A/N- Oh no! With all this being stuck at home and doing nothing, I forgot I was supposed to be writing a story! Well not really, this next chapter just turned out to be really long and took some time to write... I'm actually still kind of writing it as I type this now, so HERE'S HOPING I DON'T MAKE THOUSANDS OF MISTAKES OOPS TOO LATE LOL HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!
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"Stay close, girls," Ghira Belladonna said over his shoulder as he navigated his way through the crowd of faunus around him. Being led by his hand was a young girl with a pair of cat ears poking out of her raven colored hair. "Wouldn't want to lose either of you munchkins in this crowd. How's Ilia doing back there, Blake?" the tall faunus asked his daughter.
Blake in turn looked back over her own shoulder to the short, copper red, haired girl holding her hand. "You okay, Ilia?"
The chameleon faunus nodded meekly, looking nervously around at the sea of people she was being led through. Ilia still wasn't great with crowds, the nine year old clutching for dear life to the girl ahead of her.
"Ilia says she's fine," Blake reported back to her father, happily acting as the messenger between the front and back of the train.
The White Fang rally Ghira had brought the two young faunus to was slightly more populated than the groups leader had expected, but both Blake and Ilia had been looking forward to this for weeks now and he just didn't have the heart to turn back. The faunus civil rights group had assembled that day in protest of yet another SDC store opening here in downtown Vale. The shop not only continued to promote a corrupt corporations continued exploitation of it's workers in Mantle -many of which were faunus- but it also had forced a great deal of locally owned dust shops out of business as well.
A huge gathering of faunus of all different shapes and sizes filled the sidewalk across the street from the SDC shop, holding up signs that read things like "Fair wages for all!" and "SDC- leave us be!" as well as many other equally effective(?) slogans. However, just down the road from them, on the same side of the street, was another group of protestors standing against the Schnee's and their continued expansion into their kingdom, this one was comprised of humans. While the two groups may have shared a common interest and enemy that day, the distance between them was more than just visually apparent, there was an unmistakable air of hostility as well. The occasional dirty looks each side gave the other made it clear that while they both wanted the same thing, they were NOT on the same side.
Ghira couldn't help letting out a heavy, exhausted sigh. He didn't understand why things had to be this way. Unifying the two groups here would only benefit their cause, but humans still refused to respect his people, and the faunus on his side were just as stubborn when it came to trusting the race that'd always looked down on them. It was frustrating, but at the same time, the high leader of the White Fang hoped that by just being in the same place and wanting the same thing that might help to create a sense of comradery between the races. Baby steps were still steps in the right direction, at least in his optimistic eyes. He'd been in this fight for a long time now after all, and sometimes all you could do was see the best where you could, and not just for his own sake.
Ghira looked back again at the two children he guided. All of this was for them, he reminded himself, so that the next generation could live in a world where humans and faunus were equals and united. Blake and Ilia both caught their elder's gaze and smiled up at him, making the bushy haired man's heart swell with pride at his daughters eagerness to support the cause. They both meant so much to the bearded faunus, and he knew Kali felt the same. And sure, Ilia might not be of the same blood as the rest of them, but Ghira would always watch over her like she was one of his own.
Finally, the trio of faunus managed to make their way through to where a young, brown skinned woman in a red shirt was waiting for them. She had pointed, feline-like ears on her head, and stripes on her muscular arms. "You're late, Ghira," the tiger faunus said in an amused voice.
"I know, I know, our airship got in pretty late last night, so we overslept a little I'm afraid." the giant man replied, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "How are you Sienna? It's been too long."
The two adult faunus shook hands. Sienna gave Ghira a playful smirk, she was about to respond when she noticed the two little girls hiding behind the mountain of a faunus. "And who do we have here?" the tiger woman asked as she crouched down to the kids level.
"Two new recruits, here to help support the cause," Ghira answered with a chuckle. "You remember my daughter, Blake?" The small cat girl smiled and waved at the dark skinned woman. Ilia however, was having none of this stranger and darted behind her black haired friend, only poking her head out a little.
Sienna laughed. "And this poor girl must be Ilia," she said gently to the shy faunus. "Ghira here has told me a lot about you in his messages." The chameleon girl stuck her head out a little further, her pale blue eyes more curious than afraid. Sienna smirked as she rose to her full height. "I'd love to sit and chat, but I think it's time we got to work, right?"
Ghira nodded. "Yes indeed," he said as he handed Blake a pair of small cardboard signs on wooden sticks. "Take these, make sure you keep to the front of the group, and stay close, both of you."
