"Dust. In the hands of a Hunter it's use is to kill Grimm. In the hands of an inventor it is used to stoke the fire of creativity. In the hands of a Soldier it is used to kill, And in hands of the people it is used for , is the unspoken law of the world." ~ The Steelbark motto.

Inside a small crafts shop on the outskirts of Vale lies a not so terrible secret. It was one of the bases of the White Fang movement. A peaceful movement aiming for more rights to fanus. Or was until a year ago, when the peaceful leadership stood down and a new, more violent leader stood up and took control. Whilst the common man wouldn't think it, inside the shop there was a young fanus currently sitting in the dark with the only light coming from security monitors monitoring a warehouse.

The young fanus scrambled on the communications headset. It was slightly off balance, neither of the two earpieces sat properly over his ears and the microphone was too close to his mouth as he tried to guide his fellow member of White fang to victory. "This is Forge to Bull, security coming from the south side, unarmed. Suggesting stealth. Yes, that means don't kill them!"

The feline bit his tongue, a purr of satisfaction daring to break though his lips. So far everything was going to plan, It wasn't too clear why Bull needed all the dust he wanted, but when it came down to creating the plan he trusted it to his left hand, Summarus. The tiger-like fanus hadn't lead him wrong yet anyway.

"Adam." Summarus said inquisitively, his words a mere whisper amplified by the microphone. "Why are you robbing this huge warehouse for such a small amount of dust? And what are you even going to use it for?"

A strained snort came through the speakers attached to the ears of the tiger child, as if the question was a personal attack rather than a question. "First off, you dolt, it's Bull. Secondly, White Fang needs more ammo and dust to stand up to those dirty, disgusting humans." The voice carried such rage, such anger for a squeaking fourteen year old, the teen obviously carried a deep grudge against not only humans but also against the world.

"Why should we fight them? I'm sure we can handle this peacefully?" Summaruses voice lingered and rose as he asked. "I'm not sure we should be fighting at all, fighting causes fear and fear attracts grimm and grimm means hunters and I'd rather not see our people killed in self defense by those that have dedicated their lives to protecting everyone, human or fanus!"

"Never forget that humans hate fanus! That is the way it is! Or did you forget about Menagerie and the pain that there is in that country sized ghetto?" The words were backed with a chorus of white noise playing con sordino.

"Maybe…" sighed Summarus. "So since I can tell you're making your way out of the complex rather quickly, you done looting from those poor manufacturers?"

"Poor? The mines the dust comes from uses our people as underpaid workers, almost like slaves! Ye-" Adam was quickly cut off by his "professional mission commander" as the cheerful high pitched voice kept decided to talk straight over him. "So, uhm, what about that pretty girl you met the other day!" The younger of the two chuckled over his headset, teasing the physically superior of the two whilst they were distant.

The strangled splutter emanating from the speakers said so much more than Adam would most likely reveal even in confidence. "Who, the cat girl with black hair?"

"No, no no. The other girl you are infatuated with, yes her!" Summarus sat up in his regular uncomfortable desk chair come uncomfortable mission control chair as he turned his attention away from the dust theft and towards his best friends love life, as pitiful as it was.

"Not much to say really." The voice coming live over radio betrayed no emotions to satisfy his tormentor. This, of course, meant war.

With a voice so mocking you could hear the air quotes, Summarus showed his toothy, predatory smile to no one in particular. "So cute. Adorable. Beautiful. I want to kiss her, I want to-"

"Enough already!" Adam's voice betrayed him, if there was ever a word to describe the sound of a love struck child on the edge of throwing tantrum Summarus would use it here, and use it now. Unfortunately he didn't know such a wonderful word.

Summarus laughed as deeply as a thirteen year old boy could. "I mean, yes, I could stop but I don't think that is an outcome of this conversation though. I think it ends with me pressuring you to ask her out. After all, I want grandchildren before I die young whippersnapper!"

