Weiss fully believed what she said about getting that policy of hers into working order. She knew it might have been a silly thing to say outwardly. Still, she had put pen to paper enough times to know that effort paid off. The risks of what she wanted to do were large, but so were the possible accomplishments. Mired in her work, worried about her friends, and keeping Blake occupied made her day full of repetitive, mundane tasks.
The sort of keeping busy that left her mind to idle. Her days were long, but it seemed that Blake's night's were longer. Weiss turned the page in her book as she looked up to see Blake wrestling around with her pillows, trying and failing to get comfortable yet again. Weiss could only smirk as something of a half wine worked its way out from her throat. Not pained, but rather frustrated.
"Why don't you go soak in the bath?" Weiss suggested simply. "If you'd like, I'll go run you one."
Only mildly grumbling under her breath, Blake shook her head. "That won't work."
"Nothing seems to at this time of night." Ignoring the book, she smirked, reaching over to turn out the light and snuggling down, moving over to her wife's side of the bed. "Are you sure you wouldn't like something to eat. Velvet does say that sometimes snacking helps."
"I swear to god, they're fighting around in there or something." Blake muttered with no small amount of annoyance. One of the three, though which one particularly she wasn't sure, was kicking around. No matter who it was instigating it, she found it distracting. If it continued, Blake would be denied her much sought after sleep.
"Well, Oobleck did say they might become more active at night." Weiss surmised, slipping her hand underneath the thin cotton shirt Blake had on. Slowly moving her hand to rest atop the supposed warzone. "With three of them, I'm sure it is rather cramped."
Instead of commenting on young faunus and their propensity to curl up into the smallest possible balls together in a huddle, she merely rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, this one isn't helping anything." Blake said, lifting the blankets, showing where Zhu had decided to nestle himself for the night. Wrapped up in one of his father's old shirts, he clung to Blake like a lifeline. "I doubt he could find a more inconvenient place to sleep even if he tried."
"We need a longer bed." Weiss said with a laugh. "Do you want me to put him on my side?"
"And risk waking him up again, are you absolutely nuts?" Blake asked, one ear flattening back in confusion as the other stayed upright. Ever so carefully, she set the blankets back down, ignoring the fact that Zhu's tail was wrapped around her ankle at the foot of the bed."
"Better than when he wants to lay on one of us…" Weiss protested. "He really should be sleeping in a bed of his own."
"He's too little for that, and he doesn't have any siblings, so it's difficult. He won't start separating from adults until he's about four…and that's if Sun's lucky." Blake said with a sigh. "Monkey Faunus particularly are co-sleepers. Just like cat Faunus, we stay with our own kind. It's a comfort to sleep huddled up together."
At that, Weiss looked down at Blake's growing belly once more. "And just how long do you think they'll be in our bed with us?"
Blake rolled over to face Weiss. Something that was not an easy nor comfortable feat when she had three along for the ride. It was getting harder by the day. "The cubs?" Blake said softly. "They won't be sleeping in our bed. They'll be sleeping in the nest, where we will also be sleeping for the first year. After that, we'll relocate them in here with us. We'll move the nesting bedding in here too, but don't be surprised if they end up in the bed."
"Of your accord, or theirs?" Weiss asked, earning a roll of golden eyes as a result.
"Both, probably." Blake told her with a soft laugh. "It'll be easier for us to move them into their own room though. That's one good thing about siblings. We'll keep the litter together until they choose to separate on their own."
"What is all that about, anyway?" Weiss asked softly, her finger twirling small, almost ticklish patters on her wife's arm. "Or should I just shrug my shoulders and chalk it up to one of those instinctual situations that I'll never understand?" She shook her head, since that seemed silly. "Though, Jaune's girls certainly aren't too keen about having their own rooms either…something about being afraid of the dark. I'm not entirely sure."
