Author's Note: So just to clear everything up, this fic will be an AU set in WWII. Instead of Jews, the Faunus will be the ones subjected to the genocide. Like the Summary shows, this'll be Adventure with Romance on the sidelines. Well, maybe not the sidelines. More like smack-dab in the middle of the field. But either way, it won't be the main focus of this story. Romance won't even be present for a good portion of it. You can expect to see a little Bumblebee, some White Rose and maybe some Arkos, but I haven't decided on that last one yet.

You should be advised that the story will go a little dark at times, as it should, considering it deals with war and the Holocaust. People will die. Others will cry. You might even cry. I think that might one of my eventual objectives, to make a few of you cry. Sorry.

I'm not sure about the rating. I want to put it at T, but there will be much swearing and very descriptive graphic violence, so it might go up to M. I'll keep it T for now, or at least until it gets really bad.

I think that's everything, so without further ado, I give you: Résistance.

Chapter 1: Life Isn't A Fairy-Tale

June 3rd, 1944.

Yang slowly awoke in her bed, and smiled when she smelled Blake's pleasant smell emanating from beside her. She knew it was reckless, to have Blake sleeping with her out in the open. However, over time they've slacked their efforts to hide her from the authorities. Not because they cared less, but simply because it was tiring to keep her hidden, and the police really hadn't started busting down doors without suspicion just yet. Not to mention it wasn't easy to try to keep a cat confined to the small storage room-turned-hidden-den. Simply put, they didn't feel threatened very much at this point.

However, when Yang opened her eyes, Blake was nowhere to be seen. Yang shot up, frantically darting around the room, hoping to see Blake's sleek form somewhere in the bedroom. She saw nothing but the ugly pasty yellow colour of the walls and the mess that she always left lying around the room. A million and one things ran through her head at that moment. 'Where did she go? She's not one to run off for no reason. They have to have something to do with this. I'm sure of it. Those bastards took her away. Took her to that maudite camp. Well they just must not know who they're dealing with now.' These thoughts crossed Yang's mind at the speed of light, and as they did, her eyes slowly drifted from lilac to blood-red in colour. Yang jumped up from her bed and marched for the door, a look of determination and the promise of serious bodily harm engraved in her face. She opened the door and inspected the living room quickly as she ran into it.

The room sported pale red coloured walls, and on them, a few paintings and portraits hung. One of these was a family portrait. In it was the father, a blonde-haired man with silver eyes, wearing a short brown jacket with equally short sleeves. The mother in the photo had long red-tipped black hair and lilac eyes, and wore a red cloak and hood at her shoulders. In front of them were two young girls. The taller and older-looking one of the two had lilac coloured eyes and long blonde hair, which went along nicely with the yellow and black outfit she wore. The younger and much shorter one of the two bore red-tipped black hair and silver eyes. Her outfit was red and black.

Yang didn't take particular notice to the portrait and scanned the rest of the room. The plain brown furniture pieces that littered the floor were unoccupied; however it was obvious somebody had taken ownership of the large couch that faced the wall where a radio sat on a table. She turned to her left and faced the open kitchen door. Through it, she saw Blake leaning against the counter, still wearing her nightgown. Relief filled every fiber of her being at the sight and her face softened, tears of joy almost forming in her eyes.

"Blake!" Yang yelled as she ran through said kitchen door and into Blake's arms.

The kitchen was nothing special; the walls were some shade of off-white and rows of wooden cupboards lined two of said walls. A stove was set in the middle of one of the rows, and a sink was situated in the middle of the other.

Blake tensed up at Yang's contact, and her eyes filled with shock and almost fear as she tried desperately not to drop the cup of coffee she held in her hand.

"Yang, quiet down, for god's sake. Do you want to tell the whole building that you're hiding me here?" Blake said to Yang in French. Yang retreated from her hug and held Blake's shoulders as she looked into her eyes.

"You scared the living hell out of me!" Yang answered a lot quieter than her earlier shout, as well as in French. Her eyes faded back to their original lilac in a few seconds time. Blake gave her a quizzical look.

