Volume 2 Chapter 4: Trouble in Paradise

AN: Well, here's the start of our once weekly uploads. Sorry about it again, I don't particularly like it either, but I don't have the time anymore to be writing enough for twice weekly uploads.

EDIT: Apologies for the hilariously late upload. On vacation in Vegas, two hour time difference, dinner and a show with family, and the time I've had to work on this was sporadic at best. Hopefully this is still a good time for you guys.

Anyways, the semester's just started at Beacon, and as we all know by now (courtesy of a minor Kassidy panic attack) new Kingdoms are arriving in force. Included in the bunch of new arrivals are two particular teams from Mistral, one of which having a significantly less… Sunny disposition than the other. How does RWKY's first contact with them go? Depends on who you ask.

(Perspective: Kassidy)

"… and then he had the audacity to accuse me of wasting my time with a profession fit only for barbarians!" lamented Weiss. "Ugh, I swear, Whitley is trying to be a pest on purpose most days."

Kassidy choked down the bite of sandwich she was in the middle of, then tried to say over Ruby and Yang's giggles, "Aren't you overexaggerating a bit, Weiss? I'm sure your brother isn't actually that bad."

"Overexaggerate, me?" Weiss asked. "You're one to talk, Miss We're Being Invaded."

"Hey, we had a bunch of military airships set down and start offloading robot troops. You tell me what your first reaction would've been," Kassidy shot back. Still, the gesture was useless, and the two half-sisters were laughing even harder now. Fighting back a blush, she huffed and set her focus on their surroundings. The first week of classes had ended, and the team (meaning the two sisters) decided that it would be best if they all got lunch out that Sunday. In an interesting coincidence, they had found the café that Kassidy had met Sun at nearly two months ago; hell, as far as she could tell they were even at the same table. Still, she mused, the company's certainly better. Definitely not trying to flirt with me, at least.

Suddenly, Kassidy felt an arm snake around her shoulders and pull her in for a quick hug. "So," Yang began, "what plans does my wonderful and intelligent partner have for the day?"

And I take that back. They're simply not trying to flirt with me as much as Sun was. Kassidy shook her head and thought about her currently nonexistent plans. "Oh, tons. Probably spend the afternoon working out and working the firing range. And then… actually, don't you still need help with that trig assignment, Ruby? So yeah, I've got a full afternoon planned."

Yang hummed in thought for a moment, then replied by declaring it, "Lame!"

Weiss scoffed, "How is studying, improving her skills, and helping her teammates lame?"

"How is studying not lame?" a sudden voice asked next to them. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all jumped, but Kassidy quickly recognized it as belonging to a certain blonde-haired monkey Faunus. Looking over, she confirmed it, but was quickly befuddled by his blue haired companion.

Still, Kassidy forged on and decided to refute his statement. "There's no such thing as knowing too much. Besides, studying can be fun! Right, Weiss?"

"No, no, no! I know what ya mean!" Sun quickly backtracked, before snaking over to stand right next to them, and to Kassidy. "Learning can definitely be fun, right, Nep? I'm just talking about studying in general. Just, I dunno, reading stuff that we already know to fill in bubbles… ugh!"

Kassidy was about to argue the point further, but stopped as she felt Yang's hand grip her upper arm. RWKY's other blonde talked in Kassidy's stead, answering, "I know! That's what I can't get my partner to understand! Uh, it's Sun, right?"

Sun quickly confirmed, "Yup! Oh, hey, you guys haven't met Neptune yet, have you? Yeah, this is my geek of a-"

"Ah, pup, pup!" Neptune interrupted. "Intellectual. Not geek."

"Nah, you're definitely a geek," Sun argued.

"Actually," Kassidy interjected, "I can answer with some certainty that he's not a geek." Sun looked at her with a dropped jaw and raised eyebrows, while Neptune was wearing a far too confident smirk. Kassidy smirked back, before shooting down their expectations with, "He's a nerd. Not cool enough to be with us geeks."

"How would you know, Kassidy?" All heads turned to Weiss, who seemed to be trying to decide whether to focus her attention on Kassidy or Neptune. "You don't even know the boy. He could be quite cool."

"Thank you for understanding, Snow Angel," Neptune smoothly said. Kassidy bit her lip, expected Weiss' expected meltdown at being called that 'insipid' nickname… and was quite shocked when none came. "Weiss, I do believe I've heard?"

