Big Issues

AN: Special thanks to sennar0808 and OGGuy21 for favoriting and following this story. It makes me glad to see that this is still being enjoyed. And yes, I can agree that the last chapter was 'Badass'.

On another note, this is the first of a few filler chapters, this one probably being the shortest and most randomized of them all as it changes perspectives. I'm also kinda hoping to hear some guesses as to what Denko and Anya's semblances are, hints have been given in some of the chapters. First one to guess correctly gets a cookie!

Recovery

Team RWBY were glad that classes weren't in session today, otherwise they would have slept through half of them. Ruby had a couple bruises from her fall that were slow to heal since she was exhausted. Weiss felt like a giant bruise herself and had a constant headache from being slammed around by the White Fang brute, having her aura broken multiple times yesterday certainly didn't help. Blake may have been the best in terms of injuries, merely being sore and tired. Yang had bruises on her face and the back of her head, but she was no less exhausted than the others. Both Weiss and Yang were told to take things easy for the next few days for their heads to heal and to return in two days for further evaluation.

Part of their recovery included a double-rations from the cafeteria that morning. They were physically exhausted and needed the energy and the extra resources to help them heal. Then they had a shower… Talon and Itazura were tasked with helping the girls as Anya refused and went for her own shower and Denko wasn't allowed in the girls' shower for obvious reasons which left him to play guard after his own shower.

"Itazura! Stop it! That tickles!" He could hear Ruby shouting along with some splashing.

"Why should I? You're so soft and squishy!" He heard his sister laughing.

He dropped his head into his hands, making sure to cover his ears as best he could. The sight of a pair of heels in front of him caused the Shade Academy student to look up to find Glynda looking at him. "Um… Hi?"

"Just what is going on in there?" The Deputy Headmistress asks him with her arms crossed.

"Honestly… I don't want to know or think about it." He covers his face and ears again. Even with his ears covered, he could hear the laughing, the giggling, the splashing, the occasional thumps against the walls. He was a young man who found himself surrounded by women often and he had an active imagination. He was just glad that he wasn't in some show or story where a man in his position would be fought over by the girls.

"I see." She spares him a pitying glance, knowing that there were more than a few boys in his position who'd be trying to sneak a peek at the very least. At least he had some self-control. Or a form of self-preservation. Or just had that much respect for the opposite sex. Perhaps a combination of the three. "Very well, I'll take care of the situation." She states before walking inside, pulling her riding crop from her boot as she went.

Smack! "Ahh! What the hell!" He could hear Yang loud and clear and it didn't take much of an imagination to guess what had happened.

Smack! "Eep!" Ruby had her turn followed by a thump, probably ran into a wall.

Smack! "Nya!" That didn't sound very upset…

Smack! "Yip!" He'd recognize his sister's voice anywhere.

Smack! "Oh, come on!" Talon seemed more upset that the 'fun' was over more than that she was smacked. Smack! She must've gotten a second round.

Smack! "How dare you!" Yep, Weiss got one too.

Hmm… nothing for Anya. Then again, she would have been the least likely to join in with whatever the girls were doing. When Goodwitch began to lecture the girls, he tuned her out with practiced ease and went for a walk to get away for a bit, distract his mind.

"Hey man, what's up?" Neptune greets the blonde with a smile, Sun, Sage and Scarlet not far behind.

"Not much." He took note of the small bundles the boys were carrying and the sandals they were wearing. "Gonna hit the showers?"

"After a day of kicking Grimm butt? Yeah, we could use a scrub down." Sun shifted his supplies to his tail to hold to free up his hands as he punched at the air.

"Well… you might want to wait until Goodwitch gets out." Denko warns them.

"Wait, Professor Goodwitch is in our showers?" Scarlet asks as his face starts to turn his namesake.

"No." Denko pinches the bridge of his nose as he didn't want to think about what was going on more than he had too. "She's dealing with the girls after they got a little… rowdy."

All four boys' eyes widened at the news. Then Neptune began to move towards the showers.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" Sun yells at his best friend, though he kept his voice low enough that he wouldn't be heard from the showers entrance. His hands kept hold of the taller boys' shoulders so he couldn't go anywhere. "You realize Weiss is in there?"

Neptune's eyes widened a bit from his usual confident look that he had adopted. Next to him, Sun saw that Denko had given him a nod of confirmation and approval.

"Not to mention Blake." Sage adds, finding it amusing that his leader scrunched his eyes shut as his cheeks reddened.

"And Yang will crush your balls." Denko warns, having been told by the blonde what she had done the first time she visited Junior's Club.