"I thought they took you away," Yang continued, tears almost starting again in her lilac eyes, "when you weren't there when I woke up…" Blake's expression turned to one of compassion and concern. She gave her a kiss and held her close in her arms for several moments.

"Don't worry, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere." Blake whispered soothingly to Yang. When she let go, Yang seemed to have calmed down, so Blake switched her tone from comforting to her every day mellow, almost matter-of-fact tone.

"Besides, if they had came in here to take me, you can sure as hell bet they would have taken you with me." Yang nodded, realizing that her earlier worry and anger wasn't rationally justified, but then a thought came to her.

"Why weren't you in bed this morning? You always wait for me to wake up before you get up." Yang looked at Blake with a confused look. Blake raised her cup of coffee she still held in her hand and replied.

"Coffee." Yang's confused look only deepened as she fixated her gaze on the familiar cup of coffee that Blake made for herself every morning.

"But you always make those at nine, and only nine. You're all OCD about it. And it's only seven." A smirk appeared on Blake's face as she nodded towards the kitchen clock. Yang turned her head to look at it and found that it did not read seven like she believed, but rather, it read nine-o-six. Yang's eyes widened as she turned her face back towards Blake's which was half-hidden behind the cup of coffee from which she was sipping.

"Maudit, I'm late for work!" Yang began to run towards her bedroom to get ready, but was stopped by her arm, which was mysteriously locked in place. She turned back to see Blake holding onto it firmly, all the while suppressing a giggle.

"Blake! Let go, I've got to get to work!" Blake did not let go, instead she pulled Yang back towards her, close enough for her to whisper in her ear.

"It's Saturday. You don't work Saturdays." Yang's eyes widened at the realization.

"Oh…" Yang let out of her mouth that had been left slightly agape.

Suddenly Ruby walked into the kitchen. She was wearing her school attire, a white blouse and dark over-shirt with a plaid skirt. She didn't have school today, it was Saturday after all, but she had grown accustomed to wearing it for work. Her black hair was still wet from the bath she had just taken, which only made her natural red highlights more apparent.

"I heard you were awake." Ruby said humorously, also in French, as she started to cut a slice of bread to make herself breakfast.

"I think everyone did." Blake added. Ruby turned away from her breakfast and leaned back on the counter, facing her.

"So what did you do? Did you bite her again?" Blake's cheeks reddened, as she took another sip of her coffee and looked away from Ruby in embarrassment. It wouldn't be the first time Blake's gotten a little too excited while spending 'quality time' with Yang.

"No, nothing like that," Yang said, brushing it off, "she just scared me, that's all." Ruby nodded.

"Uh-huh." She was not one hundred percent convinced.

Ruby finished making her breakfast while Yang started to make her own. Blake sat at the table, sipping on her coffee while reading the newspaper. Ruby turned to face everyone, and in the middle of her bite asked:

"So, what are you guys doing today?" Blake didn't feel the need to answer. She'd be doing what she has been doing every day for the past two years: reading books and cleaning the house. Since she couldn't go out to work, she had to find some way of contributing to the household for the food and shelter Yang and Ruby gave her, so she did all the housework while Yang and Ruby worked to make money enough for three.

"Well, since apparently it's Saturday, I guess I'll be going out and running some errands. We need bread and milk, and maybe I can find some eggs or butter this week. I might pick up some beef for tonight too." Yang responded.

"Wine." Blake said from behind her newspaper. Yang turned to face the paper that stood between her and Blake.

"Are we running low on wine too?" Yang walked to where they kept the wine, while Ruby looked down and took another bite of her breakfast. Yang pulled out an almost empty bottle of red wine, with an expression of surprise and confusion on her face.

"This thing was full a few days ago!" Yang exclaimed. She shifted her attention to Ruby, who was trying to sneak away.

"Oh no, you don't!" Yang said as she reached and grabbed Ruby by the shoulder with her free hand and pulled her back into the kitchen. She turned Ruby around to face her. Ruby wore a nervous smile, while Yang wore a disappointed frown.

