Hello one and all! It's been awhile, and for that, I apologize. This could have been out a day or two earlier, but I came down with some kind of flu-like sickness. Entire body hurts, swallowing is difficult... The works.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter of Cut From the Same Cloth!
Beta: Knight of Cerberus
"We're going to make her curvy even if we have to force feed those nutrients to her."
The lecture hall was abuzz with life and chatter, the mass of students seated above and behind Jaune's team talking away without a care. Of course, that was just the way it sounded to the blond. Who was he to know whether or not they cared? Some might care too little, others too much.
The professor that walked in front of the long desk his team sat at glanced between all of them, flipping through the booklets nested in her arm. "Here are your tests from the first day." Professor Peach called out. Finding the one – or ones – she was looking for, she pulled them from the stack. She slid one in front of Ren, passed Jaune his, and then flipped through the stack some more, and retrieved Blake's, giving the girl her's. Pyrrha's was last, and then Professor Peach moved on without a word to them, already flipping through the stack for the next quiz.
Jaune picked his up, not sure what he quite expected, but found himself blinking at the high mark; higher than he expected, at least. Though, he could admit, there wasn't much on the test he couldn't make an educated guess on. A lot of familiar terms he'd heard from Velvet, and more than a couple he'd remembered from classes back at his old school.
He shrugged, letting the booklet down on the desk before him, turning to Pyrrha on his right. "How'd y-"
The redheaded girl's forehead collided with the desk, loud as thunder, and all the chatter in the spacious room ceased.
"Oh, come on!"
Turning from Pyrrha for a moment, that particular remark was from further down the room, coming from another one of the long desks to Jaune's right. The boy leaned forward to look past Blake and Ren, who were also leaning forward curiously. A decently attractive girl was staring at her quiz with wide eyes, mouth agape.
Wait, wasn't this quiz worth next to nothing? What was with their reactions? The boy turned back to Pyrrha, the girl's head tapping against the desk with a steady, stiff rhythm. "What did you get?"
"Thirty-five..."
Out of fifty? That wasn't bad. Not at all. Jaune put a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "It's still a passing m-"
"...percent."
"Oh." Well, there went attempting to reassure the girl. He glanced down at his sheet, and the circled number there. His own mark was close to double what her's was. A solid sixty-four percent. "Hey, remember what she said? This was just to see what we knew, right? It's fine."
The tapping of Pyrrha's circlet against the desk stopped, and the redheaded girl sighed. She pulled her head back up, looked to the ceiling, and tried to wear a smile as she turned to him.
"I just don't like failing." She said
A full chorus of groans came from behind and to the right, and he glanced up there to see a team of girls he didn't recognize yet, with the professor standing before them. Clearly, they hadn't done well either.
But it still didn't matter, right?
The blond turned to the dark-haired members of his team, who whispered to each other quietly. "How'd you guys do?"
"I... did okay." Blake let out quietly, though her hands didn't move from covering the red ink on the face of her booklet. Jaune had his suspicions, but didn't bother voicing them. Ren, on the other hand, just showed the cover of his booklet to Jaune. An eighty-one. Jaune nodded appreciatively, giving the boy a thumbs-up. The blond had his sole male teammate figured for someone on the more intelligent side of things. Hard to say why, though...
Now that he thought about it, why did Ren seem so intelligent? Was it the stereotype that the quiet, calm, and collected one was inherently intelligent? Was it just the way he looked? Acted? Was he just really knowledgeable about only Dust, and not as bright with regards to other things? In the past week Jaune still didn't really have a firm grasp on his team.
As the questions ran through Jaune's head, the boy thought to the others he met at Beacon so far. He didn't have a firm grasp on anyone, really. The way they walked and carried themselves... he'd been basing a lot of what he knew of them off of his observations. Yang, in the example he'd immediately thought of, was outspoken and dressed rather... he couldn't really think of a way to label her, but she didn't seem intelligent, strictly speaking; neither at first glance, nor in her mannerisms that he'd witnessed first-hand.
...That was rude of him, wasn't it? But it really did seem that way to him. He needed to stop thinking like that. Blake kept to herself and read books, but that didn't make her smart...
Wait, was it rude of him to consider that she might not be smart by contradicting what his initial opinion of her was? And what about Pyrrha? Nora? Ruby? Weiss?