"Hmm, many factors…some more inherently Faunus by nature than others." Blake murmured thoughtfully. "Scent plays some part of it for us, I'm sure. More than that, if I had to guess, it's about being left exposed. When you're asleep, you're left open to danger. I think on some level young Faunus know that it's not safe to be left alone. They'll go looking for protection. It's one of the reasons Zhu doesn't stray too far from adults, especially not us. Safety in numbers. Another part is dependency, I suppose. When you're born together, and you spend every waking moment together, that becomes routine."
"And I don't imagine bribing them with choosing their own room's décor them would work very well, would it?"
"No." Blake laughed softly. "Probably not."
She would never say it, but, if she had to guess, Weiss would give in first. The short tempered, admittedly glacial personality melted around those she cared for. Ruby was a perfect example of trying the limits of such boundaries. They still bickered back and forth more often than not. Although now it came from a sense of routine rather than true annoyance. Even still, Weiss was normally the first to deflate at the first sigh of emotional distress.
Blake kept it to herself, but she did wonder what Weiss might do the moment the cubs started crying in earnest the first time.
Though no more words were exchanged, they basked in the quiet snuggling that normally lulled them both to sleep. However, like all cat Faunus, Blake had a predisposition for being nocturnal, and so too did her cubs. Daytimes naps were more appealing for reasons that Blake didn't try to analyze as she crept out of bed at the late hour. Instead she moved into the sitting room with a bask of carefully cut strips of silk. Since Velvet banded her litters early, Blake thought it prudent to begin working on the scent markers in question, only to find that the rabbit eared woman was doing the same.
"You couldn't sleep either, I presume?"
Velvet nodded, but didn't look away from her task. "I'm worried about Coco being too overzealous." Velvet admitted with a soft sternness in her voice. It was one not many were used to hearing. It was full of sleepiness, severity, and something else. "Fox has a tendency to follow Coco's lead. An unfortunate byproduct of our younger days to say the least. Not that I normally mind, Coco never listens to reason in the first place, and normally it's manageable…then again, I really do wish she had taken Yatsuhashi with her."
"You seem to think he has some measure of control over her."
Velvet offered a shrug. "Physically, if not verbally."
"And Fox can't?" This honestly surprised Blake, who cocked her head to the side in earnest, as she began to set out her supplies.
"As with all things regarding Coco, it's entirely situational." Velvet replied.
"That might be true, but doesn't Fox maintain supremacy over her?" Blake wondered, having never dug too deeply into the details of the tired. "I always assumed in domestic matters, given that he is the sire, that she answered to him. Not vice versa."
"They're content to argue back and forth." Velvet sighed at length. Harmony was never exactly part of her household, and never when Coco got into one of her bad moods. "Be lucky you decided against claiming two humans. They're keen to argue amongst themselves. It makes for quite the dynamic."
"Being nose blind does that." Blake offered with a knowing smile. "You should hear the yelling that goes on from across the house when Weiss and Ruby start at it, and they're not even mates."
"My point exactly." Velvet nodded. "To make matters worse, Coco's very strong. She doesn't look it. Her image is very deceptive, and honestly Fox has a hard time holding her back. Actually, I couldn't do it even if I tried. Yatsuhashi though, he can do it with one hand. Coco also respects his judgment a great deal. Fox is quicker to anger, but Yatsuhashi always seems to be collected."
"I don't know how you stand it." Blake began conversationally, as she began weaving very thin and skinny pieces of fabric together. It was easier said than done. Adult bands were much thicker and more ornate, but they also didn't have a habit of tangling on themselves. Infant bands were that much harder to weave. "Coco and Fox tend to travel often enough. You have so many litters as it is. I'm sitting here worried that Weiss and I will have our hands full with three. If I were you, I wouldn't let your mates out of your sight for a second."
"It helps to be a prey Faunus, I believe." Velvet considered before smiling a bit to herself. "Then again, Sienna might as well mimic everything Coco does. Bloodline is one thing, but never forget the power of learned behavior. Otherwise next thing you know, you'll have three anal-retentive cubs with a cookie fixation and a propensity to punch first and ask questions later."
