Extended Summary:
At birth, everyone has the final words their soulmate will say to them etched somewhere on their body. For Velvet, love has never been on her mind and she just does whatever is necessary to get by. So, she thinks nothing of the four little words on the side of her rib cage.
When Velvet's hired to kill fashion mogul Coco, she approaches it just like any other job. But when Coco says the four words only meant fo rher, Velvet knows there's more to the girl than she thought.
Now on the run from the company that hired her, follow Coco and Velvet all across Remnant in a story of how a would-be murder turns into love.
As the Faunus enters the coffee shop, she makes sure to keep her hood up. Her tall ear, and well the stub of another, are pinned back as much as she could physically handle. She's uncomfortable of course, but she can't let those giant assets be captured on camera. Her keen eyes immediately spot her target, the tall and slim multi-millionaire Coco Adel.
In such a small and homey place such as Belladonna's Bakery, it's easy for someone like Coco to stand out. There's an aura of confidence that she carries herself with, and her extravagant clothes reek of wealth. For a second, Velvet lets herself be enchanted by her beauty before she shakes her head. Coco was gorgeous sure, but she was also the target, and Velvet needed the money.
After paying for a hot tea, Velvet takes a seat in the corner of the little shop. As a cover, she takes out her scroll and pretends to be reading when all she's doing is examining Coco's behavior. The fashionista was apparently an entitled brat to everyone she met and had an ego the size of a Beowulf. Something told Velvet that the world would forget about her pretty quickly.
However, Velvet couldn't help but feel a little remorse for her. She seemed around her age, while the majority of her targets were much older. She had her whole life ahead of her, but she had wasted the life she lived. While there were people such as Velvet struggling, there were rich, white humans who flaunted their wealth. There was a clear wage gap between the humans and the Faunus, but no one did anything about it. The Adel's fashion company racism was not as well known as that of the Schnee Dust company's, but it definitely still existed. She'd heard enough rumors that the minuscule amount of guilt she felt disappeared as soon as it appeared.
Velvet had no mercy for racists, and she would show none either. Someone wanted Coco permanently taken out, and Velvet would follow through as expected. Maybe when all of this was over, she could finally leave Vale. She heard Vacuo was beautiful this time of year, as was Menagerie. There was no one waiting for her anymore, not after what happened, so she was free as a bird.
Taken out of her thoughts by sudden movement, she watched Coco pack up her stuff and leave the shop. After a glance at her watch, Velvet noticed she was right on time. Perfect. If her research was right, then Coco would walk three blocks away to take a cigarette break before she met her chauffeur. Velvet headed out after the taller girl and made sure to keep a safe distance away.
Even if Coco wasn't so tall, her heels made loud enough sounds against the pavement for Velvet to track her. Velvet followed her tracks and weaved in and out the sea of people. See, there were people like Coco who just attracted attention anywhere they went. The crowds would part for her, while there were people like Velvet on the opposite side of the spectrum. No one noticed the small girl in the brown hood, and that's exactly how she wanted to keep it. If she was spotted, her cover could be blown. Better to be a shadow than a shell of a person.
Velvet was planning on killing her another day, she had a few more weeks after all, but she might as well get it out of the way. Coco was sure to have some self-defense training, that Velvet was sure of, so she had to be ready to play dirty. Luckily, her apartment wasn't too far away, then she could lay low until everything died out.
When Coco rounded the corner into an alley way, Velvet found her opportunity. The sun had begun to set and the way the buildings were set up, there were enormous shadows cast across the alley. With Coco's body half toward the dead end of the alley and half toward the wall, the assassin made her entrance.
"Coco Adel," Velvet announced, "you've made a lot of enemies, haven't you?"
"Who the hell are you?" Coco spat, her lipstick-covered mouth holding onto a cancer stick, "What do you want? Money?"
"That's half of it," Velvet said honestly, "I just like seeing racists pay for what they did."
"Me? Racist?" Coco raised an eyebrow as she lit her cigarette, "you're kidding right? My brother's a fox Faunus."
