Tristan was glad for the day off at last. He had never enjoyed classes before, but many of the classes he now had to take were even more boring to him. He didn't care about the history of the kingdoms, for all he cared past events could stay there. He cared about protecting the now. And he knew all he needed to about the Grimm, put a round in them and they died, all that mattered was where that round needed to go. The only class he enjoyed were combat lessons, and he still hadn't been in a duel. So much of his time in class was spent trying not to fall asleep.

So when they were finally done with classes that Friday Tristan was looking forward to so down time with his friends. Now they were all just chilling out in the dorm's lounge. Tristan was in the middle of a foosball tournament with Jazz, which had been going on for the last hour. Kobalt was stretched out on the couch with a soda in his hand and ice on his arm, he had pinched it in the doorway while leaving a duel. Robert Coal and Jon from Team UMBR were having another arm wrestling match, with Robert struggling to win. Ever since Kobalt "beat" them last week they had sworn to beat him one day. They had also become friends, claiming anyone who could beat them had their respect and friendship, depending on which member of the team you asked. Nickole and Dore were chatting about something, apparently their families knew each other, but the two had never met. James Marigold and Brandon Snow were arguing about something again, the two only seemed to get along in combat. Meanwhile Amy and Carmen were trying to get Justin, who was absentmindedly watching the news, to do something.

Tristan had been worried about his brother when they came to Beacon, he had never been a people person. He was a good guy and everything, but was very serious and had never had many, or any, friends. And on top of all that he always seemed angry, he wasn't necessarily, but the guy had been through a lot and his overall mood had taken a turn from it all. Tristan had caught glimpses of the boy Justin was before he lost his family, but those were rare. He was worried Beacon was going to be like Sanctum all over again, but Kobalt and Nickole didn't seem to care about his attitude he was their friend from the moment they met. And when Justin saved Carmen, all of JADE agreed he was awesome. So Tristan was finally able to stop worrying about his brother.

And now he was determined to beat Jazz in what had become a best of ten tournament. The match was tied with the next goal winning when his scroll went off, someone was calling him. He looked at his scroll which had been resting on the table to see it was Amber. He flicked the ball towards his own goal and picked up the scroll.

"Hey that's not fair!" Jazz protested "I wanted to beat you!"

He waved her off and answered the call.

"Hey babe, miss the sound of my voice?" he joked

"No, I call your voicemail when I want to hear it." She laughed at him "Seriously though, I miss you."

"I miss you too," he said walking towards the back corner of the lounge "How are things back home?"

"The usual, Dad's working at the school, Mom at the hospital, and I'm taking classes at Vale U." She said sounding bored "The only thing that's changed in the past month is you shipping off to Beacon."

"I did not ship off." He argued

"You moved out, you're learning to fight monsters, and you don't visit." She said "You might as well have joined the military."

"Well with Kobalt in charge it's more of a dictatorship." Tristan joked

"I heard that!" Kobalt yelled

"And what are you going to do about it?" Tristan teased, Kobalt just waved him off and went back to his soda.

"That was for his benefit wasn't it?" Amber asked him

"Yeah he's a good guy, great leader." He said honestly

"Good, God knows you couldn't have handled the role." She said

"Hey I…" he started to argue, then laughed "Yeah."

"So I was thinking, it's been two weeks since we've seen each other. And I've got the weekend off…"

"Say no more," he said turning to Kobalt. "Hey Kobalt, you got anything planned for us this weekend cause…"

"When was the last time you saw her man?" he asked, not even opening his eyes.

"Before I came to Beacon." He told him

"And you're not running into Vale right now?" Kobalt asked "You don't have to ask permission you know, besides I don't feel like doing anything this weekend."

"It's a date." Tristan said turning back to Amber "Tomorrow at two?"

"I'll see you at the café." She said "Don't be late."

"Come on this is me were talking about." Tristan argued before hanging up

"Hey turn that up." Nickole said, motioning to Justin, who picked up the remote and boosted the volume. Tristan turned to see a reporter covering the wreckage of a train. The graphic reading White Fang Attack.

