"Just leave me alone!" Mei yelled as the ten year old started to leave the elementary school courtyard, readjusting her sweatshirt as she walked away from the three boys that had been hassling her since classes ended.
"Aww, what's the matter, Hunchback? You gonna start crying if we don't?" their ringleader, a kid her age with tussled brown hair and a bandage over his nose, teased, making fun of the lump underneath the new student's back of her hoodie.
"Stop calling me that!" Mei pleaded as she bumped into one of the bullies who had gotten in her way, then yelped as she suddenly felt a finger poke her in the back.
"Aw, gross!" the alpha yelped as he kept poking the lump under her clothes. "Is it supposed to be soft like this?"
"I said leave me alone!" Mei snapped, reeling backwards and shoving the boy behind her away.
"Why you little-" he growled as he grabbed her by her shoulder and delivered a hard punch, at least for a child, directly to her right eye. She let out another yelp as she collapsed to the ground, holding her eye as she felt something fall out: one of the contacts that she used to hide her real self. Bringing her and covering her eye up to protect herself as the bullies began to crowd around her for a good, old-fashioned beating, they paused as they noticed her usual blue eye was replaced by that of a cat or other kind of feline.
"What the..." one of the other bullies behind her noted. It was at that moment she realized her tail had also poked out from under her hoodie, the bushy brown cloud of fur poking out for all to see.
"She's a Faunus?" one of them commented.
"I knew she was a bigger freak than she let on!" the ringleader joked, grabbing her tail and pulling her to her feet, to Mei's dismay as she let out a primal hiss and tried to claw him away. "I knew she was a complete pussy all along!" he continued, his friends laughing at the pun their fellow felon had just made.
"So what should we do with her now? There's so many possibilities with this new info." the one she bumped into while trying to escape asked.
"My dad says Faunus parts go pretty high on the taxadermy market." the ringleader grinned sadistically, producing a switchblade. Mei gulped hard and tried to wrench herself free before what came next. Strangely enough, the feeling of sharp metal cutting through her tail never came. Instead, she heard a thud as she turned to see one of the bullies getting hit in the face with a guitar of all things. The one wielding it was a kid she recognized from one of her classes. He was dressed in a worn black t-shirt and jeans, and started flailing the guitar as if it were a battle axe.
"Jeez, what's with this guy?" One of the bullies yelled in a panic.
"Who cares? Let's just get out of here!" the ringleader ordered, scraping their friend off the floor before running off.
Mei looked up to her savior as she saw him putting the guitar back in a soft vinyl bag slung over his shoulder. He turned to her, offering a hand to help her up. "You alright?" he asked.
"Mei paused for a moment, not sure how to react. Whenever someone her age noticed she was a Faunus, they just ridiculed her for it.
"Why'd you come help me?" she asked. The boy only raised an eyebrow, confused by her question.
"Because they were going to cut you if I didn't?" he asked.
"But...I'm a Faunus.." she said, taking out her other contact, revealing her other cat's eye. She then took her hoodie off, giving her tail room to breathe.
The boy took a moment to look over these new features, almost unmoved by the reveal. "So?" he asked with a shrug.
"Excuse me?" Mei asked.
"So you're a Faunus. What does that matter to me?" he asked.
"It's just...I thought that's how everyone treat Faunus like me." Mei explained, looking down.
"Just cuz somebody looks different doesn't mean you should make fun of them or try to hurt them for it." he explained. "Or at least that's what my parents always taught me."
"I don't think I've ever met anyone this okay with my actual heritage before." Mei said in surprise.
"You haven't been in Vale long, have you?" he asked with a smirk. "You'd be surprised how many tolerant people live in this city."
"Well, it's much better than Vacuo to say the least.." Mei said, a tiny smirk forming. "I'm Mei by the way."
"My name's Rocco." he said, shaking her hand. "So, I guess this makes us friends, huh?"
Mei gave a wider smile as she looked up to face her new friend. "Yeah. I guess it does." she grinned. "Hey, is your guitar going to be okay?"
Rocco looked at the case holding his instrument. "Yeah, it'll be fine. I've been prepping to turn it into a weapon anyway." he answered.
"A weapon?" Mei asked, her head tilting to the side.
"Yeah. Once I'm old enough, I'm going to Signal to start training to become a Huntsman." Rocco said with a grin. "Who knows? If you join me, we could do all sorts of good together!"
"And maybe get strong enough for me to beat up those jerks!" Mei exclaimed.
"Now you're talking!" Rocco encouraged, before the two new friends shared a laugh. "Hey, you wanna come over and hang out at my house sometime?"
"Sure. But it's getting late. How about tomorrow after class?" she suggested.
"It's a deal." Rocco said as the two turned to leave the school, walking towards the setting sun. "I've got a good feeling about this friendship, Mei."
"Funny. I was going to say the same thing." she smiled back before the two said their farewells and split off to their respective homes.