(Welcome to Revved Up Chapter 8! Get ready for a relaxing weekend!)

(RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. Otherwise everyone would have their personalities from Chibi.)

—-

I woke up at 7 sharp. Today was Saturday, so no school today!

Then again, though… What would we do?

I had breakfast with Ilia and Blake. I found a recipe for huevos rancheros online, and it turned out pretty good. Yang said she liked it, too.

Trying to start a conversation, Blake spoke up. "Hey, Ruby, did you know that Faunus can communicate through animal sounds?"

"...Really?" I asked.

"Yep. We did it all the time back at Menagerie." Ilia confirmed.

"Speaking of which…" Blake remembered. Looking over at Ilia, she purred, which felt like she was saying "Yo, where was my Burrito Bell money just earlier?"

"Are you accusing me of taking YOUR Burrito Bell money?" Ilia gasped. "You know I don't eat tacos after the incident!"

"Who's to say you didn't use it for something else?" Blake meowed.

"That's a good point… but look, I didn't steal your stupid Lien, ok?"

"Well then, why isn't it on my bedside table, where I put it?" Blake hissed.

"...did you check your wallet?" Ilia reminded, unimpressed.

The Lien was in Blake's wallet. "Oh." she said, quietly.

"See, told ya!" Ilia laughed.

"Oh, shush, scaleface." Blake muttered.

While feeding Zwei, I turned to Blake, and asked her, "Hey, Blake… why exactly could I understand all of that?"

"I dunno, context clues?" she shrugged.

"No, like, when you were making cat noises, I could FEEL what you were saying." I explained.

"You were like, nya nya nya, and I was like, I understand completely!"

"Well, if you're feeling that, then you… may or may not be… a Faunus?" Blake hypothesized.

"Wait, really?" I asked, genuinely confused.

Ilia motioned to Blake, and brought me into the bathroom for what they called a "full-body inspection." They said they had learned to do this in the White Fang, because only Faunus are allowed in, and Faunus traits can be very subtle.

They were going to strip me, weren't they?

Blake locked the door, and then began the inspection. "Ok, Ruby, show me your teeth." I bared my teeth, and she got a closer look. "Seems like nothing here. Ok, let me brush through your hair real quick, to check for any ears you've never noticed."

She combed her hands through my hair, and found nothing. "Ilia, extremity check." Blake instructed. They sat me down, and took off my shoes. Blake inspected my hands, while Ilia checked my feet. "Anything, Ilia?" Blake inquired. "Nope, how about you?" Ilia shrugged. "Nope." Blake answered.

"Ok, Ruby, now you might feel a little uncomfortable here, but trust me, I am not going to touch anything." Blake assured me. She then proceeded to look up my skirt, within full view of my lady parts, but true to her word, she did not touch anything. "Nothing." she shrugged.

"Well, guess we have no other choice." Ilia acknowledged. Oh no. It was time.

They pulled back my collar and looked down at my chest. "It could be worse, I guess." I thought.

Then they looked down my back. Blake asked me uncertainly, "Ruby, have you ever noticed your back being a little… hairy?"

"I thought that's just how bodies worked." I admitted. "But yes, I've noticed that."

"I know what we're doing today." she declared. "Sauna and shopping."

"...why?" I asked, uneasily.

"You'll see." she assured me.

"Yo girls, feeling awake yet?" Blake called Yang and Weiss.

"Yep, what do you need?" Yang answered.

"Not really." Weiss nodded.

"Well in that case, do you wanna go heat up a little? It's looking cold outside." Blake suggested.

"Eh, sure why not?" Yang agreed.

"No thank you. The cold never bothered me, anyway." Weiss yawned, going back for some more sleep. Hadn't slept well, I guess.

So I drove everyone to the sauna, which Ilia provided directions to. We got in the hot steamy room, put on plenty of towels, and sat for a while. I could feel the hair… unsticking from my back? "Weird." I thought, but ignored the feeling, at least until the drive to the store.

"Hey, Blake…" I inquired, "...why could I feel my back hair… unsticking?"

"That's good to hear." she confirmed, which didn't answer my question.

"Um, Blake? That doesn't answer my question." I questioned.

"I know, but this will." she said excitedly as I pulled into the parking lot.

We arrived at Old Deery's, the clothing store for all your Faunus needs. The cute spider lady at the checkout register, Trifa, appeared. "Oh, hey Blake, what brings you here?" she inquired.

"Hey Trifa, do you perchance have something red, with a skirt, and in a women's medium?" Blake requested.

"Yep, it's across from where you always get your outfits." Trifa confirmed.

Blake waved us over to the women's half of the store and beamed, "Well, ladies, follow me!"