That was all that Neptune needed to grow stiff and pale at the thought. Being rejected by women he hit on was bad enough but he never let that get to him. The idea of a bunch of angry girls coming after him… gave him the shivers.

"Hmph, didn't even have to tell him that my team is in there as well. They don't need to touch him to make him suffer." Denko smirk widened as the blue-haired boy shivered again along with the other three at the implication.

The five boys found themselves to be content to stay where they were until Goodwitch walked out looking somewhat satisfied. She spared them a glance, noting that they were a good distance from the showers, not that the boys' and girls' showers didn't have a divider that blocked any attempts to cross in any way from one side to the other. The presence of her riding crop in hand was more than enough to get the warning across.

"Yeah… let's make this quick guys." Sun states before dashing off into his side of the shower house, followed by his teammates. Denko simply returned to his previous 'guard' position and pointedly faced away from the door, playing on his scroll to occupy himself.

In less than five minutes, all seven girls filed out of the door in their pajamas with sandals on their feet to travel to and from the dorms. A cool breeze swept through and sucked away the warmth of the showers from the girls, causing them to shiver briefly to Denko's amusement.

"Think that's funny?" Yang asks as she grabs his arm. The meal and cleaning time had helped her regain her strength and energy.

"Kinda, just like when Glynda marched in there." He laughs at their embarrassment.

"You jerk!" Yang jumps onto his back and wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. To his credit, he barely stumbled from the extra weight. "Did you send her in there?"

"Yeah, she hit us hard." Ruby rubs her bottom.

"She didn't have to hit me; I wasn't doing anything." Weiss crosses her arms.

"Maybe it was because you weren't doing anything." Anya scoffs at the Heiress.

"Why didn't you get smacked sis?" Talon asks, she knew she had a pair of welts that gave her a good reminder of their presence when she sat.

"Because I was minding my own business and still cleaning up. Princess Snowflake apparently thought it was fun to watch everything."

"Hey!"

"I thought you were tired?" Denko asks the girls, ignoring the blonde on his back.

"Food and the shower helped." Blake shrugs.

"Mmm… warm…" Yang snuggled her head onto his shoulder.

"Should I just drop her?"

"Can you do it at our room?" Ruby pleads, the slight bags under her eyes from her sleep deprivation becoming clear in the daylight.

"Yeah, she's getting too heavy." Weiss complains. Nobody was going to say that she was the physically the weakest on the team, thus anything was heavy to the girl. Granted, she was stronger than most would think thanks to her training over the past few years to be a Huntress… to the average civilian. At the same time, that thought passed through their heads.

"Sounds like the Princess needs to pump some iron." Anya got another dig on the Atlesian girl.

"Should we call her Snow Drift?" Talon laughs and Weiss rounded on her, face turning red with anger and embarrassment. "Oh, maybe Snow Cone?"

"Alright you two, knock it off." Denko reprimands his teammates, giving the white-haired girl a chance to sigh in relief. "At least wait until she had some rest and you can have your fun in the arena." And with that, the blood rushed to her head.

Unfortunately, having the blood stressing her head so much combined with her injuries did not help her and she staggered. Ruby was able to catch the shorter girl before she hit the ground. "Weiss!"

"Ugh… don't yell." The girl mutters, clearly dazed.

"Talon, carry her back to her dorm." Denko orders the chubby girl. To her credit, she did as she was told, though she didn't like the idea of carrying a girl bigger than herself.

"I… I can walk." Weiss tries to protest.

"You couldn't handle a little teasing, walking back will be too much for you." Blake tells her flatly.

"Let's get this over with, she's heavy." Talon begins walking with the Heiress on her back, receiving a light smack to her shoulder for the comment.

The others follow with Ruby and Itazura trailing behind. The silver eyed girl looks at her old friend with a pleading look. "No." The fox says before walking away from the reaper.

Apparently turning your back on the reaper was a bad idea no matter who they may be as Itazura suddenly found over two hundred pounds of excitable girl on her back. "Ruby! No means no! Get off!"

"Nope!"

"You are now on my prank list, just so you know." Itazura warns her as she trudges after their teams knowing that she wasn't going to catch them with roughly double her own weight on her back.

"What are friends for?" The simple question made her prosthetics twitch, knowing that it was likely that without the Xiao Long- Rose family she would still be deaf, if she was still alive.

