I got new cats! Bro & sis named Ruta & Medoh.
"Ah," Jaune grunted irritably. "Why do I keep itching?"
The relic hunters stared at the confused boy as he mercilessly scratched his arm. Little did he know, there was a pesky, tiny nevermore pecking at that spot. The little grimm was chilling on his shoulder and bent over just to peck him.
Unfortunately for Jaune, no amount of movement could make this thing fly off.
"Maybe you have a rash," Yang offered a false suggestion, trying to normalize the situation.
"What?" Jaune sounded confused. "No I don't. That can't be."
To prove it, he rolled up his sleeve. There were red marks on his skin, but that was from his nails.
"See?" Yang chirped knowingly.
"That's from me itching it," Jaune deadpanned, not amused. After he said that, the grimm pecked again, which caused him to grunt and itch the exposed skin. "Ahhhh."
When Weiss approached to 'inspect' his skin, she casually snatched the bird on his shoulder and briskly walked away. That left a few of her friends to wonder why she almost punched the boy.
Wanting to help her find a spot for the purification process, Blake joined her priestess friend. Perhaps they could find a secluded area to do this. The school hallways weren't the best option for privacy. While they handed the pesky bird, Yang and Ruby were left to handle the questions.
Ren watched the white and black pair retreat down the hall. "What's with them?"
Yang offered an excuse. "Nature calls."
Not at all bothered by their sudden disappearance, Nora poked Jaune's red arm. "You don't even have a bug bite."
"I know!" Jaune exclaimed. "It's the weirdest thing. Hey, wait. I think it stopped itching."
"Really?" Ren asked, confused as to why it stopped so suddenly.
When Jaune nodded, Pyrrha replied. "That's a relief. I was about to leave school to get you some ointment."
"There's no need for that, Pyr," Jaune reassured as he stared at the red skin. Perturbed, he rolled down the sleeve. "That was weird."
Like she was waiting for him to say that, Ruby said. "You're weird. It goes hand-in-hand."
That caused Yang and Nora to chuckle a bit.
"Ya know, Rubes- agh!"
There was a sharp prick in Yang's ankle. It felt like a bee sting. The friends around her gave her curious looks when she suddenly yelped for no reason.
Only Ruby could tell why her sister was bothered when she looked down. There was another tiny black mass. Its sharp teeth were embedded in Yang's skin as the blonde shook her foot violently.
To not raise suspicion, Yang mumbled. "Get off me ya little bastard," she said, hoping that her little sister would help her out.
A few snarls vibrated lowly in response. No matter how many times they heard a beowolf cub grimm's growl, it always surprised them by the sheer amount of menace.
While her friends stared at the struggling Yang, Ruby leisurely kicked the pup with just enough force to pry its jaws off her. Unceremoniously, the grimm careened into Nora's leg. This made her look down, only to see nothing.
"What was that?" Nora asked. "It felt like something bumped me."
"It was nothing!" Ruby replied quicker than she intended. "This school must be infested with fleas or something, huh?" she tried a weak laugh.
That made her friends even more confused.
With the cub's next target in sight, the grimm snapped down onto Nora's calf.
"Ow!" instantly, the girl slapped her leg like she was swatting a bee. That hit the grimm as it let out another growl. "Do fleas bite?!
Growing irritated, Yang grit her teeth. "This is getting ridiculous."
Not caring who was watching anymore, Yang punted the motherfucker. The tiny cub shrieked as it sailed over a sea of students and landed somewhere in the cramped halls.
"Shit," Yang cursed.
"Yang!" Ruby chided and smacked her lightly upside the head. "Now we have to go find it!"
"Well soooooorry for savin' Nora!" Yang retorted in annoyance.
Still puzzled, Nora didn't know what to say, so she said what came to mind. "Thanks! The pain is gone so whatever you did helped."
Ren's eyes were wide. He'd been trying to process the events but couldn't think of anything rational. "Find what?" he asked the sisters with suspicion.
"We'll be back," Yang said quickly and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Weiss!"
She was greeted with a poke on her back. "I'm right here. What's wrong- ah!"
With no words, the team bolted in the general direction of where they last saw the small grimm. Hopefully, they could prevent it from biting some other unfortunate soul.
Ruby and Yang led the way, pushing a few students to the side.
The target small target was scampering away among the sea of people. They had to reach the cub before it could hide somewhere.
"They're feisty some days and others they completely relaxed!" Ruby yelped as she scrambled for a peak of the pup.
"It makes no sense!" Yang agreed as she dragged her girlfriend along. "Pick a mood!"
Weiss picked up the pace, her hand being tugged along. "There's a civilized way to do this!"
As Blake ran alongside her friend, she sent her a deadpan expression. "By now I thought you'd just shut up and accept it."
"That's not-"
When Yang caught the grimm in the corner of her eye, she split the other way. "C'mere you bastard!"
"You're incorrigible!" Weiss yelped.
Expertly, the beowolf grimm dodged around random students. Feet almost hit its side several times, but the cub was quick.
Meanwhile, the relic hunters had a difficult time catching up to the small target since it kept hiding behind large bodies. Not to mention, they had to shove several people out of the way, which earned startled yelps and multiple "excuse you's."
Ruby heavily sighed as she flanked the cub. "We're not even trying to hide it anymore, huh?"
"Who cares by this point," Yang replied, never taking her eyes off the cub.
