Chapter 22

Robin fingered the black fabric bracelet on her wrist, her eyes following the lines of red and blue that intertwined with the black. A lot of students had visited home for the couple weeks of break between terms, whilst team Myrtle were still all accounted for and had decided to visit Vale to pass the time. Tawney had insisted on doing some shopping and Malcolm had agreed, leaving Yahto and Robin to complain and whine anytime they spent longer than fifteen minutes in one store. Yahto had found the small coffee shop and insisted that they all take a well deserved thirty minute break, which is where they all were, surrounded by bags, cakes, tea and coffee.

A tail flipped into Robin's view and she blinked, looking up from her wrist to see Tawney staring at her with one brow raised, "What's that?"

"Nothing," Robin quipped, straightening up in her seat. "Just a thing my Dad got me."

"Awww, so sweet," she mocked, sticking her tongue out.

Robin gently kicked out with her foot, knocking one of Tawney's bags over and shrugged her shoulders. "Oops."

Malcolm groaned and rolled his eyes, "Can you two behave for one day? Please?"

"Is that an order?" Tawney whispered lowly, her eyes darkening with a grin.

"You are such a creep," Yahto said, shoving Tawney's shoulder to make her stop pulling that same face. Tawney ignored him and pulled her scroll out to start to look at film times, stating that they needed to watch something before the next term started.

Robin grabbed her drink and took a sip, ignoring the ramblings of her team. Whilst she had been tempted to go home to see Ruby, Yang and even Uncle Tai, part of her would have felt wrong. There was still a part of her that felt as though she was invading their home no matter how welcomed they made her feel. She set her cup down as Yahto and Malcolm started to argue about which Grimm was the most terrifying, Tawney adding her input here and there.

She leaned back in her seat and enjoyed the sounds of their voices as she glanced around the small coffee shop. The glass shelves were full of delicious looking treats and she scanned the sugared goods. She was definitely coming back here at some point, even if it was on her own. There was a whisper to her right and she turned her head only to freeze at the sight that greeted her. Red eyes pierced into her through slits in a very convincing Grimm mask. Black hair flowed away from the mask and down the woman's back. She lifted a pale hand up to pull the mask away and Robin's eyes widened as she came face to face with Raven Branwen.

"Qrow," Raven said, eyes fixed on Robin.

"Raven," she heard her Dad say and she turned her head to see Qrow staring back at her, a tumbler of whiskey in one hand and a pissed of expression on his face. "What do you want?"

"Can't a girl say hi to her brother?"

"That depends, are you going to say hi to your family again? You know, that daughter you have? Husband?"

Raven let out a small scoff and Robin turned to see the woman shake her head, "And yet you're all the way out here whilst Robin's left behind. A little hypocritical don't you think?"

"I message her every day, call her every week and stay at home as much as I can. When was the last time you even said Yang's name?" Qrow scoffed and turned his attention away from his sister to stare at an interesting spot to his left. "Did you want anything or just a lecture?"

"Spring, do you know where she is?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"Because she found Fall and it's only a matter of time before she finds her. I want to know where she is so that we can be as far away from everything as possible."

"Whoa," Qrow said, hands up and his tone sarcastic, "for a moment there I thought you were wanting to help."

"Ozpin will fail, Qrow. You would be wise to be as far away from him as possible when he does fall."

Robin stood up, a chill sweeping down her spine and the noise of the shop deafened the heavy beating of her heart in her chest. She had to blink her eyes a few times before she came to the realisation that she was just staring at Tawney, her heart pounding and her eyes wide.

"Robin?" Yahto said, breaking whatever spell she was under. She turned to see Yahto stood up, one of his hands coming to rest gently on her arm with a concerned look on his face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she breathed out, the word unconvincing and she turned to glance at the rest of her team, their gazes matching Yahto's concern. "I'm just drained and I was going to head back. Get an early night."

"Well," Malcolm said, getting to his feet as well, "I don't mind heading back with you. We did start early thanks to somebody."

"Hey," Tawney said, finally joining the other three in standing, "you didn't have to come if you didn't want to miss the stupid queues." She started to gather her bags up and Robin reached down to give her a hand. "Next time you're staying at home." She turned to Robin and beamed, "It's been a long day. We'll join you."