Classes weren't in session for the rest of the week, leaving team RWBY with little to do, especially with the nurse's orders for Yang and Weiss to take it easy for the week for their heads to heal. Predictably, they slept in the first day and were content to laze around as they felt the effects of pushing themselves so hard for so long. Muscles were strained, joints ached… stomachs growled…

"Hey." Yang had called someone on her scroll, the blonde holding the device with her right hand but otherwise lay limp in her bed in her pajamas consisting of her usual short orange tank top and black shorts. "Think you could do us a favor? ... Yes, we need you. … Yeah, WE. … Can you get us something for lunch? … C'mon! We're tired and sore. … Really? That's what you want? ... That I can do. … Yeah, just not today, too tired. … Alright, thanks. See you in a bit." With that, she hung up and allowed her arm to go as limp as the rest of her body.

"Who were you talking to?" Ruby had rolled her head on her pillow to look at her sister from across the gap between their beds.

Yang didn't bother opening her eyes. "You'll see soon enough."

Weiss had dragged herself to her desk long enough to grab one of her school books at random and flopped back into bed as soon as possible. The girl was really feeling the strain from yesterday, pushing herself beyond her limits and having her aura broken twice before being drained of what little she had recovered. Yet she couldn't bring herself to simply sit in bed and just lay there to heal, so she decided to read. And the book she'd grabbed without really looking was… history, specifically the book focused on the Great War.

Blake was the far most active of her team… meaning that she was sitting up on her own to read a book. So, nothing new. She just wasn't going anywhere fast due to both her own exhaustion and hobby. Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

"You can get it Blake." Ruby mumbles as she rolls over to look at the door.

The faunus made sure that her bow was on correctly before opening the door to see that Talon and Denko were in the hallway holding some trays. Trays of something that smelt really good to the hungry cat girl.

"Special delivery!" Talon announces as she shoos Blake inside the dorm and places the trays she was carrying on the desk.

"Lunch!" The four younger girls say and moved as fast as their protesting bodies would allow.

Sun sat in the office of Officer Burns, not really doing much more than spinning in the chair to occupy himself while he waited for the man to return. Sage and Scarlet were off helping another detective, Officer Aloe, on the other side of the city. The two boys were somewhat irritated that they missed out on the action yesterday but had been recruited to assist in patrols of the streets in case of any Grimm were hiding anywhere. Neptune was with Burns, assisting him with some files, namely having to bring a few case files back to the office for a review of older cases that had yet to be closed officially.

It was true that Sun and his team had been excited to join up with the detectives, still were in fact, but there were lulls in the job that he hadn't thought about. Granted, some of those lulls were because of the extra hands his team provided. Helping to move case files from one storage room to another. Transporting evidence from the locker to the lab for examination. Someone being questioned began to freak out and it required Sun to hold the frantic woman to prevent her from hurting herself or destroying property or case material until a medic could sedate her. Having a prehensile tail certainly helped to secure her flailing legs. And a semblance that creates clones that can act independently.

It was as he spun that something caught his eye, a file with a name, picture, and the words that stuck out to him the most- White Fang. He'd just picked it up and barely started reading the first page when Officer Burns walked back in.

"Ah, that case." He says simply as he took notice of what his 'shadow' was reading before he sat behind his desk. The faunus nearly jumped out of his seat as he moved to put the file back where he found it. "Haha, don't worry about it." The man laughs. "Actually, maybe you could offer a different point of view on that case."

"Really?"

"Yeah, there's something off about that case that we can't quite figure out."

"What's so off about it?" The monkey was more curious than before.

Officer Burns leaned back in his chair with a mug of coffee. "Store owner got killed in his own shop. Thing is, there's no witnesses, no reports of anything going on around the time of death, nobody who could think of a reason for the victim to be killed. Nothing in the place was touched, money still in the register, nothing we can tell was stolen… but he had bags packed and a ticket to Vacuo… so something must have been going on." He takes a deep breath and drinks a bit. "The guy had no real record on him, just a few small fines from years ago that really don't amount to anything. The biggest thing we have on him is that he WAS with the White Fang but left years ago."

"He was part of the White Fang?" Sun questions the detective, his disdain for the group obvious.

"Was, being the key word. He left shortly after the leadership change and they started becoming more violent." He takes another sip. "From his friends and neighbors accounts, he didn't exactly advertise that fact but they all learned about it eventually. Frankly, they respected him for leaving when he did. So do I."

"What about the White Fang guys we captured yesterday?"

