Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY but I wish I did.
You know how I thought my mom looked awesome when she stepped between us and the racist. Well getting a different perspective on things really changes how you view things. Right now she looked terrifying with her red hair whirling around like it had a mind of its own, her blue eyes narrowed into slits, and her hands clenching and unclenching like she wanted to strangle me. I think you can forgive me for be terrified in that moment.
What followed was a lecture, more of a rant really, about me being too smart for my own good, under no circumstance was I to unlock anyone else's Aura without a certified adult's supervision and that I was grounded for the rest of forever. It did end with a semi good note though. At the end of it all she had picked me up into a near bone crushing hug and congratulated me on unlocking my Aura, but told me that I needed to be more careful in the future.
What I found out later is that now a days almost everyone unlocks their Aura by someone else unlocking it for them. It's just safer for everyone involved because the person that is unlocking the Aura can guide the process and the person who is awakening their Aura has a lot less chance to experience extreme exhaustion or in some rare cases death. Yeah that surprised me too. Aura can be used to strengthen almost every aspect of the body but sometimes you can strengthen the body too much and your muscles literally tear themselves apart when you move. It's usually a rookie mistake but it can happen and that was why my parents freaked out so badly, beside the fact I unlocked it at such an early age, they thought I might have crippled myself.
I've said this already but I felt like an ass for worrying my parents so much and even more so after I learned more about the inherent dangers of Aura that they don't tell you about unless you learn it in Hunter schools. Part of my punishment, if it can be called that, was an hour or two each day of supervised Aura manipulation. I think the thought process went along the line of, well he's already got super powers lets at least make sure he doesn't hurt himself or others because he can't control them.
I quite enjoyed the lessons. The feel of my Aura surrounding me in a warm comforting glow always left me feeling giddy afterwards. I think I would liken it to being wrapped in a blanket and being carried by a parent as a child. You just felt warm and secure like you knew that nothing would hurt you. Of course that isn't true in practice and my parent made sure to hammer this home sometimes literally. Aura isn't like a piece of equipment that can just be worn with no consequence. When it's in the red you feel it. Your hands shake, your breath is ragged and you want nothing more than to drop to the ground and sleep there for the next week.
That's another problem that can come from Aura, exhaustion. Oh, you probably won't die from it, unless you collapse somewhere bad, but you can overdraw your Aura and that can lead to some problems on its own. It would be like pulling a muscle but the muscle would be your entire body all at once. I'm told it's excruciating.
Enough of the doom and gloom though. Although it took three weeks for me to be deemed 'safe' enough to see other people, not because I learned slow my mom's a perfectionist, I finally got to see Holo again! There was much joy and ear petting on my part and purrs on hers. The Lawersons became something of a second family to us and I'm sure it was the same for them. I of course had no problem with this and not just because Holo was so cute. It was a guilty pleasure of mine to be able to just play kid games again and not really have to worry about the world at large.
Oh of course there were soulless monsters out to eat my face but I could just forget about that when I was playing with Holo. I think Kraft appreciated it as well. He was one of the rarer faunus that escaped the shabby areas of town where the poor, mostly faunus, lived. This was mainly due to the pension families of deceased Hunters receive. Even though she died during childbirth and not on a mission the Vale Council still pays him a monthly stipend that covers living costs. I think it's like an investment in a possible Hunter as well as a thank you for defending us from the Grimm. In addition, he had a night time job so he could look after Holo during the day.
So like it does time continued its march forward. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and months turned into years. In what felt like a blink of an eye another 2 years had passed by and Holo and I were 5 years old and awaiting the day that we could start school. Well Holo was cautiously optimistic about the whole thing while I was dreading it. I know how I said I had fun playing kid games with Holo but I just couldn't muster any enthusiasm for school.
I just knew it was going to be horrible. At least until, maybe, Hunters prep school I probably wouldn't learn much that would be new to me. Sure the history class would be all new, I was sure to enjoy that, but the math was the same and the speaking and writing portion were similar enough to not be a real challenge. Then there would be the children. Now let me set one thing straight everyone thinks their little baby is the sweetest little angel to ever grace this planet or at least they love them enough to overlook some 'childish' faults that they may have. They all assume wrong.
Until proven otherwise I label all children as little shits with no filter and few social morals. Don't get me wrong I can think they're cute as hell, see Holo, but I'll say no thanks to interacting with them. So I regarded my upcoming tenure in this zoo they referred to as school with a sense of resignation and dread.
All too soon the fateful day arrived. My posture was slumped and I dragged my feet the entire 10 minute walk to school. I occasionally shot tearful puppy dogs eyes at my mom for forcing this horror upon me. All my actions gained was a small smile from her. 'It's not like I want your sympathy baka.' I nearly slapped myself at that stray thought. Never go full tsundere.
On my right an entirely different scene was playing out. Holo was nearly skipping down the street in her yellow sundress and sandals chatting excitedly with a sleep deprived Kraft. It would have been cuter if I hadn't been trying to work myself into a funk.
We finally arrived at a non-descript brick building with what looked like an attached playground with surrounded by a tall metal fence. 'This is it. My future prison is in front of me.' My thoughts were broken by Holo grabbing my right hand and nearly dragging me forward. 'Quite a bit of strength in that tiny body.' I mused as she pulled me towards a group of kids.
For all her seemingly wild enthusiasm Holo herself was quite shy about meeting new people. I suppose it comes from living with near constant discrimination from others. Never really understood that really. You would think people would be more focused on surviving and uniting against a common enemy than fighting one another but no it was not to be.
