Weiss' resolve lasted exactly as long as it took for her to get in and out of the shower. But standing there, not-quite-all-the-way dressed with her hand on the bathroom doorknob, about to step outside with her wings hanging out in the open...

Well. She was starting to feel more than a little bit insane.

She took a deep breath. This was ridiculous—it wasn't as though she was about to parade around in front of the entire school. Ruby had promised to lock the door. Her teammates already knew.

What if they said something?

Which was even more ridiculous. Blake had been showing off her ears for a week now and none of their friends had said anything negative. They wouldn't.

Except that her wings weren't like Blake's ears, were they? They were all twisted up and wrong, and—and—

And isn't your Father such a good man, for helping you get rid of them?

The door hit the wall with a bang that made Blake jump a foot in the air and crack the back of her head against the bottom of Yang's bunk. Weiss stepped out, and tried not to wince too obviously when her wings cramped. It wasn't that her teammates were staring, exactly, but they were looking at her and she could feel the open air on her wings, and something about that combination made her want to pick a fight.

"Uh, Weiss?" Ruby said tentatively. "Are you... okay?"

It felt like there was a brand searing her insides. Weiss smiled—with, judging by her teammates' reactions, too many teeth. "Never better."

"That's... good?"

"So." Yang clapped her hands together. "What now?"

"Anybody have any more world-shattering secrets?" Ruby asked, in playful tones that were definitely tempting fate.

Yang and Blake glanced at one another.

Ruby blanched. "Wha—no, that was a joke, please I can't take any more yelling!"

"Easy there," Yang chuckled. Then she looked at Blake again, and received a nod. "It's not bad, promise. And not, like, world-shattering?" Her face went red. "I mean, not that it's not—I mean, I think it's world shattering but you probably won't—!"

Blake came to her rescue. "We're together."

"Oh!" Ruby relaxed immediately. "You're right, that's not world-shattering at all."

"Should I be offended?" Blake wondered, with an arched eyebrow.

"Neither of you are the least bit subtle," Weiss pointed out. Also, I almost tripped over you outside the ballroom. Which she wasn't going to mention, because it had been weird and embarrassing and nothing else.

Blake turned slightly pink. "Anyway," she said, "I think the 'what do we do now' question was for you, Weiss."

"Oh." She folded her arms and started drumming her fingers on her wrist. "I don't know. I've been binding them practically since I learned to walk, I've never..."

"I can pick up some books about that," Yang offered. "I've been planning to read up on faunus stuff anyway. I mean, not specifically wing care, but it probably won't stick out all that much in with everything else."

"I'm going with you." Weiss said it so abruptly that her team started staring at her again. Her skin crawled. She just... needed a break from this break. That was all. Besides, she wasn't about to sit around doing nothing while Yang went to the library.

Of course, as soon as she said she was going it turned into a team outing. "Just so you all know," Blake warned, "There's going to be a lot of sketchy information in there."

Ruby's face fell. "Even in Beacon's library?"

"It's probably better than average, but... yes."

"Information you disagree with is not necessarily 'sketchy,'" Weiss said.

Blake picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder, massaging her temples with one hand as she walked towards the door. "I wouldn't exactly call it information."

Anthrophilic faunus fall into two categories, depending on their animal traits. The first category, which I will call prey-type anthrophiles for the sake of simplicity, instinctively seek out a dominant and intelligent human partner to provide them with protection and guidance. This type includes species such as sheep, deer, and rabbit faunus. On the other hand, predator-type anthropihles like foxes, hyenas, or bears are attracted to humans they see as weak and submissive, and seek to hunt and conquer them.

Weiss stared despondently at the page in front of her. "What did I just read?"

Blake glanced at the cover of the book and groaned. "Rye Blanche. He has a thing about interspecies relationships, it's probably better to just—"

"Of course, true predatory anthrophiles are rare," Weiss read aloud. "For instance, many feline faunus appear to be predator-type at first glance, while ultimately desiring the same submissive role as their domestic counterparts."

Yang leaned forward, glanced at the first paragraph upside-down, and gagged. "Why does this guy's textbook read like he's trying to decide who to harass at a bar?"

Ruby's nose wrinkled. "And what even is an anthrophile?"

"Scary made-up word for being attracted to humans sometimes," Blake said, without inflection.

Did that make Weiss an anthrophile? She had liked Neptune, sort of, for a little while. Except that hadn't actually gone anywhere. Was it because he was the wrong kind of human? "Which am I?" she wondered aloud. It would be obvious if she were a hawk or a dove, but she was... what? Some sort of sea bird, probably, if her craving for fish was any indication. That fit the predator model, didn't it? Did that mean deep down she wanted to eat him or something?!

"Please don't worry about it." Blake pinched the bridge of her nose and flicked the book shut. "Blanche got famous a decade ago for a study saying that female faunus go into uncontrollable heats. Five years later, someone had the bright idea to redo the experiment, this time with a human control group. It turned out human cis women also have monthly cycles that affect libido. He essentially spent five thousand lien in grants proving that faunus get periods. I don't understand how he isn't a complete laughing stock."