"Did you drink this?" Yang inquired, holding the bottle close to Ruby's face. Ruby scratched the back of her head.

"I may… have had a few glasses in the past few days…"

"Ruby! We can't have you drinking all of our wine! This stuff isn't cheap, you know. It's really hard to find this stuff! We only drink this when I say we do." Ruby could tell her sister was beginning to get a little mad; the shade of her eyes started to change.

"I'm sorry. I just really wanted some and Blake said it was okay and…" Yang suddenly let go of Ruby and turned towards Blake, who had stopped moving entirely. Her ears were raised in full attention out from behind the paper.

"You let my sister have more wine?" Blake's ears twitched almost painfully at the tone of her voice.

"Yang…" Blake calmly began to try and reason with Yang. After spending so much time with her, one would think she'd know better by now.

"Oh no, Blake. There's no talking your way out of this. I didn't tell you that you could make decisions for Ruby." Yang's rant was cut short, effectively saving Blake's ears

"Hey! I'm old enough to make decisions for myself!" Ruby pouted. Yang sighed.

"Yes. Yes you are. However, I'm the one that bought this wine. Therefore I decide who gets it and when, and for the next few days, neither of you," Yang pointed at Ruby, then turned and pointed at Blake, "get any." Yang finished with a smile.

"Yaaang!" Ruby complained. Blake simply sighed and Yang smiled contently.

"You've had enough wine in the past few days to last you a week."

Blake was not pleased. She knew she wouldn't get any reading in if the two sisters kept quarreling like this. Hell, she wouldn't get any reading in if either of them stayed. Yang was too loud and when Ruby wasn't there, too touchy-feely, and Ruby would run around the apartment complaining about boredom. So, Blake devised a plan.

"Ruby, what are you doing this morning?" she asked. Both sisters paused their quarrel. Ruby stuttered thoughtfully.

"Um… I… nothing, I guess." Blake smiled. This might work.

"Then you can go help Yang with her shopping. You can buy your own wine if you'd like. You could also get yourself something at the bakery. Besides," Blake turned to Yang, who did not seem too thrilled about bringing her hyper-active little sister grocery shopping, "it might be faster if the both of you went." Ruby's face lit up at the prospect of cookies and wine, while Yang's darkened as she gave her girlfriend a look that said: 'You're gonna pay for this later'. Blake simply responded with a smirk.

"So when are we going?" Ruby asked Yang impatiently. Yang sighed.

"Let me change first." Yang looked over at the kitchen clock. It was almost nine-thirty. "Give me at least fifteen minutes."

"Nine-forty-five it is." Ruby declared with mock-authority. Blake exhaled contently, relieved that she'd soon be alone. Don't be mistaken, she really liked the two sisters. They had, after all, helped hide her with them no questions asked when they all heard about what was going on down at the Vél' d'Hiv'. In fact, they were the closest thing she had to a family now. However sometimes, their combined presence could be a bit much. Especially when Blake was trying to read.

Ruby and Yang left at nine-forty-six, which, thanks to Ruby, did not help Yang's mood at all. Blake sighed contently as she heard the door shut and lock. The apartment fell silent, and a sense of security washed over Blake. She got up, walked over to the bedroom and lay down on what Yang and she now called 'their' bed. She picked up the book she left on the nightstand on her side of the bed and started reading where she last left off.

Ruby and Yang were walking down the streets of Paris, window shopping at certain shops and buying stuff at others. Well, Yang was walking. Ruby was doing something more akin to jumping or hopping. You see, they had already stopped at the bakery, and, long story short, Jean the baker needs to bake up a new batch of cookies. They still had a few more places to go to. Notably, they hadn't stopped for wine or beef yet.

Yang was wearing a simple yet pretty yellow blouse that she had thrown on in haste, as well as a plain knee-length black skirt. Yang didn't like skirts or dresses very much; she would much prefer to wear pants like the men do, however, it was not socially accepted. She didn't care much that it wasn't socially accepted, no, that wouldn't stop her from wearing pants, and it didn't in the past. The problem was that things had changed. With France under the indirect rule of the Nazi Empire, standing out in a crowd was a dangerous thing. A very dangerous thing and she didn't want to take any chances, not with her little sister and her Faunus lover living in her apartment. She sacrificed in this small way to keep them safe.

