The disgruntled team returned to their room, somehow managing to dodge everyone in the school. The blonde boxer put Zwei's food and the little pack of catnip in the kitchen. She leaned against the door, watching her teammates pursuing their own means of relaxation. Blake dove into her new book, retreating from the world. Ruby was listening to music while cleaning Crescent Rose on her bed. The scent of her weapon cleaner permeated the entire room while she took the beloved scythe apart with practiced ease. Weiss was bent over the small table in the bedroom writing something. Every couple of sentences, she would tear the paper into confetti and start again.
"Weissy, are you alright? I realize you have a problem with trees, but I think we'd leaf a few for later." Taunting Weiss was probably not her wisest idea, but the heiress was a bit like Zwei with a bone. If no one took it away from her, she would stew over whatever was in her head forever.
She looked away from her journal at the sound of Yang's voice. "No one leave, I'm going to make us lunch." The ritualistic act of cooking would calm her nerves while still allowing her to be productive.
Without looking up from her book, Blake asked, "What do you intend to make?"
"Cookies?" Ruby leaped from her bed onto Weiss, only to be caught by a glyph hastily thrown together. This had turned into a nearly daily occurrence, much to Ruby's disgust. Weiss had gotten quite good at throwing together protective glyphs with no notice.
"I have something special planned. And no, Ruby, we aren't having cookies for lunch." Before all of this chaos descended on her, she had planned on celebrating the end of the term by making grilled tuna over a homemade chickpea salad. She had hidden freshly caught tuna in the back of the fridge, safe from Blake's curiosity. Considering Blake hadn't produced any questionable excuses to avoid the team, she hadn't found the fish.
The preparation for the lunch took just under a half an hour. Weiss had finished plating the homemade meal, ready to be served to her team. "Now, where did Yang put the chive and oregano," she muttered to herself. A cursory glance failed to reveal the herbs in question, but she did find a small herb pouch, hidden in the back of one of the cabinets. The pouch lacked a label, but looked like some sort of herb. Perhaps it serve as an acceptable substitute. She opened the pouch and sniffed it. Whatever was in the pouch was positively divine. The minty aroma was perhaps a bit stronger than she would have preferred to be paired with Tuna, but it was too good to just waste away in a pouch. It might even make an acceptable perfume. She would have to find out what it was at a later time. Weiss sprinkled the mint liberally over the carefully prepared food and called the team into the kitchen for lunch.
Ruby burst through the door first, eager to taste her partner's cooking for the first time. "Is this tuna? You can have tuna without having a sandwich?" Yang chuckled at Ruby's eagerness as she entered the room.
Blake's ears twitched in the next room. Tuna? Did she hear tuna? This had to be some new, cruel joke. Weiss would not cook her tuna after everything that had happened today, would she? She cautiously entered the kitchen, when she caught the scent of the nirvana. She could also pick up a wonderful minty scent, but who cares? There was tuna to eat.
"I wanted to do something special to celebrate the end of the term. This is freshly caught tuna, grilled to perfection, served with homemade chickpea salad. Bon appetit!" Weiss joined her teammates after her impromptu speech. The mysterious mint complemented the perfectly grilled fish. The world seemed to grow brighter the longer she ate. Even the smell of the mint made everything so much better. She was convinced someone had to make a perfume from this mint. Perhaps she would make the attempt.
Blake eagerly devoured her tuna, though the mint still lingered on her mind. "Weiss, what is the herb you used with the tuna? It tastes familiar, but I can't quite recall what it is."
"I don't know. It was a small pack of herbs I found in the kitchen. We ran out of chive and oregano, so I improvised. It's the perfect seasoning for the tuna, if I don't say so myself."
Yang started to choke on her chickpea salad. "You found a small package in the kitchen? So, umm, I may know what the herb is. Weiss, take a deep breath. Think of something relaxing, like a school of sharks swimming. Why you would find that relaxing is beyond me, but-"
"Yang, sweetie, please tell us."
"It might be the pouch of catnip I was given today," Yang sheepishly finished.
"You… I… Blake, what do we do?" Weiss looked over at her fellow faunus. Blake was completing her impression of her pale teammate, pinching the brow of her nose.
"The good news is we have a few more minutes before the catnip kicks in. Someone lock the door, we'll have to weather the catnip in the room. Yang, do us a favor and don't take any pictures. Weiss, just as a warning, you might be driven to act a bit more… animalistic when the catnip kicks in. It's perfectly-"
The shriek of the heiress's scroll interrupted whatever assurances Blake was offering her. She hurried to check the scroll, only to discover her sister was calling. "Winter! I'm so happy to hear from you! How have you been?"
