A Leaf Turned

Chapter 5
First Lessons

Adam couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He was currently in class, various other first year students seat as neatly as they could be with their teammates who shared their classes as well around the "stage" at the other end of the room where the Professor was currently telling them all of his adventures involving a particularly powerful Alpha Beowulf, that he'd apparently wrestled to death since losing his weapon during the struggle.

And all the students looked absolutely bored.

Adam was at a complete loss as to how they could be bored when Peter "The Bloody Baron" Port was right there! Adam wasn't born into a middle class family, he was born dirt poor and had to struggle just to survive and even he knew of that man now lecturing them.

The stories of the Bloody Baron were as famous, or infamous depending on your standing with the law, as most legends. The man had single handedly thwarted Grimm invasions of whole villages during his youth, fought off Nevermore alphas and had rumoured to have tangled with every sort of Grimm in existence at least once.

His achievements were enough to warrant the man Adam's respect and that was no easy feat.

And yet these foolish children are treating him as nothing more a bring nuisance. The bull Faunus thought with a displeased frown. Only he, the Schnee and Nikos appeared to paying any real attention and he could only think Schnee and Nikos were doing it out of politeness rather than real respect.

The man culminated his speech and pounded his chest. "Now! Who here feels they embody these traits?"

Adam certainly didn't embody honor, but he was brave and cunning so he felt that made up for a bit. When Weiss thrust her up into the air, the bull almost smirked. It seemed Ruby's appointment to leader of the team was really getting to her because she seemed eager to show her talents.

It would make for a delicious defeat on the Schnee's part if she went into a fight as emotional as she was.

"You got this, Weiss!" Ruby was instantly shouting her encouragement for her partner, which Adam knew was just irking the Schnee all the more.

"Yeah! You got this!" Yang cheered as well, throwing a fist into the air.

After several moments of silence, they both turned their gazes onto Adam, who sat back with his arms crossed and glanced between them. "…What?" He demanded with a frown.

"You're not cheering!" Ruby replied, looking disappointed. "Show support for fellow member of team RWBY!"

"Yeah, partner." Yang gave him a grin and a thumbs up.

Adam just stared at the like they had just told him to put on a dress and bust some "sick" moves in front of a crowd. He merely cocked a brow at the pair before looking at the heiress, who was getting ready to face the Grimm inside the cage, Slamming against the bars so hard Adam could hear the hinges groaning. The bull could do something with this. He sighed. "Very well."

The sounds made it obvious was a Boarbatusk.

"Hey, Weiss." The Schnee turned to him, brows furrowed. "Watch out."

Not a second later, the door was knocked clear off the cage and flew towards the Schnee, who quickly, BARELY dodged the flying piece of metal that lodged itself into the wall behind her. She raised her rapier and thrust forward to do battle with the beast!

Adam stopped paying attention after she dodged the flying door and instead focused on his scroll to type down a few notes about the story. If Adam had to guess, Port was only boring because his tale had been told and they expected it had come from him in his prime. But Adam knew better, he knew the man had fought that Beowulf at the age of sixteen.

These kids clearly didn't understand who was taking time out of their valuable life to teach them.

He had been so uncaring for the class that he only looked up when the Schnee finally snapped at Ruby. And the moment of anger had been all it took for her to lose her weapon. Adam snorted, only an amateur would lose their weapon during a fight and as Weiss was proving, she was hardly that deserving of her apparent boasting of her skills.

In the end, Weiss defeated the Grimm with minimal, sadly, injury and stormed out of the class room without so much as a glance at her teammate. Ruby looking worriedly after her before announcing she was going after her, then did so and left Yang and Adam alone.

"What's eating her?" Yang asked, crossing her arms. She herself wasn't too off put by miss icy, but when someone made Ruby sad she hopped to it.

Adam was surprised Yang didn't see it. "Schnee feels…" insulted. "Slighted that Ruby was chosen as leader of the team instead of her." He explained as the students moved out of the class. Yang and Adam mixing in with them easily.

Yang snorted. "Is that all? A little entitled princess, huh?"

Adam agreed. "She is. Thought admittedly, I do doubt the choice of leadership too."