Blake eagerly took the signs, handing one to Ilia who held it out in front of herself with a curious expression. It displayed the SDC's snowflake logo with a big red "X" going through it. "Like this," the cat girl instructed as she held up her own picket sign and bobbed it up and down in the air.
The chameleon faunus cocked her head to the side, before mimicking the gesture, though with a little less vigor, also the front of the sign was facing the wrong way. The cat girl giggled at the lost look on Ilia's face, before taking the stick holding her friends sign and turning it around so it's message was pointed the right way. The spotted faunus looked up at her sign, then to Blake who watched her expectantly. The young lizard girl slowly raised and lowered her sign again and the cat faunus responded with a thumbs up, making Ilia smile proudly as she continued the gesture more wholeheartedly.
"This way, girls," Ghira said, "The rally is about to start."
Blake took Ilia by the hand again as she followed her father and Sienna. The young chameleon girl felt her face light up as soon as the other faunus' warm fingers entwined with her own. She knew her friend was only doing it so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd, but still the butterflies in Ilia's stomach went crazy whenever it happened.
Ilia really liked Blake. Well, she liked all the Belladonna's a lot, they'd been really nice to her over the past year, ever since-
The chameleon faunus immediately stopped the train of though. She didn't like thinking about Atlas, or talking about it. It made her feel... gross. Her insides would get all tight, then she'd get a headache and it got hard to swallow. Actually, the feeling was kinda the opposite of how Blake made her feel.
It was so weird. Not long after Ilia had moved into her new families huge home on Menagerie, Blake had declared the two of them as "best friends". The chameleon faunus had never had a best friend before, but it turned out it was a pretty easy thing to have. Apparently all you had to do was spend a lot of time together, do lots of fun stuff, and stay up too late at night talking about stuff, even though it drove Ghira crazy. Ilia already liked doing all that stuff anyway, and she also thought she was pretty good at them too.
Blake lead Ilia to the edge of the crowd of protestors, near the front, settling into a spot next to Ghira and Sienna as they waited for the rally to get started. The young spot covered girl was actually starting to feel a little excited. She'd never been to Vale before, the buildings here went all the way up to the sky. Not like on Menagerie, where everything felt small and packed together, this place was big... maybe a little too big in fact. Vale kind of reminded her of Atlas, aside from, you know, it wasn't floating.
However, as soon as she thought about the kingdom in the sky, Ilia's mind started to drift to her old school, and her old "friends", and she felt her skin start to tingle as her stomach began to hurt. The traumatized lizard girl squeezed the piece of wood holding her picket sign tightly with both hands, as she closed her eyes and tried to will away the old bad feelings. She didn't want to think about then, it was too scary.
Eventually, Ilia started to calm down. Then she noticed the group of humans standing down the street, a couple of which seemed to be staring at her in particular. The anxious lizard girl quickly took a step back closer to the crowd behind her, so that her body was obscured from the humans by the larger forms of Ghira and Sienna. Of the two adult faunus, only Sienna seemed to notice this, and she quickly turned her attention to the other race gathered nearby, narrowing her fierce yellow eyes at them, and her tiger ears laid flat on her head in agitation. The humans that had been staring at Ilia quickly found something else to gawk at, but not before one of them muttered something under their breath. Not a smart move when around a race known for exceptional hearing.
The extra set of ears on Sienna's head perked up at the quietly uttered taunt, and she let out a low growl before beginning to storm off towards the other group of protestors. Thankfully, before an incident could ensue, she was stopped when she felt Ghira's massive hand on her shoulder. "...Sienna..." the bearded faunus said in a harsh whisper, "we didn't come here to fight, not them at least," he reminded his old friend. The striped woman turned back to Ghira, then to her own hands, clenched into tight balls at her sides. Sienna sighed in aggravation, relaxing her fists.
Ilia had observed all of this with a perplexed expression. Was Ghira's friend going to do something... bad to those men? You're not supposed to use violence, that's what everyone had told Ilia ever since she...
Images flashed through the young faunus' mind. One of hands reaching out towards her, grabbing onto Ilia's arms and legs, trying to hold her down, someone crying, and the lizard girls own hands covered in red, but not because she'd changed colors.
The spotted girl suddenly found it hard to breathe, her heart started slamming in her chest as a familiar feeling began to envelope her. The bad feelings stopped however, when Ilia suddenly felt Blake's hand on her back, rubbing in small, slow circles. The chameleon faunus looked into her friends amber colored eyes full of worry.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Blake asked quietly, having set her own sign on the sidewalk so she could see to Ilia.
