Big Issues

AN: A new update on Weiss' birthday! Woo! But seriously, I wasn't really planning that as I simply managed to write enough to be happy to post a new chapter for you all. If I'm lucky, even the delays I'm having with my writing schedule won't mess up my plans going forward much. Also, thanks to Mechwarior23 for the fave and follow of this series. On with the show!

Talks

Dinner at the Belladonna home that night of Blake's return was surprisingly large for such late notice, the three teens going to bed with their stomachs full. Kali had led them to their rooms, Blake wasn't too surprised that she was given her old room again, the large four-poster bed and all. Sun was given the one next to hers while Itazura was provided one across the hall. The master bedroom was down at the end of the hall, though there were a few rooms between the teens and adults so that they may have some privacy.

"Bathroom is the first door on the right at the corner." Kali reminded them all before leaving them to their own devices so she could make sure that Ghira wasn't going to stay up late in his office, again.

"Go ahead and take the bathroom first, I… I'm going to look at my room first." The cat offers to Sun, Itazura already having gone in her room to inspect it.

"You okay?" He saw how hesitant Blake was about walking through that door, and had picked up on how nervous she was at certain points during the conversation at dinner, making sure that she was asking questions about what was happening on Menagerie over the past few years.

She hung her head as she leaned on the wall with her bag in her other hand. "It's… been a while. There's a lot of old memories coming back."

"Guess that happens when you have a childhood home." Sun shrugs. A glance from Blake at that comment with a flash of intrigue caught his eye; he rarely even mentioned his past in any detail. "Grew up with the caravan until I decided I wanted to fight and be a Huntsman. Spent some time with my cousin Star before going to Oscuro Academy. From there I went to Haven and you know what I did after that."

Blake stared at him for a few seconds before glancing at her door. "At least you'll have a home here." She says quietly, but loud enough for Sun to hear clearly, making him smile.

"Alright, I'll go get a shower. Good night!" The young man disappeared into his room only to reappear a few seconds later with his supplies under his arm… and already had ditched his shirt.

Blake watched him walk away and enter the bathroom. He may not have the abs that he had arrived at Beacon with anymore, hidden under padding, but she knew the muscles are still there and just as strong as they looked then, if not stronger now. And the swaying tail drew her attention lower… She found herself ducking into her room to stop her roaming eyes and thoughts.

But now, she was where she just trying to prepare herself to enter and she froze upon realizing that. Slowly, she looked around the room and found that there was little change from the last time she was here. The same large four-poster bed covered with purple sheets, the dark grey rug underneath, the hardwood floor like everywhere else in the home, the closet in the wall with the door open revealing familiar clothes, the full-body mirror in the corner that she was sure still reflected the morning sun onto her bed if the balcony door was open.

Curiosity took over as the nostalgia rose, forcing her to walk over to the closet and start looking through the old clothes still hanging there. She pulled out a simple purple t-shirt and black skirt-shorts, remembering that she had often attended protests wearing something like this before she ever learned to fight at all. Blake idly wondered if the black scarf was still around somewhere. A few more clothes were looked at before she found the last outfit she wore before running away; a white long-sleeved shirt with a high neck that she sometimes pulled up like a mask, a black jacket with elbow length sleeves, purple leggings that she wore under black shorts with a pair of white stripes down the legs. A pair of black boots sat on the floor among the other old footwear.

"I really was a bit of a rebel back then." She laughs to herself. She holds up the shirt and jacket still on their hanger to herself for comparison, only to laugh more at the size difference. "I knew I grew since then, but there's no way I would be able to fit in these if I was thin again."

A few repeats of the motions with other old outfits for her own amusement and the trips down memory lane, Blake finally called it quits and moved to open the balcony door. As much as she could tell that her old room was kept fairly clean and relatively untouched during her years away, she had to admit that some fresh air would do her and the room some good.

The view from the balcony was better than she remembered, probably because she didn't focus too much on the landscapes when she was younger. Now she could appreciate it better, the various trees and flowers of the estate and beyond, the colors of the roof tiles of other homes and businesses, the sight of the brightly colored birds and insects that flew and crawled through the foliage and filled the air with sounds. A deep breath through her nose with her eyes closed and she could really take in the scents of the island, finding it relaxing. She could smell the flowers from her mothers garden, some of the flowers from the neighboring homes, the vegetation around them all and the jungle.

Then there was a sharper scent that she recognized as a light breeze blew by. She knew it wasn't from any of the flowers around her so she opened her eyes to identify the source. Another breeze helped her zero in on the scent and she turned her serce to her left to find Sun on his own balcony next to hers wearing a robe that must have been provided for him after his shower.

