Ye of little faith... Ok, so explanation of my absence at the end of this chapter, I'm very sorry about this.

Chapter 2

The auditorium was filled with the hum of talking, I wasn't exactly sure how long we'd been waiting but the time was easily passed in the presence of Heath. It seemed as though he had an endless stream of questions for me about growing up in Atlas and the marvels of the technology there. Unfortunately my own experiences were limited, most of my life was spent in the estate with only a few rare occasions scattered between when I would leave with father. For the most part I avoided stories about myself, but I answered as many questions as I could to his great delight. The topic that seemed to come up the most was about Faunus. He had many questions about Faunus traits and with a slight amount of embarrassment I'd shown him my tail. Others had taken notice of my extra appendage too, some of them glaring, but I was pleasantly surprised to find mostly neutral reactions. Heath had a childlike curiosity like I'd never seen, and was absolutely enthralled by the idea of growing extra appendages. Only when the speakers on the stage sparked to life did our conversation end.

A sharply dressed man I recognized as Headmaster Ozpin walked across the stage taking up the position behind the microphone onstage "I'll... keep this brief."

"You have travelled here in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And, when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." He paused briefly to take a breath "But I look among you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume that knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." With a slight glance over the crowd he walked off.

"That was... pleasant," I didn't understand why he seemed so... downcast? Pessimistic?

Glynda Goodwitch quickly took Ozpin's place at the microphone and began speaking "You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow your initiation begins, be ready. You're dismissed."

Heath smiled down at me "Wonderful! Soon we will be into the daily routine of learning to slay the beasts of Grimm!" his voice boomed and rebounded across the auditorium attracting lots of attention. WIth a loud laugh he hoisted me up, setting me on his shoulder and began walking.

"H-hey!" I hissed "What the hell are you doing?!"

"A ride my friend! I shall carry you to the ballroom!" he smiled as he began jogging.

I I hid my embarrassment the best I could as I was carried out of the room, but I couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion that this was going to be par for the course.

Flopping down onto my bed roll face down I let myself relax, it was rather stressful being in a large crowd full of people you didn't know. Beside me Heath had set up camp for the night, for which I was very grateful for. From my position I watched the other initiates and wondered what they were thinking about. Did they worry whether they would succeed or failed? Did they have a family to go home to if they didn't make it? Why were they here in the first place? My gaze turned to Heath, he'd removed his gauntlet by now and was toying with a small cube with many colors on it. The cube seemed to be able to turn on its central point allowing for the outer layers to be turned and twisted to line up the colors in matching order, was that the point of the cube? Aside from being focused on his puzzle, Heath seemed very at ease, which considering the varying shades of humans i'd met that wasn't normal..

"Hey Heath?" I whispered not wanting to irk those nearby.

"Hm?" he glanced up from his cube.

Scratching my ears idly I looked away "You know that for the most part it isn't normal for humans to accept Faunus so easily, right?"

He lowered the cube, looking blankly off into the distance "What is normal Azure?" he finally spoke.

"I, uhm," I stuttered trying to process what was being asked "I'm not sure what you mean."

Heath had set his cube down completely at this point, and had turned onto his side to stare at me "I mean, what do you think the meaning of normal is? Can we ever really say something is normal? What may be normal for you is completely different from what is normal to me. Your existence, to me, isn't normal. Where I grew up there weren't any faunus, so does that mean I should shun you for your existence because it goes outside of what I consider normal?" he paused looking over his shoulder "While it may be normal for some of them to hate you, or to fear you, it could never be normal to me. What would be the point? Why take such small differences and turn them into something to separate us? That's not normal, hate isn't normal. We have many choices in our lives regardless of how long or short they may be, so why spend any of it hurting others when there is so much we could accomplish together?"

I sat there stunned, Heath's words had blown me away. I knew for a fact that they were true but nobody had ever really gone out and hit the proverbial nail on the head like that. The social gap that was artificially placed between human and faunus was literally tearing the kingdoms apart. There was an actual enemy just outside the walls of the kingdoms that wouldn't spare any of us, so then why was it that humans were so vicious towards faunus? That would be something I would have to figure out another time. Heath's perspective of the situation was refreshing though.

Heath began working away at the cube again, signifying that the matter was resolved. As I turned over, a yellow blur caught my attention, I rolled onto my left side to get a better view. The tall blonde girl that I'd seen when I'd first gotten off the ship was making her way through the rows of students scattered across the floor. Apparently finding the right spot, she flopped onto the floor. Next to her was a young girl with black hair that faded into red at the tips. I quickly made the connection that she must be the same girl that the blonde had been talking to earlier, which would also mean that they were either friends or sisters. Part of me contemplated going over and trying to strike up a conversation, but decided against it, after all i would have plenty of time to talk in the morning or any day after tonight. Making myself comfortable I curled up in my bedroll, tomorrow was going to be a long day.