They kept 'walking' in the general direction of their next stop, until Yang noticed that Ruby was no longer hopping beside her.

"Ruby?" she called out, twisting her head left and right looking for her little sister. She spotted her standing motionless about ten meters behind her, staring at something on the wall of one of the buildings. Yang ran back to her.

"Ruby, what's up?" she said, looking up at what was preoccupying Ruby so much, to find it was a poster. Actually, there were two posters placed side by side. The first displayed a Faunus hiding in the shadows, with a bright yellow Faunus identification badge on their clothes that made them more visible in the darkness. The poster read: 'The Faunus assassinate from the darkness, let's identify them to better recognize them!' This poster was older, and obviously pre-Vél' d'Hiv' Roundup. It even showed signs of fading from the passing seasons. The one by its side was a newer one though. This one displayed a chart that explained how to identify Faunus hiding in plain sight. 'Faunus can be identified by distinctive animal ears, horns or tails. They will most likely be hiding these. Look for strange hats, headgear or bulges in the back of pants and dresses. Also look for strange-looking eyes, teeth and hands, as well as strange or animalistic eating habits. If you see anybody you think might be a Faunus, tell the nearest police officer or soldier at once. Be warned that they should always be considered extremely dangerous.' The posters disgusted Yang, but she did her best not to show it lest someone happened to be looking at her.

"Ugh. Rien qu'un tas de merde!" Ruby exclaimed. Yang's eyes widened in worry as she grabbed her sister.

"Shush, not so loud," she whispered, "do you want to get us arrested?" Ruby groaned.

"No of course not. It's just really, really getting on my nerves. I mean, look at this... this shit!" she said, waving at the posters, "Assassins? Really? Blake's never killed anyone, has she? Velvet wouldn't hurt a fly either."

"They're just trying to scare more people into being collabos by spreading lies. Don't let them get to you." Yang was trying hard to get Ruby to calm down. Ruby took some of it in, but wouldn't have all of it. She pulled her sister to another poster further down the wall. This one portrayed a smiling German soldier with happy smiling French children. It read: 'Abandoned people, Trust in the German soldier'.

"Nothing but lies." Ruby declared. "Dad and... and uncle Qrow... They didn't abandon us, right? You said they didn't." Ruby was having trouble choking out the words, but regained her composure. Yang nodded.

"That's right. Dad's fighting for us in the south, remember?" Yang said, keeping her voice low and as soothing as she could make it, still trying to calm Ruby down. Ruby nodded.

"And Qrow's... Qrow they... he's gone." Ruby finished, tears forming in her eyes. Yang hugged Ruby tightly.

"They took him from us, but don't let them get to you. One day, the allies and the Free French Forces will come and free us." Yang was whispering softly into Ruby's ear, both to sooth and to avoid trouble with the law. Any mention of the Free French Forces in public could get you arrested. Ruby pushed Yang away.

"Oh stop with that bullshit!" she exclaimed in frustration, voice cracking with emotion, "I don't want to just sit around and wait for people to come and rescue us. I want to do something! Contribute!" Ruby and Yang were very lucky that there were not many people on this street, and the few that did pass by were more interested in the shops on the other side of the street, as their side of the street only showed the brick side wall of another building.

"Ruby, we are going to wait. I'm not gonna let you go out and get yourself killed. And if you get caught, they'll come get me, and they'll find Blake." Yang said, once again in a whisper. Ruby didn't like it, but she understood what Yang was trying to say. She nodded, though somewhat reluctantly.

"Fine." she said. Yang smiled.

"Good. Now, let's go get some more wine. I think we deserve it. I'm sure Blake will appreciate the good times that'll come out of it too, won't she?" Yang said with a devious smirk. Ruby giggled a tad, and they continued on their way, putting away with all the negativity that surrounded their conversation.