"Splendid. I am actually in Vale today. You would not believe what I saw today at lunch. A young faunus girl was removed from a small restaurant. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? Winter's tone left no doubt as to the meaning of the question.
"I am sure that occurs often enough. I do not see how I could know anything more than that," Weiss responded hesitantly. Somehow, Winter knew what happened today.
"Very well. I would like the opportunity to meet your team. Shall I meet you in Beacon?"
"Today? I have tests and classes to study for today. Maybe we can spend tomorrow in Vale?"
"I will be at Beacon in five minutes, sister. I will see you." Winter disconnected from the call.
"Dust, where did I leave that paper?" Weiss began tearing apart her desk, desperate to find her key to normalcy. She couldn't let Winter see her like this. How would she react?
Ruby stuck her head into the bedroom. "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, everything's fine. I've just managed to drug myself, drug a teammate, and discovered my sister is on her way here. And now I can't find where I put that dust-blasted paper!"
"Oh." Ruby gave Weiss a tight bear hug, one even Yang would be proud of. "Everything will work out just fine. As long as we handle it together, there's nothing we can't do. Ice flower forever!"
The heiress resisted the hug at first, not wanting to waste time. But she surely she could spare a minute to hug her caring team mate. Maybe she just needed something to distract her in order to remember where she left the thrice-cursed paper. Her life had changed so much since she had meet her team. The lonely little heiress was no more. In her place was a strong independant huntresses who really needed a good hug from her partner. She could feel a rumbling in her chest as she thought of them. They were her's, and nothing, not even Winter or her father would take them away.
Ruby giggled at the sound of Weiss's purr, but fell into silent shock as she began to rub her cheek against Ruby's own cheek. The cat faunus was muttering "Mine. Mine," under her breath, purring all the while. Dealing with people was not one of her strengths, but Ruby was fairly sure her father never mentioned what to do if a person was rubbing their cheek against you. She did know animals and Blake did say they would start acting a bit more animalistic. Ruby began to rub underneath Weiss's chin, just like she would when Zwei acted this way. The purring grew even louder and the faunus's eyes rolled into the back of her head.
"Ruby! The catnip kicked in!" Yang came bursting in through the door to the kitchen carrying a sleepy Blake trying to nuzzle her collarbone. "Uh, Ruby, what are you doing?"
"Nothing! I gave her a hug, then she started doing this! What do I do?" Ruby had managed to carefully remove her hands from Weiss and was flapping them around in a bird impression. Her partner cuddled a bit closer, then gazed around the room, as confident as a queen on her throne.
"Yang in there, Rubes. I'll put Blake in her bed, then I'll get the Ice Queen."
Weiss hissed at the boxer and the sleeping faunus. There was someone claiming her people. She pounced at the usurper who dared to challenge her rightful place, pulling the challenger from her spot in the arms of the golden throne and took it for herself. "Mine," she purred, rubbing her cheek against the personal heater. This was an even better spot. The warmth radiating from the young woman felt perfect against the queen of Team RWBY.
Blake's eyes snapped open, a bit confused as to why she woke. The world was so warm and safe, golden light teased her nose. Life was perfect just a moment ago. With a start, she remembered a calico faunus ripping her away from her spot. How dare she? That was the best place in the entire room. Her ears flattened as she hissed at the interloper, an interloper who was now claiming her partner. The young upstart had no right to claim her. Blake was here first. She deserved the love and attention.
"Yang, where did she put the paper? I can't remember where she put it." Freed from the grasp of her partner, Ruby picked up where Weiss had left off, hunting for the paper.
"A bit busy, right now. Weiss and Blake look like they might be getting into a cat fight." Yang turned to face Ruby, the fencer hanging from her neck. "What's the rush? The kittens are adorable, assuming they don't kill each other."
"Winter is coming. She called Weiss and told her she was coming to Beacon now. We can't let her see Weiss like this." Blake leaped on top of Weiss, pulling her away from Yang. The two cats grappled on the floor for a brief minute before snuggling together within arms reach of the greatest cat toy in the history of Remnant: Yang's hair. Weiss nipped at Blake's bow, unexpectedly tearing it off. Yet her fellow faunus paid it no mind. There was a golden ray of sunlight made manifest inches away from her face. She could actually touch the silky mane without disturbing the other faunus. It even moved when she batted it away. After years of trying, Blake had finally managed to touch the sun.
"Winter? As in her big sister? The person Weiss spent most of the tournament with last year? I think she might have put it in her pocket. Grab her majesty. We'll check her pockets."
Ruby pulled her partner away from Blake, pushing her onto the bed. Ruby began the process of searching the squirming faunus's pockets for the paper. Weiss was making the hunt more difficult by continuously attempting to pull Ruby down for a cuddle, her constant purring a siren's song. A sudden knocking at the door rang throughout the dorm. "Yang, that's her! Weneedtofindit!" The heiress squirmed free from her partner and opened the door for her sister.
