Since Ruby's departure, the Rose-Xiao Long Household had been very quiet, for the most part. Taiyang Xiao Long had been having a rather fun time trying to adapt his new resident to a more day-oriented lifestyle. Indeed, Noir Harceleur was a tough nut to crack as Tai had found. For all of his efforts, the young Faunus still spent many a night wide awake.

Yang still had some issues going forward in her own mental state, but once she read Ruby's parting letter, she started getting out of bed more frequently. Even more so when Silver had left Patch several weeks after Qrow did. She had said 'hi' to Noir a few times and engaged in small-talk when it suited her, but it was still difficult. Noir had seen Yang's reaction when she broke a glass one time.

Noir's concern for Yang grew by the day. Seeing her mental state affect her everyday life, not to mention the loss of her arm, truly bothered him. But for his concern, he knew trying to make any effort to help would be met with a refusal, and so, he held his peace.

As it was expected to happen, Spring was dawning. The snow had melted, the flora was returning to life, and as such, with the arrival of spring, came the inevitable exchange…
"….I've never had to clean anything, I apologize if such is an inconvenience, Mr. Xia- I mean, Taiyang…" Noir confessed.

Taiyang stifled a laugh at Noir's near slip-up, "Nah, it's all good, kid. It's alllllll about practice. You think a badass was invented just out of the blue? Took practice and time and effort to get to this awesome state." He jokingly flexed at the young adult.

"A shut-in father?"

Tai tilted his head a bit, signaling an 'eeh' look, "Like I said, took time to get over the past. And even now, things haven't gotten easier."

For a moment he was silent, contemplating Tai's words, then sighed. "Right...what would you have me do?"

"You can start by watering the flowers while I remove the weeds."

"It… It rained this morning."

Tai looked confused, "Did it? I guess I slept through that. Then, sweeping the floors and dusting off the surfaces would be a good start!"

Without a further word, Noir grabbed the nearby broom and immediately set to work, preferring to take care of such immediately instead of waiting. Even as he did so his mind wandered, and inevitably, Ruby's departure came to mind. It had been rather saddening to him, for Ruby brought a certain liveliness to any situation regardless of how bad things were. But, he understood her reasoning. There was no stopping her when her mind was made up, and that girl never had been capable of sitting still, as Noir himself had seen.

With a cloth in one hand and a spray can in another, Taiyang could see a far away look in Noir's eyes, "Got something on your mind, kid?" He said as he scrubbed the one coffee table in a very bartender-like manner. "Huh, wonder if Qrow is used to a scene like this."

"Hmm?" Taiyang's voice brought him back to reality and he inhaled for a moment before replying. "Just thinking...about recent events." As always, he spoke cryptically and not very openly.

He kept wiping the table, "What about exactly?"

He paused his sweeping to glance in Tai's direction, wondering if he should be 100% open or simply give the basics. And yet he knew there was no hiding from Tai. He was a Huntsman himself after all. "Ruby's departure." He looked around the house a little. "She...brought a certain liveliness to everything...it's odd not having her around."

"She's much like her mother in that regard… Summer always brought a smile to people's faces - so much so it devastated Silver so horrendously when Summer passed. But as I fear history repeating itself, I know that… there will come a time when my daughters won't need me. But -" He quickly glanced over at the stairs, where Yang's room was located. "My oldest needs me more right now. And knowing Qrow, he won't leave Ruby alone in that craziness. At least that's something I can be thankful for that guy for."

Noir added his two cents about Qrow, "he's...rather intriguing." He found Qrow to be very enigmatic, more so than Silver. He sensed Qrow kept a lot hidden, and he sensed that Qrow, for all his humor, hid something very dark inside, just as Noir did. "Reminds me of myself, in a way."

"Meaning…?" Tai was intrigued at this idea.

"His humor. His seemingly carefree demeanor...it's a shield. For something inside. Something that pains him, constantly."

