I do not own RWBY or any of the characters.
Misspoken
Fox stared at the shop. Another one destroyed. This one burned.
"Interruption?" Wulfe asked, sounding like even he didn't really believe it anymore.
"You have too much faith in him, Wulfe," Fox said.
"And you have too little," Leon said. "Sure the shops are being destroyed, but they're just human shops."
"Leon," Fox growled.
"Some of our friends are human," Ava said.
"And some of our friends are waiting for us to stop acting like children," Leon said.
Fox turned, glaring at him. "I'll say this only one time. We are not working for them anymore. I'm done with the pointless violence."
"Right," Leon said. "I forgot. You're a goody two shoes now. One of Ozpin's children. Fuck this. I'm heading back. Let me know when you're ready to stop playing around."
"Heading back where?" Fox growled.
Leon flipped him off and kept walking. Ava sighed.
"I...think I'm going to head back to the dorm," Ava sighed. "It's...well...I just want to go to bed, I think."
Fox sighed and nodded. Wulfe sighed.
"Oh not you too," Fox said.
"No no," Wulfe said. "It's just...we really didn't sign up for...this."
"You signed up for equality," Fox said.
"You didn't?" Wulfe asked.
"I signed up because he said he could help me figure out why I dream what I do," Fox said. "But he can't. And some part of me thinks Ozpin can."
"Well then, why don't we go ask?" Wulfe asked.
"No," Fox said. "First, I want to know why they need dust. We've never needed it before."
"True," Wulfe nodded. "Want me to see what I can sniff out?"
"Yeah," Fox nodded. "But be discreet."
"Oh you know me," Wulfe said.
"That's why I'm telling you," Fox said.
"Alright, fine," Wulfe said. "You're no fun."
He turned, walking away, and Fox turned back to the store, staring. Just then, several familiar voices reached his ears. He turned as Team RWBY walked around the corner. He still had to laugh at the name. What a coincidence that Ruby was the leader, and the team name was pronounced the same. Not that he could talk. His own team was spelled F-A-W-L and pronounced fowl. Suspiciously fitting.
"Hey Fox," Blake said. "What are you doing here?"
"I was walking by and so this," Fox said.
"I would have figured you'd be with your little degenerate friends," Weiss said.
Fox had no idea what he did to earn her bad side, assuming she had anything else, but he didn't care. He did care about her talking bad about his friends.
"They're not degenerates!" Fox snapped, Blake saying the same thing.
"Oh what do you care?" Weiss asked her. "And sorry, how about hooligans, then?"
"You're a racist bitch, you know that?" Fox growled. "It's not their fault they were born with tails and you were born with flawless skin, snow-white hair, and a rich last name!"
"How dare you!?" Weiss demanded.
"I dare perfectly fine, Ice Queen," Fox growled.
"Enough!" Yang snapped. "No one's going to change anyone's mind by yelling."
"You're right," Fox said. "Of course, doing shit like this isn't going to help either. Fucking White Fang."
"You don't know this was the White Fang!" Blake said.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was," Fox said. "Don't for the life of me know why they need dust, but it was them alright."
"Well, they never caught that Roman Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago," Ruby said. "Maybe it was him."
Everyone was silent for a moment before Fox turned back to Weiss.
"So let me guess, Ice Queen, the White Fang are, what?" Fox asked. "A bunch of degenerates too?"
"Disgusting criminally insane psychopaths," Weiss said, crossing her arms. "Every single one of them."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths," Blake said. "They're a bunch of misguided individuals."
"Please," Weiss scoffed. "They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet."
"So then they're very misguided," Blake argued.
"All they know how to do is lie, cheat, and steal," Weiss said.
"That's not necessarily true," Yang said.
"Hey, stop that faunus!" a voice shouted suddenly.
They all turned toward the dock as they saw a muscular blonde with messy hair, and open, white, button-up shirt, and a pair of jeans with the bottoms rolled up and a yellow-furred monkey tail swishing behind him sprinting along the deck of a ship. Fox raised an eyebrow as the guy leapt from the ship to dock, then took off at a run again.
"You no-good stowaway!" one of the people that had been chasing him on the ship shouted.
"Hey, a no-good stowaway would have gotten caught," the guy yelled, now hanging upside down from a lamp post by his tail while peeling a banana. "I'm a great stowaway."
A couple of police officers that had been working at the shop's crime scene walked over.
