Amongst the dense crowds throughout the city of Vale, we find the reclusive Ilia, a dark skinned, brown haired girl with spots tattered throughout her body. The Faunus girl wore a gray hoodie in attempts to shield her appearance amongst these... Humans. Her appearance could easily pass for human, in fact most people, even a few Faunus, would mistake her for such. Still she felt the need to hide from them, the same people that will look upon anyone looking different and see it as wrong. Being around humans in general was bad enough, but to actually go on a date with one-

"Oy, are you this Ilia I've heard so much about?"

Was something entirely more degrading. The girl finally arrived at the restaurant and glared at her date in question, a boy with red hair covering his right eye and markings on his left. He wore a white sleeveless shirt with light gray pants and a military pelisse-like jacket draped over the left side. Ilia was entirely too tempted to just say no and walk away, but she had a point to prove thus she reluctantly answered, "yes."

"Wonderful, have a seat," The boy chirped as he pulled out a chair from their table on the patio, with a small amount of hesitation, the Faunus girl accepted the invitation and sat down. The boy sat at the opposite end and continued, "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Scarlet and I'm a Huntsmen from Mistral academy visiting Vale for the tournament. Now how about you tell me about yourself."

"...My name's Ilia, I'm not a huntress and I'm not really from anywhere."

"What do you mean, do you travel a lot?"

"Something like that."

"Wow, that's got to be exciting. What do you do, that allows you to travel so much?"

Not wanting to blow her cover, she snarled, "I bring peace to the misfortune, by any means necessary. That's all you need to know."

"OOOOO, a little cryptic are we, I like that."

Before Scarlet had a chance to press onward, their waitress had arrived. She had long straight blonde hair with long bunny ears, and blue eyes, the girl handed them two menus and stated, "hi my name's Sam and I'll be your waitress for today. May I start you two with some drinks?"

"I'll take a water please," replied Scarlet.

"Okay and you miss?"

Ilia dryly answered, "Water's fine."

"Super, now our specials today are the fish and chips, the full size turkey, and a comedically oversized bowl of noodles."

"That all sounds delightful," Scarlet noted, "What sounds good to you?"

Ilia growled, "I'm not hungry." This was not true, however she felt the need to lie in order to try and end the date as soon as possible.

"Oh well that's a shame, I guess I'll just order the fish and chips then."

"Coming right up sir," the Faunus waitress chirped as she left.

"Boy I can't tell ya, the amount of effort some people put in these animal costumes is truly remarkable."

"Costumes?" Ilia shot back.

"Yeah, those bunny ears on our waitress. They look so real. I wonder how she makes them look so real."

Ilia stared at him for a good moment, his statement sounded too stupid to be real. "Probably because they ARE real," she added.

"What, come on people don't have animal body parts... do they?"

"Did you not grow up around a lot of Faunus?"

"I don't know, what's a Faunus?"

What's a FAUNUS she thought, did this guy really just ask that? "Scarlet... The Faunus are a race of people who have animal traits."

"...Are you messing with me?"

Ilia stared back at her date dumbfounded, "No I'm serious, the Faunus are a real people that have animal body parts."

"So wait, when I stepped on my friend's tail, that was a REAL tail?"

"Why would anyone wear a fake tail?"

"I don't know, I thought it was just a trend for some people to dress up like animals, you know like furries. Oh boy, this whole time I thought my boy Wukong was just being a whiny lil bloke, I feel bad now."

"Here's your meal sir," The waitress interrupted.

"Thanks love," Scarlet replied then turned back to his date, "So tell me, those spots on your face, are those a Faunus animal trait too or are they over sized freckles. Cause that's what they look like to me."

"I mean, you're not wrong, but yes my spots are markings of me being a chameleon Faunus."

"A CHAMELEON! That's bloody brilliant."

"Um, thanks."

"You know, now that I realize my friend is part monkey that actually does explain a lot. Tell me, my friend can climb trees faster than anyone else I know. Do all Faunus have some sort of advantage like that, like could a fish Faunus person swim really fast?"

"Well yes, Faunus who are part fish can swim fast and breath under wa-"

"Holy macaroni!"

"Wha- what's wrong?"

"Nothing I just, never had deep fried fish this good before, please you got to try some."

"I-I shouldn't."

"No for real, you got to try this, just one bite please I insist."

Looking down at the plate of food, it certainly did look scrumptious and Ilia hadn't eaten all day, "Well, okay. I guess I can have one."

A whole hour had past as the shared plate of food was nearly gone with the two continuing their conversation, "So wait," Scarlet addressed, "You can change color?"

"That is true," She answered, while taking another bite of fish.

"That's amazing, I mean night vision, superior athletic abilities, animal base powers, the Faunus sound great."

This conversation was an interesting one to say the least. Ilia had never had a pleasant conversation about the Faunus with a human before and it's not like a Faunus to find a conversation about their own race to be truly fascinating. Scarlet came at this subject like a kid on the first day of school ready to learn everything for the first time, his general excitement of these fun facts were very enjoyable to say the least, maybe even a tad bit adorable.