Yang buried her face in her hands. "This sucks. Mine is barely better, she keeps going on about how important discipline and training are." She flipped to the back cover to stick her tongue out at the author's photo, then swore viciously under her breath. "She runs an orphanage? Those poor kids..."

Weiss wasn't listening.

Maybe she wasn't an anthrophile? That could explain why her feelings towards Neptune had been so muted. She tried picturing Sun instead. He was objectively very nice to look at, but... no. There was no real heat there, either. And then, purely because she was right there in front of her, Yang popped into her head. Which was reassuring, in its own way, because the last thing she wanted to do was 'conquer' Yang—

Blood rushed to her face.

"Hey, Weiss?" Yang leaned across the table again, her brow furrowed in concern. Her face was much too close. "Are you okay?"

"Fine!" she blurted, even though that was a total lie and she was not remotely fine. Especially not when Blake reached out to grip her hand. Her ears flicked, and she wore an easy smile, so why was Weiss now wondering if she'd ever pinned Yang down? Did this make her one of those predatory anthrophiles? Was that why she got so jealous and angry all the time? Or was she one of the false ones, the ones that started out wanting to be a hunter and then—she didn't like that, she didn't want to be someone's pet—!"

"Easy." Blake squeezed her hand. "Blanche is just an idiot, I promise. His only source for any of this is a collection of case studies, and his defense against all the faunus who've come out to say this doesn't describe them is to claim that they're lying. None of these categories really mean anything."

"Then why was it published?"

"Because lots of humans want to read about how faunus secretly like to be treated terribly," Blake said, scowling.

"Ugh."

Before her frustration could get past a simmer, Ruby distracted her by jumping out of her chair and making a grab for the large heap of books they'd stacked at the end of the table. "Hey, look!" She pulled out a dusty hardcover that was much smaller than the others, titled simply, Faunus Anatomy. But that wasn't what Ruby was pointing at. Her finger tapped frantically against the author, a Doctor P. Polendina.

Wait.

"Polendina? As in—?"

"I have no idea!" Ruby took a picture with her scroll. "I'll have to show it to Penny and find out!"

Blake winced, her ears drawing back. She lifted the cover gingerly, as if half-expecting to find a spider inside. Then her eyes widened. She started flipping pages, her ears perking up and twitching in excitement.

"What?" Weiss demanded, as Yang crowded in on Blake's other side. "What is it?"

Blake flipped the book around and slid it towards Weiss. "Look at this!"

There was a detailed drawing of a feline ear, just like Blake's. Alongside it were careful sketches of inner structures, annotated to label each part of the ear, and notes on common ailments. How to protect against infection, loud noises, frostbite. Weiss frowned. Half the remedies she read were labeled as being anecdotallysupported. "This... doesn't seem very scientific."

Blake turned the page and shook her head. "No, it is! Look."

An annotation under a set of gills read, Anecdotal evidence that gills increase susceptibility to Dust Lung when only the nose and mouth are covered while mining. And then, just underneath it, Found three volunteers to try out the new ventilator. Far from statistically sound, unfortunately, but all three had symptoms when we started, and all three improved. See appendix C, page 29 for details.

"There are tests, too," Blake said, brushing her fingers over a page that illustrated a pair of delicate fins. "And the drawings, but... it's like someone gathered everything they could find about faunus healthcare in one place." She grinned. "It's basically a compendium of all the stuff your parents tell you."

And then she turned another page, and Weiss came face to face with an illustration of a young woman standing with wings spread. Smaller sketches were scattered to either side, showing her posing with them curved over her shoulders and folded against her back. There were more on the next page. An older man this time, blocked out roughly, details abandoned in favor of catching the motion of his flight.

Sentences jumped out at her. Conditioner in the feathers helps avoid splitting. Here's how to stitch together a poncho that will keep your wings dry. Never bind them until they're fully grown.

Why didn't she know any of this?

"I'm checking this one out," Blake decided. There were murmurs of agreement Weiss barely registered.

That was such a stupid question. She knew why. It was what your parents told you.

She noticed that her teammates were looking at her. Noticed, but did not care. Her eyes were fixed on the image of a man in flight. Those perfect gestures, blurring into a mess of light and shadow as her blood turned to molten lead.

Her hand moved. It wasn't a real choice—it was this, or come apart at the seams. The sound of tearing paper filled her ears, drowning out the sound of her teammates shouting things that didn't matter. What mattered was that the flying man was gone. The young woman with russet-brown feathers was gone. Those loving diagrams of how parts of her would fit together if they hadn't gotten twisted were gone.

Blake snatched the book out of harm's reach, and Weiss let her. The next page had been about bat wings, and she didn't care. The pressure inside had eased a little. She was simmering rather than boiling. It was enough to crush the torn pages in her fists.

"What are you doing?" Blake demanded. And then, when Weiss started tearing up the pages she'd ripped out, "Stop!"

She was breathing hard, and didn't know why. Yang took the scraps of paper from her hands, gently smoothing them out over the tabletop. A piece showed the flying man's wingtip. Another was a drawing of a feather, webbed over in wrinkles from being crumpled.

