Chapter 13

The path ahead of him looked blurry for a moment, as Yusei blinked at his surroundings. He appeared to be walking through a park, the cracked footpath beneath his feet as he trudged along, small hands in his pockets. It was about mid afternoon, as he saw kids playing on the nearby playground, their shouts and laughter filling the air. He wanted to join them, to laugh and to play with them, but he knew that wasn't a good idea, so he kept walking. Looking back ahead of him, Yusei noticed a child approaching with his mother, who appeared to be about six or seven years old. He stepped to the side of the path to allow them to pass, and offered the kid a small smile as he grew closer. Of course the kid was staring at him-the rosettes on his arms stuck out like a target painted on his skin. Wide curious eyes looked to his mother-who hadn't seemed to notice Yusei yet-and then back to the Faunus boy.

"What are they?" he asked, pointing to the Rosettes on Yusei's arm. The Faunus boy stopped, and was about to answer when the mother grabbed her son's arm.

"Don't talk to Faunus Sebastian, they're filthy abominations," she snapped. Yusei stared as she dragged her son back down the footpath, far away from the Faunus boy and soon out of sight. Once they had gone, he'd turned to keep walking, as the words repeated in his head. 'Filthy Abominations'...

Back then, the ten year old had simply hung his head as he continued along the path, trying his best to stay out of everyone's way.

Yusei then became aware of the scene before him changing. He wasn't sure where he was now, but he could hear more people talking.

"Dirty animals!"

"Ew, what on Remnant is that?"

"Daddy, what's wrong with his skin?"

Finally he could see again, only this time through the eyes of an eleven year old. Yusei was staring up at a boy who must have been at least two years older than him, who smirked down at the Faunus as he cracked his knuckles.

Yusei could feel his small legs beginning to tremble. "I-I just wanted to tell her she was pretty," he managed, though his voice cracked half way though.

The older boy glared down at him, before fisting his hand in the front of Yusei's shirt and slamming him against the brick wall behind him. "You listen here, you piece of trash. You are a disgusting abomination, even to Faunus kind. Don't ever think you can try and talk to a human girl. Got it?"

The face in front of him then disappeared again, and Yusei was sent into darkness. The next thing he knew, he was letting out a yelp as someone threw him into the concrete outside a convenience store. "Get lost!" a voice yelled to him, "We don't serve animals here."

The twelve year old lifted himself up and glared towards the man who'd just thrown him out. "You can take your damn store and shove it up your ass," he grunted. "There are plenty of other places who aren't racist assholes."

As he turned and trudged back down the street, all Yusei could think of was how that whole sentence had been a lie.

The footpath beneath his feet then began to crumble, and the Faunus found himself falling through darkness as voices continued to float through his head.

"They're not natural."

"If we let them breed the whole of Remnant will be a zoo!"

"Filthy Faunus."

Yusei then noticed he was standing facing another kid, as a small group stood behind the other. "What did you just say?" he asked through clenched teeth.

The kid didn't seem fazed at all, as he offered Yusei a smirk. "I said 'filthy Faunus'. The likes of you don't belong here."

A hand clenched at Yusei's side. He'd had enough of the comments, the stares, the outright insults, but it was later that Yusei found out that swinging the first punch had not been a good idea that day.

The group in front of him dissolved as the fight broke out, but Yusei was not relieved from experiencing pain. He opened his eyes again to feel his cheek pressing against hard bitumen as rain drenched his skin, and a weight holding him down. What he was most worried about though, was the burning pain dragging across his back, like a line of sharp thin needles. He could barely stop the pathetic whimper that passed his lips.

"Please," he begged, hands clawing at the bitumen for something to grab hold of. "That's enough." He could feel something running down his sides, but he couldn't tell what was rain and what was blood.

His head was then pushed down into the bitumen even more as the line of barbed wire came into his vision for only a moment. As soon as it had left his skin though, he could feel it on his back again, as the scrape of rusted spikes dragged across pierced skin once more. His attempt at staying quiet was failing, and a howl of pain sounded from his throat as teeth clamped down on his bottom lip.

