I do not own RWBY or the characters besides the OC's I make and put into the story. That being said, if you'd like an OC of yours put into the story, shoot me a message. Feel free to leave any feedback or recommendations. Please enjoy the 4th instalment of FATE of Beacon.

Fuschia laid on her bed after the three rounds of training they did as a team and the couple rounds of tracking they did trying to catch either Aeren or one another. All the training wore her down more than she thought it would, but her having an aura regeneration style semblance, she could build up hers and her team's aura by a little but at a time. Using that between sparring rounds was a good idea at the time, but was now taking its toll.

She stared at the blank paint on the ceiling, only a couple days til the dance, and only a day after before her and her team would be shadowing an actual huntsman instead of just learning in a classroom. The second semester at Beacon was about to start, and with it would start the Vytal festival.

The year was going by quicker than she expected it too.

The door opened and a head of wrapped towl over a face belonging to none other than Teale popped in looking around before stopping at the sight of her team leader laying down. She asked, "What are you doing just laying there?"

"I was relaxing" Fuschia replied before sitting up as Teale walked the rest of the way in and to her area of the room. "But I assume you want me to get dressed and be a functioning social part of dorm life?"

"I wasn't going to, I was just making sure I wasn't interrupting anything. You know, some times we need times to ourself to unwind." Teale said suggestively while drying off.

Fuschia rolled her eyes and laid back, "I'm tired and sore, not tense, frustrated, excited or otherwise, I just want a nap, I had my ass kicked and I helped everyone recover quickly, so, I'm trying to rest until dinner is served."

"Maybe you should focus on kicking ass instead of taking it?" Teale stated as she started to add decency layers.

"Not all of us are using a weapon that makes no sense and bench press three times our weight Teale" Fuschia stated with a sigh.

"I mean a weapon and strength aren't everything, skill and speed are a factor too" Teale stated.

"Yeah, but the thing is I'm playing catch up, you and out other two are just running ahead. Ember is crazy with that axe of hers and Aeren, I don't even know how to explain Aeren, some type of weird archer swordsman general type weirdo." She said putting her hand up and watching it as the shadows filled over the surface of her hand as she rolled it.

Teale scoffed, "You're giving him too much credit, he is a good shot and he is an alright tactician, but he's a shitty swordsman, it's a last ditch effort for him so obviously he's not good at it. But Ember is making leaps and bounds, she's learned how to use her weapon with little to no effort from her part besides the initial swing. That, I'm very impressed with."

"Yeah, you're right, but I'm just average compared to the rest of the team." Fuschia said before the door opened, a sweatpants and tank top clad Ember stepped in holding her shower essentials. "Oh, hey Em."

"Am I interrupting anything?" Ember asked looking between the two.

"No, just an after training chat. Wanna join?" Teale offered indicating to the foot of Fuschia's bed where they'd make a small triangle.

Ember nodded, "Sure, I'll join" Then took the place she was offered.

Teale crossed her arms and said, "thing is you aren't average, you think an average leader could keep us three in check, maybe not Ember because she's all kind, shy and sweet, but with Aeren and I, you've seen how bad we can get, and you can still get us to do what you think needs to get done, and have us do what you need us too."

Ember nodded, her face turning a slight shade of red as she received the praise from Teale. Fuschia sighed, "Yeah, I can manage you two knuckle heads, but I'm still not that much of a fighter."

"Fuschia, it doesn't take the ability to fight to be a huntress, you can be one by saving lives and caring for others, not just by fighting other people. Besides, we'll all be here learning together for the next three years." Ember stated putting her hand on their leader's leg to reassure her.

"Yeah, besides, we're all in this together, not just you, not just me, or Em, or Aeren, it's all four of us. We're a team for picking the same piece, but we'll stay a team cause all four of us will never give up on any one of us. I consider you two my closest friends, and Aeren I feel the same way towards."

Teale said following Ember's words.

