a/n Sorry for the wait, the last month was a busy one for me. Here is the first full chapter in this story and i hope you all like it. As usual any creative criticism will be greatly appreciated, my grammar is not the best so ill take any help i can get
cover image by Ren Lyles
Instagram: renlyles
Chapter one: New freinds
A few days after my sudden intrusion to their home, I had started to get used to the craziness that is the Xio Long house hold. My wound had healed up enough for me to get around without one of the girls walking beside me as a crutch. The fact that they even have been helping me was still a surprise to me, when asked about it all they said In response was that it was how they were raised; to help anyone they could. It also seemed as if the girls were getting used to me, although the younger girl still would blush from time to time when she looked at me, no doubt still embarrassed from walking in on me. A fact that her older sister seemed to tease her about whenever she could. "So Ruby, can I ask what this so called secret mission could be about that your father is on?". With a shrug she looks at me from across the kitchen table as her older sister sets a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of her.
"The only thing we know is he got a message from some big shot Hunter contractor and then poof he was gone after giving us a crappy explanation as to why". She begins to wolf down the pancakes with the speed of a hungry beowolf, as she wipes her mouth of syrup she turns to the older blond to ask her if she knew.
With another shrug that sent her massive mane of blonde hair waving to and fro. "I have no idea as well, I asked uncle Qrow when he was in town but all he said was that dad was on vacation from us brats". She sets a plate down in front of me and I begin to start eating as she sits down with her own. "Since the local communication tower is still messed up from the storm me and Rubes were thinking about heading into Vale to attempt to contact dad at the CCT tower, do you want to come into town with us Tyler?"
"Yeah I'll tag along, I have to go pick up something at a weaponsmith in town" a sigh escapes my lip as I finish, causing the girls to look at me questioningly.
"Whats up with the sigh wolfy boy?" the older sister, Yang asked me as she starts to clean her plate like her sister had done.
Chuckling softly at the nickname I finish my plate and lean back in the chair and look at each of them. "Well my injury was caused by some chick, someone who I did not know in the slightest". Closing my eyes I think about the fight that happened only a few days ago. I proceed to tell them in as much detail as I could recap of it. I had just accepted a bounty on a low level Grimm that was not supposed to be that rough of a kill. While getting my gear together I noticed my weapon was a bit squeaky when I went to transform it, so I decided to leave it at my weaponsmith so I would make it to my destination in time. A quick bullhead trip later and I'm in Patch to hunt down the Grimm that had been causing problems on the supply roads. Quickly finding my target I had closed my eyes and focused on activating my semblance. Feeling the usual rush of cold air caused by the manipulation of darkness I envision the weapon I'm looking for. Opening my eyes I smirk softly as a dark purple orb forms in my hand before elongating into a five foot long spear with a simple arrowhead at the end of it. After a short battle it begins to storm as I turn around to head back to town. Only to be blocked by a stranger who quickly drew her weapon and rushed at me.
Yang starts to laugh as I finish the story, her sister looking at her with a horrified expression "Yang that's not funny he got really hurt from that woman!!" she chided her sister as I laugh softly at their antics.
"Sorry sorry, it's just how can you slip in a puddle like that!? I mean what kind of luck is that". She wipes the tears that began to form from her laughing as she looks at me. Ruby pouts with a huff and turns to me expecting an answer as well. Geez these girls are even worse than what Tai had told me.
"Crappy luck that's what it is, I don't even understand it myself. It's almost as if fate itself said screw you". I look back at the girls and shrug as I take out my scroll to send a message to my weaponsmith letting her know I'll be in town soon. "So you two want to head Into Vale now or are we going to sit here laughing at me?"
