AN: Wow, so I'm kind of blown away by warm re-welcoming I received in all the reviews for the last chapter. I said it last time too, but I really didn't expect much of anyone to remember this story, let alone still give a toss about it. So I'm really grateful to find so many familiar usernames had left a review. So many new names too. As you can see, it also gave me the motivation to put out a speedy (comparatively) chapter.

One more important thing I need to say that I didn't last time, but I hope everyone can stay safe. Many of you wished for my health too and I realized it's best I do the same. So long as we're still here, it's possible that no matter how long it takes we can see our projects and dreams through to the end. So let's all do our best during these uncertain times.

I don't actually have much to talk about in regards to the last chapter. Perhaps not surprising given how little the actual content was. Since it's been so long for some readers and myself included, please bear with me as I include information that may be obvious for those just coming into the story. Also for transparency, I went back and made an edit to chapter 5, just to edit Jaune's Semblance to be Canonically accurate. It actually didn't require much since Jaune's Canon semblance allows him to do what he did in that fight anyways, at least it does if you take it to the extreme end. To my knowledge, the show hasn't said it can go that far, but hey, what is fanfiction for if not to put your own spin on things?

So thanks to everyone who stopped by to review and make me feel so loved! I'll continue to do my best to live up to your expectations.


Twin's Game

The Second Day (Part II)

The Assignment


Classes at Beacon covered an array of subjects, however, most of them as you would suspect were suited towards the destruction of Grimm in some way or another. That didn't mean there weren't other subjects.

Maths, for example, while it might not seem relevant at first is actually incredibly important in the line of Huntress and Huntsmen. Take Ruby's giant and impractical scythe for example. Did you know it could also transform into a gun? Not just any kind of a gun, but a high intensity artillery sniper rifle. It could take off a Grimm's head from over several kilometres away, easy.

Well, I said easy but it's actually not all that simple. You have to factor in wind, distance, weight of the bullet, height of the target, any number of factors that can be changing constantly. See where I'm going with this? Math is important. To her. I don't really care so much and so proceeded to sleep through that class.

Yep, you heard that right. I actually slept. No sleeping pills required and it was even after the morning coffee Blake had so generously brewed and poured for me. Turns out there was no greater remedy for sleep deprivation than a teacher droning on and on about a subject you couldn't give two shits about.

My brother had the nerve to be embarrassed enough for the both of us, which if you look at it that way means I didn't have to feel any shame whatsoever. It also had the added benefit of allowing me to avoid everyone. Can't talk to people if you're asleep.

Although he seemed to be fitting in just fine, despite our best efforts to fuck all that up the night before. To my knowledge, no one on RWBY or PRDS had brought up the incident, much to my surprise. I could only imagine how much the boys on Pyrrha's team wanted to, but I had a feeling she was behind their uncharacteristic consideration. Instead, I found all the boys seemed to be getting along rather well upon waking up from first period.

Speaking of, Pyrrha seemed to blend in more with RWBY than she did her own team, and this sense of girl camaraderie appeared to be extended towards me as well. Which I was hardly thrilled about, as I disliked two thirds of them already. Ruby and Blake were at least okay and had taken to defending me from any unwanted pranks during my nap. Weiss appeared deeply troubled by my lack of discipline. Which was unfortunate, as I needed to get along with her. Being the Heiress to a Dust Empire and all would make her an invaluable asset.

Which brings us to History Class taught by one very eccentric Doctor Oobleck. Another kindred soul, if him zooming around the room while holding a thermos of coffee was anything to go by. This was actually a subject I felt invested in and after having had such a wonderful nap decided it would be best to spend this period diligently taking notes.

An act that had apparently turned all the ill-will I earned from first period around. Weiss now sat next to me, her shoulder brushing against mine as she pointed at the last line I just scribbled down. "He covered this bit in our last class as well in more detail. I'll let you look at my notes later so you can fill in the missing information." She whispered, still clearly considerate for the fact that we were in class. Doctor Oobleck didn't seem to mind, likely sympathetic to me and my brother who had just transferred in and were thus fish out of water in this new environment.