Oh no, Tristan thought, Justin please stay calm.

"This is the third attack by the Faunus terrorist group, known as the White Fang, in the past three months. Adding to a large list of attacks since the group resorted to violence a year ago." The reporter stated "As you can see the wreckage is catastrophic, the railway is damaged beyond repair as is the train. Fortunately none of the crew were gravely injured, though most of them will be confined to hospital beds for a short time. Vale authorities are…"

Someone shut the TV off before the reporter could continue. Tristan noticed a long shard of ice hitting the power button, coming from Brandon.

"Sorry," he said "But I can't stand listening to that."

"It is pretty horrible," James agreed with him, likely for the first time "All those people hurt, and for what? The aspirations of a few crazy Faunus?"

"That's not it." Brandon said "It's going to work. Faunus like me and Carmen are going to be treated better because of this, people will fear the White Fang."

"There's nothing wrong with Faunus being treated better." Dore said

"No, but the way the White Fang is doing it is wrong, dishonorable." Brandon told her

"It's worse than that." Justin said, Tristan could tell the anger was boiling up in him

"They used to be a peaceful group." Justin raged "And now they've resorted to terrorism, destroying lives in the process. They have no regard for the lives they ruin."

He got up and stormed out, practically crackling with electricity as he did. The whole room was quiet after he left.

"You'll have to excuse my brother." Tristan said breaking the silence "he's not a subtle guy."

"He doesn't like Faunus does he?" Carmen asked

"No that's not it." Tristan told her "He's my adopted brother, his real parents were killed by those militant terrorists twelve years ago. He didn't have the best childhood for a while after that."

"And he's hated terrorists ever since, that right?" Jon asked

"Yeah, the White Fang in particular. He used to look up to them, because they were being peaceful despite all the things happening to the Faunus." Tristan told them "And now, well he took their turn to terrorism pretty hard."

"Is he going to be okay?" Kobalt asked

"I'll go talk to him, calm him down." Tristan sighed "He probably went to the roof to discharge."

"Discharge?" Carmen asked

"You try carrying around electrical energy inside you without getting rid of it every so often." He laughed as he left the room.

Sure enough he found Justin on the roof about to discharge. Tristan know from past experience not to get too close while he was doing it, he was still glad his eyebrows grew back. He watched as Justin flexed his arms and sent out waves of electricity crackling around the roof. The amount of electrical energy the guy could build up was intense. Once he was done Tristan stepped out of the doorway, showing himself.

"You alright man?" he asked "Everyone downstairs is worried about you."

"Why?" Justin asked, clearing not understanding why everyone else would worry about him.

"Because they're your friends, maybe?" he suggested "And you stormed off pretty pissed."

"I'm not pissed." He lied, pretty poorly too, he always averted his eyes when he lied.

"Like hell you're not. You and I both know that everything White Fang pisses you off." He said "And I get it, but you've got to get your anger under control. You can't just flip out every time you hear some bad news."

"That was a bit extreme wasn't it?" Justin asked "I think I was arcing lightning on the way out."

"Little bit yeah, I thought you were going to short the TV."

"That bad?"

"Yeah, you don't need to get that pissed every time you know." Tristan told his brother "The people here are out friends, you can trust them, but you need to chill. Besides it's not like getting angry will change anything, but learning to control your anger will make a difference later down the road."

"Thanks dad," he said sarcastically "What does my brother have to say?"

"The same damn thing." he said smacking his brother on the back of the head "Come on let's go back downstairs."

Tristan seriously could not wait to see Amber that day. He had woken up at seven and forced Kobalt to train with him so he could pass the time before going into Vale. He dashed to the airship as soon as he had changed clothes into his jacket and jeans, and checked his watch to make sure he wasn't late. Fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, of course the airship wouldn't leave for another five minutes but still.

I think I'm good. He thought as he hopped off the airship and into downtown Vale.