Velvet was momentarily shocked but didn't let it show, "Doesn't answer for all that you've done."
"All that I've done?" Coco scoffed, "I'm nineteen, the worst thing I've done is drive and text. That's all my parents' doing, I'm just a public figure."
"Shame you have to die for their crimes," Velvet said, "you're really pretty too."
As Velvet spoke, Coco had begun to turn around and started to take her sunglasses off. Before she was finished, Velvet threw the first knife. With experienced precision, the knife flew through the air and pierced through the middle of Coco's hand, causing her to drop her sunglasses onto the ground.
"Dammit, not my sunglasses," Coco swore and Velvet froze.
Because Coco just said the four words that were etched onto the inside of her bicep. Wordlessly, Velvet took a few steps forward, grabbed onto Coco's right arm, and wretched her arm back.
"You're really pretty too," Coco murmured as Velvet internally read the words on her arm.
They were soulmates. Fuck.
"Fuck, fuck," Velvet cussed as she let go of Coco's arm, "you've got to be kidding me."
"You didn't kill me," Coco said, "a surprising display of self-restraint."
"Follow me," Velvet told her, "we have to get you patched up. Tell your driver that I'll take you home later tonight or something. We need to move, now."
"No, oh I'm sorry about your hand Coco? No, sorry I just threw a fucking knife at you?" Coco ranted as Velvet dragged her out into the open.
Coco's hand was bleeding rapidly now and it would cause a lot of attention, so Velvet did the first thing she could think of, hold it. She intertwined their fingers and brought the taller girl close, in order to stop the blood from flowing as much. Or at least that's what she told herself.
"If you wanted to hold my hand, darling, you could've just asked," Coco teased, "most people take me out on a date first, not threaten me and throw things at me."
"Shut up," Velvet huffed as they made it to the door of her apartment, "sorry it's no mansion."
Velvet hurriedly unlocked her door and ushered the girl inside, before she checked their surroundings and followed her inside. She watched as Coco's coffee eyes took in the living room, bare except for a beaten-down loveseat, an old television, and a wooden table. The table was much too low to the ground for anyone to properly use, but it made her apartment seem something used so she kept it. As Velvet let go of Coco's hand and rushed to find medical supplies, she didn't know why there was a voice inside of head wondering what Coco thought of the place.
"C'mere," Velvet emerged a minute later and plopped down onto the loveseat.
Cautiously, Coco sat down and cradled her injured hand. Velvet grabbed her wrist, and without mercy, dabbed it with rubbing alcohol. Coco hissed in pain but Velvet just ignored her as she wrapped gauze around one side.
"Do you have an Aura?" Velvet said and glanced up at her, her hands bloody.
"Maybe, if I do it's pretty weak, I've never really used it," Coco said honestly.
"Damnit. Okay, take deep breaths for me, this might freak you out," Velvet said and enclosed Coco's hand with both of her own.
It took all of her concentration, but Velvet channeled her aura through her body and into her palms. She focused on healing the wound she had caused and made sure Coco's body was slowly stitching itself up. Her eyes were focused on the hole that began to get smaller and smaller. When it was the size of a fingernail, Velvet stopped and finished dressing the wound. The knife wound went from around golf ball sized to a fingernail and since Velvet wasn't used to using aura transfer a lot, the small-scale healing took a lot out of her.
"I can finish it later," Velvet told her and stood up, "for now that's just going to have to do it. Just be glad I stopped before I could do worse."
Immediately as she stood, Velvet's legs wobbled from under her and her vision went blurry. She was fighting over exhaustion, but she pushed to keep going. Soon, she lost the battle and her legs gave out on her, but someone caught her. Coco, with her free hand and her arm, managed to catch Velvet as she fell. In the process, her hood fell off and an earth-shattering gasp fell from Coco's mouth.
"You're a Faunus?" Coco's words were slow but full of emotion, "what happened to one of your ears?"