"And so, Mr Thrush!" Oobleck boomed, far less sympathetic to the three guys who were goofing off in the back, unfortunately dragging my brother along with them. "Do you perchance have the answer?"

"Uh- ummm…" The green-mohawked doofus glanced around desperately for help, my brother and none of his teammates brave enough to meet his eyes. Finally, his eyes flung down towards us. More specifically to his leader who sat on the other side of Weiss. I could just barely make out her exasperated sigh before she stood up.

"If I may-" She started before exemplarily giving the answer Oobleck was seeking and successfully bailing her subordinate out of his self-made predicament. I couldn't help but click my teeth, absolutely dumbstruck by the fact that not only was she an unbeatable warrior on the field with the power of a whole season crammed inside her, but a model student to boot. Just how much could God love one person?

"Excellent job Miss Nikos!" The Doctor praised, before zipping off to a completely new location, seemingly at random, to continue his lecture as if nothing happened. I got the impression that the only reason he even asked a question was to call out the boys in the back for goofing around, which was also why he hadn't appeared to be perturbed when Pyrrha had intervened to answer in their place.

"As expected." Yang leaned over me, pressing her flabby boobs in my face as she extended her metal arm to give Pyrrha a high five. I thought about telling her to shove it, only managing not to because I knew that was exactly what she wanted. I had yet to speak in front of her, which went over about as well as you would expect when it inevitably came out that I felt ever so gracious enough to allow Blake the honour of hearing my voice.

"Hardly," Pyrrha gave a graceful shake of the head, but nonetheless returned Yang's high-five. Albeit slightly awkwardly as she had to shift with the cast that covered her other arm. Something I was still damn proud of, if you must know. "I just happen to find the subject itself rather fascinating." Regrettably, something she said that I agreed with. What had the world come to?

The very subject Oobleck was speed-talking about now were Mistrali myths and legends. In other words, fairy tales. I couldn't tell if that was a coincidence or if this was an intentional ploy. Headmaster Ozpin was aware of it, but were all the teachers in on the secret too? The fact that in this classroom right now, there were four people with powers that couldn't be called a Semblance, but was more akin to magic.

Cause those powers came right out of Fairy Tales.

"And now, I will announce the details of your assignment!" Oobleck's shout from right next to our desk caused me to jump, snapping me out of my musings. The collection of groans from the rest of the class caught me up to the reality of the situation. "Please, there's no need for such theatrics!" The Doctor's voice this time came from the other side of the room. "For this assignment I will allow you all to work with a partner!" And then there was a collective sigh. So predictable.

"Yes, yes!" This time his voice was followed by a small yelp from my brother. I met eyes for a brief second with my twin and in that second there was an almost imperceptible change. You couldn't tell while in the light of the classroom, but our eyes were glowing now as our senses intermingled. I could feel the still peaked emotions from his startled surprise when Oobleck had appeared next to him.

Naturally, he could also feel my emotions pouring back into the other end and immediately sensed my desire to partner with him for this assignment. With my intent passed, I cut the connection a moment later. Of course, I would like to maintain the connection at all times, but there were several complications with that.

First of all, while it was hard to see that our eyes were glowing while in a brightly lit room, it wasn't necessarily impossible. So it was better not to do something that would give us away. Leaving our connection for only a second, even if someone did catch sight of it, would be easy to chalk it up to just a trick of the light.

Our combined Auras would also be a giveaway but we already very blatantly displayed this during or exhibition match against PRDS. Most people probably thought it was Jaune's Semblance that did that, but it was best not to make them think he was using it in class. So it was best just to maintain it for that one second, which was all I had needed for him to know that we were going to partner. In case those guys on Pyrrha's team tried to snag him first.

"Incidentally!" The voice again came from just nearby our desk. "The partner you choose must be with someone from a different team." Well fuck. That threw a wrench in that plan. It was all I could do not to glare at the speedy doctor but when our eyes did make contact, I saw him give a quick wink before once again blurring off.

Damn it, why did everyone here have to be so damn "helpful"?