Tristan walked as fast and calmly a she could to the small, family owned café named The Boardwalk. It was a nice little café, with seats outside and in, and some of the best coffee Tristan had ever had. It was also the place he and Amber met. He found her at their usual table, looking just like she had when they first met. Her chestnut hair cut just above her shoulders as always, wearing a cream yellow jacket over a pink shirt and jeans. She was sitting with her head rested on her hand, looking extremely bored. It may have only been two weeks, but to Tristan it felt like seeing her for the first time again. He walked over and was about to say something smooth when she looked up at him.

"You're late." She said, still sounding bored.

"I'm ten minutes early." He protested

"You used to be fifteen minutes early." She told him

"Well the airship at Beacon only left twenty minutes ago, and…" he stammered, trying to find something to say. He didn't get anything else out though, before he could her bored expression broke into a sly grin and she started laughing.

"God you're so easy it's almost not fun." She said standing up. She threw her arms around him in a hug. "Almost, God I missed you."

"I missed you too." He said hugging back "And one day I swear I'll get you back for that."

"Yeah sure," she laughed at him "If that was the first time you'd said that I might be worried."

"Fair point, so how's school?" he asked sitting down "I imagine acting is a major right up your alley."

"Is that an insult?" she asked pissed

"That depends, are you just pretending to be mad?" he asked

"How convincing was it?" Amber asked switching back to normal.

"If I didn't know you I would've believed it." Tristan admitted "So it's going well huh?"

"You could say that. My professor wants to move me up to the next course already."

"Well that was fast, it's only been two weeks."

"Well you know how I get when someone gives me a script." She said "Remember that play I was in last year?"

"You had me reading lines for you for weeks." He said "I had finals that second week remember?"

"Oh please you did fine." She argued

"Well look who it is." Someone said walking over to them. Tristan turned to see Alizarin Edwards, or Alin, owner of The Boardwalk standing next to them. Despite being in his late sixties he still looked pretty young for his age. His hair was still red-brown and he was in decent shape.

"Mr. Edwards, good to see you." Amber said

"You too, it's been so long since you two have been here I was starting to get worried." He laughed

"It's only been two weeks." Tristan tried to argue, but for them that was a long time.

"Well you're here now, so I have to make up for lost business." He said "The usual?"

"I don't know why you bother to ask anymore." Amber wondered

"Me either, Alizarine!" he called to his daughter "The usual for the old couple!"

"One latte and one cappuccino coming right up, old man." Aline called back. Aline was in her late twenties, and until recently, was one of the only girls Tristan got along with without being hit on. Of course being ten years younger than her certainly helped.

Aline walked over to them a few minutes later putting their drinks on the table.

"Thanks Aline." Amber said not taking her drink yet.

"Anytime." She said still standing there.

"You're not getting us this time Aline." Tristan laughed.

"Oh come on! Won't you just tell me?" Aline asked.

For the past year they had a running joke of not letting her know which one of them preferred which drink.

"We told you, fourth anniversary and we will." Amber teased "Just one more year."

"Ugh you two are awful." She said walking back, once her back was turned they each reached for their drink.

"You know she is going to flip when she finds out we swap drinks each time." Tristan laughed, taking a sip of his cappuccino.

"Then maybe we'll push it back a year after that." She laughed "How does fifth anniversary sound to you?"

Before he could react, Tristan heard a loud bang across the street and his mind snapped to danger mode. He didn't even realize what had happened until he felt Amber shaking his shoulder.

"Tristan!" she called out to him "It's alright, it was just a car backfiring."

His mind clicked back on, he was standing between Amber and the street, Starfall raised in his hands and pointed across the street.

"Tristan, it's okay." She said again, "Its fine, everything's okay."

He lowered his rifle and realized his hands were shaking. He folded it up, holstered it on his back, and turned around. The whole café had their eyes on him, he saw Alin and Aline looking over at them with concern. Alin was walking over with a towel in his hands. That was when Tristan noticed he had dropped his cappuccino when he moved. And Amber had knocked her latte over as well.