We wandered over to the far right of the store, where various shirts, pants, and other various clothing items were all in black. "Well, we all know Blake is a loyal customer." I laughed to myself.

I looked to my left, and saw the most perfect outfit ever. Red lace, a puffy skirt, and a bandanna to go with my favorite scarf! It was perfect! I showed it to Blake, and she nodded. "Welp, that was easy! Time to go pay up!"

We dashed to the checkout counter, and passed the two-piece beauty to Trifa. "That'll be $78.99." she settled.

"Damn, that's expensive." I thought. Luckily, Blake came prepared. She happened to have four twenty-dollar Lien cards on her, and the outfit was paid for.

We said our goodbyes to Trifa, and I drove us home. Once we were back at the RWBY dorm, Yang woke up Weiss, who was apparently dreaming about a table made of Legos, and we gathered in the TV room. "Everyone, we have gathered you here today because of a special occasion." Blake announced. "This morning, Ilia and I discovered something special about Ruby here, and you are about to witness one of the greatest changes of your life." Then she turned to me. "Ruby, come with me. Ilia, don't spoil it."

"Aye aye, captain!" Ilia cheered, performing a mock salute.

Blake took me into the bathroom, where she changed me. As she did, I felt something, like a new muscle in my body, just above my butt. "Weird," I thought. "Never noticed that before."

And then it hit me.

Blake soon got done putting on my skirt, and then called out the door. "We're ready!" I dashed into the TV room, speechless with excitement. Blake then calmly suggested, "Ruby, you wanna turn around?" I nodded and then turned my back to the three on the couch.

I heard Yang gasp, "Oh-Oh my god, Ruby! You have a tail!"

I screamed, "I KNOW RIGHT!?" My tail, which was fluffy like a nice, big dog, started wagging uncontrollably. With this excitement, a second realization came. "Can… Can I talk to Zwei?" I thought to myself. I felt like I had ascended.

So I ran up to Zwei, and barked at him. "Hey, guess what?"

He gave me a bark in return, which meant "What is it, Master?"

I turned around, and showed him. He barked twice, meaning "Y-You're a dog now?"

I gave out a ruff, saying "Yep! So now I can talk with you!"

He howled, meaning "Wow! That's amazing, Master!"

I whimpered a little, meaning "You don't have to call me Master, Zwei. Just call me Ruby!"

"Will do!" he barked.

At that, I noticed it was lunch time. I woofed, "See you later, Zwei! I gotta go eat!"

"See you, Ruby!" he panted.

In the lunchroom, the girls and I sat next to Team PCMR. "Salutations, friends!" Penny waved.

My tail fell into a slow wag. "Hi, Penny! Hi, guys!" I waved.

Tyra began talking about her anime fighting crossover with Yang again, Blake and Penny began whispering about robot stuff, and Ciel started up a conversation with Weiss about Pavlovian conditioning. Rocco motioned to me. "I never noticed your tail," he spoke.

"I found it just today, actually!" I clarified. "I never knew I had Faunus heritage before this morning!"

"I see," he nodded. "From the looks of it, you're a dog, a King Shepherd specifically."

"I've never heard of that one." I wondered.

"It's like a German Shepherd, but fluffier," he explained.

"I see," I nodded.

"Who do you think you got your Faunus genes from?" he asked me.

"I assume my mother, because my dad isn't a Faunus." I guessed.

"Seems reasonable," he agreed.

But by then… we had run out of things to talk about, so I asked, "Why did you want to become a Huntsman?"

"You see… I have a quote on quote 'friend' named Adam. Your roommates Ilia and Blake might recognize him too. He is the leader of the White Fang." Rocco began.

"Uh oh. I've heard all sorts of trouble about this guy." I realized.

"Adam doesn't like Humans very much. In fact, he utterly despises them. This is because there was once a time when Faunus were prejudiced against, treated like animals. We were called names, kicked out of restaurants, and even enslaved, especially by a man named Jacques Schnee." he continued.

"Schnee?" I thought, shocked. "This 'Jacques' is related to Weiss in some way."

"But now, all that is gone. Faunus are treated as equal to Humans. All is right. But Adam doesn't see the world like everyone else. He has no sense of trust. He still thinks the Humans are hiding something. He thinks they might be playing nice, just so they can rip our trust from us all over again. Of course no one listens to him, because they see the world through the eyes of a sane person. So Adam, fearing that his underlings may rebel against him, created the White Fang's signature masks, which control the mind of the wearer to bend to Adam's will." he concluded.

"I knew those masks were up to something!" I mentally confirmed. "Adam has to be stopped, but when will I get the chance…?"

"So that is why I chose to become a Huntsman, to protect the world from people like Adam. How about you?" he asked me.

I gave a much more simple answer. "Well, my parents were members of Team STRQ, and I've always wanted to be like them."