"Weiss Schnee," she confirmed.

"Alright, alright, we get it, Nep's cool, way to prove it yet again, bud. Hey, is this seat next to you open? Thanks." Without even waiting to be invited to have a seat, Sun leapt on the chair next to Kassidy and continued his prior conversation. "So, what've you been up to since we threw down with that Torchwick guy a couple months ago?"

Kassidy opened her mouth, then immediately closed it as Yang absolutely clamped down on her arm, almost painfully. She looked back, and Kassidy felt her jaw drop ever so slightly to see Yang giving Sun a fierce glare. Yang suddenly spoke up, "We've been hanging out all summer long. As partners."

"Wow, cool, cool." Sun continued to talk, but Kassidy ignored it in favor of shooting Ruby a questioning glance, with a raised brow at Yang's behavior. The sole remaining fifteen year old at the table could naught but offer a shrug.

"What?!" A forceful tug on her arm accompanied the nearly shouted question, and Kassidy found her attention, and most of her body, drawn to Yang, this time her glare focused on her.

"Uh, what're we talking about, again?" was what Kassidy meekly asked. "I kinda spaced out a bit while you two were talking."

If Kassidy wasn't somewhat afraid of what was going on before, she was now when she saw hints of crimson flicker into Yang's eyes. "Sun just said this isn't the first time you and he have had lunch here. He said that you two were alone last time."

"Um… we were?" That answer seemed to be the wrong one, as Yang growled at her before her glare leveled onto Sun. Trying to defuse whatever the hell was going on, Kassidy explained, "Look, it was the day after my simulation, while I was out in Vale. I needed information, Sun said he had some, we met here to talk and he happened to eat a sandwich while telling me that Torchwick was planning on robbing the docks that night. Seriously… the hell is going on right now with you?"

"So you weren't on a date with him?" asked Yang.

Kassidy's jaw dropped slightly and her eyes bugged out, and she had to shake her head clear to reply back, "Of course not, I had literally just met the guy! We were just exchanging information." Yang seemed to calm down after that, but then Kassidy unknowingly stoked the fires with, "He certainly tried flirting with me enough times to try and turn it into a date, though."

"Oh, did he now?" The vice-like grip on Kassidy's arm had returned, and Yang's glare resumed on Sun full-force.

Sun defended, "Uh, yeah! Don't tell me you haven't flirted with any cute boys you've come across!"

"I di… I would ne… that's not the point! At least I-"

"Guys, enough!" Kassidy interrupted, finally yanking her arm out of Yang's grip. "Seriously, the hell is going on with you two? I don't know if you two have met each other, or what, but you're at each other's throats a few minutes after saying 'hi'. I'm… I'm gonna go use the restroom. Let me know when you two are capable to speaking civilly to each other, and whenever… whatever this is, is done." Emphasizing her point, Kassidy stepped up from the table they were at, and retreated to the interior of the store.

Alright… what's gotten into Yang? Sun came up, she grabbed my arm, and then when he sat next to me she… did she leave a bruise on my arm?! Looking closer at the mirror, Kassidy could indeed see a band of purple forming where Yang had clamped down on her bicep. Shaking her head, she tried to make heads or tails of what was going on out there. Her partner… no, not just her partner, but her girlfriend, was all but frothing at the mouth at the guy who had told her about Torchwick's raid on the docks and fought with her. And Sun seemed more than willing to meet her head on, in a move that spoke either of immense bravery, or a suicidal streak… probably both. What's worse, they seemed to be arguing about her. Kassidy hadn't even done anything wrong, had she? She rinsed her face off, then resolved to head back out to lunch and get to the bottom of this.

Of course, the view that Kassidy found whenever she got back to the patio was almost enough to make her pull a 'Nope!' and walk back into the store. Both Yang and Sun were in each other's faces and shouting their heads off, Weiss and that Neptune guy were sitting together watching the whole ordeal, and poor Ruby didn't look like she could do anything but try and hide in her hood. Finding no help coming any time soon from the half-sister, Kassidy instead turned to Weiss and motioned at the two blondes arguing quite vehemently in front of them. Weiss nodded, and with a quick flick of her wrists both Yang and Sun were forcibly separated by a pair of glyphs that quickly shifted to ensnare them.

