"Take the next left onto Menagerie Avenue. In a quarter mile, your destination will be on your right."
Yang Xiao Long peered down the street as she turned onto Menagerie Avenue, the main downtown road in the Faunus District of the city of Vale. Her bright yellow motorcycle, Bumblebee, felt out of place here, surrounded by mostly run-down looking shops and very few cars younger than five years old.
The traffic on Menagerie Avenue was rather steady as she merged into the right lane. Not quite a standstill, but enough to give Yang time to look at all of the signs for the shops on the right side of the road, and observe the storefronts a bit more carefully than just searching for the name of her destination.
Tukson's Book Trade…
Yang would have to mention that one to Ruby. They might have some textbooks there for cheap. She'd seen an ad online for that shop when searching for her current destination. They'd advertised for every book under the sun, and she'd had to hope that included some textbooks. It had to be way cheaper than the University of Vale bookstore, and both of the sisters knew they could always find places to save some money.
Menagerie Grocers…
That had to be, hands down, the smallest grocery store that Yang had ever seen. It was probably a Faunus specialty store, considering she was in the Faunus District of Vale. Most of the grocery stores that she had been in growing up had abysmally small Faunus sections, with very overpriced brands.
Custom Faunus Attire…
A clothing shop. Nothing special, in Yang's eyes. It was common knowledge that many Faunus with tails, wings, and other similar features, couldn't shop for clothes outside of the Faunus District. Most shops, and most clothes, outside of this district, were designed for humans, and had no options for spare holes, extra fabric sleeves, or anything else of the sort. A shop like that was pretty standard for Menagerie Avenue.
Scarlatina Computer Repair...
A seemingly standard computer repair shop. Yang observed the largest sign in the window- Faunus Welcome! A sharp pain struck Yang's heart, reminding her of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the city of Vale, her hometown. Racism was rampant, and outside of the Faunus District, most shops would kick a Faunus straight out if they even attempted to shop there.
"Ah!" Yang exclaimed audibly to no one but herself as her eyes landed on the plaza sign just beyond the computer repair shop. She read the signs as she approached, reading down the sign.
The top part of the sign named the plaza: Kuana Plaza and Apartments. There were two empty slots on the sign, one at the top, and one halfway down the list of shops: Slither n' Swim: Pool Supplies and More, Carl's Cigar Center, Full Circle Pizzeria, and all the way at the bottom, the sign that had caught Yang's attention, Belladonna's Cat Rescue. Dangling from chains underneath the sign for the cat rescue was a handmade sign that read, Commercial Space for Lease, Apartments for Rent. A scroll number was prominently displayed beneath those words.
Yang pulled her bike into a parking spot in front of the main window to Belladonna's Cat Rescue. She had to admire the storefront- the window was covered in cat themed decals, and a few actual cats slumbering in cat trees and beds in the windowsill.
She pulled her helmet off her head, tucking it under her arm. Yang shuddered at the sound of light scraping of metal on metal. Glancing down, she grimaced at the helmet underneath her metal arm. She closed her eyes, shook her head slightly, took a long, deep breath, and opened her eyes and began walking away from her bike, tightening her grip on her helmet.
Not today, Yang. Not today. Today is supposed to be a good day, she reminded herself, holding her head up high as she approached the front door to Belladonna's Cat Rescue.
Ding!
Blake Belladonna jumped at the sound of the bell attached to the door, slamming her head on the underside of the countertop.
"Oum dammit," she muttered, just a bit too loud, rubbing the top of her head and her right cat ear, which had hit the counter.
"Are you okay?" Yang asked, approaching the counter as Blake slowly stood up.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Yes, I'm fine," she replied, turning to face Yang.
"No need to apologize," Yang said with a smile, placing her bike helmet gently on the counter.
Blake's eyes gravitated towards the bright yellow arm that had just placed the equally bright yellow helmet on the counter.
Is that… a robot arm?
She blinked, shaking herself back into reality, still rubbing the top of her head.
"Sorry," Blake quickly apologized, blushing slightly at being caught staring. "I'm a little frazzled from that."
"You sure you're okay?" Yang asked again.
Blake stopped rubbing her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just start this over." She spun on her heel, taking a deep breath before turning back around again to face Yang. She folded her hands behind her back, rolling forward on her heels with a wide smile. "Welcome to Belladonna's Cat Rescue! My name is Blake, how can I help you?"
Yang smiled back. "Hiya Blake, I'm Yang, and I'm interested in getting a cat."
