Armed with a fresh, full pot of coffee, Weiss took a breath to steady herself. A few moments ago, Yang had come in with some warmed baked goods to go with it. Then she stood quietly by the door. Weiss sat down by Blake's side, the silence completely deafening. Bartholomew Oobleck was unwaveringly calm, and that little detail was off-putting as he scanned a few records he had particularly asked for. Among the files were known medical records, as well as a few other dust related documents.

Finally, he closed the covers to all of the information. "So, dust induced pregnancy, yes, I see. It can be a fairly straightforward procedure, but, it is a hybrid fertilization process."

"So," Weiss began worriedly. "It's possible?"

"Oh, of course, of course. We've come a long way in such advancements." He said happily. "Was it ever a question of ability?"

Weiss began to color slightly. "Well, between two human women, no. However, I've heard that it becomes harder when attempting to use the DNA of both a human and a Faunus."

"Hmm, well, it can be difficult, yes. However, you're both young. Age does play a factor, and you are within ideal ranges." A fond smile reaching his lips. "The most important thing is to remain calm, and for the carrying mother to manage her aura levels." He took a long swig of his coffee. "Which one of you would be carrying to term?"

"Blake…" Weiss replied quietly, a blush on her cheeks.

He zeroed in on the woman in question. "Blake, you will have to go onto aura inhibitors before the procedure, and for the duration of the pregnancy. Are you agreeable to this?"

Blake and Weiss shared a look. Deep down, Weiss had been afraid of that. She bit the inside of her cheek. All of her reading had implied that the mother's aura could hurt the growing fetus. Dust was not a natural byproduct of the body, and the womb would see it as a foreign invader. Inhibiting aura was the safest way to ensure a healthy child…it was that decision that had brought Ruby to work in-house.

...But now Weiss started to worry. Was Ruby's protection alone going to be enough?

"Guys, come on…" It was Yang who spoke up. "We got this. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, Blake…and Ruby won't either."

The cat Faunus nodded…meeting Oobleck's gaze. "It'll be strange, not being able to use it. I've had my aura activated ever since I was a small child." Blake said, when deep down her nerves were already starting to twist and turn. "I don't think it'll be a problem. I'm sure I'll be able to adjust."

"What about my aura, and my semblance?" Weiss asked then. "It's genetic."

"Will your semblance be passed on, you mean?" He swigged at his coffee. "It's plausible, semblances are most often inherited from the father's gene pool. You would be the paternal parent in this arrangement." Oobleck said to Weiss. "You must keep in mind though, dust is not a perfect science. It does tend to latch onto and favor recessive genes…that is to say, the resulting child normally appears much more like the mother than the father in these instances."

"My father had a tail and ears…" Blake murmured quietly. "Is it possible that they'll pull from my recessive genes? Could they look even more catlike, than I am?"

"That's hard to say, really." Oobleck said, cocking his head to the side, methodically thinking. "Keep in mind, Faunus traits are also recessive. That's why your ancestors….first and second generation Faunus…looked like bi-pedal variants of the animals they evolved from. Those traits were bred out over time. As time goes on, those traits will continue to be breed out."

"Really?" Blake asked.

Oobleck nodded. "Especially because Weiss is fully human." He replied tapping his fingers into the table as he fidgeted in thought. "However, I can say this. Your children will probably still look Faunus either way. Even if it is only in the eyes. Also, you must bear in mind, there is also the rather large guarantee of multiples."

Weiss nodded as she adjusted herself in her seat, rolling her shoulders only slightly. "Possibly twins, you mean? We both suspected that already."

Oobleck leaned forward a bit. "Goodness no." He said all too seriously. "That, I'm afraid, is a gross oversimplification of the matter at hand."

Weiss was about to speak, but, Oobleck sped right into his explanation. "Blake is a cat Faunus, which naturally raises her chances of multiples. When you consider the fact that we will be placing more than one fertilized egg into her womb in hopes that at least one will take, that possibility raises even more so. What you must understand, is that this is, in essence, an in vitro fertilization…merely with dust infused eggs accounting for the other half of the offered DNA instead of sperm."

"So in our case, you would say multiples is a sure thing?" Blake asked.

