Two sharp blasts from a whistle sounded, easily permeating the small desert community and bringing it to life. Scaled faunus swept sand to uncover a road that was rarely used and made of pale stones pressed into the ground. Stable doors opened to reveal a variety of mismatched equipment, hay for horses, dust for vehicles, modern tools mixed with antique rusted iron that were prepared for any type of visitor. The inn's shutters opened and any residual sand was wiped from the windows as the sleepy village awoke.
From a particularly squat hut two figures sped, donning armour and sheathed weapons as they raced to the village gate - which was in fact little more than a signpost that signalled the direction and distance to the closest neighbour - all while barely noticing their shadow tailing them. Reaching their destination, they called up to the nearby tower. "Convoy?" They asked.
"Three carriages, four camels, one motor." The tower guard yelled back before doing the same towards the stables.
"Flags?" The only human in the village yelled back, tightening his gloves.
"White Fang and Kuo Kowana."
A stern looking woman approached the huntsman and huntress. She wore a dusty suit jacket over a beige crop top that showed off her dark and toned stomach. Her hair was short, roughly cut as though she had done so herself with a knife. Her posture and expression both screamed ex-huntress.
"Violetta," She nodded to the tiger faunus. "Maroon." She said flatly. "Best behaviour as -"
"As always, we know." The two interrupted. Maroon spoke up. "Mack sees Fang and Chieftain flags."
"I am aware, they contacted a month ago stating intent to visit Dustville."
Violetta nudged the woman with her elbow. "Have I ever mentioned how imaginative that name is?"
"Too many times." She growled, obviously having heard it many times before.
The convoy slowed as it reached the three, coming to a halt as the front two camel riders dismounted. They walked forward in sync as the doors of the car opened. They wore light cloths around their faces to protect from the sun and sand. They had dented and scratched plates covering their chests and arms over light coloured garb.
"Mayor Thorn?" They asked.
"Yes." She replied, apparently not seeing a need for pleasantries.
Three figures approached from the back of the convoy. Two of them were dressed similarly to the two riders except with much cleaner armour. Their clothes were black and they wielded spears that they stabbed into the sand as they approached. The central figure was much more noticeable. He was tall and broad, scarily so. A long blue coat fell over a bare and hairy chest that rippled with muscle. He had a small armour piece over his stomach and baggy trousers tucked into boots with the toe open, exposing two sets of furry claws. His face was framed by a black beard that did nothing to offset how intimidating he looked. Of course that aura was immediately broken when he crouched down and started speaking in a cooing yet bassy voice.
"Well hello little one! What's your name!" He said, looking past the three people in front of them. "Now don't you be scared, I don't bite - much! Ahaha!" He laughed, revealing a particularly large set of fangs. From behind a low wall, a small figure stood. She had wavy orange hair that framed a young face set in a nervous expression, Her legs ended in two tiger paws.
"My name is Ghira Belladonna, what's yours little tigress?" The large man asked.
"L-Lucy." The young girl replied hesitantly, not meeting his eyes.
"Well that's a beautiful name, where is your mummy sweetheart?"
"Right here." The huntress of the group said with a firm voice. "Why aren't you at home?"
"Wanted to -"
"Look me in the eye when you're talking to me, young lady."
The girl looked up slowly. "Wanted to see someone new."
Ghira stood and walked around his welcoming party to kneel before Lucy.
"Well don't you worry sweetheart, I'll be here until tomorrow morning when I set off to Dustville, we'll have plenty of time to get acquainted and -" He looked down, seeing that her paws were bare on the sand. "Where are your shoes, Lucy?"
"Uncomfortable, make my feet hurt." She wriggled her toes as she said so.
"Well I can understand that!" He guffawed before leaning closer. "Took me a while to figure it out, next time you put them on stuff some socks into the heel, trust me, it's a lifesaver." He reached out and wrapped a beefy arm around her thighs and lifted her onto it as though she weighed nothing when he stood, turning to the mayor as he did. "Now, Mayor Thorn is it? I hope you don't mind if my friend here comes with us."
Ren was sat alone in Team JNPR's room, despite being seemingly immune to Nora's excitability it wasn't an uncommon sight to see him sat at one of the desks with a book while the rest of his team spent a few hours of the weekend without him acting as a target for Nora's antics. Now, Ren was friendly - quiet but friendly - and would speak when spoken to and enjoyed the company of his team and their team's chosen 'sister team', RWBY. Despite this, he was rarely the subject of any direct conversation outside his own team, so you can imagine his surprise when two sharp knocks rang out through the room.
Setting down his book, Ren readied himself to speak to someone one-on-one. He cleared his throat and opened the door only to find the one person he was least expecting.
Drake Jade was a pillar of stoicism, Ren usually found this comforting in the man but today his apathy only made Ren even more annoyed at him over what happened earlier that day.
"Ren, after almost having my head caved in by Lucy over the issue I have been made aware that my apology earlier wasn't enough. I am truly sorry about being rude to you earlier."
Ren crossed his arms. "You're apologising to the wrong person. Nora deserves it after your comments."
"I actually met with her earlier, she seemed to have all but forgotten about it and then proceeded to shake my arm as though she was trying to rip it off and use it as a rattle." The buff man waved his gloved hand to a chorus of tiny pops.
Ren laughed uncharacteristically. "That sounds like her, did she tell you to come here then?"
Drake looked away, for once not making too much uncomfortable eye contact. "No, I actually came to ask a favour of you."
"You want a favour from me? Why me of all people"
"To be honest I wasn't sure who else to ask. You're the least likely to tell anyone else but also the most likely to have any knowledge about the subject matter." He gestured forwards "May I come in?"
