"Life's steps are words. You learn them one by one."

Ruby stared out of a window wonderingly, her eyes wide and sparkling at the sight of a world she never paid attention to.

If there was one thing Oum was afraid of, it would be the reactions of people outside his home if they saw the tiny miracle children. Not everyone would absorb the news of his creations coming to life as happily as his wife; some could be fearful of them just because of their unnatural existence. They were one of a kind, and that alone made them susceptible to outside interest in the case that they were spotted.

"T…ree. Tree!" Ruby squeaked, hopping up and down as she pointed at a tree outside of the window. She stood on a sofa's armrest, her attention glued on the window far away from her. "Tree!"

As Oum took a bite out of a cookie, he watched Ruby hop like a tiny bunny. One by one, the small hunters gathered as they stood next to Ruby, staring at the lone tree outside the window.

Jaune looked scared of the tree, though he was quick to regain his composure when Nora smacked his back comfortingly with a giggle. Everyone else seemed to be either confused by the tree's presence or excited about it.

…I know I probably have to take them outside at one point, the animator thought from the dining table as he watched RWBY and half of JNPR stare at the tree without budging from their spots.

And that was the hard part.

Knowing that he would have to take them outside to show them more of his world both excited and worried him. On one hand, he wanted to know what they thought of Earth. On another hand, he did not want to know what Earth thought of them. They were plentifully loud on their own; sure, they only squeaked and uttered one-word sentences once in a while, but they did make noise.

And if news broke out and Rooster Teeth found out about it…

…Well, I really don't know what would happen there, he thought. Would he get arrested for keeping in unique lifeforms in his house? Would nobody really care and just let them loiter around? He doubted the latter would ever happen, but he wanted to make himself less tense about the idea of letting them explore the outside world.

Nora posed like a tree and made a funny face. Weiss pouted and suddenly posed like a tree too, as if to show Nora that she could do better. The orange-haired huntress grinned before giggling, maintaining her tree impression as Weiss puffed her cheeks.

Really. The first thing they thought of doing after seeing a tree was to mimic it. How could Oum let them out as they were?

Since they seemed to be growing up little by little, he decided to give them a chance to explore the unknown later. With his supervision, of course. Who knew what would happen if they were set loose out in the open?

Soon, Jaune joined in with impersonating trees, though he made some sort of epic manly face that one would normally see in a show like Jojo's Bizarre Adventures. Yang flailed around while trying to mimic a tree at the same time, ending up with a very… interesting concept of a hyperactive tree. Blake sat on Jaune's head as he tried to improve his tree pose, nibbling on a piece of fish Sheena had cut up for her. The blond's head smelled like fish thanks to the Faunus.

And Ruby?

Well, it would have been a surprise if she did not end up following the tree posing trend. Without any hesitation, she posed like a tree before falling over and giggling endlessly, unable to handle any of her friends' poses seriously. Soon, they all giggled as they stopped posing as trees.

"Good!" Nora exclaimed as she patted Weiss' shoulder. The snow angel turned to the hammer-wielder before giving her a smile.

"Thank!"

"He he!"

Jaune poked Weiss and pointed at himself. The white-haired girl blinked before puffing her cheeks, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Weird face!" She critiqued Jaune's tree pose. And as soon as he looked dejected and got rid of his manly face with a sad frown, Weiss stopped looking disgusted before patting his fishy head. "Better!"

At her compliment, Jaune brightened up. "Thanks!"

"No! Thank!"

"…Thank?"

"Thank!"

"…Thanks?"

"…"

The snow angel put up a thoughtful look as she sat down to think over what went wrong with her thanking yet again. Jaune smiled as he attempted to help her say "Thanks" properly. Oum was right when he figured that it would take a while for her to fix it. She got a bit closer to fixing it, though.

...

Not really, but he liked to think positively.

The harmony of their squeaking and giggling eventually motivated him to work again.