Taiyang laughed at this, "Honestly, they both are. Silver's better at hiding it than he. But when we were in school, it wasn't always that way. He just got worse after, well… after Summer passed. Things backtracked for all of us."

"I see." For a long while he was quiet, processing this information as he continued sweeping the floor. The more he thought about it, the more he realized why Tai kept allowing him to stay there. He, at least to some degree, understood what Noir was going through in a mental and emotional sense. "...Taiyang?"

He stopped what he was doing, and looked at Noir, giving him his full attention. "Yes?"

Noir was quiet once more as though he was going to retract whatever question he had, but he spoke, and his voice was that same soft tone Tai had heard when they'd first met. "...Have you...ever lost a home?"

"Not in a physical sense. But… I lost the sense of home and peace of mind, several times. It's… terrifying for me to let my daughters become Huntresses and fight creatures of the darkest kind. There are times where… I think of the worst, despite my best efforts to stay positive about the future. So, a few times, I guess I did, in a way."

"I see...and -" His voice caught in his throat for a moment, "...were you ever lost? Without a sense of direction…" His next words were so soft they were barely audible. "No hope…?"

"Well, you did call me a shut-in father. That's not entirely far from the truth. In fact, it hit the mark. So, full points to you, kid."

"No wonder you've kept me around…"

Taiyang chuckled to himself, "Took you long enough to figure that one out. I'm a broken man who's doing his best to help his... lost daughter. Who better to help the lost but the ones who were once lost themselves?"

Noir had recognized those same words Taiyang had spoken to the mischievous couple. "True." He glanced around the room, checking to see if they were alone. "Since you shared your story...I'll share mine."

Tai sat the cloth and spray on the table to seat himself on the couch. "Alright. Please," He gestured to a spot on the couch, "Sit."

Noir sat across from him, his hands folded as he exhaled the inhaled breath slowly, mentally preparing himself. "I must tell you this will be a long story. We will be here a while."

"Well, we'll be having company in about 4 hours. Will that do?"

"That's plenty… I was born in Menagerie, the youngest of five. I had 3 brothers and a sister. My sister, Auburn was the oldest. My oldest brother was Oro. Then Platin, and then Blanc. I was closest to Blanc, him being only two years older. He and my mother, Marin, were my closest friends. My father, Cremoisi, was...shall we say, domineering. My middle brother Platin took after him the most. Auburn was like a second mother, scolding us like Mother and even caring for me and Blanc when Mother couldn't. Oro...well, he was my hero. A fox Faunus. Everyone loved him, frankly. Human or Faunus, it didn't matter. He had a way with people that transcended his nature. And I loved that."

He paused, gathering more courage within himself.

"When I was three, we moved to Vacuo. We had no more room in our Menagerie home, so the space would be beneficial. To say the least, I was...far from my father's favorite, and our move to Vacuo began a long period of hardship. My mother had to stand between me and my father many times. Survival was everything he said. And he warned me that my mother couldn't protect me forever. But...It didn't matter. I was her precious boy, as she called me. I looked more like her than any of her other children.

"I discovered my aura when I was only seven. I was developing at a staggering rate for a child, as my parents realized. I remember how proud they both were when I discovered my semblance at eight. Unfortunately...such fast development can attract the attention of...unsavory people. And then...White Fang came to Vacuo. Recruiting, in fact. And when your parents are so proud of you that they tell every friend of your rapid development, well...you can imagine it would have reached their ears sooner or later."

"Did you go with them? The White Fang, I mean." Tai asked.

Noir shook his head, "No...they came to me. They spoke to me at length about their cause. I was eleven at the time. And I wasn't ignorant...I knew what they'd become. And I refused to join, despite their magnanimous offers. I angered them...to the point that they threatened me. Fearing for my life, I ran. I ran and hid in a small hideout Blanc had made for me and I stayed there. For an entire day, I hid there, before coming out. I returned home, and found it surrounded...roped off...law enforcement was everywhere…

His voice began to crack, "I entered the house...and I found Blanc's body in the living room. He'd been...shot in the head. Oro...he was impaled to the kitchen wall. Platin...he'd been shredded. I only found his jacket…" He choked back a sob.