"Alright, I got to ask, would you mind showing me your color change ability?"

Now that was a question that really stung. It was not something she felt comfortable with showing around public much less in front of an actual human, every human who's seen it happen has only reacted in disgust and even the first time she changed in front of people she once considered friends, it ended with their faces directed at her in horror. "I um, I'm not really comfortable doing that."

"Oh, okay then."

And there it was, the slight subtle amount of disappoint in his tone of voice. It haunted Ilia, she felt guilty for disappointing the one person who was generally interested in her Faunus heritage. Humans normally felt uncomfortable when seeing her in an abnormal color, other Faunus were never impressed, and the White Fang only saw it as an ability useful to their cause, but not Scarlet. He was fascinated by this crazy ability she could do, an ability he didn't even know existed until now. It had to be done, "Okay, " she conceded.

"Wha- are you gonna show me?" The Red haired boy cheered.

"Yes," she soothed as she for the first time during this date she removed her hood to better show her face. The chameleon girl sat up straight, then her skin tone turned to a very light purple color and her hair went from brown to blue.

Scarlet stood up in excitement with a massive smile on his face, "Wha-ah ha ha, that is amazing. How do you do that?"

"I- I can't really explain," She stuttered as her skin and hair turned back into their natural browns, "I just sort of do it, although sometimes I lose control of it."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, sometimes my color changes based off my mood. Like red is for anger and blue is for sadness."

"My, that is wicked. Alright, now that you showed me one of your talents, let me show you one of mine." This pique the girl's interest as she sat quietly, "I can do wicked good impressions, observe." What followed was an overly high pitch voice, "Oy, I'm Neptune and I'm not British, but this is the voice I've chosen for myself."

The shear absurdity of this impression was so over the top, the chameleon girl bursted into a fit of laughter followed by a, "What was that?"

"Sorry, I can be a little silly sometimes. If my boy Neptune were here, he'd have made this date funnier, since he'd stare at me all irritated like."

"Well, I enjoyed it none the less."

"So Ilia, you should know. Originally I thought we could hit a Karaoke bar after this and make fools of ourselves you know, but I'm starting to sense you wouldn't be comfortable in that setting."

"Not really, no," She winced.

"Well how about this, you and I hit the fair in town, it's not completely set up yet, but there's still some games we can play and maybe one or two rides."

And there it was, an invitation to extend this date longer than it needed to be, Ilia had originally plan to dip out at the first chance it would seem appropriate to leave, yet something about Scarlet's general company was alluring. In the end, she couldn't imagine saying no.

"Darn it," Scarlet cried, as another attempt at knocking down the bottles failed. Scarlet and Ilia had covered the fair grounds high and low, leaving a litany of failed attempts to win an actual prize. However this game had the misfortune of sitting across a dunk tank, with an overweight man obnoxiously commenting on the red head's failures.

"Another miss by the bloody brit HAHAHAHAH," The fat man barked, "Hey pirate boy, the seven seas called, they said gingers aren't allowed to be pirates anymore."

"I'm not a pirate," Scarlet defended, "but thanks for the advice anyway."

"That wasn't advice kid, this is advice. If I had a face as ugly as yours I'd grow my hair out to cover more than just my eye HA, HA HA, HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Thank you for that, real confidence booster," Scarlet groaned as he picked up his last ball. The red head took a deep breath in and out with the attempt to concentrate, that is until-

"Hey pirate boy, why don't you fly your pirate ship off to space, to a far away land."

"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?" Scarlet scolded.

"I don't know, just hurry up and miss."

In blind frustration, the red head chucked the ball at the bottles missing completely. This in turn caused Scarlet to growl in anger and the obese man howled with more laughter. Ilia however simply scowled at the antagonizer as she placed a small amount of lien down asking, "My I have a turn?"

The carney running the stand complied and presented her with three balls.

"OOOOO, looks like the girl's gonna give it a go. Hey lady, if you think you and your skinny arms can knock down those bottles, then you're just as dumb as ol' pira-" in an instant the obese man fell into the tank as Ilia's target wasn't the bottles, but the dunk tank itself. She threw the ball across the field with enough force to allow the mechanisms to drop the man in the water to shut him up good.

"Ha, nice shot," the red head cheered, "That guy was really getting on my nerves."

"You can say that again," She added, this prompted the employee to present a small cat plushy before them. "What's this," Ilia inquired.

"Well a shot as impressive as that deserves some kind of prize," the carney stated, "Of course, if you hit the bottles now, I'll upgrade you to the jumbo sized one."

With a smirk, the chameleon girl zeroed in on the target, she focused intently on it, and threw the ball with an immense amount of power. Unfortunately, she miss judged the angle of her throw, this in turn cause the ball to hit the table the bottles rested on, and lead the ball to bounce back from its source. It traveled back at high speeds with a powerful momentum that almost clobbered Ilia in the face, however at the last moment Scarlet caught the ball in a quick instinctive movement. Gasping at the experience, Ilia flew backwards in a terrified motion.