The blond scratched his head.
"Err... hey Ren, are you smart?"
The black-haired boy quirked an eyebrow at him, and the blond's partner turned to look at him, her half-lidded eyes not even taking him seriously.
"Really?" Blake seemed to ooze sarcasm from her pores.
"What? I meant what I asked." The blond crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'm not stupid. I can do words good."
"...Right."
Jaune scrunched up his face in displeasure as his partner went back to looking through her own quiz – the girl still hiding the mark on the cover. The boy looked up to Ren, and just got a slight shake of the head. "I wouldn't say I'm smart. At the least, you could say I am booksmart. Retention: I read things, and they stick."
"So... you have a good memory?"
Ren nodded, turning to face the front of the room, where Professor Peach finally moved behind her own desk, no longer laden with the marked quizzes she held before. "I remember a lot of things, yes."
Jaune hummed, turning back to the front of the room as well, though continued to watch Ren out of the corner of his eye. He knew so little about them, still. His teammates.
They needed to do something. He did. The boy took a breath, glancing over at Pyrrha. Just the other day, with what he considered his own personal failure in trying to get them all to train together... he wasn't sure what they could do.
It was a bit of a conundrum, for him. His team had all essentially agreed that he'd been trying too hard to... bring them together? Was that what he'd been trying to do?
Wait... That was it!
Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, sighing. It was that easy, wasn't it? When he opened his eyes again, he realized he'd drawn the curious gaze of Pyrrha. He turned to look at her. "What's up?"
"Oh, sorry, it's nothing. You looked deep in thought."
The blond boy nodded as he hummed an affirmative. "Yeah, I just realized something."
It was more like he remembered something, really: a team doesn't need to get along to work together, but it's always more fun when they do. It wasn't something he'd really learned first-hand, but something he knew, nonetheless. Something he'd thought about, in regards to the approach towards his team.
He'd wanted his team to work together, and as leader, he'd thought that was his first step. In hindsight, his first step couldn't have been more obvious. They'd all agreed to be friends, but they weren't there yet... They didn't just spontaneously generate a bond of friendship between each other, as if bound by a couple sentences said when they were all sat in a circle.
That would be stupid.
"What did you realize?" Pyrrha asked semi-quietly. Jaune shook his head in response, his eyes not leaving Professor Peach, who seemed to be waiting in the passive-aggressive way an elementary teacher of his had: staring down whoever was left talking, until they all clued in they needed to shut up and let the adult do the talking. However, Jaune could see the teacher get more and more visibly irritated as the seconds passed.
Finally, the room was completely silent.
"Now that you're all done discussing urgent business, we can begin today's lesson." Peach's airy voice was gentle, but the woman seemed to radiate displeasure. The moment passed, and the professor began to write on the chalkboard, the clacking sound resounding in the silence of the room. Jaune leaned forwards intently, prepared to take notes. "Now then, we're going to start with the most important topic with regards to Dust. Safety."
Jaune smiled a little to himself, remembering arriving at Beacon in the first place. He wouldn't have been surprised at all if Weiss would have turned and stared at Ruby, were they in the same class.
"Dust is the power of nature given physical form. While generally stable, it's not strictly speaking safe nor wise to be holding a crystallized lightning bolt in your bare hands-" There was a giggle from somewhere else in the room "-nor to keep a substantial amount of Burn beneath your bed in your dorm room. Does anyone know the golden rule regarding the safe handling of Dust?"
A couple hands went up around the room, including Ren. Jaune himself knew, but didn't bother raising his hand as so many others already had. That, and he wasn't the type to volunteer to be ridiculed if he actually was wrong, even if he didn't think he was.
"Miss Nikos?"
Pyrrha had not raised her hand, and Jaune turned to her as the girl's green eyes went wide. "...I, umm... the... is uh..."
"No?" The professor acted as if she'd actually expected an answer – where she likely hadn't – before turning her eyes up to the desks behind them. "How about you, Miss Filigree?"
"Always ensure the safety of yourself and those around you?"
"Quite." Professor Peach smiled and nodded, turning around to scratch that onto the chalkboard. "Long before people truly understood Dust, it was handled with the utmost caution. Before it became the backbone of Remnant's civilization, it was heavily policed: There used to be contracts, licenses, much stricter regulations on transport and storage... Nowadays, you can just walk into a store off the street and buy a bag full of raw Burn Dust. Well, provided you are at the least a registered student at a combat school."
