Rogue Huntsman

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Ozpin's a self-centered fool who can't see past the silvered end of his short, scrawny cane. Tapping it here and there, twirling it and twisting it, yet not a morsel of strength was ever needed in its entire expenditure of time wasted beneath his grasp.

Only a fool would think his cane was made for walking.

What's worse, he gave the entire student body the rest of the week off to heal and recover from today's intense and 'well-defended' siege.

You call that intense?

Give me a bag of rocks and I'll show you intense.

Throw in a paperclip while you're at it.

It was a lizard banging its heads against a metal cup. Hell, even my teammate, alone, nearly killed it in its enraged mode I kicked it into.

No, instead some hungover brat in a beanie took it upon himself to shield every last idiot from the lizard's warm spit. Even the asshole took part, white hair a blinding blur in the sunlight as he saved the rest from harm.

He picked a couple twigs from the shoreline before the soft waves of a splashing pond could touch them.

What a hero.

Shields were crushed and shattered, Dante was nearly squashed and killed, unfortunately the asshole still lives and both his legs remain unbroken. And, oh yeah, he and his partner put on a little lightshow at the end of it. White flames… the Aether energy in those flickering trails of pale fire was potent.

Stupidly so, as if her perfectness went so ungodly far it surpassed her creator's image of the one and only perfect waifu.

She and Kitsuki should never be in the same room together.

Arex would die.

It was no wonder the white duo would be the ones to finish off the Hydra either, with a flashy final move no less. Flashy being the keyword there, considering that was all it had going for it.

A young, tiny wolf faunus could do better than those two combined.

Puny little 'hmph' machines… always digging into the applesauce containers.

I flicked a toothpick into the rushing winds, the small splinter of wood cutting through air pockets and currents in a dispersion of severed lines. The small projectile punctured the left eye of a baby nevermore in the distant clouds.

Engines roared around me, sputtering and burning consistent fuel along measured segments of the massive wings to my left and right. My hat remained stiffly against my head, pushed down by the wind, while my back pressed into the cold, metal surface beneath me.

I couldn't get myself to care for the vessel's passengers. There were students and families alike, all riding in the iron, airborne brick I lied upon. No… they didn't matter.

I just took it upon myself to fire the toothpicks I stole from inside the Airship at anything I could to settle my boredom.

There was no way in hell I was staying at Beacon Academy if I didn't even have classes. I was heading back to Vale, lazily hitching a ride I didn't need to pay for. I didn't need to grovel like the rest and claim myself to be a student, flashing my ID for free lifts and overreaching privileges.

Nothing could ever get me to utter such degrading words.

Three more toothpicks were discarded, striking down three more small birds before they could eventually grow into the nightmares society has so much trouble bringing down today.

They were armored tanks with wings, if you saw it from their eyes.

A soft ring suddenly sputtered to life in my pocket, forcing whatever part of me that cared to read the message waiting in the notifications of my scroll.

It was from Anoel.

'Running off so soon?'

It was hardly out of character for me…

I turned my scroll and opened the encrypted messaging software Arex designed for our team, pulling up the digital keyboard there, 'No point in staying until classes start back up.'

Her response was unsurprisingly quick, 'Not even to sleep with me?'

'We need money.' I replied.

'No we don't. You just don't want me to cuddle with you in your sleep.'

'I don't sleep as much as you do.' I responded evenly, tapping through the letters as the wind tore itself across my clothes, 'Besides, I'm too cold to be worth the effort.'

'You're warmer than you think you are~'

'You're hotter than any man can care to hold.' I ignored the heart she sent after the end of her message, responding in kind to her useless efforts to tease me.

'Awww, you think I'm hot? O/ / /O'

'Hot enough to burn any man who touches you.'

'Except you~'

'Exceptions are the same as outcasts, we're too different to stuff into the same categories as the rest of them.'

The responses stopped for a while and I was left staring at my screen for a few moments. A small cry of a newborn avian grimm fluttered through the air along with the flaps of its little wings.

One more toothpick discarded.

She responded as soon as it dropped out of the air.

'Guess who visited today?'

Don't even get me started with that, Ano, 'Two ankle biters, a sexualized fox, and that thing that's been stealing my oxygen.'

'Gasp, how'd you know?!'