"This will stop when you admit to what you did," the voice above him sneered.

The fourteen year old could feel the tears leaking from his eyes, "I didn't do it," he wailed, "I didn't touch her!"

His answer was another scrape of the wire against his back, as hands pounded on the bitumen, but they didn't stop. He could hear them laughing, enjoying the sound of the Faunus' cries. Blood ran down from his lip as he failed to hold in yet another whine of pain.

The group of boys holding him down were all still grinning, "That's not what she says..."

.

Yusei then seemed to jolt awake as he burst his eyes open, heart hammering in his chest, but he was back in his dorm at Beacon. It took him less than a second to notice that he was curled up on his side next to Atem, and Yusei quickly wrapped his arms around his partner, thankful that the man had been right beside him after such a dream. Atem had been lying on his back with his mouth hanging open as he slept, but upon being thrust into the man's arms, he'd awoken with a start. Weary eyes blinked open in confusion as he drew in a startled breath, and saw Yusei's hair invading his vision, as the man's head rested in the crook of his neck.

Once his confusion had passed though, Atem had wrapped his arms securely around the man, "Are you alright?" he murmured. He could feel Yusei's heartbeat where his hand rested on his back, and the man in his arms just sighed.

"Yeah," he replied after a moment, "Just a silly nightmare."

Atem ran his hand up and down Yusei's back in a comforting manner, "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Yusei shook his head, "It was stupid, don't worry. I can barely remember it now anyway." The lie had come out of his mouth without hesitation, but the memories that sat at the back of his mind were still very much there, taunting him silently. He tried to focus his attention on the man he was currently wrapped around instead. He turned his head to peck the side of Atem's neck, "I'm sorry I woke you."

...

Although Yusei's nightmare had bothered him for most of the morning, by the time they got to Weapons and Combat he was feeling a lot better. Today they were working on advancing their weapons with Ushio-as they had been the last couple of weeks-while students went to Mina one by one to work on semblance. It was just as Yusei arrived back from this himself that he saw Atem fiddling with one of his swords, giving it a disgruntled look.

"I honestly chose the worst weapon for being a Huntsman," he noted, placing it back down on the bench beside its counterpart.

Yusei leaned against the bench with his elbow, "Still can't come up with anything?" he asked.

Atem shrugged, "They're freaking swords, how the hell can I modify them? All I'm interested in is some kind of long range weapon I can use against Grimm, but I can't turn them into a gun or anything."

"Actually, I was thinking about that just before," Yusei said, nodding to the swords. "What if instead of modifying your swords, you created something else to compliment them? Something that would fix your long-range problem. Cause as far as I see it, that's your only weakness. Once you fix that, you'll be unstoppable," he finished with a grin.

Atem laughed, nudging Yusei with his elbow. "That is a good idea though. I might have a chat with Crow, he seems to be good with long range stuff," he joked, looking over at the red head, who was currently trying to make even more kinds of arrows. Atem then turned back to the Faunus, "How'd your semblance stuff go?"

Yusei seemed to perk up even more at this, "Pretty good actually," he said, and Atem could see a spark of excitement in his eyes. "Check out what I can do now," the man grinned, before reaching out and grabbing Soul off of the bench top. In the time it had taken Atem to blink, his sword had disappeared. Atem stared at his partner. Yusei was still visible, so for a moment he thought he'd dropped the sword, but he could still see the man's hand curled around an invisible object.

Atem's eyebrows shot up, "That's awesome," he said, staring at where he was sure his weapon should be. "You can use it on other things now too?"

Yusei was grinning, and he nodded, before placing the now visible sword back on the bench, "Only small objects at the moment though, my goal is to be able to do it to another person eventually."

Atem then mirrored Yusei's grin, "That would be pretty damn cool."

While the pair idly chatted to each other as they leaned onto the bench top, neither of them were aware of the two students who had been watching them from afar. Yusei had just placed his arm guard down on the bench, as he explained to Atem where he hid the small darts that he'd used against Grimm a number of times. Atem was too focused on how his partner's eyes lit up as he animatedly talked about his own design to notice the pair that approached from behind, and it wasn't until Yusei felt a breath ghost over his ear that he froze.

