The two small figures walked through the crowd as taller passerby's paid little to no attention, the two of them sticking close together as they didn't want to get lost from one another. The taller and older of the two adjusted his black hoodie. It felt itchy against the back of his head, and the thickness of the material still made an outline of his horns visible. Luckily so far, no one had pointed it out or noticed enough to make a huge deal. The younger one didn't seem to mind her disguise. The black bow on the top of her head fit comfortably over her ears. She just absentmindedly looked around at the wares in the outdoor market for sale, not letting go of the hand of her 'big brother' as he lead her through the bazaar.
"Adam, where are we going again?" Blake asked, forgetting where her aunt had instructed the both of them to go.
Rolling his eyes, he looked down at the six year old cat Faunus that looked up to him. "For the eighth time, Blake, we're going to see Old Man Garfield for those special ingredients Noire wanted for dinner." he replied. All this repetition of explaining to the little girl what they were doing again and again was starting to annoy him, such was life having a younger sibling with as short an attention span as Blake had.
"Oh, yeah! We're having my favorite tonight, right?" Blake asked, knowing the ingredients they had to pick up were used to make her favorite dish: a stir fried fish meal her aunt always made for special occasions.
"You know we are. You don't need to ask me for the constant clarification." Adam snapped, before realizing his tone turned somewhat stern without him noticing, putting an upset look on the younger one's face. "Sorry, that didn't mean to come out that way."
"It's okay. I know what you meant." Blake replied, her features softening as she accepted his apology before looking up. "Hey, isn't that it?" she asked, pointing at a kiosk where a heated argument was taking place between two Vacuan guards and the vendor, who just so happened to have cat ears sprouting from his greying ginger hair.
"But I've already paid that tax when I set up my wares here earlier!" the vendor complained to the soldiers.
"Yeah, well the captain's said somebody didn't pay up." One of the guards explained. "And from the jingling of that Lien in your pocket, I'd say you have just enough to cover the gap."
"This is extortionism!" he exclaimed, a few passing bystanders looking over, then losing interest as they realized the complaint came from a Faunus.
"Just fork it over, otherwise we shut you down and arrest you for tax evasion." the second guard threatened, cracking his knuckles.
"Shouldn't we do something, Adam?" Blake asked as the older child ushered her to hide behind an empty cart so the guards didn't notice them and hassle them too.
"Nothing we can do, I'm afraid." he replied, watching sadly as the shopowner handed over all his sales money to the guards, who grinned greedily as they walked off, counting their 'hard-earned' cash. He then turned his head down the street towards where the kids were hiding, seeing two little black triangles of the top of a bow poke out as Blake tried to hide herself from peeking over the cart.
"You can come out now, you two." he sighed as Adam and Blake came out of hiding. "I'm sorry you two had to see that."
"That's not your fault, Mister Garfield." Adam replied, glaring down the guards as they continued down the market lane, still laughing.
"Are you okay, mister?" Blake asked as the older Faunus kneeled down and ruffled her hair between her ears.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about an old fart like me, little kitten." he chuckled before turning to Adam. "I'm guessing you're here for Noire's usual run?" With a nod, Adam wordlessly reached into his hoodie's pocket, producing a small velvet pouch of coins he then proceeded to hand to the vendor. Counting the lien in the pouch to make sure the proper amount was there, he crouched down and reached into a small crate and produced a small sack of food. Opening it, Adam took inventory of the contents. Inside sat a loaf of bread with a few bundles of herbs and a couple of jars of spices. On the very bottom wrapped in plastic and newspaper in order to keep it fresh was a large filet of fish meat, looking like it had been freshly beheaded, scaled and deboned. "Let Noire know I couldn't get any trout this week from my supplier, but this salmon should make for a fine substitute." he explained.
"I'm sure it'll be fine." Adam nodded as he looked at a clock tower overhead. "We should probably head back. It's taken us longer than we thought it would to get here."
"Oh, before you do, I almost forgot something!" Mister Garfield exclaimed. "Blake, the missus was working the kiosk for me last week and heard from your aunt you just turned six, is that right?"
"Yeah! I'm going on seven now!" Blake smiled with childlike enthusiasm.
"Well, she wanted me to give you a bit of a late birthday present from the both of us." he smiled as he fished around in a knapsack under his kiosk for a moment before handing the little girl her present. It was a small stuffed cat made out of blue felt that felt soft and cuddly to the touch, a simple smile on his bead-eyed face. Blake gave out a tiny squeal of joy as she took hold of it.
"Oh, I love him already! Thank you thank you thank you!" Blake cried as she hugged the stuffed animal.
"It's my pleasure, little one. Now you two best run along before those goods spoil. They've been sitting for a little while out of the cooler." he said, motioning them back the way they came.