She didn't need to type out gasp… 'His energy's so potent I can smell the pungent odor from here.'

'Well, we have a bunch of goodies to go through now. Too bad you're not here to share it with.'

'Check for poison.'

'Already did.'

'Throw it out anyway.'

'No way. It's all fresh and tasty.'

They probably had ulterior motives of some sort, 'How did you convince Skyla to heal Arex?'

'Oh, you knew about that?'

'You knew that I knew about it.'

'A girl can act caught off guard, you know. I just asked her for a favor.'

'And you think being in her debt is a good idea?'

'I was worried, okay?'

'Arex was fine.'

'Thanks to you, she was.'

I stopped for a moment, going through whatever thoughts I had in reserve before responding, 'I played no part in that.'

'There was an instant in time where you were nowhere to be found across the entirety of Beacon's campus. Coincidently, it was the same moment Arex took that heavy hit from the Hydra's hard heads.'

'I sneezed. My existence forgets itself sometimes when I do that.'

'Are you getting sick?'

'No, I snorted pepper because I was bored.'

'Niro, you saved my little sister. Please stop denying it.'

I paused again, mulling those words over, 'No, I sneezed.'

It took a minute and a half, but she eventually responded again.

'Thank you.' She knew I wouldn't reply to that, so she sent a follow-up message, 'I miss you.'

'You can relax now that I'm gone. Grimm won't be attacking the school much until I get back to attract them.' Missing someone is only ever an illusion of an emotion. You just get so used to something else being a part of your life. Once it's taken out of it… you crave its return.

'You should come back. Arex and Kitsuki are getting along so cutely, you need to see it.'

'I'll take your word for it.'

'Aww, you should see Arex's face right now! Kitsuki's playing with her wings again. The poor girl can't say no to the adorable kitsune, even if she wanted to.'

'You manipulated them into getting close, didn't you?'

'Actually, I didn't do as much as you think I did. Kitsuki's been surprisingly forward and friendly with Arex. Do you think she reminds her of someone?'

'Considering how little we know of her past life, it's a possibility.'

'True. But, then again, it could also be that the kitsune's grown fond of my cute little sister. Anyone would. Even you did, Niro.'

'She fed me.' Considering how much history we had, that was as close to the simplified truth as it got.

'You don't need to eat, silly. You just liked her culinary skills. You even wanted to learn from her.'

'I used her to advance my own ability. You call that a good deed?'

'You and I both know how else it can be worded. You grew to respect her. That's a huge deal considering how few people you actually give that much of an honor to.'

It aggravated me how easy it was for Anoel to dance around conversations, things I preferred to stay out of, 'It stops with you two.'

'I'm thinking Kitsuki will eventually make it onto that list.' I could sense a sigh escaping her lips, a few seconds ticking by before she followed up her last response with another one, 'Poor girl can't catch a break. The harassments have nearly become daily now.'

'She can solve that issue on her own.'

'You know how much I hate bullies, Niro.'

'Stay out of it.' I replied coldly, 'This is her fight. If she can't win, then she doesn't deserve any morsel of my respect.'

'I'll give it time, but other people have already started stepping in. This is Beacon you know, not a school of heartless, apprehensive children. It's practically a breeding ground of confidence.'

'Strangers are fine, but they'll just get in the way. She needs to eventually learn to do something about it herself.'

'She hasn't had a reason to…' There was another short pause in the messages, the airship beneath me rocking for a moment as it rolled over an air pocket in the currents, 'There's been this girl from team RWBY who's been helping Kitsuki a lot. Yang Xiao Long, if I remember that name correctly.'

'Faunus lover or anger issues?'

'A little of both. But, to be honest, I can't help but think she's also in it for Kitsuki herself. The blonde keeps wanting to pet Kitsuki's head ever since team RWBY saw how much the kitsune liked it when Arex did it for a moment in the locker room.'

'Arex should've been more careful.'

'It was only for a moment. It was Kitsuki that took Arex's hands and placed them back between her ears.'

If adorableness could kill, I think a thousand men were just slain by that comment alone, 'She needs to learn self-control then. They both do.'

'I don't know, I kind of like seeing them together. They're adorable.'

'You're just biased because you want to see your little sister with someone who can make her happy again.'

'Is it so wrong to think that?'

