Credit for this story goes to Webdog177 on AO3 (Archive Of Our Own, for those who don't know.) go there ad check out his other work. he wrote the story after reading my prompt.

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I never put much stock into 'love at first sight'.

It always seemed so… pretentious. Hockey, even. I would hear my parents tell me stories of people falling in love at first sight when I was a girl, or actors doing so on television for their audience, or even listening as my friends to chattered on and on about this girl they saw the other day, and how dreamy this guy was and how they knew he thought the same about them, or vice versa. It was all the same, at any rate. It was all so fanciful and unlikely, that I knew I would never really understand it, or believe it.

That was, until I saw her.

She wasn't the prettiest girl I had ever seen; I had seen plenty of attractive boys and girls in my seventeen years of life. But, for some reason I couldn't fathom, she stood out to me. Long brown hair flowing down her back and framing her face in straight, glossy curtains. Large, chocolate-colored eyes that seemed warm as they did intelligent. Her posture, hunched at times and straight and proud the next, only seemed to make her stand out to me all the more. The long, brown rabbit ears – proof of her Faunus heritage – seemed almost an afterthought as she meandered through the hallway, flashing a pretty smile my way as she passed me day after day.

It was at that moment, standing there in the crowded hallway of Beacon Academy, when I finally understood my friends' seemingly inane rambling, or those television couples, or the hundreds of stories my parents told me as they put me to bed, all those years ago. That was love at first sight. I just never expected it to happen to me.

Nor did I know what to do about it. My partner, Jaune, while kind and well-meaning, seemed a bit overwhelmed with being a Hunter-in-training to help with my love-problems. Nora and Ren were a wonderful addition to team JNPR, but again, I didn't think they would be able to help me. And team RWBY, well, they had their hands full with relationship issues of their own.

I was on my own.

Luckily, my opportunity came to me on a silver platter whether I was mentally prepared or not.

As an exercise in teamwork and adaptability, we were instructed to pair up with an older, more experienced student for a field exercise. They would help us, teach us, and we would help them with adapting to a new partner, simulating work in the field. It was a win-win situation, at least in the eyes of the academy, and even the older students seemed amiable to the idea.

Naturally, Velvet was chosen to be my partner for this exercise. Her fighting style complimented mine, apparently, but I heard almost none of the explanation behind it. All I understood was I would be paired with Velvet and I had no idea what to saw or how to act around her.

Four times Mistral Regional Tournament Champion, and I couldn't even muster up the courage to tell a girl how I felt. My face was on a blasted cereal box, for God's sake, and I couldn't even woman up enough to talk to her!

It was with trepidation that I stood there on the airfield outside Beacon that morning. My team had already been paired off and left, giving my reassuring smiles and a particularly enthusiastic high-five from Nora. Eventually it was only me left at the airfield, and just before the smallest stirring of

anticipation and fear started welling up in me, because there was actually no way Velvet would have agreed to partner with me, there must be something wrong, she was hurt or she somehow got Ozpin to change his mind about having me for a partner, and I would never, ever get the opportunity to tell her how I feel, and –

"Hi."

I jumped, letting out a small shriek as I turned around, my heart leaping into my throat as I beheld the girl herself, her hair as straight and perfect as ever, and her eyes wide as she stepped back. Apparently, I had surprised her as much as she surprised me.

"Um… sorry." I mumbled, feeling my cheeks prickle with heat.

The girl blinked a few times, and then her eyes softened into an upturned expression that belied her curiosity. "You startle easily… I'm surprised. I didn't expect that."

"Not all the time." I replied, shifting from foot to foot. I fingered Miló's handle at my waist absently, as I always did when I was caught flat-footed. It didn't happen often. "I was just… thinking."

"About what?" Velvet asked, tilting her hear. I stared as her hair fell over the side and I swallowed as the brown curtain dusted her collarbone.

"Um, n-nothing." I managed. She watched me for a long moment, and I eventually averted my eyes. Damn it, why was I being so shy! This was so unlike me!

"Okay… if you say so." She finally said, softly. "You're Pyrrha Nikos, right?"

"Yes." I said, because really, that was all I could say. I forced myself to look back at her, making eye contact. "I'm your partner for the day. I hope I live up to your expectations."

Something about the way Velvet smiled right then made me blink. There wasn't anything outright different about her smile – it was the same she always wore in class — when she wasn't taking the brunt of misguided attention from Cardin and his teammates, of course, and when she was with her own friends. No, this was more of the smile I saw when she was alone, when I occasionally saw her pass me in the hallway, and I would smile tentatively at her and have her return it, something sparkling in her chocolaty eyes right back at me.

Something that I didn't really see anywhere else.