Oobleck nodded, sipping his coffee once more. "Indeed. Very much so." He cleared his throat, folding his hands onto the table. "According to my studies, anyway. As the collected data from across the four major academic safe holds suggest, even humans face higher standards than normal. For example, for a human women in your age range, there's a roughly twenty-nine point one percent chance of twins."

Weiss and Blake tried to keep up with him, but it was proving difficult.

"Of this," he continued, "the possibility of having identical twins happens in about four in every one thousands births on record…and those are merely the figures we have for human women." He paused, sipping his coffee once more.

"…and the figures for a Faunus?" Weiss asked.

"Inconclusive!" Oobleck said, finger upraised as if he'd had some sort of realization. He merely used that finger to push his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "It is a case by case basis. Species comes into play, as well as the number of eggs we put into her womb…and, if they decide to split or not…factor in the dust, and you've got a very potent cocktail for a full litter." He gave Blake a somewhat sympathetic look. "Do you happen to know what cat specie you hail from?"

Blake bit her lip… "Does it really matter?"

"Perhaps, insofar as for my own personal theories."

"Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure." Blake tried to think about it, but she couldn't come up with an answer. "I was an only child…I don't remember any siblings…but my parents died when I was young, so there's really no way to be sure."

Oobleck took a moment to digest this. "We will do a blood test, trace your ancestry. That, I believe is the best course of action…" He proclaimed quietly, giving no room to question this fact. "For the sake of clarification, let's say your genetics were traceable to say…a panther…you'd be prone to a smaller litter size naturally. If your genetics were traceable to a wild cat breed of some nature, or even a domesticated cat, that litter size would be much, much larger. This would be information I'd need to know, in order to properly decide how best to proceed." He then looked to Weiss. "I trust you have the medical facilities available to perform these tests?"

Weiss nodded, as Blake squeezed her hand under the table. Weiss ran her thumb over those nervous fingers, before sliding her hand to Blake's thigh, resting her palm there as her thumb ran soothing circles over the fabric of Blake's black leggings.

"Right, well, we'll do that first then...oh, after an obligatory fast, of course." He jotted down a few notes about what needed to be done, and a letter to the Schnee family doctor. "These are the analytics I want. Any family doctor should be able to perform the blood draw and send for lab tests. Considering the confidentiality of this particular case, I'd like for you to come to Beacon with the results yourselves once you've received them. We can have a proper meeting at that time, and discuss our next course of action."

It was all so similar to a normal pregnancy, and yet, so different. As Oobleck had explained at length, there wasn't a lot that changed between human and Faunus anatomy. The largest discrepancies were in the finer details. Nocturnal eyesight, and better sensory perception. Things that would, at most, minimally alter skeletal structure, like a tail. Blake's term would be roughly nine months, the same as any human woman.

Blake had adhered to Oobleck's orders, making an appointment with the family doctor after following the dietary fast. She also received her aura inhibitors, which she started taking the very same day. They would have to wait a week for the blood test results though, a fact that made her edgy.

She'd always thought herself to be simply a cat Faunus. She never gave any thought to the type or breed of her heritage. When she thought back, she knew she looks most like her mother…but her father's traits were very much animal-like.

Blake was as restless as could be, thinking of all the possibility that could turn out to be true. It didn't help that their guests from the ball were all slowly departing on and off throughout the day, leaving the mansion feeling empty again. Thankfully, she was given an all too welcome distraction when Sun came to visit.

He'd brought his child along with him, which was always a delight to Blake's day.

"I don't know how you managed to have such a mild mannered little boy." Blake noted when Sun had encouraged him to run off and play…something that took coaxing from Ruby. She was, eventually, tackled by the exuberant young monkey Faunus. "I thought for sure he'd take after you and become such a little terror."

"Are you calling me a hard-ass?" Sun asked, grinning.

"Lucky, actually." Blake corrected gently. "I thought for sure he'd be trying to harass anyone and everyone at this point."

"Eh, it's the Wukong charm…"

"Oh, completely…" Blake answered dryly. "And you say Neptune hasn't rubbed off on you in all the wrong ways…" Still her golden eyes fell to the evergreen nearby, a rather tall specimen, if Blake did say so herself. Somewhere in the mix of those thick branches Ruby and the child were hiding someplace. Exactly where, Blake wasn't entirely sure. They were somewhere in the gigantic thing. "It seems like Zhu has taken a liking to Ruby."