The technical answer was no, but it wasn't as simple as that, 'The chemical feeling of happiness comes from the sudden absence of pain. In order to feel happy, which is a pleasure, you need that pain to be satisfied. If this doesn't work out, Arex will feel a pain you'll never wish for her to feel again.'

'And if it does work out?'

Flip a lien coin and you'll get your answer, 'She'll be able to love again, rather than stifle it all in the heat of her heart to keep others from feeling the pain she's felt for years.'

'I wish I could've been there for her…'

'So did she. You were contracted into a job in a neighboring kingdom. There was nothing you could do.'

'She never speaks of it, but I know you were around to help her through that.'

'I wouldn't go anywhere near that.'

'But you did… and I won't let you deny it either. I know you, and I know what you did for her. What you're still doing for her…'

The engines were starting to cool down. Their thrusters were beginning to fade, losing the bright glow they all burned with as we approached the city in the distance.

I was landing.

'You're not a monster, Niro. No matter how many people say it.'

They have every right to… especially with what I did.

'See you when I get back.' I replied, sitting myself up as the ship began to descend.

'I'll be waiting.'

I closed my scroll and pocketed it. There was a long list of jobs I wanted to complete.

Anoel slowly closed her scroll, the bed cold beneath her bare legs as she tilted her head back against the headrest. The bed next to her was empty… and it wasn't going to change for the next few days, including the weekend.

She was in her pajamas, not wanting to leave her room after she took a shower. It's been about two hours since Dante and Inuba were pulled out of the room by his younger siblings, leaving the basket of baked goods behind.

They were still wrapped, the gift placed atop the desk to her right.

Her eyes were closed as she let her mind drift, letting the day tick by on its own as her responsibilities simplified down to nothing more than sleeping for the rest of the day. Everything else was over and done with.

The Hydra fight immediately after classes was the only eventful endeavor of the day.

Her scroll's clock, the last time she checked, said it was only seven in the afternoon. Nothing else was supposed to happen today. The soft cooing coming from Arex's bed told her those two had no intentions of leaving the room either.

That was until a knock came from the door, gently catching Anoel's straying attention.

She adjusted her hat and slipped herself from her bed, padding across the floor in sock-clad feet as she made her way to the door. She recognized the heat signature, but she didn't have it in her to do anything more than that.

It was someone she knew down the hall, the youngest of four others…

Anoel carefully opened the door and pulled it halfway, keeping Arex and Kitsuki out of view. Not like the two noticed someone was at the door anyway.

"Uh, hey, is this Arex's room?" Ruby asked, the small girl bouncing on the balls of her feet in her casual attire. Which, unsurprisingly, was just her cloak and her usual clothes.

"Do you need her?" Anoel asked, leaning lightly against the door frame with her hand on the door's edge.

"I do, actually," she replied hesitantly, lowering her gaze slightly, "My weapon warped a great deal from the heat of the Hydra. I was…" Ruby paused, looking even further down to eventually find the tops of her boots, "hoping she'd help me fix it."

Anoel hummed softly, swaying the door forward and back as she watched Ruby fidget beneath her gaze. It was kind of adorable seeing how shy the girl was.

"She's pretty tired from taking the Hydra on herself for so long," Anoel replied, wondering if the girl would stop looking at the floor so intently.

"I-I heard about that. Is she alright?" Silver irises peeked back up, peering through asymmetrical bangs dangling beside the cute girl's face.

"Healed and currently getting attended to. She isn't exactly in need of rest right now, so she might be willing to help."

"If she's busy, I can come back at another time!" Ruby quickly offered, shuffling her feet as she met Anoel's eyes again, "R-really, I can try to figure it out on my own for now."

"How bad is it?" Anoel asked out of curiosity.

Ruby tilted her head, almost ashamedly, "It… may have fused several of my internal mechanisms together. And… it may have also misaligned the entire shaft, throwing off my barrel's rifling and jamming the chambering system."

"Ruby," Anoel sighed, giving the girl a cautious gaze, "How close did you get to the Hydra?"

The cloaked girl flinched slightly, shying away from Anoel's gaze again, "C-close enough to try a stab for its heart? I noticed a small puncture wound there, but I couldn't get any bullets through. Even fire-resistant rounds were burning up before getting close."