"Goodnight Heath," I whispered "I hope you do well tomorrow."

He grunted quietly "Do not worry about me friend, for I am strong like mountain."

and with a smile, I fell asleep.

Breakfast had been sub par for me, it wasn't to say that I hated it, it was more of a "I don't really like pancakes" thing. When I was done I'd gone off to take a shower, after all a good Huntress was a clean Huntress. That was how I ended up in front of the mirror in the bathroom trying to fix my hair. Despite trying my best to dry it conventionally, my thick black hair stubbornly remained damp. Pausing for a moment, I gave the room a sweep ensuring I was alone. Deeming it safe I looked back to the mirror. Taking in a slow breath I let the pressure build, and soon my body felt like it was pulsating in waves. Exhaling wind whipped around me tugging at my hair insistently as the pressure dissipated. While the wind took to drying my hair I ran my fingers through the strands, making sure that knots wouldn't form. After several minutes of preening I felt satisfied with my work. The wind stopped, leaving my hair in a back blasted mess, and with a little fidgeting I was able to smooth out my hair.

Gathering my things, I left the bathroom behind and entered the hall. It was really nice of them to provide bathrooms and showers to the students before initiation. Feeling much cleaner, my mind turned to the absence of my friend. Heath had gone off someplace before I'd awoke, the only evidence that he'd even been around was his bed roll which had been neatly laid out next to mine. I imagined that he was just an early riser which is why he wasn't present currently. Now that I was ready for initiation, I was heading to the only place I could think of possibly finding him. Last night before we'd all been set up in the ballroom, we'd been given a slip of paper with a locker number, and told that all of our battle supplies had been placed there. I ended up slipping off the first chance I got to put my coat and weapons away, after all towing around weapons and ammo gets tiresome.

The weapon lockers were in a room not very far from the bathrooms, so it wasn't long before I entered the large open room lined with lockers. Not bothering to check the slip of paper in my pocket I strolled between the rows, briefly noting locker numbers and looking down each aisly hoping to catch a glimpse of Heath. Every locker seemed to have the same mechanical components at their base, I wasn't sure what they were for but I was entirely certain that they held another purpose. My initial reaction to seeing all of these lockers was a silent question to how many students Beacon housed, because it was truly astonishing how many lockers there were. Stumbling to a halt, I took a step back to look at a locker I'd just passed. The number cut into the face of the locker read three hundred sixty three, which meant my locker was two down.

With rising anticipation I hurried to my locker at three sixty five, and quickly typed in 13979 on the hologram pad. With a click, the locker swung open revealing my coat hanging on the door and the spacious inside that I could have easily fit into. Several shelves lined the left and right bottom side of the locker for dust, ammunition, and general supply storage. The remaining space on the left and right side had spaces for armor, battle clothing and maintenance tools. Midnight Rain was strapped to the back wall vertically in their matte black sheath above the belt that strapped them to my sides. Kusanagi in its polished black sheath was also strapped to the back wall diagonally above Midnight Rain. All of my supplies had been sorted before I'd even opened the locker for the first did beg the question of who in their right mind to go through every student's battle supplies and sort them? Maybe it was just something that was handled by the school to make sure we weren't bringing anything illegal to school.

First thing first I strapped on my belt and put Midnight Rain in their rightful places. Next came my coat, slipping my arms into the sleeves put me at ease as if I were home again. Reaching into the locker I pulled out a knitted navy blue scarf that I'd packed into my battle gear accidentally rather than wearing it. Wrapping it around my neck in classic scarf etiquette, I let it drop as I reached into the locker. Sorting through my ammunition, I pulled out several magazines and strapped them into spots on my belt. My belt carried three magazines on each side, allowing for three reloads respectively while out on the field, and with Midnight Rain holding twenty rounds per magazine I was toting around a total of one-hundred-sixty bullets between the magazines in Midnight Rain and the one on the belt itself. However, ammunition could become short quickly so I put six more magazines into the inner pockets of my coat to replace the ones on my belt as they were used. Feeling whole and prepared for the day's events I closed the locker quietly.

As I began to navigate my way out of the locker room I lamented that I'd not caught sight of Heath, but that was alright, I'd see him again soon. Stumbling to a halt I backtracked several steps, a mirror was bolted to a pillar giving anyone who stood in front of it a full look at themselves. This was the first time I'd ever seen myself fully dressed up for battle, back home there was only one mirror in the house but we never used it to take note of our appearance. The grey shirt behind my coat and scarf looked nice, the black jeans didn't seem out of place nor did my boots seem like they didn't belong. For once since my father's passing I felt a spark of assurance in the path that I walked, and in a way felt a little more whole. Inhaling deeply I smiled, the distance between me and the goal set in front of me was no further out of reach than what I made it.