It was his shampoo and soap that she was smelling!

He gave her a little wave as he leaned against the railing and she quickly noticed that he left the top of the robe rather loose so that much of his chest and stomach were exposed to the open air.

"Bathroom is open, Itazura already had hers." He informs her, startling the girl from her thoughts.

"Both of you already?" Blake was surprised.

Sun rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, you seemed to be busy with stuff so we let you go."

Blake blushed in embarrassment as she didn't think that she was lost in her own head for so long but a quick check of her scroll showed that over an hour had passed. "Thanks. I'll go get cleaned up. See you at breakfast."

"See ya later!" Sun watched as she retreated into her room and closed the thin door.

Now that he was alone, he took his time to look over the island from his vantage point. Growing up in Vacuo, he was still amazed with the sight of so much greenery. Moving to Mistral for school at Haven Academy was a massive culture shock to him in every way from the sights, the vegetation, the abundant water… the stuffy uniforms for the students, not to mention the social rules that he barely and usually followed.

But in Vale, things were more relaxed… mostly. It still had the cops like those who had tried to catch him from the boat yet it had others in positions of power willing to turn a blind eye to minor infractions of the laws if it was to uphold more serious matters. He had found that in his time at Mistral, the upper levels were quite rigid in their stance on how laws were and it was thanks to Neptune doing some smooth talking to the cops that got him away with nothing more than a warning… several times… and a small fine. He made sure to visit the lower levels and stole from a Spider thief to make up for that fine.

But here in Menagerie… he was really feeling like he was home. Where he felt that he belonged. Some more time on the island for the Faunus would really tell how he felt about everything and he'd do whatever he could to assist the people here while he was around. He knew that Blake still needed him and there was no way he was going to just leave her without a good reason.

—-

The morning was interesting in Menagerie as the three youth residing in the Belladonna home had gotten used to the relative quiet of Beacon, then the constant sound of waves on the ocean that faded into the background, but now they had to deal with the birds singing loudly at the crack of dawn, the chirping of insects, and the clatter of carts on the roads on their way to the market for whatever was being sold or bought that day.

They had gotten dressed, wanting to make a good impression on the hosting family, before going down to breakfast. Though they probably shouldn't have bothered going that far if the inquisitive looks from Kali in her own robe were any indication, especially since Blake was wearing her white coat that clearly didn't fit well.

"So… tell me about your friends at Beacon." The mother implores as they all ate their meal of fish and rice with vegetables and tea. Ghira merely grunted as he didn't seem to be fully functioning quite yet, clearly not a morning person.

"They… can be interesting." Itazura begins, piquing curiosity.

"My team from Haven are all good guys. They had to go back since Sage and Scarlet were hurt in the attack and my buddy Neptune went with them." Sun says to fill in some details, noting that Blake had her mouth full of fish and wasn't going to be talking for a bit. Either she was distracted by her mothers good cooking, her love of fish, or both. Maybe even trying to buy some time before she had to speak.

Apparently Itazura noticed as well and jumped back in. "My team comes from Shade in Vacuo but we didn't fight in the Tournament."

"Oh? And why is that?" Kali asks the fox.

"We were brought in for extra security. We did what we could but there were things we couldn't get to fast enough. At least we mitigated the damage as best we could." Itazura answers with a shrug.

"At least you were able to stop that huge Grimm from destroying the tower." Sun supports the smaller girl.

"It's still heavily damaged but they were starting repairs when we left." Itazura shrugs.

"Being damaged is better than destroyed." Ghira admits.

"That's very true. Still makes me wonder how long it will be until we have global communications again?" Kali adds.

Itazura squirmed in her seat a bit at that but it went unnoticed. Luckily, Blake had emptied her plate and bowl again by that point and had nothing to occupy her with.

"I, um… found my sisters at Beacon."

Silence suddenly reigned supreme in the room following that statement. While Sun and Itazura knew why she had said that, her parents did not. And Kali was narrowing her eyes and the room suddenly began to feel very cold.

"Ghira, is there something I should know?" While her voice was gentle, none could deny the underlying threat in her words.

And the large panther man responded as expected, he choked on the food he was eating and began stuttering as soon as the airway was clear. "K-K-Kali! What do you mean? I've been with you and only you since we started dating!"

The teens had to admit, it was funny seeing such a large man looking so small thanks to the mere look from his wife and a simple question. They all watched with wide eyes as Ghira cowered to his wife.

Then Blake burst into giggles. The laughter cut through the tension between the adults like a knife and made them look at her in confusion, though Ghira was still scared and Kali angry.