Taiyang sat up straight, landing his hand on the kid's shoulder, "You don't have to continue if it's too difficult for you."

"No, I'm not stopping now." He inhaled, collecting himself, gathering every bit of courage he had left in his body, before continuing. "I found Auburn in her room, her throat slashed and body bruised all over. My father...he'd been skewered so many times there was barely anything left. And my mother...had been cleaved open from shoulder to hip. When I saw her...something snapped, I lost my composure. The police came in and dragged me away from her, kicking and screaming in agony. I couldn't accept it. I just couldn't. Finally, I broke free, and the only words I could muster were, 'Forever Fall. Take them there.' And I spread my wings and took flight. I flew for as long as I could until they gave out. Then I ran until my legs gave out. I was alone. And I realized, the only thing between me and death...were my bare hands."

Taiyang sat in silence, recollecting the last time he went to the Forever Forest, for his mission. At first, it didn't seem to change, as if it was frozen in time. But when he found several stones aligned in a half-circle, Time seemed to exist in this place to him. Only now was the Golden Dragon realizing they were gravestones. Harceleur gravestones.

The silence that existed for this brief time, allowed Noir to full compose himself once more, "For the next four years, I lived in the wild. Little more than an animal. I traveled on foot wherever my legs would carry me. And during that time -" He lifted his shirt to reveal three knotted scars running from his right hip to his left shoulder. " - I got these."

"Grimm"

Noir nodded, "One of the biggest I'd ever seen. Body and head of a lion, head of a goat on its back, a serpent for a tail. It ripped me open with one swing. That moment awakened me to a realization: I couldn't live in the wild forever." He lowered his shirt. "So...I began searching for civilization again. It took a year longer, but I found it: Vale."

Tai continued for him, slowly understanding more, "And then you tested and entered into Beacon. With your experience against the Grimm as you gained, you would have been a perfect candidate for the entrance test. Hell, Raven did it. I think Silver did too for the Atlas test."

"Indeed. In fact...Ozpin himself was the one who found me. I was on the streets, eating what I could, sleeping where I could, beating up any criminals I encountered. He said I reminded him of someone he'd known before, and he offered to take me to Beacon. And there my training began. But - My pain was far from over."

Tai tip-toed very cautiously over his next words, "He gave you special treatment?"

"Far from it, but he was like a father to me. Goodwi- Glynda was also very kind. They treated me like the other students, but they assured me if I needed anything, they were there.

"In any case...as you deduced, I passed. Resoundingly. I was partnered up with a fellow Faunus, Check Cremissi. I tell you, there was never a more dysfunctional partnership than ours, but...we were friends. Almost brothers. My other teammates, Sherry Vulpa and Midas Turo, were also like siblings. Especially Sherry." Noir's mouth curved into a smile, "Sherry...you ever know that one girl who never once lets you withdraw, no matter what, and will outright force you to be social?"

Taiyang's eyes practically rolled inside themselves. "Lakshmi Gaja. She was one of Silver's team members. That girl was a bubbly one, which was new for me when meeting someone from Atlas. But she forced everyone to be social and where she didn't succeed, her boyfriend and fiance-to-be, Ventos Janus, would practically kick our asses to go. So yeah, I knew the type."

Noir chuckled at the thought, "That was Sherry. She was even the reason me and Coco Adele dated in my first year...and…"

His smile slowly dropped, "Then it all went to hell. We started our Huntsmen-shadowing missions in our second semester, like Ruby's team did in theirs. For a while, we were successful. 7 Missions, flawlessly executed. And then came our eighth. We were with Port. We were to clear a village of Grimm outside the Kingdom. At first it was fine, but then...the Grimm numbers suddenly drastically increased, and we were separated in the chaos. Sherry and Midas didn't work so well on their own, and...they were mortally wounded."