"That's my boy…has a good eye for the finer things in life."

"You are so full of it." Blake mouthed with a laugh, so not to be overheard. "Honestly though, Sun, aren't you just a little bit concerned?"

The blond man sighed. "It's been hard, Blake. Harder than I can even put into words."

"Ruby told me about the two of you…" Blake said to him softly enough to get him to look at her. "I know you didn't have your head up your ass. It wasn't even the season…but, still..."

"Raises eyebrows, huh?" Sun nodded, flicking his tail towards the warm mug of hot chocolate that sat on the table. "We didn't plan on it, but it just happened."

"Please tell me you were at least using protection…"

"The first time, no…the other times, yeah…"

Blake rolled her eyes, afraid to ask how many times they'd been meeting up in the mines recently. Instead, another question came to mind. "It hasn't even been a year yet…do you really think you're ready to move on?"

"Listen, I loved Octavia…some part of me always will…" Even when he thought about it, tried desperately to wrap his head around it, he still couldn't fathom the enormity of his loss. "I remember the first time I faced team NDGO in the ring…the first time I laid eyes on her…and for all of Neptune's idiocy aside…I knew that those girls were good people. It was easy to fall in love with her after graduation…especially when on those big hunting missions." He shrugged then. "I guess, when you get down to it, that's the heart of the matter…"

"I don't follow…"

"You lead a safe life Blake…but me and Neptune? And the survivors of NDGO? We're hunters, we live, we love…fleetingly…and it's gone all too soon…" A sound of giggling and the plops of crunching snow drew his attention. Both Ruby, and his little boy covered in the white fluff. It made him smirk, something that was only starting to get easier to do. Only, truly, because of Ruby. "See that, Blake? It's hard not to fall in love with that. Even I can't make him laugh like that anymore."

"Hence is my concern." Blake's golden eyes narrowed. "He's just a little guy, too little to remember Octavia at any rate. What if he starts attaching himself to Ruby?"

"Would that really be so bad?"

"Is that what Ruby wants?"

"We're…still trying to figure that out…figuring us out, I mean."

"Is that what you want?"

Sun nodded, his face growing serious. "If I thought for a second that I stood a chance, I'd take her to a courtship…"

Blake very nearly did a spit-take. She knew the gravity of that statement all too well. For monkey Faunus it was the highest request for affection. They'd go missing for days, sometimes even weeks or months. It was, in fact, such a journey that had started Sun's relationship with Octavia…it was another such length of time away that had eventually led to the announcement of a human wedding, even though Octavia was already romantically involved with Sun…and lastly, the final missing adventure caused Octavia's pregnancy.

Blake had no idea where Sun took Octavia, and such things were never spoken about due to the personal implications of the event itself. One thing was for sure though, monkey Faunus took their dating rituals particularly seriously. For him to even want to settle back down again so soon was a huge shock. "You're…you're really serious about her, aren't you?"

"I've always liked Ruby." Sun smirked, but then it faded into a softer, more understanding smile. One that soon turn wistful as that faded too. "She's fun to be around. Spending time in the mines with her, she's different…softer I guess…and I got to admit, she's helped me cope in more ways than one." He tapped his fingers on the table, lost in thought before meeting golden eyes once more. "She gets it…I don't even have to say a word. She's never once tried to compare herself to Octavia either, she's her own person…lives in her own way. To me, that's so hugely important."

"So…the weekend that Ruby requested off…"

"Nah," Sun shook his head. "Can't be this weekend. Got an extermination mission down south…I just wanted to stop by, catch up with you and take Ruby to dinner. Oh, yeah, thanks for offering to babysit."

"It's no trouble really…you know we love having him."

"Still, Blake…thanks, I really mean that." Sun said genuinely. "I never would have been able to keep my job if it wasn't for you guys."

AYangThang: So, the new update schedule is going to be Monday and Wednesday, on top of whenever I feel like just throwing out a chapter. I've also decided that I will start posting the prequel as well. That'll be updated on Mondays as well. The first two chapters of that will be going out late tomorrow night, so for those of you interested, keep an eye out. The reason I've chosen these days are because they're the ones I usually don't have to go to work. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. See you all tomorrow.