"Honestly though, is it a tail?" A voice murmured.

The Faunus practically jumped out of his skin, eyes flying wide as he spun around and became face to face with Valon, as Mai stood by his side. The grin sitting on his face was enough to send Yusei's gut down to his ankles, and Atem instantly noticed the unease in his partner's eyes. It didn't take the shorter man too long to remember the events that had occurred the previous day, and he soon stepped forwards, narrowing his eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked the pair, and he heard Yusei swallow behind him. He felt the urge to grab onto his partner's hand, but held back as he didn't want to bring any more attention to Yusei. Nobody except Crow knew that they were together, after all.

Mai leant into Valon's side as she answered, "Oh come on, we're just curious," she stated innocently. As Atem asked what it was they were curious about, Yusei was staring at them as his mind went over how he'd reacted yesterday. Had Mai been any closer to him, he would have sliced her cheek open, and the thought scared the hell out of him. He tried to think of what Atem had said to him after the ordeal, but he could still remember how hard his heart had been pounding in his chest. For a whole year, he'd kept this a secret, but now that people knew, he could feel his previous fear returning. His dream had only given him a taste of some of those memories, of how some people treated Faunus. He didn't want to revisit that again.

"We just want to know if he has a tail," Valon said, glancing up at the man who was staring at them with distant eyes. Yusei's stare then hardened; old habits threatening to break the surface.

Atem could practically see Yusei putting up his defences, as he caught a glimpse of something he'd only seen in those eyes once: Yesterday afternoon, when he'd been talking about his previous hatred for humans.

"These people say we're the animals, but I honestly couldn't see a difference."

Bringing himself back to the current situation, Atem set his stare on Valon. "Yusei doesn't have a tail," he said. The taller man clenched his jaw, and Atem saw how Mai was watching the Faunus awfully closely. He waved a hand at them, "Now go bother someone else, we're working."

It wasn't until the deflated pair were walking away that Yusei let out the breath he had been holding. He turned to lean against the bench top, as Atem inconspicuously placed a hand over his. "Are you alright?" the teen asked.

Yusei moved to self consciously pull his shirt down, even though it already sat over the waist band of his jeans. "Yeah, I'm fine." He looked down at their hands where they sat on the bench, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake the nauseas feeling that had settled in his gut. He closed his eyes for a moment, as he felt a dull burn on his lower back. He knew it wasn't really there, but boy did his mind love to torture him.

...

That afternoon, after the pair had retired to their room until dinner time, they found themselves perched on Atem's bed. As it sat against the wall, Atem was able to lean against it while Yusei had turned the man's lap into a pillow, as he lay on his side facing the rest of the room. They'd stayed up talking for a while after Yusei's nightmare the previous night, so after a long day of classes they were happy to just relax. Atem looked down to see Yusei had closed his eyes, and he reached up to idly run a hand through dark locks. A content hum sounded from the man in his lap, and Atem smiled, remembering how his mother used to do the same thing to him when he was a child. From memory, it was quite a comforting gesture.

Before he could think about it, a sentence slipped from his mouth, "You're not going to start purring, are you?" he teased. Only a second passed and he had the urge to slap a hand over his mouth. "Oh god I'm sorry, that was a terrible thing to say."

He stared down at the man in his lap who hadn't seemed to move or make a sound yet. Atem became worried that his stupid mouth would get Yusei angry with him, but he noticed with astonishment that the man's mouth had curved up in a slight smile.

"For you, I might."

Atem let out the breath that he had been holding, "Jesus Yusei, I thought you were gonna kick me off the bed."

The Faunus rolled onto his back so that he could look up at his Partner, "I know you didn't mean to offend, it's alright." He gave Atem a reassuring smile, "Besides, technically I am half cat."

Atem moved to correct him, "You're half in the cat family."