His expression turned sorrowful, "I saw Sherry fall...and I used my semblance to reach her, pushing it harder than I ever had. I had to help her...but I was too late...and she died in my arms." He bit back another sob, forcing himself to keep going. "Midas fell as well, dying from blood loss and shock. And then...I lost control. I flew into a rage that Port described as 'savage' and 'unlike anything he'd seen.' I slaughtered every single Grimm in that village. And as it turned out -"

The sorrow that riddled his face formed into that of pure anger. " - Check had ran. Ran and hid. Like a coward. Even though he was our leader. A position he resented, but one he'd upheld until that moment. And my two closest friends died for it.

"We returned to Beacon with Midas and Sherry in body bags. I'll never forget Port...he was furious, and that man is a sight when angry. Glynda screamed herself hoarse at Check, and even Ozpin seemed to have a rough go keeping his disappointment from showing. Check dropped out of Beacon two days later. Leaving me alone once again."

Tai didn't know what he could say at this moment. But there was something in him that just felt that something had cursed lost children in Huntsmen schools. It couldn't be no mere coincidence after the incident from years past to Noir's to now months ago.

Noir continued as Tai partially stayed in his thoughts, "So...I withdrew once more. I couldn't leave Beacon, it was my home after all. And I stayed there, ever loyal to Ozpin and Beacon's Ideals...and...well…" He sighed and said softly. "You already know what happened next."

Taiyang started out to the wall, "Qrow told me… that Sil gave a lecture during the festival. What… what all did she say?"

"She gave us a lecture on the importance of unity, and the origin of Grimm, and how Faunus-kind evolved from such. And...well, I discovered that she too knew what I'd lost. More than anyone ever could."

The elder Xiao-Long nodded solemnly, "Yeah. She did. She's never really talked about it, or what happened exactly, but I guess she's starting to just talk about them. Ventos, Lakshmi and Rah. Those three were lost to us, and although they weren't in my team, they were my close friends. You want to blame yourself for what happened, because you feel at fault. But in reality, it wasn't your fault. So… I hope you know that it's the same way for you. That it wasn't your fault."

For a long moment Noir said nothing, the first time in a long while, sitting there silently, contemplating Taiyang's words. Even though he never said it aloud, Taiyang had just nailed his biggest insecurity: He'd felt responsible for his family's deaths, his teammates' deaths, and even partly for the Fall of Beacon. He'd felt inadequate, and weak, as though he should have done more. And without ever hearing this, Tai had just addressed it. Because he knew.

He patted the kid's shoulder, "It'll take time, but you'll recover. I just can't say how long that'll be."

Noir smiled at him, "Thank you...no one's ever heard this story until now. Not even Ozpin heard this story in its entirety. Having told it...I feel...lighter. Like a weight was removed."

"Well, I'm glad you did now. I got to understand you a whole lot more." Tai stood from his seat, stretching his legs, "And if there's anything you're curious about, just ask. You were so open with me, I'll be equally as open with you. Just… not with Yang around for certain topics. Haha."

"Heh..understood." Noir stood back up as well, glancing at the clock. "We should probably get a move on, if we want to finish before company arrives."

"Yup. Oh, a heads up - Port and Oobleck are the ones coming. You're more than welcome to sit around as we talk about fun, old times. Don't feel like we're gonna kick you out."

"On the contrary. It'll be nice to see my teachers again. After all...even I have fun memories I can share."

"Good. Now -" Taiyang grabbed the broom that Noir had left behind before expelling the weight that weighed him down for so long. Taking this broom in his dominant hand, he tossed it to the now lighter Noir Harceleur.

Not surprising to Taiyang at all, the kid caught it without any difficulty. "Consider it done."