Author's note: Sorry for the wait. Please, please, please let me know what you guys think? Feedback is everything and more. Love you guys!
Disclaimer: I do not own any content affiliated with RWBY.
…
When Yang walks into the bullpen the following Monday morning, she marches straight into Chief Ozpin's office, too excited to remember to knock. Ozpin gives her an unimpressed stare from over the top of his glasses as he holds up a finger, his other hand holding the scroll in front of him. A voice that Yang doesn't recognize is saying something, but before the detective thinks to listen, Ozpin interrupts him.
"Let me call you back." Yang is pretty sure whoever is on the other line protests, but Ozpin ignores it and ends the call anyway. "Detective. I believe it is customary to knock before entering a room with a closed door." The chastise is light, but Yang notices the way Ozpin's shoulders are slightly slumped, and the dark circles under his eyes that aren't masked by his small glasses frame.
"Tired, chief?" Yang asks, ignoring his comment, with genuine concern coloring her otherwise teasing tone. In the few years that Yang had worked with the chief, she can't remember any time when Ozpin looked tired.
In the same way that Yang ignored him, the chief waves off her question. "How can I help you, Ms. Xiao Long?"
Yang blinks as if suddenly remembering why she came into the office in the first place. "I looked over those case files." She digs through the bag slung across her shoulder before digging out Black's folder. She tosses it onto his desk in front of him. "I wanna go after Black."
Ozpin leans back in his chair, regarding the blonde quietly. Yang holds his gaze almost defiantly. The chief folds his hands together with his elbows on the arms of his chair as a small smile tugs at his lips. Behind him, the large window is splattered with raindrops. But even the morning overcast sky wasn't enough to dampen Yang's excitement.
Ozpin smiles after a long moment. "I thought you might."
"Wait…" Yang's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "You're the one who slipped it into my pile?"
"I may have pulled a few strings." Ozpin picks up tan folder and holds it out towards the detective. "See what you can do."
Yang gives a mock-salute before turning on her heels and walking back to her desk. She sits down at the desk, propping her feet up on the edge of it and leaning back in her brown rolling desk chair. She crosses her ankles, propping the file folder open in her lap before flipping it open. She forgoes the reports, instead looking at the pictures of the various crime scenes as if she hadn't spent all weekend studying Black's file.
Yang's attention is broken a few minutes later at the sound of someone clearing their throat. When she looks up, Weiss is leaning against the entrance to Yang' cubicle. "Good morning," Weiss says, looking amused.
"Morning," Yang says absently, her gaze floating back towards the file before flickering back to Weiss.
"Find a case?"
Yang leans back a little more and folds her hands behind her head. "Are you familiar with the thief known as Black?"
Weiss's eyebrows raise in surprise. "Are you kidding? Everybody knows about Black." She eyes the folder in Yang's lap. "Ozpin's gonna let you take that case?"
Yang shrugs. If she's being honest, she's just as surprised as Weiss is. "He's the one who put it in my pile." Yang holds the file out to Weiss. "Here. Take a look. Whoever this Black character is, they're virtually untouchable."
Weiss skims through the files, studying the reports and pictures for a moment before frowning and handing it back to Yang. "Well, you've got me."
Yang nods absentmindedly, then kicks her legs off the desk and stands up. "I think it's time for a coffee break."
Weiss looks at her skeptically. "You just got in."
Yang shrugs and grabs her bag again. "I think I might stop by the park. I hear the evergreens are beautiful this time of year." She gives Weiss a brief, pointed look.
Realization dawns in Weiss's expression, but she rolls her eyes at Yang's not-so-subtlety. "Tell them I said hi."
Yang smiles and claps Weiss on the shoulder as she passes her. "You bet."
…
Almost an hour later, Yang steps out of light rain and into a comparatively dimly lit apartment building. The wallpaper—made to look like the small lobby is made of wood—is peeling on the edges. The carpet is a color that Yang thinks was, at one point, red, but it's so faded and dirty that it's honestly hard to tell. Yang slides her sunglasses up through her wet hair to sit on the top of her head as she makes her way to the stairwell and climbs the four flights of stairs.
