Akashic

"We really have to get you a new wardrobe" Coco muttered as she looked Arthur up and down seeing him wearing his uniform, except without the usual suit jacket and red tie, leaving him wearing a long-sleeved white dress shirt and blue vest with his right hand wrapped in bandages as his gloves had at this point been burnt to such a degree that when Arthur had woken up in the morning they crumbled to dust.

"So, Velvet still getting ready?" Arthur asked, looking around the airport searching for her, but not seeing a trace of her. Though he did notice one other thing, the blur of a red and yellow disappearing behind a wall, causing him to chuckle in amus.e.m.e.nt at the not so stealthy sisters.

"Nope" she popped the p. "Velvet's already in Vale, she went back home yesterday to help her parents in their shop, we're going to meet her there." She explained.

"Oh, really? What do they do?" Arthur questioned

"Her mother's a pastry chef, and her father's a kickass barista, they run a little Café near the centre of town, conveniently next to my favourite clothing store." She chuckled, "That's also where we are going to get you some clothing, can't be dragging you around everywhere in those" she said wrapping her arm around Arthur's shoulder with a hearty laugh.

"They don't have any other staff?" he asked, prying Coco's arm off him.

"Not really, its family run so her brothers and sisters help every now and then, but their generally busy with their own shops" she explained.

"Sounds like she has a lot of siblings, and their own shops? Her family sounds like they're really into entrepreneurship" Arthur commented.

"Oh, you have no idea, and every single one is somehow related to food or drink, it's like a requirement to be a Scarlatina, you have to know how to cook, or make a bloody good drink, I'll take you to her brother's bar sometime, he makes the best Mudslides I have ever tasted" she added, drooling at the thought, snapping out of it she wiped her mouth before saying "Last I heard she has like… eight siblings" Arthur stumbled forward when he heard that "six older and two younger. And each of them are twins, Velvet's the only one who was born without a twin brother or sister."

"They sound… busy?" Arthur commented, unsure of what to say in response.

"Yeah, they were… though last I heard her little sister and brother were the last they were going to have. Apparently nearly forty years of caring for children is tiring, who would have thought." She chuckled. "Oh, Bullheads open, let's go hotshot, we got clothing to buy!" she said grabbing the back of Arthur's collar not giving him a chance to walk himself as he was dragged away.

____________________________________________________

"I don't like this Yang…" Ruby whispered chewing on her thumb as she watched Arthur be dragged into the Bullhead.

"Calm down, their only going to buy clothing, nothing's going to happen, they're just friends" Yang tried to reassure her, but got a glare in return.

"You just had to jinx it…" Ruby grumbled.

____________________________________________________

Arthur stood in front of a small two story building, staring up at the sign on it, "Scarlet Promise…" Arthur muttered, as he turned his head to the large glass window, behind which was an assortment of colourful cake's and sweat treats, from Danishes to hot cross buns and little marzipan rabbits, and a surprisingly appropriate amount of carrot based treats, for a business run by rabbit faunus.

Looking up from the vast array of treats Arthur saw, a relatively simple and rustic café, it's floora smooth and shiny dark brown wood, while the walls were made up of a lighter colour wood until about a third up the wall where it changed into a sand white paint. Booths made up the vast majority of the tables within, with dark red leather being used to make up the cushions, while a dark almost black, brown was used for the tables, all of which were pushed up close to the walls, leaving a large void in the centre of the café, where two aged people were slowly dancing, a tall man with short, white hair and long rabbit ears, and a woman with long, straight, grey hair put up into a bun, resting her head against the man's c.h.e.s.t as they slowly swayed to the rhythm of the music in the regular hold used in Ballroom dancing with the mans right hand on her left shoulder blade while the woman was doing the same, her left arm resting atop his her hand on his shoulder, their other hands intertwined and held at about head height, both with wide and warm smiles on their faces.

The couple being watched with warm smiles by the families sitting at a few of the booths, with women resting their heads on the shoulders of their significant others, while the children were slowly swaying their heads side to side, eyes closed as they listened to the soft and gentle music. Standing to the side Arthur could see Velvet in a pair of light brown denim jeans, white button up shirt with a black ribbon tied like a bow around her neck, and lastly a maroon apron wrapped around her waist, Which reached just under her knees, next to her two small children no older than six years old, a boy and a girl. The girl looked like a spitting image of Velvet, except with white hair and bright red eyes as well as two long rabbit ears, her left ear seemingly in an eternal droop, while the boy looked to resembled the man who was dancing, just much, much younger and with the same brown hair and ears as Velvet, just that his right ear also flopped over like what Arthur assumed was his sister, the two children attempting to dance like the older couple, but failing as they kept stumbling and falling over.

Arthur soon locked eyes with Velvet, as she had noticed that someone was looking into the shop, the moment she realized who it was her face turned a bright crimson, as steam began to come off her head as she quickly turned around and escaped into what looked to be the kitchen area, leaving the two children tilting their heads too wards each other as they sat on the ground in confusion at the sudden disappearance of their older sister.

____________________________________________________

"You see that?" the old woman whispered to the man, having watched the scene of Velvet turning her namesake scarlet.

"You know it" the man whispered back with a grin "Spin?" he asked.