The chameleon faunus took a few deep breaths to calm down, then did her best to smile and nod shakily. She didn't want to ruin today, Blake had been talking about and looking forward to this for weeks now and Ilia didn't want to make her have to go home just because she was being a baby. Besides, Ilia knew she'd be okay as long as she had her best friend nearby.
The cat eared girl looked like she was about to say something else, when suddenly the protest kicked into gear and all the faunus around the two of them started shouting and waving their signs as the dust shop across the street officially opened it's doors. Blake quickly picked up her own sign and joined the others, followed by Ilia, who did her best to mimic her friends movements.
After a few minutes the chameleon girl started to get into the rhythm of things, even chanting along with the group of faunus. She was still a bit too young to fully grasp what this protest was supposed to do, but Ilia did understand that the SDC was bad and they had to be stopped. She might try to avoid thinking about her old life in Atlas most of the time, but the young faunus had no doubts that the company had something to do with what happened to her parents.
The longer the protest went on, the angrier Ilia found herself getting, and she expressed that anger by yelling out louder and louder towards the store across the street. She hadn't been sure about making so much noise at the start, but now she was getting into it. The roar of the crowd standing behind her adding fuel to a fire inside the young faunus that even she didn't know existed. Blake gave the chameleon girl a side glance, looking both impressed and a little worried at the look in her friends eyes.
The White Fang couldn't have chosen a better day to stage this protest. The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Almost a perfect spring day, aside from the occasional bursts of wind coming in from the nearby shore. Just then, a particularly strong and sudden breeze kicked up, hitting the gathering of faunus, and while most didn't notice, the young Ilia was suddenly aware that her sign felt a little lighter.
The small faunus looked up and found herself waving an empty stick in the air. She started frantically looking left and right to find where the top half of her sign had blown off to, finally noticing it as the strange wind made it bounce across the sidewalk and around towards the back of the group of protestors. Ilia looked to Ghira and his friend for help, but found them totally engrossed in the rally. She looked to Blake, but had equally as much luck there. The spotted girl huffed at the mild inconvenience as she quickly ran around the outside of the mass of faunus to try and catch the runaway piece of cardboard. After a few near misses, the piece of flimsy material bouncing just out of reach, the frustrated girl jumped on top of it, pinning the sign to the earth. She picked it up, dusted off the footprints she'd left on it as best she could, and then quickly stuffed it back onto her stick.
The rest of the faunus had continued their yells and chants, completely oblivious to the antics of the small girl at their feet. Ilia wanted to get back into the protest as soon as possible so she raised her sign as high as she could over the crowd and joined in again, even louder than before. Protesting felt good to Ilia, this was an outlet she'd sorely needed for the feelings that had been pent up for far too long. The spotted girl was riding high on this new wave of emotions, but then she noticed a few of the other faunus had stopped their shouting and were looking down at her. For some reason, they looked angry.
Ilia stopped yelling, slowly lowering her picket sign as she began to cower under the glares she was receiving. "What's that kid think she's doing?" she heard one of them say.
"Who sent her over here?" said another.
"Why's there a human on our side of the rally?"
What?... I... I'm not a... Ilia thought to herself.
More of the faunus in the back seemed to notice the disturbance and also turned to gawk. Unfortunately for the spotted girl, the ones in front -or more accurately, anyone who could help clear up this misunderstanding- were still unaware of what was going on.
The chameleon girl felt the weight of every pair of eyes as panic started to wash over her, the group of faunus starting to get more riled up.
"Did those jerks send a kid over here just to antagonize us?"
"Stupid humans, always trying to mess with our rallies."
"Someone get her the hell out of here," one said, and then they started advancing on poor Ilia.
The spotted faunus was too scared to move, too scared to even speak, as she was surrounded. No... no! I'm one of you! she wanted to shout, but her fear made the words get lost somewhere between her head and mouth. All the terrified girl could do was stare wide eyed.
Suddenly, Ilia's mind went back to Atlas, to Laurel Prep School, to the one day she tried so desperately not to remember. She saw hands reaching out for her and in her mind she heard someone shout the words;
"Get her!"
Ilia had always done her best to keep her faunus trait a secret, even after moving to Menagerie. Hiding her true colors was just second nature to the young chameleon girl at this point. However, in that moment, as fear gripped her very core, Ilia felt that practiced control slip.
The would be mob all gasped in shock as the girl before them turned bright yellow from her head to her toes and started shaking in fright. They all exchanged looks of confusion, then eventually realization, and then guilt as they finally recognized the girl in question was actually one of them all along.
