You watch Ruby eagerly await her ice cream as the server scoops up a large amount of chocolate chip cookie dough. You still think it's kind of hilarious that a girl fit to lead Team RWBY is bouncing up and down awaiting her treat like an enthusiastic child. As she snatches it out of the server's hands with a rushed thank you, she flits over to a table in a swarm of rose petals and begins licking it as if her life depended on it.
Yang is a bit more not a child about buying her sherbet cone, nodding at the server and joining her sister. You and Blake are still unsure of what flavor you want, so you let a small family of horned individuals go ahead of you.
As you wait in line, peering over the counter to decide on an ice cream flavor, you hear, "So, are you planning on telling them?" from beside you. You look at Blake and pause. You let, "Wha-" escape before you jump back. There are few things she could mean other than-
"That you're a Faunus." Blake no sells her bomb drop, continuing to look forward and pick her ice cream. There'd be no way that she would come across as revealing a secret without being next to her.
Considering she was already certain, you turn away from Blake and say, "That obvious?" You let your posture sink a bit, mostly out of annoyance with yourself. Sure, Blake was a friend, but you've still only spent a few hours hanging around with her; it was too early to be slipping up and letting people figure it out.
"Don't worry, they haven't figured it out," Blake states in a far too casual manner. "I doubt they will. I'm just too attentive. That, and you turned a shade paler when you implied you were human."
"I mean, I know that they're cool, but it's just… well… People aren't always that cool." You unintentionally reach up and touch your face, where a gang of racist bullies had beaten you black and blue. "It's… It's best to be a little careful."
Blake notices your movements. "That's… oh, your eye. I… think I understand."
"Yeah, it wasn't a mugging in the strictest sense."
"I'm sorry…" Blake says, putting a hand on your shoulder, though still avoiding looking at you. It's clear she doesn't want to make anything too obvious to Yang and Ruby. "I wish the world was more forgiving. It's not fair that such a stupid thing makes you a target." She takes her hand off and relaxes her stressed shoulders. "I won't tell them. You'll have to at some point, though. Seems wrong otherwise."
"Yeah, I know."
"I don't know what you are, though. That means you doing something right in hiding. I just know you have ears."
"A cat," you admit.
Blake breaks her uninterested facade and turns to you. You see her almost jump for a moment before she says, "Oh… What kind?"
You blank. You… don't actually know what kind of cat you are. You recognize that your ears are from a common house cat, not like a tiger or anything, but that still leaves a lot. You're blonde and your ears are the same color… What breed are yellow cats?
"Do you not know?" Blake asks, seeing you struggle to think. She seems rightfully confused. It does seem a bit weird to not know your own species, but everyone else had their lives and families to figure it out. You had a month and a black eye to tell you not to let others pry into fitting it out.
"M-must have forgotten. Just your average everyday… Tabby," you say, figuring tabby cats covered multiple colors. Thinking not-quickly, you say, "Crash probably knocked it out of me."
"Ah. Sorry."
"No, it's fi–"
"Step forward, you'll look like you're not ordering ice cream."
"Right!" you say, following Blake's instructions. The last of the Faunus family had received their ice cream, so you meet the server as they return to standing in from of you. You order your ice cream, then step aside and wait for Blake to receive her cream flavored cone before sitting down.
"Bout time," Yang jokes, finishing the last of her ice cream before moving onto her come. She motions to Ruby, who had devoured her treat almost immediately. The younger sister was now staring at a fridge full of ice cream cartons and cake, drooling. "Nice of you to let other people go first, but you've committed the cardinal sin of making me wait."
"And I'm sure you'll suffer," Blake says, smirking. Looking at the oblivious Ruby, she adds, "She's the one suffering. A shame we don't have a decent freezer."
"We do, but it doesn't have a lock or anything. I've already lost a frozen pizza to the masses."
"Yeah," you say, disappointed. "I had the whole fridge to myself before everyone showed up. That was pretty cool."
"Tch," Yang scoffs. "I had to share with Sweet Tooth over here and an old man obsessed with sandwiches. Dad never was much good at cooking." She pops in the remnants of her cone and asks, "So, you'd probably know better than me, Blake, but was that a family of goats?" in reference to the Faunus family that went before you in line.
"Sheep. The father had ram horns that he shared with his son, and the mother had the ears, same with the daughter." Blake looks at Yang quizzically. "Why do you ask?"
"Eh, just never been that good at identifying Faunus. We didn't see a lot until we got to Beacon, so I've been trying to learn more."
"Well, that's very kind of you. It IS important to not mis-breed someone. It's qui– I hear it's quite offensive."
"Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out. There are a million animal hybrids out there, so gotta place them right." Yang glances at you. "What about you? Blake here is kind of a saint when it comes to Faunus rights and stuff, but can you tell what animal a Faunus is mixed with?"
"I'm not a saint, Yang. I'm just well informed."
"Eh, small difference." Yang turns back to you. You wish she'd forgotten in the two seconds since she asked.
"Not really. I'm super bad at remembering that kind of stuff. Plus, traits can appear anywhere, right? So, like, a guy can have wool instead of hair or something, right?"
"Wouldn't the mix appear where it is on the animal?" Yang asks. "Like, wool is on the body and head, so would they have like a coat of wool?"