"Spin me" she answered, as she removed her head from the man's c.h.e.s.t until they were a decent bit away from each other that they could do a quick under arm turn releasing each other's shoulders as the man raised his hand while the woman did a short spin, before returning their hands to each other's shoulders.

"So?" the man whispered

"Boy, 5'8, year or two younger than her, hair as white as yours, neck length and swept back over his ears, couldn't see his eyes or his pants, wearing a white button up shirt and blue vest and was scratching his cheek with an awkward smile as if he had done something in the past." She answered.

"Faunus?" he asked

"Couldn't tell, I didn't see any ears or horns, he could have a tail, but I think he's human" she responded.

"What we going to do?" he questioned.

"Interfere, what did you expect?" the woman chuckled as she did one last underarm spin before letting go of the man's hand and giving him a curtsy, the man responding with a bow of his own, earning them a round of applause from their audience.

"Should have known you would go for that" the man said with a side toothy grin and hearty laugh, "You always do".

"And it's worked every time" she replied.

"That it has, that it has" he replied

____________________________________________________

"You keep gawking at the food, I'm going to eat it" Coco said, immediately walking into the Café leaving Arthur in the dust without being able to respond.

"I was going to say let's go in, but okay…" Arthur muttered with a sigh as he too began to walk to the entrance, but stopped and turned his head around as he heard a light 'thump' and squeak of something rubbing against glass. There he saw a small girl, twelve years in age, short dirty cinnamon hair that fell over one of her eyes, her summer dress ragged and frayed at the edges, obviously having seen better days. The girl's hands pressed against the glass window as she stared at the collection of treats in envy, only removing her hands from the glass to hold her stomach as it let out a low grumble.

Taking one last look at the heaven behind the glass the girl sniffed, tears appearing in her eyes and turned away, beginning to walk away as her stomach regularly let out grumbles in dissatisfaction.

"Wait!" Arthur called out, causing the girl to freeze in place and crouch on the ground, immediately covering her head to protect herself, revealing numerous small cuts and scars dotting her arms which were revealed as her dresses sleeves rolled up.

Kneeling on the ground Arthur tried to make himself look as unimposing as possible, not reaching his hand out in an effort to comfort her, knowing that it could only make things worse, after all, he had seen this numerous times before, "It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." He said in the softest tone he could muster, but not getting a response as the girl only began to tremble and rock back and forth while muttering something in a low tone which Arthur couldn't hear.

"I saw you were looking at the cakes, would you like one?" he asked as the girl stopped rocking and looked up at him, her hands still covering her head in case Arthur hit her. Yet, when she looked up she didn't see a raised hand but instead a boy with strange white hair, and white eyes, with a wide, kind grin on his face.

"My name is Arthur" he said putting his hand too his c.h.e.s.t, "What's yours?" he asked, not getting so much as a peep out of her, "Hmm, you don't have one? Theeeen what about… Princess?" he asked, still getting nothing in response as he put his index finger to his chin and began to over exaggerate his thinking pose "Hmm… Oh! Oh! I know, Fairy! Your names Fairy!" he shouted with a goofy grin, as he jumped up into an 'Aha!' pose, which finally got a response from the girl as she began to giggle at Arthur's antics.

"and your voice is even that of a fairy! No wonder you keep it hidden! It's simply a gift to gracious to be given to just anyone! I am honoured that you have bestowed it upon me!" he said giving her a sloppy formal bow, getting another round of giggles from her. But quickly stopped and put her hands to her belly again as she looked down at her stomach with sadness as it gurgled.

"Oh no! the fairy is hungry! That is simply unacceptable! I can't let this beautiful and graceful fairy go home without at least one 'Cake' in her stomach!" Arthur said, specifically accentuating 'Cake' which immediately got her attention as her head darted to the eccentric jester in blue.

"What say you, beautiful Fairy? Would you like to have at least one cake?" he said kneeling on the ground once again, holding his hand out to her, his head pointed to the ground and his right hand over his heart.

The Fairy hesitated for a moment, but eventually took Arthurs hand, with the added convincing of her stomach acting as the final straw that set her hunger from fear apart. Once Arthur felt her hand atop his he lifted his head with a wide smile as animatedly shook his head "I was wrong, this Fairy deserves at least two cakes!" he stood up and gently gripped her hand and began to walk towards the entrance of 'Scarlet Promise', the girls other hand trying to keep the grumbles of her stomach to a minimum.

____________________________________________________

"And he's good with children" the old woman added nudging her husband who was cleaning a glass with her hip.

"Pretty sure he'd have to be good with them if he wants any chance with Velvet." The man replied with a chuckle "Well, with any rabbit faunus that is" he added.

********************************************************************

Alternate Chapter names: [Fairy and the jester] [Café la Scarlatina]

Sooo, I made a Paypal and P,atreon, please don't feel obligated to pay anything, my main reason for getting them up is in the hopes that I can eventually start getting artwork commissioned for this story, as currently I do not have a job and I can't exactly use what money I do 'have' as that is to keep me afloat until this whole debacle with my family ends..

But no seriously, don't feel that you 'have' to, I don't want you all thinking I'm doing this for money, I'm not, I love writing this story and I don't need money to incentivize me too keep writing it, no matter how helpful it is.

Discord: discord.gg/dXvg8F3

Paypal: paypal.me/Lasarusofthelibrary

P,atreon: p,atreon.com/Lasarus