One faunus, an older looking man with a pair of goat horns poking out in front of his thinning, gray hair, approached Ilia cautiously. "Sorry about that kid, we didn't mean to scare ya like that," he said in a remorseful tone, holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture as her got closer to check on the trembling girl.
Ilia didn't answer, she was miles away, lost in her own head. Her usually pale blue eyes where as yellow as the rest of her, and as big as the full moon. She was so deep in her panic she didn't even seem to notice the mans approach.
The goat faunus, not seeing a reaction to his presence, finished closing the gap between them. "It's okay," he said, reaching out to take Ilia's hand, "no one's going to-"
The second the man touched the smaller faunus, something in Ilia's head snapped.
She remembered those girls, her classmates, people she thought were her friends, grabbing onto her, trying to force Ilia to the ground after discovering she'd been a faunus all along.
Then, just like back at school, that panic gave way to rage, the kind of anger where your body decides it will do anything to survive.
The goat man's hand closed around Ilia's wrist and immediately the smaller faunus' entire body switched from yellow to red. She tugged her arm to free herself, but that just made the man instinctively grip tighter. So in turn, Ilia gave into her own instincts and rushed forward, sinking her teeth into the other faunus forearm.
The goat horned man yelled out in pain as a coppery taste filled the young faunus' mouth when she sank her teeth in deeper, and she had no intention of letting go. She only stopped when when the back of the goat faunus' free hand slapped her across the face.
Ilia stumbled back, falling onto the concrete sidewalk. "AH! You little" the man said, grabbing his injured arm as blood seeped between his fingers.
The spotted girl scrambled up to her hands and knees. The slap she'd received had effectively knocked her out of whatever berserk state the younger faunus had been in. Ilia reached up with shaky hands to her throbbing cheek. She could already feel in starting to swell as she fought back tears, not just from the pain, but also what she'd just done.
Why... why had she done that? She'd attacked like some kind of wild animal. As the chameleon girl struggled to find the reason behind her actions, she noticed the disgusting taste still in her mouth. Ilia spat onto the sidewalk, her body went white at the sight of the small splatter of thick, red blood that came out.
Ilia's stomach lurched. She looked up at the crowd of faunus still surrounding her. Gone were the looks of guilt and pity, replaced by fear, and in some cases, including the man she'd just bitten, anger.
"What's wrong with you!?"
"Are you crazy!?"
"Where's this brats parents?"
The panic and terror returned in spades. There was no escape, only a brick wall behind her and a crowd of faunus staring down. All Ilia could do was sit there on the cold, hard ground as the group started to advance on her again. That's when she started to cry.
Thankfully, before things could get any worse for the young girl, she heard a familiar voice over the shouts of the rally.
"Ilia?... Ilia!" she heard Ghira yell, and soon after saw his wide frame pushing past the crowd of faunus, a look of worry in his eyes. "Ilia, what happened!?" he asked kneeling down next to the visibly shaken child.
"What happened was this little psycho took a chunk out of me!" the furious goat horned man said aggressively, holding up his still fresh wound for the White Fangs leader to see.
Ghira stared in surprise at the obvious bite mark Ilia had left the man with. He looked back to the girl herself. "Ilia, is this true?" The still trembling chameleon faunus nodded guiltily. She did feel bad, she really did. Everything had just been so scary and loud and it made her think about Atlas, and... and...
The tall, bearded faunus sighed loudly. "Ilia, you can't do things like that," Ghira said disapprovingly, "you need to apologize to this man, right now."
Ilia looked to the still seething goat faunus glaring at her with clenched teeth as he clutched his arm. "S-s-s- sorr- sorry..." the frightened chameleon girl managed to stammer out, doing her best to sound genuine as possible despite her shaking form.
The injured man's look didn't soften in the slightest upon hearing the apology. "You think saying 'sorry' is gonna fix my-"
"Enough!" Ghira said standing between the other faunus and Ilia. His posture was straight and he towered a good foot or so over the other man. "She apologized, and so do I for letting this happen. I should have been keeping a better eye on her," he said dejectedly, "but she's just a child, there's no reason to escalate things like-"
"What kind of excuse is that!?" the irritated goat faunus shouted, getting right up in the high leaders face, or as well as he could considering the height difference. "Kids like her will never learn right from wrong if you're soft on them for stuff like this, Ghira," the man went on, pointing at Ilia who flinched away. "If I were you, I'd take that little monster of yours behind the woodshed and-"
The man was cut off by a sound, one Ilia had never heard before, it was like a low rumble, it sounded like thunder in the distance, signaling an oncoming storm, except it had come from Ghira.
