A Leaf Turned

Chapter 2

Night and Morning one

Damn you, Blake.

Adam had a feeling he'd be starting many a day and night with that simple thought and tonight, not even fifteen minutes after "settling in" as it were did he find himself damning his old partner again for the simple fact that he was being approached by the noisy duo of Blonde and Red, well, more like Blonde was approaching and she was dragging Red towards him. His brief hopes that she was merely coming his way and would turn to someone else were quickly dashed when she stopped just a good enough distance away from him. All smiles.

Adam wanted to sigh. He kept his eyes on his current focus however, Wilt and the cloth he was using to clean the blade. He hoped this would deter them but it did not either. He was quickly losing hope for a peaceful night.

"Hello there! I'm Yang and~" The blonde spoke and almost immediately he sighed when she gestured to the red hooded girl. "I believe you two know each other." She finished.

The bull almost demanded to know whatever gave her the idea he knew the red hooded girl. But, instead without even so much as looking up at them he replied. "The girl who almost exploded the Schnee outside." He smirked a little at that to his own amusement. "We've met briefly."

Just a shame she didn't succeed. He thought.

The girl blushed and sputtered an explanation of how that wasn't her fault. Yang on the other hand laughed. "See? He likes what you did!" She cheered for her.

He however just continued to polish Wilt's blade. Easy methodical wipes of the slightly damp cloth left well maintained crimson metal in its wake.

"Sooo," Yang said again several moments of silence. Adam wanted to sigh again. "What's your name?"

"Adam." Responded the Faunus so dryly he'd have made the population of Atlas thirsty despite all the snow.

"Adam, huh? That's a nice name! This is my sister, Ruby!"

This time he did sigh. "…A pleasure." It really wasn't.

Again he didn't look up and focused on the small scratch he spotted along Wilt's surface with a frown. When had that happened? Ire rose as he considered how best to treat the weapon's surface for the scratch.

"Yeah, this guy is a lost cause." Finally! The blonde was speaking sense. Now they just had to leave him alone.

"Find a scratch?" This time both Adam and Yang were surprised to see it was Ruby who'd spoken.

Adam replied. "Why do you ask?" He was just a smidge interested in the reply.

Ruby gave a small smile. "I get the same face when I see the same on Crescent Rose! She's my weapon and I forged her myself so I get really ticked when I see she had a scratch on her blade segments so I know the feeling you're expressing!" She explained proudly.

He had to admit that was fairly impressive that she had forged her own weapon. If he had to guess she was likely from Signal, as that Academy had a rule that all students forge their own weaponry. "I see," He said finally. "It is a scratch."

The girl in red looked excited to find a topic she seemed to actually enjoy. Weaponry. Adam… could honestly relate. "So, what sort of metal did you use for you weapon's blade?" She asked excitedly.

"Two layered. The outer edge is Vacuan Steel, but the core is Atlesian Iron." He explained, tilting his head. "Why?"

"I use a special polish for Crescent Rose, it uses dust and flakes of the metal you used to fill in scratches, rather then burn off metal! Just flake in some of the same steel and wipe thoroughly, apply a little heat treat with a blow torch and you're good!" The red hooded girl explained with a wide smile. Eager to be of help.

Adam was…genuinely surprised. "And you'd be willing to lend me some? A total stranger?" A Faunus? He asked while his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why?" This human girl had no reason to aid him for free and there had to be a catch. Some term she'd name now or at some later date.

"I just wanna be helpful!" She replied with all the innocence in the world.

That response stopped the bull in his tracks with enough force that his suspicious stare became a perplexed blink. She just wanted to be helpful? He thought and went over the idea of some random human girl just wanting to be of help to a random Faunus like him. The idea itself was so foreign, so alien, it took Adam longer than he'd like to admit to himself to just process it enough to respond.

"Why do you want to help me?" He asked with real wonder.

Ruby looked almost embarrassed with her coming reply. "Well we're training to become Huntsmen and Huntresses so we're already training to help people and the way I see it since we're all going to be doing the same thing I think it's just right I help out my fellow students too if I can!" She blushed and cleared his throat. "So…Yeaaaah."