Ren stepped aside and pulled out a chair that he then sat on as Drake closed the door.
"Much like you and Nora, Lucy and I have been together for a long time and-"
Ren stood suddenly, waving his arms in dismissal "Nora and I aren't actually together like that, we're just friends."
Drake looked stunned "I thought that was an act?"
"Why would we pretend?"
"Not sure, I was planning on asking you later." Drake cleared his throat. "Either way, I've known her since we were both eleven years old and it's just been us. We have been together in a romantic sense for much of that time, but we've never had the opportunity to truly explore that. We took on jobs where we could but mostly camped in the Anima wilderness and had to defend ourselves. What money we had was spent on food - or eventually our weapons - and we only ever managed to save up for small outings to pubs or cafes.
"Sure, walks along the beach were nice, or walks through the jungle, or walks through swamps, but that was all we had time for between fighting for our lives and fighting for… other reasons. So I've been hearing about the dance that's coming up to celebrate the Vytal festival, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to enjoy a romantic evening with her."
Ren looked confused. "What does this have to do with me?"
"I assume based on your fighting style that you may have some experience with dancing, I've never learned but I would like to surprise Lucy when the time comes. If you would help me with this I would be in your debt." The tall boy bowed deeply. Ren considered the strange request - personally he didn't know much about dancing, but growing up near Mistral (which was notoriously upper class) did have its advantages. For one, he knew how to pick a suit - something he assumed Drake also had no experience with - and several other courting gestures due to his mum constantly asking if he had a girlfriend despite how young he was before Kuroyuri fell.
Drake did have a point about his fighting style too, staying light on your feet and agility were both traits required for Ren's own combat style and for dancing as a whole (he assumed). Plus, having the boy in his debt might be advantageous, he could force him to be nicer with Nora or even just use the time they would be spending together to teach Drake some class.
Ren sighed, "I can't promise anything but I'll try to get you to an at least passable level. First, let's talk about how to act before you get to the dance."
Lucy was a monster - and for once it wasn't Blake thinking that. Yang watched as the girl weaved through Pyrrha's assault, dodging and ducking back almost before any strikes had been made. She wasn't winning the fight, but she for sure wasn't losing either. With the sword from her hip drawn for once, she swiped occasionally at Pyrrha - prodding her impenetrable guard to test out her reflexes. Whenever she found an opening, she'd slip in a jab with her armoured hand but have to withdraw it after only a light tap. From Yang's own many spars with her friend, she knew that just landing those taps would be enough to ignite Pyrrha's competitive spirit and spell the end for any unprepared opponent.
Pyrrha's assault increased, as did Lucy's defence in turn as though she was only defending enough to make it look as though Pyrrha had the edge. Pyrrha slid her foot back, something Yang had learned early on indicated her weapon shifting into a javelin for piercing rather than slashing. Lucy seemed to know it too, using the split second where Pyrrha was holding a jumbled lump of parts instead of any known type of weapon to move into her guard and launch a strike to the girl's armoured chest, attempting to wind her. Pyrrha twisted with practised ease to mitigate the blow but Lucy used the distraction to grab her shield arm and wrench it backwards - twisting it as she did so in an attempt to snare the arm in the leather straps keeping the shield attached.
Like magic, Pyrrha's shield slipped off her arm and she spun, launching a powerful kick into the back of her own shield now held against Lucy's chest - somehow causing it to bounce off and back onto her arm. Lucy jumped back to absorb the blow and landed in a crouch as Pyrrha did the same and gave up on her javelin and transformed her weapon again. Her rifle settled into her shoulder and she took some pot shots.
Lucy spun, dodging and weaving with not a single shot landing on her bar one that hit her gauntleted arm. She grinned wildly, running at her opponent and jumping, accepting the hits on her aura like they were nothing - which Yang knew well they weren't, Pyrrha's rifle hurt like a bitch - and she threw her sword at the champion.
Pyrrha raised her shield, giving up on taking shots to block in time for the sword to clang off the smooth metal. She raised her weapon arm behind her shield and braced, ready to absorb whatever attack the tigress threw.
Lucy roared - still mid air - and punched.
It was incredibly rare that anyone could get a clean hit on even Pyrrha's shield. She would twist, dodge, duck, and negate any blunt force that hit it with practised ease. Even Yang, her usual sparring partner had only had a single chance for a direct hit but had not used her semblance at the time as she was expecting Pyrrha to dodge. Even without her semblance through, she considered herself strong. She was no pushover and had only ever lost an arm wrestle to Nora. With a direct punch from Yang the shield had clanged loudly and shrugged off her blow, resulting in nothing more than hurt knuckles for her. This punch… this one was different.
Lucy's arm appeared to almost glow as it shot forward, and thunder rang out. Her scratched and dented gauntlet sparked as it clashed against the sheen of Pyrrha's shield. The championship fighter was thrown back, her prepared stance doing nothing against the sheer force behind the blow. She skipped across the ring before skillfully finding her footing and appearing in a ready stance.
Her shield had done nothing, a quick glance to her aura told her that she had dropped into the yellow for the first time since joining Beacon. All in all, she had come out of the ordeal fine. The same couldn't be said for her shield.
The once polished surface was scratched, deep grooves dug into the metal - but that wasn't what most of their small audience noticed. A fist shaped dent was now proudly displayed in the middle.
"Okay, so the Pyrrha plan didn't work." Yang said bluntly before turning to her partner. "Why the fuck did you not warn me about her before my baby sister started getting attached?"
I know that Ghira doesn't have paws but god damnit I got tricked by his boots. Really, why would they design them like that and then give him claws that I didn't even question due to the fact that the show regularly ignores the one faunus trait rule.