First Round - Redux

Yang stood in the living room of the apartment she shared with her sister Ruby, weight balanced on one hip, arms crossed menacingly across her chest as she stared down at her latest problem. So maybe Blake was right. Maybe she was a little stubborn. Maybe she was a bit mule-headed at times, possibly even 'impulsive.'

She was nothing compared to Ruby.

"It's been weeks since we've actually had time off, and you want to spend the night cooped up at home?" Yang said in her best deadpan, staring skeptically at her unkempt sister.

"Yang, we all could use some down time," the younger girl mumbled around a soon-to-be devoured cookie. Stuffing the snack in her mouth, Ruby curled up against the couch in the same pajamas from the day before, oversized bag of cookies in one hand, television remote in the other. Two gearheads from Mistral argued on the flatscreen, debating the benefits of a quad-rotor transformer for weapon modifications.

Yang rolled her eyes. She knew all too well what Ruby meant by 'down time.' These days, time off meant 'stay-cation' for most of the team, with Blake and Ruby retreating into their respective caves to hibernate while the world moved on. Blake had undoubtedly dived into a new book by now, the rest of humanity long forgotten. Although, Yang had to admit, it's adorable whenever you catch her reading those naughty ninja books.

Meanwhile, Ruby was about an hour away from slipping off to her workshop, where she would vanish for their entire vacation, emerging only for meals with grease stains all over her hands. At least the solitary reading and tinkering actually helped the two girls relax, which was more than Yang could say for how Weiss spent her time. Half the time the group had leave, Weiss used it to check on her family's business, a task that completely failed to improve the heiress' mood. She always came back even more stressed and angry, and only a week or so of contact with the team was enough to bring her back to her usual self.

Yang had a sneaking suspicion that wouldn't be enough this time.

If Ruby and Weiss had been distant before their last mission, it was nothing compared to their behavior over the last few days. The two girls barely spoke, descending into sullen silence at the mere mention of the other. Yang might actually have thought they were angry, but for the sad glances they threw at each other when either thought no one could see. It was obvious both had something they wanted to say to each other – hell, anyone who looked at either of them could see that.

Honestly, this whole thing was really starting to get on her nerves.

Ruby opened her still-cookie-filled mouth, only get bulldozed by Yang, who had no intention of letting her little sister escape her plans.

"The three of you barely talk to anyone outside the other hunters as it is, and with the JNPR pairs and what's left of CFVY on assignment, that's a damn short list. It's unhealthy."

Yang grinned as Ruby began to blanch, the smaller girl realizing what Yang had in mind. "Tonight, you're going to wear something cute, come with me to a bar, and hopefully meet someone you can talk to for ten minutes without having to kill something."

And if I'm lucky, a couple of you might actually have some fun for once.

Yang made sure to lean as menacingly as she could over her sister, hoping it would distract her from looking at her argument too closely. She wasn't exactly lying – some of her team really were reluctant to spend much time outside their little group – but that wasn't her only reason for wanting Ruby out of the apartment they shared.

Their last assignment, clearing a potential settlement of a Grimm infestation, had meant spending almost a month and a half in closer-than-close quarters. Weeks of cabin fever and days flooded with adrenaline had left them grinding their teeth at every perceived slight and quirk. The four had about two weeks of leave as compensation, and Yang was not about to let Ruby slip back into her antisocial habits. Especially if this gets her talking to Weiss again. Or at least lets them be in the same room together.

"I would, but Crescent Rose has been acting up lately. She could really use a good tune-up..." Ruby trailed off as Yang triggered her gauntlets, knuckles cracking as her mouth twisted into the blonde's most menacing grin.

"When do we leave?" the cowed girl muttered, slumping back down against the couch.


"How exactly did you get them to agree to this?" Ruby called out of the closet, still mulling over her clothes and probably trying to think of ways to get out of going. Sighing, Yang flopped impatiently back onto her sister's bed, bouncing a little as the springs adjusted. It had taken her about a minute to find her favorite yellow-gold dress shirt and button it just high enough to avoid leaving traffic accidents in her wake. Follow that with a pair of tight black jeans that made her ass look positively awesome, and she was pretty much done. Ruby, on the other hand, had been raiding her closet for the better part of an hour.

"Weiss actually seemed up for it. It was Blake that required a little convincing."