As it was her headlong charge petered out about half way towards the group and we were left standing there holding hands awkwardly. I nearly sighed but held it in. I stopped my wallowing in my melancholy and glanced around. 'Which of these little hellions could I stand to be around?' Automatically I left out humans because I couldn't predict how they would react and I didn't want to ruin Holo's first day with racism or bullying.
This severely limited the options available to us. Like I said before the Lawersons lived in a nicer part of town and the ratio of humans to faunus reflected that fact even at school. Out of the 20 or so kids milling around I saw 3 other faunus kids. A cat, a dog and a monkey faunus to be precise. Of those 3 kids the monkey and the dog faunus had already joined together and were playing a game. Meanwhile the cat faunus was just hovering near the edge of the group of kids.
I guess I have to take the lead on this one then. "Come on follow me." I pull Holo towards the blonde haired cat faunus.
"Hello there. My name is Alan and this,' I step slightly to the side, 'is Holo. I saw you standing here looking like you could use some friends. What's your name?"
"Gretel." Oh, what an upbeat reply. She sounds cheerful. "My brother left me to go play with that other kid over there." She points towards where the dog and monkey faunus are roughhousing. "I didn't know what to do then you guys came along and now we're friends, right?"
Ah, the simplicity of youth. Someone says hello and now you're their best friend. Although how does a cat faunus have a dog faunus for a brother? Adoption maybe?
"Of course we are, right Holo?"
"Y-Yeah. Of course we are." It seems like Holo is coming out of her shell a little more as we continue talking with Gretel. I think Holo was a little scared of meeting new people and making new friends, but the ease at which this happened boosted her confidence a little. Holo's chat with Gretel consisted mainly of girl talk, excitement for school to start( the poor fools), why we were holding hands( we're super best friends) and one topic that I did care about. How is the dog faunus her brother?
"I have two moms. One is a cat the other is a dog. They call my daddy a horn dog, but I don't know what that means and everyone just laughs when I ask." It was a mighty struggle, but I kept from laughing. How great is that? The guy is probably a dog faunus as well.
"That's so cool. I don't have a mom but Alan's mom is great. She makes the best cookies ever."
This time I did smile. My mom does make the best cookies ever. Unfortunately we did not have time to finish this riveting conversation before the teachers started herding us into the building. We were led into a large auditorium where the principal gave a speech about the upcoming youth striving to surpass their parents and how this was the first step towards that. I thought it was a nice speech if a little heavy handed. I mean we're only 5 right now.
Today was only a half day and the rest of it was going from class to class and getting to know everyone else and the teachers. Nothing really surprised me on the curriculum except how much time was devoted to physical fitness and the Grimm introductory class. It almost seemed like they were filtering out potential Hunters at a young age but that could have been just me not fully understanding the culture here.
We were fed lunch and then our parents came to pick us up. All in all it wasn't a bad start to school life here in Vale. I was thankful for that. I really didn't want Holo's first day at school to be a bad one. We said goodbye to Gretel and her brother, who I learned is named Hansel, then started the short walk home with Kraft and my mom.
"So did you have a good day there mister sour pants? Did you make any new friends?" My mom lightly inquired as we were walking back home.
I pouted. I couldn't help being moody about it preschool is beneath me. "I guess and yeah we did her name is Gretel."
"The blonde haired cat faunus?" I nod. "Yeah Kraft and I saw how you bolted towards the only unoccupied female there. My little prince charming." I couldn't help the blush that spread after she lightly pinched my cheek.
"It's not like that I just didn't want Holo to have a bad first day and the fact that the cat faunus was a girl had nothing to do with it." I tried to explain my reasoning but all I received was a pat on the head and that patronizing tone adults used on kids.
"Sure sweetie whatever you say. So what do you know about her?" I opened my mouth to speak but Holo cut in.
"She has two moms and she says that her dad is a horn dog, but she doesn't know what it means. Can you tell me what it means?" I swear I saw the implacably calm mountain that is Kraft nearly trip when he heard that.
"How come she has two moms anyway? Why don't Alan and I have two moms?" Wow it's weird to see Kraft looking so flustered right now. I really want to laugh and from the corner of my eye I can see my mom wants to as well.
At this point we had stopped walking so Kraft could kneel down to talk to Holo. "You see honey when someone loves someone else they want to spend the rest of their lives together and sometimes a group of people love each other so much they want to live together." A vast oversimplification of the complex inner working of a relationship but whatever she's 5.
"Oh, what's love?"
"Love is when you really, really like someone." Holo's face scrunched up and her ears twitched rapidly.
"So I really, really like Alan because he gives really good ear scratches and he's my best friend. I also really, really like my new friend Gretel and if Alan gives her a good ear scratching she'll really, really like him. So then we'll all love each other and live together forever right?"
Her speech was delivered with all the confidence and innocence only a 5 year old can muster. By the end of it Kraft seemed to be beseeching the sky for a divine intervention and my mom had started laughing.
I take back what I said about school being alright. It had brought about this scene and I just knew that we would be teased for years about this. I knew this because if something like this happened to my kid I would never let them forget it. Kraft had started muttering something and my mom was still laughing.
Holo had turned to me with a look of complete confusion on her face. 'Oh if only you knew what you have wrought today Holo. Might as well enjoy it though.' I reached out and lightly scratched her ear. Her look of confusion was replaced by a look of bliss. Kraft now had his head in his hands and was muttering even louder. I heard a loud thump from behind me as my mom fell to the ground laughing.
'Even though this was embarrassing I wouldn't trade these peaceful days for anything right now.'