Kassidy took advantage of the separation and stood in between the two of them, taking turns to glare daggers at each before turning to Sun. "Look, Sun, as much as I never got the chance to say 'thank you' for helping me out at the docks, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't go about antagonizing my girlfriend here with… whatever the fuck this was."

Oddly enough, Sun instantly paled at the declaration. "Oh, fuck… you two are a thing? Holy shit, I'm so sorry, Yang, I didn't even think-"

"No, you didn't," Kassidy interrupted. Deciding that Sun had gotten the message, she wheeled around and shoved her finger in Yang's vicious red eyes. "And you! We need to talk. I have no idea what the fuck's gotten into you, but if I can look forward to bruises every time we meet someone, I need to know."

Just as quickly as Sun, Yang paled and the red fled from her eyes as her jaw dropped to the patio's floor. "What do you mean brui…" Kassidy tilted her head at Yang having trailed off, before she followed her line of sight to the now prominent bruise on her upper arm. Yang didn't know she did that, even?

Kassidy put two and two together quickly, and then met Yang's eyes again and drove the point home. "Yeah, you did that. I hope you've got answers for that."

Yang's eyes kept flickering between her own and the bruise on her arm, and… was she crying? Weiss released her glyphs, and Yang slumped bonelessly back into her seat while Sun took a few steps back, his vigor renewed as he seemed fit to start arguing again.

Neptune came to the rescue, however, standing up and pulling on Sun's shoulder. "Uh, hey Sun, remember how Sage and Scarlet wanted to do some sparring right about now? Yeah, let's go do that. See you later, girls, Weiss." Accompanying Weiss' name with a wink, he drug Sun behind him and out the store.

The four girls of RWKY took glances at each other, each trying to piece together what was going to happen next, though it seemed like Yang could barely see through a veritable wall of tears that had sprung up in front of her eyes. Kassidy went to put her hand on Yang's shoulder, but Yang just brushed it off and, after excusing herself, stormed out of the café. It was eventually Ruby who managed to squeak out, "Yeah, I think Yang has the right idea, let's head back to Beacon now," before dashing after her. Kassidy and Weiss stared at each other, before shrugging and chasing after the two half-sisters.

The whole way back to Beacon, and indeed for much of the day afterwards, Kassidy kept going over that lunch in her head, wondering what she did that was so wrong.

Weiss slid her Scroll over the sensor and opened the door, admitting the two girls in. Kassidy slumped in after her self-appointed swordswomanship trainer, ditching her bag at the foot of her bed and collapsing bonelessly in her desk chair. She pulled out Bob and pulled up a segment of his code that she had thought of some optimization to during their training mission yesterday, but couldn't bring herself to start typing.

This has to be the worst day I've had in months. And it started so well, too!

She hadn't seen Yang ever since lunch. Yang and Ruby had apparently spent all day sparring and working out together, while Kassidy and Weiss spent the first half of the afternoon studying before working on their training some more. But not even getting a few good hits in on Weiss was able to get through the glum mood she was in.

Kassidy worked best when she had the facts; unfortunately, at this juncture she had precious few facts to work with. The team was eating lunch together. Sun and Neptune came up and started talking to them. Yang grabbed her arm. Sun sat down next to her, completely ignoring what Kassidy felt were quite obvious hints that the seat next to her was not in fact open. Yang squeezed Kassidy's arm so hard it bruised. Yang and Sun started yelling at each other. Weiss had to separate them. Sun seemed shocked to find out that she and Yang had been dating. Yang had been even more shocked to find out that she had left a bruise on her arm. Ugh, something that sent my girlfriend to tears immediately after having a shouting match with a guy that probably saved my life while I was busy doing the whole murder-death-Colossus thing at the docks, and all I have to figure out what went wrong are snapshots of the conversation. If I can't –

"You opened my code ten minutes ago and have yet to begin typing. Is it safe to assume that something's wrong?"

Kassidy blinked, before realizing that yes, Bob indeed asked her a question. She took a few seconds to process it, then slowly asked, "Didn't you see the footage from my iris cam?"

"You never wore it today. I seem to recall Ruby and Yang having drug you out the moment you returned from your morning workout and shower, before you were able to prepare."