"Mom, Dad, hehehe, they aren't blood related! They are my closest friends and we think of each other as sisters!" Blake continued to laugh, the shakes from that rippling through her softened body.

"What?" The parents asked together as one.

"My team!" The giggling girl burst out before reaching into her pocket for her scroll. She quickly flipped through the photo archives for her first team picture when they were made official after initiation and held it up for her parents to see.

"Oh, I see." Kali says as she stares at the display.

"You didn't notice them when you watched the tournament?" Sun asks. Sitting next to Blake, he was glad to see her laughing again, even if she didn't do that much to begin with. The only times she openly laughed that he knew of was after the food fight, the dance, and the game night with the teams before the tournament.

The parents looked embarrassed at the question. "Um, we were, ahem, a bit focused on our daughter after not seeing her for so long."

Blake had the decency to blush at the mentioning of her family abandonment. "But I'm here now, Dad." She reached over to take his much larger hand in her own.

"That you are." Ghira didn't waste the opportunity to give her hand a gentle squeeze, Kali watching with joy.

"So… what can you tell us about your teammates?" The mother asks, they still had food in front of them and time in the day with nothing to interrupt them.

"Well… there's the teammate I made first during the initiation, Yang Xiao Long." Blake points to the blonde young woman. "She's… pretty much been the big sister for our team from the beginning. It kinda helped that she's already the big sister of Ruby Rose, our team leader." She points to the shortest and youngest looking of the four young women with the red cloak.

"And she was partnered up with Weiss Schnee." She points to the final girl in white. She did find it a bit amusing that she was trying to introduce her parents to her sisters by way of a picture… long before they all gained massive amounts of weight thanks to the Issue.

But with her reminiscing about her team, she missed the tension returning when she mentioned 'Schnee'. But Sun and Itazura didn't.

The boy elbowed her soft arm as he leaned closer to whisper. "I think we have a problem."

Blake looked up from the photo and realized the problem. "Mom! Dad! Everything is fine with me and Weiss!" She insists, catching the adults by surprise.

Their stares implored for an explanation. "It's true that there was some problems with Weiss when we first became a team, mostly between her and Ruby about being the team leader." Ghira let a small snort at that but otherwise sat unmoving as he listened to his daughter.

Sun began to look nervous and occupied himself with his cup of tea, knowing where this was going.

"But Weiss and I had an argument about Faunus that lasted all day… and late into the night." Blake's ears and face fell in shame at the memory, though Sun snuck his tail over to pat her back. "And I let it slip that I'm a Faunus for the first time to them and ran away."

Itazura watched as the parents grew sullen at how things turned out.

"But Sun found me and we talked over the weekend to help me out. Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang managed to convince Weiss to rethink everything while they were looking for me."

"It seems you have some good friends." Kali comments.

"Yeah, I do." Blake smiles at her mothers approval, but she quickly saddened again as she continued. "But the two of us interrupted the White Fang from stealing entire cargo containers from the docks." She gestured between Sun and herself. "And they were working with Roman Torchwick."

"What?" Ghira slammed his hands on the table and half rose, his wife setting a hand on his arm to calm him.

"Yeah, the White Fang were working with him then and again when they attacked Vale near the end of the first semester. At least we managed to arrest them after we dealt with the Grimm they led into the city." Sun adds.

The former High Leader and his wife grew angered at the news. "What did you say?"

The pair across the table glanced at each other, Sun showing his support with his tail on her waist. Blake gulped before responding. "The White Fang was working with a human criminal and openly attacking Vale. And that was before the attack during the Vytal Tournament."

Ghira suddenly rose to his feet and began pacing the room, hands clenching and unclenching, occasionally his fingertips glinting from claws being extended. Kali wasn't much better, a knife slipping from her sleeve into her hand and she looked ready to gut someone.

"We watch each other's backs! I swear!" Sun sounded worried that the parents' anger might not be contained for much longer.

"It's true, we took care of each other." Itazura adds in a much calmer tone that helps to bring the boiling tempers down to a more manageable simmer. It took another minute for Ghira to sit down and Kali slipped the knife back into her sleeve.

"While we are on the subject," Ghira nearly growled out as he forced himself to be calm. "Is there anything else we should know? Anything you left out, like your outburst when the Albain brothers visited yesterday?"

The three students shared looks as they thought back to the day before about what they had said. But it was Blake who spoke. "The White Fang were led by Adam when they invaded Vale and Beacon, dropping Grimm into the city and school from their Bullheads. They were attacking anyone they found."

"It didn't matter if they were Human or Faunus… civilian, student, or soldier." Itazura elaborates. "They were working with the masterminds who hacked into the mechs from Atlas to turn on those they were meant to assist."