"I swear to the gods if you were here now I'd punch your lights out Anvil!" The bull's half scream half groan was very, very loud.

"Quiet down! I don't want to get caught helping you with this, and don't call me Anvil!" The would be commander grimaced at the call of his last name. If he was caught there would be punishment, grounded forever at best and jail at the worst and for some reason the worst did not sound much better than the best, especially since tomorrow he finally left to follow his dreams.

"I'm out, it's done. Let me ditch this bag and then we'll, I mean I'll pick it up later, in a weeks time probably if not later on." Regardless of his aggressive temperament, the older of the two had his head well and firmly screwed on when it came to plans.

"So. Would I have liked her?" The teasing voice had a slight implicative tone, daring his friend to say something he shouldn't.

"Sure you'd have loved her, if you could get over yourself, your shyness, lack of social awareness, lack of actual awareness, lack of speaking talent, lack of actual talent and the fact you get super nervous around attractive females." Shot back the bull, verbally goring his mission leader with his horns.

Summarus laughed gently, it was quite right if slightly savage coming from his best friend and confident. "Shit man. Brutal."

Adam chuckled slightly upon hearing this "It's what I do. So, you ready for tomorrow?"

The rattling of the mic hitting off flesh clearly indicated a shaking of a head. "Okay, so why aren't you ready? Isn't this your dream?"

"I know I want to be a hunter, one to get out my father's way and two, get stronger. But still, Mistral from Vale? I don't know if I'm ready for that five years of not being home. Five years of being in a foreign country it's gonna be tough, you know?"

"You can still come home during the holidays Sum." The rattle of microphone on flesh indicated yet another shake of the head.

"I don't think I will. I'll keep in touch and you'll still be my best friend! But, I don't think I can do it, it's a fair trip even by bullhead and every time I do it I know I'll just feel worse and worse. I'm not saying no, I'm saying I don't know, you know? Like if-"

Adam cut him off uncharacteristically gently in an attempt to relive the others stress. "You're rambling."

"Anyway, uh, it's very late. I guess this is goodbye? I leave at 12 in the afternoon so unfortunately that doesn't give us plenty of time to say goodbye, cry, watch rom-coms, plan your first date with that girl, grab something to eat and other stuff."

"Jesus, my best friend is secretly a teenage girl. That would explain the fluffy silver hair though." The black haired bull fanus finally decided to joke back to his friend, then adding after a small pause. "See you later Anvil."

"See you, Adam."

The small feline Fanus smiled awkwardly at his father, as he watched his dad prepare the last breakfast the two would share for a long while. The man with black hair and sharp suit was the first to break the silence. "So son, you alright for money?" It was a gentle gesture from a rough man.

"Yeah, do you have my helmet, erm, hat thing? I know you said they'd be accepting of me, fanus or not but I don't feel too comfortable about it, especially since Mistral is so far away and having it shipped would be expensive." The younger of the anvil men felt his ears twitch as he fidgeted nervously. His black leather armour with metal plates banged a little, and he almost began to sneeze when he brushed his nose with the White fur around the collar.

"Check the staircase, I left it at the bottom. Now, you know I can't afford to stay long son, I need to get back to the Mining Institution an al' but, just like your brother, I'll miss you every day. And call me when you get there! And talk to me at least once a month just in case. Oh and before I regret, your bullhead is in half an hour, they moved your flight ahead."

The faunuses single bright Topaz coloured eye and it's sapphire counterpart met the brilliant azure of his guardian as he nodded, smiled, and gave him a warm hug. "Sure Dad. I'll keep in touch. Just… do me a favour. Say goodbye to everyone at the Mines for me."

The man couldn't help but crack a small smile at his son. "But didn't you do that when you went to visit last week? I remember quite clearly all the tears shed by some of the women."

"Yeah but I hadn't actually left, left then but now I'm going to leave so then it-"

With a deep sigh, Cirrus Anvil patted his child on the head. "I will. But is there anything you want me to take to their grave?"