"Hey, get down from there this instant!" one of them ordered, only to receive a banana peel to the face.
"I like him," Fox said as the faunus jumped over the cops, landing in a roll and running again.
A few moments later, he was running past them and turned to Blake, winking, then continued on his way. Fox rolled his eyes.
"I take it back," Fox said. "He's a degenerate scum."
"Thank you," Weiss said.
"He was joking!" Blake said.
"No he was't!" Weiss argued.
"No I was totally kidding," Fox said. "I like his attitude."
"What, 'fuck it, let's have a good time?'" Yang snorted.
"Yup, that's the one," Fox said. "He's fun to be around. I can tell."
"He's still a filthy..." Weiss trailed off as Fox leveled a glare at her.
"Choose your next words carefully," Fox said, weapon in hand.
"Well Weiss," Yang said. "You wanted to observe the competition, and there it goes."
"Oh shoot!" Weiss said. "You're right! Quick, after him!"
She took off running, Yang and Ruby following.
Fox sighed. "This bitch." He slid his weapon back into its case as Blake rested a hand on his shoulder.
"We need to talk after this," Blake said.
Fox nodded and they both turned, sprinting after the others and catching up quickly. As they reached an alleyway corner, they found the other three talking to a girl with short orange hair that curled inward along the bottom and had a large pink bow in the back, a cheery smile, a white blouse under a light grey shirt that only covered her back and abdomen and that had neon green lines reaching up about halfway from the bottom and spread about six inches from each other, then two lines ending in dots wrapping around from behind and stopping about six inches from each other, black pants with a neon green line down the sides of her pants, black shoes, and a black collar-like cloth around her neck with neon green down the front then on the back half.
"Oh, uh, hi," Fox said. "I'm Fox."
"Blake," Blake said.
"I'm Penny," the girl said. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Fox blinked. Yup. This girl was...weird. To say the least.
"Well, anyway, sorry for running into you," Weiss said, the others all turning to leave.
"See ya," Fox said, walking away.
"Take care friend," Ruby said.
"She was...weird," Yang said.
"That's an understatement," Fox chuckled. "She seemed nice though."
"Where did that faunus riffraff run off to?" Weiss asked.
"What did you call me?" Penny asked, suddenly standing in front of them.
"Wha...how...but you were..." Fox looked between the alleyway and then back at Penny, Weiss doing the same thing.
"Oh I'm really sorry about that," Yang said. "I definitely didn't think you heard me."
"And that makes it okay?" Fox asked.
"No, not you," Penny said, walking past her to stop in front of Ruby. "You."
"Me?" Ruby squeaked. "Um...I-I don't know...uh...I-I...what I...um, uh-"
"You called me 'friend,'" Penny said. "Am I really your friend?"
"Uuuummmmm," Ruby said, looking past Penny to the others, everyone but Fox shaking their head, Fox still looking between Penny and the alleyway in confusion. "Yeah, sure, why not."
All three girls nearly fainted, Fox finally shaking his head, and sighing heavily. Penny raised her hands into the air, feet placed on in front of the other like a combat stance as she laughed and twisted her upper body back and forth.
"Sen...sational!" Penny said. "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
"Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby murmured to Weiss, who was standing beside her now.
"No, she seems far more coordinated," Weiss said.
"So, what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked.
"I'm here to fight in the tournament," Penny said.
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked.
"I'm combat ready," Penny said, saluting Weiss then chopping her hand down to her hip.
"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part," Weiss said.
"Says the girl wearing a dress," Blake said.
"Agreed," Fox said.
"It's a combat skirt," Weiss said.
"Yeah," Ruby said, stepping up beside her, Weiss holding out her hand and Ruby slapping it.
"Oh, so the idea is to distract the grimm by giving them a peak up your skirt during combat," Fox joked.
"Oh, not that would be funny," Yang said.
"Ew no!" Ruby said.
"Wait a minute," Weiss said. "If you're here for the tournament, does that must mean you know that monkey-tailed..."
Blake and Fox both glared at her.
"...rapscallion?" Weiss finished.
"The who?" Penny asked.
"The filthy faunus from the boat!" Weiss said, holding up a very poor sketch.
"Why do you keep saying that!?" Blake demanded.
"He's not a 'filthy faunus' you fucking bitch!" Fox snapped.
"Huh?" Weiss asked.
"Stop calling him a rapscallion!" Blake said. "Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Weiss said. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trashcan as a trashcan, or this lamppost as a lamppost?"