"Yeah, and I'm not about to let Adam stab her again if I can help it." Sun declares with a heavy scowl, crossing his arms.

"And just WHO did Adam stab, Mr. Wukong?" Kali asks, her tone leaving no options to escape, the tip of the knife poking out from her sleeve was a very good reminder of how she would get an answer. The sight making the youth break out into a nervous sweat.

"Me." Blake could barely get out louder than a whisper as she hugged herself tightly.

That had some very mixed reactions. Sun immediately pulling Blake into a side hug, the girl leaning into him, both Bhira and Kali were on their feet releasing roars of rage, Itazura was on her feet as well, ready to do her best to quell the potential rampage.

"Where?" Kali hissed, leaving no room for argument.

Together, Blake and Sun rose to their feet and with some hesitation, she pulled her coat back to reveal the still red scar on her stomach. The blonde never letting go of her shoulders and he could feel that she needed the support.

And the responses of the parents at the sight of the scar on their daughters soft stomach were quite expected, both of them roaring in anger and making for the door.

While Blake dropped to her knees in shame and shock, Sun helping her down slowly and holding her tightly, both Ghira and Kali ran from the room with Itazura following after them. Though the two on the floor saw the parents return soon after, both wreathed in blue flames, with a certain fox trailing after them.

—-

Itazura had nearly exhausted her aura by the time Ghira and Kali had calmed to the point where they were rational. Angry, certainly… but they weren't acting out of blind rage anymore. It didn't matter that they had been stomping through the house and the grounds under the influence of Foxfire for an hour but they were tired enough to let the anger out.

"Mom? Dad?" Blake was concerned when they were led back to the table where fresh tea was waiting for them. Through it all, the cat girl had remained in the arms of the monkey boy to watch the odd procession passing by the windows and doors, hearing the occasional scratching of claws and many muttered threats.

"Blake?" The parents sat down, the long exposure to the Foxfire leaving them a bit disoriented and the 'hike' they had done made their legs tired enough that getting the weight off was welcome.

"I hope that's the worst of it." Itazura mutters as she nearly collapses to the floor, drained of aura and with a headache from maintaining her semblance for so long. Hopefully she wouldn't be blamed for the claw marks on a few walls and doors.

Ghira rested his elbows on the table and dropped his face into his hands and held that position for a few minutes. Kali spent some time smoothing out her clothes and drinking the tea that was available. Though she did notice that her daughter was sitting in the arms of Sun, making her smile.

"I need to talk to Sienna about this." Ghira eventually said to nobody in particular.

"But the CCT network is still under repairs." Blake reminded him.

"Doesn't matter. I can still send a letter to ask her to meet with us." The big man pushes himself back to his feet and heads off to his office.

"Um… how fast would a letter get to this… Sienna?" Sun asks Kali, unsure of the plan that was being made on the fly.

"Our messenger would be able to get to the headquarters and return in a week." The elder cat responds easily. "Hopefully, she won't be too busy."

"You mean she won't just ignore the letter?" Itazura was curious.

"Sienna values Ghira's opinions highly. They may not agree on everything, how much we should fight back against humans physically for example, but they both have the best interests of our people in mind. That is why he passed the leadership of the White Fang to her."

"So… hope for the best?" Sun interjects with a shrug, unintentionally shaking Blake in his arms and tickling her ribs, making her give a short laugh.

—-

"Hey Yang?" Ruby begins to say as she walks down the well traveled road with her sister.

"Hm?" Yang was finding the walk to town harder than it used to be and not just because she was wearing more layers to keep warm. It was mostly thanks to the layers under her clothes that were making the trek difficult, the layers of insulating flesh had grown thicker as the clothes did as the winter grew colder and the island had to deal with the near weekly snowstorm.

While she was fortunate enough to not be bottom heavy and thus having thick legs to rub together; Ruby having proportionally thicker measurements below her own thick waist, she had grown more than enough that she didn't just have legs that rubbed, she had begun to waddle. Maybe it was a bit of karma coming to bite her plush backside for making so many jokes about Weiss and Blake, and even Nora having been waddling back at Beacon thanks to their bottom heavy frames.

Then again, the friction did help to offset the cold breeze, at least for her legs. On the other hand, at least she was still in good enough shape that aside from the new waddling and rubbing thighs, she didn't have too much of a problem walking to town and back. Though she did notice the increasing tiredness from doing so that matched letting her belt out another notch.