Jaune nodded along, remembering asking his mother about that. Since he wasn't a registered student somewhere other than a primary school before... making it into Beacon, he'd have needed to take a course to buy even the tiniest of crystals. Not that he'd needed Dust nor tried to buy any, but it was an important lesson.
"Speaking of which, what's the minimum age someone is able to purchase Dust in Vale?"
The blond raised his hand for this one only because he didn't want Pyrrha to be called on again, if she didn't know – though out of the corner of his eye, he did see Pyrrha's hand go up. Professor Peach's eyes passed over his team, and lingered elsewhere, further back.
"Mr. Lait?"
"T-twelve years old?"
The professor shook her head slowly, her pink hair bobbing as she pursed her lips. "Not quite, no. Mr. Arc?"
"Thirteen" Jaune called out, and the professor nodded.
"Correct. While students can enroll in combat schools as young as twelve for their first year, they are not fully recognized as registered students until they enter their second, at which point they can purchase Dust." The professor scanned the room. "How about the minimum age for someone who isn't a registered student of a combat school?"
The class was silent, and not a hand was raised. Jaune wasn't sure of the answer himself, but he had a guess.
"Miss Nikos?"
Again? Jaune turned to Pyrrha, the redhead of his team caught completely unawares, though her pencil was in hand, taking down notes of what Professor Peach had been writing on the board.
Pyrrha's hand shook.
"Um... uhh..."
This would be a long class.
Pyrrha took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"We'll wait for you outside?"
The redheaded girl turned, giving a fragile half-smile up at Jaune as the boy stood, tucking his notebook beneath one arm. Past him, Blake and Ren were also on their feet, packing their books into their bags.
"Sure. I don't think she'll keep me for long... I hope."
The moment Jaune turned to talk to Blake and Ren, Pyrrha took the opportunity to sigh. She glanced to her left, at Professor Peach, who was talking to another one of Pyrrha's classmates, perhaps answering a question, or the like.
Pyrrha clenched her hand into a fist to stop it from shaking. What did the woman have against her? Three times, she'd been called on when she most certainly hadn't raised her hand.
Three times. And she had never been called on when she had raised her hand for the answers she did know! She closed her eyes, taking another calming breath.
It was frustrating.
The girl felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up. Jaune gave her a reassuring nod and a thumbs-up, before walking out from behind their desk, following Pyrrha's partner and Blake. Ren did shoot her a look as well, but not much else.
After she'd been embarrassed like that, called on repeatedly and being unable to answer... What were their opinions of her? Pyrrha remembered before when it had been revealed to Jaune in their dorm who she was – or rather, what she'd done. She had felt an odd sort of pride, then. It was awkward for sure – like it always was – but she was glad Jaune hadn't gone full fanboy on her. He'd been impressed, and amazed, but he only seemed to respect her more, not revere her.
In the same vein, the other two knew who she was already. Ren knew of her past victories, and apparently, Blake had as well. Had they been treating her the way they had because of that, or was that just the way they were? She couldn't tell.
But now?
She wasn't one to be concerned with her image, but Jaune's eyes, body language, tone of voice... he was pitying her.
She didn't like it at all. It was frustrating.
Being distracted by her own thoughts, Pyrrha hadn't noticed the room was now entirely empty, with the exception of the source of her current torment. The tall, pink-haired professor quickly wiped down the board and stretched, before turning with a smile.
The woman's smile wasn't naturally terrifying, but was terrifying because of how natural of an edge it had. It forced Pyrrha to blink, to make sure she wasn't just imagining it. Professor Peach stopped a short distance away, and crossing her arms.
"Do you know why I wanted you to stay behind?" The room around them was quiet: not strictly for the lack of noise, but because the professor had finished speaking. There was no one else there, but the silence made it seem like the entire class was still there with them, waiting on her answer. Again.
"I... I believe so." Pyrrha started off slowly.
"I believe you do as well." Peach confirmed, glancing towards the exit of the room for but a moment. "Then... do you know why I kept calling on you in class?"