The door to the dorm swung open, revealing Winter. She gazed into her sister's room, seeing her sister standing at the door. Her sapphire eyes were dilated, slightly glazed over, a pair of white cat ears poking free from her ebony, blonde, and snow hair. Seconds later, a calico faunus was in her arms, nuzzling into her shoulders. "For the love of dust, what did you do to my sister? Did you three get her on drugs?"
Ruby sprang from the bed. "You, ummm, grace us with your ahh presence." She offered a curtsey, just as Weiss had taught her.
"Ruby was it? Save the pleasantries. Tell me what happened here."
"Shedidittoherself! Wehadnothingtodoit! ExceptforBlakewhodidthechangebutshedruggedherself!" In an impressive display of lungs, she managed to hurriedly exclaim in a single breath.
Winter looked at Ruby, dumbfoundedly. "What did you say?"
Weiss pulled back from her sister, clutching her head. "Ungh... Remind me never to do that again. Winter! What are you doing here?" She tried to subtly tried to rearrange her hair to hide the ears, failing miserably. Blake's braids were crafted too well.
"I had thought my sister had decided to play some childish game involving faunus ears. Were you planning to attend the faunus rights rally today?" She attempted to pull Weiss's cat ears off her head. Her sister winced in pain, causing her to stop. "These aren't coming off. Weiss, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything! I woke up with faunus traits this morning. We went into town to celebrate the end of the semester. But, we got removed from a restaurant so we returned here, so I could cook lunch. I didn't do anything to endanger our family name."
"Oh dear sister, I don't care about that. Are you alright? Does it hurt? So how did this happen? Dust explosion?"
"I'm fine, Winter. They don't hurt at all. In fact, they kinda feel like they belong, but that might be a side effect. As for the catalyst of the change, well, someone gave me a pen that can change things to suit our will. Blake used it on me."
"A pen? Are you serious?" Winter stared into Weiss's eyes for a moment. No matter what else changed, the eyes remained the windows to her soul. "You really are serious. You can turn someone into a faunus with a pen. What else can it do?"
A/N: This was the chapter we likely all assumed was coming when Weiss was turned into a cat faunus. For the record, catnip doesn't have a delayed reaction on cats. I chose to give it a delayed reaction on faunus thanks to Rule of Funny. Catnip typically induces a variety of reactions including sleeping, aggression, and hyper affection. In order to get a more realistic scene, I actually gave my two cats catnip. For the record, that was exactly how they behave on catnip.
So why did Weiss start acting a bit out of character before the catnip started affecting her? Catnip actually affects cats via scent, not taste. Thus, the moment she smelled the catnip, she was affected by the drug. I was trying to pull off a bit of subtle transition to full drugged scenes. Hopefully it worked as well on paper as it did in my head.
This week, we have two guest reviews to address. I'm rather pleased to hear guest reviewer #1 is enjoying my portrayal of Ruby. I am absolutely paranoid every chapter that I'll butcher the tone of the characters. I actually ship white rose, so I'm trying to write their scenes with as little romantic overtones as I can while still keeping the bickering at the core of their relationship, hence the old married couple feel. I might have overdone it a bit this chapter, but we shall see. Thanks for the review!
As for guest #2, thanks for the review! I actually started this story as Weiss being forced to attend anger management classes. She would have been given magic ink rather than a magic pen. She would then write everything that bothered her down in a journal, thus changing the others. I changed it because I wanted to allow the others some fun. Besides, Weiss would have just turned everyone into clones of her. Also, ink runs out. If the magic is from the pen, they can just get a new ink bottle. The pen in Once Upon a Time did inspire the magical delivery system, if you will. However, that pen changes reality around it, or at least I think it does. I'm really far behind on the show. This particular pen hasn't demonstrated that level of power yet, mainly because I like seeing how others react to the changes. My actual inspiration for the story was fan art of Weiss as a cat faunus. As soon as I find out the artist, I'll credit them with it. I wanted to write a story about her being a faunus, but felt too lazy to make a new AU. Besides, there are far better faunus fanfiction out there. I haven't seen anything in this vein yet. I had also considered a genie version, but the tone felt darker than I wanted. I seem to write really dark genies. TL;DR version: The concept was made independently, the delivery system was inspired by the show.
I would normally be teasing the next chapter, but I'm currently waffling a bit. Tentatively, it will be A Split Decision, starring our favorite reaper. As per usual, suggestions are appreciated. The next couple chapters will likely be Ruby focused, since I have gotten a few suggestions for her. Happy New Year's everyone, and I will see you next year!