The trip to Vale by bullhead went without any more of the girls antics which was to my relief. After a few days and nights of them, I wondered how exactly their father could manage to stay sane living with them for so long. Feeling my scroll buzz I pull it out and after seeing a message from my weapon smith, I respond letting her know I just touched down and would be at her shop momentarily. Waving goodbye to the sisters as they headed to the CCT tower I make my way to my destination. A short walk later, and I am in front of a small gray painted shop with a sword and shield emblem painted on the front above a neon sign with the words "Cindy's blades". Walking in I wince at the high-pitched ding that rang out from above the door, I rub my wolf ears softly as I look at the woman behind the counter. "Hey Cindy what's up?" I look her up and down giving her a sly grin as she waves at me. Cindy was a woman considered by any who sees her to be a short stack, her height being somewhere around the 5'3. Her long blond hair tied up in a large bun on top of her head, bright green eyes seem to sparkle as she regards me.
"If it ain't my favorite faunus customer, come to pick up the beauty that is your weapon?" a grin grows on her face as she walks from behind the counter to shake my hand, her grip as strong as an ursa's.
"Yeah if it's ready that is, I know the maintenance for it probably wasn't bad after all"
With a sly smirk she punches my gut softly and grins up at me, which looked adorable seeing as how I am a good few inches taller than her. "Nah it wasn't bad I'm done with her now, speaking of her when are you going to name her. You know that's what makes a hunter right?" she chuckles softly when I shrug, her smirk growing bigger as the bell rings above the door. With a wince of my wolf ears I turn around to see who it is as Cindy greets the new customer "well lookie here, just the person I was hoping for. C'mon over here I want you to meet someone. His semblance is basically your weapon!!" with an excited tone she grabs the new customer by her hand and pulls her over to me.
"O-oh cindyyy I thought I asked you not to pull me like that!" with a laugh Cindy pushes the girl to me and walks to her backroom whistling in an all to innocent manner. "H-hello there my name's Velv- OH you're a faunus like me!" I look down at the girl and regard her fully, firstly noticing the large rabbit ears atop a head of long gorgeous brown hair, her large brown eyes looking up at me with a slight sparkle to them, causing heat to rise to my cheeks. Oh, dust help me she is beautiful. Looking down I notice her outfit being a simple brown tracksuit that fit snugly onto her body, allowing me to see a slightly athletic build beneath.
"Sorry about Cindy she's a character. And yes I'm a wolf faunus" I wiggle My wolf ears slightly as I speak to emphasize the point. "I am surprised to see another faunus at her shop though since normally this area is full of racist assholes" I say as I look back up at her face I notice a slight blush starting to form on her cheeks. Had she seen my blush possibly? Well too late to take it back now I suppose.
"Yes I've noticed how she is…as for the other part, me being at this part of town well…Cindy is the only one who could build my weapon as I wanted. I usually come with my team to back me up but…" her words trail off as her ears droop, and she grabs one arm with the other behind her. Sensing her reluctance to talk about it, I decided to change the subject.
"Your team? You must be a student at Beacon then, what year are you in?" asking her the question proved a good distraction as she quickly fumbles in her pocket to bring out her scroll. She holds it out to me showing a student hunter I.D with her picture and other Information on it.
"Velvet Scarlatina, I'll be a second year when school starts back up for the year. My semblance is Photographic memory, it allows me to mimic others fighting styles and weapons in combat." The faunus girl tilts her head as if thinking for a second, her rabbit ears tilting just the same in an action almost to adorable for myself to handle. "Wait what did she mean when she said your semblance is like my weapon?". Her eyes widen as she finishes speaking "I-if you don't mind telling me that is, I know a lot of people like keeping it secret". Not being able to help myself I reach out and muss her hair, causing her to blush an incredible shade of red.
"Don't worry it's okay, I don't mind telling you. My semblance is the manipulation of shadows, it allows me to do plenty of things such as making weapons from the shadows; think of it like hard light constructs in a way." Her eyes widen again, and she steps a tiny bit closer with a sparkle in her eyes once more.
"My weapon makes hard light constructs of whatever I take a picture of with it…" her words taper off as she notices how close she got to me, backing up with a blush she goes to speak before a door at the back opens up. Cindy walks out holding a black box with gold trim in one hand and a black metal gauntlet in the other.
"Well here we go, weapons piping hot out the oven" the small woman laughed at her own joke before tossing the gauntlet to me, my eyes looking over it carefully to see if Cindy had added anything as she was prone to do.