Adam could only, after getting over the surprise, shake his head. That seemed like a terribly naïve way of thinking about things. But she was just a girl, in fact she seemed even younger than her blonde sister.

"Aww!" Yang cooed and wrapped her sister into a hug that Adam swore he heard bones creak. It only devolved further when Ruby raised a fist and soon the siblings were a mix of flimsy, half hearted attacks and just as lacklustre insults.

Adam wisely chose this time to go back to cleaning Wilt, but this time he wasn't entirely focused on the cleaning of the weapon. This time he was plagued by the wonderings of the innocent little girl with the red hood that was Ruby.

It wasn't until the unbearable sound of the Schnees' voice broke his musings did he look up again to see her dressed for bed and with a familiar scowl on her pale face. It begins again, I see. He thought wryly. But it seemed this time her ire was pointed towards Yang and Ruby because she didn't even glance at him. He was grateful.

"Do you two mind?!" Only a Schnee could yell quietly for maximum scolding. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

"Guys," Ruby seemed to realize what sort of ruckus they were making. "She's right. Everyone is trying to sleep."

"Oh, now you're on my side?" Weiss demanded with hands planting themselves on her hips.

Adam only wondered if Schnee were just confrontational by nature with all peoples, rather than just Faunus. He wasn't sure how he felt about this but he was going to settle on mild disgust because amusement would be too good for the doings of a Schnee.

"I was always on your side!" Ruby defended.

"Yeah!" And now Yang was in on it. "What is your problem with my little sister?!"

The bull Faunus just easily slid Wilt back into Blush, set it down on the side and looked up at the spectacle that was unfolding. He gathered air into his lungs and then with the voice he'd often used to get rowdy recruits from loud and unorganized to straight and attentive he boomed. "Enough!"

The effect was almost instant.

Yang and Ruby, along with the Schnee, heck, even a good portion of the hall that was still awake were all looking at him in surprise at the sheer authority behind the declaration. Adam swept over them once with his red eyes, a few actually flinched under the gaze before he settled said gaze back on the group of three girls. "I am going to go to sleep. I suggest," It wasn't really a suggestion, "You do the same."

Ruby nodded, looking almost relieved when Weiss just huffed and turned on her heel, apparently just glad to be able to sleep unhindered. Adam would have related but the idea of relating to a Schnee almost made him physically ill.

Adam. Blake's voice scolded dryly, as if only half heartedly putting the effort in considering the context of his own bias was towards such a frosty bitch.

He didn't even take it back and instead let Yang and Ruby go back to their sleeping bags, they gave him a pair of brief parting words that he didn't return. Settling back against the wall, Adam leaned his head back and kept Wilt and Blush within easy reach before finally he let himself succumb to a light rest until the coming morning.

Adam learned a few new names while lurking in the locker room.

Lurking because he didn't really need anything from his locket because he'd kept Wilt and Blush at his side at all times, but he still was trying to learn how to handle non-violent Faunus-Human interactions.

On the airship ride, the mutual disinterest had originally been something he didn't know what to feel for. In the great hall last night he had been feeling something of a mix of anger, that disinterest seemed a type of malice, afterall, ignoring Faunus generally mean they wouldn't do anything to help them should the chance arise.

However on the opposite end of the spectrum, wasn't disinterest better than outright racism and scorn? Humans ignored each other as well and he acknowledged that. It was just difficult for him to wrap his head around the idea that those humans saw the Faunus as… just more people, even if that was it probably wasn't, Adam was still thinking deeply on it.

Or he had been until a certain blond haired boy by the name of Jaune Arc began to make attack runs against the Schnee heiress. Adam used "Attack Runs" because to call Jaunes' attempts "flirting" would be akin to calling an filled passenger airship crashing in the middle of Grimm infested territory a "slight problem". Extreme understatement.