"The assignment will be on today's lesson!" Oobleck continued, ignorant to my distress at having to partner with one of these… people. "Everyone of you will pick some Mithrali myth or legend and prepare a five minute presentation on it to be delivered at next week's class. Only one legend per partner group, so email me as soon as you have your theme to secure it. That is all! You have until the end of this period to pick your partners, good luck!" And with that, he disappeared, the door to the classroom flapping open and closed.

"Alright," Yang slammed her hands on the table, the metallic one making an extra loud clap, as she stood up and grinned at Pyrrha from over me. "Call your boys over here and let's get this sorted." Well, I supposed that much made sense. At least if I was going to have to partner with someone, it would already be people I was familiar with.

"I call Joan!" Ruby dashed around her sister, suddenly clinging to my arm like an over-attached chimpanzee. It took every ounce of muscle in my face to not grimace. Honestly, Ruby was probably one of the only few I would actually want to be with, but I also had to think about who would be good to work with on a project. In that sense…

Despite myself, I found my eyes darting to the Vytal Tournament Champion and found she was staring up at her team… and my brother. Damnit, I wanted to complain but nothing I said would work as a logical argument seeing as I couldn't partner with him in the first place. I would just be throwing a tantrum without accomplishing anything.

"Not this time, Ruby." To my relief, Yang pulled her little sister off my arm and gave me a smug grin. "You got to give them the rounds yesterday, let someone else team up with the twins why don't'cha you greedy kid?"

"...Fine." Ruby folded her arms and pouted, which was actually kind of adorable as her legs swung back and forth, being supported only by the hood of her cloak that she wore even over the Beacon uniform.

"Yep, which means…" Yang grinned at me and the warm feeling I got from watching Ruby immediately dropped. "Ah, don't make that face!" My fellow blonde snickered. "I already know we wouldn't end up making a great team, but…" Her lilac eyes meandered purposely to her partner.

"I don't mind." Blake shrugged before giving me a warm smile. "Is that okay with you?" This was actually pretty agreeable, all things considered. She wasn't quite as serious as Weiss, but Blake had been quite diligent during our studies so far up to what I had seen. Add to that and she was someone I could already speak to, if only a little.

So before any other possible interruptions presented itself I returned her smile with a nod and the strongest smile I could muster. Which wasn't much, but it seemed to be enough to seal the deal.

"Okay, with that settled…" Yang must have also seen Pyrrha's look because she had a mischievous glint in her eye. "How about it, Lady Killer?"

"Huh?" My brother had just arrived and looked back at the other three guys he was accompanying to try and figure out who Yang was addressing before finally coming to the only possible conclusion. "Me?" He pointed at himself, still in apparent disbelief at the sudden nickname.

"Yeah, you." Yang placed a hand on her hip and nodded towards Pyrrha. More specially, the cast she was forced to wear. "Seeing as it was you who broke our Champion's arm yesterday, I'd say it's only right you take responsibility and help her with the project."

"Yang." Pyrrha sent a sharp glance, finally displaying some emotion other than that calm demeanor she always had before it disappeared as quickly as it came. By the time she turned back to my brother she was all pleasantries and smiles yet again. "Please don't pay her any mind. You don't have to feel obligated to partner up with me. However, if you have no problem with it I would be glad for the opportunity to work together." How very diplomatic of her.

I didn't bother to hide it as I rolled my eyes in disgust, but no one appeared to be paying attention to me anyways. All their attention on the current stars of this little rom-com playing out in front of us.

"Ah…" Jaune rubbed the back of his head, eyes darting once more back to the other boys before once again looking at me as if asking what to do. I could only grimace, but didn't have any kind of excuse to give in order for him to turn her down. "That's fine with me. I look forward to working with you." He extended a palm and she absolutely beamed as she reached out to shake it.

With us twins successfully paired off with someone from each team, the other six pretty quickly broke off into pairs of their own by drawing lots. Ruby was put with Russel, Weiss with Sky, leaving Yang and Dove together. It all happened so efficiently I couldn't imagine this was the first time they'd done it. It was just the addition of us unusual transfer students that temporarily interrupted that flow.

No sooner was that all determined and the bell rang. History class was over and we officially had our first group project. Oh yay.