The bearded faunus' brow was furrowed and his dark pupils were crevasses of black in a sea of gold. The scariest part though, were his teeth. Ilia knew full well that Ghira had sharp teeth, catching glimpses of them when he smiled or laughed, but right now they were bared, clenched as the low growl he'd made began to trail off.
The goat faunus took a step back -everyone witnessing the altercation did- at the rare display of power and intimidation from the White Fang's leader. Ilia still hadn't stood, she just watched the scene before her with her young, impressionable eyes.
They were afraid of Ghira, that's what had stopped them from attacking her.
She watched as fear beat hate.
Ghira gave the goat man one final look of disdain before turning away. Every one of the faunus in the Fang new their leader as the kind, passionate, pacifistic who'd always push to talk things out rather than resort to violence, but today, all in attendance had seen the side of him that appeared when someone tried to, or even suggested, harming his family.
However, the bearded faunus was still no more of a fan of this kind of intimidation than anyone who was on the receiving end of it. He looked back over his shoulder at the injured man. "... Head back to the caravan. There are first aid supplies to help patch you up there," he said, with no anger in his voice, but instead, a hint of regret.
Ghira knelt back down towards Ilia, who squirmed away a bit in response to the intimidating display she'd just witnessed. The muscular faunus gave the girl a patient smile, no teeth, no angry eyes, no growling, just the same kind of friendly smile Ilia had seen on his face back when she'd first arrived into his families care.
Blake appeared at her fathers side, having seen everything that had just transpired and looking almost as traumatized as Ilia by all of it. The cat girl looked at her friends with a guilty expression, the ears on top of her head hanging low. Of course she felt bad, Ghira had trusted her to look after Ilia today and she'd failed to do so.
Without another word, the high leader picked up the emotionally drained chameleon faunus from the sidewalk, cradling her so that Ilia's chin rested on his broad shoulder. "Sienna," Ghira called out, getting the tiger woman's attention, "can you please take over for me here? We're going to head back early."
The striped faunus nodded. "Of course, Ghira. You do what you need to do."
The White Fangs high leader gave Sienna an appreciative look before turning and walking away. As he did, the tiger woman gave Ilia a long, interested look as a sly smile spread across her lips. That girl might not know it yet, but she had a fighting spirit, and that was just the kind the White Fang would need if things were going to truly change in the world. Sienna would have to remember to keep her eye on that one.
Ilia clung tightly to her surrogate father as he carried her off, Blake walking close beside the two, dragging her sign from the protest behind her. Over the older faunus' shoulder, the chameleon girl saw the man she'd bitten still scowling at her. Usually, Ilia would have turned away, buried her face in Ghira's neck to try and not think about the hateful glare she was receiving, she might have even cried some more, but that's not what she did. No, the young chameleon faunus had learned powerful lessons today about how the world worked. So instead, Ilia scowled right back at the other faunus, letting her irises flash red at him.
The goat man seemed taken aback by this and immediately broke eye contact before walking off to see to his injury.
That was the lesson Ilia had been taught; She'd learned what stomped out hate.
But she'd also learned that even her own kind could turn against her.
It had been less than a day since Ilia had agreed to help train the still nameless rabbit eared girl, and in that time the lizard faunus had managed to imagine every conceivable way it could go wrong.
Needless to say, sleep was never an option once the spotted faunus had signed up for this little "lesson". No, instead her imagination had a lovely time torturing her already anxious mind all night long. Eventually, like so many nights recently, Ilia gave up on trying to force sleep to come and ended up heading to the meeting spot an hour earlier than she'd originally planned.
The marketplace was a ghost town this early in the morning, the vendors hadn't even begun to set up their stalls for the day. Even the sun wasn't up yet, but as the lizard faunus paced back and forth waiting for her "student" to arrive, the glowing, burning orb slowly crept over the horizon.
Ilia adjusted the strap of the small canvas bag over her shoulder for around the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes. Inside was a water bottle and a towel, her usual training equipment, as well as the first aid kit she'd brought from Menagerie, in her dazed state as she left her hotel room, she'd forgotten it was even in there.
Why was she so nervous? It was just training, the same thing she did most mornings. Besides. it wasn't like this girl was even going to show up anyway. After all, who walks up to someone they barely know and asks them if they'll teach them to fight? No one, that's who.
This was all probably some elaborate prank, for all the reptilian faunus knew she was on some hidden camera show, and somewhere was an audience getting a kick out of watching her squirm. Or... maybe Ilia had just imagined this whole thing? She had been suffering from insomnia for the last few weeks. This mysterious bunny faunus could just be a result of her barely functioning brain!
