"Your mom scares me, Mei," I stated in a whisper into the girl's ear, while she was picking at something in my new bracers on the workbench.
The already mentioned Mei's mama looked at me like I was prey, gleaming with her inhuman eyes and pressing her ears on the top of her head. But, of course, she did not show her dissatisfaction with anything else. And I certainly didn't need anything more, for that matter.
"And your ideas scare me," Mei commented, not lowering her tone at all. "You had all your training and fighting style focused on Myrtenaster and Glyphs. And you're increasing my blood pressure here with your ideas of switching to the hard-light claymore!"
"I want to add some kind of gravitational stuff there, if anything. You take it, kinda, and wave it very lightly, but then with a wave of your hand, it swings with such force that would crack a nevermore!" I was offended for my idea and got myself half a wove paper from the nearest basket with clean pieces. "What are you standing for, let's draw a plan!"
"I'm not going to indulge you, you idiot!" Mei tried to kick me away from the workbench, while continuing to put back the bracers and nodding to herself. "Everything is fine with them, the stress test passed four out of five! However, the problem with small flaws in the calculation is quite noticeable. I'll fix the program, and everything will run smoothly! The main thing, this is not a structural mistake!"
"Pla-a-an!"
"I won't indulge you! Make your daddy buy you toys! Sort out the bracers for now! And I don't have a combat-grade hard-light emitter, either. Where did this new friend of yours get it from? That's the question!"
"This guy actually saved my ass from uncomfortable questions! And quite a lot of possible problems from Father!"
"So!" Her mother interrupted our exchange, and her ears finally stopped being so tense. "I take it this is not an isolated incident of your communication with Weiss Schnee?"
"Mom!" Mei was indignant and threw up her hands, so I had to catch the heavy bracer centimeters from my nose. "Oh. Anyway, Mom! I told you, after that explosion incident, I'm dating my savior, he-he!"
"Yes, madam..." I tried to jump in and explain, but I got stuck on what to call her. "Uh-uh..."
"You can call me Rei. So, what do you want to say?" A woman who looked very much like Mei, apart from her hair color and voice, folded her arms across her chest and conveyed suspicion and distrust with her whole appearance.
"So everyone saw that video where I'm, kinda, saving your daughter," I somehow even felt embarrassed under such a narrowed gaze. "It's not a secret at all, madam..."
"Rei!"
"Okay, madam Rei. Of course, out of everyone close to me, only Klein knows that we're dating..."
"Yeah, by the way, does he even know that everything is fine?"
Mei obviously tried to change the subject and grabbed my elbow with a smile, I think, just to be closer before I galloped back to the mansion to save the day. If Klein stops trusting me, then I'll only go down to Mantle on some big holidays, damn it.
"Yes, I told him that I'm sleeping at your place..." I looked guiltily at Rei and rubbed her daughter's fingers with my palm. "If you mind, then I could..."
"No, everything's fine," Rei waved me off, but her gaze still made me uneasy.
"It's the brother, who probably won't like it, but he could go take a walk," Mei added and smiled at her mother's questioning look. "He decided that Weiss is responsible for her father's actions."
"Of course, he's an asshole sometimes," I shrugged and scratched my ear. "But about half of the rumors about him are nonsense and exaggeration."
"So he's not really a racist against faunus?" the older fox snorted mockingly and decided to come closer to the workbench, that was still occupied by my bracers. "Really, why is my daughter doing this all of a sudden, and not your father's professionals?"
"He's a businessman with no heart or soul," I muttered back. "To hate someone by external signs, you need to somewhat care. He doesn't really give a shit. The main thing for him is the corporation and the money. His most primary child, who will never let him down. That's how it is, madam Rei.
"But it's hard to deny that you discriminate against Faunus," the fox narrowed her eyes and hooked her fingers onto the bracer to take a closer look.
"I personally," I emphasized this word, "do not discriminate against anyone at all. Just maybe morons, but that's unclear, really. I have a bunch of fauns on staff at the mansion, yes, fewer than before the Fang attacks, but this is due to increased security. If there are confirmed relatives in the Fang, then goodbye. Of course, not everyone who was fired liked it at all. The pay is good there."
"And if I were a member of the Fang?" Rei looked at me skeptically. "Are you just leaving my daughter and running in the other direction?"
"Do you want to confess?" I chuckled. "No, if it's Sienna Khan's Fang, then yes, I would start being careful with you, but if it's an old Fang, then you need to think about who wasn't! It's more about the active Fang."
"Isn't that discrimination?" The woman quipped, but with a smile, by which I realized that she wasn't serious, and did it just to argue.
"We have the same rules with criminal records and other organizations banned in Mantle, such as the Fang, but with different actors. Like, there are relatives from some of the Mistral bandits - so they should go look someplace else, especially if we have an alternative worker of the same quality. Why am I explaining this to you at all, as if you can grow in the local hierarchy of huntsmen-specialists without good background! Obviously, you will be less trusted if you are a possible security breach!"