Yusei just shrugged, "Same thing." He then pushed himself up onto his elbows, and Atem instantly knew what he was after. Smiling, he leaned down to meet the man half way, sharing a short, chaste kiss. No sooner had they parted again, Atem's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw who it was, and moved to answer.

"Hey Mum," he greeted. Yusei looked up at him curiously, as the woman on the other end replied.

"Hey yourself," she said. "What happened to 'I'll call you every fortnight' hm?" And he didn't know how, but Atem suddenly noticed a strong similarity between two people who weren't even related. Hadn't Bec said close to the same thing? He shook his head. "I mean it's not like I'm anyone important, I'm only your mother."

"Yeah, things have been a little hectic here..." he managed, scratching the back of his head. He knew he should have called his mother sooner, she was the only one in the house now after all. His slight guilt washed away though when she spoke again.

"I'm more inclined to believe you've been more 'distracted' as such..." she noted, and Atem knew she was teasing him now.

Eyebrows raised up under the man's bangs. "What?"

"Well, a little birdie told me there's a new man in your life."

Atem could feel his cheeks heating up as he cast a quick glance down to the man still lounging in his lap. Yusei grinned back up at him. "Oh god, did Bec tell you that?"

"Perhaps." Atem could practically hear the grin in his mother's voice. "So, tell! What's his name?"

Atem almost winced, "Do we have to have this conversation now?"

"Well why not? You are dating, aren't you?"

Atem suppressed an eye roll, despite the fact that she couldn't see him. Reluctantly, he replied, "Yes..."

Knowing he wasn't inclined to reveal much information at this point, she sighed, "At least tell me his name."

Atem looked to the side, well aware that his cheeks were still quite warm, "Yusei." The man in question had been poking Atem's side with a grin on his face, well aware of how red his partner's face was. Atem had moved the phone away from his ear to hiss at him, "Stop it!"

There was a sound of understanding over the line as Atem put the phone back to his ear. "He can hear this conversation, can't he?"

Atem sent a glare down to the man in his lap, who still had that stupid grin on his face. "Yes. Yes he can."

His mother laughed for a moment, before replying, "Alright, I won't embarrass you further. This doesn't save you from further questions later though."

Atem waved a hand in the air even though she couldn't see him, "Yeah, yeah." He then decided to change the subject, remembering what was happening that weekend. "Are you coming to family day?"

There was the slightest pause. "Oh I'm sorry honey, I have a lot of hours to catch up at work, I tried but my boss won't let me have the day off."

Yusei didn't miss the shift in Atem's demeanor, as his shoulders dropped ever so slightly. "Oh, okay."

"I can come and visit another time though, can't I?" The woman asked hopefully.

Atem bit his lip, "As long as you let Admin know that you're coming, yeah I think so."

"Alright, well I'll let you know when I can make it up to you." Not a moment later, she seemed to think of something else. "Oh! Isn't there a dance or something happening this weekend as well?" she asked.

Atem blinked for a moment, "God, I'd forgotten about that to be honest," he said, scratching his head. "But yeah I think it's Saturday night."

"Alright, well since I probably won't speak to you before then I hope you have fun. Anyway, I better go. I hope you and Yusei are enjoying yourselves there."

This time Atem did roll his eyes, "Yes, thank you mother."

Another musical laugh, "Bye bye honey, I love you."

"Love you too." Atem hung up the phone and looked down at the man in his lap, who was still grinning. "What?" he asked. Although there was an irritated edge to his voice, Yusei could see the slightest smile on his lips.

"Your mother sounds very interesting," he noted, moving himself up so that he was sitting, leaning an arm against the mattress on the other side of Atem's legs.

His partner let out a short laugh, throwing his phone onto the floor. "She is." When he looked back to Yusei, he noticed another expression had crossed his features. He creased his eyebrows, "What's up?"

Yusei's eyes moved back to crimson, before he looked to the side for a moment. "I was just wondering..." he began. "What would your mother think of me being a Faunus?" He still clearly remembered how Atem had told him that he was urged to stay away from Faunus as a child, but he'd only mentioned his father's opinion so far.