When she gets to the room at the end of the hall, she gives a brief, rhythmic knock and waits. It's only a few seconds before Yang hears a high, bubbly female voice shout excitedly from the other side. "It's Yang!"
The thin wooden door swings open to reveal a short head of ginger hair. Yang is pulled into the room as the door closes behind her. Yang laughs. "It's good to see you too, Nora."
The room is neat and organized—relatively unusual for the group—and the other three people look up as the door closes. A girl with deep red hair waves, looking up from the heavy, leather-bound book in her lap. "Hello, again."
Yang waves back. "Hey, Pyrrha."
A boy, with a distinct pink stripe in his dark hair, looks up from where he sits on the worn, brown sofa tucked away in the corner. He stops typing at the laptop in his lap long enough to nod a greeting and offer a small smile. Lie Ren.
The other boy, shaggy blonde hair nearly falling into his eyes, jumps up from being stretched out on the bed. "What brings you to our neck of the woods?"
Nora bounces over to the sofa, taking a seat next to Ren. "Yeah, Yang. Not that we don't love the company."
Yang sits on the edge of the unoccupied bed, the floral bedspread clashing horribly with the peeling paint and the God-awful not-red carpet. "I wanted to thank you guys for that intel you got me on the Cardin case. I'm not sure how it would have gone down without it."
"We were happy to help," Pyrrha says.
"Yeah," Jaune adds. "Cardin needed to be stopped. Any time you need help on a case, it's what we're here for."
Yang chuckles and leans forward, propping her elbows on her knees. "That's why I'm here."
Nora looks up from Ren's computer and tilts her head. "You have another case already? That was fast."
"What do you need from us?" Jaune asks, his voice expectant and ready. The room lapses into an anticipatory silence. Yang can feel the gazes trained on her as she pulls the file out of her folder.
"I need information," she says with a sigh. "On someone known as Black."
Ren's eyebrows shoot up, looking at her over the top of his laptop. "You're going after Black?"
"Yeah," Yang replies, her gaze narrowing in confusion. "You're familiar with them?" It's only when the detective glances around the room that she realizes Ren isn't the only one who recognizes the name. All four of JNPR are staring at her.
"We all are," Nora eventually speaks up. "They're all anyone on the street wants to talk about."
Yang feels her heartbeat quicken slightly, sitting up a bit more. "What do you guys know?"
"Not much," Nora says, her voice faintly apologetic.
"At least," Jaune adds, "nothing that file won't tell you. We know Black is a thief. Legendary on the streets, but nobody's really seen them. Just… movement. Shadows."
Yang frowns. "Somebody had to have seen them…"
"She." Pyrrha's correction comes softly but still strongly. "When I first heard about Black, I did a bit of research." Pyrrha pauses, glancing at the window. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still overcast. Pyrrha's voice softens even more. "She might be associated with the White Fang. But nobody's been able to verify that."
Yang feels the hairs on her arms raise at just the mention of the group. White Fang? Yang knows about them; the underground crime organization whose actions recently have bordered on terrorism. If a crime existed, odds are that White Fang had been rumored to be associated with it at one point or another. Yang's stomach twists in knots with sudden uncertainty.
Ren's quiet voice breaks into her thoughts, his eyes staying trained on the computer screen. "She's mostly a ghost. There's not much information. But I may have found your next victim."
Yang shakes her head as if to clear it, then stands up and crosses the room to sit on the arm of the couch on the other side of him. "Hit me with it."
"A young woman by the name of Coco Adel. Her condo is on the other side of town." A small, faint smirk tugs at the corner of Ren's lips at Yang's look of surprise. "I can't give you any absolute guarantee, but she fits Black's victim profile. And it appears that she'll be gone to Atlas in a couple of days." Ren offers a modest shrug. "If I were Black, I'd take advantage of the situation."
Yang stares at him, blinking. "How'd you find that out so quickly?"
"I have my ways."
Jaune jumps in, smiling. "We're JNPR. And we've been your contacts for over two years, Yang."
"It's what we do," Pyrrha adds with a small smile.
...
A/N: Please review! I really, really wanna know what you guys all think!