A red-streaked head popped out from behind the corner, her bare shoulders telling Yang that she still hadn't picked an outfit.

"How'd you get her to agree?"

"We had an honest discussion, and she agreed I, as always, was completely right and that she needed to socialize more outside the team."

"… how'd you really get her to agree?"

"I promised her that autographed first edition set of Ninjas of Love I stashed away in case I needed a bribe," Yang grinned. "You should have seen her face. She hated admitting how much she wanted it."

"Okay. How's this?" Ruby asked for what was probably the hundredth time, emerging from the closet to pose hands-on-hip before her bedroom mirror.

Yang glanced over at her sister in an equal mixture of amusement and exasperation. Ruby had abandoned her preferred knee-length combat skirt in favor of skin-tight black pants, and a rather billowy scarlet silk blouse. With her hair up, it seemed like she'd aged half a decade – anyone looking at Ruby would see the young woman she had become, not the grown child she occasionally insisted on being. Yang fought back her smile, not wanting to embarrass her sister any more than she already was. Ruby really looked like the huntress she had always dreaming of becoming.

Hell, she looks a little like Summer.

"You look great," Yang nodded. The key to handling Ruby was not to let her get caught in her own self-doubt. Reassure her too much, she'd take anything you said as mere pandering or pity; even becoming a licensed huntress hadn't completely solved Ruby's self-esteem problems. Hopefully, she would improve with age and just a little help from her loving sister.

Sometimes it's rough being the greatest big sister in the world.

"I'm still not sure ..."

A soft ringing interrupted Ruby's latest attempt to get out of coming. Propelling her sister down the hall, Yang just barely managed to wrangle the door open while keeping a struggling Ruby from diving to freedom out the nearest window.

Weiss was standing awkwardly in the doorway, a pale-blue off-the-shoulder minidress draped over her hips. She fidgeted, fiddling with the white peacoat she wore to fend off the cold. Blake, meanwhile, lounged against the door frame, looking infinitely more at ease than her teammate. The normal vest-shorts-and tights ensemble had given way to a particularly breezy blouse, topping a skirt just a little too long to be truly fashionable. All various shades of black and white, of course. She'd tied back her long, dark hair, leaving her neck – and her occasionally twitching ears – visible in the frigid air.

Yang let her hands clench, fighting the temptation to run her fingers down those adorable ears. The Faunus had made it quite clear that she did not appreciate the others touching her feline appendages. She'd even hissed at Ruby after an accidental head-scratch a few years ago. That had put a stop to it, after the rest of the team recovered from their hysterics.

Still, even with Weiss looking awkward and Blake fiddling with a book, Yang couldn't help being impressed. Despite how much she'd had to fight to get them to agree – well, Blake and Ruby, at least – they had definitely come through.

Yang tossed her sister out the door, practically throwing her into Weiss. The pair grappled for a moment before regaining their footing, ending with Ruby accidentally pinning Weiss against the wall, the heiress' hands landing on Ruby's waist. There was a split second where the two found themselves nose-to-nose, staring straight into each other's eyes. Then Weiss thrust Ruby off of her, hurriedly fixing her dress and blushing furiously all the while.

Yang rolled her eyes, thoroughly unimpressed. Weiss is gonna pop a capillary if she keeps getting all worked up over nothing. Grabbing her coat, she locked the door before her sister could manage to sneak back inside. Prepared to wrangle her teammates like unruly kittens, Yang smiled.

"Everyone ready to go?"


Thankfully, Yang managed to get them to the pub before the crush of people overwhelmed the taxed bartenders. Leading the way, Yang made a show of holding the door, watching like a hawk as each of her captives entered. There was less chance one of them would manage to slip the leash that way. She'd made it very clear on the way over: the three were not allowed to leave early, simply spend time with each other, or pass out until at least midnight. Yang, with the grace of a saint, had resigned herself to a night of sobriety.

Well, moderate sobriety. Okay, some sobriety. There was little chance of her keeping tabs on her charges if she started her usual drinking regimen. Sending the three girls off with a wave, Yang took a seat by the bar closest to the door, and flagged down the brunette tending bar.