With my spirit high I continued on into an uncertain, but promising future, or at least metaphorically. Turning the corner out of the locker room I smacked into a solid object knocking me to the floor. Looking up I was met with the sight of a lanky looking boy just catching his balance as several papers floated through the air. His white button down shirt was wrinkled and improperly buttoned, suggesting that it had been thrown on hastily. Similarly, his raven hair reflected this as it sprouted about his head in a messy and uncontrollable manner whether from being unkempt or natural I wasn't sure. After a moment of patting himself down he caught notice of his lost papers and began dashing around madly collecting them while muttering a string of curses aimed at himself. Not bothering to wait for courtesy I picked myself off the floor and brushed myself off.

"I am so-so-so-so-so-sooooooo sorry about that," The boy spoke as he gathered the last paper with his back turned "I've had a very busy morning and It was never my intention to hurt you."

Turning to me he stared with wide apologetic icy bluish white eyes "You aren't hurt are you? I mean, I would understand if you were I was running afterall. Honestly I should know better at this point-"

"I'm fine." I interrupted firmly, no point in letting him go on.

He relaxed visibly at this "Oh my, that's great. Sorry we got off on the wrong foot, both literally and figuratively let me introduce myself properly."

Shifting the papers from his left hand to his right he extended his hand out which I promptly took "My name is Asclepius Bellamy, but please, call me Lepius. My full name is quite the mouthful..."

"I'm Azure Boreas," despite my own discomfort I returned the gesture as he'd been kind so far.

It was like a switch, the moment I said my name he perked up like a light "Ah, yes I can see the colors and how they match, that's a very nice shade of blue you're working with. It's neither too dark to mistake for a different color and it's not bright enough to be hard on the eyes."

"Wait, what?" I was sure the confusion was clear on my face, between how fast he was speaking and my own uncertainty on what he was getting at he'd officially lost me.

"Er, nothing," once again he turned on a dime as if coming back to reality "Please forgive my observations, it's probably nothing, I just get off on these tangents when i'm interested in something, please if necessary slap me if i'm talking too much-"

Without hesitation I reached out giving him a small pap on the cheek "Just slow it down."

"Right!" there was a pause as he looked me over "I'm sorry if i've made you uncomfortable."

I did my best not to freeze on the spot "What makes you say that?"

"Your ears have been pressed flat against your head for the duration of our conversation," he stated matter of factly "That means i'm either being too loud or you're uncomfortable, i'm willing to bet it's the latter."

"Well you're not wrong." His statement soothed my worries that he was a mind reader, but also ended up making me more uncomfortable.

"Well of course not," he replied smiling like a maniac "I studied Faunus extensively!"

I folded my arms across my chest ready to walk away if things turned sour "Wow, way to make this even more uncomfortable."

He rolled his eyes "Not like that, I meant in a scientific manner, you must know that there's a division between human and faunus for whatever reason and I can't seem to grasp at the why of it."

Almost as if it was impossible for him to stay still he began pacing in a small area "If you think about it, the things that are different between you and me are so insignificant it would be as arbitrary and immature if we shunned every person in the world with blonde hair. What is there to achieve in alienating half the population when we have things like the grim to worry about? It's completely inconceivable that we would let some small traits that define you as a race drive us apart."

Pausing he turned his gaze to me "You agree that it is quite ridiculous yes?"

I had barely nodded when a loud booming voice reached my ears "Ah, Azure!"

I turned to face my first friend as Lepius stepped up to my side. Heath held a towel around his neck, his shirt missing and glistening with water droplets that would slide down his body with each step he took.

"Friend of yours?" Lepius questioned without turning to look at me.

"Yeah," I could barely reply, Heath was absolutely muscled to the core.

Clearing his throat uncomfortably Lepius spoke "He's ripped."

"No shit!" but I kept that thought to myself

"It is good to see you awake friend!" Heath stood in less than two feet away and I had to crane my neck up to look him in the eye..

"It's good to see you too," I couldn't help but smile "I was actually coming to look for you but-

"You're huge!" Lepius shouted cutting me off "For the love of all that is good, you must be at least seven feet tall!"

With a hearty laugh Heath barked out "Seven six and a half!"

Seeing an opening I cut in "Hey, when you're done in the locker room come find me in the ballroom."

Heath gave me a nod and a slap to the shoulder nearly knocking me over "Of course friend, I will join you soon!"

