"Laz!"
Lazu Aoi turned around to see his childhood best friend, Sil Argentius, walking across the courtyard towards him. The cat faunus grinned and his tail swished as he recognized his friend. There was something that made Sil instantly recognizable. Is it the shiny hair and silver eyes? Or the way he dresses in those button shirts, jeans, and leather boots? Or is it that gigantic machine gun slung over his back? Or option D, all of the above? All of the above, Lazu thought with a mental smirk. The machine gun in question, aptly named Armageddon, was wildly overbuilt; almost as long as the user, feeding from massive drum magazines which the rate of fire would drain in seconds. For the life of him, Lazu never understood why it was built that way, but they did build their own weapons during their time at Sanctum Academy. His own weapon A-Sharp Major, a six-string bass that could also transform into a silenced bolt-action rifle and odachi, was seen the same way by Sil. Lazu's grin grew at the memory.
"Isn't that a bit much?" Sil asked.
"Isn't that a bit of a silly question?" Lazu shot back.
"Fair point," Sil responded, after a pause.
"Hello old friend," Lazu greeted Sil, pulling the latter in for an embrace, "it's good to see you again." Sil had a wonderful scent; a blend of herbal and citrus, with a hint of something Lazu could never place even after all these years. I'm gonna figure it out some day.
"It's great to see you too," Sil said, pulling back from the embrace. The two turned to survey the rest of the first-year class at Haven. There were transfers from the other kingdoms, as well as plenty of native Mistralians. Lazu's eyes were drawn to two young women, looking generally lost. "Good crowd," Sil commented.
"Hmm. I'm curious as to what our classmates are capable of," Lazu replied.
"We've all earned our places here. We should all be on equal footing."
"Some footings are more equal than others."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means-" Lazu noticed the two young women he spotted approaching them. "Hold on to that, we have company."
"Heya," one of the two began, "I'm Tanya Cooper, and this is my sister Taya." The girls were both around five and a half feet tall, small in comparison of the six feet of the boys, and had the same copper hair and pale, blue-green eyes. Lazu and Sil exchanged a glance of being awestruck. Curious, Lazu thought, I don't remember my pants being this tight. However, Lazu recovered first and elbowed Sil in the ribs to snap him out of it.
"My name is Lazu Aoi, and this is Sil Argentius. Pleasure to meet you," as Lazu introduced the two he bowed slightly, and Sil gave a two-fingered wave at the mention of his name.
"The pleasure is all ours," Taya said, "we're actually trying to make new friends since we're not from here."
"Where ya from?" Sil asked.
"We're from Atlas," Tanya said, "well, technically it's more complicated than that, but it can wait till later." At that moment, a voice over the PA summoned the first-year class to the Great Hall.
The rest of the day passed quickly; Headmaster Lionheart gave welcoming remarks, and afterwards the new students had some free time. Sil and Lazu used the time to catch up a little while the twins went off to find more people to be friends with, or at least try to. Eventually, dinner time rolled around, and the four reconvened.
"So, you two are from Atlas?" Lazu ventured.
"Yeah. Well, technically, Taya is from Atlas and I'm from Mantle," Tanya said. That explained the differences in dress between the two; Taya wore a long dress with fancy jewelry and heels, whereas Tanya wore the more rough-and-tumble outfit of a Vacuan lawperson: leather boots, sturdy tan pants, two overlapped belts covered in ammunition and holsters for her weapons, a vest worn over a button shirt with the sleeves rolled back, and a wide-brimmed leather hat. Their weapons were also radically different; Tanya carried Judge, Jury, Executioner, a pair of sawed-off shotguns that clicked together to transform into a sabre, whereas Taya wielded Revolutionary, a Dust-powered flintlock musket with a wicked-looking bayonet to attach. "Our parents split when we were younger. Taya and our other sister stayed in Atlas with our mother who holds a higher-up position in the SDC, and I went to Mantle with my father, who held odd jobs here and there, including tenure as an SDC laborer."
"Brothers," Lazu said.
"Geez, that's rough. Sorry," Sil said. Tanya shrugged.
"Life is what it is. All we can do is live with it," she said.
"It would be rude of us to not ask where you two are from. So, where are you two from?" Taya asked.
"Laz here and myself are from Argus," Sil answered, "had a great view of the harbor from our neighborhood."
"You two know each other growing up?" Tanya asked. Lazu chuckled.
"We practically grew up together. Really, we're like the brothers the other didn't have," Lazu said, "isn't that right?" Sil nodded his assent.
"You two are closer than Tanya and I are to our older sister," Taya said, "and possibly even to each other. But, what can you do?"
"That's for sure," Sil said. They finished their dinners in relative silence.
Night settled in, and with it so did the new class of Huntsmen. They would be "roughing it" as Sil put it, though that was hardly an apt description; while they weren't sleeping in beds this first night, they were still in the Great Hall. Has to count for something, Lazu though, even if the floor isn't all that comfortable. While everyone else changed into other clothes, Lazu opted to stay in his long, dark-blue-and-gold robes and black trousers.
"You're gonna sleep in those?" both Taya and Tanya had asked. Sil, however, already knew.
"They're shockingly comfortable," Lazu replied. The twins looked at each other and shrugged in unison, and made ready for bed themselves.
"Can't believe it's really happening tomorrow," Sil said. Lazu chuckled.
"We've been training for all these years, yet you still can't believe it?" Lazu teased.
"Well, ya know...it's one of those things where-"
"I know what you mean, old friend. I'm having fun with you."
"You seem to have a lot of fun at my expense."
"That's the best kind!" Lazu received a firm elbow to the ribs for that remark, "in any case, we should best be going to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day."