Snagging her pint, Yang slipped the bartender a fistful of lien, nodding pointedly towards her teammates. Yang had chosen the pub for a number of reasons, but the familiarity was pretty high on the list. While not exactly a regular, she'd come here often enough for the wait staff to recognize her. It made it far easier paying them off to inform her if a snowflake princess, bookish shadow, or cookie-snarfing demon-girl tried to leave. It didn't hurt that the other patrons were mostly regular people, the kind who kept regular business hours, grabbed a few drinks after work, and for whom a particularly sharp sheaf of paper or rogue stapler was their greatest threat. Nice and normal, which is exactly what they need.

She gave them a good twenty minutes before she decided to check in on them. Sliding off her stool, Yang left her empty glass behind and went in search of her prey, finding the two loudest members of her team within seconds. Sitting at one of the tables, Weiss and Ruby were bickering.

Well, Weiss was bickering. Well … it was hard to tell with those two. Ruby clearly couldn't tell sometimes when or why she was getting on Weiss' nerves, but the ice princess seemed to take offense at the strangest things these days. It was almost like they'd gone back to how they were when their team was first assigned, every little thing managing to get under Weiss' skin. Well, at least they're actually talking, so it's some sort of improvement.

"I can't believe you," the ivory-haired beauty was saying, shaking her head in utter disdain at the concoction sitting in a cocktail glass across the table.

"Come on, Weiss. It tastes like cookies. Cookies!" Yang buried her face in her hands, adding everyone nearby to the list of people who could never know Ruby was related to her.

"It's hardly the way to convince people to treat you like an adult. Ordering a 'choco-garita,'" Weiss shuddered. Her face contorted into something that would have given a gargoyle a run for his money, as she refused to look at the tequila-and-chocolate liqueur monstrosity that Ruby was slurping like a milkshake.

"But it's sooo good!" Ruby purred, finishing off her first and making a run to the bar for a second. Yang smiled wryly. Well, she's drinking her cookie binge. Not what I meant by a change of pace, but it'll do. Weiss just shook her head before stalking back for her own refill.

Sighing, Yang decided to let them be. Even if they were just hanging out together, it was definite step up from the two of them being at each other's throats. Well, better than Weiss being at Ruby's throat.

Finding Blake took more effort than the other two, but Yang eventually found her darker teammate chatting up one of the bartenders. Compared to the others, Yang wasn't all that worried about their Faunus friend. Blake was more than capable of being sociable, she just didn't make an effort at it, preferring the company of dusty volumes and long-dead authors. Hell, the only reason Yang really wanted her to come was so it was the four of them together. Without Blake, it just wouldn't have been the same.

Yang decided not to meddle. It was rarely a bad thing to make friends with the bartender.

An hour later, Yang stood at the back of the pub, smiling proudly as she surveyed the results of her work. Ruby was chatting animatedly with what looked like a weaponsmith, the two swapping sloppily drawn design schematics on ring-stained napkins. The man was a little older, and far more grizzled, but at least Ruby wassharing her unhealthy obsession with her weapon. Weiss wasn't doing too badly herself. The princess was buried at the back of a corner booth, conversing quietly with a well-dressed young woman that had approached her table. Considering the amount of effort the newcomer was making to look Weiss in the eye, she seemed genuinely interested in the tsundere.

Good on her. Even Blake seems to be having fu ... dammit.

In the crush of people, Yang hadn't even noticed Blake vanish. She cursed, mostly at herself, for not expecting their friend to find a way to slip out of having a good time. Damning her friend's reading habits, Yang stalked through the crowd, determined to force the quiet Faunus into having fun.

Several minutes of increasingly frustrated searching later, she found her target curled up in a small couch by the fireplace, head resting on one hand while staring glassy-eyed into a thick paperback. Somehow, the Faunus had managed to find the one uncrowded area of the pub, claiming one of the plush sofas as her private reading area.

Distracted, Blake brought her drink to her lips, downing the last dregs before abandoning it on the table at her side. As if on cue, one of the servers swung by, a pint of stout replacing the now-empty glass. Nodding absently, she muttered something appreciative, her eyes never leaving the yellowing pages.

"That must be one good book," Yang growled, glowering at her disobedient teammate. The entire point of the evening was for them to talk with someone outside the team. Preferably living ones, not the long-dead war heroes and fictitious characters the Faunus often spent her time with. Blake looked up, blinking to let her eyes refocus.

"It is. I may even finish it tonight if no one distracts me."