"Maybe we should find a nice bench to relax on" Scarlet suggested.

The chameleon girl nodded in agreement and claimed her tiny prize.

The two sat down admiring the sunset together, enjoying each other's company as Ilia commented, "You know Scarlet, this has been a really... REALLY good day."

"I had a good time too," Scarlet concurred.

"...Scarlet, can I tell you something?"

"What is it?"

"I...I've hated humans for years now. For as long as I can remember and I just have to say, thank you for showing me not all humans are bad."

"I'm glad I could become your friend, I like to think I'm everyone's friend."

The sincerity of his response was so moving, Scarlet might be the nicest person she's ever known, "You know, I don't know how I can face the White Fang anymore."

"The what now?"

"Uh, right. You just found out about the Faunus. Well, the White Fang are an advocacy group, one fighting for the rights of Faunus everywhere."

"Well that sounds splendid."

"I don't think it is anymore, when I was a child I was fortunate enough to able to blend in with humans. My... friends at the time said horrible things about my people. That my people were scum, that they deserve menial degrading jobs because that's what animals are for," Ilia chocked up at the end before continuing, "The point is, I grew up believing the White Fang were the answer to all the bigotry I experienced growing up, but... When I'm with you... I, I start to think I've become one of those girls I use to know." Tears began to overflow from her eyes. "And when I think about all the Faunus I've associated with the past couple years, I just- I don't see them any differently anymore... I use to think we were justified, but now...I don't know if I could handle it if you specifically were the subject of such ridicule."

Scarlet moved in close and wrapped his arms around her, "Ilia, I know you're a good person. I can't speak on behalf of all humans and I don't want you to speak on behalf of all Faunus. Right now, let's just be happy we got to know each other." The Chameleon girl smiled widely and snuggled in closer.

Like all good things, this date had to come to an end. With the sun down the two stood face to face as Scarlet was typing into his scroll, "Aaaannd DONE. Now that I have your number, we can hang out again."

"I'd...Very much like that," Ilia muttered.

The ginger then grabbed her hands and looked her in the eyes as he soothed, "When we first met, I could tell you didn't want to be here so... I'm glad I could sway you away from that. I'm very delighted you gave me a chance, I think I really like you."

She stared up in his eyes, captivated by their beauty, it was at this moment her skin turned to a bright pink hue and her hair became light blue. Scarlet became bewildered at this sight, "Are you... pink on purpose or is this an emotional thing?"

Taken back, Ilia looked at her hands to see the bright pink skin, she had never been this color before, not even on purpose, "I... I don't know?"

The ginger boy chuckle, "Well, if I had to guess, you seem to be in awe of something. Anyways take care, I'll call you soon."

"PLEASE DO," She chirped while standing motionlessly still remaining in her current hue, after he took a few steps she then called out "Wait."

The boy complied and turn back to face her as the chameleon girl uttered, "You know, with all the time I've spent alone and my dedication to the White Fang I um... I've never kissed anyone before. I thought maybe... if you wouldn't mind um-"

"Oh, um yeah that sounds great. I just um-"

"Wha- what's wrong?"

"I've, never kissed anyone either."

Ilia eyes widened as she muttered, "Oh."

"So uh," Scarlet added while taking a few steps forward, "How should we... you know?"

"I think," Ilia replied while closing the gap between them, "We just get all close."

The two press their bodies together, while Scarlet softly mumbled, "Yeah."

"And then we..." Ilia hesitated as her date placed one hand above her hip, pulling the two closer. His second hand rested upon her cheek.

The two locked eyes as Scarlet gave an even softer and quieter, "yeah."

Ilia reacted by placing her hands behind his back, their lips hovering nearly and inch away, "then we just..." and like that, the two had finally connected. A simple innocent kiss, with both of them remaining completely still. The two then broke away from their small peck, still remaining locked in place, their hearts racing the more they looked at each other, "that was incredible," she moaned, "I think I-"

Not even able to finish her thought, Scarlet planted another one on her. As her eyes widened, her body trembled with pleasure. The urge to kiss her again was too great for him, but the Faunus girl didn't mind. As a matter of fact, with this unexpected jolt, she felt a primal urge for passion. The girl grabbed her love by the head and forced her tongue in his mouth. He was caught off guard, but quickly reacted on impulse. A fierce tongue battle erupted through them, until they slowed down, merely resorting to a few minor pecks as the two broke away, and each of them slowly took a step back, staying connected by holding each other's hands.

"Now that... was brilliant," Scarlet uttered as Ilia's skin shifted to a brighter pink with two rosy red cheeks, while turning her head in embarrassment. She never knew anyone could make her this happy again, and when she turned her gaze back at her love, he moved in closer yet again. "I'm definitely calling you tomorrow."

She then moved in closer, her lips an inch away from his and whispered, "I'll be waiting," and with that the two brought it in for one more, final small kiss.