"Those from the breach? Currently sitting in prison awaiting trial. But plenty of them are giving the investigators all of the info they got… but most of them are recent recruits and barely told anything." He saw Sun wince at the mentioning of recruits. "The big guy, the one they look to as their boss, he's not saying anything but he's at least not resisting… too much otherwise. Been keeping the few rowdy ones in line."

"But this guy." Sun lifts the file that started the conversation. "What's going on?"

Burns sighs. "We're looking for a motive for the murder. The thing is, the White Fang has a history of letting their members leave when they want to without hassle. Maybe he was targeted by an extremist sect within the Fang looking to send a message. We don't know." Another long drink that drained the cup. "I pull that out every so often to see if I can find anything we missed."

Sun grows quiet as he reads through the file. The man was a faunus, specifically a cat, ran his own successful business, respectful and respected. Killed by something that impacted his upper chest with enough force to create a bruise after he died along with a shotgun wound in roughly the same place that tore apart the major arteries around his heart and a good chunk of his left lung. His death was fairly quick but painful as he bled out and his lung collapsed. There were some marks that appeared to show that there was a slight struggle but little else. Fingerprints were next to useless in the store as so many people came through the shop.

"Damn…"

"Pretty much what I say every time I look over that case." The detective leans into his chair again with a fresh cup. "But if nothing new shows up about it in a few weeks, my superiors are gonna close the case and move onto other things. The breach from yesterday has half our force looking into it, the White Fang you helped to catch, and Roman Torchwick. So, they say we can't afford to look into that case much more."

"But the guy was murdered."

"I don't like it either kid. Thing is, since I've been trying to crack that case, there have been twelve other murders that we know about with another seven disappearances that are suspected to be murders. That was before the breach where two cops were killed by the Grimm, five more injured, thirty-seven civilians dead, one hundred and twenty-two injured and counting. Not including the three soldiers from the Defense Force dead along the walls keeping the Grimm from invading."

Silence reigned in the office as the numbers sank in. Sun knew from his time in Vacuo that he was somewhat numb to people dying during times of crisis, there it was a fact of life that everyone had to deal with. But it was the first time he heard how bad yesterday was. It really started to hit home exactly why Huntsmen were needed, to mitigate problems like that. Preventing was out of the question as they were limited with what they could do and where they could be, but they generally had the skills to keep the worst from happening.

The door opened and Neptune stuck his head in. "Um… the coffee maker is broken."

Officer Burns looks at the mug in his hand and sets it to the side of his desk. He was going to need to ration that until the maker was fixed or replaced.

Team JNPR had made it out to the village they were assigned to that morning. Sure, they were a day late but the sheriff had no problems with them taking care of the situations that were closer to home. There wasn't much going on in the town any way.

"What brings you kids out here? Not too much to do here, not yet anyway." The Sheriff asks as they wander around the town getting to know the place. "You prob'ly got all the action you're gonna get yesterday, with what happened in Vale and all."

"It was pretty crazy." Jaune awkwardly smiles as he rubs the back of his head.

"It was great to smash the skull of a giant two-headed snake!" Nora was far from quiet as she raised her fists into the air.

"We're just glad that we were prepared and were able to get on the scene quickly." Pyrrha played things down. She had a habit of doing that, something that her friends had found both endearing and irritating at the same time.

"We did our duty of keeping as many people safe as possible." Ren was quiet as always but had a way of getting people to listen to him.

"Ah, not one's to brag but just getting the job done! Great!" The man laughs but took the time to nod in greeting to a small family walking by. Ren's stoic expression faltered into sadness for a few seconds as he watched the young family, the little boy stopping to pluck a flower from the roadside and show it proudly to his mother while the father laughed at the antics. The sight brought back memories he held dear.

"So… um… Is there any real reason that you asked for a team to come to your village?" Jaune asks, trying to get some information on their mission.

"Hmm… we haven't had too much Grimm activity lately but if you'd like to do a patrol around the place, you're free to do that. Take care of any of those beasts you see and that's another threat that the people here don't need to deal with." He looks around the small towns wooden wall and the few watchtowers on the wall.

The town itself wasn't much at all, relatively new but a few hours flight from Vale. That proximity helped with keeping the Grimm under control but far away enough that they were largely on their own. The population was less than two hundred and most of the people had skills to assist with more than one job needing to be done. That also meant that most were at least familiar enough with a rifle that they could shoot a Beowolf at fifty yards.

"Will you need any help around here?" Ren asks with surprising desire as he gestures to the buildings around him

"Well… if you're insisting… we could use an extra hand or two with a few small things around town. The Peppercorn's need their roof repaired, and Ms. Pots could use a taste tester for the teahouse she wants to open. There are some plans to expand the wall a bit to the south, we think we found a small vein of Dust that we might be able to mine and help us stay self-sufficient."

