressed down into the carpet, dark spectacles skewed as he jerked up at the sound of the office door clicking shut as it smoothly closed behind her. Her expression stayed that same indifferent stare as she took a moment to keep looking at him from where she stood, before giving the room a quick scan over, head slowly swivelling around to take in everything around.
It only took her a matter of seconds then to stride over to a bookcase set in the wall behind the mahogany desk that he had peered under so many times only to forget that he had the next time he did so, taking hold of the wooden prop he had left leaned up against the shelves.
"I really wish you learned how to organise your office better." She sighed as she held out the can to the man awkwardly getting up from the floor, fighting to keep the embarrassment that was surging through him from showing up on his face as he fixed his glasses back into position. "If you actually had a place for everything, then this wouldn't happen so often."
"But I do have a place for everything." Ozpin replied as he took it, giving it a quick look over to make sure it looked its best. Good, good, the touch up of varnishing hadn't gotten scratched or messed up in any way. "Which would be exactly where I leave them."
The age worn reply earned an equally old eye roll from the blonde huntress, who rose a hand up to smooth back a hair that had slipped out of her bun. As much as Ozpin loved to play up his image, Glynda's own hairstyle was just another part of her trying to keep the kids in line by presenting a stern, ice cold exterior. And aside from the few delinquents that would have lucked their way into Beacon despite not being huntsmen or huntress material at all, a few cold stares and a stiff spine was normally all it took to make the first year students fall into line rapidly whenever she appeared.
"Now, just got to find where I left that mug..." A pair of brown eyes the same hue as the desk beside them glanced around for the item in question. Sure, there was only the last few dregs of hot chocolate left in the white mug emblazoned with the school's emblem, a pair of grey crossed axes, but a little bit more sugar in his system never hurt.
A small cough, and his gaze redirected to the huntress's hand held out in front of him, two fingers curled around the handle. This time, there was also the flicker of a smile to her lips, starting to grow amused by his continued ineptitude at locating anything.
"Ah, thank you." Taking it from her and tipping it to his mouth, the last mouthful of the lukewarm cocoa and milk mixture slid down his throat. The almost cloying taste of sugar clinging to the base of his tongue as he placed the mug back down onto the desk, on top of several cup rings from previous drinks that interlaid with each other.
"Is that everything ready now?" Glynda asked, hands folded neatly together in front of her waist. Her eyes almost rolled once more as she saw one of his hands reaching up towards his green scarf around his neck, a quick purveyance of the area around them as he found something missing.
"Almost..." Dammit, his brooch. It must have slipped off during his search for the cane. A couple of pats to the scarf confirmed that it hadn't simply fallen into one of the folds and clung there. As those desperate checks of his clothing moved downward, a few muffled curses slipped from his lips. The cool mask he had been working on to look out over the mass of hopeful students with was slipping as another roadblock appeared in getting to the assembly on time.
"Here." Fingers curled into his scarf, making Ozpin pause, before he slowly straightened back up. "Let me attach it back on." Glynda said, her eyes focused on fixing the small silver cross back onto the middle of the scarf, an obsidian stone gleaming from its centre as she worked the pin of the brooch through fabric.
As she patiently adjusted the stubborn brooch, Ozpin took a moment to look over her. Standing together, he could only just see over the top of her blonde hair that gleamed brighter than gold, the small height difference between them barely noticeable even when right next to each other. Her glasses slipped an inch down her nose as she frowned, the pin not clicking into place as it was supposed to for her. Caught up in trying to make it work, she drew in her bottom lip to bite on it, drawing a soft smile from the grey haired man as he watched.
Finally, the cross was firmly fixed upon the scarf, the huntress using her hands to smooth away a few wrinkles before drawing back. Despite knowing that she should be slipping into her persona of a cold as ice teacher now, with only a few minutes to go until they had to absolutely be at the assembly, the smile that even pulled at the corners of her eyes refused to drop off just yet.
"There, now you look the proper model of a headmaster of Beacon." She spoke. "I trust that was everything you needed?"
"Almost, I need one thing more before we head out." An eyebrow quirked up, the motion flawless to his gaze.
"And what would that be?" Before she could begin to guess, calloused fingertips drifted up one of her cheeks, keeping her in place for when he leaned in. Their lips were only pressed together for a few seconds, just long enough to send tingles down her spine by the time Ozpin pulled back.
"The kiss of a beautiful woman, of course." His eyes sparkled with mischief as she rolled her own in response to the corny answer. As much as she might try to say that she absolutely hated him trying to act sappy and romantic with his one liners, the pink blossoming on her cheeks said otherwise.
"But we should get this show on the road by now. Wouldn't do to keep them waiting for much longer." With a tug at his collar to fix a crease, Ozpin took a few steps towards the door, pausing to glance back at the huntress. "You are ready, are you not?"
One side of her lips drew into her cheek as she fought the urge to make a sarcastic reply back to him, slightly annoyed by his audacity to act as if he was the cool one. Instead, Glynda breathed in, rolling her shoulders back as she brushed some hair strands out of her eye, the smile gone by the time she locked eyes with him once more. It was time to scare some students onto the straight and narrow for while they were here at Beacon.
"Always."
King looked down at the tiara he held in his hands, the memory playing in his head having risen after thinking that the decoration would have suited Glynda well, having taken to examining it while on watch while the others slept. He couldn't say for sure, but there was some part of him that wanted to believe that she was the reason it had appeared, soon after his original crown had gone missing. After all, she was the one that would find whatever he would lose.
The happy memory soon faded away, like smoke slipping through his fingers. Even while thinking that, his grip on the tiara tightened, knuckles standing out white against the skin on the back of his hands. To his knowledge now, Glynda had been lost to the infection that had spread throughout the school, and he had failed her by not being strong enough to bring an end to her suffering like she had asked. And now, with the school locked down from the outside and no help likely to come for the small band of survivors that had gathered together, he didn't know if he could ever get the chance to correct his mistake.
His one large eye continued to stare unblinking from his box head, watching the metal gleam under the harsh fluorescent light of the cafeteria, before it shut, some moisture seeping out from under its eyelid.
This time, it would have to be him who would find. And he wasn't sure that he wanted that moment to come any time soon.