Fuschia looked between the two, "the leader should be the strongest-"

"No, the leader should be the one who can take a step back and reign in her team, you can do that, I can't, nor can Ember, and we know if Aeren were team leader he'd be superceded by one of us. What I'm saying is, you're the best one for the job Fuschia, and we wouldn't want anyone but you heading the team." Teale said cutting her off, "I know I'm the arrogant hot head, but you're the only one I can think of that can actually get us to think and not just act"

Fuschia gave a sigh and looked down at the bed, "I'm sorry guys, I just don't know if I should be here or not. I see the points you two are making, but I'm still the weakest on our team, and I can't be the one to continually drag us down." Fuschia said with a apologizing smirk.

"You won't be, and you never have." Ember said and Teale nodded in agreement, "As Teale just said, you're the only one that's been able to keep our team out of trouble. If you think either of our two hot heads can keep that going, then you're dead wrong. You are smart, charismatic and strong, you've got a great base, the only thing you could really use is confidence in your abilities."

Fuschia scoffed, "Easier said than done there Em, but if you want me to stay and get better, I'm going to need a hand, especially in ranged fighting"

"Then you're going to want to talk to Aeren then, cause range is all he's really good at. As you have seen several times, he's a lack luster swordsman, though it makes him unpredictable, he sucks at it."

"So ask him for help with ranged fighting, ignore anything he says about sword play" Fuschia said with a chuckle.

"Speak of the bow wielding jackass, where is he?" Teale asked looking between the other two.

"I don't know, I was here after I got a shower, and you were gloating to him." Fuschia replied.

"That's every time I win." Teale said with an eye roll and a smile.

"He said he'd be a little late, but he'd be back before dinner" Ember said.

"How do you know that?" Teale asked, "Do we have a little in-team-fling going on between you two?" She asked teasingly.

"No" Ember said pointedly before continuing, "Just an after training critique, seeing what we can work on, he said he was going to go to the training room to work on some things but would join us for dinner."

Fuschia nodded, "He still has a little bit of time, anyway, I don't think that the faculty would like us running around in lounge wear."

Teale shrugged, "Immediately just going to uniform up before we go, plus, I want to beat some sense into him."

Fuschia rolled her eyes, then looked sterling lyrics to her partner and said, "No violence."

"I was just going to talk to him, nothing else." Teale said in explanation.

"Ah-huh, sure, and I'm Cardin's date to the ball." She said toyingly hanging herself with an imaginary rope. "I know you were planning on actually going after him. And now I'm telling you that you won't."

Teale huffed and leaned back against the wall, "Alright, I won't hut him."

Fuschia stood up from her bed and stepped off the foot of it landing on her feet with a bit of a stumble. Then started undressing to redress in the school's uniform. Ember followed in suit and Teale just stood still watching the door.

"Teale, he'll be here when he gets here, come on." Fuschia tried coaxing her to no avail. She sighed then tossed the girl her clothes, Teale reeled in surprise, but caught the uniform.

"I'm not going to get dressed until I can be sure I can get a word with our only y chromosome on the team."

A couple minutes went by and Fuschia and Ember were looking like Beacon students again, putting the last bits of their uniforms on.

Teale had given up and began to dress herself putting her shirt on and started to button it when a knocking came. Fuschia reached over and unlocked the door, "come in" She stated while Teale pulled her skirt in place.

A strange hand opened the door and two people carrying Aeren stepped in, a nervous hoodie clad blonde boy and a spartan looking red head in heels and armor.

Fuschia cussed to herself as she saw Aeren, moving difficultly with a bruised face, holding his nose doubled over some. She took Aeren from under Phyrra's arm and thanked her as she laid Aeren against the foot of the closest bed.

Teale stepped up to the two, "What happened to Aeren?"

Jaune, the blonde hoodie clad ball of nerves rubbed the back of his head, "I'm not sure of all of it, but ah, you see, Phyrra knows more than I do. Phyrra?" He said in a nervous rush.

Phyrra sighed then gave a polite wave, "You see, Jaune and I were headed to the training room to spar, and when we got there we found him, leaned up against the wall like you see him now and we thought it'd be best to bring him back to his team."

Teale nodded crossing her arms, "Thank you, and I'm sorry you guys had to carry him."