Ok... even Ilia had to admit that neither of those options seemed especially likely, but to her anything seemed more reasonable than this person genuinely wanting the pony tailed faunus to teach her to fight.
It was all Blake's fault that the chameleon girl was so worked up. She'd been perfectly fine with helping this girl out, she'd agreed to the idea of training together almost immediately. It seemed like a perfectly innocent way to pass time in Mistral while keeping her skills sharp. Then Blake had to make it weird with her "date" comment. Which was... completely ridiculous! Clearly her old friend had been overdoing it with her "Ninjas of Love" novels lately.
There was absolutely nothing... romantic about this situation! All Ilia was doing was meeting up with a girl early in the morning so they could train, that's all, just two people trying to get stronger... and maybe sparring... with their bodies colliding and grinding together... drenched in sweat... and also one of them was really pretty looking, and-
"UGH!"
Ilia shouted in frustration. She barely knew this girl, and thinking about her like... that... just felt... gross. Besides, things like that only happened in trashy romance novels, not in real life... or at least, they didn't happen to people like Ilia.
Trust was hard for the lizard faunus, but romance? That was on the wrong side of impossible. The spotted girl had only really had one "crush" in her life, and to say that had ended badly would be an understatement, and all Ilia had been left with in the end was a big, burning whole in her chest. Did she really want to go through all that again with a girl she'd just met?
The young faunus sighed, leaning back against the short, cobblestone wall behind her. It was too early for her to be this moody and depressed. What was she even worried about? Like she'd said, the girl probably wasn't even going to show up in the first place. Though, that thought raised an interesting question in Ilia's mind;
If she was so sure this girl wasn't going to show, then why was she still here waiting?
Maybe... it was because deep down Ilia wanted to believe that this was real. That the pretty girl with the short, caramel colored hair really did want to learn from her, and to spend time with her.
Maybe that was part of the reason why Ilia had been so eager to accept this idea in the first place? Despite her grumblings and complaining to herself back on Menagerie, teaching had actually been a very fulfilling experience, and she'd been excited at the prospect of getting to do it again.
Unfortunately, the chameleon girls damaged heart and psyche just wouldn't allow her to believe any of that. All they told her was that this was a bad idea, and it would end badly.
"So stupid..." Ilia thought aloud, crossing her arms around herself. After heaving another deep sigh, she pulled out her scroll to check the time. Self deprecation was never a good thing, but at least it seemed to make the minutes pass faster. The lizard faunus felt her chest tighten when she saw how close it was to the meeting time. Ilia stared at the device as the seconds ticked by.
5:59:57
5:59:58
5:59:59
6:00:00
The chameleon girl looked up from her scroll and did a quick scan of the still empty marketplace. She waited a few seconds before closing her scroll and putting it away.
That's probably long enough. Oh well, guess she's not coming, time to go back to my hotel room and never think about this again, Ilia thought to herself and then hurriedly went to leave.
Luckily -or perhaps unluckily according to certain parts of the spotted girls brain- Ilia only got a few short steps away before she heard someone call out to her. "Ilia! Hey! Good morning!" a familiar voice coming from behind the lizard faunus said cheerfully.
Ilia's shoulders scrunched up around her neck as she flinched in surprise. She felt her stomach twist into a knot and for a split second blotches of her skin went yellow, before the reptilian girl regained her composure and turned to face what she'd been dreading for hours.
"H-hey..." Ilia said with a barely convincing smile.
The rabbit faunus trotted over, shield and staff strapped on her back, clattering as she moved. Somehow the girl manged to look both excited and also about half asleep, with dark circles under her brightly shining, honey colored, eyes. "You ready to get started?" she asked eagerly.
Okay, Ilia thought, so she actually showed up, this isn't a problem.
Except that it was. You see, with all the time Ilia had wasted worrying about whether or not this girl would actually come, she hadn't even begun to think about what the two of them would do if she did.
Before blind panic could set in, Ilia decided to just start off with her normal routine for exercise and... just make the rest up as she went? A better plan than none, she supposed.
"Let's just... start with some stretches," Ilia said un-enthusiastically.
The rabbit girl on the other hand, had enough enthusiasm for both faunus, and responded with a bright smile. "Yes, Ma'am!" she said, pumping her fists in the air.
"You... don't have to call me that," Ilia responded, the formality making her a little uncomfortable.
"Oh, right, sorry," the long eared girl said. "How about 'Teacher?'"
"No."
"Master?"
"Absolutely not."