Ruby and Yang had continued their shopping. While stopping for wine, Ruby was taken aback by the prices of even the low-end brands of wine, but thankfully for her she was able to find a really cheap bottle of local red wine that she could get her hands on. They also picked up a piece of one of the cheaper morceaus of meat at the meat shop. When they finally got back to the apartment, the place was nearly spotless.

"Wow, Blake. You really cleaned this place up!" Yang exclaimed as Ruby was left to carry the groceries to the kitchen. Blake was sitting on a chair in the living room, finishing up a book.

"I do this every weekend." she said, closing the book and putting it down on the coffee table in front of her.

"I know," Yang replied, "and it's awe-inspiring how you can make away with all our dirt and crap and get this place squeaky-clean, each time." Yang walked up to Blake slowly and leaned in for a kiss.

A few moments later, Ruby walked through the kitchen door and into the living room.

"I'm huuuunngry!" she whined, head tilted back and facing the ceiling. When she brought her head back to a more normal position, she fidgeted. Yang and Blake both seemed to have not noticed her and still had their tongues in each other's mouths.

"I'm… gonna go wait in the kitchen… you guys can… um… come join me later… or something…" Ruby said as she slowly backed away. As soon as she was done talking though, she bolted through the door.

Yang and Blake separated from their embrace. Blake looked a little worried about Ruby walking in moments before. Yang, however, gave her a reassuring smile.

"Does she…" Blake started, not reassured by the smile her partner gave her.

"Naw, don't worry. She's okay with that. She actually used to have a crush on one of her school friends for a little while." Yang looked up reminiscently. She remembered how nervous Ruby was when she told her. Ruby was almost crying when Yang said she was okay with it. Not many people were. Ruby was lucky that her sister was of similar sexual preference, and as Yang thought, so was she. Yang was able to convince Ruby to tell her friend about her feelings. Considering the general socio-political opinion, it wasn't one of Yang's brightest ideas. Still, Ruby managed to muster enough strength to tell her friend. Sadly, the feeling was not mutual, but understanding what it was like to be cast out and discriminated against, Velvet was supportive of Ruby anyway, and they remained friends until the events of the Vél' d'Hiv'.

"Anyway, I'm hungry, and I think Ruby just might be a little hungry as well." she said with the big dumb smile she often wore. "Let's go make lunch."

They all sat at the dinner table eating the lunch that Blake made and that Yang 'helped' with. The room filled with discussions on various topics, such as Ruby's upcoming graduation and the excellent lunch that Blake had prepared. The topic of conversation eventually drifted to the afternoon.

"Well, I'm not working today, so I've got the entire afternoon to myself." Yang announced after gulping down a rather over-sized bite of food. She leaned in closer to Blake and continued in a whisper: "Or to you." Blake almost started choking on her food, but managed to swallow. Desperate to avoid a very awkward moment once again, Blake continued the conversation.

"What about you Ruby? Are you working this afternoon?"

"Yep. Oh, merde! What time is it?" Ruby looked around for the clock. It read thirteen-twenty-seven. Ruby calmed down a little, before she continued.

"I work from fourteen'o'clock until an hour before the curfew. I should get going soon." With that, Ruby figuratively inhaled the rest of her lunch. "Hey, Blake, are you done with that book I borrowed for you two days ago?" Ruby asked as she got up to get ready to leave.

"Yes, I left it on the coffee table. Thank you again." she replied. Ruby walked to the coffee table and picked up the book. She tossed it into her backpack just before slinging that onto her shoulder and walking out the door.

"Well well well." Yang leaned in closer to Blake from across the table with a mischievous smile on her face. "Looks like I've got the entire afternoon to myself… or to you." Yang consciously repeated her earlier words in the hopes they would fetch as great of a reaction as the first time, or even better.

Blake put her hand on Yang's face and gently pushed her away. Blake removed her hand from Yang's face, revealing a slight pout. Blake smirked in amusement.

"You have the afternoon to yourself; I've got a book to read."

