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Cinder kept her head down, at least for now.
She felt her hatred for her so-called family grow by the day, and worried, only partially about what that might mean in the future, but for now she scrubbed the floors as ordered, mindful of the collar around her neck.
“Cinder, come,” her ‘mother’ ordered, like she was an animal. Pushing down her desire to rip the woman’s tongue from her throat she quickly obeyed, not wanting her meager dinner to be withheld for any reason the woman could think of, imaginary or not.
The madam sniffed, but made no other comment as she approached, and gestured to another nearby woman.
She was tall, and pretty. Gold bangles in the ears, and a tanned kind face, which Cinder took to mean nothing based on her personal experience. The fact that she was rich would usually mean one of her 'sisters' would be assigned to help, but the fact that she was a Faunus clearly meant the matron considered her a lesser class, and thus Cinder would do so because at least the Faunus had money, which meant she mattered more than Cinder herself did.
“You shall be Mrs Belladonna’s personal attendant during her time here. Anything she wants, you are to provide at any hour of the day. If she wants a drink at three in the morning you will get it for her. If she wishes for breakfast at midnight you will make it. Your other duties are to be ignored if needed. Am I clear?”
Cinder, knowing that the woman didn’t want to ‘hear her wretched voice’, merely nodded while doing her best not to keep eye contact which would annoy her, and in the process missed the other woman frown deeply.
After a moment, her 'mother' nodded, and dismissed her while gesturing for her to take the woman’s dinner tray, which was loaded with food to the room.
She walked in front of the woman taking her to the rooms reserved for Faunus who could afford to stay there, but were still Faunus, and thus in their own section of the hotel. A way of trying to subtly tell them they really weren’t welcome since the section was usually empty.
Cinder tried to shift the tray, and draw the key to the room without dropping it before the weight was lifted from her hands.
She blinked seeing the woman had easily taken the tray, and only offered her a wink when Cinder looked at her.
Deciding to ignore it for the moment, she opened the door, and opened it with a bow as she was taught, being careful not to look the guest in the eyes as instructed.
The other woman turned on the lights, and took a few steps to the bed, looking around at the room.
If she was as high class as she appeared she’d likely notice that while everything appeared to be top of the line, it was clear it was anything but.
Cinder braced herself for the complaining she’d soon be receiving for the slight.
To her surprise, the woman did nothing of the sort, and merely looked around as she set the tray on the bed.
“I’m afraid I didn’t get your name, dear,” the older woman said.
Cinder hesitated for only a brief moment before she decided she might as well get it over with. “Cinder Fall, ma’am.”
“Oh, that’s a lovely name. I’m Kali Belladonna, but just Kali is fine, or else it makes me feel so old,” Kali said jokingly. Her voice, and tone were so genuine that for a brief moment, one single instant, her lips began to quirk upward into a smile before she smothered it, and nodded.
“Have you had anything to eat, dear?”
Cinder didn’t respond. She’d had her partial loaf of bread that morning along with some vegetables that really should have been thrown out, and so said nothing.
“Well, I think my eyes are a bit bigger than my stomach. Would you like to help me eat some of this?”
Cinder held back her instinctive response to snarl at the woman for lying to her, and then she saw the eyes.
They seemed…sincere.
Slowly, she crossed the room as the woman, Kali, gestured for her to take anything she wanted.
It all looked so good, and…her hand twitched before she forced herself to take a step back to the woman’s disappointment.
“I’m…not allowed.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Kali offered as she waited politely for Cinder to make up her own mind.
She held out for a few moments before her hunger made up her mind. Slowly she walked over, waiting for the woman to laugh at her, mock her for even thinking she was being genuine, but she was so very hungry…
When the woman said nothing, and only smiled when Cinder picked up a muffin she quickly retreated several steps to make sure it couldn’t be taken from her, and greedily consumed it in moments.
Rather than chastise her for her lack of manners, the woman only smiled. “I thought those looked good, but it’s good to have the confirmation,” Kali remarked as she took one of the muffins for herself.
“Soup?”
Cinder decided if this was a dream, and she was going to wake up in the storeroom, then she was going to make the most of it, and eagerly took the soup, eschewing the offered spoon as she drained it.
“Careful now,” Kali warned. “You look like you need a few good meals in you, so don’t eat too much, or it might make you sick.”
Cinder, to her mortification, actually whined at that as she blushed in embarrassment at making such a childish noise.
