Despite being together for four years, Team FALL disbanded after graduating from Beacon as Amber and Loden's other teammates were forced to follow other goals at the behest of their families. Amber and Loden sympathized for their teammates' but the two of them wanted to abide by Beacon's mandate to be Huntresses and Huntsmen and defeat the Grimm. At the end of the graduation ceremony, they wished their departing teammates the best.
After leaving Beacon, Amber took Loden to meet her family in Mistral. She lived in one of the villages in the kingdom. Loden was nervous of her family's reaction of him, thinking it might be like one of those stereotypical dramas of an overly protective father and a mother who teases their child about the person they brought with them. To his relief, it was nothing like that as her parents were quite welcoming and were happy to have their daughter home as they showered her with affection. Amber would confess to Loden in the midst of her hug with her parents that she has not seen them in eight years. She went to Sanctum and then immediately transferred to Beacon after finishing at Sanctum and made to stay at Beacon until she finished at Ozpin's request. Loden could only give a partial smile to Amber being with her parents again as while a part of him was glad for her happiness, another part of him thought of how could Ozpin be cruel to not give Amber a break to see her parents.
Over the next few days, they were spent on Amber telling absolutely everything that has happened to her in the past eight years to her parents. With her time at Sanctum, she noted some friends she made and tournaments she participated in. After leaving Sanctum though, she began hearing news of an amazing Huntress who had won in the Mistral Region Tournament and was attending Sanctum. She felt rather proud that someone that good was representing her first academy as the last battle in the Tournament was of that Huntress taking on four opponents by herself. Although when she got to the point of explaining her time at Beacon, she didn't mention anything about Maidens even though her parents knew she was one. Her parents didn't question her on it though, they only thought of her as their daughter, nothing more. She would mention instead all the good times she had, like the dance in their second year and competing in the Vytal Festival with some low points, like their elimination in the semi-finals at Vytal and mostly about how boring Professor Port was.
Once Amber was done, her parents tried prying into Loden's history. He gave them a more condensed story, telling them that his family was back in Atlas and that he enjoyed his time at Beacon with Amber and their team. He did go at some length about this one girl who approached him during the Vytal Festival who was interested in becoming a sniper. Although, when he mentioned she should shoot with both eyes open, she got defensive about her beanie. Amber would glance at him sadly as he didn't talk about his family further. Amber wanted to know but he refused to talk about it.
Simply put, when a son refuses to join the military with a family that has had a long, illustrious history of military service, it's doomed to cause tension.
After spending a month with Amber's parents, most of it spent talking more on Amber's past or the two of them helping her parents around the house, Loden was itching to hunt Grimm as was the job of a Huntsman. He asked Amber to consider it too, send themselves to one of the outlying villages that give contracts to hunt Grimm, but her parents begged her to stay with them and she agreed to it even though she seemed conflicted by it. Her parents also didn't mind if he stuck around longer too. He respected Amber's choice to stay with them but he needed to get out there to become stronger.
A problem that had been lingering on his mind since they left Beacon is how could he protect Amber. His fighting style favored long to mid-range since he used a sniper rifle. Amber would always take advantage of this in their mock battles at Beacon by closing the distance and handing his ass to him on a platter since he wasn't good at close range combat. He also did feel reluctant to shoot her. He improved slightly in close combat due to Professor Goodwitch's extra lessons for him before they left but it wasn't good enough to him.
Waking up early, Loden got ready to leave. Since Amber's home was small, he had actually been sleeping on a couch in the living room so it made it easier for him to leave without making too much of a racket. Grabbing his rifle, he opened up the front door until he heard someone clear their throat to get his attention.
"Going already?" It was Amber.
"Yeah."
"You could at least have some breakfast."
"Already did. Your parents left out some food. Please tell them that I thank them."
"Okay." She sounded disappointed. "I should be going with you."
"No, it's better if you stay here. You're safer here. Besides, this gives you more time to spend with your parents."
She sighed and nodded. Just as he walked out the door, Amber called out to him, "Loden, wait..." He turned around and she came to hug him.
"Come back, okay."
He hugged her back. "I will. I'll probably be back in a week. Two tops. And if I get into some serious trouble..." He showed her his Scroll, "I can always call."