"No." Pyrrha had wondered that all through the remainder of class, once the professor had asked her to stay behind and ceased to ask her any other questions. She had no good answers, but plenty of guesses. The only conclusion she realistically could come to was that the professor hated her, for whatever reason that was.
But the stare the professor was giving her? There was no antagonism, or hate, or dislike. No, none of that, just...
"I'm disappointed in you."
The professor's words hit like a brick. "What?"
"I expected better from you." The professor adjusted her stance. "I'm not talking about the test itself, either. You knew how poorly you did on the quiz even before you handed it in. Sure, you didn't have the exact grade, or know exactly what you got wrong, but you knew you failed. I saw it on your face, that first day."
Pyrrha hesitated, but nodded solemnly.
"And then you did nothing."
The redhead looked up into the professor's eyes, confused. Peach sighed, shaking her head.
"I wanted to see how you handled your poor performance. It was up to you to look back on the results of the quiz you already knew you botched. You failed, so why not take initiative and learn, rather than wallowing in your failure? After realizing you couldn't answer most of the questions on the quiz, I expected you to improve in the short time you've had since. Looking back on today's class... you didn't. You didn't take initiative. You didn't even try to improve. That's hardly the attitude I was expecting from a champion."
Pyrrha was at a loss for words. She opened her mouth, dry lips pulling apart as she breathed out. "What did you expect me to do?"
"Well, for starters, your two teammates did better than most of the rest of class – especially you and Miss Belladonna. You could have talked about the test with your team, comparing answers, asking each other questions and filling in the blanks for each other. But again, you didn't even do that. If anything, it seems like you bitched about the unfairness of it all, and then continued with the rest of your day. If you had the initiative I thought you might, perhaps you might have been a little more prepared for class today than you were."
"I-I'm sorry..."
The professor sighed.
"I targeted you, I'll admit that, but I did it to show just how much room you still have to improve. Not so I could see it, or so the rest of the class could see it, but so you could see it."
She didn't respond to the professor's statement. She couldn't. It felt as if her throat was swollen shut.
"You came to this school to be a huntress, but in your head you're still a tournament fighter. It's not about entertaining people anymore, or winning the crowd, or the thrill of victory. It's about helping people – helping each other – and you need to start thinking like it."
All Pyrrha could offer was a stiff nod. She could remember her first thoughts having seen the energetic professor: that she looked far too young to be a teacher at Beacon.
She wasn't eating those words. They were being stuffed down her throat.
"I'll... do better." She managed to squeeze out.
"That's all I'm expecting from you."
Sitting atop his mattress, Lie Ren was unsure what he should do. Should he say something? Did he go over to his partner, and start up a conversation with her?
In the past two hours since she'd left Professor Peach's class, her expression hadn't changed from the impassive frown she seemed to have. Any questions asked of her, and any conversations turned in her direction, were given non-committal, non-verbal commentary.
Either she had something on her mind and didn't want to talk, or she wanted to talk but didn't know what to say.
Whichever it was, Ren had been watching. For the past two hours, he'd glanced away when it even seemed like she'd turned in his direction, then went back to watching her. When he wasn't fast enough, he'd just offer her a reassuring smile that she'd half-return, then look away.
There was nothing worse than probing eyes when someone wanted to be left alone with their thoughts, aside from outright prying. He'd seen both sides of that, and understood how much damage such a simple thing could cause. Nora could be difficult at times, much like anyone, but she was also someone who Ren knew how to handle, after so long.
A four-time regional tournament champion, who was likely one of the most talented fighters of his generation?
He didn't even know where to start, and as his partner for the next four years, Pyrrha was not someone he wanted to be on less than amiable terms with. All wounds mend with time, of course, but...
The boy took a deep breath through his nose, not letting it show externally, though no one was really watching him. Their classes were done for the day, but with Pyrrha as quiet as she'd been – along with Blake, as usual – there wasn't much to be done.
Jaune, their leader, had been as awkward as Ren felt, except the blond couldn't hide it. If he was trying to, he was failing. Even now, the boy seemed to jump in surprise, before digging his scroll out of his pocket. To Ren, it was the most interesting thing to happen in the past twenty minutes.
"Um... if it's not too strange of a thing for me to ask..."
Ren blinked, realizing the words he was hearing were coming from the redheaded girl who was sitting on the edge of her bed in front of him. He perked up, even as Blake and Jaune – the blond still looking at his scroll, confused – turned towards her.