Nodding I turned back to Lepius "It's been nice talking to you, I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see you around," he replied before turning to Heath

Walking away I started to drift slowly towards the general direction of the ballroom. I was in no rush to get there as Heath would likely be awhile. Even as I wandered towards the ballroom more and more people passed me, which I had decided that they were all heading towards the locker room. Many of the people to pass me were unfamiliar, and most of them didn't even give me a glance which I was secretly grateful of. There were two girls I passed that I did recognize, the two "sisters" from yesterday had walked by me in the middle of a conversation, and by conversation I mean the blonde talked animatedly to dark haired girl who nodded and laughed. After they had rounded a corner I made a mental note to go looking for them at some point if I ever ran out of luck running into people that would talk to me. Sure I was putting the bar low in terms of meeting people, but when you've never really had a standard past "You're not mean to me." then you take what you can get. As another pair of students passed me by I nearly stumbled. Steadying myself against the wall I turned back to the two that had passed and called out.

"Excuse me," I spoke rather loudly catching their attention "But did you just say something about teams?"

Both turned to face me, the first and taller of the two was obviously a Faunus as she had a pair of pointed black ears nestled into the top of their blue hair. The second was pretty much attached to the other at the hip based on how close she was squished into her taller friend's side. Their heights were drastically different as the white pointy ears coming out of the top of her head barely came up to the others chest. A fluffy white tail swung playful behind her as she looked at me with curious red eyes. Together they held a stark contrast in appearance, the taller of the two appeared much more mature on account of body language and the fact that she was dressed while the other appeared childlike in her blue cat print onesie. Praising my luck in finding more Faunus students I stepped forward.

"Sorry," my hand automatically flew to the back of my head "I couldn't help but hear you two talking about teams. I haven't heard anything about that all morning so would you mind helping me?"

The smaller one bounced in excitement "Yeah, Yeah! Uhm, Uhm, we, er, I heard some guy talking about how teams are supposed to be selected today!"

With a shrug the taller one continued "We don't know how they're selected, only that it's for sure happening today."

"Ah I see..." Anxiety began to bubble inside me at the implications of teams "Thank you for the info...?"

"Lapis," wrapping a protective arm around the smaller girl she pulled her in closely "This is Yuri, which would make you?"

"Nobody important, but if you want a name for a face you can just call me Azure." At least I thought it came off as smooth.

Lapis gave a small smile"Well Azure, we have to get going. Yuri still needs to get dressed."

"But Lapissssss, I am dressed!" Yuri pouted.

Sighing she began leading Yuri away "You're not going to wear pajamas your first day of school..."

"Mhh... fine." Looking back Yuri smiled "Bye pretty lady!"

With that they turned a corner and were out of sight. Sighing I continued down the hall letting my mind wander. I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised by the news of potential team stuff, I knew Hunters and Huntresses could go solo but it would be highly unlikely that a school would allow children to work solo when it would be more efficient to work in groups. That being said I still felt anxious about the upcoming teams, who knew who i would get paired up with... Wait, if I were to go talk to Heath I could probably make some sort of pan to increase our odds of coming together assuming the process wasn't based off of past academic records or abilities. I was immediately pulled from my thoughts at the sound of the intercoms.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon cliff for initiation, again, would all first year students please report to Beacon cliff immediately."

My heart immediately jumped into my throat, if I hurried I could catch Heath before he made it to the cliff and make up some sort of strategy. What would my strategy even be? Maybe I could figure something out based off location? Over the intercom they said that we had to go Beacon's cliff for initiation so... oh. I could almost feel the blood draining from my face as I realized how far I'd walked since I'd talked to Heath. Spinning on my heels i began sprinting down the hall, hopefully I would be able to catch Heath before he made it to the cliff. The guy was a mountain of muscle after all, how fast could he be?

So, to make a very long story short here's why I just disappeared: A month after I released chapter one I graduated highschool on my birthday, which is also the last day I had to graduate. That's fine right? Well two days after I was told I had to A: Get a job because B: I had to move out in 3-4 months. That being said there were a lot of complications involving me nearly being homeless and I've finally settled into adult life and have found time to upload again. I can't really guarantee any sort of solid upload schedule now because while I am more stable a lot of my free time has to be spent split and my weekends tend to be hectic. That being said I am still actively working on this story. On the flip side because I've been sitting on this story I've got a lot of ideas on what I want to do, but am still unsure what direction this fic is going in outside of a very basic story line. While I was editing this I decided to make a little tumblr blog where I can update progress about the story and just sort of discuss idea's i've got about the story, so if you're just interested in getting updates on progress or just want an avenue to reach me at you can find me at i-dont-eat-breakfast on tumblr. (if you need help on getting to the thing just google how tumblr stuff works with url thingies)