"Sensei-chan?"
"Sensei-what?"
"Never mind."
Ilia gave the other faunus an exhausted look. "Just... Ilia is fine," she clarified.
The brunette giggled. "Alright then, Il-i-a," the way the rabbit faunus said Ilia's name, emphasizing each syllable slowly, had the chameleon girls insides twisting in an entirely different way, and the spotted teen found herself holding back a blush. What had she gotten herself into?
With that, the two faunus set aside their gear, and Ilia began instructing her new student in the series of stretches she usually did to loosen up her muscles before a workout. The lizard girl couldn't help but notice just how flexible the rabbit faunus was. Ilia had never considered the possibility before, but maybe this girl had done some training already? Even before what she'd done in preparation for the Battle for Haven? Then it occurred to the spotted girl just how little she actually knew about this faunus. She wanted to ask, to learn more about her, but... was now really the best time?
Yes, this girl had shown up, but Ilia didn't want to read too much into that just yet. Like she'd told Blake yesterday, it wasn't like the two of them were friends or anything, the brunette had just asked Ilia to train her, that was as far as her interests went. Ilia didn't want to risk making her upset by asking a bunch of probing questions, but... she really did want to know more.
However, the lizard girl then found a scarier question to focus on; What did this girl know about her? Had she heard that Ilia was former White Fang? Did she know about what had happened that night at the Belladonna's home? Or the laundry list of other terrible things Ilia had a hand in?
Suddenly, the distracted spotted girl noticed she'd been caught staring at the rabbit faunus while the two of them were doing toe-touches. The golden eyed girl smiled at her again, but Ilia just cleared her throat loudly and moved on to the next exercise, this time making sure to look anywhere other than the athletic body of the rabbit faunus next to her.
As the two finally managed to finish their stretches, the marketplace was starting to come to life. Carts were unloaded, goods were displayed, and vendors eagerly awaited the days customers so they could swindle them out of their hard earned lien.
The lizard faunus raised her hands high above her head in one last stretch, enjoying the satisfying pop of her now wide awake muscles. She looked over to see the rabbit girl appeared a little less sleepy-eyed now as well. "Alright, what's next?" the girl asked eagerly.
"Next," Ilia replied, "we warm up with a jog."
"Wait, I thought what we just did was a warm up," the rabbit faunus asked, one of her long ears bending forward. "Or was that, like, the warm up for our warm up?"
Ilia couldn't resist a smirk and an eye roll at the other faunus' habit of thinking out loud. "Something like that."
After finding a bush away from the increasingly crowded streets to hide the rabbit girls bulky weapon and shield in until they got back from their run, the two set out. Ilia led the way, though she really didn't have a set route in mind. She knew the city of Mistral fairly well, since the White Fang had a few safe houses that she'd stayed at back in the day, so the lizard girl just kind of let her own feet guide her wherever they wished, all the while trying to remain close to their starting point.
Everything was normal at first, Ilia had planned on taking it easy today, not knowing whether or not her new student would be able to keep up, but that wouldn't be the case for long. It turned out flexibility wasn't the only thing this rabbit faunus seemed to excel at. The chameleon girl was surprised when her company not only kept pace, but also appeared to be trying to pass Ilia.
The reptilian faunus gave the girl a strange look as she ran beside her, and the rabbit eared teen responded with a smirk that almost seemed a little competitive to Ilia. Her suspicions were confirmed when the long eared girl suddenly picked up speed.
"You do realize I'm the only one of us with any sort of idea where we're going, right?"Ilia said, focusing on maintaining steady breathing while moving at a brisk pace.
"So... what?" the way the rabbit faunus struggled to get the words out between increasingly ragged breaths made it clear she didn't practice the same type of focus. "Afraid you'll... get beaten... by a... lowly farm girl?"
Before Ilia could begin process what that even meant, the rabbit girl took off into a full sprint. "Hey!" the spotted girl shouted after her, the long ponytail behind her waving in the air as she picked up speed as well. She's fast!
The two of them ran through the -thankfully, not too populated yet- streets of the kingdom for about fifteen to twenty minutes, out of the marketplace and into the residential area. They ended up racing into a more high end district of the city, almost bowling over a fancily dressed man stepping out his expensive home to collect his newspaper. The thick bearded man nearly spilled his cup of coffee as they raced by. He shouted out a few curses at the two faunus, but they just kept running. Ilia could swear she heard her accomplice laughing as they made their escape, and the chameleon girl couldn't help but smile.