"I heard that Pyrrha is up and moving around again." Ruby says loud enough to carry over the snow crunching under their feet. Fresh snow on Patch was always something that was beautiful, but it did get tiring to walk through. The latest snowfall dropped enough white fluff to be ankle deep… on top of the layer from the last storm that was just as deep and they didn't have much of a path to try following from others walking down the road. Too many of the folks that lived inland tended to stay close to their own homes for the winter to use the road often, the Xiao Long-Rose family being among the few to make tracks.

Too bad the last storms covered any traces of the path that Denko made from his usually regular walks to the Watch headquarters.

"That's good to hear." The blonde was genuine in her words about her friend. She couldn't imagine how maddening it would be to be unable to walk; her arm was bad enough as it is.

A few more crunching steps down the road that they had traveled for years, having memorized the path through the forest to town long ago. "Wait, how do you know that?"

Ruby had the sense to look guilty. Then again, she was a bad liar at the best of times, let alone with family. "Jaune stopped by town a few times for a few supplies. I ran into him while shopping."

"Really? How are Ren and Nora?"

"Same as always. They've all been helping with the cleanup efforts in the city and building homes for people."

Yang smiled. "That's good to know."

A few minutes later and the sisters began to see the town of Patch through the trees, their breaths forming puffs of condensed vapor at a regular pace, faster than they were used to due to the extra weight they carried. Yang more so thanks to her relative inactivity since coming home.

Together, the girls went into the market. There weren't many of the outside stalls open, not in this weather for long. But they used the opportunity to sell products that needed to be kept cold to begin with, fish being the prime example of the island's main staple. That didn't stop one vendor from selling ice cream and hot chocolate along with pies and cakes… and doing well.

"Maybe we could stop for a snack?" Ruby suggests. They were only getting some things for home, mostly food, and Ruby was hoping to sneak in a few other supplies she would need later.

"Let's get what we need first." Yang hefts the empty backpack she carried to help haul their purchases around. At least this one only had a single shoulder strap that would go across her chest rather than a normal pack so she wouldn't have to fight with her arm in its sling and cast.

"I guess so." Ruby pouted as she adjusted her own backpack. This one was larger than her sisters pack, her usual bag for missions at Beacon was perfect for their shopping trips.

Together, they made their way through the market, thankfully inside and warm so they could relax and shop in peace. Yang pushed the cart, finding it to be something of amusement that she could turn the loaded cart with just a twist of her wrist, showing that she hadn't lost her strength… much. There was plenty to buy, having to feed a pair of teenagers, a young man just entering his twenties, and the father of the teens, all of which having large appetites from their activities as Huntsmen and Huntresses.

They purchased their goods and packed everything possible in their bags before putting the rest in their canvas bags to carry by hand. They did stop at the stand for a snack, a slice of fresh apple pie that they ate there before buying a whole one for home and a pair of hot chocolate for the walk through the snow.

"Hey Yang?" Ruby was quiet again, barely speaking up over the crunching snow under their feet as they followed their tracks from earlier.

"What is it?"

"When… Cinder made that announcement… she said she was from Mistral, right?"

Yang had to take a few seconds to think about that night. There was a lot that she didn't want to remember and plenty that was a blur from her slump due to the disqualification and passing out from the shock of nearly losing her arm. "I think she did."

"You haven't heard of anyone trying to track her down, have you?"

"Dad and Denko haven't mentioned anything. They'd know better than us."

"It's just… I know everyone is busy trying to fix Vale and Beacon but…"

"C'mon Rubes, you know there has to be someone going after them. Glynda would never let something like homework go undone without good reason, why would she let an attack like that go?"

"I guess… maybe I could go."

Yang looked at her sister with wide eyes, surprised that Ruby would want to go after someone that even Pyrrha couldn't beat. Not that Ruby wasn't a good fighter, but she lacked the experience that Yang had due to her age, let alone Pyrrha who is a four time tournament champion from Mistral and had gone to the finals of the Vytal Tournament as she had.

But there was no way that Ruby could stand a chance against that woman, not unless she was able to use that sniper rifle of hers to put a bullet in her head from as far away as she could manage. She shook her head to clear that thought from her mind, Ruby wasn't innocent by any means but she doubted that she would actually even try to kill someone unless she had no choice.

"The only way you'd be going on any missions will be with a team to help you." The blonde settles the conversation, using the tone that was sometimes known as her 'Mom voice'.

They spent the rest of the walk in silence, listening for Grimm and the song of the birds that populated the island for the winter.

—-

"You know, it's been a while since we've had any guy time in this house." Taiyang commented as he relaxed in his armchair. He and Denko were watching the television to pass the time as they rested from their duties of hunting Grimm and rebuilding Vale. Though for Tai, his trips to Vale were on a break due to spraining his ankle, slipping on some ice and having some building supplies falling on him as a result.