The walk back to their dorm room was a quiet hum of mostly silence, each of them content with each others company. What little conversation there was, Robin stayed out of it, deep in thought as she replayed that same scene and conversation over in her mind. She wasn't asleep and it was just a chat between her Dad and her Aunt, nothing more. No danger, no Grimm, no monsters, just talking. It didn't make sense and she pulled her scroll out and hovered over her Dad's name, finger tapping the side of her scroll.

When they made it back to their room Robin dropped Tawney's bags onto her bed and fired off a quick message. 'Hi, hope you're okay. Anything interesting happen?'

"I am beat," Tawney said, falling back onto her bed with a satisfied hum.

"Yeah," Malcolm said, falling face first onto his own bed next to Robin's. "Don't wake me up tomorrow."

Robin smiled, grabbed her pyjamas and made her way to the bathroom, letting out a heavy sigh once the door was closed. "I'm awake, I'm awake," she whispered to herself, "so how-" She scrubbed a hand over her face and finally changed into her pyjamas, her mind still trying to figure out what had happened. Was it really a conversation that had happened? If it was it didn't make sense. Fall? Spring? Ozpin will fail? Fail what? She wasn't even sleeping, she'd been wide awake so how could she even see anything? She shook her head and made her way back out of the bathroom and to her bed. Yahto was already underneath his covers, Malcolm was on his way to the bathroom and Tawney was fast asleep, managing to have kicked her shoes of before hand.

She checked her scroll to see a new message from her Dad, 'Catching up with an old friend in Mistral. Took down 2 Death Stalkers at the same time.'

'Who's you're old friend?'

Malcolm finished in the bathroom and Robin glanced at him as she climbed into bed, giving him a small smile before she faced the wall closest to her. A small buzz had her reaching for her scroll again to see Qrow's two word response, 'Nobody important.' She dropped her scroll with a bite of her tongue, not sure how she felt about his response.

"Are you okay?"

She turned to look over her shoulder with a raised brow. "Huh?"

He shook his head and climbed into his own bed, "It's a simple enough question."

"I'm fine."

"You know, you never told us what your semblance is?"

Robin shrugged and closed her eyes, "Cause I don't know. What's your point?"

"You spaced out." She opened her eyes and stared at the wall, feeling Malcolm boring into her back. "I don't think they noticed, but you spaced out, kinda looked around a little and stood up."

She bit the inside of her cheek and shrugged again, "I don't know, Malc. When I do I'll let you know."

A/N: Just a little team building this chapter.

Sabert00thsa: Yahto is the annoying older brother you wish you never had and... I find that a curious question. (Squinting at you suspiciously) And trust me, there's a twist with what happened to her village (and her face).

DannyPhantom619: I'm glad you're enjoying it. And yeah, she hates to be called Raven, just a little bit.

Diego Silver: Do not give Tawney ideas!

GrimmDzzzy: Robin and Tawney get into a lot of trouble throughout their years at Beacon. A lot of detentions. Malcolm will do his best to try to get them to behave whilst Yahto, is Yahto and will encourage them by kicking his feet up with popcorn in hand.

Xellos1: Hahaha. You'd think that, but everybody makes mistakes.

Guest (Chap 10): Robin has a bad influence in her life.

Guest (Chap16): Every since I planned Robin's character she's always had a spear like weapon, the same with her semblance being non-combative. I wanted to create a character who fills the enemy with a false sense of security.

Guest (Chap 17): Again, I'm sorry you're not happy with her weapon of choice but it's a decision I've been settled on even before I started writing the story. I can see where you're coming from and in my opinion Robin's trying to get as far away from her father's image as possible to set a name for herself. There is something in the works later on in regards to her weapon, but for now, she's happy with her weapon choice.

swiftlet: I'm glad you're enjoying Robin. I'd toyed with the idea of starting the story when Yang and Ruby start Beacon, but no matter how many times I re-wrote it or started it, it didn't seem to work. Robin is 3 years older than Yang and would be part of her own team at Beacon, which is why I've written her team into this story.