"What's up?" Ren asked quietly, but not softly. If there was anything that would probably bother the girl from what he knew, it would be walking on eggshells while she was like this.
"Why have you been so quiet?" Blake tacked on, more bluntly. Ren shot her a look, but the girl didn't seem to notice it.
"I've been thinking of what Professor Peach had said to me after class." The redhead shook her head, as if ridding herself of her current thoughts. "Sorry if I've been putting a damper on things."
"No need to apologize."
"It's fine."
Ren shot Blake another look as they both spoke out at the same time. This time, Blake's eyes turned to his, and the girl dipped her head in some form of apology. The boy gave her a short nod, and met Pyrrha's eyes, the girl's mouth partially open.
"What's the Theory of Form?" Pyrrha asked.
The black-haired boy blinked, crossing his arms to mirror his legs as he looked up to the ceiling. It had been a question on their quiz – one he both knew the answer to, and assumed Pyrrha had not. Was she asking him...?
He supposed he could play tutor.
"It was originally presented by Augustus Folly. To put it simply, it's the idea that all Dust is the same at the base level, and that where it's found determines the properties it has. For example, Dust in the deserts of Vacuo could be Wind or Burn Dust, because of the gusting winds, or the scorching heat."
"But it was disproven shortly after it was presented, right?" Jaune called out from across the room, putting his scroll down on his bed. Ren blinked up at him, nodding. "I think I got half-marks for that question. All I could remember was Folly's Folly."
"That's what some people call it, yes. When Burn Dust was found below the tundra north of Mantle, the theory was effectively disproven." Ren continued. "The only reason it was accepted in the first place is because there'd been no concrete evidence against it at the time. Every mine before then had conveniently provided evidence supporting the Theory of Form. It's actually what our current scientific model is derived from, if I remember correctly."
"And that is?" Jaune shuffled in his spot.
"Rather than the idea that something can happen, or is absolutely irrefutably right... The only way you can truly prove something is by proving it's false." He met the three other pairs of eyes in the room individually. "To supply evidence that it is wrong. We know the Theory of Form is wrong, even when we used to think it was right. But now, we cannot make that mistake again. Anything we know now that can be considered right, can be wrong – and vice versa, of course – but for the scientific community, it's better to assume something is impossible and be proven right than to think something is right, and be made a fool of."
Pyrrha blinked, and after a moment, spoke. "I see. I'll try to remember that."
She wasn't going to remember that. Not all he said, at least. Honestly, he needed to take a breath.
"I think that's the longest I've heard you talk." Blake pointed out, voice tinted with a shade of mirth. The boy snorted softly in response.
"It seems awfully... pessimistic?" Ren turned to look at Jaune, the blond's lips pursed. "I mean, I can see how that applies to the Theory of Form, but I don't think people should spend all their time trying to prove someone else is wrong."
Ren blinked at Jaune, before looking over to Blake. The black-haired girl met his eyes and shrugged, and so Ren turned to Pyrrha. The girl's green eyes stared back, posing a silent question to him. One he could assume was also on the blond's mind.
Ren crossed his arms. "It's only for scientific studies, really. That being said, you wouldn't jump off a skyscraper to prove you could survive doing it. You'd just assume you couldn't, right?"
"I mean, of course that makes sense." Jaune guffawed. "I'm just saying it doesn't apply to everything."
"He wasn't saying it applied to everything." Blake pointed out.
Did they misinterpret what he said entirely?
"Yeah, but I don't consider whether getting up out of bed in the morning is impossible or not before I do it."
Yes. Yes, they did.
"How did you end up doing, Blake?" Pyrrha interrupted. He silently thanked her for her timely intervention, but also didn't like where it was going. "Professor Peach mentioned Jaune and Ren did well on the quiz, but we need to make an effort to improve."
"I... umm..."
Blake's answer was cut off by a soft tapping noise, just barely loud enough to interrupt his teammates for him. Whoever was at the door knocked again, the same soft repetition barely echoing around the now quiet room.
"I'll get it." Jaune hopped to his feet immediately, though Ren could only see the blond move out of the corner of his eye, his sight trained on the door. A thought momentarily distracted him, and so he afforded a quick glance towards Pyrrha. Ren could tell the girl was already feeling better. Less tense.