"Now that's something I'll do everything in my power to avoid." Blake laughed softly as the dark night continued onward, as the two of them continued their weaving.
A sudden buzzing on the table alerted them both, and Blake looked up, reaching for her scroll. Coco's image appeared on the other line. No small amount of rage on her features. "Doesn't anyone ever pick up around there?" She half ranted. "Where's Weiss."
"Sleeping." Blake said with worry as Velvet tried her best to get a good look at the screen. "Why? What's wrong? What happened? Did you find Ruby?"
"That's what I'm calling about. I am not about to carry her all the way home. She's fine, awake….eating the bakers out of every sweet confection she gets her hands on…but she's got cuts that are infected, and we could use an airlift out. We need to regroup. It's about time we call for some military backing on this one…"
Wilson had long made due with the fact that he'd settled for daughters over sons. Life, he concluded, was all about compromise. Although, honestly, it was rather progressive to allow a woman to oversee a company without a male to support her. Weiss had been adamant in maintaining her own sense of power over the SDC. He had relented at her candid desire to claim her inheritance.
It was amusing, if not somewhat predictable of his youngest.
However, it could not be overlooked that many questioned him at the time. After all, the only other noteworthy family to have such a question of succession was the Adel family. Everyone else he had dealings with had sons. Failing that, they arranged male spouses for their daughters to continue the family names. Truth be told, when Weiss was still just a teenage girl at Beacon, Wilson was bamboozled by the idea that Coco was slated to inherit the entirety of her father's lifetime work.
The Adel Shipping Company had a much longer history than the Schnee Dust Company. Although, that history wasn't nearly as kind, and the Adel Shipping Company wasn't always successful.
There had been times when the once meager property struggled to stay afloat. Still, the climb to greatness was one often spoken of in particularly wealthy circles. That a young woman was to be given the company, only daughter or not, sent ripples into the stagnant and entirely male driven economy. That she was mated to both a dark-skinned male and a Faunus woman only further served to raise eyebrows among the particularly racist Atlas natives.
He had been lucky. This he knew. Vale was a progressive place, where men and women of all races and creeds banded together. They desired to fit into one uniform, peaceful, society. A person's birthplace, the color of one's skin, and even sexuality, didn't seem to matter. It had been risky sending Weiss to a place like that surely molded her views to be the same.
In this, the sentiment bore repeating. Life was a system of compromise.
He was fortunate that his daughter had elected to bring home a white skinned cat Faunus. Fortunate that many of the elite would consider Blake an exotic pet…it was easier to deal with. Rather than watch Weiss suffer through the slander that would have befallen her if she had brought home a dark skinned human…man or woman. It was with this in mind that he took to schooling Blake in the finer history that he had long kept Weiss away from.
He held back nothing.
"But Fox is a wonderful man." Blake had protested, when she'd heard about how many had crinkled their noses. The mere thought of him even befriending Coco was blasphemy alone in Atlas. Engaging in any sort of relationship had enraged a large number of individuals. Blake had never known that. "I don't understand what the big deal is."
"Purity means great deal in our world, like it or not." Wilson replied, though with a long withheld sigh, he shook his head. "I'll say this until my dying days, but you are privileged. Here in Atlas, the color of one's skin matters. Heritage is something that follows you through the eons. I agree that Fox is not a man I'd ever call into question, however, the same cannot be said for the likes of most people I might call friends."
"But...you do call them friends..." Blake accused.
"I do. It's because I do that their rather rude remarks about Fox didn't reflect negatively onto Coco." Wilson replied gruffly. "The differences between speciesism and racism is quite pronounced. Although if I have my say about it, Fox will never put under public scrutiny...at least, not for his race."
"I wouldn't say that." Blake murmured to herself.
"I beg your pardon?"