"I guess so." Denko says, almost absently as he inspected his armored vest for damage. An Ursa had managed to get a lucky hit on his back a few hours earlier and he didn't want to engage in combat again without making sure that the light armor was sound. That and the flexible tubing that contained the finely powdered Lightning Dust within the vest, along with his arm and leg guards.

The show that was on was mildly interesting but also one that they had seen before so both men were mostly using it for background noise at the moment. "Mind if I ask a few questions since the girls are out?"

That made Denko's eyebrows rise with curiosity as he looked at the older blonde. "Um… about what?"

"Just a few things at Beacon, if you don't mind."

"Okay."

Tai sat up to give Denko his full attention. "How was Ruby doing at school? Y'know, before everything went to shit."

"You do realize that I wasn't there for the first semester, right?"

"Humor me." Tai encouraged him before taking a swig from his cup of tea.

Denko let out a sigh and sat his armor to the side as he gathered his thoughts. "Ruby did pretty well from what I know, considering she was shot up two years early. Heard enough from Yang about playing tutor to help her catch up."

"Hehe, yeah, we did do a bit of a cram session before the girls left for school. Really helps when their dad is a teacher himself for stuff like that." Tai looked proud about that.

"And that someone still had her books and notes around to lend to her sister." The blondes shared a quick laugh. "But Ruby seemed to have adjusted well enough, her team helping her out with the courses so she didn't flunk anything."

"My girls didn't fail anything, did they?"

"Not that I know of." Denko shrugs.

"How are their teammates anyway? I never met them."

"Didn't you hear enough about Weiss and Blake from the girls already?"

"Just getting another opinion from someone who was there. Someone not so biased." Tai ran a hand through his hair, the golden strands already fading from age but thankfully not thinning much either.

Denko looked at him curiously for a few seconds, remembering that the man was probably simply used to conducting 'interviews' like this from the years he spent at Signal and dealing with the occasional incidents between students, becoming a habit. Add in that he was well known for being protective of his daughters…

"Weiss was apparently what you expected when you heard Schnee, when she first came to Beacon. More than a little stuck up, snobby, and critical of everyone around her." Denko began, remembering what he was told and more than a few jokes made by the team about that time. "But she warmed up to Ruby pretty quick, especially after seeing how hard she was working to catch and keep up with her studies. Didn't stop her from the snob act but that was all in good fun with her team, most of the time."

"I see. Glad they aren't acting like Qrow does whenever Winter is around." Tai rubbed his temples at the memory of the only time he was on a brief mission with his old teammate and ran into the military woman. The incident was unforgettable and he was glad that he managed to convince the pair to take their 'discussion' outside of the town. At least that turned out to be productive as a large pack of Grimm were nearby and were subsequently used as targets of a contest between the feuding Huntsmen. Taiyang had simply hung back to take care of the few that got past them… still got a dozen kills on that day.

"Nah, those two have a running gag between them with Ruby calling Weiss her BFF and Weiss denying that." Denko laughs, remembering that they had done that during the tournament as well, the joke being so ingrained in them by that point.

"And how was Ruby with Blake?"

"Things were pretty good between them, though they are both introverted enough that it was hard for them to say too much to each other without Weiss or Yang getting them started."

"I can see that unless they spoke about weapons." The father shakes his head at the antics of his youngest daughter.

"Yeah, and she thinks Blake's ears are cute. But I've yet to see Blake not follow Ruby's orders when she gave them." Denko adds.

"Good for her, so… no real problems between them?"

"Not really." Denko shrugs.

"What about Yang? How'd she do with her team? Did she listen to her little sister?" The man had teased his girls about having their roles reversed before between home and Beacon with who was supposed to listen to who.

"Yang and Weiss were usually alright, if you don't mind them teasing each other in their own ways from the beginning." He grins at how they would go at it at times.

"I can see that after a Schnee mellowing out." The father knew his daughter well enough with her 'go with the flow' mentality along with her exuberance in many things, including being outgoing and her temper. "But how was she with Blake then? Same as Ruby?"

Denko paused as many thoughts came to him about that and he let out a sigh. The sudden change was noticed by Tai and he gave the younger man more attention.

"Yang and Blake are probably more complicated than the others, though Blake and Weiss are right after them." He begins. A glance at Tai let him know to continue.

"Remember that Blake is a faunus? Well, she hid that for most of the first semester until she and Weiss got in an argument about the faunus and White Fang. That apparently went for hours before Blake let it slip and ran away."