"Well, you've come to the right place!" Blake gestured around the room. "Currently, we have about 20 different rescues here, each with their own distinct personality. Why do you want a cat?"
"Well," Yang began, "it's more for my little sister, Ruby, than it is for me. The two of us have been through a lot in the last two years, and her birthday is coming up in about a week and a half. She's been talking about wanting a cat for years, and we had planned to get one for her 18th birthday, but then our lives got turned upside down for a little while. Now our lives are steady enough again to finally give her that gift, just two years later."
Blake couldn't help but notice Yang rubbing her robot arm with her left hand. She didn't exactly need Yang to spell out the specifics to fill in the blanks. She gave a small nod. "So she's turning 20, then?"
Yang nodded, lowering her left arm.
"And how old are you?"
"22."
"And you live together?"
Yang nodded. "Just the two of us, in an apartment in the University District."
"Are you two students?"
"Ruby is." Yang began rubbing her right arm again. "I'm employed."
Blake nodded, glancing down at the lower desk that sat behind the countertop.
"The way we do things here, is we have you fill out an application, give a verbal interview, and do an in-home visit to make sure that you're a suitable adoption candidate. Then we take that information to also match you with a cat that we think matches your personality, but also a cat you're interested in," she explained as she shuffled through a folder, finally pulling out a packet titled Belladonna's Cat Rescue Adoption Application.
Yang blinked. "Wow, okay. That's a lot more in-depth than I thought."
Blake nodded. "In twenty-five years, we've only ever had two returns. One, because the adoptee got into an accident a week after adopting and couldn't keep the cat anymore, and the other because the company he worked for went under a month later and he got transferred to a Mistral branch and couldn't bring the cat with him. We've successfully placed over five hundred cats in good homes."
"Wow," Yang replied, her mouth gaping slightly open. "Seems like you've really mastered the process then!"
"My parents have been in the business of saving and rehoming cats for a long time. Longer than I've been alive. They've got it down to a science."
"Impressive." Yang looked down at the application that had been handed to her, skimming through it with her right hand, glancing over all of the questions. "Do you have a pen?" she asked, looking up at Blake.
"Oh, yes, of course!" Blake fumbled around behind the counter, eventually pulling out a cup of pens. "Sorry, one of the kitties puked back here this morning, and I was finishing up cleanup when you got here, so I'm a bit disorganized right now."
"Not a problem!" Yang replied with a smile, pulling out a pen from the cup and starting away at the top of the application.
"I'll leave you to finish filling that out. There are some seats over there," Blake gestured to a group of chairs around a coffee table. An all black cat was curled up on the middle of the table in a small red cat bed, completely oblivious to the conversation happening just ten feet away. "That's Mezzaluna. If she wakes up from her midday nap, she'll come begging you for pets and attention."
"That's so sweet." Yang smiled at the sleeping cat. "Do you have a clipboard? The table is kind of low."
"Oh, yeah, of course." Blake fumbled behind the desk yet again, finally pulling out a clipboard and handing it to Yang. "I'll be in the back cleaning up some litter, just push open that door and call for me whenever you're done."
Yang nodded, clipping the packet on the clipboard and taking a seat in a chair next to the coffee table.
Name: Yang Xiao Long…
Twenty minutes later, Yang poked her head through the door labeled Employees Only.
"Blake? I'm done with the application."
"Coming!" Blake replied, standing up from what looked like to Yang to be the world's biggest litter box. A trash bag sat next to where Blake had been crouching, the scooper she had been using laid next to it.
"That's a lot of litter," Yang said in a low whistle.
"Twenty cats means a kiddie sandbox full of litter," Blake replied with a chuckle, squeezing some hand sanitizer onto her hands before taking the clipboard and packet from Yang. She gave a quick skim through, checking to make sure that all of the questions had been answered. "Alright, looks good."
"So what's the process looking like from here? On your end as well as mine," Yang asked.
"Well," Blake said, unclipping the packet and placing it on the desk behind the counter. "When my parents return to the shop, we'll go over your application as a group. The conversation we had before you filled out the application counts as your verbal interview. If we have any further questions or clarifications, we'll give you a call. If you pass that stage, we'll arrange a time and date for an in-home visit. Given that you pass that, you'll come back here, we'll do a personality assessment, and introduce you to a handful of cats that we think will work best for you and your sister. Ideally, you'd go home with the cat that day, so that's as far as we can keep it a surprise from your sister."