"Why?" Yang's question was notably more serious, ready to defend her sister.

"Because from what I've seen, she's fast on her feet and skilled as a combatant, but I've yet to see anything resembling leadership skills from her." Adam raised a hand to stop the retort before it could come. "But, it's only been a few days I've known her so unlike the Schnee, I reserve judgement." For now, he still wasn't impressed.

Yangs' lilac eyes searched his for any lie and he knew it was a lost cause to inform her she'd have any luck reading him. Finally she nodded, "Alright. Just don't be too rough on her. She's still learning, like the rest of us."

Adam stared at Yang. I stopped learning a year or so ago, by all rights I'm as much as Huntsman as the professors here. He thought, before nodding to humor her. "Right, come on. Let's get to class. I refuse to be late for this one."

"Uh, why?" His blonde partner asked from beside him. "It's just history."

"History with Bartholomew Oobleck." He responded tersely.

"…Who?"

Adam groaned. Didn't these students know anything? Anything at all?! How did they not know about Bartholomew "The Flare" Oobleck? The man who not only invented Dust infused coffee that acted both as fuel for a flamethrower while still being drinkable and acting with enough energy to restore mental clarity without the increased heart rate of caffeine.

The man was a genius when it came to flammable materials and dust infusion. And he was teaching History in Beacon Academy!

The bull Faunus felt the inkling of excitement, the man was also Human, but that was to be expected, much of Beacon's staff was human bar Professor Peach, who remained locked up in her lab until the final class.

He could only wonder what the fox Faunus was doing in there. She wasn't known as the "Inventive Vixen" for nothing. Racist as the name was, it was also well earned.

They reached the doors to the next class and stepped inside to begin.

Lunch arrived and sure enough, there was obvious tension at the table. Weiss had avoided Ruby all through their second class, going as far as to sit beside Adam. And Ruby was still looking down as ever over said ignoring.

Adam enjoyed the silence but it ended when JNPR arrived and sat down beside them. Nora proceeded to talk at volumes so loud that by the time she finished her story about the Ursa pelts and how she and Ren made a boat load of Lien that he was sure the entire cafeteria had heard as well.

"It was amazing." Nora said again with a wistful smile.

Her team's dry "We know, Nora." came again soon after.

Adam just impaled another piece of his diced apple onto his fork and shoved it into his mouth and tried to will the table to fall back into silence again so he could resume enjoying it. But since it seemed JNPR was more than able to make up for the loss of chatting from the RWY portion of his own team he doubted he'd get said silence.

He briefly got lost in his thoughts about he and Blakes' betrayal. It had been spur of the moment but very little involving he and Blake were that, but that was the basis of their relationship as mentor and student, surprisingly it was an effective system for them but when she announced she was planning to leave… and she wanted him to go with her.

The bull Faunus had been surprised by the sign of trust, but he'd still been ready to kill her for that act of betrayal. Having owed her that much since their time together he had allowed her to explain before passing judgement on her.

She told him that their mutual goal had been skewed by his own hatred, that he wasn't leading a revolution and after ten minutes of his silence where her life held in the balance of his decision… He agreed with her. They needed to escape and the upcoming operation against the Schnee Dust Company would be the perfect cover for said escape. So they had.

Looking back on the last few days of his life, meeting Ruby and Yang, spending time with JNPR and being surrounded by teenager eager to learn the trade and help the world…

Adam half wished he'd simply cut off Blake's head and just stayed back with the White Fang, but he supposed this was still rewarding in it's own way. Somehow… Maybe. He'd reserve judgement.

There was a sudden cry and Adam's eyes moved over a few tables down.

A Faunus, a rabbit Faunus was leaning over with a look of pain on her face while pleading with a team of Humans who were jeering and laughing while their larger friend held onto one of her ears, laughing all the more loudly, regardless of her pleas or sounds of pain.

"Please stop!"

"Are those horns real?" A cruel voice laughed.

"What a freak."

"They are, hah! Freak." Another laugh.

His fists clenched and he grit his teeth, even as the others commented about the "atrociousness" or "difficulty" of being a Faunus. Adam sent each of them a glare so fierce Yang looked at if he struck her. "Not a one of you has any idea. Even now you sit here and comment," he hissed and stood. Refusing to be part of their inaction.