He'd talk to her later, but for now...
Ren quirked his eyebrow as he watched Jaune turn the doorknob, then back away, opening the door and letting whoever was on the other side into the room without even checking to see who it was. He'd been expecting this? Ren sat up a little straighter.
A girl walked in. She seemed about their age, dressed in Beacon's uniform much like Pyrrha and Blake were. The next thing Ren noticed were the long pair of rabbit-like ears atop her head, the fur a shade of brown matching her hair.
After that he noticed the expression on her face. Not a forced smile, but not a natural one either. Awkward, shy, and maybe a little uncertain, but a moment later, standing not a few strides from the middle of the room, her expression settled, and she took a breath. There was nothing beyond that. She didn't say a word, just standing there.
"Uh... alright so... everyone?" Jaune started out, stepping up beside the girl. "This is my sister."
Blake blinked multiple times as her eyes scanned the girl who'd just been introduced. The way she stood awkwardly, yet rigidly in the middle of their dorm room reminded her of someone who wasn't used to being the center of attention, but knew they were, and did their best to deal with it. It wasn't the only thing the black-haired girl noticed, of course.
She couldn't stop herself from glancing up to the tall pair of ears atop the stranger's head.
Jaune's sister was a faunus?
Blake blinked again, crossing her arms to look somewhat natural. It most certainly caught her off guard – and brought more than a few questions to the girl's mind. She looked up at Jaune, eyes narrowing as she inspected him closer.
He didn't have ears like the girl, that much she could tell just from a glance. She looked back to the new girl, staring at the ears sticking up. A rabbit, if she had to guess.
"H-hello. I'm Velvet."
"Nice to meet you." Pyrrha spoke out rather energetically, despite how quiet and moody she'd been earlier. Probably some kind of automatic response she'd developed over her time in the spotlight, Blake figured.
"Hi." The terse response was Ren. When the girl's eyes turned towards Blake, all she could offer was a somewhat stiff wave and a smile. The cat faunus pursed her lips, glancing up at Velvet's ears again when the girl turned to Jaune.
What kinds of traits could a rabbit faunus have? Obviously, the ears were a big one, but Jaune didn't have those, clearly... Did he have a tail? She hadn't seen a sign of anything like that. Did he have a trait she'd have noticed at all?
She racked her brain, trying to remember everything she could about faunus genetics, but ultimately gave up, realizing it would be better to see what she could find out about her partner from his sister, provided she got the chance.
Blake moved closer, but only to a comfortable distance. Whereas she'd been standing earlier, she instead pulled the chair from their dorm's supplied desk, and sat in it, crossing her legs. She watched closely, studying the girl as she whispered something to Jaune.
Velvet turned back to Pyrrha, and gave her a smile. "It's nice to meet you... um..."
"Oh!" Pyrrha's greeting smile grew into a grin. "I'm Pyrrha."
"Pyrrha." The girl nodded with a smile on her face. "Right."
Blake watched Velvet carefully, trying to pick out everything she could about the girl. The last thing she wanted was to be caught staring, really, but who wouldn't be staring at someone they were just introduced to?
"I'm Blake." She called out from where she sat, prompting the girl to turn towards her. "Jaune's partner."
Velvet seemed to perk up at that, clasping her hands in front of her. "Please, keep an eye on him for me."
That got an honest smile out of Blake, though the girl's mind instantly went somewhere else. "Don't worry, I'll keep him from walking through any doors he shouldn't."
Her comment got a groan from Jaune, a blush from Pyrrha, a brow-raise from Ren, and a curious glance back at Jaune from Velvet. The brown-haired girl turned back to Blake and tilted her head slightly. "Sounds like a story?"
"Nope." Jaune outright declared, putting his hands on his sister's shoulders and steering her towards Ren. "No story."
Blake covered up her own chuckle, even as Jaune shot a glare back at her. She raised her hands in a mocking surrender, and the blond shook his head.
As Jaune turned to Ren, and the black-haired boy introduced himself to Velvet, Blake remembered what her partner had said before and the puzzle pieces fell into place. She could hit herself for not having remembered it sooner.
Jaune and Velvet weren't blood related.