"Oh right! Thanks again Mister Garfield!" Blake waved as she and Adam departed, the market worker giving a nod back before returning to his work. As the two walked along, Blake listing off all the things she already had planned for her and her new friend, dubbed "Mister Fluffycat", to do once they got home, Adam kept a watchful eye on her and their surroundings. Even though he could sense negative energy around them, being in an area of town where Faunus were heavily prejudiced, he couldn't make out if any of the other market-goers and shopkeeps had seen past their ruse.
"Blake, stay close to me okay?" Adam asked, looking around trying to find the source.
"Huh? Oh, okay. Why?" Blake asked.
"I'm just-I'm getting a bad feeling we're being watched."
With those words, the cat Faunus froze, hugging her new friend tighter than she already had been. She hated it whenever somebody said those words whenever she was outside the house. It had always led to running away from somebody or something and maybe getting hurt in the process. "R-really?" she asked, looking over her shoulder nervously.
"I could just be being paranoid. Don't worry about it." Adam answered, leading her by the shoulder as they went through the crowd. As he was looking behind them, he felt himself get knocked over by a solid force in front of him, knocking him down. Blake stood her ground, but with a nervous look in her eyes. Looking up, Adam found they knocked into a group of Vacuan guards, one of the three turning to them, his face grizzled with greying stubble and a long jagged scar running across his left eye, leaving it uncovered and showing off a milky white orb.
"Well, well, well..." he grumbled, looking down at the two kids. "Look what we have here, boys: A pair of thieving brats!"
"What? We didn't steal anything!" Blake protested.
'Your horned friend with the sack says otherwise." he pointed at Adam. It was then that the pre-teen realized his hood had fallen off during the fall, revealing his horns.
"Okay, so we're Faunus. We still paid for this stuff fair and square!" Adam fought back as he stood up, starting to turn away with Blake, only to find they were surrounded by the two guards flanking the older, more authoritative one.
"Oh, please. We know your type. Just a couple of kids with rags for clothes with a sack full of upper-middle class grade food?" one of the guards spoke up, forcibly ripping the sack from Adam's grip and spilling it onto the ground.
"Hey, what the hell's your problem?!" Adam yelled, while Blake just huddled against him, terrified.
"Little thieves like yourselves, that's 'our problem'." the second guard huffed.
"Berk, De'Lario, you know what to do." the older guard ordered.
"Of course, Captain." the one who spilled their groceries nodded as he and his partner took a step towards them, producing a pair of handcuffs each for the two kids.
"Adam..." Blake nervously glanced around as the two backed up, only to bump back into the guard captain.
"I know, Blake. Just get ready." he answered as he nonchalantly reached into his pocket.
"F-for what?" she asked her older brother figure.
"To RUN!" Adam yelled as he threw the smoke pellets in his pocket, a gift from Master Kai only to be used in emergencies, against the ground, and blanketing their area of the street in smoke. Taking Blake by the hand, he pulled her into a side alley as they broke out into a sprint, the guards already hot on their tails as the smoke barely phased them. They then began to try and work their way back to the meeting point with Noire and Bambi, which was still a long way off from the detour they had to take to try and escape the predjudiced guards pursuing them.
"Adam, what about the food?" Blake asked.
"Not important right now, Blake! Just keep running!" he snapped as he tried toppling a stack of firewood they passed by to try and trip up the guards. As Blake almost lost her balance trying to dodge it, being a pace or two behind Adam. She saved herself from falling, but dropped her new friend in the process.
"Mister Fluffycat!" Blake gasped as she turned back to pick him up, only to find two of the guards mere feet behind her and closing, one taking something out of his back pocket and aiming it at them.
"Blake, what are you-" Adam called, turning at a very inconvenient time as the crack of a gunshot echoed throughout the alley way. Adam's head whipped back as blood splattered across the ground from the bridge of his nose, and knocking him to the ground.
"ADAM!" Blake shrieked as she sprinted up to him, not even caring about the upset guards behind them with their guns drawn and the wrongly-accused kids lined up on their iron sights.
"End of the line, kids." one of the guards grinned, Blake pinning herself over Adam as she waited for the worst of it, only being surprised as a loud hiss came instead. Looking up, she found a small Taijitu, black and green instead of the usual Grimm color scheme, lunging over the first guard's shoulder and chomping down on the pistol in his hand and wrenching it from him as it dived in front of the two children. What was more impressive than the lucky break was the fact that after landing in front of Adam and Blake, the serpent started to take a human shape, dressed in a white hooded tunic and black pants, the viper-like fangs and snake eyes staying constant as he bit down, shattering the firearm in his jaw.