"Uh, wouldn't it be easier to mine a bit to see how much Dust there is before moving the wall? You know, don't over commit?" Jaune offers his thoughts. He was adapting the lessons for combat that Pyrrha was teaching him to the situation at hand, something that the girl noticed and smiled at it.

"You do have a point there, son. But since you kids are here you could guard the prospectors while they work."

"How soon do you think you can get a team together to dig for the Dust?" Jaune asks with a hand on his chin.

"Hmm… most of our mining experts should be free, not that we have many to begin with. But we should be able to gather the people and the materials needed by dinner time."

"Sounds like a plan." Pyrrha nods in agreement.

"Nora and I can take care of the roof while we're waiting." Jaune offers.

"I wouldn't mind sampling from the teahouse." Ren admits.

"I help you with that." Pyrrha says as she crosses her arms over her stomach, glad that no one heard it growl.

"Alright kids, I'll show you where to go and find the miners to get things ready for tomorrow." The Sheriff laughs and waves for them to follow him. Ren and Pyrrha were dropped at their destination first as the teahouse were on the way, the team agreeing to meet back at the inn when they were finished. Peppercorn's house was a short walk further down the road of the small town and upon arrival, the pair could see the wooden shingles that were missing.

"Ready to get to work?" Jaune asks as he grabs the ladder laying nearby. "Nora?" The girl in question was donning a tool belt with a pair of hammers, nail pouch, and holding the stack of replacement shingles.

"I'm ready to go, Fearless Leader!" She gives a sharp salute before following him.

Sage and Scarlet returned with Officer Aloe near sunset. In that time, Sun and Neptune had managed to finish helping Burns organize some of the files and put them away, even swinging by the site of the case that Sun had taken an interest in. The store was certainly busy enough, probably more than it normally would have been during standard operation. That may have something to do with the small coffee house next to it on one side and bakery on the other. Not far down the road sat a small restaurant that apparently had been there for decades judging by the décor.

"So…" Sun trailed off as the team walked off the Bullhead at Beacon. "You guys want to do anything or just get dinner and pass out so we're ready for another round at the office?"

Scarlet gave his leader an odd look. "You… want to go back?"

"Yeah." Sage was almost too quick to agree. "You said you were getting bored with the whole thing this morning."

Sun put his hands behind his head and slowly walked away. "Maybe I found something that interested me about the job, why people do it." His tail swished behind him.

"We could ask to help check out the subway that got blown up yesterday." Neptune offers, knowing that the other half of the team were still a bit sour on missing it.

"They could use our support if there are Grimm still crawling around there." Scarlet mutters as he adjusts the coat on his shoulders. His team had stopped trying to tell him to wear it normally or get a clasp to hold it on like a cape, just like they stopped trying to get Sun to close his shirt or Sage to wear a shirt under his long coat.

"I guess we could try to see if there's anything we could do to help." Sun relents as he turns around but keeps walking. "But they've been saying that the VDF and Atlas army have been swarming the place since it was gotten under control."

Neptune raises a finger, looking like he just remembered something. "And they do have the entire square blocked off. All of the buildings are under repair too." He shoves his hands into his jacket pockets as he realized how small of a chance, they had of actually helping with the breach site.

Sage's stomach growled loud enough for red and blue haired team members to hear, causing them to laugh. "Sounds like my decision is made." The biggest member of Team SSSN admits with a shrug and marches towards the cafeteria, his teammates in tow.

"How badly did things get screwed up yesterday?" Mercury asks Cinder in the relative safety of their dorm room. With them settling in on the top floor at the end of the hallway with no neighbors next to them or even across the hall, they could speak fairly openly so long as they kept their voices down and they made sure to keep their conversations vague out of precaution.

Emerald watched her partners with wide eyes. As much as she hated Mercury and definitely wasn't a fan of how he rarely spoke with any form of respect to Cinder, she had to admit that the same question was plaguing her mind. Cinder, who had been working on her scroll looked at the assassin who was doing some pushups to pass the time as he was never one to really sit still. The thief sat on her own bed while their boss sat on hers.

To their surprise, she chuckled a bit. "I'll admit, that when that fool went against my plans so brazenly, I was furious. However, I saw that his had was forced as I forced his hand to align with us." She slid off the bed and brushed down some wrinkles from her Haven uniform. "But… I'll give him credit for sticking with the plan as best he could."