Atem knew that his mother would want to meet Yusei, which was why it was a shame she couldn't come to family day, because he wanted them to meet also. "She respected my father's wishes when I was growing up, and enforced the idea that I shouldn't hang around Faunus kids. But, I really think she was just keeping her own opinion quiet because she knew Dad was just trying to protect me from everything he'd seen." He smiled then, as he reached up to run a hand down Yusei's arm. "I actually think you two would get along really well."

Yusei tried to smile, but he voiced his last concern, "But do you really know that she would be okay with it?" he asked. At least she wasn't coming to family day, that at least gave him a little more time before such an encounter.

Atem gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You'd be surprised. Bec dated a Faunus last year and she loved him."

Yusei nodded, deciding that that was good enough for now. He didn't really know where their relationship was going to lead, but he figured it was worth preparing himself for such an encounter anyway. He was about to stand up, thinking that they both had a lot of homework to do, but Atem spoke again.

"What about your parents?" he asked curiously. "I know you don't mention them much but, are they coming to family day?"

Yusei blinked at Atem for a moment, before he shook his head, looking over at the window. "No, they're not coming. They're away on some trip again."

Atem bit his lip, but tried one more question. "And...what about your brother?"

Yusei let out a snort, remembering he'd mentioned having a brother. "Why would he come?"

Atem should have expected that kind of answer. After a short sigh, he turned to Yusei with a forced smile, "So it'll just be any other day for us, huh?"

"Looks like it," Yusei murmured. They sat there for a moment, as thoughts ticked over in Atem's mind, until Yusei moved to stand up.

Atem bit down on his bottom lip. There had been something on his mind for the last week or so, but although he wanted to ask Yusei about it, he'd chickened out every time. He'd been silently urging himself to do so up until that moment, so he grabbed onto his partner's arm. "Yusei?"

Blinking, the man turned back to look at him. He could see the uncertainty in Atem's eyes, so he sat back down on the bed. "What's up?"

Atem forced himself to open his mouth. "I wanted to ask you something," he said, toying with the bottom of his shirt.

Yusei opened his arms, "Ask away."

Crimson eyes glanced over at the window for a moment. "Speaking of...family, I-uh-" After letting out a sigh, Atem swallowed and tried again. "On Thursday, it'll be the two year anniversary of my father's death," he blurted. "I was planning on going and visiting his memorial in the afternoon, and I was hoping..." after chewing on his lip again, Atem looked up at Yusei. "I would really appreciate it if you came with me."

Yusei's gave him a soft smile, as he reached over to close his hand over Atem's. "Of course I will."

Atem was finally able to let out a grateful sigh, and he smiled. "Thanks." He then noticed Yusei's expression change ever so slightly, before the man opened his arms.

"Come here," he murmured, smiling.

Atem let out a chuckle, before he moved to happily accept the embrace. Instead of just moving over into Yusei's arms though, he jumped forwards towards the unsuspecting teenager. A startled yelp was all the Faunus could manage as he fell back onto the bed, with a grinning Atem now on top of him. He couldn't help the laugh that he let out then, dropping his head back onto the sheets as he tightened his hold on the man. Atem then shuffled so that he could look straight down at his partner, head resting on his palms. He loved seeing that smile on Yusei's face.

"Screw homework," the man then said, running hands up Atem's back. "Want me to beat you in Halo again?"

Atem looked down at his grinning boyfriend, "Jerk."

Yusei's grin widened, "Asshole."

Atem would have thrown another playful jab back, but he saw eyes duck to parted lips, and he needed no other invitation. As he leaned down to kiss the man who was very quickly finding a place in his heart, Atem could only think of how great Yusei made him feel. From the playful jabs and mucking around in class, to the heated and competitive sparring sessions, to their nights spent wrapped around each other...it was more than anything he could have asked for in a relationship.

It was as he began to trail lips across a jawline, feeling hands sliding along the bare skin of his back that he thought to himself, I don't ever want to lose this.