"Not at all, it's fine, I hope he gets better soon" Phyrra said with a kind seemingly plastered smile that was typical of her.

Teale nodded and let the two out. When she turned around she looked to her battered teammate, both other girls were making a fuss, trying to clean up the blood from his busted lip and clean up the dried nose bleed.

Aeren gave a half hearted sigh and started to push away their efforts gently, appreciating the care, but would rather not be the center of attention for longer than necessary.

Teale stood in front of him, "Who did this?"

Aeren looked at her, "I'm handling this."

"Aeren, tell us" Fuschia said standing at her partner's side.

Aeren sighed then looked to the three of them, looking back and forth more to the two who had vocalized their want for an answer. "Team CRDL. Mostly Cardin, said it was a lesson for standing up to him on Friday. Said that if I did it again it'd be one of you three"

Teale crossed her arms and balled her fists, releasing them only to ball them again before turning around and bracing herself on the desk. Ember looked between her teammates, then focused on Aeren, "Are you alright?" He nodded in reply and she sighed.

Fuschia gave a slight smile, "well, we know it takes a whole team to hold you down, not just one person" She joked.

Aeren chuckled and shook his head slightly. "I'm just bruised and sore, I'll be fine by tomorrow evening."

Teale stood up straight before turning around, "When are we going to go back after them?"

Aeren shook his head, "It's just going to cause more trouble for us."

Fuschia sighed, "Aeren, we can't just let this slide"

"We will because I'd rather take a beating than let my team get expelled because they beat other students to death's door." Aeren said challenging Fuschia's statement, "Besides, if it happens again, then we have friends on our side, seems teams JNPR , RWBY and CFVY are all sick of our sister team's crap."

Teale groaned, "it's not the point, it's that they went four on one with one of our teammates." She said crossing her arms and then taking a labored breath. "I mean seriously Aeren, I'm not letting it slide, and if I have to break some bones to get my point across, so be it."

Teale started rolling up her sleeves and walked out slamming the door. Ember looked to Fuschia, then said, "You may want to go with her to keep her from killing anyone."

Fuschia nodded, "good point, keep an eye on Aeren, I'll be back with our hot head before too long." She said turning to the door then heading out quickly.

Aeren laid his head back on the footboard, "this sucks."

"Yeah, well, this thing happens when it's a four on one fight with a message that is supposed to be sent" Ember said while examining his face for cuts.

"It's not all bad news, I bloodied Sky's nose and was able to hold my own for a minute." Aeren said with a slight smile.

"Well, it seems they did a little worse." Ember said with a slight tease to her voice.

Aeren sighed, "Yeah, well, if Teale doesn't get stopped, they're all going to be doing worse than me."

Ember shrugged, "Don't worry about it." She said standing up and pulling out the first aid kit. She knelt down and began patching up her friend.

"Em, it's fine, you don't have to-"

Ember put a finger over his mouth then shushed him, "This is so you don't bleed all over yourself or your bed."

Aeren nodded and laid his head against the bed post before closing his eyes while Ember poked, prodded and smoothed coverings over his face where the skin had split.

Teale stood on the balcony leaning on the rail while gripping it with her hands splayed, she knew that it would be a bad idea to rage into a brawl against a whole team. She also didn't want to be removed from Beacon for putting four people in the infirmary, even though they assaulted one teammate, and beat another senseless.

She huffed and lowered her head. This sucked, her teammates were getting targeted by the school freshmen bullies. She heard footsteps come up behind her and looked back, spotting her pink haired leader, "Hey" She said with a veined attempt at a greeting. "I know, I know, before you say anything I didn't go after any of them. I just had to get out of the room, as much as I won't admit it to his face, he's a good fighter, but to see him beaten to the point he couldn't get to the room on his own was... infuriating, and the fact that it's one of you three, and that's not the first time Cardin and his goons went after one of us." She gave a huff then brought her arms to cross while still bracing on the railing.

"I know, I want to get some revenge too, but going after it now, would be us painted as the bad guys here. I don't want to get taken from here, especially knowing I have a family here that looks up to you and me." She walked to Teale's side before turning around and leaning her back against the rail. "You know, I'm actually surprised you didn't go after them, I'm impressed really, it seems you're mellowing out some."