Her followers glanced at each other as they knew how rare it was for the young woman who was in all honesty, more than a little narcissistic, to give anyone credit for something she wanted done. But that was something that they had both come to accept and expect, just like her ruthlessness in battle. What happened to the Fall Maiden was proof of that, as well as any time Emerald talked back to the older woman. Mercury had more leeway with what he said, likely because he would follow her orders when it came to causing harm to others without hesitation. It was his role after all, just as it was Emerald's to collect information from the students by playing nice.

"The doubt has been seeded within the populace, lives have been lost, the feeling of safety behind the walls has been shattered… It's just a shame that the White Fang couldn't join the attack and help with dividing the humans from the faunus even more." Her smile, which had been one of satisfaction at the beginning had turned rueful at the end to show her displeasure. "The damage has been done and will remain in the back of everyone's minds for the foreseeable future."

"Until we make sure that they don't have a future." Mercury laughs.

"That's the plan. Now both of you just need to stick to your roles. Torchwick is where we need him to be as is his associate." The amber-eyed woman looks to the corner where a small girl with pink and brown hair was eating from a quart of ice cream with a satisfied look on her face. Noticing that she had the attention from the other occupants, she holds the spoon in her mouth as she waves before returning to her snack.

The next day was quiet at Beacon as many students were either in classes that were more review than anything new or they were out on missions for the day. Some of the teams were able to return to the school and return to their mission during the day like Team SSSN. Others, like Team JNPR, were hours away in another village.

"Nora! That's my thumb, not a nail!" Jaune yells into the early morning light as the redhead giggles. "Please… please be gentle. We don't need another hole in the roof again." At lest this time, Ren and Pyrrha were there to help them after Nora 'found' a weak spot after hitting the roof too hard and thus they had more to repair. Perhaps it was a good thing that some of the supplies that needed to be gathered were taking a little longer to arrange than expected. The team would be finishing this project before escorting the prospectors to their desired location.

Back at Beacon, Team DAIT were already in one of the training rooms for an early sparring session. The clash of blades rang through the otherwise empty room and gunshots echoed. Grunts of exertion were accompanied by cries of surprise or pain. Smacks of bodies hitting the floor or the tapping of running feet along with the scraping of those feet or the weapons along the surface added to the music of battle.

Team RWBY… were sleeping in again. While they were still feeling the strain from Monday, their auras had recovered and mended the worst of their injuries. Yang and Weiss still had visible bruising on their heads but they had faded significantly and while their heads felt a little tender yet, they would be fully healed by the end of the week. Just in time for the nurse to run her weekly tests on them all again.

Blake opens a weary eye and kicks the bed above her. Apparently, Yang had gotten into the right position again to snore loudly. Ruby, she found out, was fairly used to it and could ignore the noise. Weiss kept a pair of earplugs around just in case. The faunus… had no such luck as she was closest, even if there was a bed between them, and having four ears meant she could hear more than most.

The bed above her was heavy and its occupant even heavier so she didn't have to worry too much about them falling on her, even if that was far from the strongest kick, she was capable of. But the blonde snorted and adjusted her position out of her prior one and her snoring ceased altogether, just gentle breathing.

"Why can't you sleep that way normally?" Blake mutters to herself before rolling her head to the other side of the room to find Weiss giving her a grateful smile.

Ruby mumbled something about cookies, causing the two conscious girls to look up at their leader… just in time to watch her roll over the edge and fall to the floor with Zwei landing on her back, the startled pup running away and jumping onto Blake's bed to get away from the now confused, sore, and very awake Ruby struggling in her blankets.

His appearance so close to her and in her personal bubble led to Blake panicking and bolting from her bed, taking refuge on Ruby's still warm bed away from the canine.

While Weiss found the entire thing as amusing as she did frustrating; she had to go with frustrating as the disturbances did nothing to wake Yang, who had only shifted and began to snore again.

"Ow, ow, ow! Weiss? Can you help me?" Ruby struggles within the red sheets. "Hello? Anyone here?"

Weiss pinches the bridge of her nose as Zwei calms down and sniffs at the sausage known as her team leader wriggling on the floor. " Huntress extraordinaire and defender of our future." Slowly she slides off her bed to help the dolt being defeated by cloth while casting an irritated glance at the beds above her. "Thanks for the concern, Yang. And the help, Blake." She did take her time scratching Zwei's ears to cheer herself up.

AN: The next two chapters are planned out to be far more streamlined than this one. This chapter did set the stage for some things going forward though, so it's not a waste of space and time.