"Adam!" Ruby and Yang called, but he ignored them.

The bull advanced, eyeing the four humans with a scowl until he was right there and reaching up and taking hold of the leaders wrist. "Unhand the ear, human." He hissed to the surprised human.

The surprise on the larger male's face lasted only a second before it turned into anger. "Or what, freak?" He sneered, about to squeeze the woman's ear when Adam's snarled and squeezed just a bit tighter.

Crack!

Just a teensy bit tighter. The boy released the Faunus' ear and stepped back, cradling his now very fractured wrist while Adam flexed his fingers with a dark smirk that reached his eyes. "Stand aside," He grabbed the rabbit's elbow and tugged her back while stepping forward and bringing his fist right into the Mohawk boys' face with a crunch.

"Cardin! Russel!" One of them yelled while the other brandished a fork and rushed Adam, who turned on his heel and kicked him across the gut onto the table, scattering food and drink across it and it's occupants.

The fourth lunged, taking Adam onto the next table and delivered a right hook that Adam full on head butted with his horn. The sound of bones snapping from the fingers and the boy's cries only gave Adam al the more satisfaction. He took the boy's shoulders and tossed him to the side with a shout.

Adam only heard "Food fight!" before the cafeteria descended into madness.

"I am very disappointed in you all." Glynda Goodwitch said as she paced before a room full of students, all of which were the ones nursing "minor" injuries.

Adam himself had a black eye and was bruised on his shoulder along with his knuckles. Beside him was Yang, looking like she'd just had a night on the town's fightclub, Ruby and Weiss hadn't joined on the ensuing food fight but when it descended into it Yang had leapt in to ensure his back was covered.

Of the some forty something seats in the room, all were occupied as Goodwitch continued to scold each of them for the misconduct they'd showed along with the fact that they injured some of their fellow students enough that they were being treated by professor Peach in the infirmary.

Adam was just pleased that all of team CRDL were among those other students.

"I gotta say, partner," Yang whispered from beside him with a grin. "I don't think I've seen anyone wield a food tray like that before."

Adam had to admit, of all the improvised weapons he could have grabbed the food tray had been so random he might not have believed it himself. "Nor have I seen anyone manage to knock someone out with a pair of turkey legs."

"Next time I'll use the full birds."

He didn't doubt her. "Sounds like you had fun, at least."

She giggled. "I saw that grin on your face, you did too."

Adam didn't stop the feral grin from tugging at his lips. "Only a little." Fighting so… freely had been therapeutic. It helped that half the people who came at him were a bunch of bigoted fools who thought that they would teach him, a lowly Faunus, his place.

He'd in turn showed them all the places their bones could be dislocated and broken with the right amount of force. Minor injuries for Huntsmen in training with Aura healing, just a few painkillers and a good nights rest and they'll be fine come the next morning. Due to the brawl, the next class with Goodwitch was being put on hold in favor of a detention class.

Honestly if given the choice to do it all again he would have made the exact same choices. Well, I would have also gone for the fork on my off hand, but this was a learning experience. He thought idly while slightly marvelling at the durability of Beacon's food trays. One would almost wonder if they went out of their way to ensure the trays could double as both shield and weapon.

He couldn't decide if he liked that or not.

"Mr. Belladonna, are you paying attention?" Goodwitch demanded.

Adam responded simply. "Yes, miss Goodwitch, I am. And I'll say again, they were bullies and racist. Also, the next student to snicker when I say bullies I will personally give them a very in depth show of just how I broke Mr. Winchester's shoulder!" He snarled and the room fell quiet around him.

Goodwitch just adjusted her glasses. "How violent." She muttered.

"I love it." Yang laughed.

Adam sighed. Damn you, Blake.

End of chapter 5

There it is, chapter five! And yes, I moved some events ahead because let's face it, the first day of Beacon has to be exciting, and Adam made it just that by inciting a smaller scale food fight slash brawl! Now, thank you to all those who favorited, reviewed and followed. I enjoy seeing those numbers go up. (I'm a terrible person, I know.).

But yes, Adam's misadventures in Beacon continue.