Yang had to struggle to keep her teeth from grinding when Blake immediately returned to the open pages, apparently deciding that the conversation was over.

"Trust you to find the one lonely place in a room full of people," Yang snapped.

"You forget that some people still aren't too fond of Faunus after the attack on Beacon," whispered Blake in a quiet monotone, refusing to look up.

Blinking, it hit Yang exactly how Blake had found the one quiet place in a pub packed with people: she hadn't. Out of the corner of her eye, Yang watched a group of young men work their way through the crowd to the empty seats by the fire, see the cat-eared girl sitting on the couch, and quickly change direction, choosing to fight the crowd rather than move closer to the Faunus. Granted, not everyone was making an obvious effort to avoid her, but those who didn't just seemed not to make a point of filling the space near the hearth.

Her frustration with Blake faded immediately, replaced by a rage only partly directed at the crowd. She should have known. She should have checked how many Faunus visited the place before she dragged Blake here. Granted, the Faunus population in Vale was definitely a minority, but for Blake to be the sole Faunus in the room was ridiculous. It was something that shouldn't have happened. It was something she should have noticed.

"Those pri-" Before she could finish her thought, Blake yanked her down into the sofa next to her.

"Sit. Relax, or you'll break something." Blake placed her hands over the blonde's own. Looking down, Yang watched as her teammate ran manicured fingers over her white-knuckled fists. Slowly, Blake's ministrations coaxed the fingers into unknotting, leaving Blake holding Yang's hands while the blonde refused to meet her eyes.

"I wouldn't mind breaking a few of them," Yang groused, her threat only partly joking. At least a good beating would go a long way to making her feel better. It was such a dumb mistake. Among their friends, and most of the other huntsmen and huntresses, being a Faunus wasn't that big a deal; a number of hunters were Faunus, and apart from throw-backs like Cardin, most were smart enough not the care. Blake was just Blake, even if she did have adorable cat ears. But after the attack during the Vytal festival, after the White fang had attacked the school, anti-Faunus sentiment hadn't exactly died down. To forget how a good portion of the world treated people like her...

"Wailing on them won't change anything, and you'll just get us thrown out." Blake met the blonde's eyes for the first time since they'd started talking. The Faunus' expression wasn't that of anger, or even sadness. Yang was the first to admit she wasn't the best at reading people, but if she had to guess, she would have said it was … resignation. It was a far cry from the fiery young woman who'd joined their team years ago. Back then, when she was a little younger and quite a bit angrier, Blake would have been the first to point out this kind of discrimination, the first to object to it. Yang quietly closed her mouth, putting thoughts of truly justified retribution aside. For now.

"I promise not to crack their heads like walnuts," Yang said, doing her best to sound put-upon. Blake smirked, letting go of Yang's hands.

"At least this way, I finally get to read my book."

"I'm sorry, Blake. I thought ..."

"You thought most people were, at their core, decent and willing to accept others as they are." Blake picked a loose strand of blonde hair off her book, tugging it until Yang turned to look at her. "You're not as bad as Ruby, but you still tend to want to see the best in people. It's one of the reasons I've stuck around."

The brawler shook her head, golden waves rustling as she stared down at Blake's hand, still resting atop her own. "I've been your best friend for years. If anyone should know what to look out for, it's me."

"Yang, you're not a Faunus. You'll never be as conscious of how we're treated by some people." Blake's smile shifted, the sadness leaving as a bit of humor returned to her eyes. "It is cute how much you want to crack skulls and defend my honor."

Reaching up, Blake pushed a stray lock of yellow hair back past Yang's forehead, tugging gently until the taller girl would look her in the eye.

"This was a good idea, especially for Ruby, and anything that helps Weiss loosen up again is a good thing in my book."

Yang couldn't resist a short laugh. "Fair enough." Tucking her legs beneath her, she wriggled her way into a more comfortable position, letting the cushions of the fireside couch mold to her hard muscles.

"What are you doing?" Blake asked, book in one hand as the sofa shifted from Yang's weight.

"The least I can do. Granting you the pleasure of my company."

"Yang, you really don't have to. Go have a few drinks, enjoy your night."

"What, with these morons?" Yang snuggled into the curve of Blake's side, her head resting on the other girl's shoulder. Despite being several inches shorter, the Faunus girl still managed to make for a surprisingly comfortable pillow.

"Fuck 'em."