“You remind me of my daughter when I told her she couldn’t eat tuna for every meal,” Kali reminisced.
“Daughter?” Cinder asked, and almost cursed herself for speaking out of turn.
“Mhm. Blake. She’s a darling. Just turned four, and already thinks she knows everything,” Kali remarked with a sigh as she took out her scroll to show Cinder a picture of a small Faunus with cat ears sleeping on the couch with a shark plush she was chewing on in her sleep.
“She’s…nice?” Cinder offered, not sure what you were supposed to say about kids. She’d seen a few newborns before, but they just looked like wrinkled potatoes to her. She didn’t know much, but she was pretty sure you didn’t tell people that.
At least this one looked like a person.
Kali giggled. “It’s ok. I know I’m biased. Juice?”
“Yes…please,” Cinder added belatedly when she realized she’d forgotten to say it before.
Kali handed over a tall glass that Cinder wasted no time in gulping down. Did people get this all the time? This was amazing!
“Easy there little one, we have an entire pitcher, and it’s not going anywhere,” Kali assured her as she refilled the glass halfway, and gestured to the soup, only this time handing her a spoon to eat with.
“So why don’t you tell me about you?”
Cinder flinched, and Kali didn’t appear to notice as she hummed. “Or if you like I can talk about myself, and my family.”
Cinder nodded at that as Kali launched into a series of stories about her husband, Ghira, who she assured her was less threatening than the spoon in Cinder’s hand, and her child Blake.
She even gave her general overviews about the organization they ran. Cinder, despite not meaning to, with her stomach full for the first time that she could remember, and with a kind voice fell asleep in a bed far softer than any she’d ever had, despite her desire to stay awake lest she find out it was all a dream.
Cinder awoke with a gasp, and when she saw the clock in the room wilted. She was in so much trouble. She needed to iron the guest clothes, prepare the newspapers, gather the-
“It’s ok,” a kind voice, Mrs Belladonna's, broke through her thoughts as she got up from the chair she’d been sitting in to approach the bed, careful to leave several arms lengths between them.
Cinder didn’t know why she did that, but found it did help relax her.
“I already spoke with the… woman , downstairs after you fell asleep, and told her I’d be needing your services all day today,” Mrs Belladonna spoke softly despite the clear distaste in her voice mentioning her ‘mother’.
“Oh, so…”
“I’m afraid we’ll be running all sorts of errands today,” Kali said sadly, but with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “If anyone asks, you had a horrible time carrying all the bags of new things I need that happen to be in your size.”
Cinder blinked, not exactly understanding what was being said until Kali sighed gently, and explained in more detail.
“We’ll be going shopping for you. Every young lady needs a few outfits to call her own, and forgive me for assuming, but I’m thinking you don’t have nearly enough things to call your own.”
Cinder blinked back what she refused to acknowledge in her eyes, as she roughly ran the back of her hand over her eyes to erase any evidence that might appear.
Kali politely glanced at her scroll until she was ready.
“Would you like to spend the day with me?” Kali asked.
Cinder merely nodded, anything was better than being stuck here. She scratched around her neck not noticing Kali’s eyes narrow, or her fist clench in response to seeing the collar for what it was.
She hadn’t been sure last night, and just pawing the child wasn’t something she would do when it was clear she was traumatized enough as it was, but now? There was no mistaking that collar. She’d seen one often enough on her fellow Faunus for her to mistake it for anything else. The mockery of a 'normal' looking necklace was a favorite among certain individuals she loathed.
She had a new plan to make, or to alter her current one. Putting on a smile she got Cinder’s attention.
“Why don’t you take a few minutes to get freshened up, while I finalize a few things for us today?”
Cinder looked longingly at the bathroom, and back to the kind woman who nodded at her. If this was still a hunger induced dream she would make the most of it.
She scurried to the bathroom door, locking it behind her.
Once Kali heard the water start to run she made sure to lock her room behind her, and got to work.
She made her way unseen toward the backroom where she assumed the madam slept. She let two children pass her, managing to avoid them seeing her, and wondered why they were up so early, but ignored it. Perhaps they actually had jobs to do in the hotel.
It didn’t matter. Her original plan would have to be abandoned, but after seeing the poor girl in the room she knew there would have to be changes. She stopped on the way to hide in what she assumed was a small storage room to avoid a passing guest.