"Come on." Blake rested a hand on my shoulder before I could bee-line it to my brother. "Let's go to the library so we can pick a topic." It was just one thing after the other and it felt like I could hardly speak with Jaune, let alone spend any time with him.

"That sounds wonderful." Pyrrha chirped, approaching us with my twin in tow. "How about the two of us accompany you as well?" I had never been so torn in my life. Of course, being with my twin would be ideal, but having to be slapped together with Pyrrha at the same time was downright unbearable.

"Of course." Regardless, Blake made the decision for me. Not that I could blame her for it, since it was a given I wasn't going to say anything to begin with. Besides, in the end I knew being with Jaune would have won out. "What will you do?" Blake turned to her partner, but Yang and Dove were both already walking the other way.

"We'll figure it out later." Yang called, clearly not interested in heading to the library. Not that I could picture that loud-mouth and libraries mixing to begin with. Russel and Sky were also meandering off, leaving their partners behind.

"I've already got an idea for what topic we'll cover." Weiss crossed her arm, glaring at the backs of the retreating boys. "So we'll pass on the library for now too."

"I wanna go…" Ruby meanwhile just pouted, looking at me with puppy-dog eyes as if asking for forgiveness for God knew what. "But I gotta report to Ozpin so he knows I properly showed you around yesterday. Otherwise I won't get credit for my missed classes."

"You don't have to worry, we understand." Blake assured her leader, the remaining members of RWBY starting a brief conversation as I snuck off to my brother's side.

"Class?" I asked him, just quietly enough under my breath for only him to hear.

"Yeah…" He gave a pathetic chuckle, once again rubbing the back of his head. "I might be in trouble. History was never my strong suit to begin with, but I didn't know the first thing they were trying to teach us in first period. It's beyond anything we did back home." Made sense. I hadn't been awake for our maths class, but I had glanced at the textbook deposited in our rooms last night. The formulas and such were beyond anything I'd ever seen too. I didn't think I was particularly dumb, but the fact of the matter was we were way behind anything that they were covering here.

History would be fine for me, but no doubt Doctor Oobleck's rapid-fire speech contained far too much information for my brother to keep up with. Especially with those three idiots distracting him the entire time.

"If the two of you need help, I would be glad to tutor you until you're caught up." Of course, miss goody-two shoes had to step in and interrupt our conversation. She smiled at the both of us, no doubt feeling saintly and proud of herself for having the humility to be able to look out for those lesser than her out of the goodness of her heart.

"Really?" Of course, my pure-hearted brother couldn't see it that way and only saw the offer as a Godsend. He reached both hands forward and grabbed the hand of Pyrrha's unbroken arm. "That would save us so much… I don't know what I'm going to do otherwise." He said with tears of joy practically waterfalling down the side of his face.

"O-Oh, it's no problem at all." It was hard to tell against the red of her hair, but I was pretty sure the hue of the champion's face changed slightly, her leafy green eyes darting back and forth, uncertain where to look. 'Lady-Killer' indeed, I thought dryly. Yang's nickname making sense in more ways than one. It was even more impressive, considering Pyrrha should have been far more used to boys, being stuck on a team with three of them for crying out loud.

"Ready to go then?" Blake approached us before I could do something to get my brother to let go of her hand. Ruby and Weiss were already leaving, the younger girl waving backwards and calling her goodbyes. Despite myself, I returned her farewell with the smallest wave of my own and by the time I turned back to my twin he had already let go of Pyrrha's hand.

"Yes, let us be off." Pyrrha said, voice slightly higher than normal and absentmindedly playing with a loose strand of her hair. The three of them set off, and I couldn't help but narrow my eyes at the Vytal Champion's back before following a step behind them.

It was obvious even as early as the match yesterday, but she'd taken an interest in my brother. The smart, practical thing to do would be to use that to our advantage. Pyrrha's very existence was a presence in and of itself. Just the fact that her and Jaune were spending time together could help deter the rumors that always followed the two of us wherever we went.

It was for the same reason those rumors always started though that I couldn't abide to let such a thing happen. I resolved to quash whatever was starting to bud before it got too much further.

First, I had this assignment to worry about.