"Give that back bitch!" A shrill, belligerent scream echoed through the dorms. A tumultuous racket could be heard loud and clear by all the students on that wing, and everyone knew exactly where it was coming from. Students walked hurriedly past as they cautiously glanced at the room the noise was coming from.

"Ask nicely and maybe I will!" Another girl's voice sneered from behind the door. Suddenly the raucous turned into sounding like a straight up brawl.

"You're going to break something…" A different girl spoke, her voice calm but exasperated.

"Tell her to give it back and I won't break her!" The first girl snarled.

"Maybe I should tell them later?" A young, well built man said as he grimaced at the door, his hand hovering inches away from from the doorknob. "I probably don't want to get in the middle of-"

Suddenly, he heard a faint popping sound and his heart skipped a beat. She wouldn't!

"You wouldn't!" The second girl's voice trembled. Immediately the popping became more intense and lower pitched, the young man could feel the vibrations of each one through the door. Panic set in as he swung the door open as fast as he could.

"Thistle!" He screamed as he barged into the room, his heart pounding in his chest.

The scene before him was an odd one, even for him. A girl dressed in little more than shorts and a strip of fabric tied around her chest with short red hair with a long braid on the side lay atop a fox faunus girl on the floor. The two girls growled at each other, their face separated by only inches of air and their teeth firmly gripping a honeybun from each side.

"Um... " The boy was dumbfounded as he stared around the disheveled room. His eyes wandered over to a tall girl with dark blue hair sitting on the bed shaking her head at the two girls wrestling on the floor. "Lapis, you wanna… fill me in?"

"Kristal stole Thistles honeybun." She shrugged.

"I… see." He sighed. "Come on guys, look at this mess, you two need to chill out."

"Tell her to let go and I will be happy to chill out!" Thistle mumbled, her mouth still gently but firmly clenching her honeybun.

"She's crazy! She almost used her semblance on me over a snack!" Kristal growled, her ears pressed back aggressively.

"You know those are her favorite and impulse control is definitely not one of Thistle's strong suits." He walked over to and knelt down.

"Now, I've got something way more interesting than a honeybun with me and you're gonna want to see this, especially you Thistle. Now, can we share?" He said with sarcastic condescension.

The two girls growled and glared at each other for another long moment before they ripped the dessert in half as they separated, Thistle wolfing it down quickly while Kristal ate her half a bit more delicately. Seemingly satisfied, Thistle stood up and with a genuine smile, extended her hand out to Kristal. As though nothing had happened between them, she smiled back and took her hand, fixing her long brown hair with her fingers as she did. Thistle was easily the smallest of the group, standing at more than a head shorter than the next shortest on the team.

"By the way… you weren't really going to use your semblance were you?" He said dubiously.

"Of course not!" Thistle huffed, but her bravado couldn't hide the downcast look in her eyes. "I'm still paying for what happened last time, probably will be for the rest of the year."

"Look, I know you said you'd pay for it yourself but-"

"I am not having this conversation again Balken!" Thistle snarled, her look told him quite clearly she was done with this topic.

"Fine, sorry I said anything."

"You said you had something to show us?" Lapis interjected from her comfortable position on her bed.

"R-right! Yeah, okay, you're gonna love this! So, you all know that we're second years now right?" He grinned excitedly.

"Yeah?" Kristal spoke for the rest of the group. Dubious looks and raised eyebrows greeted him as the three girls seemed to question his sanity.

"Well, we're second years now, we've been here a full year! And that means…" He looked eagerly between the three girls waiting for them to get the hint. Suddenly, he saw Thistle's jaw drop and her eyes grow wide with excitement.

"Y- you don't mean-"

"That's right! The Haven Academy Tournament!" We couldn't enter before because first years aren't allowed to participate, but this year will be our debut, Team KBLT!" He declared triumphantly.

"Where do we sign up!?" Thistly looked up at him with large, sparkling purple eyes.

"Well, I already registered our team, but it's not official until we all sign this form that I have here with me." He pulled out a sheet of paper, his signature already on it multiple times in the lines designated for their team leader.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" Thistle's voice became little more than squeaks of excitement as she bounced up and down.

Finally, her excitement grew too much to contain and she jumped up, wrapping her arms behind Balken's neck and squeezing his waist with her legs before pressing her soft, warm lips against his. The sudden impact nearly making him topple over, but even that didn't break her concentration as she kissed him even deeper until a frantic tapping on her shoulder finally got her attention.

"Thistle!" Balken gasped for air as they separated, Thistle stared down at him with an amused smile. "Look, I know the next five days leading to the tournament are going to be hard for you, but you need to contain yourself, at least on the kissing, we can't let people find out about us, if the teachers find out we're engaged…"

"Oh I am not that impulsive Balken! Give me some credit!" She scoffed hopping down from him before turning away with her arms folded at her chest.

"Earn it." He laughed.

"So, we really gonna do this?" Lapis chimed in once again, this time with a slightest hint of worry on her face.

"Yeah? Why wouldn't we?" He cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"Well… because of the two time reigning champions." Lapis fell backwards on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Team IVRE…" Kristal said cryptically.

"They've had to top scored in the school three years running. Combat, grades, mission success, it doesn't matter, they're always on top." Lapis sighed.

"Yeah, they're pretty scary." Kristal continued. "We've been behind them in everything since we got here. Our mission success rate is on par with them and we come kinda close in combat training scores, but still…"

"You're all making me sick! How can you be afraid of them! We're Team KBLT! After this tournament, we're gonna dethrone IVRE and we'll be the strongest in the school and everyone will know it!" Thistle turned around and gave a wide grin to Balken, her eyes burning with intensity and she stared up at him and he couldn't help but feel empowered.

"Yeah… yeah! Come on, we've got this! Kristal, our ass kicking, glyph wielding fox! Myself, Balken, your strong and fearless leader with the big ass sword-gun! Lapis, the best tank in the whole school! Finally, Thistle, our resident powerhouse and secret weapon! Come on! We can do this!"

Balken had his fist raised up in the air, his heart was racing and he felt adrenaline surging through his body, but all that faded as he looked at the embarrassed faces and stifled laughter of his teammates. His face became hot as it turned bright red, he stumbled through his incoherent mumbling before turning pleadingly to Thistle.

"Sorry sweetie, it was flattering and all but… you kinda suck at speeches!" She fell apart as she burst out laughing before collapsing on the bed with Lapis who was also stifling a chuckle.

"You girls are assholes!"