Author's Note: Okay everybody, I'm launching a new arc with this one, exploring Weiss's conditioned mistrust of the Faunus. Please let me bear with me (admittedly this chapter is mostly set-up) and let me know what, if anything, you think of the new character.
Wait a minute… Haven't I…
Team RWBY had Professor Oobleck's class first period that morning, but while Oobleck was indeed present, sipping his coffee in a rare moment of stillness. Less routine was the presence of Professor Goodwitch and the Faunus girl beside her, wearing a Beacon uniform. Goodwitch was plainly waiting for all of the students to take their seats before she spoke, and her expression reflected no abundance of patience as Jaune stumbled into the room, barely on time, and made his way to his seat. Ruby seemed transfixed upon the unfamiliar newcomer, and the speculative whispers of their classmates did not escape Weiss's attention. In particular, she heard Cardin mutter something like "Great, another freak." Weiss winced; she'd had a similar, if somewhat less pejorative knee-jerk reaction, but preferred to dismiss the assumption in light of Blake's situation.
They're not all with the White Fang, Weiss reminded herself, She's probably got nothing to do with them.
Weiss glanced across the room to see what the only present Faunus of her acquaintance thought. Velvet appeared interested-, shy as ever, but interested, as evidenced by her wide eyes and somewhat eager expression, but Blake… Blake was unmoved, or perhaps stoic was a better word for it; either way she wore her usual blank expression. Perhaps this was because her Faunus identity was still something of a team secret, and thus she didn't want to betray that fact, but still…
I'd have thought she'd be more interested…
Once all had settled into their seats, Oobleck moved to the fore of the class in a blur, "Good morning and welcome all! Before we begin this morning, Professor Goodwitch has an announcement to make!"
In an instant, Professor Oobleck was once again standing back by the blackboard, sipping his coffee.
How much caffeine-?
"Yes, thank you Professor Oobleck," Goodwitch acknowledged, accepting the floor, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to take a moment to introduce you to a new classmate," she gestured to the Raven-haired Faunus girl beside her, who gave a little bow, "This is Mina Carfax; she has been enrolled here as an exchange student on a permanent basis since coming to Vale during leading up to Vytal festival. As of today she is a first year student like all of you," Goodwitch cleared her throat, turning her attention to Team RWBY, "As she is not currently attached to a team, Professor Ozpin has decided that, until such time as Miss Carfax can be placed on a more permanent basis, she will be temporarily placed with Team RWBY,"
What?
The other members of Team RWBY appeared equally surprise, though the manifested their surprise in different ways. Ruby appeared to waffle between excitement and trepidation; as comfortable as Team RWBY had gotten with one another, it was easy for Weiss to forget that the only things that Ruby ever exhibited fear of were other people who meant her no harm. Weiss couldn't help but chuckle at the though, as she looked to her other side. Yang seemed enthusiastic, if only at the prospect of a new face to tease. Blake, however, remained stone-faced.
Weiss was distracted from her reverie at the sound of a soft but confident voice, "Yes, good morning, I am indeed Mina Carfax, and I look forward to studying with all of you," she had a thick, but still comprehensible accent, "I do hope that my presence will not be too great a hindrance,"
Goodwitch nodded her approval of the girl's polite and succinct introduction, "I expect all of you to make her feel welcome; good day,"
With a quick nod to Professor Oobleck, Goodwitch clasper her hands behind her back and proceeded out of the room.
Weiss took a good, long look at Mina Carfax as she crossed the room to the row at which Team Ruby at.
I've seen her somewhere before… The Vytal festival maybe? No…
The newcomer had raven hair, not unlike Blake's, and also not unlike Blake, she had her animal ears atop her head, though she made no attempt to conceal them, not that she could have; Carfax's bat ears were a bit larger than Blake's animal ears; they were situated near the back of her head, just in in front of a set of silver crossed silver rods around which her hair was tied back in a shoulder-length ponytail. A bigger attention-getter was her eyes: they were blue, a shade at least as pale as Weiss's own, and more unnervingly, her pupils were only a scant shade darker. For that matter, her skin was also nearly as pale as Weiss's own. She was like a ghost.
"I'd like to thank you and your friend for the directions the other day," Mina extended a hand to Weiss across the desk, "I don't care to speculate how long it would have taken me to find the place myself,"
That's it! It was on the fake date!
"Don't mention it," Weiss accepted the handshake, fighting the sudden urge to recoil from newcomer's icy touch, forcing a polite smile instead, which mercifully came easy, "Who would've thought we'd meet again like this,"
"Who indeed?" Mina smiled back, lowering her hand to the desk and tracing her fingers about the edge as she walked to the edge and up to the bench to take seat next to Ruby, "May I sit here, Miss Rose?"
"Uh… Yeah! Please do! Glad to have you on the team!"