"Oh." Kassidy slumped even further back in her chair; at this point, it was a miracle that Weiss wasn't yelling at her to fix her posture. "So you have no idea what happened at lunch today, do you?"

"That's kind of how it works around here."

Kassidy swallowed thickly, and after a quick glance showed that Weiss had stopped studying and was mildly annoyed by the interruption, decided to get it over with. "Well, we were sitting there, eating, talking, and just having a good time…"

"Like how most lunch dates go," Bob interrupted.

"It wasn't a date! At least, I don't think it was," Kassidy argued. Sighing, she continued, "Then Sun, that monkey Faunus I told you about whenever I was out in Vale after the sims, showed up with this Neptune guy he's friends with."

"Surely the arrival of two males to your meal wasn't what has you in your current demeanor, is it?"

"Actually, it kinda is…" Shaking her head, Kassidy forded on with, "Sun started asking some questions, then Yang grabbed my arm and started acting all defensive and stuff. Before I knew it, they were shouting at each other, then Yang grabbed my arm so hard it made it bruise, and asked me whether or not I dated Sun back then. Right then, I've got five people staring at me, two of which looking like they'd rip my head off if I gave a wrong answer, and then as soon as I said something they went back to yelling at each other. Neptune drug Sun off, and then Yang ran off in tears and I haven't seen her since and I have no idea what even started everything except that I have something to do with it and now I've been going over the past however long trying to figure out what I did and –"

"You're rambling again." Bob interrupted her a second time, cutting through her rapidly accelerating pace of words and getting her to take a few breaths. After a moment's time, he began, "That's interesting, I've actually been in a conversation with Yang for the past half hour, and she has quite a different perspective on the matter."

"Wait, you've been talking to Yang?!" Kassidy all but leapt out of her seat, and ignored Weiss groaning and pinching the bridge of her nose in favor of focusing on her computer. "Where is she? I need to talk to her! What's she been talking to you about?"

"I don't think it is my place to tell you what our conversation entailed. Specifically because she's on her way back up to the dorm now to talk to you."

Just then, the door unlocked and opened to admit first Ruby, and then Yang, the latter immediately arresting all of Kassidy's attention. Normally, the fact that Yang had only worn a sports bra and shorts to her workout was enough to cause all sorts of reactions of varying degrees from the other three girls in the room, as would the sweat and smell. But what drew Kassidy's attention were Yang's swollen and puffy lilac eyes, still red from crying. They stared at each other for a few moments, each not knowing how to proceed, but then Ruby finally elbowed Yang in the side and cajoled her sister into making the first move. Taking a tentative step forward, Yang finally admitted, "K… I need to ask you something."

Kassidy let out the breath she had been holding, then started, "So do-"

"But before I do," Yang interrupted, "I need to say something." Finally closing the distance with shaky steps, Yang immediately eliminated the remaining space between them as she wrapped Kassidy up in a ferocious hug, and immediately started bawling into her shoulder, all while repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Kassidy returned the hug at once, and, fearing that she wouldn't be able to support both their weights if Yang's legs gave, guided the both of them to her bed to have a seat. Finally finding a break in the broken sobs and apologies, she managed to get through, "What's this about? Yang, talk to me." When Yang merely pulled her head back to look at her with an agape mouth and raised eyebrows, Kassidy explained, "Look, I have no idea what happened today. All I know is you got really defensive when Sun showed up and it had something to do with me and then you two started yelling at each other and then you started crying and it's my fault you cried and I'm –"

Yang's choked, broken sobs interrupted her; it seemed like Kassidy was getting interrupted a lot tonight. At any rate, Yang finally managed to control herself enough that she was able to choke out, "You think you did something wrong? You dork. You weren't the one that left bruises on your girlfriend." She spat the last sentence out with all the vigor she would with a dose of poison, then shook her head and met Kassidy's eyes again. "I never… I didn't even realize I was grabbing you so hard. I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant –"

"Yang, relax!" Kassidy had to fight the urge to laugh at her concern, since that would obviously make the whole situation worse. "I'm fine. I've had a hell of a lot worse than a bruise –"

"And that's the problem!" Yang yelled. Her chest heaved, then she added, "You shouldn't have to worry about worse with me. I'm the last person you need to worry about hurting you. I shouldn't… I should have never…"

"Yang," Kassidy stated, once her partner's voice trailed off. "Relax. I'm fine. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about you hurting me. Just tell me what happened with you and Sun. I'm not the best at this kind of stuff, and I'll happily be the first to admit it." Finally failing at holding back a sniffle, Kassidy finished with, "Tell me what I did wrong."