The other day when they'd all sat around the dorm, almost as they did now, he'd mentioned that, hadn't he? Blake drew a breath through her nose, huffing to herself in frustration. She tried to remember everything about that conversation, but it seemed so long ago. They weren't half-sister and half-brother, or anything like that. He'd... chosen her as his own sister, or something like that? Family, but not related by blood. Close friends, as close as siblings.
Blake bit her lip, looking up at Velvet's ears again. Still, he'd never said anything about her being a faunus, had he? That would have been something she'd have remembered for certain.
In her thoughts, Blake realized she missed Ren's introduction – and subsequently, anything else said between the others in the room. As Velvet turned to smile at them all again, the black-haired girl really hoped she hadn't missed anything important.
As Jaune and his sister stood there, herself, Ren, and Pyrrha sitting, the room observed silence. Blake opened her mouth to talk, even as her eyes met Jaune's and Pyrrha's, and for a brief moment, Velvet's. She looked to Ren, and the boy shrugged back at her.
"So, uh..." Blake hated having to be the one to break the silence, but honestly, unless somebody said something they were going to be there for a while. "Jaune's sister?"
Part of Blake still couldn't quite see it. Nothing as extravagant as not being able to fathom something of the sort, but...
"Well, he calls me his sister." Velvet nodded. "I never had siblings of my own, and Jaune was... stubborn enough that it stuck, even when I didn't think it would. Our parents figured he'd grow out of it, but after a while, I started to feel like his sister too. We've been friends for what seems like forever."
"I don't even remember far enough back to recall a time where Velvet wasn't around." Jaune confirmed, before scratching the back of his head when Velvet turned to stare at him, awkwardly not meeting the girl's eyes. "Or, well, okay, that was an exaggeration but it's been a long time."
It was... strange. Jaune, as far as Blake was aware, was human, and Velvet was a faunus, yet they acted as if... as if there was nothing different between the two of them. No tension. It was what she wanted for the rest of Remnant, wasn't it? Equality. Humans and faunus to treat each other with a mutual respect. To cooperate. Now, here in front of her, was a prime example of it: a human and a faunus so close they were like siblings.
It just seemed so foreign to her.
"How'd you meet?" The question was posed by Pyrrha, the redhead resting her chin across laced fingers, having moved to lay along the length of her bed. She had a pleasant smile on her face, an impressive contrast to the expression she'd worn since Peach's class. The thought brought Blake's own concerns regarding her mark back to the surface, but she pushed them back down, watching her partner and Velvet with interest.
"You mind if I tell them?" Was the question Jaune posed, the brown-haired girl shrugging in response.
"I'll correct what you get wrong. Go for it."
The blond boy nodded, before taking a breath. "It was a Wednesday afternoon wh-"
"It was Tuesday."
Ren snorted in amusement, even as Blake felt the smile creep up onto her face. She liked this girl already. Jaune himself paused, blinked, took a moment to think, and turned. "...Was it Tuesday?"
Velvet nodded slowly, as if Jaune were equally slow.
"Alright, so it was a warm, Tuesday afterno-"
"It was scorching. I wouldn't say it was just warm."
"You know what? Maybe I should let the one with a photographic memory handle this."
"Eidetic memory." Velvet corrected.
"...I'm just going to shut up now."
The girl scoffed. "Oh, don't be like that. Besides, you tell stories better than I do."
"Sorry to interrupt, but I've never met someone with an eidetic memory." Ren noted, Blake and the rest turning to him. "Mine's not perfect, but it's easy to recall numbers and facts and the like."
"Oh?" Velvet's ears seemed to perk up. "It's not like it's difficult for me to remember facts and the like, but it's more like a movie playing back in my head."
"You know, my oldest sister has a perfect memory too when it comes to pointing out everything I did wrong..." Jaune seemed to muse aloud, Velvet turning back to him with a smile.
"I think that's all of your siblings."
A moment passed, and what Jaune said registered. "Wait, what?" Blake had though he was the oldest. Had she misheard him?
"They're terrors, that's for sure."
Velvet chuckled. "Jaune, you should be nice to your sisters."
"You're one of them, you don't get to say that."
The rabbit faunus pouted. "You don't want to be nice to me?"
Jaune turned his face up and away from the girl, as if he knew looking at her would convince him otherwise, and rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing exasperatedly. "Can I just tell the story already?"