She frowned when she saw sheets on the ground. Her scowl deepened when she found a few scraps of paper with Cinder’s name on them.
This was…her room? A dusty cramped storage room? Her nose twitched as she gently pulled back the sheet.
There was powder on her sheets. Another quick sniff confirmed her suspicions, itching powder. That’s what they’d been doing so early in the morning? Trying to make her life more miserable? How could anyone treat, or allow a child to be treated this way?
Did she not have any belongings of her own?
A quick search revealed a second pair of shoes with a thumbtack in them, and Kali’s mood worsened.
There was a reckoning to come very soon. For now, she squashed down her anger, and got back to the task at hand. She could deal with the rest later.
A few minutes, and a picked lock later, and she was inside the room with the still sleeping madam.
She squashed the dark urges she had at the way the woman treated the sweet child upstairs, and silently rummaged for what she was looking for. Making sure to rearrange everything exactly how she’d left it, she withdrew, and made her way back toward her room.
She frowned seeing the door to her room ajar, and nearly leapt the rest of the distance to her door.
Her voice failed her as she heard the two children inside berating Cinder for ‘using the shower like she was a person’.
“And what?” Kali asked, hissed really, at the pair of young children. “Do you think you are doing?”
The children startled clearly not expecting her to be there.
“We’re sorry ma’am, but Cinder here was clearly using your shower without permi-”
“I told her to make herself presentable because she was accompanying me on my errands today. Now leave before I see fit to inform your mother of what I found you doing, and she can forget ever receiving assistance from the Belladonna fortune again!”
The twins scampered, thoroughly spooked by the older woman whose eyes had narrowed to slits, and whose claws had come out, very literally at her anger.
Kali watched them go before she locked the door, and took a deep breath to calm herself.
The child behind her would not, did not deserve her anger, and so she would control herself.
“Sorry they bothered you, dear,” Kali said as she turned around.
“I’m used to it,” Cinder said simply.
“You shouldn’t have to be used to it,” Kali said gently.
Cinder didn’t say anything else, but she was clearly at least freshly showered.
“Do you still want to go out with me today?” Kali asked.
Cinder’s eyes darted to the door, clearly thinking about the trouble she was likely to be in when the sisters told on her, and twisted the story to suit their desires.
“If you come with me I promise I can make sure nothing can happen to you, but it’s your choice,” Kali offered, knowing that the young girl in front of her hadn’t been able to make many of those for herself.
Cinder blinked, clearly torn as she looked at the outstretched hand. “You…promise?”
Kali kept her smile open, and honest even as the younger girl winced at how she sounded.
“I do.”
Cinder sighed before slowly, almost tortuously so, putting her hand in Kali’s.
While she wanted to clap excitedly she didn’t want to spook the younger woman, and settled for a tight grin instead.
“Now let’s have a fun day, shall we?”
Cinder nodded as Kali released her hand, and the older woman made sure she had everything in her own bag as she left the room. She deposited the key onto a maid’s unattended cleaning cart on the way out which drew a curious look from Cinder that she merely winked at.
Not knowing exactly what was going on, but sensing a potential headache for her mother, or sister’s Cinder gave a small grin in response. It only lasted a second before the neutral look returned, but it was precious beyond belief to Kali.
Kali gave a dark skinned man a nod that came in as they left, the weapon at his side indicating a fellow huntsman.
Cinder was confused. Ever since she’d met Mrs…Kali, as she insisted she be called, she'd been nothing but kind, but her life had told her that people weren’t ‘just kind’, at least not to her.
She idly itched at her necklace as she looked at herself in the mirror. She…almost didn’t recognize herself.
She walked out as Kali clapped, and put a hand to her mouth. “How precious. You could be a little huntsman with that.”
Cinder blinked, having never really thought about the future. “Huntsman?”
“One of the ones who fight Grimm dear.”
“No, I…I could be one?”
“If you wanted I don’t see why not. You’d help make the people safe, earn a comfortable living, and who knows? You might even get your name on a toy, or cereal box.”
Cinder almost smiled then as she turned to look at herself in the mirror before her eyes came to rest on the ‘necklace’, and she scowled. She’d never be free, never able to do what she wanted, and this whole trip was a cruel joke.
Seeing Cinder turn morose, even furious, Kali stepped forward, and after making sure they weren’t near anyone who could overhear them whispered to her.