Teale scoffed, "You're funny, I'm just more concerned with my friends and my future than I am with beating a punk bully. Don't get your hopes up that I won't do worse to them than they've done to anyone on our team so far."

"I'm aware, but also I'm pretty sure that there's good reason you're up here staring at the grounds from the balcony instead of, well, anywhere else really." Fuschia said giving a nod to start off and crossing her arms low on her torso as she kept talking. "We've been partners for the better part of four months now, I'm pretty sure under most circumstances where you're this stressed, you go to the gym where you do some type of work out until you reach the point of exhaustion." She looked to Teale who was resting her forehead on her gave her partner a tap on the arm to get her attention, and Teale responded turning her head, Fuschia continued by saying, "So what's got you as distracted as you are?"

Teale sighed then looked back out to the grounds, "Besides Ember and Aeren's attacks on them, the Vytal festival, the dance, and all the new faces coming around for the tournament?" She asked quietly then said, "I'd have to say next would be everything going on around us, then other non-huntress related things."

"What do you mean by that last bit?" Fuschia asked leaning toward Teale.

"Honestly with how well you can read me, I'm surprised you haven't seen, or guessed what I'm talking about." Teale stated looking to her partner.

"What are you getting at?" Fuschia asked raising an eyebrow.

"I mean like everything in general, dealing with bullies, getting stuck in a room with at the time strangers, the upcoming dance, the kingdom around us going to hell, just everything."

"Care to elaborate on all that?" Fuschia asked.

"Ember was grabbed and tormented by Cardin, then a couple days later we have this. You have to admit, being put in a room with people you didn't know was a daunting task, even if today we're all friends, at the start of it all it took was someone to look at Em and she'd all but turn blue from being so flush. Now she joins in on some banter we have as a group. The dance, it's mostly that there are so many people coming here, and that we'll be surrounded by hundreds of strangers. With the news we've heard from our fellow first year team RWBY, we can tell that there's something going on, something that may be big or may just be a dust and weapon smuggling operation. All of this together is just stressing me out so much."

"And that's why you're here and not hunting down CRDL?" Fuschia deduced leaning back a bit to her elbows.

Teale nodded and rested her forehead on her forearms. "As much as I hate to admit it, Aeren has a point, I can't leave you guys over someone who thinks he's hot shit."

Fuschia nodded, "You know, you are right, and it'd be even harder if you did, you are the one we look to for strength. Without you we wouldn't be as strong as we are now and you know that, between the three of us we don't have the assurity of victory you seem to have and exude over everything you do." Fuschia turned around and put her hand on Teale's shoulder, "It must suck, but I'm glad you're choosing us over vengeance."

"Something like this happens again then it's going to be worse, but right now, the cool air is helping me cool off instead of blow my top." Teale stated.

"I guessed that, especially since I didn't see you in the cafeteria when I went looking for you." Fuschia replied with a nod.

"Yeah, well, you guessed right it seems. I'm here at least" Teale said then gave a huff, "I'm not sure if I can stay here, let alone eat. It's early to call it a night, but I'm not really up for anything, you have a suggestion?"

"We could help set up the dance, I'm pretty sure since Ruby and company got put on its detail just today that they could use a couple extra hands" Fuschia said offering a solution.

"Sounds like a viable option" Teale said before standing from the rail. "Better than mulling over things I can't do anything about."

Fuschia smiled and stood as well, "Then let's go help them out."

Aeren sat against the head board of his bed while mulling over what he knew of other teams. Team JNPR being more a strength and tactics based team, a lot more difficult than the speed and strength based RWBY or the purely strength based CRDL, other than them, he only got bits and pieces from watching single entities fight in the training floor.

Ember walked back in the room from having went to wash up from having to play nurse to the unwilling. She noticed Aeren was staring off into space with a bit of a thoughtful look about him. She gave a sigh and sat down on her own bed.

"You can go wherever, I won't hold you back Em." Aeren said quietly.

