White Sheep

Chapter 27

Why am I the only sane one on my team?

"Stop playing with your hair, Yang," Blake snapped. "It took forty minutes to get it looking like that."

"Like I have a thousand split ends? Gee, thanks." Yang growled and crossed her arms, but everyone could see her distinct twitch.

"Yang loves her hair," Ruby whispered to him and Pyrrha. "She spends a lot of time on it, so this probably hurts."

Pyrrha nodded. "I see."

Jaune did too, but mostly because of his sisters. They all loved their hair as well, or most of them did. Sapphire's braid was off-limits, while Hazel and Jade took meticulous care of their own – especially the dyed portions. Yang's wasn't all that bad really. It didn't quite look like split ends, and more like she hadn't brushed it in a thousand years. Bits stuck up randomly, while the edges had a whole range of tufts and raised areas. There had to be at least a full can of hair spray keeping all that mass stood up. Her hair probably weighed a tonne, and that was without the stiff feathers that were woven into it in places.

"I think it looks pretty good," he said. "I like your hair normally as well, but this looks a little wilder, almost like it's more primal or raw. It suits you."

He'd just gone with whatever words he thought might calm her down, but her eyes widened and she took a step away from him. She also glanced towards Ruby, and went red-faced. "Well, I suppose it's not too bad. It's just... why couldn't I wear animal ears or something? Why did you have to mess with my hair?"

Weiss growled something about hypocrites under her breath. Jaune patted her shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting manner. One couldn't even really say good things about Weiss' green hair. It didn't suit her at all.

Blake sighed. "You can't wear fake ears because a real faunus would notice. I've told you this how many times? There are a lot of things about animal parts, and replicas don't emulate those. You wouldn't even be able to make them move."

"Yeah, but of all the things you could have made me..." Yang sighed. "Why the hell am I a canary faunus!?"

"Yellow hair."

"People have yellow hair, Blake! I could have been anything else with blonde hair, rather than a god damned canary."

"What's the problem? It's just a bird."

"It's a crappy bird. It's not a predator or a hunter. It's a stupid little thing people take into dust mines to get killed. Why can't I be a phoenix or something?"

"Because those aren't real? Maybe the mines could be your angle," Ren offered. "You want to join the White Fang because of how your people are marginalised due to their canary heritage and the poor working conditions of the Schnee Dust Mines."

"Hey!" Weiss snapped. "Despite what you may have heard, the SDC does have health and safety regulations. We don't purposefully try to get people killed down there! Most die from related diseases rather than accidents, and we offer free treatment!"

"Shame about the low wages..." Blake drawled.

"That kind of treatment costs money!"

"Then it's not free, is it?"

"Okay, okay, calm down..." Ren walked between the two. "Weiss, please calm down. You're not meant to be aggressive. We're trying to make you harder to recognise because you're shy and don't talk much. Blake, Weiss isn't the SDC. Don't criticise her for things she couldn't possibly be responsible for."

Both girls huffed and looked away. Weiss came back over to the three of them, their team forming on the one side, while Nora laughed and dragged Blake away to stand with her. The little bell on the faunus' collar tinkled and chimed the entire way.