“ Would you like to come with me? Be a huntsman, or whatever else you desire? Have a home of your own?”
“I…can’t,” Cinder said angrily as she clenched both her fists as they began to heat up.
“ What if I had a solution for you?”
Cinder narrowed her eyes remembering what had gotten her stuck at the hotel in the first place, until her eyes widened at seeing the remote, and key to her shock collar.
“I stole them from her room. I ran across your room on the way to talk to her, and made up my mind. No child should ever have to live like that, sweety. I was going to save it for later, but I think you need this now.”
Cinder’s eyes remained wide, unable to comprehend what was being offered to her even as Kali gently handed over the key to her necklace, and wrapped her hand around it.
“Do you want some help?”
Cinder shook her head as she looked in the dressing room mirror and slowly put the key into the lock on the back of her necklace, almost afraid it was a cruel dream as her eyes kept darting to the remote in Kali’s hand.
With a quick click the lock turned, and the necklace dropped. The sound of it clattering to the floor seemed so loud, but at the same time Cinder couldn’t stop looking at her neck. Her now freed neck. No more could the collar hurt her, no more could she be told what to do, eat moldy food, and have to smile.
“Is this…real?” Cinder asked as she gently felt around her neck, and staring in the mirror.
“As real as you want it to be. If you’d like, I can take you to my family’s home. I can’t make you stay of course, but I’d like you to. No shock collars, no punishments like I imagine you’re used to, but a family who cares for you.”
Cinder narrowed her eyes at the promise, but then softened. Part of her wanted to take the offer with open arms. The woman had been nothing, but kind to her, but the wary part that had grown, been born from necessity, cautioned her.
Sure she didn’t need to release the collar to get her in a better one, but a gilded cage was still a cage at the end of the day.
“And if I want to leave? I get there, and want to go?” Cinder challenged.
Kali sighed as she straightened up. “I wouldn’t like it, but I’d give you some lien, and let you. I don’t want you to feel like you’re trading one prison for another.”
“I…alright. What do we have to do?”
“I’ll call in a favor from a friend who is going to cause quite a bit of trouble for your former home. I’ll give her a call while you see if any other outfits catch your eye.”
“Really?”
“I told you that a young woman needs more clothes, and you little one need quite a few birthday presents from me to make up for missing the last few,” Kali said playfully.
Cinder blinked, not used to the rampant kindness on display, but quickly took another outfit to the dressing room stopping only to stomp on her old necklace in anger.
Kali watched the door closed, and quickly placed her call. “Hello. Yes, it’s me. I’m afraid it’s not a social call. I need you, and your friends. I’m calling in the favor you owe me. Yes, it is that serious. Thank you. I’ll be waiting for you in a few minutes, and make sure I’m somewhere out of the way. Thank you again,” Kali said, hanging up the call.
“Who were you calling?” Cinder asked, not really sure if she’d be punished for doing so. Kali didn’t seem the type, but habits were hard to break.
“My friend. Her name is Summer, and she, and her team will be arriving to help me make sure everything goes nice, and smoothly removing you from your current situation.”
“You mean I have to go back there?”
“No. I promise I’d sooner steal you away, and deal with whatever comes after than have you spend another day there. I’ll explain more as we eat. We’ll see if you can find food that suits you. Anything you’d like to try?”
Cinder shook her head, but stopped, and for once looked almost shy. “Strawberries?”
Kali didn’t coo at how cute she looked, but it was a close thing. “Strawberries it is. Now let me tell you all about Blake, your hopefully new little sister. She’ll love you,” Kali assured her.
Cinder listened, trying her best to commit anything important to memory, but took the time to notice the various frowns the kind woman escorting her was receiving.
She waited to bring it up until they were seated in a private booth at a restaurant.
Kali sighed, which prompted her ears to droop before they straightened back up. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice, but you’re a clever one,” Kali praised her as she stirred her spoon in the stew.
“Do you remember the group I told you about last night?”
“You said…” Cinder trailed off as she tried to remember. “You, and your husband run it. White something.”
“The White Fang, yes. We’re trying to gain equal rights for all Faunus out there. There are some people who view us as lesser, or animals because of our animal traits,” Kali explained as her ears flicked for emphasis.
Cinder blinked. “That’s stupid.”
“Unfortunately, it is what it is. I wanted to try, and make inroads here, perhaps form a sort of outreach, but based on the hotel, and what I’ve found, plans have changed.”
