Chapter 8
"Why are we here again?" Yang complained as she strolled through the bookstore.
It wasn't so much that Yang had anything against books, in fact she enjoyed them quite a bit. It was mostly the walking around which felt aimless, and boring. If she was just with Weiss, it would be quick since she only had interest in certain book types. But if she was with Blake, then it would take hours on end. This time however, she was with all three little sisters and her father who answered, "Because it would be nice for you to get a gift for your mom for Mother's Day."
"It just feels like we've been here for hours," Yang groaned again.
"We've only been here for fifteen minutes," Tai replied as he kept looking.
Eventually he decided to have the girls look in different sections, "Weiss and Blake, you two check the aisles on the left. Ruby and Yang, take the right side. First one to find me this book gets to choose which snacks we can have for dinner today."
And with that, the quartet of sisters separated to complete their mission. However it was a fairly big bookstore so there were quite a few aisles. The search started out going good until Ruby ended up getting distracted. Not because she found a cool new book, but because she noticed something fluffy and violet at the end of the aisle. Curiosity got the better of her as she gave the fluff a tug, which earned a yelp in pain coming from the aisle next to her.
Yang, heading this, rushed over to see what had happened. What she saw was Ruby looking fearful when a boy with a violet fox tail rounded the corner. He appeared to be holding his tail in the spot which Yang assumed Ruby pulled it. Yang was about to get ready to either scold her little sister, or apologize to the Faunus boy. However, she was only stopped when she noticed that he looked cute.
Eventually his eyes settled on Yang and he seemed to have forgotten the pain from his tail. This left Ruby looking back and forth between her sister and the Faunus boy in confusion. The two exchanged a soft hello to each other after a couple of seconds passed by. It wasn't until Ruby cleared her throat to get their attention that they started actually conversing. Yang started by saying with a pleasant smile, "Sorry about my sister."
"No worries," the boy replied with a light chuckle, "Mine tug harder usually, though it's the first time another Faunus has done it."
For some reason, his voice seemed to echo in Yang's ears though she wasn't sure why. Mostly because his voice was rather pleasant for her to hear. She imagined that even Ruby agreed it seemed nice, yet the Wolf Faunus seemed focused on something else. Which was why she interjected after a few seconds of silence, "You have siblings?"
The boy seemed distracted as well based on how he snapped back to reality and answered, "Yeah. Actually I have ten siblings. Five brothers and five sisters."
Both girls looked at the fox Faunus with wide eyes, though Yang was first to reply, "Ten? I only have three sisters including this one," she gestures to Ruby.
"It gets crazier since I'm the fourth oldest," the boy gave a light chuckle, "I'm guessing one of your parents is a Faunus?"
"Yeah. Our mom is a wolf Faunus," Yang said with a large smile.
"And are your other sisters…" the boy trailed off, thinking that he was close to crossing a line.
"We have a sister who's a cat Faunus," Yang said setting his nerves at ease, "What about yours?"
The boy shook his head, "I was adopted by a human family so I'm the only Faunus."
Now it was Yang's turn to feel awkward. Usually she would just get the sensitive topics out of the way, with a fair amount of tact in doing so. And it would usually end up working great for her and the one she was talking to. But for some reason, it felt worse right now talking to this boy. Yang was quick to respond, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up anything too…well…"
The boy gave a light chuckle, "Don't worry. I've had worse things happen to me than that."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, her head tilted out of curiosity.
"Being a Faunus adopted by a human family doesn't sit well with some people as you can imagine," the boy explained, "Humans called me freak, and Faunus called me traitor. And that was just the verbal stuff."
The two sisters looked to the boy with heavy sympathy before he gave another smile, "But I have a family that cares for me no matter what I am. And it's nice that you do too."
Yang smiled with the boy, "Yeah."
The conversation would've continued had it not been for Taiyang walking over and saying, "Come on girls we'll be leaving soon."
"One second dad," Yang called back before looking to the boy and extending a hand for him to shake, "Well it was nice meeting you. By the way, I'm Yang Xiao Long, And this is my sister Ruby Rose."
The boy shook Yang's hand and said, "I'm Valor Amethyst. If you're planning on attending Signal, hopefully we meet each other there."
Yang gave Valor a more enthusiastic look, "You're attending Signal this year?"
"Not yet," Valor smiled again, "Next year for sure."
"Me too!" Yang somehow appeared more enthusiastic, "Our dad is one of the academy instructors. Our uncle too."
"Well then we will definitely see each other next year," Valor said as he began to collect his things and walk away, "Farewell Yang and Ruby."
"Bye Valor," Yang replied as she waved goodbye to the boy.
Once she finally caught up to the rest of her family with Ruby, she noticed different looks given to her. Weiss looked at her with confusion since she never saw her oldest sister look so cheerful in a store. Blake gave a more amused look as if ready to mock the blonde child. Taiyang however seemed like he was ready to become the protective father. Yang simply looked to all of them and said, "What?"
"Who was that you were talking to?" Weiss asked as she pointed to where Valor left.
"Just another kid out shopping," Yang shrugged.
"It sounded like he was interested in more than just what was available to buy," Blake said in a teasing manner, "And you seemed to enjoy his company a lot."
Yang blushed for a second, "What? No. It was just a friendly chat."
Now Weiss was smiling, "Then why are you blushing? Was this boy cute?"
Yang began turning even redder as she began coming up with a good response. However, before she could, Ruby was quick to explain what they were talking about. This only served to make Blake and Weiss smile even wider. Even their father looked to be entertained, maybe more so than his daughters. Unfortunately Yang just became red with embarrassment and defensively replied, "Shut up. I'm not."
Ruby gasped at the response and said excitedly, "Oh my God she likes him."
Both Weiss and Blake tilted their heads towards each other, "Awwww."
By this time they were almost in the car. Which was good for Taiyang since Yang's next response wasn't so pleasant. She simply growled as if ready to hit something while her eyes changed to red, and her hair began glowing as if on fire. Needless to say that the oldest child managed to silence her sisters. Tai would've had a serious discussion with her about her actions but decided to leave it alone since that was as far as it got, for now at least. On the drive home, Tai thought one thing, Guess she still inherited some part of you Raven. And here I was hoping that Summer's influence would erase that.
(Author's note: In case you're wondering, yes Valor is an original character I came up with. And yes there may be a few more OCs along the way. I hope you will enjoy how they fit in.)