"Sorry I, I…" Tristan started, but couldn't find any words.

"It's alright Tristan," Alin said cleaning off the spill. "You okay?"

"Yeah I, I'm fine." He said

"Like hell." Amber muttered "Sorry Mr. Edwards, can you put that on our tab? I'm going to take Tristan somewhere quiet."

"Of course, anything you need?" he asked

"I think we'll be fine." She said grabbing his still shaking hand and pulling him out of the café.

"It's alright Tristan," she whispered to him as they left "I'm right here, nothing's happening. Just calm down."

"I am calm." He tried to tell her.

"Tristan, you're shaking, you're hyperventilating, and you look like you just saw a ghost." She said a few blocks down "You are far from calm. Come on I found the perfect place for us to relax. But once we get to the park no peeking, its surprise."

A few minutes later Tristan had managed to get somewhat back to normal. His hands were still shaking but he was otherwise okay. They had reached the park, and Amber made him close his eyes as she guided him through the park by hand.

"This isn't some kind of trap is it?" he asked her "You not going to lead me into a tree or something are you?"

"After that little episode, no." she said "Okay right here, sit down."

He sat down, his eyes still closed and leaned back into a tree. He felt Amber sit down next to him and lean on him.

"Okay, open your eyes." Hs told him.

When he did he was glad for the surprise the scenery gave him. They were sitting under one of the bigger oak trees in the park forest, at the edge of the lake. The wind blew through the trees, and was the only noise he could hear. The whole scene was still and calm.

"Better?" Amber asked him, her head on his shoulder.

He took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down and relax.

"Better." he said after a minute "Thank you."

"Anytime." She said "You've always been protective of me, it's the reason for things like that episode. But I swear for the past year you've been even more on edge than normal."

Tristan didn't say anything for a while, she was right and he knew why. She probably did too, but didn't want to bring it up.

"It's been almost two years since that night you know." He said finally.

"I know." She said quietly

"Ever since then I've just been so worried about what might happen to you." he said "And what if I'm not around to…"

"Tristan just stop," Amber said lacing her fingers in his "you worry too much. It's stressing you out, and putting you on edge."

"But what if someone else…" he started

"Tries to kill me?" she asked him "It was one psychopath, a dark night, almost two years ago. And you took care of it, for the love of Dust Tristan I think you shot the man's hand off!"

"He was lucky that his hand was the only thing I had a clear shot of." Tristan muttered

"Tristan look at me." she told him, he turned his head so he could look her in the eyes. "It's not going to do you any good to worry about me all the time, your stressing yourself out and it can't be healthy. Its leading to things like that and it can only get worse. You need to stop worrying about me so much."

"But what if…" he tried to start again, before she silenced him with a kiss.

"Just shut up and listen to me." Amber told him "Nothing is going to happen to me, not as long as I've got you to worry about. As long as were together nothing bad will happen to me, even if you're not there to protect me. I promise."

"What would I do without you?' he chuckled

"Crash and burn, probably." She said, looking smug

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" he asked "Thanks, for everything."

"Anytime, so tell me about this team you're on." Amber told him settling next to him

"Well you already know Justin," Tristan started "Then there's Nickole, boy is she a handful."

"She hit on you all the time?" Amber asked

"No I'm pretty sure she's got a thing for Kobalt." Tristan laughed "Speaking of whom, he is something else."

"How so?"

"Huge scar across his face, more on his chest, and he has no memory of how he got them." Tristan said

"So what, he was attacked by Grimm and mauled so bad he doesn't remember it?"

"No he doesn't remember anything before he came to Beacon." Tristan told her "But don't tell anyone I told you that."

"Tristan, I of all people know how to keep a secret." Amber smiled

A/N

Should probably mention that this is not the same Amber from the show. When I first wrote and posted this chapter on DA the character's appearance had yet to be revealed and she had only be referred to once as Autumn. Frankly I was shocked when her name was revealed and her appearance roughly matched what I had come up with for the character. Go figure.