Fox growled angrily, struggling not to expose himself.
"Stop it!" Blake shouted.
"Stop what?" Weiss asked. "He clearly broke the law! Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang!"
"You ignorant little brat!" Blake snapped.
Then, they all stopped as Fox swung his fist out to his side, slamming the bottom of it into a brick wall, cracking the wall. He took several uneven breaths before lowering his hand.
"That's enough, racist bitch," Fox snarled. "Say one more bad word about faunus around me, and the wall I hit will be you."
And with that, he turned, walking quickly away, Blake following.
"How can you talk to me like that!?" Weiss demanded. "Do you know who I am!?"
"Yeah!" Fox shouted, rounding on her. "You're a spoiled little brat who had everything in life handed to her because she was born with the right last name! Some of us didn't have the luxury of being born into a mansion and servants! Some of us had to fend for ourselves from the time they were born! I'm sorry that you hate faunus because you were raised with tons of money and they all are barely able to get enough money legally to keep themselves alive! But that doesn't make you better than them! You wouldn't last a single day as a faunus, the way you act! You don't know how to do anything for yourself!"
"You think I had it easy!?" Weiss shouted. "Every time there was a dust shipment, the White Fang would attack it! I had friends that defended the train who were killed! I had friends who were in charge of the company just disappear! And every day my father would come home angry and take it out on my family! You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Well clearly we made the wrong people disappear!" Fox snapped before blinking in surprise.
Before anyone could react, he growled in annoyance, turning and sprinting out of the alleyway, leaping across the street onto a window sill, then up onto the building. He made it three buildings away before Blake caught his arm. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her hand off, snarling and leaping back, crouching as he spun his weapon into sword form.
"I don't want to fight!" Blake said hurriedly, holding her hands up. "Did...did you really mean what you said?"
"No," Fox sighed, putting his weapon away. "I was never one of the ones making people disappear. My friends and I had a single rule. No casualties, no damage. And a lot of the other groups who worked around us worked the same way. Well, no casualties except for the few times we were ordered to go and fight someone because they were a threat. That's actually how I met Ozpin. I was ordered by Adam to kill Ozpin, as if that were possible."
Blake stared at the ground before reaching up to her bow.
"It's fine," Fox said. "You don't need to. I know. I could smell it."
"You're an arctic fox, right?" Blake asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I honestly don't know," Fox said. "My earliest memories were living alone on the street at the age of five, and having the White Fang find me."
"I see," Blake nodded. "My family used to be in charge of them, you know. My father. Once the new leader took over, I called my family cowards and left to continue working for the White Fang. But over time, their use of violence almost everywhere began to become too much. So I quit."
"I see," Fox nodded. "Honestly, I only quit because some part of me was telling me to work for Ozpin. Wulfe was more loyal and, while he'll follow me anywhere, he still has faith in the White Fang. Ava always hated it. She hates killing. Except Grimm. But Leon..."
"He's a hardliner, right?" Blake asked.
"Not really hardliner," Fox said. "More...lifer. He's having trouble accepting that we're not a part of Beacon just to ambush Ozpin to finish our last mission."
"How was it to fight him?" Blake asked.
"Humiliating," Fox snorted. "He's really good. I mean like, really good. Like not human."
"Maybe he's got a really strong Semblance that you didn't notice," Blake shrugged.
"Maybe," Fox said. "Weiss's probably going to rat me out to Glynda, now. Not that Ozpin doesn't already know."
"Well, at least Ozpin can't through you out for lying," Blake shrugged. "So, are you going to stop hiding your ears now?"
"Maybe," Fox shrugged. "It's a tail too, though."
"What?" Blake asked. "Where?"
"There's a reason I wear pants with loose pant legs," Fox smirked. "I don't know. Maybe."
"You should," Blake said. "You looked good with the ears."
She stood and Fox watched her for a moment before smiling and standing.
"I should make sure Leon didn't take off and head back to White Fang," Fox said. "He and I...got into an argument earlier. And Wulfe is checking in with old friends to see why the White Fang is stealing dust."
"So it really is them?" Blake asked.
"Oh yeah," Fox nodded. "It's them. Want to fuck up their plans with me?"
"Definitely," Blake nodded.
They walked to the edge of a building and Fox dropped, then turned, catching Blake and setting her on her feet. Then, they headed back to the school.
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