Author's Note:

Sorry it's been a while since this was updated! I've been struggling with mental health recently and it's taken a toll on my inspiration and motivation, but I'm back at it and powering through!

"Wait what?!" Yang's voice is full of surprise and she can barely get the words out before coughing, a furious blush streaking out from her cheeks. "What did you just say?"

"I said that the lady down there thinks that we would look good married." And you agreed with her. But I can't say that. I can't know your reaction to that. Blake cuts her sentence off before she voices what has been sprinting through her head, equal parts terrifying nightmare and equal parts joyous fantasy. What if Yang's reaction to her agreeing that we'd look good married is awful? …And what if it's not? She breathed out heavily. "I'll need to explain this, and it might take a while."

She looked at Yang who nodded, so she started. "First of all, this is more of a sweeping generalisation rather than something specific to every Faunus, but in Faunus culture there are several ways to indicate that you aren't single, and are either engaged, or married. As there are so many different types of Faunus, there isn't a single overriding way of showing that, but the most common is a set of gold earrings, specifically in the animal trait ears."

Yang nodded as the information sunk in, Blake had never gone in depth before with all the various aspects of Faunus culture, and Yang had never wanted to press too hard for fear of overstepping or insulting by accident. She'd asked questions here and there, but mostly let Blake reveal things at her own pace.

"My mum has three golden studs in her cat ears, two in her right ear, one in her left." Blake waved her hand, "There's quite a bit of history and a few theories as to why it's done like that, but it gets tedious and more than a little anti-human, so I'll skip most of it. The prevailing theory is that when we were still used as…" Blake's face took on a venomous look quickly and she almost spat the next word out "slaves, the humans who owned the slaves would put metal rings or clips onto a Faunus' ear if they had been marked for breeding. Then, if the couple had a child, another ring or clip was added to show that they were compatible." Blake took a moment to breathe, forcing her face back into a more neutral look. Yang however, didn't.

"That's disgusting. Just completely fucking disgusting." Her stomach had twisted angrily, her fists balled up in rage, and she'd almost felt her anger set her semblance off. How dare humans do that? How dare they treat Faunus as little more than cattle?

Blake gave her a soft smile, appreciating the words and the clear signs of anger from Yang at the treatment of Faunus in the past. Even though she'd never met them and wasn't related to them, Yang still got angry over their suffering. If only everyone was like that.

"When the Faunus civil rights movement started to get traction, and the slavery was abolished, Faunus who had those clips or rings weren't able to take the wounds away, so they started trying to make it a part of them. To absorb it and move above it. An unnamed Faunus crafted a set of golden rings for their partner and swapped the dull metal ones out."

Blake was still smiling softly, she'd always liked that bit, the romance of crafting rings for the person's love, taking a symbol of oppression and making it their own. Choosing to take control of their own bodies again. "The idea was a little slow to take off, some people thought it wasn't much better than the metal clips from slavers, but the couple explained and convinced enough people that it did. Nowadays, it's done with two rings, one as a promise ring for marriage, and one when they get married. In line with the tradition…" Blake gulped and looked away, "The partner is the one that buys the two golden rings or golden studs and presents them when they agree to marry each other."

Yang's anger had cooled off quickly but was replaced with embarrassment. "So, when I...so when the lady said she knew a couple of good Faunus friendly jewellers she was talking about…" Yang made small circle motions with a finger above her head, roughly where an extra set of ears would have been on her.

"Yes."

"And when she suggested that I pick them…"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"Umm…" The pair were silent, both too embarrassed to talk or say anything. That was until Yang, searching for something to say, anything to change the subject, noticed something missing from their room.

Something that really didn't help the situation.

"Oh, you have got to be joking."

Blake looked at her, "Hmm?"

"This is something straight out of one of your trashy romance books." Yang indicated the lone double bed in the room.

"They're high-class literature! And you shouldn't be reading them!" Blake flushed and then looked around and, seeing nothing that would provide a second bed, either sofa or otherwise, sighed. "She said they didn't have any other rooms available either."

Yang put the thought about how they'd figure out the sleeping arrangements to one side and chuckled nervously, "Well if she's doing this to us, then maybe she'll do the same thing to Ruby and Weiss?"

They looked at each other, a smirk slowly forming on Blake's face before they both burst out laughing.

