A/N: This chapter was fun to write, so please leave a review telling me if I should make more flashback chapters like this.
New Feelings
Three years ago...
Velvet unzipped her hoodie and let it fall down around her arms. The long, brown, furry, rabbit ears that had been forced down into the jacket sprang up to the ceiling. She had had her ears slicked back all morning, and though painful, keeping them like that was better than the descrimination the faunus were experiencing. Stepping into the bathroom, the girl was able to release her extra appendages for a few minutes before her lunch period.
Velvet was no taller than five feet and three inches, but with the added height of the ears, she broke six and a half feet. Her faunus ability included excelent hearing and incredible agility, but beyond that there were hardly any pluses that she saw to come with her faunus heretage. At the time, all she thought about were the physically observable ups and downs of her life, but never what things like being a faunus really meant.
She looked in the mirror of the girl's bathroom. Her solitude quickly turned out to be false when in the reflection, standing behind the timid faunus, was Ruby Rose.
"Ah!" Velvet squeeked. "What are you doing in here, Ruby?"
"You have- on your head-" Ruby was baffled. Those ears were definitely real and definitely those of an animal.
"Please don't look." Velvet turned her back to the friend she had met but a month prior. The faunus girl was ashamed of herself both for her species and lying to one of the few friends she knew. The brunette dropped to her knees and began to cry as it was all she could think to do. "Don't look at me."
"You're a faunus... Why did you hide it?"
"Because the Faunus don't exactly have it easy at this school."
"Don't cry, Velvet."
"Just get the laughing over with and leave me alone."
"Laughing?"
"They always laugh, every time somebody finds out my little secret. Teasing, taunting, just do it so I can go back to being alone."
"Velvet..." Ruby knelt down and put a hand on Velvet's shoulder. "I don't know who did any of that to you, but I would never hurt you like that."
"Please go..."
Ruby threw her arms around the Faunus and pulled her into a "Yang Xiao Long signature bear hug" with enough force to crush bone. She pulled the petite upperclassman into her chest and told her that as long as she lived she would never leave her side. Though still a freshman, Ruby kept her promise the older girl from then on, almost to graduation.
"Hi, Ruby, I wanted to ask you out on a date... No, that's no good." Velvet practiced her line in the mirror. "Ruby, I have to ask you something. Would you like to go out sometime?" She pondered this one for a moment before deciding against it. "No." She though a bit harder. "Ruby, we have been friends for a while now, and I really want to be more than that- No, too pushy." Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Velvet?" It was Ruby's soft and sweet voice on the other side of the door.
"Just a minute!" Velvet called back. She quickly stepped out of the bathroom and ran to her room to put on the set of clothes she had laid out before her shower. She picked up the gray underwear, stepped into the bottom and put the bra over her small but well shaped breasts. She picked up the red and black plaid skirt that reached just past her knees and donned it over a pair of black stockings. She put on a tight, brown t-shirt and covered it with a black jacket. When she stuffed her long ears into the back of her shirt and covered her head with a baseball cap, she called out, "Ready."
The door creaked open revealing a short, fair skinned, dark haired girl in a less than formal sweatshirt and jeans. "Hi, Velvet. Sorry I'm late."
"It's alright, I wasn't even dressed when you showed up."
"I wouldn't have minded stepping in then," Ruby laughed.
"What?"
"Just kidding."
"You take too much after your sister."
"You love it."
'I love it and everything about you!' Velvet almost blurted, but stopped herself in time.
"Ready to go to Nora's party, Velvet?"
"Actually, I kind of thought we could do something else..."
"Like what?"
"Ruby, I- I need to tell you something."
"Shoot."
"I really li..."
"What?"
"I think I..."
"Velvet, I can't understand a word you're saying."
"I like you! Not like a friend, more than that!"
"You like me?"
"Yes. I admit it."
"I have wanted to hear you say that since the day we met." Ruby stepped forward and pulled her crush in. "I wanted to tell you, but I was too scared you would say no."
"I would never say no to you." Ruby despirately wanted to kiss the Faunus, but she knew that rushing things was a bad idea, especially with a girl as shy and timid as Velvet. Ruby and Velvet parted, the latter girl was just taller than the former, but not enough to tell unless they did a back-to-back comparison.
"So, what did you want to do tonight?"
Late into the night were the Faunus and Human girls wrapped up tightly together in a blanket. An old chick-flick was playing on the television, a forbidden romance that could not have possibly been more cheesy.
"But my love, must we part so soon?" Salvia beckoned to her lover.
"I am afraid so. I shall never forget you," Crusious replied. A tear fell from his eye as turned away from the woman. They were from two separate ninja clans and had been denied permission to meet. Salvia was a normal commoner, however Crusious' family was a lowly group of peasants looked down on by the other residents of the land because they were different.
"This has got to be the worst movie ever," Ruby exclaimed.
"I don't know. I kind of like it."
"Seriously?"
"The acting is awful and the screenwriting is atrocious, but something about seems... Familiar."
"I don't see it." Ruby let Velvet's head rest on her shoulder. They were holding hands and had their legs tangled together. The younger girl felt a soft-as-silk hand reach down her back and real ease the floppy rabbit ears. "I really wish you'd tell people who you really are."
"I told you already, not everyone in this world is as accepting and understanding as you are. Besides, I'm fine like I am. If I must hide my ears and tail to be happy, so be it."
"If you say- Wait, you have a tail?"
"Yes."
"Can I see it?"
"It's embarassing."
"I won't laugh."
"Promise?"
"I swear." Ruby raised her right hand as if she were taking an oath. The rabbit Faunus stood up and pushed down her skirt ever so slightly. A piece of what looked like cotton emerged from the base of her back. More of the cotton bowl slid out, when it the entire thing was showing it took the form of a fuzzy ball of plush. "Woah." Ruby reached out to touch it, but Velvet snapped up the skirt's waist before the younger girl could make contact.
"I told you it's embarrassing."
"I think it's cute."
"No you don't."
"Velvet, you're perfect. Your skin, your hair, your tail, everything is perfect."
The brunette could feel her face heat up as her cheeks turned a rosy pink hue. Ruby placed a light kiss on her crush's nose and whispered something in her ear that made Velvet's eyes shoot wide open.