But, it wasn't without fruit, he'd learned another name, apparently one important enough to cow even the Schnee into politeness. Pyrrha Nikos. Adam knew the name, but not the face. Her achievements were wide and he suspected that like himself she was extremely skilled.

He would freely admit he'd relish the chance to face her in combat.

"Adam!"

And there went his lurking. "Ruby." He returned her happy-to-see-you greeting his own polite-and-to-the-point one. It didn't deter her like he'd hoped. "You ready for the test?!"

He raised a brow and glanced behind her to see her sister, Yang, giving him a thumbs up as if to urge him to socialize with her sister. If he had to hazard a guess it had something to do with his overhearing them speaking that the girl had to break out of her social shell. Adam just had the bad luck to be the only other person who knew her.

"Not particularly." He was honest at least.

"Oh," Ruby actually deflated a little at that, looking confused. "How come?" And back she bounced.

"It's a test of initiation. I don't plan to excite myself and make mistakes out in the field that could possibly cost me my place here." Not entirely the truth, he just knew whatever test this place threw at him would be one he could accomplish easily enough so he needn't be excited nor worried.

She didn't need to know that though.

"That makes sense!" Ruby nodded, as if perfectly understanding his reasoning. "I can't help but be excited because this means I can stop all this social stuff my sister forces me to do!"

Doesn't seem that forced right now. Adam thought idly.

She seemed to catch the back-handedness of her words and quickly spoke to try and clear any possible offense. "Not that I mind talking with you! You're cool and stuff! Plus you like weapons, or I think you do, I hope you do. And I am making this awkward, aren't I?" She trailed off and looked to the floor.

The bull Faunus was about to tell her she was extremely awkward but hearing Arc not only flirt with the Schnee over the rumors of "teams" and Nikos' saying it would be of four people, interesting facts to be sure, but Adam was more or less impressed by the sheer stupidity of the blond switching flirt targets while mid conversation.

It was so awkward he suddenly felt like he and Ruby were old friends chatting over beer by comparison. So that fuelled his response. "Could be worse." Could be Jaune Arc awkward. He thought.

Ruby seemed to brighten again and he was curious if she got emotional whiplash whenever she moved from sheepish to happy to awkward. As someone was used to Blake's own reserved nature, Ruby's expressiveness was… very new. "That's not bad, so I'll take it as good."

He shrugged his shoulders. He'd let her have her little victory. "A fine way to take it, I suppose." Adam said half-heartedly in this already half hearted conversation on his part.

It was then the intercom chose to save him from further attempts of Ruby trying to "break her shell". "Would all First Year students please report to Beacon cliff for initiation. Repeat, all First Year students report to initiation. Thank you." Click and it was off again.

"Well!" Adam and Ruby spoke at the same time, apparently both just as eager to stop the awkward socialization as the other. They stopped.

"…Initiation!" Ruby finally cheered, turned and with a quick goodbye was off. Yang in tow after said blonde gave him a grateful nod for apparently indulging her sister in her attempts at social interaction.

The bull Faunus followed at a nice distance. Passing Pyrrha Nikos as she finished pinning the blond bumbler to a pillar with her spear at the urging of the Schnee. And like that, Adam wanted to fight her even more because she seemed to be an ally of the frosted bitch. Bias or not he did not like her.

Though since this was a combat academy he imaged he'd get his shot to show up both Nikos and the Schnee so all he had to do was be patient and he'd put them in their place for certain. That had him smiling slightly.

He failed to notice that several other first years inched away from him upon seeing said smile.

End of chapter 2

There it was! Chapter 2 and soon begins the initiation itself. How will Adam deal with trying to dumb down his own talents while not seeming like some OP warrior swordsman? I dunno! I haven't even begun to type that! But, if you're curious, than wait for the next chapter!

And yes, with Adam about several things are going to be glossed over. We all know what everyone else is doing at this point in time and so I'mma focus on Adam and his thoughts on the events leading up the forming of RWBY, Beacon and it's faculty, classes. Eventually until the story starts building up and likely being altered by Adam's presence.