"I'm sure you will." Velvet said mysteriously. With that, she turned around and started to trot towards the far side of the airfield, where out transport awaited. "Come on, let's go. We have a long day ahead of us."

"C-can I feel your ears?" I suddenly heard someone blurt out, in something that sounded disturbingly like my own voice.

Velvet froze in mid-step, as did my heart.

What…the… HELL… did I just say?

As if unsure of what she had heard, but that was ridiculous since we both knew what I had just said, Velvet slowly turned around, a carefully neutral expression on her face. I just stood there, shamefaced, as the girl completed her turn and calmly regarded me with those large, peaceful eyes.

After what seemed to me like the longest minute of my life, I finally forced myself to speak.

"I… um, I-I'm sorry, I—"

"Okay."

I blinked again. Surely I hadn't actually herd…

"Okay?" I asked slowly.

Velvet nodded, walking back towards me. "Okay." She confirmed, stepping up within arm's reach of me and Holy Mother she smelled good. "Just my ears?"

"I… uh, yea." I stammered, for what was perhaps the hundredth time today caught totally off guard. If my old combat trainers could see me now they would probably be speechless. Hell, I was too.

"Alright. Go ahead." Velvet said, tilting her head just so. Her ears, long and positively rabbity, dipped towards me, as if begging to be touched. My fingers itched, desperately longing to reach out and feel the soft, fluffy looking appendages. But, as much as I wanted to, I knew I had to be absolutely sure.

"Are you… are you certain you're okay with it?"

Velvet lifted her head, gazing up at me from below long eyelashes. I shivered slightly at the decidedly sensual look that seemed to flitter across her face as she parted her lips and oh my God, she was cute.

"It's okay. I trust you. You aren't a bad person. Go ahead."

Her ears were as soft as I had dreamed. Her downy brown hair – fur, really – was both fluffy and smooth beneath my fingers, and I had to fight the urge to take the fragile things in my hands and bury my face against them. I bit my lip, suffering in silence as I gently ran my fingers down the lengths of her ears, from the tips right down to the crown of her head, where they met with her scalp.

Through it all, Velvet remained silent. Her back was hunched, making it easy for me to reach her ears. She wasn't a short girl – I was just tall – and she had to crouch slightly to accommodate my larger size. Her hands remained loose at her sides, and her feet were planted a few inches from each other. In any other circumstance it would have looked like she was bowing to me, and I was petting her… but we knew otherwise. I had asked something strange, and possibly embarrassing of her, and she was indulging my curiosity as one would a child, or, perhaps in this case, an underclassman.

Letting out a deep breath, I lowered my hand. "Thank you." I said simply.

Velvet straightened, her eyes flicking up to search my face. "Did you find what you wanted to, Pyrrha?"

I felt my brows furrow at that. Had I been looking for something? As far as I knew, I had suddenly and unexpectedly asked to feel the girl's ears. But why?

Because they looked soft? Because it wasn't something one saw every day?

That wasn't quite true; I did see them every day. In the hallway, in class when I would surreptitiously glance Velvet's way, if for no other reason than to see her, to look at her, and in the cafeteria. I would see her, and think to myself how pretty she was, and how, unbeknownst to me at the time, that my idea of love at first sight was thrown out the window, and all I could think of was her, and how I wanted to find some way to get closer to her.

And, in a moment of clarity, it came to me. All that time watching her, thinking about her, and wanting to tell her how I feel… this wasn't about her ears. This was never about her ears. That was just me

being awkward and not knowing how to breach the real topic. The real thing I had been wrestling with every moment of every day.

And now, with the girl barely a foot in front of me, I finally had my chance.

"I… yes." I murmured, my lips quirking up into a shy smile. "I think I did."

Velvet's eyes sparked, and she smiled. "So did I."

And suddenly all I could see was brown hair, the smell of grass and vanilla in my nose, and the barest brush of skin against my lips.

A soft moan leaked through my – or hers – throat as my head tilted on instinct, tilting to the side and brushing my nose against hers. Her lips soft, warm, and more than I ever dared to even think in my wildest fantasies. They parted once for me, and the sweetness of her breath made my think that maybe, just maybe, this was more dream than reality, but the firm hold of her hands on my biceps kept me grounded, rooted to the idea that this was actually happening.

And then, as quickly as it had started, it ended.

"Come on." Velvet said, stepping away from my still shell-shocked form. "If we don't get a move on, we'll get marked down."

"Oh…okay." I wheezed, the driving force behind me shaking myself out of my kiss-induced stupor being the idea that I would be spending the entire day with Velvet, and Velvet alone.

And so, falling into step besides the girl, I returned her smile shyly.

It would be a great day.

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