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Beacon Academy is insane. They’re ‘light practice’ is apparently sending students out into Grimm infested forests and letting them have a go at pest control. Neptune stares in horror at the herd of Ursi before him, meanwhile his ‘fearless leader’ chargers them with a crazy smile.
As Sun goes for the middle Ursa, shooting out its legs with his nun chucks, he sets his clones off to the ones flanking him. Neptune jumps into his support position and keeps the Ursi as far away from Sun as he can.
Everything is going pretty well, until a random Ursa charges Neptune from his left. He turns away from Sun’s fight, to defend himself. The Ursa is a tough bastard though, and Neptune starts swinging at it with his glaive. The armour on the beast is too tough for him, so Neptune starts moving quickly hoping to knock the thing onto its back. As he rounds a tree the Ursa turns to fast and rolls onto its side. Neptune takes the opportunity and switches to his trident, sinking the three blades deep into the monsters gut.
He spins around to check on Sun, only to see a pile of corpses and no sign of his leader. A slight pang of fear plays at the back of Neptune’s mind. Where is he? The faunus pops up from behind one of the Ursi abruptly, he’s leaning awkwardly and forcing a smile.
Neptune runs to him immediately. He quickly looks him over for injuries, but there’s nothing except for the normal scrapes and bruises.
“What’s wrong?” Neptune widens his eyes to show his concern.
Sun shrugs and forces a laugh. “Wrong? Nothing’s wrong! Everything is fine and dandy-ahh!” Sun falls sideways and cries out in pain.
“Sun!” Neptune drops to his side, awkwardly hovering his hands above the younger boy, not wanting to hurt him, but also wanting to help.
“I’m Fine!” Sun grits out, his mouth in a snarl.
“No you’re not! Let me help you!” Neptune was starting to freak out. Why would Sun hide an injury? It’s just an injury! What the hell is going on? “Sun please,” Neptune can hear himself starting to tear up, “tell me what’s wrong.”
Sun screws up his face, clenches his fists and grumbles as he shakily stands up. He crosses his arms and carefully wraps his tail around his middle. Neptune recognises Sun’s sulking pose immediately and sighs.
********
They’ve been back at their dorm for a few hours now, and Sun hasn’t spoken to Neptune once. He also hasn’t moved from sitting on his bed. And Neptune hasn’t stopped worrying, he’s probably going to die from stress.
“Sun please-“
His leader stares him down. See Sun clearly thinks he looks scary, or extremely pissed off. But all Neptune sees is hurt and pain. As he reaches out to attempt to comfort him Sun flinches violently and falls off the bed onto the ground.
“Sun!” Neptune goes to help him, when he notices something. Sun’s tail is sticking out at an odd angle. He stares at the appendage for a couple seconds when he sees the wrong crook in it.
“We are taking you to the med bay.” Neptune grips Sun from under his armpits and starts hauling him up, when the faunus wrenches himself from his hold, and cries.
“Sun?”
His leader is clearly fighting off his tears, begging them to stop. He takes a few deep breaths and just looks up at Neptune in defeat.
“My tail is fucking broken! Okay! Happy now!” Sun’s seething.
“Why are you so angry? It’s just a broken limb.” Neptune shrugs, but as soon as he sees Sun’s face he knows he’s said the wrong thing.
“You don’t get it do you! My tail breaking is...it’s the worst thing that can happen to me. My tail keeps me balanced, I can’t walk let alone fight or free run like this. And when humans see an injured faunus they...they take advantage. And if it’s bad enough that it has to be removed, then other faunus wouldn’t even accept me as one of them. It’s bad enough having one species against you, but everyone? That’s too much.”
Neptune just tries to process what Sun is going through. He’s afraid. But why wouldn’t he tell Neptune, they trust each other. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Sun blinks up at him. “I...uh, well.” Sun blushes and frowns at the ground, “I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
Neptune frowns. “You’ve seen me with broken arms and legs, how is this different?”
Sun giggles. “Yeah but you’re cute when you’re helpless like that. I just look weak.”
Neptune pouts. “You wouldn’t look weak, and I could draw all over your cute tail cast.”
Sun sighs. “Fine we’ll go to the med bay. But I still don’t understand why you’re being nice about this. Aren’t you humans like trained to exploit our weaknesses or whatever?”
Neptune’s heart breaks a little at how casual he says that. “I care about you. So when you’re hurt, I’m hurt.”
While Sun tries to process that emotional package, Neptune picks him up quickly and starts carrying him bridal style to the med bay.
“You like me.” Sun grins.
Neptune looks away and smiles. “I like like you.”