"So how much do I owe you for this one?" I ask her as I slide the gauntlet onto my right hand, it's base stopping halfway up my forearm. Turning it I look it over even more, starting at the finger tips I noticed that she had sharpened them even more than I had; which wasn't a bad thing really since it could help fighting the grim. Continuing down I look at the thin metal that was wrapped from the wrist down to the base of the gauntlet, a white line seemed to be in the center of the wrap. Frowning I look at Cindy questioningly "What did you add to it?"
Having the decency to look sheepish the shortest woman looks at me "I added a flexible colorless dust core in the wrapping. I'm sure you can figure out what to do with it".
Sighing I shake my head and begin to walk out the door "nice meeting you velvet, and Cindy you still have my card on file so go ahead and charge it".
"Hey wait- uh…can I get your scroll number? I uh…want to see your semblance in action. It might help me with my own fighting style the rabbit faunus blushes softly with shyness as she walks closer handing me her scroll to exchange numbers. After giving her my number I notice Cindy wearing a neat shit eating grin as she winks at me and walks back to the register.
"Right now I'm staying in Patch with some friends, so let me know if you want to hang out and train some, although I'm healing from an injury so my aura isn't as strong as it normally is."
Her seemingly near permanent blush deepens some as she nods softly, her rabbit ears bouncing softly as she does. "I will, let you know- Oh Wait I didn't ask your name!"
"The names Tyler, see you around Velvet." Walking out, I pull out my scroll to see where Yang and Ruby wanted to meet up. Seeing that they wanted to meet up at the CCT tower I start heading to it.
As I walk close to the tower I see Ruby and Yang coming out, waving them over I notice the look on Yang's face as she looks at me. " Hey what's wrong?"
Yang sighs softly before looking down at her feet, her eyes burning crimson for a second before Ruby puts her hand on her back soothingly "We ended up learning exactly what our dad is up to and well ill just say that it isn't something that we were expecting from him". She pulls away from Ruby and looks back up to me "He also said we need to be careful around you, care to tell us what he means by this" glaring at me her hair starts to glow, a sign I have came to associate with her semblance activating.
"Yang calm down Tyler hasn't done anything to us, so he shouldn't be all that bad….right?" the little redhead looks at me questioningly.
"Well he more than likely is saying that due to the nature of my semblance since I control shadows, many people think it is a power that comes from the darkness that creates the Grimm. Which they may be right, there are still things I need to learn about my semblance ". Looking into Yang's eyes I hold my hand out to her "You can trust me, I have no intention of doing anything to hurt either of you. And if you or your father would rather me leave your home I will do so, I can shack up in a motel or something as I usually do.
Ruby looks at her sister with a small look of sadness, her mouth seeming to attempt to form words but failing to do so. With a sigh Yang shakes my hand and nods softly to her younger sister "well dad also said he trusts you, seeing as how you have saved his ass apparently on one mission. He also said it makes him feel better about leaving us alone if someone was there that can fight."
"Does that mean he can stay?!" the sudden shout from Ruby makes me chuckle as Yang nods. It seems that the little redhead gets attached to people quickly. She quickly hugs me before looking at her sister, proving my assumption not a moment later.
"So what was is Tai up to?" I asked the sisters, hoping to shift the subject away from me.
A low growl escapes Yang's lips as she closes her eyes before opening her mouth to speak, but it is Ruby who answers "he is looking for our mother. He told us someone who looked like her was seen out near Atlas and well…he took off like the hot headed man he is."
A long sigh escapes the blondes lips before she shakes her head "lets head back home I need a long hot shower to get my mind clear of all this stuff".
As Yang goes to walk away I start to follow her before I feel a weight settle onto my arm, looking down I see Ruby looking at the gauntlet on my right hand. With stars in her eyes she makes to ask about my weapon before I put a finger to her mouth "wait till we get home, then ill answer your question about my weapon." With a pout that could melt the heart of anyone who saw it, she let go and proceeded to grumble as we walked to the airfield, so we could get a bullhead back to Patch.