She noticed where Niro pierced its hide… Anoel quirked a delicate brow to that. Something that small on a target that large should've been invisible, even to the trained eye.

Yet, Ruby spotted it through her scope. She was in the middle of combat as well.

"It was impressive that you found that weakness. But, what made you think your weapon could withstand its heat? Even if bullets couldn't?" Anoel asked in return, watching closely for where Ruby's eyes turned to.

This time, they didn't leave her own.

"I ran the calculations. I had enough fire Dust treated into my weapon that it should've been able to withstand that kind of heat. Bullets are small and already heat themselves up on the way, so I figured Crescent Rose had a pretty good chance of succeeding." Ruby finished her comment with another shuffle of her boot, her smile turning cutely awkward, "It… didn't work out."

Ruby's technical mind was slowly coming out. Whatever years the girl had of weapons and experience beneath her skirt, it was showing. Even if the girl before her was clutching at its swaying hem, "I can see why you'd ask for help with that. It's a lot to do, especially since you have to take your whole weapon apart."

"Yeah…" Ruby responded meekly, admitting to it… without really owning up to it. She seemed to have a knack for that.

"Well, if you can get her attention, feel free to ask her," Anoel gave Ruby a tip of the hat, pushing the door open the rest of the way and letting the room come into view for Ruby to see.

Ruby's silver eyes widened at the sight.

Arex's eyes were lulled closed, her bare legs crossed beneath herself with a pillow clutched to her chest. She had her chin and lips stuffed into it, nose barely pressed into it as well as a red hue lay permanently dusted across her cheeks.

She was in her pajamas. They all were.

Kitsuki sat behind the avian faunus, still finding enjoyment in finding the softest feathers along the expanse of Arex's wings draped over the bed. The sleek black appendages twitched every once in a while, but the girl who owned them remained as still as she could.

"She's been like that for about an hour now, so feel free to-" Anoel turned just in time to hear Ruby gasp, then nearly lose her hat as a burst of air blew past her.

"You have wings?!" Ruby squealed in excitement, luckily only after Anoel closed their dorm room door.

Arex's eyes snapped open to the new voice, those very eyes quickly widening as they brightened in their burning orange irises.

"N-no…" she quietly denied, pulling her lips away from her pillow just enough to speak as two black blurs disappeared into her sweater. Its cloth not even shifting as she wrapped them smoothly back around her torso.

"You do!" Ruby was in awe, hands clasped together as she climbed onto the bed, sitting on her heels in front of Arex, "I saw them."

Arex quickly shook her head, "Y-you saw nothing."

Ruby couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping her throat, "Arex… I didn't know you were a faunus."

Arex was squishing her face back into her pillow, averting her eyes now from the silver irises in front of her. Her cheeks were only getting warmer.

The girl hugged her pillow tighter, muttering into its pillowcase for a few more seconds as Ruby waited for some kind of response. It wasn't until Arex let her eyes fall back to silver orbs and release a heavy sigh that the pillow finally lowered.

"P-people aren't supposed to know," Arex murmured, her voice soft.

Ruby understood that, she really did. But she wasn't one of them. She's never been one and she never will be… she, and her sister, knew all about the troubles the faunus go through.

For the life of her, Ruby couldn't figure out why anyone could hate the faunus. She just knew the world made stupid decisions sometimes for stupid reasons…

This was just one of them.

"Well, you don't have to worry about me. I can keep a secret." Ruby nodded her head, confidence brewing in her young veins.

If only it was that easy.

Kitsuki peered around Arex for now, gently reaching her hands beneath the girl's sweater to pull her wings back out of their slits. Arex's blush only worsened as she felt her partner start to slide the tips of her wings out, the rest slowly following with little resistance.

Ruby's eyes watched this happen in interest, forgetting whatever it was she came here for as Kitsuki laid Arex's wings out again.

"Please, just," Arex took a small breath, trying hard not to sound meek… but failing in every way, "don't tell anyone. I don't want the attention."

Ruby watched Kitsuki's fingers find their way back to Arex's feathers, only giggling a little more at the amusing sight before her, "Really? It looks like you kind of like it."

"N-not…" Arex turned away, her face reddening, "that kind of attention."

"Oh," Ruby quickly assumed the opposite, "the… negative kind."

Arex gave a small nod.

Ruby wouldn't want that kind of attention either.