"That speciesism and racism are different. For a Faunus, there are those lesser, and those better…it's not a question. It doesn't need to be." Blake said then, with a tiny frown. "I don't expect you to understand how our minds work…but Faunus separate ourselves into predators and prey. Then further into social classes. The color of our skin doesn't play a factor."
"Yet, other attributes do, correct?" Wilson replied. "It's your own brand of racism, for your kind, isn't it?"
"Don't mistake instinctual urge for bigotry." Blake half growled. "That's not how it works. Just because a Faunus may be prey, doesn't automatically mean I'll think lesser of them. Quite the opposite. I'll be more careful around them, so not as to seem threatening or demeaning to them…then again, prey Faunus wouldn't normally provoke me, either."
"You lack greater perceptions of the human world." Wilson bristled. "That is all I am saying."
"I'd like to think I know quite a bit more than humans give me credit for." Blake shot back. "I did spend several years pretending to be one. I seemed to blend in just fine."
"In Vale, perhaps so." Wilson wondered if her luck would have lasted in Atlas. "Here, I doubt you would have maintained a proper image. Questions would have been raised."
"To be fair, you have only known me, only seen me as a Faunus." Blake felt as if deep down, he had never taken the opportunity to know her as a person. She had never attempted to tolerate Wilson either. At least not outside of their forced civility. Their shared hatred made friendly banter impossible."Weiss outed me to you before we even had the pleasure of meeting…I can't help but feel as if you never gave me the chance you'd have given a human."
Agreeing to disagree would be the nearest thing to common ground that they would ever seem to find.
"Hmm. An interesting, if not wrong assumption." Wilson murmured at length. "I knew of your heritage long before I knew of the designs you two held for each other. Does it change the way I view your relationship? Yes, it does…however I believe the same would be true of any person Weiss would have brought home. That you were a Faunus female only served to color my impression in such a light."
"And you don't think that's wrong?" Blake sneered.
"Assume of me what you must, but you will never understand the perceptions with which I was raised." He reported with grim certainty. "It's a blessing at all I accept what I can of your…marriage…"
"You still say that like its some sort of terrible curse."
"This is a time for enlightenment, is it not?" Wilson continued thoughtfully. "My daughters are more progressive than I ever will be. I am more progressive than my father before me. You see, when I called their grandfather a bigot, I meant it. White men with white women. Blake men with black women. Gays and lesbians were degenerates in his eyes. You could have thrown every scientific discovery under his nose, many did. He still thought homosexual relationships, and those of differing skin tone, to be abhorrent. Faunus were beings meant to exist for a human's pleasure, nothing more…"
Blake nodded distantly. Wilson never did seem to mind the fact that Blake was a woman. That was the least of his complaints. He would have clearly preferred Weiss be married to a man, he made that obvious. However, he never belittled Weiss's choice in a female suitor, either. It was actually rather strange, when Blake took the time to think about it. Honestly, she probably should have considered it a little more. "You…are not like him…"
"I know enough to educate myself in the matter at hand. There is, as with all things, a logical explanation to homosexuality. Chemical, and rational." He said crossly, before he voice softened just a fraction. There was an edge to it. As Weiss had told him several times, she expected him to make an effort for the sake of the family. His views on same gendered couples were sure to come up. "Unlike many, Weiss never had to fear me when it came to her interests in the fairer gender. That, at least on a very perfunctory level, makes sense to me…you, however, do not. And you never will."
"I don't understands how humans can breed so much hate for their own kind." Blake replied, golden eyes narrowing. "But then, why throw men at her, rather than women if you knew?"
"Do you want your children to suffer needlessly?" His words cut deeply, and Blake but back a snarl. Before she could get a word in edgewise, he lifted a hand, continuing calmly. "A father can hope for the norm, can't he?" Wilson asked pointedly. "He can desire for the path of least resistance. That was merely the attempt I made. It was futile, obviously, but I do not regret the attempt. Just as I am sure that she does not regret denying those attempts." At this, he reached over to a tray of cashews, popping a few into his mouth. "One day, you'll understand…"