Leaving the village, Loden decided to got to the more secluded villages in Mistral, the ones that were under threat by the Grimm. Those places usually brought the scum of Remnant as well. On his way to that place, he thought about his close combat problem.
'A sword? No. I'd just swing it around wildly. A staff? Maybe. Amber could help me out with that one. It should be small though. It can't mess with me when I'm sniping. Hmm...wait. A pistol? No, not just a pistol, one that can be a melee weapon.'
It had been three weeks since Loden left and Amber was getting worried. The first two weeks flew by as she was enjoying reconnecting with her parents but once she noticed it had been three weeks since, she felt nervous. He hadn't called her and he wasn't answering his Scroll. She waited another week but eventually, she decided to go find him.
Amber got herself ready, "Mom, dad, I'm going."
"Please be careful." Her mother said while she handed Amber a green hooded cloak that she used to wear when she was an active Huntress.
"For the cold days."
"Thanks, mom."
"Are sure you want to go? I'm sure your friend can take care of himself." Her father said.
"Yes dad, I'm sure." She brought her parents in close to hug them. "I'll come home again soon."
"Please be careful." Her mother repeated.
"I will. Goodbye."
Walking away from her home, Amber waved back to her parents. They did the same but while her father did his best to give her a stoic face, she noticed that her mother was teary-eyed. Amber felt sad by her mother's reaction. It reminded her of when she left for Sanctum were her mother was also crying. Amber promised to herself that she would come home, just to make sure her mother doesn't cry again.
She then thought about where Loden would be.
'He mentioned those outlying villages.' She thought, but remembered that there were quite a number of villages that dot the borders of Mistral. She would have to ask around to narrow the choices.
After a week of wandering the villages and asking questions to people of anyone seeing Loden, Amber finally got a solid tip leading her to a rather rundown hotel that doubled as a pub. Entering the place and putting down her hood, she took a look around and saw that there were a few Huntsman teams scattered around the tables. The rest of the patrons looked a little more sketchy. Despite the questionable looking people, the place was lively with conversation and music.
Approaching the bar, she questioned the barkeeper, "Uhh, excuse me, have you seen a man in green clothes and armor with a large sniper rifle?"
The barkeeper continued serving drinks to the people around her so Amber repeated her question in a louder tone. The barkeeper acknowledged her,
"Yeah, I've seen someone like that. A few people fit that look. Got anything better?"
"His name is Loden. He'd have dark hair and a bracelet on his arm."
"Loden, you say? I got somebody with that name in Room 203." He pointed at the stairs.
"Thank you."
Amber began to move towards the stairs leading to the rooms but the barkeeper caught her attention.
"Hey!"
"Uhh, yes?"
"I don't know what your deal is with this guy, but I don't want any trouble, you hear?"
"O—Okay."
Amber moved to the stairs and went to the room. It was strangely unlocked but when she took a look at the door, there was no locking mechanism. She looked around the room, he wasn't there but some of his stuff was there. One of his bags, empty, a few magazines for his rifle that didn't have any Dust rounds in them were sitting on the bed and the empty cleaning kit box for the rifle. She sighed.
'Not here. Where are you, Loden?'
Loden returned to the pub. He waved to the barkeeper who waved back. The barkeeper tried to call to him that there was someone for him but he didn't pay much attention as the music and conversations were drowning out the barkeeper's calls.
He headed up the stairs and noticed something wrong with his room. It was open and he could see the shadow of someone poking around the room.
'Another robber? It never ends does it.'
He took out a slightly long barrelled pistol and transformed it into an electric baton. The electric charge running though the baton was powered by a Dust crystal and was set to stun opponents. The intensity could be set higher to possibly kill someone but he limited that setting to Grimm only.
Loden hugged the wall as he saw the shadow moving towards the door. As the figure moved to the door frame, Loden tapped the person with his baton. The person let out a yelp at the sudden electrocution before falling to the ground with a thud. Loden holstered his pistol and came around the door to see the person. When he saw who the person was, he could only say one thing,
"Oh, shit."
A/N: Thank you, to those that have read this story. Unfortunately, I will be unable to update for a while as I've got some papers and exams on the way. Hopefully, I can find some time in-between to write and post but don't expect a new chapter until maybe April. Sorry.