"Lux and I already wrote them a card and bought roses ahead of time so it should probably arrive in your office soon enough. Is it weird I still send things to my biological parents graves? I mean I-"

"Summarus! There is nothing wrong with loving your parents, alive or otherwise. Never let anyone try knock you down over the fact they gave their lives in that mine and saved hundreds of fanus lives. They were heroes. I still talk to your father, we were very close and talking to him brings me peace and for me anyway, is a very rewarding act."

There was a heavy blanket silence as Summarus nodded dutifully, tears welling up in his eyes. "I-I won't Dad. I'm going to go say goodbye to Adam, okay?" his voice shaky with regret and doubt.

Without another word, and without a bite to eat, Summarus grabbed and put on his metal hat and stepped out the door and walked down the street only to be stopped by the red haired boy before he could even knock on his door. "Oh good, there you are. So I figure you've got about a good four hours to get to the air docks, so I want to ask you something before we begin watching rom coms, talking about girls and eating ice cream out of tubs like real men. Are you still going to be a member of White Fang, even in when you don't have me here to keep you on the straight and narrow?"

Summarus considered this evenly, tilting his head to the side as he pondered, then finally came to his conclusions he replied calmly. "I will be, so don't worry about that, what you should be worried about is if you do cool stuff without me."

Adam offered his right hand with his usual confident grin. "That's a chance I may have to take for the sake of equality and to taking the fight to the man."

This time, Summarus did purr as he took the young Taurus's hand with his left and gave it a shake. "Fine. Anyway, I should really get moving, they moved me onto an earlier bullhead so my flight leaves in, 10 minutes? Oh no no no no! Ah! I'm going to be so slow in this armour as well!" And with that, the young fanus sped off, his body almost charged with blackish red energy as he willed himself to go faster and faster.

Adam merely smirked at his fleeing black blur of a friend.

A/N: I don't actually know how this whole thing works (or how to make line breaks), so here goes. This is a small project, I don't know how reliably this is going to be updated but I do hope to finish. It consists of 2,000 words or so for this chapter. This is too short in my opinion but I just can't seem to reach the 4,000 word count I desired and I fear this will be an continuing thing. If you have criticism, be constructive. WHERE can I improve?

Now, since this is my first fic I'm going to post what wanted to include in the first chapter, and how I intend to procede, If I missed anything I list, let me know! I think I might do this for every chapter, so if people really don't like the direction I'm taking they can say so!

#Introduce Summarus. I'm really bad at beginning stories so I hope I did this adequatly. Likewise with descriptions.

#Introduce the relationship between Adam and Summarus. This is definitely an idea I wanted to include.

#The age of the characters. I actually worked this out roughly because the entry age of Beacon is 17 and Pyrrha is the "Four time winner of the Mistral Tournament" Assuming this is a yearly event this mean Pyrrha started competiting at age 13. I figure it's reasonable to train children to fight huge monsters at age 13.

#Make Adam a little more sympathetic and human. He's fighting for his people, it's just a pity he's an asshole.

#Establish the death of Summaruses parents. That was definitely done in the most hamfisted way, the entire section feels rushed.

#Fanus discrimination. I hope I made this a thing by mentioning Summaruses helmet? Unlike Blake, he can't really wear a bow.

#Summarus. Is. A. Introvert. He isn't meant to be liked straight away by other characters, I want him to suffer, suffering and conflict is the whole reason people read books. Like I if we disect the first Harry Potter book, his original conflict is with the Dursley and getting away from them. Then with Snape, and then with the person trying to steal the titular stone. (I'm not spoiling it)

#Tease his semblance. Spoiler alert, it's power over blackish red energy. It's actually more based Stygian Zinogre from Monster Hunter minus the bugs.

#Keep him affiliated with White Fang. I really, really want to keep this going.