"You will not harm thesssse kidsss anymore." he threatened lowly as a second figure came out of nowhere and slashed at the second's pistol with a blur of a blade, the weapon not even visible a half of a second later as the pistol was cut in half at the receiver.
"You made a grave mistake trying that." the woman sheathing her katana added, her cat-like ears on the top of her head lowered to showcase her anger.
"Well, aren't you two the naughty ones." the captain confidently teased.
"Don't make me let Noire cut of your head, Sssscumbag." Kai threatened again.
"What the hell do you two crazy Faunus bastards want anyway?" the captain asked, dismissing the threat.
"I'm a woman." Noire deadpanned.
"Call yourself whatever you want, you crazy Faunus bastard." the captain shrugged. "Either way, you're both aiding criminals here, plus damaging Vacuan Guard property, so I guess you lot are under arrest."
"Of course, just let me pick them up and we'll comply." Noire nodded, picking up Blake as Kai slung Adam over his shoulder. Touching his free one, Noire activated her aura, using her semblance that allowed her and whoever she was touching to rocket away at high speeds in a shadowy blur, leaving three mesmerized guards furiously cussing them out for their escape.
"Well, it's safe to say we're going to need to be staying away from that market for a while." Noire said as she finished dressing the wound along Adam's nose, the boy wincing from the tenderness of it.
"The important thing is that everyone returned alive and relatively unharmed." Master Lupus nodded, stroking his beard.
"Sssstill, it would be wissssse to think about waiting a while before we think about ssssending them off on their own again." Kai suggested.
"I agree with Kai. We've learned it's too dangerous for the two of them to go unsupervised." Bambi nodded.
"We'll make sure they're sent out with one of us if they ever need to leave the house." Arbor agreed.
"B-but, Auntie! It was only an accident we got found out!" Blake cried, looking up at the adults in the room while Adam looked down, frustration and upset feelings visible in his eyes.
"We're doing this for your own safety, Blake." Noire said softly, getting down to her level. "We had a close call enough with what happened to Adam. We just don't want it to happen again." she continued, pecking her niece on the forehead. "Now the two of you get washed up before dinner. You had an exhausting day."
With that, the adults left the room to leave the two children on their own in the bedroom they shared. Adam turned his back to face Blake as he lay on the futon that made up his bed. Blake sat on her own, unsure of what to say or do to try and make her friend feel better. "Adam?" she called.
"I'm not in the mood to play right now, Blake." Adam murmured.
"I-I know..." Blake stammered. "I just wanted to apologize. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have gotten shot." she finished that sentence with a whimper, hugging her stuffed toy to try and comfort herself.
Adam turned to place an eye on his sniveling companion. "Blake..." he sighed. "You're still only a kid. You didn't know any better to go back for your toy instead of running back toward those guards." She looked up, listening to him. "Just next time, please don't do something that's going to leave me with one of these." he asked, pointing to the bandage across his nose.
Blake nodded rapidly as she walked over. "So are you going to come down to dinner?" she asked.
"Eh, I'm not really hungry. I think I'm going to just go to sleep." he answered, turning back away from her. What he wasn't expecting was for Blake to crawl up behind him and place her stuffed toy next to him before pecking him on he cheek and leaving. He smiled for a second as he placed Mr Fluffycat next to his pillow and went to sleep.
"EEEEK!"
Everyone in RWBY's dorm shot up as Yang lept out of her bed and turned on the lamp.
"Geez, Sis! It's nearly two in the morning!" Yang yawned.
"Some of us are trying to get our beauty sleep you know, Ruby!" Weiss growled. "What is with you?"
"Sorry! Sorry! It was just a bad dream is all." Ruby apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
"See, this is what we get for letting Nora choose the movie for Movie Night again!" Weiss complained.
Yang kept her head more level as she reached down in front of Ruby and Weiss' bunk and picked up Zwei, who let out a squeaky yawn as he was suddenly awoken. "Sorry, Big Guy. Rubes needs ya." she whispered to the Corgi as she placed him up on Ruby's bunk. Immediately, Ruby brought him into a hug as he curled up against her.
"Thanks, Yang." Ruby smirked, as she cuddled up against her source of comfort.
"No need. Everyone has their own thing that helps with that sort of thing." Yang shrugged, reaching into her shorts' pocket and taking out what looked like an old ragged piece of cloth.
"Did you just rip out your pocket?" Weiss asked.
"No, this used to be the blanket I was brought home from the hospital in." Yang chuckled. "I would bring it everywhere with me to the point there was only this left. I still keep it on me for good luck and stress relief."
"That's cute, I suppose." Blake thought aloud.
"What about you two?" Yang asked, crawling back into her bunk.
