Phoneme 2: The day I got burned for doing my job

I always hated fire alarms. You know, despite my ear's special condition I don't hear better than normal humans. Well, yes, I do hear better than regular humans but not the way faunus do. Sound's not louder for me, it's just different. But few things are as annoying as getting waked by loud noise that makes you hear your surroundings so clear that you start to believe your ears need glasses, which would look funny if I weren't the one wearing them. So you're perfectly fine to try. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, I woke up by the noise of my fire alarm, wondering what the heck was going on. One of the good things about sleeping in a hammock is you almost can't fall out of it. So I was really surprised to manage it. As I stumbled outside covering my ears I heard the one causing this turmoil. It was the girl that helped me the other day finding Ozpin's office and she looked pretty harried.
"Shorty!", I shouted, "would you please hit the switch next to the door?" She did, but nothing happened. "The other one, please!" She did and the room fell silent. You know, normally I don't like to shout, especially in small rooms like this. I may not be a faunus, but you may have noticed that I "see" better the louder it is but normal speaking or louder breathing is sufficient for me to orientate, so shouting or fire alarms make me "see" clearer than I want to. "Sorry, shorty, for the unclear order", I apologised, "I didn't find out what the other one does." And you may now think of me as stupid but imagine you were me.
"That's the light switch", she told me immediately. And before you ask, yes, it was a little bit embarrassing for me. I took a mental note to connect this thing to the door's lock so the light goes on whenever somebody came in.
"Ok, that's that. But what the heck just happened here?!", I demanded to know. At least the room was not messy. Not more than before.
"I came in because of the service", she began gesturing, "then bumped against the workbench, something toppled down, I sneezed and exploded." I thought about how it must have looked like... but now I knew what vial the fire dust was in. It was always hard for me to tell the difference between dust so I started to keep it in vials I could distinguish. Unfortunately I hadn't made it here yet, so everything looked the same.
'Sampling this stuff will be a fun afterboom', I thought as I cleaned up the dust. I eventually managed to get all of it, after all the best workshop is one that's not burning to a crisp. She was still there, awkwardly standing in a corner holding a cylinder the size of a sailor's telescope, with a slightly bigger diameter. I excused myself and changed my clothes, as well as putting on my circular sunglasses, for I didn't want to work in pyjamas. Then I got to work. "So, shorty, what's it? Just three days in school and the weapons already broken? I'm proud of you." I sat down and caught the cylinder, whipped out my screwdriver and began dismantling it. And suddenly I had a bright moment. Yes, even I have those. "I... don't believe I know your name, shorty, I'm Giannini. And you?" Damn, this thing was amazing. Over the years I've developed the skill to subconsciously memorise the structure of the things I take apart so I didn't worry about not being able to put it back together.
"I'm Anemone, member of Team Magnolia and this thing you tear apart is Hendel Bites, my sabre." I love the weapons of huntsmen, really. For a mechanic they're like presents: you never know what's beneath the surface. Hadn't I known the possibilities of dust-enhanced mechanisms I'd have never believed this thing could be a sabre.

"Anyway", I began to talk as I inspected Hendel Bite's interior, "why don't you have breakfast with your team? I don't know how long this will last."
"I... don't know. I try to avoid my team..." I rose an eyebrow. Anemone didn't look like the type of girl who gets mocked, so I flatly asked her about this. It's really interesting how different people react to honesty. Some reward you for it, others blush and hedge. And then there's the type throwing raw fish at you should you tell them their beak looks stupid. Friggin' angry penguins. She... well she was honest, too. "No, they are super friendly it's just... they've known each other for a really long time and I'm the stranger girl." I chuckled and shook my head.
"You won't get closer to them by hiding in the blind man's cellar. Buuut...", I ripped out a tiny piece of metal, "this thing jammed one of the mechanisms and doesn't look like an actual part of the weapon. Just let me put this thing together again." And as she activated her weapon the cylinder indeed changed into a sabre, the kind an old-fashioned general would carry, even with this cord thingy attached to the hilt.

"I bet this was Nightshade...", Anemone stated, swinging her sword outside of the shop. "She has fun bugging everyone, even our leader. But thanks to you Hendel Bites is combat ready again. Hey, would you like to come eat breakfast with me and my team?" It was really remarkable how quick she was able to change the topic. It reminded me of the holidays I spent once in Mistral and have I ever mentioned my love for cheese? Food is a nice thing, you know. You can deep freeze it, you can deep fry it, and you can -who would guess- also eat it, so I decided to come along to breakfast. But some genius thought it would be funny not to do any of the above, no he started to fight with it. I later learned that some third year student trailed a fourth year's coat, something about faunus discrimination again, while I think that no reason can legitimate the waste of good food. Seriously, do you enjoy flinging the stuff more than eating it? Cheesus... Anyway, in one corner of the hall three girls sat protected by tables and ate.
'At least three of them know how to treat food', I thought. As we approached them and Anemone cut a melon out of the air they noticed us and waved us over.
"Ane!", one of the girls (I assumed she was the leader) called in relief, "we started to worry about you. You ok? Lab thought you could be ill." The girl wearing a lilac dress with scarf, Lab, just shrugged.
"Hey, it was a possibility, Mirabelle", she added picking the grains of salt from a bun, "we didn't know the thorn that stuck in her leg after the initiation, so I'm just sayin'. But where were you and who's Mr. Sunglasses?" Before Anemone was able to I began to talk. But it's really hard to swallow a comment that is nearly coming out.
"Mr. Sunglasses is the mechanic who just happened to fix Anemone's weapon." The last girl, Nightshade then, giggled suddenly.
"So it really worked? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a little piece of metal in the right place?" That... surprised me. With her skirt, short-sleeved bolero and elbow gloves I was convinced she'd never do something like filling one's shoes with jam.
"Please don't be too mad at her, she's always like that after the holidays", the leader reassured me seeming honestly sorry, "you should have seen the prank she performed on Lab. Shoes and jam is all that I'm saying." So much for that. But I was relieved as Anemone had to laugh.

I ate and chatted with them while the fight went on in the background. Eventually I bid farewell recommending them to keep an eye on Ane because "thanks to her even a blind squirrel like me was able to find a nut." I believe this was the moment they realised me being unable to see. You should have seen their faces. I just had to laugh and then... well, a disadvantage of my eye's state is that I couldn't tell the floor was wet and I slipped, tumbled and landed on some other student who's hands were on fire. Of course they hit my face. So this is what I got for helping my first customer. At least it looked funny, according to the girls...


A/N: You guys are just great. You should've seen Lucien's face as I told him this little spin-off already has followers. And Of course, if you like this story you may want to read our main story about Team NOBL. But who am I to say this? You're the readers and I hope you've enjoyed this little chapter.