“Oh, I’m…” Cinder paused. She wanted to apologize for having caused her issues, but when it lead to her being freed from the horrible shock collar she found she had a hard time verbalizing it.
Kali could clearly see the conflict in her eyes because she merely gave her hand a quick pat, and gently pushed the bowl of strawberries toward the child who quickly snatched one, and hummed in delight as she ate it.
“You said your friends would be here soon?”
“Already are,” a woman’s voice remarked as Cinder startled, and instinctively ran toward the side of the table with Kali.
“It’s alright. That’s one of them. The over dramatic one is Raven. Her semblance let’s her make portals to people she has a connection with so she came to me.”
The woman with the long black mane bent over to peer at Cinder who stared back defiantly, even if she was partially behind Kali.
After a moment Raven snorted, and straightened up. “Not bad kid.”
“Are you done trying to intimidate a child, Rae?” another woman’s voice remarked with a bit of humor.
“It’s the only thing she could hope to intimidate,” a man’s voice said as he took a seat at the table, and reached for the strawberries only for Kali to slap his hand.
“Those are Cinder’s,” Kali said sternly, and Cinder barely resisted the urge to jolt at someone being defensive for her. She did however, manage a smirk at the man who sighed, and took a sandwich from the table instead.
“I assume she’s what we’re here for?” the woman with silver eyes asked.
Kali nodded, but narrowed her eyes. “Where’s Tai?”
“Watching Yang, and Ruby. It was his turn anyway,” the woman said with a negligent wave of her hand.
Kali handed the bowl of strawberries over her shoulder to Cinder who smirked as she chomped down on one as the man sighed at her.
Then her mind flashed to a similar situation where she’d been on the receiving end, and she flinched. She wasn’t them, and she wouldn’t be them!
That thought in mind she grabbed a few, and hesitantly offered them to the man as the others were talking.
He gave her a small, grateful smile, and took them with a nod. Shockingly she found several lien in her hand to replace the strawberry.
When she looked to him for an explanation he merely winked, and went back to paying attention to the others.
Cinder wasn’t sure how to quantify her feelings so she didn’t, and instead tried to listen in to what they were saying.
“-and I’m just saying we go in there, threaten her, take whatever papers she has, and be done with it,” Raven remarked.
“This is why I was team leader.”
“Can it, Summer. These types of people only understand one thing, and that’s a threat.”
“Qrow?” Summer asked as the man turned his head only for the strawberry in his hands to hit the table, and bounce to the floor.
“Mix it up. Offer the easy way, and if she doesn’t want to do it that way then we find a way to burn the place to the ground,” Qrow stated as Cinder decided he was her new favorite after Kali.
“Metaphorically?” Summer asked.
Qrow merely shrugged with a smirk that was also on Raven’s face.
“I forget you’re related sometimes,” Summer complained before she turned to Cinder.
“Hello, dear. I’m Summer, these idiots are Raven, and Qrow, part of my team. We promise you that you’ll never have to stay at the hotel again.”
Cinder didn’t like getting her hopes up, but if an entire team of huntsmen, and Miss Kali was on her side then maybe…just maybe it could be true.
“She might want to still have the last word though,” Qrow offered as he wiped off the strawberry, and ate it ignoring his sister’s look of disgust. Cinder understood though. You didn’t waste food, then what he said filtered into her mind.
“Last word?”
“Right. No matter what she thinks you’re leaving with us, but I figure you might have parting words to say to her. Say your peace, and leave. We can make sure she listens, but if you had anything you wanted to get off your chest then we can make sure it happens.”
“But you don’t have to if you don’t want to, dear,” Kali assured her softly as she ignored the dinner roll, and few other food items that Cinder had been putting into her pockets.
“You’ll be there?” Cinder asked.
“You couldn’t keep me away. If she so much as looks at you wrong I’ll claw her eyes out,” Kali promised, and Cinder rather liked the idea that maybe her ‘mother’ would be dumb enough to try.
“Ok. Ok. Yes. What do I have to do?”
“You let us plan for a bit while you finish your lunch. By dinner tonight you’ll be free of that place, and living wherever you like,” Kali promised as Cinder offered a small short lived smile, and took a seat next to Kali as she went back to eating.
Maybe…maybe things would be ok after all.
Cinder woke up before dawn as was her habit. It was hard to believe things had changed so much so quickly, but here she was nearly a month later in the Belladonna home.
