So it is done

Menagerie

Blake Belladonna swung her legs up and wiggled those nonchalantly, yawning slightly. It was hard to tell if it was from boredom or the early morning hour she had woken up at. Of course, she would have preferred to sink back into slumber under any other circumstances...

However, her parents, were against it.

Ever since Blake had made clear her intention to become a Hunter, with both of them opposed to her intention, they had decided to put her to the test. Daily early morning wake-ups, physical training, lectures with personal tutors... It definitely cut her chances of napping.

Initially, Ghira and Kali had wanted to discourage Blake from becoming a Hunter, even from entering an Academy altogether, but her admiration for Hunters, along with perhaps a tinge of teenage rebellion, had allowed her to overcome such a test. But she kept with the program, and eventually forcing her parents to back down in the face of her pressure, but leaving the habit of waking up early for Blake....

Which, was not very pleasant for her. As much as she hates to admit it, she has more in common with her Faunus heritage than she likes to admit. If nothing else, at least the early morning practice had drilled in her the habit of waking up early. Something that she thinks would be very useful when she starts the Academy next month.

She doubts that her teachers would be very impressed with her excuses for being late. It doesn't work on her trainers, and she doubts that it'll start working any time soon.

Besides, Blake's own parents were up even earlier, so there's no trouble for her to wake up early as well.... And that included today, especially today, given that today's Uncle Jonathan's birthday.

Blake had a rather distant but generally positive impression of Jonathan, a family friend she'd seen periodically over the years since she was a child, close to both her father and her mother... Well, nowadays at least.

The relationship between her parents and Jonathan hadn't always been perfect, though, Blake was pretty sure they'd had a big fight three years ago, but it seemed to have been over, and Blake had stayed out of it. Not because she doesn't care though, she simply thought that being open about things, even things that like a fight, is much better than keeping things secret.

She even preferred those that are racists to display their hate openly rather than just keep it secret and spitting in their food while smiling... Well, okay, that might be a bit extreme of an example, but the point still stands!

Still, she thinks that dad and Jonathan had a big fight or something, she knew that mom always kept Blake away whenever dad and Jonathan met back then. It came to a head on Mom's birthday, mom might try to hide it, but Blake was sure that she was really nervous, and then seemed to be very happy the next day!

After a few weeks, the situation had improved considerably. Her father, who had been stressed and saddened whenever he came back from work, had become much more cheerful.

Blake hadn't realized until then how stressed he was by his work until he came home one day and was full of smiles, even when she was not in the room. She hadn't realized it until she'd seen what Ghira could be like, cheerful, active, and close to her... The latter fact, of course, made Blake a little uncomfortable – but it was much better than the usual sullenness and constant exhaustion.

Ghira had practically blossomed after his fight with uncle Jonathan, though in doing so, paradoxically, he seemed to be even more busy. For a long time, all he had done was meet with ministers, commanders, business magnates, first in Menagerie, then in Glenn, and eventually it had all culminated in the announcement of the creation of a unified Glenn and Menagerie Council.