Tai's eyes were wide open at that revelation, the girls hadn't mentioned that before. "What happened?"

"Heh, when Blake ran away, there was a big schism in the team. Your girls tried to talk some sense into Weiss that it didn't matter that Blake is a faunus, she was their teammate." He saw Tai perk up with pride in his girl's actions. "Meanwhile, Blake had gone into Vale and spent the weekend with the faunus that happened to be the one that started the argument in the first place, spilling secrets to him that she refused to tell her team.

The two of them wound up helping to stop the White Fang from stealing a massive shipment of Dust at the docks, Ruby and a friend coming in at the end to help. Yang had been with Weiss to search for Blake in the city and arrived while the cops were securing the area and making arrests of the grunts that were around. Even Ozpin and Glynda stopped by to smooth things over with their students.

But it was enough for Weiss to really start letting go of her prejudice against the faunus as a whole. Telling Blake "I don't care!", if I remember correctly."

"So those two had it out for each other? Before all of that?"

Denko shrugged. "I dunno, heard a bit how Blake would make a few digs at Weiss' family and the SDC on occasion. It was actually during one of those that Ruby met Blake before initiation."

"I suppose that can't be helped with how faunus are treated by the SDC." Tai sighs. "But now they are friends?"

"They were calling each other sisters from other mothers in the hospital, same with Yang."

"That's good to know. Maybe I'll meet them sometime. But I'm assuming there's more?"

The cheer dropped from Denko's face, becoming a bit more forced. "Yeah. The thing is, after the incident at the docks, they made a promise to go to each other first when needing help rather than going alone. And they started investigating the White Fang on top of all of their schoolwork." Denko explains. "But while Ruby, Weiss, and Yang paced themselves, Blake threw herself into it. By the time my team got there, she was already putting in longer hours into the investigation and soon it dominated her while she was awake."

Tai sat back as he listened, beginning to see the pattern… and how familiar it was to his youth when he and Team STRQ were at Beacon.

"Team RWBY and Sun and Neptune went with them for a big plan to cover more ground. Ruby and Weiss got records from the SDC to check them for problems, Yang took Neptune to 'ask' and information broker about things with Roman Torchwick and the White Fang, while Blake and Sun infiltrated a White Fang rally.

They wound up fighting through the streets and having to destroy one of Atlas' Paladins that Roman had stolen and piloted. Needless to say, after his escape, Blake really dove headfirst into the investigation and essentially abandoned her friends for it. Then Yang tried talking to her…"

Tai heard the change in tone and knew it wasn't good. "What did they talk about?"

"Please don't bring this up to Yang, I had to really help her after that." Denko was nearly pleading, and Tai could only nod in confirmation. "I'll probably get punched for this anyway."

Taiyang gave him a wry smile, knowing that the young man would more than likely tell Yang about this if she asked or the topic came up between them. Honestly, it was a relief for him that he could count on Denko's honesty when it came to his family… at least in serious issues like this.

"Yang… told Blake about her mom."

That was all it took to wipe the smile off Tai's face and replace it with worry and fear.

Denko hung his head as well as he continued. "Yang told me that she gave Blake the story of that day she took Ruby…" They both knew well about that day; it was the primary reason that Tai had snapped out of his depression to focus on his daughters, mostly, and Denko had heard the story from Yang a few times when she was venting her frustrations.

"But… Blake rejected the advice for the most part, resulting in a small scuffle. Yang found me that night and we spent a few hours in Vale to vent her frustration." He heard the older man let out a long, tired breath as the dots began to connect in his mind. "At least Sun managed to get through to Blake, with a little help from Itazura, and they went to the dance together."

"Who did Yang go with?" Tai asked, he had heard of some of the things that happened over the past three months but nothing in much detail; too much healing from Beacon going on.

"Me." Denko gave him a small nervous smile.

"Should have figured she'd go with her best friend in the world." Tai chuckles, giving Denko some relief.

"Thanks. Things got better between them for a while, especially with Sun helping Blake when her team wasn't around. Then the Vytal Tournament… when Yang was framed, Blake wasn't open to trusting her much. Then at the hospital Blake tried to run away as soon as she was awake after her own surgery."

The chair creaked under Tai's grip to a worrying level as the picture became clear. Denko didn't have to look at the man to know that he was angry, giving him a few seconds to calm down and release his grip on the arms of his chair.

"Yeah, Yang was pretty upset about that. Still is."

"You said that Yang still called her a sister?"

"Yeah, she did. I dunno if that was a last attempt to keep the team together or trying to calm herself and Blake and Weiss." Denko looked at the man and saw him slumping in his chair. "It's hard to tell what was going on with them but they at least parted on good terms… mostly. Thankfully, Itazura was able to catch Blake before she could escape the hospital and Sun talked some sense into her."