"Why would you do that?" It probably hadn't been meant as an accusation—but Blake was upset as well as confused, and it certainly felt like one.

"I don't know!" Weiss snapped. Her throat tightened. She picked up one of the pieces. After prolonged binding, blood flow to the wings can be restored by—

The rest of it was gone.

"Hey," said Ruby, seeing the look on her face. "It's okay."

"Nobody told me this." Weiss clenched and unclenched her hands. "Nobody told me, and now I can't even read it—!"

"Yes, you can!" Ruby grabbed her bag and opened one of the side-pockets, gathering the scraps of paper and tucking them inside. "Here's what we're gonna do. It's getting late, so we'll go grab your meds and head back to the dorm to get some sleep. Then tomorrow we can put the pieces back together, just like a jigsaw puzzle! Oh, and we should order another copy of the book and swap it out with this one as soon as we can. Sound good?"

Weiss couldn't speak. So she nodded, and looked away before she could see too much of any of their expressions. They weren't angry, but the softness there was much harder to look at.

When it came time to put together the pieces of Doctor Polendina's book, Weiss expected a grueling test of endurance.

Instead, she slept in until almost noon and woke lying comfortably on her stomach, her wings bare under the blankets. Yang brought them a tray piled high with breakfast foods, and the four of them gathered on the floor around the pile of paper scraps. Ruby stuck a piece of tape to her face to give herself a pig nose. Blake laughed so hard she accidentally blew some of her work away and had to redo it.

There was something satisfying about putting broken things back together, even though Weiss was the one who'd torn them up in the first place. She got focused on the task at hand, she forgot for long stretches that her wings were still out in the open—and every time she remembered, the anxious lurch of her heart was a little less overwhelming. After a while, they were just sort of... there. A tiny irritation at the edge of her attention, one she could ignore with a little effort.

As they worked their way through page after page, they chatted. Mostly aimlessly, at least at first—just filling the room with soothing noise. Near the end of the last page, though, Yang cleared her throat. "Hey, so... on Tuesday, Ruby and I are heading home to Patch for a few days before the festival," Yang said. "Do either of you guys want to come?"

Blake's ears perked up. Then she glanced at Weiss, and didn't say anything.

"No, thank you."

"You're not—I mean... are you going back to Atlas?" Yang made a painfully bad attempt not to look like she was dreading a yes.

"I'll be spending the time at Beacon." Weiss liked it here. She didn't want to go home, and she didn't want to go to Patch and have to deal with meeting Ruby and Yang's father. She'd rather liked waking up today without the bindings on, and she wouldn't feel comfortable doing that in a house she was sharing with a stranger.

"I'll stay, too," said Blake.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "For the record, I am perfectly capable of surviving a few days by myself. Go, you obviously want to."

"It just doesn't feel right leaving you here alone." Blake's ears, which had been drooping lower and lower, suddenly perked up. "Besides, I remember what you said yesterday, about not having anyone to explain all those things to you. I might not be able to help with specifics, like how to take care of your wings, but we have the pages for that and I'd be happy to just... talk."

Her stomach lurched. Weiss opened her mouth, and found that she couldn't bring herself to refuse. "That... yes. I would like that."

Blake shot an apologetic look at Yang, who waved it off. "Nah, you're right. Just make sure she actually takes the antibiotics."

"Wha—I know how to take medication, Yang."

"So you won't stop as soon as your symptoms go away instead of finishing the whole course?"

"Obviously!"

"And you definitely won't pick a fight with Cardin or Nora or Professor Goodwitch while you're still healing."

Weiss flushed. "What on Remnant do you expect me to do, Xiao Long?!"

"Literally all of that?"

The slight scuffle that then broke out meant they spent at least an extra half hour working on the pages. But by the time dinner rolled around, they had a collection of wrinkled, taped-together information about faunus wings. Weiss flipped through them, searching for—there!

After prolonged binding, blood flow to the wings can be restored by massaging them. Gentle stretches also help keep the joints from stiffening. There was another section on feather care, which mentioned that ingrown feathers often had to be removed before new, healthy ones could grow in.

Reluctantly, she explained this to her team.

Ruby was all enthusiasm. "We can totally do that!"

Yang, glancing at Weiss' face, hastily added, "If that's okay?"

"I don't know." Weiss remembered how it had felt when clammy fingers brushed against her wings, and shivered.

"We don't have to decide now," Blake assured her. "This is probably going to take more than one person, and Yang and Ruby are going to Patch soon. So maybe we'll talk about it again after they get back?"

She gritted her teeth. "No. Let's do it tomorrow."

Her teammates exchanged wide-eyed glances. "If you're sure," Yang said. "We're happy to help however we can."

Weiss was not sure. She was, if she was being entirely honest, terrified. But when she looked down at the torn-up pages in her hands, the knowledge that had been kept out of her reach for so long... she felt something close enough to pass for certainty.

Shoutout to Clockwerkchaos over on ao3 for the idea that Blake has tried to read books about faunus and been, ahem, disappointed, to use the understatement of a century.