Coco meets Velvet at a protest after falling for her mother's guilt trip.
Written for Sapphic September Day 2 - Political AU.
The Right to Protest
Coco Adel was many things. Smart, beautiful, badass. The list went on. Nowhere on that list was 'supportive daughter,' or so her mother had whinged. So, she'd come to the damn fundraiser.
"Try not to scowl so much," her mother leaned over, smile wide across her face, to speak through clenched teeth.
On the other side of the table Coco's sister nearly choked on her champagne. She covered her laughter with a quick gasp and a fluttery hand gesture, "The Schnees are here!"
Lady Adel was gone in a second flat. Cerise winked at Coco. Coco continued to scowl, thoroughly. Her mother had not mentioned that this fundraiser was for Jacques Schnee's senatorial campaign.
"Why are you here?" Coco leaned over the table to whisper furiously at Cerise. She also took the opportunity to place her elbows on the table, because 'defiant' was high on her descriptor list.
Red curls were thrown delicately over her shoulder as Cerise shrugged, "Winter hates these things, but she had to come. I'm being a supportive friend." Coco raised a brow. Cerise grinned, wide and toothy, "I love watching her squirm under the limelight." Coco nodded, that, at least, sounded true.
"Still," Coco leaned back in her chair with a huff, "You hate Jacques." She crossed her arms, eyed the exits.
"Anyone that actually knows Jacques Schnee hates him, Coco," Cerise rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her hand. "But he's all about the money, and he throws it around. So people pretend."
Coco scowled at the room full of fakers, her mother included.
"I'm going outside, call me when it's time to leave." Coco stood up and marched away. Away from the table, the fundraiser, and her mother's stupid guilt trip.
There was a courtyard off the ballroom where the fundraiser was being held. Several smoozers were being grifted by some truly gorgeous women in skin tight dresses. Coco approved. And kept moving.
Coco found herself near the front of the building next. It was surrounded by protestors, mostly faunus. Knowing what she did about the work conditions in the SDC mines, and having overheard one of Jacques Schnee's more colorful rants about faunus, Coco approved of this also.
The protest was much more her style than fake flirting with some rich dude so she wove her way into the crowd to join the chants.
It was only twenty minutes before the water hoses were turned on them. Coco pulled her phone out to record the cops as they started dragging the faunus away. When one raised a baton over his head, Coco shouted, "Hey! Jerk!"
The cop's attention swiftly moved away from the woman with bunny ears to Coco and her phone.
"The Supreme Court says I have a right to film you," Coco said as the cop moved towards her, "And the constitution says I have a right to protest." She prattled off some local statutes from her sister's law books too, just to watch the cop's face color with fear.
With most of the protestors either running or arrested, Coco started circling the cop towards the woman with the ears. She was slowly picking herself up, a bruise was spreading over her cheek from where her face hit the curb.
"You good?" Coco asked the girl, eyes still trained on the cop. Coco was privileged, and she looked it. Chances were low he'd try anything. Her phone was still angled towards the arrests, for now.
"Good," the woman curled a hand around Coco's arm and started pulled her back. Coco went as directed, eyes and phone watching their retreat until they stopped at a cafe two blocks over.
Several other faunus had gathered there as well, with cuts and scrapes and bruises. Not nearly as many as had been at the protest though.
"Thanks for the assist," the woman said as Coco turned to face her. She was met with the softest smile she'd ever seen. If it were physically possible her hear would have skipped a beat. "I'm Velvet."
"Coco," she held out her hand to shake. The warmth that spread from her palm at the contact sent a literal shiver up her spine.
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