"I see what you're saying, Denko. Blake was pushing Yang's hot buttons with the lies, broken promises, and running away." The fist being clenched by the overprotective father became worrying.

"Tai, please, calm down. You keep that up and Yang will know."

"But there's a limit to how much I'll accept someone breaking my daughters trust!"

"I know Tai! I was there to help Yang deal with it! I know how much she was crying about that every time it happened. How many times we had to talk about those incidents to work them out of her system. How many times we sparred to work them out." Denko was riled up now as he remembered all the times he helped Yang.

Thankfully, that outburst was enough to snap Taiyang out of his own righteous anger. "Was… was there anything… going on between them?" He asked as he forced himself to calm down.

"Beyond friendship? Not unless you may be implying that Yang is masochistic enough to go after someone who regularly hits her most vulnerable emotional points and already practically dating a guy who she was willing to tell her deepest secrets to over anyone else."

Tai blinked at the response, as much sarcasm as there was in his tone, there was truth to it all with everything that he had heard was going on. Slowly both of them relaxed back into their seats and calmed down.

"But aside from those things, Blake and Yang were good friends. I guess they just need to avoid being too personal with each other and they'll be fine." The younger man adds to help ease the older man's fears for his daughter.

"Hey Denko?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep being there for Yang when she needs you. Think you can do that?"

A small smile creeped onto the young man's face. "Heh, you didn't need to ask."

—-

A pair of figures pushed some rubble to the side of one of the dorm rooms in Beacon's dorm buildings. It was odd that it was the only one to have been bombed during the attack. Sure, there were others that had been destroyed by Grimm or fire, even one or two that had grenades detonated within. But this one room had all of the traces of a bomb being planted.

This was the Haven dorm on the top floor at the far end of the hallway. And only one team had been in the registry for occupying it for the Vytal Tournament. A team that had Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, and Trivia Vanille.

Talon dug through the remains of a bed, looking for anything that looked out of place while Anya investigated the scorched walls. Both girls were wary of the damage to the floor but then again, these buildings were built with Grimm and highly trained fighters with advanced weaponry and various Semblances in mind, thus the floors and walls being sturdier than what one would normally expect.

The beds were little more than a mangled mess of broken wood, the mattresses scorched and torn, the padding spilling out from multiple holes. The sheets and pillows that had been on the beds weren't much better. Same with the desks in the room having been blasted into splinters from the bomb and the colission with the walls. The window was long gone with only a piece of plastic hung on the inside to keep the worst of the weather out.

The door lay on the floor in the hallway, no longer able to even fit on its hinges anymore. The rug, or what was left of it, was scattered around the room and scorched.

What was really noticed was the mistake in the choice of bomb used, they didn't use one that would create a fire. Either the group was sloppy or they simply overlooked the bomb. Maybe expecting that nobody would really notice or the damage across the kingdom would be too extensive to care.

"Find anything?" Talon asks as she moved to ripping a drawer out of a desk that was partially intact. Inside, she found nothing but homework done by Mercury. A second glance at the work done revealed that there was a surprising amount of wrong answers in the history papers.

Anya was focused on a spot in the wall behind a bed where the slight scorching from the bomb and the blastwave had made a spot stand out against the rest. A thin sliver of the wall in a rectangular shape just a little larger than a scroll. There was a small notch on the underside of the shape that she was able to use her fingernail to pull it out. And there was a scroll attached to the piece of wall.

A few taps showed that the device still had power, if low, and Anya was quick to pocket the evidence. "We'll have to check this out when we get back to base." She informed her sister. "What about you?"

"Nothing but bad homework." Talon gathered up everything she could and stuffed them into a backpack to go through later. Maybe she could at least use them for handwriting samples and fingerprints.

"Fine, let's go." With that, the sisters left the dorm building for the warmth of their own base of operations. They shared their own room where they had some equipment provided by Glynda borrowing from the Vale Defense Force and a bit from Atlas. It wasn't much and neither had the technical specialties that Itazura does but they knew what they were doing well enough. It also helped to ease their consciences that their mother had survived the battle and returned home with many of the survivors from Vacuo.

AN: I know there wasn't much action here but there was a bit of a building up to it. And we got to see Kali and Ghira getting PISSED pretty quick, with good reason. Let's see how things turn out in the upcoming chapters with that letter to Sienna. Unfortunately, no time to see what has been going on with Weiss, even if it is her birthday- wasn't in the plans.

Until next time, reviews are welcome!