Yang nodded with a smile, scooping up her helmet under her left arm and holding out her right hand for a handshake. "Thank you so much, Blake! It was nice to meet you!"
"It was nice to meet you too," Blake replied with a warm smile as she shook Yang's outstretched hand. "We'll be in touch."
Blake watched from the counter as Yang headed out the front door, the familiar ding of the bell sounding as the door opened and closed again. She found her eyes gravitating towards the yellow arm once again.
It had been surprisingly warm.
The ride back to the apartment did not take very long. Once Yang crossed the border between the Faunus District and the University District, she no longer needed directions. A few turns later, and she found herself pulling into the parking lot for her apartment.
It was a sad, yet simple fact, that in Vale, the closer you were to the Faunus District, the cheaper the property got. They were able to rent this two bedroom apartment for half of what they would have paid closer to the University of Vale, and an quarter of anything of similar size in the Residential District.
Yang swiped her card at the back door, gaining access to the building. She made a brief stop at the mailboxes, pulling out a few pieces of paper mail from their mailbox, and a small key, informing her a package had been delivered.
She rose an eyebrow at the key in her hand. She had no clue what that could even be. Ruby must have ordered something without telling her- which was even weirder. As she walked towards the lockers for the packages, she shuffled through the other paper mail- spam, spam, bill, bill, spam… a card from Uncle Qrow, for Ruby.
Yang's thumb rested on the name in the return address for a few moments before put the card in the back of the pile. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she walked right into the locker, the sound of her arm clicking against the metal locker door jarring her more than the force of walking into a wall.
She grimaced, shoving the key into the locker as fast as she could. The door swung open, revealing a box that was covered in writing and drawings.
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOUR BIRTHDAY! FOR RUBY'S EYES ONLY! LOCKED UNTIL OCTOBER 31ST!
Yang gave a small smile at the familiar writing. The return address on the package confirmed to her that it was Penny Polendina, Ruby's best friend from high school who had gone off to Atlas University. Despite not having seen her in over two years, the two girls were still extremely close friends, and talked on their scrolls all the time. The two had sent back and forth packages for birthdays and Christmas ever since Penny had left, and Yang had even helped prepare and decorate a few of those packages.
She rearranged the things in her hands so that she could carry the package, mail, and her helmet up to the apartment before closing the locker door. A short elevator ride and a long walk down a hallway later, Yang found herself in front of the apartment she shared with Ruby, labeled with the number 636.
Performing a quick balancing act, Yang shoved her key in the lock, turning the key as she pushed open the door in one motion. She pushed against the right wall, allowing her shoulder to flick on the light switch.
The apartment, as expected, was rather empty. Ruby was still at school, but even their furniture was still rather sparse. The living room had a single futon, a tiny TV stand, and a relatively average sized television. To the right, a small circular table with two chairs sat next to the tiny kitchenette, which could barely hold more than one person at a time in it.
Yang dropped the package and the mail onto the kitchen table before turning back towards the tiny entrance hall before the living room. She hung her helmet on two hooks next to the door, before sliding off her cropped jacket and hanging it on one of the remaining two hooks.
She stretched her hands above her head, letting out a huge yawn. It was her first day off in a few weeks, and she couldn't wait to just sit down on the couch, have a cold drink, and watch some TV until Ruby got home…
Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring!
Yang's fantasy was cut short by the sound of her scroll ringing in her pocket. She pulled it out to see the name of her manager at the diner.
She stared at it for a few moments, letting out a low groan. After a brief mental debate of if she wanted to work tonight or not, Yang answered the call.
"Hello?"
"Hey Yang, it's Paul. We just got two sick calls, and we're short staffed. Can you come in and cover the dinner shift?"
"Yeah," Yang replied, pulling her jacket back off the hook. "I'll be there in fifteen."
"See you soon," Paul said before the line cut off.
Yang let out a long sigh, walking towards her bedroom to the left. She pulled the black apron from her closet, folding it into her backpack that sat at the foot of her bed. After swapping out her boots for her waitressing sneakers, she pulled her scroll back out and sent a text to her sister.
Got called in at the diner. Be home after 10pm.
There was a swift reply from Ruby.
But you have a shift at the coffee shop at 5am tomorrow, and it's your day off!
Money is money, Rubes. I'll survive.
And with that, Yang shoved her scroll back into her pocket, stood up from the bed, swung the backpack over her shoulder, and grabbed her helmet at the door before heading off to work.