Yang was cackling at the thought, almost bent double with laughter, "I wish I could see the look on Weiss' face when she figures it out!"

—

Meanwhile, just as Blake and Yang were laughing about the little old lady trying to put Ruby and Weiss together, the red and white duo were arriving at the inn.

"This should be it, right Weiss?" Ruby looked at the sign for the inn, 'Koiji Inn' then back to her partner.

"Yes, this should be it. I hope it's better on the inside than the outside." Weiss looked at the outside with a slight hint of distaste.

"Weeeeiisssss…" Ruby looked at her partner and pouted a little.

"What? I was trying to be polite. I didn't actively say what I thought the outside looked like." Ruby just gave Weiss a stare, and within a moment she'd relented. "Fine. There're far worse places, and it's much better than sleeping in the forest or on the ground. I reserve judgement on the rest until we get inside."

Ruby sighed, "Come on meanie."

The pair went inside and found a little old lady behind the desk. "Hello! We've booked a room under the name of Neige?"

The lady looked up at Ruby's cheerful tone and smiled. What Ruby and Weiss both missed, just like Blake and Yang had, was the glint and twinkle in her eye. "Welcome to the Koiji Inn! Ah yes, I can see there's a booking under the name of Neige." The lady bustled around behind the desk for a moment before looking back at the pair, "Are you two partners by any chance?"

Ruby smiled warmly back, "Yep! We are."

"Oh, that's fantastic, how long have you been partners?"

"It must have been about two years now, right Weiss?" Ruby turned slightly to look at Weiss who nodded in return.

"Yes, it's been two years and a few months."

"You look very good together and your outfits complement each other too. You must work well as a pair."

Ruby grinned, "Thank you! And yes, we do, because we're BFFs!" Weiss rolled her eyes but didn't argue, a small smirk on her face.

The old lady's face fell slightly as she straightened up from looking at the book, and if either Ruby or Weiss had been better at reading people, they'd have seen how fake it was. "I'm so terribly sorry, but there's been an unfortunate mix up with double booking, so the room you originally booked isn't available. What I can do is upgrade your room to a better rate one? Free of charge of course for the inconvenience?" Weiss sighed but nodded and Ruby thanked her. The lady smiled very warmly at them both and handed a key over, "It's on the first floor, door at the end of the hall. Thank you both so much for being so understanding."

Ruby pulled her scroll out to message Yang and Blake and then scurried to catch up to Weiss who was waiting outside the door. They unlocked the door and headed inside, Ruby flitting to have a look in the bathroom then going back to the doorway where Weiss was standing with a strange look in her face. "What's up Weiss?"

"Did you see another bed in there Ruby?"

"What? Pfft no, don't be silly Weiss! It's a bathroom, why would there be a bed in there?" Ruby chuckled at Weiss who just nodded slowly.

"Well, that means there's only one bed in the room, which means we have to share."

"I knew it would happen to them too!" Yang was chuckling and Blake had a smirk on her face as they stood in the doorway.

Weiss turned around to face the pair, "What do you mean 'happen to them too'?"

Blake chuckled, "The lady down there swapped our room out for one with one bed, we thought it might have happened to you too."

Ruby shrugged, "It's no big deal, we'll just share. It's not much different to sleeping next to each other in a tent, just comfier!" She smiled at Weiss who sighed and lowered her head slightly.

"I guess I can't argue with that." Weiss continued to stare at the bed before a quiet beeping started coming from one of Ruby's pouches.

"It's about time we headed down to meet up with our contact." Ruby pulled her scroll out the pouch and swiped over to find the photo provided by Professor Goodwitch. The four of them stared at it whilst Ruby continued talking. "We'll go as before; Blake and Yang will enter first and sit down a few tables away but near enough that you can overhear everything Blake. Then Weiss and I will approach him and get the information. We'll all meet back here in our room to discuss what to do further. Everyone happy?"

The other three all nodded, and they split up and headed out. They sat down at two tables, keeping to their respective pairings, Ruby sitting next to Weiss and opposite the man Professor Goodwitch had indicated was their contact.

"Hi! Is this seat taken?"

The man looked up at Ruby's enthusiasm and raised a single eyebrow, a golden piercing through the middle. "Do you have to?"