"Oh, I see." he nodded. "Professor Oobleck told me about the Beringel attack that happened several years ago. Do you know anything about that?" he asked me.

"Yeah, that's how my mother passed. It happened when I was, like, two." I confirmed.

"Sorry to hear that." he sighed.

Suddenly, it was 1:30. "Man, lunch is over already?" I exclaimed. "It was nice talking to you, Rocco! See you soon!" I called as we headed back to the RWBY dorm.

"I shall see you soon as well, Ruby." he called back.

On our way to the RWBY dorm, we passed dorm room number 652, which was the dorm room for Team FNKI, and heard what sounded like… techno music? Yang knocked, and a lanky boy with creamy-white hair answered the door. "Yes?" he waited.

"Uh, we were just wondering what that music was." Yang clarified politely.

"Oh, we were just throwing a small party, since we just transferred here. Mind joining in?" he invited us.

"Sure, why not?" I smiled. "Got nothing else to do."

"Come on in, then!" he smiled. "Everyone, I brought a few people!" he called.

A blue-haired boy laying on the couch with 7 empty cans of beer walked up to Ivori, drunk and angry. "Ivori…" he growled. "What did I TELL you, about inviting RANDOM PEOPLE, to our VERY EXCLUSIVE PARTIES?"

"Kobalt honey, I'm not going to try to reason with you, because you are drunk as HELL right now. Now you just lay on the couch and think about the things you've done, ok sweetie?" Ivori comforted. "Don't worry about my boyfriend, he's a little drunk right now, as per usual."

"Heh. Reminds me of Uncle Qrow." I chuckled to myself. "Always drunk on a bad day. In fact, I can't think of an occasion when Uncle Qrow wasn't drunk."

"Yo Ive, you know these people?" a raspberry-haired girl called from the turntables.

"No, they're just stopping by!" Ivori called back. "That's Neon, she's our DJ. She's not actually our leader, but she may as well be. She was really popular back at Atlas."

"You guys went to Atlas?" Blake wondered.

"Yeah. Thank god we moved here, that place sucked." he reminisced.

"Hell yeah, Headmaster Ironwood was so mean. Ozpin is way better!" a tall boy with a trumpet commented.

"Oh, and this is Flynt. He's our leader, and he's also a songwriter!" Ivori introduced him.

"Yo, 'sup." Flynt shook hands with me.

"Hello, Mr Flynt, I'm glad to be going here with you." I smiled.

"Oh shoot, it looks like Kobalt is waking up. I'll go calm him down. They're all yours, Flynt!" Ivori exited.

"Ok, now that he's gone, name a song." Flynt challenged.

"Hello from the Forest?" I suggested.

"Wrote that one." he retorted.

"Kung Pao Chicken." Yang added.

"That too." he responded

"Lion Men Extinguishing Forest Fires." Blake stammered.

"That's not a real song." Flynt predicted.

"Dammit…" Blake mumbled angrily.

"Mirror Mirror." Weiss challenged.

"You wrote that one." Flynt answered.

"Eggzackly." Weiss beamed.

I checked the time. "Oh shoot, we gotta go. Ilia is probably worried. See ya guys!" I called as we left.

"Bye now, you four! Be safe!" Ivori called back.

Sure enough, Ilia was waiting for us back at the dorm. "Where the hell were you guys? I've been waiting forever!" she scolded.

"We met Team FNKI just earlier. They're party people, essentially." I clarified.

"I would have loved to meet them. What were they like?" she wondered.

"Well, there's the leader Flynt, he wrote a ton of famous songs, and there's Neon, the DJ, who's super popular, and there's Kobalt, who was drunk at the time, and lastly there's Ivori, the really nice guy who introduced us." Blake explained.

"Yep, they sound like party people to me." Ilia nodded. As they continued their discussion, I had a chat with Zwei.

"Hey, did you miss me?" I barked.

"Yes, I did. You were away for a while." he whined.

"It's ok, because now I'm back!" I panted.

"You're right, Ruby. I'm glad you're able to talk to me now." he panted back.

"I feel the same way, my friend." I barked. "But it's time for us to go to sleep now."

"Good night, Ruby."

"Good night, Zwei."

This night was a good night. I dreamt I was in DiggerBuilder, my favorite video game. I built a house with my friends, fought hordes of rectangular Apathy, and tamed a wolf I'd named Zwei.

I didn't want to wake up.

—-

(Ok, this went very well! I feel like I'm more in my element here. Yeah, slice of life seems nice.)

(Also yes, we will meet SSSN, I just haven't found a place for them yet. As for now though, Chapter 9 is coming soon! Leave a good review, read, enjoy, and stay tuned for more!)