No punishments, no shock collars as much as she could eat, and no one complaining if she brought extras to her room.
Her only real chores were to keep her room tidy, and to bring her dishes to the sink. Other than that she was free to do as she pleased, although Kali did spend a few hours each day helping her do various work assignments.
She’d never been formally schooled, but the kind woman had taken to teaching her with a sort of patience that was night, and day from what she’d experienced before.
She was allowed, and expected to eat with the table, got an allowance, and trusted her with their child…who kept calling her Sharky. Apparently, she somehow reminded Blake of her plush, and took to taking naps on her when Cinder read to her in the afternoon.
She’d never been a big sister before, and thought she’d hate it, but she found herself looking forward to it, and had become very protective of the younger girl.
The idea that there were some who would try to harm her, look down on her, the Belladonna’s, just because they were Faunus?
Cinder didn’t like that. Not one bit. She’d brought up wanting to help, to join the White Fang, and help those who had helped her.
Kali had said she was already doing more than most of them could dream of, showing that humans, and Faunus were equal, and could work, and live together.
Cinder had pouted at that, and Kali had sighed, and relented, telling her they could talk about it when she turned eighteen, or graduated from an academy.
That had led to Cinder studying hard so she could in a few years join, and hopefully graduate early.
Qrow had been right. Getting to scream at the woman who had pretended to be her mother had been highly cathartic.
All it had taken was the team finding a few under the table dealings the woman didn’t want known, and she’d signed her over in exchange for destroying the copies along with a warning to ‘not let themselves be bitten by a rabid dog’.
She shook her head, not wanting to linger on the unpleasant women as she quickly dressed for the day.
She stretched on the back porch like she was taught, and went for a light jog around the property for a few minutes until she came to a copse of trees, and warily looked around, stretching her senses to the limit.
After a moment she did her best to gather her semblance, and superheated a piece of ground behind her.
“Careful there, kitten,” a man’s voice said as she smirked seeing Ghira behind her, clearly having been trying to sneak up on her.
He’d called her kitten by accident once, and Cinder found she didn’t hate it so accepted it since he didn’t mean anything by it.
“You almost got me, that time though,” Ghira praised her before Cinder smirked and tapped her shoe.
Ghira looked down to see the edge of his boots smoldering as she hopped on one foot to put it by slapping it with his hands.
Cinder was fairly sure he overacted like that on purpose, but it was amusing, and he was a fair trainer.
“Now that the morning entertainment is over, are you ready for hide, and seek?”
“Hide, and seek?” Cinder asked. That was different.
“Exactly. We’ve been doing combat training, and you’re a natural, but if you can’t get the drop on enemies, or let them get the drop on you you’ll be at a disadvantage. So this will be about helping you to hide your approach so you can start a battle in a more advantageous position.”
Cinder nodded eagerly ready to start training now that she understood the point.
“Good because we both have to hide.”
Cinder blinked, not expecting that.
“My wife is going to try, and find you, and she never loses! You have five minutes. Stay on the property! Good luck!” Ghira said as Cinder sprinted off in the opposite direction.
“You make me sound so cruel, dear husband,” Kali said with a giggle as she gave Ghira a hug from behind.
The man chuckled, but pressed a kiss between her ears she nearly purred at. “You’re rather competitive, dear.”
“Hmm…I suppose so. Now go get back to Blake. You promised her pancakes today, and she’s been waiting all night, according to her, and she’s dragged Ilia into begging for them.
Ghira chuckled at Blake’s friend who stayed the night before he nodded, and went back to their home.
“Come out wherever you are~” Kali teased before she nodded in approval when she didn’t hear anything. She then followed the scent, something she’d need to teach Cinder to hide.
For not having any training she was doing very well. She wouldn’t be able to hide from her semblance if she used it, but that was absolutely overkill.
Still, her drive was very admirable. The problem was trying to steer her from not joining the White Fang, which might not be as accepting as she wished it was. Cinder could do more advocating for their cause on the fringes as a huntress than anything else, but that was a conversation for another time.
She certainly wouldn’t lie to her though. She’d had enough of that to last a lifetime.
Kali’s hand was out in a flash, a soft tennis ball sailing through the bushes, and into a small knot in a tree before she heard a hiss, and Cinder came stumbling out.
“How’d you know I was there?” Cinder, not quite demanded as Kali smiled.