Yang seemed to have trouble deciding whether to laugh or to cry, but after closing her eyes and taking some deep breaths, she managed to calm herself down and open her eyes back up. "Nothing," she insisted. "I assumed the worst with you. I… I assumed you were dating Sun. I assumed that you'd been cheating on me with him, or you'd been cheating on him with me, or… I dunno." Finally breaking her embrace, Yang fell back bonelessly into Kassidy's bed as if she had no energy left. Tired lilac eyes looked up at her, and Yang continued, "I assumed the worst, I got mad, and I let me temper get the better of me."

"That's what this is about? You thought I was dating Sun?" Yang nodded, and Kassidy failed once again to ignore her impulses, this time giggling like a madwoman. Quickly getting control of herself once again, however, Kassidy explained, "Yang, if you had seen how many times I'd told him to quit flirting with me while we were out getting ready to bust up Torchwick's little job… ugh, if he never flirted with me again until the day I died it'd be too soon." Finding where Yang's hand had slumped against the covers and grabbing it, Kassidy said, "I'm not about to start dating Sun. You couldn't pay me to do that."

Finally, Weiss seemed as though she'd had enough. Huffing and standing up so violently she knocked her desk's chair over, she announced, "Seriously, if you two dating is going to cause this much drama… I don't even know where to start with you two. Just quit interrupting my studying, and we can go from there."

Ruby, Kassidy, and Yang all traded glances, and right on cue all three started laughing uproariously. It took a solid minute for Kassidy to finally choke out, "Oh, there's Weiss again. Was wondering where you went."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing, Weiss!" Ruby put her foot down on that particular argument before it began, before turning back to the two blondes. "Is it… are you two okay now?"

Kassidy eyeballed Yang, and felt confident enough to say for the both of them, "Yeah, I think we are. We are, aren't we?"

"Speak for yourself," Yang yawned. "I'm more tired than that time I punched a hundred Beowolves in Patch. Wake me up when it's morning."

Kassidy blinked. Then she blinked again, just to make sure she heard that correctly. Finally, she replied, "You're in my bed."

"Don't care."

"You're in your more… minimalistic? gym attire."

"Don't care."

A quick sniff of the air confirmed to Kassidy what she suspected. "You reek to high heaven. You're washing my sheets tomorrow."

Yang finally groaned out, "Do. Not. Care." Rolling over and hugging a pillow to her face, Yang followed her statement with, "Good. Night."

Feeling perplexed as to how to get Yang into her proper bed, Kassidy looked around, only to find that Ruby was already climbing into her bunk and Weiss wasn't too far behind. It was clear that everyone in the room, her included, was more than done with the day. "Well, looks like I get Yang's bunk," Kassidy muttered, before climbing up into the top bed and thankfully not knocking it loose from its perch. It took her a few minutes to get to sleep, but that was time well spent figuring out a new mystery.

Peaches, Kassidy decided the new smell to be. Makes sense, I guess.

AN 2: I'm tired, you're tired probably, we're all tired! Let's get these reviewer responses over with so we can begin the full seven-day wait for next week's chapter.

Coming up next: Colossus goes after some Paladins

Akshka: In Ozpin's defense, as much as the community likes to make him out to be some omniscient demigod character, he doesn't know that there's about to be a virus uploaded into the system. This was a perfectly rational thing to do, especially since if he didn't do it then the council would've done worse and he wouldn't have control over it.

AndJrew76: Hopefully the surprises are a good thing, I try to make them as such.

Baconlord53: Huh, no kidding? Well, I guess I still have plenty of time to figure it out, ba-dum-tss.

Tykene: Glad to hear I entertained you so well. Hope things continue to go well in your neck of the woods.

Firearm legume: As of this moment, other than the other academies' teams that show up for the Vytal festival (and I'm not doing any hijinks with them, gonna be the same guys as were in canon), all characters have been introduced that will be present in this story. So no, I won't, sorry.

AgentDraakis: This is now RWKYcanon.