"Whenever I would have nightmares, my mom would come in and sing me a lullaby until I fell back asleep." Weiss remembered fondly. "I think that's what got me into singing without me realizing it." she thought of.
"Aww, that's nice." Ruby cooed, before eyes shifted towards Blake. "What about you, Blake?"
Wordlessly, Blake reached under her pillow, taking out a worn stuffed cat, one of its beady eyes replaced with a sewn in button. "I got this once from a gift. It's something I don't really need that often, but I keep whenever I feel upset or saf enough." she explained, stroking his worn plush surface.
"He's pretty cute even with the age." Yang noted.
"Well, I got it when I was seven..." Blake trailed off, remembering that day.
"Worn with love, eh?" Ruby asked, Blake's emotional state making her want to bring Mr. Fluffycat close to her chest and give him a hug.
"You could say that." she replied. "We should probably go back to sleep."
"She's right. Goodwitch is gonna kill us if we fall asleep in class again." Yang nodded, hopping back into her bunk as she switched off the lamps. Soon afterwards, everyonr in RWBY had fallen back to sleep, Ruby still cuddled up with Zwei, Yang snoring rithymically, Weiss laying still as a corpse, and Blake just about to tuck the memento under her pillow before a pang of nostalgia hit her. All the memories and fun times she had with the toy coming back, especially the moments when she wasn't training that Adam was playing with her too. She missed it. It brought bitter tears to her eyes that she wiped away before tucking the toy under her arm and going back to sleep.
It's funny how a fic you mean to turn into a flashback into Blake's past life turns into what you just read, right? Still I'm happy with how it turned out. I plan on doing maybe a couple more fics about Blake's involvement with the old White Fang, so here's a couple bios for those that will be appearing in it. Also afterwards, I don't have much else to say, so see you lads and lasses next time!
Master Lupus: The founder of the White Fang, Master Aldous Lupus, a Wolf Faunus, was once a normal advocate for a Faunus Rights Group that later disbanded and reformed as the White Fang. He was once married to a beautiful human wife, where they kept their relationship and only child a secret, yet when someone found out that a Human-Faunus relationship was taking place, they tried to lynch them both for it. Aldous was saved, but his wife couldn't be in time. He was given sanctuary by a Cat Faunus widow named Shadia, a beautiful woman with two daughters, Midna and Noire. Once he came to terms with the incident, he reformed his old group to try and prevent a similar fate that he and his wife suffered from happening again.
Noire and Midna Belladonna: Noire is a Cat Faunus with a twin sister that joined the White Fang once it formed. Since she and her sister were young, the two trained hard in martial arts to defend themselves from racists that could cause them trouble or harm. Not long after the White Fang formed, an orphan named Adam was taken in, wanting to join the White Fang so that his Faunus friends in his orphanage could be inspired to not let hatred towards their race go unpunished. Midna took him under her wing, up until the day she met another Cat Faunus while out celebrating her and Noire's birthday at an underground Faunus social club. She ended up in a one night stand that left her pregnant. She died giving birth to the baby, a girl named Blake, leaving Noire as her godmother and Adam as an older brother figure to watch out for her ad train her just like Midna trained him.
Bambi is a Deer Faunus girl that was best friends with Midna and Noire growing up. She lived next door to the Belladonna's in her parent's herb store, where her dad sold medicinal plants and mother acted as a doctor to the local Faunus community. When Master Lupus came into the Belladonna girls' lives and had them join his new organization, she joined in a heartbeat alongside them, acting as a medic for anyone who got hurt during their protests. Even though her parents taught her everything they could, she still couldn't save Midna when she died during childbirth. To this day, she still curses herself for it, despite it not being her fault at all, and always feels a pang of guilt when Blake does something that reminds her of Midna.
Kai is a Snake Faunus. He was once a thief, robbing stores and markets to get by however he could, not taking any help of handouts from anyone. When he himself was beaten and left for dead in an alley after a failed attempt to rob somebody blind while their back was turned, he was taken in by a herb shop owner who patched him up with the help of his wife and daughter. He met the Belladonna's and Aldous Lupus soon after, the Snake humbled by the hospitality Bambi's parents had given a crook like him, and joined their cause in the White Fang not long after recovering.
Arbor Lupus was the son of Aldous Lupus, also a Wolf Faunus. He was taken into protective custody after his mother was lynched, but broke out of his foster home and ran away after it became apparent his foster family was racist towards Faunus and beat him senseless whenever they felt like it. He was able to track down his father after searching for some years, meeting a girl on the way he had a child with. When the protests around their public demonstrations became more violent towards them, he became a bodyguard to protect the others. He was later killed in one of these events just before the White Fang became violent, leaving Timber under the impression of the seedy nightlife in their area when he snuck out at night.