“You did a great job, but you forget some of us have a better sense of smell than others, and a few branches, and twigs were freshly broken. So your first lesson will be on hiding your scent, and covering your tracks.”
“I’m ready,” Cinder said, her voice strong, and her eyes determined.
Kali smiled. She’d be the best of them.
Cinder growled at the water balloon that hit her face. “Blake!”
Her younger sibling, freshly thirteen giggled behind her hand, with Ilia next to her.
“For going off to your last year at Haven you sure seem to be easy to ambush,” Blake teased before she ducked a shoe that was chucked at her head.
“I miss when you thought I was the coolest person ever, and called me Sharky.”
“I didn’t do that,” Blake insisted.
“You used to chew on my hair when you fell asleep, and mom has pictures,” Cinder continued as Blake colored.
Blake hissed as she ran from the room. Ilia handed the shoe back over that Cinder put on.
“Thanks,” Cinder thanked the chameleon Faunus, and ignored the blush on her cheeks.
It was a harmless crush so she’d not draw any attention to it, and embarrass her.
“Keep an eye on her. I don’t like how Adam has been looking at her, and as her best friend I’m trusting you to keep an eye on her when I’m not there, ok?” Cinder asked.
Ilia nodded, looking serious before she left to find Blake.
“Your instincts are still sharp as ever,” Kali praised as she leaned against the door frame.
“Hey, mom,” Cinder greeted with a backward glance.
It had taken her almost a year to call her anything other than Miss Kali, or just Kali, and it had just slipped out one day. She remembered being so embarrassed she’d hid in her room, until Blake had come in begging to spend time with her.
Her simplistic take of ‘mom is mom’ had helped Cinder take stock of things. Kali had been exceptionally pleased as she nearly floated around the manor for the next few days, and from there it hadn’t been long before she’d called Ghira, dad.
It was hard to believe that after her crappy childhood she could ever end up with a family so loving, that clearly cared for her. She wasn't sure what would have happened to her if she'd not left the hotel, but she didn't like it.
She wasn’t going to let some predator ruin that for her, ruin, or harm her family.
“We’ll keep an eye on him too. I noticed him paying her far too much attention at the last meeting, and I’ve asked Sienna to keep an eye out when I can’t. Plus, Summer, and the girls should be over soon to spend some time here, which should give her another layer of protection.”
“Not dad?”
Kali laughed. “No. He’s a gentle giant, but that would set him off, and on the off chance it isn’t what we fear? I don't want to subject anyone to that.”
“If it is, you’ll send me scroll pictures of the beat down?”
“Dear, I’ll send you a narrated video. We are Belladonna’s, and -”
“We look out for each other. Family first,” Cinder finished as she tapped the Belladonna crest on the shoulder of her outfit.
Kali smiled. “Look at you so grown up, and soon ready to be a licensed huntress, and here I am just being an old biddy.”
“You beat my whole team last year during sparring,” Cinder remarked dryly as she pushed her hair out of her face.
“Just luck, I’m sure,” Kali waved her off as Cinder gave her a deadpan look. Her mom was far from a pushover, just because she acted like one.
“Do you have all your gear? Weapons, dust?” Kali asked, sounding concerned as if Cinder wasn't about to graduate soon.
“I double checked less than an hour ago.”
Kali sighed. “I knew you’d grow up, but wasn’t planning on it being so quickly.”
“I’ll make you proud,” Cinder said with a sniff.
“Oh, sweety, you already do. Live your best life. I want to brag that you’re on a cereal box one day,” Kali teased.
“Why stop there? I’ll have a scroll show based on me!” Cinder boasted as she hooked a thumb toward herself.
“Oh that’ll be fun. I can show them all your fun pict-” Kali was cut off as Cinder had leapt out the nearby open window, and could be seen sprinting down the walk toward the pick up point.
Kali laughed long, and hard at that. Such a dear she was. She had no idea how much she’d helped. A human raised by a pair of Faunus, going on to become a fierce Faunus rights activist as a huntress?
She hadn’t thought of any of that when she’d seen her at the hotel. Just a child in need of help, a family, who only needed a helping hand to flourish, and flourish she had.
She couldn’t wait to see her graduate this year. The future was looking rather bright as her second daughter had turned back to offer her a wave she returned.
Her fiery freedom fighter. She didn't think she'd ever been so proud.