Ember looked to him turning around to face him, the only change was that he was now looking to her while he spoke and waited. "I'm fine, but thanks, seeing blood ruined that."

"Sorry." Aeren said quietly.

"Stop apologizing, you got hurt, and now you're stuck here just apologizing for this that and the third, you have no reason to be sorry. You got ambushed by a whole team, I bet anyone would have made it out just as bad as you no matter who they are here, that includes Teale and Phyrra."

"Yeah, well, I'm trying not to help keep us all outta trouble, and at the moment, I brought more here." Aeren replied.

"You didn't bring any more trouble, you stood up to a bully and they got mad and brought their friends to try and scare all of us" Ember stated before turning her body around to face him, "if it helps get you to stop saying sorry and acting like a beaten dog, I thought it was great how you actually came in when I was getting grabbed by Cardin, I'm not sadistic or anything but watching you smack his head into the table made me all butBurst out laughing from seeing it."

"Glad I could be of some entertainment." Aeren said with a slight smile and a nod.

"No more saying sorry now, you got your little bit of praise." Ember said before straightening her legs and sitting back.

Aeren lifted his head resting it against the head board. "Some times I wonder if I should even be here, especially when it comes to the antics I bring on with Teale or getting into it with other people." Aeren said before looking towards Ember and speaking again before she could say anything, "Then I look around me, and see how far we've come as a team, Fuschia is an awesome leader, the bickering and arguing Teale and I do have made us closer and more open with each other, even though it's a shitty way to do it. I also see how you have shown you have more of a back bone than what I at first thought, you're willing to stand up to your two mouthy teammates and have shown you're more skilled in fighting than what you seem. I've had more of a feeling of family while I've been here than I felt anywhere else."

"Stop talking, before you make me actually feel like you're a decent human being." Ember said with a smirk. Aeren chuckled, and she said, "I think we all have had that thought. I mean I've wondered if I should be a part of this team until we grew into the team we are now, I've wondered if I could handle being around you and Teale on a daily basis, or be around Fuschia who always seemed too positive to be real."

"Yeah, funny how we actually got this close in three months, it's going to be interesting how the rest of the four years at Beacon are going to be." Aeren said

"Well, we'll just have to see, now won't we?" Ember asked musingly.

Aeren rolled his eyes and repositioned himself to have his shoulders and head against the head board instead of the full extent of his back. "You're a lot more cheery than you typically are, any reason?"

Ember shook her head then laid back, "Not in particular. A few words and a good humored remark hardly count for a cheery attitude"

Aeren shrugged, "I usually only hear a short answer or just get a facial expression as an answer when I speak to you, this whole full conversation capable Ember isn't the one I'm used to seeing."

"Yeah, well, conversation capable Ember is the real regular Ember but more relaxed and open for conversation than timid first meeting people Ember." Ember stated.

"You're sarcastic when you actually talk." Aeren replied.

"I could always go back to just replying with body language, you seemed to at least be able to understand the basic ideas I was conveying." Ember said closing her eyes

"Either way, its good to know you are comfortable enough to be you around us." Aeren said rubbing a finger over the corner of his mouth to stoke an itch.

Ember shrugged, though she was glad he wasn't beaten as bad as it originally looked, the whole onslaught of conversation was more than the pair had on most days. Though she was more apt to talk, she didn't want to go much further with day to day conversations.

Aeren got up and headed to the dresser that held his clothes with a stiff walk, holding his side. The superficial bruising and cuts were well on their way to healing, but the deeper bruising and muscle soreness were still there. He grabbed a change of clothes and his shower bag before heading to the door, "I'm going to get a shower, I'll be back before long."

"Alright, I'll either be here or on my way back from grabbing some fruit from the cafeteria." Ember said without opening her eyes.

Another chapter out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed it, if not, tell me about your thoughts on it. As I put more and more up, I hope you can get a better feeling for the characters and their personal reactions with each other. If you would like to see anything in particular, shoot a message or write a review, I promise to read and respond to any request that is within reason. Keep an eye out for me next month as I put out the next chapter of FATE of Beacon, AA signing out.