"It's not impossible for traits to manifest in unique ways," Blake explains. She pauses for a moment before revealing, "I've heard of a man that has full sized bat wings; however, he has his human arms as well. Science would say that the wings would replace the arms, but maybe it's a mutation? Then again, a common trait is having ears, but…" Blake glances subtly at you, "…a lot have both their Faunus ears and regular ears, which doesn't line up."
"Dammit. I thought I was starting to get it…" Yang huffs. "I never thought about having two sets of ears."
"That upperclassmen Velvet girl has two," Ruby says, back in the conversation. "The one Cardin bullies. She has rabbit ears, but also normal ones."
"Must be weird having them. Do you like, hear twice as good? Or would that get too loud?"
"Better," Blake states. "They're born with them, so I imagine they just adapt to the volume level early on, but rabbit ears are designed to hear. They have to have better hearing."
"That makes sense," you say, remembering when you first woke up. At first, having a second pair of more sensitive ears was painful seeing as you hadn't adapted to them, but now it's normal to hear someone from down the hall. You've learned to tune to hear the right things the way you remember hearing them.
"And we talked in class about how some have night vision because cat species see in the dark, and other animals for that matter."
"Night vision would be pretty cool…" Yang says. She glances out the window into the dark street, only a holographic lamp to light it up. "Hey, if you guys were Faunus, what kind of like, trait would you want? What kind would you be?"
You find it hard to catch your breath. For not knowing that you were a Faunus, Yang sure said a lot to make you really nervous that she did.
"A sloth," Blake says, smirking. "I would be a sloth. My trait would be that I sleep all day."
"That's boring," Ruby says. "You don't want something exciting?"
"It's not a choice, you know. Faunus don't get to decide what they are, nor what they get."
"Yeah, I know…" Ruby looks sorry for unintentionally offending Faunus. "Just, it'd be neat to have a cool thing not many people could do, no matter what."
"I really don't get how Cardin thinks Faunus are like, SUPER inferior when you can be born with claws," Yang says. "Like, I can THEORETICALLY understand, 'hurr durr dumb as an animal,' but like, Faunus can end up with some cool stuff. Course he's just a moron no matter what."
You never figured out why Faunus were considered inferior when there were some that were de-facto better than humans with their gills, skin-changing, and bear strength. You nod, glad that Yang and Ruby don't think of Faunus as inferior.
Blake calmly eats her ice cream. "Some people are just morons. Discrimination runs deep." Wanting to break away from the negativity, she looks at Yang and asks, "I'm sure you have an idea of what you'd want?"
"A dragon!" Yang says. She holds up her hands like claws and mines breathing fire.
Staring at her teammate, Blake says, "…you know that's not a thing, right?" Putting down her ice cream, she says, "Like, what, does Ruby want to be a unicorn Faunus?"
"No! I want to be an owl!"
"An owl?"
"Yeah, I could do that thing where they turn their heads around and have super eyes! It'd be awesome for a sniper!"
"Huh," Blake says. "That's more well thought out that I expected from you."
"See!? I can think and play with dumb toys!" Ruby says, pulling out the toy she'd gotten from Old MacDonald's. "I'm not JUST a kid!"
"Only mostly just a kid," Yang teases. "Nah, but a dragon would be sick. In actuality… probably like, a bat or something. I'd want wings! Flying would be so sick! Oh, oh, how about like a dove or a swan? I'd make a hell of an angel with swan wings!"
"That… DOES sound like it'd be attractive…" Blake says, looking off into the sky. You also appreciate the visual of a hot blonde with amazing abs, a rocking bod, and freaking angel wings. Wings would also prevent Yang from wearing normal clothes, leaving her with a lot of backless outfits~
Before you start considering that most angels are depicted as being nude or in very little clothes, you turn back to Yang just as she says, "Bat or swan. Be careful, I can be ur angle or ur devol~" She laughs at her meme and finishes by saying, "But yeah, PUNCH ANGEL."
"That just leaves you, Briar," Blake says, turning to smile at you. She was playing with you now that she knows you are a Faunus. "What would you be a hybrid of?"
You consider your options. You think that already being a house cat isn't the WORST hybrid you could be, but there's far better. Your only plus is some improved hearing, and that was honestly a bit of a pain before you controlled it. "Something… cool. Wings would be awesome. Maybe… I got it: shark teeth," you say, thinking Yang would appreciate you jokingly choosing a cool-but-kinda-useless trait. Shark teeth would only serve to give you a slasher smile, as there are not too many opportunities to bite Grimm.
"That'd be hot!" Yang says, surprising you. "Lotta guys and girls in manga that have sharp fangs. Makes them look super cool! Course, that'd make some… *ahem* things difficult." She checks if Ruby is paying attention and mimes a blowjob when she sees her sister is off in the clouds.
"Some people might be into biting, at least…" Blake muses. "But ultimately more for show than anything."
"Yeah. Cool is always nice, though."
"Agreed!" Yang stands up, pushing her chair back slightly violently. "And speaking of cool, I wanna see what you can do with your sword now! All of Ruby's upgrades look pretty sweet, and I want to see them in action!"
You look down at your ice cream and start hurriedly eating the remains. You wanted to get good at using your weapon, which was now a much more manageable size and weight. Seeing as Jaune was your direct superior, you need to start leveling up if you ever want to actually become a hunter. You still feel like you owe Ozpin the effort to at least try after all he's given you, plus some martial skills would help with another Gild situation. And, of course, you don't want to pass up the opportunity to hang around with a bunch of cute girls giving you all their attention.
You all finish the last of your ice cream and head out to start training.
