A Day in the Sun
The city of Vale was bustling under the bright light of a midday sun. The docks especially teemed with activity as massive cargo ships hauled in large shipments from distant lands all across Remnant. They came from Mistral, Menagerie, and, of course, Mantle, where deliveries from the Schnee Dust Company were offloaded, inventoried, and stored for transport to the greater Vale area and beyond.
A young man walked along the wooden dockside, the planks creaking beneath his feet. On his left was a large seaside shopping district, well populated today because of the good weather, and to his right were the entrances to many of the piers, docks, cargo storage areas, ships anchored at port, and the glittering sea beyond. While he took a moment to appreciate the massive scale of the operations that take place daily in this part of the city, he heard two voices rise above the hum of the crowd. In front of him, at the entrance of one of the docks, there were two girls holding signs above their heads and chanting out together:
"Equal treatment is a must,
We don't want your tainted dust!"
The young man angled his head to get a look at their signs. One of them depicted a faunus, grabbing at a chain around his neck. The other was the infamous snowflake logo of the Schnee Dust Company, crossed through with a red line. No one seemed to be paying much attention to the demonstration however; the Schnee company workers walked to and from the offloading site without so much as a glance at the protesters, and the shoppers and pedestrians seemed unwilling to acknowledge them, other than to avoid eye contact and give them somewhat of a wide berth when they walked by. Neither of the girls seemed to be faunus themselves, as far as the young man could tell. They made pointed eye contact with him as he passed by and chanted again. For a moment he met their eyes, then shifted his gaze downward and continued on, putting his hands in his pockets. They carried on behind him, equal treatment is a must, we don't want your tainted dust.
But Vale did want the Schnee Company dust, and badly. And they weren't the only ones. Nations were willing to pay a high premium for Schnee grade dust, and most people were content to let the company's dubious labor practices go unquestioned. As Grimm attacks experienced an unprecedented and inexplicable surge in the past two years, people began to see Atlas and the Schnee Company more as a symbol of security and stability with each passing day.
They also began to distrust faunus with growing intensity. Many citizens of Vale began to blame the spike of Grimm activity on the terrorist attacks of the White Fang, which had also seen an increase is scope and severity over the past few years. That and the fact that the White Fang had begun to wear masks designed in the likeness of Grimm to maximize their impact of terror and inspire inward unity among their ranks.
The young man continued to push past the crowds until he came upon the square bar stand where he and his friend had planned to meet. He ducked under the small draping overhang and took a seat at the bar in the shade. The bar was populated by a few people scattered about. The owner, an old wizened man commented as he entered, "Darn boy, your hair's a little too bright for a day like today, I had to squint my eyes more than I usually do to get a look at you."
"It's my main attention grabber."
The old man laughed, his eyes squinting even further. "Well I 'spect so. What's your name, friend?"
"Sun." the young man responded, smiling warmly.
"Guess I can't get away from the sun even in this shade, can I?" the old man teased as Sun smiled at the bad joke. "What can I get for you, Sun?"
"Just water will be fine. I'm waiting on one more."
"Alright then" the old man said as he went back and stooped at the shelf of glasses.
Sun noticed then out of the corner of his eye that one of the patrons of the bar was staring at him. He glanced over and saw a boy about his age with dark skin and dark red hair quickly break eye contact and look down at his drink. Sun was able to appreciate his profile view; he had a smooth defined face and pinkish-orange stud earring that stood out magnificently against his dark skin. He was really quite beautiful.
Sun immediately felt a little panicked. Was this guy just staring at him because of his interaction with the barkeep, or for another reason?
The dark-skinned boy briefly made eye contact again, smiling weakly.
Okay, yep, it was for another reason. Sun freaked out a little more as the old man put the glass of water in front of him. He pointedly looked forward, but was concerned that if he didn't send a signal back soon, the boy might think he was straight or uninterested or just stupid or something. He was also an awkward distance away which meant starting a conversation would include the entire bar, something that scared Sun shitless.
He knew his friends would be surprised to hear that. They knew him as the most bombastic outgoing person that was ever part of their group at any given time, and part of that was true. Sun often tried to push at the seams of social norms and was often the loudest and proudest in a group.
In a group.
One on one interaction was completely different, people have their attention totally focused on you, whether or not they're happy or bored in a situation entirely dependent on what you say and how you act.
Sun shifted in his seat. Stop thinking about all this stuff right now, please? he thought. No one ever gave Sun enough credit for how much he analyzed a social situation. You're totally blowing this.
He glanced back at the boy. He was now looking off into space, sipping his drink slowly. Sun cursed himself for losing his attention. He was so cute, after all.
He tried loudly clearing his throat, and was absolutely amazed when it worked. The red-haired boy quickly looked up at him and his eyes lit up ever so slightly when he saw Sun smiling at him. Sun had a familiar pang of worry when he didn't see any indication that the boy was a faunus. He knew the red-haired boy couldn't tell that Sun was a faunus, because the bar hid everything from the waist down. Would he care? Sun's tail flicked back and forth.
The warmness of the boy's look somewhat calmed Sun's racing mind, and his tail wrapped around the pole of the bar stool.