"Yes, yes. Sorry." The brown-haired faunus confirmed with a giggle, stepping over to Jaune's bed, climbing on top of it and sitting, legs crossed.
"Thank you..." Jaune breathed out, before drawing another breath in. "It was a somewhat hot, somewhat warm Tuesday afternoon. Summer day, sun was shining in the sky... maybe a couple clouds passing overhead. Sound good so far?"
Velvet hummed an affirmative, ears nodding along.
"Right. So, I'm what, maybe four years old? I'm playing on the back porch with some kind of toy my mom bought for me, when I hear something. It sounds like squeaking, or whining or something from the direction of my father's garden so, being the brave soul I was, I decided to go and investigate."
Blake, along with both Pyrrha and Ren, turned to look at Jaune's sister.
"It's his story." Was all the girl said with a mirthful smile, smoothing out the fur on her ears.
"Imagine my surprise when I find a girl in a dress with a little bit of dirt on her face, crawling through the cabbages. She hadn't been squeaking or whining, like I thought: She was playing Huntress, and, umm... how did you say it back then? Making Grimm death noises? Of course, I saw her ears, and I was curious. She was the first faunus I'd met."
"Oh, this is the best part."
"So here comes my dad, calling out from the porch where I was earlier, asking what I was doing in the garden... I told him that I found a rabbit. The moment Velvet's head popped up over the potatoes... I'll never forget the look on his face."
That sounded... cute, almost. Blake couldn't keep the slight smile from curling her lips.
"Dad called her parents, invited them over for dinner, and that's how it all started." Jaune finalized with a grin. "We don't have enough time for us to cover everything we've been through since then. We'd need weeks. No, months. Actually..."
Jaune turned to her, his blue eyes piercing as they met hers. Blake wasn't sure what kind of glare it was he sent her – nor how he had executed it so subtly – but she felt ashamed. For what, she wasn't sure. His eyes softened, and he turned back to Velvet. "Why don't you tell them about the water balloon fight with my sisters? I want to talk to my partner about something."
Blake blinked, now on the spot. She didn't have a clue what he wanted to talk about, but Velvet shot her a glance before looking up at Jaune. The black-haired girl froze up. Had Jaune's sister figured it out? Did she let him know somehow, subtly?
Would he expose her to the rest of their team?
The rabbit faunus looked between Ren and Pyrrha, even as the two teammates gave Blake questioning glances of their own. Her own eyes fell on Jaune, and the boy nodded towards the door. He wanted to talk in private too. There was that blessing, if the topic they were going to discuss aligned with her own suspicions
Blake stood, even as Jaune made his way outside, leaning into the room to hold the door for her. She took his place holding it as the boy stepped out into the hall, turning and looking both ways to ensure it was empty.
The door clicked behind her.
"Uh, sorry for making this..." The boy winced, but his eyes had the same steel they held when he'd glanced at her earlier. He scratched at the back of his head, something Blake was beginning to realize was a nervous habit of his. "I guess it's an assumption?"
There was a momentary silence, where Blake didn't realize she needed to respond. After realizing he was waiting for her cue, she made a permissive gesture with her hand, and Jaune nodded, taking a breath, and closing his eyes.
The blond opened them.
"Are you a racist?"
Blake blinked repeatedly.
"Uhh...?"
"You... the entire time Velvet's been here, you've kinda been staring at her ears. At least, every time I look over at you, you are, so..."
Wait...
"If you have a problem with faunus or something... look, I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. Tensions are rising, and with the White Fang out doing terrorist-y stuff, there's lots of reasons for humans and faunus to not get along, but Velvet is my sister. I don't care about any of that crap. She's someone I care about, and if you can't comprehend that... Well, you're going to have to live with it. As much as her and the rest of her kind have to. You get that?"
What!?
Did he seriously just call her a racist? Or at least imply that what she was doing was racist? She was a faunus! How dare he! He...
Didn't know that.
"Just so we're clear, I guess." Jaune sighed, stepping past her. There was nothing hostile about the way he moved, but she shrunk back slightly. "If you need some time to think about it, I'll just head on back in-"
Jaune rattled the doorknob, before he sighed, reaching into his pockets. He patted himself down, and his eyes went wide.
"Uh, actually..." He turned to her with an apologetic smile, "do you have your scroll on you? I... think I locked us out."
... What?