This was stupid, crazy, and childish, not to mention dangerous as well, but in all of the best ways. Was Ilia actually having fun? Her days had been so full of gloom and anger for as long as she could remember. The lizard girl had almost forgotten what that felt like...
However, said fun didn't last much longer as the rabbit girl ahead of Ilia began to slow down, until eventually she stopped completely, bent over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. The chameleon girl casually strode up beside the exhausted runner, she herself not even looking remotely tired.
"How... How are you..." the bunny girl heaved out between gasps for air.
"Practice," Ilia plainly stated.
"Not fair... witchcraft... I call... witchcraft,"
The lizard faunus chuckled. "You do know that the point of a warm up is to avoid exhausting yourself, right?"
"Not... listening... to you... you're clearly... using magic... evil... running magic..."
Ilia rolled her eyes, this girl was ridiculous. "Don't blame me, I wasn't the one who started sprinting in the first place."
The rabbit faunus grumbled a response the lizard girl couldn't make out. Ilia smirked, reaching up to wipe the sweat from her brow. The surprise run might not have worn her out as much as her company, but the early morning sun was making up for it quite handily. It looked like it would be another hot day in Mistral, the type that was perfect for spending outside, but Ilia was glad she'd come prepared, and took her small canvas bag off her back and pulled out her bottle of water. She unscrewed the tightly secured lid and poured the cool, refreshing liquid down her parched throat.
The lizard faunus had already downed about a quarter of a her drink before she noticed the still hunched over rabbit girl staring at her longingly. She was curious as to why for a second, before she noticed the other faunus' gaze was actually fixated on her water bottle. "Let me guess," Ilia said in a teasing tone after wiping her lips, "you didn't bring any water or anything?" The caramel haired faunus just smiled sheepishly, her honey colored eyes still glued to the condensation on the outside of Ilia's bottle. Of course, the lizard girl offered the still mostly filled container, gesturing for the other faunus to take it.
The rabbit girl studied the plastic bottle, looking apprehensive as she stood up straight. "Oh... but what about... y'know... cooties?"
Ilia gave the long eared girl the most bewildered look of her life. There was no way she actually believed-
"Just kidding," the brunette said with a mischievous smile, happily taking the cool feeling bottle, "thank you."
Relief washed over Ilia like a waterfall. However, the relief soon turned to embarrassment as the rabbit girl started taking a long sip from the chameleon faunus' water bottle. That was because... well... Ilia's mouth had just been on that... and now the rabbit girls was... it was kind of like the two of them had just-
Nope, nope, nope, nope
The spotted girl knew exactly where her mind was headed with that thought and immediately cut it off. The intrusive mental image had done it's job though, as suddenly Ilia was acutely aware of a droplet of water that had slipped out of the side of the long eared faunus' rosy lips, traveled down her cheek to her chin, onto her long, thin neck, continuing down until it reached the girls exposed clavicle, before it disappeared beneath the loose red t-shirt she wore. The pony tailed faunus felt her temperature rise all throughout her body at the drop of waters voyage across the other girls smooth looking skin.
Ilia immediately turned away, facing the opposite direction of the cause of this incredibly frustrating train of thought. Don't turn pink, don't turn pink, please for the love of god, do not turn pink!
The chameleon faunus' plea was thankfully heard as she managed to reign in her emotions enough to avoid a color change. She didn't know if this girl knew about her animalistic trait, or the meaning behind the colors, but also didn't want to risk giving away what she'd just been thinking.
"Ilia?"
The young faunus almost jumped at the sound of her own name, but was able to keep it together enough to turn and see the honey eyed girl returning her teachers water bottle. "Thanks again," she said appreciatively.
Ilia took the plastic container back, while mumbling a "You're welcome," and still doing her best to avoid eye contact.
"So, what's next?" the rabbit faunus asked.
The spotted girl took a moment to clear her throat and get the last of her emotions in order, before returning to 'teacher mode' as Ilia decided to dub it. "Well, since someone decided to run us so far from the marketplace and all their gear," she said shooting a playful, but still accusatory glance at the long eared girl, "I guess we have to head back in that direction." Ilia smiled slightly maliciously, "And since we just took a break, we might as well jog back to get warmed up again."
The rabbit faunus' long ears dipped low as she muttered out a defeated, "Nooooooo..."
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A/N- There you go folks.
I should have more soon! Like, at least one more chapter before I'm sealed away for another thousand years by the ancient mummies curse I'm under, but we've all been there am I right?
Also between this chapter and the last I got a bunch of reviews! It made me really happy, although it didn't do much to prove my theory that it'd make me write faster...
Ignoring this. I'll see you guys next time!