Just then he began to hear loud raucous voices approaching behind him. As they got closer he could hear the stilted and mocking tones in their voice "The faunus are being mistreated" one of them whined loudly. "You heard what I said right? I told her, I am never gonna stop buying from the Schnee company. I mean if these dogs are good at sniffing for dust?" he raised his hands and made a 'why not' face and the others laughed.
Sun clenched his hands and stared directly down at the bar, hoping these assholes would pass by soon.
"Fuck the faunus, they're as bad as the Grimm. They don't even want to be part of our society; they'd rather be in a pack in the White Fang."
Their voices got louder as they approached "I told you there wouldn't be enough seats." There was a pause in their conversation and several of them started to laugh under their breath. Then they began to make whooping noises as Sun heard one of them walk up behind him. The barkeep either didn't hear the crowd or did his best to pretend like he was busy.
"Hey monkey man" the man behind him said as he roughly poked Sun's shoulder. "Hey monkey man!" He poked Sun again and again repeating the phrase. "How bout you sniff around somewhere else so we can sit?"
He jabbed Sun roughly in the lower back. Sun stared down at his glass, refusing to turn around. He saw a face come into his periphery on his left side. "Did you hear me monkey?" Sun was paralyzed in his seat. His eyes unconsciously flicked up to the redheaded boy, who in turn was staring at the newcomers with furrowed eyebrows. Sun's look was telling, because the boy behind him called out to his friends "Guys check it out, he's trying to put the moves on." His friends whooped and called in the background. "These animals will try to fuck anything, girls, guys, even humans." Sun still didn't turn around, and with a somewhat shaking hand picked up his glass of water to take a drink.
Suddenly he felt himself pulled off the barstool by his tail onto the dusty ground, his head making contact hard with the packed earth as his water spilled on his jeans. For a moment there was ringing pain. Then his face contorted and his vision blurred with rage as he leapt upwards from the ground, his hand bringing up his collapsible staff which assembled in to its full length and struck the man behind him beneath the chin, lifting him off his feet and sending him against a cart of fruit by the next stall over, which shattered from the impact.
Sun stepped forward as the others rushed him, dipping his head underneath one's punch and cracking his staff on the head of another, sending him to the ground. He danced through them, sweeping out the legs of one while bringing his weapon up in time to parry a kick that would have hit his throat. He brought his staff sharply downwards, breaking the guard of one of the men and quickly pivoting in a circle to bring his staff around and knock him over with the other end. Two more went down in a flurry of strikes as one separated from the group and ran full tilt back down the length of the stalls. Sun watched him as his anger rose, taking quicker breaths. His face contorted and his hands came together. A golden simulacrum burst from him, running after the fleeing man faster than any human, or faunus, could. It leapt into the air in a fiery arc, summersaulting and bringing its foot down to axe kick the man into the dirt. A perfect little cloud of dust rose around him as he tried to pull himself up weakly, and collapsed back down. The simulacrum looked back at the bar stand for a moment, and then dissipated into nothingness.
Sun's breath came hard from the exertion, and he was almost in a trance like state until he heard a woman scream from the bar behind him. He turned to see everyone looking at him. The whole city block had turned their attention on the scene. "Can someone please call the cops?!" he heard a panicked shout from the crowd.
He looked back at the old man behind the bar, who flinched and raised his hands palms out at Sun. He looked over to the red-headed boy, whose mouth was open, staring at him in horror. Sun began to take sharp quick breaths and kneeled on the ground as people began to approach him. He thought he could faintly hear sirens in the distance. The crowd gathered over him, a shadowy mass of people flanked by sunlight so that none of their features were visible. Suddenly someone pushed the others aside and broke through their ranks. He stood like a silhouette over Sun, darkened, but Sun could still make out the halo of blue hair on his head.
"Neptune?" Sun breathed.
"Sun, come on, let's get out of here," Neptune said as he grabbed Sun under the arms and pushed through the crowd of onlookers. Someone began to shout something behind them, but Sun couldn't make out what they said.
They started walking fast, away from the stall, further down the main road.
"Oh shit" Neptune cursed as Sun made out in the distance the uniforms of Vale police heading towards the area. Neptune and Sun began to run, darting between stands and away from the market place, Sun barely being able to distinguish the features of his surroundings. They travelled over a bridge and between bigger buildings, until they reached a large break in the city sprawl—sloping stone walls that led down to a wide river below. The two slid down the slope to land at the dirty pebbled shore of the river, hidden in the shade of the urban depression. Neptune put his back against the wall, the pair breathing heavily from running.
The river bubbled as its slow journey through the city. It was noticeably cooler down here, a welcome change from the heat above. The pebbles shifted underneath their feet as they caught their breath.
"Sun, what-?" Neptune began to ask when Sun grabbed him, burying his face in Neptune's shoulder.
"Oh Neptune" Sun said in tears, his hands tightly grabbing the material of Neptune's red jacket. He started to sob, and though Neptune didn't understand, he put his arms around Sun anyway, as Sun began to cry more openly.
Neptune rocked Sun back and forth as the river slowly churned past them, in that quiet place in the shade, away from the sun.