"Yep! We love meeting new people, they've always got interesting things to say."

Weiss rolled her eyes and sat down next to Ruby, staring daggers around the room as if anyone trying to listen would give themselves up at seeing her glare. Blake hid a smile at a table nearby, her ears, despite being in a bow again, easily able to hear everything that would be said. Yang meanwhile sat down with two drinks and whistled whilst playing a game on her scroll.

"Please tell me you're not who I think you are? Seriously? You two can't be more than twelve."

"It depends on what your name is. If you're who we think you are, then yes, it's us. If not, then we'll leave you be and you can go back to doing...whatever it was you were doing before." Weiss' voice was a little testy at the man's tone, and Ruby recognised a fairly obvious hint that Weiss' patience, already a little low from dealing with their host earlier, had reached its limit.

"Please, we've been told that someone who looks just like you would be meeting us here, at this time. So…?" Ruby was more conciliatory of the two and Blake smiled, her bow twitching ever so slightly.

"What's happening?" Blake looked up at Yang, who to most people was still engrossed in her scroll, but Blake could see she was working on automatic, eyes flicking around too far from the screen to be focused.

"Weiss decided to play good cop and heavily pissed off cop with no patience. Guess who's who?" Blake smirked and tuned back into the conversation happening a few tables over.

"Name's Tartan McDravin. That who you're looking for? Cos if not, get lost."

Ruby smiled and Weiss tried to hide her annoyance, not quite failing spectacularly, but still failing pretty badly. "Great! That's who we're looking for. I'm Ruby and this is Weiss. What can you tell us?"

"The grey-haired git you're after has a warehouse to himself just downtown, edge of the shipping district. Near enough for things to fall off ships. Mostly heavy things. Far enough away that nobody would be heard yelling for help." He shrugged, his leather jacket rising and falling with his shoulders, revealing a pair of holsters strapped just above his hips. "Not that they'd get any if they did try."

Ruby shot Weiss a glance out the corner of her eye, but Weiss was just staring at their contact, almost as if she was bored, or just a little bit annoyed. "Can you tell us more about the warehouse?"

"Two ways in, two ways out. Main doors and a side door. It's number seventeen. That's about it. People don't tend to go there willingly."

"How do people get in touch with him?" Weiss' stare intensified a little.

"Most of the people who want his services work for the Families, all of who have a way to contact him. Anyone else? They ask around the bars in the shipping district and hope they don't end up face down in a puddle. That's all I know." With the last words he got up and left, and Blake could hear him muttering about "Fucking kids...better send proper Huntsmen when these ones die."

"Well he was delightful." Weiss looked at Ruby when she said nothing and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Normally you'd be telling me to be more polite, or to keep my voice down." Weiss continued to stare at Ruby who chuckled.

"I guess. But he was a dick."

Weiss' jaw dropped, and a smirk spread across her mouth, "Ruby Rose!" She hissed Ruby's name before continuing at a more normal volume, "I can't believe you just said that! Wherever did you learn such language?"

Ruby laughed, "Oh shush! We both know you've said worse!"

Author's Note:

I'm not overly happy with this chapter, but I don't think I can make it much better. It's gone through two rewrites, but this version is the best of the three. Hopefully, now that we're getting closer to the main meat of the mission, things will go a bit quicker!

Also, (SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION TIME) I've got a couple of other fics that are currently being written too! There's a Frosen Fantasy Tale, which is a Weiss, Ruby, and Penny trio fic set in a fantasy world where Penny and Weiss are bodyguards to Princess Ruby to protect her from assassins and those seeking to bring down the Vale monarchy.

There's These are the High School Days of our Lives, a modern high school AU with Faunus but no powers where the main girls (and others) are at high school trying to navigate that fun world.

There's also Tattoos and Flowers, where Ruby Rose runs a flower shop that's next door to a tattoo parlour run by one Weiss Schnee.

Finally there's my newest work, The Cabins! It's a modern dating AU (no Faunus) where two hopefuls spend 24 hours alone in a beautiful log cabin in the hopes of finding love. The first pair to enter the cabins are Weiss Schnee and Ilia Amitola.

And self-promotion is done.

As always, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited, followed, or even just read it, it always means so much that people read and enjoy my writing. Hopefully the next chapter won't be such a wait!