To their luck, some random student accidentally kicked the grimm when he was walking. The student looked at his foot confusedly before brushing it off and continued to walk down the hall.
Fortunately, the cub crashed into a nearby door. This gave Ruby time to grab the pup before it could dart away.
The beowolf grimm was growling and shaking in her arms, clearly frightened. Red eyes pierced through Ruby's soul.
"Aw," Ruby muttered. "He's so scared. Don't be scared, bud."
"It was just kicked," Blake reminded.
Directly after, her three teammates rushed up to it and gazed at it in her arms. The cub was attempting to rip Ruby's sleeve, but was failing to tear it.
"You're okay," Yang soothed in a whisper as she gently brushed the fluff on its head.
"Here," Ruby transferred the grimm to Weiss' waiting arms.
As Weiss walked to the bathroom with her team in tow, she said. "We're just going to purify you is all."
As they walked into the privacy of the bathroom, the cub stopped squirming and snarling. The team took that as a good sign.
Soon enough, the calm white light enshrouded its small form before fading away. The small grimm gave a content sigh as it looked up at the ceiling and joined the atmosphere.
"I think it was happy," Yang said softly.
Ruby shrugged, not knowing what to think. "Maybe."
Blake smiled as she glanced around the vacant space. "Wherever he is, it's a better place than here."
Yang sharply inhaled the smell of the gross bathroom.
"That's for sure."
"Now, class, can anyone tell me which primate this is?"
Glynda Goodwitch pointed to the large image projected on the screen. It was a small animal with a dark brown coat that was dangling from a tree. The green eyes were wide and covered the majority of the face. It looked like this so-called primate could fit in the palm of anyone's hand.
No one's hand shot up. Not even Weiss' like it normally did. Goodwitch understood this. So many things had happened lately, so she cut the relic hunters some slack and instead focused on the rest of the class.
There was silence as the professor glanced around. A few people in the back were blankly staring at the screen like they were lost in space or daydreaming. Jaune was fiddling with his mechanical pencil like he ran out of lead.
Ruby looked like she was wracking her brain for answers as silver eyes squinted. Blake was bored out of her mind and had her hand under her chin in disinterest. Weiss was taking notes, probably about the previous slides. And Yang looked like- well, Goodwitch didn't know.
The question shouldn't have been hard to answer. It was one of the many primates the class had to know for the upcoming test. Besides a few of their cranial and biological features. The first step was knowing what they were.
Leisurely, Yang leaned back in her chair with the widest smirk Goodwitch had ever seen.
The thought to call on the blonde never crossed Glynda's mind. Maybe Yang was just infuriatingly enjoying the silence.
"You have to know this," Glynda stated as she looked at no one in particular.
Unexpectedly, Yang spoke with confidence.
"That's a tarsier," the blonde simply answered. "It's clinging to a tree because it's probably hunting since its type of locomotion is vertical leaper and climber. Unlike the other new world primates, the tarsier has a dental formula of 2133 over 1133. Its eyes are a unique feature because it can't even move them. They have to move their heads to look around. Which would be so annoying. And since it's a new world primate, it's also known as a platyrrhine."
Dead silence.
Half of those terms flew over students' heads.
That was an answer chock-full of information. No one was expecting that. Especially not from Yang.
Weiss stared at her girlfriend with her blue pen trapped loosely between her fingers, absolutely awestruck.
They hadn't even been on this unit for three days and she knew everything she needed to know about the thing?!
"Woah, Yang…" Weiss murmured, ogling her girlfriend's smirk.
Playfully, Ruby punched the back of her shoulder since she was sitting behind her sister. She used a whisper to not disrupt the class. "Alright, Yang!"
Cat ears flicked as Blake smirked. "Didn't see that coming. Never."
Yang just looked back at her with a deadpan expression. "We get it."
"Ms. Xiao Long," Glynda addressed, clearly impressed. "You've been studying."
"What can I say, teach?" Yang said with certainty as she crossed her arms. "I'm a genius."
For now, Glynda didn't debate that. Although she had many many things to say about that statement. It seemed Blake was thinking the exact same thing. Because the professor heard her mumble.
"Only in certain areas…"
Since Yang was right in front of her, she heard that and swiftly turned around to challenge her friend.
"What was that?" Yang asked, somewhat defensive.
"Nothing!" Blake replied quicker than she intended.
Glynda tapped her clipboard once as she observed the students' reactions. Now, they were definitely not bored.
"Don't get cocky, Ms. Xiao Long."
"Oh come on!" Yang yelped. "I gave a great answer and I get nothin' but bad treatment?!"
That earned a few snickers.
Jokingly, Goodwitch frowned as she thought about what she should say as praise.
"It was a fantastic explanation. You are the smartest person in all of humanity, can I be you?"
That earned more giggles.
This was a surprise. During a lecture, Glynda would usually refrain from sass. It seemed that Yang's attitude was getting to her.
Yang looked taken aback from her statement, but ultimately grinned. "Why, thank you."
"Satisfied?" Glynda asked, quirking a brow.
Oh, this'll be fun…
Sassily, Yang flipped her hair over her shoulder. She used a high-pitched voice, obviously mocking the conversation. "Tell me I'm the prettiest girl in all the land."
"Shut up."
The blatant shutdown caused more laughs to ring out.
The chapter title is from I'm a Believer by Amalee. "I will 'seize the day' no matter what it throws my way!"
Stay dandy,
~Toto