"Oh, come on!" Yang complained. "You have all the time in the world to read that maudite book!" Blake stood up, walked over to the kitchen sink and started doing the dishes. Yang followed her, but instead of doing dishes, crossed her arms and stared at her favourite Faunus.

"I do not have all the time in the world, Yang. Ruby can only borrow these free of charge for a few days at a time. If we want to avoid more unnecessary costs, I need to read these quickly." Blake explained, all the while washing a few plates. Yang walked up closer to Blake, and wrapped her arms around her waist from behind in a loving embrace that took Blake by surprise. Blake froze. She did not anticipate the sudden contact, and Yang relished in the feeling of her girlfriend going rigid in her grasp.

"It doesn't take seventy-two hours to read a book, especially for you. I think you can spare an hour or two…" Yang whispered into Blake's ear. She brought her right hand up to play with Blake's hair, slowly moving it up through her hair and towards her head.

"Yang…" Blake tried to get her to stop, but was unsuccessful. Yang's hand moved all the way up to the top of Blake's head, and she started to gently caress the ears that inhabited it.

"Yang… pl-please s-stop…" Blake stuttered out, trying very hard and failing to suppress her enjoyment.

"You know you want to." Yang sang out. Blake clenched her teeth in frustration. She let her muscles slack, giving in to Yang's advances.

"Fine-" Blake started to say. She however was cut off by cheering coming from directly behind her.

"YEAH!"

"But only," Blake cut back in, "after I finish these dishes. And I don't want it to take too long either." Yang slumped her shoulders in defeat, but quickly straitened her back.

"Fine, but I'll be waiting…" she walked over to the kitchen door and turned back, "in the bedroom." She gave a devious grin as she walked out.

Blake turned back to her dishes, an amused smirk brandished on her face. She loved the blonde brute, and all the insanity she carried around with her, to death. She just hoped that Ruby was able to keep her craziness in line when she wasn't there. It wasn't uncommon for Yang's bodacious personality to get her in trouble. Blake just wanted everything to be okay. This 'funny war' as they called it, was getting tiresome. She wanted it to go away. She wanted things to go back to the way they were before. She wanted it to be like her romance novels, where everything turned out perfectly. Sadly, life isn't a fairy-tale.

Author's Note: Well that was interesting. I didn't expect there to be so much bumblebee. It just sorta happened.

I blame Yang.

There's no fanart out there that I can find that really matches this AU well, so for now it'll just be whatever I decide to put up there.

Ok, so I know it's a long-shot, but if any of you happen to speak German to a fluent extent, I could use some help with translation. I want to do the same thing I'm doing with the French for when I eventually introduce German characters (guess who). Unlike the French, I can't do it by myself because I don't speak German and I don't trust Google translate. If any of you out there can help me, that'd be amazing and very much appreciated, if not, I'll try to do my best with what I have.

Hope you all like it so far. I think it could be better. This is also the boring part of the story. The excitement will increase in the next few chapters. Updates will be unorganized. I want to upload every two weeks, but I don't want to make a promise I can't keep. The second chapter is already written up; I just have to revise it. I'll be posting that in a week's time.

Special thanks to two of my friends who looked this over and helped make sure it was at least decent. I would also like to thank enlfenlied1012, author of the famed Vale series and a good friend of mine, for encouraging the release of this and also giving it a look-over and giving tips and corrections. I probably would have delayed it for two or three more weeks was it not for him and his words of wisdom. If you haven't read any of his fics, I'd definitely recommend them. They're among the best I've read.

If you have any comments or questions about anything, anything at all, you can ask me in a review or a PM. I plan on answering every single one of them. Criticism is also very welcome. Don't hold back on any negative feedback. I'm a big boy; I can take it. I also feel I need it. This is far below the standard I would like my writing to be at.

Sorry for the very long A/Ns. Future ones should be shorter. Anyway, 'til next time, you beautiful people, you.

"I don't ask for much. Truth be told, I'd settle for a life less frightening."
– Life Less Frightening, Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004), Rise Against.