The newcomer smiled closing her pale, pale eyes as she did so, "Thank you; I am honored to be here,"
Ruby got a better look at the girl's eyes as she opened them again, her own silver ones going wide, "What's wrong with-,"
Weiss elbowed her in the side, whispering a reprimand, "What's wrong with you?" She was curious herself, but you didn't just come right out with questions like that.
"But-?"
"I appreciate your consideration, Miss Schnee, but I am not offended," Mina assured them, "Miss Rose is hardly the first to notice,"
Weiss and Ruby were nearly flattened on their desks as Yang reached across both of their backs to offer Mina a hand herself, "Yang Xiao Long; Nice to meet ya,"
"Yang-!"
"Miss Xiao Long," Professor Oobleck took a sip of his coffee, "While I do appreciate that you wish to acquaint yourself with your new teammate, but for now please, take a page from Miss Belladonna; it is time to begin class."
"…Sorry,"
A few hours later, Teams RWBY and JNPR were seated at their usual lunch table, and most of them were taking turns posing questions to the newcomer. Most that is, except for Blake and Weiss.
"So what's that you're drinking?" Nora asked between mouthfuls of cheeseburger, "and where's the rest of your lunch?"
Mina laughed, as though humoring a small child, "It's fortified tomato juice; I suffer from a chronic iron deficiency, among other… specific nutritional needs,"
Blake winced.
What was that?
"You're seriously not gonna eat anything?" Yang asked, shoving a slice of into her mouth, and nonetheless continuing to speak, "…'Cause…. I bet the lunch-ladies could-," she swallowed, "-could work somethin' out,"
"No thank you," the Faunus declined with a grin.
Were those Fangs? Weiss blinked a few times to ensure that her eyes weren't deceiving her, but the opportunity had passed. The bat-Faunus' mouth had returned to a more neutral closed-lipped smile that Weiss recognized all too well; it was the polite smile born of necessity rather than sincerity, Who is she?
"I don't eat much either way," Mina replied, "But I appreciate your concern,"
"So what kind of weapon do you us?" Ruby asked; she'd been waiting for the opportunity to ask this all day, "I mean-, if you're gonna be a huntress-in-training on Team RWBY, you've gotta have a weapon Mina-, oh, um… Can I call you Mina?"
"Of course," the new newcomer's smile broadened a bit, "My weapon is called the Sanguine Heart; as to what it is, well, that will be a surprise until combat drills with Professor Goodwitch- shortly after lunch if I'm not mistaken; it's just more fun that way,"
Crestfallen, Ruby's gaze fell to her lap as she resigned herself to wait a little longer.
There's something off about her-, I know it… Weiss couldn't tell what, but there was just something about Mina that she didn't like; was it the way she never quite looked at the person she was talking to, or was it just her unsettling eyes? Then a thought that she'd been trying to avoid occurred to her afresh and she cast Blake a guilty look, Dammit Weiss! No! You are NOT like Cardin! She prodded her salad with her fork.
"So uh…" It was Jaune's turn to ask a question, "What was the initiation like at your old combat school? They threw us off a cliff…"
"Oh my; mine was nothing so awful as that," Mina shook her head, "We only had to climb down a mountain, and up another,"
"Well at least there's you didn't need a landing strategy, I guess…"
"And back again,"
Jaune winced.
It did not escape Weiss that Pyrrha's polite smile broadened just a bit as Jaune's conversation with the other girl fell fallow.
How does he not see it? Weiss's gaze shifted back to the bat-Faunus, How do they not see it? Or… Is there anything to see in the first place?
She swallowed, prodding her as yet uneaten salad some more.
Mina finished the contents of her glass and then stood, tugging gingerly at the lapel of her uniform blazer, "If you'll pardon me, I must needs change before our session with Professor Goodwitch, and I've yet to see my luggage since arriving,"
"Ooh!" Ruby sprang up from her seat so abruptly that she almost spilled Weiss's untouched salad, no doubt exited by the prospect of catching an early look at Mina's mysterious Sanguine Heart, "I'll show you to our room!"
"Why thank you Miss Rose," the Faunus gave that practiced smile again, "I couldn't ask for a better leader or host,"
"Well, I don't know about that…" Ruby blushed, scuffing her shoe on the floor in embarrassment.
She's playing you! Weiss wanted to scream, but she didn't; she couldn't tell if the alarms going off in her head were those of common sense or Father talking again.
Honest men want something; anyone who professes satisfaction is a liar.
Weiss drove her fork into her salad so hard that it scraped unpleasantly against the bottom of her bowl as the others got up and get ready for the session with Professor Goodwitch as the newcomer had suggested. None of them seemed to notice that she wasn't following, but that was probably best; she wasn't sure that she could be civil right now.
Clean slate Weiss… You owe her that much at least… You owe Blake that much…