"Your secret's safe with me," the scythe-wielder whispered, leaning in closer to Arex, "on the grounds that I get to touch them too."

Arex's eyes widened as they shot back to Ruby's, her face burning all the hotter as she stared at the girl in disbelief.

Her too?!

"W-why?" Arex asked, her voice breaking.

"W-well, I've never met someone like you before," Ruby began to say, referring to Arex being an avian faunus, "So, it's my first time seeing them. They look really good on you, by the way."

Arex narrowed her eyes as her cheeks flared. It was an adorable glare, even by Ruby's standards.

The red reaper soon gave Arex an innocent smile, shifting legs beneath her until she was sitting with crossed legs like the one in front of her, "Only when you trust me enough to let me, though."

The final guideline, or rule of sorts, was established. Arex didn't know what to think of all this, let alone how to approach it. Anoel let Ruby in fully knowing her wings were exposed, something she wasn't expecting.

Taking a glance, she noticed Anoel back on her bed. She was on her scroll, but every once in a while she took glances their way. She wasn't sure if it was out of interest or something else.

Was this… on purpose?

"O-okay, but I meant what I said," Arex sighed, turning her gaze back to Ruby, "Don't tell anyone."

Ruby pulled her lips into a thin line and pinched her fingers together, running them across her mouth to metaphorically zip it closed.

"Good," Arex let her guarded gaze down now, or, what was left of it anyway, "Now, why did you stop by? Did you need something?"

"Oh! Right!" Ruby's stature quickly perked up as she remembered something, "I need your help with my weapon. It took a beating during the Hydra fight. B-but, only if you can spare the time."

"How bad?"

Ruby's smile turned meek, "I have to take the whole thing apart just to fix it. I'd… really appreciate it if you paired up with me on it."

"You don't mind me looking at the interior workings of your weapon?" Arex asked.

"Not at all," Ruby replied, shaking her head softly, "I don't like showing people how Crescent Rose works, but I think it's only fair you get to see it now."

Arex slowly nodded, "Do you understand what it means for me to see Crescent Rose in such a state?"

"You're a genius when it comes to technology, so I think you'd be able to build her yourself after we're done," Ruby replied, tucking some strands of hair behind her ear, "I… don't mind that. It's you, so I don't have anything to worry about."

Does Ruby even know what she's talking about? The redness in Arex's cheeks seemed to think so.

"I'll be ready in a minute or two," Arex finally breathed out, keeping her pillow pushed into her lap as she looked to her dresser, "I just need to throw on a pair of pants."

Ruby's eyes glanced downward and caught a small glimpse of Arex's bare legs, her realization only sinking in afterward when her own cheeks dusted red in return, "O-oh, yeah, sure. I-I didn't know you slept like that."

"I don't have anything else to wear for pajamas, so I'm stuck with this," Arex replied, waiting patiently for Ruby to get up.

"Y-you don't? I have some extra sets if you needed something to borrow."

Arex… found herself actually turning that offer down. Both mentally and verbally, "That's alright. I've… sort of grown used to it the past few nights."

Ruby's blush only festered, eventually causing the girl to get up and quickly stand, "I-I'll be waiting in the hall then. Just… wear whatever you think would be comfortable. I don't know how long it'll take."

Arex nodded to that, then watched as Ruby made her way to the door and let herself out, closing it behind herself.

Now… the hard part.

"Um, Kitsuki?" Arex asked, glancing over her shoulder and flicking one of her wings, "I need my wings back."

Wha?! Exposition through scroll messaging? It turned out pretty well though, I have to admit. Plus it displayed more of their two personalities when they converse with one another. Niro's whole attitude changes when he talks with Anoel in comparison to when he talks with anyone else.

I had a ton of fun writing that long interaction.

Did you know Niro and Anoel can have adorable conversations? Now you do XD. All of the interactions this chapter were designed to be fluffy and cute, so hopefully that's a nice turn of events for you.

I'm more motivated to write for RH for the moment, but I'll switch to Flame's chapter next.

I think it's obvious, but there will be a yuri component to RH. Arex, by now, should have practically screamed this truth to you in her thoughts and actions alone. How far this extends to... well, that's to be determined.

For now, Favorite and Follow.

I look forward to seeing REVIEWS for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.

Cya XP