"Hm. So you're saying it's all a lie? I've seen faunus that are getting hurt at mining..."
"Where?" I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Where - what?" the woman frowned in disbelief, to which I took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Where have you seen it?" I explained, and without waiting for an answer, I added. "If it's on Mantle, then I'd be very surprised. Yes, there are excesses, but for the timely salaries and the safety of production, we are literally being screwed and bullied, especially after that collapse of the shaft due to safety violations. Seven people died there, and their relatives were compensated, if anything."
"No, I mean the Mistral mines. I go there occasionally, the weather is better there, you know. "
"So why don't you move to Argus, for instance, of course I'm glad that I met your daughter, but even in Argus the weather is already better," I tried to roll away from the topic of faunus, but she wouldn't let me and burned my attempt.
"Don't try to change the subject, Weiss!"
"We don't have any mines or enrichment plants there!" I muttered and took the bracer from her, which she'd already started playing with. "There are those who want to sell to Atlas, and my father is the only one who can provide them with a reduction in import taxes. Everything that is transported from outside the Atlas is very much taxed. And if they bring it to the Schnee warehouse in Argus and there it becomes Schnee Dust on paper, then we can distribute it further. Atlas needs dust, and our local mines, whoever they belong to, simply wouldn't be enough."
"And it's not some sort of mystery, Mom." Mei interjected. "Yes, Jacques Schnee works with bad people, but he doesn't break any laws. He cannot - and it is impossible - to monitor the laws and their implementation in another state!"
"Is this what she feeds you so that you don't ask questions about their inhumane practices?!"
A man's voice rang out from the door to the basement workshop, in which we had already spent about an hour and a half by this time.
"These are facts that do not deny inhumane practices," I began to put on bracers, just to keep my hands occupied. "Yes, my father indulges them by giving them the opportunity to sell the result of such work, but he personally does not do this. And yes, this is not good, and perhaps without this indulgence our corporation would be much less successful. It would be someone else instead, so you should lose your illusions, please. And yes, there are excesses on the ground, but we have an audit every quarter, so if it comes to any shit, it is quickly resolved by firing those involved. And then they go on shows and newspapers, and stink in the direction of the former employer."
"You're making it look like you're all angels there, and faunus are just a side!" this fool couldn't even make a proper sentence out of anger, but I understood it in general.
"I'm tired of explaining the same thing in a circle, do get acquainted with the laws of Atlas and what's instead of them in Mistral. And then let's talk, okay?"
I was already getting bored of him, and even thought it would be better to get out of here and not try to spend the night.
"I should go, I guess, am I right?" I kissed Mei on the corner of her lips and smiled a little. "It seems to me that my presence has become inappropriate... "
"Yes, Schnee, you're right, run away from difficult conversations about what you could change, but you just don't want to! You're just using it!" Mei's brother said in a mocking tone, which made my hand tremble, I wanted to hit him with something, but I restrained my impulses.
Surprisingly, my Weiss-voiced schizo has been silent since arriving on Atlas. I even felt a little uneasy. Even this insolence didn't wake her up. Maybe she really isn't the previous mistress of this bod, the real Weiss, but my schizo, as I assumed until I realized that it could as well be different because of our differing memories?
By the way, while I was thinking about life, the skunk was decked by his own sister. She hit him, as it usually goes, with some kind of piss-soaked rag, which had obviously not been cleaned of any oil and dirt from the workshop since it's appearance here.
"You're not going anywhere!" Mei decided and took me by the elbows. "You almost got thrashed outside the Wall today! And I want to pamper you a little!"
"I don't mind, dearest," I immediately changed the tone and stepped even closer. "What if I get you a hard-light combat emitter?"
She quickly switched from looking romantically into my eyes to trying to spank me too, just like she did her arrogant brother, except without a piss rag.
"You're at it again! Are you going to throw away the Myrtenaster? Where are you going to put it? Are you going to garland yourself with weapons and then die, while it makes you stumble on something?! Maybe you should put on a cape also, so you can get stuck in even more things! You damn poser! Will you also stop using what you know best? Are you completely out of it, already?!
"I'll make it collapsible," I raised my hands in a defensive gesture, but I couldn't bring myself to stop giggling at her weak slaps, which clearly didn't have the anger she was showing in her voice. "The Myrtenaster, I mean. I usually need it as a dust revolver and a focus for dust, not for real fencing. Plus, it's more symbolic!"
"What's symbolic?" Mei didn't understand, but Rei decided to speak up instead.
And that made me take a closer look at her, because it wasn't the most obvious thing to assume.
"Nicholas Schnee used a Claymore. Maybe you also have plans to add more knightly armor?"
"Armor..." I muttered and tried to somehow liven up my thoughtful voice, but nothing worked. It wasn't conscious on my part.
"Don't give new ideas! C'mon mo-o-m! Weiss is already totes cra-a-ay!"
O-Inari-kami-sama, who am I dealing with? Kindergarten, nothing less!
***